The Slocan Ramblers Up The Hill And Through The Fog Self Release
Out of loss and hardship can emerge great art, and this is exactly what has happened in the case of this fourth glorious album from Toronto progressive bluegrass band, the Slocan Ramblers. In 2020, they were on the pig’s back - a Juno nomination in 2019 was followed by the accolade of Momentum Band of 2020 from the IBMA. And then the world fell apart for touring musicians, with the pandemic enforced cessation of touring. Add to that the loss of close family members by two of the band, and the stepping back of their bass player to family commitments.
Despite this the three band members - Frank Evans (banjo), Adrian Gross (mandolin, mandola) and Darryl Poulenc (guitar) - threw themselves into quarantined frenetic practising on their instruments and crafting new songs. The result: one of the must-have records of the year.
Kicking off with the Frank Evan’s penned I Don’t Know ‘what she sees in me’, it’s obvious from the start that this album is going to be an uplifting experience, despite the raw emotion fuelling much of it. Guest bassist, Charles James, equals the other three in phenomenal musicianship and his funky string-bending opening behind Darryl Poulson’s hooky guitar riff and Adrian Gross’s lead mandolin sets a high standard. Poulson’s You said Goodbye initially sounds like a lighthearted, fast paced breakup song. However, it is actually a joyful tribute to his brother, who passed away during this time, ‘I wish I could turn back time’ and ‘We’ll see you again some time’ are interspersed with frenetic solos from each of the band.
There are three impressive instrumental tunes, Harefoot’s Retreat and Snow Owl from the pen of Adrian Gross and probably the best train instrumental ever written, Frank Evans’ Platform Four.
Gross’s father also passed away around this time, and he recounts taking his chair down to the river to sit with his feet in the water, playing and writing in an attempt to make sense of it all. The resulting songs, Bury My Troubles (an upbeat barnstormer) and The River Roaming Song (with more than a nod to John Hartford, with its whimsical poppy sound but always ‘coming back home to you’) are clearly cathartic.
Showing that their influences stray far beyond bluegrass, they include a storming version of Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne’s A Mind With A Heart of Its Own, proving that acoustic bass and handclaps can substitute perfectly for drums, and in the right hands a mandolin and banjo can equal lead and rhythm electric guitar any day.
The future is bright for bluegrass in the hands of progressive inventive players and songwriters like these guys.
Review by Eilís Boland
Michael James Wheeler Roll Another Dime Pacific
The lengthy journey leading to the first full-length solo album from Nashville-based Michael James Wheeler merits a chapter or review by itself.
A player in a variety of bands, both self-formed and as a hired player - he was a member of a number of bluegrass bands including Chris Henry & The Hardcore Grass and Crying Wolf - Wheeler had also been writing songs for a number of years, yet lacking the confidence to record them under his own name. His first experience of working his songs solo to a live audience came about during a three-week backpacking voyage around Ireland in 2009, where he performed impromptu in local pubs. On his return to his homeland, and on the advice of fellow songwriter Delaney Davidson, he signed up for a songwriting festival in Wisconsin, which whetted his appetite to abandon his nomadic musical career path and concentrate on an independent solo career.
Fast forward a number of years and Wheeler can boast a recording output of two EPs and this most recent album ROLL ANOTHER DIME, together with prestigious support slots for James Taylor and Jackson Browne, Nikki Lane, Tyler Childers, and Kelsey Waldon.
The recording process for this release was a stop/start affair. It had commenced in 2017 as a self-produced project at a church in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, before the intervention of Rob Eaton Snr., best known as the guitarist with the renowned Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra. On hearing of the intended recording, Eaton offered his services as producer and engineer on the album. That connection stemmed from Wheeler’s friendship with Eaton’s son Rob Eaton Jnr., with whom Wheeler had started his first band while still in school. The end result is a ten-track album of Americana-styled tunes, produced by Eaton Snr., with all guitar playing by Eaton Jnr.
There’s plenty going on here, mirroring an artist that has dipped his toes in numerous musical genres, and given that the material was written over an extended period. The album crisscrosses between country blues (Bring The Blues), country rock (Bottle In The Carriage), folk (Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’), and heartland rock (Disco Boy). The gospel-like album closer You’re My Salvation, written by Wheeler’s close friend Pat MacDonald at the age of sixteen, features Sierra Ferrell on backing vocals.
Wheeler is already working on another album, and it will be interesting to see what direction heads in next time around. In the meantime, ROLL ANOTHER DIME signals the arrival of an artist that we’re likely to be hearing much more about in the years to come.
Review by Declan Culliton
Michael Paul Lawson Love Songs For Loners Self Release
Recorded in five days at Ken Coomer’s Cartoon Moon Recording Studio in East Nashville, LOVE SONG FOR LOVERS is Texan Michael Paul Lawson’s sophomore album, following on from his debut album from 2019, SOME FIGHTS YOU’LL NEVER WIN.
