a music blog
Five years after her last album Nadia Reid is in a different place now, literally. She moved to the UK from her native New Zealand and became a mother. Enter Now Brightness reflects the changes in her life, bringing a fresh and lighter feel to her music.
Continue reading “Album Review: Nadia Reid – Enter Now Brightness”
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.
Continue reading “Album Review: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory “
Released fifty years ago this week, ‘Pieces of the Sky’ is the album that launched Emmylou Harris’s career. She has often referred to it as her ‘debut’, attempting to gloss over her first failed release ‘Gliding Bird’.
Continue reading “Emmylou Harris’s Discography – Pieces of the Sky (1975)”
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.
Continue reading “Album Review: Lilly Hiatt – Forever”
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.
Continue reading “Album Review: Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis and Karine Polwart – Looking for the Thread “
What better way to spend a cold Sunday evening than with a joyful variety show of songs celebrating British icons. Roaming Roots Revue featured a stellar cast of artists all singing their favourite songs both ‘cult and classic’, joined by the orchestra from the nearby Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Continue reading “Live Review: Roaming Roots Revue @ Celtic Connections 26/01/25”
After a disappointing week for women in country music, what fans need is some new, young fresh blood, someone who has a bit of spark, personality and who can restore some faith in the future of the genre. Enter Willow Avalon with her new album Southern Belle, Raisin’ Hell.
Continue reading “Album Review: Willow Avalon – Southern Belle, Raisin’ Hell”
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.
Continue reading “E.P. Review: Yola – My Way “
This week Karine Polwart shared a cover version of Madison Cunningham’s ‘Life According to Raechel’ and encouraged her followers to go see the young musician live at this Celtic Connections show.
Before the gig itself began, I spotted no less than three well-known Scottish musicians taking their seats in the stalls.
Later the excellent support act Louis Abbott would ask if there were any musicians in the audience and it seemed like more than half the crowd raised their hand (incidentally Louis confessed he had already bought a ticket for the gig before he was added as support).
So it seems then that Madison Cunningham is your favourite musician’s favourite musician.
Continue reading “Live Review: Madison Cunningham @ Celtic Connections 17/01/25 “
Highway Queens 