K.Flay - This Baby Don't Cry

Flashback to 2011 and I got to meet the coolest rapper I'd ever gotten to see live. Opening for The Sounds and The Limousines in Cincinnati, I had the opportunity to talk to K.Flay after one of the most dynamic sets ever. This woman commanded the room and absolutely brought the energy up so high in the venue it was bananas. This was before "Blood in the Cut" and "Champagne" . This was back when she was much more indie and less of a household name. She was raw and honest and those are qualities that have never changed about her. She doesn't make music for anyone else but herself. Back in the day, I said about her:

"As an independent MC, I think she has more to prove that mainstream rappers because she doesn't have a production team writing for her and as an artist, I can see how that would be challenging.  What you don't see on paper though, is that this girl is bad.  She has breath control and can flow for days.  I don't know how many syllables she can spit per minute but she is on it.  Her voice has this raspy-ness to it that is punctuated with these stops that just enhance the her whole feel.  I want to put her in the same category as other independent MCs like Theophilus London and Matisyahu because I think that's where she deserves to be."

My opinion hasn't changed and if anything, my appreciation for her has only grown. I think she's brilliant. I think she's fearless and she not only marches to the beat of her own drum but she's sampled it, looped it and made her own gosh damn remix. I think she's brilliant and there's not been a track she's released that I didn't immediately love.

So let's talk about "This Baby Don't Cry", her latest single that's snatching wigs all over the internet. She's created a song about self love and treating yourself with the utmost respect because you deserve it and you are amazing just as you are on. She talks about all the thoughts and feelings that keep us up at night with self doubt and questioning our worth until the day you realize you don't need to be wrapped up in all that and that you should just be yourself and fuck everyone that doesn't get you. You don't have anything to prove to anyone but yourself. You don't have to put up with the bullshit and the garbage that pollutes your world and once you fully realize yourself and who you are, life is amazing.

Eli Lieb - Sober (Demi Lovato cover)

One of my all time favorite voices in music belongs to Eli Lieb. I love the emotion he conveys. I love the rasp in his voice and I think he's just a brilliant artist. His cover is similar to Demi Lovato's original and I think that the nature of this song has to not have too much changed to it as it would muddy the message. I don't know if this is autobiographical on Demi's part but it's a powerful song that's going to touch a lot of people. I feel there are a ton of people struggling with addiction that can empathize with this song regardless of whether it's Eli or Demi singing.

In Eli's video, he's singing and playing the piano while his boyfriend dances to the song and it's beautiful. Both sides of the performance, the audio and the visual and I think it's great that we get to see both aspects of this song being brought together. I really enjoy hearing the passion that Eli evokes in his vocals. Always have been fan and I always will be. Don't have much to say about this because I think it speaks for itself. Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Cloe Wilder - Overthinking

Mental health in music is something near and dear to me as one of the most important aspects of music is how the artist is able to connect with their fans and the greater populace by expressing thoughts and emotions in a digestible manner. There's a whole movement where artists are being much more open about their motivations behind music and they're sharing their journeys through the landscape of mental illness and self discovery. This isn't anything relatively new as it is receiving more publicity and the messages are being disseminated much easier due to music being available online and not just through terrestrial radio stations. So when a new artists comes along with an idea of who they are and what they want to represent, it's a breath of fresh as we get to hear new perspectives and standpoints in music.

With artists like Halsey, Lana, and Billie Eilish leading the charge into a much more emotionally fueled sphere of music, Florida based artist Cloe Wilder has a path being forged ahead of her that allows her the space to offer her brand of emotive music to the masses. Being heralded as a champion of accepting who you are and your own journey through your mind and mental health, Cloe offers her ideas on where she's been and her own experiences. With her new single, "Overthinking" she talks about something that more than one of us has done on a very regular basis. You spin a problem on it's axis over and over and over until you've run it into the ground and then you do it all over again. You come at it from different angles and you attempt to attack it over and over but you still get the same result. It causes sleepless nights and it creates havoc and chaos in our minds and we spend so much time not only beating up the problem but ourselves as well. More often than not, if we just step back from the problem and come back to it with fresh eyes, it isn't so daunting after all but we just get so wrapped up in the fight that we can't seem to disengage.

You take a concept that's as large as this type of struggle and you wonder how you're going to be able to distill it into a 4 minute pop song and it can be a daunting task as well; but with the capable songwriting skills of this young artist, it doesn't seem to be too difficult. Her lyrics and delivery are mercurial and they just slip and slide along the backing track. This is like an audio version of the lazy river where you just climb in and close your eyes and float along the soundscape she's creating. The track has a languid, easy feel to it that has an amazingly calming influence that while her lyrics are filled with anxious overtones - it all just sweeps you up and nestles you softly into a space where you can actually clear your head for a few minutes. I think this type of story telling and this ability she has lyrically and vocally to be able to guide the listener in this manner isn't something that can be taught. Cloe has a talent that shouldn't be taken for granted and I think that if she gets paired with the right producers, she'll be a household name just like Billie.

I am anxiously waiting to hear where she goes from here. I hope to see her work with some amazing people that show her that she'll be able to be much more than just the "sad girl" and I hope that her marketing/PR team see that as a box she should be climbing on top of to reach the next level instead of one they're trapping her in. Emotive music has been around forever and while it's amazing to have aspects of that in your tool belt, it shouldn't be all that you are. If you look at any of the outstandingly successful bands in history, especially through the New Romantic era of the 1980s, emotions fuel discussion but there has to be so much more than that otherwise you simply become a one note artist and that does no one any favors. She's got an incredible voice and if her songwriting skills are as impressive as I think they are, she's got a bright career ahead of her.

Make sure you give her some love on her socials and you subscribe to her YouTube for more content. I do believe she has the ability to become someone we'll go...Damn, I knew her when....

