Amanda Cook Narrowing The Gap Mountain Fever
Amanda Cook up and moved herself and her family from their native Florida to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia a couple of years ago, in order to be better geographically placed to survive as a touring bluegrass band. That courage and determination seems to have paid off as she releases her excellent fourth solo album, recorded with her stellar touring band in her record label’s Virginia studio. Co-produced by Cook herself along with Aaron Ramsey, the album is a collection of ten hard driving bluegrass songs, all relatively new compositions but recorded with a healthy reverence for the tradition.
Kicking off with a high tempo train song, Get On Board, from the pen of Vida Wakeman (Jeff & Vida) and Darrell Hayes, the joyful energy expressed here is carried though the whole project. As well as singing lead in her standout vocal, Cook has co-written (with Thomm Jutz) another train song Lonesome Leaving Train, which tells the tragic tale of a bride who is stood up on the train platform. Fiddler George Mason, who spent many years in Nashville with some of the top country bands, demonstrates his chops everywhere but particularly here, where he expresses the acute heartache through his sensitive playing. Banjoist Carolyne Van Lierop-Boone has been with Amanda since the band’s inception and her banjo playing is as good as it gets. However, she is also a talented songwriter, contributing three songs including West Virginia Coal, a co-write with her husband and now fellow band member, Troy Boone. She also wrote the one gospel number, Light In This World and co-wrote, with her band leader, the nostalgic My Used To Be Blue Ridge Mountain Home. Thomm Jutz gets another cut with the tear jerker It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over, whose gentle pace is a welcome contrast on this mostly high energy record. There’s a strong interpretation of Tim O’Brien’s When You Come Back Down, which will be very familiar to Nickel Creek fans. Another standout song is Brink Brinkman’s barnstormer, Burning Down The Mountain, a dramatically recounted tale of revenge which rises to a crescendo with the help of George Mason’s soaring fiddle and Carolyne Van Lierop-Boone’s driving banjo.
Recommended.
Postscript: On a sad note, the band’s guitar player Aaron ‘Frosty’ Foster, who also played on this recording, passed away suddenly earlier this year.
Review by Eilís Boland
Christina Alden & Alex Patterson Hunter Self Release
Another happy result of pandemic lockdown, the enforced ‘rest’ allowed English duo Christina Alden and Alex Patterson to concentrate on a long planned first duo album, which they ably recorded in the basement of their home in Norwich city. The singer-songwriter couple are better known as part of the folk trio Alden Patterson & Dashwood, who have toured extensively in Britain and Europe. While not strictly an Americana sound, there is enough of a similarity with American old time and folk music, including Christina’s 5 string banjo playing, that it affords me an excuse to review this excellent record.
Securely rooted in the natural world, the title track Hunter recounts the touching relationship between the usually solitary Brown Bear and Grey Wolf, which was discovered by a Finnish photographer. Christina is the lead singer and her rich clear vocals are harmonised intuitively and sensitively by Alex. It’s an intuition that develops through much time spent together - the two have been creating music together for seven years. Alex, as well as recording and production duties, plays fiddle, viola, cello, guitar and shruti box. Christina contributes guitar and sometimes banjo.
The link between humans and nature is a strong theme on this collection - check out The Fox Song, The Greenland Shark and Reed Cutting. Land Corridors is an appeal to human beings to protect and restore the essential passageways used by wildlife to traverse between woodland and field - they have been obliterated by our relentless drive towards industrialisation and suburban development. An Irish/American connection arises with the song Brooklyn, inspired by Colm Toibin’s novel, wherein the conflicting feelings of homesickness and hopeful anticipation accompany all emigrants on their journey - a universal experience, undoubtedly.
Recording at home at their leisure has lent an intimacy and simplicity to the album’s sound. This is carried through to the striking linocut artwork,created by Christina, presented on suitably ecofriendly recycled cardboard, and accompanied by detailed liner notes.
