Abi Moore 'Amoeba and Stone' - Honest Records

This is the third release from Lincolnshire lady, Abi Moore. She sings of mermaids and the seduction of the deep on the title track. A tribute is paid to Johnny Cash with Nickajack Cave, a place Johnny Cash visited in 1968, intending to commit suicide. Instead, he had a spiritual awakening that inspired him to stop his drug abuse.

Protection is a love song to a partner while All Outta Sympathy is a message to someone who has let her down just once too often. Ten well produced songs and a confident voice make this a very pleasant listening experience

David Berkeley 'The Fire in my Head' - Self-Release

The eight songs here are true testament to the maturing talents of this singer/songwriter from New Jersey. David Berkeley has released six recordings since 2002 and his literate, sincere approach to arrangements and melody make him an artist to recognise as a real player of note.

His songs are earnest and intimate and this release was recorded over just a few days in a live studio setting. Spontaneous and brave in concept, the starkness of the arrangements lends a certain intimacy to the songs. Shelter and Song for the Road are particularly appealing as is the track The Well (Wait for the Rain). Check out this interesting artist at www.davidberkeley.com

Harmonious Wail 'Bohemian Tango'

This band, Harmonious Wail, define themselves as a gypsy swinging, torch singing, death-defying love note. All very "bohemian" indeed and the jazz tinged, swing sound recalls the heady days of Django Reinhardt and the Parisian Café Society of the 1930’s.

Tango dates back to the 1890’s in Argentina and Uruguay. The twelve tracks contain a number of tango based rhythms but it is the overall bright and light jazz feel of the numbers that will linger in the memory. A heady mix of mandolin, ukulele, upright bass, piano, melodica, sax and various guitars are topped off with the fine vocals of Maggie Delaney-Potthoff. She also fills out the sound with various percussive instruments including a cardboard box, egg shakers, sand blocks, scissors, a vintage brass lampshade and even a regular tambourine.

Sims Delaney-Potthoff produces the CD, as well as playing a variety of stringed instruments, plus a porch board. By now you have the sense that the song arrangements are very fluid and liquid and the excellent playing is warm and full of invention.

The closest that we ever get to a country sound is the cover versions of Trouble In The Fields (Nanci Griffith) and Tennessee Waltz (Stewart/King).However, it is the Rodgers and Hammerstein cover of My Favourite Things that steals the moment with some fine scat singing from Maggie to heighten the experience.

Famous Motel Cowboy 'Garden City Serenade' - Self-Release

For no particular reason Pure Quill by Pinto Bennett and the Famous Motel Cowboys is one of my all time favourite country albums. It's true, honest and it rocks. Nothing happens on it that pushes boundaries or changes perceptions, but it just gets me in the right places. The band played Whelans in Dublin way back to a bunch of like-minded 'honky-tonk assholes', which is another fond memory of great nights and a great live band.

Now they're back under the more  democratic Famous Motel Cowboys moniker. This is an album where all the participants contribute to the songwriting, playing and lead vocals. While age has not diminished their spirit their playing is more measured and well suited to the material. These are songs that reflect on the past (Old Man In East London) and the way to a future (John Wayne, Babe Ruth and Jesus, Oil In My Lamp). They are delivered with a positivity that is uplifting. Longtime fans will be delighted with this album. This is a well played and sung collection of (mostly) original songs; songs that have been aged in old caskets which make no comprise to ageing and the pain and pleasure that it can bring. This is country music played by a "band with some sand" - real grit for real people.

Pinto Bennett, John Dow. Jim Lemmon, Mark "Sergio" Webb and Rob Matson are the Famous Motel Cowboys. As a band, they never broke beyond the honky-tonks in their heyday,  but that wasn't and still isn't their mission. That mission was to be true to themselves, to be ‘pure quill’. As Phil Kaufman - the road mangler deluxe says in his sleeve notes, they have aged like a fine wine and here are eleven songs that tell stories of believable people (The Ballad of Onis and Mavis) and life's little ups and downs (Love Forsaken, Somewhere Else). As befits the democratic nature of the album the various members take their turn at the lead vocal mic while the other members add their vocals to the background.

