(Anna and I have enjoyed taking in concerts when in the USA. The vibe is different and it’s often easier to see American acts that seldom appear in the UK. Ashley McBryde is a Grammy winner and major Country music artist, very much at the top of her game at the moment. We last saw her at Leeds University: this was a very different setting and certainly more of a party.)

McBryde continued her US nationwide tour after taking 30 days off to write and rehearse new songs. Despite this creative pause she said she’d missed being in front of a live audience. The rowdy folk of Helotes, a small suburb of San Antonio, and further afield made it clear they’d also missed her. It’s been an interesting month for her in other ways as her alma mater, Arkansas State University, awarded her an honorary doctorate in music which she collects in May. Dr. McBryde has an impressive ring to it.

Despite the time away to create new music McBryde worked her way through an existing catalogue bar one intriguing Don Henley cover, The Boys of Summer. This song felt so right on a sweltering evening where outdoors we sat in 27° and swigged our cold beer as everyone joined in the chorus. It’s plain to see she is loved: perfectly natural with the audience, comfortable with a band that you’d call her family and beaming throughout often interspersed with deprecating jokes and a genuine appreciation for us all turning out.

She covered songs from all her recent albums including the collaborative Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville. From this album we got the comical Brenda Put Your Bra On and on cue McBryde donned a special Texas flag variant that went down a storm. 

The band is tight and over and above the guitars, drums and bass Wes Dorethy on fiddle and keys added some different colour and texture to the sound. Another stand out was the superb lead guitar of Matt Helmkamp. Inevitably, when individually introduced, the biggest cheer went up for the bassist, Caleb Hooper, a fellow Texan. As you might imagine Texans are proud of their State and its fellow countrymen. Dorethy, with his violin, stepped up to the front of the stage and McBryde introduced her latest hit, Ain’t Enough Cowboy Songs, by saying that she’d thought it was too country for radio (!) and nearly didn’t bother to release it as a single but lo and behold it had surprised and delighted her and her record label with massive streaming figures. Maybe this country music has a future? 

There were the usual up tempo songs such as Rattlesnake Preacher, The Devil I Know, El Dorado, First Thing I Reach For and Whiskey and Country Music with some sonorous B3 organ. However, when the band took a brief break she played Girl Goin’ Nowhere: a true epiphany. When she got to the lyric “I hear the crowd / I look around / And I can’t find one empty chair” the crowd exploded. Pure magic. The slower songs seemed intimate and sentimental in this setting especially A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega, Light On In The Kitchen and Sparrow. This gem is a long glance homewards with affection and gratitude to her parents and where her roots are firmly planted.

After 90 minutes the set was completed with Tired of Being Happy. You couldn’t disagree with her assessment of “where would country music be without a cheating song?” The open air venue was in a residential area and a 10.30pm finish may have been mandated and so no encore. It was a memorable and special experience and we trooped out past the $40 tour T shirts to Cliff Richard’s Devil Woman. From here we girded our loins to face the hectic San Antonio traffic back into the city.

The nave was brightly lit in the 19^th century East Yorkshire church where the duo delivered a beautiful set of 16 songs of American roots music dipping into country, folk and swing jazz. Ashley Campbell, the daughter of Glen Campbell, and Thor Jensen have been a duo since 2021. My awareness of Campbell came via a documentary (Glen Campbell:I’ll Be Me) about her father’s later life and his developing Alzheimer’s. It was an emotional roller coaster for those around him, not least of the joys, yet trials, of his touring with a failing memory. My other recollection of her  came when she released 2020’s Something Lovely, a tuneful country folk release that was quite contemporary. Her sound, now, is very much of a talented acoustic guitar and banjo player singing less contemporary but more folk roots music. Jensen, in many ways her foil on the night, is a virtuoso guitarist with an attractive tenor who’s been immersed in the New York jazz scene yet plays several genres. Instrumentally they complement each other and their easy humour was a pleasure to hear as they talked about Yorkshire, the USA and Northern Ireland.

