New Album Reviews

Andi Rae Healy Last Time I Checked This Was A Free World And I Wasn’t Anybody’s Girl Self Release

The eye catching album design/packaging - a pastiche of 50s Western style in bright yellow with Healy posing cheekily as a cowgirl  - gives a hint as to what lies within. A stalwart of the NYC live scene, Healy’s fourth album is a joyful celebration of girl power, with musical influences ranging from traditional country to 60s pop and Disney musicals. Even her heart break songs are written and delivered with a sense of positivity - she’s got a quality to her voice that reminds one of fellow New Yorker Cyndy Lauper (who incidentally contributed vocals to her first album). 

The title song is pure honky tonk fun, with prominent pedal steel from Gerald Menke. Come Get Me, (this is not a) Sad Song and You Think are equally rooted in classic country but all performed endearingly tongue-in-cheek. Elsewhere, Healy employs brass and strings liberally, which contribute an air of theatricality and invoke mid-20th century musicals. There’s only one departure from the lightness - What Were You Thinking? addresses those who recently voted for a certain US President. It’s the only hint on the record of Healy’s interest in environmental and social issues. Indeed, currently proceeds from her album sales are going to a US charity - another good reason to check out her website. The excellent closing song Bored could have been written for the pandemic lockdown - how lucky was that? 

The album was ably produced in his studio Postscript Sounds by fellow Brooklynite Jeff Litman, who also played guitars/mandolin/keys. Jeff is also a member of Healy’s live band, The Back River Bullies, who all played on the recording. A fun album definitely worth checking out.

Review by Eilís Boland

Bai Kamara Jr & The Voodoo Sniffers Salone Moosicus/MIG

Desert blues combined with passionate, clever story telling, soul and passion, and all delivered in a rich warm baritone (that voice!) make for an introduction to Belgian based artist Bai Kamara Jr. A name new to us, but this is the 6th album from the Sierra Leone born artist, whose mother was that country’s Belgian ambassador, and who himself grew up and was educated in England. Previous albums dealt in blues, rock, soul and jazz, but he has truly found his calling with his first conscious exploration of his North African roots, with a guitar sound reminiscent of that first brought to our European ears by Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen.

Although credited to his road band, The Voodoo Sniffers, Kamara Jr wrote, produced and performed all 15 excellent tracks here, and the production is faultless. 

He kicks off at a metaphorical crossroads in his life with Can’t Wait Here Too Long, and goes on to explore themes including love, relationship breakdown and even the much dreaded school run in Morning School Run Blues. Particularly memorable is the tongue-in-cheek Lady Boss, where the protagonist appears to complain about being at his female boss’s beck and call, ending with the memorable line “She’s into the ‘Me Too Movement’ ... and me too”. Black Widow Spider is a chilling exploration of a metaphorical threat to his family, realised by the clever use of percussion to realistically evoke the scuttling of a giant spider - not for the faint hearted! Stand out track has to be Homecoming, which movingly recalls his first trip back to Sierra Leone (known as Salone in the Krio language) in 15 years. (Check out the superb video of that trip that accompanies this song). An added bonus is the slick digipak, with excellent photography and a lyrics booklet.

Review by Eilís Boland

Jim Bachmann Arizona Burrito Ripsnort

This is a new 8 track mini-album from the Arizona-based musician. He has honky-tonk in his DNA, deriving from his Grandfather, who played in a family band. Gigging in Phoenix he has played with the likes of Billy Joe Shaver, Whitey Morgan, Reckless Kelly, Shooter Jennings and Dallas Moore. This is only a partial list, giving you some idea of his affiliations and affections and how his music fits with those artists own repertoire and attitudes.

Bachmman draws on some of those friendships when he is joined here by Dallas Moore for a duet and by guitarist Tony Martinez (from Whitey Morgan’s band the 78s) on Waiting On A Train. Ray Herndon (who is a regular with Lyle Lovett’s Big Band) is also a guest guitarist on several of the tracks. All of which bring a sense of diversity to Bachmann’s album, with brass and soulful backing vocals gracing Down On My Knees. The swelling organ notes are a vital part of the overall sound as much as the solid guitar riffs, all adding to the overall muscular musical methodology of this Americana stew. His band the Day Drinkers deserve their credit too for their part in the making of the album. As does Meridith Moore, who is the harmony vocalist on Last Of The Dying Breed, a song he previously recorded back in 2008 for a self-titled album.

The songs travel a well driven roadway that cover his particular blend of country, blues, rock and some regional influences. On top of this music is the strong and soulful mellowness of Bachmann’s voice. It’s one that falls on the right side of rough-edged, as witnessed by his and Moore’s version of Shaver’s Live Forever. These songs are not without a sense of humour at the absurdity of love, life and liquid ambition, as expressed by a man who is now On The Upside Of Down. There’s also  the optimistic thinking of Let’s Get The Band Back Together but, as often happens, trying to find the mutual timing for this to happen is not a particularly easy task.

There is a strong likability the music played by Bachman and his Day Drinkers and an extra couple of songs wouldn’t have gone amiss. How far outside of Arizona and that area this music can travel and have an effect is debatable. But I’m sure these guys have a loyal following locally and can share a stage with many of their contemporaries as equals. While this Arizona Burrito is likely best savoured on home soil, it could become something of a favoured taste elsewhere too.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Mavericks En Español Mono Mundo

An album sung entirely in Spanish seems a perfect vehicle for Raul Malo and his fellow key Mavericks Paul Deacon, Jerry Dale McFadden and Eddie Perez, accompanied by members of their live band (dubbed the Fabulous Five). Malo’s Cuban/American heritage has also had an influence on his music and has regularly featured as a part of their live set. That this is a perfect combination is underlined by the fact that if you don’t understand Spanish, the mood and drama of the songs will still come across strongly. There is a unit of consummate musicianship which is evident throughout and the brass arrangements enhances that music at every turn.

There is also Malo’s majestic voice that at times, has seemed a little close to a certain Vegas-ness perhaps exemplified by their cover of the Englebert Humperdink hit A Man Without Love. But here it is rendered in Spanish as Cuando Me Enamoro and is perfectly suited to the overall musical language of these songs and arrangements. The blend here is both widescreen cinematic and for the dancefloor, with the rhythms of salsa and bossa nova. What is also apparent is the naturalness of the language for Malo, who can bring drama, emotion and depth as easily as he has done in the past with his English language songs.

Also, not to be underestimated are the contributions of the rest of the band, who never seem to be forcing their playing but rather have equally immersed themselves in the project. There are additional guests here also, such as accordion legend Flaco Jiménez and arranger Alkberto Salas. The production by Malo and Niko Bolas is exactly as it should be to bring such a project to creative fruition.

It will be interesting to see how the album fares in this Covid-cloaked times and how their loyal fan base will take to a full Spanish language album, opposed to their previous recordings. This is obviously an album that Malo has wanted to make in a long time and this seems the ideal time to put it out, although this album is, in truth, unlikely to get the exposure on mainstream country radio stations. This is a perfect example of Cuban Americana, if there is such a thing, or perhaps simply an album en español that stands up for what its title offers. It’s not for everyone or even all Mavericks fans but it certainly is something the band needed to do to connect with Malo’s roots. In that sense it is perfect.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Zephaniah OHora Listening To The Music Last Roundup

While Music City Nashville continues to churn out routine and repetitive pop music to dominate country music radio and Billboard Country Music Charts, much further afield a number of artists are keeping the flag flying for old school country. New York might not be the most obvious trading post for classic country, but Brooklyn based Zephaniah OHora put a marker firmly down in 2017 with his debut recording, THIS HIGHWAY. Like many country artists, OHora’s path to an artistic career began by playing guitar at his church during Sunday congregations. He was raised in New Hampshire in a devoutly religious family. His devotion to classic country was reignited some years later while working and residing in New York, and he spent many afternoons trawling the city’s record stores to add to his collection of old country albums.

OHora’s own musical career was formally launched soon after, while still living in New York.  In his early twenties at this stage, he was offered a residency at a small bar in Williamsburg, to perform standard country classics and also to provide a DJ set. A further opportunity arose to act as a booker for a new music bar in New York named Skinny Dennis, which featured live acts nightly and became the centre for the re-emerging country music scene in that city.

His first studio recording THIS HIGHWAY, was an unequivocal statement that prime country music can emerge from an urban environment, as well as it’s more traditional rural origins. Its lineage pointed more in the direction of Bakersfield than Nashville, with the quality of OHora’s vocals and song writing emphasised by a slick co-production at the hands of Luca Benedetti (Martha Redbone, The National Reserve) and Jim Campilongo (Norah Jones, Teddy Thompson). This time around the production duties for his follow up album LISTENING TO THE MUSIC were undertaken by revered songwriter and guitarist Neal Casal (Ryan Adams, Chris Robinson), who tragically passed away only months after the album had been completed. The bulk of the album was recorded live at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn in four days, with the finishing touches applied by OHora and Casal over a seven-day period. A select host of players and backing vocalists were engaged, including renowned New York guitarist John Shannon who, together with Casal, adds some wonderfully understated playing. John Graboff, who was a member of Ryan Adams’ backing band The Cardinals alongside Casal, plays pedal steel and drums are played by freelancer Arthur Vint, who regularly performs on stage with OHora.

Black and Blue and All American Singer were both released in advance of the album’s launch and were indicators that he wasn’t straying too far from the blueprint that worked so well on his debut offering. Heaven’s On The Way is a countryfied distant relative to Tom Paxton’s The Last Thing On My Mind and opens the album in fine style. It’s Not So Easy Today is classic Countrypolitan adorned by silky strings behind a crystal-clear vocal delivery, and Riding That Train and Time Won’t Take It’s Time With Me sound as if they were borrowed from a Merle Haggard Greatest Hits compilation.

THIS HIGHWAY may have set the bar at the highest level but OHora has equalled, if not surpassed, the standards he set with that debut effort. It’s packed with memorable songs that recall Merle Haggard and Glen Campbell at their best, and is enriched by gilt edged vocals, playing and production.

Flawless is a description I rarely use when describing an album. In the case of LISTENING TO THE MUSIC, that description is more than justified.

Review by Declan Culliton

Steve Baskin Mind Your Step Self-Release

While aimed at the Americana market, MIND YOUR STEP, the fourth album release by Steve Baskin, is more like a compilation of the musical styles that make up that all-embracing classification. The album finds room for tracks that are soul, country, rock & roll, folk, R&B and classic rock, presenting a road map to practically all the genres that Americana encompasses.

Three tracks in and you’ll already have encountered dissimilar styles on the rocky Afraid Today, countryfied Big Wedding Small Divorce and the rich soulful sound of the title track, complete with horns and organ. That passionate full on sound also features on Cutting Room Floor, while the delightfully funky Glass of Wine represents a more laid back and mainstream interpretation of soul. Equally impressive are the radio friendly Dances by Moonlight and the cover version of Bob Welch’s Sentimental Lady.

Baskin plays acoustic and electric guitar, bass and mandolin, as well as contributing lead and harmony vocals. He co-produced the album with Rich Herring of Little River Band. Both the production and playing is slick and compliment the calibre of the song writing.

MIND YOUR STEP harks back to early 70’s, an era when numerous American bands introduced soul and folk into their mix, often earning radio play and commercial success by doing so. By following a similar course, you get the impression that the material on the album was what Baskin was born to make, as it is oozing with warmth from start to finish. It’s well worth investing your time for a listen, for a throwback to those heady days.

Review by Declan Culliton

H.C.McEntire  Eno Axis Merge

The debut solo album from Durham, North Carolina resident H.C. McEntire, entitled LIONHEART and released in 2018, was a no-holds-barred reflection on her beloved home state and the contradictions of growing up as a gay woman in a small Bible Belt farming community in North Carolina. A classic lyricist, she follows a similar theme on ENO AXIS with songs that suggest some more intense personal and intimate probing.

Unlike LIONHEART, which was written piecemeal while she toured, this time around she returned to her farmhouse in the woods in Durham to compose the ten songs contained on the album.

In another life McEntire is a backing singer with Angel Olsen’s touring band and also fronts the criminally underrated band Mount Mariah, who have recorded three excellent albums. However, her solo career has given her exclusive artistic freedom to write and compose without compromise or interference. Her writing is poetic, equally impressive with or without the instrumentation that accompanies her words.

ENO AXIS is packed with imagery-invoking songs from start to finish. One Eye Open graphically revisits her childhood Sunday School days. It’s a short track, running barely over two minutes, but in those minutes her layered vocals create vivid scenes of burning crosses, bowed heads and plates overflowing with notes and coins being passed around. Those memories also resurface on the instrumental Sunday Morning, which is spellbinding, powerful and bordering on frightening.

The album’s title derives from the river Eno which flows close to her property and River’s Jaw salutes its allure and beauty, though the scars of Christian fundamentalism are also close to the surface (‘Walk at dusk to the river’s jaw, beg for rest from the hand of God’).  She maintains the religious thread with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy, which closes the album. She has essentially only borrowed the lyrics of the song, as her delicate delivery is practically unrecognisable when compared to Robert Plant’s screeching vocals on the original version.

Time Is On Fire, the first single from the album, is a brooding affair, quite radio friendly and showcases her capability to construct easy on the ear songs, alongside her more contemplative offerings. However, the album’s finest minutes unfold on Final Bow. Detailing a fall from grace and decay, the song finds McEntire at the top of her game lyrically and musically (‘Rosewater, slinging bottles of gin, she’s already in the alley now, smoking cigarettes, it’s as real, real, real as it gets ‘). It’s also all the better for some crunching guitar breaks.

The foundations of ENO AXIS can be traced back to McEntire’s upbringing, surrounded by country and gospel roots music. The meandering musical paths she has since navigated have rewarded her with the talent to merge those elements and create a unique sound that lands somewhere between Americana and Indie. The end result is a most rewarding listen from an artist maturing into one of the most eloquent songwriters of her generation.

Review by Declan Culliton

Western Terrestrials Back In The Saddle Of A Fever Dream Self-Release

With a less than conventional take on country music, Vermont five-piece band Western Terrestrials combine their love of old timey with a razor-sharp edge that is closer to Hank III and Sarah Shook & The Disarmers than their musical heroes of yesteryear. The band members are Nick Charyk on vocals and guitar, bassist Jason Pappas, drummer Jared Croteau, keyboardist Alex Kelley, and Asa Brosius on pedal steel.

Their 2019 release CLEARLAKE CONSPIRACY took aim at the bland formulaic product being churned out from Nashville at present under the banner of ‘country music’. Tracks such as WWWJD (What Would Waylon Jennings Do) and Automated Trucker Blues pulled no punches, on an album that also paid homage - and name checked - many of Charyk’s Honky Tonk champions.

Somewhat ironically, the band travelled over one thousand miles south from Vermont to Nashville to record BACK IN THE SADDLE OF A FEVER DREAM. The journey was at the invitation of Dean Miller, the son of the legendary Roger Miller, who offered his services to record a few songs at Omnisound Studio on Music Row, having been impressed by the band's previous recording. Omnisound Studios has hosted Bobby Bare, Marty Stuart, Alan Jackson, Porter Wagoner, Ray Price and many more over the years. The icing on the cake for Western Terrestrials was an offer from Georgette Jones, daughter of George Jones, to sing a duet with Charyk on the album and an invitation from Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) to co-write a track. The remaining songs were recorded at Cinderella Studios, the oldest surviving independent studio in Nashville, under the supervision of Wayne Moss, the studio's founder.

The album title is a pointer to what you can expect. It delivers its fair share of twang, it’s sometimes conventional, often maverick and never lacklustre. The toe tapping duet with Jones Who’s Gonna Fill These Boots? is playful and impressive. Ethan Alien, the co-write with Secor, is a lively tongue in cheek episode that name checks Neko Case, Bernie Sanders, Ben and Jerry, and Randy Quaid in its listing of ‘aliens’. The more orthodox Space Cowboy’s Got The Blues is a delight, bringing to mind The Sadies at the top of their game.

Review by Declan Culliton

West On Colfax Barfly Flew By Greenhorse

Hailing from Lancashire in the U.K., West On Colfax are a five-piece band whose debut full album BARFLY FLEW BY is the first release on the Preston based Greenhouse Records label. The band’s name was derived from the title of The Delines' 2014 debut album COLFAX and is a pointer towards the musical direction in which they travel. They describe their sound as alt-country and numerous support slots to visiting American bands playing in Lancashire have given them the opportunity to develop their own sound and deliver it to live audiences.

Their combination of country, roots and blues is a throwback to the heady days of the mid 1970’s and pub rock in the U.K., when bands similar to them played residencies and delivered a mixture of covers and original material. The songwriting is mainly by bassist Scott Carey with Alan Hay developing those lyrics into the tracks that feature on the album, together with playing guitars. Also featuring on guitar is Peter Barnes, who is credited as the writer of Back Out On The Road. Drummer Mike Lambert and multi-instrumentalist Ian Aylward-Barton are the remaining band members.

The songs are strong on melody with opener Choke Hold, Tyre Marks and the title track being the standout songs, all three are rich and guitar driven. They slip back into cruise control with the relaxed ballads Cowgirl Of The County and album closer Light Again, both of which drift towards country.

Prior to the Covid-19 related shutdowns, they were also instrumental in staging Americana music shows in Preston, together with their band duties. This was a noteworthy commitment from a collection of music lovers and BARFLY FLEW BY is a wholly heartfelt offering that they can be justifiably proud of.

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Sylvie Simmons Blue On Blue Compass

For a music journalist and author to take up the challenge and enter a studio to record their own material requires both courage and conviction in equal measures. That’s precisely what Sylvie Simmons did in 2014, when she recorded her debut self-titled album. Her career can boast thousands of album reviews across more than four decades, interviews with hundreds of artists from Rod Stewart to Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen to The Clash and she is the author of numerous books, including fiction and biographies. Her Leonard Cohen biography I’M YOUR MAN: THE LIFE OF LEONARD COHEN (2012) was a New York Times and international best seller and has been translated into twenty-nine languages to date.

Her career behind the microphone developed when she toured extensively in support of the Leonard Cohen biography. Her presentations and readings included executions by her of a selection of Cohen’s compositions, accompanied by her ukulele. Her recording calling followed in 2014, when she released SYLVIE. Produced by Howe Gelb, what could have been considered a vanity project, in fact drew high praise from publications such as Rolling Stone and The Guardian, and from psychedelic folk champion Devendra Banhart.

Simmons travelled to Tucson, Arizona in 2017 to record her second album BLUE ON BLUE, working once more with alt-country trailblazer Howe Gelb. Also featured on the recording is the wonderfully eccentric Jim White. Tucson residents Gabriel Sullivan and Brian Lopez and Australian Matt Wilkinson completed the musical troupe. Unfortunately, a horrific accident on the first day of recording left Simmons with broken bones and nerve damage to her left hand, which led to a number of surgeries and rehabilitation, leaving the recording of the album in abeyance.

The setback resulted in a number of songs that she had written for the album being sidelined, and a re-start to the writing process. As with her self-titled album, Simmons' vocals and ukulele are to the front of the mix. Nevertheless, the supporting instrumentation is more extensive on this occasion, Gelb’s influence coaxing the songs in directions which his work with Giant Sand has often journeyed.  

Simmons' vocals convey a charming innocence throughout and lyrically what may seem like petty details evolve into engrossing episodes. A disordered barefoot man dancing alone in the early morning sun (Keep Dancing) and the sanctuary of home (Sweet California) are both sweetly delivered tales. There is a darker edge to The Thing They Don't Tell You About Girls which, although expressed with a buoyant spirit, disguises a more solemn undercurrent (‘Since you've gone, I keep away from bridges, trains and razor blades’). Waiting For The Shadows To Fall includes an appearance by Jim White on ukulele and bells. Her love of The Beach Boys - particularly the more downbeat compositions by Brian Wilson - as a teenager, fashioned the vision for The Man Who Painted The Sea Blue. It’s a close relative to Skeeter Davis’ End of World, with a matching tempo and sentiment. Creation Day is ghostly, glorious and other worldly, sounding as if the listener is eavesdropping on a sleep walker’s ramblings. She closes the album in style with 1000 Years Before I Met You, a fetching country duet titled 1000 Years Before I Met You, sharing the vocals with Howe Gelb.

Words have consistently come easy to Simmons, so her ability to create graphic images with wordplay should come as little surprise. Those truly touching lyrics, nestled alongside some fine playing, result in a most impressive listen from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton

The Jayhawks XOXO Thirty Tigers

The purple patch enjoyed by The Jayhawks from 1992 to 1997, when they delivered three classic albums, HOLLYWOOD TOWN HALL, TOMORROW THE GREEN GRASS and SOUND OF LIES, has always set the bar at the highest possible level for the band that formed in Minneapolis thirty-five years ago.  The first two of those albums established them as pioneers of the alt-country camp, at a period when that movement was very much in its infancy. The shared vocals and writing of Gary Louris and Mark Olson, alongside jangly guitars and sweet melodies, was very much at the forefront of a creative, if somewhat retro, musical direction. After Olson’s departure in 1995, Louris continued with the template of infectious melodic material, but abandoned the country leanings in favour of a more conventional rock sound. SMILE (2000) and RAINY-DAY MUSIC (2003) continued in a similar vein and after an eight year pause in recording, Olson came back on board for MOCKINGBIRD TIME in 2011, which proved to be their most commercially successful release. Unfortunately, the tour in support of that album led to a major falling out between Louris and Olson and to a wound that remains open to this day.

Louris endorsed an altogether different approach with XOXO, the band's thirteenth studio recording. The writing credits and main vocals were divided between the four members this time around.  Those three members alongside Louris are original disciple Marc Perlman on bass and harmonica, Karen Grotberg on keyboards and Tim O’Reagan on drums, guitar and sitar. Pedal steel is added by guests Eric Heywood and Stephen McCarthy. On previous albums the band members have contributed to the writing, but the writing was predominantly from the pen of Louris. On this occasion six of the tracks exclude any writing credit to Gary Louris.  The final product of such a democratic approach could have been somewhat disjointed and piecemeal. On the contrary, nothing could be further than the truth and XOXO, despite so many cooks, works spectacularly well both in the writing and delivery of the twelve songs. This should not come as a surprise to fans of the band, Tim O’Reagan’s self-titled album from 2006 was evidence of his ability to both craft and deliver quality material. Perlman has co-written with Louris on many occasions, Grotberg less so. The opportunity for those three to contribute their own compositions is an unforeseen triumph.

Given the free hand that they were offered, the end result reinforces exactly what The Jayhawks do so well. The trademark countrified gems, rich in harmonies and complete with slick guitar breaks that HOLLYWOOD TOWN HALL had in plenty, are replicated on This Forgotten Town and Bitter Pill. The former finds O’Reagan stepping into Mark Olson’s shoes by sharing lead vocals with Louris. The more power poppy gems that SOUND OF LIES was packed with are reborn on Little Victories, Living In A Bubble and Dogtown Days. That four individual vocalists take the leads goes unnoticed, given the fluency and smoothness of the tracks.

What could have been an inconsistent and fickle exercise, has instead produced an album that compares most favourably with much of their acclaimed output. It would be incomprehensible to expect The Jayhawks - or any other band for that matter - to recreate the brilliance of HOLLYWOOD TOWN HALL or TOMORROW THE GREEN GRASS. However, XOXO stands shoulder to shoulder with the rest of their recordings, and it is arguably their finest since RAINY DAY MUSIC in 2003.

To quote Gary Louris “This album feels like a new lease on life for us and my only regret is that we didn’t do something like this soone.” Hopefully that’s a pointer of more to come from this reborn quartet.

Review by Declan Culliton

Van Darien Levee Mechanical Heart 

 Leaving her home in the rural town of Weatherford, Parker County, Texas in 2015 to relocate in Nashville gave Vanessa Darien the stimulus to reflect on her life experiences and draw on them to create the body of work that would become her debut full album LEVEE.

Her father, a welder by trade, was the proprietor of a machine shop on the family property and a number of tracks on the album are drawn from her experiences growing up in that environment.

Her musical influences include fellow Texans Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, along with indie bands The War on Drugs and Metric. While these elements do surface occasionally on the album, its direction is more classic rock and quite mainstream by times. However, that’s not to lessen the quality of her writing or the delivery of the material. It was recorded at Glass Onion Studio in East Nashville and co-produced by Steven Cooper and JD Tiner. Credit is due to all involved in the studio, the sound is clear and crisp throughout both on Darien’s muscular vocals and the skilled musicians that she worked with.

Maren Morris has been spreading her wings of late with her inclusion in The Highwomen and her welcome role in encouraging Kathleen Edwards to write music again. She’s also active here, co-writing two of the tracks, Low Road and Twisted Metal. With an educated sense of where the market is at present for emerging female artists, one can also sense that Morris may have influenced the musical direction on the album. Joey Green is also credited, having written American Steel with Darien.

The album’s title track reflects the dilemma of Americans living through The Great Depression, and could also be a representation of similar pressures being currently experienced (‘Mouths to feed, hands to fill, money's become my enemy. I’ve been hanging on for far too long now, I don’t know how much more of this I can take’). That emotional baggage continues on the impressive ballad Cardboard Boxes. It’s written by co-producer Cooper and dwells on moving on to new pastures and challenges.

Ponderosa explores the continual search for that elusive dream. An upbeat rocker, it recalls a Tom Petty rhythm. The album’s two standout tracks are the previously mentioned American Steel and Twisted Metal and it’s no coincidence that both have foundations in Darien’s childhood, in front and behind the counter in her father’s store. The latter is a powerfully delivered mid-tempo song that recalls the toils of the blue-collar workers and the sweat they pumped to build the nation. Twisted Metal is a full-on raunchy anthem with a killer guitar break and depicts an uncontrollable and passionate coming together. Described by Darien as two people uniting like cars in a demolition derby, she sings ‘Shine like gold, we’re strong as steel, honey just keep your foot on the pedal.’ Low Road is a smoky barroom blues number, with controlled and throaty vocals adding to the piano driven tempo. She can do soul as impressively as blues and she strains every vocal cord on the splendid Insanity.

You can sense Darien has poured her heart and soul into LEVEE, leaving no stone unturned and creating a body of work that she can be deservedly proud of.  It’s difficult to categorise - Americana would be a lazy description as it’s closer to mainstream than anything left of centre. It is the musical direction that many of the acts that feature on the C2C tour take, though it’s not anything resembling country music to my ears. Either way, it’s a most impressive recording from an artist that ticks all the boxes as one who should carve out a successful commercial career going forward.

Review by Declan Culliton

Nocona Los Dos Mule Kick

Husband and wife team Chris and Adrienne Isom front Los Angeles based Nocona, playing guitar and bass respectively. Loosely classified as an Americana band, Nocana also includes Justin Smith on drums, Elan Glasser on harmonica, Dan Wistrom on steel guitar and Xander Hitzig on fiddle. Noted keyboard player Carl Byron (Jim Lauderdale, Michelle Shocked, Anne McCue) also came onboard for this album. Slotting them into the Americana pigeon hole is somewhat casual, giving the musical bases they cover, which embrace old timey, punk, blues and psychedelic rock. Not surprising, given their stated influences of The Kinks, 13 th Floor Elevators, X, Link Wray, Townes Van Zandt and Californian country music.

LOS DOS is their third and most ambitious recording.  The contrast in musical directions across the album is staggering, yet works a treat. They flit between the country/bluegrass delight Never Come Back - complete with some killer fiddle playing by Xander Hitzig - and the full-on psych rockers Chester and Unseen Hand. Both Post Apocalyptic Blues and Too Much To Lose recall EXILE ON MAIN STREET-era Rolling Stones.

The rugged musical edge on the album is also reflected in the lyrical content and subject matter. Stabby Mike, the album’s opening statement, depicts a deranged fictional character who cruises the streets, randomly stabbing unsuspecting strangers (‘Everyone, anyone, everyone you know is gonna die and that’s amore’). The melodic delight and previously noted Never Come Back disguises an equally dark undercurrent (‘And that person’s just crazy, send you running to the hills, slit your throat for fun, kick your dog for thrills’)

The production duties on the album are credited to Adrienne Isom and engineer Jay Braun (Norah Jones, Magnetic Island) who also co-wrote the aforementioned Post Apocalyptic Blues with Chris Isom. All other songs came from the pen of Chris Isom. They recorded the tracks in their own garage, under no time constraints, resulting in a gutsy, raw and punky sonic trajectory. To complete their ‘hands on’ approach, they have released the album on Mule Kick Records, a label formed by Adrienne Isom and H.P. Hawthorn, who is also a member of the husband and wife band, The HawtThorns.

Nocona are a genre rotating outfit that wear their heart on their sleeve, coming from musical directions of their choosing, rather than following trends. LOS DOS is a reflection of this and is best described as controlled chaos, a mutant strain of traditional American music and rock. Few bands, with the exception of The Sadies, can fluently and effectively integrate a wide range of musical orientations. Cocona have certainly achieved that with flying colours with LOS DOS.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Robert Jon and the Wreck Last Light On the Highway

This band is based in Orange County, California and they have a very big sound that is stoked up by the superb bluesy vocal of Robert Jon Burrison. There are ten songs included here, the final track and album title, Last Light On the Highway, comprised of two parts; the slow acoustic strum that prefaces a slow-burn build up that reaches a climax and then mellows out into the distance.

In addition to the vocals and guitar playing of Burrison, the band is made up of Andrew Espantman (drums/background vocals), Steve Maggiora (keys/background vocals), Henry James (lead guitar), and Warren Murrel (bass). They are joined by an impressive supporting cast of Jason Parfait (saxophone), Ian Smith (Trumpet) and classy, sassy backing vocals from the superb Mahalia Barnes, Jade McRae, and Juanita Tippins. 

The big sound grabs you from the opener, Oh Miss Carolina, and it just does not let go of that head lock that you are caught in. When you are down on the canvas, these guys are not in the mood to let you up for air, as the songs keep coming out of the traps with attitude and impressive performances all round by the ensemble. There are many highlights, but the guitar prowess of Henry James just about shades it with some blistering feel and fretwork across the tracks. 

Guitars meet piano and soulful vocals on Work It Out and there is a sense of Bob Seger meets Skynyrd circa 1980’s on a few of these songs. One Last Time and Gold slow things down with some tasty blues sounds that resonate. It’s loose and it’s tight, swirling keyboards pumping up the power while the rhythm section play with great dexterity in providing a steady base to the arrangements. Tired Of Drinking Alone, a prime example. 

The rich organ sound of Do You Remember brings back memories of youthful carefree days with nothing more to do than hang out with your friends. Don’t Let Me Go has a sting right out of the ZZ Top songbook with slide guitar and backing vocals stirring up a storm. The sound of string arrangements on Last Light On the Highway helps to build that aforementioned crescendo, with the band hitting the after burners. Americana, Blues and Southern Rock with attitude and a big welcome back to days gone by and old memories for this writer. Stirring stuff.

Review by Paul McGee

Callum Easter Green Door Sessions Moshi Moshi

Folktronica or Electrofolk first came about during the 1980s when a new generation of musicians began to experiment with added sounds, in order to colour the traditional formats which had survived for decades past. One could look to the very innovative work of John Martyn in the 1970s as a point of inspiration, with his Echoplex machine, which introduced a tape delay effect that could be looped and repeated as a backing rhythm. 

The introduction of electronic drums allowed further innovation with solo artists now freed from the need to employ added players in their quest to discover new frontiers. The simple accordion has never been seen as a principal instrument during the history of Folk traditions, more bridesmaid at the wedding feast, something to add layers to the overall sound rather than be expected to appear front and centre. Part of this may have been down to the unwieldy nature of the instrument and the complex construction involved.

This new release is a new take on the original notions held and a redefining of the role that the accordion can play in creating innovative and challenging music. The true definition of independent music lies in the ability to not only engage the listener but to push the boundary of what was considered original. Callum Easter uses drum machine and drone effects to accompany his accordion tunes on this album and delivers much t be admired across ten tracks that clock in just shy of 33 minutes. 

Four of the tracks are reworkings from his debut album, HERE OR NOWHERE (2019), with Fall Down, Back Beat, Tell ‘Em Boy and Only Sun, included in this engaging project. The album was recorded on the basis of one take only, no overdubs and captured straight to tape. Also included are the tracks, Pop Goes the Weasel, Lonely World and Promises from the 2017 mini-album DELETE FOREVER together with Want It Sometime and Feelings Gone from the 2016 mini-album, GET DON’T WANT.  

It all sounds very cohesive, impressive and peppered with little moments of magic as the hypnotic melody builds around the backing tracks. The slower, reflective tracks like Lonely World, One Thought and Back Beat balance with the more up-tempo numbers like Promises, Pop Goes the Weasel and Feelings Gone, while the spoken word delivery to much of the lyrics fall somewhere between an axis of Lloyd Cole and Adrian Moffat. The tracks, Tell ‘Em Boy and Only Sun are highlights in their intensity and delivery but really, the introspective nature of the entire album is the key factor in making this a very worthwhile affair and one that is deserving of your time.

Review by Paul McGee

Andrew Tuttle Alexandra ROOM40

Instrumental albums run the risk of not appealing to the music listener for any number of reasons. The lack of perceptible hooks, be it a key vocal or lyric, can leave the music sounding somewhat flat and/or lacking in dynamic. Those artists who can rise above such challenges are usually blessed with the gift of musical composition that never gets repetitive and challenges us to peel back the layers of arrangement around the often-simple original ideas. 

This is the fourth release since his 2015 debut and his minimalist soundscapes are gentle, relaxing meditations to soothe the senses. The term ‘new age’ artist has been used to describe such music and it sometimes appears to be a derogatory term, used to make the musicians feel on the outside of accepted musical norms. This is reflective and relaxing in a way that conjures up a sense of travel and of movement and invites you in to share in the experience. 

The musicians that Tuttle called into the project are Chuck Johnson (pedal steel guitar), Gwenifer Raymond (microtonal electric guitar and fiddle), Joe Saxby (saxophone), Joel Saunders (trumpet), Sarah Spencer (piano), Tony Dupe (cello, piano, pump organ). They all contribute their parts with great attention to detail and play with understated grace.

The album title refers to the place where Tuttle grew up and a number of the nine tracks reflect local memories and places, such as Hilliard Creek, Finucane Road, Burwood Heights Convenience, Tallowwood View, Vienna Intersection and Cambridge Drive Shopping Centre. 

Andrew Tuttle lives in Brisbane, Australia and he produces music that is both hypnotic and soothing, mixing with elements of electronic sound and symbiotic instruments that weave into air and space. He contributes on banjo, resonator guitar, acoustic guitar, piano and signal processing.

There are moments of pure traditional playing, whether simple piano or banjo motifs from Tuttle, or a hint of pedal steel, fiddle or cello in the distance. Alternative, intimate and serene, this is a thinking man’s map to chilling and letting all those noisy disruptions from the outside world just fade away. 

Review by Paul McGee

Ben Bedford Portraits Cavalier

Bedford is a storyteller of some calibre. His songs are often historical in context and are rooted in time and place. PORTRAITS is a compilation of songs previously released on his first three albums, that were released between 2007 and 2012. However, none were released in Europe in any direct capacity. Overall, I am reminded of some of the folk-based artists of the late 60’s (and earlier). With his writing skills Bedford also possess a voice that has a quality entirely suited to the songs; the words are sung clearly and with empathy and understanding. The backing is largely acoustic but is enhanced by some propulsive percussion, that give the songs an added momentum. Similarly, the bass adds depth and a solid grounding that brings an added space to the recordings. Peter Young is the drummer and Ron de la Vega and David Spicher are the bassists. The subtle and effective guitar parts (acoustic and electric) are played by Chas Williams. Additionally, there are cameos including cello, Hammond organ, dobro and accordion. The harmony vocals are in the main from Kari Bedford. However, it is the song themselves that are the centre of these recordings.

All are written by Bedford bar one where Kari Bedford is the co-writer. The album opens with the Civil War song Lincoln’s Man. A song which doesn’t take sides but instead is rich in detail of the life of an ordinary private in the Union Army. Twenty One is another song from a similar point of view, with the soldier wondering what he is doing facing battle, when he would rather be at home ploughing his land, yet feeling the need to do his duty as he sees it. Equally Amelia follows the flight path of Amelia Earhart, revealing Bedford’s in-depth knowledge of his subject matter and his ability to condense elements of the journey into a satisfactory and lyrical song - as he does throughout his work. Perhaps even more poignant is Land Of Shadows, which details the awful plight of Emmett Till, a young African American who was accused of nothing more than offending a white woman but that act (true or not) resulted in his beating, mutilation and murder in Mississippi in 1955. His murders were later acquitted. 

One Night At A Time details a more personal relationship and is sung by Ben and Kari Bedford with some tenderness that is timeless rather than some recent past. A sense of place is also the common theme of songs like The Sangamon. It depicts the flow and ebb in a relationship which is mirrored by that of a tributary of the Illinois River. Bedford is an Illinois native who has brought his music to many noted venues throughout the US and Europe. His most recent album THE HERMIT’S SPYGLASS was released to favourable reviews (including Lonesome Highway) and marks Ben Bedford as an intelligent and tasteful singer/songwriter whose sense of writing is that of a person deeply rooted not only in history but in the resonances that those stories still have today. These are portraits that will linger for some time. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Karen Jonas The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams Self Release

With the title focusing on the landscape of the American Southwest, Jonas fifth album captures the contrast between what is reality and what is an imagined reality. But it is in many ways an upfront and personal album, taking in to account the tales of characters she has come across in real like or created from an amalgam of people and places. What stands out is the progression that is evident in the writing and voice of Karen Jonas on the album. It also marks the continued relationship and important pairing of Jonas and long-time guitarist Tim Bray - a similar relationship to that Jerry Miller and Eilen Jewell - which has turned into something special in musical terms. The pair are joined here by bassist Seth Morrissey and drummer Seth Brown. Also on board and making his mark is co-producer (with Jonas) E.P. Jackson who also adds some additional instrumentation on the album.

The opening song here is The Last Cowboy (At The Bowling Alley) a song that skewers an ageing bowling alley lothario whose moment has well a truly faded. The aspect of place is considered in the next song Out In Palm Tree Paradise wherein she tells of her enchantment with the Mojave Desert and the man she explored it with before both no longer held her interest. There is detail described in the words here that evoke lifestyle and longings. Pink Leather Boots explores a long-distance fantasising about one of the girls in a strip club, imagining how they could build a life together, until the real world steps in and leads him back out to his truck and the lonely journey ahead. That sense of dreams, hope and possibility abound but are often dispelled by a harsher sense of the everyday.

The sound is a clear mix of exploring the parameters of Americana with a healthy respect and take on country music in its hard life mirroring heyday. There are moments of subtle interplay as on the aforementioned Pink Leather Boots. This song and others contain a sense wherein the rhythm section and guitar lines perfectly suit the mood of the song.

Maybe You’d Hear Me Then has a quality that seems at odds with the downbeat lyric but is all the more effective for that. Farmer John has some ambiance attached to it that seems again to fit and contrast with the age-old tale of the wandering man and the frustrated complaints of the long-suffering wife at home. This seems to be a settled band that has been working with Jonas both on the road as well as in the studio. That shows in the way the album component parts gel to create a modern day take on a bunch of characters, who all in their own way make the most of their lot. There are enough moments to generate an interesting and varied listen which is proof that the direction Jonas is one which follows her musical journey from Oklahoma (and its lottery) to those who live and work under southwestern skys.

Review by Stephen Rapid

New Album Reviews

Jake Blount  Spider Tales Free Dirt

A casual listen to this first solo recording by 24 year old banjo and fiddle player Blount could suggest that it is a sparsely recorded collection of mostly unfamiliar old time songs and instrumentals. However, dig a little below the surface and one uncovers an eye-opening introduction to the history and legacy of his African-American ancestors and their contribution to the old time, bluegrass, blues and folk music which so many of us enjoy. This music enriches our lives, but how many of us realise its true origins, and the pain and suffering that it was born of?

If you’re still with me, be reassured that there are detailed notes on the origins of the 14 tracks in the well designed packaging that accompanies the recording, and a little time invested in them is most rewarding.

On the familiar Roustabout, Blount (banjo/vocals) is joined by fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves who is another young rising star in old time circles. She adds her haunting vocals and fiddle to this and many other tunes here. Another notable contributor is Nic Gareiss on “feet” - the much lauded percussive dance artist (who is no stranger to Celtic shores) supplies percussion in the traditional way, and very effective it proves to be. Where Did You Sleep Last Night (originally collected from Led Belly by Alan Lomax) is reinterpreted as a mournful lament on homelessness, probably its original intention.

Another important source of this music is from the Native Americans of the Appalachians. Blount and Hargreaves’ rendition of Old-Timey Grey Eagle, an instrumental collected from Manco Sneed who was a Cherokee, is raw to the point of evoking intense pain - a testament to the playing of the two. 

As an ethnologist and tutor, Blount has not shied away from the sense of doom and loss that was being transmitted in these tunes. Many of the references to the horrors of slavery or lynchings, for example, had to be covert in this musical culture, for obvious reasons, but Blount has managed to convey the darkness with his playing and arranging. In addition to being a member of an ethnic minority, he is an LGBT activist and has used mainly queer artists on this recording.

One of the finest releases of the year so far - not to be missed.

Eilís Boland

Bai Kamara Jr & The Voodoo Sniffers Salone Moosicus/MIG 

Desert blues combined with passionate, clever story telling, soul and passion, and all delivered in a rich warm baritone (that voice!) make for an introduction to Belgian based artist Bai Kamara Jr. A name new to us, but this is the 6th album from the Sierra Leone born artist, whose mother was that country’s Belgian ambassador, and who himself grew up and was educated in England. Previous albums dealt in blues, rock, soul and jazz, but he has truly found his calling with his first conscious exploration of his North African roots, with a guitar sound reminiscent of that first brought to our European ears by Ali Farka Toure and Tinariwen.

Although credited to his road band, The Voodoo Sniffers, Kamara Jr wrote, produced and performed all 15 excellent tracks here, and the production is faultless. 

He kicks off at a metaphorical crossroads in his life with Can’t Wait Here Too Long, and goes on to explore themes including love, relationship breakdown and even the much dreaded school run in Morning School Run Blues. Particularly memorable is the tongue-in-cheek Lady Boss, where the protagonist appears to complain about being at his female boss’s beck and call, ending with the memorable line “She’s into the ‘Me Too Movement’ ... and me too”. Black Widow Spider is a chilling exploration of a metaphorical threat to his family, realised by the clever use of percussion to realistically evoke the scuttling of a giant spider - not for the faint hearted! Stand out track has to be Homecoming, which movingly recalls his first trip back to Sierra Leone (known as Salone in the Krio language) in 15 years. (Check out the superb video of that trip that accompanies this song). An added bonus is the slick digipak, with excellent photography and a lyrics booklet.

Eilís Boland

Jim Pelz & The Firewalkers Another New Morning Self Release

This country influenced songwriter and singer is based in Cincinnati, Ohio and has just released his second solo album. LOSER ANGELS came out in 2016. His subject matter is common in Americana and talks of love, loss, family, friends, faith, recovery and redemption. Eleven songs bring those topics to life, in the company of his band The Firewalkers and some guests in Greg Martin from the Kentucky Headhunters, and the renowned steel player Lloyd Maines.

He has a warm, easy to listen to voice that allows the song to be assimilated and heard clearly. A good example is Lifelong Spree wherein he outlines the story of a boy whose father was incarcerated at an early age in his life and whom he never heard from again, but seeds were sown and he subsequently “took my direction from the house of correction.” It is a slow song with some sublime pedal steel playing. There is a diversity here too - the delivery on a song like When Mavis Testifies benefits from a more soulful gospel production with backing vocals and organ, an example of the versatility of all involved to keep this interesting overall.

The pace can also pick up quite nicely too with songs like Queen Of The Last Lost Cause, that has banjo to the fore in the mix or with the tale of Cynthiana, a lady tied closely to “the rhythm of the road.” The title song follows a similar path with the protagonist, know here as “Lonesome Jim,” being on the receiving end of a sudden departure.

Otherwise songs like Oleander, Fare Thee Well and Saddest Boy In The World take a more reflective turn, in their consideration of the way that life places choices and obstructions in one’s path that need to be overcome - in the best achievable way. ANOTHER NEW MORNING is also a testament to the songwriters and performers out there who can deliver a set of songs worthy of exposure to a wider audience, but they may never get that opportunity. Often what they are recording is not pushing back the barriers of their chosen genre but rather reaffirming our own taste and liking of such music. Jim Pelz has produced such an album, one which has the capacity to reveal and grow on you with subsequent listens and that in itself is an achievement.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Charley Crockett Welcome To Hard Times Thirty Tigers

With a background that includes homelessness, street busking and prison stretches, Charley Crockett’s fortunes appeared to have been heading in the right direction in recent years. He released five albums between 2015 and 2019, earning him invitations to perform at Austin City Limits Musical Festival, The Wheatland Music Festival and Oregon’s Pickathon. However, his good fortune was short lived. Following a routine doctor’s check-up in January 2019, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart condition, which resulted in open heart surgery.

That life changing experience became the motivation for this his second release of 2020. It follows closely in the footsteps of FIELD RECORDINGS Vol.1, which was a collection of thirty lo-fidelity songs that was available on download only for a limited period.

Although marketed as a country artist, Crockett is not your proto type candidate for that camp. With Creole, Cajun, Black and Jewish lineage, his musical roots have always been diverse, a reflection of both his bloodlines and his nomadic existence. WELCOME TO THE HARD TIMES is as close as he’s ever gotten to recording an unadulterated country album. In keeping with its title, the songs address collective misfortunes and predicaments, in addition to personal ones. The album also revisits the history of America in places, and it is not seen through rose-tinted glasses either.  

He kicks off with the album with the title track, which is delivered at a pedestrian pace with semi-spoken lyrics alongside tingling piano. It’s an imposing and no-nonsense introduction to what’s to follow. It’s also the first single from the album and the accompanying video features Crockett in the wild landscape of the Sierra Nevadas, a theme he intends to replicate in future single/video releases. There’s little to cheer about either on the delightful old timey Heads You Win, a tale of the ‘unlucky in love’ practitioner accepting his fate (‘If you’re looking for her, she might be in Santa Fe, forgetting about me and changing her last name’). Run Horse Run and Black Jack County Chain are two treasures that sounds like they’re taken from the soundtrack of a Spaghetti Western. The former depicts the outlaw, continuously on the move. The latter celebrates the escape from a chain gang by the mob, by murdering the sheriff with the chains that shackled them (‘Now the whip marks have all healed and I am thankful that there's nothing but these scars around my ankles,  but most of all I'm glad no man will be a slave again’). Rainin’ In My Heart - no relation to the Buddy Holly song of the same name - is a country blues lament for lost love.

The album contains fifteen tracks in total and closes with When Will My Troubles End, a plea from Crockett for normality and closure to the misfortunes that have haunted him. It’s a fitting appeal from an artist that has experienced many hard knocks in life but continues to forge on, using these misfortunes as ammunition to challenge his creativity. WELCOME TO HARD TIMES is, for me, a career highlight from an artist who is joining the elite assembly of younger artists who are acting as caretakers of real country music.

Declan Culliton

The Texas Gentlemen Floor It!!! New West

Originally formed as an all-purpose studio and touring band, The Texas Gentleman have backed a host of household names including Kris Kristofferson, George Strait and Joe Ely, together with some of the more recent crop of Americana acts such as Nikki Lane, Shakey Graves and Leon Bridges. In a similar vein to The Band, The Swampers, The Wrecking Crew and Booker T. & The M.G.’s, they initially concentrated on their collective musical expertise to provide the support to others, rather than as a recording act in their own right. That all changed in 2017 when they recorded their debut album TX JELLY in less than a week at the iconic Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals.

FLOOR IT!!! was recorded at Echo Lab Studios in Denton, Texas under the supervision of producer Matt Pence who, in recent years, has worked with John Moreland, Paul Cauthen, John Grant, and Josh T Pearson. Pence has also played drums on recordings by Centro-matic, Jay Farrar, Nikki Lane and Justin Townes Earle. Recorded live with only a few overdubs, the thirteen tracks are held together spectacularly by a strong rhythm section, great horn segments and vocals that included divine harmonies.

The Texas Gentlemen are co-singers and frontmen Nik Lee and Daniel Cremer, both of whom also play keyboards and guitar. Ryan Ake is their guitarist; Scott Edgar Lee Jnr. plays bass and Aaron Haynes is their current drummer, having recently replaced Paul Grass who was on drums for the recording.

They describe their sound as ‘woozy brass fuelled Dixieland styled jazz, slinky chicken scratch country funk and lushly orchestrated pop/soul balladry.’ A less elaborate description would point the listener in the direction of Little Feat, Leon Russell and Jefferson Airplane, to gain an idea of where they’re coming from.

The short instrumental opening intro Veal Cutlass sets the scene perfectly, and is an introduction to the carnival of music that follows. In fact, we don’t hear a vocal until the third track Ain’t Nothin’ New, as the second track Bare Maximum is also an instrumental with echoes of Frank Zappa in its core.

Densely layered melodies are the order of the day on Easy Street and She Won’t, the latter a Steely Dan sounding delight. They sign off with the title track which is a boogie woogie triumph and the proper conclusion to what is best described as a good time listen from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton

Kyle Nix Lightning On The Mountain & Other Short Stories Bossier City/Soundly

‘They unstrap their pistols and soak the fields, throw dynamite into the barn. He winks at Billy as he slowly kneels and lights it all with his cigar’ announces Kyle Nix on the brilliant title track on his debut solo album. The song races along, fiddles, guitars and drums colliding alongside his clear and unadulterated vocal. It’s one of seventeen tales, yes seventeen, on an album that grabs you by the lapels from the word go and doesn’t let go until the last track fades out.

Nix is the fiddle player in Turnpike Troubadours, Oklahoma’s finest purveyors of country music. His grandfather was a fiddle maker, so the instrument was part of his childhood. His formal teacher was Oklahoma bluegrass player Shirley Landrum and his exceptional playing is stamped across many of the album’s tracks. The players on the album are Nix’s bandmates in Turnpike Troubadour so, as you would expect, top notch playing and picking feature from start to finish.

The album is a story book of tales both imagined and experienced by Nix and will no doubt delight lovers of his band, as they wait for their follow up album after 2017’s hugely successful A LONG WAY FROM YOUR HEART.

Shelby 65 and If Ruby Ain’t Happy are also electrified toe tappers in harmony with the title track, and the instrumental bluegrass whirlwind Old Joe Clark is every bit as sprightly.That said, it’s not all rampant and full on. Nix can apply the brakes and does so on a number of occasions.  Blue Eyes and Sweet Delta Blues are mid paced ballads, the latter a weepy delight, awash with dreamy pedal steel and an ode to his loved one while the writer is on the road.

Josephine is an unhurried rocker with a few killer guitar breaks. Some neat fiddle playing kicks off Graves - it’s absolutely old-style country and western, creating cinematic images of dusty saloon bars, uncorked whisky bottles and dancing girls. The Wolf at the Door is a punchy ‘shoot out tale’, rockier around the edges than much of the album’s material, but none the worse for that. You can feel the biting old Oklahoma winter and the crumbling marriage that are depicted on Woman of Steel.

Turnpike Troubadours have earned the reputation of one of the most spirited and dynamic live acts presenting real country music, alongside their impressive studio recordings. LIGHTNING ON THE MOUNTAIN & OTHER SHORT STORIES will be lapped up by their supporters and if you’re not yet on board, I’d highly recommend you join that club and pick up this album for starters. It’s an absolute gem!

Review by Declan Culliton

Steven Adams and the French Drops Keep It Light Fika

This artist has been categorized in the alt country stable since his initial activities with the The Broken Family Band in the early 2000s. Adams has released two previous solo records in addition to also performing with indie-rock band Singing Adams, a 4-piece with two releases to their name. He also performs under the name, The Singing Adams, which is confusing to some, no doubt. His craft as a songwriter has been acknowledged with commissions to write for specific events, plus he has written for both the Guardian and the Times newspapers. So, quite the rounded artist in many senses. 

This new project is definitely a breath of fresh air and the musicians played live in the studio, with the spontaneity of bouncing off each other lending a lightness and vivid colour to much of the music. The ten tracks create an infectious groove across the 40-minutes that wrap the listening experience and drive the overall impression of an artist having a lot of fun with his new creative direction. Adams is joined by Daniel Fordham, Laurie Earle, David Stewart and Michael Wood in the recording process and the review information received doesn’t tell me who played what, a trend that is increasingly the norm – frustratingly so for this reviewer!

 Originally from South Wales and now living in London, Adams tackles personal matters despite his vow to keep things light on this record. The track, Canary, is really excellent and refers to his being ‘so serious all the time.’ It contains some superb sax playing and a tension in the arrangement that grabs the attention. Soft Landings is a simple love song while Bring On the Naps is an enjoyable melody and features some backing singers who sound very much underage! Oh Dear is a slow lament for an enduring crush that is not returned and the lonely feeling of disappointment.   

My Brother the Racist is a very personal song in which Adams calls out his … own brother. Doesn’t get more raw and close to the bone than this one; “My brother, the racist will die and I won’t know when/Guess I’ll find out later/I can hold on till then.” The track, Note To Self is an analysis of lack of ambition and a suggestion that it is not necessarily such a bad thing in trying to live our days with a certain balance to everything. A strength and not a weakness? Mr Sunshine has a great tempo with a hint of a MGMT beat and great lines, such as;”I found the last patch of sunlight in the city/I saved it on my phone” There is also a refrain that repeats “I miss you, I miss the kids.”

This is genre hopping in the best way, filled with superbly crafted, melodic tunes that impress and delight in equal measure.  

Review by Paul McGee

Taylor Kopp Found Self Release

One of those albums that sneaks up on you from nowhere and catches your attention with a ‘play me one more time’ whisper in your ear. I like those moments when they come along and this debut album is certainly one of those!

All the music on these ten tracks is performed by Kopp; vocals, guitar, piano, vibraphone, tenor sax and harmonies. On the website, Kopp says that “the songs on the record exist somewhere in the place between the death of my brother, and my need to carve out a bigger life.”

In trying to reconcile his loss, Kopp moved to the woods to write at a cabin in the foothills of Mt. Hood, Oregon. The songs are reflective and they never rush, but rather take their time to settle into the space that is created by the gentle arrangements and melodies. A Dream I Had is a very personal observation of what happened and his reaction to his bereavement; ‘You came to me in a dream I had, And you said “brother what have I done to us? Man, I got lost, tryin’ to find my mind, And when I found it, it had all turned to dust.’ Poignant and nakedly honest. Equally, High Desert Nights is a wistful look at what was lost in the brotherly relationship ‘Out of the blue that song came on the radio, And all I wanted to do was talk with you about it, Just like we used to do when we were young.’

Music can be the best therapy and Kopp certainly has used his gifts to try and heal the sadness and the attempts to make sense of it all. In another fine song, Boy On the Bank, he sings “I’m still tryin’ to figure it out/ I’m getting closer I guess/It depends on the way that I feel on the day that you ask”:

The album was recorded and mixed by Josh Powell at The Map Room in Portland, Oregon and there is an intimacy and a feeling of expansive skies under the stars, The soft vocal delivery perfectly complements Kopp’s easy guitar style and the 35 minutes slide by in an easy reverie, like settling in at your feet, by a warm campfire. 

An old flame appears back on the scene in Hometown Kid and the reflective strum has the singer thinking of second chances; :”I never thought I would be that hometown kid/That dreamed about busting out/but never did/But here I am, thirty five/Spend every damn night in this same old dive.” We all know how easy it is to get stuck in a rut and how hard it can be to move on. 

Under the Pines is about feeling one with nature and finding a connection with your partner in the silence of the forest –”All I need is a little more time/A little more luck and a little more wine/And one more night under these pines with you.”

 As debut albums go, this is very assured, quietly captivating and laced with interesting songs.

Review by Paul McGee

Cody Landress Gibson Self-titled Self Release

Having released an E.P. in 2018, this singer songwriter delivers a full debut album and it is a quietly confident effort, with some excellent songs across the 12 tracks included. 

It’s a fully formed DIY project; just Cody and his guitars, with some overdubs, minimal shaker and tambourine backing and some bass guitar with added harmonies. He is one of the new breed of independent artists who want to have complete control over their music production and distribution, which is a positive approach if you can continue to juggle all the balls in the air.

The songs have a resonance and the clear vocals add enough character to the words that tell tales of love gained and lost, road trips, wanting to get out of small towns and setting up a new life - all running for a generous 50 minutes. There are relationship songs that explore the challenges and the need to stay the course, Beginners Luck and Brave the Storm. His dreams of an enduring love are considered in other songs, Broken Heart Beats On and Smoke - growth through having faith in another and wanting connection, rather than a life of aimless drifting along. 

There are songs of real connection where there is a need to just be with another, Lovin’ To Give and Nights In Arkansas; where a road trip brings a feeling of being in this thing called life, for better or worse, together. Blood Moon Rising is an acoustic blues that tells of the omens that can steer a soul into the grip of dark forces, devil women and coyotes, crows and gypsy fortune tellers. Jenny Lee tells of lost love and feelings of a broken heart – “Just another night to sleep by your side/that’s all I need to make things right/But it’s another night/smoky bar room lights/.cheap beer and drinking myself blind.”

Whiskey Nights is giving up on a failed relationship and striking out for new beginnings “Don’t think I didn’t love you so/but the road won’t let me go/No chains gonna tie me down/so I’ll see you the next time around.” Old 53 references a stretch of highway and an old flame that reveals how you can get away but you can never really leave - past memories remain. 

Misery is just that; a song about never getting ahead of the curve and feeling fated to live out this beaten path, “Should've known it wouldn't be too long/you'd find a line in an old sad song/Same motifs played out on and on/'til you're dead and gone.” The final track, Before I Disappear, recounts a tragedy and the death of a close friend, attending the funeral and wrestling with all kinds of questions - a turning point for Coady in his own life. 

Coady is from Piedmont Province which borders the Appalachian Mountains and his sound contains elements of Americana, Country, and Roots music. There is an honesty in the performance that is very appealing and the authentic feel to these songs bodes very well for the future. Recommended.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Justin Wells The United State Self Release

It’s a familiar path of many musicians - listening to a very different type of music as an adult, before drifting back to elements of the music they heard growing up. Wells was a member of the band Fifth On The Floor, who played their take on Southern rock. They recorded three albums with some success and their final release ASHES & ANGELS, produced by Shooter Jennings, made the Billboard Country charts. But then, as often happens with a band who have worked hard to achieve something together, they decide to split up after a number of notable final shows.

After a sense of uncertainty, Wells decoded to record a well received solo album DAWN IN THE DISTANCE. This album gained a lot of welcome critical praise that allowed him to move forward and he has now returned with his second solo album, a set of new self-composed songs and a single co-write. He worked as co-producer with Duane Lundy to forge these songs into a convincing album. This was done accompanied by a set of sympathetic musicians such as Laur James (formerly of Sturgill Simpson’s band), Alex Munoz, and the brothers Daxx and Miles Nielsen (who also do duty with Cheap Trick and the Rusted Hearts, respectively) who contribute here alongside a number of other fine players. 

However, it is the quality of Wells' voice and writing that stand out. He also took a different approach to recording the album by setting out a trail guide of what the journey might take. Uppermost in his mind was the consideration of the meaning of love, of loss, of caring about others with an open mind while allowing the contradictions, the mistakes and the positive nature that accompanies life in these times.

So that means going from the positive outlook of It’ll All Work Out to the more considered After The Fall. The sound has elements of soulfulness, southernness and a little roots country to sweeten the flavour. The guitars are front and centre, with keyboards also taking an important and textured part in the overall sound. Wells in the past has toured with Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and Blackberry Smoke. Fans of all those acts will likely find something here to please them too. 

The album opens with a short ambient instrumental You’ll Never Know How Much I Love You signalling a broader take than the normal, before laying out its musical passage in a further eleven songs. A consistent number of the songs that have an immediate impact. Songs like The Screaming Song, No Time For A Broken Heart, After The Fall and Temporary Blue all have the benefit of being led by Wells’ vocal prowess and a likeable and effective musical accompaniment that mixes a solid rhythm section, driving guitars and a layer of textural keyboards which bring these soul roots songs to fruition. This is a united state you can believe in.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Steve Scott No Love For the Common Man Self Release

Here is a musician who stands up for what he believes in. His website claims a roots music influence and his stated colours are those of Rust Belt Country, a term that was created to describe the urban decline in American cities, impacted by the loss of jobs in a variety of manufacturing industries and beyond. 

His music is also in the space of contemporary folk as his social message hits against the corporate and political greed that impacts upon the lives of so many working-class families. Based in Detroit, he has witnessed first-hand the protracted decline in the city, caused by many factors, chief among which was the fall of the auto industry as a major employer in what was famously called the ‘Motor City.’

Scott is not a Trump supporter to put it mildly. We Know They Lied is an angry song on this EP and it hits out at the lack of care or interest shown in the plight of the citizens of Detroit. Indeed, in 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to be declared bankrupt with $18.5 billion debt and the mayor sentenced to hard time for corruption and racketeering charges. Since then, efforts have been made to tackle the issues caused by thousands of empty buildings around the city.

Songs like Livin’ On Love and Time Waits For No One ask questions about the reality of daily survival and whether love itself is enough to sustain. Final song, I Think About You, is aimed towards one who perhaps got out and went elsewhere to create a new reality.

The musicians on this EP are quite superb in bringing these tunes into full technicolour. Scott plays acoustic guitar and mandolin, in addition to contributing lead vocals. The superb playing of David Mosher on fiddle and mandolin is a highlight on a number of tracks, as is the impassioned backing vocals of Kristin VonBernthal. Todd Glass on drums, together with John Barron on both electric and upright bass run the engine room with great authority and verve, while the guitars of both Garret Bielaniec and Tiziano Scott add plenty of nuance to the arrangements. Add in some fine accordion from Mark Iannace and banjo from Dave Feeny to brighten the mix and you have a very enjoyable six tracks of artistic endeavour.

Produced and written by Steve Scott, with studios in both Detroit and Ireland utilised, this third release sees an artist fully focused on delivering quality – even down to the excellent packaging that includes a yellow ‘police line do not cross’ ribbon and cover art that superimposes riot police imagery on the soldiers arresting the principal figures in the painting, The Taking of Christ, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio – presumably for public order violations! A true reflection of the times we now find ourselves surrounded by!

Review by Paul McGee

Jaron Reid Raven^sky  I Can’t Take the Darkness Anymore Self Release

This is quite a project and equally, quite a listening experience. With twenty-five songs spread across two discs and a total running time of over ninety minutes, a review is not to be taken on lightly!

The packaging is top class with an expansive gate fold sleeve and art work, plus liner notes and booklet that contain colour images, lyrics to a selection of tracks and quotes from many different world figures, like Maya Angelou, Leonard Cohen, Buddha, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Paolo Coelho, Leonardo da Vinci, Townes Van Zandt and a medicine song from Geronimo. 

It is this last influence that gives a hint to the inspiration that gripped Jaron Rovensky in conceiving this artistic endeavour. His childhood was part of the family of first nation indigenous peoples in Canada and the track, Broken Down, addresses some of the issues experienced in being a minority group on a land that was once their entire domain. There are many different styles on the album, from the Irish melody of I Do Believe, to the country sounds of Further Down The Road. The bar-room blues of A Very Dangerous Stash and the Folk influenced message of extinction in our natural habitat on The Hologram Zoo, all the way to the Bossa nova swing of A Henry Miller Romance. There are love songs, For You, My Love, Just For You and In It For Love, plus the R&B leanings of Name Of the Game and Ruby Heart Stealer & Ricky Love Dealer.

It’ all very impressive, beautifully performed and delivered by the variety of musicians involved over different time frames. There were recordings in 2016 at MCC in Calgary; then in 2017 at Prairie Sun studios in California and separately in Edmonton. Mastering was carried out in 2019 in California and the production duties were all overseen by Rovensky himself. The core band were Andrew Borger (drums), Adam Levy (guitar), David Piltch (bass) and Jake Peters (banjo, mandolin, ukulele). Rovensky plays guitar and takes all lead vocals, plus spirit and medicine drums on different tracks. 

Other musicians were given input on a remote basis and credit for their parts would be a long list. Suffice to say that a further four musicians played a role via the internet and were joined by another nine players at the Calgary sessions AND a further six participants at the Edmonton recordings! That’s a total that stretches into the teens, with only Jake Peters involved at all three locations, along with Rovensky.

There is a tent show feel to the message of excess and hedonism on Crick Crack Crickity Crack and the deep groove of Old Uncle Louis is right out of the Tom Waits songbook, all angular rhythm and offbeat melody lines. Rovensky sounds like Waits on a few tracks but can also channel Dr John or Roger Chapman at other times; quite a varied voice, especially as he can also deliver a fine ballad with no vocal intonation, such as The Most Beautiful Swans In the World or Fading Away.

The soulful funky sound of Back To Jungo is very cool and insists on active participation while the tempo of Big Black Hole is a light jazz mambo with brass section adding heightened passion. The slow country sound of When You Can’t Let Go, Let Go is a standout among so many strong songs, with violin and pedal steel drifting along on the melody. So much to admire here and a real testament to both the bravery and artistic vision of this talented young musician. 

Review by Paul McGee

Ross Newell Live From Eddie Owen Presents Self Release

This is a very welcome return to the table for a talented singer-songwriter who has many gifts to share. As the original creative source and founding member of the Mulligan Brothers, a superb band from Mobile, Alabama, Newell has been honing his song craft over many years now. The three studio albums released by that band are all highly recommended, full of great melodies and songs that reflect the daily push and pull of everyman, in trying to make real connection and looking for enduring meaning.

Ross Newell sings with a voice that is both quietly hypnotic and sweetly warm in tone. He is also a very fine guitar player, as this live album highlights. It is something of a brave move to record a solo record in a live setting with nothing but the naked spotlight of stripped-down guitar and vocals. The fact that there are no mishaps during the performance or song delivery is true testament to an artist who really should be playing to a much bigger demographic. 

With the band on a prolonged hiatus (never say never), Newell has decided to put out an album that really shines a light on his winning ways, not only in the writing but also in the confident, relaxed manner in which he delivers these nine songs. Recorded at the Red Clay Music Foundry in Duluth, Georgia, a venue that hosts songwriter nights under the banner of ‘Eddie Owen Presents’ - his set ran for 40-plus minutes and included 6 songs from the previous Mulligan Brothers albums, plus 3 new songs that were given an airing in front of a very enthusiastic audience. 

An added bonus is the presence of The Krickets, a female trio from the gulf coast who deliver the most captivating harmony singing, with a blend of Folk and Americana influences in their music. Here, they join Newell for the last 2 songs of his set and bring plenty of colour and nuance to the versions of Red Dress Lady and Sensible Shoes.

There is real quality to the whole production, with a crystal-clear sound and an easy atmosphere to the proceedings that makes you feel like you were actually in the venue yourself. The new songs are, Hold The Door, which espouses good manners and that proper habits mark the man “just be somebody who says sorry when you’re wrong.” I Miss You Already is a song of wanting to freeze the moment to capture a special feeling towards his wife and of gratitude for the life they have. That Stagger Lee Song is a salutary tale of defending one’s rights in the face of intimidation and is a story song that spins a timeless message.

Elsewhere, another story song, I Know That Man, tells a tale of domestic abuse and sweet revenge. Kaleidoscope is a tale of life on the road and filled with lonely feelings of self-doubt and aimless drifting. So Are You is a song about making a stand and striking out for independence and identity in following your dreams, while Roseanne is an old favourite and tells the secrets of the archetypical tour bus that hauls musicians all over the highways of America. Great puns in the lyrics and double entendres to the fore!  Newell breaks out his harmonica on this one to add great dynamic to the performance.

Sensible Shoes is a highlight with its caustic look at the downtown nightlife in Mobile and the pretty girls who stumble around in high heels looking for storybook romance or some tenuous connection. Newell observes that ‘everybody here’s a stranger we just know each other’s names’ and captures the hedonistic need to escape the daily routine in the lines “all our sunrise reverends are sunset sinners too.” Excellent stuff throughout and a highly recommended album.

Review by Paul McGee

Lynn Miles We’ll Look For Stars CRS

Yet another in a long line of superbly crafted albums from a true artist of the highest calibre. Miles has been putting meaning into the often-senseless foibles of love and longing for so long that she has pretty much covered the entire book of tangled romances and the questions that plague us in our quests to make some sense of anything that may endure. Not that she ever gives us the answers, for there are none, more often than not. Yet there is a sense of knowing that the journey taken was all the more worthwhile because Lynn Miles has your back and winks with a knowing smile that says - just keep on going…

There are 11 songs here and not a weak one among them. Opening in reflective mood (We’ll Look For Stars) and asking to face the long road together, hold on to each other, have strength to endure as we are ‘at the mercy of the undertow.’ It’s wrapped around simple piano melody, like a lullaby that soothes and observes ‘we think we’re made of steel; we’re made of tin.’ 

Next up is time captured in a moment, self comfort, taking solace and a cautionary fairy tale with a sweet vocal (The Saddest Song I Ever Wrote), and followed by a song (A Heart Can Only Take So Much) that has questions around why we do what we do. Weary from trying, having a rough patch. Change happens anyway. There is always a sense of longing in these songs and words that never quite reconciles.

There is a tribute to Merle Haggard (Merle), who was clearly an artist that Miles revered in her youth when learning from the song-writing bible; she sings of his ‘heartbreak voice and a twinkling eye.’  We are then asked about being frozen inside and feeling disconnected from both life and from the self (Restless) - bored with the repetition. “Nothing’s quite as empty as a dreamless world.” Plus, the lines - “I’ve got a billion questions with answers I’m never gonna know.”

Onwards to a song that reflects life experiences and knowledge gained(Old Soul), lessons learned along the rocky road; independence and self- belief. “She’s got a smile that never shows up too soon.” And “on every dark road she’s paid her toll.”

The aftermath of a breakup, feeling out of control, relationship woes (The World Is Spinning) is never easy, “another day older, another new scar.” Life changes us and points us down strange paths (She Drinks), self destructive thoughts and giving up - regret is not always a kind option to select. 

The disappearing small towns (Main Street) all across rural USA is a bitter pill for local communities; memories tainted by time and old values crushed by supposed progress. Then there is the freedom of youth (In the Wilderness), all that energy and innocence, perhaps taking place in the same small town of the previous song?

Finally, the risks of loving are brought full circle (Because We Love) and the abiding message that life must be lived and not feared. As always there is quiet comfort in these songs of loss and pain. As if sharing these insights brings a resolve and the will to keep living through it all. Essential.

Review by Paul McGee

Caleb Caudle Better Hurry Up Self Release

He may be a new name to many, but BETTER HURRY UP is the eight studio album from Caleb Caudle. He was raised in the foothills of the Appalachians in North Carolina and his early passion for music was fuelled by regularly singing in church with his family. His conversion from casual singer to creative writer was inspired by his introduction to the work of Bob Dylan by his art teacher in high school.

Caudle and his wife and manager Lauren moved from North Carolina to Nashville in 2019, joining the bourgeoning community of singer songwriters that have been relocating to that city in recent years. Three days after arriving, he headed to the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville outside Nashville to put down the tracks for this album. The small structure was built by Cash in 1979 as his private shelter, a sanctuary to chill out at when he returned from touring.

John Jackson of Jayhawks fame came on board as producer and an impressive line up of backing vocalists contributed, including fellow Jayhawk Gary Louris, Elizabeth Cook, Courtney Marie Andrews and John Paul White. Those voices feature on eight of the eleven tracks, with both Cook and White adding backing vocals on the swampy opener Better Hurry Up.

Caudle also called on a stellar bunch of players to back him including Laur Joamets on guitar (Drivin’N’Cryin), Dennis Crouch on bass (Elton John, Leon Russell), Sturgill Simpson, Russ Pahl on pedal steel (Dan Auerbach, Kacey Musgraves). Both Pat Sansone (Wilco) and Rhett Huffman (American Aquarium) add keyboards.

The album’s groove developed from Caudle cramming on the roots and bluesy sounds of Leon Russell, The Band, Little Feat and J.J. Cale and all these influences clearly emerge across the eleven tracks.

Regular Riot is a breezy Jayhawks sounding track, enhanced courtesy of some dreamy pedal steel and slick guitar licks. It’s also a co-write with Natalie Hemby of The Highwomen and interestingly it is the first time Caudle has written with anyone.

Monte Carlo is pacey and rocks along, with Elizabeth Cook sharing the mic and adding backing vocals. The bouncy Feelin’ Free nods in the direction of The Band, it’s relaxed and rootsy and you can almost picture Levon Helm leaning into the mic while directing the show with his drum beat.

Caudle is as capable as doing quiet as he is delivering more funky upbeat songs. A point in case is the gorgeously laid-back Bigger Oceans, which closes the album. It’s a laid back and gloriously loose inclusion. His parents arrived at Cash Cabin for the last day’s recording and were invited to join in the backing vocals on this track, turning back the clock to when they sang side by side with him at church in his childhood days.

Review by Declan Culliton

Samantha Crain A Small Death Real Kind

“With this album, I just wanted to have some fun. I’ve spent the majority of my young adulthood taking myself and my music very seriously.” So said Samantha Crain on the release of her 2017 album YOU HAD ME AT GOODBYE, which was yet another outstanding recording to add to the impressive back catalogue of the Oklahoma resident.

 Little did she know at that time of the traumatic life changing events that were to follow, and which became the platform and stimulus to record A SMALL DEATH. The Choctaw singer, songwriter and poet, was involved in a number of car crashes, suffering serious injury which limited the use of both of her hands. The uncertainty of a full recovery and being unable to play guitar left her scarred both mentally and physically, with the prospect of continuing her music career in doubt. This scenario was all the more distressing for an artist that freely admits to working double shifts in the catering industry between tours, to finance her next album and tour.

Despite the devastation and unpredictability which she faced, her fighting spirit prevailed and she turned the tables on those dark times to create her most personal album to date. She also self-produced this time around, which gave her absolute freedom to record on her own terms and in her own time scale. She was signed to the newly formed Real King Record label, which was created by the talented U.K. artist Lucy Rose, whom Samantha had toured with in recent years.

I have to admit that on first listen I put the opening track An Echo on repeat before moving on to the rest of the album, such was its impact on me. It was the first song she wrote when her health improved and was the motivator to complete the project. It’s one of a number of standout tracks alongside Reunion, Pastime and Constructive Eviction, all of which head in an indie direction, pedal steel, brass and guitars all connecting impeccably beside Crain’s striking vocals. There are also some dreamy relaxed ballads on offer. Longing for an old acquaintance surfaces on Joey, and Tough For You speaks of resilience and fortitude, a recurring topic on the album.

“When we remain, we will be the flowers and the trees and the vines that overcome the forgotten city” she announces on When We Remain. It’s a positive and defiant statement from an artist whose character and inner strength has transported her from despair to regeneration with this hugely impressive album.

Review by Declan Culliton

David Starr Beauty & Ruin Cedaredge 

The ninth album from David Starr was inspired by the novel Of What Was, Nothing Is Left, written by his grandfather Fred Starr in 1972. The themes of love, tragedy, family dysfunction and jealousy in rural southwest Arkansas, so eloquently characterised in the book, are adapted to song on the eleven tracks on this album.

Alongside his career as a singer songwriter, Starr is the proprietor of the music store Starr’s Guitars in his home town of Cedaredge in Colorado. Starr engaged an impressive line up to both co-write and contribute to the project. John Oates shares the writing credits on six of the tracks. Doug & Telisha Williams (The Wild Ponies) wrote Bury The Young and Jim Lauderdale, Dana Cooper, Shelley Rae Korntved, Wood Newton and Irene Kelley all lend a hand in the compositions.

Rather than simply repeat the books story, the songs are drawn from characters and locations described in the novel. Laurel Creek, the name of the family farm, tells of the son leaving home for the army. The bastard son tells his tale of disgrace in the standout track My Mother’s Shame and the title track is an impressive ballad of love won and lost. Starr’s vocals are calm and relaxed as he articulates the struggle between darkness and light on a grouping of songs that work well as a unit, notwithstanding the number of writers involved. The album is delightfully packaged with photography courtesy of Dana Cooper and a lyric booklet.

“It’s not your time, it’s just one more storm. We are like leaves scattered in the wind. You will rise up, rise up again.” Starr sings on Rise Up Again. Informed words indeed, that particularly ring true in these difficult times.

Review by Declan Culliton

James Steinle What I Came Here For Shotgun House

SOUTH TEXAS HOMECOMING, the 2018 debut recording by James Steinle, was his entry card into that collective of young artists most likely to become veterans of the Texas music scene in the years ahead. His latest offering WHAT I CAME HERE FOR is steeped in a similar groove. With his free and easy delivery style, he follows a similar template to the one that worked so well on that debut recording. His approach is simple - capture the uncomplicated everyday life occurrences in East Texas, translate them into song and deliver them in his classic drawl.

The album was overseen by fellow Texan singer songwriter and producer Bruce Robison, with accompanying Austin musicians Geoff Queen (pedal steel, guitar), Scott Davis (bass, banjo, percussion, B3 organ), and Richie Millsap (drums, percussion). Juliet McConkey is credited as a co-writer on In Love Again (Two Different Languages) and also adds shared spoken word with Steinle on What I Came Here For – Prelude. Jamie Lin Wilson, Caitlin Palmer and Rich Brotherton also contribute backing vocals.

Steinle's father was a dentist in an oil company, which led to a nomadic childhood for Steinle. He spent the best part of a decade living in the Middle East and a further year in Germany. The experience gave him ample ammunition for his writing but, as this album title implies, Texas is home and the Lone Star State has fuelled him with both the ammunition and the inspiration to put pen to paper.

Black & White Blues kicks off proceedings in fine style. It’s a boisterous tale of a character down on his luck, on the run from both the cops and a gang, for speeding and murder. A thumping bass line drives the rhythm alongside crisp guitar breaks. Other high-spirited inclusions are the raunchy and bluesy Blue Collar Martyr, which bemoans the shrinking job market for the blue collar worker, and the funky Sentimental Bridge with its Stones-like Exile on Main Street era chorus.

Steinle can also tread a quieter path with equal effect. A point in case is the title track. It features the previously mentioned spoken prelude, before morphing into a brooding ballad that reminisces and contemplates. He’s no slouch when navigating love won and lost either. In The Garden is a ‘paint by numbers’ country charmer. It includes customary teary lyrics, weeping pedal steel and a divine melody. Without You also visits the 'love lost and unlikely to be reborn' theme. Steinle’s vocals are delivered semi-spoken and he’s joined by Jamie Lin Wilson to beef up the chorus. Impressive as those two tracks are, completing the trilogy of tear streaked weepies and the stand out of the three is the sad country duet In Love Again (Two Different Languages). The vocal exchanges between Steinle and Juliet McConkey could sit comfortably on any Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn album.

Steinle signs off with Well, So Long, a reflection on a previous relationship whether fictional or actual. It’s a fitting finale to an album that’s a must have for patrons of textbook Texan song writing.

Review by Declan Culliton

Albums - New Reviews

Joshua Ray Walker Glad You Made It State Fair

The debut solo album WISH YOU WERE HERE from Texan Joshua Ray Walker, landed twelve months ago and transported him into the ‘ones to watch’ category of emerging singer songwriters in the Americana genre. That album was an introduction to a young artist flaunting a confidence and maturity gained from working as a player in backing bands since his teenage years, together with performing up to 250 solo shows a year. He’s also a member of country garage punk band Ottoman Turks in his spare time.

Even with that hectic performing schedule, Walker hasn’t wasted any time following on that impressive debut recording. GLAD YOU MADE IT is another compilation of stories touching on everyday characters, often down on their luck and often without the prospect of a happy ending in sight. The troupers he writes about are part fiction and part factual and suggest a writer with an eagle eye for observing the minor detail and using it to fuel his imagination.

Musically Walker manages to effectively blend a cocktail of traditional country, old timey and garage punk like a dream. He’s joined by an extensive and impressive collection of musicians on the album, over a dozen players contribute impeccable playing throughout.

His vocal deftness allows him to switch between a semi - yodel on the Hank Williams sounding Living Country and full on Texan twang on the album’s stand out track User. Heading off on a somewhat unexpected direction, User features a driving horn section and some ripping guitar breaks, as Walker recounts a tale of an addict (‘I think I’m gonna use again, it’s been a long, long time’) overpowered by the temptation to return to old ways. Voices laments love gained and then lost as the protagonist agonises “I might put this truck in neutral, let it roll into the lake. First, I’ll finish off this bottle, so it looks like a mistake.”

Visiting motor shows as a child with his parents suggested the template for Boat Show Girl. In Walker’s eyes, the attractive, constantly smiling young girl, selling merchandise to middle aged men, was possibly concealing her true self (‘Yeah fake tan covers bruises, but it doesn’t last that long’). Killer dobro, fiddle and banjo all get an airing on the old school country track Play You a Song and Walker’s country garage punk sentiment is played out on the grungy closing track D.B. Cooper.

“I’m sure good at losing, even better at giving up” he agonises on the lively One Trick Pony. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Walker overcomes the ‘difficult second album’ syndrome with a confidence that points towards a young artist with many more tricks up his sleeve.

Review by Declan Culliton

Tyller Gummersall Heartbreak College Country Road 330

Despite having the appearance of a young man just out of high school, Colorado born Tyller Gummersall can boast seven studio recordings prior to this album - three Ep’s and four full albums. Belting out Hank Williams covers at County Fairs at the tender age of eight years, his first effort at song writing followed a year later, having studied under the watchful eye of two-time National Flatpicking Champion, Gary Cook.

The cover artwork on the album features Tyller leaning casually against a wall, decked out in signature western wear of plaid checked shirt, jeans, cowboy boots and with a leather hat perched on his head.  It follows his 2017 EP LOVE ME WHEN I’M DOWN which was produced by Lloyd Maines. My first impression was to expect a dreaded crossover pop/country content, something along the lines of Florida Georgia Line or their like. My fears were instantly dismissed with the opening track You Pay For It. It’s a Dwight Yoakam-sounding toe tapping belter and the remaining seven tracks on the album also stick to a traditional country template.

Like the majority of old school country music Gummersall’s topics are simple everyday events, including the plight of the working man and the unyielding passing of time. Continuity and love are examined in Fathers And Sons and on the album’s closer How Did I Get Here. They’re dispatched with an impressive vocal and slick guitar work, both features reoccurring on all the eight tracks on the album. Heartfelt ballads Working Man and What If It Was That Easy? are delivered with that terrific whiskey and tobacco weathered vocal. They fit neatly alongside the brisker title track and the full-on honky-tonker Why Do I Buy Whiskey?

Albums such as this were being lapped up by the Nashville music scene twenty years back. Unfortunately, a more commercial mainstream product is the flavour of the day currently. Hopefully this album will reach the ears of true country music enthusiasts - it certainly deserves to.

Review by Declan Culliton

Emma Swift Blonde On The Tracks Tiny Ghost/CRS

Recording an album of Bob Dylan songs is a brave move and one that’s likely to divide opinion straight down the middle. To some, attempting to embellish or indeed replicate the work of Sir Bob verbatim is nothing short of sacrilege.

The list of artists that have paid homage to Dylan is lengthy and ranges from Mountain to The Hollies and Jerry Garcia to Bryan Ferry. Pleasing as these efforts were, they could also be considered a tad self-indulgent. The cynical amongst us might consider them stop gap recordings by established artists to placate record label obligations or a temporary solution between albums of original material.

 Emma Swift is not the first female to cover Dylan’s songs on an album, Joan Baez and Odetta both recorded similar albums back in the 1960’s. BLONDE ON THE TRACKS is somewhat different. Emma Swift, unlike many others who have embarked on a similar project, is not a household name. She also remains predominantly true to the original recordings (‘I had no interest whatsoever in undertaking renovations on a perfectly good house’). The album was also conceived as a personal journey for her, without external pressures or deadlines. This allowed her to select and record the material over a generous timescale, without a target audience in mind, essentially a labour of love for her.

Born in Australia but residing in East Nashville since 2013, the idea for the project came about when she was experiencing a depressive phase and began singing Dylan’s songs by way of dealing with that short but difficult period. Song writing, by her own admission, has never come easy to her and rather than the additional pressure of coming up with original material for an album, she concentrated on selecting suitable material from Dylan’s extensive songbook to record.

The majority of the material on BLONDE ON THE TRACKS was recorded in 2017 at Magnetic Sound Studios in Nashville. With the album unfinished and uncertainty at large due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Swift decided to record the final two tracks at her home in East Nashville. One of these songs I Contain Multitudes was only released by Dylan in April of this year during the enforced lockdown. Its impact on Swift was overwhelming (“To me this song has become an obsession, a mantra, a prayer. I can't hope to eclipse it, all I hope to do is allow more people to hear it, to feel comforted by it, and to love it the way I do.”) and it became the motivation to complete the album despite being housebound. The track became the lead single from the album and was released by Swift in May, earning very positive reviews.

The production duties on the album were undertaken by Patrick Sansone (Wilco) and the playing was provided by her Nashville neighbours Thyer Serrano (pedal steel), Jon Estes (bass), John Radford (drums) and Swift’s partner Robyn Hitchcock who contributed guitar.

Queen Jane Approximately is the opening track and it gets a redressing similar to what Turn, Turn, Turn received from The Byrds.  Jangly guitars alongside Swift’s mellow vocal combine to create a sonic delight.  Suggesting that certain covers of Dylan songs are superior to the originals is entering dangerous territory. Chapters have been written, and friendships lost, on that thorny debate. The delivery of Going, Going, Gone here, for me, could merit a discussion along those lines. The other songs included are One Of Us Must Know Sooner, Simple Twist Of Fate, The Man In Me, You’re A Big Girl Now and Sad Lady Of The Lowlands.

The essence of this release is its simplicity. In contrast to Dylan’s distinctive coarse vocals, Swift’s deliveries are both gentle and soothing, unhurried and patient, drawing the listener to the lyrical content.  What originally was a personal initiative has resulted in an outstanding album by an artist blessed with a stunning voice. Thankfully, we’ve been given the opportunity to savour that voice combined with inspired song writing, resulting in an album that, Dylan lover or not, you really ought to hear.  

Review by Declan Culliton

The Weight Band Live Is A Carnival CRS

Based in Woodstock and keeping the music and spirit of The Band very much alive and kicking, The Weight Band consists of former members of that historic group of musicians, alongside three other equally talented players.They came together originally to play at Levon Helm’s Woodstock barn when former members of The Band, Jim Weider, Randy Ciarlante and Garth Hudson got together to perform previously recorded material.

Weider decided to bring the music to a wider audience and added Brian Mitchell (keyboards, accordion, harmonica, vocals), Michael Bram (drums, vocals), Albert Rogers (bass, vocals) and Matt Zeiner (keyboards, vocals). All these musicians have impressive pedigrees, having performed with household names such as Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Al Green over the years.

Rather than relying totally on The Band's back catalogue, they began to add original material to their sets, culminating in the release of WORLD GONE MAD in 2018. This recording featured eight self written songs and three cover versions.

LIVE IS A CARNIVAL includes five tracks performed live from that album - Don’t Do It, Deal, Heat Of The Moment, Big Legged Sadie and Common Man - along with classic songs from The Band's archives such as Rag Mama Rag, Ophelia, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and encoring with The Weight.  A well delivered version of Springsteen’s Atlantic City also features. The album was recorded live at the Brooklyn Bowl by the band’s own sound engineer Mark Rudzinski in January of this year, just prior to the lockdown.

The Weight Band certainly can’t be branded simply as a tribute band, they are much more than that. Their own songs impress in these live recordings and fit snugly alongside the ageless material of their masters. As you would expect the musicianship is exemplary, a fitting tribute to a band that many would consider to be the foremost collection of players, writers and vocalists in the history of what is now branded as Americana music.

Review by Declan Culliton

Jeremy Garrett Circles Organic

Eight songs and 30 minutes that will impress a waiting audience that know Garrett from his involvement with bluegrass band, The Infamous Stringdusters. Not prepared to rest on his reputation with them, Garrett produces his third solo record and highlights his superb musicianship across guitar, mandolin and fiddle. He included a loop machine to assist in the arrangements and the build of melodic layers is very impressive, especially on I Can’t Lay Your Lovin’ Down, where the sonics are quite compelling. He also sings while creating all this special music and the only other musicians are Josh Shilling who plays clavinet and sings on one track, plus Prisca who adds harmony vocals on two other tracks.

What Would We Find? I Am Who I Am, The Highway and the title track are all fine examples of the magic at work and the engineering, mix and co-production of Billy Hume also deserves great praise; bright and clean sounds throughout. Baker’s Jam is an instrumental highlight where everything gets thrown into the pot, with hints of Irish jigs mixed into free form soloing and wild sweeps of melody and tempo. Oracle is another instrumental with a new age arrangement that borders on experimental jazz leanings.

Review by Paul McGee

Wide Mouth Mason I Wanna Go With You We Are Busy Bodies

Album number eight from this duo who formed in 1995 and called themselves after a famous glass jar! Shaun Verreault on vocals and guitars, together with Safwan Javed on percussion and vocals, make up this dynamic team and the twelve tracks included here are pure blues bliss. 

As with any innovative approach to music genres, the more creative the ideas, then the greater the risk that everything could just crash and burn. To quote the recording process from the band’s website; “Wearing three slides with rounded tips on his left hand, Verreault is able to simultaneously play chords and sliding melodies on resonator/dobro guitar and electric lap steel.” Sounds difficult…but fun.

The results are very impressive with plenty of stirring arrangements to excite the listener and innovative grooves that demand to be danced along with. The old-time sound of tracks like High Road channel bygone eras when recording techniques were primitive and gritty; the authentic feel of the music coming through the speakers like a steam train. The more electric sound of Erase Any Trace and Only Child brings things into a modern perspective as these brothers in arms whip up quite a racket.

Their body of work is a breath of fresh air and the duo has never been afraid of taking chances with their sound over the years as they experimented and played around with different genres. Never more illustrated than with the terrific cover of the David Bowie song, Modern Love, complete with Shawn “The Harpoonist” Hall on funky harmonica. Elsewhere, there are turns from Tonye Aganaba (vocals) on Every Red Light, Darren Parris and co-producer Ryan Dahle playing bass guitars with a further contribution on harp by Kelly “Mr Chill” Hoppe on the track, Outsourced.

This is a return to blues-based roots for the band and the vitality of the sound was captured from the musicians never taking more than a few plays at any one track before moving on. The blues has never sounded so authentic, laid back bare, raw in the delivery and just down-right essential. It brings a smile to your face that is hard to shift.

Review by Paul McGee

Mark Rogers Laying It Down Self Release

This release from last year found its way into my review pile and I was immediately taken with the superb production on initial listen. Such a bright, vibrant sound and co-produced by Mark Rogers himself, in addition to the talents of Rob Ulsh.

Rogers had played around the L.A. music scene of the 1980’s before taking a decision to return to Washington DC and focus on other things, like raising a family and paying the bills. Dreams never go away however and thankfully Rogers eventually returned to his old guitar and started playing again for the joy of it. A number of song ideas started to form and now, with plenty of tender loving care, come the results, all these years later!

There are twelve tracks on the album and the sound is very much rooted in Americana with plenty of great ensemble playing from the gathered musicians; Tommy Detamore (pedal steel guitar), Andrew Payne (drums & percussion), Ryan Gaujot (mandolin), Larry Berwald (electric,12-string & resonator guitars), Dave Hufstedler (electric & upright bass), Jamie Lewis (piano & B3 Hammond organ) and guest slots from Lori de los Santos (vocal harmonies on 3 songs) and Powell Randolph (drums on 2 songs).

The easy swing of I Know It So Well is beautifully delivered with tinkling, understated piano linking with pedal steel and the jazzy lines of Rogers on guitar. Equally, the bossa nova rhythm of The Blues Are Passing By is infectious with the honeyed tone of the lead vocal from Rogers just perfect for a late-night reflection on those heady memories of days past. The more upbeat sounds of Right Here and No Bigger Fool are just as impressive, as is the shuffle beat to You Can Lead Me On, with pedal steel and mandolin gently coaxing the melody along.  Wishing Well closes everything nicely with a simple acoustic arrangement and Rogers singing of following that dream and not losing sight of the horizon.

