New Album Reviews

Dave Sutherland Last Drop Of Empty Rectifier

After a break of quite a few years, Londoner Dave Sutherland has returned to writing and performing his own material in support of his recently released album, LAST DROP OF EMPTY. On top of this, he was awarded UK Male Country Singer of the Year 2022 by the UKCMA.

Those endearingly world worn vocals are front and centre of the new release, which was produced by two stalwarts of the Americana world, and recorded over some time and in four locations from the US to Sweden, as well as in London. Producer Stacy Parrish is known for his work with T-Bone Burnett and Alison Krauss, among others, and is now working in music education in London. He contributed drums and percussion, guitars, keys, strings and woodwind. The co-producer was Jack Cassady, bass player with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, who also plays bass throughout.

The ten songs are all penned by Sutherland and are mostly story songs, exploring nostalgic themes and are rooted in his native Greenwich and its surrounds. The overall sound is country, with a large helping of folk and a taste of blues. Sutherland is very close to his Irish roots too (his father emigrated to London from Co Galway) and there’s more than a touch of ‘country and Irish’ in the ballads here. Ever Changing Skyline references the changes in London Docklands and East End in the last few generations, while also recalling summers on ‘an old Irish boreen’. There’s a distinctive Irish flavour too in Down To The Last Drop Of Empty, added to by the accordion of Danne Strahed, which closes the album on an upbeat note. In between, there’s a painful cry for help from a psychologically broken person in the harrowing Damaged, with backing vocals from Moa Drugge. She also duets with Sutherland on the gently swaying love song, Most Of The Things That You Are. Yorkshire Grey, another love song, involving a boxer’s last fight, also features accordion and piano, this time from Sweden’s Gunnar Frick.

Review by Eilís Boland

Amanda Fields What, When & Without Are and Be

I have to admit to being stopped in my tracks on my first listen to this album, the debut full-length recording from Nashville-based, Amanda Fields.

There are recurring themes of insecurity, longing and failed relationships on WHAT, WHEN & WITHOUT - no surprise there, it is a country album. Whether based on fact or fiction the songs unfold like diary entries, incredibly intense yet attempting to avoid any degree of culpability or incrimination. The album’s title is represented by three tracks, the opener What A Fool, the closing track Without You and When I Met You, which is placed in the middle of the album. The sequencing of the tracks throughout is very well considered, each song could very well be a ‘moment in time’ from the same relationship.

The first four songs are classic country, with nods in the direction of Tammy Wynette on both I Love You More Today and the simply gorgeous ‘stir the heart’ break-up song, Diamonds. At this point the expectation may be for more of the same, but things go off in a completely different direction on the aforementioned When I Met You. Leaving behind the calmness and orderliness that went beforehand, it’s a strikingly evocative song complete with hauntingly distorted guitar and layered vocals. Trail Of Unforgiveness, which follows, travels a similar menacing path, indicating that Fields is every bit as adept writing and performing both alternative roots and more traditional country tunes. Calmness is restored on a duet with Cruz Contreras titled Lucky, before a sense of acceptance and moving on is expressed on the previously noted final track Without You.      

Hats off to producer Megan McCormick (Allison Russell, Jenny Lewis) and Brandon Bell (Miranda Lambert, Brandi Carlile), who engineered and mixed the tracks. The production on the mid-tempo country ballads is stand out and paced to perfection, Fields crystal clear and controlled vocals are particularly enriched by aching pedal steel guitar by Russ Pahl. Recorded at The Cabin, Nashville, other contributors included Dennis Crouch (bass), Matty Alger (percussion), Ethan Ballinger (guitar, piano), Chris Contreras (piano) and Megan McCormick, who played guitar and added backing vocals alongside her production duties. 

Fields’ 2019 single, Brandywine, found her following her Appalachian bluegrass roots but, for whatever reason, WHAT, WHEN & WITHOUT has led her down the classic country chanteuse path. It’s an inspired change in direction and one that has yielded a crescendo hitter in which you are likely to get totally immersed after a couple of spins, I most certainly did.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Andy Hedges Roll On, Cowboys Self Release

An interpreter of traditional cowboy songs for nearly two decades, Texan Andy Hedges’ latest collection of Western songs is a continuation of his passion for keeping this often-neglected genre represented.

This double album consists of twenty-two tracks in total and includes a twenty-eight-page booklet, offering notes on the individual songs and quotes from a number of the guest contributors. Those guests include a host of artists close to Hedges’ heart, with the common denominator of an appreciation, understanding and love of traditional Western songs. The contributors are Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dom Flemons, Pipp Gillette, Bren Hill, Corb Lund, Waddie Mitchell, Michael Martin Murphy, Brigid Reedy, Randy Rieman, Tom Russell, Rod Taylor and Andy Williamson. Twenty of the twenty-two tracks are duets with the guests, the other two are spoken word by Hedges.

The material covers the full gamut of Western music, from traditional ballads to gospel songs and novelty songs to fiddle led tunes. Scenes from campfires, trail drives, railroad, plantations, and saloons are all unveiled. Together with the quality of the production, musicianship and vocal deliveries on the album, Hedges deserves immense credit for logistically recording such a large number of duets with a wide range of contributors.

Amongst the many standout tracks is Railroad Bill, where a spoken introduction by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott recalls the tale of an encounter he had with Woody Guthrie and  Sunny Terry. Other highlights include Desert Sands, which features the exquisite country vocals and fiddle playing of Brigid Reedy and Pitch, You Wild Outlaw, Pitch, with Corb Lund sharing the vocals. Both of the album’s closing tracks, the appropriately titled Palo Duro Farewell and Goodbye Old Cowman, find Hedges’ regular partner in crime Andy Wilkinson playing his part. Tom Russell joins Hedges on Root Hog Or Die and Philadelphia Lawyer is another track which includes the craggy vocals of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

Hedges’ last full album, SHADOW OF A COWBOY, was the winner of the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Museum for outstanding traditional Western album in 2020. It’s likely that his latest offering will also be the recipient of similar awards and deservedly so. For students and lovers of the Western genre, Andy Hedges’ albums and Chris Guenther’s AMERICAN OUTLAW VOLUMES 1&2 are essential listening and also excellent value for money.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Chris Guenther American Outlaw Volume 2 Blackboard

‘AMERICAN OUTLAW VOL.1 opens a door to a musical feast from start to finish. Here’s hoping there are more volumes to follow,’ were our parting words when reviewing that album from Paul Guenther back in 2022. Less than twelve months later and the Washington state singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist continues his passion for all things country and western with the release of AMERICAN OUTLAW VOL.2. Written, arranged and produced by Guenther, he also performed all the vocals and played the majority of the instruments, with the exception of some of the fiddle parts which are credited to Katie (Keller) McManus.

Sub-titled as ‘Non-fiction Western Music & Spoken Word,’ the ten-track album revisits legends, events and characters from the ‘Wild West’. Guenther’s passion for America’s past is much more than simply casual curiosity, he can boast a degree in History and Agriculture, has previously recorded seven country albums and divides his time between playing with his backing band The Honky Tonk Drifters and weekly solo residencies. Raised on a family farm in southwest Washington, he entered into the world of writing and performing his music at livestock shows and county fairs, before expanding his horizons by forming a band and playing dancehalls. In his younger years, he combined these activities with a parallel role as an agriculture teacher. Two decades later and his enthusiasm for playing and promoting classic country and western music is as strong as ever.

The album opens with an Ennio Morricone-inspired instrumental titled The Brave Line and closes with a celebration of the cattle towns of yesteryear, Ode to the Cowtown. Sandwiched in between the two are eight tracks with historical connotations. We hear of the life and death of outlaw Johnny Ringo in Who Shot Johnny Ringo?, whose death was registered as suicide but legend has it he was shot by Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday. The bank and train robber Elmer McCurdy, who was gunned down while robbing a train in Oklahoma, has his tale told on The Life & Death Of Elmer McCurdy and Harvey Logan, who was a member of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’s gang The Wild Bunch, is the subject of the spoken track Harvey Logan. The Battle of Little Big Town - better known as Custer’s Last Stand – is retold on Son Of The Morning Star.

There has been a noticeable resurgence in ‘western’ country music in recent years and in particular, its representation in movie soundtracks. Corb Lund has been flying the flag for the genre for over two decades and artists like Charley Crockett, Colter Wall and Riddy Arman are currently exposing a younger generation to western music. Students and newcomers to the world of this genre, alongside the converted like ourselves at Lonesome Highway, could do a lot worse than investigating this collection of songs. Not only does it offer a gateway into the characters and events of the wild west, it is also a delightful listening experience.

Review by Declan Culliton

Crosby Tyler Don’t Call The Law On Me Bohemia

This album is a look back, to some degree, into Tyler’s long career as a 30 year veteran. Those years have provided a lot of different life lessons and continue to do so. He has been a frontman as well as a collaborator and has honed the writing and vocal skills that are apparent on this new album - one he declares his “most countryish to date”, something borne out as one listens to the music here.

Tyler produced the album and found a talented crew to help with its recording and song realisation. Dale Daniel and Jeff Turmes are the capable rhythm section. Aubrey Richmond adds her fiddle and back-up vocals, as does Kimbra West. The lead and pedal steel guitar are courtesy of Mike Khalil, while Tyler fronts with acoustic guitar and vocals. It’s a team that brings their talents to making an album that feels right.

The songs move from reflections on traveling down long white-line highways, such as in Trucker On The Road and 18 Wheels of Steel, to a set of life realisations from varying points over a lifetime seen in Born A Bad Boy or Stop Being An Ol’ Redneck. Then a certain lifestyle choice is presented with Peace Love And Beer and Bilkers, Hippies And Honky-Tonkin’ Cowboys.

The ten songs are all down to earth in overall frame of reference, which doesn’t allow for any opaque poetry but rather lays down the stories straight, while employing a decent melody and chorus to give the song the necessary connection to the heart of the theme. These often look at the fringes of a segment of society that may feel forgotten or lost or certainly one that has its troubles. This is done, it has to be said, with a certain amount of humour underlying the reality of that situation. The overall production is largely upbeat, uptempo and up front.

Some of the other songs are, however, a reflection of a long career in music, especially in the camaraderie shown in The Family I Never Had which recounts the way his band mates lived, played and slept together (often in their cramped van) while playing small venues all over the States. That they never made it big was not the important factor, it was the connection they forged together that mattered. This is the story of a very large proportion of those making music for (what could pass for) a living.

That sense of belonging, but not being a part of a normal existence, is also considered in the final song Us Black Sheep Ain’t Like The Others, concerning a group of people who are singing to a different hymn-sheet but who are, never-the-less, enjoying the song. This ethos sums up the album and Tyler’s outlook on what is a spirited and ‘outlaw-ish’ take on honky-tonk heartbreak, hangovers, high points and hindsight.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Lowest Pair & Small Town Therapy Horse Camp Delicata

The Lowest Pair is an American folk band that formed in 2013 and consists of dual banjoists, Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee. They have released six albums to date. Separately, Small Town Therapy is a collaboration between multi-instrumentalists Adam Roszkiewicz and Leif Karlstrom, who play also with the band Front Country and have released two albums to date. Together, the four musicians found themselves at a horse camp in Gifford Pinchot National Forest Washington State, in 2020. With no touring commitments, due to Covid restrictions, they decided to collaborate on this project, aptly titled Horse Camp, and the eleven songs are very appealing.

There are five instrumental pieces, all of which highlight the superb interplay and musicianship. The gentle opener This House displays a lovely melody and the understated playing of Winter (guitar), Lee (banjo), Karlstrom (violin) and Roszkiewicz (guitar). The fluid understanding between the musicians results in some superbly nuanced interchanges and the soaring violin of Karlstrom features on six of the songs, lifting the arrangements to new heights.

The blending of guitar and mandolin on songs Oak Leaf and Dandelion Tides compliments the dual banjo playing among the four players and is particularly impressive. The instrumental prowess on songs Dark Divide, Escape From Yellowstone and Tongue Mountain ranges from the quietly contemplative to the impressively dynamic in the playing and rhythm, with the use of trumpet on Tongue Mountain an inspired addition to what is akin to a traditional Irish air.   

The music also features Charlie Muench on bass (two songs), Bart Budwig on trumpet (one song), Erin Youngberg on bass (one song) and Tony Sales on drums (one song).  All in all, this is a project to celebrate the joy of creative collaboration and the four musicians have hit upon a formula that certainly points towards a return to the recording studio at a future date.

Review by Paul McGee

Turn Turn Turn New Days From An Old Sun Simon

This is a second album from musical trio Barb Brynstad (bass/vocals), Savannah Smith (guitar/ vocals), and Adam Levy (various guitars, banjo, mandolin, organ, synth, glockenspiel, piano, percussion and vocals). They are based in Minnesota, and the album was recorded and produced by Adam Levy at Yvelmada Studio, Saint Paul MN.  It steers very much in the direction of pop-infused, radio friendly songs. The three-way harmonies are very much part of their overall sound and there is also a strong influence of psychedelic rock in the fuzz tone guitar inclusions.

  The album was released in late January this year and tends toward a somewhat crowded dynamic in the production, with the instrument and vocal tracking leading to a cluttered listening experience. Also, the lyrics can be very obscure with seemingly unrelated images linked together and little insight into the original intent. The title track has beasts and priests facing off against one another in some kind of mythical tale that only confuses.

If You’re Gonna Leave Me is a song that captures something of the different styles featured across the eleven songs. It’s a soulful arrangement and features a message that drives a lot of relationships “We forget all the things we want to remember and we remember all the things we’d rather forget.”

Taking your band name from an iconic Pete Seeger song can be considered something of a risk. Added to that the fact that the Byrds covered the same song with an iconic rendition of the 1960s psychedelia sound, it leaves the impression that this current band are trying to follow in the footsteps of big shoes. However, the lasting impression is not one of real substance, rather a commercial focus in the song writing that visit a few musical genres, wrapped in a big production ribbon.

The opening songs Stranger in a Strange Land and Powder lay the foundations for what follows and are prime examples of the busy arrangements being too layered and lacking nuance. The underlying themes of a girl out of control and of being lost and lonely are somewhat lost in the mix. The words speak of “emptiness and suffocating needs” but the shrill production quality takes away from the message.

On the more dialled-down tracks the arrangements allow for greater space and the songs benefit from the uncluttered approach. Dopamine Blues, a recent single and Seven Kids are two prime examples. Also, the slow groove of My Eyelids Weigh Mountains with its grandiose lyrics and sense of unrequited love includes a great guitar dynamic, something that should feature more on their future arrangements. Equally, the Stones vibe on Towards the Light points to a more earthy sound that could be explored as this band searches for a more defined identity.

Review by Paul McGee

The Zephyrs For Sapphire Needle Acuarela

Welcome back, to a band that has always captured the imagination. Formed in the late 90s by brothers Stuart and David Nichol, a fine run of early albums straddled the twin genres of shoegaze rock and alt-country leanings in their music. Never destined to be household names, the band survived some early setbacks with record deals and label closures, to be offered a new deal by Spanish label, Acuarela.  The Nichol brothers remained as constants in an ever-revolving line-up and from the debut album in 1999, they went on to release a further four albums between 2001 and 2010. Always admired for their superb sense of melody and dynamic musicianship, the band has remained very popular as one of those celebrated ‘under the radar’ acts that deserved greater media exposure.

So, here we are in 2023 and the release of a new album is something to celebrate among the hard-core admirers of the band. It’s the first release for fifteen years and the great news is that the band sound as good as ever. Stuart Nicol (guitar, vocals), David Nicol (bass), Robert Dillam (drums), John Brennan (guitar) and Will Bates (keyboards) make up the current line-up and their interplay across the ten tracks is quite something. It’s the kind of album that bears repeated listening, offering up new delights each time and building into quite an achievement. Just short of forty-five minutes the sound is created in tandem with long-time producer Michael Brennan at the Substation studios in Rosyth, Scotland.

Whether you enjoy a country-folk influence or the more up-tempo psychedelic arrangements, this album has the lot. There is also a terrific spaghetti western instrumental to close the album and leave you wanting more. The gentle folk leanings of Snowline references Sisyphus and the mistakes that we make in behavioural repetition. God Loves A Trier is heartfelt and slow, a song that channels regret. The sweet melody of Blue In the Face hides the relationship woes in the words and the subject of difficult relationships is also looked at in Can’t Tell Us Apart.    

The bigger sound on songs like the instrumental December, Bolder, and Aliens take things up a few notches and the superb melody on How Have You Been Today delivers a slow release in a song that examines a depressive state. So much to enjoy and such a strong statement from a band that may finally start reaping the rewards that are long overdue.

Review by Paul McGee

James Deely This Train Is Running Out Of Track Self Release

Born in Washington, DC, James grew up in New Jersey where he embraced the local music scene, inspired by the sounds of Southside Johnny and Bruce Springsteen. He formed his band, The Valiants, in the mid-80s and they released several albums over the following years. Their vibrant sound was embraced in the Long Beach to Asbury Park circuit and they expanded their regular shows to include Philadelphia and New York City. The lack of a supporting record label and a recording contract was something that halted progress and James saw his momentum stall in the music business before returning with a couple of excellent albums in 2016 (A HARDER ROAD) and 2018 (WHAT IF WE’D NEVER MET?).

Two compilation albums were also released along the way, with WASTED TIME appearing in 1991 and more recently, OUTTAKES, REMAKES, AND MISTAKES in 2019. The musical quality has always been self-evident and now we are given a second shot at embracing this superb songwriter and musician with the release of a new album. The aptly titled THIS TRAIN IS RUNNING OUT OF TRACK is the perfect way to announce your return and the lyrics reflect the memory of those early days and the journey taken in between “Someday we'll be together again, out past the blue skies and wild winds, and no more tears will fill our eyes, there're be no more painful goodbyes.” The celebratory sound is infused with some dynamic guitar playing and a great rhythm section.

James comes from very proud Irish American roots and he celebrates his ancestors who left Ireland back in the 1800s with a song in memory to his grandfather. Streets Of Dublin is a fine story-song that reflects the local characters that James met on his travels in Ireland, retracing his ancestors’ footsteps and the history of famine and revolution that resulted in so many leaving for hopes of a brighter future.

Although the players are not individually identified, the spirit in the songs is very much one of celebration with the ensemble delivering some quality musicianship. James did welcome back some old pals in the shape of James Michael Devaney (drums), Chuck Manich (bass), Bruce Tunkel (guitar/keyboards), PK Lavengood (guitars), Eddie "Kingfish"  Manion (saxophones), Layonne Holmes (vocals), Lisa Lowell (vocals), Eric "Roscoe" Ambel and many more who contributed to the recording process.

American Heart is an instant classic and one that deserves a wide audience to acknowledge the song-writing prowess, with words like “And this American heart is twisting in the wind, and the things we hold dear, are on the line again.” It is a plea for community in the divisive state of division the USA faces and that James experiences today. The ten songs revolve around the themes of hope, loss and redemption with the abiding message of tracks like Prisoners Of Ourselves and Just Out Of Reach looking at the people we have become and the way that life sometimes throws up second chances.

House Full Of Memories and Another Night Alone are reflections of the past and how memories can shape the future. Death of a loved one features in His Time Is Coming with the lines ‘Oh Momma did he say where he’s bound, Be still child, he’s just going to see some old friends.’ Separately, on the song Until the End, James reflects upon growing up “Daddy tell me before I leave, Am I the man that you dreamed I would be, and Daddy tell me before I go, did you teach me the things I should know.”

There is also a great cover version of the Steve Earle song Even When I’m Blue and James has certainly delivered a very fine album that he can be proud of. Currently living in Los Angeles, the spirit of his roots in New Jersey shine through and the old musician friends that helped create this excellent album have reignited a lot of quality and old joys revisited. Well worth your time folks!

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Gwil Owen The Road To The Sky CRS

Perhaps something of an under-rated songwriter, Owen has never lacked the songs and is perhaps best known for a couple of songs that were covered by other artists such as Allison Moorer (with whom he wrote the nominated A Soft Place To Fall). Another co-write, this time with Kevin Gordon, Deuce And A Quarter, was recorded by Levon Helm and Keith Richards. He has written material that had been recorded by many other artists, however here it is Owen and his new songs that are the focus.

Owen released a number of fine album under his own name (and others with an earlier band) and has now returned with this self-produced set, where he blends his customary Americana blend of rock, country and a little loose funk. His comrades here include longtime John Prine bassist, Dave Jacques, who is joined in the rhythm section by another veteran player in Bryan Owings. The core players are completed by Joe McMahan on guitars and vocals and Tony Crow on keyboards. 

The credits also reveal that this album has the inclusion of a guitar coda from the late David Olney in She Does It All With Her Eyes - a song that he co-wrote with Olney, as he also did with So Much. Will Kimbrough also was a co-writer for Where The West Wind Blows and Change. The remaining eight songs are from Owen’s own hand.

All of these reveal a sense of craftsmanship that can be poetic, full of charisma, alongside clarity and cinematic lyricism. Not that the songs lack punch, as with the solid guitar driven grit of Ghost Town (a song which features fellow songwriter and previous band mate Jeff Finlin) or the reflection of the meaning within the words of When The Songwriter’s Gone. Both are songs that would have an appeal to fans of The Boss. The simplicity, balanced with the occasional complexity, of the arrangements mean that the album has a variety of tonality that offers much to the listener. Throughout there is a groove, from the funkified rhythm of Connected to an equally soulful You Leaning On Me, which features vocals from Shannon McNally, who also adds her voice to three other tracks.

Magic Child is graced by a subtle and elevated gentleness, both in the structure as well as the lyric. Where The West Wind Blows also communicates a delicate touch regarding the wish for burial in a place of meditation as it slowly builds to a layered finish. Heaven In Our Hands sits alongside both as a strong spiritual piano led piece. All show the depth of Owen’s voice as a key part of the process.

That Gwil Owen is not better known is perhaps down to several external factors - though they are not related to the quality of his work. Something that those who have discovered his recordings will already know. This album continues that path and should be listened to.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Daniel Meade An Essentially Non Essential Compilation Of Recordings From The Last Ten Years (2013-22) From The Top

Possibly the best introduction to the music of Glasgow’s Daniel Meade. This is a 21 track compilation with tracks taken from his varied career. Glasgowcana might be a cheeky made-up label as this talented musician has, through the years, released albums that have covered a number of bases from roots to rock. While he has played keyboards with a number of artists including, alongside his brother Raymond, in Ocean Colour Scene and with Gerry Cinnamon. His own releases he is often the sole players on a number of these recordings. It should also be noted that he is no slouch in the composing stakes either and he is also a demonstrative singer.

This is Meade selection of songs that go back to some of his earliest releases. The choices are not chronological but rather fit together in the context of the pacing and tone of this compilation. Juliette is the earliest recording. It was written in a taxi after a gig and recorded with the Basement Boogie Men in a house in Paisley and produced by Meade and George Miller of The Kaisers (amongst others).

From there there are tracks recorded with Morgan Jahning (Old Crow Medicine Show) in 2015. Keep Right Away has Joshua Hedley fiddle as a centrepiece. From that same session, recorded in Hendersonville in Tennessee comes Not My Heart Again. Otherwise Meade has produced the majority of the material himself, often at home and often solo. But he has also had a long-standing relationship with trusted guitarist Lloyd Reid with whom he has appeared as a duo and also as a member of his band The Flying Mules. Cocaine Jane is a good example of how well they work together.

Some of these songs were written as love songs such a Shooting Stars And Tiny Tears. While he is equally adept at damning self-recrimination and noting how often he came close to the bottom rung of the ladder, either through alcohol or life’s unflinching kickings. In this category there’s Life At The Bottom, When Was The Last Time, Mother Of Mercy. Other songs were written in recovery or in realisation of the need to change like On The Line or As Good As It Gets.

As well as cover the ground in a honest look inwards the music looks outward and, in that light, offers a number of different (often very) musical settings that still manage to have a cohesiveness that makes the albums journey an interesting and effective one that is held together because it’s all Meade in his many moods and element of humour is often present alongside the healthy does of reality.

This is something of a holding pattern until the next new music comes along to take us on the next part of his passage through life’s rich tapestry. However one you consider that these 21 tracks are just a small selection of the music Meade has recorded to date you are again reminded of his underrated talent. And of the many albums that these songs are taken from all are well worth a listen and a visit to his Bandcamp for further details.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Karen Jonas The Restless Self Release

This marks a step up for Jonas, even if it is, in many ways, a step away from her previous albums which leaned more towards country influenced Americana. This album has a deep sense of longing and a darker tone than the earlier albums, but runs deeper into the heart of vulnerability and vitality. The title sums up a certain overall mood that allows a series of songs to tell a story, or an aspect of a story, and allows the listener to assimilate the overall mood of heartbreak, tempered with desire and longing but not allowing oneself to be seen as a victim. They are not judgemental, but rather lay out a series of observations that have the ring of truth, if not any definite answers.

The album was recorded in a studio in Virginia with Jonas’s long-time guitarist and musical partner, Tim Bray. They were joined by bassist Seth Morrissey, who also co-produced, and Jay Starling, playing a range of instruments. This resulted in a more layered and, by its process, a more organic sound. It also allowed time to consider the way that the songs and sound would be brought to life. It was a process of Jonas working with her friend and co-writer Andie Burke on the lyrical content, and then with Morrissey to find the best way to  bring the music that point.

There are 10 songs here (with an acoustic version of one song added as a bonus closing track) that start with Paris Breeze, that celebrates a relationship and that city and all it has to offer. It sets a tone that is both intimate and introspective. Many of the songs have a literate and somewhat chimeric quality that allows the listener to discover something new in the songs, with repeated listening.

But there are also songs that have a more immediate impact, and they will vary with each listener. I was drawn to Elegantly Wasted, That’s Not My Dream Couch (which has a gauze-like affinity with early country music, in its guitar motif that is very appealing). And Rock The Boat which opens slowly with a treated vocal before the electric guitar adds a more sinister tonality that is most effective. It also highlights the added strength of Jonas’ vital vocal adeptness that is apparent throughout.

Deep in the glow of midnight moonlight is We Could Be Lovers, which has an overall soothing sensuality that offers a wealth of possibility in that moment - the use of the dobro adds to that feel. Another song that has a similar ambience, with the dobro and electric guitar working together as the key instruments, is the final track before that bonus cut and that is Throw Me To The Wolves. It has a sense of rejection but also a determination to survive and thrive. The acoustic version of Lay Me Down is then a perfect follow on from those two previous tracks and is as strong, if not more so, than the full band version found in the first part of the album’s running order.

This is an album that accentuates the talent that Jonas and her collaborators have brought to THE RESTLESS, and places her front and centre of a wave of female singer/songwriters who are not following trends but are leading them in a very individual and galvanising way.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Jesse Jennings The Last Dance Legend

Hardwood floor Texas country that would surely have them up dancing, as they indeed do in those parts. There’s no information accompanying this download in terms of production or player credits (though based on his previous release, it’s likely that he wrote and produced this album himself). Given that, all involved seem to have had a good time making it. Formerly a member of the Casey Donahew Band, Jennings lists the likes of Waylon Jennings, Garth Brooks and Bob Seger as major influences and that shows through in a number of the tracks on this 8 track album. There are elements of the rocker guitar on the opening Beer Joint, where Jennings lets us know that his mother has found the right kind of lady for him, but he prefers to find his women in the establishment of the title.

I’m sure Jennings had a hand in the writing of these songs but, again, that’s not detailed. So what we are left with is the music as it is offered, and it is a satisfying example of the many artists who play around in the State. In this case he is currently based in Fort Worth (and, coincidently for a website from Dublin, Ireland was originally from Dublin, Texas). The title track has some fine fiddle that fits this failing relationship song well. A little more rocky is This Is My Goodbye, another song that is based on a parting of the ways. 

Pat Green is something of a Texas country legend and this song named after him details his presence in a time that brings around some mixed memories, with the named musician appearing on the radio during a pleasant summertime. Moonshine is again about time, place and backroads associations and illicit alcohol delivery. That omnipresent liquid is also the subject of Whiskey and its ramifications on a couple, one of whom “can’t do this anymore” despite her “loving you till my dying day.” It paints a fairly common country music scenario of hardship and break-up. The song has a sense of pain that is palatable. It shows Jennings’ vocal ability well and is an album stand-out.

Perhaps the best track here is the final one, Driving In, which features Dave Perez on accordion, giving it a nice border feel that immediately draws attention to it. It has a strong chorus and a beat that is kind of infectious and should be a live favourite.

While Jennings is not doing something that is a whole lot different from many of his contemporaries, this shows that he is an emerging talent. His debut came out in 2014, so we can expect his next outing will show a progression from that release and his development as a singer and writer as this likely won’t be his last dance.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Jaimee Harris Boomerang Town Thirty Tigers

If RED RESCUE, released by Jaimee Harris in 2020, provided a snapshot of the potential of the Texan singer songwriter, her sophomore recording BOOMERANG TOWN reveals an artist that has blossomed and matured enormously over those few short years. The loss of close ones, followed by the pandemic, has resulted in Harris looking over her shoulder at life’s fragility, the clutches of addiction both personal and further afield, and family complexities.

Her partnership with Mary Gauthier has, no doubt, instilled a noticeable self-confidence and inner strength in Harris. Their weekly live streams during lockdown found Harris growing in confidence as the weeks went by and, fuelled by Gauthier’s support, delivering self-written songs that often matched the excellence of Gauthier’s material. That shyness and hesitancy have well and truly been left behind on the ten tracks on BOOMERANG TOWN which, although not entirely autobiographical, focuses on issues and characters that have no doubt been at the forefront of the writer’s mind for some time.

The opener and title track tells of a young couple, whose dreams to create lives for themselves outside the confines of their small town and not follow their families’ traditions, fall by the wayside when the woman gets pregnant. (‘Julie and I come from similar kin, heavy drinkers, quick to anger, fists to skin. They all live and die here’). A former young school friend of Harris, who was tragically accidentally shot and killed, is remembered in the co-write with Mary Gauthier, Fall (Devin’s Song). Another co-write with Gauthier also features, the beautiful How Could You Be Gone. A stand-out track, it was included in Gauthier’s last record DARK ENOUGH TO SEE THE STARS and Harris’ rendition, enriched by delightful viola and violin by David Mansfield, matches the excellence of the previous version.

The Fair and Dark Haired Lad celebrates the writer’s ongoing sobriety and recovery from alcohol abuse (‘I say goodbye, tip my hat, to the fair and dark haired lad’). It’s an upbeat and uplifting admission and features Dirk Powell on accordion and Michele Gazich on violin. The concerns and uncertainty that raise their heads in the early stage of a relationship are addressed in the acoustic ballad Good Morning My Love before the album is bookended with the assured Missing Someone. It’s a rhythmic final statement, with Harris rejoicing in her new-found relationship and serenity.

An album that is often directed towards self-examination, BOOMERANG TOWN’S textured stories reveal a singer songwriter with the ability to express both anguish and fulfilment in her writing. A hugely impressive album from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton 

The Nude Party Rides On New West

Released in late 2020, MIDNIGHT MANOR was the second album released by the New York via North Carolina sextet, The Nude Party. Having previously supported high-profile names like Jack White, The Arctic Monkeys and Dr. Dog, the album hit the number one spot on the Alternative New Artists Album Chart and was destined to further elevate their exposure and fan base. However, the opportunity to tour the album was scuppered by the pandemic, which also denied them the stage time to road-test material they were in the process of writing for their third full-length album.

Rather than lick their wounds and feel sorry for themselves, the band pooled their resources and took the bold decision to create their own studio to rehearse and record in. Converting a barn in upstate New York into a working studio was a project that they undertook over a twelve-month period. To fit out the studio they teamed up with engineer Matthew Horner, who transported his recording equipment to the newly built space and subsequently engineered the band’s first self-produced album, RIDES ON. Not working against a deadline and with the luxury of their own rehearsal and recording facility has resulted in their most robust record to date.

The Nude Party’s heart and soul have always been rooted in a retro 60s and early 70s vibe and they don’t stray too far from that benchmark with RIDES ON. Echoes of  The Stones’ albums STICKY FINGERS and EXILE ON MAIN STREET are close to the surface on Word Gets Around, Polly Anne and the Dr. John cover, Somebody Tryin To Voodoo Me. The zippy Ride On could have been plucked from The Velvet Underground songbook and they dip their toes into the country sound of their home state of North Carolina on Tree Of Love. They fashion a fusion of roots and folk on Midnight On Lafayette Park, inviting comparisons with their Catskills neighbours,The Felice Brothers. Others that impress are Hey Monet, which has a 60s dance anthem sound, and the soulful Sold Out Of Love.

Five years since the release of their debut self-titled album, The Nude Party’s self-assured and loose garage band sound remains very much to the fore on RIDES ON. You’re left with the impression that is exactly where they want to be musically and they more than achieve that with this fitting heir to its predecessor MIDNIGHT MANOR. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Logan Springer & The Wonderfully Wild Crow Self Release

A few lines into All Lies, the opening track on CROW, and you’re left in little doubt about where the writer is coming from. ‘There’s poison in our drinking water says the man on TV… It’s hard to trust someone who’s never felt hunger, hard to believe he can feel the abuse,’ Springer spits out, mirroring the sentiment of mistrust, anxiety and abandonment felt by much of his blue-collar community in the Midwestern States of America. It’s the first track on the ten-track record by Logan Springer & The Wonderfully Wild.  Springer released his debut solo album in 2021 titled COYOTE and with an extended band recorded CROW at Flat Back, a one-hundred-year-old converted barn in rural Iowa.

Plans to escape the dead-end life of working in a strip mine for little pay, by robbing the mine’s bank, surface on the driving rocker Greenbacks and Gold. There’s little to rejoice about in the piano-driven Headed Through Hell either, the story of a long-distance truck driver. Constantly on the road, in remission from pill addiction, divorced from his wife and without any contact with his children, he wishes he could turn back the clock and start all over again. ‘Crow on the telephone line, watching every move I make, crow on the telephone line, this paranoia I can’t shake,’ bellows Springer on the full-blown, grungy and dark-as-hell title track. It points at mental illness and/or the impossibility to circumvent an existence that offers little by way of optimism. There’s little by way of good cheer either on Thundercloud. A raging guitar led song with a nod in the direction of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, it’s one of many highlights on the ten tracks that feature.

Coming from a large extended farming family in a small town in central Illinois, Springer’s ambitions extended beyond following the back-breaking prospect of long working days on the farm. That lifestyle and the expectation to ‘just get on with it’, is squarely articulated in Can’t Complain.

‘Your typical country song is like the social media of music; it only shows the good parts. I want to show what life out in the middle is really like, without all of the polish,’ explains Springer on the motivational force that brought CROWS into being. He makes his point with flying colours on an album that hardly allows the listener to draw breath and, for maximum impact, should be checked out at very high volume and from start to finish. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Paul McCann Alter Ego Self Release

Co-produced by Paul McCann and Martin Quinn, ALTER EGO is the second full- length album from the Cavan, Ireland native. It follows on from McCann’s debut album HERE COMES THE RAPTURE from 2018 and two previously released EPs, THE MAGICIAN and BEGINNING TO END. 

The initial recording sessions for ALTER EGO took place in 2019 at Jam Studios in Kells, Co. Meath, but the arrival of Covid both delayed the completion of the album and also led to a number of the recordings being carried out remotely.  The result was a delay of two years in the release of the album and that interruption allowed McCann to engage a number of guest musicians who otherwise would most likely have been out on the road with their various bands. Rather than playing the majority of the instruments himself as he had done on previous albums, McCann called on the services of Gary Lucas (Jeff Buckley, Captain Beefheart), Charlotte Hatherley (Ash, Bash For Lashes), Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Beck, Jellyfish, Air) and Jason Falkner (St. Vincent, Beck, Paul McCartney). Others featured are McCann’s regular ‘go to’ artists Majella O’Reilly, Brendan Scott and Tony Smith.  McCann’s two young daughters Lily and Cassie are also credited as backing vocalists.

The songs were created during a challenging time for McCann as he grieved the sudden passing of his father in 2019, following an accident, and his frame of mind at that time is reflected on a number of the tracks. Graceful arrangements and gorgeous harmonies enhance Love Is All That Matters, with the writer laying bare his emotions. Equally close to home in its sentiment is All Is Fair In Love And War and World Keeps Turning Around recalls The Byrds at their most experimental.  The heat is turned up a few notches and enters Teenage Fanclub territory on the power poppy Lost In This Moment. Call Off The Dogs and Divide And Conquer are in a similar toe- tapping fashion before the album is bookended with the trippy Weight Of The Bow.

McCann’s influences range from Johnny Cash - he was a member of the Johnny Cash tribute band Get Rhythm that in 2013 spent four months touring Irish prisons  - to Jeff Buckley and The Beatles to Nick Drake. The resulting twelve tracks on this album mirror those role models of McCann and offer a compelling blend of classic power pop, harmony-drenched roots and considered ballads.

ALTER EGO is a reminder that we don’t always have to look beyond our own shores to uncover quality music. It’s a record packed with instantly catchy tunes,  providing an insight into an unquestionable local talent. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Channing Wilson Dead Man Ol’Dog/Soundly

Readers may be more familiar with songs written by Channing Wilson than ones actually recorded by the Lafayette, GA artist. With a few recordings under his belt including a self-titled release from 2012 and a live album titled LIVE AT EDDIE’S ATTIC in 2017, his primary occupation for the past two decades has been songwriting. Luke Combs scored a No.1 hit with Wilson’s She Got The Best Of Me and others who recorded his material include Travis Tritt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Sunny Sweeney and The Oak Ridge Boys. Given his expertise in penning songs for others, it would not be unreasonable to expect his latest studio album, DEAD MAN, to contain formula-written material. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The ten tracks that make up the album contain hard-edged tales of excess, destitution and depression, and given the potency of the writing, give the impression, factual or not, that many of the scenes and characters are somewhat autobiographical.

Whether real or imagined, Wilson’s gritty baritone vocals are well suited to his topics. His songs are a reflection of real-life issues faced by many ordinary folks, and like famed country singers of yesteryear, Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams, the material offers portraits of ordinary folk often on the margins.

Drink That Strong, which opens the album, paves the way for what is to follow. A ‘love lost’ lament, it has echoes of Jamey Johnson both in its message and vocal delivery. That theme of booze and rejection continues on the more mellow but equally sorrowful Beer For Breakfast. Similarly paced and maintaining the ‘sad country song’ thrust, Sunday Morning Blues is a classic ballad, all the better for some well-placed aching pedal steel guitar. ‘Well, Lord there is nothing as lonesome as hearing your heart beat all alone,’ Wilson sings on the mournful ballad Blues Comin’ On before he touches on the grinding reality of finally falling off the edge on Dead Man Walking.

Far from a party album, DEAD MAN is hard-hitting, plain-spoken and forthright, from an artist that more than qualifies as a modern outlaw. Produced by Grammy winner Dave Cobb and with a host of celebrated players contributing, it’s a record loaded with memorable and well-crafted songs. The characters that populate the songs may be fictional or closer to home, either way, their burdens and tribulations are communicated flawlessly on this hugely impressive record.  

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Here at the Lonesome Highway review desk we have received a wealth of newgrass and bluegrass albums released in recent months. So we are posting this selection of some of the best of these.

All these reviews are by Eilís Boland.

Tray Wellington Black Banjo Mountain Home

Rhiannon Giddens’ bravery and the recent Black Lives Matters movement have given permission (not that it should have been needed) to young black artists like Tray Wellington to come into the spotlight in American music. Although still in his early 20s, Tray (christened Trajan) has a mastery of the banjo that is way beyond his years, as he demonstrates on his debut solo album, produced by the ubiquitous Jon Weisberger. No show-offy playing here on this mainly instrumental record, just a joyful celebration of his chosen instrument, accompanied by a host of equally talented players including Avery Merritt on fiddle (Tony Trishka, Missy Raines), Jon Stickley on guitar, Kevin Kehrberg on bass and Wayne Benson (a relative veteran!) on mandolin. Across the eight original compositions and three covers, Tray shows he is equally comfortable in the traditional bluegrass style, with breakdowns like Georgia Turnaround or in New Grass style with Port of Manzanita and Wasted Time, on which he shares vocals with Tim O’Brien. There’s a demonstration of his love of jazz in a lovely cover of the gently meandering Strasbourg/St. Denis (written by the late Texan jazz musician, Roy Hargrove), where guest fiddle player Lyndsay Pruitt also shines.

Andy Leftwich The American Fiddler Mountain Home

Andy Leftwich is a force of nature and I predict this album of instrumentals will leave you breathless, as it does me!

A phenomenal fiddler player at a young age, Leftwich won many competitions as a junior and went on to play in Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder for fifteen years, until 2016. Since then he has concentrated on work with his mandolin playing wife Rachel, studio production and Christian ministry. The American Fiddler demonstrates his talent at composition, as well as arranging and producing.

The opening title track is an Irish influenced tune, and he is joined here by his mentor Ricky Skaggs, whose mandolin keeps up with the breakneck speed. Next, his great friend and also Kentucky Thunder alumnus, Cody Kilby, joins him on Over Cincinnati and indeed lends his flatpicking on many of the tunes. Pikes Peak Breakdown is a bluegrass original, where the guitar duties are taken by Bryan Sutton, and Scott Vestal contributes banjo. Elsewhere, Matt Menefee plays banjo on several tracks, including a cover of the well known Biréli Lagrène gypsy jazz classic, Made In France. Leftwich learned this tune from his Three Ring Circle band mates, Rob Ickes and Dave Pomeroy. Ickes also features on this album on the aforementioned Over Cincinnati.

I have to admit that I hadn’t realised just how proficient a mandolin player Leftwich is, until this album, where he plays most of the mandolin parts as well as the fiddle. However, he bows to the current mandolin queen, and invites Sierra Hull to duel with him on his reworking of Bill Monroe’s Big Mon. Mark Schatz is better known as a bass player (Nickel Creek, Bela Fleck) but on Through The East Gate he gets to indulge his first love, contributing claw hammer banjo and ‘feet’ to this lovely tune, written to show the evolution from traditional style fiddle playing to the modern style.

Upright bass on most of the album is provided by another stalwart veteran, Byron House. And there’s lots more to discover on this essential album.

Unspoken Traditions Imaginary Lines Mountain Home

The latest album from this well established and popular touring band will more than satisfy those who like their bluegrass hard driving and traditional. Mind you, the N Carolina quintet push out the boundaries a little here - hence the album name.

They have chosen songs by many well known contemporary writers and interpreted them with superb musicianship, lead vocals and harmonies. The band is made up of Sav Sankaran (bass and vocals), brothers Audie McGinnis (guitar and vocals) and Zane McGinnis (banjo), Ty Gilpin (mandolin) and Tim Gardner (fiddle). There are songs of pining for the old days (Charles Humphrey III’s Lookout Mountain), and story songs like Bounty Hunter and Crooked Jack, sung to the tune of ‘Star of the Co Down’, with Ireland’s John Doyle (a former Asheville resident) guesting on bouzouki and sharing lead vocals. Standout song for this reviewer is Justin Carbone’s At The Bottom Again.

Jeremy Garrett River Wild Organic

‘Powerful’ and ‘soulful’ are the two words that spring to mind when listening to this latest solo album from Jeremy Garrett, better known as the fiddle player with the progressive bluegrass band, The Infamous Stringdusters. When he’s not playing with the Stringdusters, a band that he helped to form in 2006, Garrett devotes his time to his solo stage work, where he performs using technological wizardry to loop his fiddle and vocals. Somewhat unusually, for a bluegrass musician, Garrett stands out as a songwriter and a vocalist as well as a musician, none more so than on the opening song, I Am The River Wild. Straight away one realises that his approach to songwriting is no more conventional than his fiddle playing, with the song written from the viewpoint of the river, which is omnipotent and threatening. The river’s ominous warning of  ‘danger lurking all around me, too close you’ll get swept away’ is accompanied by atmospheric playing from Garrett and his impressive choice of musicians, including Seth Taylor (guitar), Alan Bibey (mandolin), Barry Bales (bass) and Russell Carson (banjo). Garrett’s vocal range goes from a falsetto to a very deep baritone on this stand-out song, which he also wrote (with Rick Lang).

In fact, all but one of the eight songs are written by Garrett, except for his slightly unusual take on Bill Monroe’s Kentucky Waltz, which may not suit the purists but then again, that has never bothered Mr Garrett! His co-writer on In A Song (about a songwriter!) is Mountain Hearts’ Josh Shilling, who also takes harmony vocals beautifully throughout the album.

The closest he gets to  Stringdusters territory is in the big bluesy slow burner, In The Blink Of An Eye, with gorgeous dobro courtesy of his band mate, Andy Hall, grooving backing vocals and Garett’s phenomenal fiddle parts are simply chilling, adding to the song’s darkness.

There are four excellent instrumentals, the standout being Bird Of Prey, where the harmonising between Bibey’s mandolin and Garrett’s fiddle playing is memorable, as is the banjo playing of Ryan Cavanaugh. Go get this hugely enjoyable example of progressive acoustic bluegrass - you’ll be glad you did.

Lonesome River Band Heyday Mountain Home

Hard to believe but the LRB have been one of the leading bands in bluegrass since their inception forty years ago. Led since 1990 by the much awarded and coolest banjo player around, Sammy Shelor, they were going through another transition while this record was being recorded, but there is no let up in their signature driving contemporary sound. You get thirteen masterful songs, covering the gamut of the usual bluegrass themes - heartache, gospel, trains and travellin’- performed by some of the best in the business.

Stand-outs include the single Mary Ann Is A Pistol, from the pen of the late Nashville songwriter Dennis Linde, in praise of an independent ‘tomboy’ girl. Anchored as always by Sammy Shelor’s signature driving banjo, it introduces the impressive lead vocals of the new boys: Adam Miller on mandolin and Jesse Smathers on guitar. Departing guitarist, Brandon Rickman, sings lead on a couple, including his own That’s Life, and departing bassist Barry Reed plays on many of the tracks. There’s a deliciously gothic feel to the doom laden Gabriel’s Already Standing, where longtime member Mike Hartgrove’s fiddle playing really stands out. And did I mention the strength of the harmony vocals?

There isn’t a songwriter among the line-up but the band’s interpretations of mostly newly written compositions, and their excellent self-production make for a must-have album.

