Tellico Woven Waters Organic
Original Roots music and a second release following debut album, Relics and Roses, in 2015. The band comprises Anya Hinkle (guitar, fiddle, vocals), Greg Stiglets (bass, harmonica, vocals), Aaron Ballance (dobro, lap steel) and Jed Willis (mandolin and electric guitar). There are guest appearances from David Brewer (drums) and John Doyle (bouzouki), who also produced the project.
The band are part of the vibrant Roots music community in Asheville, North Carolina and the nine tracks included on this release run to almost 40 minutes and are played with impressive technique and subtle skill by these tightly integrated musicians. Storytelling was an integral part of the Appalachian sound and songs like the Ballad Of Zona Abston keep that tradition alive, as does the song, Salsa, which tells of a favourite horse who goes missing in the mountains.
There is bluegrass, old timey rhythms and some sweet folk leanings included in these songs but it’s the collective playing that impresses mostly with songs like West Of The Cumberlands, Courage For The Morning and Like November that linger. Hinkle has a fine delivery and her vocal is very expressive, with hints of Natalie Merchant. Never more so than on, It’s Just Rain, with the lyrical imagery of “another storm has come to wash the sin out of the stain”, staying on the breeze. Anya writes five songs, with Greg penning three more and there is one co-write between them. Worthy of your time and attention.
Review by Paul McGee
Blake Brown & The American Dust Choir Long Way Home We Believers
This debut release goes back to March 2018 but it only found a recent place in my review pile. Blake Brown is an American singer-songwriter from Denver, Colorado. Collaborative projects apart, he formed The American Dust Choir which includes wife, Tiffany Brown (keyboard/vocals), Adam Blake (drums), Jason Legler (bass) and Trent Nelson (guitar). Their sound is based around guitar orientated arrangements that echo an Americana feel and the dynamic is added to by the subtle vocal style of Brown, who employs an approach of ‘less is more’.
On repeated playing, the overall sound is understated, yet addictive, and the easy swing of tracks like Up In Arms and Fever Dreams channel a Chris Isaak mood. Clocking in around 35 minutes, this release does not overstay its welcome and the neat production of Joe Richmond has much to recommend it. With clean lines and a nice separation on all instruments, it makes for an engaging listen and the commercial sound of Stop Shakin’ and Bended Knee indicate one direction that the band could focus on. Acoustic numbers, Accidental Love and Untitled are also engaging. However, it is the more ‘noir’ sound of tracks like Kissing Knives and Get Out that indicate where the true heart of the band’s sound may lie. Interesting.
Review by Paul McGee
Martha Reich Brave Bird Self Release
This 7-track release opens with a simple banjo, cello & fiddle accompaniment to the sweetly sensitive vocal of Martha Reich on If You Only Knew, and you are instantly hooked. Drawn into a space where time stands still and the plaintive, sparse sound of this Folk artist slowly takes hold of the moment. Self produced and written by Reich, with the exception of a cover, Over The Rainbow, you are touched by the sense of being in the presence of, perhaps, Joni Mitchell’s older and wiser, sister. Ethereal, gentle soundscapes that drip with restrained atmosphere and tracks like So Brave, The River, Fade Away and I’d Rather Be Surprised, over 30 minutes plus, leave you transformed. Yes, it’s that good!
Review by Paul McGee
Kalyn Fay Good Company Horton
I was very impressed by Fay’s last album Bible Belt and the Oklahoma musician (and graphic designer) has gone one better with her new album. On this release she has brought in Jesse Aycock to produce. He is a session musician and a recording artist in his own right. The sound is layered and varied, one that runs from the solid riff and propulsion of Highway Driving to the more folkish soft rock of Good Company and all points in between, that include country and rock in its make-up.
