Jaelee Roberts Something You Didn’t Count On Mountain Home
Just because your father is a member of The Grascals (Danny Roberts) and your mother is a bass player and a bluegrass booking agent (The Andrea Roberts Agency) doesn’t necessarily imply that you have any musical talent. However, the release of this most impressive debut album, from a young woman barely out of her teens, hints that perhaps all those days backstage at The Grand Ole Opry weren’t wasted on the young Jaelee. Of course, she had the benefit of fiddle lessons at four years old, followed by piano, mandolin and guitar, and she willingly embraced all musical opportunities from the start. She also shows that she is developing as a songwriter, with four of the twelve songs here being written or co-written by her. However, outstanding above all of these attributes is Jaelee Roberts’ simply stunning voice.
The title and opening track is a barnstorming kickstart and also introduces her hot band of bluegrass players: Kristin Scott Benson on banjo (The Grascals), Alan Bibey on mandolin (Grasstowne), Jimmy Mattingly on fiddle (Dolly Parton, Reba McIntyre) and Tony Wray on guitar (Dan Tyminski). It’s all consummately produced by Tim Surrett, who also contributes the tasty dobro and bass. Roberts can slow it down on heartbreak songs like Think Again or the moving gospel song I Owe Him Everything. She’s equally at home burning it up on Sad Songs or on Molly Tuttle’s You Can’t Stop Me From Staying. There’s a gorgeous cover of Stevie Nicks’ classic Landslide, where she’s joined by the unmistakeable vocals of Vince Gill, and she calls in Amanda & Kenny Smith for harmony vocals on her cover of Gram Parsons’ Luxury Liner, among other tracks.
Also a member of roots/bluegrass supergroup, Sister Sadie, and studying songwriting at university, this young woman is one to watch. Already with one foot in traditional country and the other in bluegrass, I won’t be surprised if she becomes the ‘Dolly Parton’ of this generation.
Review by Eilís Boland
Shawn Williams Sulking In Love Self Release
New Orleans singer songwriter Shawn Williams’ 2022 album, WALLOWIN’ IN THE NIGHT, was a ‘no holds barred’ affair of heartbreak, hangovers and hardship. Describing her music as alt-country rockabilly, Williams’ emotional outbursts on that album marked her out as a songwriter cut from the same cloth as her namesakes Lucinda Williams and Hank Williams Jr. If that fine suite of songs was an attempt to finally exorcise vexations and bury some past failed relationships, it may not have entirely succeeded as Williams is still spitting fire on her latest record, SULKING IN LOVE.
She gets down to business from the onset with the opener I Need More (‘let me tell you what’s been on my mind... ‘cos I need more trust than I’ve been giving’) and closes the album on a less than upbeat note with the confessional and mournful mid-tempo ballad, Lonesome Blues. In between these two tracks, her collected stories are rich in detail and content. The wonderfully brooding Call Me Up aims its trigger in the direction of a past suitor and Where I Stand is cut from the same cloth, following a matching ‘busted heart’ thread. If the rawness and the emotions vented in those previously mentioned songs indicate the approach of a breaking point, the album’s standout track, Givin’ Up, goes a step further, approaching the verge of physical collapse. It’s both brutal and brilliant and wouldn’t have been out of place on Lucinda Williams’ self-titled album or Marianne Faithfull’s masterpiece BROKEN ENGLISH. Society (‘I sure as hell can’t afford to leave and my family’s family’s family fill these cemeteries’) finds Williams venting her anger against the gentrification of her home town, New Orleans.
Williams hired a talented bunch of players to replicate the organic sound that worked so well on WALLOWIN’ IN THE NIGHT. Joining her in the studio were Michael Chaves (Leonard Cohen, Marianne Faithfull) on guitar, keys, strings, harmonica and tambourine, Daryl Johnson (Emmylou Harris, Neville Brothers) on bass, harmonies, and percussion, and Omari Neville (Omari Neville & The Fuel) on drums and percussion. Grammy Award winner Mark Howard (Bob Dylan, REM, Lucinda Williams) supervised, produced, and mixed the tracks and captures the dominant mood of the songs perfectly.
