Margo Cilker Little White Cross Fossil
If Margo Cilker’s two previous albums POHORYLLE (2021) and VALLEY OF HEART’S DELIGHT (2023) were an introduction to an artist with the skillset to create tender, impassioned and often joyous songs that landed somewhere between folk and country, her latest project, the equally impressive LITTLE WHITE CROSS, released on Cilker and fellow artist ISMY’s recently founded independent label Fossil Records, was motivated by darker and altogether more sombre observations, both real-life and loosely fictional.
Cilker describes the album's ten-song cycle, both self-written and cover versions, as a self-purging exercise, addressing concerns and events she hadn't previously confronted.
Sera Cahoone produced Cilker’s two previous records, but this time she teamed up with Bruce Robison to produce this album. Impressed by Cilker’s previous work, Robison reached out and offered to help however he could. Taking him at his word, Cilker headed to Texas to work with him at The Bunker, his legendary studio in Lockhart, thirty miles south of Austin. Recording the ten tracks directly to tape using the studio’s analog set up, Cilker and Robison were joined by Eric Heywood (pedal steel), Geoff Queen (guitars), Scott Davis (bass), Josh Blue (percussion), Forrest Van Tuyl (organ), Emily Gimble (piano), Beth Chrisman (fiddle), and Lisa Pankratz (drums).
The avoidable and mindless loss of life is presented by way of a car crash in Little White Cross, written and previously recorded by Cilker’s close friend Christy Wells (“They were going so fast how were they to know / They'd be a little white cross on the side of the road”). If that song dwelt with death in general terms, Molly and Me and Pauline are both more specific: the former tells of a close teenage friend with an unspoken, dysfunctional family background; the latter, Pauline, tinged with an element of self-guilt for not reaching out, mourns the loss of a friend to drug addiction. Similarly, Ladybug, written by Sera Cahoone, agonises over the loss of a young life whose warning signs were recognised but unheeded (“All the signs were right there, we just couldn't see / All the signs were right there, we just couldn't believe”).
Moving from mortality to current worldly affairs, Wolves, written by Stephanie Davis, details the plight of struggling farmers, many of whom can’t survive a way of life that has been passed down through the generations to them (“Charlie Barton and his family stopped today to say goodbye / He said the bank was taking over, the last few years was just too dry”). In defiance of that struggle, Mayhill Peaches, Goodnoe Pairs rejoices in the community that supports the farming lifestyle. Eric Heywood’s dramatic pedal steel intro opens a cover of Tom Petty’s Walls. The song, emphasising the thin line between elation and gloom, plays out like a snapshot of Cilker’s clashing emotions that fed into the essence of LITTLE WHITE CROSS (“Sometimes you’re happy / sometimes you cry, half of me is ocean, half of me is sky”).
By checking in on her past with brutal honesty, Cilker has recorded without doubt her most sophisticated album to date, and that’s no mean feat given the quality of her previous work.
Declan Culliton
Prinz Grizzley Tilda Self-Release
Four and a half thousand miles separate Austria and the Appalachian Mountains, but both boast spectacular rolling hills, forests, and deep river valleys. Chris Comper, aka Prince Grizzley, hails from a rural Austrian forest home that mirrors Appalachia's landscapes. While his love of American folk and country music has been a strong feature of his impressive back catalogue, TILDA takes it to an altogether higher level. Dark, broody, and dramatically cinematic, Comper built the project around the life of his grandmother, Tilda, starting with her father’s (Comper’s great-grandfather) torturous journey from Italy across countries and mountains to set up a new home for his family in the Alps.
The album’s opening track, Put Me Down (A Foreign Man), features Comper’s echoed vocals, joined by a male chorus and minimal instrumentation. It’s a stark representation of his great-grandfather, a stranger in a foreign country, pining for home as he sweats blood to survive in an uninviting rural landscape.
Driven by spirited banjo and mandolin, Reign On, Queen of Mountains (A Price To Pay) questions the contradiction between our love and appreciation of nature and our careless, ruinous relationship with it, and our failure to protect it.
Grieving the drug-related loss of a son and its capacity to tear a husband and wife apart is expressed in Tilda Lee (Processing Loss). The song drills into the all-too-familiar self-destruction that rural life can lure idle young men into and the ensuing collateral damage (“No alarm went off when we found those drugs……He lied in our faces, said he threw them away / But the only thing that flew was a boy from a bridge that day”). Also recalled are the horrors of war in WWII (Surviving), as the innocent foot soldiers are taken from their families to serve on the front line (“Only two ways to return/ As a hero or a dead man”).