Review by Eilís Boland
Jackson Browne Downhill From Everywhere Inside
Over five decades of creative output, Jackson Browne has always been able to articulate the hopes and dreams, fears and vulnerabilities across the generations. Indeed, back in 1972 when he sung about ‘Waiting here for Everyman, Make it on your own if you think you can, If you see somewhere to go, I understand’ – he was reflecting the need for each individual to find their own way and their own answers to life’s mystery. Whether looking into personal matters of the heart or political issues of the head, Browne always speaks with an openness and an honesty that reflects his own doubts and uncertainties. Taking the universal and making it personal is a singular talent and a gift that he has shared from the outset. Whether campaigning for political reform, environmental change, justice for the disadvantaged or the end to conflict in third world countries; Browne has always tried to be true to himself and to mirror what he sees around him.
This new album, his eighteenth official release and his first in six years, is perfectly timed to deliver music of the highest quality and some potent messages for those of us who are open to listen. The young songwriter who wrote Running On Empty and stated, ‘I don't even know what I'm hoping to find, Running into the sun but I'm running behind’ - is still seeking out meaning in all of the good and bad that we create upon this earth. He is still open, reflecting, never judging, asking key questions and looking for some source of solace for the soul.
Opening track, Still Looking For Something, says it right from heart in the lines ‘Gonna keep my options open – even though I’m hoping, For something I can hold up to the light.’ Another track, A Human Touch, is a co-write, used in a documentary film about Aids (‘5B’), where Browne is joined by Leslie Mendelson on co-vocal to beautifully capture the essence of reaching out to others and to community with lines such as ‘Everybody gets lonely, Feel like it’s all too much, Reaching out for some connection.’ Still the traveller on a path to self-awareness but not forgetting to bring ‘everyman’ along for the journey.
The joy of living, coupled with social injustice, is captured on the song, Love Is Love, inspired by the people on the island of Haiti. Sadly, the issues touched upon are reflected in the news recently and the assassination of their president, Jovenel Moise.
The title track, Downhill From Everywhere, is a plea to look at the continued damage that our materialism is causing to the oceans of the world. We are surrounded by water on this planet, with approximately seventy-one percent of the Earth's surface covered by water. In listing any number of images from our modern cities (the mall, the hospital, the church), Browne cleverly then turns the focus on news media and politicians, together with some of the agencies that control the flow of wealth (‘Downhill from the Russian doll’), all while posing the ultimate question, ‘Do you think of the ocean as yours? Do you think about it at all?
The Dreamer is a protest against the strict immigration laws in the United States that would deport a section of society who helped build and support the very infrastructure that is now turning on them. ‘We don’t see half the people around us, But we see enemies who surround us, And the walls that we’ve built between us, Keep us prisoners of our fear.’ This theme of waking up to the real issues of the day is followed on the superbly crafted track, Until Justice Is Real, and the thought that, ‘Ain’t on your TV, Ain’t on your phone, You want the truth, you got to find it on your own.’
This track also revisits the theme of “time” and our use of the allotted number of days we are given. On the album, The Pretender, Browne looked at “time” as a fuse burning down. On the album, Time the Conqueror, he looked again and mused that, ‘Time may heal all wounds, But time will steal you blind, Time the wheel, time the conqueror.’ On this new song, Browne reflects on ‘Time rolling away, time like a river, time like a train, Time like a fuse burning shorter every day.’ Again, his core message is aimed at ‘everyman’ in all these songs and summed up with the lines, ‘Look to each other and you’ll find it in yourself.’
In the song, A Little Too Soon To Say, Browne still holds out a light for mankind in our search for enlightened actions and when, perhaps, his youthful dreaming can finally find a place of rest. The search is what brings meaning after all and the journey is best not travelled alone, ‘Searching the horizon for what we can’t quite see, When all we ever needed, Has been there all along inside of you and me.’
Did I mention the music? Produced by Browne himself and calling on many of the elite players who have graced his music over the decades, there are many key contributions to the arrangements that reflect the beautiful melodies and harmony singing. The album is just shy of fifty minutes and the ten songs are all superbly crafted, with ensemble playing this is quite simply top of the scale in the delivery.
Using the talents of Mauricio Lewak (drums), Bob Glaub (bass), Jeff Young (Hammond organ), Val McCallum (guitars) and Greg Leisz (guitar, pedal steel) as the core musicians on most of the ten songs, Browne also calls upon old friends like Russ Kunkel (drums), Mark Goldenberg (electric guitar) and Waddy Wachtel (electric guitar), among many others, for cameo appearances.
