Mo Pitney Ain’t Looking Back Curb
Blessed with a voice that has drawn comparisons to Ray Price and George Jones, Mo Pitney’s debut album BEHIND THIS GUITAR was released in 2016 and charted at No.10 in The Billboard Country Charts and his on-demand streams have exceeded twenty million since its release.
AIN’T LOOKING BACK will no doubt equal that success and further enhance Pitney’s reputation as one of the archetypal faces of country music in Music Row. His clean cut image and devotion to classic country makes him a prime and marketable candidate for the industry to counterbalance the crossover pop/country artists that currently dominate Music Row.
Jim ‘Moose’ Brown, who has worked his magic with Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Sunny Sweeney, Erin Enderlin, Bob Seger and many more, was brought on board to produce the album. Brown had previously played piano on Pitney’s debut album and became the producer of choice for Pitney, after he had met with several other potential engineers to make certain he was choosing the most suitable. That in itself is a statement of Pitney's and his record company’s intention to leave no stone unturned before putting the tracks down for his second album.
A prolific songwriter, Pitney whittled down over a hundred songs he had written to just over twenty candidates for the album, before selecting the final thirteen that would make the cut. Given his talent as a writer, I was taken aback to find that over two dozen additional songwriters were brought on board to complete the songs. Pitney’s claim of “looking forward to taking this body of work that is completely me and sharing it with the world,’’ seems somewhat slightly diluted, given those extraordinary numbers.
The autobiographical A Music Man opens the album. It’s a slow burner, co-written with Jamey Johnson and Old Stuff Better and ‘Til I Get Back To You are similarly paced country ballads. Mattress On The Floor, a standout track, highlights Pitney’s mellow vocals on a song that acclaims the simple things in life. On Old Home Place, Pitney returns to his roots with an impressive up-tempo bluegrass number recorded live in the studio with his All-Star Band. Local Honey also hits the spot, raunchier than anything else on the album, it’s a pointer to what Pitney can deliver when he lets his hair down (which does not occur too often this time around).
Pitney and his team play it safe with AIN’T LOOKING BACK. It’s coherent from start to finish. The writing is uncomplicated, the playing exemplary and the songs are impressive, if at times predictable. You are left with the impression that the record label has sanded down any of the rough edges that featured, and indeed impressed, on his debut album. Pitney’s clean cut, ethical and upright profile are well represented by an album that will delight his wide fan base but will probably hold less appeal to those who prefer their country music a bit more hardcore.
Review by Declan Culliton
Daryl Mosley The Secret Of Life Pinecastle
Bluegrass musician and songwriter Daryl Mosley has been the recipient of numerous awards across a career that started as a teenager singing at Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch in Tennessee, having attended school with her twin daughters. Impressed by his vocal ability, Lynn encouraged Mosley to study songwriting, which he did by investing in Tom T. Hall’s tutorial How I Write Songs. He furthered his career by singing and playing in bluegrass bands New Tradition, The Osborne Brothers and The Farm Hands. His most recent honour was being named Bluegrass Songwriter of the Year in 2017, an accolade that he also received 2016.
THE SECRET OF LIFE is his first solo album release, having been signed to Pinecastle Records in 2019. The album was produced by Mosley and his long-time musical associate and member of The Grascals, Danny Roberts. Their relationship goes back over three decades when they performed together in the four-piece bluegrass band New Tradition.
Given his songwriting expertise, it comes as no surprise that all eleven tracks on the album are self writes by Mosley, two of which (Heartaches Moving In, A Piece At A Time) are remodels of New Tradition songs. He’s joined on mandolin by Roberts and Aaron Mc Daris, Adam Haynes on fiddle and Michael Stockton on dobro. Harmony vocals are contributed by a most impressive trio of Irene Kelley (who has written for Ricky Scaggs, Loretta Lynn and Alan Jackson), 18-year-old starlet Jaelee Roberts and three-time SPBGMA (Society of the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) Vocalist of the Year Jeanette Williams. With the combined credentials of this collection of players and Mosley’s flair as a singer and writer, it’s no surprise that the sum is more than equal to the parts.