The album signs off on an impassioned note in Watch Me Rising (Rest Easy My Old Heart). Dramatically presented, the song's soul-stirring organ intro is joined by Comper’s exquisite vocals, pedal steel, bass and guitars, which celebrate the album’s central character leaving this world without regret, having overcome prejudice and hardship to carve out a better life for those who followed her (“I won't be a leaf dancing / In the wind of eternity/As many examples are showing / For me you have to dig deep”).
TILDA vividly captures a time and place, drawing the listener into the struggles and sacrifices many of our forefathers made for their families. It also feels like a project Comper felt compelled to embark on, rather than something driven by industry. In doing so, he has navigated emotional territory with flying colours. Hugely impressive.
Declan Culliton
Pug Johnson From A Beaumont Bar Break Maiden/Thirty Tigers
With two albums released in the four years before this record and currently a semi-finalist in the American Songwriters Road Ready Talent Competition with a $20k prize at stake, Beaumont, Texas-born Pug Johnson’s star is rising. If his debut album THROWED OFF AND GLAD was prime Texan roots and a blend of singer-songwriter and southern rock, last year’s EL CABRON had a distinctive border flavour to it. FROM A BEAUMONT BAR is a continuation of Johnson paying homage to the much-loved music of his home state and, on this occasion, he has headed down an out-and-out classic country trajectory, the common denominator across the album’s fifteen tracks being broken relationships and heartache.
Given the album’s central theme, it’s no coincidence that many of the songs are named after various Beaumont bars. Some of those bars are still trading; others have closed their doors, and Johnson drew on his real-life escapades within them, along with observations and a degree of poetic licence. The benchmark for him was to recreate the energy and mood of Jerry Lee Lewis’s WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE or Merle Haggard’s SERVING 190 PROOF.
Johnson sets his stall with the opener The Bubbles In My Beer, written by Bob Wills. With colliding piano, horns, and accordion, it expresses a sentiment of loss and dejection in modern-day Texas swing style. Swiftly following is a short intro that plays out like the writer’s thoughts as he wanders into the next bar, seeking to shake off his disheartened mood. These short musical diversions repeat cleverly throughout the rest of the record.
Standing out as the loneliest of the many lonesome inclusions is To Love You, complete with spoken word mid-song and some seriously weepy pedal steel. Those emotional contours repeat in Can’t Fall In Love With You, its sentiment clouded by a funky, toe-tapping backbeat. Second Chances bemoans the draw barstool and the ensuing relationship carnage that follows (“Well, I was of fond of strangers and she forgave my sin / But the nightlife of the local bar made me break her heart again”).
Johnson also adds his customary humour to a few songs. A cheating partner is called out in Shuckin’ and Jivin’, and the album closer Lowering The Bar speaks of a burnt-out playboy whose party days are behind him (“Well once upon a time, I was handsome / With the body of Adonis or Brad / And then every ten I would chance 'em/But now I look more like my dad”).
FROM A BEAUMONT BAR finds Johnson revisiting his younger years without rose-tinted glasses, while also paying homage to his musical heroes who gathered much of their material from empty bottles, broken promises and relationship carnage. With top-drawer players doing their bit, he has crafted a record for lovers of old-school country to thrive on.
Declan Culliton
Ags Connolly Yesterday’s Man Self-Release
As with Ags Connolly’s previous three albums, he headed to Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire, where he self-produced this latest album with help from the studio owner, Stuart Jones. The other contributors were Rob Updegraff (guitars), Sarah Jory (pedal steel, guitar), Kieran Towers (fiddle), Andy May (piano), Anna Robinson (bass), Chris ‘CJ’ Jones (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Cahalen Morrison (mandolin, vocals, banjo, guitar). With that lineup, you’d expect faultless playing, and they combine to complement Connolly’s gravelly baritone vocals. Sarah Jory's pedal steel playing, with a list of artists she has performed with that includes Ricky Skaggs, Porter Wagoner, Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride, The Bellamy Brothers, and Gene Watson, particularly deserves mention. However, singling only her out does a disservice to the rest of the team.
