Rick Faris Life’s Parade Dark Shadow
The fourth solo release from the irrepressible Rick Faris finds him reaching new heights in his songwriting, singing, arranging, producing and playing. Another of the many illustrious bluegrass artists that have graduated from the 'Greg Cahill School of the Special Consensus', Rick Faris started his career in the Faris Family Band, out of the Ozarks. He went solo in 2018 after 11 years with Special C, playing both guitar and mandolin.
LIFE’S PARADE opens with a song that probably sums up Faris’s attitude to his journey through life to date, and in Bend, Don’t Break he takes everything that has been thrown at him and runs with it. The driving contemporary musical backdrop to his songs are provided by a bevy of some of the top performers out there currently, including Dan Tyminski on lead mandolin and backing vocals and Ron Block on banjo on this one. Can’t Sing The Blues No More introduces the stunning mandolin playing of young Henry Burgess, who is also a member of Rick Faris’s touring band. It also introduces the powerhouse playing of another young hotshot, Gibson Davis on banjo, who is also Faris’s regular banjo man. Davis is a fourth generation bluegrass musician from West Virginia (his father Chris played mandolin with The Grascals, among others) and his dedication to his craft has already made him a stand out player. The bluesy Lonesome is Your Name allows fiddler Maddie Denton to show her chops, and she is now the regular touring fiddle player, although most of the fiddle playing here is by the well established Kentucky player, Laura Orshaw. As with most of the twelve superb songs here, Storm Clouds is another co-write with Rick Lang. This time, the mandolin contribution is from Harry Clark, and Faris gets a chance to feature his own guitar prowess here. On The Right Track is a driving train song, and on the heartbreak song The Sound of Lonely, bassist Mark Schatz backs up Dan Tyminski and Ron Block once again.
Co-written with Brink Brinkman, The Rabbit Hole is a treatise on falling in love with the wrong person and closes out the record in breathtaking style. There’s so much to digest here that on each play, one discovers new things. One thing though - it is always an uplifting experience. Faris has succeeded in developing a bluegrass/country sound that is contemporary and where the lyrics are as important as the musicianship, something that is not always the case in the genre.
Credit is also due to Stephen & Jana Mougin, of Dark Shadow Recording, who took a chance and signed Rick in 2018, and nurtured him towards the superb work he is producing now. Check it out and be prepared to be reeled in, like I was.
Eilís Boland
CJ Land Storm Chaser Self Release
A singer/songwriter who has moved from a more metal background into something of an alt-county arena. He mixes that with a touch of outlaw and country soul to create a mini-album seven track release that highlights his love of some of the songs and performers associated with these forms. The album was produced by noted session guitarist Jeff Williams and so it sounds pretty good. It would fit right at home among some current Texas playlists. CJ Land is joined by the talents of pedal steel player Steve Hinson, who certainly adds something to the country feel here. Aside from him, it’s Jeff Armstrong on keyboards and Bobby Hamrick on background vocals, while everything else is down to Williams and Land.
The opening two tracks are mid-tempo songs that essentially outline a man who is trying to come to terms with the way to handle relationships and his own sense of himself. Those tracks, Distance and That’s Just Me, give you a pretty good feel for Land as a vocalist who has the ability to tell his tales convincingly. Things kick up a notch with Where Has All The Time Gone? Slide guitar gives a bluesier feel to this song about being a musician on the road and wondering if that time has been well spent. However he begins to wonder if he's now beginning to take after the music that his granddaddy loved and how a cowboy hat and a whiskey bottle in a honky-tonk might suit him better now, after all those years and miles of playing. The next song, On Downstream, has a twangier tone and is again a reflection of missed places and people.
The title track has a little more ambience and reckons that he has always been a storm chaser and trouble seeker. It has a driving full-bodied sound that might suggest his earlier influences. It all settles down again with I Need Some Time, which asks that he be given the space to come to terms to find where he needs to be. The keyboard and steel interplay give the song more of a sense of longing. The final track opens with a bass riff and then speeds on down the road as he is again, maybe, making ill considered choices. Looking For Trouble is something of an understanding of the whys and wherefores of his life and where he might go now.
Land is coming, at this particular juncture, to a place where he may easily find acceptance, as there is, undoubtedly, a musical landscape now and an accompanying journey for him to chase and to find his place in. This is his calling card for that.
