Fayen From Here On Out Just For The Records
Here at Lonesome Highway we’ve been following the emergence of Nordicana in recent years, and now we have the pleasure of reviewing the debut EP from another new duo, Fayen, out of Trondheim, Norway. Fayen are Anne-Grethe Nyhaug and her partner, Goran Bogstrand. Having met eleven years ago through playing in a traditional bluegrass band, their sound has since evolved to a more acoustic Americana, influenced as they are by the likes of Alison Krauss and by country music generally, but also by their native folk music and by 60s pop.
Meander Love opens with gentle fiddle and mandolin chords, before one is swept away by the beauty of Anne-Grethe’s vocals. Goran supplies backing vocals and guitar, while the sublime pedal steel playing is by Bjorn Ola Ramfjord Johansen. Encouragement for the broken hearted was the inspiration for A Good Ending, which again starts quietly and builds slowly to the refrain, emphasised by Fritz Flamo Eidsvaag on bass, ‘A good ending is well within your distance, lost love isn’t lost life …. (you will find) somebody more like you’. The gorgeous fiddle playing of Oyvind Smidt harmonises with Hans Martin Storrosten on mandolin on the lead riff.
There’s a subtle banjo interplaying with mandolin and guitar behind Anne-Grethe’s sweet soaring vocals in another beautiful ballad, Dark Horse - ‘A sea of white horses, but a dark horse can win’. The dreamy Hummingbird is another song of encouragement, ‘When the choice is made they’ll see, Who you are and who you want to be’, building gradually with echoey layered vocals until the humming bird flies away. Woe Be, tending towards a more country sound, is a warning against religious fundamentalism.
Fayen have achieved their aim to achieve a ‘live’ sound in the studio, with the atmospheric production here. There’s a cute photo of a young Anne-Grethe in a white cowboy hat on the front cover. The 5 track EP is a promising teaser for what I hope will be a full album in the not too distant future. Ones to watch.
Review by Eilís Boland
Ferguson’s Farewell The Irish Connection Self Release
Bluegrass and country songwriter Gary Ferguson has decided to hang up his guitar case, at least where international touring is concerned. Having visited Ireland for tours since 2005, he has marked the retirement by releasing this collection of twelve songs, cowritten with various friends that he has made here along the way.
Prominent among these friends, and on the album, are Co. Down couple Colin Henry (dobro) and his wife Janet (vocals and guitar). Colin wrote the beautiful closing instrumental track Ferguson’s Farewell, and contributes his stellar dobro playing to most of the songs in this collection, gifting it a coherence, despite the diversity of artists involved. Janet does here what she does best, lending her angelic voice and talent in cowriting and singing the wistful heartache ballad, Broken Wing.
Most suited to that ‘winding down at night’ kind of mood, most of the songs are taken at a sedentary pace. Bucking that trend is the only bluegrass ballad, Ballad of Benny Freeman, co-written and well performed here by Donna Murray. This, like most of the tracks, was recorded and produced at her husband Joe Murray’s Sessions In The House studio in Castledawson, N Ireland.
Meath’s Gillian Tuite contributes the well crafted and heartfelt Who I Am Today, while Charlie McGettigan’s Gettin’ Old’ should come with a ‘grandparental advisory’ warning for lyrics which could not be played on the radio!
Roy Thompson, a singer songwriter from Kildare, contributes one of the standout songs To Say So Long, which was recorded and produced by the great Frankie Lane, who also plays pedal steel and keys while Gary Ferguson adds the backing vocals.
Worth checking out.
Review by Eilís Boland
Gary Hector National Trash Self-Release
Former frontman with rock and roll bands Oddfellows Local and Jointpop, Trinidad and Tobago resident Gary Hector launches his solo career with NATIONAL TRASH. Jointpop supported both Blue Oyster Cult and Kansas, they also played shows at the legendary punk venue CBGB’s in New York. Hector’s influences include the classic country legends Buck Owens and Hank Williams, alongside The Stones, The Clash, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley.
