Author: Michelle Lindsey

I'm a music blogger based in Scotland. You are what you love, not what loves you back.

Album Review: Mindy Smith – Quiet Town

Susan Cain, in her brilliant book ‘Quiet’, celebrated introverts and argued ‘culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity’s greatest achievements.’ 

The problem with being ‘quiet’ unfortunately is that sometimes you don’t get noticed for what you’ve achieved. Those who can shout and dance and sell themselves, or who can pay others who can do this for them, grab most of the attention. 

Twenty years have passed since Mindy Smith won the ‘Emerging Artist of the Year’ trophy at the Americana Awards, and twelve years since her last album. She’s been busy in that time, writing for others, working on songs, searching for herself in other ways by reconnecting with her birth family. This new album ‘Quiet Town’ is a welcome return and a chance to celebrate her quietly powerful artistic achievements.

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The End of the Road? On Cancelled Tours & What We Can Do to Help

Last week Bright Eyes cancelled their entire tour for the rest of the year, citing issues with Conor Oberst’s vocal health as the reason. While a few fans might have been disappointed, most actually breathed a sigh of relief. Anyone who has seen Conor on stage in the last few years knows that performing live has become seriously detrimental to his physical and mental health. The most alarming moment on this aborted tour was him struggling so much he was talking about killing himself, his own songs becoming so physically painful to perform. 

Jane’s Addiction fans witnessed an unraveling of a different sort on their tour last month. After a series of troubled shows where Perry Farrell was drinking copious amounts of wine and failing to follow along with the songs, the band appeared to be on the brink. Instead of cancelling the tour they kept going and, as everyone will have probably seen, this ended up in Farrell assaulting guitarist Dave Navarro on stage, effectively ending the band. 

What both of these incidents have in common is that these men are obviously on the edge – suffering with likely mental health, addiction, physical issues or a combination of all three. They have been forced by circumstance to play live for fans to make money, to fulfil obligations or because they don’t know what else to do with their lives at this point. They have been pushed to the brink because of their jobs and they’re just a snapshot of a wider music industry unraveling due to the pressures of touring right now.  

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Album Review: Miranda Lambert – Postcards from Texas 

I know it sounds insane but Miranda Lambert begins her 10th album ‘Postcards from Texas’ by hitching a ride with a gun-toting armadillo, and that surreal song sums up where she is in her career: off the beaten track, free from expectations, back in her home state of mind, no longer caring too much about the Nashville establishment, ready to have a good time, driving off to whatever adventure seems interesting with her guitar and her buddies along for the journey. 

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Album Review: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Woodland

After the destruction of their Woodland Studios in the Nashville tornado of 2020, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings salvaged what they could of their past and soon began rebuilding. The result is this first recording of original music for many years. In a recent interview with Mojo magazine, Welch said of the album, ‘There is a renewal, but with stories and scars. I feel like a new shoot, tender…’ Woodland has that same fragility, reckoning with the darkness and light of midlife, finding hope in new growth.

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Live Review: Waxahatchee & Anna St. Louis @QMU Glasgow 30/07/24

After releasing ‘Saint Cloud’ during the pandemic, Katie Crutchfield’s life changed. She found a new audience within the Americana scene, while also maintaining her core fans from her earlier indie rock records. Success in the genre led to the Plains collaboration with Jess Williamson and even working with Wynnona Judd, further underscoring her dedication to explore her Southern roots and influences.

Katie and her brilliant band (who included Spencer Tweedy on drums) came to Glasgow for the first time in many years, fresh from releasing the new album Tiger’s Blood. She performed that album in full, relishing in the opportunity to play these songs to a sold out audience.

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E.P. Review: Maren Morris – Intermission

After the release of her last album Maren Morris has faced some tumultuous times in her career and personal life. Idiots on the internet trolled her in numerous, cruel ways simply for speaking her mind and not being their idea of a cardboard cutout country music star. She split from the father of her child and came out as bisexual. You could forgive her for needing some time away from the limelight. Instead what she’s done is taken a little ‘Intermission’ by releasing this short but epic E.P., signalling a switch in directions in more ways than one.

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Emmylou’s Discography – Gliding Bird (1970)

‘I was an imitator; you have to start that way.’ – Emmylou Harris

Finding your voice is never as simple as opening your mouth and hoping you hit the right notes. Rarely do artists arrive fully formed, with something to say and a distinctive voice to carry them into the public consciousness. The history of music is littered with the sound of people hoping to find success by emulating others, many straight up stealing ideas in a desperate form of mimicry.

Work produced during this youthful development stage is referred to as juvenilia. If you make it to the other side of this time of experimentation and exploration then you might just have what it takes to become something original. Of course, once you become a success there is a level of embarrassment associated with this early work and indeed Emmylou Harris’s discography begins with Gliding Bird, an album she is so averse to that she no longer even classifies it as her debut. She actually sued a record company who tried to reissue the album after she became famous.

“I was trying to keep it a secret. I hope somebody in authority will be able to buy the masters and burn them. Everybody involved with that record hated everybody else and I was in the middle trying to keep the peace. It was a disaster.”

The album can be bought on second hand vinyl and some of these copies have been recorded and uploaded onto YouTube (in the internet age you can’t hide your past even if you wanted to).

So let’s take a listen and find out exactly what went wrong with Gliding Bird. Are there any positives to be found in this album? Was Emmylou right to disown this record?

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