The Whiskey Charmers Streetlights Sweet Apple Pie
The fifth release from Detroit Americana outfit, The Whiskey Charmers, delivers more of their characteristic sound, criscrossing the roots rock and country rock highways, through western deserts and eastern urban landscapes.
Carrie Shepard writes all the songs, plays acoustic guitar and takes lead vocals. There’s a slight fragility in her sweet vocals that lends an attractive vulnerable quality. Her husband, Lawrence Daversa, prefers to express himself through his stellar Telecaster playing, responding to her vocals with eloquence and versatility. They are ably supported by the bass playing of Daniel Ozzie Andrews and the percussion of John Porter. The title track, inspired by a dream sequence, sets the scene of darkness and foreboding, reflected in the cover photo of an eerie urban landscape. There’s Black and Whiskey, It was Made For Drinking are songs of love gone wrong, more than gone right, continuing the downer theme for a while. But then there’s New Song for Sale, a tongue-in-cheek take on the classic country song, using a clever string of clichéd lyrics to great effect. They stray into Handsome Family territory with the equally amusing Little Green Man, where Shepard imagines our world from the view point of a space ship alien. Don’t Mean Nothin’ is the defiant anthem of a disillusioned wife in a dead marriage who is stuck at home with the housework, and I’ll give you one guess as to what she’s going to do when the song is over.
Stand out songs for this reviewer are Black Ridge Cave and Sage Brush. The former is a murder-revenge ballad, with a spaghetti western atmosphere evoked by Daversa’s guitar work and superb bass drum contributions from Porter, while the latter hints at a ghostly western tragedy. Definitely worth checking them out.
Eilís Boland
BJ Baartmans Ghostwriter Continental Europe
Well known in his native Netherlands, where he has been involved in the rock and allied music scenes for 40 years, producer and multi instrumentalist BJ Baartmans has also carved a name for himself throughout Europe as an in demand sideman. As well as releasing a duo album with Iain Matthews during lockdown (as Matthews Baartmans Conspiracy), Baartmans is a member of the current Matthews Southern Comfort line up and has toured with many Americana artists, most notably Suzie Ungerleider, Carter Sampson, David Corley and Eric Devries.
Forty years since his first solo album comes Baartmans latest solo offering, GHOSTWRITER, which he recorded in his own studio, Studio Wild Verband with his band, BJ’s Wild Verband. The album’s title is taken from a line in Someone To Blame, one of the rockier songs on offer here, where anger eventually turns to the realisation that he needs to look at himself. The opening song, The Other Side, is clearly inspired by his recent marriage break up, the anguish evident - ‘I write in here/I hide in here/I cried in here/ I died in here’ - suffused in a gentle piano (courtesy of Mike Roelofs) and electric guitar backdrop. Baartmans himself contributes lead vocals (his voice is reminiscent of the soft hoarse vocal style of Steve Forbert) as well as guitars, mandolin, bass and drums. The main drumming duties are very impressively handled by Sjoerd van Bommel.
Troubled introduces the superb pedal steel of Johan Jansen, in a song about the struggle to communicate with a grown up son when ‘this kid that I see that may look just like me/is a totally different man’. In You Only uses reggae with an edge, expressing self-frustration that evolves into self-exhortation, while Room 242 details a road story, typical in the life of the travelling musician. Baartman’s life long love affair with the guitar is expressed in the Americana-suffused Chasing Dreams, while Old Habits Die Hard uses a country blues palette, piano and pedal steel to the fore, to recount the difficulty in giving up cigarettes. He pays homage to Nick Lowe in the pub rock of Bootleg Companion, and in Solid Ground he’s ‘trying to wrap his head around’ life’s challenges, eventually finding resolution both musically and in reality.
In this deeply personal recording, it’s apt that he closes with a love song, She Just Knows, the pedal steel opening giving way to a laid back groove with soothing backing vocals, presumably inspired by his new love.
