The Happy Couple - Lullaby of Broadland

December 02, 2024 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Ambient, Folk

One of the positive aspects of running Red Guitar Music is that you encounter all manner of different musical genres that you wouldn’t necessarily find on your own. The RGM Inbox is positively overflowing with the good, the bad and, yes, the ugly (although something we find unlistenable is probably the best thing in the world to someone). One example that falls squarely in the good category of pleasant surprises is The Happy Couple, discovered on a recent visit to London’s Green Note, where the duo opened for Dimple Discs labelmate Kelsey Michael.

Molly Murphy - Tigers In Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)

September 12, 2024 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

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.

Scott Matthews - Restless Lullabies (Album Review)

April 28, 2023 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

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.

Miriam Jones - Reach For The Morning (Album Review)

August 16, 2022 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, CCM

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.

Maple Leaf Christmas Special: EP Reviews

November 29, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Christmas, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Traditional

This is the time of year when I’m regularly called upon to make donations to the Scrooge Jar. Every time I say something even vaguely negative about the festive season (which I confess is quite often) I am swiftly rebuked by the rest of the family and duly relieved of a few more pennies. So, I am possibly not the best suited to reviewing a pair of Christmas-themed EPs, but these new releases from two of my favourite Canadian singer-songwriters have, I confess, begun to thaw my miserly, humbug-riddled heart.

Michael McGovern - Highfield Suite (Album Review)

July 13, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Michael McGovern’s debut album ‘Highfield Suite’ is a short but sweet introduction to the talents of the Glasgow singer/songwriter and guitarist who, at 25, seemingly has an old head on a pair of surprisingly young shoulders. Inspired at an early age by the usual suspects (Dylan, Cohen, Simon, Fleet Foxes) McGovern began writing songs while still in his teens and with the forced isolation of 2020, the time was right to embark on his debut record. McGovern commenced recording with one microphone in a small wooden cabin in Galway before enlisting Bill Shanley to co-produce. The pair subtly expanding McGovern’s intricate nylon-strung fingerpicked guitar sound into full band arrangements with the addition of a rhythm section, piano, an unexpected dash of saxophone, a smattering of pedal steel and some very pleasing vocal harmonies.

John Hinshelwood - Called Back (the poems of Emily Dickinson) (Album Review)

June 09, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz

For his sixth solo release Scottish singer and songwriter John Hinshelwood has taken a different approach to his craft inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). The reclusive Dickinson, who wrote almost 1800 poems during her lifetime, conducted most of her correspondence with the outside world via letter, especially after she retreated to her bedroom in later life. The sheer volume of Dickinson’s work was not discovered until after her death and she is now considered one of the finest American poets of her generation. John Hinshelwood readily admits that his connection to Dickinson was initially limited to a mention of her in a Paul Simon song, but the purchase of a volume of ‘Selected Poems’ would spark an interest that would become an obsession (in a good way).

M G Boulter - Clifftown (Album Review)

April 21, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Americana

As concepts for albums go, faded Essex seaside towns might not be the most likely choice but singer-songwriter M G Boulter has carefully hewn a hugely affecting set of songs from the rocks of Clifftown, a pseudonym for his beloved Southend-on-Sea. For those new to the name, Boulter has been making solo records since 2013, having cut his teeth in various bands and he’s now signed to the independent label Hudson Records, alongside Karine Polwart, Bellowhead and Jenny Sturgeon. With a vocal that is as vulnerable as Neil Young but as English as Nick Drake, M G Boulter has concentrated the promise of his first two records into an extremely accomplished third that marries his poetic lyrics with intricate (but unshowy) guitar playing.

Liz Simmons - Poets (Album Review)

April 16, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Bluegrass, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

I’m not entirely sure what it is about the best folk/roots music, but it seems to me to get it right you need experience. By experience, I don't just mean being able to play really well, as I consider that a given, it’s more about an appreciation for what has come before, and possibly the most important thing of all, is an experience of life in general. In the sleeve notes to ‘Poets’ Liz Simmons thanks her parents for the itinerant lifestyle of her early years travelling the length and breadth of America in a sky blue VW bus. From the wharfs of San Francisco to the pubs of Ketchum, Alaska before settling in New England Simmons’ early life was a whirlwind of travel and music; be it folk, rock n’ roll or the New Orleans influenced tunes her parents played nightly in the pub.

Amigo The Devil - Born Against (Album Review)

April 14, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

2018’s ‘Everything Is Fine’ was one of that year's finest releases and marked Danny Kiranos aka Amigo The Devil as one to watch. ‘Everything Is Fine' is a terrific record full of dark imagery unhindered by genre stereotypes. It might not be quite everyone’s cup of tea but if you like a good murder ballad delivered by a heavily bearded man with a banjo then ‘Everything Is Fine’ could well become your go-to album. As it turned out the album only told half the story as the RGM team found on our last but one pre lockdown night out in February of 2020. The Amigo The Devil live experience is something else entirely, ‘Everything Is Fine’ is a fantastic record but put ATD on a stage and the results are very special. In forty years of gig-going, I’ve rarely seen an artist connect with an audience in the same way as ATD. The subject matter might often be jet black but ATD is not without humour and his followers appreciate the honesty within and can relate to his grasp of the daily problems we all face, and how we deal with those problems that have, in many cases, been exaggerated by the world around us in 2021.

Declan O'Rourke - Arrivals (Album Review)

April 06, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Declan O’Rourke’s new record, Arrivals, is an exercise in less-is-more. For his seventh LP (and his first for eastwest), the celebrated Irish 44-year-old has Paul Weller in the production chair and though the songs are stripped to their bones, they want not for richness or depth.

