Molly Tuttle ... but i’d rather be with you Compass
Like her musical genius predecessor, Chris Thile, who also emerged from that vibrant hotbed of the Californian bluegrass scene, Molly Tuttle has strayed well away from her musical roots, though still only in her 20s. Already renowned for her guitar playing, she is twice winner of the IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award, and is a Berklee alumnus to boot. Her unusual guitar playing style encompasses cross picking and clawhammer as well as flat picking, and she is also a singer-songwriter.
She has pulled off quite a feat in recording this solid album of covers of artists she loves, ranging from The Grateful Dead to Harry Styles, from her Nashville home during the pandemic. She taught herself how to use Protools (very frustrating on her elderly Mac!) and sent files of her guitar and vocals over and back to producer Tony Berg (Amos Lee, Andrew Bird, Phoebe Bridgers). Berg called in a bunch of A-list Californians to play back up (also recorded remotely) - Matt Chamberlain on drums (Dylan, Springsteen), Rich Hinman on pedal steel (Rosanne Cash, Anais Mitchell), Gabe Noel on bass (Vulfpeck, Ry Cooder) and Patrick Warren on keys (Bonnie Raitt, Springsteen).
Although she is primarily a guitar player, this is very much an ensemble affair. The album is accompanied by extensive liner notes from Molly herself, detailing the provenance of the songs and why she has chosen them.
In her versions of the Yeah Yeahs’ Zero (loved since her high school days) and Harry Styles’ Sunflower Vol 6 she really does get to let rip on her acoustic guitar and the results are breathtaking. Vocally she is maturing into a strong singer, and her voice is experienced at its best on the Cat Steven’s love song, How Can I Tell You. She covers the FKA Twigs composition Mirrored Heart, exquisitely detailing the the devastation of heart break with just her acoustic guitar and layering her own vocals to haunting effect.
Personal favourites are her version of the Stones’ She’s a Rainbow, which she reinterprets as a woman’s ‘love song to all feminine beings’ and Standing On The Moon from the Grateful Dead.
I wasn’t familiar with many of the songs/artists she introduces us to here, and I am particularly grateful to her for turning me onto the work of the late Arthur Russell, with her cover of A Little Lost.
Review by Eilís Boland
Joseph Bernstein 1941 Self Release
There’s an intriguing backstory behind the emergence of Joseph Bernstein’s debut album, arriving as it does when he has already reached his 40s. By day he is a veterinarian (and a dermatology specialist, at that) who runs his own referral practice in Baltimore along with his wife, who is a fellow veterinary dermatologist. Even though he had been writing songs since he was 18, life got in the way - many years of study, then setting up and running a practice, as well as rearing 5 children. But then there was his alcoholism (unfortunately all too common within our profession), which probably didn’t help.
Bernstein called on his old school friend Lawrence Lanahan (a writer and musician) to help him realise his long held desire to get these songs out to the world. The result is an eleven song Americana meets guitar pop collection (all originals except one) that chronicles Bernstein’s life thus far.
The title track is inspired by a b/w photo of his beloved grandparents on Dec 7 1941, just before the infamous Pearl Harbour story broke. Underpinned by beautiful cello (Peter Kibbe) and accompanied by acoustic guitar, Bernstein imagines how they felt then and how the course of so many of their fellow Americans’ lives was about to change at that moment, even though they didn’t yet realise it.
With a voice reminiscent of a young Jay Farrar, Bernstein describes past relationships in California, Deep Dark Night and The Number. For the latter, Lanahan had the inspired idea to bring in another Baltimore local Susan Alcorn, an acclaimed pedal steel player and composer, better known in the jazz and classical realms. She’s also featured on one of the strongest songs, Triple Distilled, wherein Bernstein explores the self delusion of addiction - ‘lost in a reverie, losin’ the fight’,’lubricate the smile machine’. Susan Alcorn’s inspired playing adds to the intense melancholy of the now wiser and sober protagonist. Bottle Me Up also explores the alcoholism but through the frenzy of an electric guitar and drum driven barnstormer, shades of Uncle Tupelo spring to mind. As well as co-production, Lanahan plays electric guitar, bass and keys and contributes backing vocals, while another local Baltimore musician, Adam Koonz, plays drums.
