Velcro Dog Misanthropology Westergaard
Velcro Dog is the nom de plume of Trodheim based Norwegian artist Tony Gonzales, known in his native land as a member of several bands including Barren Womb and Twin Serpent. This, his first recorded solo project, developed during lockdown (no surprise there) and is a sparse, stripped down affair, which he aptly describes as ‘fjord noir’. Comprising ten well crafted personal songs, sung in his haunting vocal style, accompanied mainly by his fingerpicked acoustic guitar, it is an introspective look into Gonzales’ thoughts on human fragility and his own particular struggle with depression. Enhanced by occasional droning backing vocals, harmonica, bass, clarinet and banjo, the overall sound veers towards folk blues.
Kicking off with Belated Birthday Blues, the listener is introduced to Gonzales’ cynical reflections on mankind - ‘can’t find meaning where there is none/so feed me to the pigs when I am done’. The pig reference continues in the inexplicably titled Shave A Pig, Call It A Ham, which explores the ending of a friendship, ‘it must get lonely up on that cross you’ve made’.
By way of explanation, a ‘Velcro dog’ is a perfect description of the sort of dog that is ultraclingy with its owner (as a cat person, I find this a perplexing relationship!). Continuing the companion animal analogy, Cone Of Shame describes the blackness of depression. ‘The water feels nice/but I can’t swim’ but he is lucky and ‘soft hands grab hold/pull me out of this gloom’. Post Post Haste is a timely lament for the environmental damage we have all committed.
Thankfully there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In Reader’s Block, the protagonist is ‘far away from home/too drunk to use the phone’ but he’s coming home to redeem himself, with the repeated reassuring refrain ‘just a stumble/not a fall, just a stumble/still standing tall’. The nearest Gonzales gets to an out and out love song is his tribute to his girlfriend and their shared love of a particular footwear brand in Head Over High-Tops.
Strong enough to show his vulnerability with this debut collection, in a recent interview Tony Gonzales describes this collection as ‘stark, monochromatic, Nordic and raw’. I second that.
Review by Eilís Boland
Louis Brennan Love Island Self Release
Where are the poets and the folk singers when we need them? The Woody Guthries and the Billy Braggs seem thin on the ground right now and they’ve never been needed more.
London-based Irishman Louis Joseph Brennan felt compelled to attempt to fill that void with the writing and eventual release of his second album, LOVE ISLAND. We live in challenging times which Brennan is not prepared to ignore, calling out the multiple elephants in the room, all the while suffusing the difficult subjects in a soundtrack of beautifully realised Americana. Recorded in the renowned Rockfield Studios in Wales and mixed and mastered in Abbey Road Studios, Brennan wrote and produced the whole project.
In God Is Dead, he starts as he means to go on, a diatribe on the seemingly recent disillusionment with religion, with the ‘God shaped hole’ in all humans now being filled with the technologically driven obsession with social media. ‘So let us rejoice/Under the all seeing eye/ Just click on the link … It seems we can’t bear the thought/ That we’re all here alone’. The Post-Truth Blues uses a soothing bossa nova 70s backdrop to emphasise the surrealism of the lyrical content, a white male Caucasian boldly declares his indifference to the inequalities in the world, ‘Oh I know just how my coffee’s grown/That Chinese children made my phone’, all just conspiracies designed to make him feel guilty, but he’ll ‘just get a second opinion that supports (his) views’. No regrets. The Nobel Prize covers similar ground, this time perhaps there’s an orange hue to the narcissist Caucasian male protagonist, who can’t understand why he hasn’t yet won the accolade. Perhaps most cutting of all is Cruel Britannia, sung to that well known tune, but here used as the backdrop to a searing critique of Brennan’s adopted home. Post-Brexit Britain’s racism (‘And I can’t put a roof over my childrens’ heads/Unless my skin is brown’), colonialism (’built the railways/Freed the slaves’) and extreme right nationalism (’They shouldn’t come over here/Looking for somebody to blame’) are expressed by a subject who no doubt is a regular reader of the Daily Fail.