An album that travels from the composed to the frenetic, SULKING IN LOVE continues where the writer’s last album left off, with William’s trademark unflinching lyrics and raw vocals offering a gateway to the darkness lurking underneath personal distress. It’s also one for the slow burner so don’t expect to connect on the first play, it does take time to absorb. However, time invested offers rich rewards on each subsequent visit, from an artist never afraid to challenge the tried and trusted.
Review by Declan Culliton
Diana Jones Better Times Will Come - Reimagined & Remastered Proper
It’s hard to believe that fifteen years have passed since the release of Diana Jones’ celebrated album BETTER TIMES WILL COME. It’s also poignant that the optimism and hopefulness expressed in the album’s title have not yet come to fruition and that many of the sentiments addressed on the album remain fractured.
Revisiting the entire recordings for the original album with studio engineer Steve Addabbo (Bob Dylan, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega), was both an uplifting and emotional experience for Jones. She admits that tears were shed while revisiting the recordings of the title track and hearing the late Nanci Griffith’s vocals once more. The new version of that song that opens the album includes an additional chorus with Griffith’s harmony vocals. The album’s sequencing was also altered. The anti-gun and domestic abuse song, If I Had a Gun, appropriately follows that opening track with its clear and simple message - no guns and no one gets shot. An additional song, Call Me Daddy, which also addresses domestic violence but didn’t make the original cut, is included.
The love letter penned by the miner trapped underground on Henry Russell’s Last Words and the meeting of two people eventually finding love on Cracked and Broken sound as vital and timeless today as they did fifteen years ago. Soldier Girl tells of a woman heading off to war by way of a necessary career choice and the autobiographical in part, All God’s Children (‘I search for faces that look like my own’), considers the plight faced by the orphaned child. As was the case on the original album, the album closes with The Day I Die.
Diana Jones’ writings have consistently focused on dark and harrowing topics, a celebration of the classic folk ballads so close to her heart. With her delightful vocal purr and joined by musicians whose playing is suitably understated and more than complements those vocals, BETTER TIMES WILL COME established itself as one of the quintessential Americana recordings of its time. This remastered edition and its thought-provoking and powerfully emotive songs, fifteen years after its initial emergence, remain a joy to behold.
Review by Declan Culliton
Casey Prestwood Where I’m Going Is Where I’ve Always Been Self Release
There can be little doubt that Casey Prestwood has always been a believer in the righteous ways of traditional country music, something that is exemplified in his music, his mode of dress and his long-standing honky-tonk attitude. He also uses his deep knowledge of the history of the music to create original material that would fit as much back then as it does in today’s climate, though not perhaps in the way that many have come to regard as country music, based on current commercial dictats that seek to move the music so far from its roots that the title is virtually meaningless. Things might be about to change, to some small degree perhaps, with some of the more true to genre artists making breakthroughs in the mainstream.
I don’t feel, though, that Prestwood is focused on that particular goal with his music. Rather the Denver, Colorado based performer is more concerned with getting his music right and true to his personal vision. Neither is he prolific in the release of his albums. His last outing, BORN TOO LATE, came out in 2016 (it is available with some other releases on his website). However, the wait for this latest collection of songs has been worth it.
He recorded the album with a like-minded and thoroughly respected producer in Justin Trevino. They recorded in Trevino’s studio in Brady, Texas. He was joined, as he has been over several previous recordings, by his Burning Angels rhythm section of Kevin Finn (drums) and Jeff Martin (bass) and new member David Knodle played electric guitar. Add to that Hank Singer on fiddle, Floyd Domino on piano and Tyler Hall on steel guitar. The backing singers are notable too, with Sierra Ferrell and Amber Digby adding their vocals to balance Prestwood’s ever assured and nuanced lead vocals. The sessions were recorded largely live, which gave an added presence to the overall country shuffle sound that is apparent in the self-written tracks.