Fireside Collective Across The Divide Mountain Home

Asheville, N Carolina five piece show that they are not confined by the constraints of traditional bluegrass on their fourth album, where they stray into funk and blues and folk stylings. The album art cover also hints at this, with its trippy psychedelic theme, so you wouldn’t be surprised to realise that they veer towards territory established by bands such as Greensky Bluegrass and the Infamous Stringdusters. Each band member contributes original songs and indeed vocals across this collection of ten high energy songs and one instrumental. Not Today is a sad and gentle country song written by guitarist Joe Cicero, dominated by the dobro playing of Tommy Maher, and here Jesse Iaquinto adds piano, as well as his usual mandolin. Iaquinto’s House Into a Home explores a traditional bluegrass theme in a more New Grass musical style, as does another of his contributions, And The Rain Came Down, a driving number that describes the misery of a big flood. Dobro lovers will appreciate the dominance of that instrument in the excellent production by Jon Weisberger, and the harmonies are also particularly impressive. Funky folk rock is the dominant sound on Your Song Goes On, and banjo player Alex Genova wrote the catchy and hopeful closer, Rainbow In The Dark. It would be a treat to catch these songs performed live - the opportunities for improvisation in these songs by such good instrumentalists has whet my appetite for just that.

New Album Reviews

The Shootouts Stampede Self Release

It is good to have the Shootouts back with a new album and relatively quickly after the release of the Chuck Mead produced Bullseye, in 2021. The band look and act the part with a certain sense of style but not at the expense of a certain humour. This makes them visually, as well as audibly, fans of the tenets of traditional country music. It is somewhat surprising that they haven’t been signed up by a more adventurous major label, as they certainly could fulfil the role that both BR549 and The Derailers had when they were signed to major labels. Now that there are signs that there is a wish for more authentic exponents of the form, it would seem an interesting opportunity for the band and record company.

That said, the reason for that thought is the strength of the performances, material and production offered on this new album. It is helmed by Asleep At The Wheel’s Ray Benson and Sam Seifert. While there are numerous high profile guests joining in it is true to say that they never overshadow the band’s own talents. Often, these musicians add some instrumental zest to the recordings and when they are bringing their individual strengths as vocalists, it is not at the expense of the band’s vocals. Benson sings on the most obviously Western Swing moment here which is One Step Forward. Marty Stuart, Buddy Miller, Raul Malo and Jim Lauderdale all add some harmony vocals or instrumental licks.

But the band: Ryan Humbert on guitar and vocals, vocalist Emily Bates, lead guitarist Brian Posten (who gets a chance to show his skills on the instrumental Run For Cover) and bassist Kevin McManus are reaching new heights on many fronts. They are also joined by regular contributors Dylan Gomez on drums, Ryan McDermott on bass and, a man who has acted as mentor for some time, Al Moss (a former mainstay of a great band Hillbilly Idol) on pedal steel and guitar. There is also some brass and fiddle set loose to add appropriate texture as required - most likely from members of Asleep At The Wheel.

The Shootout are proven exponents of the various types of country music that matter, from honky-tonk, Bakersfield California country, bar-room ballads and  border music, through to Western Swing with some of the Rust Belt music that they have grown up with thrown in. It is the music they love to listen to and music they want to play - and that shows. 

The album mixes original songs with some covers such as I’ll Never Need Anyone More written by the late Ohio rocker Michael Stanley who originally recorded it in an uptempo version. He also did it acoustically and that is what they built this version from, with Raul Malo adding his distinctive voice to it. They have, in the past, turned a number of well-known non-country songs into viable honky-tonkers, something that says a lot about their devotion to their chosen genre.

Make no mistake, at this early part of the year, this is one of the best real country albums you will hear this year and one that might hopefully start some kind of stampede from others who will equally want to hear more of this quality of music.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Helene Cronin Landmarks Self Release

The title of the album tells what these songs might pertain to and be. Songs that draw from personal and wider experience, written to distill Cronin’s thoughts on where she is in her life today and that of the world around her. A self described “story-singer” she is an accomplished songwriter who, from the credits, mainly co-writes with other similar-minded collaborators. The other factor at play here is the relationship she has with producer Matt King (who also produced her last album OLD GHOSTS & LOST CAUSES which itself was a well-received album) and the assembled players. Together they surrounded themselves with some notable players, whose names are always a big attention getter for this writer, such as Kenny Vaughan, Bobby Terry, Byron House, Jerry Roe and King himself.  

The songs are well arranged with plenty of light and shade but are also capable of packing a punch when required. There is an across the board sense of open honesty to share what can be learned from life. This is sometimes done by taking in the perspective of others, as well as those she has encountered herself, on her own path.

The convincing, alluring ballad Halfway Back To Knoxville has some steel guitar that skilfuly underpins a journey that has Cronin joined by a harmony vocalist, who helps to give the song’s subtlety an added poignance. Make The Devil asks “why do good things happen to bad people?” and surmises that maybe the devil holds sway while posing the question whether he was a needed entity at all. A single voice is used to envision the different aspects of being a woman through the ages - mostly in difficult and men dictated situations. Just A Woman builds toward the end with a chorus from fellow artists Wendy Moten, Heidi Newfield, Shelly Fairchild and Vicki Hampton to bring a sense of group empowerment.

What Do You Lean On? asks that question of others as well as of herself. It takes a heavier tone with Vaughan’s guitar giving it the edge from the start. It is in fact something that throughout the album these players excel in, giving the songs a convincing and creative sense of purpose that makes the album one deserving of repeat listening. Your Cross calls for a need for some salvation, a theme that also is a part of What They Didn’t Build, reasoning that tearing down is easier that building up. Taking a more countrified approach is the road song Between Me And The Road, which stands out for its insistent beat and twangified elements. Cross That River is more acoustic, with banjo prominent, and has a uplifting gospel feel. Gentler is the love song You Do, in which one’s own faults and strengths are measured against another’s, often allowing that another’s ability is better. The use of cello here is effective.

This is a mature album with a balance between the central voice, the playing, and the responsive production. This shows a solid growth since the debut album and that Cronin deserves to be viewed alongside some of her better know contemporaries as a contender.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Cowboy Dave Venture South Self Release

Nebraska native Dave Wilson (Cowboy Dave to you and me) is a lover of all things related to the Old West and has been inspired by the late author and painter Will James, turning a phase of his into a song. That song Guts And A Horse quotes from James’ credo that a working cowboy is “a man with guts and a horse”. After a couple of previous eps this is Dave’s first full length album. It’s a homage to the American West, of various eras. It was recorded both in Colorado and in Texas. In the former he brought together some adherents of the Bakersfield Sound (a major influence) for two tracks featuring Jay Dee Maness on pedal steel, Eugene Moles who worked with Merle Haggard on guitar and former Dwight Yoakam sideman, Jim Christie on drums. While in the Dripping Springs Studio he had another set of top notch pickers in Tommy Detamore, Hank Singer on fiddle, drummer Andy Sweetser, bassist Scott Johnson and guitarist Zach Boddicker. The latter two also added vocals alongside Kristina Murray and Loren Dorland. The production duties came from John Macy.

Cowboy Dave wrote the songs (two of which were co-writes), played acoustic guitar and provided the pleasing vocals. He once fronted a cow-punk band, FortyTwenty, which makes sense given the energy and commitment that he brings to this latest work. The relationship with punk comes across in that both genres (of the hardcore variety) are direct, honest and heartfelt.  

287 is a drivin’ home song with steel and fiddle and Telecaster well in evidence - as it should be. Honky Tonk Hot Sauce is what he serves up straight at whatever venue he might be gracing. Sandhill Girl takes things slower to tell us about a girl who may have moved away, but in her heart has never lost her love of her home place.This Kind Of Living tells of the way many try to keep family and home together by traveling and playing music. 

Next up features Kristina Murray, you may get a feel for the song from its title Cruel, Cruel Queen. Again we are given some substance from the steel and twangin’ guitars. The two voices give their side of the story and work well together. As you might also expect alcohol plays its part too, with the thoughtful Whiskey Tonight which has one of Cowboy Dave’s most assured vocals that gives the ballad a deeper resonance. We’re back up to speed then with the dumped by his gal lyric of Skunk Yodel No 7, which indeed has a touch of that vocal style. It has an extend yodel outro that works a treat. 

Back on the highway in truckin’ mode again is the tale of a mother trucker that is Mama Drove A Big Rig ,putting the Telcaster, fiddle and steel to good use again. Very much in the Marty Robbins mode is the aforementioned Guts And A Horse, another memorable song from Wilson that is enhanced by the border mood of Gabriel Mervin’s trumpet. Definitely an album highlight. The final track uses one the of repeat dictates that you will “never be a prophet in your own home town”. That expression gives the song its title. But whether that’s true for Cowboy Dave, he has delivered an album that is worthy of attention whatever town its music reaches.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Whiskey Charmers On The Run Sweet Apple Pie

The Detroit based Whiskey Charmers continue their run of successful Americana albums with their fourth offering, ON THE RUN. Carrie Shepard (vocals and acoustic guitar) wrote all ten original songs, and is joined throughout by her partner Lawrence Daversa, who plays electric and steel guitars, as well as contributing backing vocals behind Carrie’s rich and mellow voice.

Opening with the countrified sad song, Nobody Cares, we then stray into blues rock territory with the murder ballad, Billy, where, unusually, the female protagonist shoots dead her controlling partner in self defence when she tries to leave. There’s more than a touch of Rory Gallagher in the lead guitar playing of Daversa on this and many other of the songs, which can be no bad thing, in this reviewer’s book. The futility of longing for a lost love is paralleled with the hopelessness of panning for gold in an old mining town in the wistful Gold, and Lawrence also turns to his pedal steel for The Devil’s Rodeo, another tale of surviving lost love through gritted teeth.

The duo are joined by Brian Ferriby (drums), David Roof (keyboards), and Daniel Ozzie Andrews on bass.

It has to be said that this record strays more into rock territory than the last album, 2020’s LOST ON THE RANGE, which we reviewed here. Definitely worth checking out

Review by Eilís Boland

Brit Taylor Kentucky Blue Cut A Shine

The State of Kentucky can boast more than its fair share of blue-chip country royalty. Departed household names of yesteryear like Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall and Keith Whitley, and living artists Chris Stapleton, Dwight Yoakam and Ricky Skaggs immediately spring to mind.  The more recent crop of contenders includes Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers, both fiercely devoted to classic country music and not behind the door in calling out the cannibalism of the genre, in recent years, on good old Music Row in Nashville.

The most recent ‘likely to succeed’ of that talented bunch is Brit Taylor, whose breakthrough album THE REAL ME (2020) turned a lot of industry heads and featured in many ‘Best of the Year’ listings. All the more impressive was that Taylor ignored the Music Row rulebook, withdrawing from her songwriting deal (‘I’d rather clean shitty toilets than write shitty songs any longer’) and independently financing that album at a time when she was also overcoming a failed marriage. That collection of songs included Bobby Gentry-type 60s classic pop, alongside some more traditional country tunes. For KENTUCKY BLUE she hooked up with Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson for the production duties and co-wrote with a number of writers including Jason White, Adam Wright, and Pat McLaughlin. The result is a more upbeat and certainly more ‘country’ record, laced with fiddles, accordion, pedal steel, piano breaks and banjo in all the right places, bringing to mind Tyler Childers’ excellent album, COUNTRY SQUIRE. A listen to jaunty tracks such as Anything But You, Ain’t A Hard Livin and Cabin In The Woods immediately draws that comparison.

Toe-tapping and joyous in musical content, it also reinforces Taylor’s skillset as a songwriter. Rich Little Girls is a clever dig at the young privileged classes swanning around Nashville, no doubt noted by the writer as she worked endless hours and numerous menial jobs to kickstart her career. It’s not all foot full down on the gas, Taylor also includes a number of sweet-sounding ballads. Love’s Never Been That Good To Me is a countrypolitan gem in that regard and the title track is equally tuneful.

Taylor has bravely distanced herself from the lucrative pop/country mainstream genre and has channelled traditional country down a modern path with KENTUCKY BLUE. An excellent project on all fronts, with top-class vocals, stellar playing, slick production and no-nonsense songs, it ticks all the boxes. She may not be as close to the mainstream as Miranda Lambert or Kacey Musgraves, but if there’s any justice, she’ll be gracing the same stages as them in the not-too-distant future.

Review by Declan Culliton

Iris DeMent Workin’ On A World Flariella

With a career that has stretched over three decades, revered singer songwriter Iris DeMent has released seven albums, the latest being WORKIN’ ON A WORLD.  That may not necessarily suggest a prolific output but in the case of the fourteenth-born child of Pat DeMent and his wife Flora Mae, quality has consistently won over quantity.

Thirty-one years after the release of her debut album INFAMOUS ANGEL, DeMent remains a most passionate author of songs that pioneer her steadfast commitment to human rights and environmental matters. Musically this latest addition to her impressive catalogue is not a radical departure from SING THE DELTA (2012), combining piano lead ballads and fuller-sounding compositions, all presented with her characteristic vocal style.

The impetus for the album can be traced back to the presidential elections of 2016. Considering the state of the modern world at that juncture, DeMent returned to songwriting as a personal distraction from the progressing social injustice and random violence at the time. The album’s title track outlines DeMent’s state of mind at that precise time (‘The world I took for granted was crashing to the ground and I realized I might not live long enough to ever see it turn around’). The upbeat free and fiery treatment on the track may be in contrast to its subject matter, but DeMent’s writing has consistently attempted to seek positivity over negativity in her output.

Written over a six-year period, other pertinent issues such as climate change and the pandemic generated additional ammunition for the thirteen-track album. The project was actually stalled during the pandemic and may not have seen the light of day without the prompting and support of Pieta Brown, who together with being a musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist, is also DeMent’s stepdaughter from her marriage to Greg Brown. During lockdown Pieta sought out the songs already written and essentially shelved and on hearing them responded enthusiastically to DeMent ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A World!’ The final songs were duly written and the album was recorded in Nashville in April 2022.

The issue of gun control and those courageous enough to call out the thorny subject is tackled head-on in Goin’ Down To Sing In Texas (‘I’m going down to sing in Texas where anybody can carry a gun. But we will all be so much safer there, the biggest lie under the sun’). The Sacred Now is a co-write with Pieta Brown, both having individually written verses for the song during lockdown. Overflowing with devotion and conviction, the hymn-like Let Me Be Your Jesus is conveyed with a whispered vocal delivery and mournful trumpet in the background.

DeMent fondly recalls peace activist Rachel Corry and civil rights leader John Lewis on Warriors of Love, commending them for their unflinching stances in the face of adversity and how they were ‘willing to risk an early ride in a hearse.’ Fuelled by a mellow horn section and tingling piano, the song simply brims with energy, recalling Van Morrison’s chirpy sound on his INTO THE MUSIC album. A similar sentiment and musical direction follows on How Long, with Marin Luther King name checked on the appropriately titled song. Taking a break from the more ethical subject matter on the album, twangy vocals and a vibrant rhythm section take shape on the six and a half minutes full-on blues track Walkin’ Daddy. The album closes in fine style with Waycross, Georgia.

A delightfully accessible listen by a unique talent whose writing consistently embraces a ‘moment in time’ of American modern life. Thought-provoking yet unassuming and refined, WORKIN’ ON A WORLD explores its perilous subject matter with coherence and positivity to perfection. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Mackenzie Roark Rollin’ High, Feelin’ Low Vocal Rest

We’re slightly late to the party with a review of this debut full-length album from Richmond, Virginia artist Mackenzie Roark, released late last year. Thankfully it did not pass us by as it’s yet another prime example of a slightly off the radar artist, producing raw country/roots music of the highest standard.

It follows on from Roark’s 2016 EP MOTHER TONGUE and although it only runs for thirty minutes and eight tracks, quality wins over quantity. Titles such as Drunk Again, Wasting Away, Little Pills and the title track are pointers to the theme running through the album. They also suggest a writer pouring out her heart and soul rather than one sitting in a songwriters round from nine to five and clocking out with a formulaic book of lyrics.

Roark puts her cards on the table from the get-go, kicking off the album in rocking style with the confessional and unapologetic Highways I’ve Been On (‘trying to be a good woman makes a bad girl go insane’). In keeping with the truthfulness contained across the album, she also lays bare psychological vulnerabilities, closing the record with Little Pills (‘tell me that I’m crazy when I need little pills’).

A tangled love affair is the driver on Sweet Thing, a gorgeous track with Roark’s raw country vocal backed by some sweet banjo picking and nimble fiddle. It tells a tale of a probably doomed relationship and leaves the listener reflecting whether the reconciliation sought by the writer ever comes to fruition. In fact, because the various tracks on the album work so well collectively, it is easy to assume that the character in Drunk Again and Wasted is the distanced lover in Sweet Thing.

Whether Roark is writing from personal experience or otherwise, the songs unfold with a savage intensity. Her earthy and twangy vocals are well matched by deft musicianship by her band members, with the rugged guitar playing particularly standout.

ROLLIN’ HIGH, FEELIN’ LOW is another potent reminder of the immense talent out there, making music that is unlikely to get the coverage and recognition it richly deserves. Few things are more pleasing for us at Lonesome Highway than discovering talent previously unknown to us, Makenzie Roark qualifies in that regard with flying colours.

Review by Declan Culliton

Mary Elizabeth Remington In Embudo Loose

Singer-songwriter, part-time stonemason and painter, Mary Elizabeth Remington’s introduction to live performance came about ten years ago when she took to the stages at the Kerrville Folk Festival. A decade later and the Hardwick, Massachusetts native has recorded her debut album.  

Remington was raised in a log cabin with her parents and brother in Massachusetts and, not surprisingly, avoided the confines of a recording studio for this project. The songs were recorded live to tape in a cabin along the Rio Grande in Embudo, Mexico, in the company of her long-time friend Adrianne Lenker of the Brooklyn folk-rock band Big Thief, who contributes backing vocals. Lenker’s colleague in Big Thief, Mat Davidson and James Krivchenia from the band Twain, who also acted as engineer, added the sparse instrumentation on a number of tracks. Other selections are performed a capella, Green Grass and the soothing paean Mother, being particularly imposing in this format. The marriage of Remington and Lenker’s vocals is heavenly on the unrequited love song and standout song Dresser Hill.

The finished project, with its low-key arrangements, criss-crosses from folk to country and world music, akin to a modern-day field recording, with overlays or overdubs not considered. Giggles from both vocalists are left unedited and the sound of falling rain adds ambience to the wistful Water Song.

The album’s title is taken from the recording location, with Remington noting that ‘The dry desert air and vast clay coloured landscape brought inspiration and calmness to the process of creating music together.’  Attentive listens are the order of the day on an album that casts its spell far and wide and reveals increasingly more with each ensuing visit.

Review by Declan Culliton

Stuffy Shmitt Cherry Realistic

‘The music biz is nearly impossible to negotiate these days. Forget it.  I'm done worrying about it. I just want to have fun making music with my friends,’ explains Stuffy Shmitt, recalling the motivation to record CHERRY, his latest record that follows on from his eclectic and hugely enjoyable album STUFF HAPPENS released three years ago.

Very much part of the thriving underground music scene in East Nashville, Shmitt brought his New York street-punk attitude to Music City when he relocated there nearly a decade ago. He didn’t have to search too far for like-minded spirits in Music City, particularly on the Eastside. Within a stone’s throw of his front yard, there were numerous well-matched individuals scratching out a living playing or producing more contemporary music in Nashville but who, like Shmitt, were in their element working on more eccentric projects. Among those acquaintances is Dave Coleman (Amelia White, Tim Carroll, Dean Owens, Minton Sparks), who produced and recorded CHERRY at his Howard’s Apartment Studio in Inglewood, East Nashville. Coleman also played guitar on the album; the others players included Chris Tench on guitar and a rhythm section of Parker Hawkins on bass and Dave Colella on drums.

Shmitt’s 2020 release, STUFF HAPPENS, revisited old haunts and old flames in the writers’ previous lives, more often than not without anything approaching fond memories. Tracks like She’s Come Unglued, Jim’s Dad, Mommy and Daddy and The Last Song may, on initial listen, read like fictitious episodes laced with black comedy. However, given the passionate vocal deliveries, on subsequent listens a darker picture of home truths emerged.

Although, like its predecessor, CHERRY finds Shmitt flirting between soulful mid-tempo ballads and manic rockers, the author is in a less introspective and more playful mindset than on that last record. Laced with witticisms and no end of double meanings - the opening track The Man In The Boat is a chant derived from the female orgasm - there’s no end of groove alongside the wicked humour on the eight tracks featured. With a liveliness that captures the sounds of both The Ramones and X, Billy Kilowatt is a two-and-a-half-minute manic journey and the high-spirited and playful The Hard On Polka is probably as near as a love song Shmitt is ever going to pen. (’if you see her drink a bottle of Budweiser, you’ll dream about it ‘till your dying day’). Having said that, there are more sombre moments, Shmitt fondly recalls his deceased younger brother Danny - he played drums with John Hiatt - on the funky Little Brother and 100 Shotguns is a nostalgic recollection of madcap days in a former life.

An album loaded with positive energy; readers acquainted with Shmitt’s back catalogue will lap this up. Others, unfamiliar with his work, should crank those headphones up to full volume and get on board for the ride. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Diane Hubka & The Sun Canyon Band You Never Can Tell Self Release

A noted and respected jazz singer and performer, Hubka has released several albums in that genre but here has taken a somewhat different path towards roots/country/folk elements. She was raised in Maryland before moving to Washington DC, then New York, and on to LA. But the direction that politics were taking meant that in 2017 she decided to look at singing protest and songs relating to union activity and began to perform these songs acoustically in a local coffee shop. Later with Joe Caccavo and Rick Mayock she formed the Sun Canyon Band and recorded this mix of covers and originals, which is their debut album. What attracted me to give it a close listen was the name of the special guest listed on the cover; one Albert Lee. The guitarist associated with Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band as well as the Everly Brothers, Lee also plays mandolin on the album and is joined by the aforementioned players as well as producer/multi-instrumentalist Chad Watson and Lynn Coulter on percussion.

 Not being aware of Hubka’s previous releases it is nonetheless clear that she is comfortable in this format. Comfortable is the operative word here as nothing disturbs the good time feeling of such experienced musicians playing together in a street free environment. The opening two tracks will be familiar to many (as will some of the other choices) in that both Bob Dylan and Guy Clark are renowned writers as Baton Rouge and You Ain’t Going Nowhere respectively show. These covers then set the pace and the general direction the album will take.

Of the other choices, Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927 takes that historic flood to emphasise how such catastrophic events have a way of repeating themselves if lessons are not learned. It is given a further location emphasis with the use of Watson’s trombone. You Never Can Tell, written by Chuck Berry, which closes out the album is another nod to their primary influences with some musical touches that make it enjoyable and not just a run through. Albuquerque nods to the player’s previous jazz roots. The Blues Is My Business has a feel for that particular format but again hints at a broader palate with brass and some whistling to add additional textures. To The Light has an acoustic feel and a nuanced vocal that suits the song and Hubka’s voice.

The are some original songs included with Hubka’s Home and Maycock’s Dancing With My Shadow and Belly Of The Whale both offering an opportunity to look beyond the cover choices. The former is in a folk-styled setting with shared vocals, while the other again has Mayock taking the lead with Hubka adding harmony. It has some sweetened guitar to help it flow on its somewhat downbeat but positive lyrical message. Hubka’s song is about the need to get back to a place that one call home and all which that means. Again, it has a folk-affiliated manner that fits with the context.

Without a doubt the standout track here, for me, is the traditional Shady Grove (a love song that has a closer relationship with the English version of the ballad Matty Grove - as recorded by Fairport Convention) The band give it a lively outing with Lee’s mandolin taking a lead alongside Mayock’s baritone guitar (though as several of the players cross-over in terms instruments that’s an assumption).

 An ‘easy to listen to’ album that had me drawn in by Albert Lee’s name on the cover - as it may for many - but the interaction between all is not forced and offers you an album that you can tell that all involved were happy to be recording.       

Review by Stephen Rapid

Jill Rogers & Crying Time Many Worlds Theory Self Release

Described as a straight-up country/honky-tonk band, a definition that suits them and Rogers’ original songs, but one that might seem at times a little less hardcore than some recent acts trading under that banner. In reality, they are related more to a time when real country was acceptable in the mainstream. The band which features some veteran players from the Oakland area are versatile and variable. Myles Boisen is the guitarist with Tony Marcus on fiddle and a rhythm section of Russel Kiel and Tim Rowe. They are joined by pedal steel, percussion and brass on some tracks.

Other members add to the overall textures with Tony Marcus delivering a jazz influenced swing number Devil In The Details that show the collective skills of the band. Boisen penned an album standout track with the border brass of I Only Cry When I’m Drinkin’ - a sound that nearly always hits the spot for these ears. Rogers’ lively vocal is well suited to the upbeat but down-sided message of the lyrics. 

There are also a couple of covers such as Del McCoury’s More Often Than Once In Awhile and Willie Nelson’s You Left Me A Long Time Ago. Both underscore that Rogers has a voice that is capable of taking on the different aspects of all the material that they have recorded. The latter closes out the album with a fine reading of a less known Nelson song, but one that sits beside her own take on country music, both classic and contemporary.

Of the songs written by Rogers, particularly strong are Evangeline, the up-tempo River Songs with fiddle to the fore, as it is with the guitar on the sad and slow Tears, Time And Ink. The Mess (That Used To Be Me) is a pretty self-descriptive but ultimately redeeming song about getting one’s self together to face the future. It is done to a beat that belies that thought process. 

Their previous releases offer a view of what they have been doing for some time now. A set of covers of George Jones songs with a number of guests (KING GEORGE), a live album that mixed covers and self-penned songs as well as a studio recorded record (LAST SATURDAY NIGHT/TEN GOLDEN HITS). They also recorded an album of some 70s country (LINDA). These, though unheard by this writer, would indicate a band in it for the long haul. They wear their cowboy hats and shirts as a visual indication of that.

MANY WORLDS THEORY continues in that vein with as much care put into the covers songs as with the original songs. It is an album that grew on me the more I listened and it is, in its own way, something that will enhance their local reputation and could, just as easily, be appreciated on a wider scale.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Alex Mabey The Waiting Room Self Release

A powerful fifteen-track album from an artist that writes freely and honestly about personal trauma, mental illness and addiction, Alex Mabey has been recording music for nearly a decade. Currently residing in Nashville, where she previously studied as a teenager at Belmont University, Mabey has successfully confronted and overcome a number of painful issues since those early career days. Ill health and a broken marriage led to prolonged physical and mental pain and if Mabey’s 2017 EP ENOUGH was a statement of an individual determined to conquer her demons, THE WAITING ROOM plays out as a further pointer to Mabey’s rehabilitation and recovery.

Contributors on THE WAITING ROOM include Grammy-winning producer Casey Wasner (Taj Mahal, Keb’Mo, Amanda Shires, Walter Trout), pianist Peter Wasner (Vince Gill, Amy Grant), bassist Brian Allen (Jason Isbell, The Secret Sisters) and Nate Dugger (Drew Holcomb) on guitar.

These Wings, the first single from the album, is powerful both lyrically and musically and a statement of liberty and letting go. The mid-tempo ballad The Well, also released as a single, broods over the painful yet finally rewarding decision to move ahead and distance oneself from a destructive manner of life. Fittingly, and in keeping with the album’s subject matter of resurrection, a cover of Patty Griffin’s Up To The Mountain is included. Entrapment and fragility emerge on Canary and Wait, the final track and statement on the album, which advises patience and resoluteness in adversity, acts as a reminder that fortune often favours the brave.

Written with candour, THE WAITING ROOM gives the listener a tour from where Mabey was at her lowest point towards her present state of body and mind. No doubt written by way of putting a closer to harrowing and distressing times, it’s not only a rewarding listen but also well-worth investigating for others going through similar dilemmas of the mind or body. Fans of the aforementioned Patty Griffin and Eliza Gilkyson will most definitely warm to this record.

Review by Declan Culliton

Pony Bradshaw North Georgia Rounder Soundly

Very much a writer of stories brought to music, Pony Bradshaw follows on from his 2021 album CALICO JIM, with another ten impressive songs drawn from his love of North Georgia, his home for the past decade and a half. If anything, this collection of songs, though somewhat matching in lyrical content, is musically more up-tempo, with particularly gorgeous splashes of pedal steel and slick guitar breaks, all complementing Bradshaw’s well-defined vocal deliveries.

An album that draws your attention to the lyrical content, it plays out like a short story movie, introducing the listener to the writer’s keen observations and also real-life characters leading ordinary existences. Recorded in only five days at Fellowship Hall Sound in Little Rock, the material explores a variety of Appalachian locations and scenarios. Bradshaw also speaks of other places encountered during his relentless touring lifestyle. A point in case is the melancholy A Free Roving Mind where the writer confesses ‘And I ain't got no kinda home…. And I don't need no reason to pen a sad and lonesome tune.’ A sense of barely surviving and yearning for simple home comforts emerges on the title track and that sentiment also surfaces on Kindly Turn The Bed Down, Drusilla, where the weary road traveller looks forward to a return to domesticity (‘I make my wage on the road, good lord, 42 and living out of my van.’) Safe In The Arms Of Vernacular opens with a memory of the writer’s father returning from Desert Storm before moving to the present and to a small-town local diner where he observes a waitress’ mundane way of life. The gothic and shadier side of Appalachia emerge on Notes On A River Town, it bookends the album in fine style with a sound that is both hauntingly lonesome and as dark as coal.

A self-confessed aficionado of fiction and poetry, Pony Bradshaw confesses that his writing is more inspired by his bookworm mentality than his admiration of the classic singer songwriters. A dynamic storyteller in his own right, Bradshaw’s latest offering is both lyrically arresting and quite spectacular in places. You’re left wondering if he’s likely to pen a novel of short stories at some point in the future.

Review by Declan Culliton

Angela Perley Turn Me Loose Self Release

A free spirit with one leg in the late 60s and the other in the modern world, the debut solo album from the Columbus, Ohio artist Angela Perley was one of our favourites of 2019 at Lonesome Highway. Titled 4.30, it was a tour de force of psychedelic-infused rock and alt-country.

The former band leader of Angela Perley and the Howlin’ Moons follows a similar musical template with TURN ME LOOSE, delivering an equally impressive ten-track record. If anything, Perley has increased the alt-country content this time around, inspired by listening to a lot of Gram Parsons during lockdown. A point in case is the hook-filled and pedal steel drenched Star Dreamer, which features well placed vocal ‘sha-la-las’ and synchronised hand claps. Equally splendid is the country-esque and slower paced Holding On and she goes full-on country with the two-stepper, Praying for Delight. Here For You, the first single from the album, was written following the loss of a number of family members. With a catchy backbeat and slick slide guitar, it finds the writer in a reflective mood, reminding herself of the importance of enjoying the moment while also being mindful of the struggles that those close to her may be enduring. Opener Plug Me In and Ripple are playful high-octane rockers, yet behind all these upbeat moments you get a sense of sorrowfulness and loss on tracks like Holding On and the closing track Wreck Me. The latter is a semi-spoken and skeletal offering of anguish and longing for forbidden fruit. 

Recorded at Earthwork Recording Studio in Newark, Ohio and Studio 4:30 in Columbus, Ohio, the album was produced by Brandon Bankes, who also contributed pedal steel. Perley and her long-time bandmate and guitarist Chris Connor are credited as co-producers.

An album that traverses from mellow to frenetic, TURN ME LOOSE defines Perley’s signature sound. A combination of honeyed vocals, clever lyrics and a group of players that ebb and flow around her, resulting in a suite of songs that offer a memorable listening experience. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Juni Habel Carvings Basin Rock

This is a really beautiful record. Created from a deep place, at once both fragile and strong; vulnerable, yet powerful in the quiet delivery. The music is both arresting and haunting; it is bare bones with nothing spared in the honesty and beauty of both the melodies and the words.  Defined as ‘pastoral folk’ in certain media, this is a timeless slice of intimate and whispered emotion.

There is loss here, and there is both beauty and a sadness borne of experience. Habel lost her sister in a car accident and a number of the songs make reference to the grief and the sense of intimacy in the memory of loss. This is clearly a work of great release for the artist and the sense of balancing the past against the emotions of the present are never far from the surface. The playing is sublime and the inclusion of family members heightens the sense of a prayer sent out to the universe in terms of healing and starting anew.

The sense of being part of the listening experience is akin to holding your breath while somebody close to you opens up about their inner doubts and dreams. Opening song Rhythm Of the Tides looks at the pull of nature and the depths contained in our own fears and hopes; water being used as a metaphor for the mind. Valiant is a song that brings the memory of her deceased sister to mind for Habel, as she captures the essence of the unbreakable sibling bond; ‘When we leaned into each other.’

Again, on the final song, I Carry You, My Love we find Habel framing the moment in beautiful imagery, ‘I wait by your door, for a sign to find me.’ The presence of someone no longer there in physical form so eloquently described. The music throughout has a dreamlike quality and the use of subtle percussion, twinkling piano, haunting violin and abstract sounds is enthralling. On the song Chicory I am sure that I hear a cuckoo sound and the closing of a door as percussive elements.

This is meditative music. Never rushed, and played with a gentle touch that hints at layered vocals, minimal keyboard and superb fingerstyle acoustic guitar atmospherics. Drifting Pounds Of the Train has violin sounds to accompany the love song as it builds in emotion and swells. Habel lives outside Oslo in Norway and this is her second album release. It is a very special album and one that will bring rich reward to all who immerse themselves in this sublime music.

Review by Paul McGee

Trevor Beales Fireside Stories Basin Rock

There is a deep poignancy that surrounds this posthumous release which highlights the expressive guitar playing of Trevor Beales. He grew up in Hebden Bridge, in Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. Learning guitar in the 1960s, Beales was clearly influenced by the Folk troubadours of the time and his playing evokes the developing genre and stirs memories of Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and John Renbourn. His fingerstyle playing was very fluid and free, with a lovely tone and expression.

The songs included here were recovered from his bedroom and retrieved from old cassettes recorded circa 1971 to 1974. The quality of the playing is quite superb and there are moments where it sounds like there is more than one guitar in the mix, so fulsome is his technique with the rhythm and solo runs merging into such a comprehensive and satisfactory whole. The twelve songs include instrumentals Braziliana and  the wonderful Dance Of the Mermaids. Other songs that stand out are Marion Belle, a tale that relays a sailors story and a ship that sailed the waves with a sickly crew looking for refuge in any port; Metropolis tells of life as a busker in the city anonymity of London, ‘Wearing dirty jeans and jacket, I play tunes on my guitar, Though no one has time to listen as they dodge the passing cars.’

Another song, Sunlight On the Table tells of capturing a moment and the distant glow of memory and choices made. Then I’ll Take You Home looks at the movement around guru enlightenment that was a craze back in the 60s. Righteous preaching leaves him cold and his response is to play his music, drink some beers and then head for home. The title track conjures a young John Martyn in the effortless playing style and confirms the talent that was evident to all who heard him develop his craft.

Beales died suddenly in 1984, leaving behind a young widow and a daughter, and we can only surmise on the career that awaited him and the heights that he would have achieved. We come and we go, the whys and wherefores lost in the mist of time. The one lasting influence that music brings is the legacy that endures over time, and the realisation that what was created back then, continues to stand as testament to the artist that created it.

Review by Paul McGee

Anna Mieke Theatre Nettwerk

This artist is a true world traveller, having experienced life in her travels across different continents. All the time absorbing the native sounds and the music of the indigenous people, from Maori songs in New Zealand, to the traditional airs of Bulgaria, working in India and aligned to the musical wealth of Granada in Spain. Mieke plays an array on instruments, including cello and guitar, bouzoki and piano.

The music is very much in the space of what is termed, Alt-Folk. There are nine tracks that span almost fifty minutes of listening and much of the playing draws from improvisational interplay between the musicians. Mieke is joined on the project by the talents of Matthew Jacobson (percussion),Ryan Hargadon (tenor saxophone, synthesizers, clarinet, piano), Brían Mac Gloinn (guitar, fiddle), Rozi Leyden (bass), Lina Andonovska (flutes), Cora Venus Lunny (viola, violin), Alannah Thornburgh (harp) and Nick Rayner (bass and synths).

It is an impressive ensemble and the ebb and flow of the songs contain a trance-like quality, especially when listened to on headphones. The lyrics are quite cryptic and somewhat impenetrable, with brief glimpses into the inner world of Mieke and her  delivery conjures memories of a lost lyric in the back of your mind that you can never quite recall. For A Time revisits days of her youth spent in London and the imagery that remains in reconstructing those memories. Coralline seems to channel an old relationship and the accumulation of reflective musings built from the past. Seraphim asks of another ‘Take me far away from the crowds, oh the maddening crowds.’ Go Away From My Window is a traditional song that pleads ‘Go ‘way from my window, Go ‘way from my door, Go ‘way way way from my bedside, And bother me no more.’ Perhaps the urge to escape into a more solitary state is what both binds and fuels these songs?

The beautiful harp intro to Red Sun is replaced by gentle acoustic guitar and has Mieke musing ‘Distance is a sound I know, Momentary ground.’ There is a free-form, jazz-like quality to some of the arrangements and the improvisation allows the mind to wander off to distant places and allow reflective thoughts of fragmented hindsight to arise.

The track Twin has memories of a time spent in Lausanne, Switzerland and the lines ‘ Sometimes things are better left unsaid instead, Linger if you will we are strangers still.’ This sense of being solitary and apart from the observations being made is what weaves through these songs. I am left thinking of a collaboration between Joni Mitchell and Jane Siberry, where the creative muse visits shaded corners of the mind in search of some solace. An interesting album where the challenges reap great reward.

Review by Paul McGee

Michael Veitch Wachtraum Self Release

The album title translates as “Wake Dream,” and the twelve songs included are all from the creative muse of Michael Veitch, an experienced artist from Vermont. He has released many albums and here we see his talents blossom on songs that visit personal and political issues.

There are four co-writes and two were written with engineer Julie Last. Veitch self-produced the album and invited quite a list of musicians to join him in the process. There is a credits list that runs to some fifteen contributors and with Veitch leading proceedings on guitars, piano and lead vocals. He sings with an easy, sweet tone and the song melodies are very engaging.  This is finely delivered americana with emphasis on the craft of the singer-songwriter.

Love songs such as August Nights, Last Days of Summer and Always Vermont celebrate that special feeling with a loved one. Memory is something that holds nostalgia, whether real or imagined, and Veitch visits the past in the songs, Sunday Afternoon and Birthday Oh Birthday.

Happy Fourth Of July questions the type of country that has created so much hatred and murder within the American dream and the aspiration of equality for all. April Fools hits out at politicians who have nobody’s interests at heart, except their own; the hypocrisy clearly evident to all.

Mother nature is celebrated in First Snow Of the Year, and First Day is a celebration of the New Year and the opportunity to begin again with a fresh page. Final song One Wish is a plea for peace and harmony on Christmas Day and throughout the year, the song featuring a duet with Kirsti Gholson, and a fitting way to end a very enjoyable album.       

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

The Foreign Landers Travelers Rest Tinfoil

The seeds were sown for this duo when Tabitha Agnew from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland met David Benedict from S Carolina at the IBMA 2017 Conference in Raleigh. Both were already establishing themselves as bluegrass musicians to be watched, Benedict as mandolinist with the progressive Mile Twelve and Agnew as banjoist with her family band, Cup O’ Joe, and soon to be a member of the all female British bluegrass ensemble, Midnight Skyracer. Love and marriage soon followed, but then so did the pandemic, and the couple were thrown into two years of strife while Tabitha waited for her Green Card and they tried to conduct a transatlantic relationship. TRAVELERS REST is the chronicle of that difficult time, a concept album if you like. Their first full length album is a delight, produced by them both in their new home in the quaintly named South Carolina town which gave the album its name. Traveler introduces Tabitha’s sweet vocals against delicately picked acoustic guitar, but soon we hear her inventive banjo playing, interplaying with her husband’s backing vocals and glorious mandolin runs. The song quotes her parents, who reassure her in her trepidation about the move to the US that ‘whether near or far/you’ll always have a place to stay’, and isn’t that what we all wish for our family? In Waves, the ferociousness of the sea reflects the fear of the unknown for Tabitha, but she again finds reassurance, this time from her Christian faith. In fact there are many references throughout the lyrics to a faith that is clearly paramount to the two artists.

While Tabitha’s vocals are inherently soft, the production here is superbly suited to her vocal style and brings out her sweetest best. Unfortunately, we only hear backing vocals from David, and one hopes that he will right this wrong on future projects! His brother-in-law, Reuben Agnew, guests on vocals on David’s song Flying Back to You. Should I Go is a melodramatic cry for help from Tabitha’s viewpoint, and is suitably soundtracked by her progressive banjo contributions here, discordant and tumbling fast, all the while supported by David’s octave mandolin and acoustic guitar playing. It’s refreshing to hear new acoustic music that is fresh and original, while still rooted in the bluegrass tradition.

There’s an instrumental interlude, two new tunes with a distinctly Irish flavour, Johnny’s Peacock/The Red Tailed Hawk, where they are joined by the Irish guitar maestro John Doyle and Armagh’s finest tin whistle player, Brian Finnegan.

Boxes finds Tabitha unpacking after moving house, and she again follows her father’s advice, this time to ‘keep your door open wide/Warm the welcome, young and old’. Things start to look up, and another guest, Karl Smakula, plays pedal steel on the country love song We’ll Be Fine, while well known fiddler Brittany Haas enhances the reassuring Garden - ‘though the world may be broken/I’ll be in the ground planting seeds’. The Last Song closes this first chapter of their story, the gentle instrumentation reflecting contentment at last, ‘a land I can call my home’. The album design is also aesthetically pleasing with a woodcut by Dealey Dansby and artful graphics and photography. Roll on the next instalment.

Review by Eilís Boland

Sunny War Anarchist Gospel New West

‘Everyone I loved died before they reached twenty-five. They OD’ed or killed themselves. We were just kids who didn’t have anyone looking out for us,’ confesses Nashville-based singer songwriter Sunny War, reflecting on a troubled and brutal early life that she has thankfully left behind. War’s early music career found her playing in punk bands, including Los Angeles based the Anal Kings, drinking heavily, dropping out of school and out of control. Moving to California did little to improve her predicament, on the contrary, the relocation lead to heroin and meth addiction and near death.

Clean and sober for over a decade, heartache and tragedy revisited War. A relationship breakup and contracting Covid led to a further period of depression and contemplations of suicide. Fortunately, she overcame these emotions and instead wrote the soul searching I Got No Fight, the first song to be written for what became ANARCHIST GOSPEL. War continued to address her personal journey of adversity and distress across a number of demos and presented them to the Nashville resident and producer Andrija Tokic (The Deslondes, Hurrah For The Riff Raff, Alabama Shakes, Caitlin Rose, Jeremy Ivey). Studio time was booked at Tokic’s Bomb Shelter, where the fourteen tracks were recorded. The resulting album is one that doesn’t slot easily into one particular genre, instead it sees saws from folk to gospel and soulful blues to raw rock and roll.

War’s ageless vocal style and distinctive fingerpicking guitar work unconditionally capture the mood of the songs and their content. The inclusion of backing vocalists on a number of the tracks further intensifies the message within the tracks. In fact, the vocal input of the three times Grammy nominated Allison Russell on the Dionne Farris cover Hopeless and Loves Death appears to intensify War’s performance, resulting in two standout efforts. Jim James of My Morning Jacket fame also features on Earth. War’s partner in the band War and Pierce, Chris Pierce, is also credited as adding vocals. Banjo and guitar contributions by Dave Rawlings on tracks Shelter and Storm, Swear To Gawd and Higher further intensify those songs. The second cover included is Ween’s Baby Bitch, which sticks true to the original version and is directed towards War’s ex-partner with the parting dispatch, ‘I’m better now, please fuck off.’

Despite its origins and the matters of the heart that dominate the album, a sense of rebirth and pushing ahead does emerge. Tracks such as the aforementioned Hopeless and New Day, although not entirely suggesting healing, do suggest a degree of stoicism and resoluteness from their author. If War’s previous recordings, SIMPLE SYRUP (2021) and WITH THE SUN (2018), marked the emergence of an artist with unlimited potential, ANARCHIST GOSPEL with the support of New West, is most likely to raise her profile immeasurably. Let’s hope that is the case, as it’s fully merited on the strength of this marvellous project.

Review by Declan Culliton

Mark Erelli Lay Your Darkness Down Soundly

“My impending blindness opened my eyes, and I was able to write from that new viewpoint,” explains Mark Erelli on the motivation behind the ten songs on his latest recording LAY YOUR DARKNESS DOWN.

Erelli was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. Notwithstanding the possibility that the condition could lead to a total loss of sight, he tackled his condition head-on, using his predicament as ammunition for his eighteenth studio album.

Ironically, Erelli’s last recording was titled BLINDSIDED and was released prior to his diagnosis in the spring of 2020. An exceptionally talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - he was part of Josh Ritter’s touring band in 2009 - Erelli can also boast production duties on Lori McKenna’s 2013 album MASSACHUSETTS.    

Somewhat surprisingly, given the author’s frame of mind at the time of writing, the album’s subject matter is one of hope, appreciation and love. In particular, the opening track Break In The Clouds and the closer Love Wins In The Long Run, are both buoyant, free-flowing and strong opening and closing statements.

Self-produced and recorded at his home, Erelli played the majority of the instruments that feature.  Lending a hand was Dave Brophy on drums and Zachariah Hickman on bass, Mellotron and Omnichord. Anthony Da Costa plays electric guitar on Fuel For The Fire and Lori McKenna adds vocals on the thoughtful ballad and co-write with Erelli, Lay Your Darkness Down. The slow-paced soulful ballad The Man I Am pays homage to Erelli’s wife Polly and Is It Enough follows a similar inspiration by advancing that when everything else is falling apart, human love is the redeeming factor. That power of human attraction is also reinforced on You. A raw and powerful ballad, beautifully articulated and enhanced by hazy and almost primitive guitar work, it’s up there with the finest that Erelli has penned and is the album’s standout track. Having said that, there isn’t a weak track on the album and the Dylan-esque Sense Of Wonder, and the aforementioned opening and closing tracks, are outstanding.

There has been an indisputable consistency in Mark Erelli’s albums over the years and he certainly maintains that quality on LAY YOUR DARKNESS DOWN. Equal parts rootsy Americana and old-school rock, it’s a record loaded with raw emotion and steadfast truthfulness. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Diane Patterson Satchel Of Songs Self Release

Based in Oregon, this talented artist has released seven albums in a career that started with her debut back in 1991. She is described as a folk goddess and her music falls into the realm of mystic acoustic americana. It is quietly pointed towards roots music for the soul and is filled with tunes that celebrate nature, the healing powers of the earth, the ancient ways, lives devoted to simple crafts and a sense of belonging within a community.

The ten tracks are all very enjoyable and are delivered by an impressive cast of supporting musicians who recorded their parts either remotely or who joined producer Mike Napolitano ((Ani DiFranco, Squirrel Nut Zippers) to record in New Orleans.  Two songs were produced separately by Pedro Vadhar and Roman Morykit, and the overall feel and groove to the album is very organic and rhythmic. From the reggae infused beat of Roots Heart Rhythm to the anti-war sentiment of Steady the Hand, these are songs that both move and reflect upon the ways in which we poison the earth as a race.   

