Folk
Steve Earle on Using Ghosts as a Writing Tool
Kyle Meredith With… Steve Earle Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public Steve Earle speaks with Kyle Meredith about Ghosts of West Virginia, his new album inspired by the 2010 West Virginia mining explosion that killed 29 miners. The songwriter/activist shares how the album has its roots in a theatre production called Coal Country, why he wanted to make a record for people who don’t vote the same way he does, and his thoughts on unions being the common ground between county factions. Earle goes on to discuss the task of taking all of this information and making it a musical, why he enjoys using ghosts as a writing tool, and the stories on ghost-based movies that he enjoyed in his youth. Kyle Meredith Wit...
Song of the Week: John Prine’s “I Remember Everything” Offers One Last Goodbye
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. Artists and fans have been searching for the right way to say goodbye to John Prine and gain closure ever since the beloved songwriter passed away in April due to COVID-19. There has since been an outpouring of heartfelt messages, wishes, and tributes from around the world. Here at Consequence of Sound, we put on our own Instagram festival for Prine, which featured artists like John Darnielle, Colin Meloy, and Norah Jones and benefitted several charities handpicked by Prine’s family. As recently as Thursday night, celebrities like Bill Murray and Stephen Colbert joined artists such as Kacey Musgraves and Sturgill Simpson in a lives...
John Prine’s Final Song “I Remember Everything” Released: Stream
The final recorded song by the late American songwriter John Prine has been released. Titled “I Remember Everything”, the meditative, acoustic track arrives in the form of intimate, home video footage capturing the great bard himself. Produced by Dave Cobb, “I Remember Everything” was written by Prine and his longtime collaborator Pat McLaughlin. Given Prine’s untimely passing this past April, the track feels all too poetic, particularly when he sings: “I’ve been down this road before/ Alone as I can be/ Careful not to let my past Go sneaking up on me.” Stream “I Remember Everything” below. [embedded content] On Thursday night, Prine’s legacy was celebrated with a star-studded virtual event titled “Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine” that featured everyone from Sturgill Simpson...
Meskerem Mees Is Not Your Average “Joe” on Her Debut Single: Stream
You may not know Belgium-based singer-songwriter Meskerem Mees just yet, but she’s ready to charm you with a formal first impression. At least that’s the plan for her debut single, “Joe”, which she’s released today along with an accompanying music video. Mees is a 20-year-old indie folk artist with Ethiopian roots. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a gentle, scratchy voice, she whisks up music akin to Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, and Jade Bird in a modest but nurturing style. After stealing the spotlight at local live shows in Europe, she’s finally begun making moves to formally record and release her music. That’s where “Joe” comes in. With a soothing, strolling guitar melody, Mees tells the story of a wandering man who won the protagonist over when she was just a teenager. The narrative...
Neil Young’s Fifth Fireside Session Takes a Trip to the Barnyard: Watch
It took four Fireside Sessions, but Neil Young has apparently grown tired of every fire pit and fireplace in his Colorado home. For the latest entry in his quarantine performance series, Old Shakey took the show down the road — or at least, to the other side of the estate — for a special Barnyard Edition. Once again directed by his wife, actress Daryl Hannah, the performance is largely delivered to a bunch of chickens and — if you keep an eye out — at least one mallard. The set opens with Young playing “Tumbleweed” from 2014’s Storytone on ukulele while a lama named Lazlo and a horse mosey around their pen. He then moves over to the coop to strum out “Homegrown”, the title track from his long-unreleased 1975 album Homegrown, finally due for release on June 19th. Intercut wit...
Song of the Week: Neil Young’s “Try” Hints at a Painful Portrait of a Broken Heart
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This quarantine has definitely thrown the music industry for a crazy loop. Several major album releases have been pushed back to oblivion, and an even larger handful of tours (and fests) we were dying to see have been either cancelled or postponed to God knows when (probably not this calendar year). Still, as an industry has struggled, artists have fought back with living-room concerts, charitable efforts, and, yes, year-affirming new albums and songs. Just this week Perfume Genius and Moses Sumney graced us with must-hear new listens, and Charli XCX and Bad Bunny treated us to surprises created in direct response to these strange ...
