Stone Mountain Sinners Tones Of Home Self Release
A debut release from a 6-piece band who are based in the U.K. and who really hit all the spots with a dynamic and energetic Americana & Rock sound. Lead vocalists Sarah Warren and Neil Ivison had separate bands and careers before deciding to join forces and experiment with a new sound. Joined by Nick Lydon (acoustic guitar, mandolin, upright bass & vocals), Roger Roberts (piano, hammond organ, vocals), Adam Hood (bass) and Duke Delight (drums & percussion) they have discovered an authentic sound that is hard edged and filled with plenty of drive in the song arrangements. The opening tracks, Roadhouse and Arms Of Love set the tempo with full on high energy playing and there are echoes of Bob Seger on tracks like Round Here & All Night Long.
Keeping On shows another side to the sound with a Blues workout that recalls the Allman Bros. The vocal delivery of Sarah Warren is very powerful, full of a bluesy soul and reminiscent of Janis in her tone. It blends nicely with the deeper, gravel timbre of Ivison and together they deliver a convincing performance across the nine tracks here.
Stronger is a track that shows the band in full flight with all players channelling a rockabilly beat with all jangly guitars and shuffle drum beats. The slower Music City Blues features Maurice Hipkiss on pedal steel guitar and the extended closing track, Tones Of Home suggests a direction they could explore further with duelling guitars playing around the rhythm and bouncing off the pedal steel parts. Impressive debut and worth investigation.
Review by Paul McGee
Taylor Martin Song Dogs Little King
A singer-songwriter who grew up in Virginia and who now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, Martin releases his third album and Song Dogs is a very impressive statement of his talent and intentions. Amanda Anne Platt produces and along with her co-producer/engineer, Robert George, she delivers a beautifully balanced record with plenty of texture and vitality in the arrangements. The players on the album are quite superb and the quality and richness of each song is a joy to be discovered by the listener.
Little Pictures is a look at our modern addiction to cell phones/social media and how we end up “missing everything”. It has a blues feel with B3 and piano filling out the funky drum beat. The roots rock of Here Comes The Flood is followed by the country strum of Eden Colorado and the interplay between acoustic guitar and pedal steel. Martin writes eight songs and there are three excellent covers, which include Sign On The Window (Bob Dylan), Kern River (Merle Haggard) and Music Arcade (Neil Young). Milk & Honey and Our Memories are pure country with the fiddle playing of Lyndsay Pruett a real highlight; not only on the latter track but throughout the record. The title track closes the album and the simple piano lines, complimented by the lonesome sound of pedal steel, just leave you wanting more.
The musicians deserve the spotlight and this ensemble really knock it out of the park on every track; Taylor Martin (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Richie Jones (drums, percussion), Matthew Dufon (bass), Matthew Smith (pedal steel), Josh Shilling (piano, B3), Aaron Woody Wood (electric guitar), Aaron Ramsey (acoustic guitar), Lyndsay Pruett (fiddle), Amanda Anna Platt (harmony vocals). Quite superb and a must buy.
Review by Paul McGee
Gordie Tentrees & Jaxon Haldane Grit Greywood
This is a debut release from Canadian artists Gordie Tentrees and Jaxon Haldane as a duo. Both have recorded previously in their own names and have collected works that bear out their unique talents across a range of instruments. This release is a live album and was recorded at various venues in Alberta, Canada during 2016. Gordie plays dobro, acoustic guitar, foot percussion, porch board bass and prison whistle. Jaxon joins him on cigar box guitars (electric & lap steel), fiddle saw and 5-string banjo. The sound is very organic as befits twelve stripped down acoustic arrangements. There are story songs and others of keen observation while the Folk & Blues influences of Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson are never far away in these ballads.
Ten songs involve Tentrees in the writing, with seven written solo and two involving Haldane. They all sound like old standards, which is testament to the authenticity that is brought to their delivery and performance. I hear echoes of Loudon Wainwright III in the vocals, especially on the blues tinged rendition of I Don’t Have A Gun (Womack/Kimbrough). 29 Loads Of Freight, Junior and Bottleneck Of Wire are all very strong songs and performed with great energy and passion. Well worth investigation for all folk music enthusiasts.
Review by Paul McGee
Blue Fish Diamond From Dark To Light Self Release
This debut album appeared in late 2018 and Blue Fish Diamond are an Irish seven-piece band who originally formed in 2016. Their sound is very melodic and resonates with commercial and contemporary Folk leanings across the ten tracks included here. The lead vocals of Jim Murphy are quite soft and he sings in a gentle, almost fragile tone, especially on tracks like Salvation Call and Innocent Child. Time To Go and Angels Of The Wind are more up-tempo arrangements and A World Away has a nice guitar break from McDonald which energises, before the song takes a change in tempo at the mid-way point.
The harmony vocals of Ella Ryan and Matilda O’Mahoney are very appealing throughout and add colour to the arrangements. Gavin Glass produced the project at his studio and he also played on the tracks, with a credit of ‘all other instruments’ perhaps not telling the full story. The rhythm section of Ronan Quinn (bass) and Shay Sweeney (drums & percussion) provides a strong platform for the guitars of Murphy (acoustic) and Alex McDonald (electric) and the piano playing of Laura Ryder is also full of nice runs and subtle touches. Laura has a separate band which appeared recently at the Ones To Watch 2019 Festival in Dublin and her performance was excellent.
