Beyond The 45
Singles, EPs, Downloads
The Fatea office also serves as a home for our weekly Along The Tracks show on Folk Friday Radio and as a rule singles and Eps have generally gone in that direction whilst Fatea generally concentrates on albums and live reviews for our full length feature, but with more artists going back down the single route to keep themselves in the public eye, we thought it was time to reflect that in our offerings and as rules are made to be broken or at the very least adapted, welcome to the Singles Round Up.
Christina Alden & Alex Patterson - Safe Travels
www.christinaaldenandalexpatterson.com
'Safe Travels' is a song about longing for safe passage. It speaks of travelling across land, sea, and continents, while loved ones are left far away. Deeply inspired by the world around them, Christina Alden & Alex Patterson have a keen environmental eye to craft stories with the natural world at its heart, reflecting on the relationship between humans and the wild. Pin sharp harmonies and one of those tunes that sounds at once new and familiar make this one of the best folk singles in a good while. TM
Wild Remedy - Home Song
www.wildremedyband.com
Canadiana is a thing it seems. A folk trio made up of Amy Russett, Colleen Roberston and Shay Mahone offer a tune that undermines your initial assumption that this is a gentle folk tune with a shout of "hey" and piling into something that sits between Nashville and Dublin musically, with more great harmonies and a set of simple words that draw you in and leave you wanting more of their music, now! TM
Mia Kelly - Meaning Well
www.miakellymusic.com
Another Canadian artist with a new single from her upcoming album 'To Be Clear.' Written with British folk singer Blair Dunlop, her soul filled voice drives the song along without ever getting too strident. The brass at the edge of the mix adds a depth to the sound and brings a stately Muscle Shoals quality to an otherwise simple folk song. A great new discovery, on tour with Charm of Finches currently. Album now keenly awaited. TM
Sean Taylor - 2024
www.seantaylorsongs.com
Based on a riff that John Lee Hooker would have been proud of, this is a lament for the mess that the world is in over 2024. A singing style that has elements of John Martyn if he'd come from rural Arkansas. The organ figure is also straight out of late period Hooker. It's no surprise that she has opened for people like Robert Cray. This is seriously good blues, and a welcome antidote to the big guitars and shouty vocals that seem to pass for that genre today. TM
Paul Lloyd Nicholas - Juno And Omaha
www.plnmusic.co.uk
With the 80th anniversary of D-Day just passed, this is an interesting take on how real people are affected when war arrives in small towns, like Arromanches, which spend their lives remembering and reuniting people form that time. A simple piano and guitar tune, but the words are what counts here. TM
Kaitlin Butts - Hunt You Down
www.kaitlinbutts.com
A cover of the Kesha song but taken as a country song as they used to be, pre-Taylor. Fiddle, pedal Steel and the sort of traditional country voice that gets buried in contemporary glitz these days. Her new album, Roadrunner! Is inspired by the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! And there is a pleasing theatricality to her singing. TM
Kim Carnie - New Orleans
www.kimcarnie.com
A song that successfully mixes a Jazzy swing, with strings and a pedal steel, all in a Scottish accent. This is a song that has so many elements that it simply shouldn't work but is just a great listen. One of those tunes that you feel everyone had fun making. If there is a summer, this is it's catchy, infectious soundtrack. TM
Valley Lodge - Shadows In Paradise
www.valleylodgehq.com
High energy power pop. Cheap Trick with fuzzier guitars and falsetto vocals. The circling riff and catchy chorus make this the sort of pop you thought they didn't make any more. Hits the groove and doesn't quit. If you were ever a fan of Not Lame Records output this is for you. TM
Euan Blackman - I Don't Think About It (Too Much)
www.facebook.com/euanblackmanmusic
Modern synth and drum machine-based singer songwriter fare. An 80s styled tune with an insistent beat and harmonica solo to bring a more organic touch to the song. Short and sweet and deserving of airplay and notice. TM
Blake Rave - High As The Clouds
www.blakerave.com
A different sort of 80s nostalgia, chiming guitars and harmonies, and what is clearly meant to be a slightly edgy lyric. His voice has elements of so many of your favourite singers from back then. Builds to an epic conclusion. This is how singles used to be… TM
Anne-Marie Sanderson - If
www.annemariesanderson.com
The contemporary folk scene is a crowded place, so it takes something special to stand out, and Ann-Marie Sanderson is that something special. Interlocking guitar, and fiddle lines sit under her Joni Mitchell sounding (but not copying) voice. She also offers music for choirs and soundtracks and that seeps into this song, there is an almost cinematic, atmosphere to it. Playing mostly around her hometown of Kendal, I'm sure she is an interesting live performer. Folk performance of the month. TM