You can get "Overthinking" here ---> http://smarturl.it/cloeoverthinking

Cloe Wilder on the Web

Snow Ghosts - Heavy Heart

There's atmospheric and there's ethereal....then there's Hannah Cartwright. She appears to be able to float effortlessly in a plane high above the rest of us where she's channeling an amazing amount of power through her body. I haven't been moved by vocals like these since I fell in love with another Hannah, Hannah Reid of London Grammar. There's something so special about Hannah Cartwright's voice that reaches out into the void and pulls a familiar pain and ephemeral angst from the universe which she's able to deliver in an easily digestible manner and it resonates deeply within you because you've stared into the darkness with her. I don't feel like I'd want anyone on that journey with me other than her. She's just so evocative and expressive and I don't think I've really heard anyone with a voice as big as hers in a very long time. Her control is immaculate and she doesn't waste a breath.

"Heavy Heart" is one of Snow Ghost's latest singles taken off their upcoming release, A Quiet Ritual and I can't fully express just how this song has affected me. It's massive. It's an experience and I think that it's going to affect people in many different ways. I think it's going to be exactly what you need it to be when you need it. It think that you're going to pull from your own experience and this song will touch you more deeply than just a pop tune. There's a resonance to this that stays with you. Haunting and deep, it's going to be a more profound experience than most people are going to expect on first go round. It's one of those songs that is very amorphous in how you hear it. Each play through I've heard something different. Whether it's the production or the hollow loneliness in Hannah's voice or it's how the synth bends and moves to carry her voice to you; this song is beautifully and artfully crafted.

I love how art has the ability to illicit a visceral reaction from the viewer/listener. I love how music can get inside you and become so personal that each person hears something different. I love how these artists can play upon everything you are and bring you along with them on this experience. In my life time, I've honestly had 2 "religious" experiences in conjunction with music but I have a deep seated feeling that if I had the opportunity to experience Snow Ghosts live that number would increase.

This album was recorded in a castle in Wiltshire and spent two years in the making. "A Quiet Ritual is written for an ensemble of classical and modern instruments including the carnyx, an Iron Age Celtic boar-headed horn excavated from a bog in Deskford, Scotland. This mix of instruments is indicative of the theme of timelessness common to this album and their previous work."

Christian Lee Hutson - Northsiders

Jesus Christ man.... Getting back into writing has been a flood of emotions and getting to reconnect sonically with old friends has been the absolute best part of this journey. One of the greatest and most bad ass mother fuckers I've ever gotten a chance to see live and interact with is Christian Lee Hutson. I met him back in 2014 at the Communion tour and began to follow his music and his career and fell in love with his raw emotional honesty and absolute outlaw attitude about his music. He creates music that matters to him and does his own thing and that's how he connects with his audience. He is exactly what the world needs in an artist. He's cataloging his life and experiences through music and it's pure and it's honest and it's good. I missed hearing him and I'm so damn glad I've gotten a chance to bring him back into my life.

He's got a new single and new video called "Northsiders" and I can honestly tell you that I'm a wreck after listening to it. This is exactly how important music is. The story he's telling and the imagery he's creating is amazing and beautiful and leaves you with a visceral emotional response because you know where he's been. You know what he's seen and it's similar to an experience you've had. It's a song about missed opportunities and new loves and building those connections with people and it touches all those places where you immediately start reflecting on your own experiences and you think about your youth and those times when you were new and you thought you were invincible.

I adore this man and his voice and just how it's all done his own terms and just how punk he really is. No apologies. No disclaimers. He's telling his stories and he's blazing his own path and he's glad to have you along for the ride if you want to be part of it. I am in awe, especially considering that I got to spend a bit of time with him way back when and get to know him a bit. Seeing him share space with artists like Sturgill Simpson and The Shadowboxers and create art alongside them was an incredible experience that I'll always cherish. I think I may have bought him a beer and if I didn't I damn sure owe him at least a six pack for all his passion and his unadulterated soul baring he's done over the years. If he hasn't been invited to do NPR's Tiny Desk then they don't know what they're missing and they need to get on that ASAP.

Son of Cabe - Lynwood

We mull things over and over. We obsess over mistakes we've made and we torture ourselves for missed opportunities; especially opportunities to make things right. In the new single, "Lynwood" by UK based artist, Son of Cabe, these thoughts and ideas are explored. Not having the ability to apologize after a grievance is done is honestly one of the worst pains you can feel as you're going to roll it over and over again and you're going to beat yourself up. Son of Cabe says about the song,

“Lynwood’s about trying to say sorry when you can't and the guilt that follows. I messed up and didn’t get the chance to say sorry for something that happened. The song came together after months of reflecting on this and feeling worse and worse about it. I wrote the song as if it was the end of the world which is how it felt for a long time to me”.



I think we spend so much time in our heads when we've made the decision that we've disappointed someone else or ourselves that it's amazingly easy to get trapped in the prison of our own making. To have those feelings presented in a song in a manner that you can relate to is a true talent of a songwriter and he has done an outstanding job of building something that he should be proud of in this track. The synth is great. The percussion is exactly where it needs to be and it drives the song just as it should. I think this is a testament to the home grown producer as it shows that while it's true anyone can make music with the right equipment, it takes talent and skill to make good music and this is better than just good. I like how personal this song is to him because while he's baring his soul to us, it's enabling us to draw closer to him as an artist. I love his vocals and I love how not of all of his accent is normalized while he's singing because that gives him an edge over a lot of other artists that just sound homogeneous. I like how he switches between singing and rapping in the song, again, it adds another level to the song that gives it much more bite.

Much like other artists I feature, I think he's got a lot to offer and I can't wait to hear more from him.