Closing with an affecting version of I’m Sitting on Top of the World, simply performed with just his acoustic guitar, Bernstein leaves us in no doubt that he is now in a better place. Long may it last.
Review by Eilís Boland
Great Peacock Forever Worse Better Self-Release
Nashville based band Great Peacock are made up of three core members. They are vocalist and guitarist Andrew Nelson, Blount Floyd, who also adds guitar and backing vocals, and bass player Frank Keith IV. They’ve toured relentlessly since their debut album MAKING GHOSTS (2013) and their latest album is a reflection on the toils and sacrifices faced by musicians, attempting to survive. The writing is honest and to the point, as they weigh up the collateral damage of relentless touring, against the compelling draw to follow their dreams.
FOREVER WORSE BETTER harks back to days prior to the over-categorisation of music. The album’s psychedelic artwork alone, prior to removing the disc from its sleeve, gives the listener a hint of the direction the music is most likely to take. Track titles such as Rock Of Ages, Old Man and Help Me Lord are further pointers that a musical direction of bygone years awaits the listener.
Their sound is robust, almost bullet proof in its delivery, which is to their collective credit, given a stumbling block they overcame prior to the recording process. Not having a regular drummer in the band is in itself a drawback, but they were dealt a further blow when pre-production drummer Duane Tucks (Hard Working Americans) sustained a back injury two days prior to the recording and had to be replaced at the final hour. Nick Recio was hired to add drums and heavy hitters Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit) and Adam Kurtz (American Aquarium) came onboard to add guitars and pedal steel. The recording took place at Sound Emporium and the album was self-produced.
A keyboard intro kicks off All I Ever Do, the first of nine tracks that have heartland rock written all over them. The guitar driven Strange Position also impresses, recalling Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. However, the standout tracks on the album have the band's stamp firmly imbedded on them. The epic closing track Learning to Say Goodbye is a thing of beauty, matched by the title track, which would fit comfortably on any Jason Isbell album, alongside his finest work.
In fact, Great Peacock’s sweet spot lands somewhere between the classic American singer song writing of Jason Isbell and the heartland rock sound of Tom Petty. FOREVER WORSE BETTER may get lazily dropped onto the Americana genre, which would be quite wide of the mark. In simple terms, it’s a classic guitar driven sound definitely worth investigating.
Review by Declan Culliton
Michelle Billingsley Not the Marrying Kind Western Myth
Growing up in small town Michigan, Michelle Billingsley packed her bags and headed to Los Angeles to seek fame and fortune as an actress. Her life story mirrors that of hordes of young wannabees, following their dreams, only to quit Los Angeles, bruised and broken by rejection and failed romances.
Rather than allowing the sordid experiences to break her spirit, Billingsley dusted herself down, took stock and planned her next move. Moving to Chicago, where she presently resides, she revisited that period of her life and her younger years, to construct the ten songs that surface on NOT THE MARRYING KIND. The tales within the songs aim for the jugular and more often than not, score a direct hit. They are at times perturbing, seldom polite, more often than not irreverent and frequently amusing.
The written word across the ten tracks actually reads like poetry. Add Billingsley’s snazzy vocal delivery and the written words come alive. Sometimes singing and other times talking through the songs, her expressive and fetching drawl relates tales of heartache (Then I Remember), depression (Drink ‘till I’m Pretty), toxic parent issues (Mom Jeans), dysfunctional relationships (When Will You Learn, Gaslighting) and self-deprecation (Portia).
The playing - in the main contributed by producer Matt Brown - reinforces her vocals faultlessly. Touches of banjo, accordion, fiddle, guitar and drums all appear in the right places. If you’re looking for a category for the album, it sits comfortably between folk and country.