Recorded and mastered at Champion Sounds Studio (St Ann’s, Trinidad) and Heinrich Maneuver Productions (Nashville, Tennessee), NATIONAL TRASH pays tribute to those artists that have shaped Hector’s musical career.
Opener Today I Ride Alone takes its title from Hector’s decision to sever his ties with his previous bands and to launch his newfound as a solo artist. It’s graced with ghostly pedal steel guitar courtesy of Nashville session player John Henrich, whose work features on a number of the thirteen tracks on the album. Henrich’s contribution, together with backing vocals by Nikki Nelson, were recorded remotely in Nashville. Nelson’s cultured contributions, tic tacking with Hector’s weathered voice, work best on Former Gang Leader, Nashville Dreaming and Mercy Me. Elsewhere, the pick of the crop is the title track and the full-on honky tonker Searching For Jimmy Crime.
Trinidad and Tobago may be the home of Calypso music but Hector, tongue in cheek, namechecks his musical styling, which is a blend of country and rock, as Trinicana.
Review by Declan Culliton
Sara Trunzo Cabin Fever Dream Self Release
A five track EP inspired by both personal encounters and astute observations, CABIN FEVER DREAM follows Maine - based singer songwriter Sara Trunzo’s 2019 DIRIGO ATTITUDE album, which featured contributions from Mary Gauthier and Darrell Scott. The lead single from that album, Food and Medicine, earned Trunzo 1st Prize at The Maine Songwriting Associations contest.
She recounts time spent honing her craft in Music City on Nashville Time. It’s an upbeat and catchy tune with nods to the frustrations and demands by those many artists struggling for a break in an overcrowded market. (‘pilgrim poets praying for a rhyme, now we’re on Nashville time’).
The aching Kind Bone revisits the bare elements of break up and rejection. The stigmas, pressures, and sacrifices faced by so many trying to make ends meet on little more than minimum wage is expressed on I Work Saturdays. The album culminates with Liberty Tool, which stretches to over five minutes and is a simple but beautifully constructed country ballad with a Nanci Griffith type quality to it. The catalysts for the song are Trunzo’s Maine neighbours and homesteaders, with the song title taken from the name of an esteemed tool and antique shop in Waldo Country, Maine.
Trunzo gathered quite an impressive team together to record the album at Sound Emporium in Nashville. Producer Rachel Moore, who previously worked with T. Bone Burnett, Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, was at the controls. The musicians that feature include Dave Cohen (Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd) who played keys and Adam Ollendorff (Kacy Musgraves, Keb’ Mo’) on pedal steel. Bass was handled by Lex Price (k.d. Lang, Neko Case), guitars came courtesy of Kris Donegan (Lee Brice, Molly Tuttle) and drums were by Jamie Dick (Lake Street Dive, Allison Russell). Backing vocals were provided by the silver-tongued Tiffany Williams, perfectly complementing Trunzo’s high pitched deliveries.
A new name to me, I was hooked by Trunzo’s quirky vocal from the first spin, prior to even considering her lyrics. Like many of her peers, she turned to songwriting, and in particular country songs, by way of articulating and expressing grief, frustration and exasperation. She does that in a most impressive manner in this suite of songs which are loaded with truly touching lyrics and provide a glimpse of an unquestionably talented artist.
Review by Declan Culliton
Asleep At The Wheel Half A Hundred Years Home
Very few bands can boast longevity lasting fifty years and still standing and in the case of Asleep At The Wheel, still swinging. From a modest start on a farm in Paw Paw, West Virginia, founding members Ray Benson, Lee Roy Preston and Lucky Oceans (Reuben Gosfield) sowed the seeds for what was to become, and still remains, an extraordinary career. Those early days found them opening for acts such as Alice Cooper and Hot Tuna, prior to migrating to Texas via California on the recommendation of Willie Nelson.
Very much square pegs in round holes, the band consisted of long-haired hippy types and most certainly not who you’d expect to be playing western swing and honky tonk in those times. However, that was their music of choice and over the past five decades they have, under the stewardship of Ray Benson, continued to champion those music genres, despite the ever-changing music forms and modes that became popular during those times.