Review by Paul McGee

Narcoluptuous Sugar Lime Blue Self Release

In 2011, this band released their debut album, FAR FROM THE TREE, which announced their mix of American Roots/Blues and Country sounds to the market. This third album was released last year and doesn’t stray far from that original sound, with twelve songs that are steeped in that same Americana, Blues and Country mix. 

Husband and wife team, Ashley and Dave Beth front the band in impressive style and this project was produced by Dave at Bluebird Studios, Lebanon, Tennessee. He plays guitars, mandolin, keyboards and sings, providing an array of interesting sounds for Ashley to unleash her superb lead vocals, all smokey and controlled emotion in the delivery. The early songs give way to the slower, smooth grooves of Keep On, Keeping On and Gypsy River with the bass playing of Russ Dean and the drums of Jeff Gaylor shining through.

There is a jazzy feel to the title track which features some fine guitar lines from Dave Beth. In contrast, the blues of Fool’s Lament allows Ashley to cut loose on impassioned vocals. Brickbats features some excellent riffing between Russ Dean and Dave Beth, not for the first time, as the ensemble really lock into a tight delivery.

Junior Padilla guests on keyboards and percussion, with Cleveland McPhee adding harmonica and Victoria Beth guesting, also on vocals. A very solid release, excellent playing throughout and an enjoyable listen.

Review by Paul McGee

Kaurna Cronin Glitter Or Dust Self Release

An Australian Folk artist who has toured extensively in his home country, Europe and Canada, arrives with his latest recording and quite a confident offering it proves to be. Self produced at his home studio in Australia, Cronin displays an innate skill of knowing exactly what fits where in the song arrangements and the separation of different instruments is very impressive in the mix. 

Using a group of musicians in the studio to bring an added dynamic to the arrangements sees an array of talent, including Tom Kneebone (electric guitars), Kiah Gossner (bass & backing vocals), Kyrie Anderson (drums), Matt Morison (piano, organ, synths), Rowan Harding (saxophone), Lauren Henderson (backing vocals), Jess Day (lead & backing vocals), Delia Obst (backing vocals), Ryan Martin-John (backing vocals) and Simon Cohen (backing vocals).

The eleven songs are combination of up-tempo numbers, like Head Above the Water, Gotta Get Out of This Place and Only An Illusion, to the social commentary of Don’t You Wonder Why and the easy flow of Roll On. Caught Out In the Rain is a more commercial sound and features Jess Day on co-vocal singing about love slipping away. The political message of Losers On the News is laced with frustration and final track All Grow Old Together is a song of hope to the present, family, friends and a future that points towards a better tomorrow.

Review by Paul McGee

Albums - New Reviews

Bill Kirchen The Proper Years Last Music Co.

This 2CD collection - as per its title - relates to Bill Kirchen’s three albums that were released in the UK via Proper Records. The albums are HAMMER OF THE HONKY-TONK GODS, WORD TO THE WISE and SEEDS AND STEMS. Some 38 tracks are included in total and it’s something of a statement of Kirchen’s talent that there are few, if any, duds included. It is also testament to his skills as a master of the Telecaster, a versatile and veritable singer, as well as a songwriter of some note. It is also a walk through the varied and alluring aspects of roots music.

There is a wealth of talent involved in these recordings. Included are the best of the London-based players in Nick Lowe, Geraint Watkins, Paul Carrack, Paul Riley and Elvis Costello. Added to this from the other side of the pond are the likes of Dan Hicks, Austin de Lone, Cindy Cashdollar, Jack O’Dell, Johnny Castle, Norton Buffalo, Blackie Farrell, Gurf Morlix and Maria Muldaur. All of these musicians sound as if they are there for a good time and to make good music. 

The song writing credits include Bill Kirchen obviously, with over 20 songs to his name, either solo or with a number of different co-writers. There is also some well chosen material from the pens of the likes of Shorty Long, Arthur Alexander, Donny Fritts, Butch Hancock, Merle Haggard, Roger Miller and Bob Dylan. All are selected to suit the particular musical setting that serves the song best.

It’s difficult to review this in a totally fresh way, having been well acquainted with the original albums on their release. However, it does serve to remind me why I liked them at the time and why I am enjoying them so much again now. The amalgam of talent, all with their collective hearts in the right place, is a pleasure to hear at any time. I expect that even listeners who are looking for something more contemporary or even with a more explicitly retro vibe, will find something on the collection that will appeal to them. Those who have never listened to the music of Bill Kirchen previously will be in for a treat.

Kirchen has released some nine other albums under his own name, as well as recording with Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, The Moonlighters and Nick Lowe. If one was to highlight one particular track that underlines his abilities it would be his version of Hot Rod Lincoln, especially live, where his Telecaster is used to play the signature sounds and licks of a great many guitar legends and singers, as well as his own high-speed picking. Those guitarists (and pianist and singers) include Duane Eddy, Luther Perkins, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Buck Owens, Merle Travis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Link Wray, BB King, Ritchie Blackmore, Keith Richards, Steve Jones and Jimi Hendrix among others. While this may be a novelty song it’s fun none-the-less  - something that is at the heart of what Kirchen does. The album also includes a trio of unreleased songs which close the collection. The final one being a version of the The Times They Are A-Changin’ that ends the album on a positive note - as is totally proper. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Blackbird & Crow Ailm MIG 

From the opening spoken word of Harlot on Holy Hill, the prologue which segues into The Witch That Could Not Be Burned, even the casual listener will be aware that they are experiencing something special, something rare. Maighread Ni Ghrasta unleashes a searing indictment of a patriarchal society that has failed to protect many of its vulnerable citizens, and indeed has contributed to their neglect and abuse in some cases. Clearly writing at times from personal experience as well as from a position of empathy, Maighread communicates the pain, the hurt and the shame of victims through her magnificent vocal prowess, singing proudly in her strong Donegal accent. 

Her lyrics are realised musically and equally magnificently by her partner in the duo, Stephen John Doohan, who plays various stringed instruments, percussion and harmonium. The musical backdrop combines a punk sensibility with americana and folk leanings. Stephen’s ‘down and dirty’ grungy slide blues guitar and thumping bass drum add to the gothic brooding atmosphere of these first two tracks. ‘I am the cursed, I am the damned, There’s fire in my blood boys and there’s pitchforks in your hands’ goes the strident chorus. There’s no defiance left, though, in the thoughts of the victim of child abuse who is saying their last goodbye in Mo Chuisle (which means ‘My Heartbeat’ in Irish).

By contrast, a simple yet effective acoustic guitar accompaniment serves as the backdrop to several songs, including Margaret the Martyr - a familiar tale of the wife left behind when her husband has to emigrate for work, and The Planter & The Runaway which details the surrender of a damaged woman to an illicit love affair. The pain of alcoholism as a common legacy of abuse is explored in Princess of the Ditch, from the pen of Kilkenny songwriter Richie Healy. One gets the feeling that the stark expression of pain in songs such as The Ways that I can make You Suffer and A Pox On You are ultimately cathartic. There’s a sense of redemption finding it’s way through, painfully slowly mind you, in the beautiful Blackbird, the soulful radio-friendly Sweet Surrender and the balladic Parting Rag. 

The whole project is superbly produced by Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers, Soak) in his Attica Audio Studio, where he called upon a slew of local musicians as guests on various tracks. Definitely highly recommended.

Review by Eilís Boland

Martin Harley Roll With The Punches Del Mundo

In a marked departure from his last two albums which were recorded in Nashville, Martin Harley has returned a lot closer to his roots, both physically and musically, for this latest record. He chose a new recording studio, StudiOwz in rural South West Wales. A converted church in the village of Clarbeston, the studio uses vintage analogue recording equipment, and the project was co-produced by Harry Harding (William The Conqueror), who also contributes drums, bass, guitars and backing vocals.

The sound is predominantly bluesy, with large helpings of soul and some gospel style harmonies. Both the opening (title) track and closer The Time Is Now are joyful celebrations of life, the soul leanings emphasised by the impressive Jonny Henderson on Hammond, Wurlitzer and piano, while the gospel style harmonies are from Jodie Marie and Harry Harding. Harley is, of course, one of the best and most interesting English exponent of slide blues guitar playing currently, and the track that stops me in my tracks is the instrumental Clarbeston Resonation - four breathtaking minutes of slow, reverberating slide resonator phrases, with lots of space in between, making the most of the studio’s acoustics. 

All songs are written by Harley and performed by him in his gorgeous rich tenor. It’s also the first time he has recorded using electric guitar, which he uses to surprising effect in If Tears Were Pennies which starts quietly and then explodes and rocks out.

The standout song for me is the gently paced Shanghai with the amusing refrain ‘Shanghai, Shang-low, any which way you wanna go”.

Review by Eilís Boland

Tyler Lance Walker Gill Self-Titled YOTD

With Hank III taking time out from raising hell on stage and in the studio for a number of years, there has been a notable absence of badass fire spittin’ honk tonkers, representing the less conservative rough and ready side of country music. East Texan Paul Cauthen certainly comes pretty close, but his fusion of soul and blues alongside country brands him more outlaw than full on honky tonker. Enter Tyler Lance Walker Gill (‘Look, I know it’s a lot of names, talk to my mom’).

Taking up the mantle of honky tonk evangelist, his debut album is laced with tales of incarceration, drinking, religion and (anti) right-wing politics.  There’s humour in the songs, lots of it in fact, but there’s also lots of ripping pedal steel, fiddles and guitars behind TLWG’s stormy country vocals.

Country music weekend jamborees were a feature of his young life, though more by design than intent. His mother and aunt did a bit of singing at these events and his aunt volunteered at the weekly Mount Washington Opry. TLWG often tagged along. Like many kids, his musical taste tended more towards straight rock and he considered country music something your parents listened to. But like many of those kids that chose rock and punk over country, the penny eventually dropped as did the musical predigests. 

He started writing a bunch of country songs in later years and performing them on any stage or bar that would allow him. Developing the bones of the songs himself, he then got a couple of local big hitters on board to put some flesh on those bones. Multi-instrumentalist, bluegrass player and singer songwriter of merit Aaron Bibelhauser plays pedal steel and banjo. The equally talented Michael Cleveland contributes both fiddle and mandolin. Gill headed in to La La Land Studios in Louisville, Kentucky where he worked with Anne Gauthier (Strands Of Oak, Jim James, Murder By Death, Ray Lamontagne) to co-produce and mix the material.

The resulting ten tracks may have come together in a piecemeal manner but they offer some kick ass country on Back To Jail and Go To Hell. On an altogether more introspective note, he makes a strong political statement on So Called Christian Politicians. The song is even more relevant today than it was when it was written over four years ago, when it appeared on a compilation album titled WE HAVE A BEVIN PROBLEM. That album featured a collection of local artists reacting to former Governor Matt Bevin’s anti LGBTQ language.

However, he’s quickly propped back onto the barstool with a plea to George Jones on Honky Tonk Chapel and The Ghost, which sounds like a distant country cousin to Hank’s Your Cheatin’ Heart. The autobiographical tongue in cheek bluesy rant Wolfman closes the album. It remains to be seen whether this is a one off venture or whether it’s going to kick off TLWG’s career as a bona fide country trouble shooter.

Review by Declan Culliton

Corb Lund Agricultural Tragic New West

My first encounter with Corb Lund was back in 2006 when the Canadian and his suitably titled band The Hurtin’ Albertans played a blinding set on a Saturday afternoon at the Kilkenny Roots Festival. Standing over six-foot-tall centre stage and wearing a white Stetson, Lund spoke of his Western rodeo upbringing before launching into a blinding sixty-minute set that mixed traditional country and rock and roll, laced with dead pan humour.

Lund has stuck to that tried and tested formula across the ten studio albums he has recorded and AGRICULTURAL TRAGIC arrives five years after the release of his last full studio album THINGS THAT CAN’T BE UNDONE. With a legacy that includes being born on a ranch in the Canadian Rockies and working as a rodeo steer rider in his teens, his writing has always been steeped in the contemporary West, as if he’s lived every line and chorus that he has put to paper.

The album title is a description of what Lund considers the most authentic label for his music. True to form the twelve tracks on this album are made up of tales, both factual and imagined, of the modern-day cowboy and the associated side shows.

Having engaged Dave Cobb to produce his last studio album, Lund has taken the reins himself this time around. The players who joined him in the studio are his regular band members - drummer Brady Valgardson, guitar player Grant Siemens, and upright bass player Kurt Ciesla.

90 Seconds Of Your Time - which runs for just under three minutes - is a lively opener based on an actual hunt that Lund took part in. Never Not Had Horses tells the tale of his mother losing her last two horses to old age and realising that her riding days may be over. He is joined by fellow Canadian Jaida Dreyer for the comical country duet I Think You Oughta Try Whiskey and Ranchin’, Ridin’, Romance (Two Outa Three Ain’t Bad) is also imbued with humour alongside a steaming rhythm. Ageism gets an airing on Old Men, which is a thumbs up to the wealth of life experience and know-how that the older generation has to offer.

Lund explains where his signature sound comes from in his own words ‘“The stuff I do to this day is a reflection of the two chunks of my life: growing up Western, and then being exposed to the indie rock scene for 15 years.” That mix of rural and urban has gifted us with consistently impressive albums that have alt-country firmly stamped on them.

Lund is beyond doubt the real deal and AGRICULTURAL TRAGIC cements his reputation as a leading light in modern yet unadulterated country music. His output continues to be a reflection of the present-day West. Twang, heavy rhythms, toe tapping beats, Texan swing, infectious melody and clever lyrics, all combine on an album that I will without doubt be returning to on a regular basis in the weeks and months ahead.

Review by Declan Culliton

John Baumann Country Shade The Next Waltz

 A member of Texan country collective The Panhandlers alongside Josh Abbott, William Clark Green and Cleto Cordero, COUNTRY SHADE is the third solo release by John Baumann.

The album is anything but upbeat. It offers twelve personal and reflective songs that denote a young writer appearing to be at a low point and less than optimistic about both his future and that of his homeland.  

He bemoans the changing landscapes in country music, but more importantly of rural America, on the opener The Country Doesn’t Sound The Same. The song considers the effects on the lives of the working man of those changes. The passage of time is mulled over on Next Ride Around The Sun, but again from a relatively negative rather than positive perspective, and Daylights Burning hints at a personal low point for the Baumann. Fools Crusade speaks of the lengths a man will go to recapture lost love. That sentiment is reconsidered on If You Really Love Someone, which concedes that you need to let go and move on to allow your estranged lover to progress.

 I Don’t Know tells of the passing of a friend at the young age of 30, the anguish and despair of Baumann as he, somewhat harrowingly, considers ‘I can only hope to get enough rope to go to see him where he is today.’

The songs are delivered in a soft Americana styling, angling towards country rock and at a leisurely pace, in keeping with the sentimentality of the subject matter. Flight Anxiety is one of the exceptions, it’s a great little rocker considering the anxious theme. He also rocks out on Second Wind, it’s a reminder to himself to pick himself up at life’s low points and dust himself down and that better times will follow. The album concludes on an identical topic as it opened with Grandfather’s Grandson as the writer once more laments past eras and lifestyles.

COUNTRY SHADE is an album that appears to find Baumann at a crossroads, unsure if he has the confidence to stride forward in his career and constantly looking over his shoulder for the comfort of past times and generations, possibly with rose tinted glasses. He certainly possesses the talented to write impressively.  One of his songs Gulf Moon was recorded by Kenny Chesney and this album also includes touching lyrics across many of the tracks. It also may offer material that may be ripe picking to be covered by others.  It’s not an easy Saturday night listen but worth investigation.

Review by Declan Culliton

Paul Messinger The Reckoning Self Release

Paul Messinger is a poet, songwriter, vocalist, and instrumentalist, originally from New York. Now based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, this is his fourth solo project and his musical vision is one of sharing a message of hope and peace. The seven songs here run to just shy of 33 minutes and in terms of both arrangement and production quality, they all find their mark. 

The project was engineered and produced by Jason Merritt who also plays keyboards, guitars and sings. Messinger provides all lead vocals and plays harmonica in a style that really punches the music along an up-tempo path. The songs were all recorded live in the studio, with just a few additions after the event to embellish the groove that was captured.

There are many other musicians who play on these tracks, including Robert Sledge (bass), Morgan Davis (drums), Keenan Jenkins (guitars), Peter Lucey (keyboards, squeezebox), Raney Hayes (backing vocals), Jon Shain (resonator guitar), Todd Parrot (additional harmonicas), Robert Welsh (dobro), Jeremy Haire (slide guitar, bowed guitar) and Tim Smith (tenor/alto sax, flute, vocals).

The title track has a soulful sound with slide guitar, harmonica and dobro all playing off the melody and the message of a coming punishment for our wayward deeds. Time 2 Take the Guns is a song that calls for weapon disarmament in American society in order to nullify the power of the ignorant and the increasing numbers of misguided radicals. Jesus Will Understand is a song that tackles war atrocities all done in the name of Uncle Sam and the scars left on all sides. Hungry For Love has a Country swing and a lyric about a frustrated wife who writes to an Agony Aunt.

The EPIC Saga of Jason Ricci’s Socks tells the tale of the outspoken harmonica player and singer, who has been openly "queer" gay/bisexual most his career and has been discouraged from attending a number of venues and events. 

The final song, War Evermore, is the longest track at over nine minutes and is inspired from a Bob Marley song (War), which was itself adapted from a speech given by The Emperor Haile Selassie in 1963. It has a wonderful reggae tinged rhythm as it details the gratuitous violence and hate crimes that go unpunished under the banner of war. 

Credit to all concerned, this is a very enjoyable set of songs and there is much to recommend in the overall sound.

Review by Paul McGee

Steve Mednick Enough! Self Release

This album was released last year and represents the 15th release in a career that started back in 2006. Mednick works closely with singer-songwriter and producer Eddie Seville at Cottage Sounds Studios in Middlebury, Connecticut and the eleven tracks were all written by him and produced/arranged by Seville. In addition to the guitar and vocals of Mednick, we are given a range of sounds from the talented Seville who adds drums, percussion, harmonium, pedal steel, guitar and vocals. 

Karl Allweier contributes bass, guitar and vocals and there are a number of guest musicians on various tracks that help to round out the sound. The overall feel of the music is that of contemporary Folk with a twist. There are protest songs about gun control in America and the risks involved in simply trying to grow up safely and obtain an education. There are songs that show the frustrations of Mednick as he looks for real change and not just platitudes from uncaring politicians.

The rock drive of The Whole World Is Watching sums up the anger perfectly with great guitar parts and a hard rhythm. Similarly, A Dark Night Is Upon Us, which delivers a message of having left it too late to change the zeitgeist. Other tracks like What Are You Going to Do? Soon It Will Be Too Late, Weapons of War and Something In the Water tell their own story from the titles and final song, Raging Across The Land, sends portents of doom, given the apathy and sickness that grip his country. Given the message was communicated last year, the opportunity to review this in the current climate of 2020 makes it more potent than ever imagined.

Review by Paul McGe

Lawson Vallery Band Texiana Rambler

A singer who grew up in Texas and who has lived a colourful life in arriving at this release - his debut album. The sound is very much a mix of Americana and Blues with the nine songs delivering a fine workout by all concerned; Lawson Vallery (vocals), Tone Stojka (guitar, pedal-steel), Erik Nielsen (harmonica), Thor-Erik Molstad Johansen (bass, vocals), Tracee Meyn (vocals) and Øyvind Hansen (drums). 

As you can guess from the names of the band members, Vallery is no longer based in the USA. In fact, Norway has been home since he moved there to take up a job as a project co-ordinator for the construction of two offshore platforms in the oil industry. In earlier years he also went to sea as a sailor and worked as a cook on an oil tanker. He also served in the military and worked as a welder in Louisiana. Plenty of life experience to put into these songs then, given his attitude to taking risks and seeing where they lead you. His vocal is not a million miles away from Willie Nelson and the band are certainly very accomplished in turning out stellar performances. 

All songs are written by Vallery, with one co-write and the gospel blues of No Short Cuts To Glory is a perfect example of the players all coming together in perfect unison. Rocky and Wide has a tex-mex swing to the arrangement and the bar room blues of H.A.R.V.E.Y. is a real treat, with harmonica and female vocals adding great dynamic to the work out. Irma is an instrumental and has a great country sound with jangling guitar, pedal steel and dobro trading licks and harmonica jumping around a chugging melody that conjures images of the wide-open spaces and riding the railway to the horizon.  

The final track, Reflections, is an acoustic-based look back down the road and takes all the steam out of the earlier tracks as the journey ends in a very satisfactory way. A very enjoyable 37 minutes of your time. 

Review by Paul McGee

Album - New Reviews

Tessy Lou Williams Self-Titled Self Release

Musicians residing in Nashville seldom leave the Music City to take up roots in the country, it’s usually the other way around. But that’s precisely what the parents of Tessy Lou Williams did when they upped sticks and left Nashville for the small town of Willow Creek in Montana. They continued their music careers on the road from that base, often with Tessy and her siblings in tow. It’s fair to say that country music was in her blood from a very young age.

Tessy Lou previously fronted the three-piece Tessy Lou and The Shotgun Stars, which included her father Kenny on bass and Bryan Paugh on fiddle. The band moved to Austin from Montana and recorded two albums during ten years living and playing in Texas.

She journeyed to Nashville to record this debut solo album at Station West in Berry Hill. It’s produced by Luke Wooten, whose has worked with the cream of country artists including Glen Campbell, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, Sunny Sweeney and Toby Keith.  She also gathered an impressive bunch of musicians to contribute to the album, all session players and artists in their own right. Brian Sutton guests on guitar, alongside pedal steel player Mike Johnson, Aubrey Hainie on fiddle and Ashley Campbell on banjo. Backing vocals were added by Jon Randall, Carl Jackson, Brennen Leigh and Jerry Salley. Two of the songs, Mountain Time In Memphis and Busy Counting Bridges are co-writes with Salley, who has previously had his songs recorded by Loretta Lynn, Brad Paisley and Toby Keith.

Having the right producer and musicians never guarantees an impressive end result, strong material and the skillset to deliver them are also essential ingredients. Williams wins on both counts. Her vocal style is very much on a par with that of Lee Ann Womack and Ashley Munroe, or more simply put, prime for delivering classic country songs. All the standard country music narratives are aired on the songs. Tears, heartbreak, devotion, longing and of course drinking, all get explored, but it’s Williams' pristine vocals and the melodies within the songs that are the winners.

Swinging fiddle and pedal steel launch the opening song Your Forever Will Never Say Goodbye before Williams’ vocal kicks in and you’re instantly left in no doubt where her sentiments lie. Without a trace of pop crossover, she also sticks consistently to her country guns on rousing gems Midnight Arms and Round and Round. Her tearjerkers include the Webb Pierce cover Pathway Of Teardrops and One More Night which hints at shades of Alison Krauss & Union Station. Brennen Leigh worked with her on the lyrics of Somebody’s Drinking About You and also adds backing vocals on the song.

Like so many of her female peers keeping the flame alive for country music, it’s unlikely that songs from this album will feature in what masquerades for country music on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, which is a shame because the album is a stone walled collection of bona fide country songs.

Review by Declan Culliton

Watkins Family Hour Brother Sister Thirty Tigers

The 2015 self-titled debut album by siblings Sara and Sean Watkins was an all covers affair, featuring eleven tracks that re-visited a wide range of artists from Roger Miller to Fleetwood Mac. Following the success of that project they decided to set the time aside to write original material for this album. Given the many side projects that they are both engaged in alongside their solo careers, it’s not surprising that a gap of five years exists between that debut album and its successor. Together with their solo careers, Sara has been recording and touring with Grammy nominated I’m With Her and Sean has been active with Fiction Family, his collaboration with Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman.

The couple, who have been gracing stages since childhood, have also been hosting a monthly residency at LA’s Largo Club for the past eighteen years, where they perform with a variety of invited guests. They’re also founding members, alongside Chris Thile, of Grammy winning progressive bluegrass band Nickel Creek.

The final result of their teamwork is an album that includes seven self writes, alongside three well-chosen covers: Courtney Hartman and Taylor Ashton’s Neighbourhood Name, Warren Zevon’s Accidentally Like A Martyr and Charley Jordan’s Keep It Clean.

They approached BROTHER SISTER from a slightly more laid-back manner than many of their previous projects. Lead vocals are shared and Sara’s skilled fiddle playing and Sean’s expert guitar prowess take pride of place. The vocals impress throughout, whether individually or on their trademark harmonies and most particularly on The Cure which kicks the album off in fine style. An instrumental introduction is followed by their colliding harmonised voices on this song, the album’s stand out track.

Instrumentals Snow Tunnel and Bella Ivan both showcase their capacity to create powerful musical collages with only two instruments. Just Another Reason and Keep It Clean raise the tempo somewhat and the previously noted Accidently Like A Martyr gets a makeover. Starting at a snail’s pace with Sara taking lead vocal alongside plucked fiddle and guitar, the hushed quality of their remake of the song is both striking and atmospheric. The album is no more or no less than expected from two exceptionally talented musicians who consistently craft music that is both uplifting and extremely easy on the ears.

Review by Declan Culliton

Caitlin Cannon The TrashCannon Album Self Release

Washing your dirty linen in public is never pleasurable, particularly when your laundry basket is overflowing. Caitlin Cannon has done just that with The TrashCannon Album, which is fuelled by autobiographical and deeply intimate life issues that she has lived and continues to live through. Alcoholism, bad choices and relationships, family difficulties, gender inequality, minimum paid employment and the continuing incarceration of her brother in a maximum-security prison in Alabama are all communicated on the twelve tracks on the album.

With that baggage to contend with, you’d be forgiven for predicting a dark and demanding listen, only to be consumed by the listener when in a suitable mood. On the contrary, Cannon has taken an altogether disparate approach, lacing the album with humour, satire, dreamy ballads and toe tapping melodies. Naturally, the core subjects do emerge when the lyrics kick in, but by that time it is more than likely that you’ll be engaged, hook, line and sinker.

With or without the personal history behind the songs, she manages to shake the cocktail mixer in a number of directions and deliver an album that embodies rockabilly, countrypolitan, classic country ballads and drop dead gorgeous 1960’s style bubble-gum pop.

Cannon is a native of Alabama, who headed to Stephens College in New York on a theatre scholarship, with stars in her eyes. Like so many others, she became disillusioned with acting and theatre and the inevitable rejection and failures that go hand in glove with that scene. She turned to song writing in her mid-20’s and started getting slots performing in a local bar in Brooklyn, having formed her first band, Caitlin Cannon and the Artillery.

She eventually moved to Colorado and formed her next band The Cannonballs, an all-girl outfit. With her confidence growing as a writer and performer, she decided to bite the bullet and record this solo album. With a lifetime of experiences to draw on, she hooked up with fellow musician and producer Megan Burtt to work with her.

Cannon puts her cards on the table from the word go, with the breezy and chipper opener Going For Bronze. Despite what is drummed into us about the rewards for hard work and education, Cannon reflects on the actuality in the real world as she reflects “So, I busted my ass and I did all that, just to pour coffee in a Starbucks hat.”

Similar dead-end existences surface on Better Job and Mama’s a Hairdresser. The latter is a grungy delight, telling the distressing back story of her mother working all hours to raise money to fund visits to her brother, a life offender incarcerated in a maximum-security jail since the age of seventeen. Barbers and Bartenders are correctly credited as unqualified counsellors - many would concur given the current lockdown - on the classic countrypolitan track of the same name and Dumb Blonde gives a thumbs up to the astute females that play the game to their advantage and are the real winners ( “playing dumb is the smartest thing a blonde can do”)

Deliver is the first song written when she reached sobriety. It’s a dynamic ballad written in the third party with the opening lines “The corner bar, the liquor store, they are not on my way home anymore.” The pain and need to advance are placed in parallel alongside a relationship that only provides temporary highs and needs to end by way of moving on. It’s a quite beautiful ballad, Cannon’s vocal working alongside some evocative pedal steel. Drink Enough offers an equally powerfully sentiment, the short-lived alcohol high and the inevitable low that follows. It’s presented by way of an instantly catchy power pop song with a melody that I’m finding insanely difficult to leave behind!

Cannon, to her absolute credit, has delivered a knockout album, without anything resembling a weak track. It oozes emotion, spirit and animation and is simply a joyful and mischievous listen from start to finish.  I do hope it’s not a ‘one off’ and that we can look forward to more output from an artist that can write dynamically and deliver with equal assurance.

 Review by Declan Culliton

Jono Manson Silver Moon Self Release

As a native New Yorker, Manson was active in the 1990’s scene that included a prominent presence at the legendary Nightingale Bar on second street. It was a small venue that hosted many great bands and provided a stepping stone in the early careers of Blues Traveller, The Spin Doctors and Joan Osborne, among others. He moved to New Mexico at the height of the scene and made Santa Fe his new home. This album, his tenth, was recorded at the Kitchen Sink, his recording studio, that has been his creative hub for many years now. 

The thirteen tracks clock in just shy of 50 minutes and there are a host of great musicians who shared studio space with Manson in bringing this eclectic mix of music to fruition. All the songs were written by Manson, including seven co-writes, four of which are with his wife, Caline Welles.

The title track is a fine blues tune that features Warren Haynes on slide guitar and it is a really good example of the quality playing that is brought to the table here. Loved Me Into Loving You Again is a soulful duet with Joan Osborne, complete with horn section and easy groove. Jason Crosby contributes on organ and pianos, while Jon Graboff plays guitars, mandolin, sitar and pedal steel. Both players provide lots of colour to the melodies and the engine room of Ronnie Johnson on bass and Paul Pearcy on drums/percussion provide the drive and the gear changes.

Other players are Eric Ambel, Eric Schenkman, Paolo Bonfanti and Eric McFadden, all of whom play electric guitar on individual tracks, while Jay Boy Adams adds slide guitar to the excellent song, Every Once In A While. There are different styles across the project but Manson leads from the front throughout, playing acoustic and electric guitars, banjo and taking all lead vocals. He sings in a smokey, blues vocal tone and songs like I Believe and Shooter highlight his prowess. The Christian Thing is a gospel influenced, shared vocal with Eliza Gilkyson and Terry Allen, with warm keyboards and pedal steel filling out the key message of unity.

The Wrong Angel is a great blues workout and an appropriate way to end what is a very enjoyable album and one that will bring much pleasure to afficianados of Roots/Americana  with plenty of sweet musical union, just imagine The Band jamming with John Hiatt.   

Review by Paul McGee

Andrew Hawkey Long Story Short Self Release  

This singer songwriter has lived a very colourful and varied life since an isolated upbringing in Cornwall. Looking at his biography, it’s apparent that Hawkey has been a long-time student at the university of life and continues to study there! He has played music for many years either as a band member or on a solo basis, rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the industry. He has also been a music promoter, a studio co-owner and had a role in running the indie label, SoSo, during the 1980’s.

Now living in the Welsh countryside, Hawkey has recorded these ten songs at Addaband Studio in Mochdre, Wales and co-produced the project with Clovis Phillips, who also restored and updated one of the tracks, Spirit, which had started life in a garden shed back in 2016. All these years of experience can do is try and impart a wisdom of the journey taken, with the gentle production creating an intimate environment for the easy melodies and the ensemble playing of the studio musicians.

Hawkey plays 12-string guitar, piano, organ and harmonicas. He also provides lead and harmony vocals, his vocal tone carries a warmth and the delivery is unhurried. Clovis Phillips contributes on acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and percussion and he is joined by Penny Joubert who plays banjo on Golden Heart (On a Rusty Chain), a song about living independent and free, despite the price that sometimes has to be paid. Spirit is another fine song with a remembrance of younger days and feeling strong in the face of life and all its challenges, a rekindled energy. The owner of the original ‘song shed’, Zoe Spencer, joins Hawkey on vocals and delivers a fine performance. 

Elsewhere, Bel Merriman and Penny Joubert deliver excellent backing vocals on three tracks, adding to the overall mellow feel of the album. Jones On Me is a blues tune with an easy groove and some great harmonica and organ from Hawkey, with Phillips adding superbly judged guitar lines. The title track closes the album with a message that looking back is not always the right thing to do when you can choose to look forward instead - ‘Well, it takes a cold heart to stop what was started, It takes a warm one to soften the pain.’ Gentle songs, played with real feeling and an album that resonates with honest emotion.

Review by Paul McGee

Dave Goddess Group Once In A Blue Moon Self Release

This is a nice helping of Americana Roots Rock, served up with a real swagger by Dave Goddess (lead vocals, guitars), Tom Brobst (keyboards, saxophone), Mark Buschi (bass, background vocals), Chris Cummings (drums) and Gary Gipson (guitars, background vocals). This core band is joined by Steve Patterson (keyboards), Robbie Bossert (pedal steel), Corey Purcell (button accordion) and Valerie Borman (Backing vocals).

Goddess co-produced with Konrad Carolli at studios in Pennsylvania and NYC and their sound is immediate and energetic. Opener, When You’re Happy, I’m Happy has a strong rhythm and some nice guitar lines while the title track has a slow tempo and some fine pedal steel, as does When the Past Caught Up With John Henry Weaving, the hoarse vocal tone of Goddess adding authenticity to the story song. 

Dance When You Can has a nice Tom Petty influenced arrangement and rolls along at a fast pace. The band are very much in step with the music across all ten tracks and play with real groove and gusto throughout. 

All songs are written by Goddess, including one co-write, with many highlights, including All Talk and No Action (‘I got a hotel room, but she had reservations’) and Volunteers (‘We don’t need promises, we need victories), as the assembled musicians crank up the sound and really take flight.

Review by Paul McGee

Adam “Ditch” Kurtz Storms of Steel Self Release

Your enjoyment of this album will, I think, depend largely on two things - firstly your love of the sound of the pedal steel guitar and secondly on your familiarity and love of the Randy Travis classic 1986 album STORMS OF LIFE. I’m a fan of both so, for me, this is an entertaining listen. Adam Kurtz is a self-taught steel player, who has accompanied artists such as Chris Shiflett, Sarah Shook and Jason Hawk Harris. He is a solid working player who has an obvious love for his chosen instrument. There are additional instruments on the recording including bass, drums and acoustic guitar, all in the main, played by Kurtz, which provides a musical base to build upon and let the steel guitar soar.

Beyond that there’s not a lot to say. It is essentially a case of listening and allowing the waves of steel guitar to wash over you, as you take in Kurtz’s passion for his instrument and also be reminded of Travis and his deep baritone country vocals. The two offer a different perspective on the same set of songs and your preference will largely depend on how much you feel those song stand up without the iconic voice. However, taken on its own terms, this is a successful if somewhat specialised release, that will find its own fans and if you are a lover of the instrument this is one of a select few albums where the instrument is well to the fore. It certainly highlights Kurtz’s skill and dexterity which allows a number of different moods to be explored with some satisfaction.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Kevin Stonerock Twilight Town Self Release

A singer/songwriter who is accomplished in writing songs that tell stories and are an amalgamation of country, folk and rock influences. This is his 7th release, his debut album DAY BEFORE TOMORROW came out in 1978. It is a fine album that will have broad appeal and features eleven songs written by Stonerock and also co-produced by him and Gabriel Stonerock. It was recorded with a set of seasoned musicians, who play alongside with Stonerock who contributes lead and harmony vocals, some electric guitar (alongside fellow lead guitarist Gabriel Stonerock). He also plays baritone and acoustic guitars as well as bass and banjo. The pedal steel is from veteran player Ed Ringwald, forming part of the overall sound which also includes piano and fiddle. The sum of all the parts is a sound that is varied and interesting, fitting easily into a contemporary but relatively loose umbrella of Americana.

The opening track Too Young To Quit is a solid rockin’ song that is as good as it gets as an example of melodic roots/rock. It is a rumination about the on-the-road life of a musician troubadour, with an aversion to getting something akin to a real job. Life on the road and the people that are met along the way provide the subjects for songs like Life Of The Party and Gypsy Road. Black Diamonds is not only about the brand of guitars strings that were used by everyone at a particular time. They were (then) inexpensive and available everywhere back in the day. The song also relates to the men who used them and is a tribute to those (often unsung) players and the instruments they played. Other songs such as I Wish I Was A Riverboat seem to be a metaphor for life on the move set in earlier times. Railroad Man is also a song set in earlier times which looks at the life of a man who does not work for any particular company but moves around in his work. Stonerock researched this for a commission for a historical society. If he wasn’t a railroad aficionado before, he became something of one after researching the project.

The title track has some pleasing twang, which suits the song’s sense of creating the will to carry on and find a place in some far away (twilight) town. The closing track The Town Where I Was Born is a gentler look back at what could have been an upbringing in any Mid-Western small town and is Stonerock’s recollection of the people and places that made an impression on him growing up. All of these songs reveal Stonerock as a writer of some finesse and thoughtfulness. I’m not acquainted with Stonerock’s previous albums, but this new album sounds like the culmination of his career to date. It is one of those albums that deserves a wider recognition, so a quick visit to his website will give you some background and insight to the man and his music (and some selected videos).

Review by Stephen Rapid

Ben Bostick Among The Faceless Crowd Simply Fantastic

Another storyteller who easily fits among the new names, both male and female, who are developing their craft as songwriters and performers. This is Bostick’s third full album release and has touches of such diverse influences as Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash through to Otis Redding and country icons like John Cash and Merle Haggard - among many others. However, a little time in the company of his warm voice and engaging songs and you will find yourself enjoying listening to these dark, weary, world worn songs. For instance, the opening duo of Wasting Gas and Absolutely Emily where the music is subtle and understated, with such elements as harmonica and Hammond added to the overall mood of often what amounts to quiet despair. Although Working For A Living is a tougher theme it works again with a sparse backing that features what sounds like a tea-tray being bashed on someone’s head and is a convincing percussion device here given the stark nature of the world unveiled.

This hard road ahead is again the subject of I Just Can’t Seem To Get Ahead, one that is clearly laid out in the title where the man is burying his dreams while drawing in debt. There have been mentions of the aforementioned Springsteen’s Nebraska in comments about this album, although musically it is never quite as black and white as that album.  The lyrics address a similar anguished world view from the prism of a seemingly endless life of toil, something the lead character of The Thief wants to bring things to a conclusion in a different and tragic way “I keep hoping for blue lights coming up behind, coming to relieve all this pressure on my mind.” He is a man who realises “I ain’t no Jesse James” but has a family he wants to be able to feed and is forced into some desperate decisions.

There is little information with the album in terms of production and musician credits (though his long-time guitarist Kyle LaLone is on hand for some telling guitar). Regardless, these are Bostick’s songs and they are presented in a way that he wanted them to sound. If the subject matter sounds a little harrowing, then in contrast the collective 10 tracks hold together in a way that many examples of the blues songs can do by offering something akin to hope in the way that they are performed here. There is little pretension in these fictional tales of woe, but a lot of underlying truth for a layer of working lives that find it hard to ever get out of a rut. The music here has not placed any such restriction on itself and will be a just reward for those who don’t like their music all light and jolly. So, let’s hope Bostick rises above the fate of the title. He deserves to.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Album - New Reviews

David Haerle Death Valley CMH

This follow up to debut album, GARDEN OF EDENDALE (2018), is another very strong statement from a musician who knows how to play and produce any number of impressive tracks from his catalogue of self-penned songs.

Haerle was introduced to the guitar in his early teens and developed an immediate passion and understanding for the instrument. However, at the age of 24 he was compelled, upon the sudden death of his father, to take over as president of the CMH Label Group and his music career had to be put on hold. His father originally emigrated from Germany with a dream of working in the country music industry. Having arrived in the USA, he co-founded the independent label CMH Records (Country Music Heritage). 

David was also influenced by his maternal grandparents who co-owned the first full time country music radio station in Nashville, WENO. In addition, Roy Acuff, the King of Country Music, took Haerle onstage at the Grand Ole' Opry before a full house when he was only 9 years of age – any wonder that the bug bit him hard as a result!

Prior to the new album, Haerle decided to release a series of singles and music videos to support the project and to gain increased media interest. Over recent months, four singles have surfaced, Go Do That With Sharon, The Free Show, Edendale and the latest track, Romy and Michelle - a look back at younger days and memories (in this case, a movie) that give touchstones to the future.

Including these songs, there are a total of 15 tracks on the new album, with a running time just shy of 60 minutes. Similar in length to his debut and a very generous package, if not for the fainthearted! It is a commitment to listen straight through but certainly worth the rewards.

The project is laced with terrific production and great musicianship, part Americana and part Rock, with a fair helping of sunny, up-tempo commercial-leaning arrangements included. As expected, Haerle leads from the front and his ability on acoustic, electric guitars and lead vocals is very impressive. He is joined on the tracks by studio musicians Alex Wand (guitar), Carson Cohen (keyboards, mandolin, bass, backing vocals), Jose Salazar (percussion), Reade Pryor (drums, percussion), Jon Lee Keenan (backing vocals), Erica Koesler (vocals), Derek Stein (cello), Ken Belcher (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Jeremy Castillo (guitar) and Luanne Homzy (violin), all of whom add greatly to the overall dynamic sound of the production. 

First three tracks, I Want To Be Like Him, The Free Show and Edendale are a gentle introduction with easy grooves before Go Do That With Sharon kicks up some dust with a more rock oriented beat that displays the excellent band work and solo skills of Haerle on guitar. The nostalgia of Romy and Michelle is captured so well and the bass playing is to the fore in leading the melody and rhythm along. Also, Forgiving Myself is similar with the band interplay superbly pinned by the rhythm, a song about self-acceptance, forgiving yourself and developing a self awareness that Haerle injects into his daily life. 

Ms Bell is about accepting the things that you have, the choices made and the road not taken. Smoggy Days is a trip down memory lane, taking the good from what was not always a happy time and seeing how it formed the person in adulthood. It is a rock-based tune that is very strong. Tellers really attacks with a look at bombastic, self-absorbed people, only interested in self-promotion.

The Groove Of the Record has a great melody with s fine guitar break – a song that looks at repeating old habits and being stuck in a rut. Perfect Lover has nice keyboards as it tells of a secret crush and an imagined romance. Also, Run and Be Free, more warm keyboard sounds and a gentle groove with its message of not letting ambition take over the need for inner joy and the cost paid if you let it. 

The title track has some superb ensemble interaction with the fiddle of Luanne Homzy soaring above the arrangement, making me wonder why she was not given a greater role in the other songs featured on this release. Her contribution on the debut album was much greater and her playing was a joy. Final track Eureka is an instrumental guitar piece that again highlights the skills of David Haerle and his excellent technique and touch. Something for everyone across these tracks and a very expansive offering to all who want to feel that sun on their skin as they relax into mellow moods and quality sounds.

Review by Paul McGee

Stevie Ray Latham & The Nomads of Industrial Suburbia Self Release

This is the second EP in as many years from the creative musical mind of an artist who always surprises and who displays a playful approach to his creative muse. Starting out with La Forêt, a simple instrumental of just over one minute, it is delivered on what sounds like a toy xylophone, with a soft mandolin strum in the background.

Everything Changes is a track that looks at the steady nature of a trusted lover while everything else is in a state of constant change, it’s easy melody echoing the sentiment in the song. Half way through the track there is a build towards a wall of sound dynamic, before it all breaks down again in the final minute of reflective guitar strum and background sounds.

Thief has a great rock groove, wrapping a vocal delivery which resonates with a fuzz tone and an insistent backbeat that winds through the arrangement. Madeline is a quiet acoustic melody that drifts gently along with some nice touches from keyboard effects. The final track, I Don’t Mind, has a brooding guitar sound with a change toward the end that breaks down the track and delivers a more even-paced finale.

Sixteen minutes of engaging music that always keeps the interest and again points to an artist with much to offer.

Review by Paul McGee

Shayna Sands Motions Of The Day Self Release

This debut EP is one that announces the song-writing talents of an artist that grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her subsequent travels gave the necessary experience and perspective to infuse the creation of these five tracks with something that is very much her own and rooted in a mix of blues and country noir. The almost-spoken word delivery of first track, 3417, lends a deadpan air to the atmosphere created, which is then cut with an intriguing mix of trumpet, cello and harmonica in a dynamic that brings everything vividly to life.  The title is a house number in the Texas city of Longview where the occupant holds dark secrets and lost children run through the imagery. 

The title track has lovely cello from David Lescalleet IV with a trumpet part that conjures up a Tejano feel. The backing vocals of Victoria Majors are very understated, yet add a great atmospheric to the arrangement. If You Don’t Mind has a torch song influence and laid-back delivery, that sits perfectly into a bored chanteuse whispering her regrets and wishes to drift away in dreams of freedom. The keyboard sound of producer Ben Howard is reminiscent of an old Farfisa instrument with backing vocals channelling the hint of 50’s night club smoke filled rooms.

Secret Pain has John Macy playing superb pedal steel while the harmonica of Shayna slides around the edges of the melody. It’s a song about false promises and shady characters who are never what they seem. Final song, Heart Beat, is a treat with the violin of Jacob Lipman perfectly capturing the noir feel of love and delirium mixed into a lethal cocktail. Throughout, the thoughtful and winning delivery from Jm Muniz (bass) and Cody Strong (drums) fuels the song arrangements and does not get in the way by overplaying at any turn. 

An atmospheric, confident debut and hinting at next steps that will gain this interesting talent even greater exposure to a wide audience.

Review by Paul McGee

Molly Maher Follow Real Phonic

There’s a fairly diverse mix of sounds on this album. It opens with an instrumental Jango, which is wide open to interpretation, without really giving anything away about what is to follow. However, the second track really captures your attention. Run, Run, Run, like all the compositions on the album, is written by Maher (though in this case it is a co-write, as are 6 of the other songs featured). It is a single taken from the album and undoubtably a highlight of the album. It has a strong chorus that resonates over the guitars, bass and drums setting. It also has a solid hook that is memorable and a video to go along with it to also offer a visual dimension. But that’s far from the only track worthy of attention as it is just one of a number of tracks that are a part of the overall picture such as Bird Song (I’ll Follow You) with additional Spanish vocals and lyrics from Iraida Noriega, Pale Face River and the more experimental Open Road.

FOLLOW is her fourth album and first since 2011 so it feels like a certain amount of reassessment and reflection - not to mention financing that went on during the gap. It again sees the Minnesota artist working with co-producer Eric Koskinen, who also adds guitars, percussion and vocals throughout. The duo bring much to the process, delving into a number of loosely Americana based sources such as rock, soul, country and sounds from further afield like the tablas on StormCloud and the touches from south of the border. It has been noted that both waited a long time to be able to make this amalgam of sounds work in a way that is not confusing but rather cohesive. She had apparently recorded an album some years back that was unreleased because it wasn’t, in the end, what she what she hoped or wanted.

That kind of commitment to one’s legacy is not always easy to find, but attest to an artist seeking to better their chosen craft. There are influences she absorbed after a break travelling through Mexico that are subtlety applied with hints of early Calexico but without using the obvious route of Mariachi style horns or accordion. The end result is a testament to a strong artistic vision, that rewards the listener with a set of songs that benefit from repeated listening as little touches are revealed. That make it well worth it to follow Molly Maher in what she has done here and may do in the future. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Emily Duff Born On The Ground Self Release

This self released album offers a robust sound from a fine studio band fronted by seasoned singer/songwriter Emily Duff and offers some rough and ready rock ’n’ roll, laced with some country rock and soul. It includes a set of songs that takes a hard look at relationships from both sides of the love/loathe fence, but from a mature and self-confident perspective. Titles such as We Ain’t Going Nowhere, There Is No Way Out, Killer and Knuckle Sandwich underline the notion that life can be tough but conversely the tough can have a life. 

Duff has been releasing albums through the years starting in 2015 with her debut solo album GO TELL YOUR FRIENDS. MAYBE IN THE MORNING followed in 2017 and HALLELUJAH HELLO (2019) being the most recent. So, this is Duff further exploring her sound and muse. One that has been likened to a number of diverse names that can easily be related to but are largely subjective depending on individual interpretation. This is usually a combination of strong women and classic rock sounds - both of which seem appropriate. It is that blend of insight that comes with age set against a tough mental stance and some rock ’n’ roots swagger.

Not that everything is full tilt, as with Knuckle Sandwich for instance, there is a lot of variation within these nine songs. The titles Born On The Ground and especially the final song Forever Love are examples that reveal a side to them that balances the toughness of the music with a more nuanced delivery and strong sense of melody. The overall album works as a unit, with a couple of the songs offering a sense of immediacy and coming through as universally accessible. 

The production by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel is spot on and perfect to bring these songs to fruition. He and Duff have brought her regular band and guests into the Brooklyn studio to give them clarity and cohesion. Guitarist Scott Aldrich, bassist Skip Ward, keyboard player Charlie Giordano and drummer Kenny Soule are joined by Amber and a selection of backing vocalists - Mary Lee Kortes, Sad Straw and Tricia Scotti, to all add additional layers to the overall delivery. This is a testament to all involved and a fine slice of contemporary roots-rock from a strongly personal point of view.

Review by Stephen Rapid

India Ramey Shallow Graves Self Release

On my initial listening I really liked the sound of this album it. First and foremost, it has Ramey vocals front and centre and behind that an interesting mix of traditional country, folk, Americana noir with some southern-gothic allusions in the interesting, memorable song selection. This is her fourth album release and follows on from her last album SNAKE HANDLER. An album produced, as is this latest release, by Mark Petaccia in the House Of Blues studio in Nashville. This one features the work of the Medders brothers, who grew up in Georgia as did Ramey and who are namely Will on drums, Carson on guitar and bassist Cheyenne. There is also a contribution from fellow artist Brian Wright, who added lap steel on The Witch. 

Ramey was in previous life an attorney who dealt with abuse cases, so she has doubtless seen some of the darker sides of life and she perhaps channels some of that into some of these lyrical journeys which see her looking for a good time in Up To No Good. On this track she is warned that “nothing good happens after midnight” but that is something that she “exactly had in mind.” The title song and the current single King Of Ashes deal in elements of darker behaviours. The latter seems very prescient in these times of how silence is complicit in some abuse situations by noting that “pain is the gasoline and silence is the matches.” Elsewhere Ramey viewpoint takes in the strange world around her and in Debutante Ball, where? the focus is on perception, privilege and hypocrisy in the Bible Belt’s regions of area and mind.

Something closer to home is the loss of a close friend Gordon Downie to cancer. He was the frontman in Tragically Hip and Hole In The World is a touching tribute to him and is played down with a restrained and melancholic violin-led song which has a universality in message. Moving on in another sense is the theme of Montgomery Behind Me. The album closes with the very suitable choice overall of the Hank Williams Snr song Angel Of Death which given the album’s title and overall mood seems to make a lot of sense. Ramey has aimed a lot of these songs against the way that a certain elite and strata of society feel that they own their moral high ground and the right to have their perceived lifestyle of wealth and power.

Aside from that sense of injustice, there is also a sense of vibrancy and hope and, well, a just uplifting sound that Ramey, Petaccia and the others have imbued this recording. In the end, even if you don’t take in all of its lyrical libretto, this is an album to admire for what it lays before you in terms of sound and attitude that is far from shallow. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Secret Emchy Society The Chaser Self Release

One of the figureheads in the Queer Country movement, Cindy Emch’s latest album, with her long-time band Secret Emechy Society, cuts across just about every component of country music. The album twangs, croons, surfs, shuffles and aches in equal doses. There is also humour alongside heartache on the eleven tracks, which recollect her own often eventful past life, and experiences of her and her bandmates from their road travels.  Emch’s voice is broad and lived in and gives the impression of having endured the sentiment of many of the songs that feature.

Booze features across a number of the songs, quite a number in fact, some tongue in cheek and some with a more solemn content. Much of the backdrop to the stories feature barrooms, the classic country venues for finding loving, drowning sorrows and getting into drunken brawls. Howlin’ Sober at The Moon and the driving Whiskey Fightin’ Terri fit the latter whereas the carefree I Get Drunk takes a more light hearted look at the imbibing tradition.

The title track, a slick country ballad, finds her looking in the mirror, dwelling on past memories and accepting her ‘thrill seeking’ personality. Leavin’ Powell River and Hell Is A Hard Place are jaunty Bakersfield sounding up-tempo tracks. You could be forgiven for thinking you were approaching a novelty album before you pop THE CHASER into your player. It’s much more than that and is loaded with catchy hooks and easy on the ear melodies.

Emch is very much a leader in the Queer Country movement and is editor of Country Queer magazine, whose logo is ‘Bringin’ the goods to the LGBTQ country music family’. THE CHASER is an album that should find wide appeal way beyond the community that she initially targets. Have a listen and make your own mind up.

Review by Declan Culliton

My Girl The River Cardinal In The Snow Independent

Consisting of Louisiana born artist Kris Wilkinson and UK bass player Joe Hughes, My Girl The River’s latest album is a collection of songs with themes that consider expectation, mortality and prediction.

Wilkinson was formerly a member of roots bands Perfect Strangers and For Kate’s Sake, whereas Hughes musical career started as part of the punk band The Flys. They joined forces and created the folk-rock duo Cicero Buck and released three full albums and one EP.  2012 saw the emergence of My Girl The River, with the duo slightly rebranding their core sound and morphing more towards Americana territory. They celebrated the new venture with their debut album THIS AIN'T NO FAIRYTALE in 2016.

Produced by Neilson Hubbard, the album features twelve songs penned by the duo and boasts an impressive collection of contributing musicians. Together with his production duties, Hubbard also adds drums and is joined by Will Kimbrough (guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel, piano), Danny Mitchell (piano) and Juan Solorzano on steel and electric guitars.  

The album’s title refers to the distinctive bird of the same name. Something In The Water opens the album in fine style, layered vocals and slick guitar work combine alongside a rap verse. The track also features their 14-year-old daughter Ruby Kate on ukulele. He Doesn’t Know He’s Gone is a gentle ballad written in honour of singer songwriter Tommy Keane, who passed away in his sleep in 2017. You Do Not Deserve My Tears is a powerful anthem and a defiant statement, more straight rock than Americana. Needy is a jaunty reminder to prioritise the important things in life and discard the trivial. Won’t Find Our Bones delivers a funky reggae-like slow rolling groove, depicting a scene of impending death in the wilderness.

Loaded with positive energy CARDINAL IN THE SNOW ticks a lot of boxes. Impressive songs, excellently delivered vocally by Wilkinson with equally striking playing throughout, result in an album that fully deserves your attention.

Review by Declan Culliton

Emily Zuzik Torch & Trouble Maenades Music

Vocalist and song writer with the San Francisco alt-country band SexFresh in the late 1990’s, Los Angeles based Emily Zuzik’s career as a solo artist has delivered an impressive stockpile of albums since her debut solo album THE WAY IT’S GOT TO BE in 2003. During this period, she has also collaborated with a wide range of artists from Moby to Shooter Jennings' bass player Ted Russell Kamp, who produced her latest album and co-wrote three of the ten tracks.

What unfolds on the album is an easy on the ear collection of guitar driven rockers, alongside some more relaxed ballads that hit home from the word go. The more up-tempo tracks include Stay Wild and the Alanis Morissette sounding Trouble complete with impressive crunching guitar breaks from John Schreffler, another artist that performs with Shooter Jennings. Slipping down the gears to a more serene sound, both Magic and Embers, the latter a duet with Russell Kamp, are tender ballads and the more expansive Wild Mustang Across The Great Plains is the album standout. Shadows, written by Yo La Tengo and the only cover on the album, gets a poignant re-modelling.

There’s much to enjoy about TORCH & TROUBLE, particularly Zuzik’s rich vocals and the exceptional musicianship and production throughout. Comparisons with the work of Sheryl Crow surface across much of the album which, in itself, is a high recommendation.

Review by Declan Culliton

Album - New Reviews

Nick Hornbuckle  13 Or So  Ruby’s Slipper

Instrumental records in the bluegrass/stringband realm don’t come along very often, and this one seems to have slipped under many a radar since its quiet release into the world in late 2019. This is indeed a shame because it is a brilliant labour of love by the Canadian banjo player, Nick Hornbuckle.

Unlike his first solo recording, 12 X 2 (+/- 1) released in 2015, this one is composed entirely of original tunes. It is inspired mainly by a celebration of family, ranging from Nick’s emigrant ancestors in Oklahoma, Oregon and Idaho in the 19th century, right up his family in the present day. 

There’s a distinctively Celtic feel to the lively opener, Wellesley Station, written in memory of his mother’s birthplace. It introduces the listener to Nick’s unique two finger banjo picking style - which lies somewhere between clawhammer and Scruggs-style. The track also introduces us to several of the many talented Canadian guests that Nick has called upon to help realise his tunes- fiddle player Trent Freeman duets with Nick’s lead banjo, then the tune is picked up by mandolin maestro John Reischman (The Jaybirds) and then by Darryl Poulsen (Slocan Ramblers) on guitar, all the while Patrick Metzger (Pharis & Jason Romero) adds his magic on upright bass. Nick calls in Chris Coole (Lonesome Ace Stringband) to contribute frailing banjo for The South Road, which remembers his ancestors who joined a wagon train travelling across the US in 1846, the rollicking journey evoked by the interplay between bass and both banjos, and some superb dobro playing from Ivan Rosenberg. Another Lonesome Ace guest, John Showman, plays some great fiddle on The Crooked Man, while Ivan Rosenberg impresses on dobro on this tune and several others. Cleo Belle is a delightful song inspired by Nick’s daughter’s love of swimming in a swimming hole near their Vancouver Island home.

It’s not all upbeat tunes, the contemplative title track and A Farewell (to the Cowgirl with the Pigtails) written in tribute to his late mother, slow things down for a welcome breather.

The whole project was arranged, engineered and mixed by Nick in his Ruby’s Slipper Studio at home and there are extensive notes on the origins of the tunes on his website. Seek out and enjoy.

Review by Eilís Boland

Steve Earle & The Dukes Ghosts Of West Virginia New West

On April 3rd 2010 a coal dust explosion at a coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia, claimed the lives of twenty-nine miners, only two miners survived the blast. An investigation into the tragedy found that glaring omissions in safety procedures contributed greatly to the fatalities.

Steve Earle was approached by documentary playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen to compose a collection of songs for the documentary they were developing on the occurrence, having visited West Virginia to speak with the few survivors and the families of those that lost their lives.

Traditionally well renowned for his left-wing opinions, the album is written for and about working-class Trump supporters (‘’written for and about for the people who didn’t vote the way I did’’ to quote Earle).Earle approached the subject matter with outright passion and no little anger. His backing band in the studio featured Chris Masterson (guitar), Eleanor Whitmore (fiddle & strings), Ricky Ray Jackson (pedal steel & dobro), Jeff Hill (bass) and Brad Pemberson (drums & percussion). They all also contribute backing vocals and Whitemore takes the lead vocal, representing a widow of one of the deceased, on the hugely moving If I Could See Your Face Again. The musical styles range from old timey bluegrass to muscular country tinged rock.

The album kicks off fittingly with Heaven Ain’t Going Nowhere, with an a capella lead by Earle who is then joined by the full band. Earle’s vocal is cracked, bordering on choking, as if his air waves were filled with the lethal coal dust that contaminated many of the miners he sympathises with on the song Black Lung.

The jaunty upbeat Union, God & Country pays homage to the generations whose simple lives evolved around hard work, sweat and survival (‘‘You shifted coal til Friday, drew your pay and then walked down to the company store and gave it back again’’). Fiddles and guitars dance in the background as Earle tells the tale. The album’s climax is It’s About Blood, delivered spitting fire, Earle calls out the company authorities (‘‘Tell yourself it was an accident, isolated incident, part of the job. Yeah?  Well, tell that to the families, kids without Daddies. Tell it to God’’), before naming the twenty-nine minors that perished.

The rewards for the lifetime down the mine are articulated on the aforementioned Black Lung. A semi breathless grandfather reminiscing on his life underground, weakened to the extent that he’s unable to lift his grandchildren on to his knee. A similar sentiment surfaces on Time Is Never On Our Side, which also reflects on the perilous daily grind faced by the miners, with little or no other work opportunities available to them except that daily descent down the mine shaft. He also takes the opportunity to remind the listener of the toils faced by all working men in West Virginia with his tribute to African American folk hero John Henry on the lively John Henry Was A Steel Drivin’ Man.

Never one to shirk a challenge, Earle has done his subject due justice with GHOSTS OF WEST VIRGINIA. He’s also pieced together his finest album since 2004’s THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Gretchen Peters The Night You Wrote That Song Thirty Tigers

Although considered by his peers to be one of the all-time finest American singer songwriters, Mickey Newbury is best known for the string of classic singles written by him but recorded by household names such as Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers and Andy Williams. His songs have been covered by others on over 1500 occasions. His talent as a songwriter, and indeed a vocalist, found him covering a wide range of genres throughout his career. Country, blues, jazz, western swing, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll all feature in his expansive body of work that presented on over twenty albums.

Whereas his albums were seldom more than moderate sellers, his genius was recognised and regaled by Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Russell, Steve Earle, Waylon Jennings and John Prine who described him ‘as probably the best songwriter ever.’ He is also much loved by fellow Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Gretchen Peters, who sums up her regard for him on her website where she notes “Of all the songwriters of his era, he was the one I really listened to, he was a definite hero of mine. And I didn’t feel he was given his due as much as some of the others’’.

Gretchen was exposed to Newbury’s music from a young age. Her mother was a huge lover of his music and became equally enthusiastic about her daughter recording a tribute album, when they teased out the idea fifteen years ago.

She was also the ideal candidate to record a selection of his songs given that her own writing is similarly textured.  To this extent, the listener unfamiliar with Newbury’s work could be forgiven for assuming that the material that makes up the album was composed by Peters.

Many of the original songs were recorded by Newbury at Cinderella Studios, Nashville’s oldest surviving independent studios. Peters and her co-producer and husband Barry Walsh visited that studio three years ago and were struck by both the sound and nostalgia of the room. Digging deeply into Newbury’s songbook they returned to the studio every few months and without any pressure or deadline, finalised the twelve tracks that made the album, often ignoring Newbury’s more well-known compositions.

Being in a position to knock on the doors of Nashville neighbours to join her and Walsh on the recording also was a winner. Newbury was renowned for his eagle eyed attention to detail in the studio and that level of perfection is duplicated here with the assistance of Will Kimbrough, Dave Roe, Eamon McLoughlin, Dan Dugmore, Charlie McCoy, Neilson Hubbard, Bryan Owings, Kim Richey and Buddy Miller.

Despite that collection of some of Nashville’s finest players on board, the majority of the songs are delivered in a low key style, Peters’ pristine vocals being the focal point, as she beautifully emphasises the emotion and spirit within the selected songs.

Collectively she and her accomplices only break sweat on the lively Why You Been Gone So Long and to a lesser degree Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In). The latter is a relaxed bluesy delight, bringing the song to life and a welcome addition to the treatment of Newbury’s original cut and Kenny Rogers’ remodelled version. The former was previously recorded by both Johnny Darrell and Jessi Coulter, but this latest reworking surpasses both of those efforts.

The title track The Night You Wrote That Song is the closing song from Newbury’s 1979 recording THE SAILOR – AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Like the majority of his studio albums it made little or no commercial impact when released. The Sailor from that recording, is also the opening track selected by Peters.  A short piano intro opens the track, before Peters’ crystal-clear vocals connect. It’s both a stunning and mournful performance and a taster for much of what follows, with Peters consistently breathing new life into songs that can boast truly touching and imaginative lyrics. The icing on the cake is the flawless production and playing throughout.

You win on the double by picking up a copy of this album. It’s another stunning album for fans of Gretchen Peters. It also gives those unfamiliar with the work of Newbury the opportunity to delve into his extensive body of work.

As was the case with Newbury, Gretchen Peters is also very much a songwriters’ songwriter. No doubt, future generations will also revisit and be influenced by her own personal songbook and this delight is a welcome addition to that stockpile.

Review by Declan Culliton

Prinz Grizzley To My Green Mountains Home Self Release

Chris Comper, aka Prinz Grizzley, released his debut album COME ON IN in 2017. Its core sound was very much Americana, an impressive blend of country, blues and folk. It established him as one of the premier acts emerging from Europe in the genre and earned him bookings at numerous festivals in Europe, including Kilkenny Roots in Ireland and Static Roots in Oberhausen, Germany. An invitation followed in 2018 to perform at AmericanaFest in Nashville, giving him and his band the opportunity to showcase their skills on that side of the Atlantic. Residing in the Bregenz Forest area of Voralberg in Austria, Comper and his bandmates have also toured relentlessly in Europe, establishing a solid following with their spirited live shows.

Having self-produced that debut album, he turned to Beau Bedford to oversee this time around. Bedford had worked with the country outlaw extrovert Paul Cauthen on his highly acclaimed 2018 album HAVE MERCY, an artist cut from the same musical cloth as Comper. With over sixty songs written for the album, he selected twenty to bring to the studio, eventually selecting the twelve that fitted the consistency he and Bedford strived for. In a reverse of the norm, rather than travel to Texas or Tennessee to work with Bedford, he invited the producer to Austria where they worked on the album for ten days at Nautilus Studios in Dornbirn, which is close to Comper’s hometown. The benefits of that decision were essentially two-fold: it gave Bedford the scope to get a feel for the writer's background and environment and also allowed Comper to have his band The Beargaroos in the studio for the recordings. Those band members comprise his long-time musical friend Johannes Bischof on pedal steel, together with two musicians from Switzerland with backgrounds in jazz, Claude Meier on bass and Andy Wettstein on drums.

The twelve songs selected cover a range of topics and emotions, from the sanctuary that his own home environment affords, to the drifting soul searching for a similar refuge. The musical styles shift from country rockers Cutting Wood and Nothing Left But Scars to dreamy pedal steel laced ballads Green Mountains, Drifting and Rush Little Man. The lattermost considers the colourless, mundane and repetitive existence often borne by the average working man.

You Don’t Know Love is bluesy, soul soaked and expansive and the equally chipper Shovel offers a groovy country soul vibe. It tells the tale of his great grandfather, who emigrated from Italy to Austria and the toils he encountered being accepted in his newly chosen homeland. Bookending the album is a sea shanty The Salty Life Of The Ocean, a further reminder of that safe haven of home.

Rather than a variation on the direction of his debut album, TO MY GREEN MOUNTAINS HOME finds Comper continuing on his musical travels from rock to roots. In a previous musical life, he had recorded four indie rock albums with his band Golden Reef. He’s challenging himself and expanding his musical war chest to store some soul infused nuggets alongside his trademark country rock offerings. In doing so he has also recorded an album that you’re well advised to check out.

Review by Declan Culliton

Hannah White & The Nordic Connections Self-Titled Paper Blue

Combining the silky vocals of Londoner Hannah White and the skilled Norwegian honky tonkers The Nordic Connection, this album follows hot on the heels of the well-received single City Beats from last year.White’s 2018 release ELEPHANT EYE earned her invitations to perform at Black Deer, Larmor Tree and The British Music Festival in 2019, where she played with The Nordic Connection as her backing band. 

The Nordic collaboration shouldn’t come as a major surprise given the increasing amount of Americana - more appropriately Nordicana - emerging from that part of the world. White travelled to Bergen in Norway to record the album live in the studio with musician/producer HP Gundersen at the controls.

That punchy single City Beats offered a rootsy beat, sounded as if was plucked out of the mid 1960’s and showcased precisely how White’s polished vocal tones and the band's smooth groove fitted hand in glove. It’s one of a number of musical themes that the album visits, from the tearful country ballads Never Get Along, Start Again, Like We’ve Always Done and Man Without Men to the up-tempo soulful rocking power of Gotta Work Harder. The heartfelt My Father embraces the finer elements of folk and pop. Pay Me a Compliment, due for release as the next single from the album, is a ‘tug at the heartstrings’ ballad that could have been plucked from Elvis Costello’s late 70’s songbook.

There’s a recurring retro feel to the material that brings the listener back to eras when artists with this degree of talent would be hoovered up by record labels and given a generous budget to further develop their careers. Unfortunately, such luxuries do not exist in the current musical market. Hopefully with this release, White and her talented players will get the recognition that this most impressive and radio friendly album merits.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Courtney Marie Andrews Old Flowers Loose

It’s generally accepted that relationship breakdowns are one of the paramount motivations and inspirations for artists to pour their hearts out and translate those sensibilities into songs. Heart rending for the writer at the time, dealing with loneliness and rejection, but the stimulant for classic recordings from Patsy Cline to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell to Bruce Springsteen.

Developing and maintaining a relationship for the average artist is difficult enough. Attempting to juggle the balancing act of gruelling touring schedules, an often unstructured career and a caring relationship is like walking a tightrope.

Courtney Marie Andrews has spent the best part of her musical career on the road. Her early career, while still in her teens, found her performing on stage with both Jimmy Eat World and Damien Jurado, before launching her own solo career with her breakthrough album HONEST LIFE in 2016, having recorded two previous albums which slipped under the radar at that time.  As its title implies, that album offered a bird’s eye view of a young woman drawn to a particular lifestyle, while often yearning for a more uncomplicated existence. Given her uplifting vocal delivery and charming persona, it is easy to overlook the hurt and self-examination on that album. ‘‘All I've ever wanted was an honest life, to be the person that I really am inside’’ she admits on the title track, while Table For One and Rookie Dreamin’ spoke of the less desirable and unglamorous aspects of living out of a suitcase on tour.

OLD FLOWERS finds Courtney pouring her heart out once more, on this occasion after the dissolution of a nine-year relationship. The album is minimalistic by comparison to HONEST LIFE and LET YOUR KINDNESS REMAIN which followed two years later. The emphasis is on her striking vocal and the stories that vocal delivers. It wills the listener to concentrate on her words with minimum distraction.  Andrews was discerning in the choice of company for the recording, seeking out allies that both understood where the material was coming from and the importance of ensuring that the production did not smother her sentiments. In this regard she engaged Andrew Sarlo as producer, and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Davidson who had toured with her both in Europe as her support act and as bass player on her American tour. Davidson (aka Twain and former member of The Low Anthem) plays pedal steel, bass, mellotron, piano, pump organ, celeste and Wurlitzer. The only other musician that features is James Krivchenia (Big Thief) who adds drums and percussion.

Rather than anger or heartbreak, the ten songs on the album are laced with reflection and sensitivity, more akin to a series of recollections of a romance from its arousing commencement on the beautiful If I Told You (‘‘what would you say if I told you you’re my last thought at the end of each night’’), to its dissolution on Guilty  (‘‘I cannot give my love to you when I am guilty’’). The opening track Burlap String acts as a prologue for what follows as she ponders on the relationship with compassion rather than anger, her vulnerability and loneliness on public display. The vocals are precise, crystal clear as if ensuring no word or phrase are lost to the listener, the weeping pedal steel in the background is as sorrowful as her delivery. The equally moving Someone Else’s Fault feature her vocals double tracked, a technique that is repeated on a number of other tracks.

The unhurried piano intro on How You Get Hurt sets the scene perfectly on a song that would be heart breaking even if written fictionally. It’s simply beautiful with Andrew’s wonderfully paced vocals carrying a song that is laced with both emotion and tenderness. 

‘’I hope one day we’ll be laughing together or alone’’ she considers on the mournful Together Or Alone, flanked by moody piano she wonders ‘’In some other lifetime would you pick me out again’’. 

The number of aspiring American singer songwriters who have been both casually and lazily compared to Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt are numerous. Very few approach anything near Mitchell’s writing skills and Ronstadt’s honeyed vocals. Andrews is the exception and as her career continues to develop, comparisons to both become increasingly plausible and merited.

‘’You can’t water old flowers’’ she declares on the title track, accepting the finality of lost love and appraising it unambiguously in those five words. OLD FLOWERS is an album that equals anything she’s recorded before and will unquestionably feature in many ‘Best of 2020’ listings. It certainly will be at the business end of mine.

Review by Declan Culliton

Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts Ohbahoy Self Release 

Rockford, Illinois is the home for this singer songwriter who has a lot to offer in terms of superbly crafted Americana songs and sounds. Over a career that has seen seven previous releases, Nielsen has displayed a keen eye for spotting a potent song arrangement and wrapping it up with strong imagery in the lyrics.

His band are a really tight unit and play together with a comfort and ease that really comes across on this new release. The production is shared by the band members and Duane Lundy and the impression is of a group who know exactly what they are looking for. The playing is full of colour and the melodies allow for plenty of input from each musician, whether it’s Miles Nielsen (guitar, vocals), Daniel James McMahon (guitar, vocals), Adam Plamann (keys, piano, horns, vocals), Dave McClellan (bass, vocals) or Jeff Werckle (drums, percussion). 

The harmonies are really bright in the mix as is the terrific guitar lines of both Nielsen and McMahon. The rhythm section of Werckle and McClellan deliver a rich groove throughout and they anchor the arrangements with some impressive playing. The added textures of keyboards and horns are provided by Plamann and together it all makes for a very dynamic release. They are supported by Kelly Steward on vocals (a talented singer songwriter in her own right), Darren Garvey on drums and percussion (but no credits as to how many tracks) and Sadler Vaden who contributes additional guitar on Old Enough.

Being the son of the great Nick Nielsen can be a blessing or a curse and whereas the sound of this band has to acknowledge some of the influence of Cheap Trick, it by no means defines them in any way. There are also elements of Tom Petty along the way but the overall sound is very much in the americana/rock space with Miles more than capable of penning some killer songs of his own.

Starting out with two really strong numbers, Hands Up and Howl at the Moon, the band come out of the traps with everything in the mix – a great ensemble groove and a dynamic that only comes from playing together on a regular basis.

Old Enough channels some Beatles influence to my ears and the slower, nuanced tunes, like Ghosts and Big 3, sit nicely into the running order and don’t fight against the more up-tempo numbers. Life Is Hard Enough has a nice soulful delivery on vocals and the more commercial sounds of Heaven Only Knows and Hannah are attractive tunes that balance the overall flow of the album.

Review by Paul McGee

Kelly Steward Tales and Tributes of the Deserving and the Not So Self Release

This talented artist started out life in Rockford, Illinois before moving to Los Angeles in search of her dreams and making a mark in the music industry. After a few years, Steward subsequently decided to return home and to focus on developing a career on the local music circuit, together with raising her son. She released her first EP in 2000 and it was another eight years before her second EP arrived. Exactly what slowed her career progress is not very clear but suffice to say that any momentum was lost again with another three years passing before the appearance of a third EP in 2011. 

These songs seemed to be rooted in personal perspective with a sense of chasing some lost horizon, undertones of isolation, feelings of unhappiness and wanting to reach out. Equally the sense of feeling lost and vulnerable in those songs was balanced by nods towards exploring new love, offering fellowship and more. The soulful, yearning quality in her voice always a compelling influence. 

Now, seven years on from the last EP, we are given a fresh look at the talents of this interesting songwriter. The ten songs are all written by Steward and the running time of less than 30 minutes leaves you wanting more, which is always a good sign. Her approach here is more band-centric and the overall feel is one of more up-tempo tunes and less self- reflection. 

Steward has a great band that has been backing her for the last number of years, including Greg Whitson, who co-produced this album with Steward. He also produced her 2011 EP, Out From Within, so his presence is an important factor, contributing on a variety of guitars (electric, acoustic, lap-steel, baritone), mandolin and banjo. Also in the band are Darren Garvey (drums), Scott Ford (bass) and Jon Rozman (violin). They are augmented in the studio by Miles Nielsen (rhodes, vocals), Dan Pitney (pedal steel), Jim Westin (keyboards) and Kristina Priceman (violin).

There is an easy swing to many of these songs as they fall into the traditional country arena, Generation, Restless Kind and Heartbreak Heart being prime examples. There are songs that seem to touch a more personal note and Earthquake tells of the anniversary of a death of someone who was close (family or friend)?

Travelin’ Ghost is another personal look at the journey taken and the illusions shattered along the path; feelings of wanting to make peace with the past. Golden Sun is a fine slice of down the road swagger and the strong vocal performance of Steward is always prominent in the production. No Time For Loving You brings everything to a very satisfactory conclusion and is a real rocker. 

I am glad that Steward has returned to the recording studio and I can only hope that, this time around, the momentum is built upon and we get more from this rich voice and accomplished song-writer. Highly recommended.

Review by Paul McGee

American Aquarium Lamentations New West

An aquarium gives you a transparent view of life on the other side of the glass. It’s an appropriate metaphor for the divided state that exists in the American homeland of BJ Barham, founding band member and songwriter. Ever since 2006, his band has struggled to maintain an existence despite a growing fan-base and successive releases. It got to the point where splitting up seemed to be the only option. However, a turnaround in fortune happened in 2012 and the success of 2 albums released that year began a new chapter in the life of the band. There have been numerous line-up changes with musicians joining and leaving in a manner that would unsettle the best of artists, but through it all BJ Barham has kept the faith and his vision to endure. As he sings on final track, The Long Haul, ‘Ain’t never been the kind of guy to cut and run.’ 

While it is a laudable trait to have the courage of your convictions, the actual work has to be able to withstand the test of scrutiny and hard work is not always its’ own reward. The song, The Luckier You Get, tends to differ with this point of view but I do think that there is an element of tongue-in-cheek from Barham as he looks to dissect the illusion of the imaginary American dream; that assumption of equal rights for everyone and justice for all.

God has gone missing and greedy politicians turned up with lies and hidden agendas in the heartland. The downturn in tobacco production is the subject of Brightleaf and Burley, while the need to meet daily bills is tackled in Before the Dogwood Blooms and the tale of illegal trucking as a means to an end. Me and Mine (Lamentations) sums up the frustration, ‘They showed up, they shut us down; The same old story, the same old town.’ There are songs of hard-earned lessons and being wise after the event, where the personal failings of the character populate the songs. The drunk driver who lost his wife and child in Six Years Come September is similar to the sorry protagonist of How Wicked I Was, who realises that his past deeds have consequences and the reality of being without his daughter as she grows up. Again, the self-reflection and regret at love lost is the theme of The Day I Learned To Lie To You and you have to wonder if there is any light at the end of this tunnel. Well, help is at hand and the positive affirmation of Start With You brings a message of true love turning any negatives into positives. Hope for a better tomorrow and pride in identity is captured in A Better South and getting sober, staying the distance and being there is the final message in The Long Haul.

The ten tracks run to 40 minutes and the production from Shooter Jennings is big and bright with plenty of texture to bring colour to the melodies. The band is comprised of BJ Barham (acoustic guitar, vocals), Shane Boeker (electric guitar, vocals), Rhett Huffman (organ, piano), Neil Jones (pedal steel guitar), Ryan Van Fleet (drums, percussion) and Alden Hedges (bass guitar, vocals). The sound is very much Americana with some leaning towards Country influences, mainly in the understated playing of Neil Jones on pedal steel. The band are very strong throughout and add plenty to the arrangements, while the vocal tone of Barham conjures images of John Mellencamp and Bob Seger on occasion. 

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Madison Galloway Moon & Mercury Purple Bee

From the small town of Fergus, Ontario, the impressive roots rock debut album from the talented Madison Galloway has recently been released to an unsuspecting world. This young Canadian woman is going places in the music world, if talent means anything (and that’s a debate for another day!).

It’s hard to believe that at 19 years old she wrote, coproduced and performed all the material on this record. Indeed by that age (the album was recorded in 2019) she was already somewhat of a road warrior, having spent many days gigging solo, as a duo and with her whole band throughout Ontario, including playing some substantial festivals. 

On the twelve originals and one cover she amply demonstrates her powerful and versatile vocal skills, her mature songwriting, her accomplished guitar and harmonica playing and, above all, her passion and enthusiasm. There’s lots of electric guitar and rock drumming, with a strong blues flavour running through, but she mixes it up with the addition of traditional Indian instruments like sitar, tanpura and tabla, to particularly good effect on the instrumental Coffee Stains. Citing Led Zeppelin as an early influence, it’s easy to hear the influence of Plant and Page seeping through. 

However, this artist is already showing she can forge her own sound. She wears her heart on her sleeve too - songs like Bye Bye demonstrate her worry for ongoing effect of environmental damage on insects and birds, while Season of Treason is a plea for peace. Co-produced by Ron Hawkins in Escarpment Sound studios in Ontario, and funded by crowdfunding, Madison also did the artwork and design of the album. Worth checking out.

Review by Eilís Boland

David Latto Show Me How To Feel Self Release

This 5-track EP highlights a welcome return for this Scottish singer, songwriter and producer. Latto had stepped away from the music industry to take a break, gain some perspective and store away the implied pressure brought about by writing block. Here, we are treated to his honeyed vocals and songs that reflect his journey in living over the last few years.

The title track is about communicating with no walls, just showing real emotions and not shutting down. Blood & Whisky is about coming home to reconnect with an old friend, shortening the distances and feeling that bond of friendship. Better Way is concerned with relationship woes and trying to find happier times. Haunt Me looks at old emotions, remembering a past feeling and wanting to have it back again. So, these songs clearly come from a very personal space and are authentic in their delivery as a result.

The EP was produced by Iain Hutchison at GloWorm Recording Studios in Glasgow and Latto is joined by John Mather on electric guitars and pedal steel, Lewis Gordon on bass, Phil Wilkinson on drums and augmented by producer Iain Hutchison on keyboards. A special mention also for Mally Smith who contributes superbly on backing vocals, a talented songwriter from Boston who now lives in Edinburgh and adds lots of sweet textures behind Latto’s acoustic guitar and lead vocal.

Everything comes together on the final track, Losing You, a song about waking up to the realisation that a relationship is slipping away. The band really shine on an arrangement that builds nicely to a strong climax, great guitar sounds and a driving rhythm. Welcome back!

Review by Paul McGee

My Darling Clementine Country Darkness Vol.2 Fretsore

The second instalment - and hopefully not the last - of Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish’s appraisal of the Elvis Costello songbook, follows the splendid first chapter which was released in 2019. As in the case of its predecessor, they have delved deeply into his extensive back catalogue to discover songs that may not always have been the obvious candidates for a country makeover. 

They initially pinpointed twenty-five songs for consideration. Their objective was to select songs that best suited their trademark conversational type delivery as a duo. Working once more with Elvis Costello’s long time keyboard player Steve Nieve, they reduced their selections to the twelve songs that best suited revamping. Four songs were then selected to make up this mini album. Nieve then recorded his keyboards solo input remotely, as the foundations for the songs, which were fleshed out by the duo under the guidance of Mercury nominated producer Colin Elliot. Having co-produced and played on all Richard Hawley’s albums, Elliot was well suited to craft the rich sound that populates My Darling Clementine’s own albums. Elliot also contributes guitar, alongside Shez Sheridan and Dean Beresford on bass and drums.

This album’s title is drawn from Costello’s 2004 album THE DELIVERY MAN - hopefully the title song will feature in a future volume. That album is Costello’s most rhinestone stimulated album of original material. Either Side Of The Same Town, taken from that album, is given a more full-bodied treatment than the original version and sounds all the better for it. It’s particularly suited to the My Darling Clementine model and a tear jerker with shared vocals, harmonies and heavenly piano combining beautifully.

The prolific songwriter and Godfather of Americana Jim Lauderdale, was a feature in the acoustic string band that recorded SECRET, PROFANE & SUGARCANE with Costello in Nashville back in 2009. I Lost You was co-written by Lauderdale and Costello and is taken from NATIONAL RANSOM, which was recorded in Nashville the following year.  It is tailor made as a male/female duet and reads as a typical self written song from Weston King and Dalgleish, both in lyrical content and delivery.

Different Finger appeared on Costello’s 1981 release TRUST. It seemed somewhat out of place, sandwiched between a collection of songs that were composed on a diet of cider, gin, various powders, hangovers and near exhaustion. Though it received mixed reviews at the time, it also includes some of Costello’s strongest song writing, flitting between power pop, soul and roots. Different Finger is classic 'tears in your beer’ honky tonk. However, it is short of two minutes long and came across as a teaser on the album, as if he’d knocked it together in the pub between recording breaks. It’s fleshed out here and given an extra minute and a half. While remaining true to the original, the inclusion of accordion and Spanish guitar reinvigorates a song that otherwise may have remained unfinished and throwaway.

Still Too Soon To Know was one of the more placid inclusions on Costello’s 1994 BRUTAL YOUTH, an album that found the writer at his most cranky, bitter and with quite a lot to get off his chest.  It also offered some killer songs and none less than this composition, which is slowed down by Dalgleish and King, giving it an altogether more atmospheric identity.

 The striking aspects of COUNTRY DARKNESS VOL.1 & 2 are twofold: They provide the listener the opportunity to enjoy some beautifully arranged songs and a richly textured sound, delivered by two voices that combine flawlessly; the albums also invite the Elvis Costello admirers to re-evaluate some of his material, when played back to back with these two thoroughly satisfying mini albums. Hopefully Vol.3 is already under starters orders and the icing on the cake would be concert dates by My Darling Clementine with Steve Nieve accompanying them on piano in the future.

Review by Declan Culliton

Mark Olson & Ingunn Ringvold Magdalen Accepts The Invitation Fiesta Red 

The third collaboration between Mark Olson and his Armenian wife Ingunn Ringvold is a continuation of their idiosyncratic musical journey that began with GOODBYE LIZELLE in 2015 and SPOKESWOMAN OF THE BRIGHT SUN two years later. Interestingly but hardly surprisingly, this time around the album is credited to both, given Ringvold’s increasing input into the three albums.

Olson may be best known for his pioneering work with The Jayhawks, who for many were their first introduction to Alt-Country or what eventually morphed into Americana. Their first three albums, with Olson sharing song writing duties with Gary Louris, were ground breaking, before they moved slightly more mainstream after Olson had departed the band.

In many ways his projects have been more interesting since then. His albums with The Original Harmony Creekdippers, alongside his then wife Victoria Williams, were home-made, charming and childlike, the other end of the scale from his work with The Jayhawks. Two solo albums followed. THE SALVATION BLUES (2007) was a catalogue of striking tales of a person in limbo, depressed and unsure of what the future promised.

This latest album finds Olson and Ringvold in spirited form. It’s not unlike their two previous albums, following a similar pattern of personal songs and reflections on the couple’s relationship and their travels, both physical and intellectual. The mixing and mastering were handled by John Schreiner at Thermometer Shelter Studios near Death Valley National Park in California. The originals had been recorded by the duo on a Nagra field recorder.

Themes visited on the tracks include re-birth and continuity on the soothing Black Locust and imaginativeness on the breezy and poppy April In Your Cloud Garden.  Excelsior Park recalls an amusement park on Lake Minnetonka, which was strictly out of bounds for Olson during his childhood. Silent Mary, possibly the album’s stand out track, was conceived when Olson was researching some old horror movie classical soundtracks. Elmira’s Fountain got its title from a meeting place in Vanadzor, Armenia, a meeting point for the couple with their host named Elmira, prior to days sight seeing and swimming in the cold waters of Lake Sevon.

Olson and Ringvold continue to write and record from the heart, without any external pressures or markets in mind. Impossible to categorise, the instrumentation adopted by Ringvold includes mellotron, chamberlin, tambourine and Qanun whereas Olson sticks to acoustic and electric guitars and occasionally dulcimer. Their somewhat eccentric sound, landing somewhere between pop and psychedelic folk, would have been at home in the mid 1960’s when experimentation was at large and prior to record companies channelling bands down a particular road and discouraging anything left of centre. In the meantime, the couple have their core followers, who will be well pleased and captivated with this delightful update on their trials and travels.

Review by Declan Culliton

Zach Aaron Fill Dirt Wanted Self Release

The cover of Texan Zach Aaron's third studio recording is a cartoon sketch of an open grave with his name etched on the headstone. A makeshift sign is embedded in the grave reading FILL DIRT WANTED, the title of his third album. Signs with that caption are popular in Aaron’s hometown of Cleveland, given its lowland profile and they gave him the bones for the song that also ended up as the title of the album.

That song tells the tale of a lost soul, drifting and locked in self-imposed limbo (‘running from a memory of a man I once was’). It’s one of twelve tracks on an album that intrigues and amuses in equal measures.

The album is a catalogue of tales firmly rooted in the classic and vintage Texan song writing style - a musical travel memoir of Aaron’s observations on relationships, homelessness, life and death.  Like many of his peers, there are nods in the direction of the departed Guy Clark and Townes Van Zant. The song writing styles of Sam Baker and Hayes Caryll also surface on some of the songs.

Dayton Train was written tongue in cheek about a railway junction that delayed car drivers travelling to and from work. Complete with false start and neat guitar picking, it races along at pace and is a clever exercise in wordplay. Composed after the passing of a close friend from cancer, Shelter of The Storm is sweet and melancholic. The song is a co-write with another gifted singer songwriter Kayla Ray, whose 2018 recording YESTERDAY & ME was one of the most loved albums of that year at Lonesome Highway.

Southeast Texas Trinity River Bottom Blues is delivered semi spoken and typifies Aaron’s ability to both charm and stimulate at the same time. The slow rolling groove of the country ballad Hold The Line also impresses, all the better for the understated backing vocals courtesy of Lauren January.

A new artist to me, Aaron’s latest album stopped me in my tracks on first play and has been on constant play since then. I expect it will make a similar impression on any other Texan singer songwriter enthusiasts.

Review by Declan Culliton

Eleven Hundred Springs Here ‘Tis State Fair 

An institution in the Dallas country music scene, Eleven Hundred Springs have been keeping folks on the dancefloor for two decades now. Their personnel may have changed since day one, but their unyielding devotion to traditional Texan country music has remained steadfast. The band was founded by singer and guitarist Matt Hillyer and bass player Steven Berg in 1998, both having been members of rockabilly band Lone Star Trio. The music of classic country artists Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and George Jones were their primary influences. The duo remain at the helm of the band and those influences are still resolute.  The twenty years plus on the road and in the studio has produced thirteen albums prior to this release.

HERE ’TIS follows the release of THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE two years ago and follows a similar template of well-constructed and well-delivered country songs.

All Jokes Aside has nods in the direction of their fellow Texan Rodney Crowell, both in the melody and vocal delivery. It’s an upbeat effort with fiddle and pedal steel breaks in true Texan country style. Let’s Move Out To The Country offers twangy rhythm guitar alongside the fiddle and pedal steel, more Buck Owens than Hank.

The Song You’ll Never Hear could qualify as a classic George Jones cover of yesteryear or possibly a Jim Lauderdale classic of more recent times. Let Me Be Your Man is toe tapping Western Swing, ageless and frenetic, tailor made for the Saturday night dancehall. Loneliness, break up and heartbreak have been done to death by country songwriters over the years, sometimes to spectacular effect, other times less impressively. Eleven Hundred Spring’s tear jerker is the opening track This Morning It Was Too Late and it qualifies as one of the more memorable offerings and also the most sombre track on the album.

Eleven Hundred Springs have established themselves as the premier country band in Dallas over the past two decades. The greatest compliment I can pay them and this album, is that every song on the album sounds like it’s a cover version of a song rooted in your distant memory whose author you can’t seem to quite recall. I can only imagine how impressive this six piece band would be on stage. File beside Mike and The Moonpies as Texan dancehall music at its best.

Review by Declan Culliton

Paul J Bolger Self-Titled Wolfe Island 

Film maker, animator and author Paul J Bolger resurrected his musical career two years ago with the release of the four track EP aptly titled THE START OF IT. This recording followed a break of over twenty years since his debut album THE MOSS HOUSE. That album also included a video for each song, directed by Bolger.

An invitation to support American singer songwriter David Corley on the Waterford date of his Irish tour was a pivotal factor in the emergence of this recording. Corley’s producer Hugh Christopher Brown was part of his touring band and Bolger’s encounter with him developed into a casual friendship. Brown is the leading light at Wolfe Island Records in Ontario and his encouragement was the stimulus that Bolger required to consider developing material he had already written, or partly written and to record a full album.

A trip to Canada to consult on a film offered Bolger the opportunity to visit Wolfe Island and its quaint recording studio. The structure is a renovated cedar shake cabin which previously functioned as Post Office and has been the recording home of the vibrant musical community on Wolfe Island and visitors who are drawn to the island to record at the studio. A number of members of that musical community appear on the album including Hadley Mc Call Thackston, Sarah McDermott and Kate Fenner on backing vocals. Stephen Stanley also adds backing vocals on the opening track Swim and Joey Wright plays electric guitar on a number of selections. Hugh Christopher Brown produced the album and plays keyboards on all tracks. Lisburn resident and ace drummer Michael Mormecha also features. 

