Highway Queens

3 weeks ago | highwayqueens.com | Michelle Lindsey

Produced by the wonderful M Ward, this new album Owls, Omens & Oracles by Valerie June continues her expansive, original musical journey. Blending a distinctive voice with a wide-eyed joyful, hippy take on life there just isn’t another artist out there doing this kind of slightly mystical, off-beat musical style. Opening with the transcendent ‘Joy! Joy!’ she sets the tone for the whole record, with an uplifting call to find the ‘joy joy in your soul’.

1 month ago | highwayqueens.com | Michelle Lindsey |Lola Kirke

After releasing a fantastic EP called ‘Country Curious’ last year, Lola Kirke followed that up with a book of personal essays called ‘Wild West Village’ which explored her upbringing and life in a bohemian family. By moving to Nashville and leaning towards country music she’s been walking a different path than might be expected from your typical artsy New Yorker. “I don’t want to fit in anymore,” she said in a recent interview.

1 month ago | highwayqueens.com | Michelle Lindsey

After bringing Tanya Tucker and Joni Mitchell back from the dead, Brandi Carlile has done it again. This time she has revived Elton John, who after a triumphant Glastonbury had declared himself exhausted and retired (from touring anyway). Here with Brandi’s help, he sings using every ounce of what voice he has left and sounds like a man reborn. But this isn’t an Elton John album produced by Brandi Carlile.

1 month ago | highwayqueens.com | Michelle Lindsey

I’m always looking for great new soul albums and was delighted to find this recent release from Scotland’s Brooke Combe. Recorded mainly live and produced by James Skelly of the Coral, there’s something quite special about ‘Dancing at the Edge of the World.’Beginning with ‘This Town’ she takes to the city streets, dancing, getting free of the rules and the small town she’s from, sounding like she’s world weary and yet carefree at the same time.

2 months ago | highwayqueens.com | Michelle Lindsey

The word melancholy originated as a way to describe a state of deep sadness and introspection, where despair lives for no particular reason at all – such a place where poets and artists have long enjoyed living. Singer Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, found the title of her new album ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) in a short story by John Cheever, and thought the tongue in cheek humour of the idea was appealing.