However, it is always the engagingly warm vocal tone of Browne himself that wins the day, sounding as resonant as ever. His singing both touches and inspires. Along with the seductively beautiful vocals of both Alethia Mills and Chavonne Stewart, Greg Leisz shines as the player to lift an arrangement to new heights, almost a look back down the path to those contributions from David Lindley all those years ago. The lyrical interplay and the potent words are fashioned for our times and the calypso sound and samba beat of tracks like A Song For Barcelona and the island sunshine of Love Is Love are a real joy.
Browne sums up a career in music on Song For Barcelona, a tribute to the city and its zest for life, where he often visits and which he credits with recharging his batteries and reviving his appetite. He looks at connection and people who gather there to celebrate life, love and adventure. The dreamer in Browne is still out there, looking for answers and just over the next turn in the road, ever vigilant and ever aware of the need to keep searching. He remains a beacon of light among songwriters and this album is yet another testament to his enduring influence and vision.
Review by Paul McGee
Sean McConnell A Horrible Beautiful Dream Self Release
For those who are new to the music of Sean McConnell, then a real treat lies in store. Ever since his debut album appeared in 2000, he has been releasing music of real quality and this seventh album is no exception. Following on from the critically acclaimed, Secondhand Smoke, from 2019, McConnell continues to ask questions of the world that surrounds him. Observations about relationships, the ideals of truth and justice and the way we increasingly look to material success for some kind of temporary acknowledgement.
He has written songs for other artists over many years, mainly while involved with publishing company Warner-Chappell, where a diverse list of names like Little Big Town, Brad Paisley, Meat Loaf, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw and the hit TV shoe Nashville were just some that benefited from his talents.
The new album was produced by McConnell in his studio, Silent Desert, which sits on his farm just outside of Nashville. Having moved to the city for college, he subsequently married and stayed there in order to focus more on his career. During the Covid lockdown he also turned his talents to production and worked with some local artists on albums that reached completion over the last year.
On the cover of this latest release, A HORRIBLE BEAUTIFUL DREAM, there is a light aircraft sitting in the middle of a field, about to take off and staring down the eye of an approaching hurricane. It is an appropriate image for the song content that awaits the listener with many reflecting the past eighteen months of fear and uncertainty that we have all lived through.
McConnell found himself reflecting on everything during the Covid lockdown, from the big questions of our mortality to the smaller issues that surround community and caring for our neighbour in times of uncertainty. The black and white view of the world that so
many espouse as the singular way they stay in control of their lives has suddenly plunged into many different shades of grey, including the daily decisions we make in bringing meaning to our routines and rituals.
Family clearly is at the centre of his concerns and songs like Price Of Love has McConnell seeking advice and solace from his mother as he grapples with the issues of keeping his wife and daughter safe. The Wonder Years is a song that questions the tired old image of liberty and justice for all, as reflected in the Statue of Liberty, asking where the sense of equality disappeared to in our race towards the mighty dollar. Another song, I Built You Up, looks at the price of fantasising about celebrity and looking to fame as a dubious solution to all our personal issues. The McCrary Sisters lend their talents to the backing harmonies and deliver a deeply soulful Gospel sound.
Self-doubt surfaces on songs, Used To Think I Knew and Nothing Anymore, with his confidence knocked in the face of Covid and fear of the unknown. On the lighter side, The Thirteenth Apostle is a fun look at what might have been the real support behind the disciples as they followed Jesus (‘I get the water, I wash the clothes… and I make my own bathtub gin’).
I Still Believe In You is a song that reflects upon the love for his wife and when all else is subject to question and review, there is comfort in family, ‘Nothing is easy now, not like it was bеfore, I built my world around something not there anymore, And when it all fell down I found it was never true, Don’t know what I believe but I still believe in you.’
Getting Somewhere examines his relationship with his father and the advice given over the years. As The Curtain Came Down considers the final gig before Covid lockdown and how much he would have embraced and savoured the moment if the future was known then. What The Hell Is Wrong With Me is a song that tackles youthful issues of fear and self-doubt, summed up in the lines ‘Guess I’ve always had a monster underneath my bed, Every house is haunted when the ghost is in your head.’
