Richard Marx - Limitless (Album Review)

March 26, 2020 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Country, Pop, Singer-Songwriter

When Richard Marx burst onto the scene with his self-titled debut album in 1987 he enjoyed almost unprecedented success. The album sold more than four million copies propelled by four hit singles which showed Marx was equally adept at penning a hard-rockin' tune as he was a ballad. ‘Repeat Offender’ followed in 1989 repeating (no pun intended) and even eclipsing the success of the debut from a sales point of view. Third album ‘Rush Street’ spawned probably Marx’s best-known song ‘Hazard’ which topped many international charts in 1992. His fourth album ‘Paid Vacation’ was again successful, but Marx’s star was beginning to fade and his sound was becoming increasingly more influenced by soul, R&B and pop which alienated many fans of those early records. Marx has continued to release albums sporadically since his commercial heyday and has become a songwriter in demand penning hits for artists as diverse as Keith Urban, Josh Groban, NSYNC and the wonderfully poignant ‘Dance With My Father’ with Luther Vandross.

Frazey Ford - You kin B the Sun (Album Review)

February 12, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Soul

With a matchless voice that somehow balances a DiFranco charm with a Piaf vibrato, Frazey Ford made her name as part of The Be Good Tanyas back in 1999. Two decades on, we find her three albums into a solo career that’s taken her far from those banjo-whispering beginnings and her latest, U Kin B The Sun, effectively completes a ten-year transition from folkstress to funk-soul sister.

John Moreland - LP5 (Album Review)

February 05, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Americana, Singer-Songwriter

LP5 is the record John Moreland almost didn’t make. Having released his first four albums to much acclaim in just a six year period, he started to feel the pressure of having to deliver the goods. He needed time to learn to love his songcraft again and by giving himself the freedom to experiment without expectation he finally relocated his mojo. Now, three years after 2017’s Big Bad Luv, he has emerged with a new record that is - among other things - brittle, beautiful and brave.

Sam Weber - Everything Comes True (Album Review)

January 10, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Americana, Album Reviews, Singer-Songwriter

Sometimes you have to cross borders to get your particular fix of Americana and, of late, it’s over in Canada where I’ve been getting a much needed hit of pedal steel-laden loveliness. It is a high that comes in the form of one Sam Weber, who caught my attention late in 2019 with the superb single ‘Blackout’ (see the Maple Leaf roundup #11) and whose latest album gets a UK release this week.

Jack Broadbent - Moonshine Blue (Album Review)

November 20, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Blues, Folk, Jazz, Singer-Songwriter

With the likes of the Montreux Jazz Festival “the new master of the slide guitar” and Bootsy Collins, “The real thang” singing his praises the casual observer might be fooled into thinking that Jack Broadbent was some kind of guitar-slinging wunderkind, storming out of the bayou on a mission to destroy all with his blazing guitar work. In reality, I’m guessing it’s pretty hard to find a bayou in Lincolnshire and Jack’s obvious guitar prowess turns out to be a small part of the story.

Son Of Town Hall - The Adventures of Son Of Town Hall (Album Review)

November 06, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

We’ve been rather taken with transatlantic duo Son Of Town Hall since catching them at Cecil Sharp House last year (review). The pair are made up of London-based singer-songwriter Ben Parker (in a past life, one half of Ben & Jason) and Santa Fe-based singer-songwriter and author David Berkeley. Here they are, eighteen months later touring the UK once more, this time in support of their long-awaited debut LP. Their live show can’t really be translated to record (you just have to go) but the album does its best to bring the uninitiated up to speed, with the aid of its accompanying newspaper inserts in which their tale is wittily woven.

Rachel Sermanni - So It Turns (Album Review)

August 19, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Rachel Sermanni’s third LP sees the Scottish singer-songwriter largely turning away from the dirty guitars that peppered 2015’s Tied To The Moon for a smoother, more grown-up outing, shifting the focus onto her arresting, intimate voice. So It Turns, the record Sermanni herself calls ‘folk-noir’ (it lives up to the label) was produced by Axel Reinemer and has been in the can for three years. Good things come to those who wait of course and, thankfully, So It Turns is now seeing the light of day via an independent release.

