Another wide-ranging mix in our New Releases bin

Our goal is to bring our listeners a wide range of musical styles, and this week's batch of New Releases is a good example: Country-tinged folk-rock, shoegaze-y rock, Latin-flavored rock, pop rock - and a Beatles homage.

As we've said before, one musical discovery often leads to another, and that's the case this week as we add Caroline Reese & The Drifting Fifth to our Marvelous Music Mix.

One of the featured new releases we introduced last week was from New York-based singer-songwriter Lizzie No. She and Pennsylvania native Caroline Reese are longtime friends who often share a bill and pitch in on each others' songs - as seen here at a recent show at a coffeehouse in New Jersey.

Lizzie No, Caroline Reese at The Dragonfly, Somerville, N.J.

With her band The Drifting Fifth, Reese has just released her third album, Tenderfoot. It blends strains of country-western and folk-rock - befitting of someone who splits her time these days between Pennsylvania and Montana. For this week's New Releases bin we've picked a song about gambling on love, called "Snake Eyes."

From right between New York and Pennsylvania - but from a very different musical genre - comes Overlake. Based in Jersey City, New Jersey, this three-piece cites influences including Yo La Tengo (from the next town over, Hoboken) and My Bloody Valentine. Tom Barrett (guitar, vocals) and Lysa Opfer (bass, vocals) met while playing in a hard-rock band and later formed Overlake with drummer Nick D’Amore. They've just released their second album, Fall, and we've added the atmospheric "Winter Is Why" to our New Music rotation.

Now we take another sharp turn musically to bring on Making Movies, a Kansas City-based quartet that blends African and Latino rhythms and instruments into their unique blend of rock. They're about to release their second album, I Am Another You, produced by Steven Berlin of Los Lobos. It includes a track called "Brave Enough" that features Hurray For The Riff Raff, with that band's Alynda Segarra sharing vocals with MM's Enrique Chi. We're making that our pick for the New Releases bin, but we'll surely be dipping more into this album, due in a couple of weeks

Due in July is a new album from Whitehorse, with the curious title Panther in the Dollhouse. By our count, it's the fourth release of new material from the Hamilton, Ontario couple, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet (they've also released a couple of covers records and a French-language compilation of some of their songs). We're spinning the just-released single, "Nighthawks."

And as long-time Beatles fans (going back to when they were new!) we couldn't help but smile when we first heard Major and the Monbacks playing "We Are Doing Fine." This Norfolk, Virginia, band has its own sound and style, with Southern-rock roots (the "Monbacks" name derives from the Southern U.S. farewell phrase, "C'mon back"). But on this track from their forthcoming Moonlight Anthems LP, they fully immerse themselves in the Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery-era sound. We hope you'll smile along, too.

Besides featuring these tracks in our New Releases bin this week, we've added more tunes from the latest albums by Port Cities, Soulajar, The Wild Reeds, Cage the Elephant, Laura Marling, Lonely Avenue and more. And we're always adding to the collection of 60s-70s-80s-90s-2000s music in our ever-expanding Marvelous Mix. Tune in and enjoy!

Another wide-ranging mix in our New Releases bin

Our goal is to bring our listeners a wide range of musical styles, and this week's batch of New Releases is a good example: Country-tinged folk-rock, shoegaze-y rock, Latin-flavored rock, pop rock - and a Beatles homage.

As we've said before, one musical discovery often leads to another, and that's the case this week as we add Caroline Reese & The Drifting Fifth to our Marvelous Music Mix.

One of the featured new releases we introduced last week was from New York-based singer-songwriter Lizzie No. She and Pennsylvania native Caroline Reese are longtime friends who often share a bill and pitch in on each others' songs - as seen here at a recent show at a coffeehouse in New Jersey.

Lizzie No, Caroline Reese at The Dragonfly, Somerville, N.J.

With her band The Drifting Fifth, Reese has just released her third album, Tenderfoot. It blends strains of country-western and folk-rock - befitting of someone who splits her time these days between Pennsylvania and Montana. For this week's New Releases bin we've picked a song about gambling on love, called "Snake Eyes."

