Since I usually read promo emails on my phone just because I hate having unread mail (the OCD in me, I know), I usually end up listening to a bunch of the tunes at once, rather than one at a time when I get them. And today, it just so happened that the first few were all a little bit folky, and all a lot good. Plus, we’ve been skewing way electronic lately. So since all of you party people are probably hung over anyway, I thought it might not be bad to give you some (well, three to be exact) good songs that you likely have never heard from artists you have likely never heard of. Disclaimer – some are folkier than others, and I am not trying to pigeonhole any of these artists into a genre (although I think quasi-folk is general enough not to do this). It’s just some songs that I think all have a similar emotion about them and I didn’t know what else to call it. So don’t take my eye-catching headline too literally.

First up, we’ve got “Settler’s Song” by Uncles out of Queens. Dan Bateman and Will Schwartz grew up together in Yonkers and have been playing music together for quite some time and have released their first album, “Replacing Words with Other Words.” Now, to be completely honest, when this song began and I heard the first few seconds, I thought in my head, “There is pretty much no way I’m going to like this song.” But I kept listening, and the song just got better and better. And then I listened to it again, and then once more just for good measure. So basically, make sure you give it a full listen. My only super super nitpicky gripe is that I wish the vocals weren’t mixed so loudly over the music. But I probably only even said that because I’m bored. This is perhaps the “folkiest” of the today’s tunes, but like I said, that doesn’t necessarily make Uncles a “folk band”.

Uncles – Settler’s Song

Next up is Penny Hill, born Hilary Pitchlynn, from Norman, Oklahoma. She never really had any interest in performing her songs, but a few local musicians heard her stuff and convinced her otherwise a few years back. Her first release “Unbutton Your Heart” is now available, and she’s touring all over the place, so catch her if you can. This song “Salem”, well, I don’t really know what to say about it, but I really really like it. And it’s another one that seems to get better and better as it goes along. Again, not sure how much this qualifies as “folk”, but it’s definitely got that musical feeling that I associate with folk.

Penny Hill – Salem

And last but not least, a band that I almost wrote off just because I really wasn’t feeling their name, it’s the UK’s very own Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam, and as their email says, yes, that’s really their name. While I’m not sure how I feel about that, I’m pretty glad that I looked past that and listened to their tune “Choices”. It’s another one that just builds up and ends out with really really nice instrumentation. Clarinets, horns, bells, anything is fair game, and it all comes to a point perfectly. Their “Tim and Sam” LP is being released this May.

Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam – Choices

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quasi-folk explosion on this most hungover Thursday of the year. And thanks to our friend The Music Ninja, for thanks to him, when you do an image search for “folk explosion”, you will now get an image of a folk explosion.