Greg Copeland Empire State Hemifran
Californian native Greg Copeland is a bit of a cult figure, although he will be familiar to fans of his better known friend, Jackson Browne, with whom he co-wrote during Browne’s earlier career. This EP is only his fourth recording since his debut (produced by Jackson Browne) in 1982. He continues to work with music royalty in the LA scene though and for this project he has been able to call on Val McCallum (Jackson Browne sideman) on guitars, Greg Leisz on pedal steel, mandolin & mandocello, Jay Bellerose (Joe Henry) on drums and producer Tyler Chester (Margaret Glasby, Watkins Family Hour, Carsie Blanton) also sits in on keys.
Copeland is a master at creating imagery, as evidenced by the four songs on this collection and Grammy-nominated Chester is a master at bringing those images to life, although it can’t have been too difficult to do so with that supporting cast of musicians in the studio. Boon Time is a blues/roots number, depicting the quandary of someone who’s subjected to life’s slings and arrows, all outside of his control, and features great rubber bridge slide guitar from McCallum. The six minutes of We The Gathered is a much more dramatic affair, opening as it does with relentless drum beats and menacing, jagged electric guitars, eerie pedal steel, and thumping bass courtesy of Jennifer Condos. Copeland says it’s about our ‘long journey to heaven’ but it feels to this reviewer like the apocalypse - ‘Maserati spinning in the river bed … with the snakes and the gators and the Valentines … you’re gonna want that machete’. Sara Watkins adds fiddle to the next song, 4:59:59, a very different affair and somewhat in the Guy Clark mould of storytelling and musicality, concerning an addict who finds redemption in a hardscrabble job using ‘a worn out pick and shovel’ to ‘find a stepping stone’. Track four is a fiftyone second recording of coyotes that will give you the shivers (be warned - it frightened my cats!). The closing (and title) song is another six minute musical gem, dominated by Greg Leisz’s unmistakeable pedal steel guitar interplaying with Val McCallum’s electric guitar. The somewhat cryptic lyrics tell the tale of a woman songwriter who leaves her boyfriend and New York City and makes her way back to the ‘endless frontier’ of the West, another tale of survival, like the previous track. Well into his seventh decade, Copeland is in good voice and his songwriting skills are impressive. Here’s hoping he can up his workload for his remaining decades!
Eilís Boland
Bob Sumner Some Place To Rest Easy Fluff and Gravy
Having spent over two decades performing and recording with his brother Brian as the Sumner Brothers, Bob Sumner's latest record follows on from his 2019 debut solo release, WASTED LOVE SONGS. If that record ticked the Americana/ singer-songwriter box, SOME PLACE TO REST EASY goes down a more country route, casting its net in the direction of alcohol abuse and the carnage that addiction can unleash and also reflecting on other personal experiences.
Sumner is speaking from the heart, having overcome his own alcohol issues two years ago. His 2022 single, Broken Record, was a pointer to the direction of the new record, both in its classic country sound, a nostalgic reminder of the genre's golden era, and heartrending lyrics. There's no better way to articulate hardship than country songs, and this eleven-track record hits the bullseye.
The realities of those excesses are painted in vivid detail on the song and lead single from the album, Motel Room ('But now you got your 2.6. of Bourbon and your party of one, and you're drinking alone, and it's 4 in the morning in a motel room'). Alongside being a classic country song, it spells out the reality of crossing the line between 'wanting to' and 'needing to.' Turn You Into Stone embraces a similar thread with country fiddle, mandolin and dobro placed well in the mix, highlighting Summer's smarting lyrics. Strings, courtesy of Trent Freeman, and background vocals by Etienne Tremblay give the mournful break-up song, Baby I Know, a lovely Countrypolitan sound, and Lonesome Sound has a Lee Hazlewood style about it. Bridges is closer to 'modern country' but treads a corresponding path of self-inflicted life choices and their consequences.