Eilís Boland
India Ramey Baptized By The Blaze Mule Kick
The last album from Ramey, SHALLOW GRAVES, was good enough to make our Albums Of The Year and it would seem that this one may surpass that. She has returned with a different set of players and producer this time out. It is overseen by Luke Wooten, a producer, engineer and mixer who has many names and artists to his credit, from Brad Paisley through to Sunny Sweeney. He has also brought in a solid selection of studios players who enhance the album. Names like James Mitchell, Alison Prestwood, Tommy Harden and Scotty Sanders all have an equally impressive track record that allows Ramey to up her game and deliver an album that nudges even closer to a vibrant, entrancing, honky-tonk sound. She has been described as combining elements of Flannery O'Connor and Loretta Lynn as both lyrical and performance touchstones, which is as accurate a comparison of her hard country leanings and southern gothic sensibilities as any, though, in the main, it is the former that is predominant on this album.
The album opens with the declaration to a suitor of having ‘been there, seen that and done that’ that is Ain’t My First Rodeo. Silverado takes a similar route about a one night motel stand, which combines twangy guitar and steel. More self reflective is the easy paced insight of Piece Of My Mind, a place Ramey warns “that gets dark in there sometimes.” Starting out acoustically but building slowly with a deep rumble and a simple tubular bell punctuation, the atmosphere is a rumination on remaining in a particular place on The Mountain. She decides she has been floored in a troubled partnership in Down For The Count and wonders what it might be that sets her free in the end. Again it is twang laden delight. Looking inside oneself after a failed affair, the ability to move on makes her see that It Could Have Been Me. Go On Git is a forthright dismissal of another less than satisfactory liaison, which again draws attention to the deliberations of a woman who is going to go her own way from now on.
The title track is a darker tale of burning down one’s ego and being reborn in the metaphysical flames. It has a powerful vocal delivery over a driving drum beat with some searing steel guitar. She Ain’t Never Coming Home is equally full of lingering sadness about a sister who has disappeared and “no one knows if she was taken or if she ran off on her own, the only things we know for certain is she ain’t never coming home.” Again, Ramey’s impassioned vocal is matched by the convincing arrangement. Making a hard decision is the story of wondering how to escape from a bad situation and in doing so realising that she is Never Going Back, possible redemption from such a situation, though, never sounded so good. That train of thought, which is a thread that runs through the album, is classic country songwriting, the inability to walk a line is part of the ‘let old times be forgotten’ theme in Rotten.
This is an album of which Ramey and all the team involved can be justifiably proud, one that declares she is another contender for her place in that growing number of women who know what they want and know how to get it.
Stephen Rapid
Surrender Hill River Of Tears Blue Betty
Another album from the duo of Robin Dean and Anton Salmon, a husband and wife duo, who have released a succession of albums that are uniformly strong on all fronts from the production, playing and writing point of view. The songs are all written by the pair, with Robin not only handling the production for the album but also mixing the majority of the tracks. The duo have a growing deftness and diversity to their lyrics which also is benefited by their compelling vocals, either in harmony or in one or other taking the lead. Alongside the duo they have stalwart supportive contributions from the likes of Mike Daly on steel guitar and the solid rhythm section of Drew Lawson and Matt Crouse. Keyboard contributions include Eric Fritsch and Kevin Thomas. Mike Waldon adds lead and baritone guitars - just to name some of those involved in what is a prime example of roots rock and country influenced music.
They are independent artists who have depended, to a degree, on sponsors but while this obviously may take time to realise, the final release has given them the time and freedom to make the music they want to make without any unwanted supervision. Again the results deliver over a sixteen song selection, and while that may seem like there may be some material that is not quite as strong as other inclusions, something that is only natural on so many albums, nothing here is a wasted opportunity.
The album opens with the title track which is, itself, one of the strongest cuts here and a perfect introduction to what is on offer. Not all duet-based albums have such an obvious empathy and correlation. The themes are varied but inevitably detail those kind of everyday situations that life in these and antecedent times have tended to throw up. Titles like Rent Is Due detail the demise of the livelihood and future prospects of those seeking to make a living in a small town “when the mill shut down and the train came running through.” It is powered by an effervescent guitar riff that is somewhat at odds with the message. It is often those small moments of togetherness and being able to breathe that are marked out as special as in In Our Time. An alternative of that scenario is detailed in Last Goodbye, in a soaring anthemic delivery.