Ably backed by the superb musicianship of Joe Harvey-White (pedal steel, lap steel, electric guitar), Ned Cartwright (keyboards), Laurence Saywood (bass), and Chris Jones (percussion), Brennan’s resonant baritone dominates the sound. He is heard at his best on the title track, a piano ballad describing the pain of the break-up of two reality tv stars, in the full glare of the public. Fake love makes fake news, but the dark themes are made bearable by Brennan’s dark humour. We’re back to more bossa nova for the sarcastic Leftover Meat, and My Favourite Disguise uses the brass trio of Rhys Taylor, Joanna Bartlett and Helen Whitemore in a tale of, essentially, turning a blind eye in order to survive life. The closing track, Naked And Afraid, explores a post-apocalyptic nightmare, the strings of The Mavron Quartet contributing to the dissonance but ultimately building to a possibility of hope, ‘Hold On To Something’ limps out the repeated refrain.
An essential album for our times.
Review by Eilís Boland
Matt Hillyer Glorieta State Fair
Back in 2014, when still fronting Eleven Hundred Springs, Hillyer released a solo album IF THESE OLD BONES COULD TALK. This served as an outlet for material that didn’t fit the band ethos of the time. He is releasing the second outing under his own name which continues that theme, but also includes songs that would be familiar to fans of his former band of over twenty years. He has John Pedigo producing the album (from the band The O’s and who has also worked with the Old 97’s). Work on the album began before the band played their last dates and a new team was assembled to record. These included the core team of James Driscoll, Arjuna Contreras, Chad Stockslager, Able Casillas, Heather Stalling and Lloyd Maines.
The album opens with the title track’s tale of escaping and travelling to find a way to come to terms with life and a love. Next up an immediate highlight that has a great 90s feel, a mix of revitalising the pure pop tones of Buddy Holly 50’s invention and melodic clarity. I could listen to a whole album of this but Hillyer has other things he wants to tell us. These are also well worth giving time to; such as the weeping, sweeping, pedal steel drenched sadness of Just Passing Through.
That contrasts with the kick up the dust roots rock of Dirty Little Secrets, Holding Fast and the wisdom of having learned that in life, in many ways, It’s All About The Ride. All detail the trails and travails that are part and parcel of keeping one’s head above water and having to “straighten up and fly right.” A touch of heading for the border (though it could be several different borders) is given its sense of place with the accordion in Diablo Motel.
But in may ways Hillyer has an understanding of the lot of the Ordinary Man: A song that has at its heart an understanding of how dreams can change and ambitions become something different when a man places the love of his family, and the need to provide for them, at the centre of the unrelenting things he needs to achieve. It is not a viewpoint often expressed, as it doesn’t condemn but understands.
These songs show that Hillyer should be considered a songwriter worth listening to, and aside from that he has created an album that makes the best of this material in a way that any country roots follower as well as Eleven Hundred Springs fans will readily appreciate. The material, with a couple of co-writes, shows that he is continuing to hone his craft, and in the company of these assembled players, they all do justice to it.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Various Artists Live Forever - A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver New West
Compilation albums are dependent on a number of factors including the artists chosen, the quality of the songs and the commitment of the performers involved. This is equally true of a tribute album with the added factor of doing justice to the person receiving the tribute. In this case the material is exceptional, the artist choice is interesting and the integrity of the production is solid. Its producers are Charile Sexton and Freddy Fletcher and both were committed to the project.
So from the top you get Willie Nelson with Lucinda Williams covering the song that delivers the title, as well as Shaver’s understanding that his song will live beyond him. I’m Gonna Live Forever is delivered in a way that Shaver would have approved of and reminds of his essential intrinsic understanding of his role in life. Next up another pairing, this time Ryan Bingham with Nikki Lane, who add an element of rock to the proceedings that fits Ride Me Down Easy, with both voices having an edge that adds grit to the message.
The voice of Rodney Crowell brings much to the table, with its hard-fought wisdom delivery of Old Five And Dimers Like Me. After the strident tones of the previous tracks, its acoustic low-key approach is perfectly realised. I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Some Day) has a sassy and vibrant feel with acoustic instruments well to the fore and Miranda Lambert’s voice clear and confident. Edie Brickell takes a similar acoustic led route with I Couldn’t Be Me Without You, a love song that Shaver was equally adept at writing with some genuine feeling. Without his soul band, Nathaniel Rateliff returns to earlier with a countrified take on You Asked Me To that sits behind his robust tone.
Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me is a standout with George Strait giving a understated traditional country reading, one with a powerful vocal that delivers the song’s story with depth, reminding you why he is rated so highly by many and the material is just right for him. Given a rendering that reflects Amanda Shires’ own work, Honky Tonk Heroes has an opening that is held in check until the band and Jason Isbell kick in, taking it to a higher level with harmonica well to the fore in the mix. These days it would appear Steve Earle is happy doing tribute covers, but Ain’t No God In Mexico suits his voice and his perceived outlaw persona. The next pairing is full of a promise that is delivered, given that Margo Price’s recent releases have veered awards a broader rock sound. Joined on vocals by Joshua Hedley, it is soulful with a sweet guitar break, as well as pleasing steel and keyboard playing.
Willie Nelson is back with the customary harmonica and trusty Trigger interludes that allude to the title’s mode of transport in Georgia On A Fast Train. It has a nice jazzy swing that feels just right for the theme. The album closes with Allison Russell taking Tramp On Your Street, with her voice front and centre, to a nighttime soulful place with guitar and keyboards adding some poignancy to the song’s message that calls for understanding.
As with such an album there are undoubted favourites that each listener will find, but it has a largely balanced placing that works as an overall album, that pays tribute to the truth and wisdom that was Billy Joe Shaver and that‘s what any such work should do. These songs, with any justice, will live forever.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Smoke Fairies Singles Year Seven
There is a brooding quality to these eighteen tracks. The atmospheric thrust of the material conjures images of gothic dalliances with the darker side of our natures in the enticing melodies and arrangements. A Folk sound that echoes the past in the clear vocal harmonies of Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, opening with their original single Living With Ghosts. Since that debut in 2008 the women have gone on to blaze a trail and build a formidable reputation across a number of stellar releases.
All their singles are included on this project, including both Gastown and River Song, fan favourites and unavailable since their original release back in 2009 on the Third Man record label, as a double A-side with Jack White guesting on drums and guitar. The haunting Eclipse Them All is balanced with the lighter stroke of We’ve Seen Birds and the thrust of Shadow Inversions is in contrast with the nervous energy on Disconnect. The guitar-driven beat on Elevator shows how their sound has evolved and taken on a harder edge before the final song No Matter How This Goes, Just Make Sure That You’re Kind harks back to earlier days with a pastoral feel in the message that we are our own best ambassadors when we reach out to others in kindness.
This compilation is very timely and not only captures the career arc of two very talented artists, but also points the way for the next chapter in their evolving career as Smoke Fairies – hard to catch and pin down but all the better for the experience. One to savour.
Review by Paul McGee
The White Buffalo Year Of The Dark Horse Snakefarm
‘My forthcoming album is a sonic and lyrical journey of one lunar year in one man’s life. Four seasons in twelve songs loosely based on my twisted truths and adventures’ announced Jake Smith (The White Buffalo) in advance of the release of his eight studio album YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE. The concept album is also the subject of an art film of the same title, featuring four directors each representing three of the album’s twelve tracks.
Smith also describes YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE as his ‘headphones album’, which is a departure from his previously released and more acoustic-based Americana albums. The twelve individual storylines represent the writer’s frame of mind throughout the four seasons, in unison with a painfully failed relationship that raises its head frantically across the album.
White employed Jay Joyce to produce the album and collectively the final product is very much a genre-hopping experience. Recorded at the converted Baptist Church that now houses Neon Cross Studio in East Nashville, Smith was joined in the studio by his touring partners Christopher Hoffee (keyboards, guitar, bass) and Matt Lynott (drums)
Fusing the Jacques Brel-sounding vaudeville She Don’t Know That I Lie, Jeff Lynne style futuristic pop Donna and Love Will Never Come/Spring Song, with echoes of Nick Cave, could amount to musical chaos. On the contrary, the diversity works spectacularly well and soothing ballads such as Am I Still A Child and C’mon Come Up Come Out sit comfortably alongside those tracks of a rockier persuasion. The album’s reflective closer Life Goes On is a fitting finale, willing its author to leave behind more turbulent times and move on the life’s next chapter.
