Lately I’ve been extremely excited about two albums. John Moreland’s High On Tulsa Heat and Quite a Feelin’ by Barna Howard. There might be a few more soon, because I bought the latest by Simon Joyner, Hayden and Ryley Walker yesterday during Record Store Day. I don’t really care much for those limited RSD releases myself and I prefer just buying good new full-lengths instead. I don’t have anything against those RSD releases and if and when they do help keeping the record stores alive, those are a damn good thing (luckily we still have a really great store here in Turku called 8raita).
Barna Howard from Portland, Oregon is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. The debut was #2 on my albums of the year list and this new one Quite A Feelin’ has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Even though I had almost unfairly high expectations, it certainly seems like this manages to live up to them. Wonderful UK-based label Loose Music just recently signed Barna Howard and therefore the new album will also be released in Europe. The always great Mama Bird Recording Co will take care of the North American release once again. Quite A Feelin’ is out in late May and I try to make an Album of the Month post about it around the time of the release. Meanwhile you can listen to this excellent first single Indiana Rose.
Oh and Barna is currently on an European tour. Unfortunately not in Finland, but if you live in France or UK, check out the dates on his Facebook.