Stella is sometimes referred to as an old soul, which is a phrase the comes up a lot but is rarely this well-deserved. If you read to the end you can watch her perform For What It’s Worth (the Stephen Stills protest song from 1966 that is at least as relevant today) in a guitar factory. She loves the 1960s, she loves the guitar, and she loves Joni too.

This is what she said about her new single:

“I wanted to record my own version of For What It’s Worth because I truly believe it is the most timely song for 2026. It resonates not only with me, but everyone in my generation - Gen Z - as a wake up call to where we are in these wild times. It’s as relevant now as it was in 1966. And recording it in Laurel Canyon 60 years after its original release made it all the more full circle.”

Stella Prince often claims to have chosen a career in music at the age of only four, and first performed in public aged 5. I admire the focus and honesty. She’s not defensive about it, like a British person might be. It’s a simple fact. The difference between Stella and the rest of us is that she stuck to her goal, even through all the inevitable setbacks. I first wanted to be a writer around nine or ten but got totally fed up with the submission process in my twenties and started self-publishing, got a day job. Stella just motored through all of that doubt, and her determination is paying off. You can watch her chatting about her career on the video below, which starts with a live performance of For What It’s Worth.

One reason Stella wanted to do a Q&A with us is that she is coming back to London in August. She’s doing not one, not two, but three shows at the atmospheric Green Note in Camden. One of those is an afternoon slot if it’s a bit of a journey or, like me, you prefer to be in bed with the cocoa by ten. And if you prefer festivals, you can find her at the brilliant Long Road Festival in Lutterworth.

Stella answered so many questions in our rapid fire Q&A that I have split them into sections. Enjoy!

Q & A: Touring

Favourite thing about London/UK? Their incredible appreciation for music. Lainey Wilson always says she could sell out her UK tour years before she could do that in the US.

When were you last in the UK? In June 2025. I played Folk in the Garden in London.

Where else do you enjoy touring the most? I have done the classic Southwest run 3 times- and it’s my favorite. I’m doing it again this summer. San Diego to Seattle and back down. And I love Europe.

Q & A: Music

Lyrics or music first? Always music. Every melody has a personality.

How long have you been a pro musician? Since I was 4. I started voice lessons at 4, and performing publicly at 5.

Are you from a musical family? Not at all! I am the only musician in my family. But my parents are very creative (a painter and a writer).

When did you first decide to make a career/life in music? When I was 4 I knew this is what I had to do. I was just born with this. I wanted an agent, a manager, everything. At 4.

Favourite single so far? The Replay.

When is the album coming out? September 2026.

Do you find it easy to separate the music from the business side? In this day and age, no. As an independent artist, you have to handle so much of the business side yourself. A lot of my time is spent creating graphics, making travel plans, etc. It really goes hand in hand.

Q & A: Misc

Is Stella Prince your real name? Sure is! Born with it!

Star sign? Gemini.

Do you think you live up to it? I am a Gemini through and through.

Favourite thing about Laurel Canyon? It feels like a time capsule from the ‘60s.

Tell me about your small local business partnerships? Yes, I am so excited about this! I have partnered with 7 different local small businesses to do meetups and meet and greets on my summer tour.

As we mentioned, Stella is on her way to England! You can book all her worldwide tour stops here including Green Note, London and Long Road Festival, UK. You can watch her perform FWIW below, and there’s an interview at the end.

Lilly Winwood had become a fascinating musician for me. I had been drawn to her original songs by the cover she did of Higher Love with her dad. That was recorded years ago, when she was still at school, but I only heard it around December 2024.

Steve Winwood has been a constant presence in my life not only through that song, played everywhere on heavy rotation throughout the ‘80s, but through his song High Life, and especially when Warren Zevon covered it. It turns out that Steve Winwood could only write hit records beginning with the letters H and L. [Not true. ‘Back in the High Life Again’ is its full title. Ed.]

You can read a longer account of my year in music below.

Another early highlight of my year in music was discovering Lola Kirke, just a few weeks before her movie Sinners came out. I warmed to Lola for the same reasons I had warmed to Lilly.

Although Lilly grew up in England and sounds British, Lola was born in London and is the only one of the Kirke sisters to sound American. But with two British parents instead of one, Lola understood British humour and could do a pitch-perfect middle-aged English lady of the manor accent: her mother.

Better yet, both of Lola’s parents come from old English money and are descended from the aristocracy. I quickly began to associate the Kirke sisters with the Mitford sisters. I read Lola’s book, also then new out, Wild West Village. For a while, I might have been clinically obsessed. I met her on Thanksgiving in London and she signed my book. I believe the only way to experience her album Trailblazer in full colour is to read her book while you listen.

However the most surprising aspect of my reading and writing about those two is that it allowed me to follow the dots to other musicians. It was through Lilly that I met Cyrena Wages. Lola brought me into contact with Chloe Kimes, a singer so talented and tasteful that she recognised me in London. My brother has never forgotten that day. Lola also introduced me to Willow Avalon and… Katie Pearlman.

It was February 2026 when KP messaged me out of the blue. I don’t know why she chose that day or why she chose me, but I was surprised. My writing had focused on people at the beginning of their journey, people perhaps well-known in their local areas who had day jobs, or who were starting to tour nationally in America, possibly planning their first UK shows.

Katie Pearlman was not someone I expected to hear from. She has written songs for Sabrina Carpenter and Kelly Clarkson and I could not believe she wanted me to write about her upcoming album. The more I played her music, new and old, and the more I read her Substack and researched her life, the more admiration I felt.

KP’s bio is a line from the Edie Brickell classic What I Am and she identifies as Lilith Fair. I remember Lilith Fair first-hand, not through the thrilling Disney+ documentary. I am old enough to have seen Sheryl Crow play for just 400 people in Manchester.

Like Lola, Katie is Jewish. the -man suffix on a family name is a dead giveaway, like Dettmann. Many Jewish-German families ditched the duplicated N to make themselves look less German... really odd when you think about it too long. Improbably, and absolutely not amusingly, one of my ancestors was Hermann Dettmann.

The reason people sometimes ask me to write stuff for them is presumably the same reason Katie’s songs resonate across continents and across generations. I really do my homework, I dig deep, I look beyond the obvious, and certainly beyond the music. What fascinates me is a good story.

That story might be found in the lyrics, like in a good ole country narrative song like Goodbye Earl, another thing I remember from the first time around, before the Chicks were called the Chicks. A great story might be found in the backstory of the songwriter too, and the people who affect me the most deeply are when those two things happen at the same time. That’s what authenticity means to me.

The thing about Katie Pearlman, and Lola actually, and so many of the musicians I write about is that they don’t understand how great they are. All artists are affected by doubt and guilt and anxiety at some point, and some more often than others. The current phrase is imposter syndrome but it has existed for centuries.

If writing is a hobby, this frees you up from some of the fear of failure. Not all of it, but you know you’re not going to starve, even if they write reviews such as my favourite one-star review. Three words: not a book.

At some point in the early ‘00s I made a conscious decision that my writing career was not worth starving myself for. I had a job offer from a top London consultancy at the very moment in history when everyone wanted to be a management consultant and they even made a drama series out of it, House of Lies with Don Cheadle.

I travelled the world and saw the Record Plant, Sausalito, where they recorded Rumours, on expenses. It was the right decision for me, but it inevitably stalled out my writing. Anyway, most male writers are over forty when they first get a novel published. What do you know about life at 21, really?

So I know some of what it means to be a professional artist. Imagine how much more deeply the fear of failure would strike if you depended on your music to eat! This is why I love writing about pro indie musicians. It’s their balls. They live a life I bottled out of.

