A lot of times, an email comes through from a random musician with a brief description of how they made their debut EP mostly by themselves, played most — if not all — of the instruments, and they’d just appreciate it if you’d give it a listen. You visit their website, click

through to the “contact” page and it forwards directly to the musician’s personal email. Neato. That’s about as “indie” as indie gets. So you give it a listen, and much of the time it’s just not very good. But, sometimes, every once in a while… it’s good. And sometimes it’s really really good.

And that was the case with Jake Houlsby, a singer-songwriter from Newcastle, a town in the northeastern part of England. The song below is a great one. It’s quiet and introspective without being boring or overly morose, and it somehow manages to be catchy on top of everything else.

His debut EP, also entitled Yannina, is due on June 8th in the UK, with a US release hopefully close behind.

RIYL: Jose Gonzalez, yoga mats, Ray Lamontagne, kale, good music