Dave Desmelik The Calendar Album Self Release
A few years back, Dave Desmelik set himself the challenge of writing a song a month about what that month meant to him. Luckily for us, the upheaval of the past year afforded him the time and impetus to finally get these works recorded and self-produced in his home studio in Brevard, N. Carolina. Being a multi-instrumentalist, he didn’t need to call on anyone to play the myriad of instruments he uses here - from stringed instruments to piano to percussion. His reflections vary in mood with the months and the seasons, as one would expect, but they are never less than thoughtful and mostly uplifting.
The album opens with the ‘hopeful aspirations’ of January, a country rock ballad which is enhanced by the tasteful electric guitar work of the only guest musician, David Philips (an Englishman living in Spain). Here we are also introduced to Desmelik’s vocals - reminiscent in their yearning wistfulness of those of Americana legend, Mark Olson. There are two instrumentals, October being the standout with its backdrop of acoustic guitar, piano and banjo pierced by chiming Rickenbacker riffs. May is an emotional month, bringing the birthday of Desmelik’s firstborn son and Mother’s Day and June is dominated by the loss of his dog, the pain expressed by the visceral pounding on the acoustic guitar. The sultry heat of July ‘remind me to be nothing but a child, and I remember to be nothing but wild and free’. The intimate and honest aspirations continue throughout the months, culminating in the closing chapter of December when ‘we’re all a bit longer in the tooth’ and ‘softer in the gut’ but we can take stock and be grateful that we ‘made the cut’.
The self described ‘journeyman songsmith’ has given us an album to cherish for all seasons.
Review by Eilís Boland
The Barlow Horseshoe Lounge Self Release
I was instantly attracted to this album on learning that Mike Harmeier, the front man of Mike and The Moonpies, contributed vocals and Zachary Moulton, the pedal steel player also from that killer Texan band, features throughout the album.
The Barlow are a band from Denver, with a reputation for belting out their own model of Colorado Country, which is a cross breed of outlaw and Americana with a side helping of Southern Rock. This is their second album following their self-titled release two years back and it doesn’t disappoint. There’s no attempt to reinvent the wheel here, just a suite of cleverly written songs, supported by a frontman with a weather beaten, road weary tone and a skilled bunch of players behind him.
Close friends since high school, The Barlow are Shea Boynton (lead vocals, guitar), Ben Richter (drums, vocals), Brad Johnson (guitar, vocals) and Troy Scoope (bass, vocals). It’s no surprise to learn that they have shared stages and barrooms with like-minded acts such as Mike and the Moonpies, Sunny Sweeney, Ward Davis and The Steel Woods. There are noticeable parallels with all these acts and their sound is honed from numerous live shows where they traverse modern and classic country.
The songs seldom deviate from their up-tempo hard-hitting flavour. Richter, an oil field worker during daylight hours, writes uncomplicated and matter of fact lyrics from both personal and observational perspectives. Pick of the crop are the racy opener Hard Lovin’, the bar room ditty with hints of Tyler Childers Ain’t Ever Comin’ Round and the bubbly title track. Chris Knight’s Homesick Gypsy gets a worthy makeover and they tone it down on the closer Part Of The Band, with the aforementioned Mike Harmeier sharing the vocals.
The album is packed with songs and sounds that add up to the perfect Saturday night live show at The Horseshoe Lounge or any lounge for that matter.
Review by Declan Culliton
Bob Collum and The Welfare Mothers This Heart Will Self Destruct Fretsore
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but resident in the U.K. since his teenage years, Bob Collum’s latest recording has its foundations in the music of both locations. Mixing 1960’s Brit beat music with the swinging sounds of Bob Willis and the rockabilly leanings of Buddy Holly is his trademark and very much to the fore on this recording.
THIS HEART WILL SELF DESTRUCT is a ten-track collection that would have been pigeonholed back in the pre-punk early 1970’s as pub rock, alongside bands like Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe and Bees Make Honey. Clever lyrics, fine playing and humour - evident in both the band and album’s titles - are the order of the day.
Written and recorded during the period when the U.K. entered and exited various levels of lockdown, Collum’s vocal and guitar contributions are ably assisted by Mags Layton on violin and backing vocals, Martin Cutmore on bass and Paul Quarry on drums. Also featured on guitar and Fender VI is honorary Welfare associate and former member of Graham Parker’s Rumour and Nick Lowe’s Cowboy Outfit, Martin Belmont. Originally intended as an EP, the songs flowed freely from Collum’s pen resulting in a worthy successor to his 2018 album PAY PACK AND CARRY. Highlights are the broody ballad From Birmingham, the full-on rock and roller Saved, the zippy title track and the flowing country ballad Second Fiddle.
