Cory Grinder and the Playboy Scouts And More Self Release
The cartoon cover does not reflect the serious skill of all involved here, but it does give you some idea that they don’t take themselves too seriously and there is a sense of humour throughout. I think what struck me the most this time out was the versatility of Cory Grinder’s lead vocals, which are more expressive than what one might come to expect from some honky tonk bands. The album was recorded directly to one inch tape with the band playing together in one room. That accounts for some of the spontaneity and energy on display. Led by Grinder, their chief songwriter, the band also includes guitarist Anthony Papaleo, steel guitar from Tebbs Karney, as well as bassist Jon Wolfe and drummer Bee Roberts. Grinder also joins Matt Dunkelberger and Papaleo on the fiddle work as well as on guitar throughout.
Given the mention of Grinder's fine vocals, he is ably joined by Karney, who takes the lead on the sad ballad The Lights Of Angel Falls, one of the highlights, among many, on the album. The album opens with On Time, the current single, built around a solid danceable mid-paced rhythm and flowing steel guitar. This set out the stall for the album, that mixes the heartbreak ballads like Angel Falls and also I Turned The Lights Out, Pull Me Out and How About Blue - all songs wherein Grinder’s vocals embody the sense of disappointment that is present lyrically. This contrasts nicely with the driving hardwood floor fillers like Take Me, Feelin’ It Too and Back Of My Heart, all solid arrangements filled with steel guitar and twanging Telecasters.
The song that perhaps in terms of word play stands out is On Brand For Me, wherein he outlines all the stupid moves his protagonist makes on life choices; like how he “brings a knife to a gunfight” or “keeps on barking up the wrong tree” and “making a mountain out of a molehill”, all pretty much, he realises, are on brand for him. The track also has a western swing feel with the fiddles and pedal steel guitar largely responsible for that disposition. There are numerous moments here that are memorable for this Ohio based band, who certainly deserve a much wider recognition for their collective ability. Ain’t Enough Of You has a stand out guitar riff with some effective organ playing behind it.
There is a strong collective vocal in How Do I Make Up, in which he asks how he can possibly make up for losing out in this particular relationship. The title track closes the album in, again, a reflective manner that is deep at the heart of the ethos of honky-tonk storytelling, throughout its history surviving even the proliferation of the mundane bro-country and by-committee material that we thankfully seem to be moving away from these days, especially with a genuine ear for traditional country mores.
So in the end AND MORE delivers more. It is the collective work of a band that undoubtedly works as well in this recorded format as it surely does in a live setting (as this recording equally shows). Most definitely a name to add to the growing list of those acts who walk the talk and reemphasise their love and keep alive a genre that is both relevant and rewarding.
Stephen Rapid
Dead Buzzards Roadkill Self Release
A hard workin’, hard country-rock five piece band from San Diego with a new album to their name. They are fronted by songwriter Ace Collins, who can pen some effective and appealing country orientated songs that stand up for themselves. The overall tone is again that mix of how males misunderstand the dynamic of a relationship in a rueful, though often unaware, circumstance. That lack of awareness and misapprehension is perhaps best summed up in the song I’m Leaving You (After You’ve Thrown Me Out). This is the last track on what is an enjoyable collection of twelve melodic and vigorous tunes.
The remainder of the band consists of Al Gordy, Teddy Herrmann, Roscoe Miles and Renny Nave on keyboards, lead guitar, bass and drums respectively - all also contributing additional vocals. They constitute a tight and unified combo, all having a similar vision. The title songs feature fiddle and keyboards to glorify the use of the plentiful food sources available on a busy backroad or highway. Eva Reed duets on the song Last Call At Closing Time and it is, for that reason, another standout track and example of a contemporary take on a classic male/female interaction. The underlying element of humour is a part of that track, as it is in the somewhat ill-natured Body Snatchin’, “let’s go body snatchin’ tonight, as the med school Is paying half for each corpse” is the off colour message. There is a punkier sound to Slab City with a description of a town on the edge of law and order.
