Four Arms to Hold You: Matthew Ryan, Jeremy Squires, Ryan Tanner and Craig Finn

A bit darker set of songs today, but like Matthew Ryan sings in this first one, hope is not absent from these songs. The song in question is called On Our Death Day and it’s one of the best and most striking songs I’ve heard in 2019. It might even feel a bit too heavy at first, but there’s so much love shining through that darkness that it’s able to carry all that weight. A deeply human song that stays with me long after the last breath of the song has vanished into the air. On Our Death Day is the lead song on his new maxi-single that also contains a new version of And It’s Such A Drag and a Leonard Cohen cover Steer Your Way (cover is only on the digital single, not on the 7-inch).

Matthew Ryan Website

Jeremy Squires from New Bern, North Carolina is a long time favourite. His hauntingly beautiful and poignant new album Poem saw the light of the day on the 17th of May. It’s a brave, vulnerable and a deeply human collection of songs. The hushed quiet beauty of the music gently collides with the dark themes of loss, aging and mental anquish. Towards the end the clouds start to drift away and the light begins to fill the heart of the listener. Here’s a couple of personal favourites from Poem. A heavy one called Orchid and the serene, heart-warming album closer Gift.

Jeremy Squires Website

I sure won’t let you easy this time around, because here’s another one that takes my breath away. Ryan Tanner from Salt Lake City, Utah released his new album These Electric Streets on the 8th of March. He has written some magnificent gospel-tinged americana albums over the years, but it is still way too uknown at least in this corner of the world. This new album is excellent once again and then there’s this one song A Hymn For Me And You in particular that hits me really hard and I don’t think there can be a human soul who isn’t deeply moved by this song by the time the last lines flow through the headphones. The lyrics, the backing vocals. Oh my. Everything about this song.

Ryan Tanner Website

I think it’s better to end this chapter in this Four Arms to Hold You story with Something to Hope For. It’s an outtake from the new Craig Finn album I Need a New War that came out on Partisan Records on the 26th of May. I think you all know The Hold Steady frontman and his solo adventures too, so I’ll just say that the new album is again a masterclass of songwriting and one hell of an album. Extremely highly recommended. Just like everything else in this little blog entry.

Craig Finn Website

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

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