• Premiere: Vivamagnolia – 990 Miles

    March 23, 2021 - By 

    Sharing a certain Appalachian sentiment, Ireland’s footing in Americana-steeped rock has traditionally been solid. Someone very much making his imprint on the next generation is Patrick J. Hodgen, AKA Vivamagnolia. The last few years have yielded a string of excellent singles that variously recalled those indie and alt. country masters of the late-90s/early-00s like Mark Linkous, Will Oldham, and Jason Molina, none of whom shied away from experimentation within the form. Following up on his debut EP, new single ‘990 Miles’ sees his work pared back into the kind of soft-focus, vulnerable, Westward-facing indie rock that made Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot an era-definer, elevated by gospel-tinted, George Harrison-worthy slide guitar as Hodgen reflects upon…

  • EP Stream: Vivamagnolia – Queen of the Rodeo

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    If there’s one thing we learned from hosting packed-out tributes to U.S. musician Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse back in 2017 it’s that there is still a sizable audience for brooding, Americana-tinged indie rock here in Ireland. Better still, beyond the likes of Tom McShane, Pixie Saytar, The Mad Dalton and Heliopause (all of whom faithfully covered the music of Linkous as part of the aforesaid tribute ensemble) there are musicians here crafting equally earworming and inward-peering sounds in a similar vein. One such example is Vivamagnolia aka Belfast-based alt-country singer-songwriter Patrick J. Hodgen. Tipping his stetson hat to lo-fi indie luminaries such as Linkous, Bill Callahan, Will…