Robert Hill was early caught by Woodie Guthrie’s music and it was natural that he soon also got to be inspired by others like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Reverend Gary Davis and of course the inevitable Bob Dylan. With Guthrie as the obvious guiding star these influences characterize his music on the debut album “What Are We Waiting For”, which was released this Autumn.

Brian Kramer, with his earthy blues fingers, has produced the album and guests on two of the tracks with his guitar. Besides that  it’s just Robert we meet, with his acoustic guitar and sometimes his harmonica, on the 13 blues and folk songs. I think it’s an impressive album where he, despite the distance in time and space, and with only 20 years of age, makes it feel so authentic, close and honest. Authentic meaning that it’s Robert we meet, his stories, feelings, frustrations and view of the world. Add to this an excellent blues and folk guitar and you have an album that is easy to get caught by.

I’m afraid I can’t find any listening links at the moment, but I will update as soon as they show up. Meanwhile you can taste the album in the two songs below.

Robert Hill on Facebook

Debt blues
Talking Blues blues 

Behind The Late Call we find Johannes Mayer, based in Stockholm, who recently released his third album “Pale Morning Light”. It’s a quite fitting name for the album, which has that ambience that arise when the sun’s first rays show up on the horizon. Beautiful, somewhat expectant, calm and still and nothing that bothers you.

The first song “Wandering Through An Empty Field” paints some brushstrokes of Coldplay, emphasized by the fact that Johannes’ voice tone reminds of Chris Martin’s. He never continues into the arena, though, and walk away in a different direction with a melodic, close, rhytmically varied singer-songwriter pop. It’s en even, dynamic album, that maybe miss those catchy songs which get stuck in your head, but with a such a pleasant experience as this, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Look at You Now

Heart-Sick Groan’s singer Johan Brännström has released a row of  singles and EP’s as a solo artist, where he and his guitar travels into classic Dylan-inspired grounds. It’s been a little more than a year since his last single, but now he’s back with three songs on the EP “New Set of Dreams”, containing some of his absolutely best songs so far. Beautiful, with memorable, simple melodies, where he finishes with this Simon & Garfunkel-vibing “In a Midsummer’s Night, which you can hear below.

Johan Brännström on Facebook – on Bandcamp

In a Midsummer’s Night

The band John Moose comes from the deep woods of Värmland around Hagfors. So far they have released an EP with three songs, and you can listen to one of them here below. It’s melancholic and dreamy and it’s easy to get images from the deep forests from where they come, even though my first thoughts were those of wide, foggy English moorlands.

John Moose on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

No Harm

In the beginning of the Autumn Restless Riot, hailing from Lund and Malmö, released their debut album “Leaving the Circus”. Like they write themselves it’s about indie pop that meets alt-country in ten songs. In many parts the album is loaded with tension, much because of the singer Daniel Engelbertsen’s Conor Oberst-sounding expression with the characteristic anxiety-loaded trembling, where he in the slower songs hangs on to every word and has me glued to the speakers.

I also like the contrasts on the album, where they, for exemple, in the Damien Rice-vibing duet “Waltz of I”, go from the quiet, darkly beautiful to the rough, messy, drum-distorted “Blind Horse” with it’s unruly Aladdin Sane-piano. Another example and favourite is the song “Learn” where Broselids electric piano harmonies paints an Air-sounding atmosphere in the background. An interesting debut, which makes me curious about what they will be up to next. Have a taste here below in two songs.

Restless Riot’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Waltz of I
Learn