Having formerly played behind the drums with members of Band of Horses in the defunct sad-eyed Seattle outfit Carissa’s Wierd, Sera Cahoone is an accomplished guitarist and songwriter. Cahoone’s own sophomore full-length, Only as the Day Is Long, could easily have wafted into the realm of wispy noncommittal Cat Power soundalikes itself if not for the reassuring presence of certain rustic-signifying instrumentation and arrangements.

Only as the Day is Long, is a gorgeous and haunting country and folk inflected tone, a breathtaking collection of sad and dusky songs that reveal an artist of remarkable depth as well as a truly stunning voice which can be compared to Gillian Welch with its aching emotions and melancholy mood.

Imagine Neil Young songs interpreted by Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams covering Townes Van Zandt, or Patty Griffin playing Tom Waits, this is how we can feel when listening Lara Ewen for the first time. With this first full length album Ghosts and Gasoline, the New York City born and raised singer and songwriter Lara Ewen accompanied with her band “The Unstrung Orchestra” is accomplishing her own ventures out of the standard East Coast waters with her own brand of bluesy, alt-country ballads. Ghosts and Gasoline is exemplary for what is essentially a first album, merging classic country and blues with a new attitude as appealing as it is satisfying. Ewen’s simple lyrics and arrangements are matched up just fine by her so satisfyingly smoky and melodic voice with a femininely rugged constitution, like cigarette-smelling velvet and a “disillusioned but struggling to remain hopeful” edge to her heady, Stevie Nicks-like vocals, Lara Ewen’s style is one that evokes a constant stream of flashbacks from those moments in life that toughen our skin, give us our spine and strengthen our resolve; it’s that quality that seems to communicate, “I’ve been through some crap in my life.”

Click here now to hear a exclusive sneak peak of Sarah McLachlan’s new album B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2 before its release on 4/29.

Rarities, B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2
Sarah McLachlan
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Arista
Pre Order album: Click Here.

For once, we’ll break the rules and we will talk about… a man ! It’s difficult to let Justin Nozuka the new figure of the folk soul music pass us by. The debut album “Holly” (named after his mother) of this barely 19-year-old canadian is a real success, people have already fallen under Justin’s spell throughout Canada and Europe. Endowed with an astonishingly mature, strong and intense voice, he’s one of the few artists who are able to touch people just with the simplicity and sensibility of their voices.
Justin Nozuka may be young but the lyrics of his songs are profound and deal with passions of life, violence (domestic abuse in Save Him), death (Down in a Cold Dirty Well) and of course love (Supposed to Grow Old). In fact I can’t be really objective regarding this review because I am personally a huge fan of this artist, but you can’t deny that his talent is more than obvious…

Introduced in 2005 by Nettwerk in their traditional Christmas collection songs (A Winter’s Night: The Best Of Nettwerk Christmas Albums), THE WEEPIES’ big debut album Say I Am You came out on the Canadian label based in Vancouver, a year after, in 2006. After an initial hard-scrabble tour in their compact car as a duo, Deb Talan & Steve Tannen’s music appeared in more than a dozen TV shows (Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill…), as well as several major motion pictures.

Their iTunes sales topped the folk charts in eight countries. Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol nominated them for a Short List Music Prize, and Mandy Moore asked them to write with her and sing on her album. They were invited to open for the Indigo Girls and invited onto the Hotel Café Tour; they played the Oxegen Festival in Ireland, the Hurricane Festival in Germany, and T in the Park in Scotland. Their MySpace player hit 2 million plays. JCPenney and Old Navy used their tunes as the theme songs for their major holiday TV campaigns.

Edwina Hayes grew up in Preston, Lancashire (UK) before moving to the East coast of Yorkshire as a teenager, where she has been based ever since. Dividing her time between the UK and America, Edwina’s second home is Nashville where she is a much loved as a songwriter and artist.