Remember You’re Here stands as a testament to the one strength that we can all draw upon and that is the constancy of hope. Belief that we can endure in this world and calm the doubts, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta laugh at it, Oh, you’ve gotta scream, What a horrible, beautiful dream.’
The standout track, Leave A Light On, sums up for the care that McConnell feels for another, and indeed a promise that we could all use in our daily lives; ‘I’ll leave the light on to find your way home, And when your battle is over and done, I’ll be right here, yeah, my love’s like the sun, Hard to see from where you are, but never gone.’
The production on the album is flawless with McConnell playing a number of the instruments and singing in his sweetly soulful and warm vocal tenor. There are a number of guest musicians, including Garrison Starr, who sings on four tracks, plus vocal contributions from The Wood Brothers, Audra Mae, Natalie Hemby, Fancy Hagood and the great Dan Tyminski. His musical friend, Ben Alleman, plays keyboards and organ on almost every track and there are other fine appearances from Billy Justineau on piano (two songs), Caleb Elliott on cello (two songs) and Kimi Samson on violin.
This is a richly rewarding album and a very generous fifty minutes of great song-writing and sensitively delivered musicianship. Definitely one of the highlights for me this year.
Review by Paul McGee
Georgia English Pain and Power Self Release
This is the third full album release from a singer-songwriter who grew up in San Francisco and who now lives in Nashville. She has built a strong reputation as an artist of some talent on the concert circuit and also from her two prior albums and now finds her creative muse in the launch of an illustrated album. Both book of illustrations and fourteen tracks of music are meant to be experienced together to properly immerse yourself in the listening process and to fully appreciate the project in its completed form. A brave venture and one that is potentially fraught with problems, running the gauntlet of misinterpretation, to lack of proper regard for the innovative steps taken.
I’m pleased to say that the vision which conjured up this interesting fusion of two worlds; that of books and music, has been more than justified. The overall impression on completing the journey with Georgia across forty-five minutes is one of due respect and not a little wonder at the talent on display. In addition to being a very gifted illustrative artist, her song-writing prowess is right up there with the best that I have heard this year.
Opening track, Starring In A Play, is a self-reflective look at how fragile we all can be and how we are all actors on this stage of life. Her sweet vocal perfectly wrapped around the slow groove and the delicate melody. The next song, Houseplant, could not be further removed and shows the quirkier, off-beat nature of Georgia as she carries on a stilted conversation with a newly acquired house plant. It’s a placebo against the brutal reality of the daily tv news and something that she can control by watering and keeping it alive.
America follows and it has a resigned slow melody as a lament to all that is wrong with aspects of American society and some of her skewed values. There is an air of sad acceptance in the vocal delivery, a yearning, with so much wrong when you look behind the curtain.
One Of the People is a song that looks to forgive others, to let go of self-doubt, wanting acceptance and to embrace self-belief. Opening lines, ‘If I could do anything, I’d learn how to forgive,’ gives the feeling of a young innocent who has suffered trauma. This is continued on the next song, Fourteen, with the sense of being socially awkward and self-conscious, a certain vulnerability in the words, ‘And I am so afraid that I don’t have what it takes, To be somebody with something to give.’ Searingly honest emotions and all the more laudable for baring her soul.
Messed You Up is a song about communing with the vastness of Nature and shifting focus by seeing your place in the universe and just how small and insignificant it all seems in the face of such beauty. Choices In Hell is about going through feelings of darkness and just persevering until you come out the other side. ‘Tried meditation and ketamine, Yeah I’ll try anything once, To watch something dissolve in me.’ Such a great lyric and musical accompaniment here as the self-realisation that we can heal ourselves becomes clear.
The next track,Who, lightens the load with a poppy vibe and a bouncy arrangement that aims some well-directed blows at the hypocrisy and racism of the former president of the USA. The track, Where Are You Now? examines trauma and shame, breaking it down into bite-size chunks, looking to spit it out and come out of a cycle of self-blame and negative thinking. ‘Do you know your voice, Can you hear your grief, Can you smell the flowers bloom, On your childhood street.’
