Saturday round up: Arborea, Sam Quinn, Thy Courage Quail, JBM, Small Sur and more!

Saturday is becoming a place to put all the extras and such that come my way during the week via email, twitter, blog posts on other blogs, etc.  Not that these items are undeserving of their own dedicated post, but more so it is easy to not have to concoct a “theme” post in order to put something of interest on the blog.  Something like that.

Recommendations (to me):

• Thy Courage Quail – acoustic lo-fi recordings from a BandCamp troubadour.  Some really good tunes from this guy – two albums (well, an album and an EP) for free download (and no emails, nothing – just a straight download!).  Some live radio takes that really work alongside songs from lonely roads and late nights.  Visit on BandCamp HERE.  Thanks Drunk Country for the tip!  Enjoy a couple of tracks to get you on your way:  “Down Down Down” and “Monk Song”
• A “new” Sam Quinn track called Oceans that is from a recording session a few months back.  I can’t figure out if it is new or not (as it isn’t on the new album), but it sure is nice.   Sent to me from a reader and from a blog called “Live and Breathing” – but the kicker is it is their last post since February – so that is why I am confused if it is new.  The track is streaming on their site, so visit now HERE.

Video Section:

A nice video consisting of live shots from the recent Arborea tour along the West coast of the US has sound tracked a new video by the band.  I have been a fan of Arborea for a while and this song is from a couple of years back, but it is such a great track and now has an accompanying video.  If you like psych-folk that you can get really lost in, this is it – stunning.  Visit them on their Blog for more info.  Check out their Robbie Basho tribute album that Buck (from Arborea) curated as well (info)!

Bonus: “Dance, Sing, Fight” from remastered “House of Sticks”

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A nice surprise from the Songs From The Shed site was finding American guitar folk hero (from the video, I just feel he is a bit of a guitar fiend…) Paul Curreri.  Curreri is on a tour in the UK promoting his new album “California” which is available from Tin Angel Records (here).  Enjoy a bit of “Shed action” below:

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Email Inbox:

• Something that I am VERY excited about is the new EP from Small Sur.  This one is sooo good.  It is called “Bare Black” and will be released on July 12th via Aural State Recordings (here).  I have loved Small Sur (Bob Keal and co.) for a while – his self titled album from 2006 and “We Live In Houses Made of Wood” from 2008 still get regular rotation and come very highly recommended.  How about a new track from this feat of an EP?  Okay:  “Weeds” – Small Sur
• So JBM (Jesse Marchant) is finally releasing his “Not Even In July” album which comes highly recommended for those sad bastards out there like myself.  It is beautiful, sombre and worth your time.  The lead off track is included below and look for a full album release on July 27th.   “Cleo’s Song” – JBM

The “While I Was Typing This” Section:

• Tart at Love Shack, Baby put a nice instrumental track from eagleowl up today from their new EP “Into The Fold” – see it HERE.
• Frontloader put a classic track (for me at least) from PJ Harvey in acoustic form.  ACOUSTIC!  Visit for a great download of  “Down By The Water” HERE.

Blog post of the week by someone other than Slowcoustic (a la Knox Road’s “pick of the week”):

• HearYa put a devastatingly good session of Jill Andrews (see how I brought Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews in the same post…see what I did there?).  Wow, I think I played this session continuously at work as soon as it went up!  Find the videos and full MP3 download HERE.

That is all I have for now…enjoy the weekend!

~Smansmith