The title track addresses the abuse of native indigenous people and their traditions. This theme is also what lies within songs like One Part Corn (the healing hands of the medicine woman), Cookfire (the beauty found in simple acts and deeds), Where Are We (a poem by Coleman Barks, inspired by the ancient poet, Rumi).

Elsewhere, the plight of Indian tribes and the buffalo are highlighted on Turn Toward the Sun charting the history behind the Lakota treaty in North Dakota that impacted local water supply in the greed and rush for oil. However, the land always endures and the old ways are sustained by those who pass down the knowledge through the generations. Somewhere There’s A Song Still Singing speaks to these matters and the perpetual return to nature. The album is from the heart and delivered in impressive style.

Review by Paul McGee

Paul Gurney Blue Horizon Tailgator

This is the second solo album from New Zealand based musician and music tutor, Paul Gurney. He is a member of The DeSotos and is joined by two of his band members on this new project. Producer Bob Shepheard contributes on bass, electric guitar, piano and keyboards. He brings a light touch to the proceedings and the song arrangements are very well structured. Gurney plays acoustic guitar, electric guitars, mandolin and sings in a confident style across all eleven songs gathered here.

Stuart McIntyre plays bass on six songs while Michael Burrows (drums), Ron Stevens (Hammond organ), Richard Adams (violin), Craig Denham (piano accordion) and Neil Watson (pedal and lap steel) all contribute to the easy melodies and the atmosphere of the album. Fragile and Blue Horizon have superb pedal steel atmospherics to colour the tunes and the laid back feel continues on Meaning which has a nice flow and timbre. The slow blues of Misunderstood also has some nice touches on pedal steel while the brooding menace of Ricochet looks to the damage we have done as a race to our mother earth.

Perfect Space has an up-tempo groove and some fine interplay and the attraction of the album is perfectly mirrored in the superb Trouble, a highlight, with dynamic guitar riffs.  Belong is a straight up tribute to the enduring Roy Orbison, both in vocal delivery and song dynamics, a country waltz through time. The final track Windows could have been on any number of albums produced in the 1970s out of California, with that sunny laid back sound of the era. The album closes with the sound of the Windows choir adding a soulful dynamic to the song.  A very enjoyable album and one that bears repeated listening.

Review by Paul McGee

Suzie Vinnick Fall Back Home Self Release

Saskatoon native Suzie Vinnick has pulled out all the stops on this new album. It’s lucky seventh for her and employing the production talent of Danny Greenspoon was a very wise move. He had worked with Vinnick before on a few of her earlier releases and this time around he captured the essence of her sound, a perfect blend of blues and roots music. The songs are very strong and there is a hint of Bonnie Raitt in the air when she lifts her vocal performance on tracks like Raino and Secret.

The jazz infused blues of The Pie That My Baby Makes channels Rickie Lee Jones and the upright bass of Ross Boswell gives the vocals a nice bedrock from which to soar. Steve Dawson pops up on pedal steel on a couple of tracks and the various guitar sounds are brilliantly delivered by a combination of top players across the eleven songs, with Colin Linden( two tracks) and Kevin Breit (five tracks) taking the spotlight.

Other songs are tinged with a country blues, and It Doesn’t Feel Like Spring Anymore and Big Train (From Memphis) stand out with some excellent guitar courtesy of Paul Pigat on the latter. The album is full of interesting twists and turns and is certainly a welcome addition to the growing reputation of this very talented musician.

Review by Paul McGee

Courtney Hale Revia Growing Pains Self Release

This is the third release from a Texan artist who has described her lifestyle as consisting of being a mother, teacher, wife, daughter and a music promoter. The title track refers to the journey that Revia has been on since she lost her father to Covid in 2021. The songs reflect the different moods that have pulled and tugged at the process of grieving and the final track is a tribute to her father, James T Hale, with a live version of his song Bloom Where You Are.

Revia has been hosting live concerts since 2018 at her listening room known as, 7 Oaks Event Garden in Beaumont, Texas. The core players on the album are Walter Cross (drums on nine songs), Zachary Edd (bass), Cody Eldridge (lead guitar), Southpaw Smitty (mandolin on eight songs), and Ellen Melissa Story (violin on nine songs). Revia provides rhythm guitar across all twelve tracks and sings with real confidence and style. Her vocal range is impressive and she handles all the different demands of production and writing with ease.

Blood and Water has a sassy  style that delivers with a fine chorus and the contrast with simpler ballads like Who Are You shows the different aspects of Revia and her ability to deliver with real conviction. Other songs such as Lavender Cowgirl, They’ve Poisoned the Well and One Way Out are quite superb in the interplay between the musicians, with the violin of Story a real highlight throughout.

There is a great bluegrass feel to Coffee Beans (The Logon Café Song) with violin, mandolin and guitar swapping phrases across the melody lines. The title track is a standout with words like ‘rain drops fall upon these walls that I built around my soul,’ suggesting the need for healing and new beginnings. This is a really fine album and it certainly would not have been out of place in my best releases listing for the year just passed.

Review by Paul McGee

Tim Hill Giant Innovative Leisure

Kicking off with the bluegrass sound of The Clock’s Never Wrong, more than lays down a marker for an album that is brimming with personality. Tim Hill is also a touring member of Allah-Las, the Los Angeles band. However, there are many different influences at play on this album including French Sweet No. 3 in B Minor - J.S. Bach. There are also two bonus tracks on the digital release that are not on the physical version of the album, including a cover of the Townes Van Zandt classic, No Place To Fall.

The harmonica and pedal steel lines on Calico channel that classic Neil Young sound and indeed Hill namechecks the Canadian legend as one of his main influences. The album takes its name from the James Dean movie (a cult classic) and Hill also cites Paris Texas and Harry Dean Stanton as another jumping off point.

In 2019 Tim Hill released a debut album that was recorded on his four-track recorder at home. This follow up has a much more professional approach with Hill using a Long Beach studio where he played quite a range of instruments including piano, guitar, vibraphone, drums, bass and synthesizer. He is joined on the recording by a small group of players Corey Adams (banjo, harmonica, lead guitar), Philip Glenn (violin), Brady Henrie (pedal steel), George Madrid (pedal steel) and Ray Welch (lyrics).

Candlestick is another really excellent song and is followed by the equally impressive Good As Gone. Both tracks have a nice laid back groove with strummed guitars and reflective vocals. The beautiful piano and pedal steel on The Irish Sea is another highlight and the fact that Hill has been living the life of a rancher for the past two years in Silverado has clearly influenced his sense of space and time – both of which are woven through the melodies of these songs like a fine silk thread.

Review by Paul McGee

Tip Jar Songs About Love and Life On the Hippie Side Of Country Shine A Light

This album appeared last year as a follow up to the previous 20201 release, One Lifetime, which was a fine example of the high quality output of this Dutch duo. Bart de Win and his wife Arianne Knegt formed Tip Jar back in 2013 and the music they create spans different musical genres. At the centre of the writing is the close harmony of Bart and Arianne and their focus on a solid sense of musicality, build over years of hard earned experience and inspiration.

The bright up-tempo sounds of early tracks, Never Saw It Coming and White Sands are balanced by the poignant folk sound of Creaking Of the Stairs and a look back at memories formed in younger years. The jazz tinged arrangement of Plough has a honky tonk element that is infectious and  highlights a great dual vocal from Bart and Arianne, plus some fine boogie woogie piano from Bart.

The same core band of musicians appear across these two recent releases with Harry Hendricks (guitars, banjo, ukelele), Bill Small (bass), Eric van de Lest (drums), Joost van Es (violin), Tonnie Ector (double bass), and Walt Watkins (guitar, vocals) all turning in quality performances.

The blues swing of Wondering Why is balanced against the simple melodic ruminations of Colours. Equally, on Strong Enough, Arianne delivers a subtly wistful performance in looking back at past relationships. The creative flow of the arrangements certainly draws upon a wide palette of different hues and tints. Big Family sums everything up with the message that we are all in this together and we need to rely upon each other in the sense of being inspired by music and the creative arts. Another worthy release and worth your time investing in the creative vision of Tip Jar.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Wylie & The Wild West Bunchgrass Hi-Line

I have to thank Wylie Gustafson for not only bringing some great sounding country music to the world since his debut release in 1992, but also for being the first spectacle wearing artist in the genre that I had encountered on, the then European version, of CMT. Having the same visual enhancement, it induced a kinship that, alongside his authenticity and steadfast adherence to traditional country music, made him a continuing touchstone.

His latest release, his 25th by my count, shows that he has lost none of his passion nor pride in his music and lifestyle. He is a rancher working in Montana, as well as playing and producing his original and well chosen cover material that is at home on the open plains as much as it would be in a dark honky tonk. As is his normal process Gustafson recorded the album in Nashville with a crack team of musicians who would, by nature, be totally sympathetic to the direction his production took them. These players are note and placement perfect in terms of not grandstanding or over playing their individual parts. They instinctively know what best suits the arrangements.

With names like Denis Crouch, Billy Contreras, Mark Thornton, Mark Meyer, Matty Meyer and Chris Scruggs along side Wylie himself, you would expect no less. Gustafson delivers some self-penned originals that mix his sense of purpose with an element of fun. The songs are headed by Straight Up Country Music, one which emphasises his own preference, as does his affiliation with his lifestyle in the wry smile of Girlfriend Is A Barrel Racer.  Then there’s Don’t Say Whoa, Water Of Jordan, Flying, Birch Creek, his arrangement of the traditional Cowboy Soliloquy and his usual foray into the territory of the yodel with Hiline Waltz.

The covers offer an equally diverse set of songs,  like Gordon Lightfoot’s Ribbon Of Darkness which opens the album and shows off his distinctive and appealing vocal ability, as well as the strength of the song itself. The same could be applied to his choices of Heather Myles’ Rum And Rodeo, the John Hartford penned In Tall Buildings, Butch Hancock’s Dry Farm Land,  the song Young And Beautiful (a song perhaps best known to some by its version from Elvis) and a heartfelt rendition of At My Window from Townes Van Zandt.

All of these selections show not only a wide ranging taste in music, but also a lyrical content that is in harmony with his own thoughts and actions. Wylie, you get the impression, records this material for his own satisfaction as much as that of his many fans. It would appear there is a steady appreciation of music that is rooted in Western themes, as evidenced by the success of artists like Colter Wall and Charlie Crockett and others. The recent loss of such iconic trail blazers as Don Edwards and Ian Tyson makes the continuation of the music of Wylie Gustafson even more important. 

In the final round-up though, this is an exceptional album that has the ability to appeal on many levels and should not be overlooked or under-rated. As Wylie has written, this is straight up country music with the added touch of Western that deserves a wider audience and this writer, for one, looks forward to his next outing with as much anticipation as he does looking back on his previous work, that is a pure example of what country music is, was and should be.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Miners Megunticook Match-up Zone

This album was one of those that got overlooked during a hectic year of reviews. It was actually released in 2021 but arrived for review last year. They are a band fronted by Keith Marlowe, who is the band’s songwriter and lead vocalist, while also playing guitars (acoustic, electric and pedal steel). He also handled the album’s production duties. He is accompanied in The Miners by Brian Herden on pedal steel, dobro, b-bender, upright bass and slide, as well as Gregg Hiestand on bass and Vaughn Shnkus on drums. Other guests include Bon Lowery on harmonica and backing vocals, Bobby Baxmeyer on mandolin, banjo and fiddle and Joe Kille, who also adds fiddle.

The assembled band play an alt-country blend that is both easy on the ear and accomplished. They cite Uncle Tupelo and Whiskeytown as key inspirations, alongside icons like Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard.  There are ten tracks featured, which start with the loved and lost sound of Without You and finishes with the more politicized observation of life today, for some, with Cardboard Sign. Between those points, they cover some different topics such as departing in this case.

Leaving For Ohio. Call Me Up reflects on the difficult questions that relationships can offer up, often without resolving them. The fact that it is always an option is where Apologize delivers its message. The Day The Drummer Died is a sad tale of that event and its aftermath. All of this material is based in some real life observation, which was given depth by the musical structures that use the instrumentation well. The overall feel is that of a band who knew exactly what they wanted to achieve with this record , which has solid arrangements, vocal harmonies and integrated playing that sit comfortably with the lead and harmony vocals.

The band released a previous EP some years back and it has taken time for this second release to see the light of day. They are based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they recorded this album. They, doubtless, hold a torch for alt-country in that area, but are worthy of a wider consideration and enjoyment.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Ted Silar Last Rose Self Release

This seven track EP is a new release from a musician with a long history of playing different genres of music including rock ’n’ roll, blues, jazz, and he even mentions singing Bach in Saxony - so, a man of eclectic tastes. Here he turns back to a love of traditional country, especially that emanating from California and the likes of Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam. This album was recorded in a number of studios around the States at different times, as witnessed by the names of the various sidemen he features including Byron Berline (fiddle), Dan Dugmore (pedal steel), Jason Carter (fiddle) and Kristin Scott-Benson (banjo). Silar wrote the songs, played bass and drums and added the guitars as well as lead vocals.

However although there are 7 tracks featured, three are remixes - the songs are Why Do We Have To Dream, That One Last Rose, I’m Gonna Haul Off And Love You, Elana and She’s The One. The first three are the ones repeated in what seems a different emphasis on the instruments rather than a radical remix. While Silar, here, doesn’t have a particularly distinctive vocal style you can tell he is enjoying the process and the contributions of the noted players he had join him; even though they were added remotely to the initial tracks. 

There is a solid melodic structure to the songs themselves that delivers a pleasant listen and  deserves repeated listens, even if the above mentioned trio are doing just that. The contributions of the fiddle and steel are both thoroughly enjoyable and lift the songs to a new level that makes you wonder if a full album of such originals would have been worth pursuing. Given that the likes of Berline is, unfortunately, no longer with us, newer contributors like Carter can fill that gap.

So hopefully Silar might choose country as his chosen musical path on another occasion and get the opportunity to record with a band in the studio to create something new. For now we can settle for this latest release from a musician who follows his own muse rather than any particular trends.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Kassi Valazza Highway Sounds Fluff & Gravy

A recent signing to Loose Music in the UK., Arizona-born artist Kassi Valazza’s four- track EP HIGHWAY SOUNDS from 2022 is as good a place as any for an introduction to her music world. Inspired by the wide-open spaces of the southwestern state of Arizona where she spent her childhood, Valazza’s beautifully delivered dark lyrics, and the instrumentation that accompanies them, justly reflect that spacious environment.

HIGHWAY SOUNDS comes after her 2019 album, DEAR DEAD DAYS, and continues on her versatile musical alt-country template. The gentle opening track Little Flowers has its origins in early 70s country folk, and the EP’s highlight, Little Dove, lands between the psychedelic country of Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter and the desert noir of Calexico. Loaded with dreamy reverb and all manner of desert- inspired sounds, it is border flavoured country of the highest order. The dark country ballad Crying could have been plucked from the Jimmy Webb songbook, and Pastures continues that menacing theme of sunken and unfulfilled dreams.

HIGHWAY SOUNDS offers a gateway to the brooding Americana universe of Kassi Valazza. Equally, it reveals her versatility across the four tracks. Initially drawn in by her crystal clear and disciplined vocals, the haunting musical sketches behind those lyrics are soon revealed. A stylistic and impressive venture on all fronts, it’s more than likely going to direct the listener back to Valazza’s debut album, it certainly did that to me.

Kassi Valazza will be performing shows at Kilkenny Roots Festival during the May Bank Holiday weekend this year. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Vanessa Bourne Give Me A Break Black Ribbon Records

An album that nearly passed me by in 2022, GIVE ME A BREAK is the second recording from Vanessa Bourne, following on from her debut album YOUNG AT HEART in 2020.

Born in India but living in Australia for four decades, country music played a major part in Bourne’s youth. Traditional country music was very much the order of the day in her household from an early age and despite being the possessor of a vintage country voice, her recording career only kicked off with that debut album in 2020.  Having sent Nashville-based singer songwriter and producer Curt Ryle (George Jones, Billy Ray Cyrus, Gene Watson) a number of her songs, she headed to Nashville, on his recommendation, to record YOUNG AT HEART, with him at the controls, in February 2020. Buoyed by that recording experience, Bourne’s world soon came crashing to the ground due to the Covid restrictions applied in Australia, which resulted in her having to spend eighteen months with her parents in India before being allowed back to Australia. Despite the setback, that album struck a chord with lovers of twin fiddles and pedal steel-driven traditional country music and won her The Will Rogers Award for ‘Pure Country Female Artist of the Year’ (Academy of Western Artists). It also got her signed to Black Ribbon Records LLC, in Nashville.

Packed with ‘leavin’, lovin’ and drinkin’ songs, Bourne wore her heart on her sleeve on that record, recalling the classic Music Row sound of the 60s. A similar template is repeated on GIVE ME A BREAK, although it moves from Nashville to Texas across many of the ten tracks that feature, a number of which are co-written with Curt Ryle.  She opens with My Three Queens, namechecking Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline, before professing her love of Texas on In My Next Life, the latter entering western swing territory. All Tied Up In You continues with that Lone Star State ambience and the title track mourns the lack of genuine country music on the radio in Australia - a sentiment that equally applies to both America and Europe. Lord I Hope, complete with impressively layered vocals, is an unhurried ballad and The Simple Things In Life, the album’s standout track for me, has Loretta Lynn’s stamp all over it. Also included is a duet with Ryle, the smouldering love tune, We’re Back In Love Again.

Bourne’s beautifully punctuated vocals - I’m reminded of Laura Cantrell’s singing on a number of the tracks - coupled with arrangements and production that more than complement those vocals, point to an artist steeped in old-school country and doing exactly what she pleases.  

Review by Declan Culliton

Macie Stewart Mouth Full of Glass Full Time Hobby

Multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter and composer Macie Stewart’s album, MOUTH FULL OF GLASS, is her debut solo record, having previously recorded three albums with the band OHMME. Stewart has also accompanied The Weather Station on tour, playing violin, guitar, piano and adding backing vocals.

The album combines Stewart’s background of performing folk, indie, jazz and classical music and was, in the main, written and recorded during the pandemic. Alongside the enforced isolation of that time, Stewart was also coming to terms with a family bereavement and a relationship breakdown, and, not surprisingly, the album confronts the loneliness and soul-searching of that period.

The Chicago-based artist recorded the majority of the instrumentation at her home, with additional parts added later by a host of Chicago eminent players including VV Lightbody (flute), Lia Kohl (strings) and Sen Morimoto (saxophone).

Confronting their plight, Stewart asks ‘I didn’t know myself, when will I know myself?’ on What Will I Do and that dilemma of isolation and solitariness also raises its head on the dreamlike title track, ‘I've got a mouthful of glass and no one to ask, I've got a mouthful of glass and no one to tell about it.’ In addition to the striking and often complex instrumentation, the vocal prowess of Stewart is to the fore on Tone Pome and the stand-out track,Garter Snake.

An album that traverses from the mellow to frenetic, no doubt reflecting the composer’s state of mind at the time of recording, MOUTH FULL OF GLASS  bemoans a world of ongoing personal challenges. Gently seductive, it’s also an album that takes shape at a slow pace and requires multiple listens to appreciate it fully. File alongside the chamber folk of The Weather Station and Aoife Nessa Frances. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Mallory Johnson Surprise Party Self-Release

Like many of her peers, Mallory Johnson left the comforts of small-town living to follow her musical dream in Nashville. Relocating from Newfoundland, Canada, to Music City five years ago, she follows on from her self-titled EP in 2019 with SURPRISE PARTY, the debut full-length recording from the East Coast Music award winner. Johnson was also recently nominated for the Country Music Program/Special of the Year at the 2022 Canadian Country Music Awards for WISE WOMAN – THE SHOW, a radio special for SiriusXM Country, which featured Canadian female artists residing in Nashville.

Initially intended as a six-track mini album, SURPRISE PARTY features eleven songs, landing in the more mainstream and contemporary end of country. Produced by Kent Wells (Dolly Parton, Carly Pearce), Johnson collaborated with fellow Canadians and like-minded artists Tenille Arts, Kelly Prescott and Jason Blaine to name a few. Lost love and alcohol feature on quite a number of the songs, some of which contain light-hearted and humorous lyrics and others have deeper and more meaningful messages. The break-up song Hungover, with a nod in the direction of Brandy Clark, is particularly easy on the ear and her Billboard charting single Married is as cleverly written as it is expressed. Party Dress, with a driving rhythm section, is a full-on rocker laced with cut throat energy. 

She takes her foot off the gas and places her splendid vocals out in front on a number of tracks. Both the title track and the semi-acoustic ballad Drunk Mind, Sober Heart work particularly well in this regard. Wise Woman (The Worktape) is stripped back with only vocals and acoustic guitar, and the mid-tempo Where The Good Times Are is further evidence of an artist that’s equally comfortable delivering folk ballads as she is belting out more raucous numbers.

Currently an independent artist, Johnson’s steady rise since moving to Nashville is most likely to increase in pace with this album of well-constructed and radio-friendly songs.  Don’t be surprised if she appears on the C2C roster touring Ireland and the U.K. in the coming years.

Review by Declan Culliton

JD Clayton Long Way From Home Self-Release

Citing The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Creedence Clearwater Revival as his main influences isn’t a bad starting point if your ambition is to succeed as a singer songwriter. Those three acts, in particular, were the benchmark for Arkansas-born artist JD Clayton’s first full-length album, LONG WAY FROM HOME, which follows on from his debut recording and five-track EP, SMOKE OUT THE FIRE, from 2018.

Despite the album’s title, Clayton currently resides in Nashville, where he moved to further his artistic career. Like many of his peers, the restrictions due to Covid in March 2020 hit him hard, resulting in the coffee shop where he worked closing down and leading to alternative employment with a landscape contractor and hours on the road travelling from job to job. Clayton used this time to crank up the headphones, listen to a lot of vintage roots music and formulate his own songs for this album.

Teaming up with producer Thomas Dulin, who also worked on Clayton’s debut EP, they recorded the ten tracks for this album at Dulin’s home studio in the Nashville suburb, Berry Hill. There’s a great deal of warmth in the lyrics, suggesting a contented and clear-thinking mind. The gentle rolling Beauty Queen and the jauntier Goldmine, which immediately follows, read like odes to his loved one and Clayton recalls the simple times growing up in small town America with Different Time Of Simple Life. Expressed like a letter written to his parents back home, that feeling of dislocation is also repeated on the title track. The opener Hello, Good Mornin’ is a stripped back acoustic intro featuring little more than Clayton’s vocal, acoustic guitar, and the sound of birds singing in the background.

‘I'm workin' my way to be one of the greats,’ announces Clayton on American Millionaire. Given the crowded playing field of singer songwriters, this assertion could either be tongue-in-cheek or profound. However, LONG WAY HOME is a pointer toward an artist with the prowess to write lyrics that fit like a glove on songs that appear to be written from the heart. The end result is a collection of songs that are both soothing on the senses and extremely listenable.

Review by Declan Culliton

Myron Elkins Factories, Farms & Amphetamines Low Country Sound / Electra

An old head on young shoulders, FACTORIES, FARMS & AMPHETAMINES, from the 22-year-old Otsego, Michigan (pop. 3980), singer songwriter Myron Elkins sounds like the output of a veteran rather than the debut album from an emerging artist. Having spent three years working as a welder after high school, this ten-track album is likely to find Elkins setting aside his welding equipment and plasma cutters permanently and replacing them with a touring van and all the accessories. He has already cut his teeth on the road supporting acts such as ZZ Top, Lucero and Blackberry Smoke and showcased the material from this album at 3Rd & Lindsley in Nashville a few months ago.

The recording took place at RCA Studio A in Nashville, with Grammy Award-winning Dave Cobb at the controls. With a weather-beaten voice that defies his young age and a sound that very much mirrors the country/rock style of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elkins’ move from small town West Michigan to Nashville resulted in – to quote Elkin – ‘stumbling into the right places and shaking the right hands.’ Whether fortuitous or not, the quality shines brightly on a record packed with songs that instantly connect with the listener. There’s a predominantly ‘live’ feel to the material, no doubt precisely what Cobb was attempting to achieve with the recording.

From the bluesy opener Sugartooth, with its bouncy bassline, to the break-up closer Good Time Girl, Elkins and his posse maintain a consistent ambience throughout, seldom taking their foot off the gas. Pick of the bunch is the hook-laden title track and the defiant Nashville Money, the latter’s driving rhythm recalling ZZ Top. The soulful Hands to Myself and Ball and Chain also impress, giving the impression of high-spirited young men inviting you into their musical world.

All in all, an impressive introduction to an artist and band that display the capacity to put a modern slant on their grasp of country and southern rock. Well worth your investigation.

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Charlie Treat  into the Wild Mystic Mountain Self Release

New Englander Charlie Treat has moved in a rootsy bluegrass direction for his second album, and he credits much of that to the inspiration that came from spending a year in the company of Americana’s darling, the talented and eclectic Sierra Ferrell. Ferrell and Treat met around the time Ferrell had just broken though career-wise and the two spent much of the following year together  in Nashville and touring with her band across the US.

Treat decided to go into the studio and record his album in only four days, inspired by the recording style of his musical heroes like Woody Guthrie, Hank and Bill Monroe. In fact, he admits that most of the tracks were recorded on the first or second take, without even any prior rehearsals with the musicians. It’s a testament to those players that the result is a tour de force of exuberance and faultless musicianship. Producer Geoff Saunders (bass with Sierra Hull) gathered together a bunch of first class young players who are becoming prominent in the bluegrass and old time scenes, including Frank Evans on banjo (Slocan Ramblers), Oliver Bates Craven on mandolin (Stray Birds), and fiddle players Nate Leath (Sierra Ferrell) and Julian Pinelli (Ben Sollee).

Kicking off with the stand out barnstormer Motor Motor, Treat sings lead on all twelve self penned story-telling songs, and plays rhythm guitar, with backing vocals contributed by all of the band.

Swimming in November is autobiographical, recounting a memorable wild night spent with Sierra Ferrell, when he took her on a motor bike ride to a watering hole, ‘she’s singin’ The Magical Mystery Tour/through her helmet into my ear’. Treat says that it epitomises much about their relationship and the early heady days of a love affair. Mama Hen, contrary to what one might assume, was not actually inspired by Ferrell, but by a wild woman that Treat knew in a previous life, who was ‘a dirt biker, amateur lawyer, funk drummer’ and clearly was not to be messed with. The beautiful slow burner Bluer Than Bluegrass was also inspired by his muse, Ferrell, the line ‘you got me singin’ with the canary in the coal mine’ a reference to her West Virginia origins. She also was the catalyst for the jaunty swing-heavy Creekwater Blues and the closer Sing Child, Sing, which tells the story of how her mother encouraged her to leave home and follow her musical heart.

There’s lots more to enjoy on this sparkling recording, which consistently reminds me of Old Crow Medicine Show with its joyous looseness.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the creative Treat comes up with next - it could well be something completely different. In the meantime, seek out and enjoy this enchanting album.

Review by Eilís Boland

Whitehorse I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying Six Shooter

The notion to release a classic country album came about by chance for husband-and-wife team, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland. With time on his hands during lockdown and with his wife and son tucked up in bed, Doucet turned to country music by way of passing the late-night hours. Having written and recorded two albums the previous year, MODERN LOVE and STRIKE ME DOWN, he started to pen numerous country tunes and send them to his wife’s phone for her approval. Impressed by what she was hearing and the creative spirit that was driving the songs, McClelland rose to the challenge and started to write similarly themed songs. McClelland’s crystal-clear vocals could not be better suited to singing country and Doucet’s trademark twangy guitar style, drawn from his love of the country licks played by Albert Lee, James Burton and Pete Anderson, are the perfect companion to his wife’s silky voice.

Entering the studio during an easing in lockdown, they recorded the twelve tracks for this album off the floor, reinvigorated by the opportunity to actually perform with other players once more. Country ballads Leave Me As You Found Me and If The Loneliness Don’t Kill Me sit comfortably alongside the western swing of Sanity Tennessee. Lock It Down and On The Road, both have more than a tad of Tammy Wynette about them. It’s not all 60s and 70s influenced either, Bet The Farm mirrors the country blues sound of Margo Price’s debut album and I Might Get Over This But I Won’t Stop Loving You – with Doucet taking the lead vocal – and 6 Feet Away, are both very much ‘lockdown’ songs reflecting couple’s mindset during the period when they were written.

It should not really come as a surprise that Whitehorse has gone ‘full on’ country with this album. Their debut self-titled album in 2011 had country flavours about it and their two cover singles, Summer Wine and We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes in the Morning from 2022, signalled the direction of I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying. It’s a genre ideally suited Whitehorse’s core talents, and they have spoken about a possible full album of classic covers in the near future. Alongside the quality of the vocals and the instrumentation on offer, what is also significantly impressive about this album is the quality of the song writing. Conceived at a most uncertain and worrisome time, and very much a team effort, these are genuine country songs. Of course, many are awash with heartbreak, but the main focus is one of true love and devotion. 

It may only be the first month of 2023, but this Whitehorse honky tonker, their finest recording to date for me, is unlikely to be far from my CD player during the rest of the year.

Review by Declan Culliton

Adeem The Artist White Trash Revelry Four Quarter

Times are changing at an accelerated pace in country music in recent years for artists that would have found it practically impossible to establish themselves in previous decades. Whereas in previous times the formula for a gateway into country was predominantly threefold – male, white and straight – that model is slowly but surely evolving. Increasingly more black artists – men and women – are entering country music territory, though often with a sound closer to Memphis than Music City. Cheryl Wright’s sales may have fallen by fifty percent when she came out in 2010, but fellow LBGT performers such as Mary Gauthier, Brandy Clark, Brandi Carlisle and Amy Ray, have gone from strength to strength in more recent times, an acknowledgement that the tide has turned.

Less acclaimed, for the time being anyway, Bobby Dove, Orville Peck, Mariel Buckley, Willi Carlisle, Melissa Carper and Adeem The Artist, to name but a few, are among the latest generation of ‘queer’ artists emerging into the mainstream of country music. WHITE TRASH REVELRY was produced by Adeem The Artist’s manager Kyle Crownover - he’s also Tyler Childers’ tour manager - and the album’s eloquent lyrical style, containing both anger and warm humour, visits the writer’s fears and frustrations, both personal, social and political. In musical content, it’s a patchwork of front porch, folk ballads, southern rock, and rock ‘n’ roll, which in today’s terms plants it firmly in the Americana pigeon hole. 

Similar to the solo recordings of Amy Ray, tales of Adeem The Artist’s upbringing in the rural small town of Locust, North Carolina dominate, some of which are memorable and others less celebrated. Painkillers and Magic, Baptized in Well Spirits and Going to Hell, are cases in point, powerful songs that depict childhood flashbacks (‘When I ached in the closet alone on my knees. Hallelujah, I would plead for God's mercy to wash over me’) and entrenched racism (‘Well, I met the devil at the crossroads and I asked if we could make a deal….and he said, it's true I met Robert Johnson, he showed me how the blues could work, but white men would rather give the devil praise than acknowledge a black man’s worth’). Also addressed are the duality and contradictions close to home (‘Between my whiskey jar and the heart of God, there's a simple understanding, I’ll be drinking when I'm happy and praying when I'm sad’).

Straying away from North Carolina, For Judas is a heartfelt same-sex love song based in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, before returning closer to home with the hilarious Redneck, Unread Hicks (‘There's a trans femme trans am mandolin riff, a firebird, registered socialist. But she'll still out drink you on a Tennessee Saturday night from an old fruit jar. Yeah, these rednecks and unread hicks organizing in the trailer park’). Having given the listener a tour of their homestead and its social landscape, the final track, My America, is a wistful acoustic offering, closing the album in style.   

CAST-IRON PANSEXUAL, from 2021, found Adeem touching on a difficult childhood and upbringing. WHITE TRASH REVELRY is much more than an extension of that album and goes multiple steps forward with a graceful, disciplined, and brutally frank stockpile of modern country songs. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Aoife Nessa Frances Protector Partisan

In a bizarre manner, the enforced lockdown and isolation brought about by Covid may prove to be a defining catalyst in the career of Aoife McCarthy, better known professionally as Aoife Nessa Frances. Relocating to County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, and abandoning her suburban lifestyle in Dublin, was to become a reawakening for McCarthy and the springboard for her second full album PROTECTOR. Her migration came about by way of an invitation from her father to join him at his home in Clare, to where he had moved following his divorce, and to help to look after her eleven-year-old sister. Coming at a low and anxious time for McCarthy, it amounted to a life changing set of circumstances and the stimulus for her latest eight-track record.

January 2020 saw the release of LAND OF NO JUNCTION, the debut album from the Dublin singer songwriter. It attracted stellar reviews in the popular music press, resulting in festival invitations and tours to support its release. The onset of Covid put those plans on hold, which in hindsight was a blessing in disguise, McCarthy subsequently acknowledged that she was ill prepared mentally for that journey. In Clare, with the support of family around her, walking around the fields, swimming in both the Atlantic and a local lake, and driving around the countryside listening on repeat to Jim Sullivan’s lost country-folk LP UFO, calmness returned. With her mojo rebooted, each morning was subsequently spent in a cedar shed on her father’s property, writing the material for this album.

Studio time was booked in a cottage studio near Inch in Kerry during September 2020, where Aoife was joined by producer and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Jenkinson and drummer Brendan Doherty. The final pieces of the jigsaw were subsequently added with the addition of harp by Meabh McKenna, strings by Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh and, finally, horn sections by Conor O’Brien of Villagers. Layer by layer the songs developed, with McCarthy’s striking vocals floating above the orchestration and with eloquent lyrics that embodied inner thoughts being forensically examined. Yes, there is grief aplenty but the lasting impressions the listener is left with are of regeneration and redemption.

Best listened to in one sitting, the eight tracks roll into one another in a dreamlike fashion. The album’s underlying theme of prevailing and moving forward figure in both the opener Way To Say Goodbye and closing track Day Out of Time.  The final track to be recorded, and arguably the album’s finest, was Chariot. The title reflected McCarthy’s interest and education in tarot reading while in Clare, the chariot tarot card is a representation of determination and willpower, mirroring the writer’s renewed state of mind. If the hauntingly lonesome Emptiness Follows captures the writer’s blurred mood to perfection, This Still Life suggests a turning point or defining moment, the shoots of a new personality emerging.

Inhabiting the music orbit occupied by artists such as Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station), Aldous Harding, and Weyes Blood, PROTECTOR is simply a masterclass in psychedelic chamber folk by a maturing artist with endless talent.

Review by Declan Culliton

H.C. McEntire Every Acre Merge

In a similar vein to LIONHEART (2018) and ENO AXIS (2020), the sights and sounds of H.C. McEntire’s beloved North Carolina feature repeatedly in her latest project, EVERY ACRE. Having recently moved from her home along the Eno River in Durham, the third solo recording from former Bellafea and Mount Moriah singer songwriter appears to be a narration on the decade she spent there. An unflinchingly forthright writer, McEntire continues to seek positives in her scripts, always soul-searching and seeking silver linings in an often burden-filled world of challenge and rejection.

Very much a team effort, McEntire engaged the production team of Missy Thang and Luke Norton, both of whom also co-produced ENO AXIS with her. Multi-instrumentalist Norton also played guitar – brilliantly it has to be said – piano, pump organ and Wurlitzer, while Thang’s contribution included keys, Farfisa, Hammond organ and synthesizer. Casey Toll (bass) and Daniel Faust (drums), both regular players with McEntire in the past, also feature.  Others than joined her in the studio included like-minded artists S.G. Goodman and Amy Ray on backing vocals.

‘Walk your way into the river, is it fever or surrender?’ she sings on Shadows, a possible reference to her Bible Belt upbringing and the contradictions she faced as a gay woman attempting to exist in that environment. The album’s title was taken from the lyrics of Turpentine, a song that includes backing vocals from Indigo Girl Amy Ray, a continuation of their relationship which found McEntire covering Ray’s When You Come For Me on her debut album, LIONHEART. At six minutes in length, it’s a standout track, bursting into life mid-track with a stunning guitar break from Luke Norton. The hymn-like piano-led Dovetail, which follows, slows the pace down somewhat. A love ballad, in a similar vein to One Eye Open from ENO AXIS, it could be drawn from the author’s childhood Sunday School days. ‘It ain’t the easy kind of healing,’ McEntire sings on the imagery-invoking Rows Of Clover and she pronounces her love of the written word as well as her natural surroundings by name checking the poets Day, Ada, Laux, Berry and Olds on the opening track New View.

The jagged rocker Soft Crook finds the author struggling with her own demons, while the less muscular and dreamlike Wild for The King and album closer Gospel of a Certain Kind include simple arrangements that more than complement McEntire’s perfectly paced vocals.

It's little surprise that McEntire continues to work with similar masterly artists S.G. Goodman, Amy Ray and Angel Olsen. All four are writing and recording some of the stand-out modern alt-folk in recent times. McEntire most certainly maintains that lofty standard with EVERY ACRE, which combines poetry like lyrics, beautifully delivered vocals, and exquisite musicianship throughout.

Review by Declan Culliton

Dan Navarro Horizon Line Self Release

It’s been four years since the last release from Dan Navarro, an artist perhaps best known for his time spent as part of the duo, Lowen and Navarro. Back in the 1990s the duo had a fine run of albums and success until Lowen had to quit playing music, due to illness. He sadly passed on in 2012.

Ever since, Navarro has been active in various roles and is known as a voice actor in both film and tv work. His song writing is also recognised with many inclusions in various media channels and on this new album he writes all ten songs, with six co-writes highlighting his ability to work seamlessly with others.

Navarro called on the award winning producer Jim Scott to engineer, mix and produce the project. They worked together on a number of the Lowen-Navarro releases and it seems very appropriate that they join together again, post-Covid, to acknowledge their past history and to tip a hat in memory of Eric Lowen. The results are very engaging and impressive, with a clean sound and a quality to the production that never seems cluttered. Navarro has a rich vocal tone and he leads the project on various guitars, keyboards and percussion. He is joined by many fine players in the recording process at Plyrz studios, Santa Clarita, California.  Steve Postell, who produced the last album, plays a range of guitars, including a superb Spanish guitar solo on the final track, Sleep Tonight. Elsewhere we have the talents of Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams),who contributes on five songs, including some atmospheric pedal steel on the stand-out Oklahoma Skies.

There is also room for Brian Whelan (Dwight Yoakam) who plays guitar and keyboards on four songs and adds harmony vocals also. Jimmy Paxson (Lindsay Buckingham) plays drums on five tracks and Mai Leisz (David Crosby, Jackson Browne) plays bass on four songs. The list goes on with Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, on upright bass, Taras Prodaniuk & Michael Jerome (The Richard Thompson Trio) together as the tight rhythm on four of the tracks, and Phil Parlapiano (John Prine), on pianos and organ.

Peter Adams (piano, synth), Aubrey Richmond (violin, fiddle), Carlos Murguia (organ, harmony vocals), also feature, along with other contributors to the project – a veritable who’s-who of talent. Despite the various contributions across such a wide range of players, the overall sound is seamless, with producer Scott pulling out all his best skills to meld everything into a united whole. Songs like Come and Find Me and Tar Pit are very atmospheric and Circling the Drain highlights the plight that many fine themselves facing in these changing times. The title track perhaps sums it all up with the lines ‘The past is gone, but I’m still learning; gonna set my sights on the next horizon line.’ This album is a very fine addition to Navarro’s best work and comes highly recommended.

Review by Paul McGee

David Massey Darkness At Dawn Poetic Debris

A regular on the Washington DC music circuit, Massey has been playing music for many years. He released a debut album back in 2004 and in the following seventeen years has followed up with a further four releases. In 2017 he retired from his regular career as a lawyer and now devotes his time to creating music. He has a clean vocal style and also plays rhythm guitar here.

On this sixth release Massey has kept things short and turns in an impressive seven songs, just shy of twenty-five minutes. His regular band members, Jay Byrd (guitars, mandolin, vocals) and Jim Robeson (bass, vocals) are augmented by the talents of Casey O’Neill (pedal steel), Ron Stewart (fiddle), Bill Starks (organ, piano), Kristen Jones (cello) and Eric Selby (drums on four songs). Paul Goldstein guests on drums for one track also and these musicians really do justice to their inclusion on what is an impressive release.   

The title track channels the loss of hope at the current state of the planet where the dreams of living free are sadly eroded by our leaders and the reality of global warming. Nothing asks the big question about what lies beyond and expresses doubt in finding any real meaning. Some superb pedal steel sets the atmosphere on this song.

Players follows this theme and looks at the parts we all play in our lives as actors upon the stage of life. Massey even includes a segment from Shakespeare’s Macbeth on the album sleeve! We do indeed come and go, in our acquaintances and our relationships.

There are two angry tracks that point the finger at the Republican party and the tenure of Donald Trump in office. The band really come alive on these songs and the fiddle playing on Watch Your Back In Hell is matched by some excellent organ dynamics. Jay Byrd shows his class on guitar on Party Of Lies and captures the mood of the arrangement with some strident licks.

The final songs are more mellow with From God We Come expressing the view that we find it in the love for each other and that community is what matters, not division. Daddy’s Wedding Dance is a love song to a daughter as she moves on through life and the words of advice counsel towards love and kindness as the key elements. Some lovely cello playing here, added to by complimentary mandolin. A very fine album and one that will bring plenty of enjoyment to the listener.

Review by Paul McGee

The Burnt Pines Don’t Look Down Self Release

This band released their self-titled debut album in 2021, and buoyed on by the warm response, they now return with a second helping of their bright melodies and vocal harmonies. Using the same line-up of studio musicians is a fine idea and brings a cohesiveness to the overall project, even down to using the same two studios – one located in Brookline, Massachusetts, and the other in Lisbon, Portugal. These days the challenge of recording remotely has been long overcome and the different continents pose no barrier to this project. Perhaps we should call it ‘Globalcana’?

The main band is comprised of the trio Kris Skovmand (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica), Miguel Sá Pessoa (piano, keyboards) and Aaron Flanders (acoustic, electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, tambourine). They are joined by Fernando Huergo (electric bass), Luis Barros (drums, percussion), and guesting on specific tracks are Dan Fox (double bass), Joe Cunningham (tenor sax), and Erica Leigh (backing vocals). The eleven original songs all have an easy flow with pleasant melody lines and the sweetly sensitive vocals of Skovmand adding an extra lightness to the sound. Their cover of the Jethro Tull song, Skating Away (On the Thin Ice Of A New Day) is a strange inclusion on first impression but it actually fits into the feel of the album quite successfully  - perhaps pointing at the direction we are all facing into the future with so much uncertainty after the gradual relaxation of Covid restrictions across most of the world.

Ghost Living In My Beer is a reflective song that is laced with self-examination and perhaps refers to the fall-out from the divorce that Skovmand experienced recently. The sense of being under the spell of another is something that informs the song Your Magic Is To Blame and the same sentiment could be at the core of What Did You Come Back For? – that sense of not being in control of the things that allow you to move forward in living through challenging times.

Welcome Home! skips along with a gentle melody like a cool breeze that stays with the listener, while the darker mood and tempo of Daytime TV hints at long boring hours spent in hibernation, maybe hiding out from the world or just needing to shut out the daily routine. This is a nice introduction to new beginnings in 2023. An album with much to offer, not least the excellent musicianship and the honeyed vocal tone of Kris Skovmand.

Review by Paul McGee

My Politic Missouri Folklore: Songs and Stories From Home Self Release

This album slipped out in December last, just as the year was winding down and we were all looking back on our favourite music that landed during the year. It represents the tenth release from Missouri born friends Kaston Guffey and Nick Pankey. As with all their previous albums it proves to be an engaging and interesting experience, heightened by the superb harmonies and wonderful interplay among the musicians.

It stands as a love letter of sorts to their original birthplace of Missouri as seen through the perspective of mature recollection and reflection. However, sometimes a look back through the rear-view mirror can be less than welcome and serve to dig up too many old ghosts. The theme running through songs like Eminence, Buzzards On A Powerline, Message On the Radio and Vanishing Vapors is that of growing up in a small town with little to do and no prospects ahead for a life of any real substance. Getting up to childhood mischief morphs into teenage angst and further into addiction as local youths struggle to find meaning and a way to escape the tedium of daily existence. Questioning the status quo is not something that is encouraged and if you are not inclined to stay in line with the old ways then the only alternative is escape and face the unknown that lies beyond.

Interestingly Springsteen wrote about dead-end jobs and the lack of choice facing blue collar workers in the big cities where factory work was all there was to aspire to. Kaston Guffey sings about these same issues but from the perspective of small rural towns and the reality of wanting to break out and run towards something bigger in the cities. The juxtaposition is interesting and both perspectives share the hopes for a better life, whichever way you come at the compromises faced.

Despite having left, you can never really escape the memories forged in childhood. They linger into adolescence and manifest through adulthood whenever something triggers a frame of reference on the journey from there to here. My Politic is never overly concerned what other people think however, driven by the conviction that it is always better to be true to oneself, and Kaston Guffy has trodden a very personal path in his honest and heartfelt song-writing.  Short-Sighted People In Power: A Home Recording, released in 2020, nailed Kaston’s frustrations to the mast and gained him as many friends as it did enemies in his political protests on the divided political state of the United States at the time. There is nothing more personal than your politics, of course, and Kaston came out swinging against the hypocrisy and the prejudice that he found everywhere.

This time out, he has penned fourteen songs that are beautifully performed and very poignant. His writing has always displayed an acute insight on the human condition and his astute observations are as finely honed as ever. The sound of acoustic guitars, easy fingerstyle delivery and gentle melodies supported by fiddle, pedal steel, mandolin and dobro make for a heady mix when absorbing his insightful words.

The songs range from personal memories, to looking at various scenarios through the lives of others. Whether the people are real or imaginary, it doesn’t much matter, once the sentiment and the message of the song comes through.  Kaston has always been able to deliver on a vision that  exposes what lies in the past and also shapes what awaits into the future. Childhood demons meet with trying to find your place in a small town. Characters come and go, leaving impressions of lives well lived or indeed, wasted.

Songs like Cursing At the Night and At the Morning (memories that bite), Maybe It’s Love (random liaisons between strangers), Gina and Leroy (dead-end lives, trying to change), Albuquerque (a junkie trying to reform in prison), Driving Home To You (death of a brother in the war), are all tales of quiet dignity with people trying to make life work out better.

The sweet vocal tones are the perfect accompaniment for the fluid musicianship and style on this album. At a very generous fifty-four minutes in length there is something here for all tastes. Some key lines that have stayed with me include the following gems;

What A Life finds Kaston in reflective mood, pondering our daily routines and our repetition in mundane activities - ‘Surprises don't come easy, And other times they do, Routine can mean stability, Or it can be the death of you.’

