Landon Lloyd Miller Light Shines Through Twin Mesa
On his debut solo album, Landon Lloyd Miller (former lead singer/songwriter in the Shreveport, Louisiana band, The Fast Chargers) has amalgamated his hotchpotch of influences to produce an eclectic collection of songs, with predominantly folk rock leanings. Growing up with musical and religious parents, the young Landon began to learn piano at the age of 13, and progressed to drums, harmonica and guitar, all of which he plays here. Justifiably proud that this is a home studio recording, also co-produced by him alongside Josiah Rambin, he wisely employed a ‘less is more’ ethos on the production, but called on a bunch of friends to flesh out the instrumentation at appropriate places.
In styles ranging wildly from a stark piano and voice ballad to whimsical pop, the eleven short songs are held together by his undoubted song craft and his unusual falsetto, which is always to the fore in the musical blend.
The opener Light is Growing and the similarly themed closer and title track, Light Shines Through, are bookends of positivity in a collection of partly autobiographical and confessional vignettes.
Starkest and most personal of all is Bluebonnet, where the intense lasting pain of the abandonment of him and his mother by his preacher father is palpable - ‘you were only lying when you said why you’d never go, that’s alright, only love lied so I’d never have to know …. It’s not alright, I’m not alright’. Feel It Again is decidedly Marc Bolan-esque musically, but the meaning of the lyrics is open to conjecture. At the risk of being accused of lazy journalism with further comparisons, the gentle harmonica and acoustic guitar accompanied love song Landslide is very close to Jeff Buckley territory, with Miller’s falsetto soaring to a crescendo.
Definitely worth checking out.
Review by Eilís Boland
Chris Castino & Chicken Wire Empire Fresh Pickles Self Release
The genius of this album from Chris Castino is that, although none of his eleven songs here were originally written for the bluegrass genre, the casual listener would be hard pressed to realise that this was actually the case. Castino is better known in the US as the mainstay behind the Minnesota rock’n’roll jamband, The Big Wu. He came together (during lockdown) with his friends in Milwaukee bluegrass band Chicken Wire Empire to re-record and re-imagine these well established songs from the back catalogue of the Big Wu and the result is a highly entertaining record, produced with the glorious psychedelic looseness of a top drawer bluegrass jamband.
Castino admits that he had to ‘up’ his acoustic guitar playing to reach the standard expected in bluegrass picking, and he certainly hasn’t been found wanting. And to top it all, he convinced quite a few of his bluegrass heroes to join him on many of the tracks. Sam Bush adds his blazing fiddle playing to an extended break in the raging Red Sky, and two members of Hot Rize, Tim O’Brien and Nick Forster, help out on the wistful meandering road song, Bound For the South. Co-producer Adam Greuel supplies the lead vocals on Minnesota Moon and Jackson County, but elsewhere Castino is well up to the job on lead vocals throughout.
Then there’s the always standout contribution from ‘Flux’ himself, Jerry Douglas, playing dobro on both Jackson County and The Ballad of Dan Toe. The latter is a delicious six and a half minute Tex Mex flavoured saga about a Native American character, and somehow Castino managed to persuade the apparently reluctant veteran Peter Rowan into a studio to record his vocals on several verses! Another dobro player, Andy Hall of The Infamous Stringdusters, absolutely burns it up on the high speed Texas Fireball, the vocals being taken by his band mate Keller Williams.
The icing on the cake is the fun artwork and design from Beth VanDe Walker.
Thankfully, Castino has hinted that there will be more to follow. I urge you to seek out and enjoy!
Review by Eilís Boland
Awkward Family Portraits Dear Old West Holy Smokes
I have to admit to being quite surprised after the first listen to this album to learn that Awkward Family Portraits (great name) are, in fact, a Glaswegian roots and ragtime combo and not a Texan retro Western Swing band, as I had initially suspected. With limited information on their socials, I’m unaware of the names of the band members but, based on the photo with the press release that came with the album, the three members of the band are quite young in years. I’m equally uninformed of ‘who plays what’ on the album, which features a multitude of instruments from slick guitar breaks, slapping upright bass, and raging horns.