Artists such as Billingsley regularly fail to get noticed in an industry overpopulated by samey and ‘music by numbers’ recordings. NOT THE MARRYING KIND goes against the grain and is a breath of fresh air in that regard, bringing to mind another wonderful wordsmith, Minton Sparks. Billingsley won’t be nominated for a Grammy with this album but she possesses the skill set to shock, bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your face, often all in the same song.
This is art as it should be - natural, thought provoking, jarring and most of all, entertaining. Well worth checking out.
Review by Declan Culliton
Malin Pettersen Wildhorse Die With Your Boots On
Far from an overnight success, Norwegian Malin Pettersen’s career path commenced at an early age. She grew up surrounded by both jazz and country sounds in a music loving household. Pettersen is a founding member of country crossover band Lucky Lips, whose talents earned them the opportunity to participate in The Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. The band also performed a showcase gig at the legendary Station Inn at AmericanaFest in Nashville two years ago.
Pettersen has been developing a parallel solo career in recent years, releasing her debut solo album REFERENCES Pt.1 in 2018, which earned her a Spellman Award (Norwegian Grammy). However, it was her mini-album ALONESOME, released last year, which introduced her songwriting and exquisite vocals to a wider international audience. That album was skeletal and combined intensely personal songs expressed by Pettersen’s crystal-clear vocal delivery and acoustic guitar. It was a brave move by an artist with ambitions to establish herself on the Americana and country circuit, but one that proved spectacularly successful.
WILDHORSE finds Pettersen releasing what is most likely to become an album that further establishes her as one of the purest vocalists emerging in that heavily populated Americana genre. By her own admission, America and its music culture has fascinated her from a young age, so it’s of little surprise that this album references that country with the album title and the tracks California and Arkansas.
The songs travel in a number of directions, from the groovy country soul vibe of Let’s Go Out with its killer guitar breaks, to the laid-back country ballads Holding and Don’t Care. The classy Particles finds Pettersen crooning diva style alongside sweeping pedal steel guitar. Breezy summer sounds are recalled on the cool opening track California (‘California poppies blowing in the wind, the sun is shrinking and I am thinking about the gold’). The mid-tempo Hometown and autobiographical Weightless are heavy on sensibility as Pettersen recalls her childhood and the draw to follow her dreams.
Tapping into contacts she made on trips to Nashville, she returned there to record the album. It features a host of that city’s top players. Pedal steel wizard and member of the Grand Ole Opry house band Eddy Dunlap contributes, as do Ryan A. Keith (Rayland Baxter, Aaron Goodrich, Colter Wall) and Misa Arriaga (Kacey Musgraves, Lillie Mae).
This is a career highlight from an artist whose rising star is well earned. Rather than going for the obvious and delivering a full-on twangy honky tonker, Pettersen has recorded a suite of elegant songs closer in substance to Bobby Gentry than Patsy Cline. It’s a pointer to an artist comfortable in her own skin and who is ignoring predictable trends and once again offering the listener an excursion into her vision of modern country music.
Both engaging and moody, WILDHORSE is country music dressed in dinner jackets and evening dresses, rather than Stetsons and pearl snap button shirts. It’s also another album to add to the best of a year that continues to provide standout music.
Review by Declan Culliton
Dianne Davidson Perigon: Full Circle Self Release
The title of this album references a full circle, an angle of 360-degrees, which is exactly where we find this reclusive artist who has returned from the ‘real world’ of daily living to once more create upon a canvas of dreams once envisaged and today, ready to be embraced and explored.
Dianne had an early start to life in the music business with a debut album in her teenage years, followed by two more releases in quick succession. Not everybody has a straight-line to success however and a fourth record was pulled when the label went out of business. Momentum halted for a while and Dianne found herself taking touring roles with artists as diverse as Linda Ronstadt, B.B. King, Jimmy Buffet, Tammy Wynette, Tracy Nelson, Barry Manilow and Leon Russell.
