Michael Weston King The Struggle Cherry Red
I first encountered Michael Weston King as a member of Gary Hall and The Stormkeepers and later when he became a founder member of the band The Good Sons. I continued to follow his career but he really came into his own with his career as a solo artist. This started proper in 1999 with the release of GOD SHAPED HOLE which was followed by the release of a live album recorded in Europe and America (LIVE IN DINKY TOWN). Since then a further six albums were released (either recorded in the studio or live) and these additionally enhanced his reputation as a singer/songwriter who is the equal of many of his contemporaries in both the UK and USA.
His career took a diversion in 2011 with the release of the debut album HOW DO YOU PLEAD? from My Darling Clementine, a more directly country orientated album that was essentially a vehicle for King and his wife and partner in song, Lou Dalgleish. Now he has released his first solo album in a number of years in THE STRUGGLE. It is in keeping with his worldview, an album whose themes are connected with the struggle that is simply a part of living today, of trying to make ends meet and when they do, to survive. It is political in that it is personal.
The opening track, Weight Of The World, reasons that it’s not the big but often the small that can be the straw that breaks the back of many. It assumes the mantle of a beat cop and the notion that force rather than favour can achieve facilitation. It appears also at the end of the album in a “ghostwriter” mix, that the seeming fiction of the song became a reality with the storming of the Capitol Building last year. There is a more late night feel to the second version with subtle wah-wah guitar and electric piano to the fore.
Weston King has handled the production of the album and Clovis Phillips recorded it and played on much of the material in a small studio in Wales. A selection of fine players were brought in to help him achieve the best results for each song, including the nostalgia of The Old Soft Shoe, which features some fitting trombone from the celebrated Barnaby Dickinson. Fellow singer/songwriter Jeb Loy Nichols adds vocals, as does Lou Dalgleish and, keeping it in the family, Mabel Dalgleish-King adds vocals and descant recorder on another track. Steve Nieve played piano for one song and strings were added effectively on a number of other selections. Overall it is testament to all involved with its vision realised successfully.
The title refers to a difficult climb in the Cumbria district but can also refer equally to the hard struggle that many, including Weston King, have faced since the start of this pandemic, perhaps as evidenced by the song The Hardest Thing Of All (which may well be just getting out of bed).
There is a certain melancholy and sadness that pervades these tales, yet that is tempered with the hope and underlying strength that is brought to the delivery by King’s distinctive and thoroughly recognisable vocals, that are both restrained and passionate. The majority of the songs are from King with two having additional credits. Theory Of Truthmakers has lyrics by his late friend Jackie Leven (for whom he has recently also produced a tribute album) while Sugar is a co-write with Peter Case and Sean Bruce.
While listening to this album I also delved back in the MWK catalogue and it is a sterling body of work that is peaked by THE STRUGGLE but one that should be explored for its integrity, creativity and humanity.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Ian Noe River Fools and Mountain Saints Thirty Tigers
Numerous singer songwriters of recent years have attempted to follow in the footsteps, both musically and more particularly lyrically, of the legendary John Prine. Few, if any, have succeeded to the same extent as Eastern Kentucky born and raised Ian Noe. His 2019 release BETWEEN THE COUNTRY signalled the arrival of a young singer songwriter with the skillset to create genuine country songs and with a correspondingly authentic vocal drawl to deliver his tunes. His inspiration comes simply from his life experiences growing up in the Eastern Coal Region of Kentucky, its striking landscapes, and the people that populate it. The songs and tales that flow from his pen are a throwback to the classic singer songwriters of previous decades, who wrote from the heart and not from hours spent in songwriting classes under the supervision of a record label hack.
With RIVER FOOLS AND MOUNTAIN SAINTS, Noe has more than overcome the ‘difficult second album syndrome’, and instead has recorded a suite of twelve tracks that, if anything, surpasses that fine debut album. The recordings took place over a two-year period at Bomb Shelter in Nashville, the home of ‘go to’ producer Andrija Tokic, whose previous clients include Alabama Shakes, The Deslondes, Jeremy Ivey, and Phosphorescent.