Over the last few months, listening to Katie Pearlman’s new music, and trying to figure out how I will write about it when the time comes, I have been very severely struck by the range of emotions and styles she manages to cover. I started to realise a while ago that most pro artists can sing in virtually any style. Yes, they all choose one style for their own albums, and generally try to stay in a lane that makes sense to their audience. But quietly, behind the scenes, they can all sing any genre you can imagine.

I admired Katie because she might write for famous people who are essentially pop stars, but in fact she canned her own pop album after it had been recorded. This needs to be dwelt upon.

I have chucked books and many other projects for the same reason, because I lost faith in the output. Sometimes I have released a book that I lost belief in just to get it off my mind. Recording an album involves a fuckload more money than writing a book and it involves lots more people. Not only the musicians but the producer, the mixer, the candlestick maker. Katie had to find the resolve to tell her whole tribe that this album was going in the bin because she could no longer connect with it emotionally. I am shaking my head with awe as I write this. The sheer balls!

What I can tell you is that KP’s new music, her full-length debut album in fact, will not be going in any bin. I am sure she is slightly more excited to share it with you than I am, being so late to the party. Sometimes, though, a latecomer falls hardest of all. But I fully endorse this message and strongly recommend that you play some Katie Pearlman this very moment. If you don’t, your friends will, and you’ll be a step behind the curve yet again. Don’t be that person. Tell your friends: the album of 2026 is this one.

You can listen to Katie Pearlman’s music in all the usual places. You can dig a little deeper here and I strongly recommend her Substack, below. As you might expect she is on Instagram and TikTok.

hi it's me katie.

writing. thinking. music. musings. magic.

By Katie Pearlman

I was vaguely aware of the format but did not realise it was modelled on a successful night in Nashville that has run weekly for years. An all-female line-up sings one song each in succession, and then at the end they all sing a female-written cover song as a group. This group chose Dry Spell by Kacey Musgraves and had a lot of fun singing the yups! Never has a yup sounded more Yorkshire.

One of the best things about these showcases is getting to discover new artists, and of the four below I was previously aware only of Issy Richardson. All of the artists impressed me and they were all so different. It looked to us like all the girls had become fast friends, especially for that group song at the end.

Vic Allen

One of the best things about this format is that the singers have time to talk about the context and inspirations behind each song. Inevitably, most of the songs were about the different ways men can disappoint women. Present company excepted, obvs… Anyway, Vic Allen anchored the show and introduced the format. She has played here several times before and helped everyone relax into proceedings.

Vic played us Falling in Love, her new song out on 26 June which you can presave here. She told us it was really about falling for London again after she returned before Christmas from a spell in Nashville. Is there anywhere better than London at Christmas? She also sang Brighter, and one written when she realised that she tended to write a song about every single relationship in her life called Ended in a Song.

I really enjoyed Suitcase, written during lockdown and a celebration of her love of travel. Vic is currently based in London so I hope to see her play live again as she gears up for her album release later this year. You can still support her crowdfunder here.

Mabes

Essex-based Mabes introduced her first song, Too Young to Love, about her first long-term relationship. A really moving tribute to a relationship that began when both were teenagers and became challenging as they grew into adults, and grew apart. Her song Danny was written in character about a war hero, an idea inspired by her love of Laura Marling. She also played Slow Drowning and America, a song inspired by a writing camp in Nashville. Mabes has an upcoming single you can presave here called Ready To Go.

Fascinatingly for me, as a writer, is that Mabes was drawn to poetry before music and picked up a guitar as a way to share her words. If teenagers are still finding poetry relevant then there is still hope!

Marianne Leigh

Marianne is originally from New Zealand, about as far as anyone can travel, and it was certainly worth the journey. She brought a lot of fun and energy with her and I really enjoyed her quirky take on the key moments of her life so far. She sang clone, her new single due out on Friday 12th June which you can presave here. Memory is a little hazy on some of the song titles but I think she also sang Good Man, Who Says Exes Can’t Be Friends and Crazy Love.

There’s a growing catalogue of Marianne’s music for you to stream but one that stood out to me was the phrase shouted in my earhole every Yorkshire evening of my childhood: shut up and eat your dinner. Where I’m from, dinner happens at lunchtime.

Isabella Richardson

One reason I chose this particular Sunday to visit Lil Nashville was to watch Issy Richardson play. I had been reviewing her recent EP, The Waiting Room, and decided these songs had to be seen live.

Just before Isabella sang her first song, a pint of Guinness arrived. The look on her face was that of a parched desert traveller who has misplaced their Stanley cup and started wondering about the mechanics of drinking piss. I wrote down: Not Guinness Zero. It turns out that Guinness is the perfect liquid to lubricate vocal chords! No, I didn’t buy it either.

Issy was just as funny and friendly as I expected, and you can read my thoughts in detail below.

You can find out more here about Vic Allen, Mabes, Marianne Leigh and Isabella Richardson and stream all of them in all the usual places! They are all very much worth following. Do try to see one of them near you.

When we heard Meredith Brooks was coming to town, we all grabbed a ticket. She was the biggest new star of 1997 with her album, Blurring the Edges. Nobody had ever heard of her and I did not know until today that it was her second album. In our eyes, and in my ears, Meredith Brooks had only one song and it is called Bitch.

The bitches are back. The wonderful Kassi Ashton just released a much calmer, very different country song called Bitches. She had all the same issues that Meredith Brooks faced. Is that progress? Why in America is the word bitch enough to get you banned from the radio? Brooks’ record company, Interscope, had grown tired of her songs when songwriter Shelley Peiken watched her sing one night.

Shelley Peiken: “[Meredith] was introduced to me by her manager and I went to see her play at a club in Hollywood. I thought she had balls. I thought she could really sing. But I didn’t know what to write with her. Then I had this really miserable day and I started writing a song with the line, ‘I hate the world today.’ I thought, Oh my God, I’m gonna call that girl Meredith because she needed a song to bring to Interscope.”

As you might have guessed, Interscope were horrified. Meredith jumped back in her car and drove over to Capitol Records. They signed her that day and Bitch became a No. 2 around the world and No. 6 here. Although it never quite topped the charts, we never forgot Bitch, our generation. Somewhere else in England sat a teenaged Nat Hills, no doubt responding even more viscerally to this song because, like Meredith and Shelley, she was a girl who wanted a music career.

I hate the world today
You’re so good to me, I know, but I can’t change
Tried to tell you but you look at me like maybe
I’m an angel underneath
Innocent and sweet

Yes, it’s punchy from the off. Not only has it not dated, it has become even more relevant. When our girls wrote Bitch, they were frustrated with the 1997 music industry, as it was then, with Napster just bubbling up. Imagine what they would write today!

I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I’m your Hell, I’m your dream
I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way

Who is she singing to? A man, yes, but who is he to her? There are moments when he is the boyfriend but there are moments when he could be any man, or even The Man. There are moments when he is Jimmy Iovine, the founder of Interscope Records, a man loved and loathed by female singers throughout the decades, not least by Stevie Nicks.

Nat’s version of Bitch is authentic and close to the original without trying to copy it. Meredith Brooks was almost forty when she sang this song, but the anger is that of a woman at the end of her rope. This was her final chance, and she felt it, and it garnered three Grammy nominations in 1998. MB had finally made it, and she was now middle-aged.

In this new version, Nat’s voice is a shade deeper yet just as angry. This Bitch is full of ‘90s music production and the video is a must-see. Filmed on a Ring doorbell (other doorbell cams are available) it has that earthy, grainy quality that we all remember from the MTV era and VHS.