Palomino references the much missed venue in California, where a singer-songwriter had hoped to find his fortune in that career but in reality he now details his singular misfortune and unrealised path from a barstool in the corner of the venue. Graced with dobro high in the mix, that Kind Of Living tells conversely of an attraction to that life as a freewheeling, footloose, rodeo rider, boxer or, indeed, travelling troubadour, another highlight where everything fits together so well. Also in a more subdued mode is Pining Over You, where the longing for a person is summed up by the realisation that there’s “no you and me.” Leaving a door open for a future continuation, when the time may be right, is the affirmation of You Can Always Call Me.
End Of The Line is of a similar theme to Townes Van Zandts’ If I Needed You, if from a slightly different viewpoint and if not quite as iconic as that song, is none-the-less heartfelt and more uplifting in delivery. The album closes with Angel, The Devil, And Me, a reflection on a life and what might or could be. It is again done with a more restrained backing, until the train mentioned in the song picks up speed and takes one to the end of the line and what may be waiting there. It is a solid finish to what is the best album from Surrender Hill to date and one that underscores the wealth of talent that still exists outside the mainstream, possibly changing, but an always welcoming selection of what is and what could be. The tide is high for this particular duo. Let it wash over you.
Stephen Rapid
Samana Self-Titled The Road
The musical duo of Rebecca Rose and Franklin Mockett describe themselves as multi-disciplinary artists who bring together their passion for poetry, music, film, photography and fine-art, into a singular vision through their various projects. Based in Wales, they have released two previous albums of hauntingly beautiful music and their ethereal sound is best described as an element in the greater swell of creativity being created by modern Roots music with a progressive Folk influence. It is an increasingly popular genre and, if you are looking for a signpost to guide you, then bands like Mazzy Star/Hope Sandoval, Jesse Sykes and Cinder Well may point in a similar direction. Jim Ghedi also explores themes of history and landscape in his music.
Opening track Into the Blue finds reflection in settling with, and recognising, negative emotions and waiting for a window to open beyond the darkness. The following track The Knife shatters the quiet calm by introducing a dramatic shift in the tempo, mid-song, as everything builds to a crescendo in looking at the spectre of loneliness and desiring someone. We Will Find A Way is a song that reaches out to offer consolation and empathy in times of depressive grief ‘The darkness is coming down, I never thought I’d hunt for peace again.’
The song Two Wrongs is a meditation on being in nature and experiencing the canopy of the land and sky from a moving freight train ‘Rivers snake past, East of highway 99, The desert sun and vastness collide, Tehachapi Mountains; gold on every side.’ The sense of movement almost a state of calm in itself.
Seven Years examines feelings of separation from someone who, although now gone, still resonates as a real presence ‘And your love, I carry it with me, Every letter is bound in twine, How can I keep this feeling, When I can’t hold onto time.’ There is a mountain range in Wales called the Preselis and this is the subject of the final, and longest, track on the album. It’s a song that speaks of being alive in nature and in the moment, laying down old fears and sorrows; whatever weighs the body down. Anima is described as the true inner-self and this is part of the swirling melody that wraps the music.
The use of cellos, violins, and horn instruments augment the haunting vocals of Rebecca Rose and the lush arrangements created by multi-instrumentalist Franklin Mockett. Samana is a state of mind as much as an enticing musical experience. The lush instrumentation threads these ten songs with a dreamlike, spiritual presence as the vocals of Rebecca suggest the inner conflicts that we must all face and try to reconcile . Always compelling, this album is another fine example of the quiet power that this duo possess.
Paul McGee
Jubal Lee Young Wild Birds Warble Self Release
These fourteen tracks and a wide variety of musical influences are the introduction to the undoubted musical talents of Jubal Lee Young. He previously released five albums in a creative run that lasted from 2006 until 2014, when his musical journey came to something of a pause along the highway. Now, ten years since that last release, Young has dipped his feet back into the water and pulled out some fine songs from artists that have inspired him over his career. Top of the list is his famous father Steve Young who died in 2016 and was a source of inspiration for so many with his great songs.