Whatever It Takes is such a naked song, opening up the wounds of a younger self and seeking to heal and move beyond, living in the moment and hoping for a sense of acceptance. ‘Protection’s not protection, when it’s from the truth, You don’t owe redemption when we’re talking about abuse.’ Powerful honesty and the gentle melody belies the feelings of anger and frustration.
Maybe Me is about feeling your worth, learning how to breathe and move forward into a new beginning. ‘Finding faith in our shared humanity’ sings Georgia, as this phase of redemption begins to take hold. It is followed by Springtime In the Suburbs which takes a wry swipe at middle America in all its conservative lack of empathy. Statue Of Jesus is a really clever piece of writing that dissects similar issues and the need to deny and hide from the racism that permeates their safe little enclaves. Barricaded in their privilege and victim to suspicion and fear.
Power You Possess brings the song cycle to full circle and surrenders the past to the future. The scars that heal and the strength that is gained from self-empowerment. It’s quite a ride, rollercoaster twists and turns, some respite in gentler waters and a way to rise above all the waves that tossed you on the storms of life. The music is played by Josh Preston (of Me and the Machine Records), who also co-produced with Georgia and his gentle touch on the arrangements is a key component to the success of this project.
The booklet is very attractive and engaging, with the lyrics woven into the colourful artwork. The design and layout are by Lisa Preston and the entire visual experience is both stimulating and worthy of your full attention.
The whole journey is based upon the ancient, Hero’s Journey tradition, also known as the mono myth. Typically, the story tells of a hero who embarks on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis and comes home transformed by the experience. The album song cycle follows this in three sections; Departure, Initiation and Return. It’s the archetypical tale of redemption. I cannot praise this creative work of real substance any more than urging you to purchase it from Georgia on her website at; https://www.georgiaenglishmusic.com/shop. You won’t be disappointed.
Review by Paul McGee
Mike And The Moonpies One To Grow Prairie Rose
Hailed in many quarters as one of the premier live acts currently in country music, Mike and The Moonpies’ talents were never simply limited to their blistering live shows. Their studio output has been equally impressive and despite their heavy touring schedule, has yielded eight album releases since 2010.
Frontman Mike Harmeier’s devotion to the country music genre has resulted in a series of experimental recordings since the somewhat autobiographical Steak Night at the Prairie Rose in 2018. They crossed the pond to the famous Abbey Road Studio in London the following year to record, in the company of The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cheap Silver & Solid Country Gold. That project paid homage to the rich Countrypolitan/Nashville Sound of the 1960’s. Twelve months later saw the release of Touch of You: The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart, which offered a tribute to the artist christened ‘the king of honky tonk’ by Rolling Stone magazine in the mid-70’s.
Harmeier fronts the band, playing guitar together with lead vocals and The Moonpies are Zach Moulton on steel guitar, Omar Oyoque on bass, Caitlin Rutherford plays lead guitar and drums are by Kyle Ponder. Individually these guys are top players and collectively, as anyone that has witnessed their live shows, they are telepathic, no doubt sharpened by years of playing together. Guest on their latest album, ONE TO GROW, are Shooter Jennings, John Carbone, Nate Coon and David Percefull.
This latest album features a collection of co-writes by Harmeier and Adam Odor, who also handled the production duties. With a sound that’s robust and bulletproof from start to finish, Odor’s production once more captures precisely what the band are all about. It’s a concept album which details the plight and ambitions, often unfulfilled, of an average working man approaching mid-life and attempting to balance a life of ‘living in the moment’ alongside his family duties. It may or may not mirror a path that Harmeier could very well have travelled, with songs that depict a disappearing American dream.
Johnny Paycheck is an artist that has been hugely inspirational to Harmeier and his band and the bustling and cleverly titled Paycheck to Paycheck, the first single from the album, opens the album in fine style and sets the stall for what follows. More muscular than their previous two recordings, the album grabs your attention from that first track and doesn’t let go. Harmeier’s songwriting has long since moved on from the ‘someone did someone wrong’ type of country song and he invests genuine feelings in the sensibilities of these songs, which read like chapters from a Steinbeck novel.
