Author: Michelle Lindsey

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

Album Review: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory 

After the glorious achievement  of producing two epic modern classics in ‘Seventeen’ and ‘Like We Used To’ Sharon Van Etten’s last album was more understated, hazy and, for me, a little bit of a let down overall. After regrouping Sharon decided to try something new for this project – working collaboratively with her band on the songwriting and vision for the first time. The results are still resolutely a Sharon Van Etten album but there’s something more edgy and dramatic to the style and the sound. 

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Album Review: Lilly Hiatt – Forever

Lilly Hiatt’s last two albums were released during the pandemic and like many other artists at the time, she felt the negative effect of not being able to tour or promote her music in the way she wanted to.

During her last few years off the road she’s got married, adopted a dog, bought a house and installed a home studio where she began songwriting in a different, more immediate way. The results on this new album ‘Forever’ sound like someone shedding old skin, finding her way back to a more natural, looser kind of musical identity. 

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On ‘A Complete Unknown’ & the Myth of Male Genius 

The one time I saw Bob Dylan play live he was terrible but it didn’t seem to matter, everyone else lapped it up and the guy next to me nearly got thrown out for standing on his chair and yelling ‘LEGEND’ between every song. After that I promised never to pay money to see an old narcissist deliberately sing his own songs out of time and tune, all in the name of artistic independence or some other male bullshit. 

I do love Dylan’s old music but since I obviously wasn’t a diehard, I went to see ‘A Complete Unknown’ without any real expectations. I left both impressed and irritated. 

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Album Review: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart – Looking for the Thread 

It’s fitting that this collaborative album is being released in January, the traditional month of Celtic Connections festival where these three artists first performed together. In the spirit of Transatlantic Sessions these three women, two Scottish and one American come together to show that more unites us than divides us.

Individually Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart have blazed a trail for women in Scottish folk music, helping to light a clear path forward for other artists to follow. Mary Chapin Carpenter has done the same in her own Americana/country sphere. 

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Somethin’ Bad: On Carrie Underwood Playing the Inauguration 

One of the reasons I started this blog back in 2017 was because I was sick of the divided, angry online world of politics in the Trump era. Writing about music helped bring me joy and connected me to a range of diverse people around the world who shared a common love of song. 

Strangely enough despite its conservative themes, for a while country music was actually a safe haven for a liberal leftie like me looking to avoid the negativity of politics. After the Dixie Chicks were cancelled for speaking out the genre seemed to have a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy for both sides of the political divide, which meant most artists remained neutral (in public anyway). Dolly Parton also set the gold standard for how to deal with any potentially divisive discussions – be kind to everyone, judge no one, focus on the music and steer clear of party politics.

So why then would Carrie Underwood, who has spent her career cultivating a very vanilla and apolitical image, agree to sing at the inauguration of Donald Trump – one of the most divisive figures in history? And what does this decision tell us about the state of women in country music right now? 

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E.P. Review: Yola – My Way 

For many Yola’s unique selling point was that she was a black British artist who had vintage soul and country influences – she stood out in a good way, genre-fluid but gaining Americana awards and Grammy award nominations in the roots categories. There was an appetite to hear a powerful black female voice like hers sing the kind of soulful music that so many white men like Chris Stapleton etc were having success with.

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