a music blog about women in Americana & beyond
Ashley Monroe surprised everyone last week by dropping this new album ‘Dear Nashville’, less than a year after her last record Tennessee Lightning. With the title and the cowboy hat on the album cover it seemed to indicate this was going to be a return to the country sound of her earlier albums after a few years of experimenting with indie, folk and ethereal pop.
Continue reading “Album Review: Ashley Monroe – Dear Nashville “
Alongside her indie band Whispertown, Morgan Nagler has also written songs with artists like Gillian Welch, Phoebe Bridgers, Haim and Kim Deal. She’s been best friends with Jenny Lewis for years and has recently been supporting Rilo Kiley on their reunion tour. Her debut solo album ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Lose, and I’m Losing It’ is the culmination of a life in music and a testament to her independent spirit.
Continue reading “Album Review: Morgan Nagler – I’ve Got Nothing to Lose, and I’m Losing It”
Brit Taylor was inspired by listening to the great women of country music for this new album, specifically Patty Loveless and Lee Ann Womack. What she also noticed was how both artists had enlisted their husbands as producers, and so she continued that trend by working with her husband Adam Chaffins. Her last album ‘Kentucky Blue’ was produced by Sturgill Simpson, so he had big boots to fill. The result of their collaboration ‘Land of the Forgotten’ is a hugely enjoyable album of terrific, toe-tapping country tunes.
Continue reading “Album Review: Brit Taylor – Land of the Forgotten “
The last Mitski album I reviewed was 2018’s ‘Be the Cowboy’ which was a dark and intriguing look into the psyche of an emerging young artist. I saw her at a festival in 2019, playing low down on the bill, unknown by most of the crowd, partly performing hiding under a table. Even if some of the performance was inexplicably odd you could tell then she had the guts and gravitas to become a star.
Since then she’s gone stratospheric, with viral success during the pandemic, an actual chart hit and a younger generation of fans embracing her music to the point of extremes. For a while it felt strange and uncomfortable being an older Mitski fan since her crowd had skewed so young.
This new album was recorded with the intention of going back to her indie rock basics, after three albums of gothic synth pop. In the end the songs dictated the music and she did bring in some more orchestral arrangements, some Americana sounding flourishes and weirder elements too.
‘Nothing’s About to Happen to Me’ is centred around the story of a woman living alone, dealing with the recent break-up of a long term relationship, inspired by Grey Gardens, Shirley Jackson, cats and Victorian houses.
Continue reading “Album Review: Mitski – Nothing’s About to Happen to Me”
Julia Steiner, lead singer of Chicago based band Ratboys, envisioned this new album as a way to communicate with someone she had become estranged from. Imagining them as an ‘empty chair’ she began to unravel her emotions in the songs, and the results are one of the most engaging albums of the year so far.
Continue reading “Album Review: Ratboys – Singin’ to an Empty Chair”
You can actually buy a t-shirt that reads ‘Emily Scott Robinson Made Me Cry’ and I can testify that her ability to reduce to a crowd to tears is unmatched. Her new album ‘Appalachia’ is another stunning collection of songs that showcase her angelic voice and sensitive heart.
Continue reading “Album Review: Emily Scott Robinson – Appalachia “
Lucinda Williams has previously released three albums with the word ‘world’ in the title. The first was her 1992 classic ‘Sweet Old World’ where the title song was a poignant tribute to a friend who died by suicide, lamenting his loss and singing of all the beauty they’d left behind. She re-recorded that album in 2017, calling it ‘This Sweet Old World’ as though she was trying to bring back to life the innocent optimism she’d once had. Then there was ‘World Without Tears’ her 2003 album, that seemed to arrive at a kind of weary acceptance of the reality of life’s pain and suffering.
Her new album ‘World’s Gone Wrong’ has more of the latter’s tone, and yet that positivity of ‘Sweet Old World’ still simmers just below the surface. What this album also brings is a continued fiery spirit that started with her ‘Good Souls Better Angels’ album and suggests she’s become more of an activist, more confident in her politics, more outward looking in her music the older she gets.
Continue reading “Album Review: Lucinda Williams – World’s Gone Wrong”
Della Mae’s previous albums have been filled with such heart, humanity and fierce feminism that I’ve always thought they were one of the most underrated bands in the Americana / Bluegrass space.
New album ‘Magic Accident’ was recorded in Nashville with producer Alison Brown, who also plays banjo on the album and has signed the band to her label Compass Records. This is an album showing the power of female collaboration, offering ten tracks of sunshine and strength.
Continue reading “Album Review: Della Mae – Magic Accident “
Sharing memories of 2016 is the social media trend of the moment and ‘Honest Life’ by Courtney Marie Andrews was one of the albums released towards the end of that year which inspired me to start this blog.
Ten years later she’s still going strong having been one of the most prolific artists I’ve covered on the blog. Between 2016 and 2022 she also released May Your Kindness Remain – a stunning Americana epic, Old Flowers a quieter and darker pandemic era offering and Loose Future a lighter, breezier collection.
In the four years since that album she’s been busy with painting as well as releasing her second poetry collection ‘Love is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared’.
This new album ‘Valentine’ was self-funded, recorded with only two other musicians – her producer Jerry Bernhardt and drummer Chris Bear. While it doesn’t return to the country-tinged sound of her earlier records, it does offer us a deeply emotional and impressive sounding collection of songs.
Continue reading “Album Review: Courtney Marie Andrews – Valentine “
Highway Queens 