Collum’s songs and the players that passionately support him, are tailor made for a lively Sunday afternoon’s session in a packed pub. Let’s hope that comes to fruition sooner rather than later and uplifting music like this is available to raise the spirits.
Review by Declan Culliton
The Weather Station Ignorance Fat Possum
Without totally abandoning the alt-folk leanings of her two previous albums LOYALTY (2015) and THE WEATHER STATION (2017), Tamara Lindeman has taken a detour both lyrically and sonically on her latest release.
Unlike her previous work, Lindeman chose to write the material on piano rather than guitar. This departure, together with coproducing with Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire, The National), signalled a change in direction and a body of work more dramatic and indeed emotive than before. A more generous recording budget on this occasion also offered opportunities not previously feasible for her. If her earlier works were principally ‘sit back and listen’ affairs, IGNORANCE is more akin to a danceable record and that musical diversion works exceptionally well.
‘I never believed in the robber’ is the opening line on the first track Robber. You’re left in little doubt of the central character or the populist agenda that motivated the song. ‘He had permission by words….it was all done real carefully’ she continues, her vocals bolstered by string, synths, layered percussion and ripping saxophone.
Despite the addition of heavy backbeats, strings and synthesisers, Lindeman’s vocals are dominant throughout, out front in the mix and more aggressive than on previous albums. A point in case is the break up song Tried To Tell You, where, unlike previous similarly themed songs, she is less confessional and more forthright. Paquin’s stamp is firmly felt on the free-flowing Parking Lot which is steered along by heavy drum and steady bass beats and the sweeping Atlantic recalls vintage Talking Heads. Lindeman’s writing has frequently explored relationships, occasionally flourishing but more often failed. A shattering divorce is called to mind on the quite beautiful Trust, with riveting strings that emphasise the raw emotion of the drama to perfection. The equally impassioned Separated follows a similar theme of disconnection.
Like most talented female singer songwriters hailing from Canada, lazy comparisons are often made with Joni Mitchell and Lindeman is no exception. Notwithstanding that, the impact of leaving her comfort zone on IGNORANCE does bear commonality with Mitchell’s musical explorations. That resolve has given rise to an album that sounds better on every subsequent listen and also one that is most likely to feature in my favourites of 2021.
Review by Declan Culliton
Stuffy Shmitt Stuff Happens Self Release
A survivor, by the skin of his teeth, of decades at the bumpy end of the music business, STUFF HAPPENS is Stuffy Shmitt’s first album in eight years. Living in New York, at the end of his tether, battling bipolar disorder and on a self-destructive path, he made the crucial decision to finally ditch his deadly lifestyle in the West Village and attempt to rebuild his life. Moving to Nashville and getting himself correctly medicated set him on a path towards normality and regained sanity.
Growing up in Milwaukee in a somewhat dysfunctional family, Shmitt bailed out and headed for New York at a young age. A further move to Los Angeles before heading back to New York, he played in numerous rock bands and recorded with a host of luminaries. Those musicians ranged from Willy De Ville to David Johansen and Levon Helm to Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes. Five solo albums followed prior to STUFF HAPPENS, all of which offered a combination of husky voiced Tom Waits type observations and the unwashed rock and roll of The Replacements. Despite the impressive calibre of the recordings, Shmitt surprisingly remained relatively unknown, enjoying a cult following rather than commercial success.
Having settled in Nashville, a chance encounter with artist and producer Brett Ryan Stewart in the 5 Spot bar in East Nashville, where Shmitt was performing, was the connection that cemented a relationship and resulted in Stewart producing this album at his studio in Franklin, Tennessee. The final cog in the wheel was an introduction to a close ally of Stewart, multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Tench, who worked hand in hand with Shmitt on the preparation of the songs for recording.
The song development and production took on an altogether more disciplined approach than previously tackled by Shmitt. Accustomed to self-production and recording with minimal pre-production, he spent two months working the songs on acoustic guitars with Trench, before taking them into the studio to flesh them out with his band.
With a clear head, decades of demons to exorcise and the guidance and input from Stewart, the resulting album is a treasure chest of honest and hard-hitting songs. Writing from personal experiences and observations Mommy And Daddy recalls his parents, once wild, carefree and unpredictable, now aged and weakening. The raunchy opener It’s OK speaks openly of a close friend, a walking car wreck who’s constantly messing up, despite the many helping hands offered to her. His vocals never sounded better than on the belter She’s Come Unglued. It boasts an addictive and killer riff and tells the story of a partner heading for a breakdown and a crumbling relationship. The striking piano led ballad The Last Song grieves a failed love affair and Sleeping On The Wet Spot is a self-deprecating yarn of recurring catastrophe, a possible recap on the writer’s often ill-fated life choices.
