Late last month I shared a few tunes that I had recently found on YouTube, some new music that I was enjoying. I’ve done this previously, but not regularly, and as it was well received I thought I’d do it again with a selection from the month just coming to an end. There are some of my favourites here so I think it has been a lucky month for me – unlike last time no one is appearing for the first time though all of these are recently released videos – albeit that one is a bit of a cheat!

New music from this first band is always welcome for me:

That was Great Lake Swimmers with One More Dance Around The Sun. This video was published on 21 May, and the song has been released as a single. I can’t find any mention of a new album coming but they are currently playing dates in Canada and also have a short tour there planned for the autumn, so I live in hope! This is a typical GLS song – melodic, catchy and with Tony Dekker’s usual intelligent lyrics. It’s good to see a band that released its first album more than twenty years ago still in such good form.

Last time I played the first track to be released from the upcoming album by one of my absolute favourites, Mary Chapin Carpenter. Since then another of its tracks has been made available, and it is utterly gorgeous:

Home Is A Song is everything I love about CC’s music: she also writes intelligent and heartfelt lyrics, and wraps you in her lovely warm voice. The scenes in the video are all from in and around her home in Virginia: fans became familiar with this during the pandemic when she treated us to a series of Songs From Home, which also featured Angus and White Kitty, who you can see here. This is a duet with Anaïs Mitchell, who adds her own touch of class to it. The album is going to be called Personal History and will be released next week, on 6 June. I already have it pre-saved in my Apple Music library and as that day is my older granddaughter’s 7th birthday I think it is going to be a good day all round!

This next one is by a band who, until a couple of years ago, I thought had retired. But they came back with a live album in 2017, which they accompanied with a tour, and then released their first studio album in more than ten years in 2023. This new song was released on 9 May:

As you could see from the video the band of which I spoke was The Hooters, and that is Pendulum, their new song. It is another which has been dropped quietly into Apple Music and YouTube with very little fanfare: they describe it on their website as “a 45 for the 45th” – that is, it marks the 45th anniversary of the band’s foundation. To celebrate they are going out for their 45 Alive tour from late June through to early August. The dates are all in mainland Europe, almost entirely in Germany, though Greece, Switzerland and Sweden also get a brief look in too. So if you want to see them you’ll need to combine the shows with a holiday – unless, of course, you happen to live in one of those countries. Lucky you!

I said at the beginning that one of today’s tunes was a bit of a cheat. You may not think of this as recent, but the video is:

That video for one of my all time favourite songs, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Free Bird, was premiered on 23 May, and has already garnered more than 1.4m views in six days. To me, that kind of proves that you can’t keep a good song down! The song was originally released in August 1973 on their album Pronounced ‘Leh-‘Nérd ‘Skin-‘Nérd but the video has been newly made as part of what appear to be ongoing celebrations of the band’s fiftieth anniversary – a couple of years late! The song was released in a shorter version as a single in November 1974, and reached #19 in the US and #21 in the UK, going Platinum here. It takes me back to my uni days, when one of the Radio 1 DJs had a spot dedicated to long tracks (I think it gave him time for some ablutions) and this was requested often. It’s great to hear such a classic rock song again in all its glory, and the video is great too.

I have two more to play for you today, both by artists I really like and have played before, and they are both lovely gentle songs – I’m a sucker for a female singer-songwriter! The first of these is by my favourite (by a country mile) of the Cyrus family:

Noah Cyrus with her lovely video for I Saw The Mountains, which was recently released as a single ahead of its forthcoming inclusion on her second album – I gather there is one coming, but can’t find much about it. The song harks back to the feelings she experienced in 2016 when she lost her beloved horse, Constantine, to a tumour, though some have said that it is prompted by the more recent loss of a friend. Either way, you can really feel it with her, can’t you.

Todays closing tune is another new one, recently released as the title track of a new album:

That was I’m With Her, who from left to right are Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz. They have been together as a trio since 2014, though all have their own recording careers too – Sara first came to my notice a while before that as member of the fabulous band Nickel Creek, and they all have solo albums as well as their band recordings. I’ve played them before, notably with their wonderful cover of John Hiatt’s Crossing Muddy Waters, and their new album, Wild and Clear and Blue, was released on 9 May. It is a lovely record, beautifully played and sung, with their fabulous harmonies to the fore, and this song is typical of it. If you enjoyed this then you should try the album – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

So, that’s what I’ve been listening to this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed these, and please feel free to share your recent listening in the comments, as I find that a good way of picking up recommendations. Enjoy the rest of your week, and I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday. Take care 😊