I'm not, though. I have WAY too much music for March to not post Canadians the rest of the year.
Emmanuelle Boucher is a country artist from Nashville.... oh, wait. She's not from Nashville. She's from Quebec, and does country music primarily in French. This song is off her latest album Ma route, and translates to "Better together".
Anyway, it's a lively, exciting country sound that will make you forget you're listening to country music in French.
In a couple of weeks, I'll be chronicling my favorite albums of 2025. I've been listening to a lot of them this year, and I have focused a lot on recent albums of late.
One that won't make the list is the latest album by the Fontaines D.C., Romance. That's not because the album isn't great - it is - but because it was released in 2024. I *almost* posted about this song before #AmericanAutumn, but decided against.
It's a shame. The Grammy-nominated song was also on a lot of year-end lists as single of the year - which makes sense. The album itself was also on a lot of those lists, and had we done such a list last year, we would have been one of those lists. It is retroactively one of my favorite albums of 2024.
I waited just as long as I could to post this.
By the way, the D.C. stands for Dublin City. The band is from near Dublin, Ireland, and added it as a disambiguation from a Los Angeles band - who seem to have not done much of anything for about five years. Fontaines D.C. are still making music, still being politically active (their music is not available in Israel as of this writing), and I look forward to what they do next.
The song itself starts quiet.... with organ, then piano, then drums.... then it explodes!
Look, the band is solid and every performance sounds just like the recording.
The performance from the Glastonbury festival in 2024 is perhaps the greatest crown engagement thus far.
I was VERY HESITANT to publish this. I almost posted this under an alternate title ("WE DESPISE THE BOURGEOISIE" which I figured out even before I heard it), but no. I had to censor the title. It's not a word we use politely in the United States. It's a little more casually tossed out in Australia and elsewhere.
And acclaimed Australian MUDRAT is absolutely from Australia, and he's got some RADICAL views. His album SOCIAL COHESION - which was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize - is in my conversation for favorite album of 2025. It's raw and angry, and a MUST listen.
So, I ultimately decided to post this. I may have fallen in the category of his white friends who might be initially scared by his rhetoric, but at the end of the day, I absolutely don't wish his silence. I want to amplify his voice.
In this song, he makes it very clear his views on Matt Walsh. I wonder if Matt Walsh has heard this song? I am totally going to tag him today.
During his presidency, Barack Obama was instrumental in introducing the Lifeline program, which supplied cell phones to low-income people, for free.
As it turns out, Destiny Nicole Frasqueri was eligible for a Nokia phone. So, as she was experimenting with names - Wavy Spice was an early contender - she chose the one that stuck as a tribute to her Obamaphone.
Maybe she had an app on that phone that helped her figure out how to create compelling, unique hip-hop... or maybe it's just talent and her tough upbringing. And, that tough upbringing has not come without controversy. However, it's made her a strong advocate against racism and sexism, and she not afraid to put her money where her mouth is. For example, if you watch this whole video, you'll see a racist get thrown off a train by a group of people. including a woman near the end throwing a bowl of
hot soup on him.
That soup belonged to Princess Nokia, and she's the one who threw it and told him to get off the train.
Good. She is a badass.
She released a new album in October, titled GIRLS, and it is fantastic, end to end. This song - an early single that has been out for several months - is one of the highlights of an overall excellent album.
I am really really happy that American Autumn is finally over. Not because I didn't love it, but because, while you were listening to my American music posts, I was discovering music from literally everywhere else.
Take Girl EDM superstar from Australia, Ninajiraci. Her stage name is a combination of her real name - which is Nina Wilson - and her favorite Pokémon - which is Jirachi.
Can't deny he's adorable
As I write this, I know that her debut album, I Love My Computer, is shortlisted for won the Australian Music Prize (think Mercury Prize but for Australia), and she also is nominated for eight ARIA Awards (think Junos, but for Australia), which is more than any other artist this year. By the time you read this, you're going to know if she won any of that (I predict at least 4 of the ARIAs and the AMP win for her, and I will honestly tell you if I got it right) (Update: she won 3 ARIAs and the AMP).