Connolly has earned a reputation as the leading country artist in the UK and Europe, staying true to his passion for traditional country music; with a pedal steel intro on the opening and title track before his baritone vocals kick in, he announces it’s business as usual with YESTERDAY’S MAN.
The album follows standard country reference points across its ten tracks. Didn’t I Tell You captures the tender side of romance, while the other side of the coin presents lost love in Come Back Around and What Am I Gonna Think About. The latter, complete with weepy pedal steel and tingling piano, ticks the ‘tears in my beer’ box. Landing somewhere between the two, When You Had The Chance may be tongue-in-cheek or a missed romantic opportunity (“I could have learned fast instead of slow / I might have moved to Austin for all you know / My heart might have needed a second glance / But you didn’t find out / When you had the chance”). Returning to lonely and lonesome, That Might Have To Do is out of the Hank Williams school of the unbefriended and alone, before the album closes with the fiddle-led Someone Wrote a Song About You, the final chapter in a broken heart whose scars have yet to heal.
Ags Connolly has raised the bar significantly this time around. His reputation as a classic country vocalist goes before him, but this album carries real weight. With his achingly expressive vocals and notable melodic hooks, expertly delivered by fine players, he's hit the bullseye.
Real country music continues its steady but painfully slow revival, and albums like this one emphasise what’s so vital about the genre. Let's hope it reaches an appreciative audience and gets the attention it richly deserves.
Declan Culliton
Admiral Radio Heirloom Too Fine
From a debut album in 2020, this duo from South Carolina has forged a career built around their tight harmony vocals and keen writing skills. This present album is number six along the trail they have walked and all songs are credited to the creative skills of Becca Smith and Coty Hoover.
Named after the classic vintage radios of 1930s America, the old traditions of those times come through on the airwaves and memories of news filtered into living rooms through a central source of communication. That focus informs the songs of Smith and Hoover as they honour their past family influences, the lessons handed down and the guidelines towards living a life of kindness to others and to oneself.
An interesting inclusion among the twelve tracks is a cover of the Springsteen hit Dancing In the Dark, here given a bluegrass treatment as the desire to connect with another is laid bare in the simple arrangement. Elsewhere we have songs like One Day At A Time that encourage a philosophy of living in the moment, a tribute to a deceased father on Sidewalk Preacher, and how the past can influence the present on Stepping Stones.
Lie Back Down is for the broken hearted who have lost in the game of love, while the enduring power of love’s mystery informs Love Is Alchemy. The search for a true soul to walk beside is resolved on Life Is A Puzzle and best tackled with someone beside you on the journey. The musicians that appear on the album of the highest calibre and the interplay across the songs is very impressive. Kristen Harris on violin stands out with her melodic playing, plus Travis Wright on atmospheric pedal steel guitar, banjo and electric guitar; joined by a fine rhythm section of Michael Scarboro (drums) and Lindsay Emmons (upright bass) and Kenny McWilliams (bass, acoustic and electric guitar), Moses Andrews III (organ, piano), and Steven Davidson on mandolin.
Coty Hoover plays acoustic guitar and Becca Smith plays banjo, with their air tight vocal harmonies the icing on a very rich cake. Stand out band moments include the ensemble in full flow on the story song Coal Mining Town and the love song Man Of Means. Another love song is the opening Jackpot which is a declaration of loyalty and trust “’ve got big ideas and you’re the follow through / Life’s a trip, I wanna ride with you / Let’s roll the windows down and hit the blacktop.” This is a very fine piece of work, wrapped with tender loving care and filled with songs that bring both hope for the future and joy in both past and present.
Paul McGee
Lady Nade Identity Self Release
The album title and opening track lays down a strong mission statement here; an independent artist who will accept no compromises, standing strong in her own creative space and taking no prisoners. Know who you are, know your own worth, and stand up for who you are. A message from the heart and from the head.
One Of Us follows in very much the same vein and encourages this self-identity to take on the form of breaking beyond accepted social stereotyping in the way that minority groups can be typecast ‘When that chain is finally broken, And at last you’re free, When your words are finally spoken, You’ll find out who we can be.’