The latter place is where they recorded their debut album Turtle Cottage. It’s from here that most of the songs played on the night come from. Jensen’s slightly jaw dropping talent comes in his guitar playing. When not playing chords he picks with outstanding dexterity and subtlety; you can imagine him in full flight playing Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz. Turtle Cottage is just the pair of them playing and so the replication is complete here. Campbell’s voice is light, warm and intimate and the night starts with A Song By Vampires For Vampires that’s surprisingly a love song (!)

Two instrumentals are included that add to their credentials as great players (Edge Of The World and Exit Zero) but the whole set is usually the intertwining voices usually replete with harmonies. Perfectly Alright is a highlight of this. Goodbye Cowboy is the nearest we get to 60s country with some captivating Latin guitar picking that documents a sad parting. The audience of over 100, who’ve enjoyed the church having quite regular eclectic concerts including Bernard Butler, make an audible sigh of pleasure as Campbell starts to pick the opening notes of Gentle On My Mind. Whether said or not it seems a tribute to her father. Tank and Babe is an energetic romp about a relationship that failed despite the best of intentions. It has a Joni Mitchell Raised on Robbery vibe of breathless levity and neat couplets telling of the couples’ shortcomings.

Asking the audience, for the encore, whether they wanted a Tom Waits or Willie Nelson cover was only going to get one answer wasn’t it? Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain closes the evening and we shuffle out into the dark and dank evening warmed and having been entertained in the presence of this accomplished pair.

Liv Greene – Deep Feeler

Nashville based singer songwriter, Liv Greene, possesses a siren of a voice that she puts to good use on introspective, sentimental and revealing songs; accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. Whilst still in her mid-twenties she’s created a career and been on a journey of discovery and developed growing confidence about herself, her sexuality and as a musician.

What we have here are ten tender melodies mainly about her feelings on romance and nascent relationships. In Deep Feeler she tells of her own emotional proclivities and the effect it can have on others. However, for all the interesting words it’s a stunning musical start. You’re introduced to her beautiful voice that can tug you in various directions depending on the story. She says she wanted to create an album that showed her as vulnerable in a sparse landscape. It’s certainly all that and whilst the acoustic instrumentation is light her voice is a seductive sound that you’ll want the opportunity to concentrate on.

The mood throughout is mainly reflective as she strums and the upright bass pulses behind her, however, on Katie the voice delivers the tune but some blue tinged picked notes show her musicality on six strings to give this real warmth and some sparse violin waits in the shadows to enhance the sweetness. Given she produced this then evident is a real talent, not least as an arranger. I’ve Got My Work To Do is straight country with a little electric guitar and it possesses a lot more verve. Here she’s joined by Sarah Jarosz on mandolin and harmony vocals. Jarosz is also found on You Were Never Mine,another song of angst with a chorus that delights.

This second album should provide a platform for her to get a bigger audience. There are many women singer songwriters over the last 50 years who’ve provided a template for Greene but Olive Klug, Jaimee Harris and Courtney Marie Andrews come to mind as talented contemporaries. I think we’ll be hearing a lot more of her and hopefully on our shores before too long.

Jamey Johnson – Midnight Gasoline

A new record from Johnson is an exciting event, not least because it’s his first solo release in 14 years. He didn’t feel the need to record but the recent passing of Toby Keith brought home the fact that he wouldn’t hear any new music from his friend and maybe he should add to his own catalogue? He’s a staple of the country music scene despite his solo recording reticence and he’s regularly found on tribute albums (John Anderson and Johnny Cash) or duetting (Blackberry Smoke and Julie Roberts). He’s a ‘go to’ artist with a voice that places him alongside Chris Stapleton with his sauntering yet soulful baritone that exudes gravitas and presence.

The title track is the first indication that you’re in the presence of greatness. A rueful heartbreak song about a lover who’s moved on is on his mind as he drives into the night. A delicious chorus over an easy rhythm that places this somewhere a couple of decades back in sound. Johnson is never hurried and he considers and lives every word he sings.

