November 7, 2018

There was a strange smell in the car. As opposed to something that you could identify easily it was a chemical smell that might have been screen wash? I couldn’t see anything and expecting something expensive to resolve. The car was booked into the garage.

I handed across the keys but was shortly invited into the workshop to inspect the car. The mechanic had peered beneath the front passenger seat and found a satsuma. Clearly it had advanced to be decomposed in the extreme. The trip was a great waste of my time and there is a running family joke is that no one is allowed to eat in my car! See the image on the left!

Two trips to London were part of the week. The first was as a trustee of the Moores Furniture Group Pension Scheme. With the other trustees we were selecting a fiduciary manager for our investment of the funds. I seldom wear a suit and in fact it is quite a pleasure once in a blue moon: nostalgia overcomes me for cuff links, ties and polished black shoes. So sat on the train I take my spectacles off to scrutinise something closely and put them in a pocket. On eventually restoring them to my face the arm fell off! So I turned up at a meeting to discuss the best deployment of £93 million by first asking if someone had any cellotape.

The second trip, at the weekend, was to stay with Katrina and Matt. However we really visited to see some veteran cars. These are motor cars made before 1905. In fact a large number look like ‘horseless carriages’. After exhibiting themselves on Regent Street on the Saturday they then participate on the Sunday in the London to Brighton Veteran car Run of 50 miles.

In the scheme of things then leaving central London and driving to Brighton by 4.30 pm doesn’t sound difficult but it is. They set off from beside the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, from around 7.30 am. These cars were only ever expected to make short distances and they are chronically unrelaible. I think we take for granted the reliability of modern day machinery. Amusingly then from where they started were pools of oil and water. When diesel and petrol engines are banned, in a couple of decades time, these cars will still be allowed to run with all their pollution.

Even if I dwell on my 1965 Triumph Herald then it had a load of faults that came with cars of the era. For these veteran automobiles the major challenge is not only moving forward but also braking. The brakes are inefficient and you need quite a lot of space to come to stop. Back in the day there wasn’t as much traffic on the road and therefore plenty of space to slow down. Nowadays the roads are crammed. Michael, one of the owners and drivers (to the left in his 1904 Oldsmobile and deer stalker) ruefully talked of cars nipping into these gaps as they approached lights.

I mentioned nostalgia above and never is the subject more alive than on a newstand with the publications that revisit times gone by. I’m usually looking for Country music magazines but the tractor one caught my eye. Back in the day I spent a lot of time buying several items that were originally fitted to this tractor. I was at Ford Motor Company between 1978 to 1984 and bought, during that time, all the electrics, hydraulic tubes, tyres, some cabs, castings and forgings (used on the tractor and in the engine) and other things I forget. Also during this time I bought items and services that were necessary to run the plant and various departments. I bought print and artwork that mainly concerned the manuals that were supplied with each tractor. To think now about air brushing and printed materials is to step back to another century. Today a bright operative sat at an iMac could do the job in a fraction of the time and then publish it all digitally.

Into every life a little rain must pour they say. A deluge arrived when looking out across the trees from our front garden I saw a 15 metre high pole. We were delightfully secluded without any other buidlings or similar in view. This pole is shortly to be adorned with satellite dishes and electronic gubbins. This mast will enable broadband signals to be received from about 4 miles away and then be beamed elsewhere locally. Myself and other neighbours are not impressed at this erection.

So we have got the Council involved who are scheduled to visit to see if it conforms with Planning law and other relevant agencies have been engaged. Needless to say the neighbour who’s allowed this monstrosity to be placed on their land has been spoken to and told that he’s the spawn of Beelzebub. I got a lot of waffly disclaimers back about it not being his responsibility to consult with his neighbours about this pole. Not mentioned is the lucrative contract (thousands of pounds per annum) he’s signed with the company that owns the mast. Anna, when passing by my chair, was signalling for me to calm down as I got more vocal on the ‘phone. We’ll see where our complaint goes. 

One neighbour suggested resolving the problem with a chainsaw. Watch this space. “Timber…”

October 24, 2018

Colter Wall – Songs Of The Plains

Colter Wall’s second release Songs Of The Plains comes quickly after his 2017 debut. Judging by the 11 songs it appears that there was still a lot left unsaid. The images conjured in these lyrics continue his theme of being a drifter, whether today in his native Canada or the 19th Century American Wild West. The simplicity of the arrangements and, producer, David Cobb’s continued isolation and promotion of Wall’s unique and remarkable voice make this an intimate experience where the pace of delivery, timbre and the rising and falling is literally orchestral.

A simple chord pattern on his acoustic guitar starts “Plain To See Plainsman” and Wall declares, “I cut through the Rockies like some unholy blade”. We are placed in the Canadian outdoors learning of his love of the mountains, ocean and wheat fields. This is his home with its raw beauty, unforgiving winters and wide open spaces. He says that recent conversations in Europe and the USA confirmed how little his fans knew about Canada. With pride and sentimentality he immediately sets the record straight.

“John Beyers (Camaro Song)” was debuted on his last tour and recounts his planned retribution after three bullets were put into his prized 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. From here we learn about his impetuous past. “Wild Bill Hickok” tells the story of this Wild West plainsman legend. We end with Bill’s untimely demise after a disgruntled fellow gambler shot him. To achieve this full timeline in just over two and half minutes shows his gift as an economic wordsmith.

There are seven original compositions. However Wall walks the talk as regards his love of the catalogue of traditional North American folk songs. On tour he played Wabash Cannonball and Railroad Bill and on the album are “Tying Knots In The Devil’s Tail” (with vocal duties shared with fellow Canadians Corb Lund and Blake Berglund), “Calgary Round-Up” and “Night Herding Song”. The latter is a traditional cowboy song; it didn’t work in his Nashville studio and so he recorded it live beside an outdoor fire. 