The end result is another fine album that has warmth and wisdom and makes a fine companion and a sturdy reminder that the 'old farts' are still out there. While they are never going to be played on mainstream radio, don't let that small fact stop you from enjoying this welcome return of a great band and your chance to check into this venerable motel.

Dex Romweber Duo 'Images 13' - Bloodshot

The latest album from the brother/sister duo of Dex and Sara Romweber continues their exploration of the less trodden paths of blues, rockabilly, surf and country; hardcore Americana twisted roots music. There are some surprises here, not least their version of The Who's So Sad About Us from the early A Quick One album. The other covers here are all interesting and varied within the framework that is the band’s guitar and drums template. There's Jackie De Shannon and Eddie Cochran's partner Sharon Sheeley's We'll Be Together Again written following Cochran’s death. One Side Love Affair was previously recorded by Johnny Burnette and the closing instrumental Weird (Aurora Borealis) features the ethereal sound of the musical saw played by Melissa Swingle of the band Trailer Bride.

These sit alongside compositions from Dexter such as Roll On, Long Battle Coming and Baby I Know What It's Like To Be Alone which prove Dex is equally adapt as a writer as he is a singer and guitar player. But again, this is a duo and Sara Romweber holds up her end with some strident drumming that is an essential part of the package. This is music that is both primal and propulsive, built around bare-bones raunchy rock 'n' roll played with conviction. Something Dex has been doing since his days with Flat Duo Jets.

This is the third album from the duo and will not surprise anyone familiar with the previous albums. It is however a varied listen from the ‘60s British Invasion sound of So Sad About Us to the cooler instrumental sounds of Prelude in G Minor, the surf inspired Blackout! or the atmospheric Weird which sits easily along side the chugging beat of the 50's oriented rock-croon of I Don't Want To Listen. There is always a need for rock to return to its roots. Images 13's twelve songs are never half-hearted but are instead are filled with blood and sweat. You can provide the tears. 

Dierks Bentley 'Riser' - Capitol Nashville

If you look at the covers of Modern Day Drifter and Riser you will see the face of a man who has grown up; one who has seen birth as well as death and is at a point where he is assessing his life to date. Bentley’s career means that he is still a drifter but he is a man now with a home and a family. He loves the road and he loves his family life and he now has to balance the two, knowing that each has it's place even if each has an effect on the other.

Production sounds and mainstream country radio also put their demands on the music. Bentley has made no secret of his love for bluegrass music and just sitting and learning in the Station Inn,  but these are different times and country music is now, for many, an offshoot of hard and southern rock. More Hank Jr than Hank Sr. It makes you wonder what this younger audience would make of Jason and The Scorchers.

Much of this news direction leaves me cold but recently albums by the likes of Gary Allen and this new album from Bentley seem to have got the balance better. Don't get me wrong; I come from a rock background so when I listen to country music I want to hear, for the most part, country music as I recognise it, not watered down big hair-metal. But I keep an open mind and listen.

On this album Bentley works with Ross Copperman and he delivers a powerful sound and a set of songs that suit Bentley and where he is right now. Some of the songs seem like they're chasing radio's current obsessions like Pretty Girls. Yet that is a song co-written by Bentley, Jessi Alexander and Jon Randall. Here on Earth, on the other hand, talks about the reality of life on earth in which  there are no answers a lot of the time,  and hope and faith are crucial to survival.

Other songs like Drunk on a Plane and Bourbon In Kentucky are forged in the fire of the honky-tonk's cure-all pain relief delivered from the bottom of a glass. OK, they don't sound like pure honky-tonk, but offer instead an update on what was a country music staple theme, but in a contemporary way. The sound is delivered by a set of fine players including Dan Dugmore, Mickey Raphael, Bryan Sutton and electric guitarists Jedd Hughes, Kenny Greenberg and Charlie Worsham among others while the background vocalists include Kacey Musgraves and Chris Stapelton, all players who all understand the past and the future.

