The High Hawks Mother Nature's Show Lo-Hi
'No one is seeking fame, no one is seeking a big pay check. We're doing it because it brings us so much joy,' explains Chad Staehly (vocals, keyboards), one of six members of The High Hawks.
The band is a coming together of like-minded artists and close friends. The others are Vince Herman (vocals, guitars), Tim Carbone (vocals, guitars, fiddle), Adam Greuel (vocals, guitars), Brian Adams (bass guitar) and Will Trask (drums, percussion).
They bring their collective talents together once more with MOTHER NATURE'S SHOW, their second album, following their self-titled album from 2021. The players will be familiar to the more astute followers of the Roots and Americana genres. Herman is joint frontman with Leftover Salmon, Staehly was a member of Hard Working Americans, Adams and Trask are both part of Staehly's other band, Great American Taxi and Tim Carbone also plays with the band Railroad Earth. Greuel is also a member of the band Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.
With four songwriters and vocalists on board, the end product could have been erratic. On the contrary, combining their untold amount of road trips and vast career experiences, the twelve tracks proudly celebrate all that's vital about classic American roots music. They doff their collective caps in the direction of The Band (Backwater Voodoo, Mother Nature's Show), Tom Petty (Temperature Is Rising), and Grateful Dead (Fox River Blues). Matters of the heart also get an airing in Diamond Sky and This Is What Love Feels Like.
Recording commenced on New Year's Day 2023 at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota and was completed over a week; it sounds like a good time was had by all. A smile-inducing stockpile of songs from start to finish by a collection of musicians firing on all cylinders, The High Hawks continue where they left off on their equally impressive debut record.
Review by Declan Culliton
Louien Every Dream I Had Jansen
Five years ago, Lonesome Highway's exploration into the Nordicana music genre introduced us to several hugely impressive artists and bands. The Nordicana classification was brought into being by musicians in Norway whose musical direction was influenced by Americana and roots music from the United States. Similar to the Americana genre, whose musical wings continue to be spread in multiple directions, some artists filed as Nordicana, but not necessarily embracing traditional country, folk, bluegrass or soul music, came to our attention. Live Miranda Solberg's (aka Louien) 2019 solo album NONE OF MY WORDS was a point-in-case and a standout project that we completely embraced.
Solberg is also a member of the four-piece Norwegian super-group band Silver Lining, whose country and folk leanings are very much along classic Americana lines. However, her debut album, under the stage name Louien, was an entirely more explorative affair. Melding her crystal clear and high-pitched vocals to a suite of deeply innermost songs, many of which were derived from a period of grieving following her father's death, produced a hypnotic indie-folk showpiece. No Tomorrow / Figure Me Out, a combination of two EP releases, followed in 2022.
EVERY DREAM I HAD takes on board the musical direction of those previous records but also presents an artist growing in confidence. On this recording, her charming vocals are often pitched in front of dramatic arrangements of cello, violin, and synths. A case in point is the retro-sounding Quite Like This, which recalls the classic and fulsome production that Dusty Springfield and Scott Walker enjoyed in the 1960s. Please presents a more modern take on that former sound, and Let Go enters the folk/pop sensibilities of Solberg's Swedish neighbours, First Aid Kit. A gentle and melodic symphony accompanies her echoed and layered crooning on the synth-kissed and ghostly The Woods We Live In. She closes the eight-track album with Losing My Mind. An indie/folk delight with an addictive backbeat, it's a fitting finale to a record rich in ambition and execution.
Review by Declan Culliton
Frontier Ruckus On The Northline Loose
ON THE NORTHLINE arrives seven years after the release of Michigan-based band Frontier Ruckus’ last album, ENTER THE KINGDOM. Their trademark harmonies and striking melodies remain, but their latest project finds the band sonically at their most experimental.