His compositions are the most memorable and the Western Swing of “Thinkin’ On A Woman” sees him joined on acoustic guitar by Cobb and Lloyd Green on pedal steel. Throughout the album other instrumentation is light of touch and always sits behind his powerful baritone voice. Special mention must go to Mickey Raphael on harmonica – it would be easier to list the luminaries who he hasn’t played with – always measured, sparse and evocative.

Despite the inevitable unrequited message this is one of his most upbeat songs. Others can be bleak and “Manitoba Man” covers the abandonment of another female “light of his life”. However the man in question is selling drugs at a garage in Manitoba and a visit is necessary before he flees. 

After his 2017 breakthrough with his eponymous album it wasn’t guaranteed that his star would continue to shine brightly in a very crowded marketplace of talent. Wall is armed with stories, the sympathetic husbandry of David Cobb and a unique voice that is commanding and sonorous. I consider this Volume 2 to his last release but whether you want more or he’s new to you then this is a wonderful record.

October 11, 2018

Rich Krueger – NOWthen

Chicago based Krueger has balanced a career in the medical care of newborn infants and been part of the 5 piece band The Dysfunctionells since the 1980s. Despite the surprising combination then the reality is many of the artists on these pages have lives outside music: they need to eat. If there is a surprise then how damn good Krueger is.

NOWthen is his second solo release of 15 tracks and immediately leaps onto my list of year end contenders. A strong and plaintive voice with an attractive timbre and ability to hold a melody is the first draw. Then staggering yet often surreal stories unfold in long and articulate lyrics coupled to heavyweight tunes to make this a joy. Falling into the broad church of Americana. Krueger is close to a Singer Songwriter sound and I think he’d have few complaints to be compared to Randy Newman.

“Girls Go For Arse’oles” is a gentle acoustic melody with acoustic guitars to the fore whilst an organ holds long notes. Krueger’s voice has clear space to deliver a love song strong with eccentricity: “Let me start by saying I’m a liar, Can’t say how much of this is true, But if it makes things any better, I’ll swear by the copper in my tattoo, And you will watching me steal your heart.”

With “Por Que No Me Amas (Love Me)” we go a long way south of Illinois to cross the border. A Mexican melody with accordian recounts a suicide attempt (failed!). We join him after his incompetent drowning and his eventual re-emergence into the city. As always woman trouble underlines his “maladaptive behavior”. As we progress the accordian remains but a Mariachi band adds colour along with an upright bass setting the rhythm as Robbie Fulks helps him sing the chorus.

So up across the border we go Cajun with “O What A Beautiful Beautiful Day”. It takes us into Krueger’s other ‘office’: a maternity delivery theatre. Maybe not a promising subject? Nah, absolutely, as the whole album is soaked in humour and here he tells us of dad fainting, hospital bills, unspeakable pain and the fact that it is a day that all will remember for the right reasons.

Again in another genre switch “À Tout Jamais (Pour Eva)” we slow thing down and a ballad of stunning beauty unfolds. We place ourselves in a bleak European setting of a war. Apparently this song was once destined for a play in the mid nineties. Female voices act like sirens in the background above a chorues of other voices. Oh man…

“Me & Mr Johnson” is that Mr Johnson and we’re in Clarksdale with a full electric rock ’n roll band laying down a groove with full brass and a female chorus visiting the folklore of his swap with the  devil of his soul for guitar playing prowess.

Did I tell you about the engrossing story of “Don”? Well maybe another time as all the tracks are exceptional.

The lyrics read like short stories. Without doubt his writing is as strong as his music and can stand alone as something to enjoy without the soundtrack. He descibes himself thus “I’m a friendly and open smart and funny guy with a mouth and willingness to use it. I’m pretty much an iconoclast….NOWthen is full of real songs that are never ordinary”. How true.

October 5, 2018

Dillon Carmichael – Hell On An Angel

Dillon Carmichael has a lineage of East Kentucky Country music forbears and, as they say, the apple hasn’t fallen too far from the tree. Now a Nashville resident he’s developed his song writing talents in collaborations. On his debut record he has co-written seven of these 10 compositions. It seems that to go from being a Nashville songwriter to a recording artist is the quality of the voice. It’s here that Carmichael kicks the ball out of the park with a rich and expressive baritone; I immediately thought of Jamey Johnson but Chris Stapleton fans will be drooling.

An atmospheric “Natural Disaster” leads us off – the voice powers through familiar troubles: “Just like an angry volcano, she blew me away”. A slow moving Stapleton arrangement that crosses Country, Southern Rock and the Blues into an Eagles confection is an attractive introduction. One of the singles off the album “It’s Simple” is a ballad drenched in pedal steel and eulogises about an uncomplicated life; you start to sense the old time feel pervading the album. If that wasn’t traditional enough for you then “Country Women” opens with the immortal lines: “I like girls that ain’t afraid of a tractor” and then by line three we get references to Haggard and honky tonks. As a tune, maybe a little Outlaw comes to mind with lively pedal steel and female backing singers giving this a feel good swing. 

The title track, “Hell On An Angel”, is another upbeat stomp and the lyrics tell you of hell raising: “Well I was hell on an angel, that liquor burned like gasoline, I had one foot in the fire the other steppin’ on her wing, Well that temperature was risin’ but I could not feel the heat, Well I was hell on an angel that loved the devil out of me”. Leroy Powell’s guitar playing on the album is immaculate and here we rock out with an Allman Brothers’ lick.

“Dancin Away With Heart” deploys that baritone and it stops you in your track. He puts into song a true story of playing a gig when his ex rolls up with her new beau. Needless to say he’s crushed by her appearance. This is an album highlight. A great melody that could be from the 1980/90s. Again sensational drums (Chris Powell) propels this along with discreet guitar solos and female backing. If this doesn’t make Country radio then nothing will.

Stapleton’s 2015 “Was It 26” was a unique reworking of a Charlie Daniels’ track by Don Sampson. Quite surprisingly, Carmichael’s “What Hank Would Do” misappropriates this arrangement with the distinctive guitar sound. I found this shameless and unoriginal. Dixie Againcloses the album with anthemic twin guitar rock. A slow build with more tales of dissolution and the pursuit of redemption. Lynyrd Skynyrd would be proud to call this their own.

This is mainly authentic and promising Country from a newcomer. Cobb is so sought after that he can pick ‘winners’ and turning his talents to producing this record, at Nashville’s legendary RCA Studio A, is maybe a sign that Carmichael is seen as one for the future. All efforts are behind that voice and we’re taken back a few decades where the melody and vocals have to do the heavy lifting. 

Unlike Tyler Childers who emerged from Kentucky last year to immense goodwill with an exceptional, authentic and original sound then he was still an outsider and singing about contemporary themes. Carmichael despite his tender years seems to have leap frogged this rite of passage phase and the industry has turned out a fully formed, at times, formulaic Nashville offering. 

Early days but I’m encouraged if the Nashville ‘machine’ is producing Country music again.

September 19, 2018

Jason Eady – I Travel On

The first thing that strikes you on Eady’s seventh release is the quality of the playing. On the opening track, “I Lost My Mind In Carolina”, a real steering wheel tapper, you hear his band fire up. The album was recorded live and acoustic. Such a platform means that fiddle and banjo are immediately important in the mix. This along with the lyrical content takes you back a decade or two for how chart popular Country used to sound. Eady may be new to you but he’s been around a long time and garners much respect from his musical peers.

“Happy Man” is in stark counterpoint to many of the songs here where struggle and moving on are the theme. With the type of sentimentality that only Country music can ever feel confident to cover we hear of a contended life with many blessings of marriage and family. “Calaveras County” (in California) hits a familiar rhythm and his wife and solo artist, Courtney Patton, joins him on the first of a number of harmonies. The story has its origins about when his father broke down short of petrol in the middle of nowhere. His salvation came in the form of a hippy in a multi-coloured VW camper van that took him to fetch the fuel. This story of kindness has stuck with him ever since.

“She Had To Run” slows the album and is reminiscent of Alison Krauss and Union Station with a tale of a woman thumbing a lift to escape an abusive partner. Fiddle and dobro intertwine in a haunting and melancholy duet as his masterful baritone recounts this getaway with a passenger in peril and distress. 

“Pretty When I Die” is a bluegrass outing and sumptuous husband and wife harmonies sit on top of the hoedown. As the band take their solos he extols the virtue of hard work and living life to the full to avoid the ignominy of dying pretty! “I Travel On” is his most memorable vocal and takes us on the road with this lilting ballad from Monterey to Richmond: 

“I’m out here searching, 

For cities made of gold, 

I don’t know what is real, 

Just some stories I’ve been told, 

Maybe someday I’ll find out, 

Somewhere on this road I travel on”

This is a beautiful authentic Country album of considerable lyrical and musical craft. I can understand the affection that follows this Texan troubadour. Sadly, given the industry’s predilection for formulaic Country Pop music purveyed by 30 somethings males in Stetsons and blue jeans then this won’t be anywhere near a Country Music Association nomination for album of the year anytime soon but maybe that tells you how fabulous it is.

September 15, 2018

“That’s the end of the death portion of the show” chirped Jim White after five of his 15 songs. Maybe the ‘death’ section of the show has finished but White has had a troubled life and in this couple of hours you get a tour through his taxi driving, homelessness, depression, failed marriages and then his emergence into the sunnier uplands through not least the joy of his daughters.

A rapt audience of around 100 are holding onto every word as he recounts this personal journey between songs. He is a storyteller. The sublime virtuoso Clive Barnes accompanies him on electric or acoustic guitar adding atmosphere to White’s wry, observational, seldom judgemental, and brutally honest confessional musings.

“A Perfect Day To Chase Tornados” from his 1997 Wrong-Eyed Jesus albumis met with delight as the gathering discover that White is about to revisit some of his most cherished songs. The complex lyrics illustrate that you are in the company of a thoughtful yet often conflicted craftsman: 

“Sometimes I think that the sky is a prison and the earth is a grave.
And sometimes I feel like Jesus, in some Chinese opera.
And sometimes I’m glad I built my mansion from crazy little stones.
But sometimes I feel so goddamned trapped by everything that I know.
And I wish it wasn’t so, cause the only thing that anyone should ever know
Is that today’s a perfect day to chase tornados.
Yeah, when the wild wind whips around your head you know,
That you have found a perfect day to chase tornados. To rapturous applause he quips that the song was ‘wrote before I was a rock star.”

Sat still with the guitar on his lap we work through songs off five different albums, with five coming from his 2017 release: Waffles, Triangles & Jesus.Torn between poet and raconteur we have asides about the commercial success (or not) of his releases.”Objects In Motion” he declares come from the album “that ended my career” – Drill A Hole In A Substrate. With relish he advises that the song was probably the least popular track on the album “judging by the meagre couple of cents I get from royalties then it had two plays, probably, in Namibia and Iran”. However when the laughter subsided we had a haunting and atmospheric song sung and half spoken.

Highlights are many but “Wound That Never Heals” about a female serial killer spins you off kilter. The story is dark with murderas its main theme. I suppose against the backdrop of White’s mental challenges then you never quite know where the fiction or autobiography might collide. “Silver Threads” from his latest album recounts the difficult parting from a girlfriend of four years after initial promises of marriage. However, don’t be glum “she’s happy now with a Norwegian!” “Bluebird” off the album “that ended his career” starts with the matter of fact declaration that he conceived a child with a woman he disliked and with fragile vulnerability and bleak loneliness he sings about the daughter:

“Bluebird on a telephone line
How are you? I’m feeling fine
Sweetly do I whisper your name
Lonely solo taxi ride to a cheap motel”

Before a sentimental closer he sang “Christmas Song”, the most autobiographical of his songs. Marooned in a Greyhound bus station on December 25th1998 after his transportation broke down. At this time separation from his child is the most agonising and the scatter of words spill out his pain, anguish and the realisation that he is in many ways a mess and maybe he’s the problem.