Bolger’s music always brings to mind the signature sound that the ‘back to basics’ pub rock scene offered in the mid 1970’s, both in Ireland and the U.K. It blended roots with soul and blues, was entertaining rather than spectacular and fitted the live setting perfectly. It was a short lived era however, a kick to touch from punk rock killed it off, the only trace left behind being a number of the same musicians who traded their shoulder length mops and flares for brutal haircuts and drainpipe trousers, rescued from their grandfather’s wardrobes.

The previously referenced Swim fits that bill perfectly, echoing the early driving sound of Graham Parker. How Many More Tears is equally retro, it’s a soulful affair fleshed out by harmony backing vocals from McCall Thackston and McDermott.  I Believe is a stripped back bluesy album closer. Wedding Gown is dark and emotional, with weeping pedal steel by Burke Carroll adding to the ghostly ambience.  

Review by Declan Culliton

Joey Allcorn State Of Heartbreak Blue Yodel

The traditional country stalwart returns with a 6 track extended play that’s released on digital and very limited edition CD. It is as good as anything he has previously released on his three full length albums and the standout track is his own Lefty Was Right but nothing here is less that convincing.

Alongside his own songs he includes a cover of the Kris Kristofferson and Shel Silverstein penned Faron Young covered Your Time’s Coming. The other outside song his interpretation of Where Did You Sleep Last Night? also know as In The Pines, a song that has traditional origins but is often attributed to Lead Belly. It was also recorded by Nirvana on MTV Unplugged and is here given a more contemporary arrangement with some raucous guitar that is slightly at odds with the other tracks. However it still fits with the overall mood of the release and hints at a broader canvas to work with in the future.

Allcorn’s vocals, as one would expect, have echoes of ol’ Hank but that’s his vocal style and it perfectly suits these recordings. He has again gathered some notable players around him for the sessions. Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Eddy Dunlap on steel guitar, UK born guitarist Sol Philcox-LittleField (a player who has added his skill to Miranda Lambert) but here shows his understanding of the genre’s roots in the main. The rhythm section of Dave Roe and Shawn McWilliams are solid and dependable - all are players who understand where this music has come from and where it can, equally, go to.

There are those who won’t get the retro sounding honky-tonk infused direction that has been taken here but that is to deny a musical genre heritage that needs to survive against the unappealing cross over pop and (un)hip-hop that pervades the mainstream content on country radio. You won’t hear these songs played there but you should seek them out for a listen. Allcorn is his own man and is producing the music he feels most comfortable with and this release just makes you want to hear his next instalment, but for now I have been playing State Of Heartbreak on repeat - because it is worthy of that. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Cory Grinder and the Playboy Scouts Good Boy Self Release

Previously know as the Cory Grinder Band who released an album titled Cahoots & Other Favourites back in 2018 and have now put out, what seems to be something of an industry standard these days, in this extended play release. It is a five track collection of original songs that are true to the band’s moto of doing duty “for two-step dancers and honky-tonkers everywhere.” This they do with an energy and a fitting melodic sensibility that endorses the collective skills of the band fronted by the mellifluous vocal of Grinder. Stephen ‘Tebbs’ Karney adds pedal steel and harmony vocals, Jason Willis is on upright bass and Brian Roberts completes the line-up on drums. They also add fiddle and lead guitar on occasion. Based in Akron and Cleveland, Ohio they have built up a solid local base as well as playing in major cities like Austin, New Orleans, Nashville and Chicago. I’m sure they would also love to be able to reach out to an audience beyond that too.

On the strength of this they sure deserve to. The key tracks here are I Wouldn’t Count On It and the title song. Both are vibrant slices of modern honky-tonk with fiddle and steel and show off the band’s instrumental and melodic skills with strong guest fiddle and lead guitar contributions behind Grinder’s likeable voice and Karney’s streamlined pedal steel. The song has a solid vocal chorus that is memorable. Good Boy is something of a metaphorical ode to a favoured dog as well as to the places that were associated with the hound that no longer exist and a differing attitude.

The remaining three songs are Sweet Eyes, Until The Next One and (Honky Tonkin’) All I Ever Do all fit the lost, strayed and found love stories that are the essence of honky-tonk songs. Cory Grinder and the Playboy Scouts have been building a solid reputation as a live band performing at times with Dale Watson and Kenny Vaughan. One can easily see how these legendary musicians view the potential in the band. They are promising a new full album later in the year and on the evidence here that would be a welcome release.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Latest Album Reviews

Jerry Leger Songs From the Apartment Self Release

This is the ninth release from an artist who declares that it is a lo-fi collection of songs recorded solo at home, most of which had been written, quickly demoed and forgotten about. The performances are relaxed, intimate and refreshingly bare. As Leger says on the song, Hoodoo Brown, “I’m hungry as a hunter, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had the love.”

Whether it’s the gentle piano melody on You & Louise or Katie Come Back, maybe it’s the simple strum on acoustic guitar of Traveller’s Prayer or Leaving Now - you are given the sense of being allowed an exclusive peek through the keyhole of this particular apartment that sees Leger sprawled on his sofa, quietly creating and winking back at you.

Based in Toronto, Leger has always displayed a very strong and creative work ethic, his impressive output since his 2005 debut also including side projects with The Del Fi's and The Bop Fi's. He also features his regular band, The Situation, on a number of his albums.

His 18-track release in 2017, NONSENSE AND HEARTACHE, brought him increased media exposure into Europe and the invite to play some festivals and shows. Leger released a career retrospective in 2019, TOO BROKE TO DIE, which covered his 2005 beginnings right up to 2019 with a very generous twenty one tracks featured.   

So, this is a surprise digital-only album, released on Bandcamp during his days of social isolation, a considered and heartfelt project that will, no doubt, delight his many admirers as well as winning him many more.

Review by Paul McGee 

Victor Wainwright and the Train Memphis Loud Ruf

Wainwright was born in Savannah Georgia and has played in a number of bands, including Southern Hospitality and Victor Wainwright & the Wild Roots. This is the second album with his current band and the larger-than-life vocal delivery channel a bluesy masterclass built upon an array of impressive keyboard histrionics that, in places, recall Dr John. 

Billy Dean (drums), Terrence Grayson (bass, vocals), Mark Earley (sax’s, clarinet), Doug Woolverton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Pat Harrington (guitar) and producer Dave Gross (guitar and percussion) contribute with great musicianship that helps to round out the sound in impressive style.

Creek Don’t Rise has a breakneck speed and is reminiscent of Bob Seeger, while the blues workout of Recovery calls to mind BB King with some great guitar work from guest, Monster Mike Welch. Recovery brings it all home with a terrific guitar solo from Greg Gumpel and another soulful vocal from Wainwright on top of a slow blues arrangement. The twelve tracks are a heady mix of Memphis soul with larger-than-life backing vocals, an exciting horn section, all delivering a rollercoaster listening experience.

It’s a boogie express that never stops with tracks like Walk the Walk and Memphis Loud building the momentum, until Sing arrives with a vaudeville jazz feel. America does slow everything down for a soulful vocal performance from Wainwright but it is only a temporary respite as the track builds to another crashing crescendo.

Many guest musicians turn in cameo roles on various tracks – There are seven different backing vocalists, Monster Mike Welch on guitar (2 tracks), Greg Gumpel (guitar on 3 tracks), Chris Stephenson (Hammond B3) and Mikey Junior (harmonica). It’s an impressive troupe and the sheer number of vocalists and players result in the huge production sound that rolls right over you – well, just like a runaway train. 

Review by Paul McGee

Mike Mattison Afterglow Landslide

An interesting mix of styles on this second album from a musician who grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and who can play a wide range of instruments, from the clarinet and tenor saxophone, to the french horn and trombone. He also plays guitar and bass, but is known mainly for his great vocals as a key member of different bands, including blues rock trio Scrapomatic, Derek Trucks Band and blues rock/soul group, the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Derek Trucks himself played with the Allman Brothers for a period as his uncle Butch Trucks was a drummer in the band. 

So, Mattison has an extensive grounding in different musical genres and the ten tracks featured have traces of many influences in the arrangements and melodies. His voice is both sweet and strong, especially on the soulful All You Can Is Mean It.  The blues is never far away of course and the slow burn of I Was Wrong is very infectious. Also, the easy groove of I Really Miss You recalls the best of soul sounds with organ swells and a great vocal delivery.

Dave York plays guitars, with Frahner Joseph on bass and Tyler Greenwell on drums and percussion. Mattison co-produced the album with Greenwell and there are appearances from Paul Olsen (guitar on four tracks), Rachel Eckroth (keyboards on three tracks) and Kofi Burbridge, who plays organ on two tracks. 

Charlie Idaho and On Pontchartrain have a nice Americana feel to the arrangements with the title track veering towards a Country swing and World’s Coming Down sounding like an upgrade on an old R & B standard.  Variety is the spice of life and there is plenty here to hold the interest

Review by Paul McGee

Jamie Williams and the Roots Collective Do What You Love Ashwill 

This English 5-piece band are based in Essex and play a stylish blend of Americana/Roots music across the twelve tracks that are included here. This is their sixth release and production duties are handled by David Milligan, who also contributes on lead and rhythm guitar, keyboards, plus all brass, string and choir arrangements. 

The other band members are Nick Garner on harmonicas and mouth organs with James Bacon taking drums and percussion and joined in the engine room by Jake Milligan on bass. Jamie Williams wrote all the songs and delivers on vocals and guitar, plus there are guest appearances from BJ Cole on pedal steel on the Country sound of Losing Streak, Robbie McIntosh slide guitar on the funky I’m a Stone and Naomi Poole on cello.  The album title says it all and the sense that these musicians are indeed doing what they love shines through.

There is a slow bluesy feel to If I Met My Hero and Held You In My Glow and the more rock-oriented sound of Red Hot and Raunchy has a great brass arrangement. Life On the Road is another Country tinged song and the final track, Dreams Can Come True, sees the band really kicking into another gear with great keyboard swells and harmonica lines mixing with the blues groove and brass arrangement.

Throughout, these songs are anchored superbly by Jake Milligan and James Bacon, giving the other players the room and space to express themselves. A very enjoyable listen and if you get the opportunity to hear this band in a live setting, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.  

Review by Paul McGee

Ryan Luce California Gold Self Release

A debut EP from singer songwriter Luce who recorded these four songs at Grand St. Recording in New York City with engineer, Jake Lummus. His band of fellow musicians are DM Salsberg on keyboards and vocals, Matt Sapp on bass, Omer Ashano on violin, Wavery Langston on drums and Ron Raymond on pedal steel.

Luce contributes on guitar and vocals and the four songs clock in at a tidy 15 minutes. Faded Memory is a song about the past and leaving for a new life while the title track features two young dreamers searching for their rainbow in the sunny hills of California.

Secondhand Rose is a road song and dreaming of home, with all the treasures that lie waiting in the love of family. The final track, Loner Tendencies, is a break up song and the strong playing of Ashano and Raymond, on violin and pedal steel respectively, is balanced by the fine vocals and keyboards of Salsberg. Simple tunes, played well and a bright opening statement from an artist who will hopefully go on to greater heights.

Review by Paul McGee

Johanna Warren Chaotic Good Wax Nine

Ten tracks that echo with a 60’s folk/psychedelia influence, with imaginative imagery in the lyrics, inventive sound structures in the melodies and rhythms that inhabit the arrangements. The otherness of Rose Potion has an elegant poise that is quickly replaced by the driving beats of Part Of It and a sense of confession and release in the compelling groove. There are haunting keyboard sounds layered in the mix and a gripping sense of mystery in the overall sound. 

Only The Truth slows everything down and reflects on the belief that one has to experience something in order to believe it – the lyric “The wound in me picked out the knife in you” intrigues and the song suggests that hurt is not the case when it comes to recognising the loving spark within each of us – it’s a wonderful swirling arrangement that is reminiscent of Tori Amos in its structure. A special song by any definition of artistic expression.

Bed Of Nails is another sonic sequence of lush melody that tracks a sense of hidden emotion over a relationship. Twisted has an acoustic guitar intro that builds with a passioned vocal into something resembling a catharsis. 

Warren has said that her phoenix moment appeared on this project - that her earlier records were just building a funeral pyre. That sense of release is strongly evident in her conviction to listen to her creative muse; clearly evident on every track here. Warren self-produced the project over a period of years, in between touring and recording other albums in her body of work that has created four previous works. There is no information on the players who grace this project, except a brief mention in the press release for former band mates Chris St. Hilaire and Jim Bertini (from Sticklips) and as Warren is a multi-instrumentalist, I can only assume that she supplied all of the other ‘found sounds’ and instrumentation.

Hole In The Wall is a gentle respite from all the self-analysis and angst as she moves beyond a relationship that seems to reflect a Mother/Daughter bond. The abusive theme of Faking Amnesia is unsettling with its apparent focus on submissive indoctrination while the nursery rhyme delivery of Every Death has an eerie quality in the delivery. 

Literate, obscure and ethereal are all equally relevant impressions across this work of great ambition and powerful attraction. Music should challenge and break out of stereotypes. Folk-Adelia for a new age? This release is worthy of your time and attention.

Review by Paul McGee

The Danberrys Shine Self Release

Ben DeBerry and Dorothy Daniel grew up in the Nashville area and were childhood sweethearts before parting during their college years, as life pulled them in different directions. Happily, they reunited some years later and eventually married. In 2011 they released a debut 4-track EP and followed that with their self-titled full album in 2013.

Their original folk, bluegrass, old-time country sound began to develop by the 2016 album, GIVE AND RECIEVE, leading to this new release, which certainly highlights a very rounded, mature set of songs. The distinct vocals of Daniel take centre stage and her delivery on the twelve tracks is faultless. DeBerry provides fine harmonies, and their dynamic is clearly evident on the final song, Rain, which deals with dwelling on the positive and keeping the ever-present dark thoughts down. 

Indeed, this is a theme that runs through the album with a message of positivity and not letting the hard times sway you from the righteous path. There is a message of hope and spirituality in these songs and the gospel tinged arrangement on The Mountain (Darrell Scott on guest vocal), looks to a higher power and believing in a bright tomorrow. The soulful shuffle of the arrangement hints at a Bonnie Raitt influence, with a Little Feat groove. 

The project was co-produced by Brian Brinkerhoff and Marco Giovino (Band of Joy, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller), who also plays drums, percussion and vibes. He is joined by Neal Pawley (Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes) on guitars, trombone, tuba, background vocals and Duke Levine (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robbie Fulks, Lucy Kaplansky) who contributes on guitars and mandolin.  This A-team is anchored by the superb Marty Ballou on upright and electric bass while the keyboard sound is handled by Tom West, with John Deaderick on pump organ

Adding the talents of Ben DeBerry on guitars and vocals, plus Dorothy Daniel on lead vocals and tambourine results in a heady mix of diverse music and coloured by backing vocals from Amanda Broadway, Vanessa McGowan and Sam Margolis. There is also mention of ‘additional recordings’ by Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt) and Mikie Martel, two more musicians who add even more to the overall feel and production. With so many heavy hitters turning up, you would expect the bar to be raised quite high and the Danberrys certainly prove to be equal to the challenge.

The title track is a swampy blues number with a message to look for the light and banish the darkness. The guitar sound is vibrant, as it is on the similar blues stomp of The Road. Maddie’s Ghost is reminiscent of a Dire Straits sound and a look back at the past in its ability to stay with us. Holding the Bag and Undertow are songs that look at deception and lies, feelings of being let down, but the life affirming mantra on The River Is Wide to keep on going and never give up, shines through more strongly. This positive stance is mirrored on Love Conquers War which asks us to choose love over hate and Francis is a song that deals with helping each other and not feeling lost and alone.  

A very accomplished and confident offering with plenty to appeal to lovers of that rich Americana/Roots sound.  

Review by Paul McGee

Maya Rae Can You See Me? Black Hen

Cross Nelly Furtado with Norah Jones and you get some indication of the sweetly soulful voice that colours the eleven songs here. Maya Rae is still in her teens but that is never evident on this assured performance. When you put her natural vocal gifts in a room of seasoned musicians in Nashville, at the Henhouse Studio, only good things can arise. Add in the magic dust of Steve Dawson, producer, song arranger in-chief, adding his talents on various guitars across all the tracks, well, you are bound to be impressed. 

Factor in the impressive vocal talents of Birds of Chicago duo, Allison Russell and JT Nero, plus Kai Welch (keyboards/trumpet), Jamie Dick (drums), John Estes (bass) and a number of invited guests on certain tracks - Charlie McCoy (vibes on 2 songs), Sam Howard (bass, guitar, vocals across 4 songs), Kristin Weber (violin on 3 songs) and Larissa Maestro (cello on 2 songs) - an impressive team reporting for creative input.

As one of Canada’s most sought-after producers, session musicians and guitarists, Steve Dawson spends much of his time helping other songwriters and musicians bring their creative visions to life. Here, he accepted a chance to work with this talented fellow Canadian who co-wrote all eleven tracks with her brother. The songs are all from a personal perspective and for a young girl growing into adulthood Maya Rae writes with an impressive maturity.

The album was recorded in less than a week and the entire project was captured live in the studio - off the floor, as popular saying goes! Rae’s tone and range are very skilled and slow, sensitive tracks like Picture Frame and Storm Leaf, with atmospheric trumpet, leave no doubt about her ability to cross genres in her performance. Other stand out tracks include Lonely Ones, a sweetly soulful arrangement, and Freedom Fighter a smouldering blues. Overall, this is a very strong statement from an emerging artist that we will be hearing more from in the years ahead.  

Review by Paul McGee

Annie Gallup Bookish Self Release

An artist who trawls in the hidden places and spaces where the nymph of song-writing hides, searching for buried treasure and opening her mind to the possibilities of what may emerge from the journey. 

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from where she graduated with an art degree, Gallup currently lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband and fellow artist/song-writer Peter Gallway. Over the years together, their output has been prodigious with their Hat Check Girl project spawning seven albums, while each has pursued solo releases; Gallway clocking up an impressive total of fifteen, to the eleven that Gallup has completed to date. This is another to add to the list and it’s almost as if they are playing catch up with each other. 

This album is a collection of personal memories, story songs and musings on everything from the Sputnik launch in 1957 (Sputnik) to World War Two tales (The Roads Were Deserted), interspersed with the inner emotions and retrospection of childhood.  Here is a wordsmith who takes time to hone her creations into the exact shape that she envisages, never a word wasted as she shapes the song structures to evoke a sense of time past and interspersed with faded dreams.

Gallup namechecks Angelo Ippolito on the song East 10th Street, an American painter best known for his central role in inaugurating the downtown art scene of post war New York. The sense of artistic freedom and creative endeavour is captured in the words and performance, “And so the artists gathered at the Cedar Tavern, Debating aesthetics over beers, Drew the city’s art epicentre downtown, Where it remained for the next 50 years.” 

Her words have a rhythm and flow like a well-crafted poem. Often, the feeling is one of lonely reminiscence and wistful longing for an elusive feeling, now passed. On another song, California, where certainty and direction have been lost, she contemplates “Back here, it’s so quiet, silence is a thing you could break, With a hammer or a whimper.” Other songs like The Trouble With the Truth and Annie Proulx are insights into relationships where the sense of disappointment and disconnection are palpable

There are personal recollections of her parents and their strictness and stoic demeanour; in the song, Fellow Traveller, Gallup states “Mother was a mystery so I lived like a detective, Looking for clues, for the motive, the weapon.” Equally, when reminiscing about her father, she muses “Still, ever since I was a kid, I had to believe he was capable of loving me, Because he loves poetry.” Heart-breaking insights into a rigid and controlled youth where children were to be seen and not heard. Pseudonym tackles the issue of hidden truths and family constraints to keep from cheap public display. 

With just voice and guitar, these songs are very much like sitting in a small parlour, early evening, watching the day turning into twilight as the intimacy of the invite to share in these fascinating vignettes is revealed. Always compelling and unconventional, Annie Gallup is unique in her creative vision and delivers yet another fine example of superbly framed songcraft. 

Review by Paul McGee

Album - New Reviews

James Elkington Ever-Roving Eye Paradise of Bachelors

This is the second solo release from an artist who has been greatly admired over the years for his technical expertise as a studio musician and a gun for hire to any number of famous names who know about his reputation.

Elkington was born in England but his career in music only started to gain momentum with a move to Chicago. There, he began to study guitar and to play in local bands, before gaining a foothold as a session player around the city. He has played with a very impressive list of people, from Richard Thompson to Tortoise, Jeff Tweedy to Michael Chapman, Steve Gunn to Eleventh Dream Day. He co-produced an album last year for Joan Shelley (Like The River Loves The Sea) to great critical acclaim and this added further momentum to his body of work, that had taken a new turn in 2017, when Elkington released his debut solo album.

This new album is a heady mix of Folk and Jazz rhythms, seamlessly merged together into a really impressive whole. Starting out with Nowhere Time and the sweet sound of a new-age acoustic guitar, similar to something that a John Abercrombie might fashion, before the calm is interrupted by an addictive beat and rhythmic drumming, complimented by superb guitar breaks and repeating motifs. The Jazz tempo and instinctive riffing is really terrific and the layered vocals build into a real tour de force as a statement for the rest of this solo release. 

Second track, Sleeping Me Awake, has a more pastoral sound that is reminiscent of the old Folk days of the 1960’s and is immediately followed by a deep groove on Leopards Lay Down, a dreamlike melody with superb double bass and woodwinds that conjures up early John Martyn.

The studio musicians include Nick Macri on bass, Spencer Tweedy on drums, Paul Von Mertens on woodwinds, Macie Stewart on violin, Lia Kohl on cello and Tamara Lindeman on vocals. The dextrous playing throughout is a pure joy and the almost psychedelic sound on some of the tracks really paints a sweeping vista of rich summer days spent dreaming in the meadows of the countryside. 

Instrumental track, Rendusham’s Way, displays all you need to know about this superb player when it comes to guitar technique; it is a stand-out track among pretty stiff competition. Late Jim’s Lament, a nod and a wink at his timekeeping, builds to a compelling climax of pulsing double-base and frantic guitar, slicing through the beat, while the final track, Much Master, blends pedal steel and woodwind instruments together in an unlikely combination that works superbly well.

The entire project is delivered with a confidence and panache that is quite inspiring and I have no doubt that this wonderful album will feature in many highlights of the year lists as 2020 continues to unfold. 

Review by Paul McGee

John Dennis Mortal Flames Rainfeather 

The imagined dawn of creation is beautifully captured in the lyrics and the gentle acoustic playing on the opening track, First Light - a statement that frames the circle of birth, death and rebirth – captured in the lines “And with each page, Countless flames reach the day of their fading, Their reprise in closed infant eyes, Parents patiently waiting.” 

An impressive start to what is an album of real depth and displaying a talent that impresses at every turn. Eleven songs, over 55 minutes and produced by Bryan Clark at three separate studios in Nashville. Augmented by a coterie of musicians that bring great nuance and touch to these songs, all of which form a cycle that represents a personal journey through experiences that have given both darkness and light in the search for greater meaning. 

The second track, Board Game Money, dispels all sense of the sweet opening sounds and channels a very satisfying James McMurtry groove in talking of just getting by and dreaming of having enough to, one day, enjoy the material attractions that life can dangle. There is a slow and soulful band rhythm to Fools Golden Boy and a look at the fragile pains of growing up and dealing with the pain of the past, pointing at parental lack of care with the lines; “Mama says, “Where You Been?”, But Mama, where were you?”

The imagery and legend of Guinevere is spread across two tracks with an initial wish for imagined, perfect love being replaced by the sense of seeing real love for the first time, by looking beyond the innocence of dreams; “But I’m grateful to now understand, That nobody’s perfect, And everyone’s guilty, Of doing the best that they can.” Amen brother!

Orpheus brings up the difficulty and pain in letting go of a sad memory and the death of a girlfriend some years ago. There is an understandable passion in the vocal and band dynamic, which at its height echoes the frustration in dreams turned sour and the reality of carrying a flame for the past. 

However, there is a turn towards the light at the start of the second song cycle, introduced by the acoustic calm of Another Door and the hope of new beginnings. The pedal steel of multi-instrumentalist and producer Bryan Clark is very integral to the feel of the track, together with some superb backing vocals from one of the three female voices featured across these songs. The quality of harmony singing is top drawer and without individual credits, I was very impressed by Kynadi Echols, Tyra Thompson, Emily Perino, whenever they were given parts in the song arrangements. All shine brightly throughout, together with the male contributions of Bren Joy and Jason Erie on selected tracks. 

Stand-out song for me is the superb Good Good Love that looks at the joy of attraction from both sides of a relationship that’s about to take flight. It hints at speaking of true feelings and not letting unrequited love be the dominant force that holds back on experiencing the real thing. The duet vocal with Alannah Zitka is just a perfect example of two voices complimenting each other in a sweet balance of hidden fears and true emotion. 

The Innocents is a slow band groove around the scars of childhood and a hope to stay strong by being together – “Can we learn how to trust, When we’ve never been shown it?” The title track deals with the trade-off between free will and fate, the mystery of this life and the impermanence of living – perhaps the secret lies in just enjoying every given day? Final track, Oh Beloved, brings everything back to the source and speaks of letting go in order to embrace a new chance to grow from the pain of losing someone dear. 

This third album from the head and heart of John Dennis speaks to me of an old soul in a young body and is something that will stand the test of time. A work that will endure and one which speaks loudly of a talent that deserves greater exposure and recognition. A very impressive release.     

Review by Paul McGee

Brooks Williams Work My Claim Self Release

A singer-songwriter that has released more than 20 albums across a 30-year career span deserves to be given the highest of accolades when acknowledging contemporary Folk/Roots artists. Williams was born in Statesboro, Georgia and learned his craft in the bars and coffee houses of Boston, alongside many other wannabees on the Folk circuit in the late 70’s. His debut album appeared in 1990 and over the next ten years he followed it with a regular output of recordings that proved his prolific talents as a songwriter of some depth and a very accomplished acoustic guitar player.

This release marks his 30th anniversary in a business that is famous for its high attrition rate and the roads are scattered with the bones of many performers who went before and after, in search of a modicum of fame and perhaps, a living.

The twelve songs featured here are taken from eight of his releases, LUCKY STAR (2018), winning out with three tracks included. There is also a cover of a Duke Ellington song, I Got It Bad (and that ain’t good), that seems gratuitous, given the huge amount of material he has to choose from his self-penned back catalogue. 

The early period of his career, 1990 – 1998 is represented by only four songs and although Williams states that he has chosen his favourite songs, one has to wonder if a poll taken from his fan-base might have resulted in a more even spread of this talented troubadour across his back catalogue. 

Williams displays a healthy interest in different genres as he comfortably skips between Folk, Blues and Roots based songs, with an array of talented guests joining him to reinterpret these songs and present fresh arrangements.  The fiddle playing of both Aaron Catlow and John McCusker is very prevalent on the opening four songs, Inland Sailor, King Of California, Frank Delandry and Seven Sisters. The blues then kick in for a few songs, with You Don’t Know My Mind and Here Comes the Blues highlighting the playing of Jim Henry (mandolin) and Phil Richardson (piano). There is a light swing to Whatever It Takes and Georgia and the gentle vocals of Christine Collister feature. 

The final two tracks, Jump That Train and My Turn Now, are acoustic blues with just Brooks on acoustic guitar and vocals, joined again by Collister, in what is a fine example of his bottleneck slide and finger picking techniques.

Listening to his body of work, there are many excellent albums, including live, compilation and tribute projects, which have all added to what stands as a very successful career. 

Review by Paul McGee

Jaime Wyatt Neon Cross New West

Not many artists can have been dogged with misfortune more than Jaime Wyatt. Some of the distractions were self afflicted, others not so. A career that promised so much from an early age was side tracked when two record deals fell through while she was still in her teens. Some unfortunate life choices followed, together with substance abuse issues, leaving her in the doldrums and steamrolling downhill, another artist with potential unrealised.

In the true spirit of many of country music’s most celebrated artists who struggled with addiction and incarceration issues, she has used these experiences to inspire her writing. Her 2017 recording FELONY BLUES was peppered with memories stimulated by fellow inmates during her incarceration at Wasco State Prison - or Stone Hotel as she branded the institution on the album. The recording also provided a glimpse of the unquestionable talent that Wyatt possesses. If that album was an indicator of Wyatt finding her feet, NEON CROSS simply knocks it out of the park.

Shooter Jennings is hot property as a producer currently, particularly for female artists. Both Brandi Carlisle and Tanya Tucker have benefitted from his input which earned them both Grammy Awards in recent years. A long-time friend of Wyatt’s, he witnessed her at her lowest and understood the issues she was coming to terms with, including coming out as a gay woman. That empathy, together with his expertise at the controls, earned him the production duties. He places Wyatt’s vocals perfectly in the mix, often using first and second takes where her voice cracked slightly, capturing the mood to perfection. He also gathered a powerful team of players alongside him. Neal Casal, to whom the album is dedicated, features on guitar, harmonica and Wurlitzer, in one of his last studio performances before his tragic passing.  Shooter’s regular bass player Ted Russell Kamp also performs, alongside John Schreffler Jr. on pedal steel and Jamie Douglas on drums. The icing on the cake is a cameo by Jessi Colter, who also lends a hand, sharing vocals on the autobiographical I’m Just A Woman.

However, the real winner on the album is Wyatt’s song writing and her ability to vocalise her tales with phrasing, intensity and passion. That emotion hits you straight on from the first track Sweet Mess. It mourns an impending relationship collapse and opens with a piano intro by Wyatt.  Every word is meticulously enunciated as she accepts the inevitable. “I’ll guess that just like all the rest, I’ll be forgotten.”

“Oh, poor me, Oh, poor me, You don’t love me, why don’t you nail me to a neon cross?” she probes on the title track. It’s delivered with a driving drum lead rhythm, echoed vocals and instantly catchy melody.  Wyatt’s vocals border on tearful on Hurt So Bad. It positively aches as she looks over her shoulder at vices that pull at her and the strains of leaving them behind. “Them swingin’ doors they cut right through me and I gave my money to the man” she cries alongside some aching pedal steel. Jennings adds vocals on the chorus, placed in the mix as if he’s observing from afar. This is country heartache from the real world rather than from a shared song writing session. 

The album could justifiably have been titled Livin’, one of the songs that is featured. It’s one of eleven tracks on the album and each navigates its way across a variety of emotions. Staring in the mirror and examining her inner self, Wyatt is opening up wounds not yet fully healed with painful honesty. She’s also banishing demons and dealing with issues that have possibly been festering and needed closure. In this vein, By Your Side reflects on the passing of her father and a close friend from a drug overdose, and her inability to deal with either at the time.

Despite the enormous potential that Wyatt projected as a young artist, it’s improbable that she could have recorded material as powerful as this without the suffering and regret that she’s since endured. However, much of that disorder has been followed by a reawakening and rebirth, both of which shine through on the album.

My profile picture says, “thirty-three and still ain’t grown” she reminds herself on the rocking Make Something Outta’ Me.  Age should not be an impediment; Lucinda Williams was a dozen years older when she released CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD and people eventually stood up and took notice. Hopefully, Wyatt’s maturity and composure are maintained and she continues to record material of this standard in the future.

 Personally, I may hear a better album in 2020, but I seriously doubt it.

Review by Declan Culliton

Josh O’Keefe Bloomin’ Josh O’Keefe Self Release

With a double-edged title to the album that could refer to the blossoming or the splendour of the artist, Josh O’Keefe is a singer songwriter who is ignoring popular trends to concentrate on his own personal musical pilgrimage. U.K. born but presently residing in Nashville, his debut album boldly ignores the ongoing Americana explosion by focusing solely on a traditional folk sound. His musical apprenticeship is impressive and includes sharing stages with household names such as Kris Kristofferson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Alison Krauss and Rufus Wainwright. An impressive curriculum vitae indeed, for an artist that had yet to record a full-length album. The learning process also included appearances at Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, Black Deer Festival and Glastonbury, together with endless hours in Nashville’s Lower Broadway bars with a tip jar at his feet.

His sound is unapologetically folk, a throwback to the mid 1960’s. That pre-hippy period found artists such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger calling the shots. They relied solely on their vocals, battered acoustic guitars, harmonicas and their ability to create meaningful songs with simple language. O’Keefe has used a similar template with this recording.

He has not been in a rush to record the album either, waiting until he had the appropriate ammunition and carefully selecting where he would record and under whose guidance. The ten tracks on offer were recorded live at the legendary Columbia Studio A in Nashville by the late Charlie Brocco. A Grammy winner for his work with Kacy Musgraves, having previously recorded with George Harrison, Patty Griffin, Barenaked Ladies and many more, Brocco sadly passed away two months after working on the album.  The final mastering was undertaken by Greg Cali (Bon Iver, The National, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen) at Sterling Sound studios in New Jersey.

The material is forged from both modern and traditional folk roots with subjects such as mortality (The Lonely Highway), lost love (Lucille, Lucille), racism (We’re All The Same) and current politics (Thoughts and Prayers) all highlighted.Sticking to his artistic guns O’Keefe has resisted fleshing out the songs, instead relying on his emotive vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica. His vocal is two steps ahead of being semi spoken at times, approaching Sam Baker’s vocal style on Lucille, Lucille and early Dylan on When Mother Nature Calls. The tongue in cheek Talkin’ Neighbour From Hell, delivered with full English accent, recalls fellow countryman and folkie Billy Bragg.

It’s an impressive and courageous debut album from an artist that appears to have a career game plan and is executing it with military precision. Josh O’Keefe is a name to keep an eye out for in the coming years.

Review by Declan Culliton

Clara Rose Travelling Soul Self Release

Whether it’s fronting her own band, belting out the blues as a member of Ladies in The Blues at Glastonbury, curating an event to celebrate International Women’s Day, or toning her Sean Nós vocals, Clara Rose seldom sits still. The high spirited and multi-talented artist - she can also boast a Masters in Music Therapy - has taken a slight detour from her core sound with this five track EP. Her last album THE OFFERING, released in 2018, showcased her extraordinary vocals on a collection of songs that covered her core blues style, with some jazz and folk on the side.

On this occasion she travels down a somewhat more traditional and folky route on the five tracks, four of which are original compositions. The remaining inclusion is an arrangement of the traditional cowboy ballad Red River Valley. The material came to life following time spent on Achill Island in Co. Mayo and the project is very much a family affair. She collaborated with her mother Elizabeth Monahan - no stranger to sharing stages with Clara Rose - on the recording. Her father Alan Monahan also makes an appearance, adding banjo to the title track. The opening track The Pattern, lands dead centre between folk and trad, with Clara Rose taking the lead vocal before merging into a duet with Elizabeth mid-song. They both harmonise on the timeless title track which follows. Cathy Mc Evoy’s haunting violin connects divinely with the vocals on Your Pirate Queen, which is set to theme of the Irish trad song Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile. The up-tempo Man-O-War offers vocals, acoustic guitar and violin delivered like a full force gale. The previously referenced Red River Valley closes the album in fine style, mother and daughter voices and strummed guitar more than enough to do the song justice.

Whereas her previous albums particularly focused on her muscular vocals, the emphasis here is directed towards melody and harmony, on songs that embrace both the best elements of folk and traditional music. Clara Rose may be more accustomed to delivering high octane blues than melancholy folk but TRAVELLING SOUL is evidence that she’s every bit as comfortable with either challenge.

Review by Declan Culliton

Devil Doll Lover & A Fighter Self Release

The title is a pretty accurate depiction of Devil Doll, or Colleen Duffy as she is know to those close to her. The “Fighter” aspect is described in the blog on her website where she writes about being faced what would seem like unsurmountable health issues, but has managed to come out with a strong and positive attitude in the wake of that. The “Lover” is evident by her love and commitment to making and recording this new album. It is varied and vibrant blend of torch song, rockabilly, blues, countrypolitan and harder-edged classic rock. All genres that have their roots in earlier times but are here given a sense of engagement that is very much of and for a contemporary audience. 

Contributors include sometime The Who bassist Jon Button, Gabe Witcher from the Punch Brothers and Charlie Overbey, who duets on Ballad Of The Rearview Mirror. The title track is a guitar-riffing, uptempo driving song (in both senses) that takes few prisoners. Duffy has noted that another of the songs here, namely  Steeltown Heart, was written as a tribute to heroes Hank Williams Snr and Patsy Cline. It features prominent steel guitar with a vocal performance that is top notch and highlights again her range and versatility. Her writing is also a reflection of the twin aspects of the title and serves notice of a storytelling songwriter of some dexterity. There is heartbreak, seduction and some spiritual searching - the latter as heard in the understated Mother Mary. There are two covers alongside the eleven originals  - a cover of Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe and a striking big sounding version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man. Although it is not noted in the press release I am assuming that Duffy was also heavily involved in the production of the album. 

The direction that Duffy has chosen, while not unique in itself, is a summation of its many parts, maybe described best as a high-end rock ’n’ roll cabaret that touches on different emotions and energies to make the experience a rewarding listen on several different levels. With a playing time of an hour it is a release that will see listeners finding immediate favourites but further listening reveals other songs to savour in the long term in the company of this devilish doll.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Darlin’ Brando Also, Too … Self Release

A mini-album of 8 tracks from Darlin’ Brando which is a project of Brandon Goldstein who works with a number of Nashville-based artists as a drummer. Goldstein is no newcomer to the game and has performed in various guises and roles through the years. On this new release he performs with his wife Edith Freni on backing vocals and on a duet on the opening track When You Don’t Fight. There is a good sense of melody and structure in this self-composed and produced material. These Old Demons looks back at an earlier self and how messed up he might have been then and how that relates to current relationships. Adam Kurtz adds some soothing pedal steel alongside Storm Rhode IV’s twang inspired guitar riffs. These players are part of the Streise Bar Band and they feature on 6 tracks. The remaining 2 are played with multi-instrumentalist Ryan Payton. Weeds and Flowers, one of those two songs, has a different sound more of a harmony duo than on the other tracks. The second Payton backed song The Old Man And The Kid is an acoustic based story song about a journey to Las Vegas that turned out to be eventful and not quite the money making venture that was planned for. Crumbling Marriages is a honky tonk inspired tale of two people who are looking at the break-ups of their friend’s marriages. They find ways to make theirs work in the surrounding mayhem. Last Call is a barroom shout out for the end of a rowdy night and Year One is again helped by Freni’s additional vocal.

All of which goes to show that Goldstein can adapt his vocal style to suit particular songs. His role in the production and mixing mean that what you hear on this outing is pretty much what he aimed for at that time. As a musician working with other projects who is also trying to forge a solo career it is undoubtably not an easy ride but the fact that he reached his target when crowdfunding this release which can only bode well for the future. Personally I was drawn more towards the band selections but the balance overall works and shows that Goldstein has the ability and vision to take this further on a full album release the next time out.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Charlie Sutton  Primitive Songs For Modern Times Junkerdash

“Country-fried folkabilly” is Charlie Sutton’s apt description of his eclectic mix of country-blues, folk, primitive guitar and rockabilly which he brings to us on his first solo recording. He has already put out two albums with Curtis Sutton and the Scavengers, and has been playing around his native Boise, Idaho for a few years, having previously lived in several parts of the US. 

Across the 16 tracks, we are taken on a crazy ride through the world according to Charlie, with subjects ranging from the personal to tales of jail break outs, escapades of rats and hounds, story songs, love songs and farming tales. All are delivered with an upbeat infectious enthusiasm, topped with a large dollop of humanity. Charlie writes all the songs and is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitars, banjo, harmonica, bass and percussion. 

He favours a resonator guitar sound with lots of harmonica, percussion and a curious collection of homemade sound effects. Someone New recounts the breakdown of his marriage and the effects of post-divorce arrangements on his child. In Penitentiary we hear from a child’s viewpoint the tale of his father’s imprisonment, the edgy harmonica embues the song with a mournful atmosphere, eventually turning to menace. The harmonica is used to similar effect in Radioactive Hound, convincingly evoking the howls and then the shrieks of said canine. Against the odds, you just might find yourself feeling affection for the rodent who tells his tale in The Old Wharf Rat, or empathising with Charlie when he admits that he is decidedly not a Modern Man. Elsewhere he can surprise with a switch to gentle jazz ballads, simply recorded with acoustic guitar and fiddle, as in Had A Dream and Windy. Incinerator is a standout closing song, just Charlie’s vocals and electric guitar. 

Signed to the recently formed Junkerdash Records, home of a small roster of likeminded artists, the album is co-produced by label founder and HillFolk Noir’s Travis Ward. Recorded in Charlie’s home studio, the Shred Shed, Travis also contributes some keyboards and backing vocals. His partner Alison Ward adds washboard to several tracks, while another notable contributor is Adam Straubinger whose fiddle playing is striking throughout.

Review by Eilís Boland

New Reviews - Albums

Pharis and Jason Romero Bet On Love Lula

Marc Jenkins (producer) lugged his recording equipment to the banjo workshop at the home of Pharis and Jason Romero outside the tiny town of Horsefly, British Columbia, so that they could record their fifth album in relaxed and familiar surroundings.

The result is another gem from the Juno-award winning duo. Instilled with a contentment that is contagious, the self-penned ten songs and one instrumental are imbued with a timeless quality, channeling old time, folk and early country music.

Recorded simply, with Pharis playing her vintage Gibson guitar and Jason playing either guitar or one of their highly sought-after gourd banjos, there is lots of room for their gorgeous voices to shine through. On Pharis’s Hometown Blues she explores that perpetual theme of yearning for home, even while knowing that one had to leave to appreciate it. Her exquisite lead vocal is harmonised to perfection here, and throughout the album, by Jason’s rich tones. Master mandolinist John Reischman and bassist Patrick Metzger join them on this and several other songs, but appropriately there’s nothing showy about their contributions. Jason sings lead on two songs, Roll On My Friend and the downbeat closer, World Stops Turning. On New Day, a song of yearning for love, their twin guitars wrap themselves around each other as beautifully as their voices do. In an album packed with highlights, it’s difficult to chose a favourite but the standout has to be Bet On Love, which Pharis admits is “the most personal and intimate song I’ve ever written’. It comes from a person who is at peace with herself and with her life, demonstrated at the end by a most joyous yodel. ‘If we bet on love babe, we will win.”

Review by Eilís Boland

Lucinda Williams Good Souls Better Angels Highway 20

The late career purple patch in creative form from Ms Williams continues. Both 2014’s DOWN WHERE THE SPIRIT MEETS THE BONE and THE GHOST OF HIGHWAY 20, which followed two years later, signposted an artist with a lot to say and in a hurry to say it. GOOD SOUL BETTER ANGELS continues in an equally energetic manner.

 The song writing dynamic this time around takes a slight diversion from her norm. Often scathing of the principle of co-writing (“four people getting credit for song writing on one song. Why does it take so many people to write a bad song?”)  she allowed her husband and manager Tom Overby to contribute this time around. It’s also her first career album where the material in the main is drawn from current and political topics. She’s frustrated, she’s angry and has a lot to get off her chest and she achieves this and more across the twelve tracks.  

Over 20 years after the release of her breakthrough album CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD, she returned to Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studios in Nashville to record the album. The album was pieced together over a number of visits with her touring band Buick 6 (David Sutton on bass, Butch Norton on drums and Stuart Mathis on guitar) whenever they had a break from the road. The production duties were shared between Kennedy and Overby and the result is a sound that resonates very much like a live album.

Williams has seldom done conventional over her career and has always been light years ahead of her peers.  Kicking off as a folkie, she diverted to what became known as alternative country and more recently has veered towards country blues. While maintaining that bluesy vibe, this latest offering is the closest to garage punk that she’s recorded, choppy and grinding guitars, thumping bass and drums all behind her familiar husky snarling vocals. The playing is fluid, confident, raw as hell and delivers a mutant musical strain fusing punk, blues and full on rock.

Bad New Blues and Man Without A Soul have their arrows pointed at obvious targets, the former offering disbelief at the uncontrolled racism and bigotry surfacing in her home country. The latter’s target hardly needs to be referenced, the stark rhythm on the track sounds like Williams fronting The Velvet Underground. Wakin’ Up is one track that is retrospective rather than current. Its inclusion may be an exorcism of sorts, dealing with a bad relationship she extracted herself from. It’s brutally honest (‘it shook me up, it was a bad scene’) with graphic lyrics telling of both physical and psychological abuse. Williams spits out the lyrics flanked by screeching guitars. Things calm down somewhat on Shadows and Doubts but the subject matter is every bit as dark and aimed at fallen artist Ryan Adams. ‘Look at the carnage you’ve left behind’ she says in a matter of fact manner. Neither judgemental nor sympathetic, the lyrics unfold like an open letter. Down Past The Bottom is a full-on grungy rocker with her vocal approaching breaking point.

Williams, like her father, is primarily a writer and poet. Her back catalogue reads like a biography and even though she’s coming from a less personal perspective this time around, a couple more chapters feature here.  Riveting stuff!

Review by Declan Culliton

Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen Hold My Beer Vol.2 Lil' Buddy Toon

Sometimes you want to carefully decipher every line and phrase in a song to establish the writer’s complex inner thoughts. Other times you simply want a rollicking and less demanding listen to match your mood. HOLD MY BEER VOL.2 certainly ticks the latter box.

Enter Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen. With successful solo careers under their respective belts for two decades, the two Texans joined forces in 2015 to record HOLD MY BEER VOL.1 and followed the success of that venture with a live album titled WATCH THIS the following year. Buoyed by the success of these albums, which were initially considered a somewhat light hearted project, they’ve gathered twelve songs on this album including self writes, collaborations and a few well-chosen cover songs. John Randall and Jim Beavers co-write on a number of inclusions and Lori Mc Kenna comes on board with Ryan Beaver and Ashley Ray to contribute Rhinestoned. The song is an ode to traditional country music, name checks George Jones and like many of the tracks, features shared and harmonies by Rogers and Bowen. Ode To Ben Dorcy, a tribute to the legendary career roadie who passed away in 2017, includes an unreleased demo vocal contribution from Waylon Jennings which opens the song. Waylon’s son Shooter, taking a break from his numerous album production duties, also guests on the album. To complete the high-profile team, Asleep at The Wheel feature on one track and the production duties were handled by Lloyd Maines.

With the extent of personnel involved the end result could have been disjointed. The outcome is quite the reverse in fact, the twelve tracks gel together and offer a perfect mix of spiced up high octane Texan country. The playful title track rocks along with a driving ZZ Top riff and the equally bubbly Let Merle Be Merle is toe tapping heaven. It’s not all beer swilling fun though: Rodeo Clown, Her and Speak To Me Jukebox, in typical country song writing tradition, are all 'tears in your beer' tales of love lost and found.