The band’s two-decade continuance has yielded six studio albums and some personnel changes. The current lineup is founding members Matthew Milia (vocals, guitars), David Jones (vocals, banjos) and Zachary Nichols (vocals, multi-instrumentalist). Additional contributors to this album were Conor Dobson (drums, tambourine), Evan Eklund (bass guitar, vocals), Pete Ballard (pedal steel guitar) and Ben Collins (bass guitar, mandolin). Milia is credited as songwriter on all tracks except the gorgeous instrumental album closer, Wherefore, which was composed by Nichols.
The album’s lyrical content was built around tales of the North County of upstate New York, where Milia’s family settled when they arrived from Sicily in the early 1900s. Milia’s lyrics exquisitely craft the simple lives of generations as he revisits what was once a thriving industrial area, sadly now in decline.
For this writer, the band’s impressive back catalogue often brought to mind the dynamic of early-career R.E.M. While those lyrical and vocal forms remain in ON THE NORTHLINE, the arrangements are grander with the addition of Ennio Morricone-styled orchestration on a number of tracks.
Peppered with standout tracks, Mercury Sabre details the ups and downs of a long-term relationship. It is simply exquisite in its lyrical and musical content and boasts a melody I find impossible to shake off. Matters of the heart and infatuation also surface in Everywhere But Beside You and Magdelene (That’s Not Your Name). They go full-on honky tonk on The Machines Of Summer and power-poppy Clarkston Pasture. The title track is vintage Frontier Ruckus with drifting, unhurried melodies that soothe and captivate.
Frontier Ruckus has pushed out the boundaries with ON THE NORTHLINE. It takes its cues from artists ranging from The Byrds to Sufjan Stevens and Calexico to R.E.M and, in doing so, has fashioned a career finest. Simply intoxicating.
Review by Declan Cullito
Hurray For The Riff Raff The Past Is Still Alive Nonesuch
The brainchild of Alynda Segarra (they/them), Hurray For The Riff Raff was formed in New Orleans in 2007. After a decade of train hopping around North America and hooking up with kindred runaways, Segarra settled in New Orleans, embracing the city's diversity and acceptance of all types. Their musical output also took on board the city's multiplicity, effortlessly blending roots, jazz and blues to create their own gypsy-type recordings.
Their last record, the powerful LIFE ON EARTH (2022), was thematically driven by the need to exist in a world bordering on disarray. With the addition of electronic elements, that album was sonically experimental and a departure from the more folk-leaning of their previous projects. Musically, THE PAST IS STILL ALIVE is a return to their folk and roots leanings and plays out as a series of Segarra's memoirs from childhood to the present day.
'Writing this album was an exercise in memory excavation,' explained Segarra in a recent interview. Harking back to childhood, recollections of being driven by their father, Jose Enrique Quico, for the annual excursion from their home in the Bronx to Florida for family holidays are presented in Snakeplant (The Past Is Alive). Sadly, their father, who was hugely supportive of Segarra's career, died suddenly a month before the recording of the album. A photo of him as a young man is used as the cover of HFTRR's 2012 album, LOOK OUT MAMA.
The track Hawkmoon pays homage to Miss Jonathan, the first trans woman encountered by Segarra in their early days in New Orleans, and Alibi is a plea to a hopelessly drug-addicted friend most likely and regrettably beyond rescuing. One-time New Orleans neighbour Esther Rose wrote a verse for the song Buffalo, returning the favour to Segarra, who added vocals on Rose's 2023 album SAFE TO RUN title track. Another artist inspired by the prowess and backbone of Segarra is Kentucky singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman, who adds her vocal to Dynamo and a duet with Conor Oberst, The World Is Dangerous, also features. The mass shooting in 2022 at a gay bar in Colorado, at Club Q, was the catalyst for Colossus Of Roads.
