AUK Back Pages No. 11

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Well, Happy New Year to all here in 2025 as we delve into the then new year of 2008 with our latest peek into the AUK archives. As ever there’s a new cover design for the monthly CDs sent out to Friends Of Americana UK (for a small fee) throughout the year. As always, we remain grateful to all those who signed up back then and who continue to do so, albeit these days for a curated monthly stream. Without you we couldn’t keep up the standard you expect from us.

Last time around we promised to unveil the results of our end of year 2007 polls, one compiled by our writers and the other from our readers, so here we go. There are 20 albums noted in the writers’ best of and it’s interesting to note that it’s keenly balanced between some well known acts and some names which have now disappeared into the mist including the number one pick, Octoberman, a vehicle for Canadian Marc Morrisette. As far as I can see he’s not been mentioned on AUK since then although he has several subsequent releases on view on his Bandcamp page. It’s emblematic of the ephemeral nature of record releases, 15 minutes of fame (or at least being recognised by AUK) and then, zilch. For the purposes of this article I gave the album a listen and it’s well worth a visit.

Here’s the top 20 of 2007 as voted by the AUK writers…

Octoberman “Run From Safety”
Wilco “Sky Blue Sky”
Richmond Fontaine “Thirteen Cities”
Broken Family Band “Hello Love”
Eilen Jewell “Letters From Sinners And Strangers”
Emily Barker “Photos Fires Fables”
Okkervil River “The Stage Names”
Crowded House “Time on Earth”
The Bairns “Rachel Unthank and the Winter Set”
Dax Riggs “We Sing Of Only Blood or Love”
Phil Campbell “Joy”
Great Lakes “Diamond Times”
Jeff Kanzler “Black Top Road”
Bob Delevante “Columbus and the Colossal Mistake”
Mark Cool and the Folk Stars: “Introducing…”
Peter Case “Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John”
Felice Brothers “Tonight at the Arizona”
Tommy Womack “There I Said It!”
Redlands Palomino Company “Take Me Home”
Chris Bathgate “A Cork Tale Wake”

Our Readers’ Best Of was limited to ten albums and of those only three overlapped with the writers’ list and they actually take the top three places.

Richmond Fontaine “Thirteen Cities”
Wilco “Sky Blue Sky”
Felice Brothers “Tonight at the Arizona”
Mark Olson “Salvation Blues”
Bruce Springsteen “Magic”
The National “Boxer”
Neil Young “Chrome Dreams II”
Iron and Wine “The Shepherd’s Dog”
The Shins “Wincing the Night Away”
Sam Baker “Pretty World”

Aside from the top 10 albums the readers’ poll had other categories of course and this is who you all voted for. Artist of the year was Richmond Fontaine, followed in succession by Ryan Adams, The Hold Steady, The National, Lucinda Williams, Jim White, Chuck Prophet, The Broken Family Band, Arcade Fire and The Sadies. Best TV Show was “The Sopranos” (which had just ended with its open ended ending) and your favourite movie was Shane Meadows’ “This Is England”. Bob Harris took the first two spots in the best radio show slot with his Radio 2 Saturday show coming in first followed by his Country Show (also on Radio 2) coming in second. A little known DJ called Bob Dylan was in third place with his Theme Time Radio Hour. Magazine of the year was Uncut (a reflection perhaps of their ongoing series of Americana related CD cover mounts) while hero of the year was Neil Young and the villain was George W. Bush.