If you haven’t caught him then you must. He is a one-off: capable of stories, vivid images of America, delicate yet compelling melodies and an interpretive (yet never hurried) delivery that is like no other.

September 6, 2018

Curse Of Lono – As I Fell

First impressions bring to mind a Nordic Noir box set: brooding, complex and menacing. It’s as if it was recorded with colour repressed and black and white prevailing. The album’s narrative is often beyond dark and the mood is sombre and serious. However, spending time with this masterpiece enables you to discover the personality of the main protagonist, composer, vocalist and bandleader, Felix Bechtolsheimer. You warm to him and soon subtle melodies spill out and you find yourself reaching the choruses before him. It’s genuinely one of those albums that you could play back to back several times.

“Valentine” starts the eleven-song outing with an industrial beat and a union of voices. Soon a scraping guitar ups the song’s raw edge. This hypnotic paean to a lover involves the unlikely involvement of daggers and bullets. It’s here that Bechtolsheimer’s backstory of heroin addiction seeps through many of the lyrics. He says he’s moved through this phase of his life but had some songs left from his earlier release, Severed,that needed to see the light of day. 

Throughout, the hypnotic and atmospheric rhythm section of Charis Anderson (bass) and Neil Findlay (drums) lay down patterns on a canvas that Bechtolsheimer paints with words that illuminate and challenge, “Kathleen” is such a track:

“Bricks and buildings they don’t mean nothing to me anymore

And the cars driving by they don’t touch me like before

Down in the gutter is where I pretend to be free

They’ve got eyes that shine like the sea”

The throbbing bass-heavy “Blackout Fever” is surely indebted to The Trogg’s “Wild Thing” signature rhythm but with Bechtolsheimer leading a chorus through abstract lyrics of mayhem. Musically the tone of the album lightens and whilst “No Trouble” visits a troubled relationship, the easy pace and melody delight not least with the outro guitar solo and muted horns.

“Leuven” was inspired by his grandfather’s experience of being in a train crash when returning from a football match in the 1950s. The experience left him with mental scars after witnessing the deathly aftermath. The song starts with a personal tone as Bechtolsheimer ‘talks’ to his brother. In the background the soundtrack builds with strings and the dialogue continues. A drum beat quietly starts to give some propulsion to the song and Joe Hazell’s stupendous guitar playing leads the song into an anthem.

“And as the train left the tracks on that December’s day

There were men singing songs about lands far away 

And the women they loved and the lies that they tell

And the eyes of Leuven all turned away

And the sirens they screamed and the kids went to play 

Out in the fields where their fathers fell”

I think I can declare with certainty that As I Fell will make a hatful of end of year lists. The British five piece (taking their name from a Hunter S Thompson book) led by Bechtolsheimer (ex Hey Negrita) have a giant atmospheric soundscape of an album. Whilst this is Bechtolsheimer’s second collaboration with producer Oli Bayston, this is the first withhis current line up. Written and mainly created in London, the definitive versions were laid down at a studio in Joshua Tree, California. The ghostly heat, space and landscape of the desert appear to inhabit the recordings, but this may be a figment of your imagination… 

Bechtolsheimer’s confessional, and often spoken, vocals may possess you like Jim Morrison but for me there’s some of Mark Knopler’s conversational and cadenced storytelling afoot often backed by the fluid and complementary guitar playing of Hazell. 

With Rock dead, or on tour supporting Def Leppard, we’ll quickly and happily claim this for Americana. Rush out and get your copy (preferably on vinyl).

August 29, 2018

Courtney Marie Andrews – May Your Kindness Remain

About a year ago I bought and reviewed Andrews break through album Honest Life. I was genuinely blown away. Here was a Singer Songwriter in the truest sense of it’s 1970’s genre creation – terrific melodies, remarkable voice, staggering and memorable lyrics, beautiful and sympathetic arrangements. Such a find.

Her latest release May Your Kindness Remain attracted lots of critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in March this year and you might say that she has arrived. That acclaim is well placed and hasn’t come quickly. Despite being of tender years at 27 years old this is her sixth release. That long hard road has meant that her lyrics dwell on real life: let’s be fair there is generally no money in the peripatetic life of a travelling musician. Her words talk of love and compromise in the most mundane of locations and rooms. She says – “A lot of people are poor in America—and because of those unattainable goals, they’re also mentally unstable, or sad, or depressed or unfulfilled. A lot of people — myself included at some point in my life — are loving somebody through this. That’s sort of the theme of the record: coming to terms with depression and the reality of the world we’re living in.”

One such lament is on “Two Cold Nights In Buffalo” where she’s marooned due to the weather in this large rust belt US town on the border of Canada and the Great Lakes. She talks of the city’s decline and the changing face with its declining middle classes, neighbourhoods and the community that was once nurtured by those who lived there. If you can relate to the song it will last longer in your memory. I cycled through it in July 2015 as I went south in search of America’s music in Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Memphis, Mississippi Delta and New Orleans. The Canadian border post takes you through the centre of the city. There are many streets of demolished and cleared space – the legacy of an industrial manufacturing past that eventually created the rust belt. I cycled through with little to see and whilst there are pockets of prosperity it is a ghost of a city as regards what once made it proud.