Dog and a Bone, while a love song, also admits to that sense of ‘otherness’ that we all feel from time to time ‘I can feel homesick, When I’m sitting at home, Must be another dimension where I sometimes go, It's a strange affliction, Feeling empty and whole.’

Sleepin’ Off the Blues speaks about being stuck in a rut and trying to find the courage to leave.  ‘I'm just dying while I wait for someone to say they found me.’

Final song, Vanishing Vapors, really looks into the eye of all this circling that we do as a species with the lines ‘You can't shake the look you share with another, Somebody desperate like you, Looking hard for the line, That's running through time, Tryin’ to find out what's honest & true.’ Really just sums up the whole thing in a nutshell, looking for connection so we don’t feel quite so alone.

Another masterclass in subtle artistry. A quite superb album.

My Politic is Kaston Guffey (Vocals, Guitar) and Nick Pankey (Harmony Vocals, Guitar + Mandolin on "The Dog & The Bone" & "Chasing Tomorrow"). All songs written by Kaston Guffey and produced/ arranged by My Politic.

Other musicians on the album are John Mailander (fiddle, mandolin, mandocello), and Steve Peavey (pedal steel, dobro, coodercaster, 10 string lap steel). Josh Washam added bass and also engineered & mixed at his Ground Sound Studios in Nashville.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

David Hope … and the sea Tourbo

Written in the aftermath of the death of his father, to whom he was very close, David Hope’s fifth studio album is inevitably a deeply personal affair. At times a difficult listen, it expresses with words and music the depth of feeling that follows the passing of a loved one. This is, after all, a universal experience, and one which Hope articulates with no holds barred.

In World Stopped Turning, the rawness of grief is palpable, Hope’s deep vocals almost drowned at times by deep fuzzy distorted electric guitars, along with high pitched spiky guitar shrieks. Visceral stuff. Raised on the Atlantic seaboard of Co. Clare in the West of Ireland, nautical references abound throughout the album and, of course, the album title is a nod to Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. In the title track, Hope identifies at times with Hemingway’s tragic hero, and at times with the fish. ‘Empty days of endless sails/No current for to pull me back’. He’s floundering too in the more uptempo and powerful Burning Question, with thumping bass drum and catchy guitar riffs expressing the living nightmare, and deep depression is the backdrop for No One to Listen, ‘a bleak and bloody tide … are you losing your mind?’

Hope returned to producer and percussionist Christian Best in Monique Studios in Cork to realise his vision for the project and the choice has paid off. Best (whose regular gig is with Mick Flannery) used a team of seasoned musicians, including Swiss upright bass player and vocalist Steffi Hess, a very impressive Kealan Kenny on guitars, Darragh Keary on keys, as well as Hope himself on acoustic guitar. Moon and Back is a touching acoustic guitar and piano ballad, again referencing loss and saying goodbye but this time with acceptance. Tom Waits is channelled in the edgy Death and Taxes, Hope’s deep growling vocals, Kenny’s persistent jaggy guitar, Best’s thumping bass drums, and Keary’s piano magically transport you back to Heart Attack and Vine territory.

There’s a respite from mourning briefly in Whiskey Mornings, a lament about hangovers, but the sombre mood is lifted finally by the beautiful Lover’s Leap (Coast of Clare). Sounding like a tourist board advertisement, it is Hope’s love song to one of his favourite places.

Jenny Mongan’s striking cover artwork depicts David in a small boat, possibly about to be overwhelmed by a tsunami, with nothing but an umbrella for protection. Let’s hope the music carries him through safely.

Review by Eilís  Boland

Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra The Party’s Over Tea Pad

This latest album from Rob Heron and his crew is a veritable confluence of swing, country, blues, soul and rock ’n’ roll influences which are, in the main, corralled into Heron’s original songs. The production, which has an authentic retro glide into the future sound, was handled by Heron, the orchestra and John Martindale, who also recorded, mixed and mastered the set.

The band, Tom Cronin, Colin Nicholson, Ted Harbot and Paul Archibold were joined by a further six, mainly brass players, to round out the sound. One that while undoubtedly retro in style, has a lot to recommend it to a current discerning audience that is in tune with its direction and style. Overall, this approach means that listeners may well find favour with certain sounds that immediately appeal. That is the case with this listener, for the faux-western soundtrack configured approach of The Horse That You Rode In On. My Salad Days, complete with yodelling, is one of a number of songs that cautiously recognise the passing of time. Snip Snap Snout is an accordion-driven romp that has the energy to burn over an insistent snare drum rhythm. Trouble Is, written by Paul Weber, is a heartfelt ballad that harks back to the 50s with a nice touch of country-style guitar and piano, and is delivered with a confident vocal from Heron. The up-tempo A Call To Mother’s Arm has a chorus and Celtic-tinged melody that is appealing while balanced against a sense of foreboding about being in battle.

The title track includes harmonica, which serves to accentuate a certain jaunty realisation that time has moved on and the late-night antics of yore may not cut the ice as one gets that much older and perhaps wiser. There is a 60s feel to Dilly Dally Sally that would have fitted easily into the set of a beat group of that era, while Remind Me Tomorrow with its prominent sax, turns the dial back a few years. Right To Roam is a song which is about seeking independence whilst at the same time wanting to be at the place called home.

The final track The Doctor Told Me has a mix of Newcastle/New Orleans nights, offers its warning about over indulgence, though it’s a warning you feel is going to be ignored. Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra hail from all around the British Isles but are based in Newcastle and have made inroads as a live and recording act that has been continually increasing their fan base. This, their fifth album, finds them maturing as a collective unit and coming to terms with growing older and growing their diverse efficaciousness as they continue to realise that the party may be over, in some respects, but the need to keep the home fires burning is not diminished. Doing all this in style and with humour (as witnessed in the cover art) is their way.

Review by Stephen Rapid 

Sam Platts & The Plainsmen West Side Self Release

San Platts and The Plainsmen are based in Montana. Platts grew up in Wyoming and both locations were formative in shaping the music that he and the band now play. Their motto is “western music that swings” and they live up to that with the release of this album. The Plainsmen are Lilly Platts on violin, J Kane on bass and Bill Dwyer on electric guitar. Bill also produced the album which is delivered with a real affection for the music from the past while well aware of their place in the current alliance of bands fuelling the growth of their roots.

Platts can also pen a pretty authentic song that sits easily alongside the traditional arrangements and the lone cover they have included. Let’s take that album closing track first; a cover of Pinto Bennett’s You Cared Enough To Lie is a fitting tribute to the Idaho musician’s staunchly time-honoured output. It is also a good song and well worth the inclusion. After that listeners, especially those who have a penchant for western songs, both in the cowboy and swing versions, will enjoy Whoopee Ti Yi Yo and the more blues associated Saint James Infirmary Blues. Both are given effective arrangements that fit the quartet’s talents, with Dwyer’s confident guitar and Lilly Platts violin obvious important elements of the sound. They sit over Kane’s foundation of double bass and Sam Platt’s arch-top rhythm guitar. The absence of percussion is largely unnoticed throughout the recording.

Platts has a rich voice that is ably backed by harmony vocals from the band to give that part of the sound a variety of overall tones. There are eight original compositions from Platts that often relate to a lifestyle that is likely to be appreciated by those facing similar issues and ambitions. If You Haven’t Met The Wolf tells of a shared living standard that faces a hard truth and that “you ain’t a friend of mine if you haven’t done your time on the poverty line.” This theme is also central to The High Cost Of Low Living. The title track has the oft-considered notion that the grass may be greener on the other side, in a tale of trying to please a partner who is not convinced. Just In Time is also about a relationship that is uncertain. It delivers this with a strong melody, making the message of “it’s the right time to leave” more appealing. Canadian Line is the story of a rocker who has found peace of mind working and living off the land. While I Can’t Stay Out Of The Bars laments the magnetic pull of those alcohol-serving establishments but reasons that they are the only place where he can forget what he needs to forget.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable album that will appeal to their followers as well as to fans of such similarly-mined, but suitably different combos, such as The Hot Club Of Cowtown. An album that, indeed, lives up to its motto and one that deserves to be heard outside of the plains of Montana.  

Review by Stephen Rapid 

The Prescriptions Time Apart Single Lock

Nashville-based three-piece band The Prescriptions turned quite a few heads in 2019 with the arrival of their debut album HOLLYWOOD GOLD, which led to invitations to appear at SXSW and Jason Isbell’s Shoals Fest.  Singer and guitarist Hays Ragsdale is the band’s songwriter and the other players are Parker McAnnally on bass and drummer John Wood. Infused with a combination of raw power pop and late 60s country rock, the album was a pointer towards a young band with a confident swagger about themselves and inspired by music from bygone eras.

Using the extended time available to them during the pandemic has resulted in a more probing record this time around. HOLLYWOOD GOLD was somewhat of a multi-genre affair, skipping between power pop and late-60s country rock. Their latest offering continues with the former but crosses over into more experimental rock. Employing two producers on TIME APART has yielded noteworthy results in this regard. They recorded in both Nashville with Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs) at the controls and in Alabama with Ben Tanner, the former Alabama Shakes keyboard player. Rather than effecting an inconsistent outcome, the shifting modes across the eleven tracks on the album work spectacularly well.  

They’re out of the blocks at a rapid pace with the guitar driven April Blossoms, followed swiftly by Long Past Tonight and Love is Red. In classic power pop form, the latter two both sign off around the two-and-a-half-minute mark.  In contrast Fire Moon, the album’s stand out track for me, rambles on gloriously for twice that length. With echoes of Radiohead, it is one of three tracks on the record that suggests a maturing and evolving band finding its sweet spot. The other two songs of a similar persuasion are the spacey On Satellite and the contemplative Baby Be Nice. Other songs that leave a lasting impression are the jangly I Might Try and hook-filled Not The Issue.

Mixing creativity with grungy energy, The Prescriptions have more than made good on the promise on their debut album with TIME APART. In fact, they have taken a massive step forward and hit the jackpot with a body of work that will particularly appeal to fans of Big Star and Nada Surf.

Review by Declan Culliton

The Stubborn Lovers Come A Reckoning Self Release

 Portland, Oregon-based three- piece band The Stubborn Lovers consist of singer and guitarist Mandy Allan, New Jersey-born songwriter and bass player Jenny Taylor and drummer Michael ‘Pearl’ Nelson. Formed over ten years ago, the band has honed its act by touring extensively and released their debut album MOTHER ROAD in 2018.

 With a combination of roots and rock with a little country on the side, their core sound is what might have been christened alt-country in former decades. Their strongest point is their three-part vocal harmonies, which work spectacularly well on the Jayhawks sounding Counting Feathers on a Sparrow’s Wing (great title!), which, ironically, was written for their previous album but didn’t make the final cut.  Two break-up songs follow in quick succession, the hook filled You Take Tacoma, I’ll Take My Chances and Gramercy, apparently both relating to the same relationship.  

 They dip into country territory with the road song Jamestown Highway/Get On Board and Midnight Motion is no-nonsense classic rock with background chanting borrowed from The Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil. Coincidentally, or possibly not, ‘rolling stones’ are included in the lyrics. Saving the best for last, Cottonwood Run bookends the album in fine style. Running for six and a half minutes it was inspired by Taylor’s grandmother’s ancestral home in a former tobacco plantation in North Carolina. Revisiting the thorny truths and realities of slavery in the South and backed by a driving rhythm section, the song bombards the senses with vocals that combine both pain and anger.

 Well-crafted songs with predominantly dark nuances are most definitely to the fore on COME A RECKONING. It’s a body of work well word digesting song by song, by a writer never seeking an easy option. Check it out and see for yourself.

Review by Declan Culliton

Ian M Bailey You Paint The Pictures Kool Kat

Following on from his excellent 2021 album, SONGS TO DREAM ALONG TO, Manchester resident Ian M Bailey’s latest release, YOU PAINT THE PICTURES, remains true to the formula that worked so well on that record. Striking melodies, sweet harmonies, lots of jangle and twang, and hook-laden songs, are the order of the day once more.

As was the case with its predecessor, Bailey hooked up with ex-Cosmic Rough Riders member Daniel Wylie to co-write the eleven songs that feature.  Produced by Bailey and recorded at his Small Space Studios, he contributed twelve-string Rickenbacker, bass, drums and keys, with strings and pedal steel played by Alan Gregson (Badly Drawn Boy, Angie Palmer, Cornershop).

Comparisons to the sun-kissed West Coast sounds of the 60s may be obvious but the quality on offer here stands shoulder to shoulder with many of the acts that galvanised Bailey’s devotion to both that genre and Brit-pop of the same decade. The country/ folky grooves of I Don’t Want To Start Again, Sitting In Silence and Change Is Easy have Gene Clark’s stamp all over them. I Wanted The Sun To Sun and Hey Little Girl recall the sound that Bailey’s fellow Mancunians The Hollies were playing on Top Of The Pops in the mid-60s and he also includes a ‘Doors like’ instrumental with the organ- driven The Year Of The Tiger. 

YOU PAINT THE PICTURE is Byrds-type classic pop country, rather than what seeps out of Nashville these days under the same banner. There is little wildly original or innovative here, simply an artist that knows exactly what he is good at and has perfected and packaged that sound on a hugely enjoyable suite of songs. An album to brighten up any dark winter’s day. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Jim Keller Spark & Flame Continental Record Services

The co-founder of San Francisco rock band Tommy Tutone back in 1978, Jim Keller follows on from the release of his 2021 album, BY NO MEANS, with another combination of blues, roots and rock with SPARK & FLAME.

Since relocating to New York from San Francisco, Keller’s parallel occupation has included the management of composer and pianist Phillip Glass’s career as director of Dunvagan Music Publishers. He returned to recording in 2005 with the release of IN MY POCKET and his latest recording is his fifth solo project.

Produced by Adam Minkoff and recorded at GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island, the album’s twelve songs were co-written by Keller and Byron Isaacs (The Lumineers, Lost Leaders). The selection of composer and multi-instrumentalist Minkoff as producer has resulted in a richer and fuller sound than on Keller’s recent work. Joining Keller in the studio were a host of New York’s top players, many of who regularly join him on stage for his live shows.

The title track is a gloriously upbeat Tom Petty meets The Byrds inclusion and Keller heads south for the New Orleans-influenced Tower Of Love and When You’re Rock. The opening track Falling Down contains an infectious melody that remained with me for quite a while after a few spins and ‘Till the Water Drinks my Bones, complete with a background chorus, also impresses. In contrast to many of the multi-layer tracks, Keller bookends the album with the acoustic Even Angels Have to Fall. With a spoken delivery, it’s a moving elegy on fatherhood and a fitting closer to an album that does not slot easily into any one genre. It’s also Keller’s most ambitious and impressive solo recording to date. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Pug Johnson & The Hounds Throwed Off and Glad Self Release

Beaumont, Texas country music rabble-rousers Pug Johnson and The Hounds get my vote for album title of the year with their debut full record, THROWED OFF and GLAD. The quality of the twelve songs on the album is equally impressive, with Johnson’s gritty honky tonk vocals backed by gilt-edged playing.

However, don’t expect any ‘somebody done somebody wrong’ country songs. The songwriting explores an altogether darker side, though at times in a light-hearted way. What you get is humour (Poncho, Buffalo Coin), numerous intoxicant references (Ode To The Weed Man, One Hand on My Whiskey, Cocaine Street Blues, Sex, Drugs, and Rock ’n’ Roll) and classic Texas country tunes (the Jimmie Rodgers standard, T for Texas, and Country Song). The latter includes backing vocals from fellow Texan, Sage Elmore.

The title track that opens the album sets the scene perfectly for what’s to follow. Johnson’s Texas drawl kicks in after an extended intro, as if he’s finishing his whiskey before joining the band on stage. The author’s personal journey is addressed in the slow-burning ballad Angel, and the rockier Miss You All, which grapples with mental illness, is a powerful inclusion. The album includes three songs that appeared on the EP, EXTENDED PLAY, from earlier in the year, and much of the material was written by Johnson while he was residing in Nashville prior to returning to his home State.

Another case of having to scratch beneath the surface to unearth some country gems that have been released this year, THROWED OFF and GLAD is packed with wicked humour, full of pace, swing and twang, and also offers the listeners some memorable songs, often dealing with thorny matters. No doubt suitably honed from performing at honky tonks and dancehalls in their home state, make no mistake Pug Johnson & The Hounds ‘talk the talk and walk the walk’ in fine style on this highly enjoyable record. If Texas outlaw country rocks your boat, you’re going to love this.

Review by Declan Culliton

Kenny Foster Somewhere In Middle America Self Release

‘Worry not for tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of its own,’ were the parting words from Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kenny Foster when we spoke with him after the release of his album DEEP CUTS in 2017.

Sage words indeed from the artist from Joplin in southwest Missouri, given what we’ve gone through in recent years. Foster transferred from Missouri State University to Belmont University in Nashville, to complete his studies in philosophy and American culture, and further his music career. That move took place fourteen years ago and Foster’s early years in Nashville found him working in the marketing divisions of both CMT and MTV before releasing his debut full-length album, FOR NOW, in 2008.

Foster’s latest recording, SOMEWHERE IN MIDDLE AMERICA, finds him working once more with Grammy award winner Mitch Dane, who also produced his 2017 album DEEP CUTS. Over a dozen musicians, including Sierra Hull (mandolin), Josh Matheny (dobro, lap steel), Charlie Lowell (piano, accordion), and Liz Longley (backing vocals), contributed to the recordings at Sputnik Sound studios in Nashville.

The material finds Foster in a nostalgic mood, recalling the simplicity and contentment of growing up in small-town America alongside the struggle for survival for those who, unlike Foster, chose to remain in towns whose core industries have not survived in recent decades. The songs unfold like chapters in a book, and the title track opens the album, introducing what is to follow. Poor Kids, which follows, is a ‘down memory lane’ remembrance of uncomplicated childhood times. Good For Growin’ Up follows a similar subject matter, with the writer’s reflections on the ‘For Sale’ sign appearing on the family home. Dreams Change is a heartfelt love song of contentment and fulfilment, most likely directed towards Foster’s wife. Other standout tracks are the autobiographical and introspective For What It’s Worth and  The Same. The latter is the album’s closing chapter and details insightful advice given by a father to his son to take chances and spread his wings, leaving the listener pondering if it mirrors a conversation the writer had with his own father.

Foster’s core sound lands between roots and rock, without crossing over to formula- driven pop country. Well-written songs are supported by topflight playing and production on an album that may very well considerably raise Foster’s profile.

A mention is also warranted of the album’s most impressive cover design, liner notes and photography. Whereas quite a number of releases in recent times, driven by the dominance of downloads over physical product, offer little by way of discerning artwork, it’s refreshing to receive a physical CD so strikingly packaged.

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Velcro Dog  Misanthropology Westergaard

Velcro Dog is the nom de plume of Trodheim based Norwegian artist Tony Gonzales, known in his native land as a member of several bands including Barren Womb and Twin Serpent. This, his first recorded solo project, developed during lockdown (no surprise there) and is a sparse, stripped down affair, which he aptly describes as ‘fjord noir’. Comprising ten well crafted personal songs, sung in his haunting vocal style, accompanied mainly by his fingerpicked acoustic guitar, it is an introspective look into Gonzales’ thoughts on human fragility and his own particular struggle with depression. Enhanced by occasional droning backing vocals, harmonica, bass, clarinet and banjo, the overall sound veers towards folk blues.

Kicking off with Belated Birthday Blues, the listener is introduced to Gonzales’ cynical reflections on mankind - ‘can’t find meaning where there is none/so feed me to the pigs when I am done’. The pig reference continues in the inexplicably titled Shave A Pig, Call It A Ham, which explores the ending of a friendship, ‘it must get lonely up on that cross you’ve made’.

By way of explanation, a ‘Velcro dog’ is a perfect description of the sort of dog that is ultraclingy with its owner (as a cat person, I find this a perplexing relationship!). Continuing the companion animal analogy, Cone Of Shame describes the blackness of depression. ‘The water feels nice/but I can’t swim’ but he is lucky and ‘soft hands grab hold/pull me out of this gloom’. Post Post Haste is a timely lament for the environmental damage we have all committed.

Thankfully there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In Reader’s Block, the protagonist is ‘far away from home/too drunk to use the phone’ but he’s coming home to redeem himself, with the repeated reassuring refrain ‘just a stumble/not a fall, just a stumble/still standing tall’. The nearest Gonzales gets to an out and out love song is his tribute to his girlfriend and their shared love of a particular footwear brand in Head Over High-Tops.

Strong enough to show his vulnerability with this debut collection, in a recent interview Tony Gonzales describes this collection as ‘stark, monochromatic, Nordic and raw’. I second that.

Review by Eilís Boland

Louis Brennan Love Island Self Release

Where are the poets and the folk singers when we need them? The Woody Guthries and the Billy Braggs seem thin on the ground right now and they’ve never been needed more.

London-based Irishman Louis Joseph Brennan felt compelled to attempt to fill that void with the writing and eventual release of his second album, LOVE ISLAND. We live in challenging times which Brennan is not prepared to ignore, calling out the multiple elephants in the room, all the while suffusing the difficult subjects in a soundtrack of beautifully realised Americana. Recorded in the renowned Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed and mastered in Abbey Road Studios, Brennan wrote and produced the whole project.

In God Is Dead, he starts as he means to go on, a diatribe on the seemingly recent disillusionment with religion, with the ‘God shaped hole’ in all humans now being filled with the technologically driven obsession with social media. ‘So let us rejoice/Under the all seeing eye/ Just click on the link … It seems we can’t bear the thought/ That we’re all here alone’. The Post-Truth Blues uses a soothing bossa nova 70s backdrop to emphasise the surrealism of the lyrical content, a white male Caucasian boldly declares his indifference to the inequalities in the world, ‘Oh I know just how my coffee’s grown/That Chinese children made my phone’, all just conspiracies designed to make him feel guilty, but he’ll ‘just get a second opinion that supports (his) views’. No regrets. The Nobel Prize covers similar ground, this time perhaps there’s an orange hue to the narcissist Caucasian male protagonist, who can’t understand why he hasn’t yet won the accolade. Perhaps most cutting of all is Cruel Britannia, sung to that well known tune, but here used as the backdrop to a searing critique of Brennan’s adopted home. Post-Brexit Britain’s racism (‘And I can’t put a roof over my childrens’ heads/Unless my skin is brown’), colonialism (’built the railways/Freed the slaves’) and extreme right nationalism (’They shouldn’t come over here/Looking for somebody to blame’) are expressed by a subject who no doubt is a regular reader of the Daily Fail.

Ably backed by the superb musicianship of Joe Harvey-White (pedal steel, lap steel, electric guitar), Ned Cartwright (keyboards), Laurence Saywood (bass), and Chris Jones (percussion), Brennan’s resonant baritone dominates the sound. He is heard at his best on the title track, a piano ballad describing the pain of the break-up of two reality tv stars, in the full glare of the public. Fake love makes fake news, but the dark themes are made bearable by Brennan’s dark humour. We’re back to more bossa nova for the sarcastic Leftover Meat, and My Favourite Disguise uses the brass trio of Rhys Taylor, Joanna Bartlett and Helen Whitemore in a tale of, essentially, turning a blind eye in order to survive life. The closing track, Naked And Afraid, explores a post-apocalyptic nightmare, the strings of The Mavron Quartet contributing to the dissonance but ultimately building to a possibility of hope, ‘Hold On To Something’ limps out the repeated refrain.

An essential album for our times.

Review by Eilís Boland

Matt Hillyer Glorieta State Fair

Back in 2014, when still fronting Eleven Hundred Springs, Hillyer released a solo album IF THESE OLD BONES COULD TALK. This served as an outlet for material that didn’t fit the band ethos of the time. He is releasing the second outing under his own name which continues that theme, but also includes songs that would be familiar to fans of his former band of over twenty years. He has John Pedigo producing the album (from the band The O’s and who has also worked with the Old 97’s). Work on the album began before the band played their last dates and a new team was assembled to record. These included the core team of James Driscoll, Arjuna Contreras, Chad Stockslager, Able Casillas, Heather Stalling and Lloyd Maines.

The album opens with the title track’s tale of escaping and travelling to find a way to come to terms with life and a love. Next up an immediate highlight that has a great 90s feel, a mix of revitalising the pure pop tones of Buddy Holly 50’s invention and melodic clarity. I could listen to a whole album of this but Hillyer has other things he wants to tell us. These are also well worth giving time to; such as the weeping, sweeping, pedal steel drenched sadness of Just Passing Through. 

That contrasts with the kick up the dust roots rock of Dirty Little Secrets, Holding Fast and the wisdom of having learned that in life, in many ways, It’s All About The Ride. All detail the trails and travails that are part and parcel of keeping one’s head above water and having to “straighten up and fly right.” A touch of heading for the border (though it could be several different borders) is given its sense of place with the accordion in Diablo Motel.

But in may ways Hillyer has an understanding of the lot of the Ordinary Man: A song that has at its heart an understanding of how dreams can change and ambitions become something different when a man places the love of his family, and the need to provide for them, at the centre of the unrelenting things he needs to achieve. It is not a viewpoint often expressed, as it doesn’t condemn but understands.

These songs show that Hillyer should be considered a songwriter worth listening to, and aside from that he has created an album that makes the best of this material in a way that any country roots follower as well as Eleven Hundred Springs fans will readily appreciate. The material, with a couple of co-writes, shows that he is continuing to hone his craft, and in the company of these assembled players, they all do justice to it. 

Review by Stephen Rapid 

Various Artists Live Forever - A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver New West

Compilation albums are dependent on a number of factors including the artists chosen, the quality of the songs and the commitment of the performers involved. This is equally true of a tribute album with the added factor of doing justice to the person receiving the tribute. In this case the material is exceptional, the artist choice is interesting and the integrity of the production is solid. Its producers are Charile Sexton and Freddy Fletcher and both were committed to the project.

So from the top you get Willie Nelson with Lucinda Williams covering the song that delivers the title, as well as Shaver’s understanding that his song will live beyond him. I’m Gonna Live Forever is delivered in a way that Shaver would have approved of and reminds of his essential intrinsic understanding of his role in life. Next up another pairing, this time Ryan Bingham with Nikki Lane, who add an element of rock to the proceedings that fits Ride Me Down Easy, with both voices having an edge that adds grit to the message.

The voice of Rodney Crowell brings much to the table, with its hard-fought wisdom delivery of Old Five And Dimers Like Me. After the strident tones of the previous tracks, its acoustic low-key approach is perfectly realised. I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Some Day) has a sassy and vibrant feel with acoustic instruments well to the fore and Miranda Lambert’s voice clear and confident. Edie Brickell takes a similar acoustic led route with I Couldn’t Be Me Without You, a love song that Shaver was equally adept at writing with some genuine feeling. Without his soul band, Nathaniel Rateliff returns to earlier with a countrified take on You Asked Me To that sits behind his robust tone.

Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me is a standout with George Strait giving a understated traditional country reading, one with a powerful vocal that delivers the song’s story with depth, reminding you why he is rated so highly by many and the material is just right for him. Given a rendering that reflects Amanda Shires’ own work, Honky Tonk Heroes has an opening that is held in check until the band and Jason Isbell kick in, taking it to a higher level with harmonica well to the fore in the mix. These days it would appear Steve Earle is happy doing tribute covers, but Ain’t No God In Mexico suits his voice and his perceived outlaw persona. The next pairing is full of a promise that is delivered, given that Margo Price’s recent releases have veered awards a broader rock sound. Joined on vocals by Joshua Hedley, it is soulful with a sweet guitar break, as well as pleasing steel and keyboard playing. 

Willie Nelson is back with the customary harmonica and trusty Trigger interludes that allude to the title’s mode of transport in Georgia On A Fast Train. It has a nice jazzy swing that feels just right for the theme. The album closes with Allison Russell taking Tramp On Your Street, with her voice front and centre, to a nighttime soulful place with guitar and keyboards adding some poignancy to the song’s message that calls for understanding.

As with such an album there are undoubted favourites that each listener will find, but it has a largely balanced placing that works as an overall album, that pays tribute to the truth and wisdom that was Billy Joe Shaver and that‘s what any such work should do. These songs, with any justice, will live forever.

Review by Stephen Rapid 

Smoke Fairies Singles Year Seven

There is a brooding quality to these eighteen tracks. The atmospheric thrust of the material conjures images of gothic dalliances with the darker side of our natures in the enticing melodies and arrangements. A Folk sound that echoes the past in the clear vocal harmonies of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, opening with their original single Living With Ghosts. Since that debut in 2008 the women have gone on to blaze a trail and build a formidable reputation across a number of stellar releases.

All their singles are included on this project, including both Gastown and River Song, fan favourites and unavailable since their original release back in 2009 on the Third Man record label, as a double A-side with Jack White guesting on drums and guitar. The haunting Eclipse Them All is balanced with the lighter stroke of We’ve Seen Birds and the thrust of Shadow Inversions is in contrast with the nervous energy on Disconnect. The guitar-driven beat on Elevator shows how their sound has evolved and taken on a harder edge before the final song No Matter How This Goes, Just Make Sure That You’re Kind harks back to earlier days with a pastoral feel in the message that we are our own best ambassadors when we reach out to others in kindness.

This compilation is very timely and not only captures the career arc of two very talented artists, but also points the way for the next chapter in their evolving career as Smoke Fairies – hard to catch and pin down but all the better for the experience. One to savour.    

Review by Paul McGee

The White Buffalo Year Of The Dark Horse Snakefarm

‘My forthcoming album is a sonic and lyrical journey of one lunar year in one man’s life. Four seasons in twelve songs loosely based on my twisted truths and adventures’ announced Jake Smith (The White Buffalo) in advance of the release of his eight studio album YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE. The concept album is also the subject of an art film of the same title, featuring four directors each representing three of the album’s twelve tracks.

Smith also describes YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE as his ‘headphones album’, which is a departure from his previously released and more acoustic-based Americana albums. The twelve individual storylines represent the writer’s frame of mind throughout the four seasons, in unison with a painfully failed relationship that raises its head frantically across the album.

White employed Jay Joyce to produce the album and collectively the final product is very much a genre-hopping experience. Recorded at the converted Baptist Church that now houses Neon Cross Studio in East Nashville, Smith was joined in the studio by his touring partners Christopher Hoffee (keyboards, guitar, bass) and Matt Lynott (drums)

Fusing the Jacques Brel-sounding vaudeville She Don’t Know That I Lie, Jeff Lynne style futuristic pop Donna and Love Will Never Come/Spring Song, with echoes of Nick Cave, could amount to musical chaos. On the contrary, the diversity works spectacularly well and soothing ballads such as Am I Still A Child and C’mon Come Up Come Out sit comfortably alongside those tracks of a rockier persuasion. The album’s reflective closer Life Goes On is a fitting finale, willing its author to leave behind more turbulent times and move on the life’s next chapter.

YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE is an album that doesn’t slot easily into any single genre, from an artist that ignores conformity and consistently does very much as he pleases. The end result is a fiercely intense and wonderfully brooding listening experience.

Review by Declan Culliton

Caitlin Rose Cazimi Missing Piece

Catapulted onto centre stage at a young age, Nashville artist Caitlin Rose appeared to have the world at her feet following the release of her debut album, DEAD FLOWERS in 2008 and OWN SIDE NOW, which followed two years later.  Regular comparisons with Linda Ronstadt and Patsy Cline emerged and Time magazine reviewer Claire Suddath ranked that second album in the top ten releases of that year. Things may have appeared to have been rosy in the garden but the adoration and the manipulation of the music industry were not sitting easily with Rose.

Her third studio album THE STAND IN - which included a number of co-writes - appeared in 2013 and charted well in both the US Country and US Heat charts. It contained themes of lost romances and heartache; in hindsight, it was most likely a pointer to Rose’s fragile state of mind at that time. No studio output has surfaced since then until now, and even if the writing for material on CAZIMI commenced in 2014, Rose chose not to record in the intervening years for various undocumented reasons. She credits co-producer and long-time friend Jordan Lehning (Andrew Combs, Caroline Spence, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Silver Seas) for the re-gained confidence and direction that lead her to commence the recording of CAZIMI in February 2020. Surrounding her with familiar faces at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, they spent a week working on material from Rose’s early career demos, as well as recordings that she previously made with Daniel Romano and Justin Young of The Vaccines, as a starting point for what was to become CAZIMI. The onset of the pandemic, which followed, delayed the release of the album but also afforded Rose and Lehning additional time to perfect the recordings.

The sentiments contained in THE STAND IN aren’t far from the surface on CAZIMI, not surprising given that much of the material was conceived not long after the release of that album. However, textured stories promoting survival over submission suggest an artist in a more contented headspace on this recording. The other notable departure from her earlier albums finds Rose abandoning her country leanings, giving rise to a full-on indie/pop offering. She excels on the jaunty Nobody’s Sweetheart, complete with a rousing guitar break.  It is top-notch power pop, matched to the same degree by Black Obsidian. Gemini Moon isn’t far behind either in the quality stakes and Modern Dancing reflects on wasted relationships and repeated mistakes (‘It’s a different face, but it’s always the same set of eyes’). Getting It Right, written with Courtney Marie Andrews, broaches rehabilitation with realism and hopefulness.  Carried Away is somewhat more laid back, with a simple backing melody possibly borrowed from The Velvet Underground and ALL Right (Baby’s Got A Way) and Blameless are reminders of Rose’s capacity to both pen and vocalise stunningly beautiful ballads.

A web search for Rose will bring you to Wikipedia, where she is described as ‘a country singer and songwriter from Nashville.’ I’m not sure if that narrative ever sat well with Rose and simply may have been the direction that the industry was pointing her in. Similar to artists such as Lera Lynn, Carson McHone and Jade Jackson, who were touted as ‘new women of country,’ after their early recordings, you’re left with the lasting impression that this recording, in the indie/pop territory, is closer to Rose’s comfort zone. Her initial foray into a musical career was as lead singer with Nashville indie band Save Macauley, and that seems to be where her heart is. Either way, Rose’s return to the studio is a triumph and even if CAZIMI may lose her some of her former fan base it’s likely to gain her a host of new admirers. Welcome back.

Review by Declan Culliton

Miko Marks Feel Like Going Home Redtone

Country music has not always been the most welcoming home for black women. Despite the fact that it’s over fifty years since Linda Martell became the first black female artist to gain mainstream commercial success, and the first black female artist to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, the floodgates have been anything but open since then. Artists that became household names in other genres, like Tina Turner, Etta James and The Supremes, have all recorded country music during their careers but concentrated on, or were directed by their labels, into soul or rhythm and blues, rather than country. Fortunately, and not before its time, the tide seems to be slowly turning.

Country music radio has been in the past, and continues to be, less than supportive when it comes to female artists in general. When it comes to black female artists, a study in recent years unearthed that .03 percent of all songs on country radio stations from 2002 to 2020 were by black women.  Perhaps the all-embracing Americana genre has helped, but recent years have seen a noticeable growth in talented black female artists making their deserved breakthrough. The profiles of Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Adia Victoria and Yola, to name but a few, have risen substantially.

Miko Marks certainly deserves to be added to that list. Support slots to both Tedeschi Trucks Band and Ron Hope have helped introduce her to an audience that otherwise might not be familiar with her music and Marks has been named by CMT in the Next Women of Country Class of 2022. It could be argued, and would be by this writer, that very many of the artists championed by CMT, both male and female, fall short of what can be classified as ‘real country’ and often represent mainstream pop/country crossover. Having said that, it is refreshing to learn that Marks has deservedly achieved that accolade and FEEL LIKE GOING HOME stands shoulder to shoulder with the best efforts from her colleagues in the NWOCC of 2022, regardless of genre or classification.

With a core sound that is closer to Memphis than Nashville, FEEL LIKE COMING HOME arrives twelve months after the release of her previous full-length record OUR COUNTRY. The latter was her first release in thirteen years, in the main fuelled by the response to her two previous recordings FREEWAY BOUND (2005) and IT FEELS GOOD (2007). ‘I recorded two projects that were well-received, but I wasn’t,” she explained on the release of OUR COUNTRY. ‘That was hard for me to swallow. That’s why it’s taken me 13 years to do another album.’ Ironically, that recording was less traditional country and more expansive genre-wise than her earlier albums.  The positive reviews from big hitters like The Wall Street Journal for OUR COUNTRY (‘a genre and industry defying mission’) and NPR (‘a multi-layered experience’) helped to create the momentum for her latest project. Both of those assessments could also accurately describe Marks’ latest album. Over eleven tracks and forty-seven minutes she blends country, gospel, blues, soul and rock, pouring her heart and soul into each and every one of them.

The possessor of a voice that is powerful yet frail, bluesy and soulful, Marks and her backing band The Resurrectors offer hopefulness and optimism on the countryish One More Night and the gospel anthem Deliver Me. Less pacey but equally impressive are the impassioned The Good Life and Lay Your Burdens Down, proving that Marks is equally adept at both explosive and more subdued vocal deliveries. Those vocals, together with the production and musicianship, are faultless, on an album that is bound to increase its author’s profile by some measure.

‘Been a long time waiting and I’ve got a long way to go’ Marks announces on the opening and prayer-like title track.  However, the lasting impression one is left with is that she has arrived home musically, lyrically, and spiritually, and won’t be leaving this space for some time to come. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Gabe Lee The Hometown Kid Torrez Music

‘I woke up in a hotel room, went looking for something to do. Whole place shut down, but I'm wide open. I packed up in a minute flat, you tell the county I’m coming back to haunt all those hills I grew up rolling,’ Gabe Lee announces on the opening track, Wide Open, from his third studio album. Whether or not the album’s tales are entirely autobiographical or observational is irrelevant, that statement is a signpost towards the lyrical content on THE HOMETOWN KID, which finds Lee digging into the high points, expectations and struggles of the average man in the street.

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Gabe Lee grew up in Nashville with wide musical influences that ranged from his mother’s gospel hymns that she performed in church to the country music of his hometown. THE HOMETOWN KID, his third studio album, offers the listener a suite of songs, twelve in total, that combine heartland rock (Wide Open), gospel-tinged ballads (Never Rained Again) and soulful country tunes (Longer I Run - Hammer Down).

He opens his heart on a failed relationship on Lucky Stars (‘Thank God for this guitar, not everyone survives a broken heart’), and regret also emerges on Kinda Man (‘Still think I coulda gone pro, well if only I'd have learned to cut my reckless ways’).

The possessor of the capacity to create songs that vividly represent modern American life, if you’re unfamiliar with Gabe Lee’s work, THE HOMETOWN KID is an exciting gateway into his music. I was reminded on a number of occasions of the similarity in many ways with the writing style of Jason Isbell, on an album that traverses a number of musical genres. Well-written songs and vocals that deliver a lovely listening experience, this album is quality groove-driven Americana. 

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Melissa Carper Ramblin’ Soul Thirty Tigers

Texan singer-songwriter and upright bass impresario, Melissa Carper, most certainly cannot be accused of inactivity. A member of two bands, Sad Daddy and Buffalo Gals, she also enjoys a solo career, together with regularly performing with Brennen Leigh and Kelly Willis, trading songs on stage as a trio. She is also no stranger to the studio and her latest project, RAMBLIN’ SOUL, follows hot on the heels of her 2021 release DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD.

The title of her latest album reflects the post-Covid freedom as Carper reflects on getting back to doing what is closest to her heart - travelling, meeting up with like-minded friends and performing to live audiences. Though not straying too far from the formula of her last recording, RAMBLIN’ SOUL finds her in a somewhat more upbeat mood, with thirteen tracks that breeze between old-timey, jazz-infused swing and country.

From the autobiographical opener to the Brennen Leigh cover, Hanging On To You, which bookends the album, Carper treats the listener to a stockpile of songs that truly captures the shifting colours of country and roots music over the past six decades. The return to touring and playing to live audiences may have been the catalyst for the album but, interestingly, a number of the songs had been written or part written over the past decade and earlier, which is an indication in itself of Carper’s proficiency as a songwriter.  The touching soulful ballad Ain’t A Day Goes By recalls the passing of her parents within a year of each other, her brother’s struggles with mental health issues, and losing her beloved dog, Betty. The more recently written song, That’s My Only Regret, is a fine country shuffle and she forays into gospel folk with the Odetta-written Hit or Miss. Following on from the song My Old Chevy Van which featured on DADDY’S GOLD, she continues to pay homage to the motors that faithfully transported her on her musical touring travels with 1980 Dodge Van. Boxers On Backwards is laced with wicked humour and a reminder that fortune often does favour the brave.

Sticking with the same production team of Andrija Tokic and Dennis Crouch, who worked with her on DADDY’S COUNTRY GOLD, the credits read like a ‘who’s who’ of some of the most respected players in Nashville. Crouch played bass, and guitars and pedal steel were by Chris Scruggs. Also featured are John Pahmer (organ and piano), Matty Meyer (drums), Billy Contreras (fiddle), Rory Hoffman (clarinet, piano, nylon string guitar), and Wes Langlois (guitars). Sierra Ferrell and Larry Marrs provided harmony vocals, and backing vocals are credited to the trio of Kyshona Armstrong, Maureen Murphy and Nickie Conley.

A member of her family’s travelling band from a young age, Carper has remained steadfastly loyal to the music that inspired her over the years, refusing to modernise or remodel the purity of those genres so close to her heart. Unashamedly nostalgic, there is an undisputed quality and consistency throughout RAMBLIN’ SOUL, reaffirming that Melissa Carper is unlikely to ever radically shift in style. Amen to that.

Review by Declan Culliton

Rich Hopkins & Luminarios Exiled On Mabel Street Blue Rose

I have to admit that I’ve been a big fan of Rich Hopkins’ music since discovering his EL OUTRO LADO / THE OTHER SIDE album in 2010. It has been very much ‘business as usual’ with each subsequent album that Hopkins and his Luminarios have released since then.  Thumping drums, soaring guitars, hoarse vocals – sometimes spoken, more often sung – songs that often exceed the five-minute mark on albums that approached one hour in duration, have all been the norm.  Behind that formula are well-constructed and thoughtful songs, which often draw attention to the under privileged and unfortunate, and are seldom judgemental.

There has always been a glorious looseness about Hopkins’ music, which, despite his low profile, has earned him the accolade of ‘godfather of desert rock’. That unpretentiousness is repeated on EXILED ON MABEL STREET, creating the impression that Hopkins and his wife and co-writer Lisa Novak simply entered the studio with his latest Luminarios line up, cranked up the guitars and recorded live to tape.

Stand out songs Friend Of The Shooter from BURIED TREASURE (2012) and El Outro Lado / The Other Side (2010), from the aforementioned album of the same name, dealt with gun violence and immigration respectively, without ever attempting to sensationalise. His latest offering includes a similarly powerful track, Prodigal Son. A true story based on Hopkins’ encounter with an individual on the streets of Austin, Texas, it addresses mental illness and homelessness (‘The blanket I gave him can’t cover his mistakes’). Taking the album title from a street in Tucson, Arizona, close to where Hopkins resides, a jangly guitar introduces the opening track A Message Of Hope, with the writer recounting fatherly advice advocating forgiveness and tolerance. High-pitched feedback surrounds Novak as she takes the lead vocal on the chilling track Break Through. Other selections of note are Hopkins’ ode to his estranged biological mother Josephine and the confessional I Wouldn’t Listen to Me, before he signs off with Bataan Death March.  An instrumental track recalling the horrendous treatment of prisoners of war by the Japanese army in 1942, it bookends the album on a powerful note, with a backing track of marching boots and a Hopkins recital of The Lord’s Prayer adding intensity to the elegy.

‘Some say I’m like an old dog, but I can learn new tricks,’ claims Hopkins on Count On Me, a love song dedicated to Novak. On the strength of this album and his back catalogue, Hopkins is doing just fine digging into his memory vaults and consistently delivering records packed with grungy energy.

Review by Declan Culliton

The Great Divide Providence Self Release

When we reviewed Mike McClure’s ninth solo recording, LOOKING UP, back in 2020, we hardly envisaged that he would be hooking up once more with his former band colleagues in The Great Divide. Parting ways back in 2003 - McClure freely admits that his appetite for booze and drugs was a major contributing factor - the band left behind a legacy as one of the most influential bands on the Red Dirt music scene of the time, with five cracking albums while McClure was on board. He was replaced by singer Micah Aills after his departure, but the band disbanded in 2005 after the release of their album UNDER YOUR OWN SUN that year.

Older, wiser and with McClure in an altogether better place (‘I have a new lens of sobriety to look through, and I’m coming from a place of healing, forgiveness and rebirth’), PROVIDENCE finds the band in fine form and certainly matching the quality of their early work. The songwriting often chronicles McClure’s memories since leaving the band back in 2003 and up to the present. The album opens with Wrong Is Overrated, which reads like a confession or admission of guilt by McClure for his part in breaking ties with the band. With a Son Volt/Byrds vibe’ it’s a standout track and confirmation of the collective prowess of the band.

It’s not all foot fully on the gas either, I Can Breathe Again, which follows, is a splendid love song that channels rebirth and rejuvenation and the reggae tinged Slippin’ Away recognises the passing of time and the value of living in the moment. There are many other high points worth noting, particularly My Sweet Lily and Infinite Line. The former is a heartfelt ode to a loved one and the latter is a full-on Rolling Stones sounding belter.

It may be the best part of two decades since McClure’s departure, but his return signals ‘business as usual.’ Alongside original members Kelley Green (bass), Scotte Lester (rhythm guitar), his brother JJ Lester (drums) and newer recruit Bruce Conway (keyboards), McClure and his bandmates don’t stray far from their comfort zone with an unflinchingly honest and often powerful suite of songs. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Jeffrey Halford And The Healers Soul Crusade CRS

There is a lot happening in Jeffrey Halford’s latest album SOUL CRUSADE and despite my first impression from the record’s title, it is anything but restricted to the soul genre. Instead, the eleven tracks feature a crisscross between blues, roots, gospel, country and folk and soul, very much like a meeting of the musical outputs of Dr. John and Chuck Prophet.

Halford has been treading the boards for over three decades by now and his current partners in crime, Adam Rossi, Mike Anderson and Aaron Halford, are his backing band, The Healers. They are joined by a host of guest musicians on SOUL CRUSADE and collectively deliver an album loaded with intensity and fervour.

No doubt the aforementioned Mac Rebennack and Chuck Prophet would have been proud to include the funk-drenched tracks Pie Eyed Poet’s Plea and Take It Slow on any of their recordings. In contrast, Wandering Kind and Pescadero are less pacey roots-tinged efforts. The latter is a classic road song bringing to mind sun-drenched freewheeling trips along the Mexican border. The uplifting gospel anthem Walk To The River not only showcases the musicianship of Halford and his crew, but also the eloquent background vocals of Hannah Halford. The rampant bluesy rocker Devil has a mid-career Rolling Stones stamp to it and they sign off with Sad Sinking Feeling, with a nod in the direction of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, bringing closure to an album that is easy to get totally immersed in after a couple of plays.

