I’m back home from the great STHLM Americana festival. It was a good reminder of how much I love that music and both the people who write it and the people who listen to it. Somehow it also gave me a boost to continue this silly onechord adventure, because like the readers know I’ve had an ongoing battle with myself for several years about the relevance of this and whether there’s any point to do it anymore, if I don’t have the energy to do it as well as I would like to. Right now continuing makes more sense than it has for a rather long time. So thanks for that STHLM Americana. Nothing will happen this week though, because it’s midsummer next weekend and my day job mostly consists of packing potatoes. So at least Finns can fully understand that my only goal at the moment is to just survive this work week. Blog has to wait. But a quick video post before that.
My main goal for the festival was to see John Moreland and John Calvin Abney play together and the charismatic duo both just dropped their new music videos a day before the festival. First we have John Moreland’s new video Slow Down Easy. It’s one of the highlights of his 2017 album Big Bad Luv and Bobby Dean Orcutt and Clay Flores have made a beautiful and moving video that do justice to the magnificent song and if possible even lifts it to a new level.
Next up is John Calvin Abney who backs John Moreland on stage, but is also a great songwriter himself. One of the best parts of the trip was to meet John Calvin Abney for the first time, because we have been friends on this internet-thingy for some years and it was nice to finally meet in person too. John Calvin Abney has a new beautiful album called Coyote out on Black Mesa Records. Here’s the new video for album outtake Get Your House In Order.
And finally something new from Finland as well. This isn’t exactly STHLM Americana related, but it’s a great song that I’ve been meaning to post for a few weeks. Plus they mention John Moreland as an influence on their website and if I’m not completely mistaken, the lead singer of this song was also waiting in the same hot staircase as I was in order to get into the Södra Teatern to see the two Johns above play their hearts out. But yeah, it’s the new single from the Finnish roots-influenced trio Iron Country Sisters. I saw them first time when they supported Daniel Romano a couple of years ago. They sang their way into my heart on that concert and I have been following closely ever since. They are currently working on their debut full-length album that should see the light of day in fall 2018. I’m extremely eager to hear that later in the year. Meanwhile I’ll keep on listening this latest single Go Slow over and over again.