Club Drive Return With New Single WDYD

Until a certain streaming service turned their lifelong musical fantasies into a reality, the members of folky Americana quintet Mt. Joy were on a very different path indeed. To retool an old saying, life as they know it happened while they were busy living other best laid plans.

It’s easy to question the authenticity of any young musician who stirs up a super-sized buzz. Are they merely a record company’s latest marionette? Yet another superficial media darling destined for 15 minutes of fame? Dan Owen certainly generated significant plaudits before his debut album, ‘Stay Awake With Me’, had even been released, but the finished product revealed a special singer-songwriter who, after years of grafting for his shot at the big time, is being lauded for all the right reasons.

Crackling through a speakerphone, Joe Talbot’s voice is calm and level. “I don’t feel any pressure to do anything,” he says. “It’s up to me. I genuinely don’t care what anyone else makes of what I do. It’s up to me to be as honest to myself, and truthful to the band and our art, as possible. The rest is up to you.”

Photo: Don VanCleave It may sound like wishful thinking, but in an ideal world music would begin and end with nothing but a great song. There’d be no record companies or publications trying to shape our tastes. Image would be unimportant. Sales irrelevant. Radio airplay redundant. The only thing that would matter would be the creativity of the musician and how they reflect themselves through their art.

Wanderlust is a word usually associated with gap years and middle aged people who want a fancy way of saying they’re bored with the life they’ve made for themselves.

A new batch of Soul Legend dates featuring Lemar have been announced.

‘Indigo’ is the fourth album from L.A.-based dream pop troubadour Jack Tatum as Wild Nothing and it comprises 11 skilfully written tracks that directly ape ‘70s and ‘80s British art rock - in particular Roxy Music.

Courtesy of a period that saw commercially-minded, and often painfully bland, singer-songwriters dominating the airwaves, the very label is enough to inspire a healthy amount of cynicism these days. But Dan Owen’s debut album is a stellar example of how the genre can, in the right hands, be both radio friendly and artistically satisfying.