The album introduces us to a diverse range of characters in Noe’s homebrew of tales. A guitar player that plays his instrument in the middle of any water available to him features on River Fool and the native people that once populated his homelands are recalled on Burning Down The Prairie. The latter includes a screeching guitar lead from Noe, who admits that he has been carrying that guitar break around for over ten years, waiting for the correct home for it. Other standout tracks on an album with absolutely no fillers are the dreamlike Appalachian Heights and his extraordinary reconstruction of the Ronnie Scott / Steve Wolf written and Bonnie Tyler hit single, It’s A Heartache. Having said that, I could include any of the album’s remaining tracks, given the quality on offer here.
RIVER FOOLS AND MOUNTAIN SAINTS is a further glimpse of the unquestionable talent of Ian Noe, an artist that would, without doubt, earn a place at Guy Clark’s top table in the mid-70s documentary Heartworn Highways. A fuller sound than its predecessor, it is an album that transports the listener to the Appalachian coalfields of Kentucky, with poignant stories about real people and real events brought to song. It’s also, for me and I expect many others, one that will be up there with the finest recordings of this year. Essential listening.
Review by Declan Culliton
Owen Fitzgerald A Deep Clean You Can Count On! Sleepy Cat
Even before popping this album into the CD player, the titles of the first three tracks (Touching the Oven At Work, Dark Meat and Don’t Give Me A Pet) on Durham, North Carolina resident Owen Fitzgerald latest recording suggest a somewhat left of centre offering. That’s exactly what is presented here as Fitzgerald continues on a comparable musical and lyrical direction which emerged on his two 2015 digital recordings, TIGHT GYRE and POINTER, representing the inner thoughts of an introvert attempting to survive in a messed-up world.
Speaking about this album, which follows his debut EP BODY, CHILD, LIGHT, CRIME for Sleepy Cat Records, Fitzgerald explains, “These nine songs are like school pictures. They are wallet-sized portraits taken between 2006 and 2016. Sometimes I can’t recognize myself in the songs.’’ Taken at face value they suggest ‘home truths aplenty.’ Fear, isolation, depression and confusion all emerge, often laced in irony. By way of categorisation, his style and songwriting are similar to the work of the late Vic Chestnut and his vocals match those of Bright Eyes.
A mutant strain of what could loosely be defined as alt-country, Fitzgerald strays into chamber-folk territory on the aforementioned Touching the Oven At Work. He recalls his battles with alcoholism - now fortunately conquered - on Fear On Pine Street (“Katie, I’m sorry, I keep falling down.’’). Austin Holly kicks off as a traditional love lost ballad before morphing into freeform jazz mid-song. ‘I wish to the Lord I’d never been born or died when I was young,’ he announces on the love lost acoustic ballad that bookends the album, All Good Times Are Past and Gone.
With lyrical content that unfolds like an exorcism of sorts on many of the tracks, A DEEP CLEAN YOU CAN COUNT ON! is most certainly not a party album. More appropriately it is one for the slow cooker and with repeat spins many treasures unfold and is well worth the time invested.
Review by Declan Culliton
Jeremy Ivey Invisible Pictures ANTI
The third solo recording from Jeremy Ivey finds his attention distracted from the political topics and concerns that surfaced on his 2020 album WAITING OUT THE STORM. His latest offering calls to mind matters closer to home, not surprisingly given what he has gone through since that last recording. Struck down with Covid and a diabetic, Ivey battled the illness for a number of months, often sleeping ten and twelve hours a day, while his wife Margo Price and their two children were quarantined for over two months. Thankfully, he made a full recovery, and that whole experience, coupled with an enforced break from touring, heavily influences his latest album.
Rather than repeat the format of his previous albums by recording with his band and calling on Margo Price to produce, Ivey went down a different road with this album. Repeated listens to the record START IT OVER by Riley Downing of The Deslondes, led Ivey to the door of old friend Andrija Topic (Yola, Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Ian Noe), who had produced that album at his Bomb Shelter Studio in Nashville. Ivey and Margo Price had previously recorded with Topic back in 2008 with their band Buffalo Clover. Impressed by the arrangements and in particular, the rhythm section that Topic put down on Downing’s album, Ivey asked the producer to gather the same musicians in the studio for his recording. As a result, the impressive line-up that features on the album includes Jack Lawrence from The Raconteurs and Dead Weather on bass, Megan Coleman, who plays in Yola’s band on drums, and Margo Price’s keyboard player Michael Hulsher. Contributions also came from Chris Scruggs on pedal steel, and jazz violinist and bluegrass fiddler Billy Contreras. The infusion of new blood to work with and handing over the control to Topic proved to be a masterstroke.