On Rainbow Lady Nade delivers a song of contrasts, an expression that includes accepting all parts of another in any relationship. The complex nature of people bring many different shades and colours to any relationship ‘Here I am, I’m a rainbow.’ Change is in the air on Waiting For A Train and unless you get on board with a ticket, then you can’t possibly expect to arrive at a new destination ‘All of those places you long to be, If you keep hesitating you’ll never see, Waiting for a train, Waiting for a change.’
Honesty in personal relationships is vital and on Powerless we have one partner standing in open admission to the other, asking for acceptance “I’ve stood so many times outside your door / The courage I had to find, / Can’t wait anymore.”Admitting past mistakes and looking to grow from the lessons learned is wrapped up in Sober, a song that admits to past addiction leanings and a declaration to move forward into better times ‘I’m taking the steps, I’m getting closer, Can we be friends now that I’m sober?’
Self determinism is back on the agenda on Stand and a plea to be present in your own beliefs and power. There is a name check for American labour activist Cesar Chavez in the lyrics and Lady Nade urges “No more old ways / Time for the new, It’s up to me / It’s up to you.” Change can only be delivered if we commit to be the agents that bring it about.
The promo for this album speaks of an “eclectic blend of folk, soul, americana and roots” in the songs. That is a wide colour palette to imagine and for me the defining sound in more focused upon neo-soul with perhaps the political manifesto for self-governance tipping into a space once explored by Lauryn Hill, among others.
Lady Nade hails from Bristol, a city that was a melting pot for musical growth through the decades of trip hop emerging as a real force, and the influence of punk, reggae and soul music. She has co-written all ten tracks included here, with the wonderful Boo Hewerdine credited on seven of the songs, in addition to co-producer Archie Sylvester and his wife Issy Ferris involved in co-writing two songs, and Katey Brooks on the other song. We also have Sylvester playing bass, guitars and percussion, with Michael Rendell playing all keyboards on the recording.
As the album reaches the final tracks, a stand out is Smoke and Mirrors, a song that references the fight that black artists faced for equal recognition throughout their careers. Hattie McDaniel is name checked, a black actress who made more than 300 movies and yet had to sit in a side room during the Academy Awards of 1940, when Gone With the Wind won eight academy awards; she had played the role of Mamy in the film. Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Duke Ellington are also honoured as talents who had to succumb to racial segregation in where they were permitted to perform. Lip service often given to those where the face didn’t fit with the self-proclaimed cognoscenti of the time.
Masks is another strong track and appears as a deeply personal ballad. We all wear a multitude of masks in our varying roles that society demands of us, daughter, friend, sister, wife, mother, worker. Do we hide behind our masks and deny our true feelings? “Welcome home, it’s good to see you / I’ve not seen you in years, I missed your laughter, imagination / Lost behind your tears.’’ Time to own it and step into the light.
The final song is Bloom and the sincere quality of the performance points to endurance, growth and self-realisation in a troubled world “f you dream it, you can be it / If you speak it you can reap it / If you believe it you will see it …” This album represents all that Lady Nade clearly holds dear and it is an important release for these reasons alone. A fine testament to an artist who continues to grow into her career with both grace and gravitas.
Paul McGee
Mike Guiney The Grace Of Eloquence Wolfe Island
A debut album at the stage of life when many are thinking of retirement is something to be applauded. Going against expected norms is the mark of someone who is not prepared to “let the old man into the room,” as the oft-quoted saying goes.
Admired more for his song-writing skills over the decades, Canadian Mike Guiney published his first poem at the age of sixteen, and it is only now, in his sixties, that he has picked up an acoustic guitar and sings across the ten songs included here, all of which he wrote. To say that he is a patient man is a clear understatement, given that Mike worked regular jobs across a number of industries for nigh on forty years, before finally deciding to turn his passion for lyric writing into something more than the intermittent awards recognition that came his way.
The bluesy opener Gone Dry holds out little hope for humanity as we struggle with a world that has thrown in the towel “Woke up this morning with a prayer on my lips, / The well’s gone dry as a dyin’ man’s kiss.” The blues theme continues on the superbly atmospheric Ain’t No Friend Of Mine, all late night back-room laid-back resignation as the tired vocal laments the coming morning and the rising sun. Guiney delivers his vocals in a knowingly haunted sense of having seen it all before and wishing for redemption. The warm keyboard sounds are reflective of the mood, courtesy of Chris Brown, with Kate Fenner on understated harmony vocals.
