FRIDAY MUSIC: Hollow Coves, by JD

Hollow Coves is an Australian indie folk band formed in Gold Coast, Australia in 2013. The band consists of vocalists and guitarists Ryan Henderson and Matt Carins.

The pair recorded music in a garage that was uploaded just before they parted ways to Canada and England. The music became popular on Spotify in a very short amount of time which resulted in immediate fame and record deals. They decided to stay where they were living, but recorded and wrote songs long distance using online resources.
Officially formed in 2013, they released their first EP "Drifting" in October 2014 and now both reside in Queensland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Coves

Hollow Coves - Coastline (Lakeside Acoustic Session)

Hollow Coves - Blessings (Official Music Video)

Hollow Coves - Patience (Live Acoustic Session)

Hollow Coves - Anew (Live in Melbourne)

Hollow Coves - These Memories (Official Music Video)

Hollow Coves & Oskar Schuster - These Memories (Piano Rework

JD adds:

All of this new music I have found recently has one thing in common and that is many of the songs have millions of views which means they all have large fan bases; in fact they have another thing in common, they are completely ignored by the 'music business' as well as radio and TV. So I can just about forgive YouTube for all the adverts.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Billy Strings, by JD

Billy Strings is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bluegrass musician. In fact he is more than just Bluegrass, he started out playing 'heavy metal' and his current stage performances will also include a couple of Beatles songs. He has released four studio albums, with his album Home winning the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2021, an award he won again in 2025 for Live Vol. 1.

At just 32, Strings is the first acoustic bluegrass artist in a generation—22 years, to be exact—to land a record at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 Album chart: his burning 2024 LP, Highway Prayers. (The last to do it was the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, back in 2002.)

Strings’ success is surely a testament to his extraordinary guitar playing, his convincing vocal delivery and harmony-rich arrangements, and his high-energy performance style. But it’s equally rooted in his earthy, hooky songs, which transpose the world-weary yet whimsical and often homesick themes of classic bluegrass into distinctly modern contexts: hard drug addiction; the slow ruin of alcoholism; battles with negative self-talk. It’s why so many fans—some call themselves “Billy Goats”—refer to his music as their “daily bread.”

And the Strings phenomenon goes far beyond Nashville. His spring tour found him headlining arenas across the States and alongside Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan at the Outlaw Festival. Strings has also taken his post-psychedelic bluegrass gospel to sold-out crowds across Europe and is currently (July 2025) on tour in Australia.

https://acousticguitar.com/interview-billy-strings-electrifying-bluegrass/
https://www.billystrings.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strings

Don't Think Twice - Billy Strings

Billy Strings - While I'm Waiting Here | Live from the Mishawaka Amphitheatre

Billy Strings - Ramblin' Man | Allman Brothers Band Cover | St. Augustine, FL | 4-19-2024

Billy Strings - In The Morning Light (Official Video)

Billy Strings "Turmoil and Tinfoil"

Billy Strings - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot Cover) Cary NC 4-19-2025

FRIDAY MUSIC: Nicki Wells, by JD

I think these are all her own compositions apart from Black is the colour which is an old Scottish ballad.

“There was always music around the house,” she recalls of her upbringing. Her English father, whose own troubadour nature led to a university friendship with folk icon Nick Drake, would play his favourites – Randy Newman, Bob Dylan – while her Swiss-French mother appreciated the intricate compositions of John Lennon and Kate Bush. Wells first began writing her own songs aged six, then, when the family moved to the Cotswolds when she was 10, got into Singer-Songwriters. “I wanted to be a singer,” she admits with a laugh. Aged 16, she was offered a choice between the renowned Brit School or the prestigious McDonald College in Sydney. Choosing Australia, she flew to the other side of the world, staying with family friends, and immersed herself in the city’s rich local music scene.

