Today, we're sending congratulations to catsuited glam queen Bobby Dazzle, who won our latest Tracks Of The Week competition by a margin so enormous we considered retiring the competition altogether.
But we won't. We'll proceed, but not before offering minor congrats to our vanquished competitors, Whiskey Myers and Shinedown.
Below, you'll find eight more candidates for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Weekly Fame. Please enjoy.
Mirador - Feels Like Gold
The hot new brainchild of Chris Turpin (singer and guitarist with alt roots/folk mavericks Ida Mae, and before then blues rockers Kill It Kid) and Greta Van Fleet guitarist Jake Kiszka, Mirador make an emphatic opening statement for their self-titled album with this sumptuous title track. A heavy rocking affair with an old-world, acoustic soul – nodding to their artfully nostalgic other bands, without really sounding like either – it captures the early country blues and folk voices that the two of them bonded over. All that, and it doesn't feel like a museum piece. Good stuff's on its way here, we can feel it..
Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts - Runnin’ With The Wild Ones
Going from strength to strength with his latest releases (now including this upbeat, heartwarming gem), Tuk is rapidly becoming one of those artists whose songs leave you with the reassuring sense that you’re in safe hands – but in a much sexier, less boring way than that sounds. “This ain’t your typical love song,” the former Biters mastermind says. “If you like 'em soaked in melodrama then this one’s for you. Sometimes, I think of my songs as characters in scenes of novels or movies. Trying to tie together storytelling-esque lyrics with big anthemic choruses has really been what my pulse has been on the last few years.”
![Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts - Runnin' With the Wild Ones [Official Music Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AWtE4OCp-lQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram - Bad Like Me
The prodigious Mississippian guitarist and singer makes a commanding case for his game-raising next album on Bad Like Me. Moody yet forward kicking, it finds him leaning into the sort of juicy, fluid, not-wholly-expected songwriting that shows how interesting and moreish the blues can be. That tone, that voice, that solo… “This record comes from real-life reflection,” Ingram says of the aforementioned album, Hard Road. “I’ve been balancing fame, heartbreak, love, and relationships while trying to stay grounded, touring, creating, and maturing. These songs are about owning my story.”
Blues Pills - Here Comes The Night
A pioneering piece of Swedish rock history, Pugh Rogefeldt’s 1969 classic (originally Här Kommer Natten – though Rogefeldt has also recorded an English language version under the Here Comes The Night title) is beautifully interpreted by one of the country’s latter-day rock success stories, Blues Pills. Dulcet, sad, cleverly written, its dark heart sneaks up on you – Elin’s closing ‘you are my darkness’ leaving a quietly haunting final impression.
The Vintage Caravan - Philosopher (feat. Mikael Åkerfeldt)
Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt guests on this new rocker from Iceland’s premier millennial heavy nostalgists. It opens on a prettily acoustic, woodland folkster-y note before stomping into a deliciously beefy rolling boil of heavy guitar grooves, brooding melody and slinky basslines, with Åkerfeldt tapping into the velvety, Scott Walker crooner side of his pipes (less Blackwater Park, more Sorceress).
Parker Barrow - Novocaine
You like your southern rock on the raw, larynx-shredding side, with bluesy swagger for days? Check this out. “Novocaine allowed us to explore new song-writing territories with different feels but in a way that is still Parker Barrow,” says guitarist Alex Bender, who created the initial spark for the Nashvillians’ gutsy but textured new single. “Soaring vocals, hard-hitting drums and plenty of guitar help to drive this song while still maintaining a level of restraint to let the track breathe when needed.”
White Reaper - Blink
You might think that the magic at the heart of a band featuring twins would vanish once the twins departed, but White Reaper's releases since the departure last year of Nick and Sam Wilkerson have suggested no decline in quality, and Blink is another banger. It's sitting in the bleachers at Weezer-covering-a-Smithereens-song ballpark, with a giant, gleaming chorus and an equally chrome-clad guitar solo. New album Only Slightly Empty is out in September.
![White Reaper - Blink [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uAqpmmUQyTU/maxresdefault.jpg)
Cody Jinks - In My Blood (feat. Charlie Starr)
Fresh from working with Mark Morton on the Lamb Of God man's Without The Pain album, thrash metal frontman turned outlaw country phenom and beard ambassador Cody Kinks has got himself involved with another fella. This time it's Blackberry Smoke mainman Charlie Starr, with a moody country ballad written about the Jinks/Smoke tour last year. The title track of an album that's out now, it's also about as far from sugary Nashville syrup as you can possibly get.
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