Bitch is a song from a time when kids taped stuff of the radio and we taped Top of the Pops. Meredith Brooks, against all the odds, became the Killer Queen of 1997. A few months before I saw her live, MB hit TOTP herself. I shiver still to watch the footage. She was and remains a real rocker.

Nat Hills is a real rocker too, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her this summer. Her EP says it all and is available now: Therapy In Session is a brilliant title with so many meanings, and a handful of bangers. She works hard on her own material but is also in-demand with her Miley and Cher tribute acts.

As you can see from the artwork below, Nat’s 2026 edition looks like you just found it in the loft, covered in cobwebs and untouched since 1997. That CD logo, that Parental Advisory sticker, those scuffed edges. It even has a dance mix and radio edit versions. She’s partying like it’s 1999 and it’s time to stream the new Bitch today!

You catch Nat Hills in person this year all over the country including at Isle of Wight Festival when she is one of the very first acts on their all-new country music stage, Last Chance Saloon.

Cyrena loves an exclamation mark and so do horror movies. I watched The Bride! this week, by coincidence. Cyrena has played a bride before in photo shoots but finally the day arrived when she literally transformed herself, throughout a day of being the bride, into a wife, that most civilised yet puzzling of creatures.

I have seen a few reels from the big day. She wore her mother’s dress. She won’t mind me accusing her of using this whole process to get more songwriting material. I know this because I’ve seen her using the backdrop of the wedding to shoot another music video. It’s more of a fact than an accusation.

I’ve been listening to today’s number, Wildflower, for over a year and it still grows. This one is different yet familiar. Cyrena told us in an interview last year that this one had a special place in her heart.

I wrote “Wildflower” about the woman everyone warns you about, who is also the woman everyone wants. It explores the tension between rebellion and intimacy, the space between a midlife crisis and a genuine ache for love. I’ve always found dark romance to be the most evocative romance, and the "opposites attract" dynamic of my personal life has made its way into most of my writing, with wit, cynicism, and playfulness as tools to handle vulnerability.

So this is not a narrative story like If It Ain’t Broke or Find Out (FAAFO), or anything you care to choose from 2024’s debut album, Vanity Project. This is a first person song in which the singer goes to sleep as a rose and wakes up a wildflower.

The thing about the wildflower, in spite of its name, is that it remains a very delicate, precarious plant. A rose lives on a sturdy bush. A wildflower is cast to the winds as a seed, hoping to get lodged in some grass, its life short even if it germinates. I think we can expect more gardening songs in the future. They’re en vogue at the moment, to wit: Willow Avalon’s hilarious Hypothetically Speaking.

This is as close as Cyrena Wages or C$ gets to bopping. It feels slower but also light and airy, despite the dark romance of the lyrics. She refers to daisies and weeds too. The only question I have is: how much of the song is about Cyrena herself? She says she wrote it about ‘the woman’ everyone warns you about… but who is that?

The good news for you is that Cyrena has lost none of her edge or anger, despite being the happiest she has ever been. I used to fear that if she settled down and became a home-maker, or a trad wife, perish the thought, the music might stop. In fact she is only just getting going, and proudly holds on to that sharp dark edge.

You can stream Wildflower in all the usual places and find out more on her website. You can presave Miss Melancholia! here.

Oh we’re fighting again
About the same old thing
It’s a crying shame
But I’ll take the blame

The most literal hearing of these lyrics might suggest a narrow interpretation of love. The duo have been talking about this as a queer anthem, a celebration of gay love, and all of that is true. But I had to ask: isn’t it really about all kinds of love?

ALI: The initial intention was to write a song about romantic love but the way it evolved, it became something where it can apply to any relationship that’s loving like friendship, romantic, platonic, familial, all of it. But I think with specific lyrics, we were kind of drawing from our own past relationships and the dynamics of being with a person that brings you back to your best self and helps you to regulate yourself and remind yourself of your own worth and how that’s more valuable than any tangible idea of wealth.

RAE: That’s where a song like Real Wealth for me is like a medicine or a tincture because I think the hardest thing about self-starting everything and self-financing your dreams is that you can lose yourself and you can reach a point of desperation. It’s the relationships in your life, the good relationships that feel warm, that can regulate you to keep going. I think that’s what I was channeling in the song.

ALI: I think as artists we need a lot of validation, but I was thinking about the root of what that really means in terms of applause or numbers or, you know, whether it’s a playlist or selling out a venue or having fans and all of that stuff. The validation... it all kind of roots down to connection at the end of the day, the desire to connect and be relational with other people.

I was aware that both Ali and Rae had played at the same SoCal Sound all-female showcase a few weeks before we spoke. What I didn’t realise is that they were invited separately and SoCal Sound did not know they knew each other and did not know about the duet. Rae explained that the duet dynamic is quite different to working more in isolation.

RAE: I think it is an amalgamation. I’ve been hesitant to even label it as like, oh, it’s this, because I think what sticks out to me most is the way that our voices work together. They blend really well when they need to, but they also cut through like the way her voice is so Ali and I feel like my voice is so me.

You pick me up when I’m feeling down
I miss your touch when you’re not around
Oh in sickness or in health
We found love’s the real wealth

The timing of this song is part of their joint and separate narratives. Ali is still promoting her debut album, which I reviewed earlier this year.

Meanwhile Rae is preparing for the release of her next album, which even I do not know the title of. Or the release date for, but it will very likely be this year. So for both artists, Real Wealth acts as a bookend, a pause.

I reminded Rae of a point she made on tour: that although the musician lifestyle might appear precarious, from her perspective the ‘safe’ office job is looking less stable all the time. She completely, and very rationally, deconstructed the narrative we were all given from birth, that the way to happiness is to work really hard at a boring job and then retire as early as you can.

RAE: That idea sounds very unsensible to me. And not because I’m wild! I think what’s sensible is depth and autonomy. To think that you put the things you actually value which are your passions, your adventure... to put that off until the end of your life makes absolutely no sense. Real Wealth is about the pursuit of what’s really valuable in life despite the timelines we’re supposed to follow.

And that is why I love Rae Isla. She is one of the most steady, grounded people I have spoken to in the last year. A quick chat with her makes it sound like the musical life is sensible and authentic and not at all risky. She makes me think I can follow the path too. If she can, if I can... then surely you can.

Our conversation moved on to the difference between writing as a solo artist, which Rae and Ali do most of the time, and writing as a duo.

ALI: It’s interesting when two artists write together it’s like there are a million choices you could make that take you in different directions in a song. When you’re writing with somebody else you could be steering one way and then they’re like “well, what if we did this” and then suddenly the song becomes something it would never have been if you were writing alone. I think that’s probably what you’re hearing in the song, too, is just like the twists and turns of like... I navigated the song this way for a bit. And then this choice Rae brought, and back and forth. And so it becomes this kind of combo of our styles because, just like the way our brains work, we have different ideas.

All artists are independent up to a point. If it’s your name on the cover, you have to answer for it, even if you’re signed to a major label. But when you’re really independent, the stakes are even higher. One of the aims of a duet must surely be to unite your audiences, to share ears, and hopefully reach new fans.

Ali and Rae have achieved that and more with Real Wealth. It is both more Ali and more Rae than their solo work, recognisable but different. The same, but better.

Crying all around the room I make a mess I can’t get through
I don’t know just what I’d do without you
And if we lost all it on red I would bet on us again
Cause we are one in a million

In many ways, Rae and Ali seemed just as surprised as I was to find themselves recording together.