Dierks Bentley is to be congratulated for gathering all the various music influences that he has grown up with into a mature album. Back Porch updates the bluegrass sounds of Bentley’s Up On The Ridge album by adding some stinging guitar to the banjo sounds. The album closes with a quieter, more acoustic sounding Hurt Somebod,y a song about a heartbreak where the singer hopes the lady in question will end up having a relationship, even it will end up hurting him. There is much on Riser that comes from the heart and delivers it with a sound that is a development of the music Bentley has made from the start which makes an album that is about him at this time and about the fans who have grown with him.

Wylie and The Wild West Show 'Relic' - Hi-Line

Back in the day when CMT was on our TVs I was immediately drawn, as a glasses wearer, to the bespectacled Manuel suit wearing Wylie Gustafson. That was back in 1992 around the time of the release of his Wylie and The Wild West Show debut album. Twenty two years and some twenty album further down the line and, in truth, not a lot has changed. Wylie still plays it straight and true - bridging the gap between (Slim) Whitman and (Dale) Watson. He still loves the west, real country music and he still yodels.

Now dividing his time between ranching and recording he has just released an album who's title suggests he is of a relic, hanging on to old times. He is, in spirit. But his music, to his fans, is more timeless. As he says, on the opening track 21st Century Blues, he is just "a yodelling cowboy in the 21st century". Next up is his take on KD Lang's Diet Of Strange Places a tale about restless movement and loneliness. Hey Maria, was originally on his second album Get Wild but here it returns in a slightly more reflective version on a song that he tells the girl he loved that she would have been better off with him.

From then on we encounter heartache, religion and drink with such songs as Hello Heartache (another new version of an older song), The Book and Big Whiskey (an instrumental). All songs full of twanging guitars, rhythmic beats and nuanced singing. It covers shuffles, waltzes and ballads all in honky tonk mode. The album's second cover is the classic Indian Love Call a song well know for it's yodelling. Wylie is a master at the form and one track here Cutter's Waltz is a instrumental in which the yodel taking the lead line. 

Style is something that Gustafson has in spades and his band are right up there with him. He has Dennis Crouch is on upright bass, John McTigue on drums and Jeff Taylor on piano and accordion. Guitars are handled by Wylie, Sam Platts and Jeff Taylor. All sound like they are enjoying themselves on the four day session, which was recorded in Nashville. Larry Marrs who once played with Marty Stuart (among many others) is on hand to add vocal harmonies.

Pushing the boundaries for Wylie Gustafson is more likely to mean extending the area of his ranch than bringing something new to the genre of today's country music. Alt. country did that to the point were some of the music has very little relation to the traditional form. Country music need to progress to survive but it also needs artists who remind and celebrate the original spirit of the music. Wylie and his many Wild West companions have done just that. To the current mainstream he may be viewed as a relic but to many that relic is in fact a treasure

The Highballers 'Self-Titled' - Woodshed

A Telecaster toting neo-country band from Washington fronted by vocalists Kendall Jackson and Victoria Patchen. They formed in 2007 and the current line up has put out this their second album of harmony laden, driven catchy country songs.  The ten songs, all written by Jackson, bar one outside song, have a familiarity that makes them immediately likeable. The lead vocals are shared with Patchen - taking lead mic on songs like Lula's Gone a song that fairly rocks with an nice interplay of twang and jangle under Patchen clear and concise vocal. Jackson also has a strong voice that gives meaning to these songs. Producer Don Zientara builds everything up from a solid rhythm section base and adds Sean Lally's vital guitar to give the songs their much appreciated dose of Tele twang. Guests on one song include Bobby Birdsong's pedal steel and Jackson Edwards harmonica. 

King Of The Plains seems to be about an alien encounter while more down to earth is Can't Stop Drinkin' about a man who can't do anything because of his need for a cold one in his hand. Maybe as a result of that the next song is an uptempo song that hopes that things could be like the used to be in I Want You Back. But when that don't work something this is more of a direct action is espoused on I'll Break Something More Than Just Your Heart. Again Patchen delivers an impassioned vocal. Jackson gives the other side of the story with I Need My Ass Kicked another hi-speed bar-room. The 60s styled One Damn Thing has Farfisa organ and Patchen's era specific backing vocals under pinning it's overall feel of a time when country and garage-pop were logical bedfellows - shades of Southern Culture On The Skids.

