This is just the troubadours time of year isn’t it? When everything is falling: leaves, rain, governments. Whatever, all the songs in this collection seem to usher in a change. And, since the songs are so damn good, we don't mind a bit. With Angel Olsen, BLANCO WHITE, HALEY HEYNDERICKX, LUCY DACUS, MATT MALTESE, HOPE WILKINS, SILAS BURKE, SAMANA, VC PINES, Gerry Cinnamon & friends.
This is just the troubadours time of year isn’t it? When everything is falling: leaves, rain, governments. Whatever, it’s important to be comforted when the sky is closing in a little. All the songs in this collection seem to usher in change. And, since the songs are so damn good, it’ll make you feel a lot better about what Autumn brings.
From the very beginning, Angel Olsen’s New Love Cassette is telling us that things are going to get a little darker from hereon in and that we’d better get used to it. It’s from her new L.P. All Mirrors and we have been listening to that a lot. She is very much re-inventing what the troubadour is – multi-genre, fluid and very individual - a singular vision, represented in this track by the sudden burst of cello that arrives some two minutes in. It’s something abrupt, a shock to the system. But it does feel good. It’s good to have music as exciting as this back in your life. It’s music to make the hairs prick up as well as the ears and we need it.
Gabriel Kahane’s Little Love is much gentler on us, with a brass arrangement that swoops in so low, you can see it hovering above you. Marissa Nadler’s For My Crimes opts for dark, brooding strings. Again, a shift in mood for a shift in the season. The restless bass runs at the close of Nadia Reid’s Richard. Maybe that’s you speeding up to get out of the rain.
Kurt Vile and Rozi Plain (the wonderful!) choose to go with a wash of sonic effects.
You get the idea. Change.
Longer, darker nights. Cold snaps. That wee bit harder to get out of bed as we fight the mammal instinct to hibernate. Don’t fear it! Get out there and embrace it for what it is.
This is a collection to walk through a park with, so grab your hat & coat. Your dog if you have one. Go! Before you miss it. As Blanco White (the sublime On The Other Side) says:
“The sun hides on the other side
Until you feel it raise a distant call
So for now it’s only a long night
It can’t go on”
True enough, but enjoy it while it lasts. It might be the sun that most of us worship, but we only do so because the Autumn and Winter darkness gives us something to look forward to.
One troubadour who knows this is Gerry Cinnamon. As a Scot, he knows the cold and the dark and the wind and the bloody rain too. The very idea that the most exciting singer-songwriter of his generation would release a track called Sun Queen just as the sun retires for the season might represent his way of doing things. The Contrarian. We last featured Gerry on Burns Night, but we’ll see him again soon as we’re excited to hear new material and where he goes next.
New Troubadours Vol. 2 is perhaps the best Song Sommelier collection yet. It’s extraordinary to hear these artists alongside each other and it’s something of a privilege and a pleasure. Spoiled rotten we are. Who cares if the summer’s gone?
Definitional note: This series is called New Troubadours for a reason. Generally speaking, these artists are troubadours and, generally speaking they are new – young artists forging their path, making their first, second, possibly third records. Wait though…wtf then, is Richard Hawley doing on here you ask? Well, it’s just that Marlon Williams seems so inspired by the man, that I had to add a Hawley track just after Marlon, because the situation called for it somewhat. Richard Hawley is not a new troubadour. He’s an old one. And one of the best around. It’s a broad brush approach and dear discerning listener, entirely to your benefit.
Listening tip: savour don’t skip.