The songs read like an elder stateman’s reflection on life in small time America, without a hint of negativity or cynicism. Delicate love songs I’d Write You and It Never Gets Old sit comfortably alongside the more up-tempo A Few Years Ago and In A Country Town. The title track is a true to life tale of his local barber in Waverley Tennessee, Toad Smith, who has been cutting hair for sixty-seven years. A conversation between Smith and Mosley, as he had his hair trimmed one afternoon, was the origin of the song which promotes clean and simple living.
THE SECRET OF LIFE offers a flawless and seamless fusion of bluegrass, old time country and gospel. It’s an album loaded with positivity which allows the listener to tune in for forty minutes and escape from the increasingly depressing universal issues that we are contending with at present.
Review by Declan Culliton
Mark Bumgarner Just Above The Waterline SJ21
The title of North Carolina resident Mark Bumgarner’s latest album is very much a statement of where he’s coming from. Across the ten tracks he considers personal and every day issues. The songs are uncomplicated, switching from folk to country and bluegrass and include a mixture of recently written material and songs composed earlier in his career.
A member of the Nashville based bluegrass band Jubal Foster in another life, JUST ABOVE THE WATERLINE is his third solo release and was recorded at Two Chairs Music, Big Ivy, North Carolina. Bumgarner undertook the production duties and plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, organ and percussion. He credits no fewer than sixteen other artists that contributed, including Lynn Hensley who plays steel guitar on the album’s standout tracks Rise And Shine and You Live and Learn. Both are standard country songs, loaded with melody and slick playing. Also featured on the album are his two Jubal Foster bandmates Milan Miller and Jeff Smith. The bliss and humdrum of normal married life is visited on I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way and the title track speaks of reaching a level of contentment and fulfilment in your life.
The album is released on former MerleFest artistic director Steve Johnson’s SJ21 Records & Tapes label, renewing a musical relationship that dates back to Bumgarner’s early days with Jubal Foster. It’s an introspective reflection on the everyday challenges and responsibilities that we are presented with, by a writer whose character and resolve shine through. It’s also a very satisfying listen indeed.
Review by Declan Culliton
Harald Thune The Backbounceability Of Humans Fajo
A household name in music circles in his native Norway, Harold Thune is a flag bearer for country music there. He hosts a radio show which is broadcasted seven times a week on 24/7 Country Music Station P10 and has been performing and recording for over thirty years.
His initial intention was to release a compilation of a selection of those recordings. While considering which songs to include, he decided instead to revisit the songs, remodel and re-record them. The title of the album was taken from an interview on BBC TV with Wolves football club manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Thune has been a supporter of the club since his childhood days and was enthused by Santo’s comment after a defeat when he commented ‘It’s all about bouncing back’.
Recorded at Athletic Studio in Halden, Norway the album contains eleven track that offer a collection of plain-spoken songs that are a combination of Route One country (Mr & Mrs, Honky Tonk Lullaby), brooding Americana (It’s Time, Maintaining) and upbeat rock (Early Morning Rain).
Thune’s intention with the track selection, in typical Western style, was to create a wide screen cinematic landscape for the listener. He does achieve that aided by some accomplished musicians and a strong vocal delivery throughout, which combine to fashion a satisfying listen from start to finish.
Review by Declan Culliton
Kalen & Aslyn Back Of Our Minds Normaltown
In a previous life Aslyn Nash scored a Top 40 entry with her solo single Lemon Love and her husband Kalen fronted the psychedelic southern rock band Ponderosa. They also previously recorded as a duo in the band Dega, a synth-pop outfit that recorded a self-titled album in 2018. BACK OF THEIR MINDS finds them travelling an altogether different path and one that works spectacularly well.