The eleven-track recording - all original songs - covers a wide range of bases, from Doo-wop to Mariachi, Western Swing to Ragtime, and Rockabilly to Old Timey, all presented skilfully and with no shortage of humour on the side. It follows on from their 2018 recording EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE UP UNTIL NOW EXCEPT WHAT WE’VE DONE SINCE, which earned them appearances at both Celtic Connections and C2C.
Particular highlights for me were the border sound of Ojos Rojos, which plays out like a soundtrack to a spaghetti western, the old-timey La La Bodega, and the Marty Robbins sounding Little Diamond (Dead, Gold & Still)
It's refreshing to come across a young band promoting a conglomeration of a number of classic old time dance inducing genres, and I can only imagine how powerfully emotive these guys would be on stage. Playing out like a history lesson in American music from the 1920s to the 1950s, if the swinging sound of the Cab Calloway era or, indeed, more recent times with the retro musical outpourings of Pokey Lafarge rock your boat, you’ll enjoy this album.
Review by Declan Culliton
Miranda Lambert Palomino Sony
The holder of the most awards in the history of the ACM, Miranda Lambert’s albums have covered a range of sonic landscapes from the traditional country direction of 2016’s THE WEIGHT OF THESE WINGS to the more pop crossover WILDCARD, her last solo release from 2019. A prolific and skilled songwriter and blessed with the vocal cords to equal the classic country vocalists from any generation, her last album release THE MARFA TAPES from 2021 was an acoustic collaboration with John Randall and Jack Ingram. It was recorded outdoors in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in West Texas, and found Lambert in splendid form both vocally and emotionally.
The album cover from her latest recording PALOMINO depicts Lambert in full western regalia with a desert background. This, alongside the album’s first single If I Was A Cowboy and its accompanying video, suggests that her ninth studio album may be more country than crossover. So, what is the verdict?
For this writer, it’s a thumbs up. Both laid back and gloriously loose, with lots of twang in all the right places, it embraces elements of both modern and retro country. Lambert revisits THE MARFA TAPES with the inclusion of three beefed-up tracks from that collection. The funky southern rock direction of Geraldine is splendid, complete with an astute vocal stutter in the chorus, and equally stirring is the hook-laden Waxahachie. The third inclusion from THE MARFA TAPES is the refined country ballad In His Arms.
The first of the fifteen tracks on the album, Actin’ Up calls to mind what Bobby Gentry might sound like in today’s market. Lambert is joined by Sarah Buxton and The McCrary Sisters on her bluesy and raucous cover of Mick Jagger’s Wandering Spirit and she takes a trip down the Cumberland River with the B-52’s onboard on the gloriously funky Music City Queen.
As you’d expect, the production and playing are top drawer. Lambert co-produced the album with her songwriting collaborators Luke Dick and Jon Randall and the players included Rob McNelley on guitars, Ian Fitchuk on bass and keyboards, and Fred Eltringham on drums.
“The making of this record has been one of the most fun and creative experiences of my career,” reflects Lambert. That merriment and autonomy shine brightly on PALOMINO, giving a lasting impression of an artist very much in a good place at present.
Review by Declan Culliton
May Erlewine Tiny Beautiful Things Self Release
My introduction to Michigan singer-songwriter May Erlewine was courtesy of Los Angeles-based artist Anna Ash, who recommended I check out her good friend’s music. Coincidentally, Erlewine’s latest recording arrived at Lonesome Highway HQ from her press agent, a short time later.
An artist held in the highest regard in the rural northern part of Michigan, her latest recording is named after the Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. Written under the pseudonym ‘Sugar’, the book includes a collection of personal and intimate letters between strangers. Given that the songs on TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS were written during quarantine, the album’s theme is very much about the significance and power of friendship, love, and connectivity.
Born into a musical family and home-schooled, Erlewine was surrounded by music during her childhood. Her father was a member of the blues band The Prime Movers and her uncle was a luthier. She can boast over twenty recordings since her debut album SLEEPLESS in 2003, having served her apprenticeship hitchhiking across Northern America playing street corners, bars, and clubs.
