International music, News

Bobby Dove, Lowstar Rodeo, Melissa Carper and Quinn Pilgrim

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Another quick round up of early 2021 favorites. Kicking this off in Montreal, Canada with classic country gold from singer-songwriter Bobby Dove. Hopeless Romantic has been my favorite album during the past week and I also purchased a digital copy on Bandcamp day. Such a special record and I love it to bits. Here’s a couple of great examples from the album.

Bobby Dove Website
Bobby Dove at Facebook

Next some California country from Lowstar Rodeo. This is a solo project by Kevin Carducci from The Easy Leaves. I’m not actually familiar with the band and I think just stumbled upon this when I did my weekly bandcamp new releases search routine. I instantly liked it and the feeling has only grown stronger during the last few weeks and therefore I also picked this one on Bandcamp day. My own favorite song is Toward the Light, which is one of the best pandemic songs I’ve heard.

Lowstar Rodeo at Facebook
Lowstar Rodeo Website

This one by singer-songwriter and upright bassist Melissa Carper isn’t out before next week, but after hearing the three advance singles, I’m fully convinced that Daddy’s Country Gold will be one of my favorite albums of the year. Just perfect timeless country gold. Here’s a couple of these gorgeous singles (Bandcamp didn’t have playable songs, but you can pre-order it there)

Melissa Carper Website
Melissa Carper at Facebook

Last station on this roundabout is Louisiana. Singer-songwriter Quinn Pilgrim’s great new album Jericho Dream came out on the 22nd of January on Partially Sealed Records. It’s neither on the Partially Sealed Records Bandcamp or Quinn’s personal Bandcamp, but you’ll find it from the streaming services. My own favorite is Helpless One that gives some Townes vibes. Excellent record as a whole too and definitely a name to keep an eye on.

Quinn Pilgrim at Bandcamp

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International music, News

Isaac Vallentin, Clara Mann, Dan Edmonds and Steady Holiday

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A blog post that is not a playlist. Who would have thought. Well it might be just a one-off and there are hardly any words, but anyway, I wanted to highlight a few releases that might not be that high profile in the grand scheme of things, but mean the world to me. Kicking things off in Montreal, Quebec with Isaac Vallentin’s gorgeous third album “…” that came out on the 3rd of February. Here’s the music video for Winter Song along with my own favourite, almost ten minutes long The Ballad of Nunangat that honour the lives and voices of Indigenous Canadians.

Isaac Vallentin Website

Moving on to Bristol, UK for the brand new Clara Mann EP Consolations that came out last week on Sad Club Records. I pretty much came a fan of singer-songwriter Clara Mann during my first spin of her debut single I Didn’t Know You Were Leaving Today last November. I instantly loved it and I’ve felt the same way about every Clara Mann I’ve heard to date.

Clara Mann at Facebook

Back in Canada for another treasure from the February 26 release vault. Former Harlan Pepper Dan Edmonds released a new charming solo album Good Fortune Assembly. The song The Morning is just pure gold. Dan Edmonds, Luka Kuplowsky and Caitlin Woelfle-O’Brien create some magic together there and the music video is also excellent.

Dan Edmonds at Facebook

Let’s wrap this small blog entry in Los Angeles, California with the sweetest music video I know. It’s the ending song Love Me When I Go To Sleep from the new Steady Holiday album Take The Corners Gently. Such a lovely and heartfelt video. I love it wholeheartedly. Goes without saying that the album is also excellent.

Steady Holiday Website
Steady Holiday at Facebook

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News, Playlist

OCTA Music Weekly – Episode #118

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Another week, another new music weekly.

Another year too. It does seem that breaks are bad, because I really struggled to find the motivation and energy to start again. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this soon, because I do want to continue through this 20th anniversary year. I did this first one rather quickly, so I’m sure I missed a ton of releases. I also trusted my memory far too much, because I didn’t take any notes through the break and sort of thought that I will remember what came out. There’s at least some late December album releases that I couldn’t for the life of me remember anymore. I’ll include them later, if my memory gets better but I doubt it. I think one that I meant to listen had something to do with Dylan Rodrigue. It wasn’t his, but maybe he played on it or just shared it on social media. Not the Izaak Opatz one. I did cover that. Anyway, here’s the new playlist. It features the new January 8 releases plus some stuff from the earlier weeks.

