Welcome back, cats, kittens, lovers and other strangers. Tonight let us cast our nets upon the waters in hopes of reaping a bountiful musical harvest. And drawing forth our seine we find the gunwales awash with a plethora of delectable tracks suitable for your aural consumption.

Our first offering comes to us courtesy of Cassie Lopez, a musician, artist, and photographer from Lexington, Kentucky. She creates richly-woven, reverb-drenched walls of dream pop, tinged with a patina of country and folk. Her latest album, Mother Tongue, comprises eight immediately listenable tracks recorded in Nashville.

I couldn’t decide which track to include so, as Ernie Banks said, “Let’s play two!”

Well, well, it looks like Cassie deleted Mother Tongue. So instead of playing two, we will play zero. Thanks a lot, Cassie. No soup for you!

Now I am going to violate three of my own blogger’s rules: only feature new releases, never feature an artist with over 57,000 Facebook likes, and never embed a song that has a banjo as the lead instrument. God created the banjo so that the accordion would have something to look down on.

I’m not sure how I stumbled over this, or why I like it. But it is, as they say, what it is. So from 2011, here’s Austin’s Shakey Graves with “Unlucky Skin.”

Check out Shakey’s music, including the newly released album, And the War Came, on Bandcamp. You can visit Shakey on his website, on Twitter, or you can join his other 57,727 likers on Facebook.

Our next serving is shipped in from Canada, a.k.a. South Detroit, that vast expanse north of North Dakota. Doug Hoyer gets his lo-fi groove on with “Haven’t Thought of You In So Long (and I’d like to keep it that way).”

Doug has one of those Little Feat “try to remember to forget” things going on. The track is lifted from Doug’s new 4-song EP, Blood Doner.  Yes, that’s spelled correctly. “Doner” is supposed to have one of those Motely Crue umlauts over the “o,” but I’m not sure WordPress can handle that.

Browse Doug’s many releases on Bandcamp, follow him on Twitter, and visit his blog, Ultimate Sunset.

Now let’s take it down a notch with “1914” from NYC’s Florist.

Hmm. Maybe that was one notch farther down than we needed to take it. Cheer up, Florist. Try doing that “remember to forget” thing like Doug Hoyer. Oh well, at least she asked somebody to feed the cat.

“1914” is part of a six-song song-a-day project. “1914” and the other five songs are available on Bandcamp. Peruse Florist’s blog, and please please like her on Facebook.

OK we need to get our spirits up again, so let’s rev up the engines and motor across the river to Brooklyn, to catch Juniper Rising as they merge Dylan and the Beach Boys in a rousing little ditty called “Cars are Fun.”

And now to close let’s fly all the way over to Vigo, Spain to hear “Stay Alive,” the new single by Wild Balbina, from the album Sister Before Misters.

That was uplifting! Did you listen to the lyrics, Florist? And, as always, be sure to download Sisters Before Misters on Bandcamp, and join the group on Facebook and Twitter.

And now a special treat. This video has, like, a bazillion views so my hip, cutting edge readers have probably seen it already. But in case you haven’t, take a look. It’s pretty cool. Bye until next time! And don’t forget to feed the cat(s)!

OK the video is now private. Heck, I don’t even remember what it was!