She's making compelling EDM with smart and fresh lyrics, and she's poised to be a worldwide superstar.
By the way, she's touring, and I hope we get better live footage of her by the time we actually publish, but for now, have a YouTube Short.
Even here, you can tell she brings a TON of energy.
This is a story of intrigue - of record label intrigue - of KOREAN record label intrigue.
On March 5, 2025, Alexaundra Christine Schneiderman - who had previously announce that she was going to do a re-debut in April - announced that she was going to be changing her stage name to Kim Se-Ri - and moving her social media accounts to @seriinade.
Two days later, ZB Label released this song under her former stage name, AleXa. Which, by the way, is a fun single. It's great.
Well, then, in April, she released an independent collaboration.... as AleXa.
Then, in July.... well, clearly she's familiar with KPOP Demon Hunters (she did audition for the movie), because she released a song.... as AleXa.
In December - literally last week, people - she appears on a music competition on Swedish television.... as AleXa.
The cover is awesome, but I have no freaking clue what to call her. Luckily, I *do* know her social media profile.
"OK, but why are you talking about KPop drama during #AmericanAutumn! Did you forget today's the last day?"
Nope. The artist whose name I cannot with any reliability tell you is from Oklahoma. In fact, she's best known for winning the American Song Contest, which was an attempt to make an American EuroVision.
She represented Oklahoma. In fact, when I started doing this little exercise, I knew I was ending with this artist, whatever her name is.
So, I know I usually end these posts with a video. Not today. I wanted to thank you for taking this journey with me this autumn. It's been a huge challenge to get through it, and I think it paid off.
It was the easier Dakota, as Shawn Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota.
This song - her debut single off her debut album of the same name - would not be her biggest hit, but its modest success and heavy rotation airplay on VH1 would fuel her future successes.
Plus, it's a really happy song, and I think it's a great 2nd-to-last song for this project. I mean, I am smiling writing this post. It's just happy.
The album won a Grammy in 1991 for Best Contemporary Folk album - which it really deserved. She would go on to win two more in 1998.
I wanted to choose a live performance that showcased JUST Shawn on a guitar, and I found this one, from 2019. This is in conjunction with an acoustic version of the Steady On album in 2019, to celebrate its 30th anniversary (a year early).
Juel Kilcher - yep. Not Jewel at birth. Indeed, she grew up near Homer, Alaska, singing and yodeling alongside her father.
And yes. She was on a few episodes of her family's show.
This song - written by Jewel - the third single from her debut album Pieces of You, was nominated for a Grammy award and would go on to be one of her biggest hits and indeed, a song that still endures.
Did she perform the song live? Of course she did, and you know I love featuring performances from the most unhinged festival of all time, Woodstock '99.
No fires appear to have been started during her performance.
On her Greatest Hits album, Jewel reimagined this song as a duet, with Kelly Clarkson. They also performed it together - kinda - as a Zoom duet on Clarkson's talk show.
By the way, she also has been known to yodel with her dad, even after her fame.
Atz Kilcher is best known for two things. One of them is being one of the stars of a Discover Channel reality show called Alaska: The Last Frontier - which is centered around the Kilcher family homestead outside of Homer, Alaska. His sons - Atz Lee and Otto - also star on the show. His daughter.... well, we'll get there (and some of you already figured it out).
He's also an accomplished singer/songwriter in his own right. Here he is, in 2018 - at age 70 - just getting ready to start a national tour with his kids - it was a book tour, with a musical element.
By the way, he is also an accomplished yodeler....
Wyoming was really hard, and this is one of those days I wish Scott - a country music lover -was still writing for us. But I got it done.
Chris LeDoux - from Wyoming - got a slow start to his music career.
That's because he was a very successful rodeo cowboy. But he did start recording while he was active in rodeo - in 1979, he released his first single, and released a few more prior to his retirement from the rodeo in 1986.
This single, from 1991, was at the beginning of a string of minor country hits, which started in the early 1990s and continued for a few years.
Sadly, LeDoux passed away kind of young, only aged 56, of bile duct cancer. But his cowboy music lives on.
