Destry

For today's feature I have to give credit to the amazing iPad app BandADay, readers with an iPad should really give it a try! Last week I stumbled upon the folkpop duo Destry. Destry consists of Michelle DaRosa and Tyler Odom, who have known each other for the better part of ten years but it’s only been in the last two years that they have gone from friends to band mates. Both of them experienced success in previous musical acts, Straylight Run and Northstar/Cassino respectively, but their time together in Destry has brought them in a different direction. Old fans and new were introduced to the project with their debut release “It Goes On” in late 2009. The duo believes it is their new record that will showcase their musical direction and capabilities with Destry. The songs are dreamy, upbeat, 60’s pop beauties that are equal parts charming and engaging. If “It Goes On” was an introduction, the upcoming release "Waiting On An Island" will be a band-defining album of work that will allow Destry to stand on it’s own.

@ Boston, USA

♫ Indie, Folk, Pop

♥ This Island (mp3)

♥ Don't Break My Heart (mp3)

▸ Facebook

▸ Official Website

+ Full Album Stream

Free Music: Jenny & Tyler

Jenny and her husband Tyler met at the University of Delaware. They met in a bus on their way to church. They started leading worship together and from there began writing songs and eating omelets on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. They spent the first year singing together in the stairwells of the student center. The acoustics were incredible. Sometime that fall they started dating and well, as they say, the rest is history. They are really different, but those differences are part of what make us a great team. Tyler pushes me Jenny to try new things and Jenny keeps him somewhat grounded. Their different musical backgrounds inspire us to create new music. If it weren’t for Tyler, Jenny probably would be writing cheesy country songs and Tyler’d be a virtual Jack Johnson impersonator. In 2007, they released a record called A Prelude. an album with songs that were really just the beginning of what they were to become as a duo. In 2008, they moved to Nashville. In 2009, they quit their day jobs and released This Isn’t a Dream. That spring, they toured for the first time. They traveled consistently for the next year, playing in houses, coffee shops, churches, colleges, and bars. Met all sorts of interesting people, some of whom now feel like extended family, and learned a lot about ourselves. This past summer, they decided it was time to make another record. Gathered a group of songs and went into the studio (aka our friends’ closets, living rooms, and basements). They're really happy with the result. Faint Not chronicles our journey. "As writers, songs allow us to communicate experiences and truths when we can’t find the words to speak them. Our hope is that the songs will resonate with you. We don’t know what the future holds, but we’re thankful for where we are today. Definitely be sure to try out their FREE album!

@ Nashville, USA

♫ Folk, Rock, Pop

♥ Song For You (mp3)

▸ Facebook

▸ Official Website

+ FREE album

+ Spotify

Elenowen

Sorry for the lack of updates on here, but I was in the hospital last weekend for appendicitis so had to get rest this week to recover from the surgery.

There is so much music every I encounter every day that unfortunately sometimes artists go unnoticed until you find them again later. The same happened with today's featured folk-pop duo Elenowen. Quite a while ago I stumbled upon their music somewhere on the net, I actually saved their debut album cover in my "to listen" folder, but I wasn't until today when I saw them perform The Swell Season's "Falling Slowly" on The Voice (which was very succesful here in Holland) that I remembered why I needed to check out their music. Hailing from Nashville, TN, Josh and Nicole pursued individual careers before forming the folk/pop Elenowen duo that sings through the journeys of everyday life and the many battles it brings. After about a year of living from paycheck to paycheck working at the same local coffee shop, Josh and Nicole started pursuing their dream by creating their debut album, Pulling Back the Veil which was released January 2010. On Pulling Back the Veil Elenowen showcase their talents with eight songs filled with beautiful harmonies and honest lyrics. Go get it on iTunes or CD Baby.

@ Nashville, USA

♫ Acoustic, Folk, Pop
♥ Falling Slowly (mp3)

♥ Cripple Me (mp3)

▸ Myspace

▸ Official Website

Agápē Rose

The by Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, The Innocence Mission inspired Agápē( pronounced ah-gah-pay) Rose began as the recording project of Justin (songwriter, vocals and guitar) and Lindsay (lead vocals) Dallriva. They recorded their first songs in spring 2007 in Hattiesburg, MS. In 2009 the band's song "Scars Like Medals", from those first home recordings, appeared in a new feature film from in Denmark called Vanvittig Forelsket(Love and Rage). The song was later nominated for Song of the Year at the 2010 Robert Awards in Denmark. They have plans to release new music in 2010 from recording sessions in Nashville, TN this year.

@ Hattiesburg, USA
♫ Indie, Folk, Pop
♥ Scars Like Medals (mp3)
▸ Myspace

Vonder & Bloom

Sometimes the best things in life happen when you don't expect it. Three years ago Nina Ebbenhout (31) and Caroline Ouwendijk (27) sat in the same Amsterdam tram on their way to a singer-songwriters contest where they both were enrolled. They talked and the immediately felt connected. Already in the locker room before the contest, they heard that their voices blended together perfectly. And in the months afterwards Nina (piano, classically trained at the Utrecht Conservatory) and Caroline (guitar, Americanists, a lawyer and musically self-taught) noticed what they added to their individual songs: magic. Vonder & Bloom, which means “a bridge to growth” was born. The first year they wrote songs and performed as a duo many times, months which made them grow as duo and discover their own sound. When their amazing debut album “Simple Peace of Mind” now in stores everywhere, was finished before last summer, they decided to tour the Netherlands in a bus, for five months singing their briljant first single “Brilliance Of You” to everyone they met on their way. Not without merit, as they signed with Pias Records this February. Their amazing debut album “Simple Peace Of Mind” was released late March and features twelve subdued intimate tracks full of beautiful harmonies that will only need a few seconds to convince you to see that these girls together indeed are a bridge to growth, the growth of something that’s massive already.

@ Amsterdam, NL
♫ Acoustic, Folk, Pop
♥ Early Morninglight (mp3)
♥ Brilliance of You (mp3)
▸ Myspace
▸ Official Website