It's not all 'tears in your beer', either. More tender and joyful are Don't We Though, which explores the ups and downs of relationships and the love ballad You Can Stay Here. The former could have been plucked from the Jimmy Webb /Glen Campbell songbook. Tender nods to youthful escapism and optimism surface on Didn't We Dream, which features backing vocals from Sumner's fellow Canadian, Kendal Carson.
SOME PLACE TO REST EASY is eyebrow-raising territory for anyone drawn to the 60s Nashville sound, a period when the singer was front and centre in the songs, often with lush orchestration, but without abandoning the 'twang' of country music entirely. It works spectacularly well here, with Sumner's vocals fully reflecting the songs' moods throughout, alongside the easy-to-access melodies. This is one that I'll be spending a lot of time with over the coming weeks and months, and you'd also be well advised to check out these splendid countryfied songs.
Declan Culliton
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Woodland Acony
When Gillian Welch and David Rawlings purchased Woodland Studios in East Nashville in 2001 and commenced a project to restore it, they would not have anticipated having to undertake a second and hugely more demanding restoration venture almost two decades later, following catastrophic damage caused by a tornado that hit Nashville on March 3rd 2020. Originally a movie house, Woodland Studio was founded by Glen Snoddy in the mid-60s and was the location for the recording of iconic albums by Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Loretta Lynn, and Emmylou Harris, to name but a few.
American folk music royalty Welch and Rawlings’ WOODLAND is the second album that is credited as a duo, following their covers album from 2020, ALL THE GOOD TIMES (ARE PAST & GONE) and takes its inspiration from the studio that has essentially been their home for many years. It's also a celebration of rebirth and renewal in the face of adversity.
It seems only proper that it's referenced as a 'Gill and Dave' album, given the shared vocal instrumentation and songwriting on the ten tracks that run over forty minutes. It contains their trademark and familiar gently rolling acoustic style but also features some fuller tracks and the inclusion of ambient strings on occasion, led by composer and orchestrator Kristin Wilkinson.
Given the old-time ambience of many of the tracks, it may be surprising that they chose to title their ode to their close friend Guy Clark, Hashtag. However, the lyrics reveal the light-hearted side of the song ('You laughed and said the news would be bad If I ever saw your name with a hashtag. Singers like you and I are only news when we die'). With the quality on offer, it's difficult to pinpoint the standout tracks, but opener Empty Trainload Of Sky and Here Stands A Woman are classic slow-rolling Welch/Rawlings. The impeccable string picking on Lawman is a fine introduction to the timeless tale of endurance and, equally, The Day Mississippi Died harks to bygone days of expectation of little more than survival.
They close the album with the stripped-back Howdy, Howdy. With vocals, guitar, banjo and nothing else ('We've been together since I don't know when and the best part's where one starts and the other ends'), it's a fitting statement to two artists fiercely devoted to vintage folk music with the wherewithal to recreate it to perfection.
An essential listen.
Declan Culliton
Eliza Thorn Somebody New Self-Release
‘This album acts as a memoir of the past handful of years of my life. It highlights my rambunctious road tales, the truths of my fervent youth, and a coming-of-age-like narrative of the road that led me to anchor my roots here at home in Nashville,’ explains Eliza Thorn on the release of her debut full-length album, SOMEBODY NEW.
Recorded at The Bomb Shelter Studio in East Nashville, Thorn embraces the musical styles that drew the Connecticut-born artist from busking on street corners to showcasing her skills on stages in Music City. Those styles range from Cajun and ragtime to old-timey and honky tonk, all of which surface on this nine-track record.
Echoes of Patsy Cline can be heard on I Tried, and Alibi is a New Orleans-shaped gem. The poppy R’n’B Fool, complete with handclaps, tingling piano and a neat backing chorus, has a 60s Ronettes style, and Somebody New is classic Memphis soul. The mid-tempo country ballad Letting Go Of Your Love is a possibly autobiographical tale of one-sided love. Nobody But You is an old-timey knees-up, showcasing Thorn’s vocal range and impressive yodelling. She bookends the album with the muscular and full-on bluesy Take My Ol’ Body Down.