“Rough Around The Edges” sees a Carole King piano introduction and Andrews returns to a song of failed lives and love. Joni Mitchell introspection is found in the verse;

                              “You find beauty in simple things,

                                 In desert sunsets and in movie scenes

                                 I see the flaws in all the in-betweens,

                                 The past was cruel and caught up with me”

“KIndness Of Strangers” sees yet another arrangement to make you swoon. The producer, Mark Howard, has worked with Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan and creates a wonderful backing not least creating spaces in the songs to let her powerful angelic voice shine through like a ray of light. In this song where the soundscape parts she has a female chorus behind her that deliver a Soul/Gospel feel. “I’ve Hurt Worse” contains the key to the lock as regards the message of the song with the line “Mother says we love who we think we deserve” and it makes sense of the lyric where with accordion and ukelele backing she lists her lover’s indifference. Double tracking her voice for harmony is exquisite. 

If the album has the consistency needed to make it great then it also contains a complete timeless gem in the title track “May Your Kindness Remain”. She forgives a friend for all her indulgences because she has a good heart. The indulgences are listed with no little exasperation and maybe this is the reality she refers to in the above quote. The voice can soar and in this opener we get a tune to die for.

She’s playing locally in December. I visited the theatre to buy tickets. It felt like a moment when you find under priced treasure in a shop, how lucky are you? I shelled out the cash for two tickets before I feared that I would get a tap on the shoulder and the interloper chuckles and says “Oh you’re joking! You think we still have tickets available for this concert? We sold them decades ago. Do you how how great this artist is?”

Can’t wait.

August 24, 2018

My Favourite Eldest Daughter worries about hereditary conditions that may be on her future Timeline. In her position I would be less worried as I’m convinced that by the time she reaches the age of her mother or myself there will be a pill or spray that will sort it. If I were alerting her about future concerns then her father, aunt and grandfather had or have a troubling gypsy heart. The thought of being peripatetic would lose me no sleep other than where would I store my record collection, bikes and Morgan. Wandering far and wide simply and cheaply is a pleasure I live for. Another condition is less disruptive but persistent.

I cannot hear any music whether in a supermarket, lift, mall, waiting room and not marvel and wonder how such a track makes it into this space. There are so many songs out there why do they pick historical relics? Are the songs of today so temporary or irritating that they cannot make a background soundtrack for shoppers or residents?

Shola Ama is now 39 years old but at the tender age of 18 years old she had a hit single in 1997. It reached No. 4 in the UK charts and No. 21 in Germany. “You Might Need Somebody” was a dead ringer cover of Randy Crawford’s earlier effort. However, such was the quality of the song it charted 16 years later. Shola Ama released this on an album, which must have shifted a few copies. When the next album flopped she disappeared off the scene. (Yes, I have both albums).

So explain how 21 years later this song is echoing around a supermarket in Mauterndorf? (Mauterndorf in Austria has a population of 1,700 people and exists as a tourist spot mainly for winter skiiers who throw themselves off nearby Alps). Although it charted in Germany I’m incredulous this obscurity is serenading me as I ask for a cheese and gherkin sandwich.

How does Betty Wright’s 1971 “Clean Up Woman” make it into the lobby of a luxury hotel in Strasbourg’s OKKO Hotel? It’s France for heaven’s sake! This Soul classic shifted over a million records when it charted in the USA but how does it appear in my ears here?

1982’s “Pass The Dutchie” was still being played in a Miami mall 36 years after its release. Granted London’s Musical Youth’s reggae song was a worldwide hit and rose on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart to No.10. However, why does this make it onto any playlist for a nation that can pick from Elvis, Bruce, Jacko, Madonna, Aretha, Marvin, Dolly, Buddy, Whitney… need I go on?

You may think copyright keeps some of these big artists off the playlists. Maybe? However give me the total selection available and then I wouldn’t think to use some of these songs.

I’m expecting on my, say, wait in a Southern European taxi office that it will either be Billy Ocean or Todd Rundgren that accosts me. I’ll keep you posted.

June 28, 2018

Old Crow Medicine Show – Volunteer

For a band that has clocked up 20 years together then it’s surprising that Volunteer is their 6th studio album. However, when they did get to the famous RCA Studio A in Nashville it was also their good fortune to have the much sought after Country/Americana alchemist David Cobb as the producer. It would be unfair to suggest that OCMS wouldn’t have dished up this fine album with a lesser sorcerer on the dials.

Grammys have come their way and despite being important Americana stalwarts then they still have great affection for their street corner roots, where legend has it, Doc Watson found them and gave them their first major billing at MerleFest. In fact paying their dues the hard way, building up a US nationwide following, still remaining on the road and never getting remotely drawn into the commercial Nashville scene keeps their feet on the ground. To keep a loyal fan base you have to keep producing the goods and Volunteeris a varied, well played, uplifting and seasoned piece of work.

“Flicker & Shine” is an apt summary of their first couple of decades – “Well I’ve been all around this world, Young and running wild, I’ve played with the fire that burns, And I’ll live on the highway until I die”. A joyous and energetic bluegrass folk riot that states their creed and modus operandi. With feathers truly ruffled the band changes gear with a Country work out on“A World Away”. Ketch Secor’s harmonica drives this sweet tune.

“Look Away” puts fiddle to the fore over Cory Younts piano chords. A hook laden, wistful ballad that could be off any album by The Band tells the tale of seeking a simpler way of life back in the South from an earlier lifetime. “Old Hickory” has violins in tandem as the story of Virgil Lee with his fiddle and flat top guitar. We behold the tragic tale of his talent being enjoyed but passing and his legacy being “Like a old hickory, Shadin’ the porch of a house that’s been torn down”.

“Homecoming Party” slips into pure (and sublime) Glen Campbell as the weary musician tells of his early morning return to his family after an arduous tour. He anticipates the morning with the expectant children, the household chores he needs to resume and the affection of his much missed wife. The reality collides with the glamour of the life of a travelling entertainer. In the same style we finish with “Whirlwind”. Critter Fuqua’s slide guitar provides easy rhythm on this parting and melodic love song.

