Australian band 'the Maes' top our year end music list

[Artsfols]

Our annual year end list of best folk and acoustic music videos is up now. Read all about it at the link supplied below.

Link to year end list of top videos ...

Please, let's discuss your thoughts about the musicians on this list.

 

[Artsfols]

Note #3 on specific songs in our year end list. Evangeline Gentle is a folk singer based in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. This past year she released her eponymous first album, three years in the making. (The album is available on bandcamp and on streaming services.) The album is excellent, but one song in particular is a best track for the entire year. 'The Strongest People have gentle hearts' is a standout melodically and the lyric is a 'Teach Your Children' (remember that oldie?) for our times.

 

[Artsfols]

Note #4 on specific songs in our year end list.
We added the Twisted Pine video to our list having never heard of the band. On this highly appealing track, the band is very tight and the music is joyful: kind of bluegrass-like with a mandolin, guitar and stand up bass, but this particular track goes into the stratosphere when the flute segues in. The band knows they're playing well; you can tell by how they're smiling and looking around at each other. Wouldn't they be great to see live?
I thought the band might be Tex Mex based on the look and sound, but they're actually based in Boston and the flautist - she's from British Columbia. Who knew? They also were recognized by the Boston Music Awards this past year; that part is not surprising.

 

[Artsfols]

Note #5 on specific songs in our year end list.
Many of the artists in our year end list are among the 200+ that we follow, but there are always quite a number of tracks from people we haven't heard before. These show up on the sites of various publishers, of which we track 30 to 40.
This year I adored a track by a singer named Lexi Berg, and it's in my personal top 5, though it ended up lower with the panel. For me, it's her voice. I always lean more to colour of expression than to the dramatic big voices, in what I enjoy.
It turns out that Lexi Berg is based in London, but has an interesting background. From her web site, "she grew up on a houseboat in Stockholm, At 5 she was the child prodigy training to be a classical pianist. By 11 she was performing in churches and concert venues to hundreds of people around her hometown of Stockholm.
Just a year later she was a pop singer scouted by record companies but after a family tragedy, she fled to America, then Edinburgh via London, and slowly began to work out who she was as an artist away from the input of others. "
And she now has a contract with Warner Music UK label EastWest Records. The web site and her first album release have all the polish and push of record label backing.
And I hope my opinion does not matter, but to my ear, the album release is over-produced, even by normal standards, and does not show her voice to advantage in the way this live video does. If the album does well, great, but if not, I hope Lexi Berg persists, given the amazing voice that she has.