Clara Barker: Fine Art & The Breslins (2014)

Clara Barker is a singer/songwriter from the Isle of Man. "Fine Art & The Breslins" is her second album, and her first for Small Bear Records. You can purchase this 11-song album via this bandcamp page. Purchases on bandcamp will include an additional four bonus songs. This is really pretty stuff. Clara kind of has a Mazzy Star thing going on, I think. Check it out:

Here's a brief little Youtube vid'ja about the album:

A Quick 1960s-70s Pop & Rock Youtube Mix

Heck yeah. My buddy Jerry at work loaned me a box of his old 45s, unopened since like forever ago. I forget when he said, but I think it's been a decade or so since he had packed these away. Anyway, it's a gold mine, and I'll be going through it here on CNQ in the coming weeks. I pulled out a double stack from the box tonight and I figured as I went through them, you and I could enjoy the ones that are already on Youtube.

This is probably my favorite Neil Diamond song. This was Lulu's B-side for "To Sir With Love." It gets rockin:

From the Kinks' Low Budget:

According to Wikipedia, "(Low Budget) was a great success for the group, becoming their best-selling non-compilation album," but "'(Wish I Could Be Like) Superman'" was their only single from this album to chart. Interesting.

Okay, so as always, more to come.

We Are The West (2014)

LA based duo Brett Hool [voice/guitar] and John Kibler [bass/voice], who operate as We Are The West, were featured last May on CNQ. Yesterday they released the third recording of what the band says will be a four-part album. Recorded live in the New Mexico desert, We Are The West III features arrangements by a crew that's grown up around this monthly underground parking garage concert series that We Are The West has goin' on. Super-cool: