Tag Archives: americana

Record Of The Week # 163

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Jason Isbell – Foxes In The Snow

Isbell is a busy boy and seemingly peripatetic. Late 2024 saw him performing at the Democratic National Convention to nominate a US Presidential candidate. From here it was over to Europe for some gigs (including appearing in front of me in Stockton with his band, the 400 Unit, in late November.) Next year sees him embark on a long international solo tour including London and finishing in Australia. In October he spent five days in New York at the legendary Electric Lady Studio (Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Adele and Taylor Swift) recording a solo album. You’d worry that the quality of his creative output would slip with his schedule but the needle is still well away from the red zone on the gauge judging by this release.

Isbell delivers eleven songs of heart torn melancholia and contemplation on a 1940 acoustic Mahogany D-17 Martin guitar. I’d grown used to him shredding his Telecasters or Gibsons with the 400 Unit and creating some epic, layered and dramatic rock: here it’s the voice and the tunes that attract your attention. Such is Isbell’s talent on an acoustic six string that when coupled to the arrangements he could have released these tracks as instrumentals and you’d still be engaged.

Lyrically there are first person conversations or reminisces that reflect a state of mind rather than tell you a complete story. After the ending of his marriage in 2023, to Amanda Shires, it’s not unnatural to think they influenced the work. Each song gives up more after several listens as you try and interpret the story. Some are plainer to understand such as Good While It Lasted, a love song drips regret or the chipper Don’t Be Tough that lists situations and how you should respond, usually with less judgement and more giving. Foxes In The Snow is another love song where both parties evaluate the other. Gravelweed offers probably the strongest tune with a sublime chorus but there isn’t a weak moment on the album musically.

I’ve long thought that Isbell is amongst the current family of Americana royalty. He’s received many awards and I feel, in his case, they’re well earned. As for many others I often feel other recipients are propelled to the podium by large record company budgets. This comfortably slips into his current canon and doesn’t push the envelope to new areas in terms of his established vocal delivery, lyrical naval gazing, types of tune and song structure. It’s a continuation but stripped back with less pyrotechnics. Outstanding.

Lost In Music – 2024

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Gosh, it’s time, slightly belatedly, to tell you about my best picks for 2024. As usual I received a steady flow of download MP3 files of country and americana music from Country Music People or from various US public relation companies who randomly sent their client’s music to me. Added to this was music I purchased, nearly all of it was from previous years and decades. In this category I mainly bought second hand or new vinyl plus a few CDs and the odd download. I don’t subscribe consistently to a streaming service: I just can’t get along with curating my music that way.

Frankly this all adds up to about 170 albums. That’s between 5 or 6 full days of sound. How do I listen to them all? No I haven’t yet! I will eventually get through them all and some won’t be worthy but I diligently try to listen to all I receive. I remember a phrase applied to an album was that it was a ‘grower’. Frankly I’m sure I’ve got many albums I’ve played only once and maybe with more listening i might have elevated their rating, but hey ho there are only so many hours in the day. So here is my flawed highlights of the year…

  1. Silverada

    Texan Mike Harmeier’s metamorphosis from Mike and the Moonpies’ straight country to the country rock/americana of Silverada was ‘light the blue touch paper’ moment for me. This combination of epic grooves, squally guitar solos and interesting stories with country tinges was completely my bag. Loved it all year.

    2. Johnny Blue Skies – Passage du Desir

    I was sceptical of the publicity that accompanied Sturgill Simpson’s release. However, this is a stellar release that made it worth the wait and his sojourn to Paris to find some wonderful tunes, rock vibes, muscular guitar playing and blue eyed soul was a great detour.

    3. Heather Little – By Now

    This singer songwriter release alighted in my inbox and I was captivated from the first play with the mellifluous vocals, fine arrangements and melodies. Apparently she’s a songwriter for others but she has all the talent to be the main act. 

    4. Maggie Rose – No One Gets Out Here Alive

    After 100 appearances at The Grand Old Opry this Nashville stalwart has moved toward americana/soul; her voice is a siren and the album was so sumptuous and drenched in melodies that I couldn’t resist.

