Michelle Billingsley’s new single “Once in a While” is a sparse, gorgeous folk ballad—a duet with country & Western revivalist Wild Earp that sounds plucked straight from ’70s Nashville-outsider doc Heartworn Highways. As evidenced by this track, at her best, Billingsley channels Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark & John Prine as well as anyone working today.
Five years and three times zones later, Coma Girls, the folk/psych-rock project of Atlanta native Chris Spino, have announced their next major release. READ MORE…
The gat-toothed, Mojave Desert cowboy and cinematographer, Jerrold Ridenour, who promenades as King Nobody, is poised to release two new singles, “Three Birds” and “Long and Dusty Road.” Both will appear on his forthcoming EP, Space Cactus, on which cult hero Kool Keith will make a guest appearance, adding novelty bars to zest Ridenour’s tin can talk-speaking and signature cigar box guitar. Chasing stories by way of the absurd, King Nobody seeks to allegorize and proselytize the ego by proxy of his characters, strapping in with a giant, howling harmonica that springs from a lo-fi well, nested in Americana and psych folk, with a vocal timbre akin to Damon Albarn and temperament abreast of Les Claypool.
Jerrold Ridenour, also-known-as King Nobody, has truly captured the sound of the desert on new single ‘Three Birds’. The combination of cigar box guitar, a strong bass line and looping beats by Saul Good give the listener a sense of the unrelenting, intense heat and dusty atmosphere of that harshest of environments. Ridenour’s characterful, almost-spoken vocal contrasts brilliantly with the soaring voice of Sabrina Rose for a chorus that flies right up there with the birds of the song.
With a lot of arid footage, the video dovetails with the song’s intentions. When you’re hot and grimy on the road, the arid climate utterly invades your soul, and King Nobody has distilled this experience into a song. You can virtually taste the dust in the husky, fuzzy tones.