Having to deal with other people’s children appears to be what Rug Rats delineates, “they should be at home taking naps, as any sane person would know”. The tale told in Rob Me A Bank is pretty much in the title of this 'get the loot and run' tale. Their take on the classic r’n’b song is given a run out with (Lick Your Wounds On) Route 99. In a somewhat more subjective look back at growing up and what the taste of a Daddy’s liquor might leave in your mouth is where Daddy’s Poison leaves us. It is another track that gives you an idea of how this would be fun in a live venue.
Otherwise, Dead Buzzards is an example of one of the many regional bands building up a local reputation and give their best with their individual perception of a rockin’ country sound that they describe in a nod to the early Who with the Maximum C&W poster. Scrape this one off the tarmac for a palatable musical stew!
Stephen Rapid
Meghan Clarisse Shadows Of A Ghost Town Self Release
Described as a personal perspective on life, viewed through a sense of the West as a place of exploration, as well as the spirits that surround you in reality and in their sense of the past. The songs were all written by Clarisse and realised by Don Richmond who recorded, mixed and mastered the album. It uses the touchstone of bluegrass and country throughout, with pedal steel and dobro acting as a pointer to the each tangent. Overall Clarisse takes a non-literal lyric, allowing individual interpretation of the exact meanings on offer. Her website has the welcome inclusion of the lyrics, which show the more poetic nature of her words.
For instance the lines in Desert Run conjure place but also personal perceptions: “On a dry and dusty trail / You're feeling desperate, full of fear / Tumbleweeds blowin’ nowhere / You're both looking for a place to disappear”. Then on the pedal steel led Here I Am Again the words suggest a beautiful but fruitless situation “Your heart made of steel / I just can't make you feel / But here I am again.” On the very traditional sounding duet with Richmond that is The Catch That Got Away, she balances her higher voice with the deeper tones of Richmond. It also blends the pedal steel with fiddle and banjo to create a very enticing song and album standout. Desperation seems a large part of the intense sense of isolation that is The Ballad Of Lily Mae, perhaps underscored by lines like “It only got worse / Started thinking she must be cursed / With no way to live She's got nothing left to give / Thinking of the babies she lost”.
That sense of sorrow carries on through these songs, that hint at, rather than detail, what are the actual tales but rather they capture the essence of the story. Like on Never Going Home, we don’t know the plan but we know the possible consequences. “Two stolen horses and pitiful plan / They were never gonna let us get by / Said a love like ours was a shameful crime / I'm not one to run from a risk.” More upbeat then is Strong, that feels like there is a hope to be had if you have the ability and strength to just keep on. “When you've had all you can take / Between the rocks and a hard place / Don't lose your drive / It's just one step at a time … Hold on strong”
“Spent some time in the Mojave / Lit a fire in Joshua tree / Wrote out all the things you never were fed/ the fire your effigy”, are echoes of the desert and the lives that crossed paths with it in The Ghost Of California. The twelve tracks close with another that appears to be a more positive title in Life Of The Party which is, in itself, a tribute to another soul,who may well have been the man of the title. “So l hiked up here to reminisce / And maybe cry just a little bit / Feel what my heart can't see / Pour one out for the life of the party.”
Alongside these songs the assembled players do much, under the guidance of Clarisse and Richmond, to bring these ghosts to life. Of particular mention however is the dobro and pedal steel playing of Todd Clayton, simply because it is at the forefront of these arrangements - but kudos to all. This is an album that should be given the time to listen to, as it reveals its nuances with each play. It is not one that will suit all tastes, but many will enjoy the journey it takes.
Stephen Rapid
Meghan Hayes Latecomer Cranky Heartburn
The final track on Nashville-based Meghan Hayes’ 2019 album SEEN ENOUGH LEAVERS was simply titled Story Of My Life. It wrapped up an album of personal and observational struggle, landing on a note of guarded hope. Hayes’s new ten-track album deepens those themes, confronting the past six years’ personal upheavals, post-pandemic fallout, and a shifting political climate.