The result is a collection of thoughtful and considered songs that benefit from Fay’s alluring vocal. It is a sound that speaks directly to you in a way that is personal and not without its own sense of panache. A sound that is intensely welcomes you to a deep sense of her heritage, talent and place. Described as quintessentially Oklahomaian, it is also quintessentially Kalyn Fay, as the two are largely intertwined. The one feeds the other and as Fay has recently made a move to Arkansas to further her fine arts career, it is no doubt twinned with some sense of that separation.
To help her realise this set of songs Fay has a range of local musicians involved including John Fullbright and Carter Sampson, as well as Aycock’s contribution on guitars, pedal steel and piano. While these may be names known only to those who follow the musicians mentioned, the othermusicians are equally attuned to the song-writing which takes into account the possibilities of love, loss and of locality,. The songs include 10 originals and a well chosen cover of Malcolm Holcombe’s Dressed In White (an underrated songwriter). The titles offer a clue to her inspiration from Oklahoma Hills to Fool’s Heartbreak. These songs bookend theunderlyingsense of place and relationships. Though both, as with most places, exist as often inseparable points on life’s compass.
They overall theme that these songs touch on is one that is universal and the sound is also one that captivates on a broader level to make the album work for thelistener, no matter where they happen tom reside.It is simply an album that shows an artist communicating at her best with her finest music to date.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Boo Ray Tennessee Alabama Fireworks Self Release
The album opens with steel guitar on a song whose lyrics include the album’s title. It sets the tone for a selection of tracks that cover a number of different moods that are held together by Ray’s songs, allied to Noah Shain’s production and the assembled players collective skills. “What doesn’t come from the heart doesn’t reach the heart” a line from that opening track,A Tune You Can Whistle, sums up Ray’s credo. There is a consistent theme of travel, highways, truckers and small towns. Going Back Down To Georgia, as suits that particular song, has a more soulful direction with sone funky guitar, bass and brass. Honky Tonk Dream continues to use the steel guitar and brass to good effect. 20 Questions finds Ray under the spotlight trying to deal with a wide array of lifestyle enquiries from his partner. The slower paced,She Wrote The Song, has a solid beat with some effective guitar lines mingled with the pedal steel to emphasise the emotion of the song. Dee Elle is an instrumentalist that again has the steel well to the fore and giving it a desert atmosphere. Out Run The Wind is more straight up country.
There is a weariness and understanding in Ray’s voice which shows that he understands these emotions and motivations. His music is described as “Outlaw” on his Facebook page and while he may not fit the current stereotype, he fits the description in that he does his music his way, without interference from outside sources. Music that reflects his varied musical influences and experiences in the clubs and stages of Nashville, LA and in South Georgia, as well as his experiences from growing up in North Carolina. His sound has been perfected over recent albums such as Six Weeks In A Motel and Sea Of Lights, as well as some interesting single releases that feature such duet partners as Elizabeth Cook and Lily Winwood. An easy album to like and one that gets better with repeated plays. The cover depicts a sign that Ray repeatedly passed in his travels appearing as a “surreal, southern gothic effigy” - a pretty good marker for his music then.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Charles Wesley Godwin Seneca Self Release
Looking not unlike an old-time explorer on the cover of this album, Charles Wesley Godwin is perhaps fitting for a songwriter who is constantly making discoveries about the people and locations he has met or passed through in his life so far. Previously a member of Union Sound Treaty with whom he released one album, he played and listened to bluegrass and traditional country and began writing his own songs. These were coloured by his upbringing in West Virginia where he grew up with a coal mining father and a school teaching mother. He understood the people and places that he encountered along the way and these experiences of life are the bed rock of these songs.
His songs can be affecting, like Seneca Creek, a downbeat ballad that lays out a story of arelationship that has been touched by different aspects of weather and the weathered relationships that can occur in a particular place. It appears twice on the album,as afull band version and it also closes the album in an acoustic guitar and voice version. Both adequately highlight the storytelling power of Charles Wesley Godwin’s song-writing and singing.