RAE: For two artists to come together and to be able to take it across the finish line just feels like lightning in a bottle. So I’m really excited about this because I’ve had so many writing sessions that just fell off or we didn’t cut the record... for one Real Wealth there’s a hundred ones that didn’t make it.

Needless to say, they just kept on talking, and I hope to bring you more of their thoughts soon. But for now, clap your ears around Real Wealth today!

You can catch Ali Angel at all kinds of venues around LA and further afield and you can read more on her own site. She has a funny TikTok account and she shares posts on Instagram regularly. All of her recent music is available direct on Bandcamp.

Rae Isla is also active on social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, and you can sign up to receive her emails on her site. You can buy her music on Bandcamp or stream in all the usual places. A new album will be with you shortly.

This week’s single, It Ain’t Me, is a tub-thumping, foot-stompin’ honky tonk hit. It’s fast and loud and great for a line dance with some 90s-style production on top. It’s been in my ears for weeks now and is rapidly becoming my favourite PKJ track of them all.

It might be considered incongruous to share some family news alongside the release of a song about such a loser, but that’s the way the universe works sometimes.

I was lucky enough to meet not only Paige but her husband Griffin in London, and shortly after their fourth wedding anniversary last month, they announced that Paige is expecting her first baby this fall!

“I’ve never felt a deeper calling over my life than being a mom, and one of the most attractive things I noticed about my husband, Griffin, early on when we were dating, was how patient and loving he was towards all the children we had around us, from friends to family. I knew he would not only make a great husband, but a great family leader and father to our children someday. I’m excited to become a mother myself and fulfill that long-awaited call in my heart, but I’m even more comforted knowing that I will be doing it alongside such a great partner. We can’t wait to welcome our sweetest answered prayer this fall! Thank you, Jesus, for trusting us with this blessing. Baby C, we are so lucky to be your parents, and we can’t wait to kiss your sweet face!”

There’s only so much excitement I can share in a single article and I thought it was important to let Paige announce such enormous news in her own words.

Moving back to the single, it’s really funny in spite of the topic. Yes, he’s a loser, of course, but he is such a giant loser that it’s properly amusing. He drinks too much, leaves her to pick up the tab, and then treats her like an Uber afterwards.

Paige has shared some of her inspirations and insights into the making of this song. The big surprise for me was that such an upbeat tempo song, even if it deals with some challenging topics, was written alongside the heartbreaking earlier single, I Get Old Too.

“We wrote It Ain’t Me on the same day as I Get Old Too. After finishing such a heartfelt song, we wanted something to lighten the mood a little bit. This song really fell out in no time at all – we just had fun & leaned into early days of Carrie & Miranda vibes when writing it. It’s full of all the sass that, I believe, female anthems should have as far as the writing goes, but we went full on 90’s honky-tonk with the production when we took it into the studio.”

“Finding out that your person hasn’t been as faithful as they claimed to be is not fun, I’ve been there, but being able to really call them out on their stuff & have the last word in the breakup is the redeeming part. That’s what this song is all about!”

Paige King Johnson is a Belmont-trained songwriter with a home base in Nashville and North Carolina. You can follow her on Instagram, TikTok and read more on her own website.

Things have changed in 2026. She’s still brilliant, but Hand Me Downs was nostalgic and deeply felt. As you can read below, it does not always refer to physical objects. Hand Me Downs was a cry for help in a world where we retain the baggage of our ancestors, try as they might to lessen the blows of life.

This is Zoee’s account of how this song got going:

I started writing this song in the wee hours of the morning… it must have been around 4am, which is either very late or very early, depending on whether you’re an insomniac or a songwriter. Or both… I am both. It’s that magical hour when the rest of the world is asleep and your feelings have absolutely no supervision.

What she came out with is the darkest and least optimisitic song she has ever written.That is why today’s single, Don’t Let Me Go, is even more powerful.

4 AM slippin’ in my DMs
Wasn’t long before I was in your bed
From hey what’s up to midnights and all your weekends
Now you’re runnin’ circles through my head

There’s an anger under the surface. She remains disappointed and profoundly so. It is easy to see why this guy fell for her, but impossible to understand why he treated her so badly. This is the moment when the positivity falters. Even Zoee sometimes finds it hard. Hope is a choice, in the end, and it might be considered disingenuous to see every setback as an opportunity. Sometimes you have to be sad.

Now I’m staring at my phone when the night ends
You love to leave me hanging on by a thread
You went from calling me your best friend
To ghosting me like I was dead

Part of this song’s impact comes from the element of surprise. I didn’t see it coming, even coming hot on the heels of Hand Me Downs. Perhaps even more so because Zoee has dealt with setbacks before, and therefore you know it takes a lot to knock her off kilter, this one hits hard.

You never called but I got the message
I can see it all so crystal clear
Now you’re standing here in all of your wreckage
Begging me to take you back, my dear

I didn’t see the twist coming. There isn’t any more of this cinematic story yet, so I have no idea whether she took him back. I know what we want her to do, what she should have done... but did she?

Postscript

I wrote this before Zoee published her own account on her own Substack. I knew that I had a fairly strong understanding of the song but I did miss something important. I had interpreted it as a misguided relationship, a mistake that Zoee probably saw coming but disregarded the signals. As I listen more, I tend to think this is more like an abusive relationship. There is something cold and calculating and cruel about the guy’s behaviour. Yes, this is very different.

You can pre-save all of Zoee’s music here. If you’re in Nashville for CMA Fest, go see her at the Bluebird Café on June 5th, and at Ariat on Broadway on June 7th. All show dates are at zoeemusic.com. It’s going to be a special one.

Zoee’s Substack

this song is about someone I should have never trusted

I started writing this song in the wee hours of the morning… it must have been around 4am, which is either very late or very early, depending on whether you’re an insomniac or a songwriter. Or both… I am both. It’s that magical hour when the rest of the world is asleep and your feelings have absolutely no supervision…

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19 days ago · 2 likes · Zoee

It helped slightly when I realised Issy lives in the same home county as yours truly, but only a little. I challenge you to spend half an hour on the phone with her and not end the call friends for life, quietly adding her to your list of “when phoned at 4am to request help burying a body, just say yes” friends.

One of the many reasons that I immediately decided to download Isabella’s EP was that she is so self-effacing, apparently unaware of her effect on others. The artwork for the EP is vaguely autumnal and very British. Hard though it may be to fathom, she seems to prefer our decidedly meh climate to all the sunshine she grew up with.

Even better than all this, if improvement could be imagined, a cursory listen to the four songs gathered together as First Aid Kit reveals that every song features an explicit lyric. That is one of my favourite things about Australians, men and women both. They swear almost as often as me.

Waiting Room

We are only four words into the EP when we experience our first fuck. Yes, the F-word is the literal fourth word. She’s really angry. I discovered that these four songs were written in quick succession, very close together, and they are mainly about the same ill-fated relationship.

I guess I fucked myself over with the last laugh
Cause I′ve been thinking bout you since and how I want you back
Heavy on the lump in my throat, a tough pill to swallow
That I thought of you as forever, but to you I was borrowed

We are not in the dentist’s or doctor’s waiting room here. At this season of her life, Isabella is feeling second best every time, at best. She is always someone else’s Plan B. This is very difficult for me to imagine. Could it just be that she’s drawn to that guy, the wrong ‘un? I sense she would not really be happy with a doctor, dentist or accountant. She wants danger. Artists of all kinds crave it. Just not this much.

Body Count

This is the song that made me feel angry. I cannot be sure if the song refers to a single event, a series of events or a whole relationship. Isabella leaves just enough unsaid to introduce some doubt that adds to the mystery.