If many of the album titles suggest a somewhat dour and downbeat direction, the end product is, in fact, the opposite. In a recent Lonesome Highway interview with Ivey, he explained, ‘What happens is that I naturally write from an upset and dark place and when I develop the songs, I find hope in there. That tends to be the theme.’
His listening choices which influenced much of the musical trajectory on the album were Elliot Smith, The Handsome Family, Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia, The Kinks and The Beatles. Tossing that lot into the melting pot had the potential to yield interesting results, and d0es exactly that. The autobiographical and bittersweet opening track Orphan Child plays out like a personal introduction by Ivey to the listener. Behind the soulful swinging melody - with echoes of Graham Parker & The Rumour’s Heat Treatment - lie some soul-bearing lyrics (‘my family tree’s on fire and I don’t belong here or any place near’). Fast forward to the present day and Ivey opens his heart on the loved-up and gloriously power poppy Keep Me High (‘I got a new love that lasts forever, she’s got what it takes to keep me high’). A co-write with Price, it’s confirmation if that was ever required, of two survivors who are in a very good place. Those rays of hope and optimism also shine brightly on the title track, which is a duet with Price. ‘No nothing could bring me down today,’ they sing defiantly while recalling the horrors of the 2020 Christmas Day bombing in Downtown Nashville, together with ongoing crime and homelessness.
Trial By Fire and Empty Game are both tender ballads featuring Ivey on nylon string acoustic guitar, and the album closes with the piano led Beatle-esque Silence and Sorrow.
Given that Ivey’s main focus in the past number of years has been to support the burgeoning career of his wife, he has recorded three fine albums in as many years. For my money, INVISIBLE PICTURES, with its deeply melodic approach throughout, is the pick of the crop, and an album that I’ll most certainly be regularly returning to in the months ahead.
Review by Declan Culliton
The Hanging Stars Hollow Heart Loose
London five-piece The Hanging Stars headed north to Edwyn Collins' Clashnarrow Studios in North-Eastern Scotland, to record their fourth album HOLLOW HEART. Signed by Loose Records, it follows their fine release from 2020, A NEW KIND OF SKY. A further expansion of their signature psychedelic cosmic country, their latest offering also signals a growing confidence from a band whose melodic intensity seems to improve with each of their recordings.
The Hanging Stars are songwriter Richard Olson (lead vocals, guitar), Sam Ferman (bass), Patrick Ralla (guitars, keyboards), Paulie Cobra (drums) and Joe Harvey-Whyte (pedal steel). Their core sound lands somewhere between the psychedelic probing of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd and West Coast country rockers The Flying Burrito Brothers. With the prospect of touring put on hold during 2020, they put the downtime to good use, working online collectively on the album’s material, prior to heading to the studio to record. They called on Sean Read (Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Rockinbirds, Famous Times) to oversee the production duties and on the basis of the resulting ten tracks, that choice was more than rewarding.
Swaddled in sweeping arrangements and with Olson’s assured vocals supported by layered harmonies, trippy guitars and soaring pedal steel, the band draw on their influences to construct a suite of consistently impressive tracks. Loaded with show stoppers, it’s actually difficult to highlight the individual stand-out ones. The tracks that did have me hitting the repeat button on the first play were the sweeping Black Light Night and the jangly Ballad Of Whatever May Be Hollow Eyes. Equally striking is Hollow Eyes, Hollow Heart, which plays out like a bonus track from the soundtrack to the 1969 classic Easy Rider. The flowing harmonies on You’re So Free’s recall CSNY and Radio On, the first single from the album, is a sublimely crafted modern pop song.