Frenchy And The Punk - Like In A Dream
www.frenchyandthepunk.com
More 80s throwbacks, this time to Sisters Of Mercy if Siouxsie Sioux had fronted them. Distant guitars, big drums, and vocals full of echo. If you miss The Mission, then you will find a home here. There is enough of a pop hook to pull in those who don't want to relive a goth past. TM
Colm O'Mahony - Preachers Daughter
www.thehottouches.com
More than a hint of Bryan Adams' Summer of 69 about this song, but in a good way. An Irish band playing pop/rock with Americana touches. This is finding airplay where old fashioned values like good songwriting, singing and playing are still valued. TM
Karen Jonas - Gold In The Sand
www.karenjonasmusic.com
A ballad is a different choice of single for Jonas. She can do very little wrong, and this is not changing that. Piano and acoustic guitar support her emotive vocal. Album The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch arrives in August, and this will help the pre orders no end. She calls it her "dreamy Las Vegas wedding song: it's an against-all-odds love song, a starry-eyed late-night wedding, the beautiful optimism of believing in love at first sight." Wound up by an epic guitar solo, another fab album beckons. TM
Dlu - Close To, Pt.1
www.facebook.com/dluband
This apparently is "Acid Croft," which appears to mean beats from Orbital with accordion samples and fiddles over the top. Whatever it's danceable, listenable, and different. Album, also called Close to is out end of June and if you want a soundtrack for that North Coats 500 trip, this will do just fine while you're stuck in the queue of camper vans. TM
Esther Swift - Lateral Flow
www.estherswift.co.uk
Esther Swift explores ritual, connection, isolation, and the natural world in her performance with pedal harp and voice. A prolific, boldly innovative harpist, composer and singer, Esther works across genres as diverse as classical chamber music and free improvisation. And this includes elements of all that and an almost Beyonce vocal. Intriguing and unique, and her album Expectations of a Lifetime from which this comes is now marked for investigation. TM
Siobhan Miller - Over Again
www.siobhanmiller.com
We move to the 90s for this upbeat pop tune. If the Corrs had gone in for big production numbers, it would have sounded like this. Anthemic chorus, sparkly synths, and insistent drums make this another cause to hope "real" pop music will rise again. A good singer with a decent song turned into something spectacular by great production. TM
Captain Howdy And The Sunset Serenaders - You Can't See Me
captainhowdythesunsetserenaders.bandcamp.com
A grungy tune on the borders of goth. The found sounds that overwhelm the vocals halfway through make for an unusual touch. Repetitive and hypnotic. If Kurt Cobain had been a Bauhaus fan this would have been the result. TM
The Vintage Yell - If It Hadn't Been For Love
www.thevintageyell.com
Sultry soul/Blues from a Texas duo. Jesse Spradlin is a great discovery, up there with the best Americana singers. Chris Raspante has joined her to produce something that has all the right ingredients for classic blues, stinging guitar, Hammond organ filling up the atmosphere, and a string backbeat. TM
Nightwish - Perfume Of The Timeless
www.nightwish.com
If you get into a lift in which someone has previously left, you may be aware that they were there before you if you can smell their perfume, and that is precisely the subject of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish's latest single - "Perfume Of The Timeless". Our forebears may no longer be around, but we are their perfume, lingering on the breeze. We know that the molecules within us are made from atoms that were created within stars (we are stardust), but how did those atoms get from the stars to form you and me? Yes, our DNA can be traced via our ancestors all the way back to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), but we all have far more cells in us than the one single sperm and that one single egg from which we were conceived. For example, we eat dairy products because they contain calcium, which is good for the development of our bones. The dairy products contain that calcium because it was in the grass eaten by the cows who provide the milk that we drink, and the calcium is in the grass because the roots absorbed it from the soil, and the calcium is in the soil because it came from the decaying bodies of our long gone ancestors. We are the product of our ancestors hopes and dreams, and we are made from their dust. We are the perfume of the timeless. This mind bending concept has been woven into a stunningly beautiful song by Nightwish's main composer and keyboard player, Tuomas Holopainen and sung by my favourite singer, Floor Jansen, with backing vocals from the multi instrumentalist Troy Donockley. My only complaint is that the vocals are somewhat drowned by the music, but this was a conscious decision by the band to balance Floor's "instrument" with the other instruments. PB
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Corsair is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.
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