Paris, The City of Lights may be a good inspiration to any artists, as Canadian singer Sarah Slean and after two records and a Grammy nomination, Tift Merritt came home with her third album “Another Country” including her best and most personal songs to date featuring her complices and guests stars Charlie Sexton and Doug Pettibone.

If the first step brings critical acclaim and the second garners Grammy® consideration, what could be in line for North Carolina native Tift Merritt since a 2002 emergence that left critics scrambling for adjectives? The talented singer/songwriter has often been miscast as a country artist, and Another Country is an opportunity to leave that moniker behind. She dips slightly into the genre, such as on the country rocker “Something to Me,” the lead track featuring guitarist Charlie Sexton and sweet organ trimmings from bandmate Danny Eisenberg. From there the record sways into a flurry of styles, and Merritt never misses a beat. The blue-eyed soul of “Morning is My Destination” recalls Dusty in Memphis, while “Tell Me Something True” is an R&B nugget that has the breezy Merritt sounding eerily like Diana Ross. Elements of rock, folk, and blues pervade, and producer George Drakoulias (Black Crowes, the Jayhawks) stays out of the way, allowing Merritt’s voice to embody the songs, all 11 of which flow from start to finish, uninterrupted and primed for full-on stardom. –Scott Holter

Along these years, writing for calls-to-nothing.com, we became fans of Anna Nalick with her Wreck of the Day album. Anna is definitely an artist who has quite a lot to offer with her music, and any fan will be psyched that we have this new Shine EP from her.

The title track is simply fantastic, with a hint of country while not diverging from the style we’ve come to know from Anna. The acoustic version is just as nice. Of course, the (pleasant) surprise here is a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Breaking the Girl.” Anna strips down this song to just an acoustic guitar and it’s interesting to hear a female perspective on it. Very nicely done. Acoustic versions of “Breathe (2 a.m.)” and “Wreck of the Day” are also included here. These songs are simply spectacular.

Overall, this Shine EP is a great must have for the fans we are until Anna’s new album. Think of it as a tasty appetizer before the main course and hope we don’t have to wait too long…

Shine [EP]
Anna Nalick
Audio CD (March 25, 2008)
Original Release Date: March 25, 2008
Number of Discs: 1
Format: EP
Label: Epic
Buy & Download Album : Click Here

Tracks Listing

• 1. Shine (Album Version)
• 2. Breathe (2 AM) (Acoustic Version)
• 3. Wreck Of The Day (Acoustic Version)
• 4. Breaking The Girl (Album Version)
• 5. Shine (Acoustic Version)

note : This note has been originally written by Eric from Boston with some modifications made by us

At 34 and with her 11 years of experience as a singer and guitarist in the band The Delgados, Emma Pollock launches into a solo career and brings up her 1^st album ‘Watch the Fireworks’. With strongly marked rhythmes, this release points up the lightness and ease of her voice. Without ever forcing it, she makes it slide on rock instrumentationsbut can easily swap electric guitar with acoustic one and piano.

Emma Pollock has been able to take advantage of this freedom, this absence of constraints one hasn’t in a band, and offers us punchy, smooth and touching songs through her 11 track album.

A friend sent me a CD last week so I had to write a note here because I think you’ll like her…here’s what I found about Jaymay on various webpages:

Because one of the first things you learn from Jaymay when hired to write her biog is that there is plenty she’d rather didn’t make it into the biog. Not because there are reams of salacious detail or scandal. She just doesn’t want her biography to distract you from her songs. All you need to know really is tattooed into her melodies.

Jaymay’s a young New Yorker in love with books and music who writes eloquent, beautiful songs about the heart, her life in New York and the seasons.
Jaymay drew critical comparisons to artists such as Feist, Laura Veirs, and (passingly, at most) Bob Dylan.

Native of London, Ontario, young singer and songwriter Basia Bulat signs her irresistible debut album Oh, My Darling with a gentle charming and exuberant pop-folk which may spur comparisons to everyone from Joni Mitchell to Natalie Merchant, Feist and Hem, and all will be apt, but none will be quite on the mark. If anything, Bulat’s music may be best described as coming from a modern troubadour like Joanna Newsom, as it’s full of an old fashionned delight. Waltzing rythms, twinkling piano and delicate strings serving a warm and unique original voice.