From right between New York and Pennsylvania - but from a very different musical genre - comes Overlake. Based in Jersey City, New Jersey, this three-piece cites influences including Yo La Tengo (from the next town over, Hoboken) and My Bloody Valentine. Tom Barrett (guitar, vocals) and Lysa Opfer (bass, vocals) met while playing in a hard-rock band and later formed Overlake with drummer Nick D’Amore. They've just released their second album, Fall, and we've added the atmospheric "Winter Is Why" to our New Music rotation.

Now we take another sharp turn musically to bring on Making Movies, a Kansas City-based quartet that blends African and Latino rhythms and instruments into their unique blend of rock. They're about to release their second album, I Am Another You, produced by Steven Berlin of Los Lobos. It includes a track called "Brave Enough" that features Hurray For The Riff Raff, with that band's Alynda Segarra sharing vocals with MM's Enrique Chi. We're making that our pick for the New Releases bin, but we'll surely be dipping more into this album, due in a couple of weeks

Due in July is a new album from Whitehorse, with the curious title Panther in the Dollhouse. By our count, it's the fourth release of new material from the Hamilton, Ontario couple, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet (they've also released a couple of covers records and a French-language compilation of some of their songs). We're spinning the just-released single, "Nighthawks."

And as long-time Beatles fans (going back to when they were new!) we couldn't help but smile when we first heard Major and the Monbacks playing "We Are Doing Fine." This Norfolk, Virginia, band has its own sound and style, with Southern-rock roots (the "Monbacks" name derives from the Southern U.S. farewell phrase, "C'mon back"). But on this track from their forthcoming Moonlight Anthems LP, they fully immerse themselves in the Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery-era sound. We hope you'll smile along, too.

Besides featuring these tracks in our New Releases bin this week, we've added more tunes from the latest albums by Port Cities, Soulajar, The Wild Reeds, Cage the Elephant, Laura Marling, Lonely Avenue and more. And we're always adding to the collection of 60s-70s-80s-90s-2000s music in our ever-expanding Marvelous Mix. Tune in and enjoy!

Strains of folk, soul, jazz & more added to our mix

A recent spot on NPR brought our attention to Lizzie No, a singer-songwriter, guitarist and harpist based in New York, and we were intrigued. Then a couple of our correspondents caught her in a live show at a coffeehouse in New Jersey, and were thoroughly charmed. We're happy to introduce you to her well-crafted and highly personal songs. We'll start this week by featuring "Hard Won," the title track of her debut album, in our New Music bin. More selections will follow soon!

As we keep our ears out for new artists, sometimes one discovery leads to another. A few months back we caught on to Lonely Avenue, a California band with a country-rock flavor. Guitarist Ryon Fergon is a member both of that band and of Soulajar, a seven-piece soul/funk outfit that just released its second album, Between Here And There. We're picking up on the first track, "Dip," an R&B-flavored number featuring lead vocalist Jim Ranger. (Photo credit: Jean-Luc Slagle)

Swinging down to New Orleans, we dip into the new album by Trombone Shorty. Parking Lot Symphony marks a sort of graduation for trombonist and band leader Troy Andrews, as it's his first album for the venerated jazz label Blue Note. The album release coincided with the start of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (and he's performing there on the day we're writing this post). Our pick for the New Music bin is "It Ain't No Use," a great combination of brass, percussion, swinging rhythm and soulful singing.

Now as usual, we stir up the mix with a completely different sound: a new single from Portugal. The Man. The Alaska-native, Portland-dwelling band is about to bring out its eighth album, titled Woodstock. The backstory is that the group worked for a few years on an album to be called Gloomin' + Doomin' - but ended up trashing it and starting over with a less heavily-produced approach. The single, "Feel It Still," is being talked about as a "resistance" song, partly because of a music video that's peppered with hidden links to progressive organizations. But really the song itself is an infectious dance-pop tune, with the refrain "I'm a rebel just for kicks."

We top off this week's New Music bin with another track from Sheryl Crow's latest, Be Myself. It's a song that fits right into the album's figuring-out-who-you-really-are theme, called "Long Way Back."

We hope you enjoy the variety of music on Birch Street Radio - new, classic and in-between. And if you have comments or suggestions, please send them our way. Use the comment box on this page, connect on Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email. Thanks for listening!

