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or the past few years, Peter Donovan has made his name as a storyteller and songwriter in the world of indie Americana, playing with Seattle’s All The Real Girls and his side project The Rose Petals. Earlier this year, he broke off with his debut solo record, This Better Be Good, forging together influences from Americana, indie rock, pop songwriters, and ‘70s singer/songwriters. Today, he’s followed the record with a new video for one of its highlights, “Goodbye for Now,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Goodbye for Now” finds Donovan offering his heartbroken goodbyes to a relationship, recalling the longing plaintive side of early Wilco married with the open-hearted vocal delivery of Conor Oberst. Yet, the result is less aching and melancholic than Donovan’s influences. Instead, he delivers a warm golden ray of wistful indie Americana, bolstered by hints of honky tonk piano, winding guitar, a pounding bridge, and sweet lyricism. Donovan spins a classic pop heartbreak tale, knowing the relationship was doomed to fail, but desperately trying to hold on to hope that his goodbye might not last forever.

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Joining us for 5 Questions this week is Judy Blank, an easy-to-love, heart-on-her-sleeve songwriter from Utrecht in the Netherlands. Blank’s newly-released EP Saddies continues to create a buzz with the premiere of a colorful new music video for “The Magic,” a standout track from the EP produced by Roy van Rosendaal.

The video was directed by Edgar Berry and features a host of Mexican punk rockers that Judy met while traveling. “I know they look pretty tough, but they were literally the sweetest guys ever,” says Blank. “This experience was one for the books; I really hope to make more videos in other parts of the world in the future.”

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My highest belief is in duality. Not one thing is one thing only. Human nature is to force a category, a label to everything we experience. We mark our lives on a linear timeline and organize it into chapters. The point where a chapter ends, it also begins. It’s in these transitions that I find duality, where I find God. I find that duality mirrored in everything I think and feel.

Janus is the Roman god and goddess of transition, of beginnings and endings. It’s also the name of the new album by the Paula Boggs Band.  Paula Boggs is the primary songwriter of the band’s music but would describe herself more as a storyteller, a chronicler, or an observer, “of something I am trying to make sense of in the world,” Boggs says, “there are other songs that are quite personal and come from a deep place within.”  All of the songs were written or reimagined in early 2021, during what Boggs calls the triple pandemics of public health, race, and politics. 

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“This song was written about the idea that we can grow past the things that made us who we are. “The apple don’t fall far from the tree” is a sentence that always haunted me, coming from a pretty traumatic childhood, I couldn’t imagine anything worse, but as I got older I realized that there is another path. You cat choose your roots but you can find the sunlight and stretch yourself toward it,” says bluesy with a shot of twang vocalist Brittany Collins about her new latest track “The Apple.”

This track is a monumental huge nod to the artist because her debut album out on August 12th is titled Things I Tell My Therapist. With the constant stigma around mental health, we can call Collins a savior by putting the “T” word in the title of her rockin’ new artistic statement. And this is no vanilla public service message as Collins rocks with vigorous abandon reminiscent of Heartless Bastards and Lydia Loveless.

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Silver Lining is a need-to-know, harmony-smitten band from Oslo, Norway, earning praise for its sophomore studio album, Go Out Nowhere, available now via Die With Your Boots on Record.

We caught up primarily with founding member Live Miranda Solberg to hear her thoughts on the record and the band’s latest music video release, who her favorite harmony singers are, and who she’s most excited to see at this year’s Olso Americana festival.

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One wouldn’t necessarily expect the cold wintry climate of Norway to be fertile ground for the dusty folk tales of Americana, but over the past decade, the country has been home to a thriving revival coined as Nordicana. In 2018, members of The Northern Belle and Louien, two of the scene’s most celebrated acts, formed a supergroup of sorts, Silver Lining, debuting to local acclaim with the mellow and rustic acoustic style of their first album, Heart and Mind Alike.

Next month, the band are back with their sophomore record, Go Out Nowhere. Their newest effort brings forth the grand sweeping side of Nordicana, with a widescreen vision and an expansive sound palette. They have teased the record with a handful of singles, including last year’s “Go Out Nowhere” and this year’s “The Dream and “Your Everything.” Today the band have shared the record’s latest single, “Silver Lining,” premiering with Under the Radar.

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