I’ll be on vacation for over a week without a laptop so expect to hear from me again on Aug. 20.

O’death has finally lived up to it’s ominous name with the first track off their new CD Broken Hymns, Skin, and Limbs . The record, the band’s third, is said to be a little dark and from this one song I can see why. It certainly reminds one of “Country Death Song” by the Violent Femmes or lyrically something like “Delia’s Gone” by Johnny Cash or even the crazed bluegrass from Deliverance. Pretty heady comparisons I know, but is there a better band in the country playing this style of possessed, Appalachian folk-punk?

You can pre-order the new record here or here.

Lowtide

“Delia’s Gone”

“Country Death Song”

I’m staying in my own backyard for this week’s “Honky-Tonk Friday”. The Gin Palace Jesters are a Chicago based group of honky-tonk hillbillys. They’ve got a couple fine records out that by and large feature their own original songs about drinking, hillbilly love, and broken hearts. I’m impressed with the band’s ability to navigate between 50’s rockibilly, western swing, and hardcore country.

The band opens up for Dale Watson at Fitzgerald’s on Sept 5. Buy their new record Roadhouse Riot…And Other Songs With Words here.

Losing Her Memory
Goody Glumdrops

Bonus songs:

Lover Not a Fighter
Pomade On My Pillow

The blogosphere was in a bit of a tizzy a month back with the announcement of the debut record from UK “folk singer” Ed Laurie. The track “Albert” was such a nice approximation of Leonard Cohen meets Gilberto Gil that it rightfully stoked a few fires in bloggers searching for tangible, authentic music. For now things have calmed down but expect to hear more from this artist as release date approaches.

In the meantime here are a couple demo’s. One from the new record and a bonus one that didn’t make the cut. As I’ve said before sometimes a demo is the best way to judge an artist. Stripped of any studio wizardry these songs are usually a good indication of whether the artist has the songs and the chops to succeed.

The new record, Meanwhile In The Park, comes out October 2 on Dangerbird. It was originally released in the UK in 2006.

Andalucia

Bonus demo

Midsummer’s Night Dream

And the title track from the new record

Meanwhile In The Park

This is either a really crappy idea executed badly or an atrocious idea performed poorly. What do you think? Johnny Cash Remixed.

Johnny Cash Remixed sampler (if they could just remix this one more time and take all the crap out it’d be great…oh yeah that’s the way it sounded before they f**k’d it up)