Karine Polwart's Scottish Songbook (Album Review)

July 29, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Pop, Singer-Songwriter

You probably never noticed, but a lot of the pop music you grew up on was born in Scotland. You can’t have been raised in the 80s without escaping Simple Minds; in the 90s without strumming along to Del Amitri, or in the noughties without tapping your toes to KT Tunstall. And now, multi-award-winning folk singer-songwriter Karine Polwart has drawn on these decades, among others, to bring you her latest release: Scottish Songbook. This celebration of the history of Scot-pop began when Karine gathered two dozen songs together for a live show she took to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival. A year on, eleven of those songs coalesce on an album that is reverent, revealing and - above all - rewarding.

Leroy From The North - Health and Fitness EP (Album Review)

July 26, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Classic Rock, Country Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Leroy from the North is the debut solo offering from Eli Wulfmeier a singer/guitarist from Los Angeles by way of Michigan. If the name sounds familiar it’s hardly surprising as Eli spent three years as a member of The Wild Feathers; whose 2013, John ‘Jay’ Joyce produced, debut is a cool slab of Eagles/Jayhawks influenced country rock. Eli’s other credits include playing with Katy Rose, Shelby Lynne and Joe Purdy amongst others and he is also a member of female-fronted hard rockers Dorothy. Eli brings all of these influences along for the ride on the five tracks that comprise his ‘Health and Fitness EP.

Espanola - Espanola (Album Review)

July 15, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Listening to the new self-titled album from Espanola is a bit like pulling on a pair of boots that you’ve worn every day for the last twenty years. This is music so comforting and worn-in; so natural and loose that, despite being released in 2019, stirs feelings of nostalgia and warmth normally reserved for those precious pieces of vinyl you’ve owned forever. As I listen I am forced to ask myself: “is this really happening?” and, as the vintage classics pour forth, I occasionally slap myself to check it isn’t a dream. It transpires I am fully awake and that this could be the realest thing I’ve heard in decades.

Glen Hansard - This Wild Willing (Album Review)

April 10, 2019 by Rich Barnard in 80s, Album Reviews, Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

After three lauded solo records and countless packed-out shows across the globe, Glen Hansard has amassed laurels aplenty upon which to rest if he were that way inclined. Thankfully, it would appear he is not, as This Wild Willing represents a decisive step forward in the post-Once career of the onetime Frames frontman as he eases off on the Van Morrisonisms he’s become synonymous with and begins re-engaging with the boundary-pushing of his earlier work.

Field Guide - Full Time EP (Album Review)

April 08, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Singer-Songwriter

One of the most welcome surprises to land in the RGM inbox this week is the new self-produced EP from Field Guide. Hailing from Manitoba, Canada, Field Guide is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Dylan MacDonald and Full Time is a beautifully hushed quartet of thoughtfully written, warmly delivered songs of heartbreak, loss and leaving. Artists trading in confessional acoustic intimacy are pretty easy to come by but what sets Field Guide apart from the crowd is the lyrical quality and the careful, understated execution in what they do. Rather than wallowing in regret, the songs take a more philosophical path, which oddly makes this record feel more like a pick-me-up than a drag-me-down. The songs are sad but matter-of-fact; sober but wry.

JD Simo - Off At 11 (Album Review)

March 19, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Blues, Classic Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Nashville-based singer and guitarist JD Simo is currently touring the UK (March 2019) with guitar great Tommy Emmanuel CGP so his credentials as a guitarist will not be in question. I’d incorrectly assumed that JD was a straight-ahead bluesman; an assumption blown out of the water by ‘Off At 11’. The blues play a major part in JD’s sound but jazz fans and psychedelic rockers will find much to enjoy as JD and his terrific band; Adam Abrashoff (drums) and bass player Luke Easterling play up a storm on a freewheeling set that owes as big a debt to Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead as it does the Lightnin’ Hopkins and BB King.

