Country
Album Review: William Tyler : Modern Country
William Tyler doesn’t make music as much as he paints aural landscapes. There’s a vast space within his records as a solo musician. The former Lambchop guitarist -over the course of three studio LPs- has created a musical world of dusty fields, endless horizons, and open roads that seem to never end. On his newest …
Reissue: George Jones – Cold Hard Truth/Live With The Possum
Even people who hate country have heard of Dolly or Kenny, but ironically the late, great George Jones outsold the pair of them despite hardly anyone on this side of the pond having heard of him. Cold Hard Truth is late period Jones recorded after years of drunken hellraising that put him in the same …
Album Review: Lissie – My Wild West
Ultimately this is a decent effort, wearing a number of flaws on its sleeves. It’s an album whose pop landscape is broken up by howls of anguish, discordant laments and, ironically, trying too hard to be things other than itself. As well as disrupting its own coherence, there are other missteps. Not enough is made of the …
Live : Cadillac Three, Birmingham Institute 04.02.16
The Cadillac Three visit Birmingham in the midst of a steady stream of major country gigs at the Institute, in the last few months, this venue has also played host to the Band Perry, Kacey Musgraves and Hunter Hayes. Country is clearly a popular draw too, almost a sell out. Later, the Cadillac 3 will claim …
News : The Cadillac Three UK Tour dates
There’s a new wave of country music coming, harking back to bands like Alabama, ZZ Top and Skynyrd. A southern fried rock sound, based on monster riffs, catchy songs and loud live performances. Described as “The house band at a beer-soaked monster truck rally.” by Rolling Stone, as well as having their track White Lightning …
Album review: The Long Ryders – Final Wild Songs
If the Flying Burritos invented country rock then the Long Ryders pretty much created Americana so it was always bizarre there was no decent retrospective of their impressive back catalogue. Now they have courtesy of Cherry Red who have pulled together a four CD box set with tracks selected by singer/guitarist Sid Griffin and bassist …
Not Forgotten: Aimee Mann – Whatever
I have always kept an eye open for new female singer-songwriters. In general I am a huge fan of the genre (if you can call it a genre in its own right). But for every good one, there are a handful of bad ones. For every Tori or Alanis, there is a Sandi Thom or …
Meet: Sid Griffin from The Long Ryders
In the midst of endless mid-80s synth pop the arrival on these shores of The Long Ryders with their swaggering fusion of country rock with punk attitude was a welcome relief from the manufactured pap clogging up the charts. Their first album Native Sons was only held off the top of the UK Indie Charts …
Not Forgotten: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
The first thing that strikes you about Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers ’ debut album is how rough it sounds compared to the slick and streamlined made-for American roadtrips that their reputation has hung upon. With this in mind it’s perhaps not surprising that they were initially mistakenly considered to be part of the punk …
See: Half Japanese release video for Hold On
Damn you, Half Japanese. Despite almost 40 years of off-kilter alt-sort-of-punk, they still manage to catch the imagination and surprise. The band have just released the new visuals for their track ‘Hold On’ taken from their forthcoming album ‘Perfect’ which comes out on 22nd January via Joyful Noise. It’s typically off kilter, passing to the …