‘You can fly or you can fight. Either way you’re hiding, the sun’s gonna chase you through the stars at night’, Hayes sings on Unlock the Door, labouring under self-doubt and denial. A co-write with Mando Saenz, weeping pedal steel by Paul Niehaus adds to the deeply melancholic song.
Picking up the thread of powerlessness, the title track features Hayes’s vocal and acoustic guitar, her voice approaching breaking point as she speaks for the forgotten, helpless, and underprivileged. This theme continues in Tornado, where Megan Palmer joins on backing vocals and Fats Kaplin on fiddle. Possibly inspired by the 2020 East Nashville tornado, this song also hints at commentary on the political landscape in Hayes’ homeland and farther afield.
‘Grief has been my default, sorrow my first friend. Please, please, saints and angels, let your kingdom have an end’ she pleads in I’m Getting There which, in a similar vein to Story Of My Life, the closing track on Hayes’ last album, does offer a glimmer of hope. On this occasion, Hayes closes with the song Work, accepting past losses and tribulations, and preparing for the long road ahead (‘And the rest of our life, this is the punch line. Back on the run and all this work to be done’).
LATECOMER explores the grinding realities of pain and complexities of real life, presenting an intense, brutally frank album. Hayes possesses the wherewithal to craft exceptionally moving songs and delivers them in a soprano vocal that perfectly matches their subject matter, and she has succeeded once more with flying colours with her latest record.
Declan Culliton
Emmylou Harris Spyboy New West
Originally released in 1998, SPYBOY, named after Emmylou Harris’ backing band, was a fourteen-track live album featuring cuts from a twenty-five-date tour in 1996 and 1997. The band had been formed to reproduce material from Harris’s 1995 Daniel Lanois-produced cutting-edge album WRECKING BALL in the live setting. It consisted of Lanois on guitar (temporarily), Daryl Johnson on bass, and drummer Brady Blade, with Buddy Miller, who co-produced the album with Harris, replacing Lanois.
The initial release of SPYBOY was by Eminent Records. Like WRECKING BALL, it pushed Harris into more experimental territory, while also featuring selections from her extensive back catalogue. This revisited New West record includes an additional five tracks with the inclusion of Tom Petty’s A Thing About You, Bob Dylan’s Every Grain Of Sand, Bill Monroe’s Get Up John, Lucina Williams’ Sweet Old World, and All I Left Behind, written by Harris and Kate & Anna McGarrigle.
After country radio gave little or no play to her excellent COWGIRL’S PRAYER album in 1993, and because stations excluded several ‘older’ artists, Harris ended her mainstream country career with that record. Instead, she boldly departed from her traditional folk and country roots with WRECKING BALL, which, while alienating some followers, also introduced her to a wider and younger audience. This shift led Harris to pursue a more experimental path, resulting in RED DIRT GIRL in 2000, where, for the first time, she wrote or co-wrote eleven of the twelve songs on the record. SPYBOY captures that sonic shift perfectly, with gritty renditions of Deeper Well, Where Will I Be, and All My Tears, alongside more familiar deliveries of Boulder to Birmingham, Wheels, Tulsa Queen, and Love Hurts.
SPYBOY represents Emmylou Harris at the most transitional and arguably most creative period of her career. It cemented her reputation as more than just a silver-tongued vocalist with a sharp eye for covers. She was also a major player, though not always credited, in the alt-country movement of the mid-'90s, which rallied against country music becoming entirely mainstream.
Revisiting this period in her career is a joy; Harris’ vocals are sublime, and she’s backed by a killer band that never puts a foot wrong. It catered to both her hardcore country fans and others brought on board by her more progressive musical direction, and with the addition of five extra tracks, it’s a ‘must have’ for any serious roots music collector, most of whom would already own the original recording.
Declan Culliton
Jeremy Pinnell Decades SofaBurn
A road warrior who seldom has time to rest due to his touring schedule, DECADES finds Jeremy Pinnell expanding his musical repertoire. He now includes 70s-styled blues and rock alongside his customary gritty country sound.
