Red Guitar Music

News, reviews and more

  • Home
  • News
  • Album Reviews
  • Live Reviews
  • Features
    • The Baker's Dozen
    • Inside The Song
  • Interviews
  • Tour News
  • Contact
Ruston Kelly Dying Star.png

Ruston Kelly - Dying Star (Album Review)

September 06, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Country, Singer-Songwriter

Ruston Kelly has one of those back stories so strange you couldn’t make it up. Born in South Carolina Kelly's early childhood was fragmented as his dad worked in paper mills and travelled often for work, so every couple of years the family upped sticks. In his early teens Kelly hoped for a career in figure skating, so he moved to Michigan and joined an Olympic coaching team, which proved to be a very tough and lonely existence. Those dreams didn’t pan out, but with the music of Jackson Browne and his dad’s old guitar for company, the songwriting seed was sown. It wasn’t until his senior year in high school that he discovered The Carter Family and Johnny Cash in, of all places, the Belgium city of Brussels that things really started to click. At seventeen he returned to the USA and moved in with his sister in Nashville. Eventually, in 2013 a publishing deal was signed and Kelly placed songs with Josh Abbott and Tim McGraw — that helped pay the rent — before he snagged his own record deal and released the ‘Halloween’ EP in 2017 to impressive reviews.

Ruston Kelly lays all his cards on the table with his debut album ‘Dying Star’ a record that can be reflective and romantic but will switch on a dime to display darker emotions with harrowing candour.  Since his arrival in Nashville, things haven’t always been plain sailing with time spent in rehab and an overdose in early 2016 highlighting his personal struggles. On ‘Dying Star’ Kelly embraces these demons, puts them firmly in the rear-view and moves on with an impressive set of songs influenced by those early Jackson Browne and Johnny Cash records — with a dash of Ryan Adams thrown in for good measure — performed by a guy who sports Slayer T-Shirts in his videos. This should tell you all you need to know about Ruston Kelly.

Ruston Kelly.jpg

Opening with the wistful reflection of ‘Cover My Tracks’ Ruston Kelly seems to be in a good place experiencing the “Golden Years”  via a lovingly produced, multi-layered vocal that envelops the listener. Kelly and co-producer Jarred K (Kate Nash / Weezer) do a fine job here, the backing vocal performances and placements are frankly glorious. One listen to the vocoder drenched acapella intro to ‘Son Of A Highway Daughter’ and I guarantee you’ll be sold on Ruston Kelly and ‘Dying Star’

Kelly displays an interesting approach to those personal demons, ‘Faceplant’ (written with Jarred K and Brendan Benson) takes a jet-black comedic approach “She’s probably gonna be pissed, throw my shit in the yard, key my car, if I show up like this” to the strains of wailing harmonica while ‘Blackout’ finds that harmonica at its most mournful and Kelly seemingly at the bottom of a barrel full of alcohol and illicit substances “I dumb down my head so I can’t feel my heart.

The epic sprawl of ‘Big Brown Bus’ highlights the contribution of Tim Kelly (Ruston’s dad) on pedal steel. Kelly Snr plays an essential part in the success of ‘Dying Star’ with his playing to the fore on much of the album including the stunning ‘Jericho’ co-written with Joy Williams (The Civil Wars). Williams is among the contributors to the backing vocals that give the album much of its heart alongside Natalie Hemby. Kelly’s sister Abby Sevigny and wife Kacey Musgraves are among those who also contribute to the angelic choir making ‘Dying Star’ a family affair. On an album full of highlights the gorgeous title track takes the gold as the instrumentation, Kelly’s songwriting and the exemplary production all gel beautifully into something very special indeed.

‘Dying Star’ begins in a reflective mood, deals with its issues and ultimately looks to be ending in some sort of redemption. With this in mind, I’ll leave the final word to Mr Kelly.

“A lot of my music is focused on suffering, or trying to understand the human condition through the lens of suffering. Which probably sounds totally depressing, but it’s actually the flipside of that. Sometimes you’ve gotta go into that darkness—you need to get lost and then figure out for yourself how to find your way back. That’s the only way we can find pure joy, and really be thankful for the life we’ve been given”
— Ruston Kelly
Featured Singer-Songwriters @RGM
Molly Murphy - Tigers In Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)
Sep 12, 2024
Molly Murphy - Tigers In Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)
Sep 12, 2024

A new name to me, but based on the new EP, ‘Tigers in Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)’, Molly Murphy is one to watch. Initially, Molly embarked on a promising college career as a double Film and English Major pursuing a career in screenwriting but left all that behind to form a band (as you do). Murphy’s latest release finds the singer-songwriter adding a modern sheen to her traditional Celtic roots.