Alongside production duties, Coomer, formerly of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco, played drums and was joined by studio players Billy Mercer (Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams) on bass and Laur Joamets (Sturgill Simpson, Drivin’N’Cryin’) on guitars. Presented as eight short stories, and possibly digging deeply into his personal memory vaults, Lawson’s chapters visit topics such as a free-floating and uncommitted liaison (The One Before The One), aging and barely surviving in a wracked small town (The Snow), the inability to take on a meaningful relationship (Baltimore), and the drifter hopelessly striving for direction and purpose (Varick Street).
As you may glean, the subject matter is anything but upbeat, more like a cry for help, laced with ambivalence and crushed optimism. Notwithstanding the doom and gloom, it’s a powerful listen, made all the more convincing by Lawson’s fine baritone vocals. Traversing faultlessly between traditional and alt-country, the confessional opener I Know Where I’m Going Tonight is classic barroom country and he puts his foot on the gas with the crunching 849.
‘Hell, I don’t know where I’m going in life, but I know where I’m going tonight,’ sings Lawson on that opening track. That precisely sums up the sentiments expressed throughout LOVE SONGS FOR LONERS. Notwithstanding the melancholic mood that prevails from start to finish, it’s an intoxicating listen that packs a heavy punch, combining achingly sorrowful vocals with intricate arrangements.
Review by Declan Culliton
Jeremy Nail Behind The Headlights Self Release
Austin-based artist Jeremy Nail’s back catalogue, prior to the release of BEHIND THE HEADLIGHTS, comprises four albums dating back to his debut record LETTER in 2007 through to his LIVE OAK recording in 2018. The common denominator across this body of work is Nail’s proficiency in addressing his personal journey with impassioned lyrics and unpretentious melodies. His 2016 recording MY MOUNTAIN, produced by Alejandro Escovedo, detailed his struggle and eventual recovery from cancer that resulted in the amputation of his left leg.
His latest offering features twelve songs, written in the main during that forlorn and uncertain period of lockdown. While loneliness and isolation are deeply rooted throughout, there is also a sense of resilience and acceptance, as articulated by Nail in the album’s press release, ‘The overall statement I want my music to make is simple: that you don’t have to be anything else but you’.
Co-produced by Nail and Pat Manske, the recording took place at The Zone in Dripping Springs, Texas. Nail played guitars, mandolin and resonator. Drums, percussion and loops are credited to Manske and a host of other artists contributed including Bukka Allen on keyboards and synthesizer and Gregg White on upright and electric bass. Shannon McNally adds backing vocals on a number of tracks, adding her weight to the particularly breathtaking All This Time, which brings to mind Son Volt’s Jay Farrar’s solo work on TERROIR BLUES.
The title track, with its moody synths and driving bass, is as radio-friendly as Nail has ever been and he fondly remembers his deceased stepfather on Try As I Might, drawing comparisons between their struggles with mental illness. The enchanting piano-led Silent War, beautifully decorated by strings, enters Radiohead territory. Other tracks that impress are the heavily synthesized Something More and Endless Plain, which bookends the album and urges the listener to embrace oneself and continue to exist as best as you can in a messed-up world.
A somewhat melancholic mood has prevailed across much of Nail’s work and BEHIND THE HEADLIGHTS is no exception. However, it’s a profoundly engaging listen that sounds better after each subsequent spin and is undoubtedly Nail’s most impressive outing to date.
Review by Declan Culliton
Ashley McBryde Lindeville Warner Music
From time-to-time albums come about by chance, a casual studio jam captured ending up as a valued recording perhaps or a live performance archived and released many years later to critical acclaim,
Ashley McBryde’s latest recording is a point in case. What started off as a random songwriting week in a rural cabin outside Nashville, grew legs and has culminated in a thirteen-song album of material composed by McBryde and a number of like-minded writers. An eagle-eyed observer, McBryde’s songs have often focused on the minor detail of small-town America and its characters and nuances, so it’s little surprise that she hooked up with Brandy Clark, an artist very much on the same wavelength, to co-write a number of the songs featured here. The other participants that worked on the songs are Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere, Nicolette Hayford, Connie Harrington and Benjy Davis, the common denominator being their collective talent of creating compelling stories from what may appear to be everyday mundane events.
‘We stayed in Tennessee in this little house close to a lake. It was eight bottles of tequila, two cartons of cigarettes, one kitchen table and six individuals out of their minds,’ explains McBryde, who delegated the production duties to John Osborne of The Brothers Osborne, a first role at the controls for him. The album’s title is McBryde’s recognition of songwriter Dennis Linde, a prolific Nashville-based writer whose compositions were recorded by Elvis Presley (Burning Love), Garth Brooks (Callin’ Baton Rouge), and The Dixie Chicks (Goodbye Earl), to name but a few.