The band leader to this day remains Ray Benson. He has overseen over a hundred musicians that have come and gone for various reasons, but his role of caretaker of the band’s core sound is as steadfast as ever.
HALF A HUNDRED YEARS is a celebration of the band’s vocation and many of the musicians that have contributed to their journey. It contains nineteen tracks: eleven are new songs featuring original band members, five more are old songs performed by current band members, another three are previously recorded tracks that were never released, and the remaining track features the current lineup with two previous female members. It does not get any more democratic than that and Benson’s greatest challenge was attempting to accommodate as many previous band members as possible.
The current line-up is fronted by Benson on vocals and guitar alongside fiddle wizard Katie Shore, who also shares lead vocals. The other players are drummer David Sanger, mandolinist and fiddler Dennis Ludiker, keyboard player Conor Forsyth, Josh Hoag on bass and saxophonist Joey Colarusso. This seven-piece combination is as strong as the band have ever been and tracks such as The Photo and I Do What I Must are evidence of their ability to honky tonk and swing
The artists that guest on this album are a pointer to how revered Benson and his musical vision with Asleep At The Wheel are in country music circles. Industry royalty such as Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Lee Ann Womack, Bill Kirchen, and Benson’s close friend Willie Nelson, all lend a hand.
With the quality on offer across the nineteen tracks, it’s difficult to select individual standout songs, one just flows seamlessly into the next notwithstanding the different times and locations that the recordings took place. Their signature song, Take Me Back To Tulsa, originally from the pens of Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan, is certainly a highlight, with contributions from George Strait and Willie Nelson. There You Go Again, a duet with Lyle Lovett, is also a gem, and the jazzy title track from the original lineup, recalling the band’s five decades existence, is a fun filled blast. Bill Kirchen tic tacs lyrics with Benson on one of the recent recordings, Word To The Wise. It’s a song to put a smile on your face but one that also includes some killer playing from the current band.
The final track, The Road Will Hold Me Tonight, is a previously unreleased track that features vocal contributions from Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson. It’s a fitting finale to a splendid album that weighs in at sixty-seven minutes. A ‘must have’ for fans of this incredible musical institution, it could also prove to be an invaluable introduction for newcomers to Asleep At The Wheel. Essential listening.
Review by Declan Culliton
Side Pony Lucky Break Mule Kick
Anyone who witnessed a Side Pony stream during the dark days when live music was taboo would have been struck by the duo’s capacity to switch, at the drop of a hat, between humorous chat and innuendo to drop-dead gorgeous ballads and up-tempo power poppy country tunes.
THE TRASHCANNON ALBUM, released last year by Caitlin Cannon and much loved at Lonesome Highway, was a standout album, which dealt with some deeply intimate personal issues. The subject matter may have been at times disturbing, but the song writing and delivery were packed with slick language and catchy hooks that drew the listener in from the outset. Alice Wallace, Cannon’s partner in Side Pony, set out her stall as an emerging rootsy West Coast country queen with INTO THE BLUE, her fourth album which was released in 2019.
Fuelled by a meeting at a songwriter’s round in 2018, the couple soon spotted that they could create a lot more than sweet harmonies and vowed to knuckle down and work on some co-writes. LUCK BREAK is the result of that pact and it’s filled with tunes that twang and swing in all the right places and are often accompanied by some wicked humour.
The album is a blend of some standout ballads, which drift between country and dreamy pop, together with some stomping hook filled anthems. The powerhouse opener Bad Ideas is typical of the latter, a ‘morning after the night before’ hangover song of remorse and guilt. The simply gorgeous All I Have Is Want displays their talent at writing and voicing slow burning mournful country ballads
The whimsical Heels is a slice of 70’s country and a declaration that in a male dominated industry, these ladies won’t be bowing down to anyone. At one stage during lockdown, their aforementioned live streams featured them donning mermaid tails and Under The Surface reflects that escapade, with both Daryl Hannah and Shamu name checked in the song. They bookend the album with a comical reflection on that period when the world stood still with All The Time In The World (‘be careful what you wish for because it might just come true … I got all the time in the world and no one to spend it with…and now my favourite person is the Amazon delivery man’).