The subject matter of the album is a reflection on the life journey of the Athens Georgia based couple through both happy and cheerless times. Each track plays out like a chapter in a novel, referencing their courtship, parting, getting back together, marrying, leaving home and moving back again. The songs were written over a ten-year period and read like diary entries, documenting various stages of their relationship.
The material falls somewhere between California country and pop, a throwback to that laid back West Coast sound so popular in the early 1970’s. Their combined harmonies, sublime playing throughout and thoughtful song constructions replicate that sound with flying colours. Highlights are the opening track Heather and California, two songs that connect on first play. Calm Down was written as a chant or mantra after a quarrel, according to Kalen. It’s a cool, breezy, soulful song with soothing overtones. Who Knows Your Heart is a tender love song, complete with saxophone solo.
Back Of Our Minds closes the album in style, with layered vocals over piano and pedal steel. ‘In the back of our minds, it’s just you and me’ they sing on the track and they have described the song as their ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ moment. To my ears, Karen and Richard Carpenter might be a more accurate comparison.
With its open and forthright theme, BACK OF OUR MINDS could have been somewhat self indulgent and twee. Instead, given the quality of the songwriting and their divine harmonies, it’s a delightful exercise and a reminder of how striking that West Coast sound can be when performed to this standard.
Review by Declan Culliton
Jenny Reynolds Any Kind Of Angel Self Release
Jenny Reynolds is an American singer-songwriter who has been creating superbly subtle music since her debut release in 1998. Having earned her stripes in the challenging arena of open mic nights in the Boston area in the early 1990s, she eventually moved to Austin in 2003 in order to concentrate on music full-time, achieving many accolades for her talents ever since.
This new album is her fourth release and shows a confident, literate and mature artist at the pinnacle of her creativity with ten songs that engage and impress over 38 minutes of many highlights. Dance For Me has a Tejano feel to the melody and rhythm and a story song about a professional ballet dancer who has tasted the bright lights of fame over her career and now teaches full-time in Paris, the passion for the performance still burning brightly inside. It is a magnificent piece of song writing. The title track, Any Kind Of Angel, is a look at lost dreams and the hard reality of a farming wife whose daughter has gone in search of her future and the promise that young love brings. “She had to go or live my fears.” It is heartfelt and paints the image of desolation caused from enduring a life of hardship where no hope prevails.
Another kind of leaving is addressed in Any Kind Of Road, a song about crossing the Rio Grande and emigrating from Mexico to Texas. A lover waits to be contacted and to reunite with her man. “Said you’d call from Laredo, When you left I believed.”
The Trouble I’m In, is a bluesy prayer to a power on high; “Lord bless me for I have sinned, Forgive me Lord for the trouble I’m in.” Bad lovers and poor choices abound but the playing of the ensemble is simply heavenly. Another blues- based arrangement is Before I Know You’re Gone, finger style acoustic guitar from Jenny and superb, atmospheric fiddle from Warren Hood, the tale of a relationship ending and the sadness contained therein - “I’m Afraid of letting go before I know you’re gone.”
White Knuckle Love (Didn’t I Know) is a song that bemoans a cheating lover and the hurt in facing the truth, blindly disregarding the obvious signs in hope of misguided resolution. Sweet guitar playing over a gently percussive salsa beat belying the effort involved, the give and take, push and shove. Co-producers André Moran (electric guitar) and Mark Hallman (fender Rhodes, bass, drums) contribute moments of real quality, not only on the overall crisp sound but in also in their playing. A Hank Williams cover, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, of just perfectly judged; a sad, wistful vocal, perfect phrasing and a tender blues delivery.
Also featured on the album are Jaimee Harris (harmonies), BettySoo (accordion & harmonies), Warren Hood (fiddle), Oliver Steck (cornet), Nate Rowe (upright bass) and Scrappy Jud Newcomb (guitars). This is well worth your time and money.