Strains of folk, soul, jazz & more added to our mix

A recent spot on NPR brought our attention to Lizzie No, a singer-songwriter, guitarist and harpist based in New York, and we were intrigued. Then a couple of our correspondents caught her in a live show at a coffeehouse in New Jersey, and were thoroughly charmed. We're happy to introduce you to her well-crafted and highly personal songs. We'll start this week by featuring "Hard Won," the title track of her debut album, in our New Music bin. More selections will follow soon!

As we keep our ears out for new artists, sometimes one discovery leads to another. A few months back we caught on to Lonely Avenue, a California band with a country-rock flavor. Guitarist Ryon Fergon is a member both of that band and of Soulajar, a seven-piece soul/funk outfit that just released its second album, Between Here And There. We're picking up on the first track, "Dip," an R&B-flavored number featuring lead vocalist Jim Ranger. (Photo credit: Jean-Luc Slagle)

Swinging down to New Orleans, we dip into the new album by Trombone Shorty. Parking Lot Symphony marks a sort of graduation for trombonist and band leader Troy Andrews, as it's his first album for the venerated jazz label Blue Note. The album release coincided with the start of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (and he's performing there on the day we're writing this post). Our pick for the New Music bin is "It Ain't No Use," a great combination of brass, percussion, swinging rhythm and soulful singing.

Now as usual, we stir up the mix with a completely different sound: a new single from Portugal. The Man. The Alaska-native, Portland-dwelling band is about to bring out its eighth album, titled Woodstock. The backstory is that the group worked for a few years on an album to be called Gloomin' + Doomin' - but ended up trashing it and starting over with a less heavily-produced approach. The single, "Feel It Still," is being talked about as a "resistance" song, partly because of a music video that's peppered with hidden links to progressive organizations. But really the song itself is an infectious dance-pop tune, with the refrain "I'm a rebel just for kicks."

We top off this week's New Music bin with another track from Sheryl Crow's latest, Be Myself. It's a song that fits right into the album's figuring-out-who-you-really-are theme, called "Long Way Back."

We hope you enjoy the variety of music on Birch Street Radio - new, classic and in-between. And if you have comments or suggestions, please send them our way. Use the comment box on this page, connect on Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email. Thanks for listening!

A songwriter supergroup & more new music

Think of three singer-songwriters from Nova Scotia getting together and you might imagine an acoustic folk trio. But Port Cities is something different. When Carleton Stone, Dylan Guthro and Breagh MacKinnon turned a shared experience at a songwriting camp into a collaboration, they truly created a band. From their backgrounds writing and performing in various styles - jazz, folk, soul, R&B - they've developed a seamless blend of intelligent pop. They recently rolled out their debut album, just played a couple of shows at Canadian Music Week in Toronto and have several gigs in Great Britain during May before they head home to tour the Maritimes. It was hard to pick just one track to feature in our New Music bin this week. We're going with "Sound Of Your Voice," but you'll be hearing more of the album in our big mix.

Jumping down to the Southern U.S., we catch up with The Weeks, an indie outfit originally from Jackson, Mississippi. They're now part of the growing Nashville scene of Southern-flavored indie rock. Easy is the band's fifth release, counting albums and EPs, but the first to reach our ears. We're spinning the lead track, "Talk Like That."

Also hailing from Nashville, although traveling in different musical circles, is singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle. His music blends elements of folk, blues and country, with lyrics that take a very idiosyncratic, often sardonic view of life. His newest collection, Kids in the Street, is due later this month. We're featuring a fun number about a cool girl in a decidedly uncool car, a "Champagne Corolla."

It's about time we pulled out some more tracks from the excellent new album from Chicago's The Right Now. You've been hearing us play "Too Late" for the past several weeks, and now we're featuring our new favorite, "Love You Better." More tracks from Starlight will be popping up in our mix as well.

And we're picking up the first single from the upcoming 311 album, Mosaic. It's called "Too Much To Think," and we think the lyrics are about a relationship that's become strained by interpersonal issues. Sure, that's what it means. But concert audiences might have something else in mind as they sing along with the refrain "Cuz I wanna get high/But you're keeping me low."