Harmonica from Mickey Raphael colours the largely spoken word delivery on Gravedigger Blues, minimalist electric guitar from Tony Scherr, and a restrained rhythm, with Jason Mercer on acoustic bass and Pete Bowers on drums tickling the senses with understated playing. Love Can Be Dangerous continues at the same easy pace, with dreamy piano and a co-vocal from Miss Emily that councils “Playing Blood on the Tracks / Is the last thing I should do / But I just can’t help myself, When I start thinkin’ ‘bout you.”
Chris Brown is a real highlight on these opening songs with his superb sense of timing bringing great elan to his piano and organ contributions. He is co-producer on the album along with Zane Whitfield who mixed the tracks. Gone Are the Days has a muted horn arrangement courtesy of Brown also, a reflection upon the past, and youthful days spent in dreaming of the future. Joey Wright also plays mandolin to great effect on the song “Gone are the days / When a full moon was my sail /Gone are the days / When I had tomorrow by the tail.” Guiney’s vocal delivery has a fragile quality to it, not unlike a Willie Nelson timbe, in part.
Beyond Fate’s Control contains the album title in the lyric and it’s a song that looks to call attention to those who seem to glide above society norms and expectations ‘You’ve seen all the angles, Played behind the scenes, But refused to be the one, To oil that machine.’ Come Down (Before You Fall) is a song that has a jazz swing in the arrangement with the sax of Jonathan “Bunny” Stewart set against a blues feel, with the words “Now all you see through your windshield / Is the next place you’re going to / And what’s that in your rearview? It’s time, and it’s catching up with you. ‘
Troubadour Blues has nice harmonica played by Todd Bryant Weeks and it traces the lifestyle of a typical travelling musician ‘You keep most of what you own, In the back of your Chevrolet, The rest is scattered in a thousand places, All along the way.’ Moonlight On the Water is a song of hope with harmony vocals from Kate Fenner and Hector Jenkins, twinkling piano and warm organ sounds rocking you safely into a sense of well-being. The final song is Counting Lucky Stars and it signs off with a perspective on the fact that your lot in life can be determined as much by attitude as by fate itself. Sarah McDermott provides sweet background vocals, and this longest track is a highlight as it builds towards a very satisfying conclusion. A very immersive listening experience overall, really well performed, and produced to a high standard that lulls you into a quiet space of reflective calm.
Paul McGee
Rita Bliss One More Winter Self Release
Banjo is such a melodic instrument that you find yourself almost hypnotised by the insistent, rhythmic strum. When you factor in the warm tone and playing skills of Rita Bliss on her clawhammer instrument, then the experience is almost meditative across the ten songs featured on her second album release.
By adding some fluent fiddle playing, courtesy of Noah Jeffries (seven tracks), cheerful mandolin from Billy Bright (eight tracks), and the sweet guitar and bass lines of Dom Fisher (eight tracks), you have all the constituent parts of a classic bluegrass sound. Never more prevalent than on the opening song Come Along. It’s almost like a local tourist board advert to visit the second largest U.S. state. The ensemble playing is just perfectly honed and lays down a high marker for the rest of the album ‘Just behind the bend, Hard times are gonna end, We’re going down to Texas.’
All My Days repeats the formula, again to great impact, and you are fully immersed in the world of Rita Bliss (great name) as she unfurls her deceptively simple tunes of rural living and simple pleasures in the small things. Jimmy Scott Calhoun provides harmony vocals on this, and four other tracks, as the invitation is extended to ‘Give me that love and a little bit of hot sauce, Show me some grace when I leave the coffee on way too long.’
While away a day with her on Aimlessly as you sit and chat about nothing in particular, observing the time and the weather. Dom Fisher co-produced the album with Rita and she also plays harmonica and sings with a clear vocal tone that is quietly welcoming in style and delivery. Honey is a song about the virtues of home with clawhammer banjo and harmonica as simple solo accompaniment; while on Some Say the simple old-time swing in the melody dances you around and has your feet tapping as your smile broadens.
The Highway speaks of choices, and the freedom that comes from travelling, where following your gut is best advice. Empty Houses slows the pace as Rita plays simple banjo to a melody that speaks of missing places from her past, with Noah Jeffries joining on easy fiddle and Jimmie Scott Calhoun on harmony vocals “ think about the days / When time just got away / From all the things I said I’d do.”
