Errol Walsh Through Your Eyes Self-Release
Northern Ireland singer songwriter Errol Walsh’s latest album is a collection of a whopping fifteen songs, mostly self penned and with a few cowrites. Co-produced by Errol with Joe Murray, in whose Sessions in the House studio the project was also recorded, he called in many of Ireland’s best studio musicians to help achieve his signature laid back country sound. The house band consisted of Ted Ponsonby (dobro and electric guitars and Hammond organ), Gordon Murray (guitars), Rod McVey (piano and Hammond), Dave Luke (mandolin, lap steel), Colin Henry (dobro) and Stephen Quinn (percussion), along with Joe Murray and Errol on guitars. The sound is enhanced on various tracks by Jonathan Milligan on pedal steel and fiddle player Niall Murphy.
Blessed with a wonderfully rich resonant vocal tone, the production amply allows Errol’s vocals to be upfront and centre.
‘There’s a ghost train tonight, leaving for the past’, Errol sings in Childhood Years. Judging by the theme of many of the songs here, he’s at a stage in life where he’s reminiscing about his past - songs like Old Man, Childhood Years, Looking Back and The Mortal Coil Shuffle make that abundantly clear. Like one of his acknowledged influences, the great Guy Clark, Errol is a master of the ‘talking bit in the middle’ as he demonstrates most notably in the aforementioned Childhood Years and in the story song Teardrops in the Happy Cup Cafe. There are three heartbreak songs and four love songs, although I Wish I Didn’t Love You But I Do tends towards the begrudging, intentionally tongue-in cheek. The tempo rarely strays from walking pace and the sound generally sticks to all of the full band instruments mentioned above, with backing vocals from several of the musicians. There’s some deviation from that formula in the blues/jazz number Just Around the Corner from the Blues and the closing track It’s All Good is a slow Western Swing affair. Stand out track is Let’s Go Round Again, a cowrite with Joe Murray and Pandy Walshe, who also guests on the song on acoustic guitar and duets with Errol. It’s a fun upbeat classic country song, referencing Merle and Willie, with some wonderful banjo from James Henry.
Let down somewhat by difficult to read sleeve notes and photos on a black digipak, there should be however, plenty here to musically satisfy Errol’s many fans around the country and further afield.
Review by Eilís Boland
Alexander’s Tin Star Enjoy the Ride Self Release
Alexander Mills is from Dundee, Scotland and he recorded this album with his son, Alex Mills (the 11), at the production controls. The album takes on an added poignancy when you learn that it was originally to be recorded with Alexander’s long-time friend and partner, Joe Ogilvie, who sadly died during the year. This makes the album project all the more meaningful. Some of Joe’s lyrics are included on the twelve tracks and the opening, title song, sums it all up with the words, ‘Let’s take our chances and ride while we still can.’
Alexander has plenty of experience on the local music circuit, playing in a number of different bands over the years and now collaborating with his musician/producer son on a project that is clearly dear to their hearts. Times Like These asks that we all come together and work for the common good and it’s such a relevant message for the reality of lockdown and community challenges that we have all been living through recently.
A Better Man, skips along on an easy groove and speaks of growing into an improved version of yourself when things don’t work out as planned in life. The Bottle, tells of regret over a failed relationship and an ongoing struggle with alcohol as a poor substitute. A Short Time, has a bright arrangement and some nice interplay between fiddle and guitar, with the message of having a good time while we’re here, ringing clear.
Hypnotised is another love song about falling for the girl and trying to get into that feeling of being swept away. My Thunder is a highlight, with some great collaboration between the musicians and a celebratory sound; piano, fiddle and guitars coming together to reach a satisfying climax. It’s a fitting tribute to the memory of Joe Ogilvie and an enjoyable listen, with some fine musicianship and production to recommend it.