A 'folk' author and singer in the true sense with a body of work fuelled by their personal and sometimes maladjusted journey, Segarra's crusade as one of the most introspective songwriters and storytellers of recent generations continues with this album. From their hugely impressive back catalogue, THE NAVIGATOR was a semi-autobiographical and concept album about an independent spirit seeking escape and HFTRR's standout recording for me. THE PAST IS STILL ALIVE equals, if not surpasses it and will no doubt feature in the standout records of this year in many circles.
Review by Declan Culliton
Amelia White Love I Swore Thirty Tigers
‘I’ve been in a long relationship, and I wrote this record in a period where I thought I was going to lose that relationship. So, there’s that theme, keeping love going when you’re having to re-meet each other every time I return home,’ explains Amelia White on the backdrop to her new album, LOVE I SWORE.
Although a leading light in the burgeoning East Nashville music hotbed for many years, as with many artists in that bohemian community, commercial survival could best be described as ‘hand to mouth’ for White. With up to a dozen records over a career that covers nearly three decades, her talent was finally rewarded when the success of her 2017 album RHYTHM OF THE RAIN heralded a well-deserved springboard to greater industry recognition.
LOVE I SWORE was recorded at Bell Tone Recording in Nashville and was produced by singer-songwriter Kim Richey, who also contributed backing vocals and percussion. White played acoustic and electric guitars, and the other players were Doug Lancio on guitar, Mark Pisapia on drums, and Billy Harvey on bass. Comparisons to Lucinda Williams may be lazy, but my initial take on the first listen remains on repeated plays. White’s vocal drawl and the edgy playing and driving rhythm accompanying them fit hand in glove.
Bordering on a logbook in the life of a career artist, White approaches the topic with brutal honesty. Tracks like the raunchy Get To The Show and the love ballad Love I Swore ponder the harsh realities of life on the road while attempting to sustain a relationship. Those matters of the heart are a recurring theme across the album’s eleven tracks. A wound not yet healed emerges on Something New Comes, and a troubled relationship is also featured in I Follow The River. It’s not all doom and gloom either; brighter times are reflected in Don’t You Ever Forget and Can’t You See Me Now, which is a reminder to avoid complacency and keep the candle burning.
An album that sounds as if it has been around forever, LOVE I SWORE showcases White’s flair for easy-to-access melodies alongside excursions into rugged rock and roll. It’s a fine listen from start to finish, and if there is any justice, it is one that should further promote White’s celebrity.
Review by Declan Culliton
The Northern Belle Bats in the Attic Die With Your Boots On
Major players in the flourishing Nordicana music genre, The Northern Belle, alongside First Aid Kit, Louien, Malin Petersen, Darling West, and Signe Marie Rustad, perfectly define the growing music scene emerging from Scandinavia and the Nordics.
The Northern Belle cover all the bases in fine style for what constitutes Nordicana in BATS IN THE ATTIC, their fifth studio album. Southern rock (Fresh Dew Drippin’), country/folk (Astral Plane, Higher Power), and power pop (Hell & Back, Merchant Navy Hotel) are all most impressively represented. They also exhibit the aptitude to turn out eloquent acoustic ballads with Grow Up and Japanese.
The six Northern Belle members are Stine Andreassen (vocals, guitars), Bjørnar Ekse Brandseth (guitars, pedal steel), Johanne Flottorp (hardanger fiddle, harmonies), Trym Gjermundbo (drums), Ole-André Sjøgren (guitars, harmonies) and Marie Tveiten (guitars, harmonies).
The impetus for much of the album’s songs came from an unlikely source. Band leader and songwriter Andreassen unearthed over three hundred and seventy letters in her grandmother’s attic, which her grandfather had written to his wife while he was at sea and stationed abroad. Other songs deal with new life - Andreassen gave birth for the first time - and life lost by the passing of friends.
Together with the quality of the instrumentation and the production, the common denominator amongst all the Nordicana acts noted above is the quality of the vocals. That indeed rings true on this album also, with lead vocals by Andreassen; the harmonies and layered vocals stand out throughout the album’s eleven tracks. Easy on the ears, BATS IN THE ATTIC is a delightful and nuanced recording worth investigating.