Review by Declan Culliton

Tobias Berblinger The Luckiest Hippie Alive Ten Dollar

This album was originally released in 2018 but is getting a new release as it has just been released in vinyl format and in a remastered CD/digital format. Berblinger is a musician and illustrator/designer with a love of the more cosmic side of California country, alongside an affinity for the Texas troubadours Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt and Blaze Foley. His original material falls between these two primary influences. Nor is he without a sense of humour as evidenced by the album title and songs such as My Boots Have Been Drinking, wherein he asks for forgiveness from the people and places the errant footwear took him to. A similar sense of unworthiness continues with the lively toe-tapping beat of Blade Of Grass, with some tasty guitar from Chris Cook.

There are three covers included in the ten tracks. The first of these is his take on the Commander Cody classic, Seeds And Stems (Again), a choice that suggests certain substances may be involved in the overall scheme of things! As with Drinking, and other tracks, it benefits from the harmony vocals of Mariya May. The title track pretty much sums up a tale of misadventure and a freewheeling attitude, wherein he wonders “I don’t know what I done right but the sun is shining on me.” The story is worth following to see how this streak of luck unfolds, again some tasty guitar is delivered.

There is that overriding feeling that these songs define a hippie lifestyle combined with some enjoyable country music, and some more considered folk outings like It Ain’t Right with flute and soft harmonies from Annie Perkins. However, we are back in the arms of the honky tonk for the hapless ‘drowning of one’s sorrows’ tale that is the self-explanatory Heartaches, Hard Times And Hard Drinking. Divisions continues with an acoustic guitar tendency that works, while the final two tracks are again covers with Crawl Back To You coming from the repertoire of the late and lamented Blaze Foley. It is here given a treatment that is admirably fitting with its source. The final song is a version of the equally revered Gene Clark’s Polly Come Home, which has again a blend of an underlying folk feel, emphasised by the flute which is sitting easily alongside the pedal steel and it has an appropriately impassioned vocal from Berblinger.

Mo Douglas produced the album alongside Berblinger and he also played acoustic guitar, lead guitar, bass and rhythm guitar on numerous tracks. The duo bring a varied and layered sound throughout that was bolstered by the contributions of the other musicians, who included Jesse Cunningham’s pedal steel contributions to half a dozen of the tracks.

Given the way the world has turned since the original release in 2018, it makes sense to place it again before a possible wider audience. It has an easy freewheeling feeling that should find favour with those looking for something that most definitely sits outside the mainstream. I doubt this is the last we will hear from Berblinger and one can hope he will continue to produce new music in this unfashionable fashion.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Luke LeBlanc Fugue State Self Release

Minnesota native Luke LeBlanc returns with his fourth album release, written during lockdown and reflecting on the  state of things as he perceives them to be right now. If Covid brought any insights or lessons perhaps it was to look inwards in our search for answers, and to slow down the relentless rush of external commitments. There is a lingering feeling of time wasted in chasing some material illusion of happiness and success.

However, rather than finding ourselves in a fugue state, I like to think that more clarity has evolved from our scrambling in the dark and that a greater awareness has replaced the urge to look to others for our self validation. Have we lost our identity and our collective awareness? LeBlanc seems to think so and he attempts to make sense of his feelings around the current social challenges, post Covid.

Real Phonic Studio in Cleveland, Minnesota was the location for recording and from November 2021 to July 2022, the musicians focused their energies on developing the eleven songs included here. Produced and engineered by Erik Koskinen, who also plays electric guitar, bass, banjo, and keyboards, FUGUE STATE features John Cleve Richardson on keyboards and backing vocals, Ryan Young (Trampled by Turtles) on violin, Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Jayhawks) on pedal steel, Casey Frensz on saxophone and Erin Bekkers on drums.

Three of the players appeared on the previous album, ONLY HUMAN, and the contributions of Erin Bekkers, John Cleve Richardson and Erik Koskinen go a long way to creating the intimate sound of the recording and the bed rock upon which the other studio musicians can gel together. The interplay is superb throughout and the light production touch of Koskinen is very impressive. Certainly, a great advert for the approach of letting the quality of the song melodies breathe for themselves.

Maybe the outbreak of the Covid pandemic and the global economic recession that has ensued make us realise just how disconnected we have become despite our abundance of smartphones and social media. The isolation and loneliness felt by people during the last two years has left an indelible mark and on songs like When I Walk With You and Soothes Me we are reminded that personal connection and real communication are what remain as the cornerstones of collective recovery. LeBlanc displays a keen sense of trying to make it all seem worth the struggle.

The love song Now seems to be a reflection and understanding of parenting and the lessons learned in growing up. On the song Down Low there is a message that the process of slowing down brings its own reward, a theme that he also explores on tracks like Still, Walking Days and Take Your Mind Off It. Not allowing worry to cripple you is something that we can all try to practice in these times of change and the final track sums up the journey that LeBlanc has been on. Long Way To Go sings of the progress made and the challenge that still lies out ahead. With all these feelings of vulnerability I have the sense that LeBlanc is coming into his own and cruising along the fast lane to greater success.

Review by Paul McGee

Field Guide Field Guide Birthday Cake

Dylan MacDonald returns with a new album, his third release in the last two years. Field guide is his performing name and MacDonald has also released two Eps and a number of singles since 2019. This new release highlights a very self-assured musician, adept at penning reflective tunes that are wrapped in enticing melodies.

MacDonald has a richly toned vocal and the delivery is a mixture of just the right combination of wistful longing and knowing experience. These ten songs fall right into the basket of americana and roots sounds with the instrumentation delivering an impressive balance that enhances the arrangements. Recorded in a variety of locations and studios, the self-production of MacDonald is assured and uncluttered, giving the songs room to breath in the mix. The musicians that came together include the core trio of MacDonald (guitars, bass, vocals, Wurlitzer, B3, synths), Matt Kelly (pedal steel) and  Olivier Fairfield (drums). They are joined on specific tracks by Tom Dobrzanski (Wurlitzer), Kris Ulrich (Moog) and Leif Vollebekk (bass).

The gentle strum of Goddess and Leave You Lonely typify the easy flow of the music that paints different colours on other tracks like Remember When and Worst Of Ways. The track In Love Now speaks of wanting to make a relationship work, ‘I wanna go through the days more slowly, I wanna talk to you more gently.’

Similarly, on You Could Be Free the message is one of ‘If I cannot give you what you need, Take all your things and be free.’ Past mistakes are referenced on For Sure and Cracked Open is another look at how a relationship can be framed. Worst Of Ways has a more up-tempo arrangement and it unfolds around a fine guitar motif and subtle drumming. Wishing Well gives thanks for all the positive things that populate MacDonald’s life, while the message in Looking Back refers to living in the moment and not getting stuck in the past. Based on this fine collection of songs, the career trajectory for FIELD GUIDE is only going in one direction – accelerating forward and at a steady pace.

Review by Paul McGee

StevieRay Latham Hinterland Self Release

This fine artist has been creating his music over the last decade and has released a series of EPs that reflect an ongoing maturity and burgeoning talent. On this latest EP we are treated to four songs and the gentle, reflective sounds come across as strongly representative of where Latham finds his creative muse right now. Written during a period at home in Devon, having contacted the Covid virus, the songs have a directness that makes for an enjoyable and interesting listen.

Latham kicks off the EP with the reflective Let Me Inside accompanied by acoustic and understated electric guitar. The song looks at the essence of relationships and what keeps us apart while wishing for the glue that can bind us together.

Old Friends opens with an acoustic guitar and builds into a fine arrangement that questions friendship and being open with the truth. Nice keyboards and understated percussion support the song dynamic and the image of loss hangs heavily as Latham brings his sad tale of missed communications to an inevitable conclusion.

Fugitive has a nice tempo and a melody that echoes the words of frustration, regret and worldly woes that are mirrored in the haunting keyboard parts. It hints at a relationship breakdown but could also mirror the inner thoughts of a self-critical mind.

No Way Out is the final song and has a sparse arrangement around a message of being trapped in a dilemma, whether mental or physical, brought on by negative feelings. It could be a post Brexit plea for greater inclusion as we move forward, but Latham comes across more as a dismayed musician who feels the weight of uninspired leadership and limited options.

As always, the music is both interesting and rewarding, giving the listener plenty to digest while enjoying the superb musicianship at play.

Review by Paul McGee

The Welcome Wagon Esther Asthmatic Kitty

This band is comprised of husband and wife duo, Vito and Monique Aiuto. He is a pastor at the Resurrection Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York and Monique has worked as a preschool teacher. Together, they have been releasing music since their 2008 debut, produced by Sufjan Stevens and released on his Asthmatic Kitty label. This new release is album number four and sees the couple in perfect harmony, both in their enthralling vocal delivery and their focus upon spreading the word of the bible in their lyrics. The references to religion may be off putting to many but when the message is one of simple acceptance and caring for each other, then it transcends any specific dogma and transfers into a universal message. Love and belief in a better way of living are the fuel that drives us after all, no matter what religious persuasion you identify with.

The album title refers to the enduring influence of Monique’s grandmother, Esther. Her voice opens the project with readings from scripture on Isiah, California and she also makes an appearance on a further song, Matthew 7/7.  The beautiful vocals and sweetly melodic song arrangements are all delivered with a style that lingers after the ten tracks have come and gone. Nothing ventures too far from the central theme of  serving the song with a less is more discipline. Two songs stand out, with Knocking On the Door Of Love and Consolation Blues heightening the experience that is both captivating and charming. The spoken part in Noble Tree is wrapped in lush keyboard and guitar sounds and I Know You Know is a song that engages and takes the certainty of trusting in another as a comfort. In the absence of playing credits I can only offer a general round of applause for all involved. The musicians deliver with understated grace and the playing is superbly consistent.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Releases

Tiffany Williams All Those Days Of Drinking Dust Self Release

Tiffany Williams was already an award winning fiction writer and an English teacher, but she moved to Nashville a few short years ago to satisfy her longstanding strong desire to be a songwriter. Initially she couldn’t even contemplate performing her own songs, such was her self consciousness, but eventually she got a lucky break, and her special vocal talents have now become apparent to all on this, her debut album.

The title track, All Those Days Of Drinking Dust, proudly proclaims her family heritage of eastern Kentucky coal mining, but also details the horrors of such a heritage. Her father, grandfather and great grandfather were all coalminers and she feels guilty at what they suffered, ‘all those nights of feelin’ that he couldn’t breathe/all to give a different life to us’.

Despite the attractive folksy cover art, the rest of the songs, all penned by Williams herself, deal with standard themes such as love, relationships and self worth. The pace is generally gentle and slow, and that probably enhances one’s appreciation of her rich sultry voice. She has chosen producer, and fellow Kentuckian, Duane Lundy (Joe Pug, The Lumineers) to realise her chosen sound, which tends towards the slick side of Americana. The production features electric guitars (J Tom Hnatow) and drums (Tripp Bratton), as well acoustic guitars (Justin Craig), fiddle (Ellie Miller) and banjo (Taylor Shuck).

On No Bottom, she proclaims that she would do things differently if she got her time again, especially in one particular love relationship. Know Your Worth, is a straight down the line song of female empowerment, encouraging women to be strong and like her ‘to tune out all the noise that I don’t need’, the uptempo banjo driven tune being quite a contrast on a generally more contemplative paced recording. There’s a country duet with another Kentuckian, novelist Silas House, who is also a music journalist and an activist against mountaintop removal mining. On When I Come Back Around, his baritone complements her sweet vocals perfectly.

The standout song for this reviewer is the pedal steel laden slowburner Wanted it To Be, where it emerges that the protagonist knows that her lover wants to be with another woman, but that despite this, she herself is prepared to accept being second best. A complicated scenario on what is otherwise a collection of well constructed straightforward songs.

Review by Eilís Boland

Jake Penrod Million Dollar Cowboy Papaw

In the past Jake Penrod has shown an affinity with the music of Hank Williams Sr and was for a time working in a one-man performance show of Hank’s music - something that one can easily see why listening to this album (and, perhaps, even more so on the CDs of Hank’s music he recorded in 2009). Since then, he has released CLOSER TO ME in 2013 and OUT OF CONTROL in 2016. This current album was started in the following year but finally gets it release this year. It is without doubt one of the year’s highlights in terms of a contemporary take of traditional country mores.

Two particular tracks can be seen as compass points on the album; the opening If You’ll Be Mine allows a more concurrent feel while Little Mama sounding like it could have come from the repertoire of Hank Sr. However, Penrod is not about mimicking any one his influences, rather he has distilled their essence to create his identity and own path. He is, though, of course not the only artist currently recording their individual take on traditional sounding music that is kept relevant today by maintaining a positive link with the past but looking to the future. This is something to savour given that, in recent times, what has been, and continues to be, sold as country music is to many listeners far from what they would recognise or as “real-deal” country music.

Penrod shows that he is not only an exemplary musician (playing drums, piano, bass, harmonica, electric, acoustic and steel guitar) but that he also wrote the songs (bar two) and produced the album. That shows a level of commitment and understanding of how he wanted the music to be recorded. Those two tracks are equally considered by their choices - the late great James Hand’s In The Corner, At The Table, By The Jukebox and a cross-fertilised take on the Bobby Braddock/Curly Putman written George Jones recorded classic He Stopped Loving Her Today, which he decided should to be done as if Waylon Jennings was recording it. It features some of the additional players who contribute to the album including bassist Kevin Smith, Austin bedrock drummer Tom Lewis, guitarist Chris Reeves with steel guitar from James Shelton. Both add a footnote to the album’s original songs and so rounds it off as a complete package that shows how far Penrod has come since his last release.

Blues For Company is a slow, mournful song that shows that Penrod is a vocalist well capable of imparting some real emotion in his delivery. Equally introspective is Better Than Being Alone which again has a bed of steel (guitar) to rest its weary head on. There is the requisite sense of sadness, heartbreak and dis-harmony in the relationships Penrod writes about here, that for most fans of something approaching hard country, know that despite the music itself is indeed uplifting and illuminating. There are few, if any weak spots here, and many other top-notch inclusions including the well-sung So Goodbye or the honky-tonk ready (and able) Erasing You, I Bet She Hasn’t Cried or Have You Ever Been A Fool.

Million dollar moments and memories abound on this album, which will be at the top of the lists for the best of 2022 for those lucky enough to have encountered it and it is definitely worth seeking it out and savouring. What Jake Penrod does next will be of great interest as his skill and talent could be developed in a number of different ways but here’s hoping he keeps it, as they saying goes, country.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Teague Brothers Band Love & War Self Release

There is a unity to the sound that this band delivers in its country/folk/rock amalgamation, which is why the John Teague fronted band uses the ‘brothers’ part of their name to signify something akin to, but different from, a sibling alliance. It signifies, as defined by a commitment to a work ethic, that Teague works on a small ranch and runs a construction company as well as fronting this band. With a previous album and EP under their belt, they have taken things up a notch with this new album. Co-produced by Scott Farrs and Christopher Reynolds and recorded in Lubbock, Texas, it is a prime example of what has come to define contemporary Texas roots music.

The band; Teague, guitarist Kyle Villarreal, A.J. Hoffman on fiddle and a rhythm section of Ryan Cobb and Jeremy Hall, all obviously committed to giving their best performances on these Teague written songs that touch on a number of lyrical themes. Many relate to relationships and how tricky they can be. “Eggshells don't make good enough flooring” being one line in Love & War that sets the tone for a song that concludes that “there’s no love without war.” Last Thing You Heard takes revenge to its unnerving conclusion with the protagonist being “the last thing you saw, the last thing you heard.”

Pipeliner is about a man whose job is laying oil pipelines and his struggle to hold a bond together while keeping to the unrelenting work commitment and trying to also keep committed to those close to him. Moscoto Wine (written with Matthew Teague) similiarly finds the confusion of knowing that “there's days that I wish you were home / and there's days that I'm glad that you're gone.” This doubt and self-seeking sense of purpose seems to underline the thinking for much of the material. In January there is a recognition that things can change and that the new person in his life could be the “first line in chapter two.”

From the opening I Found Trouble you are aware that this band is not about to take prisoners, by aligning its lyrical stance to an equally robust musical platform, which has Teague’s strong lead vocals and harmonies over the propulsive bedrock of bass and drums, topped by some engaging guitar and fiddle performances. Throughout, the band equally know how to take their collective foot off the pedal on the emotive introspection of some of the tracks, such as These Days and again for the more uptempo Pretty Ugly. There is a balance here that works and keeps things interesting and aligned.

This album, independently produced, promoted and performed is an example of why Texas has been a fertile ground for the conjunction of numerous influences and styles that, here, meld in a cohesive album that is, no doubt, equally reflective of the band’s live sound and appeal.  

Review by Stephen Rapid

Wesley Hanna Brand New Love Potion Self Release

Another name to add to the list of traditionally-minded Texas country troubadours. Hanna has a voice that immediately strikes you as fit for purpose as a country music singer. It has all the required resonance that you require to be convinced of the level of authenticity. There are ten tracks here that come from Hanna himself and they are good examples of songs that tell a story and take you places. Well Digger’s Lament tells of the life of those who work, meaning they end up missing a large part of their non-working life. It has a more acoustic delivery with the dobro and harmony vocals adding a certain folkiness, heard again in Concho Pearl, a love song. These are nicely balanced with the hardwood floor-fillers like the opening title track, or Back To The Honky Tonks which has a great opening lyric that tells so much about the life style of the protagonist. “Talking on the phone to some decent lawyer, he said I need to get my affairs in order, had I not had any affairs at all I probably wouldn’t have to be giving him a call.” Several locations in the Lone Star State are visited in the journey detailed in Texas Road Trip. There is some slow sweeping steel on the intimate songThe Waltz. 

Another example of Hanna’s vocal adeptness is highlighted in the song Sundown Kid, with some fine guitar too from Newcomb. The somewhat different direction of Gulf Coast Moon, drawing on the gulf and western sound is, while not a highlight, a diversion.The oft referenced old school phase about ‘creeks not rising’ turns up in Creek Don’t Rise, which has a harder edge than other tracks but shows Hanna can rock when required. It again is surpassed by other tracks here but offers another possibility in terms of sound. The songs that relate more to the honky tonk attitude are the focal points here but the fact that, for a number of tracks, he explores some other options shows that Hanna is exploring what works for him. 

Hanna is based in Fort Worth in Texas and plays the bars, honky-tonks and fairs in the region. So this album can only do him a lot of good and raise his profile a notch or two. I listened several times and was also impressed with the sound of the album so I checked the details and was not unsurprised to find the talents of Scrappy Jud Newcomb on bass and guitar, Lloyd Maines on pedal steel and dobro, the keyboards of Bukka Allen and the fiddle of Brian Beken, added to the drumming of producer and engineer Pat Manske, who has made this sound as good as it does. Pauline Reese adds harmony vocals behind Hanna’s to complete the picture. All this means it takes a few listens to fully take in the words and the stories which are, as one might expect, tales of hearts won, heartbreaks, honky-tonks and highways.

It is always a pleasure to discover a new album and artist who surpasses expectations with an all a powerful musical potion, one that’s easy to love.

Review by Stephen Rapid 

Grey DeLisle Borrowed Regional

Such a pleasure to have this lady back recording. Two distinguished albums in 2004 and 2005 on Sugar Hill, IRON FLOWERS and THE GRACEFUL GHOST, respectively brought her critical acclaim, as did her 2002 debut, HOMEWRECKER. Since then DeLisle took the time out to raise a family and to remarry, but she now has found the time to return with this album of wide ranging covers with interesting and, at times, some perhaps less than obvious covers - but then again maybe not, considering the scope of her output. 

None more so than the opening take on Roger Water’s Another Brick In The Wall, which contains its anger gracefully and features strings that have been arranged by Tammy Rogers (one of the arrangers featured on the album, alongside Eric Gorfain and Sasha Matson). It also use horns, arranged and performed by David Ralicke. This is alongside DeLisle on vocals and autoharp, Murry Hammond on acoustic guitar, Jonah Tolchin on electric lead guitar and Marvin Etzioni on mandocello and drums. Etzioni also returns to the production chair, as he had done with the three previous releases.

It lets you know that what will follow will be equally interesting and diverse. Alongside the choices there are a couple of songs written by Etzioni (Borrowed And Blue) and DeLisle with Etzioni (You Are The Light - a song covered by Lone Justice) and also included is Valentine, written by her ex-husband Murry Hammond. The latter has gentle forcefulness relating to the nature of love and loss.

Of the other tracks the eclectic picks are, perhaps, best exemplified by versions of You Only Live Twice, which features The Satellite 4, and the Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell classic Georgia On My Mind. The latter is graced by an understated and considered vocal over the sensitive arrangement of strings and Mickey Raphael’s harmonica. The former give a cinemascopic delivery, with the quartet of players hitting the right tone with electric guitars, bass and drums in what is an effective reimagining of the theme, that seems more like a Mediterranean romance than a spy thriller - though maybe the combination of the two would be equally suitable.

Calvary is given a slightly jazzy New Orleans feel with Ralicke’s trumpet, trombone and bass sax added to the atmosphere of the crucifixion tale. Another notable version is that of Julie Miller’s All My Tears, another song tinged with melancholic religious overtones. A bonus track has been taken from the 2004 compilation Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs Of Stephen Foster - Willie We Have Missed You, again featuring Etzioni alongside Greg Leisz on pedal steel. It fits with the overall concept of the songs and arrangements, which sees this collection highlighting, as does her previous recordings, the timelessness and uniqueness of the distinctive vision of DeLisle and Etzioni, something that anyone acquainted with those releases will, no doubt, wish to hear as much as I did. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Various Artists A Tribute To Johnny Cash - Vol 3 Hillgrass Bluebilly

Compilation albums can often be something of a mixed bag, with some tracks getting the balance right between giving the song an individual twist and making a fairly straight ahead copy of the original. They can also afford the opportunity to listen to an act you may not have been acquainted with previously. A lot also has to do with the curator of the compilation and the artists chosen to feature. In my collection, I probably have more Johnny Cash tributes than for any other artist. The songs are often well know from Cash’s unique delivery, whether they were written by him or not.

Here we have a selection of sixteen cuts that range from Public Enemy’s Chuck D’s version of Man In Black, featuring Bob Log III through to (new to me) South Filthy or Willy Tea Taylor. None-the-less the album, collectively, keeps one’s interest and the ear attuned. Ten Pole Polecats are featured back to back on two hard edged takes of Redemption and Big River,  the latter more of a punkabilly-inspired account, while the girlish voice of Amanda Jo Williams gives a different gendered, small town perspective to Country Trash. 

Ballad Of A Teenage Queen, written by ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement, a tale of seeking fame and realising it may not be what it was thought to be, is given a run-out by RestavRant. The version of Nick Lowe’s The Beast In Me by Delaney Davidson is not that far from the author’s own recording, though the vocal delivery favours Cash’s darker tone. Darren Hoff and The Hard Times give the opening track, There You Go, a sense of purpose that suits its place in opening the album - it has an agreeable roots/garage country/rock energy. Let The Train Blow The Whistle When I Go, by Tom VandenAvond, channels early Dylan. While Austin Lucas’ raw version of Tennessee Stud brings it back to the soil, with just his voice and guitar. The closing track on the album is Charlie Parr covering Were You There When They Crucified My Lord has a gospel feel, with Parr adding harmony vocal to his bittersweet take on the religious side of Cash’s output through the years.

In a similar mode, but full of fervour and with an anguished overtone, is the stripped back vocal, guitar and fiddle of Give My Love To Rose by Willy Tea Taylor. The banjo-infused ‘anger is an energy’ of Apache Tears by Los Duggans is full on in a good way, with an expansive rock guitar solo to boot. Wreck Of The Old 97 by Left Lane Cruiser is cruising in James McMurtry territory. Straight A’s In Love is another example of Cash’s influence on the ‘three chords and the truth’ punk leaning bands. More twangy by far, with echoes of Luther Perkins, is Karen Jonas’ rendering of Understand Your Man, which has a touch of June Carter’s sassiness. As you may expect, the late James Hand is pretty true to form and honest in his rendering of Get Rhythm, that has the feel of Sun era Johnny Cash down to a T. 

There is undoubtedly a rhythm to this record which is not towards the polished end of the spectrum, but rather it has a raw passion and purpose that pays tribute to an iconic individual whose body of work should not be forgotten. The fourth volume of this series (as visualised on the cover) will be a tribute to R.L. Burnside and will be equally varied and valuable as a measure of the magnetism and majesty of both performers.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Native Harrow Old Kind Of Magic Loose

Currently residing in rural Sussex, having moved to the U.K. from Pennsylvania via Brighton, OLD KIND OF MAGIC is the fifth full-length album from musical and life partners, Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms. A classically trained vocalist and ballerina, Tuel’s vocals have regularly, and deservedly, drawn comparisons with Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell. Combining that gift alongside multi-instrumentalist Harms, and Tuel’s wherewithal to pen ageless folk songs, is a potent recipe and one that works spectacularly on this album.

OLD KIND OF MAGIC follows their 2020 release, CLOSENESS, and is focussed very much on the strength and intimacy of their relationship. Crashing waves and cawing seagulls, recorded during a field trip to Brighton beach, introduce the album’s opener, Song For Joan. With every word perfectly expressed, it paves the way, both vocally and instrumentally, for what follows.

For me, the album’s tour de force is the quite stunning and hypnotic six-minute love ballad, Heart of Love, described by Tuel as ‘a song that slowly drifted its way to me and sunk in deep, it sings of the passion in soulmate love. The deep love that you may search the world over for’. With an enthralling vocal performance by Tuel, delightfully understated guitar work by Harms and pedal steel by Joe Harvey Whyte, the track has had me hitting the repeat button more than once. Long Long Road, awash with strings courtesy of Georgina Leach, brings to mind Nick Drake and the organ lead As It Goes, which also features Leach, has a distinctly 60s vibe. Magic Eyes, which follows, is a throwback to the same decade, with echoed vocals and fuzzy distorted finger picked acoustic guitar. Not adverse to crossing folk with modern jazz, Used To Be Free ticks that particular box and shades of Sandy Denny are to the fore on the title track.

Self-produced by Native Harrow, OLD KING OF MAGIC is brimming with gorgeous vocals that perfectly convey the messages within the songs. With one song tumbling effortlessly into the next, the music flows freely throughout from Harms, long-time collaborator Alex Hall, Georgina Leach and Joe Harvey White. With magic both old and new in abundance, this contemporary alt-folk record is another superlative effort from Tuel and Harms.

Review by Declan Culliton

Joseph Shipp Free, For a While Self Release

‘I’m an American man, whatever that means’ sings Nashville -based singer songwriter Joseph Shipp on his debut album FREE, FOR A WHILE, which is based upon the writer’s relocation to Tennessee after having lived in the Bay Area of San Francisco for six years. Very much a pandemic album, Shipp’s intention of a family holiday in 2020 was scuppered for obvious reasons, leaving him with time and disposable income, which he redirected into purchasing home recording equipment. Originally envisioned as a solo undertaking, as the songs developed Shipp decided to call on the services of old friend, Grammy nominated and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Sovine (Ashley McBryde, Jaime Wyatt, Ian Noe, Kelsey Waldon) to co-produce the album. The resulting eleven-track record was recorded at Sovine’s home studio, The Back Room in Savannah, Georgia.

An accomplished and award-winning graphic designer and photographer - he grew up in a small town in Tennessee where his parents ran a photography business - Shipp and his wife moved to East Nashville to start a family in 2016 and he continues to work remotely in graphic design with his San Francisco colleagues.

With a vocal style that lands somewhere between Dylan and Conor Oberst, the album navigates its way around a variety of personal emotions. Brooding ballads such as Rest, Assured and American Man sit comfortably alongside more experimental and, for this writer, standout tracks Only The Moon and Dod. The latter two account for twelve minutes of the album’s total playtime. Following in the footsteps of Bonny Light Horseman, who included a selection of traditional folk songs from the book FOLKSONGS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND on their debut album, a reworking of the love lost ballad Green Grows The Laurel is also included.

An album of many moods and definitely one for the slow cooker, FREE, FOR A WHILE is a potent serving of contemporary American roots music dealing with the challenges and plights of parenthood, separation, and uncertainty. It’s also an album that reveals more and more to the listener with each subsequent visit.

Review by Declan Culliton

Sylvie Self-Titled Full Time Hobby

This project is the brainchild of musician Ben Schwab and was inspired in part by his father, John Schwab who had a 70s band called Mad Anthony. Their debut album fell victim of a record deal that never happened and all these years later, son Ben has taken the essence of the songs he unearthed to create a superb album. The album title is taken from the song released by Matthews Southern Comfort back in 1970 and Schwab pays tribute to the easy flow of the melody while adding swathes of beautiful pedal steel and gentle keyboard swells. The ethereal music continues across the seven songs included here and the running time of twenty-eight minutes just leaves the listener wanting more. The sweet melodies drift along and land in the sweet spot where inspiration meets talent.  

Further Down the Road  and Falls On Me feature the alluring vocals of Marina Allen while the retro arrangement of Shooting Star features the sweet tone of Ben Schwab and a sound that reminds me of Mojave 3 meets Gram Parsons. 50/50 features an old recording of Ben’s father, John Schwab speaking about a song that he was working on and the instrumental that follows the spoken part is just beautiful and conjures up passing days of youthful memory.

Final song Stealing Time is a paean to the old Californian sounds of Lauren Canyon and the close harmonies are so perfectly judged against the easy cadence and wistful vocal of Sam Burton. The use of pedal steel throughout the record is wonderful with Conor Gallagher excelling. He is joined by Sam Kauffman Skloff on drums and JJ Kirkpatrick on horns, but it is the overarching talents of Ben Schwab that shine through on all the tracks. Playing an array of instruments he draws upon the experience gained over years of honing his craft in bands like Drugdealer and Golden Daze. This is certainly a rich reward and the timeless music comes highly recommended.  

 Coda - The original songs of John Schwab that had lain idle in a forgotten part of memory until rediscovered by Ben are now in the process of finally gaining a release. Ben is acting as producer on the reworked songs, all these years later.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

I Draw Slow Self-Titled Compass

With this being only their fifth album since they formed in 2008 (from the ashes of the much missed old time/bluegrass band Prison Love), I Draw Slow demonstrate why they are probably Ireland’s best exponents of the fusion of Celtic and American music. The core band composition of siblings Dave (guitar, vocals) and Louise Holden (vocals), along with Konrad Liddy (bass), Adrian Hart (fiddle) and Colin Derham (clawhammer banjo) has remained stable from the start, which probably contributes to the ever evolving progression of their sound towards something quite unique. Influenced by loss and tragedy over the recent couple of years, the songwriting of the two Holdens is darker than before, sometimes obscure, but always worth investing in. The sound too has moved on, with wider musical influences more to the fore.

We’re taken right back to the 60s/70s Laurel Canyon sound in About a Bird in an Airport and Copenhagen Interpretation. In the former, the unfortunate trapped bullfinch is a metaphor for the feeling of trying to extricate oneself from a complicated and smothering relationship, with the protagonist checking through security in an attempt to find escape, but ‘I swore when I left you last time/it would be the last time I’d ever leave, If I change my mind I can always find you/left of the devil, right of the deep blue sea.’ As well as co-producing with the siblings, Adrian Hart really comes into his own here on this acoustic track with his soaring fiddle wor evoking perfectly the frantic escape efforts of the trapped subject. The soundscape in Copenhagen Interpretation is even more deliciously lush, thanks in part to guest Kate Ellis (Crash Ensemble) on cello, interplaying with the acoustic guitar, banjo and fiddle, building up delicately then descending in cascades to an abrupt ending. The song, influenced by Orwell, explores the duplicity of political language, ‘yesterday you were the snake, the ladder/who are you today?’

Dearly contemplates the past through rose coloured glasses, musing that perhaps this is the best way to view it, with the repeated refrain ‘Dearly/Sincerely/Forgetfully yours’, guest Greg Felton on piano adding a delicate layer to the guitar and banjo soundtrack.

Louise Holden takes the lead vocal on all of the songs, her gorgeous voice reminiscent sometimes of the late Dolores O’Riordan, but perhaps even sweeter. As well as backing vocals from her brother, they are joined on several tracks by the ‘Choir’ of Michelle O’Rourke and Siobhra Quinlan,  including on Dublin Bay, Christmas Day (another musing on a long relationship) and on Bring Out Your Dead. We go to New Orleans for the bluesy Trouble, with horns here (and on several other songs) courtesy of Bill Blackmore and Colm O’Hara.

The album ends with two evocations of first love. A Chuid den Tsaol (with an English translation in the lyrics booklet) tells of the tentative longings of a young person attempting to communicate the depth of her love for an unsuspecting other, accompanied simply by acoustic guitar, cello and beautiful double stop fiddle playing that could only be Irish (even though Adrian Hart is actually a Yorkshire man!). Leisureplex recalls, with excruciating attention to detail, the intense awkwardness of first love, which eventually fizzles out as life moves on.

Nashville’s Compass record label recognised the potential of this band over five years ago when they signed them up. Spend some time with this record and you will understand why.

Review by Eilís Boland

Emily Nennie On The Ranch Normaltown /New West

Boasting all the key components that tick the ‘modern but real’ country music box for me, Emily Nennie’s second full-length album, ON THE RANCH, is a particularly slick slice of honky tonk honed tunes. Flawless production (hats off to Mike Eli for that), impeccable playing throughout, Nennie’s classic nasally vocal purr, and some great songs, all amount to a really accomplished presentation.

Firstly, a bit of background about the currently Nashville-based artist. Born and raised in California, she was introduced at an early age to the music of Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and Jessi Coulter by her mother, and John Coltrane and James Brown by her father. Despite attending Columbia College and majoring in audio engineering, her early exposure to country music had sown the seeds for her favoured vocation and, like scores of others, she headed to Nashville to follow her dream. She didn’t waste any time in Music City, quickly finding herself on the hallowed stage at Robert’s Western World on Broadway, before independently releasing her debut album, HELL OF A WOMAN, in 2017. Steeped in a classic country vibe, that pedal steel laced album was followed by her four-track EP, LONG GAME, in 2020.

Being written while working on a ranch in Colorado - producer Mike Eli’s wife was already working there – has given her latest album an additional country and western vibe. Although, and to her credit, Nennie does not profess to be a genuine cowgirl, admitting that her duties were confined to serving meals, child minding and playing music weekly for guests at the ranch. She confesses her rural limitations on the title track (‘Well to be true, I really wasn’t much use, once the truck got to gettin’ loose, I was playin with a cattle dog’). Notwithstanding her admission, the album is packed with bona fide country songs from the word go. Opening the ten-track album in fine style is Can Chaser. Giving the thumbs up to a barrel racing rodeo queen, it sets out the primary full-on honky tonk sound that dominates much of the album. True to form she also includes a few tearjerkers, with Leavin’ and Matches ticking that box and she’s more defiant on Gates Of Hell where she gives the two fingers to a former beau.

She does stray off the page with a mildly countryfied cover of Abba’s Does Your Mother Know. In fairness, it’s not the car crash it could have been but, for me anyway, it falls way below the quality of her self-written material. She closes the record on a positive note with the chirpy Get On With It (‘Get up off your good intentions, get on with it’).

Given the exceptional playing on the album, a mention of the musicians is warranted. Producer Mike Eli also played guitar, Alex Lyon was on bass, drums and percussion are credited to Bradford Dobbs, and Eddy Dunlap played pedal steel and dobro.

All in all, ON THE RANCH finds Nenni ‘talking the talk and walking the walk’ as impressively as any country record I’ve heard this year. It’s yet another fine album coming from the growing number of female artists who are delivering traditional country music without the bells, whistles, drum beats and auto-tunes that dominates so much of the music currently coming out of Music Row. Nenni has been nominated at the upcoming Ameripolitan Awards in the Female Outlaw Artists of the Year category and has recently toured with like-minded artists, Charley Crockett and Kelsey Waldon. If there’s any justice, that exposure and this refreshing album should substantially raise the profile of this silver-voiced vocalist way beyond Nashville. Have a listen and make your own mind up. I expect that you’ll love what you hear, I most certainly did.

Review by Declan Culliton

Sterling Drake Highway 200 Orchard

Previously a published songwriter in Nashville, Sterling Drake’s six-track EP follows hot on the heels of where he left off with his previous recording, ROLL THE DICE, from 2021.

‘I always strive to create country music that is relatable, something you’d want to listen to in the feed truck,’ notes Drake about his recordings. I’m unable to confirm if that is the case, but I can verify that the album sounds fine to me playing in my VW Golf. Fiercely devoted to vintage country, his sound shifts between traditional country and western swing.

He kicks off HIGHWAY 200 with a fine reworking of the classic traditional song In The Pines, sticking closer to the countrified version recorded by Loretta Lynn than the blues rendition by Lead Belly. Next up is the title track and first single from the EP. It’s a standout track, portraying the harsh yet cherished sentiments of life as a rancher in Montana. With razor-sharp playing and a vocal to match, it doffs its cap in the direction of Merle Haggard during his late 60s purple patch. Elsewhere he goes full-on western swing with the light-hearted Bad Looks Good On You and Stuck In The Saddle is a country and western cowboy lament.

If you like your country super twangy, time-honoured, and circling back to the 60s and beyond, you’re bound to enjoy this album. Produced by Drake and Chris Weisbecker, it features dobro and pedal steel by Ryan Stigmon, and bass guitar by Gabe Tonon. Drake takes lead vocals and guitar, and Weisbecker plays drums.

HIGHWAY 200 is not going to dent the country charts or feature in what is peddled  on most country radio stations, no surprise there. But it is typical of the many artists that are currently writing and recording premium country music, even if you have to often scratch beneath the surface to find them.

Review by Declan Culliton

Alex Williams Waging Peace Lightning Rod Records

'Waging Peace' is just about trying to make peace with yourself,’ explains Alex Williams, commenting on his latest twelve-track album of modern country outlaw.

To date, the Indiana-born and raised Williams’ career reads like a film script. Although relatively inexperienced at the time, the bearded, long-haired baritone, scored a major record deal with Big Machine Records and recorded his debut album, BETTER THAN MYSELF in 2017.

The possessor of a winged ‘W’ tattoo on his arm in honour of Waylon Jennings, Williams was perceived by many as the latest torch carrier in the Outlaw country genre, and one of the artists most likely to revive that tradition and introduce it to a more mainstream audience, something similar to what Jamey Johnson had achieved a decade earlier. However, not having toured prior to the release of that album, life on the road subsequently led Williams down a path of excess and recklessness. ‘Never saw the devil ‘till I went out on the road,’ he remarks on the title track, an admission of his pattern of emulating the darker side of his musical heroes Waylon and Merle’s behaviour back in the day.

Fortunately, and prior to total burnout, Williams recognised the futility and diminishing returns of those few years, and WAGING PEACE is an account of his personal grapple between righteousness and devilishness during that time.  He puts his cards on the table on the album’s opener and lead single No Reservation. It’s a full-on gritty southern rocker, detailing the struggles in searching for inner peace and coping with the lures and temptations of life on the road.  That big sound is repeated on Fire and Conspiracy. In contrast, tracks such as The Vice, Rock Bottom and The Struggle are self-explanatory country ballads, loaded with twang and deadly pedal steel (credit to the legendary Danny Dugmore for that) behind William’s grainy vocals. Old Before My Time is a whimsical and self-deprecating song (‘I’m at the tail end of my twenties and I’m singing songs from 1969’) and The Best Thing hints at a lot of Merle Haggard cramming.

The production is outstanding, courtesy of Grammy winner Ben Fowler (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sara Evans, Rascal Flatt), on an album divided between themes of light and darkness, blazing anthem rockers, and more considered country tunes. It’s the ideal mix for a touring act and one, no doubt, that will raise Williams’ profile further and find him busy on the festival circuit in the coming year. Watch this space, this guy is back in the saddle and going places.

Review by Declan Culliton

Bonny Light Horseman Rolling Golden Holy ‎ 37d03d

The self-titled album by Bonny Light Horseman from 2020 suggested a one-off project by three artists with somewhat varying backgrounds, accompanied by a dozen other friends and fellow musicians. A singer songwriter and composer (Anais Mitchell), a producer and multi-instrumentalist (Josh Kaufman) and an indie pop/folk band leader and soundtrack composer (Eric D. Johnson), put their collective comfort zones to one side to create what became a Grammy-nominated collection of charming folk songs. The featured songs were reconstructions of traditional folk songs, many of which dated back centuries.

That debut recording may have remained a one-off meeting of minds, given their collective workloads and side projects. On the contrary, it appears to have aroused a desire to explore similar musical and lyrical concepts, resulting in the ten self-written songs embodied in ROLLING GOLDEN HOLY.

On this occasion the trio only called on two others to participate in the recording, J.T. Bates played drums and Mike Lewis contributed bass guitar and saxophone. Whereas the songs remain true to the template of its predecessor, they have strayed from the classic U.K. folk inspirations of that album, resulting in songs that remain fundamentally folk, but to a certain degree more Americanised, typified by the charming California, with its tale of pressing on to pastures new. Mitchell may be perceived as the frontperson, given that she takes the lead vocal on the majority of the songs. However, the contribution of her bandmates is immense.  Kaufman’s guitar work in particular is striking, as are Johnson’s smooth harmonies and the suitably understated arrangements throughout.

Although they had begun working on some of the compositions soon after the release of the debut album, the ten compositions were completed in the spring of 2021 when the trio and their respective families, free from their busy work schedules, assembled in upstate New York to finalise the songs. The end product is a contemporary exploration into the common folk themes of love lost and yearned for, hopefulness and death.

Johnson takes the lead vocal on the wartime ballad Someone To Weep For Me and shares vocals with Mitchell on the gorgeous Exile. The former finds its author pleading to be remembered with dignity after his passing. The latter is an ode to a loving relationship and the realisation that it is not everlasting. Equally impressive are the powerful love song Comrade Sweetheart and the banjo-led Sweetbread. They sign off with Cold Rain and Snow. Complete with three-part harmonies it’s akin to a late 60s ‘hippy anthem’, bursting with radiant love and positiveness.

ROLLING GOLDEN HOLY opens a door to a charming array of songs whose groundwork and themes may be stimulated from previous times but are presented in a timeless manner by three like-minded artists. Tune in and prepare to be mesmerised.

Review by Declan Culliton

Chris Canterbury Quaalude Lullabies Rancho Deluxe

‘The truth doesn’t care if you choose it, a heart only breaks when you use it,’ announces Chris Canterbury on QUAALUDE LULLABIES’ opening track, The Devil, The Dealer, & Me. The lines are pointers for what is to follow on an album that deals head on with thorny issues such as mental illness, substance abuse, and addiction.

Growing up in a small town in Haynesville, Louisiana, and born into a standard blue-collar working-class family, Canterbury, like numerous artists before him, chose a wayward and honky tonk lifestyle, abandoning the advice indoctrinated in the Southern Baptist sermons that featured heavily during his younger days.

A self-produced project, he describes this collection of songs as ‘loose like a box of bedroom demo tapes, but cohesive enough to stand on its own.’ A succession of confessional tales, the album is anything but an easy listen. With lyrics as painful as an open wound, the closing track Back On The Pills leaves a lasting impression of a life journey where impending doom is never far from the surface. Tracks such as Fall Apart and Felt The Same are slow-burning stories, rich in both detail and content, reflecting on the isolation and harsh reality of the solo travelling musician. The album’s only cover is the Will Kimbrough penned Yellow Mama. The last-minute declaration of a singer as he awaits execution by way of an Alabama electric chair, it mirrors the hopelessness and prayerful nature of Canterbury’s self-written inclusions. The pedal steel laced love song Sweet Maria does offer temporary respite from the painful content of its accompanying tracks and whereas much of the material is stripped back, the fuller sound of Heartache For Hire enters Jamey Johnson’s THE LONESOME SONG territory.

Canterbury’s plain-spoken tales are painted in vivid detail throughout QUAALUDE LULLABIES. It’s anything but a Saturday night listen, simply a brutally forthright and honest testimony of self-destruction and isolation, representing quandaries that have challenged artists for many decades. It certainly captured and held my attention from the outset, as it will, no doubt, for any lover of classic country singer songwriting.

Review by Declan Culliton

Parker Twomey All This Life Self Release

Those familiar with the country soul wildcat Paul Cauthen will no doubt recognise the name Parker Twomey. Touring with Cauthen since the tender age of eighteen, Twomey has played keyboards and contributed backing vocals in Cauthen’s band for the past three years. A multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who has been writing songs since childhood, his introduction to band life was courtesy of his father who included him in his gigs at ten years of age.  Attending Booker T. Washington High School in his youth, after classes Twomey’s afternoons were spent at Modern Electric Sound Recorders, working as a general dog’s body, an exercise that eventually led to assisting engineers and producers, and learning that side of the industry first hand.

Twomey’s debut album ALL THIS LIFE plays out like an old head on young shoulders. Still in his early twenties, the album reveals more grief and broken relationships than you’d expect from one of that age. Maybe that direction is more in keeping with traditional country storytelling than actual personal experience, but the title track and album opener sets that agenda from the outset. That rationale continues on the heartrending lost love song Baby, It’s Harder Way Now. It’s the standout track on the album, showcasing Twomey’s wistful vocals and the masterly group of players that joined him in the studio. Those musicians included co-producers Matt Pence (drums) and Beau Bedford (piano, mellotron, strings), together with Charley Wiles (slide guitar), and Scott Lee (bass). A fleeting encounter while on the road is recounted on Lines of Wilderness and Loving You Too Easy expresses further yearning for intimacy and companionship (‘there’s this place that I’ve seen but never been, like on the covers of postcards’). Notwithstanding the longing and angst throughout, the album does close on an optimistic note as the writer looks forward to brighter times with Family.

With arrangements that more than complement Twomey’s vocals - the strings are particularly imposing -ALL THIS LIFE is a delightful listen from an artist that touches on the grinding reality of attempting to combine his love of touring with an equally burning desire to find love and attachment. He articulates those sentiments exceptionally well with these richly constructed country songs.

Review by Declan Culliton

David Adam Byrnes Keep Up With A Cowgirl Reviver

This album follows up after NEON TOWN, the most recent album from the Arkansas native, who then located to Nashville to write songs, which turned out to have to follow the current formula of  “bro-country.” But after a writing deal failed to happen as intended, Byrnes moved to the Fort Worth area of Texas, and his music soon took on the sound of the country music that they listen to and dance to down that way. He had regional hits and racked up a lot of streams and gained social media followers, as well as those who caught his shows in person.