An unusual yet exceptional combination of soothing ballads and hardcore rockers, STUFF HAPPENS plays out like a few genres melting together, by an artist with a hyperactive brain and on this occasion, firing on all cylinders.
Review by Declan Culliton
Tammi Neilson Chicka Boom Outside
A genuine powerhouse vocalist who mixes fiery R ’n’ B and rockabilly tropes. This edition of the album, originally released in February 2020, includes five additional songs recorded live at Roundhead Studios. Neilson moved from Canada to New Zealand and has built a reputation for the strength of her no holds barred vocal stance that can be seen as taking the emotion and inspiration of Wanda Jackson into a new era. Not that it stops there though as she is equally influenced by Mavis Staples and a myriad of other female vocalists who deliver their music true and from the heart. In this part of the world, it would be easy to see why fans of Imelda May would find a kindred spirit here.
Neilson is not just a front woman; she is also in command of her music by writing and co-writing the ten tracks from the original release. She also co-produced the recordings with guitarist Delaney Davidson, who is a player totally in sync with the singer’s musical journey. But it’s not all hell-for-leather as witnessed by the subtle 60s pop stylings of Any Fool With A Heart and the soft lullaby of the tender Sleep. She can easily turn her hand (and voice) from rockabilly, old school country, soul, gospel and jazz-tinged swing among other genres. Neilson is making her music on her own terms and has reaped the rewards, if not in large sales and radio exposure, then in critical and fan based-responses.
Understandably a lot of writing comes from a female perspective. Some of the songs come with a touch of innuendo and humour as well as with some insight. For instance, A Woman’s Pain from the live tracks, shows an understanding and universality from a distinct female viewpoint. In the main with this album Neilson wanted the sound to be short, sharp and stripped back to guitar bass drum and voice, while still giving them the necessary chicka boom boom.
The opening Call Your Mama continues the classic cheating song template but, this time, reversing the charges. It features also as one of the additional live tracks where you can easily compare the urgency and intensity of Neilson’s ability as a vocalist. The nature of the recording is not entirely different in either setting. The studio version is fuller using that facility for an extra depth to the sound. Either way Neilson, live or in a recording studio, is someone not to be taken for granted. This album is here to prove that she is both righteous and ready for action.
Review by Stephen Rapid
XIXA Genesis Jullian
The Tucson based band have a sound that brings together elements of Latin rhythms, cambia and Peruvian chicha with psych rock, desert blues, dark folk and elements of a lost gothic/horror/western soundtrack. There is an overall trippy nature to the sound that is apparent from the opening Thine Is The Kingdom and then throughout the ten tracks on the album. The band are led by guitarists Gabriel Sullivan and Brain Lopez, who produced and recorded the album in Tucson. They used their own studio Dust and Stone Recording to capture these cosmic, cactus-barbed anthems. The band are completed by Jason Urman (keyboards), Winston Watson (drums and percussion), Efrén Cruz Chávez (timbales, percussion), and Hikit Corbel (bass). They are additionally joined by Uummannaq Children’s Choir from Greenland for some tracks, and also invited some additional guests such artists as Sergio Mendoza of Tucson based Orkrsta Mendoza and others from further afield. This has allowed them to explore the outer regions of their musical landscape that finds them having, at times, more in common with the likes of some Tuareg musicians that their location, if not methodology, might suggest. This is evidenced on Eve of Agnes where their sound is melded with that of five-piece Algerian quintet Imarhan. The end result is seamless and readily identifies the connection and commonality of purpose.
XIXA have developed their sound now over two releases - a debut album and an EP (BLOODLINE and CODE) and now Genesis which is epitome of the exploration of their measureless music at this point in their career. There are many sonic clues in the sound as there is in the lyrical content which they have revealed is topically centred around the age-old battle between good and evil and the innate spirituality that exists between the two. There is also a notion that this may be a parallel universe version of a latter day incarnation of The Shadows, such is the melodic and incisive guitar interplay.
The sound is immersive and takes you through their world in a way that seems you are lying down in a desert oasis listening to this sounds as they flow over and through you. You hear hints of fellow Tucson artist and a whole lot more as the album evolves from the darker Nights Plutonian Shore (a song that has Edgar Allen Poe in its psyche) to Velveteen, a riff-based song with soft surreal vocals that has a Twin Peaks dream-like quality that is nevertheless not without a slightly sinister sphere. These diverse elements make the album stronger by allowing the listener individual interpretation.
The front cover image by Daniel Martin Diaz brings mysticism and symbolism elements that have an old world feel that is like discovering an old map that indicates a rarely explored future. His work is totally in sync with XIXA’s musical vision and allows the beholder to interpolate the music and art in a way that makes sense to them as an a singular entity. It is the same kind of synchronicity that Barney Bubbles had with early Hawkwind.