Sep 12, 2024
Fred Abbott and The Wild Unknown - Shining Under The Soot (Album Review)
Jul 7, 2023
Fred Abbott and The Wild Unknown - Shining Under The Soot (Album Review)
Jul 7, 2023

Fred Abbott may be better known to you as the guitarist from the much-loved and hard-to-pigeonhole band Noah & The Whale.  A popular live draw, their refreshing, inventive approach to songwriting and record-making set them apart from the crowd but ultimately the band split in 2015, with four albums to their name.  Abbott’s solo debut, Serious Poke, appeared shortly after, sporting a more straightforward, guitar-centred sound.  Eight years later - and having gained broad experience as a session musician and producer in between - Abbott has returned with Shining Under The Soot, a mature and beautifully crafted follow-up, brimming with energy and heart. 

Jul 7, 2023
Ledfoot and Ronni Le Tekrø - Limited Edition Lava Lamp (Album Review)
May 4, 2023
Ledfoot and Ronni Le Tekrø - Limited Edition Lava Lamp (Album Review)
May 4, 2023

Ledfoot aka Tim Scott McConnell and Ronni Le Tekrø seem, at first look, like an odd pair. Tim, born in Florida, has been based in Norway for many years, adopting the Ledfoot moniker in 2007 after a string of solo releases on major labels and as frontman of The Havalinas. Ronni Le Tekrø is best known as the guitarist in TNT, Norwegian rock royalty, enjoying considerable international success since their formation in 1982. The Norwegian connection would seem to be the cement here, and ‘Limited Edition Lava Lamp’ is their second record as a duo.

May 4, 2023
Scott Matthews - Restless Lullabies (Album Review)
Apr 28, 2023
Scott Matthews - Restless Lullabies (Album Review)
Apr 28, 2023

For bands and singer-songwriters, 2020 was hardly the best year to release a new album.  And let’s face it, 2021 wasn’t much better.  The only hope for artists with new music was that they could somehow connect online, as reaching fans via physical touring was out of the question.  As a result, countless records were overlooked, under-noticed and sailed away, unloved.  Scott Matthews released his eighth album, the sonically ambitious New Skin, in December 2020, at the start of a winter most of us are keen to forget.  Three years later, Restless Lullabies sees the same set of songs reborn, and, in an effort to ensure that each are properly heard, they have been stripped of skin, flesh and - in some cases - their very bones, in his most exposed and intimate record to date. 

Apr 28, 2023
Richard Marx - Songwriter (Album Review)
Sep 30, 2022
Richard Marx - Songwriter (Album Review)
Sep 30, 2022

From his self-titled, triple platinum-selling debut album in 1987 to ‘Limitless’ in 2020, Richard Marx has had an unerring knack for a melody (not to mention a pretty wonderful voice). Marx's songwriting skills have enabled him to stay relevant throughout his nearly forty-year career. His sound has evolved over time, with the punchy guitars of the late 80s replaced by a smoother, more R&B/pop sound tailored to radio and streaming services. Along the way, his song craft has been in high demand, co-writing and/or contributing songs to a startling array of artists from Kenny Rogers to Keith Urban via NSYNC, Luther Vandross and Vixen. An impressive CV, but where does that chameleon-like ability to pen hit songs come from? How does he do it? Hopefully, ‘Songwriter’ might give us a bit of a clue as we take a journey through twenty tracks encompassing four genres; pop, rock, country and ballads.

Sep 30, 2022
Miriam Jones - Reach For The Morning (Album Review)
Aug 16, 2022
Miriam Jones - Reach For The Morning (Album Review)
Aug 16, 2022

Back in 2015, Miriam Jones was treading the well-worn path of the folky singer/songwriter. Her Simon Edwards (Fairground Attraction) produced album ‘Between Green and Gone' was acoustic-based but recorded with a full band and received radio support from Bob Harris and Robert Elms. An impressive record, it looked like we would be seeing a lot of Miriam but the Canadian native slipped off the radar (well, my radar anyway) until recently when she reappeared with new music that showed a marked evolution in her sound.

Aug 16, 2022
Jack Broadbent - Ride (Album Review)
Apr 14, 2022
Jack Broadbent - Ride (Album Review)
Apr 14, 2022

Jack Broadbent’s 2019 album ‘Moonshine Blue’ was an impressive release that found the singer and guitarist dabbling in various genres. Jack wasn’t a slave to his reputation as an excellent slide guitarist and bluesman and seemed content to go wherever his muse took him to showcase his talents as a singer, songwriter or, as I put it, folky troubadour. For his latest release, at least at first glance, he’s seemingly sticking to the blues, but there are still plenty of twists and turns along the way on what might well turn out to be his best and most cohesive release yet.