Rogers and Bowen are old school career musicians and heart on the sleeve Texan country diehards, renowned for their lively live shows.Those attributes ring loud and clear on this album by a group of players who, similar to their distant cousins Western Centuries and Mike & The Moonpies, are leading lights in country dancehall music. Mission accomplished!

Review by Declan Culliton

Hurray For The Riff Raff Hurray For The Riff Raff / Look Out Mama Loose

Though only twelve months separated the release of these two albums, the contrast between them is striking. With moving parts and personnel changes over the years, HFTRR has essentially been a vehicle, both lyrically and musically, for the individualistic Alynda Segarra. Of Puerto Rican heritage, she struggled like a fish out of water in her youth and her life journey, both personally and musically, reads like an attempt to discover her real self. Her mother is former New York Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra and her father was a school music teacher, musician and Vietnam veteran. The couple split when Alynda was two years old, resulting in her being raised by her aunt and uncle in the Bronx. Initially drawn to hardcore punk in her teens, she fled New York at the age of seventeen, hopping freight trains, crisscrossing America, existing hobo style, before eventually arriving in New Orleans via San Francisco.

 The vibrant musical jumble of jazz, blues, hip hop, and rhythm & blues was a game changer for Segarra in New Orleans. Already engrossed in traditional American music, doo wop and punk, she joined up with likeminded bohemians to create the Dead Man Street Orchestra. Essentially a collection of street buskers, they delivered a concoction of music from Cajun folk to old time mountain music and gypsy music to Balkan melodies. With ambitions beyond surviving as an itinerant street musician, she formed HFTRR in 2007 and recorded two self-produced albums IT DON’T MEAN I DON’T LOVE YOU (2008) and YOUNG BLOOD BLUES (2010) at Living Room Studios in New Orleans. Lyrically and musically, these albums underlined her flair as both a writer and experimentalist.

The self-titled album HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF, released by Loose in 2011, cherry-picks the stronger material from those first two albums. The songs represent an artist dealing with her own emotions and identity, a feature that would continue in Segarra’s subsequent work. Given her nomadic lifestyle as a runaway from the age of seventeen, the material visits a host of emotions, life experiences and choices, many quite uncomfortable. Danielle and Take Me both recall abusive relationships experienced or imagined. Is That You and the instrumental carnival type opener Meet Me In The Morning are gloriously loose and chaotic. Banjo, fiddle, accordion and trumpet all compete wonderfully on these tracks, stimulated by the rhythmic musical fusions they were encountering in New Orleans. Is That You?, Too Much Of A Good Thing and Little Things are beautifully written and constructed songs and a pointer towards things to come from an artist learning her trade on the job. Junebug Waltz also impresses with its honky tonk overtones.

If that album sowed the seeds for what might follow, LOOK OUT MAMA was a giant step forward, finding Segarra in full bloom. With only Yosi Perlstein on drums and fiddle surviving from the previous album's line up, the latest incarnation of the band headed to The Bomb Shelter in Nashville to record. The house studio is the property of Andrija Tokic, an emerging producer at that time who also was at the control board for Alabama Shakes’ BOYS AND GIRLS. Tokic worked alongside Segarra and multi-instrumentalist Sam Doores to produce a slick and polished album, yet maintaining the thrilling musical contamination that defines their core sound. The album reaches the dizzy heights that its predecessor implied, from the belting opener Little Black Star, complete with twirling fiddle and hand claps, to the beautifully constructed closer Something’s Wrong. There’s a swagger and confidence from Segarra this time around - also very evident from the band’s live shows at that time. “Well I used to be a rambling girl, but I got tired and settled down. I’ve been out East and I’ve been out West, but the Southern States are the ones I love best” she confesses on Ramblin’ Gal, before adding that she’s yet to find a home. LOOK OUT MAMA, with its references to her mother and father - he appears as a young man on the cover - was a chapter in Segarra’s life journey both physically and more so emotionally. The pilgrimage would continue with the homage to New Orleans in SMALL TOWN HEROES (2014) and her cinematic jewel THE NAVIGATOR three years later. Whether she has shed all her demons and found peace with herself remains to be seen. Either way we can only hope there are more chapters to be written by an exceptionally creative artist, whose intermixing of the various genres of American music is both intriguing and intoxicating. Both albums are essential purchases for lovers of the Americana genre, as indeed are HFTRR’s entire back catalogue.

Review by Declan Culliton

Ben De La Cour Shadow Land FCSR

It is sometimes not always a good thing to over praise an artist and album but to these ears SHADOW LAND is something quite special. It is an intriguing combination of musical style, vocal prowess aligned with a rare mix of compositional skill that is both poetic and concise storytelling. THE HIGH COST OF LIVING STRANGE, De La Cour’s previous album was one that I returned to often after initially reviewing the album in 2018. Here he has surpassed that release with this set of new songs.

Recorded, this time out, in Winnipeg, Canada, other than in Nashville and De La Cour worked with fellow artist Scott Nolan in the production chair to bring out the best in this new set of material. They utilised the skills of some local players who turned in performances that were a testament to their talent as well as to the core material. Material that had been hewn from the hard rock of a life which had seen spells of addiction and psychosis, things that were an integral part of his existence up to this point. These are not tales of easy living and superficial observations from a privileged vantage point, rather they concern real time observations of the attitudes of those living a life of crime, of lovelorn longings, of substance abuse and mental turmoil. There is though a humanity in the writing that has both sympathy and understanding for these characters that can be rare in contemporary writing.

The range of musical settings go from the full on band energy of songs like Basin Lounge, In God We Trust … All Others Pay Cash, Harmless Indian Medicine Blues that musically refer back to earlier times when De La Cour played in metal and punk bands in CBGBs. These harder songs rock and offer counterpoint to the other more retrained but still often intense cuts like High Heels Down The Holler. The album opens with the spaghetti western screenplay of desperation detailed in God’s Only Son with an appropriate soundtrack which immediately sets the path for something special that follows.

However the songs that make immediate impact are those which are delivered with a sparse accompaniment like The Last Chance Farm about a bleak rehab location which has some revelatory couplets like “I swear to god I’d give my first born for one lousy beer, Jerry said you wouldn’t talk like that it they’d took yours away … how the hell you think I wound up in this place?” 

The title song, Shadow Land, which features the lines “God’s hiding in bushes, the bushes are on fire, we’re all waiting for him to show, but it’s coming down to the wire.” Lines that speak of expectation and a sense of how easily  that anticipation can be dashed. The final track Valley Of The Moon bears comparison with Leonard Cohen both in its delivery as well as in its erudite composing. To some this may be something that could be seen as being a homage to a master, rather I see it as the apprentice having learned the lessons well. It ends the album, for this writer, on a high point.

However, the subject matter here may be more attuned to the darker, more desperate sides of life, it is an album that by its very nature is positive and purposeful. It marks Ben De La Cour out as a gifted troubadour who is able to impart a downtrodden wisdom that is of these times - songs from deep in the heart of the shadow lands. It is undoubtably going to be among the best albums released this year.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Liv Greene Every Bright Penny Self Release

This is a very engaging debut release from a singer-songwriter who grew up in Washington DC before moving away to Boston in order to begin her musical journey. She won the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Competition for Emerging Singer-Songwriters in 2019 and chose Dimension Sound Studios in Jamaica Plain, MA as the place to record this album.

It was engineered, mixed and mastered by Daniel Cardinal and produced by Isa Burke of Americana trio, Lula Wiles. Burke also contributes as a musician and plays both electric guitar and fiddle, as well as providing harmony vocals. Other studio musicians include Maddie Witler on mandolin, Grace Ward on upright bass and harmony vocals and Sean Trischka on drums.

There are eleven tracks and on repeated listen there is not a weak song included in the bunch. For a debut release it is very assured and polished in both the song-writing and musical departments. The ensemble does great justice to the songs and play together in a symbiotic fashion that elevates the melodies and arrangements.

On the new single, Wishing Well, a song about unrequited love, Greene sings “like a weight I’ll bear it, terrified to share it, and if my heart is on my sleeve- I didn’t mean to wear it”.

Stand out song, Where You Need Me is full of uncertainty, trying to relate and unsure of what role to take in a fragile relationship; “Honey I see you're thirsty, bereft, and so unwell, And so I offer up my raincloud and my wishing well.” The last track, a simple guitar strum highlighting the pure vocal on The Best Way Out, Greene sings “And I know just what you’re thinking, Swimming seems harder than sinking, When you’re terrified to even start”. Another song about the vagaries of relationships.

New York’s Arms speaks of making your own mistakes, moving on from a toxic relationship, new beginnings - “when I awoke in new york’s arms, I didn’t think of you, I opened up the window wide, I’m falling for a skyline view.”  Mature beyond her young profile, her perspective on relationships is considered and clearly rooted in hard won experience. There is a change in style from the confessional singer songwriter on the more up-tempo Independence, with mandolin and violin bringing the melody to soaring heights in the arrangement. Equally, the engaging playing on Wayside, with plucked upright bass grounding everything, is proof of an emerging talent that has a way with words: “So as you turn the knife, as you bring the page to life, remember how you sketched me in the margins.”

Songs such as Gone, Where You Need Me and The Best Way Out are very atmospheric and yet simple in their construction and delivery. Greene has a lovely vocal tone, both wistful and warm, engaging with ease across the songs and showcasing her talents as a guitarist and a talent to be celebrated as she grows towards greater things.

Review by Paul McGee

Eliza Gilkyson 20/20 Red House

This is an album for our times and It could not have been more perfectly delivered. You could say hindsight is 20/20 vision or that here are prurient songs for our sorry state in the year 2020. 

The truth is that many of these songs were written with a view to the upcoming presidential election in the USA and the prospect of the anti-christ being returned for a second term of hate-filled messages of intolerance and racial tensions, all fuelled by a righteous sense of self-aggrandization. The fact that Covid-19 virus hit the World in the manner that it did, just a few months ago, gives further weight to the urgent message carried by these ten songs.

Eliza Gilkyson has arrived at the throne of contemporary Folk royalty long before now, revered by both her peers and a plethora of fans and admirers of her keen observational eye and her activism. She walks the walk as well as just being one of the principal artists to sing about our sad and urgent plight. In the last ten years she has released four of the most vital albums that you could have in your collection and each one reflects the brave and beautiful light that she shines on both our humanity and our failings.

The assembled players are a real joy throughout, serving these ten songs with just the right amount of nurture and loving care in understated playing and gentle coaxing of sweet melodies at every turn. This A-team includes Mike Hardwick (electric and acoustic guitars, slide guitar, pedal steel, dobro, 12-String guitar), Chris Maresh (bass), Bukka Allen (wurlitzer, hammond organ, nord, piano), Warren Hood (fiddle), Kym Warner (mandolin), Betty Soo (harmony vocals) and Cisco Ryder Gilliland (drums, percussion, harmony vocals), her talented son and also the producer on this record. 

There is a cameo appearance by Jaimee Harris (vocal on “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”), plus the WEWIM Choir of Austin, a support group co-founded by Eliza and singer Charlie Faye to nurture local female musicians. They are comprised of Noelle Hampton, Bonnie Whitmore, Jana Pochop, Zanna Ouise, Bellarosa Castillo, Christine Albert, Raina Rose.

Eliza contributes on acoustic guitar, national steel guitar, electric guitar and harmonica, if proof were needed of her many gifts as a musician. She also sings with real feeling, nuance and grace. Bookended by messages of hope and community, both Promises to Keep and We Are Not Alone are calls to action and strength in a common goal, “Fill me up with inspiration’s fire, And get me out into the street.”

The cover versions of Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall and Pete Seeger’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone? are both beautifully judged in the overall context. Timely messages of retribution for our self-absorbed destruction, of both ourselves and society in general, fuelled by rampant consumerism and patriarchy.

A key moment is the song, Beach Haven, adapted by Eliza from a Woody Guthrie letter to Fred Trump (father of the current president) in 1952. It calls for a segregated building to be opened up for all and shelter given to the most vulnerable. When money and profit turn into your God, then people are no more than cannon fodder. The exasperation in her message is further captured in Sooner Or Later, a song that urges revolution and a stand against the powerful in society who bend the masses to their whims. The guitar break is filled with pent-up anger and perfectly captures the frustration of the writer. 

There is the song, Beautiful World, that celebrates the natural paradise that we should enjoy and never take for granted, captured by a lovely Country melody and violin and mandolin playing off the gentle rhythm, augmented by piano and pedal steel. One More Day equally, could be written with the current virus pandemic in mind. Looking at our race for gratification and pleasure and the price we now have to pay - “Weary world, make us pay, Make us beg for one more day.”

Overall, the abiding message is one of frustration at the lack of real change in our actions with My Heart Aches reflecting on the Mississippi marches for peace in the 1960’s, all the way up to the Michael Brown Jr. killing in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. As the Pete Seeger song says “When Will We Ever Learn.”

This is an artist at the very top of her game. A compelling and vital album and my favourite release of 2020 by a distance.

Review by Paul McGee

The Lone Bellow Half Moon Light Dualtone

Album number four in their quest for world domination, this vibrant trio are sounding more vital than ever. There are 15 songs over 47 minutes offered up in the name of communion and community in these challenging times and the listening experience is one of joyful rapture

From the opening I Can Feel You Dancing, which conjures up memories of grandparents now passed away but remembered in their love of life, this is a celebration of their influence and a terrific track, “Feet off the ground, two steppin’ on the ceiling, I can feel you dancing.” The subtle use of brass sounds adds extra colour and texture to the song and is something that producer, Aaron Dessner (The National) brings to the party on a regular basis, giving the band a new coat to try on for size and one that suits their celebratory sound so well. 

The song arrangements are more expansive and the use of subtle electronic effects augments the natural soul / gospel leaning of this trio. This is perfectly illustrated by the powerful build of dynamics on Good Times and the vocal harmonies are right on point throughout with the passion in the delivery is a powerful as ever. Quite compelling.

Wonder is the stand out track on the project, slow acoustic beginning, building into a powerful statement to hold onto the magic that this crooked world can squeeze out of you. It visits memories of youth and the joy of the newness of things before the inevitable hard lessons learned along the way. Wistful and yearning in its attempt to hold onto that feeling of hope and dreams for the future. “Should I let go of the wonder?”

Count On Me is a song about acceptance and letting go of the baggage of the past. “Let it break you, Let it help you lay down what you held onto.” There is rebirth in the act of being vulnerable, the keyboard sound swelling the chorus of “Count on me and I‘ll count on you.”

Wash It Clean is a song written by Brian Elmquist to his father who recently died and a message of reconciliation for their relationship and time spent in trying to let love in. “Loose the dust from your shoes, The weight of your crown, Whatever road you choose, Just stay above the ground.” Personal and poignant.

Enemies slows the pace and is a gentle song written by Zach Williams for his wife and the joy they have found in having a family and being devoted parents. No need to fight when the bond is strong and rooted in the ground.

Just Enough To Get By has Kanene Donehey Pipkin singing a very personal song about the fate suffered by her mother as a young girl, pregnant and bullied by family. “If silence is golden, I know a lot of wealthy women, Buying what’s been sold them, Buy anything but freedom.” There is a terrific blues coda to the song that lets all the anger and emotion pour out in the vocal.

Martingales is a song that slides easily along. It urges acceptance of who we are and about being kind to yourself: “If yesterday is too heavy, Put it down, Put it down.”

illegal Immigrant was written as a result of a news item about a mother forcibly separated from her child at a border crossing in Trump’s cruel version of America. This is a powerful indictment of a hardened bureaucracy in the callous lack of care or regard for any family as being the fundamental unit in society. Kanene’s vocal really nails this: “Nothing can keep me away, I promised I’d find you wherever you are… Here I am.”

Friends crackles with edgy guitars and urgent vocals, driving the beat along in a strong groove with thoughts of friendship and keeping the channels of communication open. Again, the arrangement is bright and the added brass sounds in the song structure echoes a message of being there for each other through both good and bad times. 

Dust Settles is a song that is written by Jason Pipkin, husband to Kanene and a key member of the band when they record and tour. It has warm organ sounds setting the scene for a plea to recognise each other across the chaos and confusion of busy lives. 

The final track, August, has a gentle arrangement, building on a message of empathy and understanding. It was written by Brian Elmquist for producer Aaron Dessner who lost a very close friend to suicide (Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit fame). 

There is an intro, interlude and finale that are all piano recordings of Zach’s grandmother who played at the funeral of her husband of 64 years. It is a poignant moment that highlights the bond of family and the need that we all have to reach out and communicate a loving message to each other.

Review by Paul McGee

Pokey LaFarge Rock Bottom Rhapsody New West

This is the eight studio release from a musician who was based in St. Louis before he decided to move to Los Angeles back in 2018. He suffered a real crisis of self doubt once the move had happened and his spiral downwards into unhealthy practices is something that fell in the middle of this new release, both in terms of the writing and the eventual recording of the songs.

With titles like Fuck Me Up, Storm A Comin’, Lost in the Crowd, Ain’t Comin’ Home and End of my Rope, you are given some insight into the dark place that produced these ten songs. There is also an intro, an intermission (to cleanse the palate) and an outro that frame the album title with a sense of something from a 1920’s movie soundtrack; strings and a lush instrumental sound, ending with the echo of an audience exiting a late night club to the sound of a lonely piano playing plaintively in the background.

This is indicative of the curve balls that LaFarge throws at the listener as he regularly changes thing up with a nod to different styles and eras. We are treated to the up-tempo rhythm of early swing jazz on tracks like Bluebeard and a smooth light jazz feel on Lucky Sometimes, with strings piano and upright bass setting the mood for a classic crooner vocal delivery.

The blues groove to Storm A Comin’ conjures up an image of Ray Charles and there is the ghost of Elvis and Gene Vincent in the arrangements of Fuck Me Up and Ain’t Comin’ Home. Similarly, the retro feel of Carry On and Just the Same have a light touch with the playing and easy melodies supporting the vocal croon of LaFarge. Lost in the Crowd has a Tejano style with a shuffle beat and warm keys. 

The Buddy Holly groove to Fuck Me Up is a rockabilly delight and the lines “a long way from normal, with not much left to go” gives an indication as to the frame of mind LaFarge was in, at the time of writing. Not that you would find any evidence of this dark passenger in the music itself and the very engaging playing and song arrangements.

Recorded at Reliable Recorders in Chicago and produced by Chris Seefried, the musicians are Joel Paterson (guitar), Scott Ligon (keyboards), Jimmy Sutton (upright/electric bass) and Alex Hall (drums). I am not aware of this artist’s back catalogue and this is the first album in over three years, but I am very impressed with the obvious craft and talent on display. One to play on repeat.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Sideline Breaks To The Edge Mountain Home

The latest album from North Carolina’s Sideline is an impressive collection of traditional and progressive bluegrass and it really doesn’t get much better than this.

They have perfected the knack of carefully selecting songs from some of the best songwriters in the genre and then making them their own, with their hard driving style. Established over 20 years ago, the three core founding members are still there - Steve Dilling (banjo), Jason Moore (bass) and Skip Cherryholmes (guitar). On this recording, they are joined by Troy Boone (mandolin), Bailey Coe (guitar), Aaron Ramsey (mandolin) and Daniel Greeson (fiddle). However, as is common with many larger bands these days, the latter four musicians have since moved on to play with other ensembles. The touring band has replaced them from the large pool of enthusiastic younger players that are always ready and eager to learn from the more experienced road warriors.

The album kicks off with one of the highlights, Digging My Own Grave, yet another commentary on the negative effects of coal mining, co-written by the successful partnership of Jon Weisberger and Josh Shilling. Coal mining features again in Return to Windy Mountain, a tribute to the early bluegrass legend, Melvin Goins from W Virginia. Skip Cherryholmes shows his vocal ability in Crash Course in the Blues, their outstanding bluegrass adaptation of a Steve Wariner country hit from1991. There are further covers of both older standards by the likes of the Stanley Brothers, gospel songs from the Isaacs and they close with a fresh banjo-led take on Down in the Willow Gardens. This is a superb collection of story songs demonstrating how Sideline combine the traditional with the progressive and remain a force to be reckoned with. 

Review by Eilís Boland

Damien Jurado What’s New, Tomboy? Loose

In a just world, the remuneration of artists would be dictated by both the quantity and quality of their output. That being the case, Damien Jurado would be eligible for early retirement, given the calibre of the nineteen album back catalogue that he has stockpiled over the past twenty-three years.

IN THE SHAPE OF A STORM, released last year, was a solo acoustic delight, featuring only acoustic guitar behind Jurado’s controlled vocals. His latest offering is somewhat more expansive without abandoning the elegance and playfulness of its predecessor.

Jurado’s lyrics - and indeed track titles - often invite the listener to decipher his own interpretations ("I usually have other people tell me what my songs are saying”).  On this occasion seven of the song titles reference Christian names, mainly female, as if the songs were inspired by acquaintances, casual or otherwise. There’s gentleness and compassion aplenty, most evidently on both Ochoa and Sandra, two misty ballads that provoke repeated listens. The former is in memory of artist Richard Swift, who collaborated with Jurado but sadly passed away in 2018.

Arthur Aware is vintage Jurado, strained vocals alongside echoed sonics with a delightful one paced rhythm.  The End Of The Road compares with the best he’s written. An uncomplicated and melodic pop song, calming and meditative, it recalls mid-career Beatles. Birds Tricked Into The Trees, the first single from the album and an obvious choice, is brief, slick and to the point. Its sound is very much like his former label mate Peter Bruntnell.

You would be hard pressed to choose an album in Jurado’s vast body of work that impresses more than WHAT’S NEW, TOMBOY? Despite the enigmatic album title and question mark, there’s little new about the album. Simply more of the same by a resolute artist at the top of his game.

Review by Declan Culliton

Fierce Flowers Mirador Self Release

Fierce Flowers are an all-female three-piece Old Time Country and Bluegrass band from Paris France. You may be somewhat surprised to encounter this style of music in the capital of France but there has been an underground bluegrass scene in Paris since the 1970’s. Bands such as Transatlantic and Bluegrass Long Distance emerged around that time and even toured in the USA. Bill Munroe’s Bluegrass Boys' legendary banjoist Bill Keith married in France and took nationality there.

Leo Divary, Shushan Kerovpyan and Julia Zech make up the trio and represent Paris, Picardy and German backgrounds. MIRADOR consists of twelve tracks, all composed by them. Half of the songs are delivered in English and the other half in French. As you would expect violin, banjo, guitar and double bass feature alongside harmony vocals. Whereas American old-time folk music is at the core of their sound, they also introduce a Parisian flavour with light touches of jazz.

Review by Declan Culliton

Andrea & Mud Bad News Darlin’ Self Release

Described as “surf-western” (a term first used by Junior Brown); this seems to be on paper just my kind of thing. Sultry vocals, twanging guitars, mariachi-styled horns, interesting story-telling lyrics. In reality it soon proved to be, indeed, my kind of thing. All those elements occur on the first track Lines (which also includes a reference to The Shadows’ hit Apache). From then on, the duo Andrea Colburn and Kyle “Mud” Moseley, have fun on eleven other tracks where they share the vocal lead in a way that fits the classic duet mode of the sweet singing female and baritone male. There’s an element of the soundtrack selections of David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino to the overall sound.

These recordings blend guitar, bass and drums with pedal steel, fiddle, trumpet, saxophone, organ and saw. All useful allies in setting the scene, whether it’s in Birmingham, Al 8.30am after a late-night blues session. Or getting inside the head (and elsewhere) of a less-than-savoury Used Car Salesman. Perhaps the search for love that encompasses Send Your Love My Way with its elements of 60s retro revisiting harmonies and Duane Eddy guitar riffs. Something that is obviously just one element of Moseley’s guitar picking skills, which combine twang with a host of other influences, that the manage to add a fresh coat of paint to these amalgamations of classic Bakersfield country, surf, rock, blues and western themes and sounds. Throughout a riff or vocal will take you to another place and time, while never losing sight of the here and now.

The duo worked with producer Damon Moon to jointly achieve the sound they wanted for this album, their second under their own names (their debut Easy, Sleazy and Greasy came out in 2018). This combination of sounds has an edge to it that makes it somewhat unclassifiable in any single genre. The overall effect is punchy as hell as well as being a pleasing mix of old favourite sources like spaghetti western themes, alongside country and western images that rides off into the sunset with style.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Whitney Rose We Still Go To Rodeos MCG

Album three sees Rose broadening out her sound from her two Raul Malo produced albums on Straight Shooter records, while retaining a sound that is still in the main identifiably country music. It pays a respectful nod to the sounds of the past while also moving forward. This time out she works with Uncle Tupelo, Hole and Pixies (among many others) producer Paul Kolderie. This allows Rose to expand on her vocal versatility and musical direction to include touches of soul, 60’s pop alongside roots, rock and country - Americana may be an easy tag but it is one that fits here. It has been noted that there is a similarity, on occasion, to the work that Carlene Carter recorded in the UK, with then husband Nick Lowe. That comparison is valid to some degree, in that the perspective here is broader than many of her contemporaries, in the same way that Carter’s focus would have been different by recording in the UK rather than in the Nashville of that era. As is the overall allegiance to the broad palette of material that was delivered by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

Rose and Kolderie have gathered together a group of players who bring energy and enterprise to these songs. The satisfyingly solid rhythm section of Lisa Pankratz and Brad Ford compliment the guitar interplay of Gurf Morlix, Rich Brotherton and Dave Leroy Biller - the later appears to be the main guitarist as well as contributing pedal steel. All are experienced and nuanced players who add layers of guitar driven textured throughout. Mention is also merited for the keyboard contributions of Matt Hubbard. The focus here moves more towards a later musical base than the honky-tonk 50s and 60s references of her debut album. The producer, known for his work that leans to the harder rock side of things, brings some of that ebullience to songs like Better Man and In A Rut.  The end result is a sound that approximates to that of some of her like-minded associated artists - some of whom would have been affiliated with the Bloodshot label.

Her writing contribution should also be highlighted as Rose has written all 12 of the songs here. Many have the reality of a heartbreak at their core, while the opening Just Circumstance is a summation of the possibilities faced by a pregnant woman who has led a life that “never had a chance. The writing manages to convey this story flawlessly in 3 minutes and 50 seconds. By way of contrast, Home With You is a request to accompany the man in question for some private and seductive moments. Rose is pushing her boundaries on all fronts on the album   largely succeeding and an artist who will, no doubt, continue to deliver as much in the future as she has in the past.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Craig Gerdes Tough As Nails Self Release

A road warrior and hard assed outlaw may be the immediate image that is associated with Craig Gerdes. Given the title of this and his last album Smokin’ Drinkin’ & Gamblin’, that may be an easy assumption to make. The title song  pretty much displays those people that he has met, who need to be tough as nails to survive whatever is thrown their way. Gerdes also sums up his oeuvre in the song If Guitars Were Guns in which he declares “I am what I am” and that “I play country music … I play rock ’n’ roll” for the most direct of reasons “It makes me feel good.” From then on, the songs tend to underscore that attitude and lifestyle. One that is as much about the people he plays to and those he observes in the process of doing that, as much as it is about himself.

There is much of the story teller about him, even if those stories are largely wrapped in turbo-charged rocking’ country music. The ten tracks all expand on these notions in various ways, with titles like Between The Cradle And The Grave, The Hardway, Only The Road Knows and Highwayman. However, it should be noted that under that seemingly tough exterior lies a more tender side, as expressed in Pennies, Feathers And Dimes. It’s a  song taken at a slow tempo that has Robby Turner’s poignant pedal steel acting as a comfort blanket detailing the way loved ones, who may have passed on, who come to mind in many different ways, but especially in dreams. That Little Girl is also a ballad of reflection and regret, that offers another side of the title’s coin, one that takes place on a daughter’s wedding day. Only The Road Knows again is a stripped back tale of his lifestyle, which details  the good and the bad about life on rhe road. Its mood is enhanced by some subtle strings as emphasis to these thoughts and traits. This, as in many of the songs, show his humanity in being able to translates the worlds of these lost and lonely people into relevant songs.

David Beeman produced and this recordings features Gerdes’ road band to great effect, along with the guest contributions from Turner. These seasoned and road tested players bring a vibrance to the songs that they have played and lived with on the road for some time. All of that and the natural progression that Gerdes and the band have made, marks this a release that will stand as a testament to the Gerdes and his fellow musicians at these times. It also captures insights into the way of life that many of those he has encountered on his travels in a way that others will also have empathy with, whether they are as tough as nails or not.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Carus Thompson Shakespeare Avenue Valve /Mind’s Eye.

Starting out in the music business as Carus and The True Believers, Thompson has been creating music since the early 90’s when his band were active on the music scene in Perth, Western Australia. They played a combination of folk, country and reggae/roots music, which led to three studio albums.

Along the way, Thompson began to play solo gigs, leading to a live album in 2003, Acoustic at the Norfolk, which led to a change in direction and the further release of three solo albums. We last heard from him in 2017 with the release of Island, bridging quite a gap in his recording output. So, in the search for an authentic Folk experience on this project, Thompson moved his family, wife and two daughters, over to Dartmoor, where he recorded at Round the Bend studios in the company of Sean Lakeman as producer. 

Sean decided to invite his brother Seth to lend his great talents to this recording process and he brought along his wife, the superbly gifted Kathryn Roberts to add her rich vocals. Quite the band of gypsies they make as a foursome, tucked away in search for the perfect take across the ten songs that are featured. The playing is quite superb throughout, as is the pristine production with lots of bright separation and space for the musicians to play. Sean Lakeman contributes on guitars, keys, bass, piano and percussion. Brother Seth plays electric guitar, violin and viola and Thompson plays guitars, percussion and handles all lead vocals.  All songs are written by Thompson, apart from one co-write, Unless We Go Now, with Greg Arnold, a song about taking chances and not being scared of facing the winds of change. 

Thompson writes of chances not taken on Avondale Heights to Sunshine, where the character “Turned 42 last week, my ex and kids live ‘round the bend, Take ‘em down past that river every second weekend.” He writes on Shoulder about immigration problems in Australia and an inept political system that hides a history of underperforming representatives in Government. 

He also sings about Yagan, an Indigenous Australian warrior from the Noongar people who played a key part in early resistance to British colonial settlement and rule in the area surrounding what is now Perth. Another song examines the scandal of Dylan Voller, an Aboriginal-Australian who became a media focus, concerning the mistreatment of children and their lack of protection in the youth detention system; “Thought it was all you deserved, Beatings, tear gas, abuse.” 

The title track refers to a street that his grandfather lived on in Bath, England before taking a journey into the unknown and going to Australia; a journey that Thompson recently experienced in reverse in moving to the U.K. Both End of the Day and You See Through appear to be songs written with his wife in mind and celebrating her strength, in addition to the loving bond they share, as fellow adventurers in the world. An excellent addition to the body of work produced by this talented singer songwriter.

Review by Paul McGee

The Reverend Shawn Amos and the Brotherhood Blue Sky Put Together

When your CV lists talents that include musician, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur and record producer, it’s a safe bet to assume that there have been plenty of landmarks along the way that have shaped the arc of this career.

Best known as a blues singer and harmonica player, The Reverend has released six solo albums and acted as producer on a number of Solomon Burke albums, the Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoff, UNDER THE COVERS album series and many compilations for Rhino Entertainment. He worked with Quincy Jones, produced reissues of Marvin Gaye and Herb Alpert albums and announced the formation of his own company, Amos Content Group, to develop content for digital media/traditional companies.

When he decided to put together a regular band and to record some new music the Reverend recruited the skills of drummer Brady Blade (Buddy & Julie Miller, Dave Matthews, Indigo Girls), bassist Christopher Thomas (Norah Jones, Carly Simon, Macy Gray), and long-time aide-de-camp, guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts. 

The ten tracks featured are tightly performed and an array of additional guests appear to really fill out the sound – the horn section featuring Jamelle Adisa, Marc Bolin, Mike Cottone, Matthew Demerritt, Dan Weinstein; the lap steel, pedal steel and dobro playing of Ben Peeler , Matt Hubbard on piano, Hammond organ and wurlitzer, Johann Stein on additional guitar and James Saez on electronica, display a concise yet wonderfully loose playing around the melodies and arrangements. Piper Amos (Shawn’s daughter) and Sharlotte Gibson contribute on backing vocals throughout and Tim Ganard, plus John Montgomery are credited with extra drum parts.  

The Country inflected sound of opener, Stranger Than Today, is quickly followed by the Blues groove of Troubled Man and a duet with the superb Ruthie Foster. Counting Down the Days is an electric blues swamp romp that gets mean and dirty with the repeating guitar motif and killer harmonica playing on top of great keyboard fills.

Two further songs, The Pity and the Pain and Albion Blues feature guest vocalist Kenya Hathaway and both songs deliver soulful performances with a slow tempo. The Job Is Never Done and Hold Back are straight out R’n’B workouts with driving rhythm and backing vocals that soar. 

27 Dollars is an up-tempo jump blues arrangement and the slow groove of Her Letter is soulful and laid back. Final track, Keep the Faith, Have Some Fun, let’s all the dogs loose in a terrific blues/jazz stomp that highlights the celebratory nature of this music. 

Reverend Amos is a fine singer and plays harmonica with the religious zeal of a true believer. Really impressive stuff all round and a definite purchase for any discerning lover of the RnB, soul-train sound.

Review by Paul McGee

Phil Gammage It’s All Real Good Self Release

Released towards the end of 2019, this ninth record confirms Phil Gammage as a musician of some resonance and staying power. His previous eight albums, including a terrific compilation, Motel Songs, with 20 tracks, released on SourMash USA Records in 2002, are a testament to the talent that he displays as a songwriter, singer, harmonica player and guitarist. 

His writing is focused in the area of blues/folk/roots music and the nine tracks on this album were all written by Gammage and recorded at 30 Below Studio in New York City, where he now resides. His most recent albums were Used Man For Sale (2016), The American Dream (2015) and Adventures in Bluesland (2014). He tours either as a solo performer or with his band, The Phil Gammage Quartet, always garnering praise for his authentic body of work and song-writing talents.

The band on this project is Gammage on vocals, guitar and harmonica, with Kenny Margolis on accordion, Tony Mann on percussion, Michele Butler on vocals and David Fleming on additional harmonica. Together, they have a stripped down, tight sound that leans very much towards acoustic folk/blues and clocks in on thirty minutes, which means it does not overstay its welcome, yet leaves the listener wanting more – always a good sign.

It all starts with the most up-tempo track on the album, It’s All Real Good, a nice blues groove led by the sweet brush work of Mann on percussion. The slow gypsy accordion on Hellcat Maggie is a joy and the harmonica playing on Dancing On Top Of the World is very tasty and compliments the folk influenced arrangement. The Second Time Around combines both accordion and harmonica to great effect and the bare bones of Wandering Stars has an easy tempo and melody that pleases. The salsa swing to Naked In the Rain is another standout but really, the whole project deserves praise for the cohesion in both the playing and the production by Tony Mann, which is both airy and bright in the speakers.

For those of you who are new to this artist, it’s never too late to jump on board. 

Review by Paul McGee

Some New Reviews

Michael McDermott What In The World Pauper Sky

There is a sense of purpose and perception to this new album from Michael McDermott. An album for these times as evidenced by the title track and opening song (a bonus acoustic version closes the album). It is a powerful statement about and indictment of America in its current divided and uneven status quo that lists any number of problems that have become apparent to most in recent years … “walls along the border, kids in cages, executive orders, welfare for billionaires, people hungry everywhere.” It is a powerhouse rock song with an insistent chorus that that belies its lyrical content, which with a different lyrical message, could have been as easily be construed as an anthem for something more upbeat. In many ways its downbeat message also affirms that there is going to be a positive turnaround at some point as people relalise that what they have now is not what they need or in any way the best for all. 

However McDermott manages to look a little closer to home with some of these songs and the ways that that bigger picture has an underlying effect that can be seen in the way people deal with their individual issues of living their lives. The couple in New York, Texas have to have a belief that if they stay true, despite everything, to what they believe that then God would bless them, at least that’s what Mama said. There is an uncertainty though that tries to find some truth in each other. Blue Eyed Barmaid is a conversation between a PTSD suffering vet and the woman in the bar serving him. With the latter opening up rather than the other way round. It is however something of a deeper assessment of both parties that again highlights McDermott’s lyrical skill in the telling of these details as well as showing his assured and assertive vocal ability which he has developed over any number live shows as well as in the studio. 

Equally engaging are the religious assertions of Mother Emanuel. The declaration of love in a true sense in Until I Found You is heartfelt and honest. While Contender is a hard realisation in that while the subject had the potential to achieve more he had “hurt the ones I loved the most, I burned bridges from coast to coast, I just didn’t fit, I was an idiot” - something that only can be realised by a certain distance and understanding. This is the work on a writer who has known failure and desperation but also love and can turn those experiences into songs that have resonance and a sense of reality that has been hard fought but, ultimately, won. The piano-based Die With Me is about standing up to adversity and facing it with courage. There is much to hear on many levels in these eleven songs. All are deeply rooted in the now and how that effects anyone who shares some of McDemott’s views and sensitivity.

This is also an album where McDermott achieves a sound that is as robust as it is righteous. There is a solid enhancement of the often rockin’ feel here with such added elements in the recording such as saxophone and banjo added to the overall soundscape. The team involved are hand picked and go back to his days fronting The Westies. This time out McDermott is again working with a set of musicians he has know and played with over the last number of years including bassist Lex Price (who also mixed this and previous albums), keyboard player John Deaderick, drummer Fred Eltringham, guitarist Will Kimbrough alongside Heather Lynne Horton, his wife, on fiddle and vocals. This brings a steadfast continuity to the recording as these are musicians who are both familiar with McDermott as well as with his music and the ways to develop it. It is a confident and capable statement given the chaos and, sometimes, heartbreak that surrounds it. 

What in the world would we do without music of this calibre to balance all of the ongoing negativity that surrounds us? That is a question that we don’t need, at this point, to answer when there are so many musicians who are heeding that call. Times may be tough but that’s exactly when we need an artist like this.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Wookalily Everything Is Normal Roxy

On this their second album, Northern Ireland’s long established all female band has opted for a major change of direction. Initially known for their bluegrass-influenced sounds, they have veered headlong into psychedelic folk noir territory and they truly sound like no one else. The full title of the record is EVERYTHING IS NORMAL EXCEPT THE LITTLE THINGS INSIDE MY HEAD and this gives a hint as to what’s in store. Still, nothing can truly prepare one for the melange of sounds and influences that make this such a fun and enjoyable album. 

Touché, with it’s concertina intro, slow jazzy strut and Lyndsay Crowther’s sultry vocals puts a strong French stamp on proceedings from early on. Adele Ingram leads on her own composition  Welcome to The Fold - a wry and affectionate look inside the mind of a dementia patient, frustrated with the constraints and confusion of living in assisted accommodation. Appropriately there’s a distinct feeling of dystopia and psychedelia, wrought by the talents in particular of   multi-instrumentalist Clair McGreevy, who plays at least 8 different instruments. Sonic dissonance is used here and indeed throughout the album, successfully contributing to the feeling of surreal otherworldliness. Clair sings lead and plays electric lead guitar on her only writing contribution Vampyre, a standout track which also showcases Louise Potter’s strong drum/percussion skills. More darkness, albeit mostly tongue in cheek, abounds in Ghost, Forever Folly and The Old Hag.

Ten of the songs are written by the talented songwriter and founder member Adele Ingram, who also plays guitars and mandolin. The other long-standing band member Sharon Morgan has expanded her repertoire to include double bass as well as her 5-string banjo playing. Lyndsay Crowthers also contributes a strong love song, Whiskey and Wine, which features a gorgeous hook on electric guitar from Clair and is underpinned by Sharon Morgan’s insistent banjo. 

The record was produced by Julie McClarnon (Alasdair Roberts, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Jeffrey Lewis) in her Rathfriland Analogue Catalogue studios on vintage analogue equipment. There’s also some great artwork from Sharon Morgan and a (rather difficult to follow) detailed lyrics/info booklet. Definitely worth seeking out.

Review by Eilís Boland

Jennis The Mirror Self Release

Context is everything. Jennis’s opening song on THE MIRROR now has a very different effect on me from when I first listened to it a few weeks ago, pre-pandemic. Dennis Gaumond’s lyrics in You Never Know now seem scarily prescient - ‘Nothing is for certain. This could be the final curtain’! Equally, the second track Go Viral has a similar theme - ‘Everything is changing in the universe, it’s just another chapter’.

Canadians from Ontario, Dennis Gaumond and his band mate Jennifer Gillmor together make up the band Jennis. Multiinstrumentalists both, on this second album they offer a truly mesmeric selection of musical styles as vehicles for Dennis’s songwriting. From the reggae (with harmonica) of the opener, through the heavy rock of Run with the Wolves, the bossa nova of Mountain Top, the bluesy funk of Too much Stuff, one is left with the distinct message that Jennis are not at all happy with the current state of the world. Over the 13 songs (all original except for a cover of Bob Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up) they call out corrupt politicians, environmental damage and capitalism. There are several songs that reference ageing, and the aforementioned Too much Stuff left this reviewer to feel a little bit uncomfortable, I must admit!

Self produced, Jennifer plays a range of instruments from cello to didgeridoo to jaw’s harp, Dennis plays a selection of mainly stringed instruments, and they call in several friends to help out, notably Tom Wolf on percussion. 

The cover art is a clever pop art design incorporating head shots of the duo.

This record may not be for everyone, given that its political credentials are worn so clearly on its sleeve but worth checking out by the alternative hippy types out there.

Review by Eilís Boland

Lynne Hanson Just Words Continental Song City

This Canadian singer-songwriter is based in Ottawa, Ontario and has released eight previous albums, including a collaboration with her fellow Canadian artist and good friend, Lynn Miles (The LYNNeS). Hanson has been categorised as a Folk singer but her creative muse goes much further than just defining her craft in such straight jacketed terms. Her songs tend to focus on matters of the heart and the fragilities of relationships, both imagined and lived through. She is a true wordsmith and her eclectic tastes in music are evidenced by forays into Blues and light Jazz grooves to some of the songs included here. Also, Hanson is not averse to cranking up the electric guitars in addition to delivering in the Folk/Pop arena with one eye on the populist vote.

This album was produced by Jim Bryson at Fixed Hinge Recording in Ottawa and the sublime studio band includes Canadian icon Kevin Breit on electric guitar, Marshall Bureau on drums, MJ Dandeneau on bass and Jim Bryson on guitar, keyboards and piano. There are also guest appearances from singer-songwriter Catherine MacLellan on four tracks, Tara Holloway (co-write on the title track), Anders Drerup and Justin Rutledge.

True Blue Moon debunks the notion that there is a special one out there, waiting for us to align our galaxies, while the realism of Hearts Fade and the realisation that you can never go back is a more sobering message. Feeling vulnerable over someone left behind is also a strong emotion and Long Way Home takes a rueful glance at just such a relationship with the lines “I wore the soles right off my boots, Running from the ghost of you” summing up the urge to move beyond.

The title track has an angry grunge feel with electric guitars snarling out the message that words can hurt as much as anything physical, whether through family or social media pressures; “Stay safe in the crowd, Cause whispered words can be so loud.” The Blues/Gospel groove of Higher Ground brings a message of turning the other cheek and rising above and the duelling acoustic guitars on Such A Random Thing are a joy to behold while Hanson sings of fate and circumstance and the road not taken.

Lollipops and Roses has a mean electric sound to highlight the bitter experience of hard life lessons and dreams of a better day beyond this world. The slow melody of Every Minute In Between is a glimpse at a broken heart, aching for an old flame and haunted by a past that is long gone. Hemingway’s Songbird channels the frustration of a creative artist who tries to keep that spark, both in terms of the writing process and also, looking to keep a grip on reasons to stay in a barren relationship. Final track, Would You Still, is a bluesy shuffle that asks questions of commitment to another, something of a theme on this collection of songs that pose more questions than providing answers to the vagaries of love. 

Throughout, the rhythm and tempo of these songs are perfectly augmented by the sensitive playing of these stellar musicians, making the listening process one of absolute pleasure from start to finish. A terrific addition to the body of work that has been carefully crafted by Lynne Hanson and one which raises the bar quite a few rungs.

Review by Paul McGee

Billy Roberts and the Rough Rider The Southern Sessions Self Release

This singer songwriter was born in the small town of Moree, located in a northerly part of New South Wales, Australia. Despite my efforts to track him down, there appears to be no official website and precious little information available regarding his career in music. There is the occasional review of one of the three albums he has released prior to this current project. His debut, The Last of the Originals, appeared in 2014 and was quickly followed by Go By Myself, a second helping of tunes that arrived in 2015. The last release was Greenbah, named after a local community in NSW and which appeared in 2017

He has recorded in Nashville I believe, but again, I have no details and with no liner notes, his band members or studio players will continue to remain a mystery. Indeed, neither is there anything regarding interviews with Roberts himself. Quite refreshing in one sense, to be a virtual recluse in this media crazy day and age. Can’t help his bank balance however, unless he is yet another musician who is holding down a day job in order to keep body and soul together.

Of the ten tracks featured here, eight have appeared on previous releases; four each taken from The Last of the Originals and Go By Myself. The two new songs are the opener, Hillbilly Blues, a guitar driven Rock sound complete with horn section; plus, Special, a slow tempo Country song with lap steel and nice guitar lines. Overall, the sound is one of laid-back Americana/Country influenced arrangements and the easy groove of My Baby Gone Cold (nice piano), I Was Young (sweet violin), Gone To the Dogs and Driving make for very pleasant listening. 

With You is another Country flavoured song with nice interplay between lap steel, guitar and piano while the harmonica playing on No More Mr Nice Guy is worth questioning why the instrument does not feature more often on other tracks. Seen It All Before is an up-tempo number with a warm organ sound and the abiding feeling is one of well delivered songs, played with an easy flow, melody and timbre. 

Review by Paul McGee

Emily Keener I Do Not Have To Be Good Self Release

This singer songwriter has been playing music from a very young age and took part in a series of the Voice on American TV, in addition to releasing a debut album back in 2013. Given that she is now in her early 20’s this points to quite a musical pedigree already in her fledgling career and Keener also released an EP in 2015, followed by her next album, Breakfast, in 2016. I think it fair to say that she was learning her craft during this development stage and that her own true voice has gradually been emerging, almost as if the butterfly has realised that the time has come to emerge from the chrysalis.