Review by Paul McGee
Kris Delmhorst Long Day In the Milky Way Self Release
A talented artist who has been off our radar since her last release in 2017. Delmhorst always had a way with words and in observing the World through her particular lens. The 12 tracks here are proof that her particular muse is still burning strong. The opening songs set the tone for the album and serve up a healing balm for the troubles of these times.
On the opener, Wind’s Gonna Find A Way, Delmhorst sings “Can’t you feel the undertow, wants to pull you to the deepest sea, I found out long ago about the power it has over me.” In Golden Crown she observes ‘Someday I’m gonna see you showing your glory all around.’ They can be seen as relationship-based, or equally a tribute to nature and the symmetry of the passing time. Delmhorst is thinking in terms of the long game, trusting in the momentum of things to find their own course.
Hanging Garden is again wrapped in a celebration of love and the joys that Nature yields, the simple wonder that both bring, “Come see, sky’s getting brighter – come see, world’s getting wider.” However, on Secret Girl she sings of hiding personal insecurities in the anonymity that city life brings, “Your pocket full of mascara gonna hide you.” But someday the pretence must be replaced by something real.
Horses In the Sky could be about the onset of social media pressure, from a trickle to a flood. It could also be about creeping anxiety and the feelings of panic, “It started as a whisper, Started as a passing word, A little static in the signal, Shadow of a passing bird.” The plea to keep fighting the storm is her final call to action, “Don’t forget to see what can be.”
Skyscraper deals with unseen layers of inner doubt, standing tall like a…skyscraper. Time to be an open door, the repeated chorus lines creating a trance-like melody and wrapped in layered vocal harmonies. A cover of the Rickie Lee Jones song, The Horses, is a laid-back rendition that gently sways and looks at a mother and daughter relationship that invites us to lift ourselves up and rise above our broken dreams and ideals; A song for these unsettled days.
Flower Of Forgiveness is about laying our burden down and living light; not weighed down by resentment and negativity. Forgive and forget, move on. Nothing ‘Bout Nothing (a co-write) has the lines; ‘Insult to injury, missing the mystery, omnisciently without a clue, Guess you’re kicking infinity to the periphery too.’ Such wonderful words and lyrical interplay.
Crow Flies is a relationship song about distance and feelings of sadness, “Is it a matter of minutes or hours or days since you smiled.” Great understated playing from the musicians. Bless Your Little Heart is a co-write with her daughter Hazel and suggests taking things a bit easier, relaxing the mood. ‘There’s no hurry, Nothing needs to be done, It’s still early, There’s a lot to understand.’
Final song, Call Off the Dogs, continues a theme that runs through a few of these songs, dropping personal barriers and facades in letting some real emotion permeate inside. Frustration and hurt build a wall and the longer it lasts, then the harder to break down, ‘Why you wear that armour for, Kept it from some ancient war.’
Self produced by Delmhorst, with Sam Moss (electric guitar, violin), Dietrich Strause (piano, Rhodes, vibes, trumpet, valve trombone, acoustic), Máiri Chaimbuel (harp), Ray Rizzo (drums, percussion) and Jeremy Moses Curtis (electric & upright bass), all players who are sensitive to the essence and flow of these songs. Backing vocals from Rose Cousins, Annie Lynch and Rose Polenzani are beautifully arranged and dovetail with Delmhorst throughout these songs of faith and fortitude. A terrific release.
Review by Paul McGee
Dana Gavanski Wind Songs/Yesterday Is Gone Full Time Hobby
This CD/EP bundle arrived with a press release that speaks of tour plans that have fallen by the wayside due to the Covid-19 virus and lockdown. Gavanski has used the time to create new music as she accepted the fate suffered by so many of her peers in these unparalleled times.
Of Serbian-Canadian origins, Gavanski was based in Toronto, before a more recent move to London. Her debut album, Yesterday Is Gone, has ten tracks and is a co-production between Gavanski, Toronto-based musician Sam Gleason, and Mike Lindsay of Tunng and LUMP.