    5. Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter

    No, never a country album, however, all the fuss about it drove it into my orbit and I had a good listen. This icon really is steeped in many genres and this album illustrated many of them from a little line dancing to straight soul often with many beguiling stops in between. Truly a crafted opus.

    6. 49 Winchester – Leavin’ This Holler

    A tight country rock delight with excellent tunes and lyrics from mainman Isaac Gibson. He tells a variety of love songs and tales of life on the road. The band coalesce around his lead and make one of my most enjoyable listens this year.

    7. William Alexander – The Singing Stockman

    He makes a living moving cattle in New South Wales. Here, he picks up his guitar and beautifully sings Western. His simple arrangements place you in the middle of the Outback dealing with blistering temperatures, brutal hours and dreaming of weekends.

    8. Glenn Campbell Duets – Ghost On The Canvas Sessions

    One of Campbell’s last releases was reworked with inserted duets. The fine tunes, arrangements and production add to the pathos. He sings of his impending drift away and its impact on loved ones as Alzheimer’s takes him over. Brave and touching.

    9. Billy Strings – Highway Prayers

    Our Bill is now a major international draw with his complex and expert bluegrass. Who thought banjos, fiddles, mandolins and acoustic guitars could sell out stadiums? This high energy mix of finger frenzy and country tunes has considerable charm and stands clear of the pack.

    10. English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

    A Mercury Prize winner is usually a turn off as an uncommercial indulgence by those music critics who live on the fringe of anything interesting or remotely durable in appeal. However these winners made a complex and densely packed rock record that was worthy of slotting in beside Steely Dan, The Editors and Moloko. Something to explore and extract more pleasure from on each listen.

    Record Of The Week # 160

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    Billy Strings – Highway Prayers

    With an album recorded at the beginning of the year Strings is back. In the interim he’s been touring and debuting the songs. A fan delight amongst comments on his social media is that they’re now recorded. His trajectory has been vertical. Widely feted by music or broadsheet media as a precocious talent; the narrative has been that he’d kicked his early years substance misuse and grew up with a taste for rock but whose heart lay in roots music after the influence of his stepfather. Always a major bluegrass act he’s now one that’s global.

     We should treasure Strings for many reasons but not least because he’s made bluegrass an arena genre and brought it to many new ears. With so much pap filling the country charts and arenas it’s heartening, that with no compromises, he’s packing them in. He’s a musician who’s stretched the genre and popularised roots music with his rockstar vibe. This release, with its muscle car sleeve, is traditional roots music and throughout you are bathed in his acoustic mastery along with some other brilliant players in his band.

    Strings wrote or co-wrote all 20 tracks and I’m pleased to see Thomm Jutz help out on three. The musicianship is peerless throughout with banjo (Billy Failing), bass (Royal Masat), mandolin (Jarrod Walker) and fiddle (Alex Hargreaves) keeping pace with his guitar pyrotechnics. Whilst faithful to bluegrass throughout there are a breadth of ideas and sounds within the genre. Three instrumentals sit with songs with his vocals that contain interesting lyrics whether a traditional dark and haunting bluegrass story about murder (My Alice), sad and happy love stories (Be Your Man, Don’t Be Calling Me (At 4AM) and Cabin Song), hell raising (Leadfoot) and smoking marijuana (MORBUD4ME and Catch and Release). On this latter song Strings tells of driving to a fishing spot whilst enjoying a smoke. Unfortunately, a State Trooper detains him by the side of the road and detects the dreaded weed. It’s all done with a Charlie Daniels’ comic tongue in cheek delivery à la Uneasy Rider.

    Strings has a pleasing tenor voice and on occasion it’s a focus such as on Leaning on a Travellin’ Song that starts with just male harmony vocals over an acoustic guitar that delight or the sublime accapella Richard Petty (a dearly departed NASCAR racer) and Stratosphere Blues/I Believe In You where he slips from bluegrass to sophisticated folk. It’s maybe here that you detect the fingerprints of John Brion who co-produced the album with Strings. Seemingly Brion has no prior credentials in country or roots music yet has previously worked with singer songwriters such as Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple. An hour and a quarter of solid bluegrass might not be my chosen destination but this album is so sweet, jammed with melodies, phenomenal musicianship and enchanting vocals that I shall not complain as it sweeps up, royally, in the end of the year polls and awards.