One more thing to do before those year-end lists. It’s time to celebrate 20 years of Bloodshot Records. They have given us a huge amount of wonderful music during their existence and they are still one of the finest labels out there. While No One Was Looking – Toasting 20 Years of Bloodshot Records is a new compilation where 38 excellent artists cover classic songs from the Bloodshot Records catalogue. There are way too many great versions to mention, but I really enjoyed (for example) Samantha Crain’s rendition of Cold Forgiver by Ha Ha Tonka, Possessed by Paul James singing I Came Around by Murder by Death and Superchunk covering one of my all-time favourite songs, Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams. The list could go on and on. This one below is also excellent. Blitzen Trapper doing another Ryan Adams classic To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High).
Bloodshot Records sure do have a great history, but even more importantly, they are still relevant today and have released a lot of great music during the year 2014. I haven’t really featured their fall releases on the blog even though I’ve been listening to them a lot. So maybe it’s to make amends and shortly go through some of them now.
First we have excellent songwriter Cory Branan and his new should-be hit record called No-Hit Wonder. A really strong record and also a candidate for those year end lists. This is the opener You Make Me that also features mr. Jason Isbell.
Moving on to Luke Winslow-King and his awesome old-fashioned tunes that are timeless and refreshing. His new album Everlasting Arms is absolutely adorable. This is the gorgeous title track Everlasting Arms.
After that it’s time go into darker, but equally beautiful surroundings. Bloodshot’s Danish recruit Maggie Björklund also has a new album out and available. This album called Shaken might not be the closest match with my heart, but it’s still rather convincing effort and I wouldn’t be least bit surprised if someone thinks this is the best piece of music that has been released during the year. Especially this Fro Fro Heart that features Kurt Wagner from Lambchop is just stunning and leaves me speechless.