Stephen Rapid
Turn Turn Turn All Hat No Cattle Self Release
Whilst I was aware of Adam Levy via his stint in the alt-country band The Honeydogs, this album comes from a different place where vocal harmony and melody are key elements. Levy is joined by Savannah Smith and Barb Brynstad, both with their own track records, activities and solo performances. Here working as a trio, they conjure up something that will please many who have a fondness for the flavours of that 60s/70s West Coast mix of country, folk and cosmic soulfulness.
The album opens with a compelling Civil War ballad Antietam, sung initially acapella before the acoustic backing joins in on a song written by Levy that is both tragic and poignant, as these words express “I was a nurse in the Union Army / of the Potomac McClellan’s charge / our great country was torn asunder / two years of bloodshed, a death toll large” It’s a song that not only references a previous time of tumult but also of one that might return.
That mood and setting changes with Last Drink, from Levy again, which sounds like a 70s take on a 50s country song. Mandolin and electric guitar are prominent as it allows that a relationship is not going to work out with these familiar lines “When you leave don’t let the door hit your rear end.” Something of a south of the border Norteña feel adds to the atmosphere here, with the three way harmonies that are a feature throughout making their presence felt. The song Trouble was written by Levy and Brynstad (both co-wrote several other songs) and, as it suggests, it details how it is to get oneself into that position.
Throughout you are reminded of a number of different influences and many will find their own comparisons, but Gram and Emmylou is one obvious one. I was also reminded a little of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their ground breaking albums featuring many of the previous generation of country musicians.
The album was produced and recorded by Levy and the band played the majority of the instruments featured, but were joined on certain tracks by drummer John Kaplan, pedal steel players Adam Schmidt and Joe Savage and Peter J. Sands on keyboards. When Love Reigns is one where they employ these additional players in an effective and convincing way. The same seasoned musicians also contribute to Hungry Ghosts. Here the harmonies overlay the whole track, a homage to lost souls (human and animal). It also has the distinctive 12 string Rickenbacker sound featured prominently and pleasingly.
Things close out nicely with Solid State that muses on how we continue to rely on things we shouldn’t,“This world is run on flesh, plastic bottles, nylon mesh / Dreams of the West in a Kevlar vest”, Levy protests. Simply put this is not an album that is trying to do anything new, rather it is here to deliver some finely wrought music that many will enjoy simply for what it is. They do not add layers of polish bur rather present the music with some energy and sparkle. The unlisted title track, sung solo with acoustic guitar by Levy, is simply him expressing the notion that many assume the mantle of authenticity yet revealing that “In truth I ain’t no outlaw but got it through my inlaws.” (It is a notion that has also recently been expressed by the titles of recent releases by The Doohickeys and Joshua Hedley). That’s the way most lovers of this music actually do despite, in some cases, appearances that may suggest otherwise. However in the end it’s what is delivered that counts and here it counts for quite a lot.
Stephen Rapid
Brown Horse Total Dive Loose
The rapid evolution of Brown Horse, from playing around their local city of Norwich, UK, to releasing three albums, has been remarkable. TOTAL DIVE marks the band’s third release in three years, and if their 2024 debut album RESERVOIR found the band members wearing their hearts on their sleeves and giving the thumbs up to their musical influences, TOTAL DIVE signals an outfit progressing from ‘one to watch’ to the finished article.
Brown Horse is Patrick Turner (vocals, guitars, violin), Emma Tovell (lap steel, pedal steel, bass, banjo), Nyle Holihan (guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo), Rowan Braham (organ, piano, accordion), Ben Rodwell (drums) and Neve Cariad (vocals).
Sonically, the bona fide alt-country drift of their earlier albums remains, but with a much fuller guitar-and-lap-steel-driven focus. Also, the song structures are on another level, probably aided by seemingly endless touring over the past few years. Another progression is the potency of the songwriting, which, although written individually by four of the band members, is consistent, flowing and significantly dark and brooding.
Standout opening tracks on albums are often not equalled by what follows. Not the case here. The blistering Sorrow Reigns, driven by fuzzy electric guitar, lap steel and organ, may very well be the finest song they have recorded, but repeated listens to the other nine inclusions unearth a number of ‘close seconds.’