YEAR OF THE DARK HORSE is an album that doesn’t slot easily into any single genre, from an artist that ignores conformity and consistently does very much as he pleases. The end result is a fiercely intense and wonderfully brooding listening experience.
Review by Declan Culliton
Caitlin Rose Cazimi Missing Piece
Catapulted onto centre stage at a young age, Nashville artist Caitlin Rose appeared to have the world at her feet following the release of her debut album, DEAD FLOWERS in 2008 and OWN SIDE NOW, which followed two years later. Regular comparisons with Linda Ronstadt and Patsy Cline emerged and Time magazine reviewer Claire Suddath ranked that second album in the top ten releases of that year. Things may have appeared to have been rosy in the garden but the adoration and the manipulation of the music industry were not sitting easily with Rose.
Her third studio album THE STAND IN - which included a number of co-writes - appeared in 2013 and charted well in both the US Country and US Heat charts. It contained themes of lost romances and heartache; in hindsight, it was most likely a pointer to Rose’s fragile state of mind at that time. No studio output has surfaced since then until now, and even if the writing for material on CAZIMI commenced in 2014, Rose chose not to record in the intervening years for various undocumented reasons. She credits co-producer and long-time friend Jordan Lehning (Andrew Combs, Caroline Spence, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Silver Seas) for the re-gained confidence and direction that lead her to commence the recording of CAZIMI in February 2020. Surrounding her with familiar faces at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios, they spent a week working on material from Rose’s early career demos, as well as recordings that she previously made with Daniel Romano and Justin Young of The Vaccines, as a starting point for what was to become CAZIMI. The onset of the pandemic, which followed, delayed the release of the album but also afforded Rose and Lehning additional time to perfect the recordings.
The sentiments contained in THE STAND IN aren’t far from the surface on CAZIMI, not surprising given that much of the material was conceived not long after the release of that album. However, textured stories promoting survival over submission suggest an artist in a more contented headspace on this recording. The other notable departure from her earlier albums finds Rose abandoning her country leanings, giving rise to a full-on indie/pop offering. She excels on the jaunty Nobody’s Sweetheart, complete with a rousing guitar break. It is top-notch power pop, matched to the same degree by Black Obsidian. Gemini Moon isn’t far behind either in the quality stakes and Modern Dancing reflects on wasted relationships and repeated mistakes (‘It’s a different face, but it’s always the same set of eyes’). Getting It Right, written with Courtney Marie Andrews, broaches rehabilitation with realism and hopefulness. Carried Away is somewhat more laid back, with a simple backing melody possibly borrowed from The Velvet Underground and ALL Right (Baby’s Got A Way) and Blameless are reminders of Rose’s capacity to both pen and vocalise stunningly beautiful ballads.
A web search for Rose will bring you to Wikipedia, where she is described as ‘a country singer and songwriter from Nashville.’ I’m not sure if that narrative ever sat well with Rose and simply may have been the direction that the industry was pointing her in. Similar to artists such as Lera Lynn, Carson McHone and Jade Jackson, who were touted as ‘new women of country,’ after their early recordings, you’re left with the lasting impression that this recording, in the indie/pop territory, is closer to Rose’s comfort zone. Her initial foray into a musical career was as lead singer with Nashville indie band Save Macauley, and that seems to be where her heart is. Either way, Rose’s return to the studio is a triumph and even if CAZIMI may lose her some of her former fan base it’s likely to gain her a host of new admirers. Welcome back.
Review by Declan Culliton
Miko Marks Feel Like Going Home Redtone
Country music has not always been the most welcoming home for black women. Despite the fact that it’s over fifty years since Linda Martell became the first black female artist to gain mainstream commercial success, and the first black female artist to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, the floodgates have been anything but open since then. Artists that became household names in other genres, like Tina Turner, Etta James and The Supremes, have all recorded country music during their careers but concentrated on, or were directed by their labels, into soul or rhythm and blues, rather than country. Fortunately, and not before its time, the tide seems to be slowly turning.