The gospel-tinged opener Barabbas, about the Biblical figure reinventing himself after past misdeeds, may be self-directed. The closing track, Pink Champagne, is equally first-person and as ‘country’ as the record gets. Elsewhere, Pinnell turns bluesy with the raunchy toe-tapper Too Much Sugar. Save You, about two young lovers drawn together by addiction, is a straight rocker with Eleanor Whitmore adding backing vocals. Dallas, sounding like something from Rodney Crowell’s songbook, is a hooky gem with driving rhythm and a killer guitar break. Ironically, it was inspired by a gig Pinnell played in Houston to an audience of one (‘and he asked to pray for me after the show!’ Pinnell recalls).
The pleading and quite stunning Set Me Free could be directed at an estranged lover or a plea for release from addiction. Resurrecting lost love also raises its head in Stuck In The Rain, and Come Home To Me holds a forgiving hand out to forsaken friends and lovers.
The record was recorded in one week at Steakhouse Studio in Los Angeles. Shooter Jennings produced it, played organ, and provided backing vocals. Pinnell’s vocals were recorded live, accompanied by Chris Masterson and John Schreffler (guitars), Ted Russell Kamp (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), and Eleanor Whitmore (fiddle and backing vocals).
‘I've been releasing records over a 10-year span. People change so much within that time, so why shouldn't the music change, too?’ explains Pinnell. The changes are not dramatic, but the results are significant, triggering Pinnell’s strongest album to date.
Declan Culliton
Micah P.Hinson The Tomorrow Man Ponderosa
‘It hit me that all I was doing was writing about my previous relationships and situations, and that meant I had nowhere to go. How can you progress as a human being into the future if all you're doing is writing about all the shit that chains you to the past?’ confesses Memphis-born artist Micah P.Hinson, referring to his latest studio recording.
Consistently intriguing and thought-provoking, it’s fair to say that the material in Hinson’s ten-album back catalogue was never a Saturday night listen. THE TOMORROW MAN, although equally dark and questioning as his previous work, refocuses his lens from personal matters to more universal challenges. Alongside that variation in subject matter, Hinson performs the songs in crooner style, with rich orchestral arrangements that, on first listen, may camouflage the thorny questions many of the songs ask. That admiration for the classic crooners raised its head in 2009 with ALL DRESSED UP and SMELLING OF STRANGERS, which included reinterpretations of songs performed by Frank Sinatra and Roy Orbison.
Dividing his time between Europe and Texas, THE TOMORROW MAN was recorded in Spain, Italy, and Texas, with the production duties carried out by Italian Alberto ‘Asso’ Stefano, who also worked on Hinson’s 2022 album I LIE TO YOU. The rich orchestral arrangements on this album, conducted by Raffaele Tiseo and performed by the Benevento Orchestra, give the material a gloriously uplifting dynamic.
Written during a challenging period when Hinson considered abandoning his artistic career, the songs find him wrestling with infatuation, heartache, and pain, without descending into self-pity. He opens and closes the album with different takes of Oh Sleepyhead. The first is upbeat and optimistic, a rallying call; the last is less bullish, bordering on acceptance of defeat. Though Hinson claimed past relationships would be excluded, the self-critical I Thought That I Was The One, verging on dark humour, concerns exactly that. One Day I Will Get My Revenge also finds Hinson looking back at past let-downs. Think Of Me, presented in a voice at near breaking point, is simply divine. Take It Slow may be self-directed, as the writer prepares for personal liberation. The countryfied The Last Train To Texas, complete with mariachi-style horns, is both intoxicating and mournful.
This album finds Hinson giving himself a reassuring hug, casting away the shackles, and accepting himself for what he is, faults and all. Journeying from desperation, through pain, to final freedom and release is at the heart of what is his strongest recording in quite some time.
Declan Culliton
Craig Edmonds View From This Side Self-Release
A novel project from South London, U.K. artist Craig Edmonds. Not only did Edmonds write, produce, record, perform vocals, and handle all instrumentation on the album, but he also designed the artwork and packaging. A VIEW FROM THE SIDE is his third album, and it genre hops from prog to power pop and folk to psychedelia.
