The title of Slowman‘s new album “I’m Back” is of course a hint of that he’s back with a new record, but first of all he’s announcing that he’s back to his musical roots. And that’s how the new album feels, an exploration of classic blues, blues rock, some contry rock plus soul and funk. The blues is what feels the most, the dist knob are cranked up a bit more, the edges not too polished and his got his hands deep down in classic, fertile timeless soil. I’d say that he’s standing even more secure with this new album.

Roses and Wine
Me and the blues

Listen and read more on Slowman’s site

Recently Born 53 released their album “Foreign Accent”, an album where they serve 15 songs in a soft mix of americana and blues. For me it’s foremost a journey through Dylan-land, and that they present an excellent cover of  “Million Dollar Bash” feels quite natural. Strong songwriting and an intimate, open, basic sound with great guitars makes this a very nice experience. Here are the two opening tracks on “Foreign Accent”:

New Day
Foreign Accent

You’ll find Born 53 on Myspace and on Spotify you can listen to the entire album.

Jon Strider, whom I wrote about last year, is back now with a new album, “Fresh Tracks”, which was released in February. Except from two tracks, he has chosen this time to collaborate with various songwriters, like Jane Getz, David Garriock, Michael Boesen et al. And it shows; there are larger leaps this time between different styles and expressions. The soft country rock is there, but gets accompanied by country, blues and other influences. It’s pleasant, nice melodies and well produced.

Here are two songs to listen to:

Magnolia Tree
Workin’ Is For People That Don’t Know How to Fish

Jon Strider’s site

Roí Höttur means Robin Hood in Icelandic, but beside the name I can’t find any obvious connections to Iceland or icelandic music. Instead the band serve us, what I would like to call, psychadelia with a blues heart. And psychadelia then as a trip back to the times of the early Pink Floyd.

The Doors can also be sensed in their music as well as, to some extent, Led Zeppelin and all this can be heard in their debut. A debut, which is, in a nice psychadelia tradition, a 12 minute long piece. Great fun to listen to.

You can find Roí Höttur on Myspace, on Facebook and on their blog. Here’s “Dream of Papaver”:

Dream of Papaver

Jon Strider is a very experienced musician and has worked with artists like Van Morrison, Boz Skaggs, Mink DeVille, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker to mention a few. As a solo artist he has released 5 albums, and recently I have been listening to the album “White Wings” which was released two years ago.

Jon Strider calls his music Rhythm N’ Folk, which feels rather appropriate. It’s quite pleasant to listen to the album, bringing a positive soft rock with influences from americana, blues and country. I can hear a little of Jackson Browne, some Eagles, Cat Stevens and a lot of vibes from the american early seventies. It’s a really good album with a lot of variation.

If you want to read and listen more you should visit Jon Strider’s site.

Here’s a couple of songs from “White Wings”:

At the Way Station
Coming Alive