New Tunes from Carsie Blanton, Chuck Morris, Caoilfhionn Rose, Jane's Party, Just a Jester

Regular Birch Street Radio listeners are familiar with Carsie Blanton, a New Orleans-based singer-songwriter whose puts a very personal and idiosyncratic spin on her folky-jazzy-pop music. Her lyrics range from sassy and sexy to deep and philosophical. She's just released the first single from an album called Buck Up, due in February. It's the title track, which Blanton describes as "a song of hope and tenacity in trying times" - done in a folky style that evokes the likes of John Prine.

Bouncing around musical styles as we usually do, we check out a piece of bluesy R&B from Chuck Morris. He was the drummer on The Arsenio Hall Show for six years, toured and recorded with his own funky-reggae band, and after taking a hiatus, is now working on a new album. The first single, "Good Life," is an upbeat, feel-good song with a drums-horns-guitar opening that sounds like it could be introducing a new late-night talk show.

From Manchester, UK comes the debut album Awaken from singer/songwriter/producer Caoilfhionn Rose. She cites such influences as The Mummers, Rachel Sermanni, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Broadcast - which, to be honest, we're not familiar with, so to us, her sound is quite fresh. The title track "moved me out of my comfort zone," Rose says. “Having played solo as a pianist for a couple of years, it inspired me to work with new sounds, musicians with a different approach to making music.” Drum loops and mellotron flute are among those sounds. (By the way, Rose's first name is pronounced Keelin.)

Next we head to Toronto for the newest release from pop-rock quartet Jane's Party. They've been popping out singles from a forthcoming LP, Casual Island, due in February. We're featuring the latest, "Wait For You," featuring the band's hallmark breezy riffs and vocal harmonies. We'll also give some spins to what they call the B-side: a dreamy reimagining of The Cars' "Drive."

And hopping back to the UK, we pick up new music from another act previously featured on Birch Street Radio -- Just a Jester, the current project of singer-songwriter-guitarist Timothy Daniel Whitaker. He played and recorded all the instruments on his self-produced EP Clear Blue, released a couple of months ago, from which we've been spinning "Make It Easier." He's quickly returned with a new single, "Another World."

This being the season of holiday music and best-of lists, we probably won't have another batch of featured new music next weekend, but plan to resume our weekly picks the first weekend in January. Meantime we plan to feature a bit of holiday music on Sunday's episode of The Birch Street Bistro (noon Eastern Time, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5pm GMT) and on Christmas day itself. And we're planning a New Year's special with all-2018 music, including a lot of tracks we haven't played before. We hope you enjoy it all, and continue listening to our Marvelous Mix in the coming year! 

New Tunes from Carsie Blanton, Chuck Morris, Caoilfhionn Rose, Jane's Party, Just a Jester

Regular Birch Street Radio listeners are familiar with Carsie Blanton, a New Orleans-based singer-songwriter whose puts a very personal and idiosyncratic spin on her folky-jazzy-pop music. Her lyrics range from sassy and sexy to deep and philosophical. She's just released the first single from an album called Buck Up, due in February. It's the title track, which Blanton describes as "a song of hope and tenacity in trying times" - done in a folky style that evokes the likes of John Prine.

Bouncing around musical styles as we usually do, we check out a piece of bluesy R&B from Chuck Morris. He was the drummer on The Arsenio Hall Show for six years, toured and recorded with his own funky-reggae band, and after taking a hiatus, is now working on a new album. The first single, "Good Life," is an upbeat, feel-good song with a drums-horns-guitar opening that sounds like it could be introducing a new late-night talk show.

From Manchester, UK comes the debut album Awaken from singer/songwriter/producer Caoilfhionn Rose. She cites such influences as The Mummers, Rachel Sermanni, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Broadcast - which, to be honest, we're not familiar with, so to us, her sound is quite fresh. The title track "moved me out of my comfort zone," Rose says. “Having played solo as a pianist for a couple of years, it inspired me to work with new sounds, musicians with a different approach to making music.” Drum loops and mellotron flute are among those sounds. (By the way, Rose's first name is pronounced Keelin.)

Next we head to Toronto for the newest release from pop-rock quartet Jane's Party. They've been popping out singles from a forthcoming LP, Casual Island, due in February. We're featuring the latest, "Wait For You," featuring the band's hallmark breezy riffs and vocal harmonies. We'll also give some spins to what they call the B-side: a dreamy reimagining of The Cars' "Drive."