Thorn has left no stone unturned with this debut full-length album. She possesses a voice that is a marvel, capable of hitting high and low notes outside most vocalist’s range. Produced by Mose Wilson, who also played guitars, Thorn was joined in the studio by a host of local big A-players, including Chris Scruggs (pedal steel, guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), Jeff Taylor (keys), Chris Gelb (drums, percussion, piano), and Nate Leath (fiddle). Thorn’s striking vocals were complemented by supporting backing vocalists and two women making serious waves with their own careers, Kyshona Armstrong and Hannah Juanita.
Many genres feature in SOMEBODY NEW, and Thorn may need to be less eclectic in the future. Still, everything about this album points towards an emerging talent who has served her musical apprenticeship and has the potential to reach dizzy heights in her career.
Declan Culliton
Mark Brine Rural Notes Self Release
When I first listened to Mark Brine many years ago he seemed to be something of a throwback to another era. He had a voice for the ages, something that perhaps should have been best heard on a 78rpm record. There was a distinctive tone to his voice that was a mix of yodel and nasal inflection, a reminder of Hank Williams Sr and Jimmie Rodgers and other stalwarts of the late 40s. His is the Americana of the Harry Smith compilations rather than the all encompassing umbrella term it has come to mean today. He has had his music on some twenty albums, continuing through to this current release. His voice has the same distinctive inflection that it had when I first heard him nearly a quarter of a century ago. It has that added patina of age, as you would expect. He grew up in Massachusetts and initially played in a rock band, become increasingly interested in old school country and folk music. He released his first recording under his own name back in 1996.
The album’s subject is, as the title suggests, the smaller details of an everyday life that occur, in the main, outside the industrial and the metropolis. It is largely down to a stripped back setting of voice and guitar, with the occasional addition of other discreet instrumentation, a setting that may be alien to many more used to the noisier barroom soundscape. This is for quieter listening rooms and front porches.
So Brine’s songs are of farm girls, crafts, local heroes, special places, assurances and religion. Arts & Crafts features fiddle. Moonlight Yodel and Delta Moonlight Sky take pleasure in the light of the moon at night in itself and on an old barn. The pace of life and taking the time to be a little late is the thinking in Runnin’ ‘Lil’ Behind. Taking a ride with a rush is Bouncin’ In The Buggy, again it celebrates the countryside and older ways. There is an amount of humour and observation in these songs, most obviously in Your World Squirrel. He reasons it is that animal’s world and that he is just the nut that lives in it. The Ballad Of Fiddling’ Sid Harkreader and The King Of Basin Street are both tributes to musicians who preceded Brine in their own timelines. Both have additional instrumentation that add to the flavour of the era of the songs. The final song looks towards a New Jerusalem, from a steadfastly believing in better things to come viewpoint.
Brine continues to write his material covering the topics that are meaningful to him. It is his first album that I’ve heard since the early 2000s and it continues an individualistic career that simply wants to appeal to those who will listen on his own terms. Those who have encountered him over previously records will likely delight in it and others seeking something that is rooted in an earlier more simple time can check it out via his website and streaming services.
Stephen Rapid
Tony Martinez Everywhere West Slumerican
Here’s a man who has a lot of life experiences to draw upon for his debut album. For a time he worked as a multi-instrumentalist playing guitar and steel guitar as a live sideman for acts like Whitey Morgan and JP Harris. On a tour with Morgan he develpoed a serious eyesight issue which meant he had to take time out, but a scorpion bite during that time helped reverse the illness. An addiction to drugs during the Covid pandemic was a further debilitating thing to overcome. So it’s a testament to his inner strength that he did and continued to make music and to record this album.
The noted producer and rapper Yelawolf saw Martinez playing and was impressed enough to take on the role of co-producer (with Martinez) for this album. It manages to combine elements of 80s country and outlaw influences (notably Waylon Jennings) as well of that of Southern rock’s more soulful constituents.