OCMS effortlessly slip between various genres and styles. For those who’ve enjoyed them live there will be some tracks you’ll be cranking up and others where you’ll admire the peerless musicianship and song writing. OCMS are still at the top of their game and this is one for my end of year list. Terrific.

June 23, 2018

It seems very jaded to continually refer to the age of the Stones in a review but frankly it was quite inspirational the way these septuagenarians ran around the large stage bringing every classic song to life with their energy. Such is the contemporary nature of the performance that you can nearly forget, that in terms of curators of popular music over the last 50 years, they are a phenomen.

This concert at the home of England rugby union, Twickenham, was described as a homecoming. It is around these parts of west London that the Rolling Stones got their initial residences in the mid 1960’s at small venues and the rest, as they say, is history.

The 50,000 who turned up paying vast sums for Black Market tickets along with those who paid the face values of £90 ($120) were treated to a blistering two hours of songs encompassing their whole catalogue. The 19 song set kicked off in daylight with “Street Fighting Man” from their 1968 Beggars Banquet. Jagger strutted, Wood and Richards exchanged licks with smug sly glances between each other and Charlie Watts kept immaculate time with an upright posture that you could imagine a 1950’s midwife would adopt as she propelled her heavy bicycle to the next delivery. Stadium rock comes with giant screens and this is how you keep up with the action. Predictably the cameras concentrated on the original members and it took a slot where Jagger introduced the band to get images of the other stalwarts who in the case of Chuck Leavell (keys) and Darryl Jones (bass) have been in the band decades. In fact Ronnie does well to get the ‘original’ accreditation having only been in the band 43 years.

“It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll” followed and Richards resplendent in bandana, green shirt and matching shoes showed his chops with some guitar passages. Next was a track off Exile On Main Street, namely “Tumbling Dice”. Woods took most of the guitar responsibilities and unfortunately the comments that Woods was technically inferior to Mick Taylor always comes to mind when he plays these parts. Apparently Taylor left the Stones as the drug fuelled madness started to threaten his wellbeing. The large screens caught the subtle nod that Richards gave Watts to bring the song to a close. Inevitably Jagger was probably 50 metres away from the band at the front of the extended stage.

Jagger introduced the 1966 classic “Paint It Black” with the quip “A nice cheerful number for you!” And so the hits kept coming but also the blues. From the sublime 2016 Blue & Lonesome we got Jimmy Reed’s 1955 “Ride ‘Em Down” that just made me wonder how marvellous a Stones gig would be with them just playing the blues.

Into all lives a little rain must fall and in the case of a Stones gig it is where Jagger exits for a long costume stage and Richards gets to play a couple of songs. The crowd had loads of love for Keef but the boy could barely sing a few decades ago and his two numbers meandered by with an increasing level of chatter noise or people fetching that next drink. For all the missteps then in fact his first song, the 1969, “You Got The Silver” had some fabulous acoustic slide from Woods.

Normal service was resumed as Jagger ran back on stage and we continues through the decades. “Miss You” surprised me by being more than the faux disco number I had long discounted. Jones bass lines were thunderous and matched the party atmosphere of the crowd who leapt to their feet and gyrated with their plastic glasses aloft.
 

So on the last lap we ended with “Brown Sugar” after a memorable rock blues workout on “Midnight Rambler” with Woods truly unleashing some incendiary guitar. No one made a move for the exits because the encore was to come. In this case we finished with “Satisfaction” but special mention must go the the highlight of the penultimate song “Gimme Shelter”. With Sasha Allen taking on Merry Clayton’s heart rendering and soul drenched vocals. The lady sang her heart out in front of Civil Rights graphics whilst Jagger cavorted around her. 

A few bows and they were gone. This is my third Stones concert (1983 and 1995) and time doesn’t diminish the pleasure in terms of the spectacle or hearing  the catalogue. Let’s not have any debate: they are still the world’s greatest rock ‘n roll band.

May 29, 2018

Erin Enderlin – Whiskeytown Crier

There is a movement of angry souls who feel that the ‘Big Three’ record companies have hijacked Country music (and Nashville) and now clog US radio with ‘Bro-Country’. This sub-genre is where the money is and it is maddeningly narrow in terms of gender, type of tune, instrumentation or lyrical content.

As I step back and look at the artists – usually photogenic males between 25 to 35 years old – I temper my disappointment as not every chart success coming from Thomas Rhett, Sam Hunt and Brett Young is unacceptable. However like an invasive species of animal it has evicted artists who are certainly female and purvey anything approaching the historic legacy of Hank, Merle, Johnny or Dolly. That is, a three minute soap opera of a story, lashings of pedal steel or any deviation from sub-Rock n’ Roll.

Maybe in another place I should expand on the failure of traditional Country music to remain contemporary rather than blaming some fat cat record executive, on the 31st floor of a sky scraper, who has no appreciation of the heritage and is funding vacuous ditties about tight black dresses, cold beer and pick up trucks (on a Saturday night).

If keepers of the flame are in retreat then there still are signs of life. Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Margot Price and Lee Ann Womack are shifting considerable units whilst self righteously declaiming Nashville. Some recent music from the above has been fabulous but I’m taken with the emergence of the songwriters getting in front of the microphone rather than their clients.

Brandy Clark is now well known and ploughing her own furrow whilst being accepted on her own terms. Exceptional music presented in a very understated way with few frills, rock riffs, photo shoots or sponsors selling fried chicken (Reba, what were you thinking?). Other interesting songwriter releases in 2017 came from Kendell Marvel, Travis Meadows and Radney Foster. However, Erin Enderlin’s wondrous 2017 USA release Whiskeytown Crier is a tonic for those losing their faith about the absence of exquisite talent writing and singing traditional Country music. In June 2018 it makes its UK debut.