This new collection is packed with songs that fit with country themes of relationships both good and bad, alcohol, working late, cowboy and cowgirls and his adopted State. This is reflected in titles like One Honky Tonk Town, Too Much Texas, Like I’m Elvis, Past My Bud Time, A Shot Or Two and Better Love Next Time. All are delivered with the kind of vocal resonance and attitude that fit right in with his heroes such as George Strait, Mark Chestnut and Keith Whitley and contemporaries such as Aaron Watson and Cody Johnson. 

The production and playing serves to achieve a cohesive, modern yet solidly straight down the line country sound, with fiddle, steel and big guitars that is so popular in Texas but is again finding a foothold in the mainstream these days. As an additional incentive, the album has four of the full throttle songs repeated in acoustic version, which gives an insight into how Byrnes may have presented these songs as demos, or in an in-the-round setting. They show his solid vocal and songwriting in its most stripped back form. Though I imagine most will prefer his full band versions, it is an insight into his down to earth methodology.

An album that is a perfect example of good time country that will have the dancers on the floor and the drinkers raising the glasses.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Ragland Guardian Self Release

This album could readily be described as Americana in the sense it was conceived some time back. Contemporary takes on country music that are not tied to any particular sound or retro style, but instead explore through the writing many of the emotional pretexts that incorporate the light and the dark, the love and the heartbreak, those ups and downs that are part and parcel of the everyday and beyond. 

The vocalist and songwriter is Autumn Ragland and this is her fourth release under that name. The writing is shared with Sam Cox who with Ragland co-wrote the material, co-produced along with Hank Early (a member of the Turnpike Troubadours) - who adds steel guitar - and Javan Long. Ragland and Cox also play guitars, drums, keyboards and harmonica, while Long also shares the drum chair.

This tight, focused and emphatic combo take a considered approach to each song, which are often different but made cohesive by Ragland’s vocal delivery, which is central to the sound. The songs take themes that many can relate to, often hinted at by such titles as Couch Surfing, I’m Not Mad, I Just Miss You, I Think I love You Too Much, Guns in The House and Throwing MY Life Away, which features Sunny Sweeney on harmony vocals.

These are, as mentioned, not the type of songs that fit neatly into a pop-country or honky tonk pigeon hole. They find their own level that is, perhaps, floating between and above both. For instance, Remember Me has a sound that could find itself gaining plays on a number of different stations. It is a contemplation on one’s place, while also wondering what the memories of those who follow one might be. It does so in a way that may well trigger a similar response in the listener, as perhaps will some of the more confrontational lyrics. Ones that confront as in Throwing My Life Away, where Ragland sums up a relationship and lifestyle with the words “I been working my ass off and people still think I’m throwing my life away … If I say too much or I don’t smile enough he’ll call me a bitch anyway.” This is delivered with evocative pedal steel and a strong melody, and shows why Ragland have musically and lyrically moved up a notch with this album.

Review by Stephen Rapid

New Album Reviews

The Slocan Ramblers Up The Hill And Through The Fog Self Release

Out of loss and hardship can emerge great art, and this is exactly what has happened in the case of this fourth glorious album from Toronto progressive bluegrass band, the Slocan Ramblers. In 2020, they were on the pig’s back - a Juno nomination in 2019 was followed by the accolade of Momentum Band of 2020 from the IBMA. And then the world fell apart for touring musicians, with the pandemic enforced cessation of touring. Add to that the loss of close family members by two of the band, and the stepping back of their bass player to family commitments.

Despite this the three band members - Frank Evans (banjo), Adrian Gross (mandolin, mandola) and Darryl Poulenc (guitar) - threw themselves into quarantined frenetic practising on their instruments and crafting new songs. The result: one of the must-have records of the year.

Kicking off with the Frank Evan’s penned I Don’t Know ‘what she sees in me’, it’s obvious from the start that this album is going to be an uplifting experience, despite the raw emotion fuelling much of it. Guest bassist, Charles James, equals the other three in phenomenal musicianship and his funky string-bending opening behind Darryl Poulson’s hooky guitar riff and Adrian Gross’s lead mandolin sets a high standard. Poulson’s You said Goodbye initially sounds like a lighthearted, fast paced breakup song. However, it is actually a joyful tribute to his brother, who passed away during this time, ‘I wish I could turn back time’ and ‘We’ll see you again some time’ are interspersed with frenetic solos from each of the band.

There are three impressive instrumental tunes, Harefoot’s Retreat and Snow Owl from the pen of Adrian Gross and probably the best train instrumental ever written, Frank Evans’ Platform Four.

Gross’s father also passed away around this time, and he recounts taking his chair down to the river to sit with his feet in the water, playing and writing in an attempt to make sense of it all. The  resulting songs, Bury My Troubles (an upbeat barnstormer) and The River Roaming Song (with more than a nod to John Hartford, with its whimsical poppy sound but always ‘coming back home to you’) are clearly cathartic.

Showing that their influences stray far beyond bluegrass, they include a storming version of Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne’s A Mind With A Heart of Its Own, proving that acoustic bass and handclaps can substitute perfectly for drums, and in the right hands a mandolin and banjo can equal lead and rhythm electric guitar any day.

The future is bright for bluegrass in the hands of progressive inventive players and songwriters like these guys.

Review by Eilís Boland

Michael James Wheeler Roll Another Dime Pacific

The lengthy journey leading to the first full-length solo album from Nashville-based Michael James Wheeler merits a chapter or review by itself.

A player in a variety of bands, both self-formed and as a hired player - he was a member of a number of bluegrass bands including Chris Henry & The Hardcore Grass and Crying Wolf - Wheeler had also been writing songs for a number of years, yet lacking the confidence to record them under his own name. His first experience of working his songs solo to a live audience came about during a three-week backpacking voyage around Ireland in 2009, where he performed impromptu in local pubs. On his return to his homeland, and on the advice of fellow songwriter Delaney Davidson, he signed up for a songwriting festival in Wisconsin, which whetted his appetite to abandon his nomadic musical career path and concentrate on an independent solo career.

Fast forward a number of years and Wheeler can boast a recording output of two EPs and this most recent album ROLL ANOTHER DIME, together with prestigious support slots for James Taylor and Jackson Browne, Nikki Lane, Tyler Childers, and Kelsey Waldon.

The recording process for this release was a stop/start affair. It had commenced in 2017 as a self-produced project at a church in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, before the intervention of Rob Eaton Snr., best known as the guitarist with the renowned Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra. On hearing of the intended recording, Eaton offered his services as producer and engineer on the album. That connection stemmed from Wheeler’s friendship with Eaton’s son Rob Eaton Jnr., with whom Wheeler had started his first band while still in school. The end result is a ten-track album of Americana-styled tunes, produced by Eaton Snr., with all guitar playing by Eaton Jnr.

There’s plenty going on here, mirroring an artist that has dipped his toes in numerous musical genres, and given that the material was written over an extended period.  The album crisscrosses between country blues (Bring The Blues), country rock (Bottle In The Carriage), folk (Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’), and heartland rock (Disco Boy). The gospel-like album closer You’re My Salvation, written by Wheeler’s close friend Pat MacDonald at the age of sixteen, features Sierra Ferrell on backing vocals.

Wheeler is already working on another album, and it will be interesting to see what direction heads in next time around. In the meantime, ROLL ANOTHER DIME signals the arrival of an artist that we’re likely to be hearing much more about in the years to come. 

Review by Declan Culliton 

Michael Paul Lawson Love Songs For Loners Self Release

Recorded in five days at Ken Coomer’s Cartoon Moon Recording Studio in East Nashville, LOVE SONG FOR LOVERS is Texan Michael Paul Lawson’s sophomore album, following on from his debut album from 2019, SOME FIGHTS YOU’LL NEVER WIN.

Alongside production duties, Coomer, formerly of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco, played drums and was joined by studio players Billy Mercer (Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams) on bass and Laur Joamets (Sturgill Simpson, Drivin’N’Cryin’) on guitars. Presented as eight short stories, and possibly digging deeply into his personal memory vaults, Lawson’s chapters visit topics such as a free-floating and uncommitted liaison (The One Before The One), aging and barely surviving in a wracked small town (The Snow), the inability to take on a meaningful relationship (Baltimore), and the drifter hopelessly striving for direction and purpose (Varick Street).

As you may glean, the subject matter is anything but upbeat, more like a cry for help, laced with ambivalence and crushed optimism. Notwithstanding the doom and gloom, it’s a powerful listen, made all the more convincing by Lawson’s fine baritone vocals. Traversing faultlessly between traditional and alt-country, the confessional opener I Know Where I’m Going Tonight is classic barroom country and he puts his foot on the gas with the crunching 849. 

‘Hell, I don’t know where I’m going in life, but I know where I’m going tonight,’ sings Lawson on that opening track. That precisely sums up the sentiments expressed throughout LOVE SONGS FOR LONERS. Notwithstanding the melancholic mood that prevails from start to finish, it’s an intoxicating listen that packs a heavy punch, combining achingly sorrowful vocals with intricate arrangements.  

 Review by Declan Culliton

Jeremy Nail Behind The Headlights Self Release

Austin-based artist Jeremy Nail’s back catalogue, prior to the release of BEHIND THE HEADLIGHTS, comprises four albums dating back to his debut record LETTER in 2007 through to his LIVE OAK recording in 2018. The common denominator across this body of work is Nail’s proficiency in addressing his personal journey with impassioned lyrics and unpretentious melodies. His 2016 recording MY MOUNTAIN, produced by Alejandro Escovedo, detailed his struggle and eventual recovery from cancer that resulted in the amputation of his left leg. 

His latest offering features twelve songs, written in the main during that forlorn and uncertain period of lockdown. While loneliness and isolation are deeply rooted throughout, there is also a sense of resilience and acceptance, as articulated by Nail in the album’s press release, ‘The overall statement I want my music to make is simple: that you don’t have to be anything else but you’.

Co-produced by Nail and Pat Manske, the recording took place at The Zone in Dripping Springs, Texas. Nail played guitars, mandolin and resonator.  Drums, percussion and loops are credited to Manske and a host of other artists contributed including Bukka Allen on keyboards and synthesizer and Gregg White on upright and electric bass. Shannon McNally adds backing vocals on a number of tracks, adding her weight to the particularly breathtaking All This Time, which brings to mind Son Volt’s Jay Farrar’s solo work on TERROIR BLUES.

The title track, with its moody synths and driving bass, is as radio-friendly as Nail has ever been and he fondly remembers his deceased stepfather on Try As I Might, drawing comparisons between their struggles with mental illness. The enchanting piano-led Silent War, beautifully decorated by strings, enters Radiohead territory. Other tracks that impress are the heavily synthesized Something More and Endless Plain, which bookends the album and urges the listener to embrace oneself and continue to exist as best as you can in a messed-up world.

A somewhat melancholic mood has prevailed across much of Nail’s work and BEHIND THE HEADLIGHTS is no exception. However, it’s a profoundly engaging listen that sounds better after each subsequent spin and is undoubtedly Nail’s most impressive outing to date. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Ashley McBryde Lindeville Warner Music

From time-to-time albums come about by chance, a casual studio jam captured ending up as a valued recording perhaps or a live performance archived and released many years later to critical acclaim,

Ashley McBryde’s latest recording is a point in case. What started off as a random songwriting week in a rural cabin outside Nashville, grew legs and has culminated in a thirteen-song album of material composed by McBryde and a number of like-minded writers. An eagle-eyed observer, McBryde’s songs have often focused on the minor detail of small-town America and its characters and nuances, so it’s little surprise that she hooked up with Brandy Clark, an artist very much on the same wavelength, to co-write a number of the songs featured here. The other participants that worked on the songs are Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere, Nicolette Hayford, Connie Harrington and Benjy Davis, the common denominator being their collective talent of creating compelling stories from what may appear to be everyday mundane events.   

‘We stayed in Tennessee in this little house close to a lake. It was eight bottles of tequila, two cartons of cigarettes, one kitchen table and six individuals out of their minds,’ explains McBryde, who delegated the production duties to John Osborne of The Brothers Osborne, a first role at the controls for him. The album’s title is McBryde’s recognition of songwriter Dennis Linde, a prolific Nashville-based writer whose compositions were recorded by Elvis Presley (Burning Love), Garth Brooks (Callin’ Baton Rouge), and The Dixie Chicks (Goodbye Earl), to name but a few.

I have to admit to being somewhat apprehensive when a large collection of songwriters are credited on a record, fearing the ‘too many cooks’ syndrome and finding that compromise can often result in blandness. Those concerns were well and truly ousted on the first spin of LINDEVILLE, from the hilarious opener Brenda Put Your Bra On to the tender title track that closes the album. Included are three quick-fire portraits of typical small-town establishments, all written solely by McBryde. Ronnie’s Pawn Shop (31 secs), Forkem Family Funeral Home (31 secs) and Dandelion Diner (27 secs) all succeed in painting vivid landscapes in a ridiculously short time and with few lyrics. Raitiere takes the lead vocal on Jesus Jenny, telling of an ‘off the rails’ wild cat, (‘Titties popping out your turtleneck, you’re riding around in your red corvette, getting all the wrong kinds of respect’). Raising the temperature a significant number of notches, The Girl In The Picture is typical ‘full on’ McBryde, before she dons her Stetson and cowgirl boots on the twang laden, and lyrically slick Brandy Clark co-write, If These Dogs Could Talk. (‘There’s a three-legged beagle who lays there spread eagle on the driveway outside Patti’s trailer. He looks like he’s sleepin’ but he knows she’s dealin’ and that she’s been bonin’ the neighbour’). Benjy Davis takes the spoken vocal on Gospel Night At The Strip Club and a raucous cover of Phil Everly’s When Will I Be Loved also features.

There’s an overload of groove and wicked humour at large on LINDEVILLE. Reminiscent of Miranda Lambert’s collaboration with Jon Randall and Jack Ingram, THE MARFA TAPES from 2021, what kicked off as a fun songwriting week with well- matched writers, has captured the mood of those carefree days of creativity, resulting in arguably McBryde’s strongest recording to date. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Will Payne Harrison Tioga Titan Self Release

This album is named after a town in Louisiana where Will Payne Harrison hopes to become a titan of country music, if only in that small town. Well, personally, I think he deserves a bigger audience than might be offered there. Either way, he has made a good sounding album. He set the ground with a couple of previous albums and an EP. The title song is a wry, tongue in cheek look at being the biggest fish in the smallest of ponds.

The album was produced by Harrison in Nashville using some understanding players to bring to fruition his take on classic country fused with some swamp-infused Louisiana pop and rock. But he not only produced, he also recorded, mixed and mastered it. So you can be assured that this album sounds the way he wanted it to. Added to that, he played guitars, bass and keyboards and also the substantial fact that he wrote all the songs, apart from a favourite song of mine and that is Uncle Boudreaux Went To Texas from the pen of the fine singer/songwriter Ben De La Cour. It, as it should, takes a different emotional tone from the original, to bring the truth to an oft-told and  usually unbelieved story.

Nor can we underestimate Harrison’s writing, which is steeped in the traditions of country, a sense of a life lived in a down-to-earth fashion that is deep in heartbreak, low-self esteem, love found and love lost. So we have tears, we have beers, leers, sneers and fears. Pretty Little Dancer is a feisty fiddle and steel floor filler. Goodbye Sweetheart shows that Harrison has the vocal chops to deliver a slower song and get the kiss-off message across. His subject matter however can take on more serious topics, such as unconditional love for a young daughter in Despite my Sin and Simple Truths. The latter details some of the other good things life can offer up.

On the other hand, The Way characterises a person who only wishes to do good and to be a good listener. More cautionary and underscored with some twangy guitar is Don’t Drink Well Whiskey In The Lonestar State where the subject is happily advised to drink whatever is on offer but to stay away from the titular beverage in Texas. 

Lover’s Arms takes us once more down the path of detailing how he cannot be in that the place he wants to be (his lover’s arms) for a number of reasons - some nice pedal steel here too. The title track is a slow, bluesy riff with saxophone adding some grit and soulful swampiness to the mood of self deception and swagger. Broadway Lights is an ode to a lover, taken at a slow pace that gives a deeper sense of the song’s essential uncertainty.

Ten songs that make for a rewarding album and the coming of age for Harrison as an artist to be heard back there in Tioga and any place that good music can be appreciated.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Williams Brothers Memories To Burn  Regional

Perhaps a forgotten manifestation of the sibling harmonies of such acts as The Louvins through to the Everly Brothers and up to such contemporary duos as The Delevantes, The Brother Brothers, The Secret Sisters and especially The Cactus Blossoms, comes this very enjoyable album recorded by twins Andrew and David Williams, nephews of crooner Andy Williams. Back in the day between 1987 and 1993 they recorded three albums for Warner Brothers that had a modicum of success, with one single Can’t Cry Hard Enough cracking the US Top 50 singles chart and spawning a lot of covers and airplay.

This album was recorded live on 2-track tape back in 1995 but is only now seeing the light of day. It features the superb harmonies of the brothers in Andrew’s studio, with Andrew on guitar and a crack team of players including producer Marvin Etzioni playing bass, joined by fellow Lone Justice player, the late Don Heffington, on drums and the superlative steel guitar of Greg Leisz.

The album is mostly a selection of covers, all of which suit the sound of the five participants, including two songs from the pen of Robbie Fulks with Tears Only Run One Way and the more macabre She Took A Lot Of Pills (And Died), Dave Davie’s wonderful Death Of A Clown, and a very different take on Iris DeMent’s Let The Mystery Be. Piney Wood Hills was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Four of the songs, Cryin’ And Lyin’, You Can’t Hurt Me, Unanswered Prayers and Memories To Burn were written by Etzioni, who shows himself to be a fine writer. There is one song written by the brothers, which is She’s Got That Look In Her Eyes.

One wonders then whether this was released at the time, though I suspect that back then it would have got lost in the search for new bolder sounds, rather than ones that have something of a timeless, though undoubtedly retrospective origins. In many ways it is a sound that is as current as any and more pleasing than many. It prompts the question whether this is a release that may convince the Williams Brothers to go back into the studio or what other archival material they may have. 

Whatever the answer, they have given us these memories to burn into ours.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Cactus Blossoms If Not For You (The Bob Dylan Songs Vol. 1) Walkie Talkie

Given the subtitle, this would suggest a series of releases that may eventually feature as a full length album. The overall sound seems to be closer on first listen to the style of some of their earlier releases, rather then their most recent ONE DAY album. But in truth, it reflects the band’s steady development of a broader palette. It has something of the sparseness of touch, while retaining the added depth of keyboards and succinct arrangements that were associated with the last album, which was also released this year.

Brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkam had, obviously, a wide range of material to chose from, but the four chosen songs offer a perfect introduction to their sibling rich harmonies and stylistic viewpoint. The title song opens the short set with piano and guitar and gives the song a different perspective from the original but one that, while it recognises a sense of retro influence, sounds current and very much a part of the Cactus Blossoms present oeuvre. The other song choices include To Ramona and Tell Me That It Isn’t True, which have lyrics that refer to relationships in one way or another, though with a sense of uncertainty. The fourth choice, Went To See The Gypsy, tells something of a different tale with a sense of the mysterious.

All the songs come from early Bob Dylan albums from ’64, 69 and ’70. That in this instance makes perfect sense for the brothers and if there are additional volumes it may be that the songs will be chosen from later albums. Whatever that next release may be it is a welcome one, as The Cactus Blossoms offer a glimpse into a past and a future, both filled with harmony and honesty.

Review by Stephen Rapid. 

This Lonesome Paradise Nightshades Standard Times

While I don’t think this album will be to everyone’s taste, it still manages to be a captivating take on what we may as well call gothic dark-country western noir. Though operating under the band name above, it is a project headed by vocalist and composer E. Ray Bechard. He co-produced the album with Taylor Kirk (of Timbre Timbre), recording in Goat Mountain Studios in California using solar power, which in itself is far from the norm in many different ways.

There they assembled a team to realise this vision, that incorporates lonesome rivers, strange drifters, moonlight tragedy and funeral skies, all of which are, in fact, titles of songs on the album. The sound is underpinned by the effective use of the charged, atmospheric, retro sounding electric guitar sound of Bechard, Taylor Kirk and George Cessna. The latter is the son of Slim Cessna and has also played in Auto Club. He additionally fronts his own band The Snakes, both live and on record. Dean Shakked play bass, with the rhythm section completed by Kirk and Tory Chappel. Engineer and mixer Bart Budwig also adds the occasional, but highly effective, brass.

The opening track Scorpion Song sets the tone with Bechard’s languid, at times Nick Cave-like, tone which features some lonesome trumpet, keyboards, percussion, night jazz guitar and desolate whistling. Over the next ten tracks we are given variations on this sound and theme that may, to some, feel too similar in mood, but in fact creates an atmosphere that is tangible.

In Dreams is a long way away from Roy Orbison but creates its own sense of illusion and imagination. The guitar has a desert twang that is matched by the vocal melody to create that sparse sensory ambience. This forms a balance between some dark lyrical dissertations and lighter touches that, in the instance of a song like Blue For You, balances the female backing vocal against Bechard’s melodic vocal and some incisive guitar playing.

I was immediately taken with NIGHTSHADES, from its first moments to its final ones. It is undoubtedly a thoughtful, off-the-grid, out of town journey on less-traveled highways, desert motels with big moons, dark skies and roadside crosses, which in itself will be a recommendation for some. If so, this will be a small indication of paradise.

Review by Stephen Rapid 

New Album Reviews

Blake Brown and the American Dust Choir Don’t Look Back Self Release

This five-track EP follows the release of a debut album (2018) and a follow up EP (2019). Originally from Denver, Colorado this talented musician/songwriter took stock during Covid and put his energies during lockdown into creating these sweet sounds. A period spent in Nashville is always good for the soul and Brown decided to hook up with renowned producer Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo/Wilco). The results are quietly accomplished with a laid-back feel to the song arrangements. The understated playing is skilful as the melodies seep into the consciousness and leave quite an impression.

With Tiffany Brown (keyboards, piano, vocals), Blake dove-tails perfectly with his wife on both vocals and guitar; their harmony vocals adding another level to their gentle sound. They are joined by producer Ken Coomer (drums), Scotty Huff (bass) and Sam Wilson (guitar, pedal steel). The songs were recorded at Cartoon Moon Studios in East Nashville and the sense of keeping a perspective on everything that was happening around Covid is never far from the surface.

Opener, Head In the Clouds is a pep talk to keep a positive attitude and to retain your sense of self, ‘Keep your head in the clouds, Keep your feet on the ground.’ Good advice for the perplexed to never lose sight of your dreams.  The second song, Hold On, mines similar territory and speaks of keeping your spirits high, even if the feeling is one of time ticking away.

Rearview is a song about new beginnings, packing the car and heading out for another adventure. Leaving town can be bittersweet but not if you are sharing a common dream and never looking back. Hopefully Two Ghosts which follows, is not the actual result of the lovers adventure as it tells of two people who no longer share that dream and who have lost the will to fight for each other ‘I don’t even ask where you’re going’ sings Tiffany in an arresting co-vocal, with Blake answering ‘It’s no place we haven’t been before.’

Final song Wait For Me is a plea to keep a relationship vibrant, despite the distances between two people – can long-distance love endure over the miles? In the case of this husband and wife, there is a clear bond that is manifest in the music that they play together. Whether inviting friends to share their musical vision or simply performing as a duo, both Blake and Tiffany have forged a path that is increasingly leading towards greater success.

Review by Paul McGee

KB Bayley Flatlands Self Release

There is a space that we can try to occupy where time stands still. Some get it through a gentle evening stroll, others through quiet contemplation. However, should the spirit visit you through the medium of music then your sense of place doesn’t matter as the timeless nature of being in the moment captures you.

For all the rich gifts that have been bestowed upon KB Bayley, the Weissenborn guitar is his weapon of choice. The deep resonance and simple power of the instrument is best captured on the standout song, The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore, originally penned in 1965 by Jean Ritchie as a tribute to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad that used to be called “The Old Reliable.”

Another deeply felt cover is the tribute to the late Kelly Joe Phelps on his song The Black Crow Keeps On Flying, with its prophesies of doom, fear of darkening skies and the sense of an unknown presence… There are two further cover songs on this second album by Bayley, the gorgeous ode to pure love, Johnsburg, Illinois (Tom Waits) and the enduring mystery of it all, captured on final song, Maybe It’s Time (Jason Isbell).

The other six songs are all written by Bayley and they capture his impressive fingerstyle guitar prowess as various renditions of acoustic blues are woven into the arrangements. The title track is a reflective look at lost love and Driftwood Avenue is a look back at early days, old memories and friends remembered. Gavin Thomas contributes atmospheric harmonica on this song and also on the equally immersive Year Zero, a song that speaks of new beginnings and starting over.

With such stripped-down songs, there is a tendency to veer towards a feeling of melancholy. However, Bayley tends to point as much at a knowing understanding and message of hope, despite all the fall out of bitter experience. Time Machine wants to capture a moment and freeze the feeling of being in love, but then we are faced with the possibility that a special someone has passed on in the song, World Without You ‘Everything is different in a world of all those things you left behind, everything you had, apart from time.’

This is another testament to the sublime guitar playing of Bayley and his vocal carries a resignation in the sweet delivery that has you wishing for a happy ending to this journey through the past, the ghosts in our heads and the dreams of tomorrow. Well worth your time.

Review by Paul McGee

Jake Blount The New Faith Smithsonian Folkways

This musical artist is a keeper of the flame. Paying due reverence to all that have gone before, Blount mines the deep seams of traditional Black music and finds a rich vein of inspiration with which to point forward to future directions.

The album is conceptual in nature, split into three separate Psalm sections, each of which contains four tracks… Basing it somewhere in a dystopian future where the earth has been rendered useless by the forces of climate change, we are equally plunged back onto the past of the black struggle to overcome slavery and contrasting feelings of despair and hopefulness that walked with generations on the freedom road.

Starting out with a deferential bow to the past, we are introduced to a rendition of the old Gospel standard, Take Me To the Water, mixed with a prayer, recounting the actions of ancestors who succeed in destroying much of the abundance offered by nature in their greed and thirst for material gains. We are plunged into the spiritual essence of the sacrifice and suffering of both the past and present in the ongoing search for freedom to live unencumbered lives.

Traditional banjo and fiddle are mixed with rap verse and handclaps on Downward Road and the hypnotic rhythm gives the sense of frustration inherent in the attempt to make sense of this new world. Didn’t It Rain looks at struggles to assert independence and to move towards higher ground and a more enlightened understanding. It’s both heartfelt and soulful and leaves an impression of Tom Waits conversing with Solomon Burke as two sides of the RnB canon.

Section two of the album tells of the journey undertaken by the survivors of the apocalypse and their journey towards a new utopia. People die, twenty-seven in all, to a combination of storms, disease and hanging, the small band of survivors finding and settling on an island. Death and a path to Heaven feature in the following three songs, Death Have Mercy, City Called Heaven and They Are Waiting For Me, the fragility of life explored in a combination of frustration (Rapper, Demeanour), soulful praise for the afterlife and the hope inspired in meeting loved ones again beyond the veil.

The concept is very much the singular vision of Blount. He plays all the instruments on some songs, focusing on vocals and banjo, fiddle and guitar on other arrangements. He mixes old standards into the songs, using segments of field recordings by Alan Lomax, Son House, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson and enslaved Africans in Jamaica in 1688.

The jazz inflected rhythms, strings and percussive handclaps feature regularly as the album songs unfold towards an ending which asks that we don’t, Give Up the World, and another strong performance from rapper, Demeanor. The reflection that the earth once had to be born, or brought into existence, gives the message that life will persist and the resilience shown by humans will always endure.

It’s a brave departure in terms of establishing a modern Folk expression for African American history.  The message is universal in theme and the urge to break the chains that bind will always compel the human spirit to move in a  forward direction. The Gospel sources in many of these songs deliver a message that not only echoes the past, but points to the real depth of spirituality that runs through us all.  It’s country blues, social commentary, and rap entwined with the poetry of anger and resilience.

Label, Smithsonian Folkways, stands for supporting cultural diversity and musical heritage. Blount himself is dedicated to extensive research of Black and Indigenous mountain music and he reflects own experience as an LGBTQ activist in his roots inspired creativity. Certainly, an album that leaves a lasting impression.

Review by Paul McGee

Florence Dore Highways & Rocketships Propellor Sound

Confession time first. I was totally unaware of Florence Dore or her music prior to witnessing the Nashville-born and North Carolina-based artist’s blistering live set at Dee’s Cocktail Lounge in Nashville during AmericanaFest 2022. That dynamic performance was discharged with outright confidence and no end of wit by Dore and a killer three-piece band. As her act progressed, the penny dropped as to who her band members were. Her drummer and husband, Will Rigby, was a founding member of the ace power poppers The DB’s, as well as being Steve Earle’s drummer for many years.  Her bass player Gene Holder, was also a member of that New York combo and completing the line up was Mark Spencer, a long-time member of Son Volt and whose guitar and pedal contributions to their 2009 album, AMERICAN CENTRAL DUST, was a major factor in that album being an all-time favourite of mine.

On completion of their set, Dore presented me with a copy of the album for review, and I was left wondering if the studio versions would match the intensity, gusto, and infectious enthusiasm of what I had just witnessed. The answer is a resounding yes with a capital Y.

Firstly, a Ladybird version of Dore’s intriguing back story: Her previous album, PERFECT CITY, dates back to 2002 and in the intervening decades she excelled academically, earning a PhD in English at The University of California at Berkeley, fellowships at New York University, and is a member of the Steering Committee for Post45, which is a group of scholars that have been working on American Literature and Culture since 1945. She also found time to host a conference at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, write a book and, most importantly, raise a child with her husband.

It's hardly any wonder that it has taken Dore over two decades to return to the studio and put down the ten tracks that make up HIGHWAYS AND ROCKETSHIPS. Her core sound falls somewhere between the striking melody of Sheryl Crow and the rawness and attitude of Kathleen Edwards. The title track kicks off proceedings at full pace and is followed by the gloriously loose and smouldering Sweet To Me, complete with swirling guitars, perfectly positioned behind Dore’s grained vocals. The brooding Cut The Spotlight, could be Aimee Mann covering The Velvet Underground and the raunchy Rebel Debutante, one of many standout tracks, tells a tale of the demise of an individual born with a silver spoon in her mouth.  Thundercloud (Fucking With Your Heart), as the title would imply, is aimed at an unfaithful Romeo.

She signs off with And The Lady Goes, which includes the line ‘meteor comes in ruin, leaves its crater in the ground,’ which pretty well sums up the blistering head-on impact of this reservoir of jaw-dropping tunes.  

Each year unearths previously unknown exceptional artists to us all at Lonesome Highway, it’s one of the joys of our enterprise. For this writer, Florence Dore is most certainly one of the discoveries of 2022.

Review by Declan Culliton

Adam Hood Bad Days Better Soundly

With a musical repertoire that lands somewhere between country and southern blues, the Opelika, Alabama born artist Adam Hood has been recording albums for over two decades, starting with his debut release 21 TO ENTER in 2002. During that period, he has toured with a host of artists including Miranda Lambert, Todd Snider, Leon Russell, and Pat Green. The aforementioned Miranda Lambert is somewhat responsible for Hood’s standing as both a songwriter and performer, having stumbled upon him performing solo in a near-empty dance hall in Texas. Hugely impressed by his performance, she put him in contact with her producer Frank Liddell, who signed Hood to his publishing company Carnival Music, which resulted in him having his songs recorded by Lambert, Little Big Town, Anderson East, Whiskey Myers, and Lee Ann Womack.

Hood’s status amongst his peers is further acknowledged by the contributors on BAD DAYS BETTER.  Backing vocals are added by both Lambert and Texan singer songwriter Courtney Patton, and his studio band for this album was Blackberry Smoke. Completing the input of luminaries was Brent Cobb, who handled the production duties at Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia.

Whereas the record’s opener, with its upbeat declaration, is laid back acoustic blues, Hood’s country leanings are represented on Harder Stuff and Low Road, complete with vocal contributions from Lambert and Patton respectably.  Both the country and blues genres blend seamlessly into southern rock on the album’s other eight tracks, with Business With Jesus and Livin’ Don’t Give A Damn being particularly standout selections.

There is an honesty and realism embedded in Hood’s lyrics throughout, akin to a middle-aged man looking over his shoulder with some degree of regret, but with an inherent positivity going forward. With those razor-sharp lyrics and contributing musicians that rise to the occasion, there’s much to savour on an album that is well worth your investigation.  

Review by Declan Culliton

Courtney Patton Electrostatic Self Release

I find it incredible that Texan Courtney Patton’s profile still remains somewhat understated, given the quality of her writing and honeyed vocals. My initial introduction to her was by way of her solo acoustic performance at Americanafest a number of years back, when she appeared in the back yard of The Groove Record store on Calvin Avenue. Her recorded output from her debut album TRIGGERING A FLOOD from 2013, up to her 2018 release WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FLY ALONE, reinforced my opinion of an artist who should be a household name in roots and country music.

Married to fellow singer songwriter Jason Eady, she divides her time between her art, touring and raising their family. Those familiar with Patton would no doubt have tuned into her Sequestered Songwriters live streams during Covid, when she and Eady invited a number of their close friends, including Jamie Lin Wilson, Cody Jinks and Suzy Bogguss, to entertain us during those dark and uncertain times.

Her latest recording finds Patton stretching her musical horizons while continuing to take things at her customary relaxed pace. Her writing and vocals are as formidable as ever but the melodies and musical contributions reflect more universal influences, with more soulful (Night Like the Old Days), bluesy (Do You Feel Love, Dog Getting Blues), and often jazzy (So Flies The Crow) overtones on display than on her back catalogue. That’s not to say that she’s abandoned her country roots, tracks such as Hold Fast, This Heart, and the title track, more than adequately see to that.

Sharing the production duties with her husband and Gordy Quist of Band of Heathens fame, she invited a host of seasoned players to join in the fun. Her regular partner in crime, Jamie Lin Wilson, adds vocals, as does Kelley Mickwee, a fellow band member of Jamie’s in The Trishas. Geoff Queen (Kelly Willis, Reckless Kelly) plays guitar and pedal steel, piano and keyboards are by Trevor Nealon (Rodney Crowell, Jack Ingram), Heather Stalling (Old 97’s) plays fiddle, the bass is by Naj Conklin (John Dee Graham, Jason Eady) and Richard Millsap (George Strait, John Fogerty) plays drums. Each play their part in complementing Patton’s perfectly paced vocals throughout.

A tantalising flavour of what Patton is capable of, ELECTRSTATIC may very well be the album that results in her reaching a wider audience. If this is your gateway into her music, savour the pleasure of sitting back with your headphones on and enjoying these ten tracks, and don’t forget to pass the word on.

Review by Declan Culliton

John Fullbright The Liar Blue Dirt

A decade ago, with a Grammy nomination under his belt for his debut studio album FROM THE GROUND UP, Oklahoma born and raised John Fullbright was hailed as the most likely to reach dizzy industry levels amongst the many singer songwriters being pigeonholed in the Americana classification.  However, the intervening years, prior to the release of this album, yielded only one recording in the equally impressive SONGS from 2014.

An introverted individual - the album’s cover image speaks volumes in this regard - and one that appears to balk at rather than cherish the prospect of fame, you’re left with the impression of an artist most content behind a piano, playing his full-hearted songs in isolation, rather than performing to rooms full of adoring fans. ‘So, I drink this gin and I take these pills, just because I don’t have social skills,’ claims Fulbright on Social Skills, which is possibly more literal than tongue-in-cheek.

Whether the eight-year gap between THE LIAR and its predecessor was due to striving for perfection or otherwise on his part, the resulting twelve songs are a reminder of the intensity and fervour that he possesses as a writer and musician. The intervening years between albums found him relocating from small town Bearden (population 136), 80 miles north to Tulsa and immersing himself in the local music scene there, both as a solo performer, and fronting and playing in bands. To that end, his latest album does represent a collective rather than solo presentation, with the musical chemistry provided by a host of fellow Okies and close friends including Stephen Lee, Paul Wilkes, Jesse Aycock, Aaron Boehler and Paddy Ryan. That sense of musical community is reflected in the gloriously loose playing on the album as well as Fulbright’s depiction of the recording process as ‘just like playing music in Tulsa. Everybody kind of does whatever they do, and it works.’

As if to introduce himself to an audience unfamiliar with his work, he begins business with Bearden 1645. Not surprisingly piano-led, it’s an autobiographical account of his fascination with the piano from an early age and the comfort and escape that it presented him (‘I found that if you’re feeling down it can help you. If you’re feeling lost it can ground you and if you can’t say it you don’t have to’). Far from an acoustic ballad, the band kick in mid-song, a pointer towards what is to feature on many of the eleven tracks that follow. Paranoid Heart, both lyrically and musically calls to mind early career Warren Zevon. Fullright’s capacity to display anguish, truthfulness and reliance all in one song comes into play in the prayer like title track, even if the sentiment is unlikely to be preached in any substance or alcohol abuse recovery programme (‘God grant me whiskey and I promise I'll be good. They say you help the needy, I think it's understood’). Tenderness and forgiveness surface in the gently seductive Lucky and a sense of impending doom is never far from the surface on the thunderous Poster Child.

Bolder than his previous albums and a deeply satisfying listen, THE LIAR endorses Fullbright as one of the most astute writers of his time. With zero misfires and loaded with emotional honesty, it’s a body of work well worth investing in.

Review by Declan Culliton

The Wynntown Marshals Big Ideas Wynntown

Edinburgh, Scotland-based band The Wynntown Marshals have, over fifteen years and four albums, created their own unique brand of roots music. It’s not difficult to pinpoint their influences, each of their recordings has traces of Son Volt, Springsteen, and closer to home, Teenage Fanclub. Their fusion of country-influenced power pop is a throwback to the burgeoning U.K. pub rock scene of the early 70s, when bands like Brinsley Schwarz, Bees Make Honey and Clover ruled the roost and played weekly residencies to packed music pubs.

It's very much business as usual on BIG IDEAS, with the current line-up of key songwriter Keith Benzie (guitars, vocals), David McKee (bass, vocals), Ali Petrie (keyboards, piano), Iain Sloan (guitars, pedal steel, backing vocals), and Brendan O’Brien (drums, percussion) recreating their hallmark sound, sometimes laid back and other times with driving rhythms.  The production and engineering were overseen by Andrew Taylor, and the project initially kicked off in 2018. Line-up changes and the pandemic delayed the completion until this year.

Navigating its way across a number of emotions, the title track addresses the increasing quandaries associated with dependence on social media. Lovelorn despair is visited on the tuneful Keys Found In The Snow and the chirpy opener and stand-out track, New Millennium, is laced with cut throat energy.  Bookending the album on a somewhat gloomy yet pragmatic note is the less animated but equally stirring Full Moon, Fallow Heart, (‘Nothing in the world is ever perfect, really think I like things that way’).

Fifteen years into their career and with a number of changes in personnel, The Wynntown Marshals remain the flag bearers for Americana in the U.K, further evidenced by this highly enjoyable album.

Review by Declan Culliton

Caleb Caudle Forsythia Soundly

Reading the liner notes that accompany Caleb Caudle’s latest album, you’re left in little doubt that the North-Carolina born singer songwriter has poured his heart and soul into this ten-track recording. The list of contributors reads like a ‘who’s who’ of Nashville’s finest bluegrass players, with household names like Jerry Douglas (dobro, lap steel), Sam Bush (mandolin, fiddle) and Dennis Crouch (bass) all credited, together with Forrest Cashion (organ), Fred Eltringham (percussion) and backing vocalists Elizabeth Cook, Carlene Carter and Sarah Peasall McGuffey. Caudle carried out all the he guitar duties throughout.

Written during that period of universal bewilderment and uncertainty and with his income stream amputated, Caudle approached the song writing on the basis that it may very well have been his final recording, not surprisingly resulting in songs that gave thought to his innermost retrospections, and his appreciation of the simple beauties that surround us. Much of the material took shape on his daily hikes in the mountains of Stokes County, North Carolina, where Caudle and his wife took refuge during the lockdown.

The production was overseen by John Carter Cash, who gathered all those Nashville- based musicians at the legendary Cash Cabin post-pandemic to work on the arrangements for the songs. Working with that talented crew, it’s little wonder that the playing is top-notch, integrated in every respect with Caudle’s chilled vocal deliveries. Snatches of J.J. Cale can be identified in the spirited Texas Tea. In contrast, the slightly slower paced I Don’t Fit In may reflect on a disturbing period in the author’s existence, a sentiment which may also be mirrored on the track Crazy Wayne. More relaxed episodes are recollected on Whirligigs. A co-write with Brennen Leigh, it revives memories of the simple things in life, such as Caudle’s elderly uncle working the fields on his tractor.

In choosing a flowering plant as the title of the album, Caudle draws a line in the sand from a period of often unfulfilling life choices to a regained energy and rebirth. Another album conceived under the pandemic umbrella, FORSYTHIA presents the listener with a comforting suite of well-constructed and perfectly executed songs. 

Review by Declan Culliton

New Album Reviews

Charlie Sutton Trout Takes Chuckwagon

Now please don’t scroll on when I tell you that this album is based on the subject of fishing, because, even though I am a non-fisher, I have totally fallen under the spell of this gorgeous eight song EP and I want you to hear it too. Multi instrumentalist Charlie Sutton, through the medium of country/blues/folk songs about one of his favourite pastimes, takes the listener on an exploration of family, the cycles of life, nature and simplicity in his latest self-produced recording, TROUT TAKES. Casting off with Fishin’ Hole, the grooving country blues eases you into the simple delights and contentment to be enjoyed in a day’s fishing, augmented by the pedal steel and dobro playing of Dave Manion (Eilen Jewell). There’s a nonchalance about Sutton’s delivery that serves to emphasise the laid back nature of this collection. Take Just A Man, wherein we find Sutton in a reflective mode, adding piano, acoustic guitar (and there’s Manion’s pedal steel again) in a meditation on where he is in life currently.

Telling stories from the animal’s perspective has always been part of Sutton’s repertoire, and here he continues this to comical effect in the amusing One Eyed Trout, ‘I’m a sad sad case, even try to get caught/‘Cos it’s better to be wanted than it is to be forgot’, the hapless fish with the ‘mouth full of hooks’ relates on another laid back offering, the groove established by the drums of Jason Beek and interspersed with the plaintive harmonica and steel bodied guitar playing of Sutton. The inevitable ‘one that got away’ is described in Chrome Ghost, a fascinating tale of an episode on his native Idaho’s Clearwater River, which goes some way towards explaining to the sceptic why fishing is so addictive. Sutton recently explained that there’s a rhythm to fly fishing that he finds therapeutic and meditative. He expresses this ‘being in the moment’ feeling very well throughout the album and especially on Fisherman’s Dream, where you will probably find yourself drifting away with him before you know it. As well as the aforementioned Dave Manion and Jason Beek, Sutton is also joined throughout by his other long term collaborator, Drew Myers, on bass.

The album is dedicated to his late grandfather, Chuck Sutton, whose spirit inhabits the songs, and  for whom the closing song The Patriarch is written. Chuck was responsible for starting Charlie’s love of fishing when he was a boy, and Charlie in turn is passing this down the generations, as witnessed in Flat Rock River, sung with his son, Roscoe. The cover art is fascinating, too, with a photo of a wood carving by Chuck and quirky line drawings (both found and original) of fish related paraphernalia.

Did I mention that this has already joined my ‘best of 2022’ collection?

Review by Eilís Boland

Pat Burgess The Song Box Self Release

A veteran of the roots music scene in Ireland for over four decades, Pat Burgess has been writing and performing Americana music long before the genre earned that title.

Founding member and lead singer with The Rye River Band, THE SONG BOX is Burgess’ debut solo album, having previously recorded albums with that band. The album takes its title from his trusted guitar, one with which he has written all his songs and which was purchased in 1974 for the princely sum of fifty-five pounds. Alongside being Burgess’ favourite instrument, it was also played by both Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood, when they stayed with the Guinness family in Leixlip, Co. Kildare in the 1980s.

Included on the album are eleven original songs penned by Burgess and his arrangement of the traditional song Bridget Mulligan. The styles shift from the rock and roll of opener Buddy, to the border country and western The Ballad Of Old Boone, and the folk ballad Love to You. Classic singer songwriter songs such as The Quay and Years End also impress.

No doubt a labour of love for Burgess, THE SONG BOX was recorded at Poppyhill Studios, Co. Kildare between April 2019 and December 2021. It features contributions from a host of Irish musicians including Rye River Band members Pat Sweeney, Paddy Faughan, and is a proud celebration of how vital music has been in the lifetime of Burgess.

The Rye River Band remain regular Saturday night performers at the famous Brazen Head Pub in Dublin. Pop along next time you’re in town and no doubt material from this charming album will appear on the setlist.   

Review by Declan Culliton

Dillon Vanders Wildfires Self Release

Debut eight track release from the Long Beach native, who makes the best use of the California location for inspiration and to bring in the talents of well know locals to help create the music. The producers are Michael Dumas (an experienced producer engineer who has worked with artists as diverse as Dwight Yoakam and John Mayall) and, artist in her own right, and fellow Long Beach resident Shayna Adler. Add to that Greg Leisz on electric and pedal steel guitars and Al Bonhomme also on guitars as part of the noted team of players. It was recorded in the Los Angeles studio owned by former Doors guitarist, Robbie Krieger.

Vanders has a rasp to his voice and a set of songs that are observational and personal. Overall, the tone is a mix of folk, pop and 70s country, but comes out made for the now rather than for a sense of retro revision. I read that he has worked in the cannabis industry in his home state, something that doubtless has seeped into his consciousness on occasions. He is a reported fan of Simon & Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell, as well as some classic country storytelling.

The album flows along at a pace that never drags and it keeps you listening. There are a number of songs that work very well such as the dirty edged Russian River Blues, a track that Vanders’s vocal grit helps to give additional texture to the more rock oriented sound. Softer in sound but no less effective is Racing In Circles, with Leisz’s steel gliding behind the vocal. A ballad of searching and finding a fiery relationship that is Wildfires gives the influences, mentioned above, a place to emerge into something solid. For Peat’s Sake has a slightly more 70s country rock feel. with banjo prominent. Truth And Lies has, again, more of that California feel to it that is pleasing to the ear. The final track of this, what I suppose is a,  mini album is a fine track to finish on. Paradise is an uptempo track with effective twangy guitar on a song that calls for a closeness on the day he goes to meet his maker, so that the lyric has a darker tone than the music. An interesting debut for Vanders. that opens a number of possibilities for him for future releases.  

Review by Stephen Rapid

Alex Key Neon Signs And Stained Glass Self Release

All the signs are that Alex Key loves his new traditionalist country but also reaches back further for his inspiration. His mother Karen acts a co-producer (with Alex), as well as his manager, and that suggests he was reared on the real deal and this is the foundation of this latest excellent (mini) album release.