The band originally met at the BIMM Dublin music college and they certainly are making the right steps forward with this release. So, overall a very pleasant listen with hope for more to follow in the future.
Review by Paul McGee
Carl Broemel Wished Out Bismeaux
Better known as guitar god with My Morning Jacket, this is Carl Broemel’s third solo effort. Recorded in his newly constructed home studio in Nashville, he has roped in friends like Robbie Crowell (Deer Tick), Russ Pollard (Sebadoh) and MMJ band mates Tom Blankenship and Bo Koster to help out.
It’s a collection of eight self penned songs of mainly dreamy folk rock, but with more than a hint of his rock guitar leanings finding their way in, to a greater or lesser degree on most tracks. My favourite track is Wished Out - by far the longest at 6 minutes, Carl here gets to show his excellent vocal range on a soulful groove of a song, augmented by an appropriately long languid electric guitar solo.
There’s quite a variation of styles and influences here, from the retro twin harmony guitars of opening song Dark Matter to the Ryan Adams-esque vocals and piano on Starting From Scratch. Another standout track is the acoustic driven Malibu Shadow, with it’s catchy tune and lovely layered vocals. The album ends on a real rock out with the guitar driven Out Of Reach.
Review by Eilís Boland
Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards Live In Manitoba Nobody’s Favorite
Mark & Raianne, a folk duo from Massachusetts, had the wise idea of bringing along a recording engineer during a 13 date house concert tour of Manitoba, Canada, and this album is the result.
It stands as a perfect calling card for their superb blend of original folk songs and musicianship. True folkies in every sense of the word, they are already known locally for initiating the Massachusetts Walking Tour, a now annual event where they walk through the state, carrying their instruments and camping along the way, performing concerts in out of the way locations en route. They even paddle their way in canoes at times!
The collection showcases their accomplished songwriting and duet singing, and between them they play guitar, ukulele, harmonica, clarinet (an acquired taste which has so far eluded me in folk music) and tin whistle. A nice touch is the inclusion of some of the between song banter, where you get an idea of their easy rapport with their audiences and their sense of humour and, indeed, humanity.
Review by Eilís Boland
Daniel Meade and the Flying Mules Live Mules Self Release
Glasgow’s finest exponent of ol’ time Americana with a hillbilly boogie woogie edge is back for a busy year where he intends to release 3 albums. Given his dexterity they are likely to show different aspects of his musical muse. The first of these will doubtless appeal to anyone who has seen the Flying Mules play across the U.K. or in Ireland where they were regulars at the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival. Meade is an authentic songwriter and many of his original songs have a timeless quality that would easily place them along side some of the classics pop the era that they evoke.
Neither should the contribution of the Flying Mules be underestimated. Guitarist Lloyd Reid is a top notch player well the equal of many better know players. While the rhythm section of upright bassist Mark Ferrie and drummer Thomas Sutherland bring the swing to its rightful place as the bedrock of the overall sound. The album was recorded at Mareel in Shetland in 2016. It was their first visit and from the audience reaction and solid delivery that was captured on the night it was a memorable one.
The album features a selection of Meade’s songs taken from their first album to the then current album Let Me Off At The Bottom. That title song, along with astute titles like, There’s A Headstone Where Her Heart Used To Be, If It’s Not Your Fault (I Guess It’s Mine), Not My Heart Again all play out the timeless emotional relationship game viewed form both sides of love/leave divide. The album closes with a Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee cover that brings the roots of the music full circle.
So crank up the sound system as this is a pretty hefty live sound given it’s simple origins and you can have the Flying Mules stopping round your living room while you wait to see what Daniel Meade come sup with next. Whatever that is it’s bound to be interesting.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Michael McDermott Orphans Pauper Sky
The many fans of Micheal McDermott will be more than happy with his latest release which underscores the reason they became fans in the first place. Strong songs that don’t shy away from the darker paths his life has taken in the past. As with Out For Under they are something of an exorcism of those times to the more positive place he finds himself. McDermott produced this album which has a big, full sound that will place him alongside some of those to whom he has been compared. Whenever I play his music to new listeners there is, inevitably, a comparison to Bruce Springsteen and on a certain level I can understand that. The instrumentation and delivery are similar as are the occasional arrangement but one major difference is that while Sprinsteen’s songs tend to focus on the working man McDermott’s are more about the ups and downs life of a working musician. The many nights away, the cheap hotel and cold motels, the sparse audiences that are very much a part and parcel of the life of a traveling troubadour. Not all the songs, of course, are about that and neither is he asking for your sympathy. It’s a life style he has chosen, or chosen him, so rather it is a more honest detailing of the path he has taken or, as truthfully, won’t let him go.
His wife (and singer in her own right) Heather Lynne Horton is a part of the musicians involved, many who were a part of the band The Westies with him and also played on his previous solo albums like Lex Price, John Deadrick and Fred Eltringham as well as guitarist Will Kimbrough. All in all these musicians are in tune with McDermott’s vision and production. He is also singing with energy and no little passion. Given that this songs are mostly drawn from his journey so far that have a conviction that is integral to McDermott’s thinking and actions. Songs like Ne’er Do Well, Meadowlark, Los Angeles, A Lifetime Ago and the closing What If Today Were My Last all take different perspectives mirrored in their delivery which ranges from piano ballads to more uptempo arrangements. All of which show that Michael McDermott is on a upward path that continues to produce music that has an all round excellence.
Review by Stephen Rapid