Jubal leads off the album with five of his father’s iconic songs, including Seven Bridges Road and Traveling Kind. He follows on with the inclusion of a composition of his own, the poignant Angel With a Broken Heart a song that captures life spent on the road, gigging for a living in a different town every night. The songs shift from the bluegrass influence on White Thrash Song and East Virginia, to the traditional country sound of No Place To Fall, which highlights the powerful vocal of Jubal on this Townes Van Zandt cover that does real justice to the original song.
Elsewhere he plays versions of songs from Warren Zevon (Carmelita), David Olney (Deeper Well and If My Eyes Were Blind), Mickey Newbury (Why You Been Gone So Long?), Utah Phillips (Rock, Salt and Nails), and Richard Dobson (Useful Girl). The cover song choices all work well together in the overall feel of the album but I’m left wondering why Jubal chose to take this particular direction on his return after so many years away from the recording process. His voice is very engaging across the song arrangements and the musicians that gathered to create this music are certainly top drawer with their musicality a real joy throughout.
Jubal Lee Young plays guitar and harmonica in addition to his arresting vocals and he is joined by producer Markus Stadler (dobro, banjo, mandolin, baritone guitar, backing vocals ), Brian Zonn (bass), Charlie Pate (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion), and Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle). The album is really sparked into life by the interplay across this stellar cast and I look forward to more from the pen of Jubal Lee Young when he uses these great songwriters of yesteryear to inspire his own creative muse into increased activity.
Paul McGee
Nichole Wagner Plastic Flowers Self Release
This artist was born in Colorado and after trying various careers like journalism and photography, she ended up at an open mic night in Austin, Texas and the rest is history. It started Wagner on a musical journey that began with an acoustic EP before her debut album AND THE SKY CAUGHT FIRE came along in 2018.
She delivered a further EP in 2020 during Covid lockdown and also spent the time in looking at the years that have passed by. The results are contained in the ten songs on this new album and opening song Monsters deals with fears of childhood replaced by a different kind of ghost in the spectre of domestic abuse. Raised By Wolves looks to a resolve to stand against anything that the world throws in our path ‘We’re born naked and we die alone, I know what it’s like to be on my own.’
Both Everything and Self Defence are songs that try to dissect a broken relationship for what was probably always lurking below the surface and which resulted in lessons learned too late. The title track Plastic Flowers has a telling line ‘ The truth, it seems, is stranger than the lie, Plastic flowers never die.’ The rocking rhythm of A Way With It is a highlight, and the strong arrangement shows the band in creative flow, lifting the emotion of the lyrics ‘Old habits, they die hard, Stay the course, stand your ground, Don't let down your guard.’
I Know Better This Time shows a new face on the love enigma and sees the girl in the picture fighting back against past experience, while on Until the Water Comes there is an acceptance of reality ‘We had the best laid plans, Until everything was swept away, It didn't kill us, or make us stronger, It just left us frail’ – finally time to move on and leave past hurts behind, where they belong. Resolution finds its way into old doubts on Beauty Where You Find It and the hesitation towards commitment ‘Jump on in, the water’s fine, Don’t think about tomorrow, There will never be a perfect time.’
On the final song Road That Jim Built tribute is paid to the memory of a loved one that has passed on and the enduring legacy left behind ‘I’m walking on the road, I see him on the road, The road that Jim built.’ This is a rewarding listen with plenty to enjoy in the music and lyrics of Nichole Wagner. The musicians who played on the songs deliver telling contributions and are very much integral in the overall enjoyment. A songwriter to watch out for, heartache and all …
Paul McGee
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters The Only Ones That Stay Mule Kick
Unlike her previous recordings, which were standard studio affairs with overdubs, Amanda Anne Platt and her band favoured a different approach for her latest project. Attempting to recreate the vibe of her live shows, THE ONLY ONES THAT STAY was recorded live to tape at co-producer Scott McMicken’s Press-On Shed Studio (Greg Cartwright and Amanda are also co-credited with the production), where Amanda and her four players, crammed into the small studio, recorded and completed the album with minimal overdubbing. Many of the tracks are ‘first takes’,’ not that you would notice, given the quality of the vocals and instrumentation.