What is immediately apparent for someone known primarily as an instrumentalist is the passion and persuasion of Martinez’s voice. It takes on a different context depending on the song that allows for a smother ballad delivery, alongside a more forceful approach for the rowdier material - though there is more of the measured and meaningful here. The album opens with a strong statement of intent that can easily be seen as autobiographical with Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Slow Me Down. It has a swirling organ sound under its mid-tempo funkiness. This leads to the rumination of a relationship in trouble that is Someone Else, the steel underpinning the despondency of the realisation that his lady would be better off with someone else. There are a number songs that especially let Martinez’s writing shine through, including White Label Lies, that could easily have been covered by many an artist back in the late 80s with its spoken section and crossover potential.
Other songs that are that little bit different include Crazy, and the soulful approach of disillusionment in I’ve Lost More (Than I’ve Got Today) which features the voices of the McCrary Sisters, adding much to that feel. See You On Broadway has a melodic arrangement that looks towards to an encounter on that location. The title track is definitely a standout with its train references and use of horns that tells a story that will resonate with many, with its distant echos of Ghost Riders In The Sky, among other classic songs, in its DNA - at least for this listener.
Stripped back to mostly voice and guitar is Try which shows off Martinez’s abilities again on another song of lamentation. Believe I’ll Be Leavin’ finds him back on the road, though regretting previous connections. The album closes with I Won’t Say No To You, which sounds that little bit more contemporary that the other material and points to another direction that might emerge on future recordings.
It also highlights that if a producer from another area of music has that understanding of how to get the right compilation of sounds, the end result can be effective, a lot more so than some of the pop-orientated known twiddlers who are often called in to helm a mainstream release, that might be aiming for a similar effect but not achieving it. In that light it is attributable, in part, to the players like Whitey Morgan, bassist Alex Lyon, Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Pete Keys and hardcore country steel player Cowboy Eddie Long, who all bring their different musical experiences to the project. Yelawolf and Martinez, though, oversaw that they got what they wanted out of the recording, which may not appeal to all honky-tonkers but will give you something to absorb and appreciate for what it is.
Stephen Rapid
The Bluest Sky Raindancer Self Release
A second album from New Hampshire based Chuck Melchin who follows up his self-titled BLUEST SKY debut release from last year. He has previously played in bands The Bean Pickers Union and Los Brujos but the urge to try something different over recent years has led to deciding to focus on this solo project. Melchin employs quite an array of talent on these ten songs and the thirty-seven minutes pass by on a wave of bright guitar sounds and an up-tempo feel to the whole album.
The tracks were mainly recorded remotely, using a studio in Nashville for four songs, and various home studios of the musicians for the remaining arrangements. The colourful guitar sound was delivered by a combination of Andy Santospago, Mike Giordano, Gary Goodlow and Jabe Beyer. Drums and percussion were shared between Rick Cranford, Dave Westner and Karen Goodlow, and both Duncan Watt and Zach Vinson delivered on piano and organ. The bass guitar was divided between Chuck Vath, David Breen, Dave Westner and Dave Coleman. John Hyde played accordion and Gary Barbati guested on backing vocals.
There are songs of love and relationships with the acoustic based The Weight Of Being dissecting the remains of a tangled liaison gone wrong ‘You can keep all the records but I want the tapes.’ Battlefield is a song about starting over after a failed romance and unrequited love is captured on the track Girl From My Building. The chance to get away from it all and retreat to a Colorado cabin is the source of 6,280 feet and This Is What Poets Mean is different spin on a love song.
Queen Of The Sick Burn and Smuggling are two songs that don’t follow down the yellow brick road of romance. The first song is a look at the poison that can be emitted by social media and the latter is a tale of getting into something way out of the collective comfort zone of a group of friends. Skinny Lady rocks out and the guitars sound sharp and high in the mix. It’s a southern boogie sound that guarantees to get you dancing, while Crop Circle has a slow building melody that deals with the need to protect against vulnerability ‘We pass our days in silence, But there’s screaming in my head, I don’t even know you, Two strangers share one bed.’