A couple of the songs cover his current condition and state of mind. Sober is a slow and bluesy ballad with a lachrymose harmonica about his continuing battle for sobriety. I’m Tired of it All with Randy Houser is a classic touring showman’s weary assessment of his life and its waning attraction. With that emotion 21 Guns mines his own military experience: he was a US Marine for six years. The lyrics are beautiful and relate to a soldier’s funeral – “And there ain’t words to say / How proud we all are of you, son / Nothing says job well done / Like twenty-one guns”.

It’s not all downbeat and Saturday Night in New Orleans, a co-write with Chris Stapleton and Tony Joe White, is an atmospheric Southern swamp funk with words that paint a picture of debauchery as a trumpet wails. Doctor John would have been proud. Most of the songs are co-writes but Trudy is a Charlie Daniels cover and blissfully rolls like Little Feat. Some funky rhythm and brass accompany a complicated story about a card game and an importune accusation of the meanest man in Dallas of cheating. Needless to say he was not impressed and our hero now fears for his life.

Johnson exudes a certain insouciance with What You Answer To. It reflects on the names you get called. There’s a play on words with being called, whether on the phone or as a name. The answer to this variety of greetings is simply to respond to the name you accept.

For all his lack of records he tours regularly and can be found criss-crossing the USA but having new material is a boost. It’s good to have him back. Let’s not leave it so long next time?

49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler

For what is a fine album I must declare a disappointment. I’d long harboured the romantic notion that the band’s moniker came from the rifle of the same name. I’d envisaged an album sleeve like The Eagles’ Desperado classic with hirsute outlaws (creating havoc before presumably galloping into the sunset.) Hey-ho, it turns out to be Isaac Gibson’s early home address in Castlewood, Virginia. However, that’s the end of the disappointment as this is an important listen with Gibson’s voice and tunes being the draw.

The sound is the rockier end of country. However, it’s an organic sound with arrangements that include pedal steel and fiddle often with an acoustic foundation. There are no session musicians watching the clock here.  The band are still young and originate from around Castlewood where Gibson started his musical career in school. The title track is about a break up and leaving the ‘Holler’. They’re the valleys of the Appalachians. Gibson unleashes his winsome and yearning baritone to tell us of his heartbreak and his need to flee. Maggie Antone duets and adds pleasing harmonies. Fast Asleep intriguingly employs the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, as you do! Someone knew a contact and they stepped up and contribute considerable beauty to what is actually a sad song about fractures in a relationship. Bus Shelton’s tasteful electric guitar solo is sublime.  

Much to my pleasure some tinctures of Southern Rock creep in on the love song Rest of My Days where some brass also gets in on the act. Traveling Band, about the grind of following the white lines of the Interstate has the same feel, whereas Yearnin’ For You must be a future crowd pleaser as a delightful melody sits on top of a galloping two step rhythm. Anchor signs off the album. The orchestra returns as this slow burning track builds into something of a power ballad with Gibson seemingly being put through the wringer as he wrestles with internal strife. Truly epic.

It’s a very tight, together sound with quality arrangements from Stewart Myers. This is his second outing with the band and follows 2022’s Fortune Favors The Bold. The band have enjoyed a growing profile and fanbase with international touring. With Gibson’s song writing, his voice and this excellent band it seems that this release will only accelerate their fortunes. A 2024 highlight for me.

Hannah Juanita – Tennessee Songbird

Juanita was an archetypal wannabee who arrived in Nashville with a guitar, dog and a head full of songs in her early twenties. She’s since been paying her dues by gigging around Music City as well as getting some higher profile support slots. The delight is that Juanita (a nom de plume) writes and sings traditional country music. Most of the compositions here are from her own pen. She’s talented but the album catches fire after teaming up with Mose Wilson, another traditional country music artist with his own career, to co-write a few of the songs and for him to play on and produce the album: it’s a superb partnership. I have to credit the other musicians on the album who elevate the whole affair, none more so than Jeff Taylor on piano. As records go this is all killer and no filler.

