Country
News: Steve’N’Seagulls announce UK tour dates
It’s one of those videos everybody’s seen. Well, 12 million and counting anyway. There’s these hillbilly dudes, one of them arriving on a motorised grasscutter or some such contraption in a beaver hat, playing a mandolin – who’s joined by an acoustic guitarist/vocalist; a banjo player; a double-bassist and a cajon-straddlin’ percussionionist, and they proceed …
Album review: Justin Townes Earle – Absent Fathers
‘Wish I could say I know you/’cause lord, I Wanna Understand/Need you to now there’s nothing I want more in this world as a man.’ If you kick off you latest album with those words, and then call it Absent Fathers, then you are pretty clearly laying out your agenda. Justin Townes Earle is the …
News: The Handsome Family – UK & Ireland Tour 2015
What a year this has been for Rennie and Brett Sparks. Before Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson starred in one of the most exciting and talked-about TV series of recent memory (all-time ? of course not, that’s still Buffy), The Handsome Family were strong, personal favourites for plenty of people; but now they’re household names. …
Album Review: Taylor Swift – 1989
I’d intended to go in one direction when I began writing this, that being to just do a straight up review of the record. As it is I’ve ended up going in quite another, taking detours with Billy Bragg, the AMAs, the Spotify row, Bob Harris’ ‘My Nashville’ documentary, and Taylor. ‘1989’ is a high-profile …
Meet: Stone Thieves
Hullo music fans. We are pleased to introduce you to some new country rock heroes from the North London/Herts badlands: Stone Thieves. The beauty of this format is that you don’t have to listen to me witter on about them – they’re going to tell you the whole story themselves while I sit back and …
Not Forgotten: Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born Ten Years Later
I don’t think there’s a more divisive Wilco record than A Ghost Is Born(maybe Wilco(The Album)). It was a record filled with claustrophobic silence, whispered musical intentions, and the sound of numbed pain. It was the record where people asked “What’s going on with Jeff Tweedy’s voice?” Well I asked it, anyways. It felt both pared down …
Streets of Laredo – Hey Rose
Despite obvious problems with their national rugby union side, I have a massive soft spot for Kiwis. I didn’t know this bunch were from NZ (albeit now based in Brooklyn in New York), but I’m also a sucker for country and a bit of folk and their name seemed to fit that bracket. I was …
Boss Caine – The Rhythm and the Rhyme (Part 3 of Backseat Mafia On Tour: York)
Years ago when Gomez first emerged there would always be at least a strain of suspicion running through reviews. For the generous, the fact that this group of adolescents wrote about life experiences they couldn’t have had, in places they might only have seen as wide-eyed tourists, channeled through one particular singer who sounded like …
Burning Condors – Last Train Home b/w Gambling Hearts
“Coz every night I’m out with you I’m always chasing that train home” I guess it doesn’t matter where you live – even though this IS, and feels like, a London thing; we’ve all been there, pissed as farts, sodden with autumn rain, fags all wet, pubs shut, no money for expensive clubs, the hideous …
Album review: The Lonely H – The Lonely H
This is good-time music. It’s got everything that you need: bendy, blues- and rock’n’roll-infused guitars, confident brass, an unobtrusive but muscular rhythm section, a strong and soulful vocalist, and a good understanding of how to write coherent, tuneful, ass-shaking, country rock. This five-piece, who have been together for around a decade, hail from Port Angeles, …