Henry Jamison: I heard about this artist several months ago via a PR email. Later on I would find out that Henry was direct support for Sony Music’s experimental electrofolk group Tall Heights. I decided to check out Henry at the Columbus stop of that tour.

Henry played a quiet, contemplative version of folk music that wasn’t entirely out of place in the atmospheric context of Tall Heights. I felt like I was hearing bits of Mount Eerie and The National in a live setting. His set up was no frills – just one acoustic guitar with a direct input to the PA. No amp even. His stage banter was dryly witty, and was often the perfect set up for the song that followed – one song being about “a broken air conditioner.” At another point in the show he bemused the weird qualities of feet and reminisced about a visit with his grandmother. Odd, but sort of endearing. Kind of like the music.

The narrative sort of folk tune Jamison is adept at also sounds like it was composed deep in the woods of his native Vermont.

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DBMK: My friend and fellow TU contributor Brandon Hughes told me about this group. I thought I’d feature in them in our new Relevant Discoveries piece because they are playing a TU show at our second home, Donato’s Basement near Ohio State.

DBMK is shorthand for Denim Blue and McClain Keith. The sound is decidedly mainstream yet experimental. I hear sounds derived from industry juggernauts like The Chainsmokers, Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons. The feel of the music, though, I would compare to one of my favorite discoveries of 2015 – Until the Ribbon Breaks. UTRB has a much less mainstream sound, but the juxtaposition of somber melodies, keyboard with aggressive beats is a similarity the bands share.

I hope that when the band goes on tour their live production involves a lot of neon. Something about that music just gives me that sense.