She seems at her darkest moment here. Something happened on her birthday, but it was not only that. There was a lot else that was dark. Just how dark, just what he did, is deliberately unclear. But this is a very good song indeed.

I′m not one to hold a grudge
I’m six feet deep in the hole you′ve dug
What you did on my birthday
I’ll never live down
And I feel like a fucking fool for trying to get you to hear me out

It would be easy to walk away from a first listen to this EP feeling despondent. Anger is the over-riding emotion, at first listen. There is a lot else going on too, in particular a feeling that she might have lost this battle but is still very much in charge.

Runner Up

This song does what it says. It considers the unlikely scenario in which Issy is a runner up to a love rival. It seems that this is not unfamiliar territory. It has happened so often that she starts to question herself. If she is always second best to someone else, could it be her fault?

Go cry baby
Go figure it ain’t me
Maybe I’m just hard to love
That’s why I’m never good enough
But I don’t want if, buts, or maybes
Is that too high of a shelf to reach?
Cause I know I’m not that hard to love
I’m just sick of always placing Runner Up

I’m afraid this is the kind of thing that can happen when you choose to hang around too long with men. They look a lot of fun from a distance but once you commit, they tend to... run a mile. This one dumped her after a twenty minute phone call. One wonders why it took him twenty minutes. Was he working up the courage? Making sure he was sure? Trying to suss her out, just in case there was any chance she was about to dump him first?

First Aid Kit

The title track arrives last. This is the moment when I look backwards and wonder if I have a favourite. The good news is that these songs are all very similar stylistically and are best interpreted as four parts of the same story. This one opens with Issy stuck on a ferris wheel at a carnival. She’s going round in circles, never making progress. She is the other woman now, dating a man known to have a steady girlfriend. Could this be love? Do we need to ask?

I’m stuck on the merry go round at the fun fair
Reminding myself I′m a good person I just slipped up there
Cause I keep falling for these boys who show up like a man
Promising what ifs and future plans

It makes me think that this might be the first in the timeline... that he was still with someone else when they first met, but making empty promises about the long term. She’s feeling the pressure from other friends, most of which are now coupled up and raising babies. Does this make someone lower their standards? That is the stereotype, certainly.

A Massive Future

If you get chance it is worth going off piste and finding some of Issy’s other songs on your streaming service. She had a big success with her song, Galaxies, which appeared in a Disney Plus movie. Pin up Girls and Paper Crowns are also very strong.

The good news is that Isabella Richardson is highly self-aware. Whenever she is being gulled by a shark, we at least know that hindsight kicks in right away. She can always see the danger ahead, she always knows the outcome, even as she closes her eyes and dreams of an unexpected surprise.

It would be easy to say that this guy had trouble written right through him from the start, like Brighton rock. Less easy to admit that it was therefore all a total mistake. There must have been some highlights. And if there were not, at least she got this absolutely brilliant debut EP out of him. And even better, when he hears about it, he will know exactly whom it is all about.

Isabella Richardson is on Instagram and TikTok as well as on your favourite streaming service.

I have been listening to Isabella Richardson’s EP First Aid Kit for a week or so and loved every minute of it. The lyrics are deeply personal and give a deep insight into some painful memories, so there’s nothing for it but to write a proper review of those four songs in a few weeks’ time. Watch this space.

This clears the way for me to deal with the most important question I had prepared when we spoke recently. How is Marmite different to Vegemite? It’s a question I have been saving since 1986 and never found occasion to ask, until now. Only Australians and Neighbours fans know what Vegemite is, and there are precious few of either in England any more.

It turns out that it’s not an easy question. Issy loves Vegemite but has no clear idea what it is. Could it be something to do with the dregs of a beer barrel? Is one of them a little sweeter, but which one is which? In the end we each agreed to try out the product we were less familiar with and report back. I wish I had asked it sooner, to be honest. I’m not sure it was worth waiting forty years.

We talked about our common influences. Kate Miller-Heidke is a name that pops up in any conversation with an Australian. Relatively unknown here, unless you are a fan of Eurovision, but a pretty major celebrity back home, and a judge on the Voice, Kate spent a decade or so in London. When I was listening to First Aid Kit I recognised some textures in common with early KMH music.

Isabella left Melbourne in search of an entertainment career, and went to Los Angeles first. You can guess what came next. Yes, disillusionment. Things had been going well but then the pandemic stopped her in her tracks and caused her to move back home for a while. Only home had vanished. Her parents had left Melbourne for Tasmania, and Isabella knew absolutely nobody in that remote part of the world. I got the sense of a reset, a reckoning, a reassessment of priorities. We did not quite get to the bottom of how she chose the English countryside as her next home, but presumably it’s a bit like Launceston, Tasmania, only without the weather.

One of the things I love most about this job is feeling like I’ve found a major new talent before anyone else.

The best news I have for you is that Isabella’s recent EP will lead to a tour beginning in a few days’ time and that she is really focusing on her music this year. She won’t be turning down any lead roles in major motion pictures, but having listened to all her songs on repeat this week I feel like music is the perfect way for her to express her own feelings rather than reading words written by someone else while pretending to be someone she isn’t.

The endearing thing about Isabella is that she has all the makings of a major global pop star: she has the life experience to write about, and she has the bubbly personality to convince you of this in about five seconds. And yet she wants to do nothing more than snuggle up with cocoa in a cottage in the woods, in England, in December, with the curtains drawn. Australia’s loss is our gain, as it was for me when Clive James came here in... around 1986.

I’ve been working up to telling you that Isabella has a memorable role in the new Peaky Blinders movie. The name of the part, I think you will agree, does not even begin to do justice to her performance. She auditioned for the part of Prostitute in Pub sometime in 2024 and shot her scene later that year, so it has been a wait. There’s nobody better than Isabella to tell you about that role so I leave it as homework to find the reel where she talks about it on socials. Several years earlier she also wrote and performed a highly streamed song for a Disney movie called Clouds. Her song was Galaxies and is still available to stream today.

One of the things I love most about this job is feeling like I’ve found a major new talent before anyone else. Before you, anyway. You can catch Isabella on tour in the south of England this May and June, and even those of you near my northern hometown, in York, will be able to see her at FortyFive Vinyl. What could be more convenient? Grab a ticket while you can!

Isabella Richardson is on Instagram and TikTok as well as on your favourite streaming service.

In Tennessee they throw around compliments like confetti at a royal wedding. In England we don’t throw around compliments at all; perhaps it’s more like confetti at a funeral here. Let’s crack on.

Alison Krauss. She has worked with Robert Plant and they recorded a song together called Gone, Gone, Gone. Of course, it is an Everly Brothers cover. Cyrena Wages is better than the Everly Brothers. Gone is not the best title perhaps but Cyrena’s latest, Same Shit, Different Century, (an incredible title actually) reminded me in a wonderful way of the Gones.

This song simmers gently where If It Ain’t Broke and Find Out boiled. Same Shit has a chugging guitar which means it is perfect for driving a desert highway. Or just popping out to the 7-Eleven with your babies and dogs. I can’t think of a single thing you might want to do in your day that wouldn’t be improved by listening to this. And worth bearing in mind: my version of Same Shit is a rough demo.

I really enjoyed If It Ain’t Broke last year. The humour is evident from a first listen. But when I saw the video, lawd, my sides split open and my intestines fell out on the freshly dopamine-stained carpet. I damn near died. Interesting because the guy in the video certainly was dead or at least his legs and feet were. I just never managed to figure out why her hair is pegged to a washing line.