During the 1970’s, Dianne felt it necessary to leave the music industry, her first love, and this decision was influenced by her proudly and publicly presenting herself as a lesbian woman. She suffered the consequences of doors being closed to her and the silence of phones that suddenly stopped ringing. Incredible to think of such prejudice in a society that had grown out of the 60’s with hippie culture, free love and self-expression. It would not happen in today’s more broadly tolerant society where the right to love whomever you wish has become enshrined in our values. Sad to realise that such enlightened perspective was nowhere to be found back then.
Well the good news is that the lady is back with a vengeance and after three decades away, she sounds like she never missed a day. Her voice is powerful and textured, blessed with different tonal layers and her control is smoothly sophisticated throughout.
The eleven tracks include nine self-penned songs, plus two covers, the Gretchen Peters song Over Africa, featuring the Maasai Tribal Choir and Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love, slowed down to highlight the reflective words and enhanced with violin, piano and acoustic guitar to compliment the beautifully paced vocal delivery.
Her song, Sounds of The City, originally recorded by Tracy Nelson in 1978 is also included here and the soulful vocal is matched by a great guitar break. Opening song, Just Out Of Reach, is a laid back, soulful blues with rich organ sounds and backing horns that complement the message in wanting someone (or something) that has been missed over the years ‘I have a good life, I am happy safe and strong, But in my heart there is a place where you belong.’
The duet with Ruthie Foster on Subtle Touch is a big sounding, funky blues with another fine guitar break and tinkling piano parts. The song, Precious Boys, repeats twice over the project, one version being for a film release, as a tribute to those in the gay community who lost their lives to the aids virus. It is a heart-felt paean to lives cut short and the gentle accordion highlights an easy Country sound with some nice guitar twang.
The big soul sound of They All Leave and the message of lovers and their selfish ways, is mirrored by Solitary and the frustrations of a distant love affair with the horn section and full organ sound giving way to some nice sax playing. The last track, Missing You Tonight, looks back at the missed opportunities along the way in the lines ‘Oh the years, passed like scenery from a moving train.’ Cello, violin and acoustic guitar soothing the journey.
This album was co-produced by Davidson & Larry Chaney and recorded at Sun Dog Studio in Nashville, TN. It features a big list of stellar players, all of whom deserve mention. So, in no particular order, take a bow, Larry Chaney (guitars), Leigh Maples (electric bass), Dave Roe (upright bass), Nancy Gardner (drums) and Austin Wireman, Tim McDonald, John Salem (keyboards). Additional musicians are Jim Thistle (percussion), Barry Walsh (accordion), Roger Bissell (trombone), Denis Solee (sax), George Tidwell (trumpet), Gideon John Klein (cello), Donny Reis (viola), Lisa Silver (violin, Marianne Osiel (English horn), Michael Mishaw and Vickie Carrico (background vocals) with special guests Ruthie Foster (vocals) and Mac Gayden (slide guitar) on Subtle Touch.
Dianne Davidson has indeed come full circle and the news that her unreleased album, back in 1974, has now been given an eventual release is positive Karma for the frustrations of the past. This additional album of new songs points the way for the future that will no doubt bring great rewards.
Review by Paul McGee
Hayward Williams Every Colour Blue Self Release
What an appropriate title to this album. Every Colour Blue has a giddy mix of soulful blues, Americana and a little bit of Country mixed in for good measure. Williams plays guitar and has a very expressive vocal with an easy delivery and warm tone. The assembly of musicians is also very impressive and Williams has used the talents of core band, Jeremy Moses Curtis (bass guitar, acoustic guitar), Brooks Milgate (piano, organ, Rhodes and string/ vocal arrangements) and Charlie Koltak (drums and percussion). He was also able to call on Sturgill Simpson's horn section (Brad Walker on saxophone & Jon Ramm on trombone) and guest vocal appearances from Anna Vogelzang, Kimiko Joy, Paige Hargrove and John Hardin.