An astute songwriter who draws from a deep well of first-hand personal experiences as well as observations, Platt covers both bases on this twelve-track record. Childhood memories of smoky hotel restaurants kick off the album with Mirage. For this writer, it’s confirmation of Platt’s skill set to write and perform the perfect roots song, which is emotion-filled and further enhanced by weeping pedal steel. Equally nostalgic is The Lesson, where Platt’s thoughts are drawn back to a sports bar where she first met members of her current band.
Pocket Song is a gorgeous ballad directed towards Platt’s grandmother during the pandemic (‘So if my arms can no longer reach you and my smile can’t find you where you lay, there’s a pocket in my heart where I’ll always keep you’). As is the case across all the tracks, her crystal-clear vocals fully reflect the songs’ moods and no more so than on Clean Slate. It is also a ‘pandemic song’, with thoughts of those who might not fully recover as the world opens up again. Moving on and acceptance are visited in Saint Angela, and Big Year follows a similar theme of reflection and recognition.
Parallels between Amanda Anne Platt’s output and that of fellow artists Kathleen Edwards and Margo Cilker come to mind. Songs rich in ambition and execution, sparkling vocals, and classy yet straightforward arrangements all add up to one of the best things I’ve heard this year and a career-best for Platt. With twelve tracks on offer and the trend of ever-decreasing attention spans, let’s hope THE ONLY ONES THAT STAY does not get overlooked. So, please don’t take my word for it and investigate it for yourself. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Declan Culliton
Shelby Lynne Consequences For The Crown Monument
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne has been releasing albums, twenty so far and counting, for over three and a half decades since her debut record, SUNRISE, recorded in 1989 when she was twenty-one. Her multifaceted career has included a duet with George Jones, If I Could Bottle This Up when she was barely out of her teens, her blues-influenced classic album, I AM SHELBY LYNNE, her tribute to the late Dusty Springfield, JUST A LITTLE LOVIN' in 2008, and the often-autobiographical REVELATION ROAD in 2012.
Despite her exceptional back catalogue, the industry and possibly Lynne herself never positioned her in one genre. Originally shoehorned into the country market in her early career, which she resented, she has since also been featured in the indie, folk, and rock charts, yet not at the level that her talent richly deserves. Returning to live in Nashville after an absence of almost three decades, her latest album reinforces her genre-hopping approach across its twelve tracks.
A pointer towards Lynne's admiration among her peers was the calibre of the co-writers who jumped at the opportunity to work with her. Those artists included Miranda Lambert, Carter Faith, Jedd Hughes, Karen Fairchild, Ashley Munroe, Meg McRee and Ben Chapman. Co-produced by Lynne with the assistance of Fairchild, Munroe and Gena Johnson, the material was initially written to be recorded by others. But with songs that visit topics that have surfaced frequently in Lynne's work, namely heartbreak, loss and evolution, it soon became apparent to her co-writers that this was a Shelby Lynne album in the making, since very few artists write so well when suffering and recovering from pain as her.
It isn't all gloomy, either. The dreamy keyboards and layered vocals on Butterfly add to the soulful tale of Lynne's devotion to and love of her younger sister, Allison Moorer. More typical of the album's thread is But I Ain't, with call-and-response lines that hark back to bitter rejection and doomed love ('You threw me out with pink flowers and the trash - did you miss me? Rid yourself of obstacles and lit the match - did you miss me?). Shattered captures the mood and grinding reality of despair and vulnerability, with an intro of swirling horns and Over and Over is cut from the same cloth. Also visiting an intimate space is Gone To Bed with a spoken intro that draws the listener into the backstory.
Like many of her recordings, Lynne's latest record is a profoundly personal project. As always, it deals with heaviness of the heart, and together with her adoring co-writers and players, she has once more created something quite lovely here. Welcome back to Nashville, Shelby.
Declan Culliton
The Whiskey Charmers India Ramey Surrender Hill Samana Music Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Shelby Lynne.