This band have a retro heart that has been jump started to have it's place for today's audience. They sound like they're having fun and any audience that encounters them will reciprocate. With classic country as your base you can't move too far from the template before it becomes something else entirely. The Highballers don't do that what they do do is to sing and play with a conviction and heart that makes their music something to enjoy. Can't ask for more than that in a lot of cases. They have, as the opening song says Fire and Smoke, well the fire anyway.

Bat Kinane & The Whole Hog Band 'Ordinary Days' - Voodoo Bones

This Irish band play roots and country songs that have been mainly written by guitarist and vocalist Bat Kinane who also produced the album. Lead vocals are delivered by Kinane and, on the songs he wrote, by bassist John Treacy. Both have an warm, easy vocal style. The trio are completed by Gavin Murray on drums. They are joined by guest players Paul Kelly on fiddle and mandolin, banjo player Martin Cooney, backing vocalist Lorraine Willoughby and Percy Robinson on pedal steel. It was a good move by Kinane to bring in these skilled additional musicians as they add a texture and depth that otherwise would not give the album such a well rounded sound.

The songs are all memorable enough to allow repeated play. Kathmandu is about considering following an errant partner to that fabled location if they felt they could win the person back. Given that the partner took his money to get there in the first place is fairly generous an attitude. Never Trouble Trouble Till Trouble Troubles You takes a logical expression into the centre of the song's chorus. Summer Song has a some nice evocative steel from Robinson. Are You A Beatle Or A Rolling Stone? notes that "sure enough I'm getting old but I'm not to old to rock and roll and I'm not as old as a the Rolling Stones" Well there still rockin' so why not you. An observation that will ring true for many. Let's Go Dancin' written by bassist Treacy is a request for his love interest to get out on the dance floor and cut a rug, as they say.

There are times when you might wish for a little more grit in the delivery but overall this is an easy album to like and show the trio are capable of developing their sound and songs. The album ends however with something of a explanation of the genesis of this music on Honky Tonk Man, not the much covered Johnny Horton classic, but a song that tells how Kinane saw his future on the stage in such a place after stepping into a similar location himself some time back and realising this is where he wanted to be no matter how hard it may be to do so. It might seem somewhat lacking in ambition, but not everyone is going to be Garth Brooks, and what he and his fellow band members have set out to do is what they have achieved here. Kinane formally played and toured with rock band Glyder and had doubtless, in that guise, seen music from another viewpoint. This is a different kettle of fish (or whole hog perhaps) and is deserving of encouragement. Ordinary Days will help you get through them with a smile on your face.

Robby Hecht 'Self-Titled' - Old Men Henry

This self-titled third release from talented singer/songwriter Robby Hecht is an enjoyable listen and a very pleasant discovery. The twelve songs are recorded in a sweet, easy style with gentle playing and arrangements that suit the earnest feel of the vocals.

Rose Cousins sings on Soon I Was Sleeping and the duet is really excellent, with Hecht sounding like a modern day James Taylor or Marc Cohn. Will Kimbrough plays guitar on selected tracks and the production of Lex Price is beautifully balanced, in addition to his varied contributions to the songs on guitars and keyboards – impressive display all around.

The reflective nature of a number of the songs highlight the talent of this artist in fine style. The Light Is Gone portrays a heart-breaking picture of a dead relationship and the regret of mistakes made. The reflective  Hard Times comes over with a melancholy born from life experience. This is restrained and literate song writing, accompanied by a coterie of fine musicians

Robert Sarazin Blake - Self-Release

This fine artist is new to these ears and comes as a very welcome discovery. Robert Sarazin Blake has been releasing music for many years and this represents the 11th recording of his career. The ten songs here are very impressive in their acoustic feel and vocal delivery. Sounding like Jim Croce on a number of the tracks, the storytelling style and reflective mood of the writing is perfectly complimented by the arrangements and production.

