Jarkko Martikainen and Austin Lucas

Jarkko Martikainen has recently recorded a cover version of Austin Lucas’ Bells with Finnish lyrics. Kellot was recorded last september with the help of Samae Koskinen and it’s a very good version of the song. I do prefer the original, but also Jarkko nails this one pretty damn well and adds his own vision and style to the song. You can listen to the song on Jarkko Martikainen’s new website. He also has a new album called Usko coming out in april.

Jarkko Martikainen Website

The great Austin Lucas has a new digital single Thunder Rail out now on Last Chance Records and the new album will follow in the spring. I think this was the second time I’ve ever bought a digi-single, but I love Austin and had to get it. The single is fantastic even though a little surprising. He seem to be going towards a full band sound, but I don’t mind at all because this sounds equally brilliant as the earlier country & folk troubadour stuff. I’m really looking forward to the album. Here’s a cool live version of the title track of the previous album Somebody Loves You that was one of the best albums of 2009.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9T3OUKXbnw]

Austin Lucas Website
New single at Last Chance Records

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Austin Lucas in Finland

Austin Lucas will play five concerts in Finland next week (at least hopefully, I suppose there might be some problems if he is planning to fly over and the volcanic ash continues to cause flight cancellations). He has toured here before so lot of you probably know how great he really is. I haven’t seen him live, because I didn’t know his music before last december. Then I heard his latest album Somebody Loves You and totally fell in love with it. Recently I bought that Bristle Bridge album he made with Chuck Ragan and it’s almost as wonderful. He is definitely a first class country troubadour. Unfortunately he is not coming to my hometown Turku this time around and if I’m true to myself I probably can’t afford to go to see him in another town. However, I’m good at lying to myself and in the end I might find myself from one of these places:

 
TUE 4/27 TAMPERE, Klubi
WED 4/28 HELSINKI, Belly w/ Jarkko Martikainen
THU 4/29 LAPPEENRANTA, Lucky Monkey’s w/ Mambohammer
FRI 4/30 JYVASKYLA, Lutakko w/ Presley Bastards, Deathbed, Lighthouse Project
SAT 5/1 HEINAVESI, Gasthaus
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9T3OUKXbnw]

Austin Lucas at myspace
Austin Lucas Website

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Micah Schnabel and some random ramblings

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yldl69YDsQE]

Lately I’ve been listening to Micah Schnabel’s (Two Cow Garage) solo album and I like it a lot. Self-released small edition of the album came out last year and was quickly sold out. Thankfully Suburban Home Records fell in love with it and is now re-releasing the album with new artwork. I preordered and got a free download with it. It’s a very fine album indeed. If you don’t believe me, you can stream the whole album on Suburban Home’s new listening station. Oh and if you liked that great video by TCSupergenius, be sure to check out his other videos. There’s some other fabulous stuff. Especially those Austin Lucas videos are pure gold.

What else is new? Well The Fox Hunt. I already mentioned them a while ago. I still don’t have the albums. I should get Nowhere Bound in a week or two, because it’s currently travelling from cdbaby to this household (too bad post from USA to Finland nowadays seem to take longer than before). Anyway, the point I needed to make is that The Fox Hunt has also new album out now and you can order it from their website. I did that some days ago. Check out The Fox Hunt on myspace or spotify if you like things like early Old Crow Medicine Show for example.

If that isn’t a perfect soundtrack for lonely days & whiskey nights, try Otis Gibbs. I recently streamed his new album Joe Hill’s Ashes on his website and because it sounded rather perfect to me, I ordered it.

Last friday’s FOTM was a success as well. Ben’s Diapers and Hi-Lo & In Between were both really good and because it was a record release partee for both, I’ve been listening to their new albums during the last few days. I think both of them are great albums. Ben’s Diapers threw in a couple of surprising curve balls midway through the park, but those new dimensions added more colour and actually made the record work perfectly as a whole. Hi-Lo & In Between’s record is also gorgeous. I’m extremely happy that they were able to make it sound so perfect this time around. It’s totally my kind of country/folk band and I’ve enjoyed their live performances from the start. Still I would have liked to love their debut more than I actually did. There was not much wrong with it, but it still wasn’t able to capture their magic like this follow up thankfully can. Well done. Reviews to follow if I can find the cure for lazyness..

Oh.. and Starflower’s new album came out today. A proper news entry about that in a day or two. Just wanted to get that beauty of my chest. I have to wake up in six hours, so I better continue some other night. Take care and all that..

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