Described by Erlewine as ‘an invitation to connect with the many ways love appears in our lives’, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS finds her in great voice across ten lyrically arresting tracks. Of note, in particular, are the Nanci Griffith sounding Changing, the uplifting and sweetly melodic Lion Heart, the soulful piano-led Could Have Been, and the soul-searching opener Easy.
Co-produced by Erlewine and multi-instrumentalist Joe Hettinga (Megadeth, Liquid Soul, Max Lockwood), and recorded remotely during Covid with the input of fifteen musician confidantes of hers, it’s a charming fusion of soulful folk and relaxed country tunes. It will also have the writer delving into the extensive back catalogue of May Erlewine.
Review by Declan Culliton
Grant Lee Phillips All That You Can Dream Yep Roc
“In some ways, that freed me up to write and record the kind of song that was personal and executed as though it were for an audience of myself alone. That's freeing," confesses Grant Lee Phillips on the circumstances that led to the writing of his eleventh solo studio album.
Whereas he previously wrote while on the road touring, ALL THAT YOU CAN DREAM was conceived during the enforced lockdown of 2021. Focusing on both global events and life’s complexities, the inspiration for the album came from family drives in the countryside, admiring and appreciating the surrounding environment, and ironically, making the best of the restrictions imposed on him by the pandemic.
A Sudden Place, the first single from the album, was written in response to the burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral. ‘The world’s a sudden place, it turns on a dime,’ he sings, considering life-changing events out of our control. Written in 2019, the enormity of that reflection and those lyrics took on an altogether greater meaning when the reality of Covid hit home. It’s a striking opener to the album, with Phillips’ considered vocals caressed by timely cello splashes by Richard Dodd.
Bemoaning a world of ongoing challenges and provocations, the track Rats In A Barrel calls to mind the treacherous invasion of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters in January 2021 and My Eyes Have Seen points to the slanderous campaign of hatred directed at immigrants by the same administration. He recalls losing his home to an earthquake in Los Angeles almost thirty years ago in Cannot Trust the Ground and both Peace is a Delicate Thing and Cut to the Ending question the violent and unequal world we currently live in and how history continues to repeat itself.
The album was self-produced and recorded by Phillips at his Nashville home, working long distance with a number of players. Jennifer Condos (Ray LaMontagne, Sam Phillips, Bruce Springsteen) added bass guitar, Jay Bellerose (Joe Henry, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss) played drums, Jamie Edwards (Aimee Mann, Ron Sexsmith, David Byrne) was on keyboards, Eric Heywood (Gretchen Peters, The Jayhawks, Hayes Carl) played pedal steel and the aforementioned Richard Dodd (Sturgill Simpson, Loretta Lynn, James McMurtry) contributed cello. Vocals, guitars, piano, Mellotron, pump organ and keys were provided by Phillips.
Summing up his mindset when composing the songs that contribute to this thought-provoking album, Phillips confesses on the track Cut To The End, ‘I’ve seen some ugliness, some terror in my days. I’d love to think we’ve seen the end but when you think you’ve got the lid on, here it comes. The same old ghosts are back again.’
Phillips once more proves to be a masterly songwriter with ALL THAT YOU CAN DREAM, gifting the listener with a bank of songs that sit most comfortably alongside each other.
Review by Declan Culliton
Left Arm Tan Undefeated Self-Release
Fans of the Chicago based group Wilco will spot that the name of this Fort Worth, Texas band has a familiar ring to it. Taken from the song Monday (‘a world record players on a tour of Japan, Charlie fixing his van with the left arm tan’), which featured on Wilco’s 1996 album BEING THERE, the connection with that band and its predecessor Uncle Tupelo does not end there. Left Arm Tan engaged Ken Coomer, who played drums in both those bands, to produce UNDEFEATED, which is their sixth studio recording.
Left Arm Tan is Brian Lee (vocals, guitar), Daniel Hines (guitar, vocals), Shawn Light (guitar, vocals), Joseph Lopez (bass), Tim Manders (drums, vocals), and Mark Belding (steel guitar). Coomer is also credited with drum parts on the album which was recorded at Cartoon Moon Recording Studios in Nashville. Eight tracks are included, seven of which are self-writes, the title track being a co-write with John Teague of The Teague Brothers. Awarded the accolade of Song of The Year by Saving Country Music for the opening track Wish from their debut album JIM in 2010, they stuck with their template of alt-country albums up until and including their self-titled release in 2020. UNDEFEATED finds them in a more experimental mood, resulting in an album that is inspired by multiple genres.