This release is a very impressive set of nine songs that come in just shy of 40 minutes and which frame a push/pull dance between desires and fears in the emotions, feelings and thoughts of a young artist who is maturing into adulthood. Keener grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and had a Christian upbringing which has shaped a lot of her contemplations and perspective on life. She is not afraid to show her uncertainty and vulnerability in these songs and there is a sense of fragile isolation that runs through the imagery and words that are bathed in the most atmospheric and melodic ‘less-is-more’ playing.

Keener handles vocals, guitar and bass with a deft quality and a confidence that centres the entire project in terms of emotional feel. She is joined by the superb playing of Eli Hanley on keyboards, who adds subtle dynamics on a number of tracks and also featured is the gently restrained and quite compelling playing of both Dan Fernandez on muted drums and percussion, plus Seth Bain on bass, to anchor the songs. 

Ace producer Dalton Brand engineered everything at his WaveBurner recording studio in Port Clinton, Ohio and he also contributes bass on one song, the recent single, Do You Love Me Lately. There is an appearance from Curtis Leonard who plays gentle acoustic guitar on the song, Static, while Cathalyn provides harmony vocals on the stand-out song for me, I Know - all breathy layers of ethereal sounds.

Themes of self-analysis and doubt run through the sparse and stripped back arrangements, from the understated religious referencing on Nap, as an almost saving element in wanting to emotionally consume another; to the sense of self criticism and feeling of not coping on I Don’t Know Anything –  “There's got to be a number we can call.”

The question of therapy seems to inhabit the song Static and the comfort in late night radio prevails - music as a release from old ghosts – “What were we doing on that couch, No one in that room was gonna figure anybody out.” 

 Her sense of mother nature is a part of Mary, I Love Her and the self-examination of trying to live outside our thoughts - almost like a witness to her place in the world. Her own dark angel is confronted in Elbow and the abiding message to keep on learning and loving is addressed in the song, I Know, with the line, “How could a love like this be wrong?”

This is delicate, reflective music that demands to be heard.  

Review by Paul McGee

Dave Simonett Red Tail Thirty Tigers

A first solo album from Dave Simonett, the frontman of alt-bluegrass/country band Trampled By Turtles and indie band Dean Man Winter. The album is testament to his capacity to deliver emotional and calming pieces of music, delivered with his trademark vocals. Much of the material is sparse and all the better for it, the temptation to beef the songs up thankfully set aside. Pisces, Queen of Hearts is delivered with only acoustic and pedal steel guitar alongside Simonett’s vocals, which are cleverly layered, the backing vocal at a slightly different pitch. By The Light Of The Moon, the shortest track and under two and a half minutes, is equally dreamlike and atmospheric and It Comes And Goes follows a matching thread. The country-ish Silhouette recalls his work with Trampled By Turtles. The stand out track is In The Western Wind And The Sunrise. A piano intro merges into fuzzy echoed vocals and morphs in to an instrumental mid track.

Half of the album was recorded at his own studio in Minneapolis and the balance at Pachyderm Studios in the woods of Cannon Falls, Minnesota, where acts such as The Jayhawks, P.J.Harvey and Nirvana have also worked. Simonett was joined by a number of friends at Pachyderm and the tracks cut there were recorded live. The album’s closer There’s A Lifeline Deep In The Night Sky includes a false start and ends with a healthy vocal celebration by all the players, having managed to deliver the song in one take - all good fun.

 In many ways RED TAIL reminded me of Jay Farrar’s solo work, perfectly understated songs that could have been dressed up but work even better semi naked. They come across as songs that that were conceived without any pressure or deadlines and are all the better for that. This is an album that should appeal to a wider audience than lovers of Trampled By Turtles and Dead Man Winter and is well worth your attention.

Review by Declan Culliton

Andy Brasher Myna Bird Self Release

Residing in Nashville currently, Andy Brasher is a Kentucky born artist who has been recording since 2007, when he released his debut solo album CROWS AND BUZZARDS. That album was recorded mostly acoustic and a remodelling of the title track appears on his latest release MYNA BIRD.  The album was recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville and co-produced by Harry Lee Smith (Angeleena Presley, Martina Mc Bride) and Ross Hogarth (REM, Shawn Colvin, John Mellencamp). Hiring those big hitters to oversee the recording was money well spent as the mix is perfect, Brasher’s vocals are crystal clear and the guitar riffs and solos are stunning.

Whether it was his intention or not, the first three tracks could be perceived as a mini soap opera, based around the same characters.  The opener 21 has shades of Jason Isbell about it, as the writer hungers for former years and the wild and abandon carefree times he enjoyed with his lover (‘looking back’s all you’ve got to look forward to’). What follows on the track Day Of The Trial is a rampant couple out of control, drinking, drugging and heading on an inevitable collision course. It’s a great full sound, more Drive By Truckers than Isbell this time around, guitar driven and with a killer mini solo. The final scene in the trilogy is the previously mentioned Crows and Buzzards. It’s a cold-eyed tale which features the writer standing over the corpse of his (former) lover, shovel in hand, presumably having slain her and about to leave her body for nature to take over.

It’s not all car crash material, however, Checkbook is a tongue in cheek country honky tonker and Close Your Eyes is an impressive Robert Earl Keen sounding country ballad. Drugs In the Tip Jar is a straight down the middle rocker that boasts some killer Stonesy guitar playing. The title track bookends the album in fine style. It’s a simple ballad with less of a rockier edge than most of the album’s material and lyrics that don’t attempt to be overly clever. It’s also a fitting closer to an album that rocks and soothes in large doses. Well worth checking out.

Review by Declan Culliton

Shelby Lynne Self-Titled Thirty Tigers

With fifteen albums under her belt across a career that has spanned three decades, Shelby Lynne’s output has ranged from pop to country and soul to blues. Her most commercial recording I AM SHELBY LYNNE (1999) won her a Grammy, but that pop/rock musical template was never really where Lynne was most comfortable. Country soul finds her at her most relaxed, best represented on her 2008 Dusty Springfield tribute album JUST A LITTLE LOVIN’, which also proved to be one of her most commercially successful releases. Her most recent recording, prior to this album, was a collaboration with her sister Allison Moorer in 2017 titled NOT DARK YET. That album was a collection of covers and re-works of material written by The Louvin Brothers, Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt and Bob Dylan alongside two puzzling choices in both Kurt Cobain and Nick Cave.

This latest recording came about by way of a partnership with film director and screen writer Cynthia Mort. It’s essentially a soundtrack from the yet to be released film titled WHEN WE KILL THE CREATORS. The film’s subject matter examines the relationship between art and commerce. Lynne was the ideal candidate to deliver the soundtrack, given her unwillingness to allow record labels to dictate to her throughout her career.

It’s also her most stripped back recording, her dazzling vocals often accompanied only by background guitar and piano. Lynne performs most of the instrumentation herself, including some neat saxophone work on My Mind’s Riot. Although the material was co-written with Mort, it has Lynne’s stamp firmly embedded on the majority of the songs. Relationships won and lost are recurrent themes with titles such as I Got You, Love Is Coming, Lovefear and the two standout tracks Don’t Even Believe In Love and Revolving Broken Heart. The latter is hugely atmospheric with a vocal delivery that is delivered dreamlike and layered, with perfectly timed brushed acoustic guitar and tingling piano.

 Given the album’s theme there is similarity across many of the tracks, but repeated listens uncover individual nuances and overtones. Lynne’s vocals are stunning throughout, unhurried and patient as one song tumbles effortlessly into the next. Like much of her work, this self-titled album is unlikely to reach an audience outside her followers which is shameful, given her talent.

Review by Declan Culliton

Latest Album Reviews

Nels Andrews Pigeon And The Crow Self Release

Recorded at Whispering Pines Clubhouse/Studio in Los Angeles, PIGEON AND THE CROW is the fourth studio album recorded by Santa Cruz resident Nels Andrews. The album was produced by Irish composer and flautist Nuala Kennedy and her stamp is evident across much of the album as she plays flute, keys and adds backing vocals. A mix of folk and traditional music, the album emphasises Andrews creative song writing and relaxed vocals.

Andrews and Kennedy were in good company in Lord Huron’s Whispering Pines Studio in Los Angeles during the recording. The players included Quinn on drums, Pete Harvey on cello, Jonathan Goldberger on electric guitar, Stelth Ulvang on accordion and Sebastian Steinberg on bass. Completing the impressive contributors were Anais Mitchell, Anthony Da Costa and A.J. Roach, who all added vocals.

There is a distinctive Celtic feel to a number of tracks, hardly surprising given Kennedy’s input. The impressive title track in particular and Eastern Poison Oak both have strong roots in traditional music this side of the pond. Table By The Kitchen is instantly catchy, the blend of Andrews' and Anais Mitchell’s vocal on the chorus working delightfully. 

 Poetry put to music best describes the album. A pleasing and rewarding listen from start to finish, it’s an album that embraces the foremost elements of folk and traditional music.

Review by Declan Culliton

Trudy & Dave Out Of Our Minds Blue Moon

Another album that slots into the Nordicana genre that we have been dipping into in recent times. Trudy and Dave are Johanna Demker and Alf Bretteville, two artists that have released numerous albums in different projects over the years. Norwegian Alf fronts his own band Bretteville and Swedish Johanna has recorded five solo albums, together with songwriting and collaborating with various European artists. Having collaborated together in the late 90’s, they decided to join forces and combine their collective talents with this debut album under their recently formed project.

The duo’s name most likely originated from the John Hiatt song of the same name as the album closes with an impressive cover version of Hiatt’s Wood Chipper. In the main the tracks explore the grungier side of Americana. Full on rockers include the instantly catchy Force Of Nature and the driving 1000 Guns. Walk On Water is a similarly formulaic guitar driven anthem, well written and full of melodies and hooks and benefitting from their impressive combined vocals. However, it’s not all guns blazing and they take their feet off the accelerator for the more laid-back songs Space and Can’t Get High. Equally melodic is the gorgeous Loving Breeze with Demker taking the lead vocal on what is possibly the album's standout track.

The album offers a sound that leans more towards straight rock than Americana but it’s loaded with swagger and positive energy that beg to be played at maximum.

Review by Declan Culliton

Clem Snide Forever Just Beyond Thirty Tigers

Described by NPR as the most underrated songwriter in the business today, Israeli born Eef Barzelay formed the band Clem Snide in 1991. The name was derived from a character that regularly appeared in the writings of William S. Burroughs. Since then they have recorded fifteen albums. Without gaining much deserved critical acclaim outside their hard core following, they have disbanded and re-formed, with Barzelay taking time out to record two solo albums during this time.

Further turmoil followed, a broken marriage, the band breakup and bankruptcy may have resulted in the towel being thrown in for once and for all. Enter Steve Avett of North Carolina’s finest alt-folkers The Avett Brothers. Barzelay became aware that The Avetts had covered one of his songs at a recent concert and he took the opportunity of passing a song he had written to them. It transpired that they were fans of Clem Snide and a relationship developed.

Fast forward to last year and Steve Avett is behind the controls and producing what is possibly Clem Snide’s strongest body of work to date. That’s not to say that FOREVER JUST BEYOND is a change in musical direction, it’s not. Rather it comes across as an album by an artist whose confidence has returned in droves and with batteries recharged. The songs deal with dark times and self-loathing, but, more importantly, with re-birth and survival. Avett’s production always ensures that the lyrics are out in front, massaged often only by simple acoustic guitar and harmony vocals by Avett.

We hear of a broken relationship in Sorry Charlie, the meaning of life is contemplated on Easy. Undoubtably The Ballad of Eef Barzelay is the most personal and intense song he has composed. It recollects ongoing struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, but also durability and acceptance.   

The album is testament to the power of survival and rebirth by an artist that has lived through, and survived, troubled times.  It may only reach Clem Snide’s audience but newcomers to Barzelay’s music would be well advised to also delve into his impressive back catalogue.

Review by Declan Culliton

Dave Favours and The Roadside Ashes Not Your Average Country Band Stanley

Well for a start they are an Australian band and that’s not entirely average but far from unheard of. Dave Favours by all accounts is a music man through and through, playing, recording, releasing as well as watching, listening and buying it. He grew up listening to country music, but it was garage and punk that first attracted his attention and energies. After a number of different directions and a couple of solo releases, he now fronts this band that are influenced by such acts as the Exile-era Rolling Stones through Steve Earle to the Drive-By Truckers. This Sydney based alt-country outfit have released an album of songs written by Favours (aka Forrester) along with a cover of the Beasts Of Bourbon’s I’ve Let You Down Again.  The band is made up of Favours on vocals, harmonic and acoustic guitars with Dave Hart on bass, John Jensen on drums and Aaron Langman on lead and pedal steel guitar.

There is a pleasing roughness to this robust and roots rockin’ sound and that includes Favours' rough hewn vocals. The album opens in fine style with Happy Anniversary, a catchy track about change and trying find something that takes life out of a rut. It has a good hook and a strong chorus that sets the album up. Vanessa’s Day again has a strong chorus and some Hammond and pedal steel to sweeten the mix, as well as Favours’ harmonica textures. All of these elements are used throughout to enhance the bedrock rhythm section that underpins the sound. Part Time and It Rained are both songs that offer the trademark elements of the band sound, all working in its favour. There is a lot here to remind one of the cow-punk sound that held sway in the 80s in America - a sound that was, as mentioned earlier, influenced by EXILE ON MAIN STREET as well as by bands like The Backsliders and early Whiskeytown.

Producer/engineer Michael Carpenter gets the best out of these songs and delivers a robust sounding album that never loses its edge with over-production and polish. The scene in Sydney appears to be as small as it is in most cities outside of major centres like East Nashville and Austin. From their Facebook page there seems to be a number of bands and singers who form a roots community. Interestingly, Stanley Records released a three CD set Take Me To Town of Australian Alternative Country; so it would seem that there is a healthy scene down under too. Most are unlikely to be your average country band, but if they are like Dave Favours and The Roadside Ashes they are bound to entertain and engage.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Gossamer Strings Due To The Darkness Self Release

What joy it is to discover a little gem like this! The Gossamer Strings are Liat Lis and Kyle McGonegle, who are partners in music and in life. They hail from Eugene, Oregon and they have produced a stunning album that could well have slipped under your radar.

The duo may be firmly rooted in the folk and old time tradition but they are simultaneously driving the tradition forward into the future. 

Liat takes most of the singing duties, while also leading many of the songs with her expert claw hammer banjo playing. Kyle is equally adept on guitar, mandolins and bass, while harmonising sweetly. Somewhat unusually for the genre, their songwriting is as strong as their instrumental prowess, all the while addressing the perennial themes of love and relationship conflict. Kicking off with a plaintive gently paced country ballad She Can’t Hear Her Heart, Liat sings about a woman who is constantly on the move in order to avoid further heartbreak - “she can’t hear her heart ... but it’s better than knowin’, ‘cos knowin’ can hurt”. They are joined on this track by co-producer Billy Barnett on piano. In Everything Breaks, a lover describes why the relationship has reached the inevitable end - “I’ll clothe you in forgiveness, I’ll dress your wounds with care, ‘til you wear my generosity threadbare”. Billy Barnett’s piano underpins the moving Try Your Hand which eloquently explores how the pain of past heartbreak holds back future commitment, while Following Through also mines the same commitment issue. In addition to the eight original songs and one instrumental, they cover three ‘traditional’ songs (ie the writers’ names have been lost in the annals of time) Going to the West, Train on the Island and Sandy Boys. The production is very much of the ‘less is more’ variety and is perfect for the material.

 Definitely worth seeking out.

Review by Eilís Boland  

The Lonesome Ace Stringband Modern Old-Time Sounds For The Bluegrass and Folksong Jamboree Self Release

The Lonesome Aces have released yet another album that is essential listening for any fan of good folk music. In marked contrast to their last (equally excellent) offering, this time they have concentrated on interpretations of songs and tunes written by others, either quite recently or, more commonly, in the distant past. Self-produced and recorded mainly live to tape in their native Toronto, it captures their essence and their progressive approach to old-time string band music.

All three can take lead vocals and all three are masters of their instruments - Chris Coole on clawhammer banjo (and occasionally guitar), Max Heineman on bass and John Showman on fiddle. As well as their dynamic spirited playing, their three-part harmonies are unequalled, in my opinion.

There’s a version of the Stanley Brothers’ Stone Walls and Steel Bars which is very different from the original, particularly due to those harmonies. There’s a bluegrassy interpretation of the Marty Robbins classic Big Iron. Newer songs include Fool’s Gold from the pen of the late folkie Lhasa de Sela (Lilith Fair) and a beautiful rendition of Brennan Leigh & Noel McKay’s The Only Other Person in the Room.

My only minor quibble with the record is that the rendition of Hazel Dickens’ chilling song of lament/protest about the devastating miners’ lung disease Black Lung loses some of its effect by the jaunty pace at which they cover it. Regardless, this is a highly recommended album.

Review by Eilís Boland  

Eileen Rose Muscle Shoals Holy Wreckords

Ok, let’s just get this out of the way from the start; every record collection needs a few Eileen Rose inclusions and this new album is a really strong statement from a singer-songwriter who has been forging quietly away over many years to reach the acceptance she now holds among her peers. Having grown up in Boston as part of a large Irish-Italian family, her debut album in 2001 announced Rose to the music media and five albums later her talents have blossomed to consolidate her reputation as a force to be reckoned with. Whether performing with her honky-tonk band, The Silver Threads, or as part of her current band, The Holy Wreck, she delivers Americana with such an assured artistic touch that cannot be diluted. 

It helps when you engage a really crack band like The Holy Wreck and the impressive Rich Gilbert (guitar, pedal steel, Hammond, Wurlitzer) is joined by Steve Latanation (drums, vocals) and Chris MacLachlan (bass). They are a formidable unit and play with passion and great verve across the nine new tracks included here. This is a self-produced album and the cover shot of Rose outside the famed Muscle Shoals studios, with the address above her head, shows her in happy pose with a sunny smile. 

Clearly Eileen Rose has been inspired by her surroundings and she comes out of the traps singing with a real conviction on the soulful She’s Gone. Bringing matters up a few notches are two great rockers in He’s So Red and Get Up. There is a cover of a King Crimson song (what, you say!) and Matte Kudasai slows everything down as she moulds the song into her own shape. Similarly, Am I Really So Bad? has a slow tempo and a resigned vocal from Rose while the melody drifts along with restrained keyboards.

On Shady Hill has a rockabilly beat and cool guitar break while A Little Too Loud gets us back to the rock sound and her great vocal tone. She can sound like Maria McKee occasionally in her phrasing and this is no bad thing as Rose really leads from the front on vocals, guitar, Wurlitzer and harmonica. The last two tracks are a change of gear with Hush, Shhh looking at small town issues with minority groups under the lamp, while Brendan Behan song, The Old Triangle, is given a new treatment, with an added verse – maybe she would have been better advised to steer away from this one!

Also included on this new release are a selection of eight older songs that were given a new coat of paint while the band were happily located at Muscle Shoals. Any number of songs across her body of work could have been selected and the inclusions here just whet the appetite to explore her back catalogue more closely. Joshua Hedley plays fiddle on Old Time Reckoning and other favourites included are Stagger Home, Good Man, Walk the Jetty, Queen of the Fake Smile and Shining. It’s a generous seventeen tracks in all on this new release that really makes a statement of exactly where this artist currently stands in her career – front and centre!

Review by Paul McGee

The Handsome Family Odessa/Milk and Scissors Loose

Originally released in America back in the mid 1990’s on the Carrot Top Records independent label, these two albums are finally given a full European distribution, some 25 years later, on the equally eclectic Loose record label. 

It’s interesting to look back to the origins of this band and to the music that they were initially turning out. Husband and wife duo, Brett and Rennie Sparks, were living in Chicago and part of the vibrant underground music scene that exploded on the back of the cultural phenomenon that was Nirvana. The eruption of underground bands around the 1990’s gave many sideline acts the chance to express their energy through a new wave in genre hopping exploration. 

The likes of Eleventh Dream Day, Tortoise and Liz Phair were among many acts suddenly given the opportunity to break out of the local Chicago scene and The Handsome Family also caught this wave. It was Alt. Country; it was Inde Folk; it was Country Noir – it didn’t matter how you tried to define it - this move towards a new sound and attitude. Indeed, it was just that, an attitude, the chance for artists to redefine music on their own terms and a confidence to mix Folk, Punk and a DIY approach that was a rejection of norms and an aesthetic that captured the energy of the times.  

The offbeat lyrics of Rennie Sparks display a sense of the absurd in the minutiae of everyday living. Her skewed murder ballads mixed with imaginings of a dystopian society and the hypothesis of mother nature taking a kind of perverse revenge against all the excess in urban life. The loneliness of apartment living displayed against the freedom of the countryside and a wish to never be pigeonholed, in either musical terms or in social niceties, declared that the Family Sparks would become darlings of the fringe music scene. Although their home recordings would be refined over time, these two early albums show where the creative spark (excuse the pun) of the band began to take hold.  

On the cover of the Odessa album is a picture of a poodle, being held by its owner and the domestic innocence of the image is juxtaposed with the sketch of a fox which appears on the inner gatefold. The safe, suburban feel of one against the more natural feral image of the latter. Something that the early music reflected with the juxtaposition between heavy and light threaded through the sound of tracks like Gorilla, Giant Ant and One Way Up. The opening track, Here’s Hopin’ is a sonic attack of fuzz guitar, á la Pixies, echoed by songs like Pony and Big Bad Wolf, in really letting their sense of alienation manifest through a cacophony of loud sound. 

The band used the drumming of Mike Werner on the early releases and his percussion helped to fill out the sound of these songs. Against that, we are also treated to the simple Country arrangements of tracks like Arlene, Water Into Wine and The Last. Separately, songs like Moving Furniture Around and Claire Said have the feel of early REM about them.

The band would have provided the perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch film with their tension filled music, acerbic lyrics and uneasy demeanour. Dark messages in a crash of manic, off kilter tunes against the easy gentle sway of acoustic melodies. This frisson is hypnotic throughout and even if there are rough edges everywhere, it was no doubt intended to be that way. Never let the listener relax is what this music says, another twist in the tail awaits. 

The second album, Milk and Scissors, a few years later, saw a big jump in the sound with the emphasis very much on a gentler Country palette, the same sense of the absurd and dislocation in the lyrics, but less of the ramshackle glorious mess of the debut release. What the band would become was starting to take shape with songs like Drunk By Noon, The King Who Wouldn’t Smile and Emily Shore 1819-1939 containing oddly sweet tunings and simple arrangements. Lake Geneva is a fine example of the creativity of the band and their playfulness around a Leonard Cohen song (Suzanne), with a tale about camping, the great outdoors and mental illness recovery. Other tracks like #1 Country Song and The House Carpenter (a Country Noir duet) pointed to the softer melodies that would colour their direction and The Dutch Boy and Tin Foil were other standout tracks on this more focused release. 

Fifteen albums later, including compilations, rarities, demos, outtakes and live releases, the band stand as a beacon to independence and never compromising. Nobody ever sounded quite like them as they stood convention upon its head with their angular perspectives. It all started here and these are two essential milestones in the development of one of music’s most quixotic innovators!

Review by Paul McGee

Betsy Phillips Like We’re Talking Self Release

This 5-track EP is the second release from a very interesting artist who was born in Nebraska and has been living in Nashville since 2012. Her debut EP, More Like Home, emerged in 2013 with songs that pointed her in a promising direction. I am unsure what exactly has been happening over the last six years but given that these new songs were recorded at Goosehead Palace in Nashville, it’s fair to assume that Phillips is alive and well on the local music circuit there. 

Producer Dan Knobler (Lake Street Dive, Erin Rae) does a wonderful job of capturing the sweetly sad vocals of Phillips and his contributions on both acoustic and baritone guitars blend seamlessly with the other guitarist Anthony da Costa (Sarah Jarosz, Joy Williams) and bassist Ethan Jodziewicz (Sierra Hull), both of whom play with understated dexterity and add plenty of subtle colour to these gentle tunes. Danny Mitchell contributes all keyboards including organ, piano, synth and Wurlitzer sounds with a less-is-more touch that compliments the easy flow of the songs.

The soft melody and arrangement of the title track reflects upon a relationship where the death of a partner is viewed through the eyes of the deceased, reflecting upon a sense of closeness that remains in the everyday. Yours To Forget is another love song but with a darker tale of loneliness and fragile feelings in a one-sided relationship. The slow tempo and wistful vocal are perfectly echoed in the inventive playing and superb musicianship.  

Someone Like You is an up-tempo love song that dances along like sunlight on the water with a clipped acoustic groove and superb electric guitar lines from Anthony da Costa and/or Knobler (no liner notes accompanied my copy of the EP). We Don’t Stay is a slow melody and a memory of driving by the old family home and looking at childhood, the life both left behind and also freshly created by the new family that live there now. Seeds is a final look at the need to love again and putting down the tracks that hope runs upon in looking towards the future… 

Phillips is joined on harmony vocals by Bobby Hecht, who co-wrote two of the songs. There is a credit on the back of the EP for another song, Sandhills, but this particular track isn’t included on my copy, so perhaps it was an extra track on the USA release?

Phillips is a part of the Tone Tree family where distribution is focused on creating the greatest opportunity for all concerned. Certainly, they have a real diamond in the creative talents of Betsy Phillips and this EP is hopefully a statement of real intent as she gathers momentum and moves forward.

Review by Paul McGee

 new

New Album Reviews

Gwil Owen Flying Dream Rambler

First album in awhile from noted songwriter Gwil Owen, an artist who has three previous albums to his credit. Previous co-writes by him include A Soft Pace To Fall written with and performed by Allison Moorer and Duece And A Quarter co-written with Kevin Gordon and recorded by Scotty Moore with Keith Richards. FLYING DREAM was recorded in Nashville (in several people’s homes). It features some fine playing from the likes of the ubiquitous Will Kimbrough on guitars, Rick Lonow on drums and pedal steel and saxophones from Jim Hoke alongside a host of other musician’s contribution on keyboards, trumpet, bongos, viola, and cello. They all join Gwil who plays guitar, bass, keyboards, synth, banjo as well as handling vocals. Brydget Carrillo adds harmony vocals on several tracks. The album is dedicated to the late Dukes bassist Kelley Looney. Another casualty who featured on the album on two songs he co-wrote (Hamster Wheel and Innocent Heart) with Owen, is the late David Olney. 

On the more uplifting moments the album covers a broad base of Americana-ish sounds. Faith Enough takes its faith from the belief of another person in their relationship and features Jim Hoke’s pedal steel guitar giving it a sense of fluid truth. I Would Lie is the confession of a serial deceiver that features Kimbrough’s hardened guitar. Carrillo’s background vocals are very much a feature of Diggin’ A Hole which has a solid groove. Cinnamon Sparkles is a piece of pop rock with a strong chorus that again sees Carrillo melding with Owen on the vocals. Hamster Wheel is a little darker which considers the repetition of life when one feels “like a hamster on a hamster wheel.” It uses a distorted vocal and Olney’s harmonica to give it a more disquieting tone. Ivy follows and it reminds me of another song which I can’t quite place at time of writing but is one of the most immediate songs on the album and almost power pop in its execution and affection for the lady in question. Money’s Tight, given its title, is harder overall. Moth Without A Flame offers the perspective of a man without the object of his desire and is bolstered by brass in its soul-tinged setting. More direct is Innocent Heart which is has another fine Owen vocal and features Owen and Olney on guitar, with some cello to give the simple basket some added texture. In an equally non-electric mode Heaven with slide guitar, banjo and viola, has a 60s folk-rock (Kaleidoscope) patina in a plea for freedom. Adrianna again focus on the love of a woman and has a lighter touch. The title track closes the album in something of a rock-baroque parameter without? over doing the sentiment of the song.

FLYING DREAMS  is something of a mixed bag of ideas that is held together by Owen’s vision and songwriting skills. It has been executed with a lot of consideration from the players to give these songs the best possible realisation in the circumstances that they were recorded in. It is therefore a testament to all involved and an album that has much to recommend it.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Nathan Kalish Songs For Nobody Self-Release 

I had not heard of Nathan Kalish prior to receiving this album (his 10th it seems, from some online posts but its hard to find a definite list). He is something of a road warrior, touring on a fairly constant basis with his band The Last Callers. On the strength of this album it sounds as though I have been missing out. Kalish, it would appear, has sported a number of different looks prior to this release which sees him clean shaven and groomed compared with the main picture on his web site and other online images. So perhaps the music has also taken a different direction than on his previous recordings. Either way, it is a good album in itself.

The songs, like those of many of his contemporaries, look to the darker corners and to those living on the fringes. In his travels as a musician he is perfectly placed to see and hear the tales of those who are disenfranchised and disheartened. For this album Kalish has opted for a more solo vision and has gathered around him a set of seasoned players and members of his current band, all of whom were able to give these songs an extra layer of conviction and skill. Former Sturgill Simpson and now Drivin’ & Cryin’ guitarist Laur Joamets features on two of the songs, but the core musicians of bassist Karen Allen, Nathan Baker on guitar and mandolin, drummer Danny Pratt and Adam Kurtz on pedal steel as well as vocalists Lucy B. Cochran and Miriam Speyer are also central to the sound of these new songs alongside Kalish. The majority of the album was given an added spontaneity by being recorded live in the studio.

All of the songs are Kalish’s compositions with the exception of one (Delta Woman) which was completed from a set of unfinished lyrics hand-written by Johnny Cash and found in a friend’s apartment. The title song directly relates to the time Kalish has spent traveling - playing gigs in often foreign towns, finding some elements of humanity whilst on the road and having to eat in some less than enthralling roadside cafes. No Hope offers clear support for those who end up with that sense of hopelessness and desperation in their lives, after they have given as much as they can. Equally Pam & Tim is a similarly honest assessment of small town living. The album closes with Wino Christmas - another hard look at a particular time and place that results in some difficult reminiscences. All of these elements make this, in fact, a set of songs for everyone who likes their music real with a hard coating of country music in several forms.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Various Artists Whiskey Preachin’ (Vol. 1) Whiskey Preachin’

Starting a new record label and especially one devoted to “21st century honky tonk for the outlaw dance floor” might be a risky business in this day and age but that doesn’t stop it from being one worthy of support and investigation. There is a selection of 12 tracks that fit the brief and the mood is upbeat and rockin’. So here’s what you get on your vinyl: Mayeux & Broussard Kool & Handsome, James Scott Bullard Jesus, Jail Or Texas, Kathryn Legendre Going Crazy, Eleven Hundred Springs Arcadian Thruway, The Rhyolite Sound Setting Me Up, Darci Carlson Rat City Bound, Ole Whiskey Revival Ramblin’, The Reeves Brothers C.C. Waterback, Kristina Murray Lovers & Liars, Ted Russel Kamp Get Off The Grid, Weldon Henson Sleep All Day, and Croy And The Boys (If I Knew What I Had To Give Up) I Never Would Have Fallen In Love.

As with any compilation, every listener will have a subjective reaction to the individual tracks and artists, and that may in fact depend on the time and place of listening. It is largely, as indicated, aimed at the dance floor and is not without its rough and ready charms. The ones that immediately hit the spot here for me were: Arcadian Thruway from Eleven Hundred Springs, Kathryn Legendre’s Going Crazy and the expletive laden Southern country blues boogie of Rat City Bound from Seattle’s Darci Carlson. Then there's the Texas made world ready hard country of Weldon Henson with Sleep All Day or the solid hard floor warning from Croy and The Boys with (If I Knew What I Had To Give Up) I Never Would Have Fallen In Love. Having made those choices for this listener, there is nothing here that  you wouldn’t want to hear.

The label is just one component of the Whiskey Preachin’ empire. It is based in Brighton and run by Tony Sexton and Reinhard Holstein (who also founded Glitterhouse Records). As well as this introductory compilation, they are releasing Las Vegas based The Rhyolite Sound’s Majove Gold album both on CD and vinyl. There is also an online magazine and a radio show involved. There is an interview with Olaf Jens by Chris Sick, both of whom are talented illustrators whose work is well worth viewing. But it's the music we are directly concerned with here and this will appeal to any whiskey preachin’, outlaw boogeying, honky tonkin’, Southern rockin’, hillbilly punkin’ person of that persuasion.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Paul Burch & The WPA Ballclub Light Sensitive Glider/Plowboy

Like his first three albums this one is credited to Burch and his team of cohorts, The WPA Ballclub. This is his 12th album and I have most of them in my collection and have enjoyed them all, from PAN AMERICAN FLASH and WIRE TO WIRE when Burch was a leading light in the resurgence of some real and traditionally-minded roots/country music, in the early days of the resurgence of what is now the tourist destination that is Lower Broadway in Nashville. Since that time he has continued to develop a unique voice, in what is an amalgamation of numerous stylistic nuances that draw from the past to bring it into the future.

He is also a storyteller of some talent, often basing his albums on pre-existing texts such as with THE LAST OF MY KIND (songs inspired by the book Jim The Boy by Tony Earley) or on his recent MERIDIAN RISING album where the songs relate to an imagined visit of Jimmy Rodgers to Manhattan. This new album has been described as twelve parables about living in the modern South. From the opening moments of Love Came Back you know you are in Burch country, with his distinctive voice joined by the harmony vocals of Carey Kotsionis over a drum, bass and edgy guitar backing. Typical of Burch, the next track is a blend of Calypso and Dixieland jazz with clarinet and tenor sax setting the tone. It tells us that Mardi Gras emanated originally from Mobile, Alabama and not from New Orleans as is generally thought. Jean Garrigue uses tenor sax again but in a more subtle jazz pose and features another fine vocal from Burch, who shows himself capable of subtlety and nuance in his delivery. Fool About Me swings along nicely with a 50s retro feel. Glider is a cool lounge pool instrumental. But all these tracks run in a seamless musical adventure, with at times a quirky lyrical diversity that will be familiar to Burch aficionados.

Production is shared between Burch and Dennis Crouch who is also the WPA bassist here. Other members of the team include Fats Kaplin, Jen Gunderman, Chloe Feoranzo and Justin Amaral, and Luther Dickinson guests on slide guitar for one track. There is a vocal appearance too from Robyn Hitchcock as an airport voice announcer on Flight To Spain - which offers something of a brief history of that country over a suitably reverb laden travelogue. Burch again contributes his usual mix of instruments to the recording including guitar, bass, drums, Wurlitzer and pedal steel guitar. All of this again underlines his vision and talent as a underrated musician and innovator in the bigger scheme of things.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Possessed By Paul James As We Go Wandering PPJ

A special education teacher and musician, Konrad Wert returned to the studio after two throat surgeries and a few years break from performing and recording. Under his stage name Possessed By Paul James (his grandad’s name was Paul and his father’s middle name was James), AS WE GO WANDERING delivers considered folk songs alongside some wild rambunctious back porch escapades. Wert has managed to produce a fluid collection of songs, not always alike yet sitting comfortably beside each other. Growing up amidst a Mennonite community in Southwest Florida, his initial exposure to music was primarily roots based. On leaving home, he embraced punk music with open arms, feasting on the sounds and attitude of Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. Like so many left of centre country acts, the influences of both roots and punk are unmistakeable on his output.

The album is very much a commentary on the strange times we live in, uncanny by times, with both tracks Be At Rest and When It Breaks even more relevant today than when written by him last year.

It explodes with the opener Come Back To My Mind, riotous fiddle and banjo flanking Wert’s semi-screaming vocals. On the same page is the lover's call Dance With Me Tonight and the similarly themed Don’t Tell Me which features only his voice and strummed banjo. More conventional folk songs included are In The Dark Of Morning and the aforementioned When It Breaks.

With his nine to five job as an educator, Wert is best placed to gauge the concerns and anxieties visited on both his students and their parents.  He does not declare to have all the answers and AS WE GO WANDERING asks more questions than offering solutions. ‘’It’s important for us to acknowledge the good, the bad and the ugly. We are more than just ourselves’’ advises the press release than accompanies the album. Truer words were never spoken.

Review by Declan Culliton

Lawrence County The Frailty Of Humans Self Release

Inspired to create their own musical landscapes in 2008, having discovered The Felice Brothers debut album TONIGHT AT THE ARIZONA, Al Rate and Bill Kerry III formed DH Lawrence & The Vaudeville Skiffle Show. They followed a matching approach to The Felice Brothers, shared vocals, banjos, fiddles and accordions, creating a sound that channelled roots music down a path that also embraced U.K. folk. Residing in Bagthorpe Delta, Nottinghamshire proved no deterrent to creating a musical racket more likely to have been cultivated in the Catskills Mountains. 

Their 2016 release SONS & LOVERS gained high praise from No Depression and they continued to attract a growing following for their lively stage shows. They re-branded in 2019 while in the process of recording THE FRAILTY OF HUMANS, slightly tweaking their signature sound while not straying too far from the Americana household. The album features twelve tracks with the song-writing credits shared by Rate and Kerry, they also go fifty - fifty on much of the instrumentation, both playing guitar and banjo.  The other band members include Charlotte Pynegar on guitar and backing vocals, Maz Clarke on backing vocals, Martin Gallimore on fiddle, accordion and piano, Peter Heron on bass and Bob Carlisle on percussion. 

What’s on offer on this album is a potent serving of all things Americana, featuring the dark and broody, They’re All There, alongside the honky tonk tongue in cheek romp I Don’t Sing Country Anymore - think Robbie Fulks at his most caustic. Bye Bye Americae is equally irreverent, with everything thrown into the mix including banjo, fiddles, brass and even police car sirens and voice overs. The Felice Brothers influence is often close to the surface and no more so that on By The Briar. It’s a dreamy slow burner featuring Kerry on lead vocal duetting seductively with Clark. 

This Is How We Do It In The Country kicks off in Willard Grant Conspiracy gloomy style with only vocal, banjo and fiddle. It’s a dark and murderous affair that changes direction mid song into an up-tempo stomp, while remaining dark and menacing.  The equally disturbing English traditional murder ballad Lucy Wan - which also includes some grisly skulduggery - gets an impressive makeover.

THE FRAILITY OF HUMANS - great title by the way - is far from a Saturday night party album. However, it’s a well-crafted body of songs that grab your attention on first play and sound better on each subsequent revisit.   

Review by Declan Culliton

Western Centuries Call The Captain Free Dirt

 It’s business as usual from Seattle based roots band Western Centuries. CALL THE CAPTAIN is the third release from them following on the footsteps of SONGS FROM THE DELUGE (2018) and WEIGHT OF THE WORLD (2016) and it’s a worthy successor to both of those albums. 

The term supergroup is hardly an exaggeration to describe the five-piece band.  With three songwriters and lead vocalists to call on, Ethan Lawton, Jim Miller and Cahalen Morrison, things could have turned out somewhat disjointed. However, once again they have managed to deliver a collection of songs that work seamlessly as a unit. As on their previous recordings, the song-writing duties are democratically shared, with each of the three contributing four songs. The twelve tracks that feature cover a wide territory from lost love to more immoral issues, intelligently written and not without splashes of humour. The two remaining band members are Nokosee Fields and Thomas Bryan Eaton, who co-produced the album with Grammy nominated Bill Reynolds, whose previous employers included Band of Horses (he also played bass with them). Eaton - who produced the superb recent album THE MOON IS AN ASHTRAY by Miss.Tess - also adds divine touches of pedal steel on every track.

A thumping drum beat kick starts the album’s opener, Lifeblood Sold, before Miller’s vocals kick in. It’s an upbeat song with a theme of resilience and features some neat fiddle from guest player Oliver Bates Craven. Space Force is on the same page, a jaunty driving sound that has echoes of The Band and ridicules Trump’s notion of creating another military branch. (‘We’ll cruise around the galaxy, taking all the bad guys down. Our crimes will be forgiven, cause the Space Dogs are back in town’) Americana godfather Jim Lauderdale and Jim Miller previously worked together in Donna The Buffalo, the band founded by Miller, and Lauderdale adds backing vocals and takes lead vocal on the final verse. Dynamite Kid, Sarah & Charlie and No Cure are trademark Western Centuries sounds, country roots at its toe tapping finest, fiddle breaks and pedal steel touches a plenty. Every Time It’s Raining and Barcelona Lighthouse find them exploring country soul territory.

They also leave room for some touching ballads. All The Things I Could Say To You Right Now features Lawton on lead vocal and Morrison takes the honours on equally moving album closer Before That Final Bell. 

Western Centuries forte is their capacity to combine the key elements of traditional country and rhythm and blues, with skilled song-writing and gifted playing. They’ve achieved that and more again this time around with this hugely enjoyable album, which I’ll no doubt be returning to on a regular basis in the coming months. 

Review by Declan Culliton

John Jenkins and the James Street Band Looking For That American Dream Self Release

John Jenkins is a singer-songwriter who resides in Liverpool and has a number of albums to his name. The James Street Band include Denis Parkinson (guitars and vocals), David Nixon (harmonica, percussion and vocals), Dave Orford (drums and vocals), Steve Atkinson (bass), Lee Warren Shone (keyboards), with Jenkins contributing guitar, keyboards and vocals. As a veteran of many years in the business and different bands, Jenkins knows his way around a studio and this release is testament to his writing skills and his co-production, with Jon Lawton, at the helm.

This release dates back to June 2019 but is only reaching me now – better late than never. The 13 songs are very engaging and the ensemble play with great colour and range, abetted by an additional eight musicians who visited the studio to augment the overall sound (four backing vocalists, plus added instruments like banjo, keyboards). 

Roundabout is a great song and instantly recognisable as a wry look at time-pressured couples, holding down two jobs and trying to get by. Ghost in the Bar rocks out in style and the Sam Cooke tribute is just that; a love letter to a golden voice of the past. Can You Hear Me? Is written in memory of his Dad and The Forgotten Man is something that I don’t believe could ever be said of this talented musician who creates easy on the ear, melodic music that never fails to please. 

Review by Paul McGee

Michael McMillan Missing Person Self Release

This is the fifth album of gentle songs, sweetly sung, by a musician who has been releasing music since his debut in 2007. He writes from the heart and uses true life stories as the inspiration for many of the songs. There is a knowing melancholia in tracks like The Only Word, So Many Thorns and A Better Place but there is an important message to us all in remembering the marginalised and the lost in society.

McMillan composes in a very direct and honest manner, never afraid to call it like he sees it – with plenty of loving awareness in his words along the way. As he says in the liner notes, “While you are waiting for your miracle, be a miracle for someone else.” Wait For Me is a poignant tale of a deceased partner and the grief left behind while, You Are, is a tribute song to a loved one who brings light and happiness.

The album was recorded at EssGee Studios in Glasgow with the talents of Sam Gallagher who both produced and contributed as a musician to the project. McMillan wrote all twelve tracks and with no information regarding other players on the album, I have to assume that both musicians played the majority of the instruments featured. Worthy of your time.

Review by Paul McGee

John Bowman The Hole Mountain Home

This 6 song EP from John Bowman is a wonderful example of gospel music that can also appeal to non-religious country and bluegrass fans. John Bowman is a graduate of Doyle Lawson’s Quicksilver, Alison Krauss’s Union Station, JD Crowe’s New South, The Isaacs and The Boxcars. Now a full time preacher and solo performer, he has collaborated here with five other top musician friends on the six well chosen story songs. Kicking off at breathtaking pace with You Ought’ve Been There (Johnny Run The Pews), it is obvious from the start that Bowman has a deep love of country gospel. 

This storm burner was written by family gospel trio The Easter Brothers from NC, and Bowman goes all honky tonk on it, with fabulous electric guitar playing from Kelly Back and rip roaring dobro from Josh Swift (Doyle Lawson). The Hole will be well known from an early Randy Travis record - here Bowman has the vocal capacity to take on this classic, helped by the  outstanding piano playing of Gordon Mote and by Mike Rogers on drums. Silverthorn Mountain, from the pen of Merle Haggard, is an outright bluegrass number, and it’s got Aubrie Haynie’s fiddle all over it. Playing mostly acoustic guitar throughout, Bowman takes out the banjo for the closing song I’ll Talk It All Over With Him, which he would have played many times with JD Crowe. Don’t be put off by the rather macabre cover photo depicting the feet and shovel of a man digging a grave - this album is highly recommended and guaranteed to uplift!

Review by Eilís Boland

The Grascals Straighten The Curves Mountain Home

Favourites of Dolly Parton, who used them as her backing band for several years, The Grascals have been one of the most successful bands on the bluegrass circuit since their formation in 2004. They have been awarded a total of a whopping 38 mainly instrumental awards (individually or as a band) from the IBMA and SPGMA, and have guested on the Grand Ole Opry many times.

The title track, penned by Chris Coole of The Lonesome Ace Stringband, is a superb example of the genre - a song to drive to - with star turns from each of the six band members. The equally catchy driving song, Driving my Life Away, is a revival of the Eddie Rabbitt country hit song from 1975, and here the banjo playing of Kristin Scott Benson provides the grooving rhythm alongside founding member Terry Smith on bass. Newest member Chris Davis (guitar) takes lead vocals on his well crafted song Don’t Leave Your Memory Behind, enhanced by the sweet fiddle playing of Adam Haynes, who is an alumnus of several top bands including The James King Band and Dailey & Vincent. Larry Cordle’s song Callin’ Your Name is given a new outing and Becky Bulller contributes the traditional themed My Virginia Mama. Danny Roberts (mandolin) wrote the only instrumental, Andi Wayne, and Terry Smith co-wrote Who Needs You. Some of the other song choices are slightly bewildering given the standard of the writing, however there is enough good material here to satisfy the hard core bluegrass fan.

Review by Eilís Boland

Josh Rennie-Hynes Patterns Self Release

Born in Australia and now living in Nashville, this musician found fame as part of The Ahern Brothers who previously released two well received albums of folk-based songs to great acclaim. 

With the twelve songs featured here Rennie-Hynes booked studio time at the Sound Emporium in Nashville and enlisted producer Alex Munoz to create the magic at the controls. Munoz also contributed various guitar parts to the songs with electric,12-string, baritone and lap steel all featuring. Rennie-Hynes plays guitar and harmonica and sings in a voice that has a plaintive tone, well suited to the dream like sounds of Chapter, Caught In A Dream, Borrowing Time and Ghosts (with superb violin from Kristin Weber).

