Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

With the cheap availability of recording equipment and easy methods of internet distribution we have entered an era where we are over saturated with music. Supply now exceeds demand. But as listeners how do we deal with this over saturation ? After all, we’re all time restricted.

We believe it is inevitable that consumers will become more reliant on quality media, be they blogs, websites or good old fashioned television or radio to guide us to the great new stuff.

But for a moment, pity the poor music bloggers role in all of this. The majority write their blog because of their love affair with music, not for money. Yet your average blogger is also time restricted. Yes, some of us have full time careers outside of music, we also have relationships, families and social lives. Contrary to popular belief not every blogger is a nerdy internet geek with zero social skills.

It is for these basic reasons that we simply can’t post about everything as soon as we discover it, hear it or see it. Sometimes, bands get put to the side, like a mental post-it note stuck on a kitchen notice board, re-read several months later. When that re-read occurs, sometimes the post-it gets screwed up and thrown in the bin. For some types of bands / artists the time to write about them on a blog has only a small window of opportunity and that window quickly closes. Other times the post-it note runs out of stickiness, falls off the notice board and gathers in the dust under the fridge. However for other post-its the re-read presents an opportunity to kick start that which had been put to one side. Which is why it is only now that we are posting about Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell, an act that we first came about last year as a support act to The Unthanks, a gig that didn’t even get to post-it note stage in terms of being reviewed. Not because it wasn’t superb - for the record it was mesmerising, one of the best of the year - but because time was our enemy.

Yet some music always stands the test of time. So it is with the songs of this boy-girl folk duo. Farrell has a vocal so pure and natural that it makes the heart flutter, whilst Kearney harmonises with a hug that embraces you in its slightly awkward warmth. Even when Kearney sings about holding his drunken lovers hair back to be sick in the toilet on Lullaby he makes it sound like something worth sticking around for. Kearney and Farrell are just the tonic to the over saturation we talked of; their calm acoustic musicality being sparse and delicately simple.

Kearney is originally from Northumbria, whilst Farrell is from Kent, and the two met whilst studying in Newcastle. Since their support slots with The Unthanks last year the group have released a mini album called The North Farm Sessions and have been lined up for a number of UK festivals including the Cambridge Folk Festival and the End Of The Road Festival where they will no doubt win many more admirers.

We may all have a busy day ahead, but take five minutes out to watch the video below. It will probably be the best thing you do today.