Charles Wesley Godwin recordedover a 12 month period, in between touring to raise the money to make the album. Inthe process he met some of the musicians he wanted to work with and allowed for their schedules to achieve this. The results show the time well spent and the affinity that producer Al Torrence has with the material and the artist. The rhythm section provide a solid base over which there are bass, guitars, keyboards, fiddle, banjo, dobro and pedal steel embellishments that colour the textures but never over paint the pictures that Charles Wesley Godwin conjures. Seneca is an album that is deserving of a wider audience. Several of the songs in an acoustic setting are featured along with his back story on his website and are well worth checking out.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Balsam Range Aeonic Mountain Home
Great expectations awaited this eighth release from Balsam Range, who are named after a sub range of the Appalachian Mountains in their home state of North Carolina. They have, after all, twice been voted Entertainer of the Year by the IBMA membership and between them they have won 11 other individual IBMA awards.
And they won’t disappoint their myriad of fans with this latest self produced offering, ambitiously titled Aeonic (enduring, lasting immeasurably). The selection of songs from well established bluegrass and country writers and a couple of covers from other genres, all delivered in their traditional bluegrass style but with a smattering of newgrass and country touches, show that Balsam Range are not content to stand still musically.
The Girl Who Invented The Wheel kicks off the album at blistering pace, band leader Buddy Melton’s superb vocals doing more than justice to an unusual theme - extolling the virtues of a woman who has just dumped him but he is still in awe of her wonderfulness. In true bluegrass style, Buddy also gets to show off his much awarded fiddling on most of the tracks. Another particularly memorable tune is Tumbleweed Town (from the pens of Milan Miller and Beth Husband) wherein Tim Surrett shows that he’s as adept on the dobro as he is on bass. Guitarist Caleb Smith’s sweet vocals here are perfect for the pacy country ballad, with lots of lovely mandolin infills from Darren Nicholson.
Ray LaMontagne’s early song Hobo Blues is given an appropriately simpler arrangement and, again with Caleb Smith’s vocals, is one of the standout tracks.
The four gospel choices here are predictable fare but they allow the vocalists to indulge themselves in gorgeous three and four part harmonies. Marc Pruett’s legendary banjo playing shines on Let My Light Be A Life and also on the driving Get Me Gone.
Most outstanding though is the cover of George Harrison’s classic If I Needed Someone. Taken at double pace, and with Buddy Melton working some sort of electronic sorcery on his fiddle making it sound like a whole string section, it is over all too soon!
Review by Eilís Boland
Whiskey Shivers Some Part Of Something Devil Duck
Whiskey Shivers seem to have exploded onto the music scene recently - certainly they have only come under my radar in the past year - but would you believe that this is their 5th release? They’ve been bubbling under in Austin for years now - often described as ‘Austin’s best kept secret’ - but the secret is out! Currently in the middle of an extensive European tour, I suspect Europe doesn’t know what has hit it.
The band’s live performances are by now legendary - they are known for their high energy, irreverence and good humour, and much of that spirit comes across on this album. Produced by Houston’s Robert Ellis, the songs are a combination of original songs and covers of traditional bluegrass and folk songs, all performed in their signature ‘thrashgrass bluegrass’ style.
If you’re a bluegrass purist, you can turn off your set now. Whiskey Shivers play with a marked punk sensibility that is strangely compelling to these ears, and definitely grows on you with repeated listens. ‘Manic' is the description that springs to mind on hearing their breakneck cover of the bluegrass/folk standard Angelina Baker, and it also applies to their original songs Reckless and No Pity in the Rose City. Cluck Old Hen sounds like it is being sung by a chain gang in the 20’s, but it really works with this rollicking bluesy psychedelic treatment. Long Gone, a country tinged ballad, allows the band, led by vocalist/ fiddle player Bobby Fitzgerald, to show that they are no mean musicians.
Music to drive to - but watch your speed!
Review by Eilís Boland