Neil Young’s Unreleased 1975 Album Homegrown Finally Surfaces in June
Roughly 46 years after it was recorded, Neil Young‘s “lost” 1975 album Homegrown is finally getting released. The 12-track LP, which Young describes as “the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes A Time,” arrives June 19th via Reprise Records. Homegrown was recorded between June of 1974 and January of 1975 with a studio band featuring Levon Helm, Ben Keith, Karl T. Himmel, Tim Drummond, Stan Szelest, and Robbie Robertson. Emmylou Harris also makes an appearance. Five of the tracks — “Love Is A Rose,” “Homegrown,” “White Line,” “Little Wing,” and “Star Of Bethlehem” — would find a home on other albums. The other six songs, as well as the spoken word narration of “Florida”, have never been issued before. Below, you can hear one of those later tr...
Sarah Jarosz Shares the Origins of New Single “Maggie”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins gives an artist the opportunity to discuss some of the inspirations behind their latest track. Today, Sarah Jarosz introduces us to “Maggie”. Wistfulness has a different meaning in the era of a pandemic. No longer a fond longing for the past, it’s now a constant desire to just get out of the house. Yet it’s important to remember that, like everything, this is not a permanent state of existence, and those quaint feelings of youthful yearning are still valid. Grammy-winning folk artist Sarah Jarosz reminds us of that with her new song, “Maggie”. The sweet single off her forthcoming World on the Ground finds Jarosz reflecting on her life growing up in small town Texas. While she’s since escaped to the concrete wonder of New York City, those days driving “across t...
Henry Jamison Shares the Origins of New Song with Lady Lamb “Orchardist”: Stream
Our new music feature Origins finds artists revealing some of the inspirations behind their latest track. Today, Henry Jamison discusses his collaborative with Lady Lamb, “Orchardist”. Musicians are often inspired by life on the road, whether it’s the fugacious sense of time, the yearning for familiar territory, or the distance from friends. For his own mini “road record,” Vermont folk artists Henry Jamison has taken a novel, two-pronged approach with his new EP, Tourism. Due out May 15th via Color Study, the five-track effort focuses lyrically on the “dissolution of self” that led to Jamison’s recent breakup. The strain was brought on by his life as a touring musician, a common story for those whose home is lined with pavement. But while being on the road can bring certain relationships t...
Livestream Phosphorescent’s Haunting Set at Pickathon Music Festival
This week, Consequence of Sound is once again teaming up with Pickathon Music Festival to stream past festival performances. This week, we’ll be sharing sets from Phosphorescent, Built to Spill, Warpaint, and Joseph. First up is Phosphorescent’s shimmery, haunted country rock set from 2018, which came in support of Matthew Houck’s seventh LP, C’est La Vie. It’s streaming live on our Facebook page beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET. On Thursday, we’ll be streaming Built to Spill’s 2018 performance at Pickathon. Sets from Warpaint and Joseph will follow on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, respectively. All the performances can be viewed on our Facebook page. Proceeds from Pickathon’s “A Concert A Day” livestreaming series benefit MusiCares’ COVD-19 Relief Fund. Viewers can donate to the fund direc...
Laura Marling Performs Quarantine Version of “Held Down” on Colbert: Watch
Updated for the pandemic era, The A Late Show with Stephen Colbert now sees musical guests perform from their respective self-isolation spaces. Such remote, stripped-down settings may require some acts to make major adjustments to their arrangements, but for Laura Marling, whose intimate folk translates seamlessly. Broadcasting from her cozy London living room Friday night, Marling delicately offered up “Held Down”, a quiet yet still powerful single from her recently released Song for Our Daughter. The new album came out last month during the peak of the coronavirus, so its tracks feel especially tied to this time; watching the UK songwriter sing, “‘Cause we all want to be here now/ And we all want to be held down” in front of her fireplace certainly has a different meaning in co...
New Music Friday: 7 Songs You Need to Hear
Each Friday, Consequence of Sound rounds up the most exciting new music to hit our inbox. Today, May 8th, brings fresh releases from Angela Muñoz, Reo Cragun, Nana Adjoa, BandoKay, Peter Bibby, Berwyn, and Ariel View. Take a listen below, and keep track of all our favorite New Sounds via our exclusive Spotify Playlist. Angela Muñoz -“So Young” [embedded content] 18-year-old Los Angeles singer Angela Muñoz got her start collaborating with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad on their 2018 project The Midnight Hour. Now, she’s ready to step into the spotlight on her own with the upcoming release of Introspection, due out on June 26th through Linear Labs. The hypnotic “So Young” serves as the album’s latest single. Reo Cragun – “Cuss You Out” [embedded content] Following opening stints...