If you really want to hear LeDoux play what would be one of his signature songs - I mean, he was a rodeo cowboy, for Pete's sake - try this performance from 1997.
And huge hitmaker Linda Ronstadt is from Tuscon, Arizona.
She had a string of hit songs in the 1970s - her huge voice bringing life to songs that would be both pop and country hits. I'd say she was the Taylor Swift of her era... but literally every hit you know of hers is a cover.
This song is one of them. Originally recorded in 1958 by The Crickets - as in Buddy Holly and the Crickets - and written by Holly and Norman Petty, their version did not chart. Ronstadt took their song to the top 5 in 1977 (and to the country charts, too!), adding a bit of a bite and snarl to the song.
I have to be honest. I grew up hearing this version of the song, and when I heard Buddy Holly singing it, it felt wrong. This feels right.
Of course she performed the song live. Here she is with her band in 1980 - with the same snarl.
In a past life, this would have gone on Totally Covered. Or, maybe it did. But I don't really think of it as a cover.
Nicolette Larson was from Helena, Montana. She was a backup singer for many artists, including Neil Young.... and she and Linda Ronstadt both sang backup on his 1978 album Comes A Time, which featured this song (Larson did not sing backup on that song). Larson and Ronstadt have different recollections on how her version came to be. Ronstadt said - in 2013, in her memoirs - that she made the suggestion and Larson's producer was appreciative.
Larson's story is more colorful. Her recollection was that she found a demo version of the song on a tape on the floor of Neil Young's car.... and he gave her the song.
She took Young's melancholic song and turned it upbeat, with strings and horns.... and made herself a classic. Held until October 1978 - waiting to see if Neil would release it as a single (he did not - although it did end up being a B-side) - her version - her debut single - ended up being a top 10 pop hit, her biggest by far.
It wasn't easy to find a real live version of this song. A lot of her early ones were on TV and were lipsynced.
However, this performance from 1991 - six years prior to her untimely death - show that she still had it.
This live recording from 1978 is absolutely spectacular.
Sometimes, serendipity plays a role. Today is one of those days. And I am thankful for that!
Angel Abaya was born in Boise, Idaho, and joined the Boise music scene at the age of 18. She's definitely Idahoan...
Her latest (not really debut) album - Switcheroo - was released under the stage name Gelli Haha, because it moved from her earlier work (as Angel Abaya), which was guitar-driven pop, to more electronic, playful pop.
It was the right call. I have to say, I really enjoy this sound quite a bit, and the album is one of my favorites of the year.
This song is a highlight of the album, with it's overabundance of 's' words..... and let's be clear, the red aesthetic isn't just a stage persona - it's a lifestyle choice for her.
She has not performed live as Gelli Haha MUCH, but when she does, she leads with this song. Stick around for the rest of the performance, because it very well might be the most fun you'll have listening to music this year.
7 Seconds formed in Reno, Nevada during the rise of punk in 1980. Although there have been significant lineup changes, they're still around and still performing. And yes, Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth - the real life Marvelli brothers - are still there.
This song is from their 1984 debut album The Crew - regarded by many as one of the greatest hardcore albums ever recorded. And, really, it's raw and angry and energetic.... and somewhat stoic. Written by Kevin Seconds, it has an almost straight-edge feel.... but it ain't straight-edge.
So, this song was released in 1984.
Thirty years later, they performed it in Moscow with arguably more energy.
But if you know them before this post, you probably know them for their cover of the Nena classic song "99 Red Balloons" (yes, the English version).
It's spectacular.
This is the one song they can't not play. And it's always just as spectacular.
As Kevin says during this performance EARLIER THIS YEAR, they first performed this song in 1982.
In 2025.... 45 years after they formed.... it still sounds spectacular.
We're not talking about Phil Collins. We can discuss him another day.
Philip Bailey was born in Denver, Colorado, which is why he's here today. In his prime, he was known for a four octave vocal range - and served as one of the two lead vocalists for the legendary band Earth, Wind & Fire.