Enderlin has already had some compositions picked up and made popular by Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan and Lee Ann Womack but it is timely for her to get some personal recognition.The simple arrangements and instrumentation takes us back to the 1990’s with just enough accompaniment to leave the vocals and sentiment as your focus. If you were looking for an album dripping with staggering Country melodies saturated with melodrama and heartbreak then surely this is it.

She’s been a Nashville resident for nearly 15 years and has called on some very illustrious friends to help her. Jamey Johnson has had a hand in the production and former flat mate Chris Stapleton lends his vocal talents to a couple of songs.

“Baby Sister” starts the album with that mischievous Brandy Clark “Stripes” vibe. Her sister has problems with her disappearing with her former beau:

“See, my sister Gina, she always was the pretty one
Just like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
She coulda had any man so I thought he was just another one
Till that no tell motel shotgun epiphany”

She turns up with a pistol to break up the tryst. An assertive vocal with a flat drum beat starts with her laying out the case for the defence whilst name checking Reba and setting the Country music landscape of motels, firearms, potential hospitalisation and the volatile nature of relatives. Add a killer chorus and you have a winner. 

The single “Ain’t It Just Like A Cowboy” places us in a world of heartbreak and resignation as she expands on the reality of sharing her man. In four and a half minutes we get a whole Box Set of pain where the characters reveal themselves. Ultimately his fake affection is accepted with Enderlin reflecting that maybe the failure is hers. It is all beautifully told with her strong and expressive voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar. The chorus hails a tasteful pedal steel and harmonies. The pace and finger prints of Jamey Johnson seem to be all across the track.

“When Broken’s All You Know” picks up the threads of two lost and reckless souls in a relationship from the wrong side of the tracks. She leads us through the inevitability of fracture and the decision to give away her child so that it has the best chance of escaping the downward spiral their lives follow. On this slow paced acoustic classic she gives her most accomplished vocal performance; it’s incredible that she hasn’t found the charts herself. Stapleton shares the harmonies. 

“His Memory Walks On Water” deliciously reveals her Southern accent. A lyric starts with a man’s death and the longing that his daughter has for a positive memory. This tragic yet distorted recollection of him has him “like John Wayne in a Cadillac” despite the reality that he was pretty useless and a drunk. It is Country music pathos played out with pedal steel and your heart strings.

I could keep describing each song, as they are all as captivating. She co-wrote them all barring the two covers. Those illustrate her references with Gram Parson’s “Hickory Wind” and “’Til I Can Make It On My Own” co-written and made popular by Tammy Wynette. On the latter she manages to bring that world weary yet resilient determination that the original had.

If you been waiting for the brilliant ladies of Country music to re-appear with gold then you’re patience has been rewarded. This would nestle comfortably alongside anything by Trisha Yearwood, Lee Ann Womack, Nanci Griffiths and the best of early Reba McEntire. Guess what’s at the top of my ‘end of year list’ at the moment!

May 16, 2018

Ben Bostick – Hellfire

So you roll into a bar and on stage is your dream band. They’re loud, irreverent, tight, menacing and probably on the wrong side of too many shots of whiskey. Welcome to Ben Bostick and his sublime band (Hellfire Boys) on his second album, Hellfire. However this isn’t just a bunch of good time journeymen troubadours; Bostick is the real deal.

Bostick put together this album after a residency at a bar in LA and it fits the forte of the band perfectly. John Would (Warren Zevon and Fiona Apple) co-produced the album and the ‘live’ feel is evident from the first song. This sound was achieved by the band arranging themselves in a circle in the studio and playing live, without headphones, using stage monitors to hear the vocals. I was transported to Memphis, Sun Studios, as the energy hits you in waves like a series of short jabs.

However, it was in California that this South Carolina raised tour de force recorded these eleven tracks. You get the full nine yards of Americana – Country, Rock, Rockabilly and probably other sub genres that I’m not sufficiently engaged in to drag out here. Bostick’s other talents lie in being able to pen a superb lyric. He’s an English graduate with credentials in creative writing. Don’t worry – he doesn’t get precious but has an ability to find a killer couplet and perfect description.

“No Show Blues”starts the album with an off key plaintive howl. 

“I’m gonna go to the bank and cash out my account

Drive straight to the tavern and drink a disgusting amount

Spin my pistol and baby you better look out

Cuz wherever it points I’m coming to your town”

And welcome to the band – Kyle LaLoneon guitar shows his chops with a sizzling guitar solo as Luke Miller on a Nicky Hopkins-esque honky tonk piano adds flourishes in front of the driving rhythm of Cory Tramontelli’s bass and Perry Morris’ drumming.A wicked start.

If that was Americana then we’re headed for pure Johnny Cash Country with the title track, “Hellfire”. If you check the internet you’ll see a wonderful Bostick rendition of “Folsom PrisonBlues” and he brings a lot of that vocal and phrasing to this composition. The feel is just right not least with those thrashy and thumping drums. The lyrics are sublime with a 1960’s story of cold feet at the prospect of marriage and the dissolute solution of getting drunk in-between trips to church seeking redemption for his sinful ways! “Tornado” continues this style but this time he plays the hapless victim of a gal whose impact is this type of inclement weather.

“No Good Fool” is probably the most commercial song with his rich baritone tones warning his paramours that he’s good fun for the night but less reliable as a long term prospect. Maintaining that high energy the band cooks with Miller adding organ to the piano which continues to add texture and interest to the whole sonic picture.

“The Outsider” has angular guitar and deep resonating bass, which is more Iggy Pop than Music Row and pulls together the attitude of the album. This is how Bostick feels about himself and he’s said that in the confusion of what really constitutes Country music these days then maybe this is where his music falls. If you like your Country to have a slightly jagged edge with its feet definitely in contemporary Americana then pull up a seat; you will feast long and hard.