Same Shit is partly about the inevitable nature of men and women and how it hasn’t changed in a hundred years. It’s quite likely that the absolute basic chemistry hasn’t changed in a thousand years, or a million. This brings both pros and cons. It seems earlier in the song that Cyrena was hoping for more from her man. She always expects more than men are able to provide, even though she isn’t really hoping for much. Can’t they just behave?

The pro of course is that the lessons learned by our ancestors, by our mothers and grandmothers, are just as relevant today. We can learn a lot from those who learned all the tricks before we were born. If the world had changed too much through the generations, things might be even worse than they are.

Do you need a fix?
Then I got your back
Gonna hit you in the head
Like a baseball bat
Let’s rumble
Let’s rage

One of the things I love most about Cyrena is her demure femininity... hah! She’s got more balls than any man in America. She is most certainly from Venus though. One thing about Cyrena Catherine Wages is that she will always cheer you up. If you want something darker and more serious then try 2024’s Vanity Project. I have been listening again to Vanity Project again this week while waiting for Same Shit to drop. It’s still brilliant. It is so varied, so pained.

These are the wounds from which Cyrena still heals. I hope she is always pissed off, at least in her persona. Whether she is Patsy or Cyrena, or C$, or one of her many other characters does not matter. There are no misfires. There is only quality every damn time. If you prefer funny dark humour, the scars from the wound, then hit the new tunes. They offer a rich seam. She is starting to laugh at herself, but only now and then.

I cannot wait to hear more music. Cyrena is the only Cyrena I have ever heard of in the whole world and if you’re still dope enough not to know, it is Serena Wages. Like Serena Williams but with more balls. Wages as in earnings from a job. And what a job this is!

You can stream Same Shit in all the usual places and find out more on her website. Her first album, set in Memphis, was Vanity Project.

The videos below are older songs. The Overton Park BTS footage just shows how magnetic she is. CW is never happier than performing in front of her hometown crowd. The Carried Away footage is more recent and shows how equally at home she is in the studio.

Ruby describes how she wrote the song with the Upper 309 out of Memphis, TN, showing how international the music scene is now and how indie musicians are finding new ways to collaborate across oceans.

Is he loving me or killing me, has it always been like this
The idea of him is better than who he really is
Cause holding onto him is arsenic and it’s tainting my mind
The only antidote is letting go of this lie so I say goodbye

Ruby is active on TikTok and Instagram. It is a fabulous song and if you are near Essex on Saturday 18th April you can drop by to meet Ruby at Never-ending Chain in Battlesbridge and pick up a custom trucker cap!

Katrina Cain

Katrina is a proud Texan and kicked us off in style. She explained the context to I Hate July (partly the heat) and then moved smoothly to Not in Love which featured something Katrina introduced as ‘mini-yodelling’ and it went over very well with the audience. She’s been practicing so next time I’m hoping she will go full yodel. All of these songs were new to me. It’s one of the brilliant things about a showcase that you always discover a new artist or two.

The set moved on through Dizzy and Truck Song, which I think is the one that made one of our posse cry. It’s about the cars she used to buy from her dad and the nostalgia, the sweet memories of those autos that she now drives four hours in each direction to get her to gigs.

Husband and guitarist Andrew played brilliantly, making his six string sound just as eerie and ethereal as any pedal steel. [You’re talking about glissando, right? Ed.] They’re from Texas, and my British ears could not quite believe that it takes sixteen hours to drive end to end across the state.

My favourite of Katrina’s was about the city boys of Dallas, I think it was called Posh Boys, and I have not found that on streaming so it might be one of the new ones due later in the year. Lady of the Night and its line about a ‘midnight ballerina’ was equally brilliant: it was a 50-50 between the two for me.

The set wrapped up with New Mercedes and a selfie you can now find on Instagram, by which point the whole audience felt they were Katrina’s BFFs. I cannot wait to see what she does next, but it was a superb start to the night.

Paige King Johnson

PKJ needs no introduction for regular readers of the Vibes and she hails from Raleigh, North Carolina. You can read my reviews of her previous two singles below. But meeting her in person and seeing her play live after all these months was special. A nod also to her supportive husband who was in the house too.

Several of the songs came from Paige’s 2022 album, Honky Tonk Heart, which I was less familiar with and some I was hearing for the first time. American Beauty and Famous Enough were stand-outs for me. Grandpa’s Little Girl moistened every eye in the house and her singalong cover of Stand By Me allowed us all to practice our southern accents.

Later on Paige taught us the meaning of ‘holla and swalla’ and we all practiced our hollerin’ and swallowin’ several times during the night. A bonus for the artists was trying out some new songs on a British audience for the first time, and one about running moonshine during the depression years grabbed my attention. I think that was South of North Carolina and apparently such fast driving to evade the police led eventually to the invention of NASCAR auto racing. I loved every minute of this set and Paige even tried out her English accent on the crowd, a brave move.

July Moon

I wanted to leave some mystery to the evening so didn’t do any research on July Moon. I’m sure this magnified the impact of this effervescent country trio that reminded me of The Chicks from the first note. Their first UK appearance was during last autumn’s Country Calling, a festival that is now the undisputed UK No. 1.

Those harmonies! The ‘tude! Sheer talent. They even reference wide open space in The Highway. Get It Over With, Whiskey Drinking Women and Devil Walkin’ together established this a punchy group that have fun together, look after each other and harmonise like angels, or possibly little devils. I cannot wait to listen more, and write more, as they continue to release future bangers. The band brought the house down with their final song, after requesting permission to use the title in full of F U Forever. Absolutely brilliant.

If I was listening properly, then 17 April will see the girls release Fake Flowers, which unusually was not written by the band. It was co-written by Lainey Wilson and July Moon loved it so much they recorded it immediately.

If you need further convincing, the band are even bigger Fleetwood Mac fans than yours truly, and they unleashed their magnificent interpretation of Rhiannon. They have that Mac connection in common with The Chicks too!

There was only one drawback with seeing three acts in one night and it’s that I haven’t had the time to listen deeply to all of the music yet. Rest assured I will be back in a few weeks with my trademark deep dives on Katrina Cain and July Moon, and I will continue to keep track of Paige King Johnson’s release cycle throughout the year.

Special thanks to Phil of Ron’s Honky Tonk and Madeline of Briar Bookings for arranging such a thrilling and unforgettable night. Encore!

They sit tall in the saddle, let loose of the reins
A heart tough as leather so they don’t feel a thing
Keep their eyes toward the sun, not back where they were
Just gotta ride fast enough to try and outrun the hurt

I was thrilled when Paige agreed to fight off the jet lag by answering my questions about her music, and about her current UK tour. This is her first time on our shores so there is no better time to grab a ticket now! And there will be a full review of the Ron’s Honky Tonk show here on the Vibes next week.

Q: Which of your recent releases means the most to you and why?

Probably I Get Old Too because it was inspired by my sweet Granddaddy. In a conversation we were having a while back, he unknowingly reminded me of just how much of a privilege it is to be able to get old in this life & to have a life lived fully. I pray I get to do the same.

Q: Favourite shoot for one of your music videos?

Probably Famous Enough a couple years back. I shot it with my dear friend, Pam Tillis. It was a two-day shoot, very exhausting and a lot of outside people & cast members involved in it, but it was one of the most rewarding projects we have worked on. I really felt like I got back to my roots & portrayed that well with that video.

Q: Your top three interesting things about Nashville for UK readers?

On top of some great music, Nashville has SUCH good food options all over the city. Also, in just 15-20 minutes outside of the city you can get to some of the prettiest horse farms I have ever seen. And lastly, it is home to, in my opinion, some of the world’s worst drivers 😂

Q: Favourite restaurant, bar, or live music venue in London?

