Last month I played you a selection of five songs which were on recently released albums, and I said then that I had several more that I could play you, so here we are again with Part Two. There is nothing in common between these, no linking theme, I just like them and all of the performers.

In the current fashion, several tracks from the album that includes my first choice have been shared in the past couple of months, but the actual album is hot off the press: it is released today. I’ve played the band before, and really like them. They are Old Crow Medicine Show, and their new album is called Jubilee. Here is one of its tracks:

I love the way OCMS build that song, from the starting point of One Drop until it takes in the whole universe. It is a good message, and one which feels very relevant in our current troubled times. If only we all took time to stop, think, and feel.

I’ve not played anything by this next band before, and it feels long overdue for me that I should as I have been following their career for several years now. The band is Morganway, and this is a track from their second album, Back To Zero, which was released in May:

Morganway are, as you can see, a six-piece band. They come from the East of England – around Cambridge, I think – and have developed a sound which has been compared to Fleetwood Mac, amongst others. They get pigeonholed into a country/Americana box, though I think they have many more elements to their music, of which The Man is a good example. The video takes in several clips from their recent tour, and they are now actively engaged in the summer festivals scene, playing dates in various locations across the next few months. This year, for the first time, they played at Fairport Convention’s annual Cropredy Festival, to a crowd of 20,000, and by all accounts they absolutely smashed it. I think you may well be hearing more of them: they have Whispering Bob (Harris) on their side, which is no bad thing at all.

I’ve said before how much I like the beautiful, laid back music of the Cowboy Junkies, and as they have recently released a new album I wouldn’t miss the chance to play a track from it. This is a studio performance by just Margo and Michael Timmins, but it really brings out the delicate nature of the song:

The song is called Shadows 2, and the album, which was released in June, is titled Such Ferocious Beauty. Like everything they have ever done it is lovely, and is a great way to wind down if you are feeling stressed out (not that I often do these days, but you know what I mean!). In case you were wondering why Margo was using a songbook, this was taped in June 2021, when the song was newly written, and it has taken until this year for the recorded version to appear.

Cowboy Junkies come from Canada, as do this next band. These guys have a special place in my heart, as I have written about before, and it is great to get a new album from them. Here is one of my favourite tracks from it:

Great Lake Swimmers have been around since 2003 but this is only their eighth album in that time, coming five years after the previous release. They have been through many changes of line up, and the one mainstay is their founder and leader, Tony Dekker, whose vocals you can hear on When The Storm Has Passed. The album from which it comes is Uncertain Country, released in April of this year. I mentioned that GLS have a special place in my heart: rather than repeat myself, if you’d like to know why you can read one of my previous posts about them here. I still love them!

One final one for today and I’m closing as I began, with a song which has a message we all need to hear. If you have followed my blog for any time you’ll know that I am a big fan of Yusuf/Cat Stevens. He released a new album in June, and this lovely animated video of one of its tracks was premiered three weeks ago:

Another Night In The Rain is on the album King of a Land, and while it may not be right up there with his very best it shows that he is still more than capable of making good music, with meaningful lyrics, more than fifty years since his first record: I found it to be pleasant listening. It charted briefly, reaching a high of #49 in the UK.

That’s all for today. I guess this selection shows that I have been listening to a lot of mellow music of late, and I hope that you enjoyed them and that they leave you feeling suitably relaxed. I’ll see you again on Sunday. Take care 😊