This is an album that may seem like it is an outsider of those we normally review, but it is still considered Americana by its very nature and sources. It may not be for everyone but it is an album that will give much to the intrepid explorer.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Saugeye Self-Tilted Horton
The band’s name is taken from that of a favourite hybrid fish from Oklahoma. They are a collaborative collection of Tulsa-based musicians led by Jared Tyer, a singer and guitarist who has previously worked for a number of years with Malcolm Holcombe as a key sideman. He has co-produced the album with Jake Lynn who held the drum chair for these sessions. They were joined by bassist Casey Van Beek, Set Lee Jones on additional guitars and keyboard player Isai Mireless. The music incorporates a range of influences from the areas and beyond that take in rock, blues, folk and country - the melting pot that is Americana.
Aside from his time working with Holcombe, Tyer worked on his own projects and music, releasing three albums under his own name. The aim here was to capture the essence of their live shows, so they recorded the basic tracks in a single day in a studio and added overdubs later. The end result captures that simple groove and their intention is apparent from the opening song, the Malcolm Holcombe penned To The Homeland. It is a great introduction to the band’s sound and an immediate highlight with some tight guitar at its centre. Holcombe’s One Leg At A Time is given an outing here also and is a recommendation to approach the start of the day by putting one’s pants on by the time honoured method suggested in the title. It also features some strong guitar soloing. There are other songs that have been chosen to cover such as Gideon’s Bible from the late Brandon Jenkins and Grandma’s Hands which was written by Bill Withers. While Another Lifetime which closes out the album is a contemplation of what one might need to find a deeper truth and it’s delivered in a thoughtful rendition.
They are also songs (Dirt On Your Hands, Gwendolyn, Death Of Me, Waltzing Around With My Shadow) taken from Tyer’s solo work that get a workout here in a more immediate band setting. There is a chemistry at work as the players dovetail into the songs that capture the live feel in the recordings which they were after, taking it beyond just a solo project into something more organic. Tyer’s vocal contribution should not be underestimated, as he has the capacity to give a song its essence without ever overplaying his hand. The backing vocals also add to the overall enjoyment of the tracks, fitting easily over the musical substance.
Tyer’s song Keystone Lillie is an ode to his faithful dog and the nature of their relationship and its unconditionality. It shows, along with other originals and co-writes, that Tyer is a solid writer who has something to say with his simple approach to laying out the heart of the songs. Songs that also reflect the locality and heritage of the music made in Tulsa. The end result is laid back when it needs to be and kicking when it needs to be. So, it’s a credit to all involved and an album that will easily be savoured in an old school way.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Ian Fisher American Standards Self Release
Sonically, this album seems a little different from previous albums by Ian Fisher, who has expanded his musical vision to include a broader context. He names albums such as Neil Young’s HARVEST and the Beatles WHITE ALBUM as foundations he built on. He has done this with producer René Mühlberger (aka Pressyes) and a set of players including Mühlberger who mixes the bass, drums, electric guitars with a selection of synths and pedal steel. That it is his least sounding country outing is noted, but he has not totally moved away from that influence in his lyrics and influences. However, the hardcore honky-tonker would be forgiven for missing out on that particular connection.
Alongside the poppier moments there is an element of experimentation with ambient tracks like Early Morning Haze that sit beside the more acoustic-based Be Thankful’s consideration of those things that we should, indeed, be grateful for. It flows along on a collection of synth and pedal steel soundings. Two tracks that feature an essential element of the album having melody in their titles are Melody On Tape, a brief instrumental, and Melody In Nashville which has a more after-hours sadness and rainy night feel. The same town is also a feature in the album final track Ghosts Of The Ryman which takes into account those on both sides of the stage. Those who fill the pews to listen to these ghosts and, as it moves along, those ephemeral presences are echoed in the accompanying vocals. The slow build up has a sense of something that matches the grandness of the occasion with Floyd-like guitar and surrounding synths. It Ain’t Me has a unifying chorus over a building goose that suggest whatever you might be looking it likely won’t be found herein.
Pressyes is, under that guise, featured on One Foot with its wah-wah guitar refrain and an arrangement that recalls something of a soft soul ballad. Much simpler and starker is Three Chords And The Truth (itself a description of country music songwriting) which is one of the tracks that takes the song to a basic level that could be taken in many different directions, which could be country music or farther beyond its boundaries. It is effective here for its directness and diversion. Winterwind again starts low key and builds its melodic structure to something that is effective in many ways. Fisher travelled outside of America for some time, which saw him playing and working in theatre all over the world and using the time and experiences to consider the country he had left and the reasons why.
That is something that is at the heart of this album and its varied sounds and themes. It hangs together as a complete statement and one that is captivating in its diversity and range. It easily reaches beyond the standard, America or otherwise.
Review by Stephen Rapid