JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Stephen Stills’ 80th birthday.
Category: folk
Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Neil Young!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Neil Young’s 79th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Joni Mitchell!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Joni Mitchell’s 81st birthday.
Throwback: Happy Belated 90th Birthday, Leonard Cohen!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Cohen.
New Audio: Denver’s Anterra Shares Gorgeous “End of Time”
Anterra is a Denver-based indie folk singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She crafts songs of enchantment and grief, that thematically touch upon perspective, mysticism and self-mythology. Sonically, the Denver-based artist pairs heartbreakingly gorgeous, siren-like vocals with dreamy arrangements.
The Denver-based artist’s released her full-length debut, Things Take Time last month. The album’s latest single “End of Time” is a gorgeous tune featuring strummed acoustic guitar, twinkling harp, a soulful and bluesy guitar solo serving as a lush bed for Anterra’s expressive delivery. The result is a painterly, Mazzy Star-meets-shoegazer take on folk.
Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Linda Ronstadt!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Linda Ronstadt’s 77th birthday.
New Audio: Camilla Dávilla Shares Mesmerizing “Old Shoe”
Camille Dávilla is an American born producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, who currently split her time between the UK, Norway and Spain, making her a truly international artist. With the release of her first two albums through Norwegian label Goodbye Records, Dávilla quickly established an eclectic sound and approach inspired by the likes of David Bowie, Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock, Harry Nilsson, Dibidim, Gaby Moreno, Cate Le Bon, C Duncan and Declan McKenna that frequently sees her pairing colorful, trippy whimsy with melancholic beauty and striking songwriting.
Dávilla’s third album, The Local Orchestra can trace its origins back several years ago: She was writing songs furiously with arrangements in mind and happened upon an inspiring and uplifting encounter with longtime David Bowie producer and collaborator Tony Visconti, who said to her, “Why don’t you just try and write all your own arrangements. I’m sure you can do it.”
She began an intensive self-education on arranging. Halfway through and feeling a little overwhelmed, Dávilla reached out to another musical and arranging hero Van Dyke Parks, who rapturously praised her previous album. Before listening to her arrangements, he asked to her a few of the tunes she had been writing, and took a particular liking to one, asking if he could write an arrangement. As most of her childhood soundtrack had been written by Parks, her answer was an obvious — and enthusiastic — yes, and a lunch in Los Angeles saw the pair making plans.
Several months later, Parks sent his arrangement to Dávilla, who at the time was residing in the UK, and she began working with the arrangement with other musicians. By 2020, Dávilla sent the arrangement to Jonathan Baker to conduct and record a string quartet. It was then sent to Norway, where composer and musician Stein Urheim added guitars and percussion and oversaw assembly and mixing with Anders Bjelland.
Over the next few years, confusion followed. Dávilla endured much turbulence: A pandemic lockdown-induced drinking binge led to sobriety — and a relocation from the UK to Spain. But through all of that, she continued her writing and arrangement work, and by last year, Dávilla had written nearly three albums of material; however, this proved daunting when she was trying to assemble what would become her third album.
Dibbidm’s, Grandama‘s and Klanghaus‘ Jeron Gundersen helped her wade through the massive amount of material and cherry-picked songs that should be recorded. They decided that the recording sessions should take place in Norway — in particular, the home studio of acclaimed producer HP Gundersen and his spouse, handball player Cecile Leganger. Coincidentally, Leganger had also bene studying piano and theremin and contributed to the sessions. Several other songs were recorded at Jonas Nielsen’s home in Bergen, Norway, alongside vocal dubs in Jostein Gundersen‘s studio.
The album was mixed in Gundersen’s Panera Studio in Asturias, Spain and mastered by Eric James at North Norfolk, UK-based Philosophers Barn Mastering.
The Local Orchestra‘s latest single “Old Shoe” is a gorgeous and meditative bit of psych folk built around an armament of strummed acoustic guitar, twinkling keys, ethereal backing vocals serving as a lush and mesmerizing bed for Dávilla’s captivating vocal, which expresses wizened regret, remorse and pride within a turn of a phrase.
“Imagine 20 years after Dorothy has found Oz and she’s doing a clear out of her closet, and is about to those ruby red slippers in the bin,” Dávilla says. “If they could walk, what would they say?”
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, Bob Dylan!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Bob Dylan’s 83rd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 60th Birthday, Tracy Chapman!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Tracy Chapman’s 60th birthday.