Review by Paul McGee
Rhyan Sinclair Letters To Aliens LHG
The enforced lockdown courtesy of Covid was preceded by a period of recovery following a car accident for Kentucky-born singer songwriter Rhyan Sinclair. Rather than initially using that time to create a catalogue of songs, the anguish resulted in a period of writer’s block for her. Taking stock, Sinclair sought help by way of therapy, addressing both her predicament at that time together with previous trauma she had encountered. Eventually, the floodgates re-opened, the result being this collection of twelve songs, many of which deals with emotional issues Sinclair confronts.
LETTERS TO ALIENS is her second full album, following BARNSTORMER from 2018 and her EP MARSHMALLOW WORLD from the same year. Blessed with a delightful crystal-clear voice, Sinclair recorded the album supported by her band The South 65. The recording took place at Sneak Attack Recording in Lexington, Kentucky, with the production duties credited to Sinclair and Jason Groves. Her band is Danny Flanagan (guitar), Jeff Binder (bass), Cary Shields (drums) and her mother Toni Karpanski on backing vocals. Guesting on the album is Fats Kaplin, who contributes fiddle, pedal steel and theremin.
Performing, fronting bands and writing since her early teens, Sinclair’s core sound is a throwback to the country rock of the early 70s, with a comparison to Linda Ronstadt being the most obvious. She opens the album in fine style with the explosive Dragon Spirit. Her vocals sail gloriously above some fine bass and organ on the soulful Should’ve Been Prepared and echoes of Emmylou surface on the sublime ballad Gathering Dust. Other highlights include the radio-friendly Where I’ll Be Found and album closer With Every Goodbye.
“This album is a documentation of my human experience, my time capsule, my letter on a balloon, my story thus far.’’ explains Sinclair. It’s also a celebration of recovery, rebirth and regeneration from the possessor of a killer vocal and a skilled songwriter. An extremely easy on the ear listen both vocally and musically from a collection of players firing on all cylinders.
Review by Declan Culliton
David Quinn Country Fresh Self-Release
A shabby and very old glass ashtray in a recording studio in Nashville, where David Quinn was working on his second album LETTING GO, provided the impetus for the title of his third album. The COUNTRY FRESH logo, printed on the ashtray, pretty well summed up Quinn’s lifestyle changes in recent years, which found him moving in 2020 from the hectic city life of Chicago to a tranquil lake house in rural Indiana, where he penned the twelve tracks on his latest recording.
He returned to that same studio, Nashville’s Sound Emporium, to record this self-produced album, working once more with a host of top-drawer players, many of whom had also contributed to his last album. Returning players included Micah Hulscher and Jamie T. Davis from Margo Price’s band, who played piano and guitars respectively. Laur Joamets of Drivin N Cryin on slide guitar and solos, and Kacey Musgraves’ pedal steel player Brett Resnick also featured once more. In addition to these musicians, Fats Kaplin added fiddle, Andy Holcomb played bass, and Sturgill Simpson’s drummer Miles Miller also performed. Mike Stankiewicz (Willie Nelson, Shooter Jennings, Jason Isbell), who produced Quinn’s last album, was allocated engineering duties on this occasion.
My initial introduction to Quinn was his inclusion on the Bloodshot Records compilation album TOO LATE TO PRAY, DEFIANT CHICAGO ROOTS from 2019. Featuring twenty-two artists, Quinn’s Long Time Gone was the stand out track for me and directed me towards the previously mentioned LETTING GO (2019) and its predecessor WANDERIN’ FOOL from the previous year, both of which were hugely impressive.