And hopping back to the UK, we pick up new music from another act previously featured on Birch Street Radio -- Just a Jester, the current project of singer-songwriter-guitarist Timothy Daniel Whitaker. He played and recorded all the instruments on his self-produced EP Clear Blue, released a couple of months ago, from which we've been spinning "Make It Easier." He's quickly returned with a new single, "Another World."

This being the season of holiday music and best-of lists, we probably won't have another batch of featured new music next weekend, but plan to resume our weekly picks the first weekend in January. Meantime we plan to feature a bit of holiday music on Sunday's episode of The Birch Street Bistro (noon Eastern Time, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5pm GMT) and on Christmas day itself. And we're planning a New Year's special with all-2018 music, including a lot of tracks we haven't played before. We hope you enjoy it all, and continue listening to our Marvelous Mix in the coming year! 

Stay tuned-in to our marvelous mix

Heads-up to our listeners: It appears Birch Street Radio might soon have to switch streaming providers (again!), as the landscape continues to shift in the wacky world of internet radio. 

If so, some third-party players might stop working or have to be "re-tuned." As we've done in the past, we'll try to make any transition as smooth as possible. 

If you ever have trouble listening on any player or app, please come here to birchstreetradio.com for the latest connection information. You can also contact us at birchstreetradio@gmail.com.

We're hoping to avoid any disruption, and will do our best to keep our Marvelous Music Mix flowing!

Stay tuned-in to our marvelous mix

Heads-up to our listeners: It appears Birch Street Radio might soon have to switch streaming providers (again!), as the landscape continues to shift in the wacky world of internet radio. 

If so, some third-party players might stop working or have to be "re-tuned." As we've done in the past, we'll try to make any transition as smooth as possible. 

If you ever have trouble listening on any player or app, please come here to birchstreetradio.com for the latest connection information. You can also contact us at birchstreetradio@gmail.com.

We're hoping to avoid any disruption, and will do our best to keep our Marvelous Music Mix flowing!

Now in our New Music bin: Valley, Broken Bells, Alice Merton, Michael Jablonka, John Lewitt

Toronto alt-pop quartet Valley has just released Maybe: Side A - the first installment of a three-part LP, or a trio of EPs, depending how you look at it. In the two years since its previous release, This Room Is White, the band worked in its home studio and on trips to Los Angeles and New York to create this new collection, "packed with snapshots from the last two years of our life, and concepts of our generation." From this collection of mostly upbeat, buoyant tunes, we're picking "Loop Love" to feature in our New Music bin, and we'll drop other tracks into our big mix.

Alice Merton also has a connection to the Toronto suburbs, as she lived there with her family during part of her pre-teen years. Having lived at times in the U.S., Canada, England, France and her native Germany, she has said that her 2016 hit single "No Roots" was inspired by the feeling that "there's no one place where my home is." Her first album, Mint, is due next month, and the latest single to spin out of it is the quirky, jumpy "Funny Business." In the lyric, she urges a suspicious lover to "trust me when I say that I was innocent ... I don't break hearts, I don't do funny business."

Continuing in the alt-pop vein, we're picking up "Shelter," a new single from Broken Bells, the collaboration of Shins frontman James Mercer and producer Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton. On this track the duo “combined their unmistakable melodies, lyrics, vocals and singular composition style" with the mouse's “deconstruction and reconstruction of sampled beats.” The result is a breezy mid-tempo take on the well-worn theme of a lover providing shelter from the storm.

We've previously featured Michael Jablonka, who established himself at a young age as a guitarist-for-hire behind various UK artists before recently striking out on his own. His latest single, "Papier-Mache," expands on his blues-funk-rock sound with expressive, soulful vocals. The track takes the listener on a ride through multiple changes in mood and tempo, with a flaming guitar break in the middle.

We circle back to Toronto for a more laid-back sound from singer-songwriter John Lewitt. He recently released his fifth album, All Good Things, which blends strains of Americana, folk, country and rock with personal, relatable lyrics. Our pick for the New Music bin is "Best Kept Secret," the love song of a guy who can't believe his good fortune.

By the way, we debuted four of these five songs on our weekly show The Detour, where we mix a lot of indie and other new releases with older tracks that you don't hear often. It streams Sundays at 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific, 10pm GMT and repeats six hours later. Past episodes are archived on Mixcloud.

We've also just added a weekly show called The Birch Street Bistro, which features singer-songwriters and bands that play music on the softer side of the rock spectrum. Join us in the Bistro on Sundays for a relaxing hour starting at Noon Eastern, 9am Pacific, 5pm GMT.