David Ian Roberts - Travelling Bright (Album Review)

March 14, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

It’s not often we come across a record as carefully crafted as Travelling Bright, the second full-length release from Welshman David Ian Roberts. It is an album in the truest sense - a journey - an immersive and hypnotic journey into a glittering world of acoustic delights. Travelling Bright is designed to be taken in at one sitting and is therefore fittingly available as a double LP, and if you’ve an hour to spare, not only could it take you places, it could also help you fall back in love with the forgotten act of sitting still and listening to some nice vinyl.

Haint Blue - Overgrown (Album Review)

February 15, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Americana, Singer-Songwriter

If you like your Americana to pack a serious punch then step into the ring and go a few rounds with Haint Blue. The Baltimore-based seven-piece, headed by vocalist Mike Cohn, have just released Overgrown, an epic storybook LP that has been ten years in the making. The songs are woven from Cohn’s time spent in the grip of a rigid fundamentalist faith, with which he ultimately cut ties. The songs deal in turn with the wrench of this emancipation; the loss of faith and friendship and the struggle with depression and addiction. Told you it was heavyweight.

Don Brownrigg - Fireworks (Album Review)

February 06, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Singer-Songwriter

Canadian singer-songwriter Don Brownrigg came to our attention last year with his single ‘Room For Me’; three and a half minutes of what is best described as world-feariness, employing nothing more than a delicately-picked guitar, baritone vocal and gossamer-light strings. Its closing line of “I’m not sure, I’m not sure, I’m not sure I’m not crazy” captures a vulnerability that instantly made us want to know more of the story.

Only Yours - Overrun (Album Review)

February 01, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Pop, Singer-Songwriter

Ever feel like bands peddling soaring, epic pop just pass you by like buses in a big city? You hop on, you hop off and you don’t give much thought to where they’re going next. Well, Only Yours is one bus that you should definitely be catching. In fact, if you can bear to keep running alongside the clumsy public transport metaphor, Overrun is a record you simply must not miss.

David Leask - Six in 6/8 (Album Review)

January 02, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Country, Americana

When David Leask reflects on the reasoning behind his latest release, “6/8 feels like a musical home to me, a signature of time, a sense of place” he sounds like a man at peace with his surroundings and the creative process. It’s hardly surprising then that the six songs on this fantastic EP are so impressive, even if the initial idea seems a little off-kilter. Six songs recorded in a 6/8 time signature might sound a little strange until you realise the great range that 6/8 allows, especially when coupled with superior tunes. If you’re wondering about 6/8 then think of it as a variation on a waltz—a lilt if you will—and you’ve got the idea. Many of your favourite songs will have been written in this time signature, trust me we’re not talking weird Frank Zappa approved strangeness here

Seth Lakeman - The Well Worn Path (Album Review)

November 28, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

It really is hard to believe that two years have passed since the release of the last Seth Lakeman album ‘Ballads Of The Broken Few’ (review) an album that found Seth working with folk trio Wildwood Kin on what would turn out to be a really terrific record. The album’s stripped back acoustic sound added an Americana style spin on Seth’s folk roots and the result was a record that still makes regular returns to the RGM stereo. In those two years Seth has toured ‘Ballads’ extensively often with Wildwood Kin along for the ride. He also took up Robert Plant’s offer of a spot in Plant’s Sensational Shape Shifters for a world tour that would find Seth pulling double duty as the opening act on occasion. You’d think that’d be enough to keep most people gainfully employed but Seth also found the time to record a new album ‘The Well Worn Path’.

Amy Ray - Holler (Album Review)

November 08, 2018 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Americana, Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

As one half of the Indigo Girls for over thirty years, Amy Ray’s feistiness and grit always served as a contrast and balance to Emily Saliers’ tenderness and sheen and this is doubtless what has made the duo such an enduring success. Ray has, by now, rightly earned her place as a member of folk rock royalty and on Holler, her sixth (who knew?!) solo record, her creative fires are burning as bright as ever.