Key pens all of the eight tracks here and the titles tell their own story, from the bar-room living of the title through such forlorn fables as Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, Tomorrow I’ll Be Over You  or the restlessness of the wandering hand-for-hire in Can’t Love The Leaving Out Of A Cowboy. Everything Must Go fits neatly into any number of country songs, dealing with selling all the things that are directly related to a failed relationship.

He opens the album with Turn Anywhere Into A Honky Tonk using the philosophy that you can turn any place, anywhere, anytime into an environment conducive to some good music, good times and good libations.The Good Life is an uptempo positive song that was de rigueur for radio play by any of those hat wearing dudes back in the 90s. The North Carolina native sure knows how to get the best out of these songs, down to employing some of Nashville’s A-Team players, many of whom I’d bet played on the albums of some of his influences. It is an album that one can easily point to as an example of what is undoubtably country music, devoid of the current trends towards pop, hip-hop or any other unwelcome (in the main) deviation. In order to process you need to know the rules and this is something that Key does.

He has a voice totally suited to what he does, both in terms of his singing as well as his attitude. He handles the ballads as easily as he does the uptempo songs. That fact is writ large in the neon signs that symbolically hover above the album. The stained glass side of the title is again a reference to the Saturday night and Sunday morning contradictions in the music, as well as cleverly referencing the driving vessel used the night before.

One has to hope that next time out there may be a ten or twelve track set of songs, as all the signs are that this independent artist is poised for a bigger breakthrough. Although the music has that pre millennium sound, it is just as relevant today for many. That next step is key for Key, but here the foundations have been laid for many a cowboy boot to dance upon.

Review by Stephen Rapid. 

Anders Thomsen Seven Songs  Copperhead

As the title denotes, this is another mini-album release. This time it is from a former member of the very entertaining alt-country outfit, The Ex-Husbands trio, that also included Mark Miller who went on to play with BR5-49’s Chuck Mead. This time out, Thomsen mixes his country with some blues and rock. His talent as a guitar player is evidenced on the tracks. He is joined by bassist Rachael Shan and drummer Chris Fullerton.

The album opens with a much repeated theme of I Don’t Like The Liquor but I’m sure you can guess the next line? It’s a hillbilly honky workout that is fun. Somewhere in the same district is Money Honey, wherein our hero convinces us that he ain’t in love with his girl’s money but rather with her soul. Big, Fine Woman is one of those old school blues/rock songs that has plenty of double entendres to contend with. The slow Show Some Mercy, which closes the album, shows that aside from the rousing bar-room tracks he can easily handle the emotion of a slow, heartfelt, soul infused ballad. Thomsen wrote all the material and shows that there are a number of tangents he could develop on a full length release.

Thomsen has a seasoned voice that has been shaped by many a night in a smokey bar, singing and playing his heart out. And play he does throughout the album, which features some very tasty picking that shows his talent here on record and undoubtedly is intensified during a live performance. Thomsen seems one of those performers who needs to do what he does, regardless of the possible rewards. Those come in doing it, and doing it the way he wants to.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Skinny Dyck Palace Waiting Self Release

The euphemistically subtitled The Latest Song Hits From … suggest that Mr Ryan Dyck, a Canadian musician and pedal steel player, knows that while the hits keep a coming, that they may not be actually be going anywhere bigtime! But there are bound to be enough of us out in listener land who will appreciate his concerted efforts. Produced by veteran player Billy Horton and The Juicebox Kid, in studios in Texas and Alberta, and utilising some stalwart players, makes it a step up from his previous release GET TO KNOW LONESOME, which was produced on a portable Tascam recorder and came out in 2020.

The music is steeped again in retro inspired traditional country. One song (a bonus track added to the originally intended six track version - yet another of these, often too short, mini-album confections) is Be A lIttle Quieter, written by Porter Wagoner and sounding that it could have easily been released as cover at the time it came out first, which believe me, is no bad thing. Much of the rest of the album takes a similar route and root. The remaining tracks are written by Dyck - two with Michael Granzow. All underline his old school country obsession that prevailed at the time he recorded these songs, which is obviously the start point but, as with a number of his contemporaries, this is used as a base to create something new from something old. A case in point, Ripe There On The Vine again sounds like a Wagoner inspired creation with its blend of old Telecaster riffs, deep baritone guitar and wholesome steel guitar. It also shows that Dyck’s voice is both effective and diverting.  

That process has given us some great material with Hey Who’s Counting?, Jackson Hole, In On The Upswing to name three more tracks which resonate. The latter was also a single from the album and contains the lyrical reference to the title. It has some baritone guitar and also great steel that is both effective and engaging as the song creeps up on you. There is much to return to here that will grow with each play, underlining that an understanding of the form and the talent to deliver it in such a entertaining fashion is worth more than hits (in the acknowledged sense) and rather that it hits home in an alt.vintage way. Like some, Dyck may move on to different styles, eras and visions but it is hoped there is more of this to come our way first. We’ll be waiting.

Review by Stephen Rapid

The Mystix Tru Vine Mystix Eyes

Album number eight from a band who continue to create music that engages and entertains. Formed in 2002 by Jo Lily and Bobby B Keyes, the early albums were a welcome addiction with an eclectic mix of country influenced swamp rock, blues roots and americana sounds. This new record is full of personality, from the unique vocals of Lily to the fine ensemble of players that include many notable guest musicians. The core band is Jo Lily ( vocals, acoustic guitar), Bobby B Keyes (guitar), Stu Kimball (guitar), Neal Pawley (guitar), Marty Ballou (bass) and Marco Giovinoo (drums).

Lily has a voice that reminds me of Roger Chapman (Family, Streetwalkers) with a raspy vibrato and a soulful delivery. It certainly adds great character to these songs and the fine guitar playing heightens the experience with an atmospheric edge. The project delivers songs that include personal demons, dealing with lost love and down-on-your-luck laments.

Opening with Satisfy You and a slow menacing groove that teases, the arrangement builds with guitars and organ fuelling the dramatic interplay. It lays down a real marker of what is to follow on this very impressive album.

Lifetime Worth Of Blues is a sensual delve into the pot of heartbreak that epitomises the blues genre. Up Jumped the Devil has a wicked drum shuffle and a pulsing bass line that underpins the guitar and organ layers of sonic attack. Lily singing like his life is on the line and wringing great dynamics from the arrangement. A standout.

I Guess I Lose is another terrific song, all slow burn and regret as Lily sings of losing in the game of love. Again, a great band execution delivers a very convincing country inflected blues. The easy groove of Midnight In Mississippi is another addictive track and the understated guitar riff warms the soul.

On it goes, with hardly a weak track and Sugar Baby reminds me of the deepest Muddy Waters workouts, with superb guitar and banjo interplay underpinning the passionate vocals of Lily. Devil Try To Steal My Joy is a prime example of the band tucked into a deep groove and Lily laying down his vocal licks on top of the dangerously cool ensemble playing.

My Epitaph includes clarinet, trumpet and trombone in a slight departure from the other tracks, and the country sound of Which Side Of Heartache ’22 is a perfect song for the great Willie Nelson to cover.

Change My Mind has some mean harmonica parts from Jerry Portnoy, one of thirteen guest players on the album. Other guests include the impressive talents of Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), Doug Lancio (Bob Dylan, John Hiatt), Duke Levine (Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Raitt), Spooner Oldham (Aretha Franklin, Muscle Shoals house band), and many others…

Without having credits as to who played on what track, it is hard to identify all the parts that come together to make up this very impressive whole. However, across forty-plus minutes the eleven songs are an example of this band at the height of their powers. They have certainly made records that come close to matching the peaks of this one, but they certainly have not made a better album. A real keeper and one of my albums of the year so far.

Review by Paul McGee

Beth Nielsen Chapman Crazy Town Cooking Vinyl

When we look at some of the classic female singer-songwriters over the years, we can draw a direct line from Carole King all the way through the time line that links Mary Chapin Carpenter to Dar Williams, and Shawn Colvin to Patty Griffin. The baton passes regularly as each adds to the musical legacy that endures and inspires. Beth Nielsen Chapman deserves her place at this table with her consistently high standards giving her entry to such an exclusive club.

This album, her first in four years, delivers the expected high points and also includes a few curve balls as Beth experiments a little with her sound. All Around the World opens the album and has a very commercial sound with a sing-along chorus and squarely aimed at radio play. Not that she needs such validation across a career that has seen increasing plaudits bestowed upon her song writing and her skills at absorbing and defining the inner emotions of living on this crazy spinning globe together.

Her reputation grew initially out of deep personal loss and classic songs like Sand and Water, Emily, Years and The Moment You Were Mine, helping to define her signature sound. Of course, Beth is as renowned for the songs she has written for others in a long list that includes Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Tanya Tucker, Beth Midler, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

Put A Woman In Charge is a plea to see some common sense in our race to destroy the planet through a combination of divisive ego and foolish pride displayed by our (mostly) male rulers. Beth has a manifesto, delivered in the lines ‘Time has come, We’ve got to turn this world around, Call the mothers call the daughters, We need the sisters of Mercy now.’ Again, a commercial sound with an up-tempo beat.

Hey Girl (We Can Deal With It) is a call to arms to mobilise against all the barriers put in the way of female empowerment. The bright song arrangement masking the very pertinent message of ‘Hey girl, ya gotta give it time, It’ll be fine, We can deal with it.’ Again, classic economy of words that deliver such a potent punch.

4Leaf Clover has a nice soulful groove and a song that celebrates the attraction between the sexes, all sweet flirtation and sultry promises. Dancing With the Past has yet another commercial arrangement, reminiscent of early Sheryl Crow and it carries a message the living in the moment is where real contentment lies, ‘I surrender to the big ‘don’t know’ And the back and forth, and the ebb and flow.’

The Truth is one of only two songs written solely by Beth. It speaks of living a righteous life and sticking to fundamental principles. The truth will always win out in the end. The up-tempo arrangement on The Universe is a stand-out track with some superbly observed words to describe our confusion in the midst of all our mass communication techniques that ironically leave us all feeling a disconnect:  ‘All the whacked-out wonders of the modern world, Criss-crossed high tech telephone lines, Wound all ‘round our beautiful mother earth, Great big ball of electrical twine.’

Elsewhere, the wonderful reflection on the song Time perhaps sums up the unique talents displayed by this song-writing beacon: ‘Time is a river It goes by so fast, You can’t catch the future, Or get back the past.’ Dare I suggest, timeless in its message and delivery, and typical Beth Nielsen Chapman.

The Edge is the other self-penned track and it gently reflects upon the past and the struggle to reconcile old memories with living in the present: ‘ Beyond the borders of polite excuses, My pride is useless, that’s where the truth is, Out here on the edge of how I feel.’  Such sad sentiment and sense of forgiveness all wrapped up in these wise words.

Pocket Of My Past is a song about moving forward and leaving the mistakes of the past back where they belong. It’s almost a post-Covid song for those who feel disenfranchised. It has a nice arrangement that delivers an infectious groove and subtle horn sound that blends with the backing vocals.

Everywhere We Go delivers a sassy up-tempo beat with some sweet guitar and keyboard runs mixing with the harmonica parts. Walk You To Heaven is classic Beth, a song that offers hope for the future and the message that we are never alone once we reach out a hand: ‘On the road that’ll walk you to heaven, There are mountains and valleys to cross, Take comfort and hope cause the angels, Will find you whenever you’re lost.’

The message of hope always leads the way towards the shore in Beth’s work and this new album is a strong statement that the lady is not slipping quietly away, she’s just been gathering the powers in order to reappear upon our collective consciousness. An album that is well worth your time.

Review by Paul McGee

Mama’s Broke Narrow Line Free Dirt

Believe it or not, living out of a suitcase (or that should probably read ‘backpack’) is a chosen way of life for Canadians Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, who make up Mama’s Broke.

Having spent the last eight years constantly touring in their native country as well as across the US, Europe and even Asia, the influences they have absorbed inform their eclectic sound and lyrics deeply. This, their second album, is a gorgeous rich tapestry of folk influences from Nova Scotia, Ireland, England, Eastern Europe and the Appalachians, melding together to produce an intense, almost gothic, experience, one that grows with each listen.

Launching with Just Pick One, their philosophy that life is hard, but you chose a path and you will prevail, is introduced through their close vocal harmonies, Amy Lou’s guitar and Lisa’s clawhammer banjo (and enhanced by Joe Grass on exquisite dobro on this particular track). Next up is a musical triptych: their two sweet and expressive voices a capella and ‘in the round’ on the uplifting ‘Oh Sun’ runs into fiddle led instrumentals Pale Light and Forgetting Reel, with Eastern Europe and Klezmer influences very evident. Celtic influences dominate on the ballad Between The Briar & The Rose, a lament for a broken love affair. ‘Do right man, but not right now’ echoes Gillian Welch, who is a clear musical influence, and the love is unrequited, ‘don’t you wanna be my burden/I can carry you’. How It Ends explores a love that went sour, and is the most lyrically accessible song on the album.

Elsewhere, the listener has to work to decipher the dense, metaphorical lyrics which, like the instrumentation, are a truly collaborative effort. The title track, Narrow Lines, conveys the duo’s sadness at the creation of walls and barriers between and within nations, something that they have witnessed first hand on their travels. Most chilling is God’s Little Boy, where the protagonist is a terrorist fuelled by religious dogma ‘through the eyes of your father and the voice of your creator/You made your decision, you got a holy vision/Now you move with grace and deadly precision’. The short a capella October’s Lament was quite shocking to this reviewer until I learned from a recent interview that it is not actually about suicide but, in fact, expresses how Keeler felt when she got sober. Phew.

Co-produced with Bill Garrett in Montreal, this collection of reflective and contemplative songs, with its sparse but beautiful instrumentation, will greatly reward those who like their music to challenge them. I predict it may end up as a favourite for you, as it has for me.

Review by Eilís Boland

New Album Reviews

Derek Hoke Electric Mountain 3Sirens

Nashville resident Derek Hoke impacted the local underground music scene since moving there from Florence, South Carolina almost twenty years ago. Together with his recording and performing career, Hoke is the founder of the $2 Tuesday at 5 Spot in East Nashville, hosting and introducing scores of acts at that fabled venue, many of whom made their maiden appearances there before becoming household names in the Americana music genre.

Far from limiting himself to the role of MC, Hoke’s latest recording follows on from his 2017 album, the somewhat prophetically titled BRING ON THE FLOOD. Whereas that recording was Hoke’s thoughts on the unfolding political and environmental landscapes facing his country - emphasised by tracks like Love Don’t Live Around Here and When The Darkness Comes - his latest offering is altogether more bullish.

A self-taught musician, Hoke served his time playing sports bars and the like in South Carolina before moving to Music City and becoming a key player in the bohemian East Nashville musical community. As a result, contributors to his earlier recordings included like-minded neighbours Robyn Hitchcock, Jason Isbell, Luther Dickinson, Elizabeth Cook, and Aaron Lee Tasjan. Guests on this latest album include both Lillie Mae and Thayer Serrano.

Like many of his musical peers, his arrival in Nashville was anything but glamourous, he describes the experience in his own words: ‘In a weird sense, the biggest thing I ever did was make that decision to come here with my car and a mattress; to figure it out and to write some songs that I was proud of.’

On ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN, Hoke cruises from the relaxed to the more frenetic.  Standout tracks are the swirling Novocaine, co-written with the album’s producer Dex Green (Elvis Costello, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Allison Russell), and the mellow crescendo hitter and album opener, Wild and Free. The autobiographical and ZZ Top sounding Hush Your Mouth is a commentary on the new kids arriving in town, soon to accept that they’re only in the halfpenny place, relative to the talent surrounding them in Nashville. Say You Will is a laid-back country rock ballad recalling the sound of the early 70s and Hoke closes with On Top Of The Mountain, advising caution on the road to perceived stardom or in his own words ‘be careful what you wish for.’

Making music that blends together classic rock and roots, fans of Jonathan Wilson and Aaron Lee Tasjan will instantly connect with ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN, I certainly did.  

Review by Declan Culliton 

Amy Ray If It All Goes South Daemon

Georgia-born Amy Ray’s artistic origins date back to her high school days in Atlanta, when she and her childhood friend Emily Sailers formed Indigo Girls. That combination has recorded fourteen studio albums and three live albums to date and established them as career activists, both politically and environmentally.

Ray’s solo career has yielded six solo studio albums, the last being the exceptional HOLLER, released in 2018 and one that this writer regularly returns to. She has seldom been at a loss in attracting contributors to her recordings and the guests on this album include Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Allison Russell (vocals), Alison Brown (fiddle), Phil Cook (vocals and keys). and Sarah Jarosz (vocals and mandolin).

Recorded live to tape at Nashville’s Sound Emporium with Brian Speister at the controls, the final mix was by Bobby Tis from Tedeschi Trucks Band. Ray’s work has repeatedly found her drilling into issues such as racism, homophobia, and exploitation and those themes reappear across the ten tracks on IF IT ALL GOES SOUTH. 

The desolation and demise affecting much of rural America are considered on the powerful They Won’t Have Me. ‘I sit in diners with all the old men and they talk of work cause it’s all they ever did,’ sings Ray, followed by spiralling guitar work from her long-time ‘go-to’ guitarist Jeff Fielder. Some of Ray’s regular players that feature on the album are Daniel Walker (keys), Matt Smith (pedal steel), Adrian Carter (fiddle), Kerry Brooks (bass), and Jim Brock (drums). They are in fine form throughout and no more so than on the spirited opener, Joy Train and the gorgeously nostalgic and soulful Subway.

Recalling the inherent racism of her childhood, Ray is joined on vocals by Allison Russell for the impassioned Tear It Down (‘Tear it down, tear it down, that ragged cross of race. The stone and the ore beaten into monuments, that rose out of hate). Environmental suicide is addressed on the swinging Cowboys and Pirates (‘All these beaches are crawling with fools breaking Mama’s rules, if we don’t clean our shit up soon it’s all gonna go boom.’).

A creative fire that continues to burn, Ray’s work has consistently questioned and explored the darker side of her beloved American South. She does so with great aplomb once more with IF IT ALL GOES SOUTH, resulting in an album of fiercely intense songs nestled comfortably alongside emotional and introspective ballads.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Charley Crockett The Man From Waco Son Of Davy/Thirty Tigers

‘Everybody was telling me, ‘Go right, go right, go right, I went left. I had to hold on to what has gotten me this far.’ Sage words from an artist that has controlled his own musical destiny with great rewards and ignored the traditional career path under the control and thumbs of industry moguls. It has also resulted in eleven studio albums over the past seven years, from an artist who lives and breathes country music.

Somewhat ironically, Texan Charley Crockett was awarded the accolade of ‘Emerging Act of The Year’ at the Americana Award Show in 2021, despite having carved out his own career path since his debut album in 2015, with steadily growing album sales and sell-out tours both in the U.S., the U.K., and in Europe.

What started off as a demo session with his band The Blue Drifters at Bruce Robison’s Bunker Studio outside Austin, developed into this fifteen-track record that maintains Crockett’s prolific output of quality, self-titled, Gulf and Western music. It’s his second album this year, following in the footsteps of the excellent LIL’ G.L. PRESENTS JUKEBOX CHARLEY. Playing live in the studio with his regular players on his latest project, such was Crockett’s satisfaction with the takes that they were elevated from demos to masters, not surprisingly given the quality of the end product.

The piano-led instrumental opening track creates images of spaghetti western, dusty, small-town barrooms. It’s also a pointer toward the album’s direction, with tracks Cowboy Candy, Horse Thief Mesa, and the jazzy Trinity River being particularly cinematic. As you’d expect Crockett also includes a few ‘tears in your beer’ compositions, with Time of the Cottonwood Tree and Odessa. Other high points include the title track, complete with its Morricone-styled arrangements, the murder ballad July Jackson, and the sardonic Name On A Billboard, which takes a barbed dig at the industry movers and shakers. The characters that populate the songs may be fictional or closer to home. Either way, with killer arrangements that are suitably understated and Crockett’s pristine vocals, THE MAN FROM WACO is another chapter from an artist that has fully blossomed in recent years. 

In splendid voice throughout and telling his tales with his trademark semi-spoken lyrical style, Crockett’s songs are brimful of texture and detail. He can also take credit for introducing his kind of old-time country and western to an audience not previously exposed to a genre that isn’t currently considered hip or trendy. Hugely enjoyable from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Triggers & Slips What Do You Feed Your Darkness? Self Release

A band who to these ears appears to bridge the gap between some hardcore country, rock and folk influences - something they do it with some style. They are fronted by Morgan Snow, who wrote the majority of the songs here bar one, a co-write with Ashlee K Thomas, and two cover songs, one of which will be familiar to many (and is their latest single), a take on Dwight Yoakam’s It Won’t Hurt. It stands alongside Dwight’s version and doesn’t let the song down. The band name refers to the twin attributes of living that may be described as motivation and mistake.

They hail from Salt Lake City in Utah and have developed a scene for themselves there. The band and guests (there are nine musician credits on the album) have put together an album that is the sum of its parts and shows Triggers and Slips to be worthy of wider attention. As the title suggests, they don’t shy away from the darker sides of life and liaisons. The title track is the final song here and is largely delivered acoustically, showing off Snow’s stalwart voice and its capacity for conveying emotion. The song is prefaced by the uncredited unaccompanied I Could Be The Rain written by Utah Phillips (though he is credited with writing the song). It is a somewhat down beat end to the album, but one that adds a sense of reality to the direction of the recordings, and reflects the thoughts of a person who has not faced down some of these issues himself and has lived to tell the tale.

Family vs Business (a previous single) opens the album and details how, if the two are set against each other, there is usually one winner and it’s not the family. True Love may be something that can be found but is all too easily lost by “doing it wrong.” The song makes good use of Greg Midgley’ piano and Muskrat Jone’s pedal steel. I Didn’t Mean To is full of regret but regret delivered in an alluring fashion, with the band again in fine upbeat form. That subject is once again central to Return To Me, a country weeper that pleas for a return to help stabilise a relationship. Fatalism is what is shaping Going Nowhere, which is where the song takes us, with the realisation that that may be the best place to be. The lines of Done With Debbie reveal that the use of crystals, pendulums, talons and feathers have revealed nothing and too much and it is time to move on.

There is a nice change of vocal delivery on You Did It To Me Again, where Snow is joined by an equally powerful contribution from Lilly Winwood, that fits solidly into the classic country duet mode. There is an atmospheric intro to Future Variation, showing again that Snow is a crafted lyric writer with the lines “Patterns of decision / Consequences of our youth / Can build us up, tear us down / Some we didn't even choose”, giving an insight into how patterns and random options can lay a path down that is difficult to escape from.

Produced by the band and Mike Sasich, it is the work of a team fronted by a writer who have all done their best to create something they are happy and proud of. It is, but also, above that, it is a damn good listen.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Sunny Sweeney Married Alone Aunt Daddy/Thirty Tigers

Straight up this is a strong contender for one of the albums of the year and another great album from Sweeney. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of her independently released HEARTBREAKER HALL OF FAME before it was picked up by Big Machine - a move I thought would bring her music to a wider audience, but for whatever reason, that didn’t quite work out as planned. Neither did the follow up release - also on another major label. Both helped confirm that Sweeney is a damn fine singer and songwriter, something which she went on to prove on three further independently produced releases.

Now she is back with this brand new collection of songs, some relating to a recent marriage break-up, and others just taking a strong and independent attitude to life and relationships that take no prisoners. Sweeney here picks some like-minded partners to co-write with, all of whom are likely to have a similar sensibility regarding the perspective that comes with their shared life experiences. 

Lori McKenna joins her on the writing of four tracks, while others such as Brennen Leigh and Galen Griffin also bring their talents. However, it is not a one-sided viewpoint because songs written with the likes of Buddy Owens and Monty Holmes balance the gender credits. There are also a couple of songs that meant a lot to Sweeney, such as the title track, Married Alone, which made a strong impact on her when she first heard the song. She recently had gone through a divorce and the words of the Hannah Blaylock/Josh Morningstar/Autumn McEntire song hit home. Fool Like Me, the other song she didn’t have a hand in, is by Walyon Payne and Kendell Marvel. Both fit easily alongside the other songs that are rife with humour, respect, reasonable assumptions and a willingness to try to work this out when a partnership is in difficulties. In other words, some reality music for real times.

The lyrical content is only one aspect of the album’s strengths, for throughout Sweeney’s vocals are measured and meaningful. They bring the characters to life over the thrilling production of Paul Cauthen and Beau Bedford, creating a perfect reflection of what country should be these days. There is enough here that relates back to the earlier traditional aspects of her output, as well as the music she grew up with, while allowing the process to move forward and be perfectly suited to any current  directions that country music needs to grow towards.

The title song has a perfectly suited contribution from Vince Gill that makes it worthy of its status as title song. She is also joined by Cauthen for A Song Can’t Fix Everything - one that will resonate with any (country) music lover, knowing that it is indeed a fact but recognising that power that is often inherent in the music.

Bedford heads the team of players who are excellent throughout, with steel, fiddle and guitars (including contributions from her touring partner Harley Husbands) all bringing textures that leave no one in doubt that they are listening to a sound that is essentially country to the core. There is also an additional vital contribution from the backing vocalists who include Regina McCrary and Jim Lauderdale, as well as some of her co-writers. 

There is not a weak song among the twelve tracks, something that makes this special and also marks out Sunny Sweeney as one of the very best practitioners of her generation in the genre.

Review by Stephen Rapid. 

Laura Benitez and the Heartache California Centuries Copperhead

Album number four from the always engaging Benitez, a California-based artist who has grown with each release. She delivers a self-written and self-produced album that features several players who have recorded with her in the past. All commit to delivering the best performance they can and indeed the results show that they did.

The heart of this is Benitez, whose clarion clear voice, melodic song structures and lyrical deftness are apparent throughout. She and the band recorded in Oakland California and there are moments that remind of such fellow artists from the region as Rosie Flores and Heather Myles. Yet Benitez is an equal to these fellow artists (both of whom have not had a release in a number of years) and her own last release was back in 2018 with WITH ALL ITS THORNS. So it clearly is not that easy, as an independent artist, to bring out a new album. Especially one that is going to enhance a reputation and build on their audience.

Kudos then to Bob Spector on guitar and Dave Zirbel and Ian Sutton (who share the pedal steel duties) along with a solid rhythm section of Steve Pearson and bassist Russell Kiel and some additional guests, all of whom help to bring out the full collective sound on the tracks. They have retained the country connection but also add a certain soupçon of rock ’n’ roll to the mix, all with a California sensibility.  

Bad Things opens the album in foot-tapping style and immediately lets you know Benitez is in command here, with her voice upfront and up to scratch. While steel is there prominently, the next song has some keyboard action on a tale about hanging around waiting on someone else, as she knows that I’m The One. Are You Using Your Heart is an opportunist bar-room exchange given a Bakersfield beat and ambience with a classic delivery. Relationship reckonings are often related to a time, place or piece of clothing as in Plaid Shirt, where she considers that his next in line may have a different wardrobe in mind. That kind of acceptance of the possibilities is also key to Let The Chips Fall, A Love Like Yours and Gaslight (We Shouldn’t Talk About It) wherein the likelihood to change things would require some open, but unlikely, dialogue. Though each has a slightly different perspective and end result, Benitez gives each a place to be. In All Songs she recognises that, like life, “all songs must come to an end.” God Willing And The Creek Don’t Rise takes that Hank Snr. expression in a positive sense and plays it as a uptempo and jaunty acoustic workout, showing that this crew can do a bluegrass tune as well as anyone.

The album ends with a statement of fact, self-worth and positivity in I’m With The Band. It ends pretty much as it began, with an engagement that is fully realised and delivered with the obvious sense of joy in making a new album, one that should be appreciated across the board. 

Review by Stephen Rapid

Robin Lane Dirt Road To Heaven Red On Red

This arrived in as a recommendation from a friend and it indeed proved to be a very welcome reintroduction to Robin Lane. I had encountered in the past when she recorded an album with her Boston based band, The Chartbusters, who released their debut on Warner Bros back at the start of the 80s. IMITATION LIFE, the second album, was the one I heard back then. Since then, she has been involved with a number of projects (Songbird Sings) and released some solo albums, so it is good to hear some new music released this year and to report that it is a very enjoyable album. She has embraced a more roots/country rock/ Americana sound that is in time with her still strong but mature vocal style. Her writing deals with the kind of needs and relationships that make sense in this later period of any person’s life, as time passes and perspectives can change.

There are elements of hard country, roots rock and 12 string guitar-infused Byrdian style country, all of which gives these eleven tracks a sense of familiarity, yet with a consistent freshness thanks to Lane’s songwriting and distinctive delivery. Some of the material are co-writes, while others are written solo. The musicians on the album include John Pfister (bass and harmony vocals), Asa Brebner (banjo), Margot Ouellet (accordion), Suzi Metro (lap steel), Russell Chudnofsky, Drew Townson, Milton Reder and Pat Wallace on guitars.

There are some obvious standouts on the album, for this reviewer, which include the drum and banjo interplay of Woman Like That, about a person who is not all she might seems to be “She'd call me in the middle of the night and ask me for advice / What I didn't realize then, that woman wasn't nice.” There’s a great beat and singalong chorus to Hard Life, which recognises that fact but also that you have to get on with it. Faded Leaves has great harmony vocals that lift the song at the right moments, as it warns of the changes that happen and that winter comes on fast and that summer never lasts.

More country in style are Last Cute Minute where you have to take advantage when you can, and Rodeo Clown where the realisation for the central character was that she “never was much with lariat / I was more like a rodeo clown.” There are some moments of twangin’ guitar that appeal on the latter. There’s an almost Johnny Cash style riff to the train song Love Song’s Refrain. The album closes with Sunshine Blue Skies, where the Rickenbacker again jangles out the melodies and the hopeful forward look on life that is affirmative.

Everyone here acquits themselves with a sense of purpose and realises their parts with a certain passion. Robin Lane continues to be a force to be reckoned with musically and with her goals in life. There may be a dirt road that leads us to heaven, but here is some music that will help you along the way.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Jay Byrd At Home Again Triad

This is the debut solo album from ex-South Rail member, Jay Byrd. He previously released a solo album, Busy Day, in 2003 as Jason Byrd, and he followed this with an EP, Waste/Hoping, in 2011. With his former band, South Rail, he released three EP's between 2013 and 2018. In addition, Byrd has appeared on numerous recordings of other songwriters and musicians.

This album was recorded during Covid restrictions and features Byrd on an array of instruments, including guitars, vocals, bass, mandolin, lyre harp, and organ. He co-produced the album with Kerry Brooks, who also contributes bass on four tracks. Tim Haney plays drums and he is joined on various tracks by Chad Barger (keyboards, Mellotron, string arrangements), Gary Greene (percussion), Becky Warren (harmonies), and Piano Pace (harmony).

We are transported back in time on opening track, Daydream Daze. It is all sweet guitar melodies and easy rhythm, drifting along with a gentle flow. It reminds me of the sadly missed Neal Casal in so many ways. The title track, At Home Again, explores similar territory with a fine guitar sound and piano accompaniment. Just two examples of what turns out to be a very impressive album, with plenty to enjoy across the ten songs included. This is Roots music to ease the spirit and soothe the soul. There is a sense of belonging in the songs and their sentiments; enjoying life and all that you are given.

Byrd has a sweet vocal tone to complement his guitar talents and the project gives the sense of really enjoying the creation of mellow sounds and reflecting upon the easy passage of the days. I Should Know has some beautiful twin guitar tracking as the arrangement lifts and the song reaches a peak. Anna Lynn has an acoustic arrangement, guitar and mandolin highlighting the melody and a song about remembering youthful times and a friend who wanted to break through in her attempts at success in the music business.

There really is so much to enjoy; the lush harmonies on Nobody Knows (Who You Are) are almost Beatle-esque in the delivery ; Days Roll By is reminiscent of Crosby, Stills and Nash with the easy acoustic arrangement and both vocals and mandolin adding a pleasing layer; Losers Like Me, with the reflective guitar interplay and sense of forgiveness; Have Mercy, with a soulful delivery and slow groove, all topped off with some lovely guitar lines from Byrd.

There is a real elegance to this album, a timeless quality and one of my favourite discoveries of the year so far. Highly recommended.

Review by Paul McGee

Steve Yanek Long Overdue Primitive

This is the second album that Steve Yanek has released on his own record label. The original debut, Across the Landscape, recorded in 2005, only received a European release last year. This aptly titled follow-up, LONG OVERDUE, now arrives courtesy of our friends in Sweden, HEMIFRÅN, the artist promotion and marketing company.

Yanek is making up for lost time as a performer, having seen his career fall victim to industry machinations in the past. On his debut record, he assembled some serious talent with guitarist Jeff Pevar (David Crosby), drummer Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs), and now-deceased keyboard player, T. Lavitz (Dixie Dregs) all contributing their skills.

On this new record, there are tracks left over from those original sessions, and Yanek includes three songs that feature this line-up, together with Dave Livolsi on bass, who also played on the debut release. The rich sound of Long Overdue, Like Now and You Move Me, show the great chemistry these players enjoyed in the studio together and the tracks fit seamlessly into the more recent songs, which are all written by Yanek.

Production duties on the new album are again ably performed by Pavar, who also impresses on acoustic and electric guitars, bass, lap steel, and drums. Interestingly, Yanek limits his musical input this time around, with credits for acoustic guitar and piano on separate tracks only, although he provides all lead vocals, with assistance from  Larry Kennedy (two songs) and Inger Nova Jorgensen (two songs). Elsewhere, Bill Payne (Little Feat) plays piano on three tracks and Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty) contributes drums on four tracks.

Yanek has a very warm vocal tone and his songs look at personal feelings and frustrations, both in relationships and the world outside his window. On the track All the Sorrow, he pens an apology to his partner for being less than he should have been in their relationship and in On Your Side, he reasons that ‘There’s so much hurt out in the world, Baby, it ain’t all just falling on you.’ The beautiful About This Time, blends Italian steel guitar with resonator guitar in a reflection on love lost, with the lines, ‘’And calling it quits right now, Never entered my mind, But I don’t know about this time.’

Tired Of This Attitude is a look at the lack of empathy in society, and the victims that are too easily discarded by a system and an attitude that doesn’t care, ‘If you look real close you can see the pain, Of another life going down the drain.’ The guitars chime and the melodies are very easy on the ear, with gentle arrangements and warm sounds. Another track, Throw Me Down A Line, is a plea for understanding and a little grace, ‘Lies are easy, Once you lose your soul, We’re all slaves, We get bought and sold.’ The lyrical guitar playing of Yanek brings it all to a very satisfactory conclusion on the final acoustic, Goodbye, a sad refrain on what proves to be an impressively strong album

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Derek Senn The Big Five - O Self Release

I don’t know about you but I thought I didn’t want to hear another song about Covid/quarantine/the pandemic, and then Derek Senn’s new album arrives and I’m happy to be drawn in, thanks to his eloquence, humanity and, above all, humour. There’s lots more to digest and enjoy though in the fourteen songs here (thirteen self penned and one cover), recorded once again with producer Damon Castillo in Laurel Lane Studios in Senn’s hometown of San Luis Obispo, California.

There are the short vignettes like Big in Britain, a hilarious fictional account of a solo tour that crisscrosses the UK erratically - ‘who put this tour together?/Me myself and I’ because ‘they like my Americana more than the Americanos’. The longer title track is a hilarious account of life as Senn turns 50, with his long-suffering family doing duty on backing vocals, as he lists the inevitable downsides of ageing, including giving up ‘meat alcohol and/pretty much everything that brings me joy/what’s for dinner oh boy more soy’. I feel his pain! The Vasectomy Waltz is equally amusing, and - public health warning - he leaves no holds barred in his attention to the gory details. So graphic is it that I am unable to quote any lyrics!

Maybe it’s because he’s getting older, but this album has more overtly politically charged songs than previously. Zeitgeist is a gentle satire on the two common types of voters in middle America - ‘a fair trade single origin queer living in Portland Oregon’ versus the ex-army prison guard who ‘hates the welfare state hence the Trump Pence sign on my fence’. On the short but incisive Addis Ababa, Senn compares the not very different scenarios of the depressing post-war fall out for two foot soldiers, one in Ethiopia and one in Ohio. Sequoia Tree laments (from the ancient tree’s perspective) the authorities’ bickering over environmental issues and fears ultimately that ‘if polite society fails and the park ranger bails/they’ll kill me and mill me they’ll fell me and sell me’. The musical backdrop of guitar, bass (Castillo) and drums (Jason Slota) jumps up a couple of gears for the angry Texas Legislators, written before the controversial Supreme Court decision on abortion, but leaving the listener in no doubt as to where Senn’s sympathies lie, ‘sounds like mullarkey from the patriarchy’ being one of the more benign lines.

The four quarantine-inspired gems vary from the funky science of Viruses Get Viruses, to reality biting in Quarantine, the John Prine referencing love song Trickle Down To Thee and the entertaining, tongue in cheek (I think?) Don’t Shut Down My Surfbreak.

Highly recommended.

Review by Eilís Boland

The Local Honeys Self-titled La Honda

Although this is not the first record from the Kentucky duo, Linda Jean Stokely (guitar and harmonium) and Montana Hobbs (banjo), they say that it is ‘the first time we’ve actively gotten to express who we are and where we’re from’. Fiercely proud of their home state, the influence of Kentucky - both musically and culturally - is all over this wonderful album, which is a rootsy country recording with strong folk leanings. They called on their fellow Kentuckian friend, Jesse Wells (Grammy nominated producer, and member of Tyler Childers’ band, the Food Stamps) to co-produce and the rest of the Food Stamps came in as players: Josh Nolan on guitars, Rod Elkins on drums and Craig Burletic on upright bass.

Each of the ten original songs is a delight. Last Mule In the Holler opens with some surreptitiously recorded dialogue from Hobbs’ father, Monte, about the subject of the song, The Red Rooster. Hobbs used to show mules and this infamous boy became a World Champion under her care, but he sure was a stubborn character, as the song affectionately details. Linda Jean Stokely contributes the harrowing Dead Horses, recalling some of the horses she has lost, and progressing to lamenting the current horse welfare crisis in the Southern Appalachians, where horses are being abandoned and are dying of starvation, thanks to poverty. If you haven’t guessed by now, equines are another huge theme on this album, and this is artfully reflected in the album design, with black & white photography of the duo and some of their horses, as well as lots of photos from the studio and a lyrics sheet.

The storytelling continues with The Ballad of Frank & Billy Buck, based on the true life tale of the grizzly murder of the elderly Frank and his unfortunate dog, Billy Buck, by some wayward youths who Frank had tried to help.

Stokley’s love of the Lonesome Dove series of novels by Larry McMurtry yields two songs; Dear Woodrow is given a retro Western Swing sound, helped by the addition of trumpet from guest Will Philips, while Dumbass, Nebraska also features horses heavily!  Better Than I Deserve is a tribute to Hobbs’ grandfather, who led a fascinating life, truncated tragically by war.

Closeness to nature and a rural upbringing probably fuelled much of the earthy writing and themes on this album, none more so than on Stokely’s Throw Me In The Thicket ‘when I die’, a quote from her mother in earlier years which shocked Stokely at the time. However, she has now come around to agreeing with her mother’s philosophy, ‘let the earth reclaim my body/Let the worms devour my insides’. In the banjo-led If I Could Quit, Hobbs directly details the all too real opioid addiction that is rife in the Appalachians, ‘Crushing pills with coffee cups in a cigarette cellophane/Well I don’t trust no one to treat me and my pain’.

The only cover song is a hauntingly moving, eerily gothic version of local folk hero Jean Ritchie’s The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore, a classic song that chillingly calls attention to the dark legacy of strip mining in Kentucky.

A definite inclusion in my favourite records of 2022!

Review by Eilís Boland

Dead Horses Brady Street Self Release

Taking their name as a tribute to a close friend who passed away following chronic opioid abuse, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin duo Sarah Vos and Dan Wolff, together with a number of like-minded musicians, make up the band Dead Horses. BRADY STREET is their fourth full album, two of which were produced by Ken Coomer, who was a drummer with both Uncle Tupelo and Wilco in previous lives. Their last album, MY MOTHER THE MOON, released in 2018, earned the band numerous positive reviews, with Vos’ vocals being compared to that of both Neko Case and Caitlin Canty.

Vos describes this album as ‘a coming-of-age record, both musically and thematically.’ Its title is taken from the name of the colourful and vibrant street in Milwaukee, renowned for its lively nightlife. Landing somewhere in the space between indie and folk, the album often addresses its author’s personal journey. Sarah Vos writes the songs, delivers them with her distinctive vocal style, and plays guitar.  Dan Wolff complements her vocals with atmospheric acoustic and upright bass. The arrangements are generally sparse, with drums being the only other instrument featured.

The opener and title track Brady Street captures the album’s overall mood. Exploring present day America and the challenges it poses, themes that emerge include sexuality (You Are Who You Need To Be), anxiety (Ok Kid), and regret (All I Ever Wanted To Be). Recorded live, the serene acoustic track Bird Over the Train speaks of liberation and escape, and the breezy and upbeat album highlight, It’s All Good, reminds us that darkness is always followed by brightness. A further prompt in the direction of positivity and rebirth, they sign off with the reflective rocker Days Grow Longer.

Broadly the sonic terrain here is indie folk. Bemoaning a world of ongoing problems and combining themes of joy and sadness, BRADY STREET will particularly and justifiably appeal to lovers of Anais Mitchell and The Cowboy Junkies.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Will Hoge Wings On My Shoes Self Release

Readers of a particular vintage will recall that prior to the emergence of Americana and the subsequent scores of subgenres in contemporary music, we simply had rock and roll, pop, blues, folk, country, and jazz.  And it didn’t take a science degree to place whatever you were listening to into one of these categories. You’re likely to find this album from Will Hoge in the Americana section of your favourite independent record store, but in essence WINGS ON MY SHOES, in a similar vein to Hoge’s previous eleven albums, is simply, in old speak, a rock and roll album, and a particularly good one at that.

Recreating the dynamic sound of his live shows, Hoge and his band, Thom Donovan (guitar), Christopher Griffiths (bass), and Allen Jones (drums), holed up for a week at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios and recorded these self-produced ten tracks live on the studio floor.

Hoge has long since perfected the art of mixing standout rockers with more relaxed power ballads and he repeats that winning formula here. Thumping drums and bass lines, alongside crunching guitars and Hoge’s throaty vocals kick in from the word go on the opener John Prine’s Cadillac. Born from a sighting of Prine grooving to music in his car, it possesses a powerful drive and melody that instantly lands in your memory bank and is likely to be replaying there for some time. The foot is also full on the pedal with All I Can Take and the jangly power poppy It’s Just You. Less animated but every bit as impressive are Queenie, which finds Hoge paying homage to his grandmother and the reflective Birmingham. The mid-tempo Dead Man’s Hand channels bullish expectation, desperation and eventual tragedy.

Touching on the grinding reality of broken dreams, real-life drama, and life’s ongoing challenges, Hoge and his comrades have delivered a suite of songs that sit comfortably alongside each other and warrant playing uninterruptedly from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton 

Freedy Johnston Back On The Road To You Forty Below

A much lauded songwriter and singer (Rolling Stone’s 1994 Songwriter Of The Year for the song Bad Reputation), Johnson has made some excellent albums in the past while working with a variety of major and indie labels and he has more than a dozen albums to his credit under his own name. He has just released this new album and it is well up to the standard of his previous best. Melodic, understated indie (power) pop with strong choruses and making use, as he has always done, of the best and most sympathetic sideman available to him. On this occasion, the production and mixing was handled by Eric Corne and the musicians include the rhythm section of Dusty Wakeman and David Raven, Doug Pettibone on lead and steel guitar and Sasha Smith on keyboards. In other words, some of California’s best roots musicians. Add to that some strings from Stevie Blacke on two tracks and the harmony vocals on a track each from Aimee Mann, Susan Cowsill and Susanna Hoffs and you have a formidable team, topped by Johnson’s lead and harmony vocals, songs, rhythm guitar.

The ten new songs are all written by Johnston and are centered around relationships. The opening title song repeats the title as an affirmation of a continuing situation. The next song up, There Goes A Brooklyn Girl, is another ambigious situation “There goes my baby / I just told her that's she's my number one / And she went ‘maybe’.” Madeline’s Eye is a standout, built around a strong riff and vocal chorus to portray a somewhat one-sided uncertain bond “Looking in Madeline's heart / … I see the problem right from the start.” These are observations from a man who has absorbed the ongoing interactions between the sexes. The remaining tracks follow a similar pattern of deftly written songs that marry the words ands melodies to string arrangements. 

So Trying To Move On, The Power Of Love (another song that seeks to define that emotion and title) “See, if you've been around the universe / You know that everything runs on love,” That’s Life takes a view of life from a more grown up perspective, offering guidelines and practical advice “But it's way past time for you kids to be in bed / I better hear nothing when I shut off this light / Hey, that's life.” There are upbeat songs sitting alongside the more reflective songs that again contemplate age, love and the the barriers that may arise to being together.

Any Freedy Johnson fan, or simply a lover of this kind of dexterous writing will find pleasure here.  A songwriter who continues to write because there is an inner need to put pen to paper (and there are a number of them who to continue to do so). But in the end, it is good to be back on the road with Mr. Johnson at the wheel.

Review by Stephen Rapid. 

Martha Spencer Wonderland Self Release

With a background in acoustic mountain music and Appalachian music in her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Martha Spencer has just released a second album that has an attractive quirkiness to it. She has been influenced by such old-time icons as Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, as well as by the diverse nature of Dolly Parton’s career, which itself included country and bluegrass as staples. There is a similarity in the the way her words recall the early music of Parton and the way it details a simple, yet satisfying, approach to life, even if it was one lived sometimes with hardship and difficulty but also, often, with love. She was a member of a number of bands such as the Blue Ridge Girls and Whitetop Mountain Band (who have several albums to their credit) and is a multi-instrumentalist (banjo, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, dulcimer and fiddle). So being immersed in many aspects of traditional music, as well as that being played by contemporary artists, she was well placed to produce this album with Wesley Easter.

As this album comes out under her own name and is a mix of original songs and public domain and cover songs, it manages to cover several side roads down from the mountain. Whilst I am aware of some of these songs, others of the outside material choices are like original songs. Of the known songs, Summer Wine, the often recorded duet, is given an interesting treatment that is well served by Kyle Dean Smith’s baritone vocal, which contrast well with the higher register of Spencer’s own voice. Also here are versions of Walking In Jerusalem and Wind And Rain, both given treatments that fit well with the new material.

These songs include the title song, which gives the listener a pretty fair idea of Spencer’s credentials, on through Rags Over Riches, You’ve Rambled Too Long, Young Rover and Yodeland - which is a little yodel, as the title would have you expect. All of these songs feel like they could have come from the old-time mountain music songbooks from many years ago, yet also seem well placed to be heard now.

