The song featured here is the title track for Getting There, a four minute-long track that tells of the young singer/guitarist’s journey thus far. Lord, I ain’t been everywhere, but I’m getting there, he sings before diving into the song’s first big solo. What’s impressive about “Getting There” is not Sullivan’s documentation of the cities and venues he’s visited while on tour, but rather the instinctive inflection in his voice and natural playing style. Sullivan might only be 14 years old, but he plays with the soul of any of history’s timeless blues icons.

Prior to the release of Getting There on June 18, Sullivan performed alongside Buddy Guy at the 2013 Crossroads Festival in April. The young artist has shared the stage with Guy multiple times since the two first met when Sullivan was eight years old. Listen to a stripped version of “Getting There” below, and check out Sullivan’s website here. With his drive and youth, there’s no telling how far Sullivan will go.

It’s such a fascinating contradiction, one that probably could be written about for the next million years without any definitive answer, and one that I can guarantee goes way above my experience and writing here.

So I won’t try to be pseudo-profound, I’ll just point out this song. It’s a song that I like and think that you should listen to.

You can like on Annie McQueen on Facebook. Enjoy Take Me Home.

Eb & Sparrow released a 3 song EP makes me wonder what country would sound like if it stayed on a traditional track instead of today’s pop-leaning style. I’ve listened several times to In The Harbour, trying to place the voice, but I can’t come up with a close enough comp to be comfortable offering it. I’ll simply say the sullen flow of In The Harbour, accompanied by Eb Lamb’s lonesome vocals, evokes a better time for singing about the worst times. Something traditional country artists like George Jones would be proud of.

You can listen and buy at Bandcamp. Here is their Facebook. Enjoy In The Harbour.

Photo Credit: Kate Macpherson

There are fires burning thousand of acres of land down south in Colorado. The smoke has crept up to Denver and it caused an eerie haze over the city streets yesterday.

The fires are amplified by high winds and high 90′s temperatures. The heat has also thrown a wrench into my sleep–in that, it’s taking me forever to fall sleep because it’s so hot. And when I do fall asleep, I’m having this recurring dream. It’s a dream about a girl–a girl that I’ve known for awhile and never have thought of in this context. I’ve known her for the majority of my time here and we share some similar passions and frustrations, but we’ve got very different outlooks on many things. It wouldn’t be too far off to say that we’re like bread and Legos.

Nevertheless, on these past couple heat-stricken nights, when I close my eyes, I have a rendezvous with my subconscious and I think about her. It’s odd to me, but intoxicating still. I doubt that when we wake up and look at the same smoky Denver streets tomorrow that we have the same dreams.

It’s hazy when I’m awake, but I now associate this song with her.

If we were lovers then you take it back
Then we stayed till the fire died down
Then we let it go

I’ve come a long way
So if you wanna wait now
I’ll probably stay

Just tell me who you wanna be
I promise I’ll take you
But I’ll struggle with me

So baby come down with me tonight
Just lay it all down upon the line

We Were Lovers is the song. I was sent it as one of a couple different songs from the Washington DC-based band The Analog Affair and I think that this one fits the story and its chilled out aura is worth a listen with or without personal anecdotes. It’s been far too long since this site has featured a chillwave track.

I know the fires and the heat will eventually die down. With them, the dreams of when we were lovers will go, too.

Be mine, be my DNA, don’t want to fade away.

I have to readily admit that the lyrics aren’t Dylan-esque here, but for whatever reason, I really like that line. I guess as someone that is writing about music, I should be able to better articulate why I like something, but in this case, it eludes me.

Empire Of The Sun is the Australian electro duo that’s been together 5+ years (I can’t believe that it’s been that long since that Walking On A Dream was released). I also can’t believe that I haven’t written about them at all. I’ll correct that here.

Their latest album, Ice on the Dune, is expected to be released later this week in Oceania and next Tuesday here. DNA is the second single off of the album and it’s pretty catchy. Enjoy.

Buffalo Tales is the the project for Sydney-based singer-songwriter Wes Carr. I’ve featured a song from his Buffalo Tales moniker previously on the Oz mix. Here’s the Buffalo Tales Facebook page.

You can watch above or just listen below. Enjoy Amsterdam.

I’ve featured Small Sur in the past and the project released their latest album, Labor, last week. It is a reminder that soft sounds that are thoughtful and serene can overpower a ton of overdubs and over-production. You can listen and buy the whole album over at Bandcamp.

The highlight for me is the LP’s shortest song, Rockaway. The turn of gracefully to gracelessly was understated but captures something worth sharing on this Saturday morning.

Small Sur is the primary musical alias of Baltimore via South Dakota songwriter Bob Keal and collaborators Austin Stahl and Andy Abelow. Here is their Facebook page.

Enjoy Rockaway.

Vintage Trouble’s appearance on Late Show with David Letterman last December (and many of their televised performances since, available for viewing on YouTube) offered a clear example of the group’s electric energy, as lead singer Ty Taylor belted out perfect-pitch lyrics while dancing and gyrating onstage like a 21st century James Brown. Taylor’s band mates Nalle Colt (guitar), Richard Danielson (drums) and Rick Barrio Dill (bass) egged him on while maintaining a blistering tempo that had the audience’s established “TroubleMakers” and new converts alike hypnotized. Yet Vintage Trouble is not always so speedy. For performances of numbers like “Gracefully” and “Nobody Told Me,” the band goes through its paces in a different way as they aim to put an edge on old-style soul.

Vintage Trouble are currently touring with The Who in Europe (no big deal), but are expected to return to the U.S. in August. Check out the tour dates on their website to catch Vintage Trouble live, and watch the band’s music video for “Nobody Told Me” above.

It’s a simple and straightforward song and I think that is part of its appeal. It’s not getting caught up in cute analogies (the twisting knife fitting thematically, of course) and it’s direct. The song title sums it and the lyrics and instrumentation, just guitar and percussion, reinforce the clear, simple premise. It also recalls more of the classic rock vibe, serving as a whiskey-soaked cousin to Elvis Costello’s Alison.

Dead Professional is the solo project of Virginia-based singer/songwriter John Harouff. The project started earlier this year after being part of multiple other projects and bands. You can like his Facebook page and enjoy this little diddy.

One of the finds was the debut EP of Morninghorse. Though they hail from Australia, their music could easily be classified as Americana. The first track that plays when you load on Bandcamp is Western Star and by the time the organ started I decided that I was going to listen to the EP a couple times through. I’ve chosen to highlight Kentucky Lied here (definitely check out Western Star though)

“I don’t feel I’m getting old, I just feel I’m getting tired.”

Kentucky Lied is a barstool hymn. The lyrics paint the picture of tears in your whiskey and the nice use of distant vocals are a nice audio cue to the distant, rambling ways that lead to such a hymn. Each of us has a little rambler inside and we’re reminded of that as the song and EP plays out.

Morninghorse hails from Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. Here is their Facebook.