"It was around this time that she stumbled upon the music of Nitin Sawhney.“His melding of East and West made complete sense to me,” Wells says. This artistic appreciation was returned around the time when she studied at the Academy of Contemporary Music, where she was introduced to Sawhney by award-winning producer Pete “Boxsta” Martin. “Nitin came into the studio and I sang an ancient Sanskrit hymn,” she recalls. “He asked me to do a gig with him that ended up being 10 years of touring and all kinds of work… that was basically my university.”

https://www.nickiwells.com/about

Nicki Wells - You're Alright Kid (Official Music Video)

The Italian Key - Sigh by Nicki Wells

Nicki Wells - Black is the Colour (cover)

Nicki Wells - Never will

Durgati Harini - Nicki Wells

Nicki Wells - La Neige

FRIDAY MUSIC: Nitin Sawhney, by JD

Nitin Sawhney is a British musician, producer and composer. His work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics, and spirituality.

Sawhney has scored for and performed with orchestras, and collaborated with and written for Paul McCartney, Sting, the London Symphony Orchestra, A. R. Rahman, Brian Eno, Sinéad O'Connor, Jacob Golden, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, as well as many other well known names in the world of popular and classical music. Performing extensively around the world, Sawney has achieved an international reputation across multiple artistic media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitin_Sawhney
https://www.nitinsawhney.com/

Nitin Sawhney - Breathing Light

Nitin Sawhney - Homelands

Nitin Sawhney - The Immigrant Live (1998)

Nitin Sawhney - Down The Road [Official Music Video] ft. YVA, Dhruv Sangari, Nicki Wells

River Pulse (Live) - Nitin Sawhney with Anoushka Shankar

Nadia - Nitin Sawhney feat. Nicki Wells & Ashwin Srinivasan, Coke Studio @ MTV Season 2

FRIDAY MUSIC: Madrugada, by JD

Madrugada is a Norwegian alternative rock band formed in Stokmarknes in 1993, with a core lineup of Sivert Høyem (vocals), Robert Burås (guitar), and Frode Jacobsen (bass). Following Burås' death on 12 July 2007, Høyem and Jacobsen decided to finish recording what was to be their final album in the original lineup. On 21 January 2008, the band released Madrugada and announced that they would split after one last tour. They performed their final concert on 15 November 2008.

When Madrugada regrouped to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their classic debut album «Industrial Silence» in 2019, they quickly realised that interest in the band had not waned in their absence. It had, in fact, increased, not least on the European continent.

What’s more, they realised that they loved being back together. Being in Madrugada had never been quite this much fun.

Says vocalist and guitarist Sivert Høyem: «It was if as the last piece of the puzzle had snapped into place. I’d never felt so self-assured on stage before. It was no stress at all, whereas in the past it had always been very stressful to me.

The tour was a triumph, with the band selling out shows in the their native Norway, plenty of festival dates and a host of concerts throughout Europe, where the band now sold out halls that were twice the size of the places they used to play back in the day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrugada_(band)
https://madrugada.no/#biography

Madrugada - The World Could Be Falling Down (Official Music Video)

Madrugada - Call My Name (Official Music Video)

Madrugada - Majesty (Live from Oslo Spektrum 2005)

Honey Bee

Madrugada - The Riverbed

This Old House

FRIDAY MUSIC: Rock 'n' Roll, by JD

The world is currently shrouded in gloom and doom. We all need cheering up so here is some good old fashioned rock and roll guaranteed to put a smile on everyone's face and I have included some unlikely collaborations which work surprisingly well!

Status Quo - All Around My Hat, Wembley Arena 14th December 1996

Racey - Some Girls (1979) • TopPop

The J. Geils Band - Centerfold (Official Music Video)

The Temperance 7 - Sergeant Pepers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Electric Light Orchestra - Rock n' Roll Is King (Official Video)

ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin' (Official Music Video) [HD Remaster]

Status Quo and The Beach Boys 'Fun Fun Fun' (Official Video)

Footnote: RIP Brian Wilson (died 11 June 2025), the man who wrote all or most of the Beach Boys songs one of which is included above.