It's unfair to always compare an album with its predecessor. However, The Hanging Stars have raised the bar multiple notches with HOLLOW HEART and given adequate promotion, should attract many more devotees on both sides of the pond. In simple terms, it’s a free and easy listen of harmony loaded cosmic country, with striking melodies more familiar in previous decades. If you want your senses soothed, check this one out. Believe me, it’s certainly worth your investigation.
Review by Declan Culliton
Samana All One Breath The Road
Samana is comprised of artist and poet, Rebecca Rose Harris and producer and multi -instrumentalist, Franklin Mockett. Their second album is a real treat and one that lulls you into a soporific state of drifting reverie. Harris possesses a vocal style that is both haunting and languid in her delivery. When you wrap her esoteric words around the lush melodies created by Mockett, then what you get is a restrained magic across these ten songs.
The album was recorded in 2020 in rural France, where the couple found themselves in lockdown as Covid struck the country. Deciding to stay at their rustic retreat and to explore what may arise out of their collaborations proved to be a wise choice. The results were a basket full of songs that echo the quiet calm of the countryside and an ethereal sense of the world slowing down. The lack of album credits leads me to believe that the entire project was delivered by the duo exclusively and, if this is the case, then I am in awe of the talent on display.
Harris channels the spirit of these times, her feminine instincts in tune with the slow turn of nature and seducing all those who listen to these vignettes of reflective thoughts and realised emotions. Her tone is sometimes reminiscent of Nico as she sings on top of the beautiful melody lines that add great colours. Leaving is all strummed guitars, soaring cello and violin melodies with a stripped-down bass and drum rhythm; a song about wanting to travel and releasing a wistful yearning to feel free. The superb Patience builds to a dynamic conclusion and is about the most up-tempo track included here. Begin Again has a gentle acoustic guitar motif, subtle strings and a wish to start a life all over again. Patience speaks about living in the moment and returning to the present. There is not a weak track here and the superb guitar playing of Mockett is a joy throughout. An album to treasure and one that is both hauntingly beautiful and deeply moving.
Review by Paul McGee
Eve Adams Metal Bird Basin Rock
This third album from Oklahoma born Adams reflects upon a time when she was commuting between her new base in Canada and California, where a family death had taken her. As such, there is an air of melancholy that hangs over the ten songs included and the restrained vocals of Adams are reminiscent of Judee Cruise, circa her work with David Lynch on Twin Peaks. The song arrangements are angular in part, somewhat reflecting a dissonance felt within. The is a muted saxophone, a harmonica and drone part, a jazz-tinged guitar, a piano part that seems out of step with a melody.
The album title is a metaphor for the sense of risk and danger that we all feel at moments in our lives. Adams states that she “felt lost in time; like everything was up in the air.” It also references the fact that she felt “suspended on a journey that is no longer in our hands.” The regular flying between cities gave Adams the opportunity to reflect upon her life and questions of love, death, insecurity and loneliness.
All songs were written by Adams and the project was produced by Military Genius (Bryce Cloghesy), who added saxophone on a couple of the tracks – on the closing song, My Only Dream, and You’re Not Wrong. The sparce sound is augmented by occasional orchestral arrangements, courtesy of Nicolas Dirksen and the sense of floating through space and time is very evident in the overall feel of the album. There is a hint of fragility and creeping darkness on tracks like The Dying Light, Blues Look the Same and Prisoner. If Mazzy Star had a secret sister, then I’m sure that Eve Adams would be that person. Her vocal is laced with a touch of regret and of something lost. It can make for meditative reflection or for a plea to end the inner turmoil, a choice that seems to rest with the listener. Sometimes compelling, and occasionally uncomfortable, the album is certainly an interesting addition to the growing reputation of a talented artist.
Review by Paul McGee
Jerry Leger Nothing Pressing Latent
This Toronto-based artist has been releasing music since 2005 and his creative talent has seen thirteen albums surface to date. This new project was recorded with Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies fame at the controls. It helps that Latent Records is in fact the label that is owned by the Cowboy Junkies, and that Timmins has also produced the previous three Jerry Leger albums, including 2019 release, Time Out For Tomorrow.
