Sometimes a song just comes to hand at exactly the right time, so this is just perfect for the moment when we see the current government backpedalling as fast as possible on Green commitments and the current prime minister champion the driver over those evil pedestrians wanting improved air quality in their Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Amusingly LTNs were given a huge boost in recent years when Sunak was Johnson’s chancellor and he found £200million to extend the schemes – how he must despise himself.
Viv & Riley’s ‘Is It All Over‘ takes the opposite viewpoint and questions whether climate change is already too far advanced – have we blundered big time? “Will the Arctic have a baseball park and a field of clover?” they wonder, and if so will we all get shipped off to Mars?
Durham, North Carolina, based Viv & Riley are Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno, and ‘Is It All Over‘ is taken from their first duo album ‘Imaginary People‘ which is out on September 15th on Free Dirt Records.
Nice choice. Viv & Riley have been around for a while; this is actually their second album together (the first was produced by Joel Savoy) but the first as ‘Viv & Riley’. Viv also had a solo album and they perform in the old-time band The Onlies (formerly The Ruglifters).
Viv’s mum is Carol Elizabeth Jones, who’s played with Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard and in The Wandering Ramblers with the Americana treasure that is Dirk Powell. True Americana musical lineage.
I love the old-time stuff, although the latest album seems like it’s leaning away from that a bit. It’s good to have the variety.