There is a rock-oriented sound to the album with lush guitars, swirling keyboards, pulsing bass lines and driving percussion on a number of songs. The simple arrangement on Stay is a change in style and shows a more rootsy side to this talent and perhaps a direction he will focus on as he grows into his career over the coming years. 

Pieces has an early Springsteen groove to the arrangement and the laid-back delivery is very appealing on a number of different levels, head, heart and hips. Equally, All Of Me has the strut of early Tom Petty with attitude to match. Hold Out My Hand and High Road both have all the hallmarks of an Americana radio hit and are songs that highlight the excellent bass playing of Christopher Griffiths, who together with Allen Jones on drums and percussion, anchor all of these tracks in a steady and often creative style of playing. Micah Hulscher provides plenty of colour on organ, piano and synths to the tracks and Erin Rae delivers vocals on the final song, Home To You, which is a stripped back acoustic love song. 

Coming in at 50 minutes of listening time, this is a confident statement from an artist who wants to be recognised for the talent that he clearly displays across these songs. Something tells me that we will be hearing more form him in the future.

Review by Paul McGee

Rott’n Dan and Lightnin’ Willy Self-Titled DMA

Rott’n Dan and the Lightnin’ Willy are an acoustic duo who play a style of Country Blues that conjures up images of the old days when the roots of traditional music were being planted deep into the ground. The timeless nature of acoustic blues over the generations is not in question and these two Canadian artists certainly honour the tradition on this debut album.

As a side project, Rott’n Dan and Lightnin’ Willy certainly put a lot of love and affection into these ten songs, with the finger picking guitar style of Lightnin’ Willy (Willy Ryan) perfectly in balance with the creative riffing of Rott’n Dan (Dan Shinnan) on harmonica. They both sing to augment these stripped down, rhythmic tunes and the overall effect is both authentic and impressive.

There are five original tracks that sit very well alongside covers of old artists such as Mississippi John Hurt (I’m Satisfied), Arthur “Blind” Blake (You Gonna Quit Me Blues), Blind Willie McTell (Delia), Sonny Boy Williamson (Good Gravy). The songs that are penned by the duo are very much of the same backyard as these standards and the superb Ragtime sound of My Belle is followed by the Delta groove of Coliseum Station Blues, both displaying playing skills of the highest order. There is a terrific instrumental version of Mercedes Benz (Janis Joplin, Michael McClure, Bob Neuwirth) to bring matters to a close and this is old time roots music which helps you reconnect with what is important in our collective listening experience. It feels grounded, real and quite rightly, a highly recommended purchase.

Review by Paul McGee

Edward Abbiati Beat The Night Self Release

Abbiati is best known as the front man in LOWLANDS, an Americana band that released a number of excellent albums since their debut back in 2008. Here, on his debut solo record, he has collaborated with Mike ‘Slo Mo’ Brenner (Marah, Magnolia Electric Co.) and Chris Pleet to produce a ten-song album that reflects upon a life-changing experience and which delivers some beautifully realised songs touching on mortality, dark days of fear and hope for the future.

What was to be a solo, acoustic record quickly turned onto a full collective experience with Joey Huffman (Soul Asylum, Georgia Satellites), plus Joe Barreca and Jimmy Ragazzon of the Mandolin Bros being joined by Michele Gazich (Mary Gauthier’s violin player), Italian cello virtuoso Simona Colonna, session bassist Antonio ‘Rigo’ Righetti and Lowlands’ keyboardist Francesco Bonfiglio. Others to climb aboard were former bandmate Stiv Cantarelli and David Henry (Yo la Tengo, Matthew Ryan, Rod Picott), who added strings. 

The whole project was recorded over a few weeks in Cava Manara, Pavia, Italy and the ensemble playing is quite superb throughout. Reminiscent of early Green On Red or Richmond Fontaine, these very personal songs of facing down serious illness are quite clearly cathartic for all involved. 

Tracks like I Got Hurt, Hold Me Tight and In Harm’s Way tell the story of Abbiati’s near death experience, underpinned by the restrained playing of, in turn, Brenner on lap steel, Colonna on cello and Gazich on violin. Three Times Lucky is dedicated to his new daughter, Sofia, with the hope and joy she brings for the future. Worth checking out Folks.

Review by Paul McGee

Norma Mac Donald Old Future Noyes 

The title says it all. Norma Mac Donald’s fifth album sounds like it could have been recorded fifty years ago. The Halifax, Nova Scotia resident's last release BURN THE TAPES, was nominated as Americana/Bluegrass Album Of The Year by Music Nova Scotia, and OLD FUTURE could most likely earn similar accolades.

It’s an impressive exercise in keeping things simple and to the point. Strong songs, quality playing and MacDonald’s classic country vocals all excel across the ten tracks. She co-produced the album alongside Dale Murray, who is credited with playing guitars, pedal steel, piano, organ, percussion and bass, together with adding backing vocals.

Essentially a country album in the true sense, it does dip slightly into pop territory on occasions, Trick Of The Light and Temperamental Year being two examples. However, the stand out tracks are pure unadulterated country, delivered by an artist blessed with a simply gorgeous vocal ability. Your Wedding Day (tears on her ex-husbands wedding day) and Some Days sound like country standards you’re convinced you’ve heard before, uplifting pedal steel featuring on both tracks. The latter, a reminder in difficult times of better times on the horizon, includes the line “Some nights you die a slow death by nostalgia.” MacDonald had intended to name the album ‘Death by Nostalgia’, before being convinced by others to reconsider. One Man Band, the first single from the album, is a stripped back affair, impeccable vocals accompanied by acoustic guitar and gentle strings all amount to a beguiling and soothing listen.

 The album is indeed nostalgic but in a positive way. Impressively packaged and with the lyrics displayed in the inner sleeve, it circles back to a sound more celebrated in the 1960’s and is a delightful journey down memory lane from start to finish. Simply gorgeous.

Review by Declan Culliton

Miss Tess The Moon Is An Ashtray Rights

Miss Tess is a member of the growing community of talented female artists residing in Nashville. In a similar vein to her peers, she is delivering music from the other side of the track, unlike the often-insipid pop country emanating from Music Row. She has enjoyed a fairly nomadic lifestyle and the influence of time spent in Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn and Nashville are all evident in her music. Her sound is somewhat more left-field than many of her contemporaries, dipping into rockabilly, jazz and blues alongside her retro country leanings.

THE MOON IS AN ASHTRAY is a continuation of her fascination with the sounds and styles of yesterday. Testament to this are both the album’s cover photo and the use in the recording of her trusty 1930’s Weymann Archtop guitar. The title track also pays homage to bygone times. It’s a sultry, slow burning affair which overlaps jazz with country vibes. Gamblin’ Man offers a spikey machine gun vocal delivery - her neighbour Aaron Lee Tasjan comes to mind - complete with a Dr. Feelgood sounding rhythm section. If Western Swing rocks your boat, you’ll be well impressed by I Wanna Be A Cowboy, it’s a piano led number that features Tess yodelling to good effect. The retro sound also features in the standout If You Don’t Know How To Love Me, an old school country affair which combines smoky vocals and wailing pedal steel guitar. One Little Kiss and Human Being are instantly catchy pop melodies, before she swings the album to a close with the laid back and jazzy Riverboat Song.

Recorded at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, the production was a three-way affair between Tess, her bandmate and musical partner Thomas Bryan Eaton and Andrija Tokic (Hurray For The Riff Raff, Alabama Shakes). They certainly succeeded in capturing a timeless and absorbing essence across a most impressive album.

Review by Declan Culliton

Sarah Peacock Burn The Witch Road Dog

That Sarah Peacock is acutely aware of what is happening around her now and what has happened to many people in the past is evident by the title and lead track on this new album, her eight. She is no stranger to this particular game and continues to define her craft and creativity through it. It is an album that sets out a canvas on which she can paint her stories that are as much about attitudes and social change as they are about personal change. That includes having a fire on her tour bus back in 2016 that destroyed everything on board and in its aftermath having the chance to revaluate her role. She came to realise that her music had made an impact on those who listened to and loved her work and who encouraged her to continue. This new album is the end result of that period of reflection and reinvigoration. 

The album opens with guitar and electronic sound and Peacock’s convincing voice on the title song that immediately makes an impact as the song relates back to the hypocrisy and horror of the Salem Witch Trials in Salem in 1692. Keep Quiet follows in a similar style, questioning the reasons people are often afraid to speak out. Mojave compares a person “lost in the wasteland of an empty heart” and of that arid desert. A sense of place is also central to Colorado. These songs like many here are wound around a deep sense of melody, delivered through provoking lyrics and a vital voice. There are songs that seek the higher ground such as The One and Take You High. These sit beside the outsider consideration of one who sees the world as the domain of The Cool Kids who bullied at school but ultimately are the ones deserving of pity. That sense of openness and understanding is prevalent throughout the album. Peacock has struggled with combining faith and being openly gay and seeing how those often seemingly opposite viewpoints are not so for many people worldwide. Peacock wrote all the songs here, either solo or with a number of like-minded co-writers.

The album was recorded, produced and mixed in Nashville by Shawn Byrne. He also added guitars, percussion and backing vocals. Over this base was the largely understated but highly effective contributions of Adam Ollendorff on pedal steel, John Henry Trinko’s keyboards, Brian Sutherland on cello and Michael Lucarelli’s strings. A tightly focused sound that is genre non-specific and a product of a wide range of musical influences and life experiences that make BURN THE WITCH an album that should take Peacock to another level and to a wider audience. She is certainly worthy of it with this accomplished and life affirming music that she simply wants her fans to hold her in their hearts.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Hoth Brothers Workin’ And Dreamin’ Self Release

In the best tradition of such named bands Bard Edrington V, Boris McCutcheon and Sarah Ferrell are neither brothers or all boys! What they are is a set of musicians who take their acoustic based music and give it a contemporary shake. They are joined here by Greg Williams whose drumming adds a lot of energy and pulse to the songs. There are some additional voices added to fill out on a couple of songs but as all the principle players are also vocalists, that side of things is well catered for. The song writing is either by Edrington or McCutcheon together or individually. The sixteen tracks and an hour plus running time is generous and they try to bring some variation to the acoustic formula. They share vocals throughout the album with either Edrington or McCutcheon taking the lead for the most point and the others adding harmonies. This will appeal to fans of old time and bluegrass music with the banjo well to the fore in the sound. They also add some electric and baritone guitars to expand the acoustic nature of the songs.

Nature, at a glance of the titles, is a topic to their worldview and lifestyle - Trees Of Heaven, Singing Grass, Flint Hills, Horses Are Made Of Wind and Bitter Frost are a selection of the titles that reference that viewpoint. Some of the songs work strongly in the stripped back setting such as Singing Grass and O Birds Still Sing. There is a different tone to Rendezvous Duel which has a ‘western’ feel to its sense of desperation and murder. Chili Line has a strong vocal chorus that sings of wishing to be transported to a different time over a jaunty beat and a banjo melody. A theme that also is at the heart of the river riding tale of Wild Robby. January gets some bad press in the song of that title. It features some electric guitar along with effective intertwined vocals in its underlining denouncement of the inauguration of the current president and his fractured administration.

There is a sense that this band of brothers have a deep love of the past and for history but intend to deliver their music with a spirit that is very much of the now. Despite that it may be a little archaic for some ears but that would be their loss, as this is music for all ages. It offers a number of highlights including the song Balancing Act, which is something of a statement of intent for the Hoth Brothers who add that sense of earth with a strong sting in the tail of those who wish to own and control it. Meantime these folks will keep workin’ and dreamin’ for better times.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Albums - New Reviews

The Marshall Tucker Band New Year’s In New Orleans Roll Up ’78 and Light Up ’79!  MT Industries

Recorded at the legendary Warehouse venue in New Orleans, which held an audience of 2,000+ on a regular basis, this 2-CD set of a live concert was broadcast to the American nation on New Year’s Eve 1978. The original recording was captured on two 24-track tape machines and it was mixed by original producer Paul Hornsby who not only worked with the band on the early Capricorn Record releases but also sat in on keyboards, organ and piano in the studio. 

The band was comprised of Doug Gray (vocals), Toy Caldwell (guitar/vocals), Tommy Caldwell (bass/vocals), George McCorkle (guitar), Paul Riddle (drums), and Jerry Eubanks (flute/sax/vocals). Their Southern rock sound was augmented by the use of flute and horns, giving the band an eclectic sound when compared to rival acts at the time, such as the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws or Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Disc One is just shy of 70 minutes in length and is packed with great guitar driven dynamics across the twelve tracks, all of which are taken from the band’s first seven releases. Included are old favourites Blue Ridge Mountain Skies, Hillbilly Band, Fire On The Mountain, Long Hard Ride, Fly Like An Eagle, Ramblin’ and an extended jam on 24 Hours At A Time.

Disc Two is much shorter at 24 minutes, but given that it concentrates on the end of the show, when the New Year was about to be celebrated, this is entirely understandable. Included in the New Year’s countdown is a rousing Auld Lang Syne, with proceedings ending on a thoroughly joyous version of the traditional song, Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

This original band broke up in 1983 so this live recording is a unique opportunity to catch them at the peak of their powers. The fluid guitar work of Toy Caldwell is always a delight and his duelling with Jerry Eubanks on flute and sax is always inventive and leans towards jazz-based workouts on a number of occasions. Doug Gray sounds somewhat hoarse on some of the early tracks, something he declares later into the set, but it never takes away from the quality of the songs and the four-part vocals from the band are always very engaging. The band play with an understanding that only years of touring America can bring and the interplay is really enjoyable. If you want to take a trip down the nostalgia highway and indulge yourself in a sound that matched the Allman Brothers in quality then this is certainly the release for you. A memorable night indeed.

Review by Paul McGee

Dave Vargo Spaces In Between Self Release

Having graduated with honours from the Berklee College of Music and acting as a session player for many different artists over a period of years, Dave Vargo decided to take a career turn and focus on his own vision and innate skills. He released his debut album in 2016 and this experienced and highly talented musician returned with this second outing in the latter part of 2019. 

This release is another fine example of his prowess, both as a musician and a songwriter. He pushes towards a big guitar sound with strong melodies and great hooks, something that builds upon his studio synergy with Tim Pannella, his co-producer and contributor on drums and percussion. The sound is really bright and airy, with lots of space for the arrangements and melodies to breathe.

Call it Americana, but it is really more a definitive statement by a singular talent who is exploring his boundaries as both a guitar specialist and a songsmith. The focus for the eleven songs would appear to centre around the personal struggles we all face in life and the challenges to keep going through the fog in search of direction. Opening with the fluid guitar lines of This Moment On and a message of ‘day at a time’ and optimism for the future, the following Without A Fight is a search for meaning and reasons to keep moving forward, all wrapped in an inventive guitar solo.

And on it goes, with each track revealing more superb dynamics in the tempo and guitar parts. Battle Burns looks at the scars that living brings and searching for new opportunity while In Between reflects on relationship woes and the differences between lovers. Tracks is an acoustic number that slows everything down in examining the past and the memory of choices made. Nowhere Else is another reflective song with great guitar and a hint at running from yourself as some kind of skewed answer. Some of the songs have the vocal somewhat dampened in the heady mix and it can be difficult to catch the words, something of a drawback when you are looking for the songs lyrical meaning. However, this is a small issue in the overall sense of listening to something that is alive and vibrant. 

The backing vocals of Audra Mariel are really excellent and add a lot to the harmonies and the colour of the arrangements, while Jeffrey Thompsen plays superbly on bass. Kim Boyko sings backing vocals on two tracks and Dan Haase adds his talents, playing bass on another two tracks. The closing song, Not Alone, sums up the message that there is always a way to find the light and to look for meaning. A very impressive album and one that comes recommended.

Review by Paul McGee

Watermelon Slim Traveling Man Northernblues

You have to go way back to 1973 in order to track the career of this blues legend. In that year, Slim released an anti-Vietnam album called MERRY AIRBRAKES, as a military veteran and a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Move forward into a blue-collar life of various jobs, including forklift driver, funeral officiator, small-time criminal, newspaper reporter, saw miller, and truck driver for industrial waste, among others, and you are faced with someone who has walked the walk and talked the talk. 

In 1979, he bought a piece of land and took up watermelon farming. The vocation was not one he embraced but his nickname stuck and he went on to start a career as a blues/roots musician that has taken him into the hearts of many. In 2003, he released BIG SHOES TO FILL and his career trajectory just took off from that moment towards the status that he now holds as the definitive Mississippi Delta player of these times.

These two discs total 98 minutes and 18 tracks, featuring Slim on vocals, harmonica and electric slide guitar. Long-time friend, Chris Hardwick, is again at the production controls and there are two gigs included across a few months in 2016 at Oklahoma venues.  You might wonder if the music gets to sound somewhat repetitive, given that it is just one player, over a lengthy set, but the dynamic throughout is timeless and you just slip into a slow groove along with the essence of this pure form of musical expression. The harmonic precision of voice and guitar are perfectly aligned as Slim plays his unique, backwards style of bottleneck slide.

Slim grew up in Boston and he was christened William Homans III, a name that now only appears on his song-writing credits. Indeed, the eleven albums that he has released are all honoured for their authenticity and he has been the recipient of multiple awards for his output. Eight of those records are represented here, in a set that includes seven cover songs.

The album that features most is UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL (2004) with six tracks included, among them Smokestack Lightning (Howlin’ Wolf) and Two Trains Running (Muddy Waters). We also get Blue Freightliner, Scalemaster Blues, Archetypal Blues and The Last Blues.  There are four tracks featured from the Watermelon Slim and the Workers releases, one of his projects along the path, and Jimmy Bell, Into The Sunset, Devil’s Cadillac and Frisco Line all hit the sweet spot.

His most recent albums also feature with GOLDEN BOY (2017) contributing Dark Genius and Northern Blues while CHURCH OF THE BLUES (2019) has 61 Highway Blues and Holler #4 included. This is absolute immersion in the root of all music, given that bluegrass, country, jazz, jug band, ragtime, rhythm ’n’ blues, rock ’n’ roll, all could be said to evolve from this original source.

During the live performance, you can hear him urge “play that thing now” on a number of occasions, as if summoning up the energy to carry on, at the age of 70 years. However, as he represents the true face of blues music - this is the real deal, no chaser. Get on the train.

Review by Paul McGee

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours Dragons Self-Titled Thirty Tigers

Family is a theme that runs through this eight studio release and Family is the opening track with an addictive hand-clap beat, salsa rhythm and upbeat groove setting a standard for the rest of the ten tracks to meet. End Of The World follows in a similar vein with a rootsy, radio friendly tempo and a big drum sound that kicks ass. For a band that started life back in 2005 with their debut release, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours has fared better than most in the stormy seas of the music industry over the intervening years. 

It is to his credit that he has never compromised on self-belief and songs like But I’ll Never Forget The Way You Make Me Feel (featuring wife, Ellie Holcomb) bring us back to the beginning with a promise to remember the good memories of younger days. Title track, Dragons, features the Lone Bellow and is a statement to live life large against all the doubts and fears that may arise along the way. See The World, again with wife Ellie on vocals, is a great reminder of all that really matters is Family and the joy of a new life in the World.

Nathan Dugger (multi-instruments) and Rich Brinsfield (various bass and acoustic guitar) remain from the original band and are joined by Will Sayles (drums, percussion) and Cason Cooley (piano, synths) who also engineered and produced the project. Holcomb takes lead vocal and plays guitar and wrote all the songs, including five co-writes. You Want What You Can’t Have features Lori McKenna and looks at our unease and always looking at the other man’s grass and assuming it’s greener. The track, Maybe, features Natalie Hemby (The Highwomen) with a message that “Maybe we’re lost in what we want, not what we need.”

You Never Leave My Heart is a tribute to his brother, who died from spina bifida complications as a teenager and the song has a strong lyric and a soaring arrangement. Bittersweet takes a look at the roles we adopt in life and how it all passes so quickly, “You better take a picture, you better write it down, What you always wanted, won’t always be around.” Another excellent chapter in the ongoing story of an artist who follows is own vision.

Review by Paul McGee

The Remedy Club True Hand True Heart High Flying Disc 

LOVERS, LEGENDS & LOST CAUSES, released in 2017, was the first instalment in the career remodelling of husband and wife team Aileen Mythen and Kj Mc Evoy. Having recorded two albums previously as B and The Honeyboy they regrouped as The Remedy Club. The change in name did not spell a dramatic migration from their musical style, more so a new start with a blank canvas and a determination to prevail in an increasingly difficult marketplace.

That debut album was recorded locally but mastered by Ray Kennedy at his Room and Board Studio in Berry Hill, Nashville. This time around they have gone one step further by packing their bags for Music City to record TRUE HAND TRUE HEART at that same studio. The production was overseen by Kennedy, whose accolades include 5 Grammy Awards, one of which he won for Steve Earle’s excellent THE REVOLUTION STARTS…. NOW. I’m reminded of the production on that album on The Remedy Club’s latest, which is similarly loaded with positive energy and is a considered mix of roots and country with a splash of blues on the side.

The album kicks off in fine style with the raucous Sweet Symphony. The track is very much where Lucinda Williams’ energy is at present with a power house sound and compelling beat - it’s also the first single from the album. Reclaim is an immense and muscular sound, with Mythen’s booming vocals reaching glass breaking levels and Mc Evoy’s screeching guitar not far behind. The title track has a rolling blues tinged sound, fleshed out by some slick guitar riffs and razor-sharp harmonica bursts. Nonetheless, it’s not all fire and brimstone and the album also delivers songs that console and soothe, with Mythen displaying the ability to do quiet every bit as well as hell raising. Let The Good Times Roll is a wistful conventional country song and Time Won’t Wait For Me is simply divine, as impressive a ballad as I’ve heard this year. Mournful pedal steel from David Murphy features on both of these tracks.

The Remedy Club’s prized assets are a combination of Mythen’s gorgeous vocals and Mc Evoy’s guitar skills. Both are in evidence here alongside well-crafted songs and great harmonies from the duo.  They’ve poured their hearts and souls into this recording and the results are a hugely convincing album that should further enhance their fast-growing reputation both locally and farther afield. A brooding masterclass in Americana from Wexford via Nashville and one that you’re well advised to investigate.

Review by Declan Culliton

Kevin Anthony & G-Town Eh Ha Ha  - A Tribute To The Original Cajun Fiddle Of Harry Choates Self Release

Country music historians will be more than familiar with the name Harry Choates.  The master of Texas Swing and Cajun music, Choates was renowned for both his full-on fiddle playing and his equally rampant hard living. A household name in Texas, he seldom ventured outside Texas and Louisiana, spending his all too short career playing the dance halls, bars and honky tonks mainly along the Texas coastline. With a somewhat similar early career to Hank Williams, he cut his teeth in his early teens playing barber shops for tips before reaching the age at which he could legally perform professionally. He passed away in an Austin jail at the age of 28, from alcohol burnout.

His legend is honoured in this fourteen-track tribute recorded at Sugar Hill Studios, formerly Gold Star Records, where Choates had himself recorded. Lost Bayou Rambler’s fiddle player and vocalist Louis Michot was in control of production, with Kevin Anthony playing fiddle and adding vocals. They successfully managed to capture the atmosphere and turbulence of a live Coates show on the album. The G-Town musicians are Christopher Smith Gonzalez on bass, Dwight Wolf on guitar, Jim Hall on steel guitar and Nicole Mendell on drums.

They combined to generate a toe tapping compound of western swing, Cajun, Zydeco, rockabilly and old school country. Particularly notable are Jole Blon, Harry Choates Blues and Louisiana Boogie but in essence the album is a good time listen from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton

Matt Harlan Best Beasts Continental Song City

A winner of the title Singer/Songwriter of The Year in the Texas Music Awards in 2013, Houston born Matt Harlan shares a gift with many of his fellow Texans songsmiths. He’s equipped with the ability to create musical landscapes from simple everyday occurrences and his latest release is further proof of his talents.  Current political events in America have been the catalyst for numerous recordings across varying music styles of late and that theme is central to much of the writing on BEST BEASTS. It’s his fifth recording and a mixture of laidback ballads alongside some cracking upbeat offerings. You get value for your money also, with no fewer than thirteen tracks, five of which include female vocalists (Betty Boo, Libby Koch and Kelley Mickwee) backing Harlan to particularly good effect.

The characters he creates across the album are a collection of typically ordinary people, trying to survive with the odds stacked heavily against them. “We’re just trying to be the best beasts we can be”, he announces on the title track and the album’s tour de force. A crunching rhythm drives the track along, screeching guitars, thumping bass lines and layered vocals combining to maximum effect.

Darla Mae, checking in at six minutes, is by far the longest track and a lovely listen that brings to mind Robert Earl Keen. What We Saw pulls no punches as Harlan considers all too familiar anxieties and concerns (‘Teachers left wondering, what’s that I hear down the hall’ and ‘Living high on the gun and getting low on the floor’). K&W is a killer country duet of a ruined relationship, with the previously noted (and member of The Trishas) Kelley Mickwee strikingly trading vocals with Harlan.

Low Pressure would sit comfortably on any Warren Zevon album and Gemini Blues offers a rich funky groove with impressive keyboard breaks and splashes of trumpet. The album closes on a realistic rather than sanguine note, the song Another Bad Day emphasising the hopelessness of the cast that populate the songs that went beforehand.

Review by Declan Culliton

Patsy Thompson Fabulous Day Self Release

This album appears to be something of a return to duty for the Canadian-born singer. Something that is apparent from the opening title song. The impetus for this would appear to be Chris Rolin, who produced and played guitar on the album. He also co-writes with Thompson (on four songs) who herself had a hand in writing all but one of the 10 featured tracks. They are number of influences here that she has drawn from, from Patsy Cline to Aretha Franklin and Merle Haggard to Bob Seger. Thompson’s career began in the 1990’s where she spent time in Austin but it was interrupted when she took time out to take care of her mother. Understandably, there is a passion and presence here in her vocal delivery - her seventh album - from the full-on opening track to a more bluesy take on Dreamin’.

Rolin has rolled a number of noted players in to track these songs including Redd Volkert on guitar and Bruce Bouton on steel guitar. This is not old school country/honky tonk nor is it falling into the current overproduced pop country, but rather something more classic in feel and genre crossing than fitting any exact category. Something that Americana seems to be the overall umbrella tag for these days.

The one outside song, recorded by Merle Haggard, Misery And Gin highlights a mature arrangement and the wide range of her vocal ability. The song that worked best for me here is the self written Passion. It includes a nice use of the accordion to give it a different feel along, with some violin and Spanish guitar. Most of the tracks cover her experiences and those ups and downs that life has to offer. Someone To Blame is a fair example of this train of thought. The album closes with I Think About You a big sounding song with old school harmonies and some nice twang guitar that sound like a welcome throwback to another era but a welcome one.

FABULOUS DAY will be a welcome return to those acquainted with Patsy Thompson. It may not suit everyone’s taste but is the work of an artist, singer and songwriter who still has a lot to give overall.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Jesse Daniel Rollin’ On Die True

With his second album Jesse Daniel has raised the stakes in terms of production values and songwriting. From the get go, this is a prime example of what contemporary country should be. It picks up on the West Coast Bakerfield sound without actually aping any particular artist. From listening to some of his favourite performers, like Jim Lauderdale, he was particularly taken with the sound of those produced by Tommy Detamore and so reached out to him to work on this album. Detamore came onboard and the result is a killer album of hardcore country that from its cover on, wears its heart on its sleeve. 

Daniel co-produced the album together and recorded in Detamore’s studio in Floresville, Texas where they gathered together some of the best and most in tune players around. The rhythm section is Tom Lewis on drums and Kevin Smith on bass, with T Jarod Bonta on piano, Hank Singer and Bobby Flores on fiddle as well as John Carroll on lead guitar and contributions by Micheal Guerra on accordion. Detamore played his customary exemplary pedal steel. Daniel’s partner and manager and sometimes co-writer Jodi Lyford has added enticing harmony vocals, while Daniel played acoustic and electric guitars. A potent combination as this release testifies to and is underlined by the skill set on display throughout but more apparent in the instrumental Chickadee.

Having endured a background of addiction and an unsettled upbringing, Daniel knows how to bring some real emotion and true-life messages to his writing. Nevertheless, it is not in any way a hard listen, as Daniel has a knack for a hook and melody that makes these songs sound exuberant and fresh. Daniel has seen this album as an opportunity to move ahead and away from any ties that bound him in the past. A time to be rollin’ on and discovering free skies, new experiences and open roads.

Therefore, it is logical that the road Daniel was on is reflected in the songs on the album. Champion is a story song that views life from a particular perspective of the addict and those people encountered while leading that life. That darker side sits alongside other cuts like Bringing Home The Roses wherein the flowers are meant as a peace offering from a serial barroom-inhabiting offender. Old At Heart is about a performer playing small venues to little or no response, but who on occasions becomes someone else through the music - something that keeps him, a young man old at heart. There isn’t a track here that doesn’t fit the parameters of country music in one form or another and Daniel has written all 12 songs here, 6 with Jodi Lyford and one with McCoy Tyler. This is an album that will take you on a journey - either in isolation or out on the open road.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Albums - New Reviews

Sam Doores Self-Titled New West

A former member of Hurray For The Riff Raff and current player with The Deslondes, Sam Doores' self-titled solo album was recorded at three locations. Berlin, his current home Nashville and his previous residence, New Orleans were all visited during the recording process. Both bands previously noted are outstanding providers of experimental folk music incorporating elements of jazz, rhythm & blues together with traditional American music to stunning effect. Those musical components are seldom far from the surface here, the contrast being that the material is drawn from more intimate and personal life experiences and is therefore more appropriate to a solo album.

The Berlin connection came about when producer Anders Ormen Christopherson discovered the New Orleans band Sundown Songs, of which Doores was a member, alongside Alynda Segarra and Pat Reedy. Christopherson was opening a studio in Berlin and invited Doores to drop by the next time he was in Europe. At the tail end of a tour in Europe with The Deslondes, Doores arranged to spend a week in Berlin and spent time in the studio recording songs for this album. Future visits to Berlin in the following few years, while on tour in Europe, led to further recordings at the studio. Doores brought the bones of the album back from Berlin to both Nashville - under the watchful eye of producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Phosphorescent, Hurrah For The Riff Raff) and New Orleans, to apply the finishing touches. Two particular occurrences were significant in triggering the completion of the album: a long-term relationship had run its course, and The Delondes were taking time out, giving Doores both the ingredients and the space to work with.

Self-examination is the overriding theme throughout. Violins, piano and organ feature on the plaintive instrumental opener Tempehofer. Doores waves farewell to his former lover on Wish You Well and a similar sense of loss and isolation raises its head on Other Side Of Town, his former bandmate in HFTRR Aylnda Segarra sharing lead vocal on the latter. This Ain’t A Sad Song, as the name implies, is more about looking forward than backwards. An immediately catchy song, it features a host of background vocalists including Margo Price. Equally striking are the spectral Nothing Like A Suburb and the funky and razor-sharp Solid Road.

The New Orleans trade mark concoction of blues, country, doo-wop and jazz is conspicuous across much of the album, emphasised by the wide range of instrumentation that feature. All manner of brass instruments are used alongside vibraphones, marimbas, organs and strings.

Hurray For The Riff Raff and The Deslondes both deliver a quite unique and bohemian sound, a breath of fresh air in most cases. Thankfully, Doores hasn’t strayed too far from that delightful musical template with his own excursions into doo wop, country and jazz tinted swampy blues, on this avant-garde and broody delight.

Review by Declan Culliton

Letitia Van Sant Circadian LVR

The 2018 debut recording GUT IT TO THE STUDS from Baltimore’s Letitia Van Sant left quite an impression on us at Lonesome Highway. She shares the honour, with Lucinda Williams and Nanci Griffith, of winning the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition, which is some achievement given the calibre of artist competing for that coveted distinction. It’s not difficult to appreciate how her writing could merit such an award on the basis of her lyrics on CIRCADIAN. The album is a continuation of the musical path explored by Van Sant on her debut release, though with a somewhat fuller sound.  Best described as folk - but with the boundaries pushed out to the fullest extent - the album offers unhurried and patient songs that tackle heavy topics full on.

As the title suggests the album explores everyday occurrences in the real world.  Her vocals feature a to-die-for accented drawl, as she fearlessly narrates tales of broken relationships, child abuse, mental illness and defiance.  The listener is left in little doubt about her mood from the word go. She’s spitting fire on the album's opener You Can’t Put My Fire Out as she declares ‘I taste your words inside my mouth, like broken glass I spit them out, I’m the one who’s speaking now, you can’t put my fire out.’  The lyrics are directed at Brett Kavanaugh, accused of sexual misconduct during a Senate hearing to appoint him as a Supreme Court Judge. The song could equally and justifiably be aimed at a controlling ex-partner. Mental illness and its knock-on effects are highlighted on Tin Man, which addresses a partner’s struggle with the abuse acted on him by his father while growing up. A similar topic of despondency is presented in Most Of Our Dreams Don’t Come True as the central character struggles in the aftermath of the loss of a stillborn baby. Spilt Milk speaks of unappreciated love in a relationship, regrettably not returned.

She gathered together a most impressive line-up for the recording, which was completed over a few days at Neilson Hubbard’s home-made Skinny Elephant Studios in Nashville. Hubbard is very much the ‘go to’ guy these days for Americana acts, having worked in recent years with artists such Mary Gauthier, Ben Glover, Ryan Culwell, Kim Richey and Caroline Spence. She also engaged some of the finest players in Nashville including Will Kimbrough on guitar and mandolin, and Michael Rinne on bass guitar. As you would expect from those contributors, the playing throughout is superb, complementing Van Sant’s vocals. For the most part the tracks are slow burning and disciplined, though she and her players let rip on the album's closing and possibly strongest track Rising Tide. That song is an attack on the vile treatment of servicemen and ex-military.

A hugely impressive album that literally stopped me in my tracks and one well worth checking out.

Review by Declan Culliton

Cup O’Joe In The Parting Self Release

At long last, the Agnew family trio from Co Armagh have released their first full length album. It feels like the siblings have been gigging around their native Northern Ireland and further afield for years, but in actual fact they are still only in their mid-20s. They play a progressive blend of bluegrass, folk and jazz as a trio, and more recently they have been branching out and collaborating with equally accomplished contemporaries in various side projects, also worth checking out. 

This collection comprises eight original songs, along with one original instrumental tune, and one cover. Til I Met You, a touching sweet love song allows Tabitha to showcase her delicate vocals at their best. Along with her outstanding banjo playing, they are joined here by David Benedict (now Tabitha’s husband!) on mandolin, and by fellow Armagh native Niall Murphy on fiddle. The ensemble playing here is superb - the unhurried pace gives space to let the various instruments breathe. One is left in no doubt as to why David Benedict (Missy Raines, Mile Twelve) is recognised as a rising star among mandolin players in the US. The talented Niall Murphy (Cara Dilllon, Breaking Trad, etc) has won numerous awards including All Ireland fiddle championships and is a BBC Young Folk awardee. His sparkling fiddle contributions on four tracks here elevate them to a higher level. 

Benjamin Agnew (upright bass) shows that he is no mean singer on his modern gospel song Why, enhanced by harmonies from brother Reuben, and by more scintillating mandolin from David. Reuben (guitar) gets to apply his ‘go faster’ stripes on the up tempo instrumental Pinley Green. Co-producer Dave Molloy (Cellar Club Studios) adds some inspiring electric guitar to Run Run which leads it up a jazzy funky side lane, and gypsy jazz fans will enjoy the closer, Can’t Sleep Without Caffeine. For the benefit of the non-Americans among us, the band’s name is slang for a ‘cup of coffee’ - no, I didn’t know that either!

A promising taste of what I hope is yet to come from this talented crew.

Review by Eilís Boland

Bianca De Leon Dangerous Endeavor Lonesome Highway

This is my first introduction to the music of singer-songwriter Bianca De Leon. She is based in Austin, Texas and this is her fifth release over a career that has been building steadily since her debut album, back in 2001. Her songs are influenced by growing up in the south Texas borderlands, a region where, as a young girl, her aunt taught her to smuggle tequila across the border under her petticoats. 

There is a Tejano flavour in the song arrangements and the playing is superbly underpinned by the violin, which plays a prominent role on a number of songs. Three different musicians are credited with violin contributions across the different tracks, with Fulvio Renzi (violin/viola on White Freightliner and Thorn Of A Different Rose), Javier Chaparro (violin on Has It Really Come To This, If You Just Had A Mirror, I’m Waitin’ For A Miracle) and Richard Bowden (violin on Let’s Put The Dirty Back In Dancin’) all excelling.

De Leon co-produced with John Inmon, a very experienced and talented producer who provides most of the backing instrumentation. He has appeared on recordings by Townes van Zandt, Jimmy LaFave, Eliza Gilkyson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Delbert Mcclinton and many others over a distinguished career. What he brings to these songs is his passion for letting the music breathe and his fluid playing is a joy across many of the tracks selected here – the title track being a prime example and also, the up-tempo sound of That Vintage ’67 Cadillac. There is also some fine piano from David Webb on Sad Corners Of Her Eyes, a song about the impact of the ‘other woman’ in a relationship.

Many of the songs are steeped in a Country sound and deliver a slow tempo in these tales of broken love (Has It Really Come To This), a legacy of hurt (Hollow Victory), empathy and fellowship (I’m Waiting For A Miracle), or just going out and remembering how to have fun (Let’s Put The Dirty Back In Dancin’). Terrific tunes, played with great heart and no little talent.

De Leon wrote all but three of the songs and these are cover versions of (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle (Hank Williams), Rose of a Different Thorn (Will Dudley) and White Freightliner (Townes Van Zandt); all delivered with some conviction and perfectly slotted into the overall project. Worth your time and money and a real keeper. 

(PS. The label it should be noted has no affiliation with this publication - good name though)

Review by Paul McGee

Bright Falls Logging Self Release

This 5-track EP arrives from Eddie McCormack, a Thurles, Co Tipperary based singer songwriter who has been performing as Bright Falls since 2014, either solo or in a band format. He recorded these songs at JAM Studios with Martin Quinn, multi-instrumentalist and producer with over 25 years’ experience in the music business. It’s a pairing made in heaven and between them, plus Andrew Quinn on drums, they deliver a very impressive sound that is authentic Americana with some stellar playing. 

At almost 22 minutes, the music never overstays its welcome and the superb skills of McCormack (acoustic, electric, 12-string guitars, bass and vocals) and Quinn (pedal steel, banjo, dobro, acoustic guitar, vibrato vibes and keyboards) take hold of these songs and deliver a strong statement.

Bad Habits rocks hard with a great riff and a big keyboard sound while Monroe Logging Company is a more stripped back Country arrangement with pedal steel drifting on the laid-back beat and a song about logging drivers and dead-end jobs. Photo Frame fits in a similar vein with a story of family woes, fathers who leave and unfulfilled lives – a real stand out track. 

Juniper is another excellent song with an acoustic arrangement and a rueful look at carrying a torch for another, even when the attraction is not returned. Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy (Harry Stone, Jack Stapp) appears in the guise of Jesop Creek Tent Revival in a short ditty that entertains, before the Waterboys influenced big sound of Preacher Casey comes whooping in to lift the soul and the spirit as it thunders towards a very satisfactory conclusion.

Great to know that such talent is bubbling under the surface in rural Ireland and I recommend that you get behind this promising artist and support the cause.

Review by Paul McGee

Fallon Cush Stranger Things Have Happened LTR

This band has been a favourite act down under for many years now and this is their fifth album since they first appeared on the local Sydney scene back in 2011. With creative source Steve Smith at the controls, the high standard of their previous work is maintained and the consistently high-quality shines through. 

Steve Smith wrote all the songs and produced, in addition to leading from the front on vocals and guitar. There is a hint of Neil Finn in the vocal delivery, which is no bad thing, while the superbly melodic arrangements are filled with great hooks and choruses. The players form a very tight unit with Casey Atkins on guitar/vocals, Tim Byron on keyboards and Suzy Goodwin on backing vocals. Peter Marley plays bass and is joined by Russell Crawford on drums – together they deliver a steady backbeat for the other musicians to build upon. Josh Schuberth recorded and mixed the tracks at Endomusia Studios, Blue Mountains, NSW and he also contributes on lap steel and percussion. 

Clocking in at 36 minutes, the tunes are really catchy and radio friendly, with a nod towards Tom Petty or the Jayhawks in the song structures. Burn is a track about Karma and payback for actions taken and deeds done. Sleep Her Away follows with a song about frustrated desire while Benny and The Key instantly grab the attention with their up-tempo arrangements and bright sound

This is commercial rock with a twist, perhaps more akin to Alt Country and maybe we can call it Australiana, as a defining sound from their part of the world. I Don’t Care What You Wear is a relationship song and has a slow groove, with warm keys playing behind a piano melody and strummed guitars. 

Yarraman and Sit With Me are more acoustic based songs and both deliver pleasant melodies and a change in rhythm and tempo. Tighter Than A Drum closes the album and builds to a great climax as Smith sings of the anxiety caused by a relationship breakdown. 

Another strong statement from a band that continue to evolve and deliver music that is entertaining and inventive.

Review by Paul McGee

Mapache From Liberty Street Yep Roc

There is a retro feel to the opening track, Life On Fire, which transports me right back to California in the 1960’s. Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci appear as musical brothers, with tight harmony vocals and clean acoustic guitar sounds that create images of bright sunny days and lounging on a porch swing. Their performing name, Mapache, is Spanish for Raccoon apparently and while not conjuring up the most positive of images, it does sit with the idea that omnivores are prepared to try anything. 

In this case, the Spanish tracks, Me Voy Pa’l Pueblo, Me Da Muerte and Igual, are somewhat distant as their meaning can only be guessed at, even if they all sound pleasant and pass along like a light breeze. The violin by Sara Watkins on Cactus Flower is very interesting and adds another layer to the song arrangement before we return to the easy melody and guitar strum of See Through. There is just not enough diversity to lift or separate the songs and the harmony vocals are not sufficient to carry everything across the fourteen tracks here.

There is some fine pedal steel playing on Face Is Blue and To Play For All Of You but my review copy has no information regarding studio musicians, so I cannot credit the players here. The album was recorded at a house on Liberty Street (hence the title) where the two friends lived and it is located in a Mexican-American part of Los Angeles, which influenced the writing and the overall lo-fi feel to proceedings. Producer was Dan Horne (Allah-Las, Cass McCombs) and he captures this groove very well. The instrumental, Liberty Street Blues, is a standout track with some inventive ensemble playing and pedal steel jousting with keyboards.

They released a debut album back in 2017 and their light sound is certainly something that has nothing offensive in the listening experience, just not enough to really fire the senses.

Review by Paul McGee

George St Clair Do You Feel Strange? Self Release

A Texas born singer/songwriter who now works in London where he did a PhD in Anthropology  - a subject that would seem a useful tool for a songwriter. This album follows up to his last release BALLADS OF CAPTIVITY AND FREEDOM (2018) with a new set of self-written songs. They largely consider the human conditions of love and of finding it. The album was recorded Texas and in London and was produced, engineered and mixed by Pat Manske. A musician and producer who has worked with a range of artists like Alejandro Escovedo as an engineers as well as a percussionist with Joe Ely to name just two of his clients.

Here he fulfils duties both sides of the desk. He is joined by the renowned Scrappy Judge Newcomb on guitars and the UK’s (and Lonesome Highway featured) Joe Harvey-Whyte on pedal steel. But it is St.Clair who is the central character here with his engaging voice which has a gentle quality that suits this writing which deal with the ups and downs associated with the vagaries of a lasting relationship. 

Never-the-less St.Clair can also up the tempo as required such as with the vibrant Bad Billy. There are some the solid vocal harmonies in Without Him and the questioning of the title track which wonders “do you feel strange, if you still hear my name?” Here St.Clair sings of making a decision to move on and make a new life. As with the album overall there is a delicacy that rewards and reveals not only the structure of the lyrics themselves but the details of the music which at all times sits together comfortably with those words. Courage To Be Kind focuses on the kind nature of a woman who continues do so in the middle of the cruelty that surrounds her. The King not only mentions pedal steel guitar but also features it in an enticing and illuminating way on this tale of a former majesty of the honky-tonks and has search for the high life.

George St Clair has traveled in his career and absorbed both the people and places that he has encountered along the way. These experiences are translated into a set of honest songs that seems to be unassumingly modest but soon reveal their depth with crafted melody and mellifluousness.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Lee Sims A Few More Miles To Go Self Release

Making it clear that music keeps you young Sims opens the self explanatory Live Myself To Death Before I Die. Without looking at the cover image it might be difficult to pinpoint Sims’ actual age. However that picture encapsulates a man in love with country music - the old school variety. It kinda goes without saying that the 12 songs here are not going to change your perception of country music to any large degree. Sims and his band players draw from traditional sources with a 80s /90s ethos and they play the hell out of the songs. It’s not life changing but it is likely to be life enhancing when you are in a venue and Lee Sims is onstage. 

The album was recorded in Tennessee and produced by Greg Cole who has brought in a selection of players who’s name as would have be familiar to anyone checking the credits on many a mainstream Hat Act release back in the 90s. Brent Mason on guitars, Mike Johnson on steel guitar, Gordon Mote on piano and Joe Spivey on fiddle alongs side others. Cole himself adds the drums and background vocals. All bring these songs to life with an understanding and penchant for the genre as it was back then. For his part Sims is an interpreter for these songs as most would appear to be written by a number of outside writers. They have been well chosen to evoke that era. Names like David Stewart, Galen Griffen and Byron Hill turn up more than once so they may have come from a song search that are largely unknown but ideally suited to the voice and musical direction that Sims wants to deliver.

There is some measure of humour and pathos in the song Alcohol Of Fame. When checked it is not the Wayne Kemp song of the same name or the Molly Thomas one recorded by the likes of Stonewall Jackson. Rather this is a pun that works in country music and this version by Masters, Hill and Griffen is no less amusing in its tale of barroom belligerence. It is one of a number of storytelling tales of a time and life style like the interracial love of Colourblind. Again this is a theme that has been written about previously but one that still has some resonance today. Taking that into account Sims brings his big baritone to bear on these songs which in truth I don’t think Simms would be unhappy to have compared to some of those breakthrough acts of the 90s. It is a targeted style that both he and his home-state audience (and perhaps further afield) would be very comfortable listening to.

Review by Stephen Rapid