The big new album releases came from Aaron Frazer, Steve Earle and Darci Phenix. In fact, those are only new albums on the list. Besides them, we got some fantastic new singles this week from Clara Baker, The Weather Station, Dillon Warnek and Sun June. Some earlier personal favorites on the list are the singles from Dylan Rodrigue, Heather Valley (Molina cover), Libby DeCamp and Sie Sie Benhoff. But as usual, I might as well namedrop them all.

The Finnish highlight of the past weeks is Kyyhky by Marian Valinta. It’s a song that I loved madly in the early 00s and apparently I still do. One that always hits the core of my heart. Other Finnish treasures this week are the singles from Hot Heros and Janne Laurila, Icons of Elegance and Mama Longhorn.

Anyway, that is all for this first week. Hopefully I’ll do a better job next week. Now some grocery shopping, dinner and back to NFL playoffs. Love from a distance.

1. Aaron Frazer – You Don’t Wanna Be My Baby (Introducing.. Dead Oceans / Easy Eye Sound, 2021)
2. The Weather Station – Atlantic (single, Fat Possum Records, 2021)
3. Clara Baker – Body (single, 2021)
4. Darci Phenix – Bruised Knees (Wishbone, Team Love, 2021)
5. Steve Earle – Lone Pine Hill (J.T. New West Records, 2021)
6. Dillon Warnek – Good Man (single, Unsigned Records, 2021)
7. Tommy Alexander – River Run Down (single, 2021)
8. Charley Crockett – I Can Help (single, The Next Waltz, 2021)
9. Dylan Rodrigue – Forgetting (single, 2021)
10. Marian Valinta – Kyyhky (single, 2021)
11. Adeline Hotel – Photographic Memory (single, Ruination Record Co, 2021)
12. Cassandra Jenkins – Michaelangelo (single, Ba Da Bing Records, 2021)
13. Sun June – Everything I Had (single, Run For Cover Records, 2021)
14. Buck Meek – Candle (single, Keeled Scales, 2021)
15. Heather Valley – Whip Poor Will (single, 2020)
16. Sunny War – Nothing to Lose (single, Piece of Pie Records, 2021)
17. Aaron Lee Tasjan – Feminine Walk (single, New West Records, 2020)
18. Mo Troper – The Perfect Song (single, Tender Loving Empire, 2020)
19. Randolph’s Leap – Moment Passed (single, Fika Recordings, 2021)
20. Valley Maker – No One Is Missing (single, Frenchkiss Records, 2021)
21. Ian Daniel Kehoe – Don’t Stop Fallin In Love (single, Tin Angel Records, 2021)
22. Icons of Elegance – Two Coffee Morning (single, Dinner With Daisy Records, 2021)
23. Bergen – Det Jag Vill Minnas (single, Skulden, 2021)
24. The Boys With the Perpetual Nervousness – Can’t You See? (single, Bobo Integral, 2020)
25. Diners – In the New Year (single, 2020)
26. Hot Heros and Janne Laurila – Aurinko uppoaa (single, Playground, 2021)
27. Vagabon feat Courtney Barnett – Reason to Believe (single, Nonesuch Records, 2021)
28. Lyre – Season to Change (single, 2020)
29. Colby Falkner James – You Will Always Change Your Mind (single, 2021)
30. Kassi Valazza – Cayuse (OurVinyl Sessions) (single, 2021)
31. Libby DeCamp – Orchard (single, 2020)
32. Maya De Vitry – Working Man (single, Mad Maker Studio, 2021)
33. Sie Sie Benhoff – Night Train (single, Texas Forever, 2021)
34. Timbo – How Much Did it Cost (single, Cardinal Club, 2021)
35. Mama Longhorn – Black Bridge (single, Soit Se Silti, 2021)

Playlist link

Playlist Archive

Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you

If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.

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