As is perhaps natural, the songs touch on the perennial themes that were the staple of country music over the last few years. Paralyzed Heart is the opening song and is a nod to the Bakersfield inspired sound that has a fondness for the truck drivin’ stories of Red Simpson among others. Crossed Signals is a song about the importance of getting to the point in a relationship. It heralds in the classic shuffle sound with fiddle and steel well to the fore. Out Of Place (a co-write with Josh Berwanger), that has the darker side of drug use at its centre, features Sierra Ferrell in a mash up that Prestwood describes as “the Gatlin Brothers meets T Rex!”
There are two songs that directly touch on that other seminal theme of drink in Wine Drunk wherein that state of inebriation is a place he wants to take his girl. Day Drinking, on the other hand, recognises that as the years pass it’s not often possible to carry on as it was easy to do in the past.
Cheating, as you might expect, has its place here too - and from both sides of the fence. In Slipping Away he is the one facing up to the pain of the realisation that he is no longer wanted, while the song Crazy Girls addresses the running around he did in his younger days, especially in relation to touring and playing. Maybe I’ll Be Happy describes a petulant mood that finds him heading to the place where he thought he would be happy, following a fight with a girlfriend. That mood is again addressed in Leave Me Alone, the detail tells it all.
The overall perception though is of an excellent album that captures the well intentioned balance between artist, players, producer and material, that makes it one that it is easy to love on those different levels. A work of heart.
Review by Stephen Rapid
White Rose Motor Oil The Gift Of Poison Self Release
A husband and wife duo of Eryn DeSomer on vocals, guitar, keyboards and percussion and Keith Hoerig DeSomer on drums, bass and handclaps. So by the very fact of that particular line-up, they will doubtless draw parallels with any similar duo but especially, perhaps, The White Stripes playing a Dolly Parton song. They have been compare with the Jack White produced Loretta Lynn album Van Lear Rose, as well as to Neko Case’s more country-styled output. Pop-country is a term that has been used about them too but that has connotations of something far less palatable. They are closer to the best of power-pop in terms of energy and enjoyment and their country veers towards the traditional, rather than the more recent mainstream pap. That, at least, will give those unacquainted with their output some Idea of what to expect.
They put out a series of EPs back in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 respectively. YOU CAN”T KILL GHOSTS, their debut album of original material, came out in 2021 and was preceded by an album of cover versions. They have obviously gained a lot of studio experience from those recordings to get them to the place for this album.
This twelve track release is good fun and the sound, produced by Brian Hunter who worked with them on previous recordings and who also recorded, mixed and mastered it, is vibrant and accessible and on the rock side of rootsy. They hail from Denver, Colorado, a city that has thrown up some interesting outfits in recent times like Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Casey James Prestwood and The Burning Angels through to The Cowboy Dave Band (to name but three).
The songs deal with the trials and tribulations of love, with titles such as Just Your Type, Meet Me At The Bottom, Trouble Or Nothing, Only In Dreams and Ain’t No Saint giving hints of that state of mind and mood. Most of the songs are uptempo and upbeat despite the sometimes alternative nature of the lyrical content and story songs. The single outside track here is a version of Carlene Carter’s Every Little Thing that reminds one of a great song, artist and a reference point in time that is as valid in this version as the original was in its time.
One things that is apparent is that this couple, on record at least, don’t need anyone else to keep you listening. Eryn has a powerful, confident and versatile voice that can handle all the songs with equal ability, whilst musically they offer a similar credence and credibility.
