Year 8, Day 335

Hey guys. Today's song is Work Song by Hozier.

Photo by: swimfinfan

Hozier is Andrew Hozier-Byrne, and Irish singer whose been around since 2008. He was part of a choral ensemble called Anúna starting in 2009, and he toured with them internationally. He released his debut EP in 2013 and it became huge. He released his second EP in 2014, followed quickly by his debut album. He did some performances in 2015, but then kind of disappeared from the music scene until his next EP in 2018. His second album was released in 2019, followed by a worldwide tour and some festival performances. In 2020 he did a lot of fundraising, livestreaming for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and performing at the RTÉ Does Comic Relief Special for pandemic relief. He announced his next album in 2021, and an EP was released this year with another one on the way later in the year. Enjoy!

Peace.

Year 8, Day 334

Hey guys. Today's song is Wellerman by Nathan Evans.

You guys have no idea how long this has been sitting there for me to showcase it, but I could never find a good spot to slip it in. So Nathan Evans is a Scottish singer active since 2020 when his renditions of sea shanties went viral on TikTok, which led to other people joining in and creating something amazing. I've included this reaction video showing a bunch of the additions of people and also this remix version that I think is great as well. The popularity earned him a record deal and they released an official cover of the song (which I'm featuring today) along with some other songs in 2021. He released his debut album in 2022 so you should go check that out if you're interested. As for this sea shanty, the story is based on the 18th century whaling industry where the crew is waiting for the wellerman (which were the employees of the Weller brothers who would bring provisions to the whalers. It you're curious look up the history of the industry, and check out some other shanties while you're at it.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 333

Hey guys. Today's song is Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran.

Photo by: Eva Rinaldi

I've featured Ed Sheeran before and I'm pretty sure that everyone knows who he is by now so I'm going to go through this fast. He's always been musical, singing from an early age and playing both guitar and cello. He also was a theatre kid, joining the production of Frankenstein through Youth Music Theatre UK in 2007. He started recording music in 2004, releasing some stuff independently then started playing gigs with his friend Michael Rosenberg (aka Passenger) in 2006. In 2008 he moved to London and started playing there, then in 2009 he began to study music at the Academy of Contemporary Music only to leave to support Just Jack. He released an EP in 2009, then in 2010 he toured with Example and released another EP before starting to post on YouTube. He released two more EPs in 2010 and one in 2011 before he gained mainstream success and was signed. Since then he has released six albums with the first from 2011 and the most recent released this year. Obviously recently there has been lots of news about Ed Sheeran because of the lawsuit filed against him by the heirs of Ed Townsend over plagiarism of the song Let's Get It On. First off: I've talked about it before that you can't copyright chord progressions because chords are similar in almost every song in every genre, so Ed Townsend does not have private rights to a chord just because the song it was used in became iconic. Also I have a huge problem with it being the heirs of this person making a stink, because it's clearly just a cash grab over something they were never involved in, but now feel entitled to. So I'm glad Ed Sheeran won, because something like this setting a precedent in music and legal cases like this would have killed music and the music industry completely. We seriously dodged a bullet with this one so it's good to shout it out today.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 332

Hey guys. Today's song is What A Man Gotta Do by the Jonas Brothers.

Photo by: Erik Drost

The continued ode to their wives in these videos will never get old for me. So the Jonas brothers is an American band made up of brother Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas who were active from 2005 until 2013 and then again since 2019. During the first part of their career they were Disney channel stars, so in addition to releasing four albums (one each year from 2006-2009) they starred in Disney channel movies and TV shows, and on Disney star events and charity songs. They took a hiatus in 2011 while they all worked on solo projects, with Joe and Nick both going on to do more music separately while Kevin studied music production than starred in a reality TV show with his wife. In 2012 they came back together to go on tour and were working on an album, but they broke up before that could come to pass over creative differences and a deep rift in the band. In 2019 they had managed to patch things up between themselves and decided to come back with new music. They've released two albums since, one in 2019 and one in 2023, and like I said some of their new videos have all of their wives in them. I liked them before they broke up and I like them now, but I do think that their career and relationship seems a lot healthier this time around, so I think the break did them good and I'm glad they're back.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 331

Hey guys. Today's song is Sad Summer by Lachie Gill.

Lachie Gill is an Australian musician active since 2022 when he auditioned for The Voice Australia and joined Rita Ora's team. He won the competition, and afterwards starting releasing some singles in 2022 and another one in 2023. He's still relatively new in the industry, having been a PE teacher and an Australian Football League player previously, but he has a lot of potential, so keep an eye out for him.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 330

 Hey guys. Today's song is I Believe In You by Michael Buble.

Photo from: Man Alive!

Michael Buble is a Canadian musician active since 1994. He was always interested in singing, and had the talent, but his breakthrough came from him performing at a party where he met the prime minister's aide named Michael McSweeney who asked him to perform at his daughter's wedding, where he then met David Foster, a record executive. After some convincing, Foster agreed to produce Buble's self titled album which was released in 2003, followed by a Christmas EP later that year. He did have success before that though, winning some talent competitions, appearing on TV shows, and independently releasing three albums in 1996, 2002, and 2002. After the success of his self titled album, he released a live album and won a Juno award for New Artist of the Year in 2004. Since then he has released nine more albums, with the most recent form 2022. And despite the fact that I first think of his Christmas songs (because he voice is much better suited for classics than many other singers' voices are) his other music is fantastic and this one is no exception. So I hope you enjoy it.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 329

Hey guys. Today's song is Weak Days by Lauren O'Brien.

So there is no bio from Lauren because her name is about as generic as mine meaning there are way too many people to sift through for the right one. But what I can tell you is this Lauren O'Brien is an American musician, active it seems mostly since this year, although she does have a cover posted from two years ago. She an independent artist right now, so no label to help her, but she definitely has potential in the industry. So if you're in Nashville keep a lookout for her and maybe we'll see her signed in the near future.

Peace.