Three outstanding tracks we discovered on the submission platform Groover

If you are interested in checking out our profile over there, follow this link: https://groover.co/en/influencer/profile/0.eartotheground-music/

Noelle Frances – “can you tell me”
-This is not our first time featuring Noelle Frances and it’s easy to hear why I keep saying “yes.” The music is lovely. The acoustic work has this delicate approachability that I really enjoy, but it’s the quality of the vocal that transcends for me. I think I said this the last time I wrote about Frances, but her music reminds me of Jennifer Knapp (maybe the first “girl and her guitar” artist I really appreciated many years ago). The lyrical theme here is about intimacy, about truly knowing someone. The line, “I don’t know what we’re fighting for, ’cause you know me… you know me…” really hits hard. If you’ve ever tried to work out tension in a relationship, this one is relatable. It’s just… so deeply human. I appreciate that so much.

The Pairs – “Everything Ends”
-This is not our first time featuring The Pairs. They have a throwback folk sound that resonates deeply with the EarToTheGround ethos. If you go back to the origins of our site (June 2011, actually) you will find a lot of acoustic guitars and great harmonies. It’s nice to know that there’s still music like this being made and we are privileged to still find it. The harmonies from The Pairs are so good I don’t want to sing along. I just listen. They remind me a bit of artists like the Harmaleighs, who we featured here several years ago. Another, perhaps more popular comparison, would be the remarkable UK artist The Staves. The lyrical style here is partly philosophical, partly grounded, and completely worth sitting back to absorb with multiple lessons. After all, “we can start again.” Amen to that.

Michelle Raybourn – “Bad Memory”
-This was one of those songs that stopped me in my tracks. I’m not sure if it was the narrative form or the directness of the vocal, but I felt like the vocalist was speaking into my soul. The lyrical concept is clever, combining elements of folk and country, for this unique concept of vivid memories of someone special… and how you wish you could forget them (but not really). There’s a great line that goes, “you’ve already unlearned what I’ll never forget…” and that one has left me pondering since I first heard the song. It’s captivating and worth consideration. It’s a love song but it’s also about the toll that it takes on us when we lose someone special. This is a really well-produced song that gives me some serious Alison Krauss vibes. It’s definitely worth considering for folks who love that intersection of folk and country narrative tunes.

Image courtesy: Michelle Raybourn IG