I have to admit to being somewhat apprehensive when a large collection of songwriters are credited on a record, fearing the ‘too many cooks’ syndrome and finding that compromise can often result in blandness. Those concerns were well and truly ousted on the first spin of LINDEVILLE, from the hilarious opener Brenda Put Your Bra On to the tender title track that closes the album. Included are three quick-fire portraits of typical small-town establishments, all written solely by McBryde. Ronnie’s Pawn Shop (31 secs), Forkem Family Funeral Home (31 secs) and Dandelion Diner (27 secs) all succeed in painting vivid landscapes in a ridiculously short time and with few lyrics. Raitiere takes the lead vocal on Jesus Jenny, telling of an ‘off the rails’ wild cat, (‘Titties popping out your turtleneck, you’re riding around in your red corvette, getting all the wrong kinds of respect’). Raising the temperature a significant number of notches, The Girl In The Picture is typical ‘full on’ McBryde, before she dons her Stetson and cowgirl boots on the twang laden, and lyrically slick Brandy Clark co-write, If These Dogs Could Talk. (‘There’s a three-legged beagle who lays there spread eagle on the driveway outside Patti’s trailer. He looks like he’s sleepin’ but he knows she’s dealin’ and that she’s been bonin’ the neighbour’). Benjy Davis takes the spoken vocal on Gospel Night At The Strip Club and a raucous cover of Phil Everly’s When Will I Be Loved also features.
There’s an overload of groove and wicked humour at large on LINDEVILLE. Reminiscent of Miranda Lambert’s collaboration with Jon Randall and Jack Ingram, THE MARFA TAPES from 2021, what kicked off as a fun songwriting week with well- matched writers, has captured the mood of those carefree days of creativity, resulting in arguably McBryde’s strongest recording to date.
Review by Declan Culliton
Will Payne Harrison Tioga Titan Self Release
This album is named after a town in Louisiana where Will Payne Harrison hopes to become a titan of country music, if only in that small town. Well, personally, I think he deserves a bigger audience than might be offered there. Either way, he has made a good sounding album. He set the ground with a couple of previous albums and an EP. The title song is a wry, tongue in cheek look at being the biggest fish in the smallest of ponds.
The album was produced by Harrison in Nashville using some understanding players to bring to fruition his take on classic country fused with some swamp-infused Louisiana pop and rock. But he not only produced, he also recorded, mixed and mastered it. So you can be assured that this album sounds the way he wanted it to. Added to that, he played guitars, bass and keyboards and also the substantial fact that he wrote all the songs, apart from a favourite song of mine and that is Uncle Boudreaux Went To Texas from the pen of the fine singer/songwriter Ben De La Cour. It, as it should, takes a different emotional tone from the original, to bring the truth to an oft-told and usually unbelieved story.
Nor can we underestimate Harrison’s writing, which is steeped in the traditions of country, a sense of a life lived in a down-to-earth fashion that is deep in heartbreak, low-self esteem, love found and love lost. So we have tears, we have beers, leers, sneers and fears. Pretty Little Dancer is a feisty fiddle and steel floor filler. Goodbye Sweetheart shows that Harrison has the vocal chops to deliver a slower song and get the kiss-off message across. His subject matter however can take on more serious topics, such as unconditional love for a young daughter in Despite my Sin and Simple Truths. The latter details some of the other good things life can offer up.
On the other hand, The Way characterises a person who only wishes to do good and to be a good listener. More cautionary and underscored with some twangy guitar is Don’t Drink Well Whiskey In The Lonestar State where the subject is happily advised to drink whatever is on offer but to stay away from the titular beverage in Texas.
Lover’s Arms takes us once more down the path of detailing how he cannot be in that the place he wants to be (his lover’s arms) for a number of reasons - some nice pedal steel here too. The title track is a slow, bluesy riff with saxophone adding some grit and soulful swampiness to the mood of self deception and swagger. Broadway Lights is an ode to a lover, taken at a slow pace that gives a deeper sense of the song’s essential uncertainty.
Ten songs that make for a rewarding album and the coming of age for Harrison as an artist to be heard back there in Tioga and any place that good music can be appreciated.
Review by Stephen Rapid
The Williams Brothers Memories To Burn Regional
Perhaps a forgotten manifestation of the sibling harmonies of such acts as The Louvins through to the Everly Brothers and up to such contemporary duos as The Delevantes, The Brother Brothers, The Secret Sisters and especially The Cactus Blossoms, comes this very enjoyable album recorded by twins Andrew and David Williams, nephews of crooner Andy Williams. Back in the day between 1987 and 1993 they recorded three albums for Warner Brothers that had a modicum of success, with one single Can’t Cry Hard Enough cracking the US Top 50 singles chart and spawning a lot of covers and airplay.