The 24-year-old British guitarist recorded her album in a friend’s bedroom and named it “Tim’s House” in his honour.
Ignored by mainstream press and radio, “Tim’s House” is the latest example of an artist - and an album - bypassing the traditional publicity routes and finding success by word of mouth on the internet.
I use to know her since last year with her “Tim’s House” EP version (seems not to be included in her official discography), since, the title “It’s Never Over” is my preferred song.
Kate Walsh is a British singer/songwriter from Burnham-On-Crouch, Essex, a small fishing village. Her music is characterized by her beautiful voice and life caressing vocals which is as calm and unfettered as the late Eva Cassidy’s.. She is an artist who takes you away from the rush and madness of the world. Her music has a timeless quality especially the gorgeous “Your Song and Goldfish”, making it hard to believe she was only 20 when she released her first homemade album (she was 23 when her second album, Tim’s House, was released).
Citing in her musical references, Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Rufus Wainwright, The Shins, Talk Talk, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Red House Painters, Magnet, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Sufjan Stevens, “Tim’s House” is delicately poised, composed of gentle strums, brush pats on a snare drum and Kate’s whisper. But that’s the only platform she needs, because in these quiet moments a power resides - a bruised intensity that creeps from beneath pretty tunes.

If you’re searching for Britain’s answer to Norah Jones, look no further.

SoKo, an actress and singer whose real name is Stéphanie Sokolinski, is one of those discoveries we owe to Myspace, the social network. At barely 22, she’s a genuine French revelation who is already successful outside France begining with Denmark that adopted her from the start, Australia and Japan.
Even the very influential Nic Harcourt’s KCRW gave way to her pretty little face. She has this voice with this little sweet and smooth French accent, between Kate Nash and Maria Mena, a pop folk style marked with its musical references (among whom Daniel Johnson) but above all an unique style which talks about unhappy love affairs which is intended for every girls.
In this way, her highly influencal song “I’ll Kill Her” (a sufficiently explicit title) ends up number 1 among the top sellers in Belgium on iTunes last January. And to think that SoKo isn’t signed to any label yet, she only owns a nice 5 track EP “Not SoKute”. But it won’t be long considering her talent and the fact she’s surrounded by a strong French management.

We have to admit that Tristan Prettyman has matured ! After her smooth, acoustic and timid debut album “Twentythree”, here’s the second record “Hello” released on April 15, 2008, marked by the discovery of new genres but still in the “Prettyman mold” (we find many songs that are quite similar to the previous album: “Madly”, “God Gave Me Reason” or “Hello”).

Indeed, spending several months travelling the USA opened her mind to new music styles and she was quite right to take advantage of it. We discover through this album a fragile and bluesy voice which gained confidence, accuracy and power, enhanced by musical instruments that weren’t present on the previous record, we can hear piano, electric guitars and drums. We can also notice very definite influences such as John Butler Trio (“California Girl”) or the Australian singer Missy Higgins ( “Echo” and “You Got Me”).

Tristan Prettyman is definitely not stuck in the gentleness and the shyness and reveals herself being full of confidence and maturity.

This is a Holly Very Good Surprise for all of us, Sarah’s Fans, with this second edition of this hard-to-find lives and extended remixes, Nettwerk decides to offer a veritable gift, a collection of 14 magical and best Sarah’s stuffs : Housed in a double gatefold slipcase, it includes “Possession” (Rabbit In The Moon Remix), fellow Canadians Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell get lushed-out respectively with “Song For A Winter’s Night” and “Blue,” and McLachlan also works her magic with XTC’s “Dear God” and the Billie Holiday classic “Gloomy Sunday.” Each is dark, but engaging, like so much of McLachlan’s own material, including this set’s brooding “Full of Grace” and “I Will Remember You” (from the film ‘Last Of The Mohicans’), plus live cuts & more mixes!

Can’t wait ’til  the end of April !

Rarities, B-Sides 2 And Other Stuff, Volume 2
Sarah McLachlan
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Arista
Pre Order album: Click Here.

Track Listings

1. Ordinary Miracle
2. Blackbird
3. Time After Time (with Cyndi Lauper)
4. River
5. When She Loved Me
6. Don’t Let Go (with Bryan Adams)
7. Just Like Me (with Run DMC)
8. Angel (Live) (with Emmylou Harris)
9. Pills (Live) (with The Perishers)
10. Homeless (with Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
11. The Rainbow Connection
12. Prayer of St. Francis
13. Unchained Melody
14. Silence (DJ Tiesto ISOS Remix)