Fortune has a lilting pace where she mourns that fortune has left her and now she’s left with her mistakes in the tricky business of love. I especially love Jeff Taylor’s accordion and the vocal harmonies she creates with her own double tracking. If the lyrics are comfortingly predictable then Granny’s Cutlass Supreme shakes things up. Here grandma in a bikini (?) and martini keeps her Oldsmobile in a tip-top-tastic condition with polish and elbow grease. This nonsense enjoys a funky rhythm plus some gruff and deep vocals from Riley Downing (The Deslondes). There’s plenty of references to Honky Tonk in the lyrics and Honky Tonkin’ For Life  – “When the music starts / I feel it in my heart / Singin’ is the life for me / I’m a honky tonk angel” reaffirms where her happy place is as the electric guitar picks, the pedal steel serenades as the snare keeps a steady beat with the bass. Certainly, this is one for a trip on to the hard wood floor.

We finish with the heartbreaker Blue Moon. Her voice, with a minimum of accompaniment, starts as a beautiful siren call as she laments that having thought she’d moved on from a lover she ends up melancholy with the appearance of the lunar vision. The song builds from an acoustic guitar and slow honky-tonk piano to strings. This is a heartening collection that encourages you to believe that along with other contemporary artists such as Sierra Ferrell, Brennan Leigh and Summer Dean there’s a female traditional country scene laying down a fine body of work to help us all keep the faith.

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – TexiCali

Alvin and Gilmore have long careers in American roots music with notable separate catalogues compiled within the Blasters, Flatlanders et al before striking out solo. Along the way Alvin collected a Grammy and Gilmore was nominated. Both artists have toured continuously over the years and upon a recommendation decided to pair up and have since toured together off and on. This is their second joint release of covers and original material. 

Alvin and Gilmore only duet on four songs: The Death Of The Last Stripper, Betty And Dupree, Down The 285 and We’re Still Here. The latter is a jaunty piece of rock n’ roll that acts as a homily to their longevity. With Gilmore in his eightieth year and Alvin having battled cancer there’s no doubt they’re survivors. The album’s an excellent mix of americana, blues and storytelling. Gilmore starts the album with Borderland, his composition with engaging lyrics about life on the Texas border. Gilmore has reedy vocals like Willie Nelson that seem deft at picking through a story. The excellence of the band (The Guilty Ones) immediately strikes you: fluid, discrete, sympathetic and able to switch between moods and sounds seamlessly.

The album title originated from the origins of the artists with Gilmore from Texas and Alvin from California, something both are proud to emphasise. Alvin’s sound is less americana with a blues tinge. Blind Owl sees him in Kansas in hot midnight rain after a gig contemplating the next town. With a chugging riff that develops into sleek rock whilst propelled by harmonica as Chris Miller on electric lead delights. Alvin delivers the vocal in his part talk and sing style. (‘Blind Owl’ refers to Alan Wilson, a member of Canned Heat until his early death, and a song Alvin wrote and has performed with Canned Heat.)

This is a beautiful listen by two accomplished troubadours with a fabulous band in support. It’s heartening to have a selection of songs with interesting lyrics that give up something new on every listen. Class will out, top drawer.

Johnny Blues Skies – Passage Du Desir

Johnny Blue Skies is Sturgill Simpson: a nickname given to him by a barman in Kentucky decades ago. He doesn’t now plan to release solo albums under his own name. Apparently he’s no longer that person. Given the twists and turns in his career then this decision is just another curved ball from this intriguing maverick.

He came to prominence with two Dave Cobb produced albums in 2013 and 2014 that were straight country with Outlaw vibes. What was clear was that his rich baritone could hold a tune and he could write one. Exhibiting an attitude and personality along with alluring musicianship the albums were rightly coveted. At this point a major record label seized him, promoted him heavily and his next release, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, bagged a Grammy. Frankly, I found this release to drift away from the good work he’d done on his earlier efforts but it did demonstrate his ability to purvey more than country.