The variety on the album is very engaging and the quality of musicianship is very evident across the ten songs. Something for all tastes and a strong statement from a fine multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Paul McGee
Erin Ash Sullivan Signposts and Marks Self Release
Twelve songs and forty-six minutes of contemporary Folk music from Erin Ash Sullivan, a New England based singer songwriter who releases her second solo album. There are many comparisons that I could make to other female artists, but my best recommendation is that you listen to this music for yourself and draw your own inspirations. For me this artist displays a major talent in the timeless traditions of singer songwriter baton-passing. Classic relationship and story songs for your delight. Erin has a superb vocal delivery and the songs are very well produced by Doug Kwartler with lots of colour in the arrangements.
The credits have Sullivan playing guitar, ukulele and providing lead vocals; with “everything else” delivered by multi-instrumentalist Kwartler. Standout songs are One Time I Stole A Book, Ghost Of A Thorn and How It Should Be where old values mix with lost feelings and rites of passage, growing up, and letting go, all intertwined in the writing. Story song Winter Walk is a nicely delivered narrative and murder tale. Another story song is Eat the Pie and a tale of small town acceptance and grabbing joy. Don’t Want To Keep Score is a reflection on love gone wrong and the lyric sums up the dimming of the spark ‘As we took up the weapons we knew, and the armour we wore, The hunger was gone, for the lines we had drawn, I don’t care, I don’t want to keep score.’
Kwartler is a source of inspiration as he plays superbly across these tracks, with Sullivan writing all the songs and displaying a deft turn of phrase in her insights. Baltimore is a song that reflects upon a new start in life and returning to an old location that is packed with bittersweet memories ‘ She says tomorrow the road will be smoother, She should know, with all the heartaches she’s borne.’ Final song Before You Go has a real sense of loss in the image of a mother and child on the cusp of change ‘Eyes straight ahead I let your words shade in my picture of who you’ve become, I know you’re ready, But how can I get ready, It’s harder than you know.’
Change is inevitable and the letting go is part of the process. New beginnings and the road ahead hold the promise of tomorrow and this beautifully crafted album offers a signpost to all who wish to follow a thought-provoking path.
Paul McGee
Emily Hicks Weird Wild Wonderful Self Release
Ten songs and thirty-five minutes of country/pop musical leanings to enjoy on this debut album from Utah singer Emily Hicks. It announces Hicks as a talent to watch and she wrote all the songs in addition to performing them in a confident vocal style that bodes well for her future.
Anymore is a standout song here and a look back into a friendship that time has changed and leaves a feeling of regret ‘How long is too long to wait, Before it’s too damn late to re-discover what we lost.’ Picket Fenced In is another highlight on the album with a look at wanting to be independent and free to live without constraints.
Hickory Lane is a happy jaunt into youthful memory whereas the disillusionment of Different Kind Of Life follows with a wish to escape back to more innocent days, unencumbered by the weight of compromise and commitments. Far From Home shines a perspective upon the things that are missed when life speeds forward and a career takes over. It has a sweetly understated sound and the reflective tone captures what is left behind. Let You Stay ends proceedings with a big production number and vocals soaring towards the heavens.
There is a commercial leaning on a number of tracks like When You Look At Me and One Piece At A Time and while there is nothing wrong in aiming for media acceptance across a wide musical vista and into new territories, between the lines is a serious talent that will find a more precise target to focus upon as her writing continues to mature. The album has both a charm and personality with the character of Hicks coming through in her superb voice and phrasing.
She plays acoustic guitar, ukulele and piano and is joined by producer Nick Bullock on bass, acoustic and electric guitar and keyboards. Also featured are JP Ruggieri on acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel and tiple, Dom Billet on drums, percussion and backing vocals, Clark Singleton on bass, Kristin Weber on violin and viola with Leif Shires on horns. They all contribute with stellar playing on what is a very strong debut album.
Paul McGee
Greg Copeland Music, Bob Sumner Music, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Eliza Thorn, Mark Brine, Tony Martinez, The Bluest Sky, Erin Ash Sullivan and Emily Hicks