Sara Watkins - Under The Pepper Tree (Album Review)

March 26, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

As a ground-down and curmudgeonly father of two, I am possibly not the best person to be reviewing Sara Watkins’ new children’s album. Children’s album. To me, it’s a chilling pairing of words. Having endured eight long years of inane toddler CDs on perpetual repeat, I like to think that this particular hell-genre has in some way contributed to my frankly harrowing mental and physical decline. I put it to you that children’s music is just one of the many unpleasant forms of torture visited upon unsuspecting parents the world over and therefore ought not to be encouraged.

Leith Ross - Motherwell EP (Album Reviews)

November 16, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Indie, Singer-Songwriter

22 year-old Leith Ross’ debut EP, Motherwell, is a quietly brilliant and deeply affecting collection of confessional songs. The Ottawa -based singer songwriter (who is presumably of Scottish heritage) recorded the eight-song set in a single afternoon, giving it an unpolished charm and uncommon immediacy. The frailty of human experience; the loneliness of early adulthood and the emotional resonances of family and personal history are captured in intimate, lo-fi detail, on what is one of the most remarkable releases of the year so far.

Sam Brookes - Black Feathers (Album Review)

October 26, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

It’s been six years since Sam Brookes emerged with his warmly-received debut Kairos and its follow-up, Black Feathers, is the product of a period of change and loss for the artist. Following the passing of his father, the breakdown of a relationship and the death of a close friend, the album that Brookes felt compelled to make next is, as you might expect, a reflective and soul-scouring affair - he calls it a “meditation on grief” - but remarkably there’s little about Black Feathers that feels maudlin or macabre.

Jon Gomm - The Faintest Idea

October 14, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Jon Gomm has long been known as a guitar-playing pioneer, using a Michael Hedges-inspired brand of percussive fingerstyle wizardry as the backdrop to his songwriting. While you - yes, you - clock up millions of hours sat on your posterior in front of Netflix, you can be certain that Jon Gomm is putting in the equivalent practising. I suspect he even practises while having a wee, but let’s not linger on how that might work. Anyway, as your teachers always told you, practise pays off and everything about Jon Gomm’s playing is flawless on his latest record, The Faintest Idea. While similarly gifted artists like Newton Faulkner have successfully crossed over into the mainstream, Gomm has gathered his successes more quietly, remaining fiercely independent (this is the first of his albums not to be self-released) and retaining the respect of his peers while still winning thousands of fans around the world.

Darlingside - Fish Pond Fish (Album Review)

October 07, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Acoustic, Folk

Darlingside are back with more bucolic future-folk on their new album Fish Pond Fish. The Massachusetts quartet have not lain idle since their last full-length LP, 2018’s Extralife, having released the Look Up & Fly Away EP in 2019 and a 20-track collection of instrumentals earlier this year. Where Extralife imagined a post-apocalyptic future, Fish Pond Fish is essentially a love letter to the natural world, rooted in the here and now. Work that began in late 2019 - with the band living together in the studio with producer Peter Katis - had to be halted and the record was subsequently completed with each member working remotely from home. For a band whose character is reliant on - and embodied by - a finely balanced synergy (live, they perform around just one central mic) this sudden change must have thrown up significant challenges. Ultimately, though, these have worked in Darlingside’s favour, the resultant album having more in the way of space and intimacy than those that came before.

Scott Cook - Tangle Of Souls (Album Review)

October 06, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Ordinarily I have little time for what I call the dungaree-thumbing end of the country music spectrum. Yet I find myself irresistibly drawn to rootsy Canadian singer songwriter Scott Cook. Tangle of Souls is the seasoned troubadour’s seventh album and is accompanied by a whopping 240-page cloth-bound, hardback book. This little tome, of which I confess I have only scratched the surface, is an autobiographical work of folk-philosophy that deserves a review or three all by itself. In it, the self-confessed “full-time rambler” weaves the story of each song through the pages with honesty, self-awareness and uncommon academic flair (quotes! references! footnotes!). But, at the risk of doing Mr Cook a disservice, I am going to focus on the music.

Jake Allen - Affirmation Day (Album Review)

October 01, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Pop

There are some people in this world who are so multitalented that it’s just plain rude and accomplished American fingerstyle guitarist, singer and songwriter Jake Allen is one of these preposterously blessed human beings. Where so many others have failed, Allen’s new album succeeds in keeping the guitar right at the centre of things without compromising any sonic vision. And, on Affirmation Day there is sonic vision in abundance.

Lisa Lambe - Juniper (Album Review)

September 08, 2020 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

As many far more literate than yours truly have concluded over the years “The best-laid plans of mice and men” are often subject to the fickle hands of fate. Irish actress and singer Lisa Lambe has enjoyed a highly successful career in her home country with a string of well-received roles mainly on the stage. The multi-talented Lambe was also a member of Celtic Women who unsurprisingly found enormous success in America (10 Million+ worldwide CD/DVD sales) with their blend of traditional and contemporary Irish music. In 2015 she embarked on a solo career, recording an album in Nashville ‘Hiding Away’ that received cautiously positive feedback with reviewers praising Lambe’s voice while adding that the album of folk-infused songs - in the main by outside writers including Paul Brady -had been given a Nashville sheen that wasn’t necessarily required.

Evangeline Gentle - Evangeline Gentle (Album Review)

August 24, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Pop

Scottish-born singer-songwriter Evangeline Gentle moved to Canada at the age of 11 and was winning awards by the age of 18. This debut - which follows the acapella EP You And I, released earlier in the year - has been three years in the making and is assured and mature, brimming with the kind of lyrical clarity and songwriting skill that many artists spend a career chasing. Lovingly produced by Jim Bryson, it is as comforting and spacious as a velvet-curtained ballroom that you and your significant other find you have all to yourselves.