With contrasting vocal styles and musical backstories, LUCKY BREAK could have been an ungainly car crash. On the contrary, it works spectacularly well, imparting easy on the ear songs that tap into the personalities and artistic strengths of both artists. I can’t think of any other band presenting their art in such a carefree and fun filled manner, while also creating music with the maximum levels of verve and gust.
Review by Declan Culliton
The Royal Hounds A Whole Lot Of Nothin’ Self Release
The new album from The Royal Hounds continues, in the main, from where their last album 2019 LOW CLASS SONGS FOR HIGH CLASS PEOPLE left off, with a smorgasbord or fuel-injected rockabilly, roots rock and classic country. The latter is perhaps given a larger part in the overall sound here than previously. Given that the pandemic limited their gigging options, it gave founder and bassist Scott Hinds the time to reflect on where the band stood at that point in time and allowed him to concentrate on some new material for this album. The end result is ten songs from Hinds, two instrumentals from guitarist Matheus Canteri and one from the trio, which now includes new drummer Nathan Place. The trio all bring their different insights and inputs to help add some progression and diversify to their sound. It was produced by the band and recorded in Nashville, where they currently have regular weekly slots in both of the Lower Broadway honky tonks in Robert’s Western World and Layla’s.
In order to get the best from the album, the band, who co-produced the album, brought in some guests to round out the sound, giving it a depth that works so well in these recorded versions of the songs. Eddie Lange added pedal steel, Rory Hoffman played organ and accordion. While fiddle and some backing vocals were added by Aaron Till. The former two also appeared on the band’s last album. At times listening to this enjoyable album, I am reminded of early BR5-49. In other words, the music is delivered with care and attention and not a little humour and overall sense of fun.
Cheap Drunk opens the album with a hot riff and a confession of misplaced love for alcohol. I Just Can’t Two Step has our proponent heading for the dance floor, even if he admits to two left feet, while the band play an effective sense of swing. In fact, the playing from the bands and guests is a delight throughout, with a sense of purpose, precision and pleasure. Pickin’ In The Graveyard even has a short solo from both Place and Hinds showing off their respective skills.
With the overall energy, it might be easy to overlook the lyrical content that Hinds has brought to the material. Perhaps this is best evidenced by the Christmas song in which Kris Kristofferson helps a distressed Santa to do his job. Krismastofferson intertwines the songwriter history and life with the festive needs of the season. A wish to get on with life is expressed by noting that while that person is still on the planet that they are wished well, but ultimately the message is given in the song title, I Hope You Go To Hell. Door #3 and Corn Fritters are the two aforementioned instrumentals that underline Canteri’s talent on six strings. In The Rickety Pines has a somewhat different feel, with its chorus vocal arrangement and overall drive.
Somewhat old school in style is the bad relationship situation outlined in Invitation To Be Lonely and an “invite to join me in misery.” Even though the music, with its fiddle contribution, is the opposite of the sentiment expressed. The distinctive aromas of a beer gardens festivities are summed up in Bring Out The Barrel Of Beer, emphasised by the prominent accordion and chorus. The Jukebox Is Broken is slow-paced lament using the metaphor of disrepair with that of an equally broken relationship. It also emphasizes the versatility of Hinds’ vocals. The album ends with a short blues riff and a variation on its perennial theme. Clocking in at overviewed 40 mins there is much to enjoy from this workman-like band, who have grown with this album and that is a whole lot of something worth havin’.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Jr. Gone Wild Still Got The Jacket Stoney Plain
This Canadian quartet are back recording after a hiatus, following their decision to call it a day back in 1995. They subsequently began to play together again in 2013. Their musical direction predates the current Americana scene with their take on the alt. country/cowpunk and power pop sound, which is built around energy, strong riffs and catchy melodies. The current band consists of guitarist/vocalist Mike McDonald, lead guitarist Steve Loree and Dave Brown on bass. The quartet is completed by the addition of drummer Quinton Herbert who joined after the passing of previous member Larry Shelast.
