Joey Molinaro – Tale of the Lovelorn Outlaw

My previous encounter with Joey‘s music was with his Awash album, which was a really interesting mix of hardcore or metal music firmly rooted in folk. The Tale of the Lovelorn Outlaw stays within this realm, but seems slightly less experimental to my ears, given Joey’s cleaner vocal performance in general. It’s truly an amazing spin on modern folk music, and, being a concept EP, there’s a strong sense of continuity throughout, which helps keep all the individual songs together. We need more of this to reinvigorate folk music.

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Patchwork Jazz Orchestra – The Adventures of Mr. Pottercakes (Spark Label)

The London-based seventeen-piece big band Patchwork recently released their debut album, The Adventures of Mr. Pottercakes, via the lovely Spark Label. The compositions here are lush and broad in styles, thanks to the seven composers behind them and the musicianship of the performers in this great jazz orchestra. The songs are at times romantic, at times evocative, impressionist, or abstract. Listening to this is pure pleasure, for its varied and well-groomed influences and stylistic choices. Plus, at over an hour of material, you’ve got quite enough to get … Read more