A few years ago, before Pistol Annies released their album ‘Interstate Gospel’, fans received postcards in the mail giving them clues about song titles and lyrics. Fans loved it so much that Miranda decided to repeat the treat with both analogue and digital postcards sent out this week – each one with the title of a new song and announcing her new album title as ‘Postcards from Texas’.
Continue reading “For Her Upcoming Album Miranda Lambert Sends Us ‘Postcards from Texas’”Album Review: Secret Sisters – Mind, Man, Medicine
The slightly blurred cover of this new album from The Secret Sisters offers us something reassuring in this hyper focused online world – here’s a band and an album that’s out of focus in a good way, soft and quietly spoken, emotionally shaky because living in this world often makes you feel that way.
Continue reading “Album Review: Secret Sisters – Mind, Man, Medicine”Album Review: Kelsey Waldon – There’s Always a Song
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to catch Kelsey Waldon supporting Margo Price at Celtic Connections festival, where she previewed this brilliant new album of bluegrass and old time music called ‘There’s Always a Song’.
Continue reading “Album Review: Kelsey Waldon – There’s Always a Song”Album Review: Carly Pearce – hummingbird
By choosing to start her new album with the killer line: ‘country music made do it and I’ll do it til I die’ followed by the sound of a fiddle, Carly Pearce is making it clear to country fans: she’s in this genre for the long haul.
Her last album, 29 was her most country sounding record and also her most vulnerable lyrically – this combination worked wonders for her career, winning her both commercial and critical acclaim (and a Grammy). Carly continues on that strong streak on ‘hummingbird’, sounding ever more comfortable and confident in her musical choices and songwriting – even producing the album herself.
Continue reading “Album Review: Carly Pearce – hummingbird”Album Review: Lucy Rose – This Ain’t the Way You Go Out
After the joy of giving birth to her first child, Lucy Rose was left in unbearable agony from undiagnosed osteoporosis. Through such a bewildering time she found solace in music, inspiring this new album ‘This Ain’t the Way You Go Out’ recorded at Paul Weller’s studio with a brilliant band of musicians.
Continue reading “Album Review: Lucy Rose – This Ain’t the Way You Go Out”Live Review: Lainey Wilson @ Glasgow O2 Academy 19/04/24
They say you’ve truly made it when your audience starts dressing like you. On a sunny Friday night in Glasgow, there was a sea of cowboy boots, stetsons, denim, fringe and, of course, flares as far as the eye could see. Hillbilly hippies were everywhere, such is the influence of Lainey Wilson, country music’s rising superstar.
Continue reading “Live Review: Lainey Wilson @ Glasgow O2 Academy 19/04/24”E.P. Review: Wonder Women of Country
As individual musicians Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh and Melissa Carper mastered the art of classic country songwriting; their vintage charms often felt transported from another era, one where talent and musicianship were celebrated. Now together they have formed a super group, called Wonder Women of Country, where their shared music sensibility and throwback style is a terrific treble threat.
Continue reading “E.P. Review: Wonder Women of Country”Album Review: Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past is Still Alive
Alynda Segarra’s last two albums looked outwards: The Navigator towards their Puerto Rico heritage, telling the story of immigrants living in a city, trying to find a place in a new world, while follow up Life on Earth sang of places and people under siege in a hostile world. Musically these albums ranged from innovative Latino inspired folk, to indie rock, to lo-fi electronica and spoken word. Here was an artist asking questions, searching, making exciting and original music that grew with every listen (like those rhododendron they sang about).
New album The Past is Still Alive is less conceptual, more inward looking, a narrative where the personal becomes political. Musically this harks back towards the simpler acoustic beginnings of this artist’s career.
Continue reading “Album Review: Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past is Still Alive”E.P. Review: Lola Kirke – Country Curious
Lola Kirke lives in Nashville and has flirted with country music on her first two albums, offering some indie Americana on her debut Heart Head West and a more light 80s pop country on ‘Lady for Sale’. On her new E.P., produced by Elle King, she finally admits to being ‘Country Curious’, fully exploring the genre with her heart wide open. The results are a delight – four songs that just remind you how much fun this genre can be.
Continue reading “E.P. Review: Lola Kirke – Country Curious”