New Video: Joe Kaplow Shares Bitter and Heartbroken Lament “Rock and Roll”
Joe Kaplow is a New Jersey-born, Santa Cruz, CA-based singer.songwriter and musician. Before his music career got serious he had to make a serious decision: Take over his parents’ thoroughbred fam in New Jersey or pursue music in California and relinquish the family home to sale. And although on occasion, he wonders if he could have made a music career work, if he had stayed on his parents farm, he’s happy where he is.
The New Jersey-born, California-based artist’s work is deeply inspired and informed by his life’s moments — “smelling 4 acres of freshly cut grass, watching the steam from a horse’s breath in the early morning, finally holding the neck of my guitar after holding bridles and worn wooden handles all day,” he says. “And then — smelling 4000 acres of freshly burnt wildfire, watching the steam from the Pacific Ocean’s breath in the early morning, finally holding the neck of my guitar after holding the worn steering wheel of the tour van all day.”
Kaplow’s third album Posh, Poodle, Krystal and Toe is slated for a May 17, 2024 release through Fluff and Gravy Records. Deriving its title, appropriately enough, after his bandmates’ nicknames, the album is more of a cohesive “band” statement than his previously self-recorded material. Most of the album’s tracks were cut over a five-day span, performed live at Enterprise, OR‘s OK Theater with engineer Bart Budwig.
The album’s songs were learned and workshopped on the spot, capturing very honest, energetic “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” moments and takes Kaplow’s honest and raw songwriting style and propels it forward with spontaneous collaboration and undeniable rhythm.
Posh, Poodle, Krystal and Toe‘s latest single “Rock and Roll” is a slow-burning and meditative track anchored in the lived-in, bitterly harsh and shitty realties of being a struggling musician/artist/writer/creative featuring a deceptively simple arrangement of strummed and plucked, acoustic twang, easy-going backbeat paired with Kaplow’s achingly plaintive wail. The song seems to ask the question — “when does the struggle to make it work get too overwhelming to continue?” While sounding a bit like a heartbroken S/T-era The Band, the song is inspired by an actual experience while on tour:
“We had a bad show. Overall, it wasn’t a very good tour,” Kaplow explains. “After playing a show to three people in the back corner of some bar in San Diego that was decorated more appropriately for a football game than a concert, our drummer had a breakdown. On the sidewalk outside the venue he began to cry. Then his despair turned to rage, screaming at me how foolish I was for booking this show and booking the tour, how he had to take time off work and lost money, how he spent 2 weeks away from his girlfriend who was now questioning dating a musician, and how he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since tour began. I thought to myself, ‘I know, isn’t it great?’ ‘Rock and Roll’ is a song about how it feels to be a touring musician before you get the tour bus. It’s hard. The late Robbie Robertson of The Band said, ‘It’s a goddamn impossible way of life.’ ”
Directed by Ben Judkins and Joe Kaplow, filmed by Ben Judkins and edited by Rob Armenti, the accompanying video for “Rock and Roll” was shot on a grainy Super 8 and follows Kaplow on tour through California. While there are moments of sublime beauty, pride and goofy joy, there’s also a sense of struggle and hard-won experience throughout.
Live Footage: Mary Middlefield Performs “Atlantis”
Mary Middlefield is rising, 22 year-old Lausanne, Switzerland-based classically trained violinist, folk singer/songwriter and guitarist, who has received attention for crafting steam-of-consciousness songs that veer between pop-punk fueled intensity and folk-inspired softness inspired by Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Claud, Jockstrap and The Japanese House. Thematically, the young Swiss artist’s work sees her wielding high drama, desire and vulnerability as keys to making meaning in a complicated universe, where abuse and love coincide.
The young Swiss artist’s forthcoming EP is reportedly a cathartic release, that will not only allow her to move forward with a clear mind and clean palette but is also music for listeners who are stuck, scorned and lonely. The EP is essentially an invitation for those who are suffering and yearning to scream alongside her.
The EP’s latest single “Atlantis” is a breathtakingly gorgeous and remarkably accessible song built around a sparse arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar and ukelele, shimmering strings, atmospheric synths and a subtle yet supple bass line paired with Middlefield’s yearning and expressive delivery. Recorded at Lausanne-based AKA Studio with Alexis Sudan and Gwen Buord, “Atlantis” as Middlefield explains is a sadistic love ballad that explores the dilemma of being infatuated with a person who offers very little in return.
Originally written as a stripped-down track, Middlefield and Buord rearranged the song’s second part with intricate ukulele arrangements. Then also tweaked the track a bit more, by adding strings and synths and an underwater-like feel to make the song sound dreamier while readily embracing a folk pop sound.