I’ve never been to London - this will be my first time. So, I’m excited to try some new places & figure out which is my favourite.

Q: You’re heading to Glasgow soon. What do you love most about Scotland?

I’ve heard to expect very lush, green scenery everywhere with immaculate castles, so that’s what I’m looking forward to.

Q: Best live venue in Nashville?

My favourite has to be The Local. It’s an unassuming little bar, but always has top notch live original music & I always run into friends there. It ain’t called The Local for nothing!

Interesting choice of venue there, not one of the all-time famous ones. So the next time you’re in TN in your boots and Stetson, you know where to head for. You can follow Paige King Johnson on Instagram, TikTok and read more on her own website.

Unusually (even in 2026) this event was live-streamed so you can watch the whole thing for free below. I don’t therefore need to run through the set list, although be reassured. It included Stones and Years Beers Her Tears, Traveling On and plenty of unreleased new songs too. Downpour is a song about Seattle’s rain, surely the Manchester of America, and she might have commented on our grey, damp offering last night.

Born and raised in Washington State, Rae Isla now lives in Laurel Canyon, California. She is inspired by Joni Mitchell and Carole King, and loves the history and lore around music in the widest sense. I’m a Laurel Canyon fan too, of course, and once spent a weekend in a house on Kirkwood Drive overlooking the Canyon Country Store. It was where Mick Fleetwood decided to invite Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac, and has been a hub of Canyon life since its 1970s songwriters’ zenith. What I did not know is that the café there is still run by Lilly, who has regaled Rae with stories from the days when Joni and others were regulars.

Rae did a genuinely impromptu encore rendition of her highly personal The Gardener, and I’m sure a few others had a tear in their eye after that one. The natural world is a theme that runs through her songs, including her rock collection, curated since childhood, and occasional references to incessant rain.

It was a privilege to watch Rae sing Years Beers Her Tears right in front of me (see my socials for the proof) as that was the first song of hers that I heard and it remains a very powerful song. I love the new stuff and look forward to more. She dropped a few top-secret hints about future plans and I expect she will be back in the UK next year, fingers crossed.

Rae is active on social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, and you can sign up to receive her UK tour diary here. You can buy her music on Bandcamp or stream in all the usual places. A new album will be with you shortly.

Fox Palmer

Fox has played several times at the Drawing Room and seemed at home. I saw a couple of fans wearing her merch. Fans will be reassured that she sang Forever, Tired and That Way as well as some unexpected covers of 1990s dance hits Freed From Desire and Rhythm Is A Dancer. In her own words, she is “known for a sound that blends rock, indie, and Americana-style folk.”

I really enjoyed her opening set. Fox is a proper guitarist with a haunting, atmospheric voice and I will try to catch one of her band shows this year. She is based in London and plays live all over the country. Her next London show is at Folklore in Hoxton on 29 March.

You can find out more about Fox Palmer’s tour dates on Instagram and listen on Bandcamp.

The Drawing Room, Chesham

This is no ordinary venue. I got some B-roll shots you can see below which somehow, in my own mind, sum up the experience. When Rae Isla requested stories to use in her UK tour diary, she could not have expected the one offered up. Chesham has been famous for hat-making in the past. So far, so normal. But the building in which we stood was once owned by a man called Roger Crab, a hat-maker who is said to have inspired the character of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. I kid you not!

This is a cash-friendly place, and it became the only bar in which the owner (Richard) wrote me an IOU for a Guinness Zero on a yellow Post-It note. The venue really was a paid actor last night, complete with Tibetan singing bowls, making some brilliant live music even more memorable. I spoke to someone who had driven an hour from Northampton to see Fox Palmer, and I understand why. It’s one of those situations where words cannot do the place justice. Do try to go if you’re ever in the area.

But when Stripper For A Week hit my inbox last month, I was stunned. Rose gold stripper pole. Those are the first words of this week’s song, spoken by an announcer in a strip joint, one presumes. I can hardly believe I am writing these words about a Kimberly Kelly song. But it turns out, there’s a twist.

Work two jobs just to stay behind
Well I got to thinkin’ the other day
I’m in my prime, so what the hey
If you got it, flaunt it
Girl you’re wasting time

Kimberly neatly expresses the drive behind Stripper For A Week:-

“The song asks, what would you do if you had to keep the lights on and the kids fed? I like to think of it as the next chapter in the Book of Modern Day Woman.”

So, it all fits together. Once we have a couple more songs, the story will begin to emerge. But I’ve been there, or as close as a guy can get. Not by taking my clothes off and hugging a pole, of course, but I’ve been there at two in the morning to grab the milk out of the fridge, only to realise we accidentally left it in the warm kitchen, only good for tipping down the sink. At times like these, the surface glamour and neon of the club might seem an attractive alternative.

Wish I could be a stripper for a week
Spin around that pole
Shake what mama gave me
And get out of this hole
I can almost feel those dollar bills
Falling at my feet
Wish I could be a stripper for a week

It is only when Stripper fades out that you realise that this is a continuation of the Modern Day Woman era. Yes, it is a reaction to the mundanity of the everyday. She only wants to do it for a week, just to clear the backlog, blow off some steam. A week will be enough to realise this might not have been the best plan, but it was fun while it lasted. Although there is another possibility. What if it goes too well? Will she be back for more next month?

Kimberly Kelly has her own website and is active on Instagram and TikTok. You can stream her music in all the usual places. Even better, you can buy her music on physical formats. Her tour schedule, being booked right now, is on Bandsintown.

Background Notes

Co-written by Jenny Tolman and Marty Dodson, Stripper For A Week balances wit and heart, exploring resilience, sacrifice, and the determination it takes to keep going. Kelly made personal lyrical tweaks to further ground the song in authenticity, delivering a vocal performance that’s both sharp and deeply human.

With its catchy hooks and relatable narrative, Stripper continues Kelly’s mission of telling the stories that often go unsaid — offering an honest snapshot of doing whatever it takes to get by, without apology.

At Christmas 2024, I came across the duet between Lilly Winwood and father Steve of Higher Love. Gosh, she was a teenager with a cold when they recorded that! This was nothing short of major talent and it led me to Lilly’s 2022 album Talking Walls and, in particular, the track Sleep Issues. Man, I was experiencing some sleep issues at that time, and her music found the right ears on the right day.

The profile was always intended to be a one-off piece, and I posted it up on my main catch-all blog for my random musings over on Ghost. It wasn’t long, however, before I followed a trail from Lilly to her friend and regular co-conspirator Cyrena Wages. In fact, as I look back now, I realise it was two months down the line before I got around to writing about Cyrena. Just as Lilly’s music reached me at the perfect moment, it seems my profile of CW reached her at a pivotal moment too. To my everlasting surprise, she actually quite seemed to like my writing! Two more different people it would be difficult to imagine.

I just realised why I wanted to write this post. There is a message, unusually. I hope I am allowed a message after 52 weeks and well over 100 articles. The domino effect came about completely unplanned and unexpectedly. Cyrena’s early encouragement led to more articles, led to me reviewing half of her upcoming 2026 release, Miss Melancholia. It led to a proposal for a country music book that has not quite happened (yet) but indirectly led to a two-book contract to write about Fleetwood Mac, my favourite band of them all.

And so the message is really two messages, and the first (if you have not spotted it) is JFDI. Or, as Cyrena might put it, FAAFO. Whatever that creative project is that you never quite got around to? Get around to it today! You can have no idea where it may lead. It might not lead anywhere in particular, but it will put you in the game. If you’re in the game, amazing things might happen.

