I wasn’t very active with the blog in the spring. Busy, lazy, worn out and all the other usual excuses. Anyway, a lot of stuff that I loved and listened to during the time went criminally unmentioned. Hopefully I’ll do a better job this fall. At least it feels less of a struggle at the moment and even though the weekly playlist is sort of an indifferent thing, it has brought some kind of structure and rhythm to the blog. It keeps me going on a weekly basis and that’s a really good thing, because it’s so easy to let things slide and then it’s so hard to start again. This way there won’t be any huge breaks. Anyway, Here’s a quick round up post of three albums that I enjoyed in the spring/early summer.
Let’s begin with Jeffrey Foucault’s magnificent new album Blood Brothers. Jeffrey Foucault is an American singer-songwriter from Wisconsin who has been releasing quality albums for over a decade and a half and therefore probably doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction. I’m very fond of this new album and for me it’s one of the finest in his impressive catalogue. The songwriting is first class and everything sounds endearingly beautiful, gentle and warm. Some might miss the blues rockers that gave some edge to the previous album Salt As Wolves, because that side of his music isn’t present on this new one. I don’t mind at all, because this is even closer to my heart. Here’s my personal favorite Blown that features the great Tift Merritt on backing vocals.
Moving on to fellow Wisconsian although currently Denver-based John Statz. Jeffrey Foucault actually produced an earlier John Statz album Tulsa, so there’s a bit of a connection with these two great singer-songwriters. The new John Statz album Darkness on The San Juans is a broken-hearted, sad and beautiful collection of americana songs that came out on the 11th of May on Why River. It’s got an excellent Sheryl Crow cover Strong Enough, but let’s go with an original Presidential Valet on this little blog entry.
I’ve been following Jeffrey and John for over a decade, but Canadian country/folk singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley is a completely new find for me. Sure she has been releasing music since 2012, so I probably should have found her music way sooner than on May 4, 2018 when the sophomore album Driving in the Dark came out. Well better late than never and all the other cliches. Anyway, Driving in the Dark became an instant favorite around here and I highly recommend it if you want to hear some poignant, moving and beautiful country songs delivered with grit and honesty. Here are a few personal favorites from the album to close up this little blog entry.