a music blog
The insanely talented guitarist Yasmin Williams returns with her beautiful new album Acadia, inspired by nature and offering a dreaming autumnal soundtrack. Acadia means ‘Place of Abundance’ and here is a land of musical plenty.
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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.
Continue reading “Album Review: Miranda Lambert – Postcards from Texas “
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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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.
Continue reading “Live Review: Waxahatchee & Anna St. Louis @QMU Glasgow 30/07/24”
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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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”
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’.
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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.
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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.
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Highway Queens 