This gift is one that, so far, sounds like it will keep on giving and that White City Motor Oil lubricates many parts of the country rock motor, something that keeps us in tune and our motors running.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Pete Berwick The Damage Is Done Shotgun
Described as a cowpunk pioneer, Berwick this time sounds a lot less of the former and more firmly rooted in the latter demographic. This is the seventh release from Berwick and continues his hard rockin’ trajectory which began with his initial cowpunk outfit, Peter Berwick & Interstate. This album has been produced by Charlie Bonnet III, who has also furnished the buzzsaw guitars to Berwick’s often angry songs and delivery. The studio team is rounded out by engineer/ mixer Dave Summer’s worthy contributions on bass, drums, keyboards and additional guitar. Ashley Argo provides some backing vocals, joining the male trio to provide some additional vocal presence.
There is hardly a let up in pace and intensity from the open trio of hi-energy tracks that would likely please any Social Distortion fan or, for that matter, fans of power-pop fuelled punk in general. Time Clock On The Wall takes a step back with a slower paced guitar-led ballad. In an equally balanced step back from the raging fire is Ghost Tears, with some melodic atmospheric harmonies behind Berwick’s straining vocal that hints of the 60’s and the Ramones’ Spector recordings. Don’t Know How is another tale of hard times delivered, as the song’s message befits, at a less hectic pace and again is used to offset the full tilt punk boogie of the other songs, such as the beat-up hard edged beat for the remaining songs, one of which You’ll Get Used To It takes you back to the genesis of UK punk in London in ’77. The mid-paced Haunted Heart was written by Bonnet, the only song not penned by Berwick himself.
Berwick has thus far released some nine previous albums and anyone acquainted with his releases will know what to expect from this seasoned performer. It seems after such a long engagement with his music that this album has not seen him mellow though he has, on occasion, moderated his music to explore some other possibilities. Here he is back to demonstrating why the “cowpunk” connection was made in the first place, even though there is less obvious twang in evidence.
Berwick is also a working character actor with a lot of experience, who currently features in a new film One Night On Dover Street. His biography notes he has been a stand-up comedian, a theatre actor and an author, as well as playing both Elvis and Johnny Cash He has also had his music included in a variety of movies over a number of years. One song taken from the album of the same name is Ain’t No Train Out Of Nashville that featured in the film about aspiring Nashville songwriters entitled A Thing Called Love. But it is his solo work his has forged his roots rock path, that sits alongside his musical journey since he began performing in the late 70s.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Cinder Well Cadence Free Dirt
Amelia Baker is one of the brightest talents to emerge on the music scene in recent years. Her debut album arrived back in 2015 and she has been slowly building a career that has seen separate album releases in 2018 and 2020, with a few singles and a live recording included along the journey.
Her vocal is very hypnotic and captures the listener with its intimacy and purity in the delivery. These are songs of meditative space and timeless quality. There is a deep resonance in the melodies and the song arrangements that lingers and demands attention. The music is deeply rooted in the feel of the process and the musicians are very intuitive in their interplay. Baker called upon the talents of Philip Rogers (drums), Neal Heppleston (bass), Jake Falby (violin), and Cormac MacDiarmada (strings) during the recording.
Having lived in Ireland for a number of years, Baker decided to return to her original home in Los Angeles and to touch base with her past. The album reflects the distance between these two parts of her experience, the time spent of different coasts, both very beautiful and both very different. The song Returning seems to capture this dichotomy with the refrain ‘The returning takes its own time’ hinting at the perspective needed to reconcile the two different worlds.
The title track is one that drips with atmosphere and reflects upon the rising and falling of life’s experiences; the vocal mirroring this sense of movement and passion. The sombre violin tone sets the atmosphere and the understated playing supports the song at every new inflection. The project was recorded at Hen House Studios near Venice beach but there is no sense of sunny days or long beach walks in the reflective and intimate sounds of songs like Well On Fire and Crow. The undulating waves perhaps played a part as Baker took in the beach vistas and superimposed them upon the rugged seas of the west of Ireland. Darkness and light, pleasure and pain, introspection and remembering to caution restraint.