In 2020, Leger released a solo acoustic project, Songs From the Apartment. It was ten songs, recorded at home, and the sense of isolation during lockdown didn’t impact on the relaxed and quiet feel of the lo-fi recording. He has always moved across genres and is a prolific artist, gaining many new admirers for his side projects, like the Del Fi’s (rock n roll), and the Bop Fi’s (bebop/jazz). Leger also released a career retrospective album in 2019, titled Too Broke To Die, it included twenty-one tracks that spans his output between 2005 and 2019.
His vocal tone is quite high on the register and has a warm quality to it. The songs seem deceptively simple on initial digestion but on further analysis they contain plenty of layers and some rich interplay. The new album is very much an example of this, with Leger playing acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica and Wurlitzer. Tim Bovaconti adds some electric guitar and pedal steel on two tracks, while Dan Mock on bass and vocals anchors everything with Kyle Sullivan on drums and percussion. They are very locked in as a rhythm section and provide a great groove to the arrangements. Angie Hilts sings on two tracks and producer Michael Timmons jumps in on ukulele also.
Songs like Protector and Nothing Pressing are acoustic based and swing along with an easy melody. On the title track he sings, ‘Try me again next summer, And I'll be so relaxed, Gone will be the burden, Of hiding all the cracks.’ Ah yes, the relative boredom of life in the country…
There is a touch of Neil Young on the atmospheric Recluse Revisions. It’s a song about looking back and reflecting, ‘I thought this bar was gone, Looks the same after so long, You're the one who's different, Making recluse revisions.’ It has some fine pedal steel and harmonica parts.
Underground Blues has some superb guitar interplay between Leger and Bovaconti with great atmospheric feel. The jangling guitar sound of Have You Ever Been Happy? is pure rock n roll dynamic and the harmony vocal of Angie Hilts adds an extra colour in the mix. A Page You’ve Turned talks about a broken relationship and Leger has stated that “this record is about survival, mental, physical and artistic survival.’ Well, based on the evidence here, he is doing much more than merely surviving; Leger is thriving and this album hits a creative highpoint.
Review by Paul McGee
Sarah McCulloch Sawmiller’s Daughter Self Release
This is a real pleasant surprise and I love when a new artist comes along to inject a ray of sunshine into the life of an old, tired music reviewer. Twelve songs over forty-seven minutes and not a bad track among them. The playing is really bright and vibrant throughout and the assembled musicians sound like they were really having a fun time. The whole project was produced by Jim Bickerstaff at East Avalon Recorders in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The location and its history clearly rubbed off on the players, with such inspired surroundings leading to great interplay, both subtly restrained on the slower numbers, and generously layered on the more mid-paced and up-tempo ones.
McCulloch allows her southern roots to shine through in her vocals. They add a warmth in the delivery and her tone is not unlike Nanci Griffith at times. She grew up in Miami and her sound is very much traditional Country. A real breath of fresh air in these days of country crossover and genre blending.
All songs are written by McCulloch, except for a great cover version of I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal, written by Billy Joe Shaver. This track allows free reign to the musicians to take solo turns in elevating the arrangement and kicking it into a joyful jam.
The featured musicians are Terry Feller (drums), Bob Wray (bass), Clayton Ivey (Hammond B3, pianos, Wurlitzer), John Willis (acoustic / electric guitar, banjo, mandolin), Kelvin Holley (electric guitar), Donny Carpenter (fiddle), Pat Severs (pedal steel), Stan Geberer (harmonica) and Savannah Bickerstaff, David Hester, Landis Yarovyy, Leslie Gardner, Simone Appleby, and Jim Bickerstaff on background vocals.
Sugartown is a song about young love and has a great guitar sound. Half Crazy is a cheating song with a slow arrangement and some fine pedal steel playing. Sawmiller’s Daughter is a tribute song to her father and the example that he set in the life that he led. Sun and the Moon is a message to love life, and the longing and dreaming of Sunkissed is matched by the optimism of Peace and Happiness, with the prospect of new beginnings. The banjo, pedal steel and fiddle on Free Spirit Love Song are another highlight, while the harmonica and banjo on Honey To A Bear reflect the light touch and easy groove on much of this impressive record. Well worth your time folks.
Review by Paul McGee