This album was recorded live on 2-track tape back in 1995 but is only now seeing the light of day. It features the superb harmonies of the brothers in Andrew’s studio, with Andrew on guitar and a crack team of players including producer Marvin Etzioni playing bass, joined by fellow Lone Justice player, the late Don Heffington, on drums and the superlative steel guitar of Greg Leisz.
The album is mostly a selection of covers, all of which suit the sound of the five participants, including two songs from the pen of Robbie Fulks with Tears Only Run One Way and the more macabre She Took A Lot Of Pills (And Died), Dave Davie’s wonderful Death Of A Clown, and a very different take on Iris DeMent’s Let The Mystery Be. Piney Wood Hills was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Four of the songs, Cryin’ And Lyin’, You Can’t Hurt Me, Unanswered Prayers and Memories To Burn were written by Etzioni, who shows himself to be a fine writer. There is one song written by the brothers, which is She’s Got That Look In Her Eyes.
One wonders then whether this was released at the time, though I suspect that back then it would have got lost in the search for new bolder sounds, rather than ones that have something of a timeless, though undoubtedly retrospective origins. In many ways it is a sound that is as current as any and more pleasing than many. It prompts the question whether this is a release that may convince the Williams Brothers to go back into the studio or what other archival material they may have.
Whatever the answer, they have given us these memories to burn into ours.
Review by Stephen Rapid
The Cactus Blossoms If Not For You (The Bob Dylan Songs Vol. 1) Walkie Talkie
Given the subtitle, this would suggest a series of releases that may eventually feature as a full length album. The overall sound seems to be closer on first listen to the style of some of their earlier releases, rather then their most recent ONE DAY album. But in truth, it reflects the band’s steady development of a broader palette. It has something of the sparseness of touch, while retaining the added depth of keyboards and succinct arrangements that were associated with the last album, which was also released this year.
Brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkam had, obviously, a wide range of material to chose from, but the four chosen songs offer a perfect introduction to their sibling rich harmonies and stylistic viewpoint. The title song opens the short set with piano and guitar and gives the song a different perspective from the original but one that, while it recognises a sense of retro influence, sounds current and very much a part of the Cactus Blossoms present oeuvre. The other song choices include To Ramona and Tell Me That It Isn’t True, which have lyrics that refer to relationships in one way or another, though with a sense of uncertainty. The fourth choice, Went To See The Gypsy, tells something of a different tale with a sense of the mysterious.
All the songs come from early Bob Dylan albums from ’64, 69 and ’70. That in this instance makes perfect sense for the brothers and if there are additional volumes it may be that the songs will be chosen from later albums. Whatever that next release may be it is a welcome one, as The Cactus Blossoms offer a glimpse into a past and a future, both filled with harmony and honesty.
Review by Stephen Rapid.
This Lonesome Paradise Nightshades Standard Times
While I don’t think this album will be to everyone’s taste, it still manages to be a captivating take on what we may as well call gothic dark-country western noir. Though operating under the band name above, it is a project headed by vocalist and composer E. Ray Bechard. He co-produced the album with Taylor Kirk (of Timbre Timbre), recording in Goat Mountain Studios in California using solar power, which in itself is far from the norm in many different ways.
There they assembled a team to realise this vision, that incorporates lonesome rivers, strange drifters, moonlight tragedy and funeral skies, all of which are, in fact, titles of songs on the album. The sound is underpinned by the effective use of the charged, atmospheric, retro sounding electric guitar sound of Bechard, Taylor Kirk and George Cessna. The latter is the son of Slim Cessna and has also played in Auto Club. He additionally fronts his own band The Snakes, both live and on record. Dean Shakked play bass, with the rhythm section completed by Kirk and Tory Chappel. Engineer and mixer Bart Budwig also adds the occasional, but highly effective, brass.
The opening track Scorpion Song sets the tone with Bechard’s languid, at times Nick Cave-like, tone which features some lonesome trumpet, keyboards, percussion, night jazz guitar and desolate whistling. Over the next ten tracks we are given variations on this sound and theme that may, to some, feel too similar in mood, but in fact creates an atmosphere that is tangible.
In Dreams is a long way away from Roy Orbison but creates its own sense of illusion and imagination. The guitar has a desert twang that is matched by the vocal melody to create that sparse sensory ambience. This forms a balance between some dark lyrical dissertations and lighter touches that, in the instance of a song like Blue For You, balances the female backing vocal against Bechard’s melodic vocal and some incisive guitar playing.
I was immediately taken with NIGHTSHADES, from its first moments to its final ones. It is undoubtedly a thoughtful, off-the-grid, out of town journey on less-traveled highways, desert motels with big moons, dark skies and roadside crosses, which in itself will be a recommendation for some. If so, this will be a small indication of paradise.
Review by Stephen Rapid