As often happens in these scenarios, they agreed to play some shows in 2013, which led to more shows, new material and to this album, with its tongue-in-cheek title of STILL GOT THE JACKET. They indeed have those garments along with the attitude and the musical chops to make this a welcome return and resumption of their particular modus operandi. The album opens with Girl In The Crowd and then runs through some fifteen other songs. Obviously, they want to take this opportunity to show what they can do with the new material they had recorded. Standouts include What Can You Do? which sits alongside their take on Paul Revere and The Raiders song Him Or Me (What’s It Gonna Be?), a song also previously given a strong reading by The Flamin’ Groovies. Old And Ugly is a comment on getting older. Behind The Wheel highlights, along with many of the songs here, their vocal propensity, as well as their playing ability. While the song Cool For My Kids (Good Looking’ For My Wife) speaks of an attitude of mind which is reflective of their career. Southern Cross and Five Million Songs equally impress on a number of levels. However, if any one track was to get highlighted as an example of their strengths, I’d suggest perhaps that The She’s Gone To California To Finds Herself Blues, would convince anyone who has a penchant for their attitude and approach.
It is heartening when an act like Jr. Gone Wild decides to give it another go, but don’t just fall back on older songs. Instead, they set out to pick up the baton and take it further. That they still sound pretty much as they have done in the past, is testament to the fact they got it pretty much right back then, even if major commercial success eluded them at the time. It more than likely that won’t arrive now either, I doubt that that was the aim here. They have achieved what they set to do here, and for that, they should be proud of that. They have earned the right to keep their jackets hanging on their respective coat hooks, and this album shows that they are not the only hooks that they have to offer.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Andrew Leahey & The Homestead American Static Vol. 1 Mule Kick
This new release is part of a projected double album set, with the second part due for release next year. The band have been described as roots-rock, though that may be better outlined with the rock part first. Leahey and the band owe a debt to Tom Petty’s long career, as they relate to a number of different aspects of that late illustrious performer’s catalogue. Although Nashville-based Leahey’s sound does seem more universal. This is his third album with the band and it is an accomplished piece of power-rock that looks back to the 80s, as much as it does to today’s scene.
Leahey is a notable guitarist who also regularly performs in Elizabeth Cook’s band, along with other acts. But his heart may well lie with these layers of polished guitars that cement his overall sound. As the sole writer and the man whose name is most prominent, it is likely that this is the music he wants mostly to present to the world. To help him achieve that, he has had the album produced and mixed by Jon Estes, who seems the perfect partner to achieve what they set out to do together. It has a sound that is confident and is most likely to gain a wider acceptance from a number of different formats. While there are many tracks that seem a little more mainstream there are others such as Good At Gone, which has a slightly more rootsy sound and a nuanced vocal approach. This offers a slightly different view of the music but sits easily alongside the rest of the tracks here.
He has been joined here by band members Jay Dmuchowski (guitars) and Dan Holmes (drums), as well as Estes on bass and a whole range of other instruments as well as string arrangements, to achieve that bigger picture. Also joining in on the action are a number of guests, adding guitars and violin to particular tracks.
Keep The Car Running is an exercise in the catchiness of power pop’s core values, something akin to the work of the illustrious Cheap Trick. The closing song My Avalanche, takes a more piano-based approach that recalls a time when such outings were de rigour, however it also offers some reflection on his own perspective. The pandemic allowed Leahey the time to concentrate on the writing of enough material for the two volumes. The title echoes his feeling that the inactivity and the isolation of that period made him feel ‘static’ in his situation. But with this release, and a general opening within the music industry, it appears to be drawing to a close and he now has this music to promote. It is also a time, and an opportunity, to establish himself in his own right and image.
Review by Stephen Rapid