POTW (2019/5): Yoga Chill by Michelle Qureshi

This week’s playlist of the week is Yoga Chill, from Michelle Qureshi, and brings together a selection of beautiful pieces in the chill out, new age, ambient and acoustic genres. You don’t need to be doing yoga to enjoy this playlist – it makes great background music for reading, studying or other non-physical activities, which is great if you’re an unbendy couch-potato like me.

Michelle Qureshi is an acoustic artist in her own right, writing and recording almost classical style new age and ambient pieces, often guitar based. She has several tracks in the playlist, so you can get a feel for her style. (She’s also included a couple of tracks by Andy Salvanos, who I’ve mentioned before in the blog.) Michelle brings a great deal of feeling to everything I’ve heard her do, and pieces like Never Odd Or Even can leave you floating off into some imaginary sunset, so I think you’ll really enjoy listening.

Playlist of the Week (2018/32)

Playlist of the Week (2018/32): Barry McLoughlin's Acoustic Treasures collection.

This Monday’s POTW comes from a Dublin-born and Canadian-raised acoustic artist, Barry McLoughlin, who has been lauded for his songwriting as well as his vocals.

A resident of a small town Sioux Lookout, Ontario, McLoughlin is a prolific songwriter, who first appeared at Toronto’s Massey Hall, at just 17 years old.  For a taste of his sparsely produced guitar-folk ballads, check out the beautiful love song “Dulcinea“, or “Do You Still Believe?“.  If you like the music of Gordon Lightfoot, Iain Archer or Glen Hansard, I think you’ll enjoy his writing, too.

The Acoustic Treasures playlist is a collection of songs by lesser-known artists, which fit with the aesthetic – but not necessarily the genre – of his own music, where the songs speak for themselves. I really enjoyed playing it and hope you will too.