More than regurgitating sounds of bands dear to them, Brown Horse have now fashioned their own distinctive ‘sound.’ A pointer towards this was Wisteria Vine from last year’s ALL THE RIGHT WEAKNESSES, and both Wreck and Twisters, from the latest record, further reinforce this. Turner’s vocals approached breaking point on both songs, and flanked by shrill guitars and soaring pedal steel, they have Brown Horse's distinctive stamp on them.
Lyrically, despite four songwriters, the consistent direction is dark, with middle-of-the-night tales that often drill into strained relationships. ‘’I don’t believe you when you say nothing good could come from you asking me to stay,’’ growls Turner on Wreck, while the title track also implies a fragile courtship with the lines, ‘’Just think of me as a place you can’t visit anymore.’’
Comeback Loading recalls Israel Nash before he dropped Gripka from his surname and released the excellent BARN DOORS AND CONCRETE FLOORS. As if to give the listener a breather mid-record, the meditative Hares is a folksy-styled country ballad before the guitars are cranked up again for Heart Of The Country and the title track, which follows. At close to the six-minute mark, they sign off with the explosive Watching Something Burn Up, which flits from one disturbing scene to another, playing out like a nightmare of frightening proportions.
The Americana genre is overflowing with songwriters who share stories of lost love and other heartfelt themes. It’s refreshing to witness a new wave and second coming of young alt-country and indie-country bands. Brown Horse stand shoulder to shoulder with their American counterparts, Florry, Wednesday, and Friendship in leading the charge.
After avoiding the ‘difficult second album’ trap last year, Brown Horse have hit the mark spectacularly with this release.
Declan Culliton
Ashley Monroe Dear Nashville Self Release
A surprise and unannounced album by Ashley Monroe, titled DEAR NASHVILLE, tells a story common to so many talented women who moved to Nashville to pursue full-time careers as country artists. Unfortunately, Music City greatly values commercial potential aimed at the masses over artistic talent, and many artists, and women in particular, have invested so many years of their lives without the return they deserved.
After twenty-five years working and recording in Nashville, the hugely gifted Monroe has written this bittersweet record, a reflection on the reality of sacrificing so much over those years, often without the industry recognition she hoped for.
Monroe has every reason to record her regret, given the consistent quality of her output from day one. Signed to Sony, her 2009 debut album, SATISFIED, had been held back for release by the label since 2006, and it pointed to an artist with an exceptional country voice and the wherewithal to write deeply personal songs. LIKE A ROSE followed three years later by the Warner Brothers label. Produced by Vince Gill, and for this writer, one of the strongest traditional country albums of the past twenty years, it reached No.10 on the Country Music Charts. THE BLADE, also produced by Gill and released on the Warner Brothers label, followed and was nominated for Best Country Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards. With wide commercial success still escaping her in 2018, Monroe shifted to a more Countrypolitan sound on her next album, SPARROW, and even further from her earlier traditional country leanings with ROSEGOLD, which followed in 2021.
From an early age, Monroe has been at her most fluent writing about sorrow and regret, and on reflection, the past decades since she moved from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Nashville have provided her with ample subject matter. Working with Grammy Award winner Luke Laird, who co-produced the record with her and contributed all instrumentation except pedal steel guitar by Paul Franklin, they recorded this eight-track record at The Cabin Nashville.
DEAR NASHVILLE is a concept album that explores storylines filled with conflict, contradictions, highs and lows. As a devoted country artist, Monroe summarises her relationship with Nashville by saying, 'Country music is the reason I’m alive. I wish you loved me as I love you.'
She sets her stall out with the opening track I Hate Nashville (‘Everybody tells you you’re the next big thing. Pay your dues, can’t pay your bills. It’s a dream that’s hard to kill’). The lyrics play out like a conversation with herself as she pines over the time invested and the limited return, while also expressing her love for Vince Gill and Paul Franklin. Also included is the simply gorgeous breakup song, What Are We, which mixes both spoken and angelic lyrics over a dreamy backbeat. Whether aimed at a failing personal relationship or a bittersweet bond with Nashville, torn between staying and leaving, lonesome and lamenting, Steal captures the scenario beautifully. Franklin’s pining pedal steel adds another dimension to the song. In complete accord with that song is Getting’ Out Of Hand, which explores pain and capitulation (‘You’ve got me carried away, all over the place, as gone as I’ve ever been. There’s just no walking away’).
