The RGM Review Roundup July 2020
As usual, RGM has been inundated with quality music from here, there and everywhere. We’re not complaining, especially in these difficult times when a good tune can provide shelter from the pandemic storm. RGM scribe Rich Barnard found time from homeschooling and making the kids lunch to check out four recent/upcoming albums that we believe are well worth your time and/or hard-earned money From Canada via the wilds of Scotland to sunny California welcome to the July edition of the RGM review roundup.
We start in Canada with singer-songwriter Lynn Miles, who has just released We’ll Look For Stars, her sixteenth LP in a career that spans more than three decades. Like her American cousins Kim Richey and Lucy Kaplansky, Miles’ soft-sung country-folk vignettes have a gravity that the wider genre can sometimes lack; the maturity in her voice lending authority while remaining light. Lynn and her band are particularly on form with gentle yet upbeat rockers like ‘Restless’ and ‘Main Street’, both of which take on new meaning in our locked-down lives, with a line like “Main Street, ain’t Main Street anymore” feeling - now - like quite the understatement. Bookended by the sublime balladry of the title track and ‘Because We Love’, the record ranges from the dizzy piano of ‘The World Is Spinning’ via the country-waltz eulogy that is ‘Merle’ to the lazily-strummed nostalgia of ‘In The Wilderness’. As such, the album showcases a real breadth of songwriting talent equal to Miles’ unique, tender vocal. You might think these assets have come with experience but they haven’t; Lynn Miles has always been this good. We’ll Look For Stars is definitely one heavenly body of work I’d happily navigate by.
Back in the UK, singer-songwriter Rory Butler has been described by Roddy Hart as “the most exciting Scottish talent to emerge in recent times” and there’s been no small amount of buzz around the release of his debut LP Window Shopping. It’s been over three years since he released ‘Black & Blue’, the single that has now racked up nearly a million streams but, thankfully, the long, slow build has been worth the wait and worthy of the hype. Window Shopping sees Butler backed by a formidable band (Nick Pini’s Danny Thompsonish bass in particular is to die for) with whom he’s created a masterpiece of soulful, dreamy, 70s folk that goes beyond his one-man-and-guitar beginnings. That Butler focusses on contemporary themes, such as finding ways to be present in the digital age, ensures that the record remains relevant despite being sonically steeped in the flower-power age. Opener ‘Tell Yourself’ (think John Martyn covering Judee Sill) sets up the vibe and we’re carried through on a wave of Butler’s Janschian guitar playing and seductive voice. Other highlights include the meandering Joni Mitchellisms of ‘Mind Your Business’ but Butler is arguably at his best when the noodling subsides, permitting mellowness in the form of ‘Cigarettes In Silence’ and ‘Have I Come Down’, both of which are the musical equivalent of melt-in-the-mouth artisan chocolate. Enjoy.
We zip across now to L.A. (as you do) to find acoustic trio The Furious Seasons, whose latest record of rootsy Americana, La Fonda, is out next month (Aug 7th, 2020). On the album, vocalist and songwriter David Steinhart deals exclusively with the loss of a close friend to alcohol abuse. The resultant cathartic and confessional LP - mainly recorded live in the round - starkly depicts every aspect of the mourning process as memories mix with regret, and celebration with sadness. A whole album on the subject may seem hefty and tracks like ‘Burn Clean’ and ‘Figure It Out’ are - as you would expect - raw, lump-in-throat affairs but there is light to go with the shade and across an entire record there’s space to give the span of grief the detailed attention it deserves. The Furious Seasons really lock together on ‘I Was An Actor’ and ‘Vast Divide’, with Jeff Steinhart’s upright bass pumping away against the easy bluegrass of P.A. Nelson’s guitar but the most affecting song on the record is saved for last. ‘I Want To Be Sure’ focusses those positive memories of the past and its repeated chorus distils the sense that to do right by the dead is simply to remember them well.
We finish where we started, back in Canada where The Actual Goners - who last visited RGM for Maple Leaf #10 - have just released their new self-titled EP. The Toronto-based quintet, fronted by Duncan Symonds and Tristan Armstrong, have enlisted the services of Aaron Goldstein (he’s everywhere, and with good reason) as producer and the record has a sparkling energy that put me in mind of the Gin Blossoms at the fresh-faced start of their career. Infectious opener and lead single ‘Diamond Dust’ charges out of the starting gate all guitars a-jangling and tambourine a-shaking while the more languid Hammond-swathed ‘Cannonball’ - a song about moving along - swaggers away, showcasing some sizzling slide guitar work. ‘Lost Highway’ strikes a balance between the two and features the best pedal steel break I’ve heard in a very long time and, all too soon, we reach the more playful closer ‘Still On Your Side’, the only track to feature Symonds’ Duritzian lead vocal. This EP is brimming with confidence and vitality. I defy you not to - at the very least - tap your toes and grin ear to ear when you hear it. And hear it you must.
Reviews by Rich Barnard.
Life is full of surprises. At a time when the majority of people would be content to retire, potter about in the garden, and leave new music to the young folks, erstwhile Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch is back with a new band and an impressive new record. The other surprise is that the Italian Frontiers label, usually the home of all things AOR and melodic hard rock, continues a welcome expansion into other musical realms. The Speaker Wars and Frontiers seem like unlikely bedfellows, but the label is to be commended for landing this particular release. More please.