The four press photos that accompanied the album show Edmonds with acoustic and electric guitars in hand and behind a drum kit, donning dark shades and looking remarkably like a young Brian Wilson. Whether deliberate or otherwise, that Beach Boys vibe raises its head on the album’s title track, which closes the twelve tracks on the record.
Edmonds dashes from the sunny Laurel Canyon sounding From Me Again to the poppy Autumn Flowers, at times mirroring the work of Syd Barrett and elsewhere dipping into early Genesis territory. Two lo-fi thirty-second inclusions, I Feel More Me and Faded Photograph, are a flashback to the 1960s when artists like The Beach Boys and Paul McCartney stepped out of their comfort zones and slipped similar ditties into their albums.
The overall mood of the album is one of an artist steeped in the sounds of the 1960s and early '70s, and the results are quite spectacular in places. Don’t expect to find this album on the top shelf of your HMV store, so check out the options on Bandcamp to have a listen.
Declan Culliton
Terry Klein Hill Country Folk Music Self-Release
One of the few advantages of being an independent artist is the option, finances allowing, of recording an album and getting it out for public consumption within a short period of time. This is the case with COUNTRY FOLK MUSIC, the fourth album from Texas singer-songwriter Terry Klein. Recorded over three days at the beginning of August this year, the eleven-track album is released three months later.
Lonesome Highway’s introduction to Klein was his 2019 album TEX. Sagamore Bridge, the outstanding opening track on that album, drew this writer in on first listen, and the other songs on the album lived up to the promise of that opener. GOOD LUCK, TAKE CARE (2022) and LEAVE THE LIGHT ON (2023) followed and received equally complimentary reviews from us.
In keeping with his previous recordings, Klein’s latest record combines previously unrecorded songs, often revisited when requested at his live shows, with material written more recently. In the time-honoured troubadour tradition, despite the time difference between the newer and older songs and the varying dynamics in their delivery, they work seamlessly together.
As with his previous two albums, Klein worked with celebrated producer and guitarist Thomm Jutz (Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, Connie Smith, David Olney). The studio core band was also the same, consisting of Tim Marks on bass and Lynn Williams on drums. Other contributors included Justin Moses on fiddle, Mike Compton on mandolin, Finn Goodwin-Bain on piano and organ, and Scotty Sanders on pedal steel.
Storytelling that is very much in the present, Try opens the album on a positive, upbeat note as the protagonist defiantly dusts himself off and prepares to turn over a new leaf. The same song, retitled Try Again, bookends the album, with a slower, weary vocal that hints at despair over the current environmental and political chaos, yet vowing to carry on regardless. Dealing with a friend’s suicide, If You Go offers a helping hand to those barely sustaining themselves (‘This is for whoever needs to hear it, if it makes a difference, I don’t know. You’re loved, you’re loved, you’re loved, and someone’s gonna miss you if you go’). Mortality and the crippling acceptance of terminal illness are articulated tenderly in My Next Birthday (‘Yes, I hope the party’s big and it goes late, when they remember me on my next birthday’).
A palpable sense of anger is presented in Hopelessness Is Going Around which tells of a father and decorated war hero, whose small business is bought out by a large corporation, ending his days in a nursing home, with little by the way of entertainment except watching Fox News (‘ Now dad’s in a nursing home watching right wing cable news. He likes the way it makes him feel, couldn’t care less if it’s true’).
It's not all cheerless; a playful sensibility runs through both I Used To Be Cool and The Job Interview Song. The former, a hook-heavy affair, reflects on the passage of time. The latter is a typical engagement between an interviewer and an interviewee, who could literally relate to the character in the former song, going through the motions (‘You and I are the same Pawns in a rich man’s game’).
It's ‘business as usual’ for Klein with his latest project. Impeccable songwriting, splendidly articulated and supported by suitably sympathetic players, combine in an instantly rewarding listen.
Declan Culliton