The simple lifestyle, once available to the blue-collar worker, but becoming increasingly unattainable to many, is expressed on Rainy Day. Those dreams have all but disappeared by the time we get to Social Drinker, where memories of good times and live music with fellow drinkers are replaced by solitary drinking and destitution. Broken families and siblings separated by divorce surface on Brother, where the protagonist searches for his long lost and wayward brother. Matters close to home also surface on the deeply melodic One To Grow On and the equally catchy and funky The Vain.
The stories end with Burn Out, a rollicking track that, like many of the preceding tracks, features two lead guitars and pedal steel gloriously combining rather than competing. It’s a fitting finale to a cracking album that gifts Mike and The Moonpies with some more worthy ammunition for their live shows.
Make no mistake, these guys are the real deal and have been robust pillars of the Texas country music scene for a decade. This gem could very well be the one that gains them considerably more international acclaim. In a year that continues to produce a stream of excellent albums in the country genre, ONE TO GROW is most certainly up there with the cream of the crop.
Review by Declan Culliton
Connie Smith Cry Of The Heart Fat Possum
‘There’s really only three real female singers: Streisand, Ronstadt, and Connie Smith. The rest of us are only pretending.’
A big statement indeed from Dolly Parton and one that emphasises the regard in which country singer extraordinaire Connie Smith is held.
CRY OF THE HEART is Smith’s first studio recording in a decade since LONG LINE OF HEARTACHES back in 2011 and is produced by Smith alongside her husband and country legend in his own right, Marty Stuart. With a performing career that spans five decades and almost forty albums in her back catalogue, the eleven tracks that feature find her in splendid form, with her distinguished vocal styling defying her advancing years. It’s remarkable to consider that she made her chart debut with Once A Day, which topped the charts as far back as 1964.
The album features two of the husband and wife co-writes (Spare Me No Truth Tonight and Here Comes My Baby Back Again), a song composed on a tour bus by Stuart and Harry Stinson (Look Out Heart) and eight carefully chosen covers.
The common denominators, notwithstanding her splendid vocal deliveries, are the fine musicianship and the sympathetic production. Fifteen players contributed including Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives partners in crime, Kenny Vaughan, Harry Stinson, Paul Martin and Chris Scruggs.
Smith’s back catalogue includes over seventy songs written by Dallas Frazier over the years and he is featured here with I Just Don’t Believe Me Anymore. Sung with a confident swagger, it’s the type of song that she has the capacity to make her own, an ageless country tale of lovin’ and leavin,’ laced with twangy vocals and guitars on top of perfectly placed harmonies. Every bit as much a tear jerker is the heartbreaker and album opener A Million And One. It’s classic mid-60’s countrypolitan laced with strings and is confirmation of Smith’s accolade as the Queen of Broken Hearts. The Kitty Wells classic recording All The Time, written by Pam Tillis, sounds as fresh as ever and gets a similarly lush treatment and I’m Not Over You is another classic heartbreaker.
Merle Haggard’s Jesus Take A Hold is the closing track on the album. Previously recorded by Smith fifty years ago, its message is as significant today as ever. Her latest rendition is more stripped back and pleading, a cry for empathy and compassion in these topsy turvy times. It’s also a fitting final statement in a suite of uplifting and fine songs from one of the finest country voices of our times.
Review by Declan Culliton
Ward Hayden and The Outliers Free Country Self-Release
As I listened to this album, I was reminded of some of the bands I heard in the 2000’s, so it was unsurprising when I read that Ward Hayden and The Outliers had previously been known as Girls, Guns and Glory. I have several of the band’s albums of in my collection, from 2008’s INVERTED VALENTINE and others, including GOOD LUCK released in 2014, which was also produced by the man at the helm of this album, the hard-working Eric “Roscoe” Ambel. Throughout their work to date the mainstay and only continuous member is Ward Hayden, who was the main writer and lead singer. So, it makes sense that when it was decided to ditch the previous moniker (for fairly obvious reasons), that he should have his name out front. This is their second release under that name, with the previous album being CAN’T JUDGE A BOOK. Only drummer Josh Kiggans appears to have survived from those previous G, G and G line-ups. The remaining members are now completed by bassist Greg Hall and Cody Nilsen on guitars and pedal steel.