Coffee and Bourbon is a great opener and sets the mood for the album with an easy, soulful early morning feel. There is a boogie woogie, honky tonk groove to Run Jackie Run while Oh What You Must Think Of Me and With Some Horses are pure Country soul with fine vocal performances. If You Want Me To Beg is another atmospheric song that highlights the terrific band playing. It feels like Mark Coen got together with Bruce Hornsby for an impromptu session on a quiet night and they each brought a number of seasoned players along for the fun.
The album was co-produced by Williams and Jeremy Moses Carter with Williams penning eight of the tracks and including four songs written by Jeffrey Foucault, Kris Delmhorst, J. Hardin and John Statz. There are also strings provided by Melissa McGinley (violin) and Laurence Scudder (viola). Kris Delmhorst guests on vocals and cello, with Fades Away having echoes of classic Roy Orbison in the arrangement and melody. Just Like a Man has some great keyboard sounds, superb backing vocals and some searing guitar riffing from Troy Gonyea, who really opens out and let’s fly. If Not For Love is a classy slow soulful groove with a message for our times while closing track Paradise Springs is a true blues arrangement, complete with bar room piano, horn section and impassioned vocal plea not to risk a visit to some imaginary haven.
Hayward Williams has been releasing music since 2005 and his body of work stands as testament to a fine talent. If heart-felt, soulful tunes are what you seek, then look no further. Excellent in every way.
Review by Paul McGee
I’m Kingfisher The Past Has Begun Self Release
Indeed, the past HAS begun and is with us at all times. This is an album about relationships, both past and present, the need to look for answers within and the urge to seek solace in the external world of daily experiences. What drives memory and where does the sense of leaving something vital behind spring from? Are we predisposed to melancholy from birth, always over-analysing, seeking to rise above the weight of self-criticism?
Performing under the name of I’m Kingfisher, is the very talented Thomas Jonsson and this is the seventh album he has created since his fledgling beginnings back in 2003. The music was recorded in Trunk Studios, Karlstad and was produced, arranged, mixed and engineered by Carl Edlom, who also added his talents on vocals, guitars, bass, synthesizers, piano and percussion.
All thirteen songs are written and sung by Jonsson, who also plays guitar and the sonic palette that colours these tracks is made up of minimalistic, soothing and sad hues. The gentle sway of cello, clarinet, violin and piano accompany acoustic guitar, as this rich tapestry of reflection and yearning spreads out across forty-one minutes of beautiful music.
The lyrics are somewhat obscure, with cryptic imagery and metaphor used in oblique settings that allow guesses, at best, regarding the song content and meanings. In a way this is the perfect mirror to the hypnotic melody and sparse arrangements that wrap everything in a sense of quiet calm.
Other musicians add their talents to various tracks with Amanda Werne (of Slowgold fame) providing vocals and harmonica on Children's Atom Bomb, Vilma Flood on vocals for Captain, I'm Going Blind and The Plausible Impossible, Josh Gordon (Damien Jurado fame) plays guitar, mellotron and mini-moog parts on Breakthrough at 42, Helena Arlock plays cello on If That's All You Got on Me and The Biggest Blow, which also features Rebecka Hugosson on clarinet, Ola Eliasson on flute with Ella Blixt on vocals for Dirty, Maria Larsson plays violin on both Pocket Soul and Untimely Passion, and Tove Edlom provides vocals on Mess Minus Room.
So, there is much to offer from the varied talents on selected songs, whether providing understated harmonies or parallel melody to compliment the mood of each piece. Johnsson has stated that he is trying to achieve “the balance between wishing you had done more and being happy with what you’ve achieved.” As true in life as it is in the body of these songs. The hushed, at times, falsetto range of Jonsson’s vocals set the perfect tone for relationship songs like Pocket Soul, which speaks about coming to terms with an old relationship (I’m back on my feet, But you should know, the wound didn’t heal right) or Dirty, with a breakdown in feelings and lost passion (Loving you was more about rules than play, Just a flame that got away).