Describing his music as Black Dirt Country, he cites fellow Illinois-born John Prine as his primary influence. Re-energised by his rural setting, the title of many of the album’s tracks (Grassy Trails, Cornbread and Chili, Hummingbird’s Song) express a nostalgic calling to mind and, in a world of ongoing challenges, an appreciation of the simple things in life. The expansive mid-Western landscape, its beauty and tales of both rejection and celebration, are central to the song’s sensibilities. He's in splendid voice throughout and the accompanying arrangements more than complement his gritty vocals. Setting his stall out from the get-go, the opener and title track is a salute to his new found lifestyle, sounding like a distant relation of the similarly upbeat Country Squire from Tyler Childers. Twangy guitars, perfectly placed in the mix, kick start the autobiographical Boy From Illinois, which also includes some slick pedal steel and moody bass lines. The piano-led love ballad I Came Back To You (To Say Goodbye) echoes Merle Haggard at his most melancholy and the up-tempo honky tonker Easy Like The Breeze recalls carefree touring days.
Wearing his heart on his sleeve, COUNTRY FRESH finds its author proudly celebrating all that’s central to the music and way of life in his home state. In doing so, Quinn has once more revealed himself as a maturing artist and, alongside Ian Noe, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Charley Crockett, and Jaime Wyatt, part of a team of immensely gifted artists who are keeping modern classic country alive and kicking. If David Quinn is an artist unknown to you, I highly recommend that you check this album out. Believe me, this is truly worth your investigation.
Review by Declan Culliton
Andrew Ryan A Tiny Death Delete Yourself
The title of Missouri singer songwriter Andrew Ryan’s latest album is taken from the French phrase ‘la petite mort’, which translates as ‘the brief loss or weakening of consciousness’. It signposts the lyrical direction of an album that finds Ryan in a contemplative mood and looking over his shoulder at past experiences, both memorable and lamentable. His reminiscences of being on the road as a welder in his previous life and more recently as a travelling musician, presented him with the time space and subject sources to create his healthy war chest of songs that appear on this album and his two previous recordings, ACROSS CURRENTS (2017) and WILD TERRAIN, YOU CANNOT DELETE YOURSELF! (2020). Whereas those two previous albums were more indie folk in musical direction, A TINY DEATH is slower paced, more acoustic, and likely to be filed in the groove driven Americana section of your record collection. Unlike many other similar recordings of recent times, the material was not written during Covid isolation, in fact Ryan was performing much of the material while touring prior to lockdown.
With unhurried vocals, Ryan’s husky deliveries are supported by warm and unobtrusive arrangements. What raises a number of the songs to another level are beautifully placed wispy backing vocals, in particular on the stand out tracks Janet and Midwest Kids. The latter is a statement about the life changes as we travel through the various stages of maturity and the former recognises the resulting mental pressure that accompanies them. Accepting and dealing with those inner pressures also surfaces on the free-flowing Fighting Loneliness and the acoustic Wilted Lover could have been plucked from the Leonard Cohen songbook.
Very much a DIY project, the album was recorded at home by Ryan, with contributions - also from their homes - from Jay Burgess (The Pollies), Danial Wolff (Dead Horses), Alan Hedges (American Aquarium), and Will Walden (STaG). It’s a further reminder of the standard of somewhat under the radar artists out there recording quality music and an album that deserves to be heard by many.
Review by Declan Culliton
Kaitlin Butts What Else Can She Do Self-Release
Oklahoma-born country singer songwriter Kaitlin Butts has been a ‘work in progress’ for the past number of years, honing her skills as a performer, singer and songwriter. I witnessed her perform solo on a bill with fellow Oklahoma native Carter Sampson in Nashville a number of years ago and she oozed talent both in her stage presence and her knockout voice.
Currently residing in Nashville, her debut album SAME HELL DIFFERENT DEVIL, released in 2015, was an introduction to an artist with the capacity to write and construct credible songs, far from the formulaic material masquerading as country music and currently dominating country music radio stations. Seven years later - she has released a number of singles in the interim - she returns with an album that builds solidly on that impressive debut recording.