April 29, 2018

Ross Cooper – I Rode The Wild Horses

Some of the best Country tracks released in 2018 are to be found on this album by Nashville domiciled Texan, Ross Cooper. If you start with the fact that Cooper raised $21k via crowd funder website Kickstarter to get this album promoted then you obviously won’t find the fingerprints of a major record label across it. However it is only a matter of time before they come calling.

The twelve short tracks are a cross between mainstream Nashville Country and Americana Country Rock, although the PR threw up Alt-Western as the genre. That somehow seems to fit the atmospheric title track with its cinematic vista of horses, tumbleweed, rodeos and bars. Cooper had an earlier career as a bronco rider and writes with considerable experience of the lifestyle, travel and injuries. He relays this through the thoughts of a retired rider reflecting on the highs and lows but taking considerable satisfaction at the thrill of his tussle with unharnessed nature. Eric Masse produced the album and he’s been accumulating experience with some stellar artists. This included working on Miranda Lambert’s The Weight Of These Wings. Along with his talent on the dials he brings a fabulous selection of Nashville musicians. It’s here that we first hear the incendiary and heavy guitar of Jeremy Fetzer as he sets the track alight with a blistering solo toward the end.

Cooper slips easily between light and shade. “Another Mile” is a fast paced acoustic pop tune where a pleasing chorus is supported by being driven along by a band of guitar, keyboard, pedal steel and drums. However, the sweetest traditional Country outing is ‘Lady Of The Highway’. Cooper lays down his homage to travel on the road. Eddy Dunlap’s delightful pedal steel gives the song charm and personality. Take note this should be at the very top of the Country charts NOW.

 “Strangers In The Bar” intimately clues you in on a routine pick up and sounds like Kip Moore over a throbbing beat. The words are succinct – ‘And you should come with a warning, you’ll be alone in the morning. Fishing for the first of many drinks, Hooking fools on the first of many winks.’ We feel that ‘busy life on the road vibe’ and its loneliness. Here two people find temporary solace in each other’s arms after a seemingly well rehearsed pas de deux.

A rolling rhythm against a backdrop of organ accompanies the final track “All She Wrote”. He recounts the terseness of his lover’s moving message of goodbye. Ironically he finds all this out as he reads her note (that he forgot to open half a day earlier) where she tells him that it ‘doesn’t feel like she’s leaving, cause you can’t leave a man already gone.’ Short, impactful and armed witha great hook.

His distinctive and attractive vocals are always able to sound rowdy but he can find that slower Country tender heartbreak tone. Each track is beautifully crafted and there is just so much damn catchiness about it all that you may have withdrawal symptoms.

Lastly, in a recent interview Cooper says about the music business “It changes every day, but I’d say for most artists like me there’s always a struggle with giving an audience a reason to care. It’s not enough being a good singer-songwriter anymore because there’s so much music out there that’s great. You have to be constantly working and constantly moving”. This is true, but, Ross, trust me they will care. You’ve absolutely nailed it here.

March 17, 2018

James Scott Bullard – Full Tilt Boogie

What a joy! James Scott Bullard has delivered a Southern Rock album par excellence and the title says it all – Full Tilt Boogie. “Lord Have Mercy” is an electrifying start with a soaring lead guitar with slide fills and Bullard’s Country vocal delivery. In the mix we get a bass line so deep it needs a mining permit and following we get the rumble of the Hammond organ as it introduces a perfectly drilled backing chorus.

This is a band you have to hear: together they fit like a glove. Can they boogie? Oh yes! Bullard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Springs on lead guitar and Kevin Singleton’s bass are a force to be reckoned with. This selection of hard-hitting rock songs is self penned and was recorded in South Carolina. Bullard’s gift or good fortune is working with Missy Davis Jones and Ken “Dakota” Jones. Through the quality of the song writing, arrangements, energy and high production values they’ve elevated this work to be a triumph.

 “Wicked Ways” adds to the incendiary atmosphere. It sounds like the third song into a live set when the band really starts to cook. A distorted guitar plays rhythm and Justin Banks’ organ swirls and swoops. Before the smell of cordite clears “All To Pieces” keeps the groove. A lovelorn lyric follows – “I never counted on a love so true, no I never thought a man could be so blue”.

Lyrically then “Hey, Hey Mama” isn’t Shakespeare with instructions to “put your good dress on” and advice that he’s going to love her like ‘it’s against the law” (which, we can all agree is probably too much information). However, I’m nit picking as the song sparks while a walking bass line bounces beneath that exquisite organ.

It’s worth saying at this point that Bullard is a firearm-carrying, ex-addict, ordained minister. I’ve read a lot of Americana biographies and surprisingly, he’s not unique! If all this has contributed to the quality of Full Tilt Boogie then the journey hasn’t been in vain.

The album’s accompanying PR places Bullard in Country Rock and I suppose I can concede some Outlaw in the confection but only “Jesus, Jail or Texas” sits him comfortably in the genre – hell, even the title shouts Country! The guitar lead suggests Dickey Betts. Rest assured this is not a bad place to be and may find him a wider audience.

“Leavin’ On My Mind” sees Mike Knight drive this along on skins as Bullard takes us on a tour of Memphis, the Mississippi and Austin before moving through Louisiana to the Carolina Pines whilst the band boogies. “The Next Year” is a radio friendly tune which mixes Southern Rock and Tom Petty with an addictive ’60’s pop guitar motif and is the most commercial track on the album.

I thought I heard angels when the twin guitars introduced “Back To You” and we slip into that Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man/Jessica” vibe. Bullard hitches a ride on a Southbound train leaving his lover sleeping to free his spirit only to regret his departure as he visits every town in Dixie. Just sublime.