Oh, My Darling is a happy find indeed. Very much recommended. Standout cuts: “Little Waltz,” “Snakes And Ladders,” “In The Night” and “La-Da-Da.”

Oh, My Darling
Basia Bulat
Original Release Date: April 30, 2007
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Rough Trade Us
Buy or Download album : click here
Website: http://www.basiabulat.com/

Blame it on Paris, the City of Light…

The much-anticipated, brilliant new album from Sarah Slean The Baroness is finally here ! Written and inspirated from her deep long searching soul journey in Paris (France) last two years ago, the fifth full-length album from acclaimed Toronto songstress features some of her most honest, moving and magical songwriting to date.

Citing such diverse musical influences as Glenn Gould, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, musicals, Joni Mitchell, Irving Berlin and drawing from a host of literary, philosophical and artistic favourites, Sarah Slean’s unique artistic output continues to inspire and amaze her fans.

Watch “Get Home“, Sarah Slean’s new single: Quicktime / Windows Media Player

Read our Article about Sarah Slean, click here.

[Note : French Version only is available for this article, it will be translated soon]

A l’annonce de la sortie de ce dernier album solo de l’égérie du folk canadien Damhnait Doyle, Lights Down Low, tant d’années d’attente après l’excellent Dav-Net et non moins les incontournables albums de Shaye, le groupe qu’elle forme avec Kim Stockwood et Tara MacLean, on pouvait être que frustré et déçu de découvrir que celui ci n’est qu’un album de reprises, tout comme nous l’avions un peu resenti pour le dernier Cat Power.

Note : French Version only is available for this article, it will be translated in a few hours…

[Cet article avait été programmé pour une prochaine publication depuis plusieurs semaines, malheureusement en raison de l'absence d'Alexandra à nos côtés, c'est à moi qu'incombe la tâche de vous faire part de cette jolie découverte, tout en ayant une petite pensée pour Alexandra, j'espère qu'elle me lira]

La première chose à retenir d’Adele Atkins c’est son âge : 19 ans comme 19 le titre de son premier album. Il n’y aura pas de mots ni assez d’adjectifs pour dire ô combien cette jeune Londonienne a réussi à nous bluffer par son talent, car à peine avions nous eu le temps de digérer les albums de ses consoeurs : Duffy, Kate Nash (que nous n’avions pas encore eu le temps de vous présenter) ainsi que de cette autre tueuse Amy MacDonald, voilà que nos cousins bretons nous enterrent encore plus profond, six pieds sous terre avec cette jeune prodige, tout juste sortie de l’adolescence et qui s’attaque à des divas soul du gabarit d’Amy Winehouse et en ce qui concerne cette dernière on peut dire qu’elle est déjà dépassée et même de très loin !

Already the eighth album for Chan Marshall, the American folk muse. Of these entrechats, delicate and fragile Cat Power offers a trip on the paths of crosses, in the form of an album of covers of classic American.

Our thinking ? A little frustrating, however, to see graceful Shan abandon the space of a few months writing for this great tribute to his elders.

His broken diva voice on the reserve is marvelous, anyway. Janis Joplin ( “Woman Left Only”) is revisited, as Sinatra ( “New York”), with a real desire to use them. But when we saw the epic “You Are Free”, interspersed with “The Greatest”, less essential but wider audience (see our article on the above calls-to-nothing.com), it expects one thing: see Cat Power back in what she was born to : writing.

Jukebox
Cat Power
Original Release Date: January 22, 2008
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Matador Records
Buy album: Jukebox - Deluxe Edition

Under The Influence
Terra Naomi
Original Release Date: August 20, 2007
Format: Import
Label: Phantom Sound & Vision
Buy Album : click here

Terra Naomi’s management company is Nettwerk Management.

Under The Influence is the debut from Terra Naomi, Nettwerk’s new recruit originally from New York State, but currently based in the United Kingdom. From waiting tables in NYC to five million You Tube views (and counting), word of mouth has hand-selected her as 2007’s ultimate find. The album is written by Terra and produced by Paul Fox (10,000 Maniacs, XTC). A 12-track tour de force of heartbreaking vocals, vibrant melodies and immaculate lyrics, it’s another stage of the US chanteuse’s inspirational ascent. Featuring string arrangements by David Campbell, Beck’s father, it’s a truly defiant album that demands attention.