First things first, as previously mentioned, Butts is blessed with an incredible voice and the capability to be vocally powerful or hushed, whether belting out a honky tonk song or whispering a soothing country ballad. She applies those vocals to some seriously impressive songs on WHAT ELSE CAN SHE DO. A recurring theme of choices (or indeed the lack of choices) facing women both in relationships and careers features strongly on the album. Her writing style brings to mind that of Brandy Clark, another artist with an eagle eye for detail. I suspect that much of the material is semi-autobiographical, as she confesses that the opening track It Won’t Always Be This Way, was a reflection of tough times that both her mother and herself were working through at the same time. Each of the other songs tells of resilient women in difficult predicaments, some confused, others outraged or struggling.
Recorded at the Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, the production duties were overseen by Oran Thornton (Angeleena Presley, Eric Church). He gets the sound spot on with the emphasis on placing Butt’s vocal drawl out in front, backed by a fine bunch of musicians. Those players were Fred Eltringham (drums), Justin Schiper (pedal steel), Joshua Grange (electric guitar), and Lex Price (bass). Her husband and Flatland Cavalry frontman Cleto Cordero adds harmony vocals on the classic title track What Else Can She Do.
The crutches used for short-term relief to blank out broken dreams fuel the track She’s Using. With a driving melody, it’s a powerful yet non-judgemental statement and is matched by the equally forceful Blood. The latter, a co-write with Angeleena Presley, tackles emotional abuse and ‘gaslighting’ head on, decrying the controlling practice of portraying the victim as the abuser. While namechecking June and Johnny on Jackson, as you may expect from the album’s direction, the tale is one of unfulfilled dreams and rejection. In The Pines, the album’s swan song, is old school country noir at its finest. Butt’s crystalline vocals simply soar above screeching guitars and pedal steel, providing a fitting end to a compelling suite of songs.
Make no mistake, this is quality modern country music with a capital C. It’s been a long wait for Butts’ sophomore album but she has delivered with flying colours.
Review by Declan Culliton
Alma Russ Fool’s Gold Self-Release
A multi-instrumentalist and gifted with a voice as clear as a mountain stream, FOOL’S GOLD is Alma Russ’s second full-length album. Temporarily leaving her home state of North Carolina with producer Bill Palmer, she set up home in the Chihuahuan Desert for the recording. The location was the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas, where she recorded the album in the St. Inez Church, a rural chapel that has been standing in Terlingua for over a century. Joining her for the recording, alongside Palmer, who also played bass, were Lee Martin (pedal steel), and Moses Martinez (drums). Russ played acoustic guitar, fiddle and banjo and was joined on backing vocals by Mary Brett Stringer.
There’s very much a homegrown feel throughout the album, the ambience of a group of players jamming on a front porch comes to mind. With vocals that quiver, dip and soar in all the right places, and supported by some fine playing, Russ doesn’t put a foot wrong on the album’s nine tracks. The sound that she and her players collectively produce appears organic, unhurried and uncontaminated by any modern music trends.
Rural landscapes, and characters who dwell in them, are painted in vivid detail across many of the tracks. We hear of the neglected child Maggie May on the track In Another State and her dreams of leaving her hapless existence behind, (‘Jameson, baby girl you knew the smell ‘fore you could spell your name, mama’ d leave the empty bottles covered in her lipstick stains’). Escapism and leaving a toxic relationship behind also surface on Oklahoma Freight, (‘Old man put needles in his veins, I was the object of his shame, so I made my getaway, I hopped that Oklahoma freight’). Awash with uplifting pedal steel and weeping fiddle, it’s a simply divine tale of rebirth and passion. Notions of escape and fulfilment also loom large on the title track and elsewhere Bad Mammajamma features a carefree and fearless nomadic rodeo bull rider.
Not only the possessor of a golden voice, Russ is equally skilled as a songwriter. Eight of the tracks here are self-written, the ninth is her take on the traditional song Hills Of Mexico. Born and raised on a farm in Florida, Russ is country through and through and that sentiment looms large in her writing. The material could not be further removed from the often lifeless and predictable songwriting manufactured in the sweatshops of Music Row. Instead, we’re presented with a suite of songs where the writer appears to have lived through every line.