Throughout the album, Spencer makes good use of harmony and duet vocals to bring an extra dimension to the songs. Fellow vocalists include Jonathan Ferrell, Jamie Collins, Dudley Connell, as well as the Legendary Ingramettes, Alice Gerrard and Luke Bell (an outstanding artist who recently unfortunately passed away). The playing is equally effective and pared back to essential contributions, that allow the songs to breath and tell their tales.

Whilst not being a particularly constant listener to bluegrass and old-time music, the occasional album catches the attention and draws you to its heart. I also feel that Spencer could (and perhaps should) make a straight country album. All the ingredients are here, in fact several of the songs could easily be recognised as such. The fact is that Spencer is an all round artist and entertainer, steeped in the music that emanated from her birthplace and it is in her soul. A wonderland of story and music that travels from there to a place that has resonance, well beyond the wind and rain there, to many other places.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Brian WilloughbyTwiddly Bits Cabritunes

Nineteen instrumental tracks can be considered something of a challenge. Perhaps, even an endurance test, especially if the artist is someone that is not internationally recognised, or featured regularly on the radio waves. Happily, nothing could be further from any such assumptions made when it comes to the very talented Brian Willoughby.

The information booklet that accompanies this elegantly packaged release contains a centre page spread of eighteen guitars, all of which were used in the recording process. The tunes are varied, taking in reflective melodies (Clara’s Theme), country influenced rhythms (Busterchops), blues phrasings (Kitesurfing) and an occasional rocky vibe (Red Steel Tracks) thrown in for good measure.

Brian is a very lyrical instrumentalist with an elegance and light touch across the frets, coupled with a lovely tone in his playing style. Never more so than on the beautiful Narrow Waterfall which captures all the gentle harmony of fluid movement contained in both water and beautiful melodic music. Another lovely arrangement is Buenos Suenos (good dreams), a tribute to the enduring memory of Nanci Griffith, an artist whom Brian played with on a number of occasions.

Brian uses keyboards to colour the instrumental arrangements on a number of the tracks, together with some very understated drumming parts by Dennis Bryon, bodhran by Niall Quinn, and whistle by Danny McGreevy.  The very talented Cathryn Craig provides acoustic rhythm guitar on a further six tracks and their gently observed interplay is a delight on numbers such as White Stratosphere, The Point and Uisce Beatha.

Glenarm 1949 is a track written for Brian’s birthplace and he uses an e-bow to great effect to mirror a  guitar sound that reminds me of the harmonics created by Brian May at his best. In other places (Peace Pipe), the easy fretboard technique calls to mind Mark Knopfler in the delivery and captures Brian’s ability to soar and compliment the rhythm with a less-is-more approach on solo runs.

Brian was a member of the wonderful Strawbs, darlings of the English Folk Rock circuit during the 1960s and into the 70s; and still performing to this day. He also played with Mary Hopkin at the start of her fame when first signed to the Beatles, Apple Records label.

Dunavil Beach is a timeless piece that reflects the gentle pull of nature, the sea and a soft breeze to take away your cares. The album ends with a fine guitar work-out on She Rang Our Bell, deep bass and percussion driving the beat, while the harmonics and interplay soar and swoop to dramatic effect.

This is a very fine collection of music that highlights a master of his craft over fifty- three magical minutes of impressive performance. Visit http://www.craigandwilloughby.com/index.htm for a full list of all releases by Cathyrn and Brian. Well worth your investment.

Review by Paul McGee

Jeff Finlin Soul On the Line Continental Song City

It’s been a few years since we last heard some new music from this well-travelled troubadour. Indeed, it was 2017 when his last collection, Guru In the Girl, was released and that album was co-produced by both Jeff and multi-talented musician/producer, BJ Baartmans, in Boxmeer, Holland. The duo played most of the instruments on what was a very atmospheric, laid-back, reflective groove of a record.

So, five years later, I’m happy to see Jeff returning, with ten new tracks and a focus on a bigger band sound. Recorded in Fort Collins, Colorado and produced by Jeff, who also wrote all the songs, this is a guitar driven project with a trio of  Joe V McMahan, Eben Grace, and Eric Straumanis providing the impressive electric guitar sounds; ably supported in the engine room by Taylor Tesler (bass) and Finlin himself, who contributes on drums, piano, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion and vocals. Add in the accordion and horns of Brian Keller and you have the ingredients for an album that really cuts loose.

Starting with the title track, a big production number, the horn sounds add a soulful groove, and Finlin announces his return as a born-again rocker. Wondering What Went Wrong is another full sonic attack that includes an engaging horn sound to reflect the band dynamic. Bardo Time slows the pace on an interesting arrangement, with reference to the Tibetan phrase that means the period between dying and rebirth. It gives a sense of how Finlin was feeling during the Covid lockdown days. The addition of harmonica on the track is particularly effective.

The sassy attitude continues with a stripped-down, Springsteen-sounding, The Great Divide, with Finlin providing a fine vocal that channels a street-cool persona and a less-is-more strut; reflecting the easy flow of a rhythm n’ blues groove.

Turn This Cadillac Around is a standout, all small- town American getaway and a rebel attitude in breaking away from the confining reality of rural cul-de-sacs. It’s movie screen imagery, dust on the highway, greasy breakfast joints and sleazy late-night diners reflected in the delivery.

Misery Man is another fine song, with a Tom Petty sounding workout and a sharp band delivery, before the slow groove of Tennessee Rain introduces a John Hiatt dynamic to colour the laid-back arrangement and a message of love in vain. My favourite track on this album, the restrained, rhythm complements the song message perfectly.

Round In the Circle is a reflection on repeating the same mistakes and not growing from the experiences, ‘ And it’s one step up and two steps down my friend, Our big old hearts hung out to dry in the wind.’ Written In the Stars is a slow melody that reflects on relationships and impressions that linger, maybe everything is predestined and our paths are indeed fated to follow our specified fates.

Final song, Hearts On High, shows Finlin reflecting on the transience of beauty and the stillness of inner reflection. There is a peace in letting the personal walls come down. Thirty-eight minutes of thoughts from an experienced songsmith. Album number fourteen and no sign of hanging up the guitar yet. His books on Yoga and addiction recovery are also out there, along with three books of prose.  It’s a very solid return with some excellent musicianship on display. Consistently colourful in many ways, the sum is definitely a reflection of the parts, some great dynamics and a considered assurance.

Review by Paul McGee

Concrete Prairie Self-Titled Good Deeds

Ten songs from a band who are based in the beautiful city of Bath, England. Their sound is a mix of traditional Folk influences and a modern take on what could be dubbed “Anglo-cana.” The group comprises Joe Faulkner (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica), Adam Greeves (vocals , guitar, mandolin, harmonica), Dan Burrows (vocals, bass, banjo), Georgia Browne (fiddle), and Tom Hartley (drums).

This debut album was produced by John Reynolds (Peter Gabriel, U2), giving some justification to the media attention that this band is gathering. No doubt they have had to endure the occasional comparison to Mumford and Sons, if only because they too are based in England, but their colour palette runs to deeper hues and shades.

Kicking things off with Picking Up Pieces,  the album opens with a blending of fiddle and harmonica into a sweet melody that looks at the role that new parenthood brings, ‘Take my hand and we’ll dance through the darkness, When it falls.’

The gorgeous melody on I Wish You Well has the band playing in sweet unison, the brushed drumming very much in the pocket and nudging the song arrangement to increasing heights, ‘Time is borrowed, And time can be cruel, If there’s time for tomorrow, I wish you well, Annabelle.’

Bury My Blues is a nice jaunty work-out with Bluegrass leanings in the arrangement. Lyrical fiddle again to the fore, but hiding a message that references self-harm and facing the darkness by taking one day at a time. Hard Times follows and also refers to dark days and a foreboding sense of danger. The arrangement is suitably edgy with electric guitar expressing the pain of self-doubt and uncertainty.

Day By Day has another light and bright sound, with a message that living for the moment brings fair reward and worrying about what may unfold is a waste of energy and time, ‘When this old world’s in such a damn hurry, I leave behind my woes and worries.’ People Forget is a song about the painful topic of addiction, with an accusing finger pointed at a parent who let the family down, ‘You stole my youth, stretched the truth, It’s too little and it’s too late, The very least you could do is stand by your mistakes.’

Time To Kill revolves around a knife crime and the killing resulting in crossing over to the dark side. ‘The pinnacle of criminal is where seeds are sown, In the dark, in the wild, wild rain, I’m the devil’s disciple now.’ Fiddle soars throughout and there is some atmospheric electric guitar too.

Wine On My Mind is a song that tackles alcoholism and the refuge that addiction gives, albeit temporary in relief. It is well written and stark in imagery. There is great drumming and fiddle to drive this song and the lyric ‘Wine, whiskey, cocaine and gin, Picked my poison and let it win.’

Winter Town is about loneliness in a seaside town and the high price paid for being stuck in a rut. The song has a bleak ending and the reflection that ‘He’s a summer guy in a washed-out winter town.’

The final track, The Devil Dealt the Deck, is a song about getting bad breaks and trying to reconcile what fate decrees, ‘ If the devil’s in the details, Where do I stand? I’m never going to make it to the promised land.' Although a lot of the subject matter leans towards the darker side of our nature, focusing on the negatives in life doesn’t mean that you can’t see beyond the pain – it takes the darkness of night in order to clearly see the stars after all…

The engaging fiddle of Georgia Browne adds an extra edge throughout, and this proves to be a very interesting debut album, filled with inventive playing and tight song arrangements, strong song-writing and a real sense of the dynamic required to propel the band forward.  An album that is well worth your attention.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Jim Lauderdale Game Changer Sky Crunch

Once again Jim Lauderdale proves himself to be an artist who defines the original definition of Americana - a blend of country, bluegrass, country-soul, and country rock. For this, his thirty-fifth album proves he is either a natural talent or persistent. The truth is in both. Despite many changes from a number of major labels through to the top-notch indies, Lauderdale has consistently produced the goods. There is a thought that maybe fewer releases would give him an opportunity to put the best songs onto a smaller selection. Given that he is, first and foremost, a songwriter, that notion flies against the way that he thinks and works. There is also the added factor that Lauderdale tours a lot and his fans have come to expect a new album each time he goes on the road. Now by releasing material on his own imprint, he is calling the shots without anyone looking over his shoulder.

That this new release is a consistently good showcase is a testament to his ethos. Other than his undoubted melodic skills as a writer, his distinctive and maturing vocal style is something that many would envy. He is able to phrase his lyrics in a manner that has strong echoes of his heroes and musical icons that shaped his direction. Yet the end result is most definitely Jim Lauderdale. 

He has co-produced the album with Jay Weaver, who also plays bass here, as he has done on many previous albums.  Which is a good time to mention that Lauderdale also hand picks the musicians for his recordings. This is equally true this time out with Kenny Vaughan, Chris Scruggs, Rush Pahl, and other fine players among the many credits alongside background vocalists Lillie Mae and Frank Rische. There are twelve new songs and several immediately deserve a place on that enlarging “best of” list, including That Kind Of Live (That Kind Of Day), Wishbone, Friends Again (with a nifty Telecaster guitar riff) or We’re All We Got, a co-write with Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris. As with other songs here, there is a realistic observation of the kind of relationships which, while they may not have the fire of passion of youth, but instead come with an acceptance of what is a real possibility of connection. Lauderdale has largely always written about the pursuit of love and has done so from both a down-to-earth attitude as well as one tinged with a romantic oversight.

This is one of Lauderdale’s recordings that sits more into the solid classic country mode, doing so in an old-school way with some great touches of Buck and Bakersfield in the mix. To be this rewarding at this stage of his career is proof of an enduring talent that, while he has never reached the commercial heights that he, no doubt, hoped for when he started out, has continued to do what he loves and thrives on. He hasn’t changed his game at all here with GAME CHANGER, just built upon what he has always done so well.

Review by Stephen Rapid.

Randy Huston Tines Life These Outside Circle

First off and you are taken by Huston’s deep and patinated baritone voice. He is a working cowboy as well as a singer/songwriter and has a ranch in New Mexico, where he breeds livestock and, in his youth, broke horses and worked the rodeo circuit. He is a recognised contributor to the cowboy music arena - one which now has a number of contemporary artists who are popularising the songs and lifestyle. He has been awarded number of times for his music by the Academy of Western Artists. This is his latest album and the first I have heard, yet he seems like an old friend and the music is a welcome recognition of his talents - and those of the musicians involved in its delivery. These include Danny Parks on electric and acoustic guitars, Larry Paxton on upright bass, Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle and mandolin, and Mike Rojas on keyboards. Huston takes the credit for writing eleven of the fourteen titles and co-wrote the other three. The album was recorded in Nashville and the sound is therefore top notch.

In the main, the songs deal with subjects and issues that would relate to a working cowboy and those who associate with that lifestyle. So, there is a love of the land, his country, and companionship, at the core of Huston’s writing. The title track offers that when times are tough, we all pull together and that in times like these it is important to realise that good times are likely to come again, even if those hard times are not easy to understand. Ride Of My Life is about taking to the saddle for the titular event. Can’t Pick Your Family, surmises that you can pick your apples in the orchard, but you can’t pick your family. The Storms Go To Die and I Am The Storm choose different metaphors. The former sees the power of nature in its rawness that permits a possible apocalyptic event, while the latter sees the storm as a force, not of nature, but of aggressive intention. The Way Of The Cowboy is a summation of the life and history of the cowboy and the horses they rode and the hard nature of the work - yet one that is the way they want to live. It is reprised at the end of the album to emphasise the simplicity of the lifestyle. The Hands That Held The Child is a more poignant look at how a child can do service for the country and also honours the loss of that life that can happen in the process.

These days it seems there are a lot more authentic singer/songwriters who are following in the trail of the likes of Ian Tyson, Don Edwards, Chris Ledoux, Wylie Gustafson, and such female exponents as Joni Harms, through to more current exponents like Colter Wall. It is a growing sub-genre that has gained a number of listeners in recent times while managing to avoid becoming a plaything of the marketing moguls as they can’t get a handle on its directness, sense of authenticity, and, perhaps, its limitations (to them) in the larger marketplace. This is not an album that will change your mind if you’re not a fan, but otherwise, saddle up and listen and enjoy the ride.

Review by Stephen Rapid

Nick Nace The Harder Stuff North/South

Rather than licking his wounds, Canadian Nick Nace put the enforced shutdown and subsequent quarantine of 2020 to good use. Abandoning Nashville, where he currently resides, he crossed the border back to family and friends in Canada and spent the time composing the ten tracks on his latest album THE HARDER STUFF.

Despite the album being conceived during a pandemic, it’s anything but a pandemic album, and more a reflection of everyday events. The only song that may be pandemic inspired is There’s No Music In Music City. It reads like an observation by Nace, reflecting on a vibrant city becoming a ghost town practically overnight. Alternatively, it may be a cryptic statement on the endless stream of conveyor belt pop/country drivel so popular with the music hierarchy in Nashville. 

Relationships, either real or imagined, crop up regularly on the album. Soured romance is visited on the album’s highlight for me, Someday Is Too Far Away. It’s a raunchy killer track that sounds like it was plucked from Warren Zevon’s BAD LUCK STREAK IN DANCING SCHOOL. Childhood crushes and memories surface on Little Kid and The Skin Of Our Teeth considers the ups and downs of a present-day partnership. Elsewhere, we hear of two misfits, meeting by chance and destined for harm’s way on The Piece That Fits. The title track is an instantly catchy Willie Nelson country ballad, laced with pedal steel, and the album’s closer Last Call offers a hauntingly potent serving of fascination and allurement.

Produced by Steven Cooper, contributing were a host of Nashville-based musicians, many of whom feature regularly in reviews at Lonesome Highway, and many who are accomplished singer songwriters in their own right. John Calvin Abney played accordion, Jon Lathan was on guitar, Todd Bolden played bass and drums were contributed by Erin Nelson. Also lending a hand were Megan Palmer (fiddle), John Henry Trinko (keyboards, accordion), and Owen Beverly (organ).

A compelling blend of songs that sit comfortably alongside each other, THE HARDER STUFF is an impressive collection of textured stories notably brought to song. Well worth your investigation.

Review by Declan Culliton

Mariel Buckley Everywhere I Used to Be Birthday Cake

Continuing the seemingly endless stream of talented roots artists emerging from Canada, EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE is the second full length record from Marial Buckley. Her debut album DRIVING IN THE DARK (2018), earned her the Roots Artist of The Year (Western Canadian Music Awards, 2019), resulting in her picking up a cool $100,000.

Less than a minute into the opening track, Neon Blue, I was reminded of Buckley’s fellow Canadian, the wonderful Kathleen Edwards, and that comparison remained with me throughout what is a first-rate stockpile of songs. Her writing style is not unlike that of Edwards, focusing on life’s complexities, personal anguish, and life choices. The added reality of growing up as a queer woman is no easy station and much of the material finds Buckley coming to terms with issues that confronted her during her earlier years. Explaining the motivation behind the album, she confesses ‘I wrote this album for losers and underdogs. I want every outsider and lost soul to feel seen and safe with these songs.’

On an album filled with textured stories about survival, Buckley revisits less than happy days, filled with excesses and confusion, on Hate This Town. As you would expect there is plenty of lost love and pain also.  Love Ain’t Enough simply aches (‘Thought I saw you in the back of my car, you were combing your hair in the mirror, I was falling apart.’), all the more hauntingly lonesome by the inclusion of some delicate pedal steel. In a similar vein, Going Nowhere is a mid-tempo reflection on a relationship that has run its course. The powerful closing track Let You Down may also have been conceived from that same association.

Very much an exorcism by Buckley of past trauma, bad relationships, and addiction, EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE is courageous, thought provoking, and often breath-taking. Buckley more than touches on the grinding reality and torture often faced by gay people and the perilous paths that can follow. Backed by some exceptionally talented players, producer Marcus Paquin (The Barr Brothers, Arcade Fire, The National, The Weather Station), gets the perfect balance between their playing and Buckley’s warm vocals. The end product is a fiercely intense and hugely impressive album, that I’ll be returning to regularly in the coming weeks and months. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Wade Bowen Somewhere Between The Secret And The Truth Bowen Sounds

Even prior to the arrival of Covid, Texan singer songwriter Wade Bowen was reaching near burnout. Vocal surgery in 2018 was followed by writer’s block, leaving him disillusioned and at a loss, having previously enjoyed approaching two decades of chart-reaching albums and successful tours.

The enforced shutdown and absence of touring offered Bowen the opportunity to regroup and consider where he was musically and in what direction he wanted to go when normality returned. Of his five previous albums, three were duets with Randy Rogers, including HOLD MY BEER VOL.1, from 2015, which charted at #4 in the U.S. Country charts. Bowen also recorded THEN SING MY SOUL; SONGS FOR MY MOTHER, a solo album of gospel songs in 2016. Going back to basics and calling on a number of old and trusted friends to assist him in both the writing and playing on his latest album, Bowen has fashioned what is arguably his strongest record to date.

In a recent interview with Lonesome Highway, Bowen made reference to the development of Zoom being one of the positives to emerge from the pandemic, citing the capacity it presented him to co-write with artists and friends like Lori McKenna and Eric Paslay, as a major feature of this album. He also, for the first time, took complete control of the production duties and called on old and trusted pals Tom Bukovac and Jedd Hughes to play guitars on the album and Chad Cromwell to play drums.

Nineties country was dominated by the mega commercial and more mainstream sounds of Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Brooks & Dunn. However, it also was a decade when more traditional and edgy country music emerged, from artists like Joe Diffie, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, and Vince Gill. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH more than reflects the 90s sound of the latter grouping.

Bowen showcases his rockier sound on no-nonsense tracks like Everything Has Your Memory, She’s Driving Me Crazy, and Honky Tonk Road, all three of which sound tailor made for the live setting. Equally listenable, when Bowen takes his foot off the gas, is A Beautiful World, which features McKenna on backing vocals and also the mid-tempo title track. The standout track for me introduces a superstar from that 90s decade. Bowen approached his long-time hero Vince Gill, asking him if he would contribute to the song he co-wrote with McKenna, A Guitar, A Singer and A Song.  Gill obliged, singing a verse and adding an acoustic guitar solo on a song that is most likely to feature on Bowen’s setlists for quite a while, going forward.

Entering his third decade as a recording artist, Bowen has gone back to first principles with SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH. The outcome is an album where simplicity is often its strongest point on a most satisfying and uplifting listen from start to finish.

Review by Declan Culliton

Jeff Tuohy Hudson Delta Self Release

There is a quality to this record that reminds me of the big, soulful sound of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and that same energy runs through the impressive performance of Tuohy and his band of brothers.  With a really strong vocal delivery, Tuohy lays down a marker on opener, Funeral Party, a catchy, soulful rhythm with a big production sound and brass arrangement.  He hits the message home with Love’s A Game, another larger-than-life brass sound and the full-on backing singers add great street cred to the song… Drunk Twice Today, has some nice pedal steel and piano, highlighting the addictive groove. The Devil’s In New Orleans is a Dr John celebratory stomp with an impassioned vocal that channels Tom Waits. Lay Your Body Down has an inventive country sound while the deep groove of Murder In A Dancehall is big, bold and dangerous. Old Roads has radio hit pasted all over it and would certainly make a strong contender for current-day country music commercial stations with a big vocal and pedal steel lifting the song arrangement .

Everything is slowed down  on the superbly crafted Hear Me Out, a song that would grace any soul session, all muted horns, sweet guitar lines and warm keys supporting a stylish vocal performance. The joy of the record is the ability of Tuohy to switch moods and change lanes into a different vibe, highlighted on All My Friends Are Getting Married (I’m Just Getting Stoned); an authentic slice of heartland Americana, all swagger with pedal steel, keys and electric guitar dynamics. Again, we switch to an Irish trad influence with the Pogues-inspired, Sea Of Galilee, a racous sea shanty that would certainly get the pints flowing in the 11th Street bar, East village, New York.  Another highlight.

The final song, Click, Boom, Click is a tribute to the nostalgic sound of the roaring 20’s and the ragtime jazz feel of clarinet, piano, and sax really swing. All in all, a beast of a record that demands to be heard. Impressive in its range and scale, Tuohy has delivered a really strong statement of his musical depth and vision.     

Review by Paul McGee

Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears Self-Titled  Curation

Despite the self-deprecating title, this is music that will appeal to the many, rather than the few who, perhaps, seek out quirky-sounding album names. A veteran of the Nashville scene, Thompson has played in a number of different bands, most recently finding a role as the primary foil for the talented Erin Rae. He speaks of ‘always wanting to make something that feels alive’ and that is exactly what is delivered here, with eleven songs that sparkle with great spirit, energy and invention.

Kicking off the album is the great band sound of New Trailway Boogie with twin guitar harmonies and room for a few solos in an arrangement that is reminiscent of The Allman Brothers in the overall groove. The following track, Saturday Drive, has some superb pedal steel to augment the tight rhythm section and again allows for guitars to harmonize and solo around the song structure. Impressive in every aspect.

The mood changes on the mellow, Before the Flowers Bloom, a song that suggests the enduring legacy of JJ Cale in the restrained playing and easy flow; guitars, fiddle and pedal steel lifting the sense of harmony. The superb band dynamic is again captured on, Instrumental Health, a laid-back chance for all the players to dovetail around a central rhythm and create a sweet melody.

The traditional country sound of, Sad Old Singer, conjures up the easy rhythm, with fiddle and pedal steel intertwined, while the more rock-based groove of, Alley Scrappers, highlights the sense of threat in the lyric, ‘This world ain’t no place to be alone.’ Again, some great guitar riffing on this track.

Proceedings wind down with the joyous, Put YR Weird Ears, and the chorus line, ‘What’s there to do anyway, but boogie all your troubles away.’ Finishing on the psychedelic country sound of the final track, Head To the Smokies, gives that special feeling of being embraced by mother nature and absorbing all the quiet calm of rural surroundings. This is a really enjoyable album and one that promises great things from Sean Thompson as a self-styled solo artist – weird title and all!

Review by Paul McGee

The A’s Fruit Psychic Hotline

Offbeat and quirky are words that could be used here. There is a scattered elegance to the ten songs however and their very individualistic delivery. The harmony vocals of Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig are very idiosyncratic and interesting, full of invention and complex patterns in certain moments, while gently understated in others.

Swing and Turn Jubilee reminds me very much of the wonderful Roche Sisters who reigned supreme during the 1980s. In fact, this track is a traditional American bluegrass song from the 1950s, and the following, Wedding Dress, is an Appalachian folk song, also covered by Peggy Seeger.

Why I’m Grieving is a fine example of the duo in all their pomp, with their unaccompanied singing, and vocal histrionics that pitch and trill, before returning to the central melody. The gentle lullaby, Go To Sleep My Darling Baby, has some great yodeling parts in the arrangement, simple acoustic guitar as accompaniment, later joined by acoustic bass and twinkling piano.

Copper Kettle and Buckeye Jim are two more traditional songs, the former with a lonely saxophone part and the latter with a back-porch, crickets and frogs-at-night feel to the easy sway of the guitar and light percussive sounds. It really is a joy from start to finish, gently tickling a funny bone, or simply plugging into that deep reservoir within us that reflects upon our human condition. Well worth investigation.

Review by Paul McGee

Joselyn and Don Seeds & Bones Paintbrush

This interesting duo return with a 5-track EP to build upon the critical success of debut album, SOAR, which was released in 2020 last. The formula has not changed and the special dynamic that both musicians create is as powerful and compelling as ever. With Joselyn Wilkinson (lead and background vocals, tenor ukulele, djembe), and Don Barrozo (background vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, horns, cigar box slide guitar, accordion), in the driving seat, these five songs roll by all too quickly and leave the listener wanting more.

Deep Down is a slow burn with atmospheric vocals from Joselyn, sweetly soulful in tone and telling the story of the spirit of Nature, quietly powerful and waiting for the time to reclaim her rightful place, ‘You can cover me with concrete, build a city on my bones, But I could bring it crumbling down if I let you hear my moans.’ If Covid lockdown proved anything it was the dawning of the realization that paradise already surrounds us if we can just slow down and appreciate its beauty.

Give Up the Ghost follows, and is a song about our legacy of hate and may allude to the Civil War and the slavery issues that continue to foster race crimes in American cities to this day. ‘I wasn’t there for the worst of it, but I still feel the hurt of it, When hate has no home, it’s gonna give up the ghost.’ Another soulful delivery from Joselyn as she continues to use her powerful vocals to great effect.

The title track is about leaving down old burdens and moving on. The partly spoken vocals tell of dreams for a better tomorrow. The skeleton that we build upon on our journey and the seeds that we try and plant for the world we leave behind… ‘Is there room for the promise that I must keep, I may not see the harvest, but my children will reap.’

Stay is a superb song that examines relationships and the benefit in sticking it out through the hard times, ‘It’s easier to walk away, The hardest part is knowing when to stay.’ Familiarity either breeds contempt, or content – the choice is not always black and white.

Light A Spark is another song about hope for the future – a Post-Covid anthem to get back living life to the full, ‘I wanna spread my arms open, I wanna shake the dust off my heart, If this rusty part is not broken, maybe we can light a spark.’

A very engaging set of songs from two artists who dovetail so naturally together. Such interesting, inviting music, and so elegantly delivered.

Review by Paul McGee

New Album Reviews

Mean Mary Portrait of a Woman Part 1 Wood Rock

Mary James has been known professionally as ‘Mean Mary’ since the age of six when she wrote her first song, Mean Mary from Alabam. Her life story to date reads like something from a novel, being brought up in a big Floridian family with unconventional nomadic parents, but always with music at its core.  She played banjo, fiddle and guitar and performed live and on radio shows as a child, mostly with her brother Frank, who was equally accomplished both musically and academically. Later they performed their duo show on horseback, then spent several years in LA, performing on tv and in films. After a serious car accident as an adult, Mary’s vocal cords were severely damaged, to the extent that she was told she’d never sing again, but her by now legendary determination and perseverance won out, and she eventually regained her distinctive, rich, deep vocals.

Her latest album finds Mary in hearty singing voice, her powerful vocals matched by her prowess on her signature black Deering Crossfire electric banjo. Difficult to categorise, because there really is no one who sounds just like her, her self penned songs loosely fall into the folk category, but there’s a stridency about her material that suggests she might be really be a rock performer at heart. Numbers like Cranberry Gown (with a big nod to the Irish ballad The Star of the County Down), No Man’s Land and Old Banjo explore facing up to adversity. Both producing and writing or co-writing all the songs herself, Mary keeps it in the family by having brother Frank join her on 12-string guitar on five of the eleven tracks, and she co-writes six of those tracks with her mother, Jean. Like novelist Jean, Mary became a successful writer (of mystery novels) while she was recuperating from the car accident, and there’s more than a hint of drama and theatre in many of the songs here. Bette, Come Back recounts the melodramatic frantic tale of the missing companion, only to end with an unexpected twist.

Being a touring musician (and often a woman touring alone) was the inspiration for the interesting Bridge Out, a long dramatic story she performs as a duet with Frank; and for the most affecting Big Tour Bus. Of course she doesn’t have that bus nor the ‘driver named Gus’, instead she’s ‘Livin’ the dream, with 500 miles of road in between … exiting the bar with her pepper spray gun, for another sleep in my car night’. There are also two instrumentals, and the record finishes on an unexpected hopeful note with the love song, Clouds Roll By. Worth checking out.

Review by Eilís Boland

Grits & Gravy Stringband Ain’t Nothin’ But A Thing Self Release

Probably the best known and most active collective flying the flag for American Old Time music in Ireland, Grits & Gravy Stringband have released their first record. Self produced and recorded in Cork’s Shawsome Studios, it’s a fifteen track collection of standards (and some lesser known tunes) from the vast cannon of the genre. There’s never been anything other than a small following for the music in Ireland, which is barely known here, despite the fact that the music has its roots partly in the traditional Irish, Scottish and English tradition brought to the Americas by the settlers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Also known as ‘old timey’ or ‘mountain music’, it has many similarities with our own indigenous traditional tunes. Initially fiddle and banjo led, nowadays the music is often bolstered by the presence of upright bass, guitar, mandolin and dobro.

The tunes here are led by the superb twin fiddling of Ian Knepper and Caolán Keogh. Ben Keogh (father of Caolán and formerly one third of the much missed Dublin trio, The Rough Deal Stringband) plays open backed frailing banjo and sings, Siona Knepper plays bass and fiddle and Camilla Monroe plays guitar. A rowdy and lively music that is most at home in all night sessions encouraging social interaction, the mostly fast paced tunes here are no exception. Names like Boys them Buzzards are Flying and Farmer’s Daughter belie the rural origins of the music. Doc Watson popularised the well known Shady Grove, but here it’s given a more traditional treatment by Ben Keogh in his awe-inspiring ‘high lonesome’ vocals. Another highlight is his rendition of the heartbreaking Ain’t No Ash Will Burn, while Síona and Camilla have fun singing on I Will Never Marry. Ten of the tracks are instrumentals and be warned that dancing will be hard to resist!

Colin Derham has hit the mark with his exquisite album artwork, which is based on line drawings of the tools of the trade of a fiddle maker, complete with a sepia photo of the band. Recommended.

[Footnote: since the album was recorded (2020), Síona Knepper tragically passed away in July 2022 from an aggressive cancer. We extend our sympathies to her husband, Ian, and their young daughter, as well as to the band and her wider circle. Síona was a well known and popular musician and educator in Cork and her legacy will live on in the many lives she touched]

Review by Eilís Boland

Carter Felker Even The Happy Ones Are Sad Self Release

It seems that much of this second album from Carter Felker originates in a task that his partner Amy Nelson set him: to put a bunch of his saddest lyrics, against type, to some upbeat melodies. The album’s title reflects that this, as an overall set of songs, fits that overall theme. The lyrics, however, are often tales of misadventure as much as sadness. Equally they are not without a certain amount of humour to balance that darker tone. The opening song Ski Mask is the tale of a man who takes his roommate’s gun in order to rob a local credit union. Set to a shuffle beat you can dance to, it doesn’t work out too well in its ill considered aim to change his life for the better and maybe get his woman back. Party Pooper deals with exactly that, a man who decides he has better things to do other than party. Nothing But Net tells of a tall basketball player who’s has an injury which sidelines his hopes in that direction, and it has some nice steel playing to enhance it musically. Francine is a murder ballad that details the events leading to that moment and was the first of the songs to fit the brief. It is indeed as dark as it can get, yet set against a lively attractive tune. Ain’t Got Time For That lists the many things, both good and bad, that are to be avoided or placed on hold to just go about one’s day to day business. The final song, The Legend, might be considered a tribute to Prine’s inspiration, as much as summarising the life of a would be troubadour. 

Felker has said that he agrees with the Tom Waits’ credo, which finds the telling of terrible things set to beautiful melodies an interesting way to process that negativity. John Prine is again a touchstone for Felker as he feels that Prine was the reason he does what he now does. He has performed Prine’s songs many times and has absorbed some of his penchant for writing thoughtful, likeable, character studies. 

The album was produced by JJ Mayo and Pat Palarday, both of whom are among the featured musicians, Mayo playing guitar, keyboards and pedal steel as well as drums and Palarday contributes keyboards. Felker adds acoustic guitar and obviously lead vocals, something that he does effectively throughout the album.  

While the album title is mirrored in much of the material here, this is an album that will help Felker’s reputation as one of the new exponents of folk and traditional country music storytelling in his native Calgary, Canada and beyond. It has its antecedents in the 60s and 70s singer/songwriter era but works in the context of today’s broad musical alliances as well as anyone out there trying to find their place in a much crowed marketplace.

Review by Stephen Rapid

John Anderson Something Borrowed Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson Easy Eye Sound

Switching from his love of rock and roll to country music at the age of fifteen, John Anderson moved from his hometown of Apopka, Florida to Nashville, where he launched his career by playing local clubs at night while working a variety of day jobs. Since the release of his first single I’ve Got a Feelin’ (Somebody’s Been Stealin’) in 1977, he has reached the number one spot with five singles on the Billboard Country Charts and has recorded over twenty studio albums, the most commercially successful being SEMINOLE WIND, released in 1992. 

Anderson suffered a medical emergency prior to the pandemic and while recovering was contacted by Dan Auerbach of Black Keys fame, who coaxed Anderson back into the studio and produced his 2020 album, YEARS. Enthused by that project, Auerbach invited a host of artists to feature on this tribute album and, unsurprisingly, each and every one of them agreed to collaborate, a pointer toward the regard in which Anderson is held. Artists that have come to the fore in recent years such as Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell and Luke Combs are joined by industry legends like the late John Prine, Del Mc Coury, Gillian Welch, and Jamey Johnson. 

Released on Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label, the collection includes eleven of Anderson’s songs performed by some of the most celebrated artists in country and roots music, together with, what is believed to be the final recording by John Prine, who opens the album with a stellar version of 1959. With so many riches, it’s a challenge to highlight the standout tracks, such is the quality on offer here. Luke Combs’ version of Seminole Wind is a crescendo hitter and is simply stunning. Two female artists are included and both excel, Sierra Ferrell performs Years and Ashley McBryde’s version of Straight Tequila Night sounds as if it was written for her to perform. Jamey Johnson’s gravelly vocal is well suited to I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Going To Be A Diamond One Day) and Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings slow things down with a tender presentation of I Just Came Home To Count The Memories.

The remaining contributions are by Sturgill Simpson (When It Comes To You), Brent Cobb (Wild And Blue), Nathaniel Rateliff (Low Dog Blues), Eric Church (Mississippi Moon), Del McCoury (Would You Catch A Falling Star) and Brothers Osborne (You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover).

With adaptations that remain true to the original versions and stellar playing and production, this is a deeply satisfying listen from start to finish. It’s also a ‘must have’ for lovers of country music and will have listeners, as it did with myself, revisiting the back catalogue of this legendary artist.

Review by Declan Culliton

Andrew Combs Sundays Loose

Written and recorded in 2021, at a time when the Nashville based singer songwriter Andrew Combs was coming to terms with and recovering from a mental breakdown, SUNDAYS is an eleven-track collection of songs directed towards self-examination, composed during that period of personal illness and while facing an uncertain pandemic locked world.

The album takes its title from the recording process which found Combs and his collaborators, Jordan Lehning and Dominic Billet, entering the studio each Sunday, recording songs that Combs had written the previous week. Quite a departure from his two previous full length studio albums, CANYONS OF MY MIND (2017) and IDEAL MAN (2019), Combs has discarded the lush and melodic sound of those most impressive recordings, preferring a more stripped back and considered approach this time around.

Living up to its title, the album was co-produced by Combs and Lehning (Rodney Crowell, Caroline Spence, Caitlin Rose), and recorded in mono, which contributes to the chilled and easy-going Sunday morning vibe to the songs. Mid-tempo mediative tracks such as (God) less, Truth and Love, and See Me, have a first take feel to them, as the author reflects on his current circumstances. ‘We are capable of such a mess, but God still lives on in godlessness,’ Combs announces on the former and album opening track. Those words bookmark the theme contained throughout, one of reappraisal, acceptance and rebirth.

Accusation and blame rather than taking personal responsibility are considered on Mark of the Man and the gorgeous The Ship impeccably explores the pursuit of release and recovery. Another album highpoint is Anna Please, which was apparently inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film ‘Cries and Whispers’, and has shades of Steely Dan at their most laid back. Combs says his goodbyes with the closer Shall We Go. A shanty like song, it was inspired by the Samuel Beckett play, ‘Waiting For Godot’.  

SUNDAYS is a reminder and reflection on the mental turmoil and fragility faced by many artists in a career that is very often unforgiving and unrewarding. It’s also a powerfully emotive and forthright album by an artist who, based on his back catalogue, should be a household name in singer songwriter circles. Let’s hope it has also been a healing and restorative project for Combs. It can be a difficult listen at times and may catch lovers of Combs’ previous work off guard, but repeated listens, with the liner notes at hand, reveal a cache of impassioned and lyrically astute compositions. 

Review by Declan Culliton

Monica Taylor Trains, Rivers & Trails Horton

Her distinctive vocal style and the Cimmaron River, which flows close to her home in Oklahoma, resulted in Monica Taylor being christened ‘The Cimarron Songbird’ by fellow singer songwriters, Jimmy La Fave and Bob Childers. TRAINS, RIVERS & TRAILS is Monica Taylor’s third solo album and she is also a member of the Western Swing trio The Cherokee Maidens, alongside Robin Lynn Macy and Jennifer Pettersen.

With Cherokee Indian heritage and Scottish roots, Taylor is very much a country girl at heart and her deep love of natural beauty, which has surrounded her since childhood, is very much evident on this recording. “I’ve always wanted to put out an album of songs about rivers and old dirt roads,” she explains and across the eleven tracks that feature on the new album, she pays homage to all three with a free and easy style.

Co-produced by Taylor and her husband Travis Fite, fellow Okies John Fullbright, and Jared Tyler are among a host of players that joined them in the studio. Together with her self-written songs, Taylor includes a few well-chosen covers such as The Ballad of Easy Rider and Gentle on My Mind, both of which maintain the album’s core theme of travel and freedom. She shares vocals with John Fullbright and tips her hat in the direction of another Oklahoma native, Woody Guthrie, with an upbeat rendition of Minor Key.

Opening with the lively The Sound Of A Train and closing with the gentle Ocoee Love Song, there’s a consistent ambience throughout the album. Taylor’s vocals are effortless and relaxed and she’s surrounded by players whose arrangements more than complement those vocals. She recalls her great-great grandmother’s relocation to Oklahoma in the early 1800s by way of ethnic cleansing on the sorrowful Salty Tears.  Upbeat toe tappers Down In Louisiana and Train Take Me Away are hook laden delights and other highlights include the more rueful Just Came In To Say Goodbye.

An album that addresses Taylor’s visionary personal journey since childhood, it captures the mood of carefree and fun filled times together with more solemn matters. All in all, a most impressive and highly enjoyable listen.

Review by Declan Culliton

Mike Brookfield Built To Last Golden Rule

Based in Dublin, this fine guitar player originally learned his craft while playing in various bands across Liverpool, London and Manchester, taking in the best that each city had to offer, in honing his skills. All these capitals boast a deep musical legacy over the years and Brookfield has been a willing student. His creative output has resulted in four previous solo albums and many slots playing with famous artists, together with a role as a music coordinator on Ireland’s leading television station, RTE.

His music has previously leant towards a blues rock sound, however, on this new album Brookfield has moved in new territories, without veering too far away from the original source that gained him such a respected reputation. It’s definitely a more commercial sound and who can blame him for wanting to try out the mainstream in search of wider recognition.

The ten tracks are certainly dressed to impress, and Brookfield displays his sense for a catchy rhythm and melody with opener, Delirium Town, setting the pace with a great band dynamic. Every track is recorded with an energy that sparks and with Paul Moore (bass) and Dave McClune (drums) providing the stellar rhythm section, we are treated to the skilful playing of Paul Eades (keyboards) and the guitar histrionics of Brookfield to ignite the flame. Grainne Brookfield provides engaging backing vocals throughout and raises the arrangements to new levels with her harmonies.

Speedway has a prominent guitar tone driving the melody and sees Brookfield cutting loose, even if the middle section, with counter rhythm guitar sounds, does not sit as easily in the final mix. The more laid-back groove of Workin’ On You Baby has a salsa styled, shuffle drum beat that gives the arrangement an atmospheric lift. East Village Vinyl Queen follows with a more commercial sound and a radio-friendly groove.

Dunkirk Spirit is a call-out to those who ignore the need to come together in times of trouble and challenge. Community has never been more important than in these days of post Covid fallout and ongoing social constraints. A Life Lived For Others is a look at the frustrations in rearing a family, the difficulties and the pull towards walking a negative path. Looking for the joy in things is the only possible release and focusing on the needs of others ahead of yourself.

Nothin’ To Sing But The Blues has a nice tempo and is a chance for Mike to showcase his excellent guitar technique and tone. He is a very lyrical player and never allows his natural feel to be lost in the band dynamic. Snatched It From My Hand is another commercial sounding track that rolls along on a bright and breezy melody despite the dark lyrics about rampant property development, and other examples of greed. Kiss Me Deadly strides along powerful melody lines with the band driving home the rhythm and closing song, Built To Last has sweet harmonies from Mike and Grainne colouring the acoustic guitar and gentle percussion.

A very solid return from this gifted musician and an enjoyable listening experience. The production is very bright and clean, just like the album artwork which delivers sharp images that highlight a confident Mike Brookfield and his Stratocaster guitar. A man that is ready for all that the future has in store.

Review by Paul McGee

Paul Kelly Time Cooking Vinyl

Another very timely reminder from this accomplished Australian singer songwriter who has always remained at the forefront of artists who developed their craft in Australia. He has released a huge volume of albums, including a number of previous “Best Of” collections. Perhaps his greatest output in this sense was, “The A to Z Recordings (2004-2010),” a 106-track, eight-CD boxed set. Kelly toured this concept, as a new idea for live performance, in 2011, and I was privileged to see him play this set, over four nights, in Dublin’s Sugar Club with his nephew Dan Kelly on guitar accompaniment. It was an incredible performance to witness, and each show had a different set list, each night. Quite stunning in both construct and delivery.

This new compilation is a look at a selection of songs taken from the vaults of past recordings, and Kelly has selected thirty songs to represent his journey across fourteen releases, highlighting that his creative output has always remained at the highest levels of quality and excellence. There is one new song, Back To the Future, and ten of the featured songs are taken from three specific albums, WAYS AND MEANS (2004 - four songs), NOTHING BUT A DREAM (2001 - three songs) and SPRING AND FALL (2012 - three songs).  There are a number of live tracks, six in all, taken from various concerts recorded over the years and those who are already acquainted with Kelly’s music will happily recognise songs like, When I First Met Your Ma; Love Never Runs On Time; From Little Things Big Things Grow; Winter Coat; Deeper Water and How To Make Gravy. He even turns Shakespeare’s words into song on, Sonnet 60, sounding ever profound in the Nick Cave-like delivery.

As a theme, Time, is something that we all dwell upon, at one stage or another, as the years come and go. Kelly has always grappled with this concept and the fear of wasting this precious commodity, whether in love or in terms of musical journey. He finds himself in a rich vein of form right now and further releases are expected later this year. If you want to play catch up on his glittering career, then this compilation is the perfect starting place.

Review by Paul McGee

Ever More Nest Out Here Now Parish Road

The name, Ever More Nest, is the performance moniker of Kelcy Mae. She hails from the Mississippi Delta and her music is fused with the deep rhythms of the region and that special insight that coming from the lands of the bible belt bestows upon an artist. All the songs echo and reflect a shimmer of both dark and light, perhaps captured best in the twilight melancholy of the vocal delivery, at once sweetly sensitive, and always reflectively tinged with a knowing sadness.

This is her second album and the eleven new songs bear the sure touch of producer, Neilson Hubbard, who also contributes on drums, percussion, piano and vocals. He is joined by the superb talents of Will Kimbrough (guitars, banjo, mandolin), Dean Marold (bass guitar), and Fats Kaplin (pedal steel, violin, viola). Such intuitive players and always sensitive to the needs of each song; never over playing and always providing the appropriate touch to raise the song arrangements to new heights. The gorgeous melody of the title track is a prime example, with all the players very much in unison and delivering a sublime example of the joys contained here. Kelcy Wilburn (Kelcy Mae), contributes on vocals and guitar and her singular talent is clearly evident on songs such as Alone Tonight, with its gentle sway and a prayer to find solace, ‘And if you want to save me, Let your hands be light.’

Equally, the confessional theme of Wishing Well is a reflection on alcohol abuse and personal demons. It sounds more like self-punishment than any sense of a release; ‘I’ll never give up on that love that we held, And I’ll never stop drinking from this old wishing well.’ The song, Hymn, is a look at the world through the eyes of a girl growing into a woman and letting go of youthful dreams, while the opening track, Out Loud, has a celebratory feel of coming out of the darkness into a bright new day, with Lucy Cordts whistling, highlighting that sense of hopefulness. There is a touch of Natalie Merchant to the vocal tone on, What’s Gone Is Gone, a real highlight among the many gems here. Again, great ensemble playing from these gifted players, and a great dynamic in the arrangement.

The winsome sound of pedal steel on, Almost Home, is complimented by the mandolin and subtle guitar accompaniment, with the lead vocals drifting out across the lovely melody. Another personal song, This Cloud, tackles the issue of self-doubt and feelings of vulnerability, in coming to terms with who you are and growing into your own spirit. The final song, All I Want, is a statement of pushing to break down walls and letting others inside.

A lot of this album plays out like a “dear diary” entry but it is far from the adolescent scribbles of teenage angst. Instead, we are given entry to the world of a mature woman coming to terms with her own identity looking back to the past in order to gain valuable insights for the future and remaining vulnerable while the transformation evolves. Another very impressive release.

Review by Paul McGee