If much of what goes before it is laced with regret, the album closes on a more optimistic note with the stripped-back, Quittin’. Accepting her lot and wondering if that happy ending still awaits her, Monroe asks herself ‘Why would I close the door? What if the high I’ve been chasing is out there waitin'?’ before bookending the album on a defiant note with the resolution ‘So much for quittin’, I guess I’ll stay on the ride, Til the day that I die.’
Possibly even more personal than she’s ventured before, DEAR NASHVILLE may address sunken and somewhat unfulfilled dreams. Be that as it may, it is also another most impressive venture on all fronts from one of country music’s premier vocalists.
Declan Culliton
Spencer Cullum Coin Collection 3 Self Release
If the previous two volumes in Spencer Cullum’s COIN COLLECTION trilogy genre-hopped between jazz, krautrock and classic Brit-Folk, his final instalment focuses very much on the latter, resulting in a consistent flow between the album’s nine tracks. Recorded in his makeshift home recording studio in Nashville, the motivation to focus on the traditional folklore of his birth country stemmed from the vitriol and distressing current events, both political and environmental, emerging from his former home and his present homeland.
Better known as ‘go to’ pedal steel player for Miranda Lambert, Caitlin Rose and others, the COIN COLLECTION project was an introduction to an artist and student well-versed in many categories of music outside of his core work in the country genre. When moving to Nashville from Romford in East London a decade and a half ago, Cullum's interest in jazz, blues, R&B, and country led to the formation of the band Steelism, with his East Nashville neighbour Jeremy Fetzer adding twang and surf.
The musical ambience is hypnotic throughout the album. Lyrically, the songs address the depressing political landscape and environmental issues while also acknowledging personal domestic bliss. Many of the songs' directions were credited to the book Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology,in which Cullum immersed himself before the recordings. A classic British collection of folk-horror short stories, it ranges from witches’ curses to ancient, haunted graveyards.
Cullum’s vocals, unhurried and distinct, land somewhere between the spoken word and full voice. Guest vocalists included Erin Rae, Oisin Leech and Annie Williams. Musical contributors included Allison De Groot (banjo), Sean Thompson and Ethan Ballinger (electric guitars), Eli Beaird and Adam Bednarik (bass), Dominic Billett (drums), Jim Hoke (flute, saxophone), Jo Schornikow (piano), Hollow Hand (recorder) and Rich Ruth (guitars, synths).
The rowan tree has often been noted in folk mythology as a guardian of evil powers (‘Bury my body long out at sea, 'Cause I waged my war on a rowan tree’), and the album’s opener Rowan Tree is a prime traditional English folk song with nods to early Fairport Convention. Annie Williams, who, as well as Rich Ruth, is a member of Cullum’s touring band, adds backing vocals on the song. Williams also appears on Old Paul Hill, which addresses gentrification at the expense of stripping cities of their longtime communities (‘Sorry about your city, no one seems to care. Only for a profit that they'll never share’).
A regular collaborator with Cullum, Erin Rae’s whispered vocal behind Cullum’s full voice adds charm to Look At The Moon, which, together with Jackie Paints, written about Cullum’s mother, are odes to his wife and mother respectfully. Washed Up Shore is a trancelike affair, with spoken lyrics and Ruth’s synths, recalling Cullum’s fellow countryman, Robert Wyatt.
Returning to deliberations on excessive commercialism Don’t Go Downtown features Oisin Leech adding vocals. Well-placed saxophone breaks practically steer the song into the realms of free jazz.
COIN COLLECTION 3 pays homage to the late 1960s purple patch in British progressive folk music. Delivered at a fluid and measured pace, this album is a worthy companion to the two charming albums that came before it.
Declan Culliton
Jim Lauderdale Country Super Hits Volume 2 Sky Crunch
The title of the thirty-eight-studio album by the 2025 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy Award winner Jim Lauderdale could suggest that it’s a covers album of country standards. However, those familiar with the extensive output of the North Carolina-born artist will recognise it as a follow-up to his 2006 recording, the equally tongue-in-cheek titled COUNTRY SUPER HITS VOL. 1.
Lauderdale is a master of genre-hopping, spanning bluegrass, rock, singer-songwriter, blues, soul, R&B, Americana, and traditional country. His latest offering leans toward smooth country, at times approaching Countrypolitan, rather than hardcore honky tonk.