The Tex-Mex border sound of Pamplona opens the album and that Mexican influence repeats on Born To Break Your Heart, complete with mariachi styled horns and silky Spanish guitar. The title track could have been plucked from the Jason Isbell songbook and the funky Cocaine Skinny tells of a wayward kid that gets drawn into drug dealing. The band cites the writings of Ernest Hemingway as the inspiration for much of the material and they visit a calmer space on the ballad The Old Man and The Sea, which is a worthy tribute to the acclaimed novelist.
Although a slight departure from their previous recordings, this album showcases a musical chemistry from players who are very much on the same page. Simply a lovely listening experience.
Review by Declan Culliton
Good Looks Bummer Year Keeled Scales
Four-piece Austin, band Good Looks’ debut album, BUMMER YEAR, is a seven-track introduction to the Texas guitar-driven combo. The band is Tyler Jordan (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), Jake Ames (lead guitar), Robert Cherry (bass) and Phillip Dunne (drums), and this striking suite of songs points toward a band with unlimited potential.
Life’s complexities and disorders feature solidly in Jordan’s songwriting. His snarling vocals reign on the opener Almost Automatic as he broods over a failed relationship and the Cure sounding 21, which follows, targets corporate greed. Leaving behind his homestead in South Texas and, in his own words, ‘his father’s cult-like church’, Jordan moved to Austin in his late teens. Plying his trade initially by busking on street corners, he hooked up with Jake Ames, having met him at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Sharing their small-town Texas spoilings they then formed the band.
The frustrations of surviving in the music industry are vented on the raw and brooding Vision Boards. Described by Jordan as ‘a love song for America, written from a place of frustration’, the title track also questions equality and equal opportunity in the modern world. Sonically quite muted, it echoes the vibe of Jeremy Ivey, its lyrical content and mood bring to mind that his 2020 album WAITING OUT THE STORM.
BUMMER YEAR is an album that resonates as an artist doing exactly as he pleases. A treasure chest of heartfelt songs brimful of texture, if the early work of John McCauley’s band Deertick rocks your boat, you’ll love this.
Review by Declan Culliton
Silver Lining Go Out Nowhere Die With Your Boots On
Regular visitors to the Lonesome Highway website will be aware of our appreciation of much of the roots music coming out of Scandinavia in recent years. Long before the genre Nordicana was christened, Stockholm sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, better known as First Aid Kit, were already out of the blocks and gaining international recognition. With foundations in both folk and country, their sun-kissed harmonies and melodic songs provided confirmation that roots music of that standard was not emanating solely from the Americas. Since then, we have been blessed with a stream of exciting recordings from a host of similarly inspired artists and bands from that part of the world. Malin Pettersen, Signe Marie Rustad, The Northern Belle, Louien, and Darling West have all recorded albums well received by us at Lonesome Highway.
The latest addition to that growing club is Silver Lining, a four-piece supergroup of sorts that features Stine Andreassen of The Northern Belle, his labelmate Louien (a.k.a. Live Miranda Solberg), Halvor Falck Johansen and Bjørnar Ekse Brandseth. Andreassen and Louien have previously been nominated for, and have won, numerous Spellman Awards, which are the Norwegian ‘Grammys.’
GO OUT NOWHERE, the band’s sophomore release is a ten-track album loaded with dazzling harmonies, haunting pedal steel guitar and well-crafted songs. Particularly easy on the ear are the stunning opener Your Everything, Days Like These, and the closing and standout track Silver Lining.
Silver Lining do dip into crossover radio-friendly pop at times, the title track and Time being examples. However, making music that blends elements of folk, country and pop together is the trademark of much of the music coming from Scandinavia. Drenched in summer sounds and combining themes of both sadness and joy in their songs, GO OUT NOWHERE could justifiably find the band a lot more followers outside of their native Norway. Have a listen and make your own mind up.
Review by Declan Culliton