Originally posted May 27, 2022

I have been writing this blog for over ten years now and I can’t possibly think of how many times I have expressed what an absolute whore for tasty vocals I am. I love vocals. I grew up on folkie singer songwriters and blossomed into an absolute nerd for vocal heavy music as I aged. I love hearing someone tell me a story. I love hearing someone explain their joy, heartache, or just absolute confusion to me with their voice. My funky bassist husband and I constantly discuss his love for instrumental albums and songs and how it just doesn’t hold the same appeal for me as it does him. I need vocals. I love vocals. I crave the emotion that comes from a voice. It’s just what moves me.

Do you agree?

If you do, I have something absolutely delicious for you to check out.

There is this wonderful collaboration of musicians who love music and specifically vocal driven music called Western Skies. The band derived its name from a song they wrote that had a feel of that very thing which encompasses so much of this band to me – FEEL. Legend has it they were validated in this choice of name later when watching a documentary on Crosby, Stills, and Nash and heard Jimi Hendrix describe their sound as “Western Sky Music“. That sounds positively perfect.

Comprised of Singer-songwriter Stephen Bard, musician-vocalist Dan Rappaport, vocalist Natasha DiMarco, and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Liatsis, Western Skies brings forth a beautiful blend of guitars and vocals that create a uniquely soul-forward sound. It has a purity and cleanliness in its feel while putting out a very BIG emotionally charged display of talent and understanding for sound. It’s the kind of sound that transports you and I am so excited for you all to hear it.

The debut album from this spectacular group is called Awake in a Dream. It’s gorgeous and grabs you on your insides in all those wonderful ways that music can. The track that kicks off the album is called “Always Another Song” and if you dig vocal heavy songs, you will be hooked immediately. The harmonies here are beautiful and they absolutely soar. There is undeniably clear influence from other harmony heavy artists like Crosby, Stills, and Nash present in this song and that feel just carries. It’s not just the vocals either. The song itself is beautifully crafted and the incredible guitar work of Liatsis is present throughout. The next track that really blew my hair back was “Hardest Pill” for its back and forth, push and pull feel. It’s got such a traditional, classic rock n roll feel but the harmonies laid over top of that groove create a really tasty glaze that adds to the head bobbing, body moving groove. I can’t listen to this song and not move with it. There is a really great variety of tastes that went into writing this record and it’s evident by how no two songs seem to carry you to the same space.

But wait, there’s more.

Skip forward to “The Ocean Stays the Same” and feel your heart tugged with sumptuous and broodingly distant vocals that ebb and flow like the waves of the ocean itself. Natasha’s voice comes in slightly bolder than her male counterparts and creates the most ethereal feel as she harmonizes with them. I am completely transported, carried to the sea and deep within my own soul just listening to this song. I am not exaggerating when I say this is pure magic and I am transfixed. It’s been on repeat this morning and I can’t turn it off. Did you ever land on a song that seems to climb inside of you and pluck at the very strings of something you are going through? This is me with this song right now and I am soaring with it. I mean it – magic.

I am also a fan of “Beautiful Things“. It has this carefree feel while still carrying a deeper tactility. This song feels like the middle of summer, driving on a back road in the sun before noon. It has a feel of hopefulness even without hearing what the words are saying. I think the most remarkable thing about the way these songs are written is that they carry such a tangibility to their emotions even before you hear the words. These four songwriters have a gift and I am here to receive it. This track is a fantastic example of that. I am a big fan of this “western sky music” and all of the wonderful places it takes you in your soul, in your mind, and otherwise. I sincerely hope this is not the last record we get from these incredibly talented humans.

You can check out the debut record from Western Skies, Awake In A Dream, on all major streaming platforms. I think it will be spectacular to be able to catch this band doing these incredible songs live and we will all have that opportunity at NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall in June 10th. You can check out tickets for that event here: https://www.seetickets.us/event/Western-Skies/480178

To get more information on Western Skies, please check out their Linktree here: https://linktr.ee/westernskies

Originally posted June 8, 2022

When the pandemic hit a few years ago and we all retreated into our homes, music went from being out in the venues to streaming from living rooms and home studios. I won’t lie, I kind of enjoyed it. Not only did I get to watch shows in my comfiest of attire all the time, I got to peer into people’s homes and hear music that was sometimes coming right out of their head. It was a unique time for music and while it was not financially ideal, it was this weird quilt of creativity and kinship that was blanketing people who lived and breathed the music from their souls. No longer was it beyond arm’s length for regular fans. It was in our homes and at times felt like it was speaking just to us. I know it was hard, but from the hardship came this thing that I don’t think I will forget.