Review by Declan Culliton
Rodney Rice Self-Titled Self-Release
This album came out last year but arrived with us more recently. Unlike his previous releases, which were tracked in Austin, Rice recorded this album in Nashville. This time out, it was produced, engineered and mixed by Drew Carroll and features a wide range of players, some twenty-one in all, including Billy Contreras, Dave Racine, Dennis Crouch, and Jack Lawrence. Over that rhythmic base, there are the added textural quality of keyboards, guitars, trumpet, mandolin and fiddle, as well as a host of backing singers. It can definitely be seen as a step up for Rice overall. It should bring him further recognition for his Texas-based troubadour tunes which reflect his influences and overall direction (touches of the variety offered by The Flatlanders are apparent).
The result is a solidly performed and produced album highlighting Rice's songwriting and down-home voice on likeable tunes that are often immediately appealing, such as Rabbit Ears Motel, a twangy song with piano and Telecaster to the fore. There are a lot of different arrangements throughout that vary the tone, the almost New Orleans feel to the opening How You Told Me So. I was also reminded a little, on a track or two, of the great Phil Lee, more in feel than as a direct comparison - but maybe that's just me. Get To Where I'm Going details a brief overnight relationship. Of leaving and heading on down the highway to the next gig and wondering … "What's the point of just hanging around / the same shit in the same damn town." It's all built around a strong, driving guitar riff and break.
Set' Em Up is jaunty and offers the philosophy of set 'em up, and I'll knock 'em down. Again, the barrelhouse-style piano is effective. Wonder Where I Came From is a thought that we all might have. Rice wonders how his life became a sad old country song. The song, one of two not written solely by Rice, was co-written with Katie Cahn and given a solid kick-ass country/rock runout.
Taking a more reflective fiddle-laden tone is Roll River Roll, a tale of a man who worked the mines - a life summed up with "first they broke my back, then they broke my mind." It shows that Rice is equally at home with a lighter touch as with the more up-tempo material. The final track, Every Passing Day, has a nice alt-country feel that looks at the need for empathy in a country severely lacking it. For his part, Rice shows his own empathy, essential humanity and understanding of its flaws and needs on this enjoyable album.
Review By Stephen Rapid
Phil Lee When I Close My Eyes I See Blood Palookaville
This album is the second in a fortuitous partnership between Lee and producer and multi-instrumentalist David West, the bulk of the material coming from Lee's pen and imagination. The album relates, in terms of spirit and attitude, to his early musical apprenticeship as a drummer for a largely liked local character, Homer A. Briarhopper, who fronted his bluegrass band the Briarhoppers in all his Nudie-suited glamour back in Raleigh, North Carolina. He passed away in 1983, but left a lasting mark on Lee's approach to performing and entertaining.
These songs are not directly related to that mentor but rather are symptomatic of Lee's vision of the debris of humanity's idiosyncrasies. The title track, however, is written by Brendan Earley. The opening song, A Night In The Box, takes us out to the trailer park where the available space is too small to "fight nor disagree" but has just about enough room to "kiss and hug", so he invites the ladies to come in to "spend a night in the box". I Wish This Song Had Teeth has something of an old-time attitude with resonator guitar, virtual tuba, banjo and piano. It wants a reaction that would leave a person in a mood that would "put you in a rasslin' hold."
Last Year is just one example of how this duo are of the same mind and anticipate the best way to bring the song into a place where the sum of the two equals a full band sound that can touch on honky-tonk, Bakersfield and an all point west. The song highlights the distinctive of Lee's vocals (in a very compatible harmony with West throughout). It perfectly suits the theme of a relationship going from good to bad in the space of a year, "we were dumb and in love, we were like kids / now you regard me through narrowed eyelids / now you hate me, you can't say that you did ... last year." It also underlines that Lee has an interesting way with words that, time and again, produce a memorable song.