Children’s Atom Bomb seems a very personal diary entry to a chid (You were only a few months old, I couldn’t rest on the road, and I stayed up and made ‘Can’t wait for the future’ for you). The Blues feel of Untimely Passion has a haunting strings part as the risk of unveiling feelings towards another threatens a friendship. The interesting song title, Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, again looks back to find meaning in the present (the electricity’s gone and you scare me so much now).
Again, on And They Say You Can’t Love Two At Once, the past looms with the lines, ‘The freedom of letting go, usually gives me the strength to carry on.’ On Breakthrough At 42, there is the spectre of old wounds ‘So, how come the same decade old mistakes, still haunt my mind from time to time?’ The Biggest Blow senses a love affair changing and the sad realisation that, ‘It’s that little twitch of your eye, the subtle change of tone that is the biggest blow.’
This is a very addictive contemporary Folk/Americana undertaking and will resonate with me for quite a while after my choices for albums of the year has been and gone. It is very highly recommended
Review by Paul McGee
James Lee Baker 100 Summers Self Release
Growing up as part of a conservative and religious family in Amarillo, Texas can leave a lasting influence on a young man. When the time comes to find out your own truth then the new path can be long and winding. However, walking alone is the only way through the maze sometimes and James Lee Baker now finds himself in Denver, Colorado with a new album of eleven songs and a message of acceptance for the past and the bravery to face into the future with optimism.
These are gentle Folk sounds that run very easily across 46 minutes and cover central themes of embracing change and travelling onward. The album was recorded at Blue Rock Studios in Texas and along with securing the talents of producer Chris Bell (The Eagles, Don Henley and Christopher Cross), Baker was able to call upon Doug Pettibone (John Mayer, Jewel, Lucinda Williams), Roscoe Beck (Leonard Cohen, Eric Johnson), Matt Hubbard (Willie Nelson), Joel Guzman (Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning accompanist),Mark Erelli, Shanna in a Dress and Laurie MacAllister, from folk group Red Molly. Quite an impressive list.
The title track bookends the project, a song about the simple pleasures, enjoying each day and having the self-belief to accept yourself, warts and all. Santa Barbara and Misinterpreting the Angels are two songs about relationships; the former dealing with a new life in a new city and looking for the gold in the opportunities, the latter concerns self-discovery through a romance that was doomed to fail from the start.
Returning To Paris is one of the strongest songs and considers the fate of a couple after the fire has gone out and their return to the city where they first found young love and passion. Another highlight is The Last Cowboy in Hutchinson County, a fitting tribute to the relationship between a father and a son, one an ageing rancher, being squeezed out by new ways in the name of progress and the other now a machine worker, embracing the new found industrialisation and rearing his own family. Both songs are beautifully written and sadly poignant.
18-Wheeler is a very clever lyric that counts back from 18 to 1 in looking at road signs and symbols that define the life of a long-distance trucker, now wanting to slow it all down and just come home. Conversely, Wipe the Dust Off Your Bellows speaks of two old musicians wanting to get the band back together to revisit old times and tunes.
Breaking Through the Sunbeams tells of an individual who enlists in order to fight in Iraq and avenge the memories of colleagues and friends lost in 9-11. The futility of war. A New Man’s World looks at ageing and feeling isolated by the changes in today’s world that are fuelled by technological advances (‘Now I can’t follow the new slang, Or even keep up with my phone, Technology connects us all together, but we’re more alone’).
If Eve Hadn’t Eaten the Apple is for female equality and the right to be recognised as equals while Leave the Saving Souls for Later is a nod to those of faith who selflessly try to spread the good word among their communities – a look back at the origins from where Baker was raised.
This is a richly varied album with plenty to engage the listener. Baker is a fine singer and can hold his own as a guitarist among the elite company who join him on this album. Worthy of you time and deserving of a place in your collection.
Review by Paul McGee