The conventional country music theme of love lost, found, cherished, and yearned for may recur across the album’s thirteen tracks, but Lauderdale also addresses current, worldly, and worrisome issues. For example, Artificial Intelligence drills into the positives, as well as the unknown and possibly unintended consequences of this branch of computer science. Modern-day challenges that face us all are addressed in Everybody’s Got A Problem and We Don’t See You Anymore. The latter is a semi-spoken country rocker about the passing of time and friends departed, and one of four cowrites with Odie Blackmon (George Strait, Lee Ann Womack).
The matters-of-the-heart tracks explore bittersweet relationships in While We Learn To Break Each Other’s Hearts and infatuation in You're My Honest To Goodness. Similarly, I’ve Still Got You acknowledges the often-undervalued blessing of having a loved one or cherished friend always nearby when needed. As you would expect, the instrumentation is flawless, with Telecaster guitars, piano, and pedal steel working optimally alongside Lauderdale’s polished, unrushed vocals.
One of the most prolific Nashville-based songwriters of the past three and a half decades, Lauderdale has had songs recorded by Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, Elvis Costello, The Dixie Chicks, Old Crow Medicine Show, and George Strait. This latest collection is a country album in the true sense, rather than what often seeps out of Nashville under the same banner.
Never one to sit on his hands, Lauderdale follows this record with THE BIRDS KNOW, a bluegrass album which will be released on April 24th.
Declan Culliton
Dead Goat Self-Titled AV8
This album heralds the coming together of four of Northern Ireland’s like-minded premier songwriters and musicians. The band members of the recently formed Dead Goat include Stevie Scullion, who has released a number of acclaimed albums under the moniker Malojian, and Mark McCausland, whose CV includes collaborations with Howe Gelb, M. Ward, and Jolie Holland, as well as being one-half of the musical duo The Lost Brothers. The other two members are songwriter and producer Matt McGinn, who has recorded five solo albums and has collaborated with Paul Brady, Foy Vance, and Ben Glover, and drummer Declan McManus, a former band member and recording musician for The Basement, Malojian, and The Breeze.
The four artists initially met for casual jam sessions, enjoying themselves with no intention of forming a recording or performing group. As their songs took shape, they decided to record demos. Later, on revisiting the tracks, they agreed to release the demos as their self-titled debut album, rather than adding further production.
Songwriting was shared among the four members, with many songs featuring harmonising vocals. Scullion’s glam rock influences are evident on Writ of The Lonely and So Long John. Conversely, El Salvador and All That I Need are gentle love ballads, while the similarly paced Laughs For The Lonely tells a mournful tale of loss and regret. A standout, Prisoners Of The Dark, echoes the classic sound of CSN&Y.
Whether this album is a one-off venture by kindred spirits remains to be seen. Although the songs draw on numerous influential sources, the result is a collection of tender, intimate songs that fashion an impressive fusion of folk, roots, and alt-country.
Declan Culliton
Jude Shiels Detour Self Release
The recent musical output from Jude Shiels has shifted from blues and rock to classic country, a genre that has always been close to his heart. Temporarily abandoning the heavy rock sound passed down to him by his father and Irish music icon Brush Shiels, Jude’s 2024 album ONE MORE LAST TIME followed the country direction of his 2017 single Peaceful Dreams / A Friend Like You. His latest record finds him continuing to drill deeply into a country vibe, both traditional and alternative.
Shiels self-produced and recorded the album at Sonic Studios in Dublin. He played electric guitars, piano, and organ, and recruited several big hitters to guest. His father, Brush, added bass and acoustic guitar. The late Noel Bridgeman, who founded Skid Row with Brush, played drums and percussion. Pedal steel was played by Richard Nelson and B.J. Cole.
The excellent album opener Another Life, which features stunning guitar breaks, is a border-influenced affair that transports the listener from Dublin to far away sunny desert lands. That atmospheric sun-kissed western vibe is repeated in the cinematic The Ballad Of Joe & Isobel, and the ten-track album closes with the similarly themed Peaceful Dreams. The latter marries B.J.Cole’s ghostly pedal steel to the fore alongside Shiel’s unrushed vocals. Shifting tempo, the upbeat rootsiness of Watch The Day Begin and A Friend Like You impress, while Sanctuary adds element of jazzy swing to the album.
The album’s title references the many distractions that delayed its completion. Thankfully, it has seen the light of day, and Jude Shiels’ moody cosmic country journey continues.
Declan Culliton