The second message is that even the softest whisper of encouragement can really give someone a boost, especially if that person is a stranger. A small boost today, like the butterfly effect, can make a big difference.

You can find out more about Lilly Winwood here and Cyrena Wages here and, with the wind in the right direction, they will both release major new albums in 2026.

just zipped up my combat boots
and i’m ready to kick it in a three-piece suit
got an early morning and a later night
but i’m a little bit sick of being so polite

Sound-wise we are on the same playing field as Blondie or The Go-Go’s, two enormous 1980s bands that Queen Anne’s Gen Z singer Katie Silverman no doubt heard on her parents’ CD player as she learned to walk.

In the lyrics we hear of combat boots being paired with a three-piece suit. It’s all about living life, taking your chances when they are offered, and having a grand adventure. Someone willing to throw themselves at life in such a way will always win, one way or the other. As long as you don’t die, you will learn something. And if you die… well, they will remember you all the better.

“Queen Anne sharpens its identity as an indie-pop duo driven by mood, narrative, and emotional tension. Led by songwriter and vocalist Katie Silverman alongside producer Sandy Chila, the project blends dark, ethereal textures with a postmodern edge, drawing from ’80s pop-punk influences while reframing everyday frustration as immersive storytelling.” (1883 Magazine, 2026 Artists to Watch)

Katie will be 21 by the time you read this review, which takes some believing. Younger readers might know her as an accomplished actress, having appeared in Pretty Little Liars at the age… of… five! She’s better known for her roles on New Girl, PEN15, and the film The Exorcists. I mention this only to establish context for my observation that Katie is wiser than her years.

watch me win it
my nails are fake
but my heart is in it
take no prisoner
you know, i catch way more flies with perfume
than i do with vinegar

The whole aesthetic of Queen Anne will inevitably make me think of England. There are those pearls, and that pose which blends her in with the oil painting behind. But then there is the contrast of the femme fatale, the Bond girl, the high roller. Is that a motorbike chain or a necklace?

There is a sense of humour to this one. The line about fake nails is delivered as an aside. She acknowledges there is artifice to her appearance. She has an ulterior motive and is open about it, unusually. She's in it to win it.

Every single is different, every one is brilliant but they are all tied together by this duo of Silverman and Chila. I am always excited when their next track arrives. The only two things you can expect? Whatever it is will be catchy and totally different to the last one.

Whereas Lexi Loves Me had a cinematic, slightly orchestral feel that reminded me of Sophie Ellis Bextor, Watch Me Win It is pure punk spunk. The promo photo below makes a clear reference to either high stakes gambling or organised crime, or both.

I strongly recommend you catch the mini movies on Queen Anne’s socials that go under the title of Cleavage and which dramatise how the idea for Queen Anne might have come about. If you did not know, as I didn’t, these are called vertical micro dramas and are the new thing for 2026. Scroll down for the TikTok versions.

The idea of the artist being a distinct entity from her creator (causing a cleavage between two personalities, not between two… oh, stop it) is a powerful one for those of us who have dreamed of a living from the arts. The pressure to perform, to deliver, is vastly reduced if you create a separate new identity. It can work, if only some of the time.

In a postscript to this tale, which only goes to show how deceptive appearances can be, the Queen has lifted the veil a little more on how this song was born:-

the inspiration for “Watch Me Win It” came when i had like three victory points in my hand during a game of Catan and nobody had the slightest clue. they all pretty much counted me out because i only had a couple settlements, but then i built a city and turned over my development cards and that was that. if anyone asks, though, it’s about something really cool. like poker, maybe. or gymnastics.

You can add Watch Me Win It here. There is much more on Queen Anne, the best band you have yet to hear, on Instagram and on their own website. You can also buy and stream on Bandcamp. Queen Anne were picked out by 1883 magazine as a 2026 artist to watch.

@queen.anne.bandCLEAVAGE: Episode 1 - watch now. A new vertical series from Queen Anne. "Katie wanted the world to hear her music. Big-time record executive Randy Wheeler promised to make her a star...kind of." #popmusic #popstar #verticalseries #verticaldrama

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@queen.anne.bandCLEAVAGE: Episode 2 - watch now.⁣ ⁣ A new vertical series from Queen Anne.⁣ ⁣ “Katie barely knew what she signed. She was just trying to get back to her normal life. That is, until a special delivery showed up that would change EVERYTHING. She soon realized that nothing would ever be normal again.”⁣ ⁣ #popmusic #popstar #verticalseries #verticaldrama #independentartist

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British audiences love the idea of an American porch. I cannot overstate this. Your porches are the size of our houses, and they go all the way around! You have front ones, back ones, and side ones. And there’s room for a child’s swing. This, friend, sounds like heaven. When you grow up a bit, they work beautifully as stages for a show.

I hope someday
I get to waste time
On an old front porch swing just laughing and
Remembering the people I loved
And all the crazy things that I got to do
I hope & pray that someday
I get old too

Whereas October’s Cowboys Ride Away was an action movie, admittedly one with some sad reflections on addiction and an observation that even the preachers have their demons, this one is more reflective. It grows surely and steadily on you.

I am almost too excited and keen to blurt out that Paige is on her way to the UK as I write this. I am optimistic that I will be able to share a Q&A in a couple of weeks. If you’re not otherwise engaged on March 11, I strongly recommend a bus to Ron’s Honky Tonk at The Water Rats on Grays Inn Road. I will be there. It might be your last chance to catch her at a smaller venue before she hits the Albert Hall or the O2.

I hope someday I get to tell my grandkids
Of my days and all the highways and places
I ended up going and my heart in that moment
Their granddaddy first walked in the room

When I became a father, my cold, scientific brain went to mush. I now tear up at the slightest provocation. The first time I heard Paige’s grandfather’s voice at the end of the song, I had to stop writing. It’s one of those things that is so unexpected that it is even more powerful. Even as I edit this, there are tears in my eyes. He’s left an answerphone message to say that he didn’t quite reach the phone in time because he was on the lawn mower, perhaps slowing up in his later years. I think the cover artwork makes his importance in PKJ’s life clear.

Paige King Johnson is a Belmont-trained songwriter with a home base in Nashville and North Carolina. She is seven Carolina Country Music Awards deep, has charted on MusicRow, premiered videos on CMT and Heartland, serves as the official Got To Be NC musical ambassador, and contributes regularly to WRAL television with stories that spotlight music and culture in her home state. In short, Paige is multi-talented. You can follow her on Instagram, TikTok and read more on her own website.

If I ever lost you
What hell I’d be in
Each day would hurt to begin
And hurt the whole day through

It’s a simple lyric, a universal sentiment and a very charming song. I loved it straightaway and have been tapping along to it all week.

I love that photo. It says so much in a nice, fun way. Happiness is finding someone willing to push you home in a shopping trolley after accidentally getting married in Vegas at 4am. Hannah and Mose had this to say about their new release:-

“This track is a true country love song about not wanting to lose the other. Though we’ve worked together in each other’s bands for years, this is our first combined release. It’s about the very real feeling of finding the person you can’t live without.”

I had the immense privilege of meeting Mose and Hannah at their show in London last summer, shortly after they announced their engagement. It was a surprise to realise that this is their first formal duet release and I cannot wait to hear more. You can find a review of that show at The Grace, Islington, and of another Mose song, down below.

If I ever lost you
You’d walk away with my dreams
Life would unravel at the seams
If I ever lost you

You can catch up on the latest from Hannah Juanita on her own site and on socials. You can stream the new single here and you can see them on tour. Mose fans can learn more on his website.