There are personal observations on a life lived, the road not taken, family business, bohemian lifestyles and nostalgic regret scattered throughout the tracks. Kicking off with a clever Irish melody woven into the song Dingle to Tralee, Robert Sarazin Blake is joined by Anais Mitchell on vocals for Our Winter in New York and really hits stride on the tracks Joy and New Life, both songs tinged with a mature and sympathetic view of the frailties that make up the people we meet and the relationships that just cannot endure.

However, it is on the closing song, Ghosts of Bedford Avenue that things really climax with a superb performance and delivery across thirteen minutes that reflects on a tired acceptance of change, the trap of memories and the view that you can’t go home again; only keep moving in a forward direction. This artist is highly recommended.

Birds of Chicago 'Live From Space' - Self-Release

Birds of Chicago, is a collective based around JT Nero and Allison Russell. Whether touring as a duo or with a full band, Nero and Russell have emerged as two of the most compelling new voices in North American Roots music. This live recording is a debut offering by Birds of Chicago and has been getting rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.

The album is certainly impressive with the playing and singing of the highest quality. I have known of Allison Russell for her excellent track record as a member of Po Girl while the name of JT Nero is new to me. Their voices complement each other beautifully across the seventeen tracks here and it is a brave attempt to release a live recording as a debut. However, the risk is well worth taking and we are served up with a compelling and vibrant recording that leaves you feeling like you missed out on a special night.

There is a celebratory abandon to the performances and I am reminded of Maria McKee and Lone Justice as a reference point. With keyboard swells and piano progressions all wrapped up tight by some literate guitar explorations, the intense and passionate vocal delivery of songs like All the City Girls and I Have Heard Words really take proceedings to a higher level.

The sexy flirtation of the Latin groove, Sans Souci, is instantly appealing while the blues infused Nobody Wants to be Alone, Nobody Wants to Die steals the show here with a compelling performance from the two lead musicians Nero and Russell. Heady stuff and warmly delivered.

JP Ryan 'Take a Walk With Me' - Self-Release

This second release from Irish singer/songwriter JP Ryan was recorded in Nashville with some very experienced and talented session musicians. The quality of the playing is evident and the ten songs here are filled with arresting arrangements, restrained playing and melody to tease the harshest critic.

Witness the interplay of keyboards and guitar on This heart of Mine and the subtle fills of fiddle and piano on The Rivers and the Rain. Singing in a style that brings draws on the best Irish singer/storytellers, JP Ryan shows a literate talent and a creativity that bodes well for the years to come. 

Clela 'More Love and Happiness' - Self-Release

This singer/songwriter draws on folk, jazz and world music influences. Born in Canada she has recorded three independent albums, two roots records and one collection of jazz and blues standards. Blessed with a strong voice and a clear delivery, Clela certainly impresses across the eleven songs here. The recording is uncluttered and features an acoustic leaning towards fiddle, accordion, ukulele, mandolin and harmonica in the arrangements. The trio of songs, Home on High, Open Up My Heart and In the Mercy of Your Love are the highlight here, running together into a seamless whole. Fine playing repeats throughout but it is the vocal delivery and simple acoustic guitar that lingers most with For the Beauty of the Earth and Indigo Blue taking proceedings to an impressive conclusion

Jason Daniels 'Dashboard Visions and Rearview Reflections'

This debut release displays a confidence and swagger that bodes well for the road ahead. Recorded in Nashville with an impressive array of session musicians, the sound is full and rich with plenty of swirling keyboard and inventive piano playing to lift the arrangements, courtesy of Peter Keys (Lynyrd Skynyrd).  We are also treated to a fine horn section and backup singers on a number of tracks and there is some very tasty guitar playing from Daniels himself, together with guest Kenny Olsen (Kid Rock).

Opening with You’re an Angel, a track that channels Van Morrison, the overall groove across ten songs reminds me of the Band. Sounding not unlike a young Levon Helm on a number of the songs is no bad thing and the swell of the arrangements is full of colour and warmth. Plenty to appeal then and the blues shuffle of Riding Back to Memphis sits very nicely alongside of the roots feel of I’ve Seen the World, a JJ Cale shuffle with attitude.