This is the first artist here that I’ve discovered through Alex Southey’s fantastic podcast Your Worst Song, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. This week’s guest was Skye Wallace, who I’d heard of, but never really listened to. She came across as humble, funny and charming, and the recording of her ‘worst’ song at the end was great. You’ll have to listen to the podcast for that:
Skye has released three songs in the past 9-ish months, and they’re fantastic. Here’s the most recent, from last month. It’s catchy and energetic:
She wrote a couple of these songs with Hawksley Workman, who I didn’t know was still in the scene (he’s a legend and Striptease is an all-timer). I hadn’t thought of him in years before reading Hearts on Fire, but I feel like his influence is front and centre on the track What Is Real, from earlier this year. It’s got a lot of drama to it:
The first of her recent releases will make you very how often it’s natural to blink:
These songs are a bit of a departure from the more straight-ahead, sometimes folky, sometimes Americana-style guitar rock from her earlier releases. The production on the new songs is richer and the instrumentation is broader. It’s a young and fresh sound, and it really works. I love these three songs.
She has been putting music out for a long time, and she does soft really well too. Here’s a radio station recording of a song from her 2022 record Terribly Good. The song is called Keeper — it’s gorgeous, lyrically and musically. This performance might be even better than the album version:
…and here’s a recording of her playing a Weakerthans song, solo, a couple of weeks ago (I saw the Weakerthans premiere that song in Toronto at the Big Bop in like 2002!).
In the podcast, she teases an upcoming album, with a formal announcement coming in September, no doubt followed by a tour. Can’t wait.
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