Friday, December 08, 2023

More alt. country Christmas


Over to Ton '@T55' Ensing, our correspondent in the field of Americana, alt. country and...oh well, jus' good songs:

Angela Perley is best known for her lovely cosmic country album 4:30, released in 2019 - a record made for long car travels. This year she finally released the follow-up record: Turn Me Loose, which is quite nice as well. In between, in 2020, she released her first christmas tune: a sweet little altcountry rocker called All I Want for Christmas Is Your Kiss. This week she continues the journey with North Star Bound, a cosmic country ballad with some melancholy sleighbells, a howling steelguitar, a faraway organ and a choir. She’s pretty good at this sort of thing, so this’ll probably be a future car radio-classic.


More driving from Fenne Lily, who will be all alone this Christmas, according to her new single ‘Christmas Alone’. It’s a sweet, sparse song, sung in her delicate whispery voice, known from her terrific new album Big Picture that she released earlier this year. “I want the same thing now that I did back then / I want it to go on forever, never end / I wanna give you something you won't wanna give away / I wanna be home, just us together, just today”.
This track was covered, days after it's release: Federale, the band from The Brian Jonestown Massacre bassist Collin Hegna, already got to their destination. They cover the traditional ‘What Child Is This’ in the style they’re known for: part Nick Cave, part Ennio Morricone, part Lee & Nancy. Bring in the violins and the big orchestra. Not a song to dance to, but open the curtains, stare in the dark and wait for the reindeers.

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