Sometimes She Sings is a song about personal traits that attract you towards someone and the simple joys of true friendship or love “I just love her face / The way she moves through space.’’ It stands as a tribute to enduring love and acceptance in the compromise of sharing a life.
Red is a fine workout and a bluegrass treat as the players come together with great expression on a song about a firebrand “She leaves trouble in her wake / She’s trouble just for trouble’s sake / More trouble than this little world could ever bear.”The final song Silver City introduces Patrick Herzfeld on drums, and the slow tempo looks at a prospector who wants out of the miner’s life and who is hoping for a happy ending elsewhere. This is a gentle, impressive, and intimate album. Uncomplicated in the song arrangements, attractive in the easy production and tender songs.
Paul McGee
Danni Nicholls Making Moves Astrorama
A superb fourth album from English rose Danni Nicholls, who these days makes her home in Nashville, Tennessee. There is a great confidence running through the eleven songs included here, with a beautifully layered sound throughout, courtesy of producer Sarah Peacock who really knows how to extract the best performances from her gathered musicians. The sonics are just beautifully merged into the melodies and gentle rhythms and when you couple this with the velvet vocal tone of Danni Nicholls then you are on a sure-fire winner.
Danni sings with such nuance, instinctively knowing when to hold back and when to release emotion into the rich resonance and depth she delivers. Eight of the songs included are co-writes, which shows the collaborative nature of Danni when it comes to seeking inspiration. There is a temptation to take all these songs as having personal meaning to the writer, a journey through relationship break-up, the aftermath of anger, self-doubt and finger pointing, only to arrive at a sense of forgiveness and healing. Of course, the songs were written over different time frames and it is perhaps the core gift of any talented songwriter to be able to take the personal and turn it into the universal. These are the songs of everyman, or every woman, I should (correctly) say…
With the country drive of Free Wheel, we dive straight into the deep end of the swimming pool and the pedal steel echoes the intention to let go of old chains and just move on “Everything I own is out on my front lawn / It’s all gotta go before the day is done.” In the same vein is the song Love Is Letting Go and the realisation that relationship hurt and vulnerability are necessary building blocks towards recognising that real spark when it presents itself ‘Little bird has flown away, There was no cage to fear, She carried off my heart, As a sorry souvenir.’
The Wreckage continues the narrative with the theme of moving on to better days a central focus “Knowing the road I’m on / It won’t be blocked for long / Clear the way make some space / I gotta journey on.” On Four Frames we are given the memory of a photo booth session with a lover where the strip of four photographs is now all the memory that remains “Every picture a different face / With longing in your eyes like you’d always stay / But you were gone before the new year came /Now all that’s left of us is these four frames.” The reflection is mirrored in the easy slide of the melody and some restrained guitar, pedal steel and piano to deliver a real stand out moment.
Danni Nicholls (vocals, acoustic guitar), Joshua Grange (electric, baritone guitars, pedal steel, keyboards), Lex Price (bass guitar), Chris Benelli (drums, percussion), Brian Sutherland (cello), Anne Marie Kirby (violin, viola), Stephen Leiweke (marxophone. Banjo) provide the core ensemble in the studio and their playing is intuitive and inspiring. In addition, Sarah Peacock, Danni Nicholls and Robby Hecht provide backing / harmony vocals.
Producer Sarah Peacock excels on the overall lush sound, highlighted by the arrangement on the title track Making Moves, when everything comes together superbly “I met a girl at the corner bar / She was kinder and softer than you are / She held my hand all the way home / She made me feel something, I think it was hope.”
A nice touch on the song Hide is Danni contributing on alto saxophone, and the soulful melody is perfectly suited to the lovely vocal delivery. Elsewhere, Honey looks at the confusion that relationships can bring “He’s more appealing / He’s the safer choice / Thanks for using me to find out / You still prefer boys.” On the final track Well Enough Alone we are given the reflection that “It all comes down to hope” and perhaps this is the touchstone by which we all live our fragmented lives, in the hope that we are somehow steering in the right direction.
Additional keyboards, synthesizers, electric guitar, percussion, and acoustic guitar are all provided by Sarah Peacock and Stephen Leiweke across the tracks. This album is quite a statement from a talented artist who just goes from strength to strength. A very impressive addition to Danni’s body of work, and one that nestles into my list of favourites of the year to date.
Paul McGee