FOOL’S GOLD, for me, is what authentic country music is all about. No frills, songs written from the heart, understated playing, laid back and gloriously loose, and as country a voice as I’ve encountered in quite a long time. A treasure of a find for me, it’s an album that I’ll be spending a lot of time with in the coming weeks and months.
Review by Declan Culliton
The Lied To’s The Worst Kind Of New Hollow Body
The third album from New England duo The Lied To’s, is a further examination by band members Doug Kwartler and Susan Levine of relationships, both failed and blossoming. The passing of loved ones, cherished and unwelcome memories also influenced their songwriting on the album. The songwriting and lead and harmony vocals, and acoustic guitar playing are shared on the album, which offers ten self-written songs and covers of Tom Waits’ Long Way Home and Clay Pigeons, written by Blaze Foley.
The band’s title - taken from The Everly Brothers’ When Will I Be Loved - points in the direction of a less than rosy backstory for both band members and the track Time, written by Levine, was triggered by recollections of difficult times, culminating in her divorce. However, many of the inclusions on the album also celebrate the present and more joyful times. Missing You was written by Levine during a pandemic enforced separation. Kwartler returned the compliment of that time apart with the love ode Brokedown Jamboree. Loved ones no longer with us also influenced the songwriting. The country-tinged Long Lonesome Road recalls the passing of Kwartler’s father and mother, and the importance of cherishing each day is echoed on the song. On a similar theme is the closing track It’s Only Love. The perky It’s Not Who You Love is a tribute to two musicians dear to Kwartler, who both departed this life around the same time.
THE WORST KIND OF NEW is an impressive exercise in keeping songwriting simple and to the point. Digging deeply into their memory vaults, The Lied To’s have delivered an album packed with a great deal of fervid soul searching. It plays out essentially as an album that they have written for each other, fueled by recollections of the past and optimistic about the future. Thankfully, they’ve shared those memories on this very listenable recording.
Review by Declan Culliton
Jamie McDell Self-Titled Self-Release
Signed to EMI at the tender age of sixteen, New Zealand singer songwriter Jamie McDell’s debut album SIX STRINGS AND A SAIL BOAT achieved gold album sales in her native country. She subsequently recorded two further albums, ASK ME ANYTHING (2017) and EXTRADORDINARY GIRL (2018) prior to this self-titled album.
McDell experienced a somewhat unconventional childhood, when she was seven her father abandoned a thriving career in an Auckland law firm, purchased a yacht, and transported his wife and family on an exploration of the Mediterranean islands. It was during that adventurous period, thunderstruck by her parents’ John Denver, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett tapes that were played constantly on rotation, that McDell was inspired to start songwriting.
Family is very much the central theme in much of the album’s lyrical direction. An ode to her father, she recalls her eccentric upbringing on Poor Boy. It’s a perfect country ballad, sung from the heart and masterfully presented, both vocally and musically. A further thumbs up to her parenting emerges on the chunky Daddy Come Pick Me Up and the acoustic ballad Mother’s Daughter. Dream Team, awash with dreamy pedal steel, is a Kathleen Edwards-style tune and a classic tale of dare and devastation. She’s joined by the equally sweet-voiced Erin Rae on Where Are You Now and The McCrary Sisters lend a hand on the gospel tune Sailor. Female insecurity is addressed on Botox, which was the title track of her 2019 EP and she’s joined by Robert Ellis on backing vocals on the breakup song Worst Crime.
Blessed with a stunningly crystal-clear voice, perfectly suited to her contemporary country tunes, this album finds McDell in a particularly confessional mood on songs that are directed towards self-examination. She’s supported by some stellar playing with slick guitar breaks and pedal steel in all the right places. Releasing a self-titled album mid-career is often a reflection of an artist’s most honest and forthright outpourings. This is most certainly the case here and those outpourings amount to an extremely listenable and enjoyable album.
Review by Declan Culliton