Our latest Short Cuts, a monthly feature where AUK casts a brief eye and ear on several albums we’ve received recently which just didn’t make the cut for a full review. Like most major music websites we can’t mention every album we get sent but we reckon the picks below deserve a nod. Click on the links to hear a song.
Let’s kick off this month’s selection with a definite winner as Francesca Brown helms an album of classic country folk/rock sounds (with a California bent) on “Stolen Land And Broken Dreams”. When AUK premiered the single from the album, ‘Where You Begin‘, Andrew Frolish said of the song that it featured “fine guitar-work and gorgeously sweeping, bending, sliding pedal steel… Brown’s haunting vocal performance is outstanding.” We’ll certainly second that here as Brown maintains this level throughout the album. It commences with the open vistas of ‘Where You Begin’, the song mentioned above with Brown digging behind the supposed glamour of California. That grit behind the glamour also fuels ‘What She Needs’ while she approaches early Emmylou Harris status on the yearning ‘When A Cowboy Cries‘. For sheer shit kicking country vibes tune into ‘San Fernando Valley Queen’ and be sure to enjoy Brown’s whimsical take on drinking songs as she admits to finding ‘Brussels Sprouts And Whiskey’ something of an aphrodisiac. Highly recommended.
Here at AUK we’re all in favour of good food and “Peaches And Apple Pies”, the latest album from Rita Bliss, more than satisfies our appetite for down home, back porch americana. It’s good time music, steeped in tradition and quite uplifting. Bliss sings well and her banjo playing is exemplary while the backing, all string band, is mighty good. The title song pretty much sums up the album while ‘Darling Darling’ is a gorgeous lullaby which has a faint whiff of Michael Hurley to it. ‘Two Dollar Bill‘ meanwhile is reminiscent of John Hartford but special mention goes out to ‘Love From Lufkin’, an excellent epistolary tour diary and geography lesson rolled into one. This album is another winner and again is highly recommended.
There’s a hush surrounding the third album from Oakland duo The Singer and The Songwriter despite the disc’s dramatic title, “Dreams! The Dead! Ghost! Future“. In the main it’s singer Rachel Garcia and guitarist Thu Tran you hear here although there are subtle additions of muted strings, keyboards and guitar adding to the atmosphere. The pair certainly evoke a sense of late night listening, intimate and warm with echoes of bedsit heroes such as Janis Ian, perhaps best evidenced on ‘Rest Stop Angels’ while ‘Drowsy Driver‘ swims in the same waters inhabited by Mazzy Star. Tran’s guitar picking is showcased on four instrumentals dotted throughout the album (‘Dreams!’, ‘The Dead!’, ‘Ghost!’ and ‘Future!’, naturally) while their ominous take on catastrophe on ‘Flight Risk’ is a Camus like acceptance of tragedy.
Bright Arcana is the latest vehicle for Wisconsin’s John Everett Hardin’s songs. The album, “To The Terrible Blood”, recorded with a small band of friends live to tape with no overdubs, is a gentle, comforting listen although at times Hardin dips into dark themes. The title song, written in the throes of the pandemic, references William Faulkner and the Bhavagad Gita in a manner which is quite moving emotionally. Less successful is the odd mix of gloomy balladry and a jaunty chorus on ‘I Wash The Bodies Of Your Dead’, inspired apparently by Hardin’s experiences of working as a nurse in a hospice. There are echoes of Paul Simon scattered throughout, none more so than on the relatively upbeat ‘Dharma Blues‘, and Hardin closes the album with a lengthy eulogy, ‘Unable Are Those That Love And Are Loved To Die’, a song written under the looming shadow of death and delivered in a quite glorious manner, the instruments almost weeping.
David Starr, from Colorado, has steadily built up a reputation in the UK via his annual visits over the past decade. His past two visits have seen him accompanied by mandolinist Erik Stucky and the pair have now released a collaborative album, “Starr & Stucky” which showcases the pair’s empathetic playing. Starr has long parlayed a strong song writing bent with its roots in classic 70s LA acoustic rock and the pair kick off the album with an acoustic rendering of ‘Good As Gone’, first delivered on Starr’s album “South And West”. The original was a propulsive road song – driving along with the wind in your hair – here Starr and Stucky give the song a grittier touch with Starr’s vocals more urgent and the pair’s guitar and mandolin driving the song forward. The remainder of the album also consists of reimagined songs from Starr’s back catalogue but he and Stucky breathe new life into them be it on the gentle ripples of ‘Edge Of The World’ or the yearning ‘Night Rolls Around’, a song which reminds one of Bob Seger’s best. Starr has a long association with John Oates who co-wrote ‘Rise Up Again’, the centrepiece of the album and a good reason to dig out the album, “Beauty & Ruin”, it first appeared on. At the very least this is an essential buy for anyone who wants a souvenir of the pair’s latest UK tour.
Anyone with an interest in Paisley Underground sounds or Byrds’ like jangled pop should lend an ear to “All In The Mind”, a debut offering from The Strange Encounters. The band is a collaboration between Berlin’s Guido Kreutzmüller and Glasgow’s Joe Armstrong both of whom have an enviable history with various bands. In a lengthy album, the 12 songs chime with echoes of power pop and pychedelia with the opening number ‘Don’t Hold Back‘ pretty much setting the scene for what follows. ‘Under The Sun’ opens with a Beatles’ like guitar rush while ‘Surveillance Town’ has an early Traffic like vibe to it and be sure to hang on in to hear the eight minute sonic blast of ‘The Boy In The Mirror’, the second last song here.
The always dependable The Mighty Bosscats are back with their 15th album in as many years. As always, veteran Richard Townend is at the helm and for “Photoshoot” he has recruited Matt Gillam on bass and drummer Mark Hall. As ever, the Bosscats whip up a fine rock’n’roll rumble while rooting around in funk, punk, blues and the pub rock scene, able to convey a gnarly sense of menace on ‘John Crow‘ and turn in a fine sense of twang on ‘I Want To be In Love’. More varied than its predecessors, “Photoshoot” opens with the catchy pulse of its title track but ‘Pass The Favour On’ is classic Mighty Bosscats in style and delivery with its hints of Mark Knopfler on a neon slicked noirish song.
We had a slice of ambient country in the form of SUSS in the last Shortcuts round-up and this month we are presented an album called ‘Instrumental Americana’ by Mike Krause & The Third Expression who hail from North Carolina. Whereas SUSS excel in creating a sense of place and atmosphere, Krause never really connects with the landscape on this short selection of six instrumentals. There is one number, ‘Anahuacalli’, which does speak to the senses with its pedal steel (from John Neff) particularly enhancing, but overall the album drifts by, pleasant enough but not immersive.
The Whiskey Charmers trod a well trodden path on “Streetlights”, their fifth album. Their take on americana is one part twangy guitar and one part nocturnal lyrics sung by Carrie Shepard. The overall result is indicative of numerous bands over the past few decades (Blanche, Cowboy Junkies, even The Delines) but they lack that killer touch which might elevate them into highly desirable listening territory. That said, there are moments when they can whip up some excitement as on ‘There’s Black‘ or the jaunty ‘Sagebrush’ but the title song has too much guitar bluster which somewhat overwhelms the song.