Country music radio has been in the past, and continues to be, less than supportive when it comes to female artists in general. When it comes to black female artists, a study in recent years unearthed that .03 percent of all songs on country radio stations from 2002 to 2020 were by black women. Perhaps the all-embracing Americana genre has helped, but recent years have seen a noticeable growth in talented black female artists making their deserved breakthrough. The profiles of Allison Russell, Rhiannon Giddens, Adia Victoria and Yola, to name but a few, have risen substantially.
Miko Marks certainly deserves to be added to that list. Support slots to both Tedeschi Trucks Band and Ron Hope have helped introduce her to an audience that otherwise might not be familiar with her music and Marks has been named by CMT in the Next Women of Country Class of 2022. It could be argued, and would be by this writer, that very many of the artists championed by CMT, both male and female, fall short of what can be classified as ‘real country’ and often represent mainstream pop/country crossover. Having said that, it is refreshing to learn that Marks has deservedly achieved that accolade and FEEL LIKE GOING HOME stands shoulder to shoulder with the best efforts from her colleagues in the NWOCC of 2022, regardless of genre or classification.
With a core sound that is closer to Memphis than Nashville, FEEL LIKE COMING HOME arrives twelve months after the release of her previous full-length record OUR COUNTRY. The latter was her first release in thirteen years, in the main fuelled by the response to her two previous recordings FREEWAY BOUND (2005) and IT FEELS GOOD (2007). ‘I recorded two projects that were well-received, but I wasn’t,” she explained on the release of OUR COUNTRY. ‘That was hard for me to swallow. That’s why it’s taken me 13 years to do another album.’ Ironically, that recording was less traditional country and more expansive genre-wise than her earlier albums. The positive reviews from big hitters like The Wall Street Journal for OUR COUNTRY (‘a genre and industry defying mission’) and NPR (‘a multi-layered experience’) helped to create the momentum for her latest project. Both of those assessments could also accurately describe Marks’ latest album. Over eleven tracks and forty-seven minutes she blends country, gospel, blues, soul and rock, pouring her heart and soul into each and every one of them.
The possessor of a voice that is powerful yet frail, bluesy and soulful, Marks and her backing band The Resurrectors offer hopefulness and optimism on the countryish One More Night and the gospel anthem Deliver Me. Less pacey but equally impressive are the impassioned The Good Life and Lay Your Burdens Down, proving that Marks is equally adept at both explosive and more subdued vocal deliveries. Those vocals, together with the production and musicianship, are faultless, on an album that is bound to increase its author’s profile by some measure.
‘Been a long time waiting and I’ve got a long way to go’ Marks announces on the opening and prayer-like title track. However, the lasting impression one is left with is that she has arrived home musically, lyrically, and spiritually, and won’t be leaving this space for some time to come.
Review by Declan Culliton
Gabe Lee The Hometown Kid Torrez Music
‘I woke up in a hotel room, went looking for something to do. Whole place shut down, but I'm wide open. I packed up in a minute flat, you tell the county I’m coming back to haunt all those hills I grew up rolling,’ Gabe Lee announces on the opening track, Wide Open, from his third studio album. Whether or not the album’s tales are entirely autobiographical or observational is irrelevant, that statement is a signpost towards the lyrical content on THE HOMETOWN KID, which finds Lee digging into the high points, expectations and struggles of the average man in the street.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Gabe Lee grew up in Nashville with wide musical influences that ranged from his mother’s gospel hymns that she performed in church to the country music of his hometown. THE HOMETOWN KID, his third studio album, offers the listener a suite of songs, twelve in total, that combine heartland rock (Wide Open), gospel-tinged ballads (Never Rained Again) and soulful country tunes (Longer I Run - Hammer Down).
He opens his heart on a failed relationship on Lucky Stars (‘Thank God for this guitar, not everyone survives a broken heart’), and regret also emerges on Kinda Man (‘Still think I coulda gone pro, well if only I'd have learned to cut my reckless ways’).
The possessor of the capacity to create songs that vividly represent modern American life, if you’re unfamiliar with Gabe Lee’s work, THE HOMETOWN KID is an exciting gateway into his music. I was reminded on a number of occasions of the similarity in many ways with the writing style of Jason Isbell, on an album that traverses a number of musical genres. Well-written songs and vocals that deliver a lovely listening experience, this album is quality groove-driven Americana.
Review by Declan Culliton