Apr 14, 2022
Anna Howie - The Friday Night Club (Album Review)
Mar 24, 2022
Anna Howie - The Friday Night Club (Album Review)
Mar 24, 2022

If anything positive came out of the pandemic for musicians, it could have been that artists had to get inventive if they wanted to be heard. Anna Howie had spent time in Nashville pre-pandemic recording the ‘An Idiots Guide To Love’ EP with producer/guitarist Bob Britt (Leon Russell, Delbert McClinton and Bob Dylan) and attended a songwriting camp with Gretchen Peters. As with so many artists, Nashville had been inspirational, so a return was on the cards until it wasn’t. Undaunted, if a little apprehensive, Anna embraced the world of online streaming to connect with her audience and The Friday Night Club was born. The 28 online sessions would be a great success attracting almost two million views creating an online community almost by accident, offering Anna the freedom to try out new material before an appreciative virtual audience. Those Nashville plans might not have come to fruition, but Anna connected with producer and multi-instrumentalist Lukas Drinkwater (Jacob & Drinkwater, Emily Barker) and slowly but surely, over six months, pieced together ‘The Friday Night Club’ album at his Polyphonic Studio in Stroud, UK.

Mar 24, 2022
John Illsley - VIII (Album Review)
Mar 4, 2022
John Illsley - VIII (Album Review)
Mar 4, 2022

For many, John Illsley will always be the imposing figure standing next to Mark Knopfler as Dire Straits left the London pub circuit behind and achieved worldwide domination via their fifth album ‘Brothers In Arms'. The band almost singlehandedly convinced every household they needed a shiny little 5” silver disc to replace all those old and antiquated black slabs of 12" vinyl. Approximately 30 million of us did just that (which, in 2022, is pretty ironic considering the perceived cool factor of LPs these days). Alongside Mark Knopfler, John Illsley was the only other band member to do a full tour of duty with Dire Straits on their almost twenty-year run before the band slowly faded away in the early 1990s. John’s solo career actually began during his time in Dire Straits with the ‘Never Told A Soul’ LP in 1984. John has continued to release albums on a semi-regular basis, with VIII being, unsurprisingly, his eighth studio album.

Mar 4, 2022
Sam Outlaw - Popular Mechanics (Album Review)
Mar 2, 2022
Sam Outlaw - Popular Mechanics (Album Review)
Mar 2, 2022

The press release that accompanied ‘Popular Mechanics’ referenced Kenny Loggins, Tom Petty and Cyndi Lauper, all acts that have a home in my collection, so I was intrigued to hear what exactly Sam Outlaw had in mind on his new album. Listeners familiar with Outlaw and his impressive back catalogue might find the mention of Cyndi a tad incongruous as his previous records had received positive reviews for their take on the southern California country sound. As it turned out, I was pleased to find Outlaw might have taken a left turn, but he was far from lost.

Mar 2, 2022
Jack Francis - Jack Francis (Album Review)
Feb 4, 2022
Jack Francis - Jack Francis (Album Review)
Feb 4, 2022

Listening to Jack Francis is a bit like getting reacquainted with an old friend. The Southampton troubadour has a knack with a melody and a transatlantic approach reminiscent of 70s songwriters such as The Band, Paul Simon and Van Morrison. The route to his self-titled album might have been a long and circuitous one, but the resulting record is a triumph that should crack a smile on the most stone-faced individual.

Feb 4, 2022
Noah Guthrie - Blue Wall (Album Review)
Jan 21, 2022
Noah Guthrie - Blue Wall (Album Review)
Jan 21, 2022

In 2022 everybody and their dog is making a record which can be both a blessing and a curse (as the RGM inbox often reminds me). The upside to this situation is the myriad ways to discover new artists, which brings me to Noah Guthrie. Admittedly Noah Guthrie is hardly a new name, as watchers of reality TV talent shows will already be well aware (Guthrie reached the semi-final of America’s Got Talent in 2018) and even appeared in the final season of Glee. Neither of these events popped up on my radar, but late one night, lost down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos, I stumbled upon guitarist Rhett Shull preparing for a gig with a bloke named Noah Guthrie…

Jan 21, 2022
September 06, 2018 /David Vousden
Ruston Kelly, Kacey Musgraves, Joy Williams
Album Reviews, Americana, Country, Singer-Songwriter
  • Newer
  • Older
News RSS
Album Reviews RSS
Live Reviews RSS
Foreign Music CDJapan

Red Guitar Music is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk and affiliated sites.

Powered by Squarespace