At this juncture Simpson produced two fabulous albums for, debutant, Tyler Childers, fell out with the music industry, released an anodyne rock album (Sound & Fury), got to a position where he needed to take time out due to substance misuse and all along dabbled in acting. In 2020 he was back with some splendid bluegrass on Cuttin’ Grass Volumes 1 and 2 before2021’s excellent The Ballad of Dood & Juanita.

His latest release takes him back to the 1970s with americana, Southern Rock and blue eyed soul. There are also one and a half tracks of country here: Who I Am, and the Jimmy Buffett pastiche, Scooter Blues. The rest takes me back decades and the tunes could have come from The Allman Brothers Band, Cate Brothers or even the Average White Band.

During its incubation he’s been travelling collecting his thoughts and creating space from the USA and the music industry. France was one destination and we start with an accordion and violin on Swamp Of Sadness. It’s seton the streets of Paris and the song builds to go gently electric to “Spend my days in a haze, floating ’round in the Marais / Nights under the bright lights at Mignon on Beaumarchais.” The French capital is where he wrote most of the album and hence the exquisite sleeve photograph. (Scooter Blues originated in another location on his sojourns, Thailand.)

The blue eyed soul of If The Sun Never Rises Again could have graced the charts both sides of the Atlantic back in the day with this slow lilting dance tune and a lyric about restoring his intended – “All we need is starlight in our eyes”. Jupiter’s Faerie is haltingly about a suicide and the mournful delivery reminded me of its virtual namesake Drops of Jupiter by Train replete with 80s strings. Mint Tea is straight Southern Rock and Simpson’s sparse yet tasteful lead guitar is a complete treat, it grabs the song and hoists it high for all to marvel. The soft rock of One For The Road wades in at just under nine minutes and is a cathartic love song with words such as “I wanna taste all the grapes on your vine / I wanna leave all your bottles empty and broken / I wanna say that you’re all mine / But words are often better left unspoke.”

He’s a complicated chap who’s cerebral about his view of the world and his place in it. Simpson can turn to treasure the music he makes; this album is another chest full. It’s an easy, mellifluous and delightful listen. Despite my protestation about its tenuous sonic links to country music I fear it’ll appear on some end of year lists but, hey, I lost that battle a long time ago. Enjoy.

The lights went down and the full house at The Barbican roared as Rateliff energetically declared his arrival with Suffer Me. Not missing a beat, we were through three songs before he paused to acknowledge the crowd and give the first of his heartfelt thanks for everyone coming out; he was quick to point out it had been a long journey from his modest start in Missouri to sell out tours in Europe. Now fêted in americana circles it was clear that his appeal was to a crowd that liked to dance and wanted irresistible rabble rousing choruses. I can confirm that once exposed to his irrepressible charms then resistance is futile.

Like continual starbursts the eight piece band played a storm of rock n’ roll, old fashioned R&B with flourishes of Stax soul and gospel. The fact that Rateliff records on the latest incarnation of Stax brought to mind the Memphis Horns with saxes (baritone and tenor) working the audiences’ hips and feet like puppeteers and a trumpet for good measure  creating some true highs. I’m On Your Side, also from his 2021’s The Future, confirmed, if you’d had any doubts, that here was a mesmerising master craftsman at work, often pacing the stage and switching between piano, acoustic, electric rhythm and lead guitar.

Songs from four albums made up the set list with a debut, for the British audiences, of tracks from his latest release South Of Here. If the audience were less sure about these new songs due to their lack of familiarity then on the remainder including Intro, Love Don’t, Hey Mama, You Worry Me and a cover of Springsteen’s Dancing in The Dark the joint jumped. Young and old alike leapt around with hands in the air, spilling beer and being transported whilst joining Rateliff on the choruses.

Returning for a couple of encores S.O.B. was the most animated I’ve ever seen the venue over my regular attendances; I’ve never seen such a consistently high energy set. It was one of those gigs where you just had to be there. If there was ever an artist who probably released great albums but was best experienced live then he’s the epitome. I implore you to make sure you get a ticket for his next UK visit. I will.