One of my favorite living room performers from that strange and scary time was Peak’s Jeremy Hilliard. We would often be treated to acoustic covers and originals with vocal accompaniment and dance flair from his wife Beth and occasional hooked cat tail running across the screen. It was interactive and fun and about as social as we were really able to be at that time. The last show we went to in person before the world shut down was Peak so to us, it was fitting that we spent that down time with Jeremy. Since then, he has released quite a few of his solo work and I have had the pleasure of featuring a bit of it here on the blog. I am beyond delighted to recommend you all head on over to Soundcloud or YouTube and check out his latest collection titled Been To All the 50 States.

The record is wonderful singer-songwriter stuff full of great songs. The tracks as a whole carry a wonderful Americana feel with strong folk influence and peppered with flavors from all over the map. The song “Property Lines” for example has a vibe of throwback alt-rock. Something about the guitar tone and the way Jeremy and Beth use their voices to play off one another in the chorus reminds me of alternative radio in the 90’s. And that is a good thing. It’s such a cool track. I also dig on “I Ain’t Afraid of a Little Dyin’”and it’s really steady-stepping folk vibe. This is the kind of song you could envision walking down a backroad, singing and stepping in time with. I am someone who is often caught wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words LISTEN TO WOODY GUTHRIE so throwing something like this song at me is like throwing a steak at a hungry lion. I love this song and the way that the sunny but determined mood just permeates everything as it moves along. I have listened to this song so many times that I pretty much know the words and I can’t stop singing along. It is kind of resonating with me in a weird way that I have not quite tacked down yet, but music is like that. I have said it before and I will say it again. Sometimes you hear a song when you most need to and it just GETS you. It’s been days. I can’t stop listening to this.

Kick on over to the title track on this collection, “Been To All the 50 States” and feel the folk vibes just seep into your soul. The song is so simple in its construction but the guitar work is so beautiful. Combined with the lyrics and the way it is sung, it creates the perfect little summer backyard soundtrack song. It just has that feel. This ambiance created with simple components but complex meanings is everything I love about a song. I have to give some big props to Jeremy’s wife Beth on her vocal backups on this record because she is the perfect vocal contrast to Jeremy’s voice. On this track in particular, it changes the whole feel and fills it out. So amazing! “The Great White Whale” is another direction for this collection of songs. It’s carrying that Americana feel and injecting it with an almost John Denver sort of thing with its energy and tempo. Not sure if that was the intention, but I was raised on my mom’s devout love for Mr. Denver and it’s in my head for life. This track just rang that bell high and proud. I absolutely love it.

All in all, Been To All the 50 States is a wonderful collection of songs and feels and I am absolutely stuck on it right now. It’s summer now and where we live, everything feels like a journey to the festival fields on a nice day. This record carries that ambiance with it from track to track. It’s not to say that this is a one trick pony kind of album because it isn’t. The songs do not sound alike any more than the voices that carry them. They are all creatively written in different tones and feels that are absolutely pulled from deep within the soul to tell a story. The best thing about music to me is the way that it can tell you a story just with how it feels but when you add in great vocals and lyrics, that story just gets more and more vivid every time you listen. This is really an entire album of that concept. I can’t recommend enough that you give this collection a spin.

Honestly, this whole record would be an outstanding summer porch concert series somewhere up in our rural county and I am wondering if I can drag Jeremy and Beth out for that some day…

You can check out the album at SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/jeremy-hilliard-1/sets/been-to-all-the-50-states?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Or head on over to YouTube and give it a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69285VQQWFk

In either case, devour this incredible record. Feel and ENJOY!

You can also catch Jeremy’s band PEAK out on the road this summer and you absolutely should! They are probably the most fun live band out there in the scene right now. Don’t take my word for it though…