XPN’s New Music Show is Back Tonight! Tune in for Ryan Adams, Tift Merritt & more!
One of the only downsides to the XPN A to Z was that we weren’t able to showcase much new music. Since the last time we convened on Monday Nights there have been a number of new offerings from some of our favorite artists. Philly’s own Strand of Oaks debuted the first song from their upcoming album Hard Love. Keane frontman Tom Chaplin is about to release his very first solo album and made a new song available. And to our surprise Son Volt announced a brand new album along with the tune “Back Against the Wall” ( …and it is classic Son Volt!). And that’s not all. We’ll hear from each of the aforementioned on our New Music Show tonight at 8pm, plus …
RYAN ADAMS “Do You Still Love Me?”
Sometimes it’s difficult to harness my Ryan Adams fandom. As far as musicians go, he’s as dependable as they come; a prolific songwriter that never seems to be out of ideas or out of touch. Ryan just announced the new album Prisoner, which comes out on February 17th. It is preceded by the first single, a yearning rocker called “Do You Still Love Me?”.
TIFT MERRITT “Dusty Old Man”
When someone says that they’re “pleasantly surprised” by a new song it usually indicates that their expectations may have been low to begin with. To be clear, that is NOT the case with this new song from Tift Merritt. In fact, I’ve been a fan of Tift for a long while. Bramble Rose was a great debut and I adored the Tambourine. And there’s been lots of good since then too, but if “Dusty Old Man” is any indication of what’s to come we should all be very optimistic. It’s bluesy, it’s rootsy, and it’s easy to liken it to, say, early Bonnie Raitt. Plus, Tift is joined by some great players like Marc Ribot on guitar and Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) on background vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0TCeiczYM
FIRST IMPRESSION: LEIF VOLLEBEKK
We’re issuing a “Goosebumps Alert” before you listen to our First Impression artist this week. Leif Vollebekk is a musician from Montreal. He brings an intimacy to his new album Twin Solitude that is nothing short of stunning. He is far from your typical singer-songwriter and songs like “Elegy” help to separate him from the pack. Just like Nick Drake or David Gray (two of the easier comparisons) have that innate ability to make you hold on to their words, Leif does too.
And you can keep up with all the new music we spin with our XPN Best New Music Spotify playlist – just subscribe here: