Declan O'Donovan 'Self-titled' - Self-Released

This keyboard playing Canadian songwriter has one of those voices that has a raw rough edge that finds comparison with other gruff-larynxed warblers. He fronts a trio of musicians that includes guitar, drums and upright bass and this quartet is embellished by percussion and brass that give the album a late-night feel for O'Donovan's blend of blues, jazz and subtle gypsy overtones. Not an album that may appeal to a lot of the more country-oriented listeners but one that has integrity and is not without its attractions.

O’Donovan is a strong songwriter and his song Cheap Souvenir, featured here, won him a recent songwriting award which backs up his potential. That his voice has depth and grit can only further help to bring him listeners in his native Canada. Whether that translates across borders depends on a number of things that are often unpredictable but there's no doubting the man has a talent, even if its one that is a little broader that our usual remit. He is more direct and accessible than Tom Waits, to whom he has been compared, but his combined talents should see this album finding fans with those who come across it on their travels through both Canada and websites.

Drew Nelson 'Tilt-A-Whirl' - Red House

This is the fifth album from Drew Nelson, the Michigan singer/songwriter and  his first for the Red House label. It continues Nelson’s  songs which document the underbelly of life in small times and those whose dreams have equally been diminished. He treads a similar path to the likes of Chris Knight and Bruce Springsteen with songs that show an affinity for, and understanding o,  those pushed to the margins. Producer Michael Crittenden has given the album an appropriate sense of toughness that underlines the songs of repossession, redemption and regret.

The musicians give the album a tough but tender sound that features B3, a robust rhythm section, electric and acoustic guitars, Dobro and pedal steel and voices, foremost of which is Nelson's lived-in but life affirming voice. He is backed up with strong female vocals from Jen Sygit which makes the overall sound one that is both understated and tough and rocking.  Overall this  is rewarding and stands repeated playing with ease.

Drew Nelson is a good songwriter who has written most of these songs solo but occasionally in partnership with other writers. The  standout songs are the mandolin led Lessons, the tough times of Danny and Maria, the quiet hope of 5th of September and the soulfulness of Hallelujah Morning. There is variety here, there is skill and there is a lot of humanity which makes Drew Nelson a below-the-line artist who is well worth seeking out and hearing, both this and his previous albums.

Jimmy LaFave 'Depending on The Distance' - Music Road

No newcomer to the scene, Jimmy LaFave is a veteran artist who has produced many albums. He has a distinct style and voice. His many fans are drawn to his expressive voice and songs as well as his choice of covers which nearly always include an interpretation of a Dylan song or two.

Perhaps more surprising is his version of John Waite's hit  Missing You but here it fits perfectly into the album. The first of the Dylan songs is Red River Shore , a song believed to have been written for the Time Out Of Mind album but which surfaced on one of the  officialBootleg Series and is here in an excellent, epic 9 minuets plus version which isboth  tender and tight. The other Dylan songs are I'll Remember You and Tomorrow Is a Long Time, which show that LaFave is a master of putting his own slant onto the songs of others and making them fit right alongside his own songs. On this album he also delivers a fine version of Bruce Springsteen's Land of Hope and Dreams. 

LaFave’s voice is an ideal instrument for this task and should be lauded with the likes of Willy DeVille. LaFave handles the production with perfect understanding of what he is looking to deliver. Helping him do that are a selection of musicians who bring the songs to the top of the game. They include Bill Chambers, Chip Dolan, John Inmom and Eliza Gilkyson amongst others.

His own songs are equally good and include Vanished, It Just Is Not Right or the more driving Red Dirt Night. Much of the album is delivered at a slower, more contemplative pace which draws the listener into the heart of the music.This is music that any fan of Jimmy LaFave will be quick to laud and music that, if you're new to his catalogue, is a pretty good place to start. What ever distance you are from LaFave's music it is something you should get closer to. Fine cover too, featuring some of LaFave's own evocative photography.

Dan Stevens 'My Life Of Adventure' - Gatorbone

Stevens is a man full of life, a robust singer who,  from the off,  sings the title track with the joie de vivre of a pirate sea shanty. His folk songs tell of his travels such as Austin Bound and Kerouac's Dream, of a conscientious objector who continued to meet hard times in Bruised Knees and the summing up a well-lived life in I Ain't Old, I'm Vintage.

The musicians play a range of acoustic instruments; at times they add bass and drums and pedal steel to bring a little country to the folk feel which  permeates the album. There is a sense of humour and love of the simple truths that these songs evoke. Stevens has a forceful, big voice that suggests there's little Dan Stevens would rather do that write and sing his songs and that, in itself, is it's own reward.

The production, by Lis and Lon Williamson, who also contribute as players, give the songs settings that are needed to bring them alive. In many ways this is old school, something that would appeal to fans of the likes of Tom Paxton.  There are no surprises, no barriers pushed here, rather Stevens lays out his observations of his life, his family. Many of the songs are written in the first person and you feel that you have an insight into Stevens' worldview and you certainly get to know his music which is easy to listen to and easy to like.

M.C. Hansen '3' - Sentimental

This is an ambitious release from Danish singer/songwriter Hansen, who from his name and appearance might be a rapper. Rather,  Hansen is a musician and writer who loves Americana. The title is due to the fact that this release is a 3 disc set. Each disc is recorded with a different set of musicians in a different location but that doesn't mean that one's rock, one's country or one's reggae. In reality all three would be classed as roots and all are focused on Hansen as a singer and writer. Some songs like Where the Secrets Grow and Hope appear on all three settings. 

The first disc was recorded in Dallas, Texas with a small combo that included fiddle, pedal steel, mandolin guitar, keyboards and percussion. It has a simple sound that which is strongly folk on songs like Never No More with its emphatic vocal refrain.

The second set was recorded in Fredericia, Denmark with a band schooled in jazz but recorded playing live in a club, no audience, no overdubs. The sound feels more arranged than the Dallas session but works equally as well in the bass, drums, guitar combination. The later is subtle and inventive and again the focus is Hansen's storytelling.

The final disc is also recorded in Denmark, this time in the Isle of Mon. This one has seven songs recorded with piano, accordion and guitars. It has a more atmospheric sound that is often stripped back to  basic and again allows the voice to be central to the process. Hansen writes all his songs in English and has a better grasp of the rhythm of the language that many a native speaking writer. He also sings the song differently in the individual settings in ways that are appropriate to the musical backings. 

The three CDs all play well in their own right or you can mix and match. Whichever way you approach this collection, the results are good enough to warrant repeated listening and to appreciate that M.C. Hansen is a talented artist who understands that a song can be presented in different ways and can give a different perspective to the lyrical emphasis of each. There is also the impression that these songs would equally stand up with just voice and guitar, but one can equally savour all the permutations of the music on offer on 3. 

Janis Martin 'The Blanco Sessions' - Cow Island

With her contemporary Wanda Jackson making albums with Jack White and Justin Townes Earle, it is entirely fitting and welcome that this album, the last recorded work prior to her passing, should be available on a label that cares about the music it is involved with. The album has been a labour of love for co-producer Rosie Flores who,  along with drummer and co-producer Bobby Trimble, has helmed this project with one of her heroes and friends.

Flores and Trimble gathered a selection of players to do the project justice. These include guitarist Dave Biller, T Jarrod Bonta on piano and Sarah Brown on bass with brass and harmonica contributions that make for a full and fiery sound that is topped by an powerful performance from Janis Martin.  Martin’s sound here reflects both her age and her undiminished skill as a vocalist. What is a mystery is how, according to the sleeve notes, it took so long to actually get the album released (it was recorded in 2007). 

The title comes from the album having been recorded in a small studio in Blanco, Texas. In the end independent label Cow Island, with the help fans on Kickstarter, brought the album to release.

The eleven songs are full of vitality and passion and her versions of It'll Be Me, Wild One (Real Wild Child) and Long White Cadillac are in direct line with her work in the Fifties. Janis’ story and the background to the songs are outlined in the album liner notes. Equally she shines with emotive vocals on the slower Sweet Dreams  and also on the duet that closes the album, a mid-paced version of Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine which she sings with Kelly Willis,  which also features some fine harmonica from Walter Daniels. Without doubt this is a fitting tribute to a pioneer of rock 'n' roll and to all those involved. It's just a great pity Janis Martin isn't around to see it released.

Kevin Brown 'The Beloved Country' - Turley King

This is a solid country/roots/folk album which features fiddle, mandolin and banjo which are given equal value to the drums, bass, electric guitar and pedal steel which add texture to Brown's songs. This Washington State based musician has a warm easy voice. His songs are filled with good couplets and a strong sense of place that, in some ways, makes him a John Denver for a new generation.

Produced by Brown the sound has a warmth and diversity that is equally at home with the gentler more acoustic songs as it has with those delivered with a more robust rhythm.

The songs show a writer who is aware of the people and landscapes he crosses and that is reflected in the album's title as well as songs such as Desert Wind, Ocean and Northeast of Eden. One song seems a distant cousin of Mary Gauthier's song I Drink, but where her figure imbibed, Brown's wonders. When I Go Out at Night features alto saxophone which gives it an added emphasis. Throughout, the assembled musicians provide appropriate and sensitive accompaniment. 

This is Kevin Brown's second release which will help to establish him as a solid, sensitive songwriter who utilizes his words well,  like this from Desert Wind;  "...the book of Mormon by the hotel bed, looking lonesome like it ain't been read..." or "I like the slow ones, those sad old country songs. Steel guitars and midnight bars and someone done you wrong".

These show that Brown has put together a considered package that sees thought and effort put into all aspects of the album from Katherine Nelson's charcoal drawn cover through the songs, production and playing. A gentle low-key album that will find favour with many who get to hear it. 

Stan Martin 'Distilled Influences' - Twangtone

Looking at the influences represented by the album covers featured in the cover artwork, there seems one missing to me: Dwight Yoakam. For as well as featuring former Yoakam sideman Scott Joss on several tracks. Stan Martin has also included some other of Yoakam's influences.  Martin's eleven original song all stand up as solid honky-tonkers and dancefloor heartbreakers,  with touches of additional elements from the more broad-minded 60s and 70s artists. Working with a tight bass, drum and guitar set-up that adds Joss' fiddle to the core band on six cuts, gives the songs an economic and focused sound with Martin's Telecaster well to the fore over Ducky Carlisle’s solid drums and Marc Hickox's propulsive bass. The former also co-produced the album as he did with the previous Cigarettes and Cheap Whiskey album so this is exactly how the band want to sound and it's pretty good.

Martin is not as distinctive vocalist as Yoakam (but then who is?) but does a fine and believable job of delivering these songs. Some sound like they come from a time when Buck Owens was played on radio next to The Beatles. There's also a touch of pub rock in the mix (Right Now) when musical influences were crossing back and forth across the Atlantic.

The overall influence is true old-school country filtered through a rock solid base which results in some enjoyable and entertaining music. It isn’t  a stretch to hear Dwight singing You Let Me Down. The distilled influences on Stan Martin and his band have resulted in an album that, while it may not push any envelopes, is neither overtly retro or bad country-pop. For that Martin deserves credit. Long may he continue to lead his team to produce a musical mix that seemed to vanish at the end of the 90s, a musical direction that, I for one, thoroughly enjoyed.

Skyline Drive 'Topanga Ranch Motel' - Self-Release

Led by singer/songwriter Derek Thomas,  Skyline Drive play a folk/roots/Americana mix that is built around Thomas' thoughtful and laid back songs. Thomas’ voice has an element of grit that is perfectly suited to delivering his tales of hard lost relationships in Damaged or of more rewarding times in Lovebirds. There is a sense of storytelling in the losing song Yellowman's Cliff  which tells of the tragic loss of a first love.

The ten songs all feature the fine band led by Erik Kristiansen, whose pedal steel adds much to the overall sound and also gives it a country overtone, though this is miles from what passes for a once noble form these days, as regards the charts at any rate.

On some tracks Thomas is joined by Leslie Stevens on vocals and her voice adds a nice counterpoint to Thomas' own. A number of the tracks were recorded in a cabin owned by the singer on Skyline Drive, but all have a consistent sound that utilizes the band's full potential. Produced by Thomas and bassist Mike Derricate for the cabin sessions and by Thomas and John Lawson in the studio, the songs are never forced and have a feel that gives their melancholic demeanour a depth and a listenability that shares their heartbreak in a positive way.

This album should find favour with fans of fellow singer/songwriters Ryan Adams and Ryan Bingham. Skyline Drive are starting out on a road that may take them many different directions but Topanga Ranch Motel is a good starting place.

The Harmed Brothers 'Come Morning' - Lackpro

With a sound that has it roots on back porches and around campfires,  the quartet of the Harmed Brothers, (which does actually include two brothers) plays loose and easy and sing together with a certain abandon and a large sense of vitality. Their songs, all but one written by the quartet, have a rough-hewn quality that gives them a’ warts and all’ realness that is as attractive as it is no-frills. However there is no escaping the similarity of their sound to some of the early Avett Brothers recordings, although that should not affect enjoyment of their music in its own right.

Though they use acoustic instrumentation - banjo, guitar, ukulele and upright bass - the music has a rawness that pure bluegrass fans may find a little off the well-beaten cover songs track for their tastes. But if you have a more open mind then the wide possibilities of their acoustic music and original songs, which could just as easily find themselves in an electric setting, then the Harmed Brothers will be a pretty safe bet. The are also capable of a softer delivery as in the harmonies and simpler delivery of We Might Not Have To Die or in the piano used on The Water Is Sweeter or the catchiness of the folky Letter To Lisa. The four piece band’s latest album should be taken and enjoyed as it was intended. Note: only four people were Harmed in the making of this album. They undoubtedly enjoyed the experience, as you should.

David Francey 'Late Edition' - Greentrax

A Scot who moved to Canada while still a child, I had vaguely heard of David Francey as yet one more excellent Canadian folksinger. Now I’ll have to get hold of his earlier albums as this one is a real corker. It is mainly folk, but some of the tracks are straight country – the excellent When I’m NotThinking about You, Blue Heart of Texas and Just the Same, all of which will feature on Country Time in the very near future.

The rest of Francey’s songs are folk; Borderlands is a co-write with Scottish singer Lori Watson about her native area on a winter’s day;  Pretty Jackals is a pointed swipe at TV news – there are also love songs, break-up songs and a song dedicated to the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa about the degradation of life and the fight for personal dignity. The song is not at all as ponderous as my description of it an is very moving.

The album is really well produced by Keiran Kane and the backing musicians are Kane stalwarts Fats Kaplin on fiddle and accordion, Lucas Kane on drums, Richard Bennett on guitar and bouzouki and Keiran Kane on everything else. It was my third time listening before I realized there was no bass player, but the way the album is arranged there was no need for one.

Francey is, for me, a great discovery and the album is really, really good on every count.

Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys 'Release Your Shrouds' - Earthwork Music

This excellent album was presented to me as bluegrass, and although there is some very good bluegrass on the album (Hat’s Off, My Side of the Mountain) there is also country

(Pass Me the Whiskey, The Leaves are Changin’), straight singer/songwriter (Leaves and Pods, The Power) as well as the jazzy Tied Down to You and the funky strut of Lemon Squeezy. I kinda feel that the point of the band is to push aside any such strict genre definition and just make good music – and in this they succeed.

The line up is two banjos, mandolin, doghouse bass, guitar, resonator guitar and the delightful, surprise guest trumpet of Andy Wilson which is really well used as an unexpected accent.  All the band contribute vocals, but the main vocalist is Lindsay Lou (Rilko) who has a flexible and appealing voice that she uses well and her talents extend to the cover artwork.

It is a good album, beautifully produced with (generally) good songs, although I could have done without the instrumental Barbarossa and the earnest singer/songwriterish The Power, but this is a personal quirk and they could be your favourites. I would definitely search for RELEASE YOUR SHROUDS as it is an honest and very enjoyable – and in places, even danceable album.

Anna Coogan & Daniele Fiaschi 'The Nowhere, Rome Sessions' - Self-Release

Two musicians, introduced by another player, have no common language, but learned to work together by instinct, intuition and intelligence. The two are singer-songwriter Anna Coogan, who has two previous albums under her own name, and musician Danilele Fiaschi who has played rock with a number of top Italian bands.

Here the two perfectly complement each other with Fiaschi's guitar being both ambient and assertive, providing a special depth behind Coogan clear and incisive vocal and rhythm guitar. The songs are Coogan’s,  with a couple of co-writes and good choices of covers including Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald which captures much of the song's inherent drama. Phil Ochs strong song The Crucifixion is taken from a live performance at a festival in Holland,  whereas the other songs were recorded at Nowhere Studio in Rome over two days more or less straight to tape.

Coogan's own songs include Red Shoes, Black Dress (an immediate standout ) to Back To The World where her voice shines over the subtle but thoroughly effective electric guitar tones. Like Sergio Webb with David Olney, this combination of singer/songwriter and electric guitar is so effective you don't miss additional instrumentation. One song How Will You Find Me? strips things back to just voices and guitar and shows that even in this basic form Coogan is a compelling performer.  There is no doubi though that the additional layers of steel-like guitar that Fiaschi plays add to the overall mood of the recordings and the fact is that this partnership works on many levels.

The Vagaband 'Town & Country' - Eggsong

This is another band for whom the term roots music was coined. This Norfolk crew of 8 draws from myriad  sources and the band name suggests the slightly restless nature of their music. Vocalist/guitarist José McGill is the main singer and songwriter who writes both solo and with different band partners. Perhaps a good place to start is with the albums deconstruction of well know Merle Travis/Tennessee Ernie Ford song; Sixteen Tons. This opens with finger-picked guitar and world weary voice before introducing a variety of instruments including clarinet, fiddle and pedal steel, the former having a near middle-Eastern feel that make the song  something special. This may not sit well with all listeners, but it sure sits right with this one.

There are some 22 different instruments named between the eight members and five guests listed on the sleeve and photographed on the cover! McGill produced this debut album, with contributions from others, largely from home and given that basis the sound is clear, full and iinfused with a spirit that a studio might not have captured. 

The Ballad of El Molino has twangy guitar, banjo, pedal steel and a brass infused coda that suggests New Orleans more than Norwich. The rhythm section throughout adds a swing that drives the songs along in a way that shows that this band can move the feet as much as the head. The Bad & The Ugly is a duet with guest vocalist Lauren Dove and again confirms the "ecleticana" that Vagaband represent. There is also a humour at the heart of several of the songs. "Caught in a headlock by the grip of morning" is the opening line of the closing song My Maria, a mid-tempo relationship songs of a lady who stole more that the man's heart.

This band have played numerous festivals and would seem to be ideal to add some festiveness to most occasions and the near hour-long length of TOWN & COUNTRY is filled with many moments that bring a smile to the face and a rhythm to the foot that suggests many would enjoy the trip between their town and through their particular (take on) country.

Mark Mulholland and Craig Ward 'Waiting for The Storm' - Jezus Factory Records

Both Mulholland and Craig have long and varied careers which encompass  playing  with and in variety of musical projects. They got together over a mutual love for the music of Pentangle and Nick Drake and others of the English folk club scene.

 The duo are joined here by double bassist Hannes d'Hoine to create a tapestry of guitars underscored by the sonorous, dexterous bass. They mix skilled instrumentals with subtle and gently-voiced songs written largely by Mulholland with a couple of contributions from Ward. This is the sort of music ideally suited to a live listening room or to a quiet sitting room, where its ambience can fill the room and even allow reading or another quiet pastime whilst absorbing the playing skills of the participants.

The music made by the duo is subtle, and as such, is not going to make too many waves in the music world. Rather, it exists in its own space, one that will be of interest to those who appreciate music on a different level to that which requires hype or decibels to make its point. Whilst awaiting the storm you can enjoy that which comes before in the company of some fine players and their collective music.