The aspect of loving, moving on, cheating while all the time seeking some temporary solace and, mostly, understanding his own failings emerges. For All The Times I Won't asks for a simple kiss, knowing that there will be many times when that won't happen. This subject is a constant, with other titles like She Ran Out Of Give and I'm The Why She's Gone. The latter has a great 60s-sounding arrangement and piano from West. It shows the fragility and regret in Lee's delivery. Nobody But You, by way of contrast, features an acoustic backing that includes dobro, mandolin and banjo as effectively as the material using a bigger sound. The album closes with Lee's arrangement of an oft-recorded song, The Lonesome Road. It is given an old-style gospel take with a passion suited to the melancholy nature of the song. In his early seventies, Lee has a distinctive and recognisable voice that has aged as well as his talent.
All in all, it is a triumph for the partnership of Phil Lee and David West for this second album of their working together. It is, for Lee fans and others, another affirmation that, while he may not be that well known to a wider audience, he has had a career that has delivered much under his own direction, which he has continued to produce as he has said, "quality whether you want it or not." Once again, I know I very much want it.
Review By Stephen Rapid
Houston Bernard Ditch This Town Self-Release
Coming from a background steeped in music and no little history, Bernard is continuing that tradition by putting his own stamp on a contemporary up-tempo set of rockin' county tunes. Raised in Alaska, though born in Oklahoma, he was always interested in music and, after a stint in the US Army, began to take that path more seriously, amalgamating influences that ranged from Springsteen, Mellencamp and Bryan Adams to Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton., people who told stories drawn from observation and experience. Some are personal, such as In My Blood, a song he co-wrote with Britton Cameron, which draws from his own life and how he was named after an uncle who passed away at an early age on the family farm. Throughout the album, Bernard co-wrote the songs, the majority of which would seem to be in his normal writing pattern. However, it is his voice that comes through.
Over the eleven tracks on the album, which Nashville producer Bill McDermott helmed, they and the band explore a sound that can easily move from the more vibrant to the more contemplative tracks like Carry That Torch. While Broken is exemplary with the lyric, "When you’re high as a kite you're flying straight to the bottom." It closes an album that offers a viewpoint that is not that of traditional country. However, it contains elements of that but instead has a more modern sound that will undoubtedly attract an audience looking to connect with elements of that but also looking for something more synchronous with their age and lifestyle. They can find this here with Bernard and some of the current exponents of this music, one that features keyboards more so than fiddle and pedal steel.
In the song Ain't Like Me, there is a revealing line about a man who never stays in one place too long, which may indicate an influence that sits alongside his country music leanings, and that is "I got a touch of Springsteen in Born To Run." As with other tracks like this and the title track, it has a strong anthemic quality that, doubtless, would work well (or more so) in a live setting.
The musicians appear to be of a like mind regarding the cut and thrust of the music, which, alongside the keyboards, has some edgy rock guitar moments over a solid driving rhythmic base. However, Bernard has a vocal ability that works just as effectively on the slower material, like the soul-searching introspection of Darkest Water. His learning of life's means and ways, as perhaps dictated by family and history as well as his own story, is in the song In My Blood. It talks of an uncle who died at the age of two on the family farm and after whom he is named. It has an evident passion in its delivery. A similar sense of understanding the past and the present is touched on again in All We Are Is Memories, delivered more as an enunciated ballad.
That overall relationship with family, place and love is at the heart of the slow-paced Carry That Torch, which contrasts with another love song that is pulsating, catchy,Wild Desire. More understanding of the downsides that can be the unfortunate consequences of the harsh reality of day-to-day existence is found in Broken, which closes in a suitable contrast to some of the other material and is delivered in a more stripped-back form which suits the song's inner reality. As mentioned, this may not appeal to some but will to its intended audience and shows that Bernard, while a relative newcomer, has one foot in his heritage and his headset in the future.
Review By Stephen Rapid