The music is a mixture of Folk inflected songs, given electronica-based treatments, courtesy of a range of synthesisers played on the majority of tracks. The influence of Lindsay can be heard in the arrangements and sound effects on Other Than and Trouble, while the simpler arrangements on Small Favours and Catch are indicative of the range of influences that Gavanski can cover across these ten songs.
Co-producer Sam Gleason plays both acoustic and electric guitars on a number of songs and Charles James shines on bass throughout. Understated drumming and percussion is courtesy of Evan Cartwright and there are contributions from Arron Hoffman (piano, synths, wurlitzer) on three songs, Ted Crosby (clarinet, saxophone) on five songs, with Mike Lindsay playing on six tracks across an array of instruments.
It is very much the talents of Gavanski that shine brightest however, with her adept touch on electric guitar, mellotron, piano, various synths and singing in a style that channels Nico in part, capturing the essence of songs like What We Had, Good Instead Of Bad, Everything That Bleeds and the standout final song, 10 Memories Of Winter, that shimmers with a gentle arrangement and melody that points the direction for future works.
The five-track EP is more acoustic based, highlighting the delicate vocals and wistful tone of Gavanski in the songs; I Talk To the Wind (King Crimson), At Last I Am Free (Chic), Never Too Far (Tim Hardin), The Kiss (Judee Sill) and the Macedonian Folk song, Jano Mome, that she learned on a trip to Belgrade. These work beautifully and without the focus on synth-based influences of the debut album, they have more innocent charm and room to breathe.
Review by Paul McGee
Son Of The Velvet Rat Monkey Years #2 Monkey
With a musical style has been described as folk noir, folk rock and Americana – MONKEY YEARS # 2 is released by former Austrian label, Monkey Music, in recognition of the journey taken by this terrific duo. Son of the Velvet Rat was founded in 2003, by Austrian songwriter Georg Altziebler and organist/accordionist Heike Binder. Their collective vision resulted in lots of attention and accolades in the early years and a collaboration with Lucinda Williams on their 2011 release, RED CHAMBER MUSIC. In 2016, Altziebler and Binder moved to California, recorded a number of additional albums and worked with Joe Henry on their 2017 release, DORADO. To date the band has delivered a total of 12 albums, 2 Live sets, an earlier ‘best of’ compilation and a number of EP’s into the bargain. They represent any number of hidden artists who go largely unnoticed by the music media, yet produce music of the highest quality.
Altziebler sings in a tired vocal style that has a tone somewhere between a Bob Dylan and John Hiatt mix, at once engaging and signalling the years spent honing his particular craft. Binder also sings and her beautiful harmonies are the perfect counterbalance. The songs are taken from a selection of prior releases; LOSS & LOVE (2 tracks); DESERT STORIES (2 tracks); FIREDANCER (4 tracks); RED CHAMBER MUSIC (3 tracks) and REAPER (1 track).
The cover version of I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) seem a strange inclusion until you hear the interpretation and delivery that give additional meaning and resonance to the original. The use of trumpet and harmonica across the 12 tracks bring an added sense of distance and rueful longing. Almost a solitary state of lonely reflection echoes through the sparce arrangements that are beautifully performed and delivered with a quiet confidence. My review copy has no information on the individual musicians involved, but given that this is a compilation that spans eleven years, it is fair to assume that any number of players have helped to colour the sounds over time.
Highlights are the duet with Lucinda Williams, Moment Of Fame, with strummed guitars and harmonica setting the scene for a late night tryst. Lovesong#9 has a gentle accordion and some superb guitar work while the atmospheric Sirens uses the sound of underground trains to great effect. King Of Cool is just that, draped with whispered vocals and muted sounds. Guardian Angel is probably the standout among all these jewels – a peek into a Tom Waits styled melodrama.
Overall, this is a very worthwhile introduction into the singular vision of a duo whose music warrants the highest praise and who deserve a platform that is much larger than the profile that has brought them this far along their visionary highway.
Review by Paul McGee