It’s time (almost) to light the candles on the cake and sing Happy Birthday to Americana UK as we enter our 10th year in 2011. In reality, AUK celebrated this anniversary much later in the year, in November, with a star studded concert which we shall return to in the third edition of our round up of 2011. In the meantime we have a new cover design for our monthly discs sent to our magnificent subscribers, a redesign which merited a mention in our editor Mark’s welcoming comments inside the February disc.
First order of the day in January is the winners of our annual readers poll (called back then the Visitors Poll.) Here are the results with our collator Paul Villers’ comments on the winners.
Album of the Year
1 The National “High Violet”
“It was tough at the top of our poll with the Cincinnati via Brooklyn band of brothers and other running out the eventual winners. The album sold 400,000 copies worldwide reaching number 5 in the UK chart and number 3 in the US. Not bad for a supposedly ‘niche’ band.”
2 Phosphorescent “Here’s To Taking It Easy”
3 Midlake “The Courage of Others”
Band of the Year
1 The Duke and the King
“They may have just missed out in the Album vote but there’s something we just love about Simone Felice and his bandmates. A thoroughly nice bloke apparently when you meet him and a real breath of fresh air in the Americana genre.”
2 The National
3 Midlake
Best Live Act
1 Wilco
“Perennial favourites round these parts they may not have put a new record out this year but their work ethic, the respect they have for their fans and their legendary live performances put them at the top of the pile in this category.”
2 Midlake
3 Drive By Truckers
Best Male Artist
1 Neil Young
“Whilst “Le Noise” may have divided opinion we still hold Shakey dear to our hearts and at least respect him for trying something different. If he wasn’t idiosyncratic we probably wouldn’t love him as much?”
2 Simone Felice
3 John Grant
Best Female Artist
1 Caitlin Rose
“Variously described as “…a prodigious talent…” and “…the future of country music…” the twenty three year old with a Nashville pedigree seems destined for many good things to come.”
2 Elizabeth Cook
3 Laura Veirs
Best TV Show
1 Later…
“Whilst Jools Holland might not be to everyone’s taste as a TV presenter his show (now twice weekly) is pretty much the only thing out there for the discerning music fan on national TV.”
2 Mad Men
3 The Trip
Best Movie
1 Inception
“It was pretty remiss of Leonardo Di Caprio not to have appeared in Toy Story 3 and hence spoil the symmetry of our poll. However a decent story AND special effects prove to be a winner once again.”
2 Shutter Island
3 Toy Story 3
Best Radio Show
Bob Harris
“No one else even comes close to the veteran DJ (and friend of Americana-uk). Whichever flavour of his radio show you plumped for his is the only name in town.”
Hero of the Year
Julian Assange
“Whatever his motivations it seems we just can’t resist the little guy who takes on the big guy. America got a bloody nose this time…maybe Russia and China next?”
Villain of the Year
Nick Clegg
“We have a very healthy suspicion of our politicians and it appears in the unfortunate case of Nick Clegg that this was entirely well founded. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?”
We also have our writers’ top ten list of the best of 2010. It’s compiled from their individual top ten choices (an incredibly varied selection which you can see here.
The Duke and The King “Long Live The Duke and The King”
John Grant “Queen of Denmark”
Phosphorescent “Here’s to Taking It Easy”
Great Lakes “Ways of Escape”
Drive By Truckers “The Big To Do”
Bellowhead “Hedonism”
Justin Townes Earle “Harlem River Blues”
The Sadies “Darker Circles”
JT and the Clouds “Caledonia”
The Miserable Rich “Of Flight and Fury”
Onto the archives then and having moaned about the lack of cached pages on the dear old Wayback Machine regarding AUK in 2010, 2011 is not as bare but while interviews with acts such as Jesse Sykes & The Sweet hereafter, Carrie Elkin and Hot Club Of Cowtown are archived there’s more that are not. We’re more successful regarding live reviews with AUK opining on the following: Justin Townes Earle, CW Stoneking, Giant Sand, John Grant, Peter Stampfel & Jeffrey Lewis, Joe Pug, Richard Thompson, The Water Tower Boys, Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Marty Stuart, Simone Felice and The Decembrists. You can read all of these here. As ever Oliver Gray reports back from the front line which was SXSW 2011 while Jeremy Searle prefers his armchair comfort as he reviews the BBC’s Radio Two Folk Awards which was televised.
So, what were we listening to in the first few months of 2011 according to the four CDs sent out to our subscribers? January’s offering is bereft of “name” acts aside from Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 (although we’d like to suggest that The Lucky Strikes are also up there). February has the Cowboy Junkies, The White Stripes, Drive By Truckers and the late Malcolm Holcombe while March is graced by Jason Isbell, The Low Anthem, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Adam Duritz (turning in a fine version of Warren Zevon’s ‘Carmelita’), Bruce Cockburn, King Creosote, American Aquarium, Buddy Miller and The Wailin’ Jennys, not a bad bunch really. April kicks off with Israel Nash Gripka (before he ditched the Gripka) while Laura Cantrell, David Lowery, Allison Krauss, The Redlands Palomino Company, The Mountain Goats and The Baseball Project are all present and correct. All in all a pretty fertile period but, as always, much of the pleasure in revisiting the discs comes from the lesser known acts.
January’s CD is dominated by the gorgeous tones of Tiny Ruins & A Singer Of Songs on the frail, autumnal ‘Feathers’, a collaboration, as noted in Mark’s liner notes, between acts based in Barcelona and New Zealand. February’s pick is the Durango-based Lawn Chair Kings, who, on ‘Jalisco‘, continue to carry the flag for alt country, as do Lullwater on their song ‘Amsterdam‘, which is featured in March. Unfortunately we can’t find a link to this song, sorry about that. April’s disc has a fantastic gem in the shape of El Obo’s ‘JC vs. the DRs‘, a hypnotic dive into Sparklehorse territory which hums and twitches and turns with a dreamlike atmosphere. We also have to mention April’s inclusion of a song by Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, ‘Servant Of Your Vision’, taken from their album “Marble Son”. Criminally overlooked, Jesse has recently gained some prominence due to her leading role in Dave Alvin’s cosmic folk rock jam band The Third Mind. Here, more than a decade earlier, she lays down the blueprint. You can read Soren McGuire’s 2011 interview with Jesse here.
There’s really nothing to fault our editor Mark for his selection of hidden tracks on this batch really. January’s offering is from one his favourites, Paul Kelly who, along with his band, The Messengers, lays down a grand song in the shape of ‘Buffalo Ballet’. In February we have perennial favourite Peter Bruntnell with the sublime ‘Black Aces’, from his 2002 album “Ends Of The Earth” while March features the hoodoo rock vibes of Jace Everett on ‘Bad Things‘. April meanwhile casts some light on a band rarely mentioned these days, The Connells who provide some glorious jangled pop on ‘Running Mary’, taken from their 1993 album “Ring”.
You can still be a friend of Americana UK in this digital age, and amazingly, it’s now cheaper to do so than it was in 2011. All details here.
Vintage screenshots grabbed via The Wayback Machine.
Love these trips down memory lane. There’s always a couple of artists l used to listen to a lot who, for whatever reason, I have sort of forgotten about. This time around Caitlin Rose, Redlands Palomino Company and perhaps also Phosphorescent. Remember one holiday in the Yorkshire Dales listening to my “Broken Carelessly” by RPC CD constantly in the car. Interesting that The National features so highly in the poll. In retrospect I think “High Violet” might have been a career high for them. I guess there’s just so much music new and old that we can’t “stick” with everything and some bands need to drop off along the way.
Thanks for the comment, as you say, a nice trip down memory lane.