But he also had a solo career - and while he had a few hits, none eclipsed this collaboration with the Genesis drummer, which was a huge hit worldwide. The story behind this one is quite simple - Collins was also a pretty well-regarded producer, and he was hired to produce Bailey's 1984 album Chinese Wall. At the end of the sessions, Bailey asked Collins to co-write a song with him.... this song. They had a great time writing it, and so they recorded it right away (and you can actually hear in this video some of the raw sessions from that - which I love).
It ended up being just great just as they did it.
And, at this point, I'd usually overwhelm you with their individual live performances of the song.
Not today. This is #AmericanAutumn, not #UKNovember. So, here's Bailey performing the song live with Kenny Loggins. Kenny's just not as good a match - but Bailey's voice is fantastic.
It was announced this morning that famed Jamaican singer the Honourable Jimmy Cliff OM, who had a career that started in the early 1960s, passed away today - from a seizure followed by pneumonia. He was 81 years old.
That title refers to the Jamaican Order of Merit, an award celebrating great achievement by their citizens or by others that have had a huge impact on Jamaica in the sciences, arts, or any other endeavor. He was the only living reggae musician to receive that honor.
His career was full of hits and accolades, including this one, which he originally wrote and recorded in 1969. Others - most notably Annie Lennox, UB40, and Cher - made this song into a much bigger hit that Cliff did (it was a French hit, oddly, a place where he had a lot of hits). He certainly had much bigger hits.
I chose this one as a fitting tribute because of this heartfelt and well-received performance from the 2003 Glastonbury festival.
And that THIS was actually both their biggest pop and airplay hit song, not "Down"? Yep, it got more airplay in 1996.... although, let's face it, they both got a fairly large amount.
I always kind of had a soft spot for 311, and even though I wasn't a fan of reggae, I liked this reggae-infused song quite a bit.
The song - written by Nick Hexum and SA Martinez - gets its title and theme from an early Elvis Presley interview, where he described himself as "All Mixed Up" over his fame. Seriously/
The band is still together and largely unchanged. In fact, they did a pretty excellent Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR studios last year....on March 11th, by the way... and this made me realize something I didn't really notice prior...
The song is a duet - between the two songwriters (Martinez is wearing the jean jacket and bald head, with Hexum taking lead). How did I not realize that?
Kansas, the band, is right from the state capitol of Topeka, founded in 1854 (that's the order, guys. Order of founding of the state capitol. Now you know). 119 years later, a band called White Clover - which would become Kansas - formed there.
This song, from their fourth album - 1976's Leftoverture - would serve as the lead single and the band's first top 40 hit, peaking at #11. Written by guitarist Kerry Livgren, who wrote a LOT of the band's earlier music, it was the last song recorded for the album. Livgren described the song as autobiographical and as being "beamed down to him" - foreshadowing a preachier sound that would follow his being born again in 1979.
Anyway, this is one of the greatest classic rock songs ever written. Fight me.
AND THE WORD "MY" DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE TITLE!!!!!
Fifty years on, Kansas persists.
This performance from 2009 features original vocalist Steve Walsh, who still has it (he did NOT when I saw him a few years later, but from what I could tell, it was an off night). He would retire from performing in 2014, but he gave it everything he had until the end.
Kansas has had a few vocalists since Walsh left, (although Ronnie Platt since 2014) but still, they tour. And they sound really good.
They even sounded good in 1982, after Steve Walsh left the first time - and John Elefante (chosen because he didn't take issue with Kerry Livgren's turn to Christian music) took over as vocalist.
Yeah, breaking the format for one post, because there's no way to fit him in.
Mani, the stage name of Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist Greg Mounfield, has passed away. And, we really hadn't explored The Stone Roses or any of the Madchester scene yet, but now, looks like we're doing this.
Mani wasn't a founding member of the Stone Roses, but he was a member for both its breakthrough in the late 1980s and their reformation in the early 2010s - which means his bass was key to defining their trippy, mellow rock sound that was so well respected for a short while.
This was the first song on their debut album and an early single, and was a modern rock hit in the US and a pop hit in the UK and elsewhere.
The big surprise came in 2011, when they reformed after a 20-year hiatus. That's Mani on bass, too.
I am genuinely sad about this one. He will be missed terribly.