Gone the Holding reflects upon the path that Baker has taken with images that reference birds, ports, the sea and time running out. Her experience of Covid isolation cannot have been easy for a writer who requires stimulation to feed her creative muse. A Scorched Lament is a slow melody with the imagery of a blackbird carrying messages of inner thoughts to places unknown. Final song I Will Close In the Moonlight has a certain calm that channels a delivery that is very reminiscent of Natalie Marchant in its lament to passing ships in the night, people who touch our lives, and then move on. Compelling and swathed in sounds to both heal and renew. A superb album in every way.
Review by Paul McGee
Hillsborough Comin’ back For You Heartsville
This band is based in the Queensland area of Australia and comprises the twin talents of Phil Usher and Beata Maglai, with Robbie Zawada on double bass, and Jonathan Pickvance on drums.
Opening track Trouble Finds Its Way is a perfect start to these songs about pleasure and pain. ‘There’s a price to walk away, But it’s death to try and stay, Walk the path with heavy boots, When trouble finds its way to you.’ In a similar vein Magnetic Lives and Exit Wounds circle the same territory of lost relationships and wanting to move on from a bad situation.
When Nobody Knows Your Name speaks of a life spent in isolation and the urge to be independent ‘When no one knows your name, You can lay your own track, It’s a two-headed coin, When you break from the pack.’ Maybe it’s just following a dream or maybe it’s a case of just lying to yourself? Other songs like Stitches and Comin’ Back To You tell about the other side of relationships and the feeling of being together with your love on the same path.
The country noir sound of Port Jackson Blues is typical of the great rhythm that runs through these song arrangements with the pulse of the backbeat and the distant howl of guitars laying down a sense of foreboding. Equally the insistent guitar groove on Laughing Clown is deeply infectious and the lines ‘No matter how you spell it honey, I’m just a wandering soul, You better save up all that money, My feet are made from gold.’ Another song that speaks of getting away and starting over is Far Away From Here and the urge to escape childhood constraints is strong ‘When you’ve only seen the night, You can’t recognise the light, The charred remains of your former life, Forge a prison for your mind.’ The slow strum of guitars, impassioned vocals and harmonica all add to the dynamic. The final song Queenie is an ode to a lost friend and the hope that they can meet again further down the dusty trails of time. ‘This is how it ends, Speeches given by old friends, The volumes left unsaid, And hope that we will meet again.’ A nicely framed sentiment and a tribute to the past.
This is outlaw country with a ragged sense of time and place despite the miles that separate Texas from Queensland. It has a swagger and a real taste of gritty maturity that is endearing.
Review by Paul McGee
Drew Young Bourbon and Bad Decisions Self Release
This album came with little information but on searching further it transpires that the release date was June 2022 and the fourteen songs were a “collection of previously releases singles, remastered singles, live versions and never before released singles.”
My copy of the album has only twelve tracks included but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment factor. The arrangements and melodies are very bright and clean in the overall production and mastering. These are songs of loss and longing. The lessons learned are hard fought and the insights gained are worth the pain in the end.
Young sounds like Gorden Lightfoot across a number of these tracks with a resonance in his voice that is both deep and resonant. The title track references the road taken by Young in getting sober and joining the ranks of the ‘Friends of Bill.’ The nice groove and rhythm is similar to other tracks like You’re Just Too Good To Let Go, Falling Down and It’ll Be Soon. Another song The Geogia Line is similar in tempo to a Richard Marx hit, Hazard, from some years ago.
Stuck On Believing and A Couple Of Rounds Before I Go are two highlights with some sweet guitar and keyboard sounds filling the arrangements and excellent background vocals from an uncredited female voice that is impressive and succeeds in lifting the songs to a sweeter spot. This release will give you a strong impression of a consistent and strong song-writing quality and an urge to check our more of this artist’s back catalogue.
Review by Paul McGee
Jaelee Roberts Music, Shawn Williams Music, Diana Jones - Singer/Songwriter, Casey Prestwood, White Rose Motor Oil, Pete Berwick, Cinder Well, Hillsborough - Music, and The Drew Young Band.