With Ambel’s production this is a potent team who play catchy rock infused country roots. The opening song Nothin’ To Do powers along with energy that sets the tone for the album. The baritone guitar that opens has a Shelly Johnson disturbing Twin Peaks pretext, which delves into a man and the town he lives in and some darker consequences. Both these songs and those that follow show that there is a depth and deftness to Hayden’s writing. His lyrics deal with commitment, as in I’d Die For You a song that reminds me? vocally, to some degree, of Dwight Yoakam’s delivery. Yet Hayden’s voice is his own and one that has gained confidence and emotion since he started out. There is a pragmatism in Sometimes You Gotta Leave and the need to make a difficult decision. There is a spoken intro (and outro) to the twang and steel of the country stylings of Middle Man, which understands what it takes to admit mistakes. There is a wider outlook of the world in All Gone Mad, while Bad Time To Quit Drinking takes the perennial theme of excess and alcohol and the reasons why it becomes a crutch and a hard one to throw away. Irregardless has a bounce that belies its message of remembering when ‘country was country’, among other changing scenarios. The final two songs round off a very satisfying album. Indiana has another vibrant vocal performance which perfectly reflects the edge of restlessness his wish to never again to return to that particular while listing many of the other town, cities and States which he would gladly revisit. It is an understated performance all round and all the more effective for it. There as is intended heaviness and aggressive edge to When The Hammer Falls, a warning to be prepared for what may be coming around the bend. It also addresses what life should teach us and helps us to avoid making the same, sometime inevitable, mistakes.
The band from Boston, Massachusetts have gained respect locally and in 2011, under their previous guise, won that area’s Americana Artist of the Year award. This album proves that they have continued to make music that has a relevance and a future, without compromising its core sound. The previous album contained covers like The Ballad Of Ira Hayes and (What’s So Funny “Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding, but this time out they have featured original songs that reflect these times, morals and choices. A simple pleasure that is open to anyone who wants to listen as, after all, it’s a free country (well as regards this music at least).
Review by Stephen Rapid
Ross Adams Escaping Southern Heat Self Release
North Carolina artist Ross Adams ups his game on this his third album by bringing in the 400 Unit to act as his backing band. An admirer of the work of Jason Isbell, he met the band backstage at a concert. After starting a friendship with the band’s bassist Jimbo Hart, they decided to record this new album in Muscle Shoals, Alabama at the East Avalon Recorders studio. Hart brought in his band mates: Chad Gamble on drums, Derry Deborja on keyboards and Sadler Vaden on guitar, alongside Adams, to round out the team, along with Whit Wright on pedal steel guitar and Joshua Hedley on fiddle and backing vocals, a role he shared with Tesha Hill. Dana Bee played and also did string arrangements. Those acquainted with Isbell’s work will know how proficient a team these players are. Ross brought in some new songs he’d written and the band ran through them in the studio, allowing a small number of takes to capture the essence of each song and then selecting the best.
This will largely be tagged as Americana with touches of roots rock, folk-pop, roadhouse country and Southern soulful influences, all delivered with verve. Ross is a writer who takes on the role of the songs subject that offers a viewpoint which tells their individual story. The lyrics deal with hard scrabble relationships, small town locations, big city divisions and those who are often left behind as the world around them moves on. The title track visits the assassination of Martin Luther King and many subsequent incidents of systemic racism. He considers the continuation of those issues today from those days of civil right marches and the often unrealised possibilities that were considered then. Teach Me How To Mourn is another song that looks at the plight of a forgotten veteran, who has been trying to deal with unresolved issues, brought about by the plight of a thin forgotten solider (and many others) . The relationship in Wilted Roses has been strained for some time but the writer still wonders if it is possible to save it. 30 Days brings some country twang and pedal steel to a song of a guy looking to find a June to his Johnny. Even when realising that his habits and consumption are not? in the way of making this a possibility, he remains hopeful it can be achieved. In fact, there isn’t a song that feels out of place or not worth being a part of the overall concept of the album.
To all these songs Ross brings an effective and emotional vocal delivery that is full of compassion, as well as some anger, which is the focal point of the humanity in the songs. He has thought about the best way to tell these stories and to bring the characters into focus. For that Ross shows himself to be an artist of intent and intuition. The end result is an album that does what it should do. Musically it sounds good and feels right and the songs have depth and deliberation; so, it should not escape your attention.
Review by Stephen Rapid