As mentioned in the previous Back Pages there’s a dearth of archived material available on the Way Back Machine regarding the first months of 2008. We do report that Leonard Cohen is preparing to tour and that REM played “an energetic and politically charged South By Southwest concert at Stubb’s BBQ” but aside from that there’s little to report. On the live review front there’s much more archived. In January Jonathan Aird attended Steve Forbert at Dingwalls (“Dingwalls is an odd venue, small, and predominantly seated – tables and rather uncomfortable chairs that leave your clothes smelling of sick. It’s probably only with the smoking ban that you get to notice these things”) and (perhaps due to that sick smell) he also goes along to see Seasick Steve at The Astoria. There are three Celtic Connections gig reviews (Steve Earle, Ryan Bingham and a set up called The Boston Tea Party which included Kris Delmhorst). February is fairly bare as we only catch American Music Club and John Renbourne (RIP) but in March there’s much more going on including reviews of Nels Andrews, Josh Ritter and Kim Edgar along with two reviews of Neil Young’s latest jaunt. The first (by Andy Riggs, these days a regular commentator on AUK articles) is of Young’s show at the Hammersmith Apollo and it finds Andy admitting that he first heard Young when he was played on Tony Blackburn’s breakfast Radio One show back in 1970. Mike Ritchie sees the same show (albeit without Young’s then wife Pegi’s opening set) in Edinburgh’s Playhouse. Both give a huge thumbs up for the acoustic and electric sets which comprised the shows. April’s also a busy month with another Josh Ritter review along with shows from Eilen Jewell and Karine Polwart while Jonathan Aird (again) experiences his first live Chuck Prophet gig at The Borderline, concluding that it was “A truly excellent night, and this is a band that is now on my keep track of list”. On the festival front Patrick Wilkins (on his fourth trip to Austin) hands in a day by day account of his 2008 SXSW experience (although there’s no mention of that REM show). Soren McGuire conducts several interviews but these are not archived, suffice to say that he spoke to Daniel Wylie, Justin Townes Earle and Kathleen Edwards.

The lack of fully archived articles is a mite frustrating and also mightily tantalising. There’s a list of winners of competitions for tickets to see various artists (including Jason McNiff, Nels Andrews and shows at the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival) but no links to the actual competitions. More intriguing is the appearance of an associated online radio show which pops up in March. Entitled “BP: FM on www.americana-uk.com” it’s a monthly show curated by Bob Paterson, a man who has been hugely influential in promoting Americana music in the UK for four decades. Unfortunately, unless someone can come up with a link, there’s no way to hear these shows now as far as I can see. On his online bio Paterson mentions these shows as the last radio he did.

Onto the monthly discs then. As ever, 20 tracks (plus a hidden bonus) on each. There’s new artwork for 2008 and for the first time the names of some of the participating acts are mentioned on the front. In terms of big names we are in fairly lean territory. Mark Olsen and Gary Louris are both present (although separately) as are Allison Moorer, American Music Club, The Felice Brothers, Counting Crows and Stephen Malkus & The Jicks. Moorer is most impressive with her wonderful reading of The McGarrigle’s ‘Go Leave’, taken from her album “Mockingbird”, a collection of cover songs by female writers. Bed rock Americana favourites include Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel, Daniel Wylie, Jason McNiff, The Coal Porters and Dead Rock West while April’s disc includes a song (‘Red Tree Song’) we attribute to Danny George Wilson but it’s actually taken from the debut album from Danny & The Champions Of The World (belated apologies for that Danny). Delving into some of the lesser known names there are a few gems popping up. Canada’s Northwest Division have a grand blast of Crazy Horse like mayhem on ‘Whitehorse’ while another Canadian, Kate Maki, sounds quite wonderful as she adopts a cowgirl lope, accompanied by some very sweet pedal steel on ‘Blue Morning’ (please do check out her video below where she is accompanied by Howe Gelb). Spottiswoode & His Enemies channel Leonard Cohen and Mark Lanegan on ‘Let The Cold Win Blow’ but the prize for the best song from the more obscure bands here goes to The Quarter After who deliver an astounding, psychedelic Byrds like jangle on ‘Early Morning Rider’ which is turbo charged with Hugh Masekela like horns allowing it to sound like an outtake from The Byrds’ “Younger Than Yesterday”. It’s quite superb and I’m certainly going to check them out as I somehow missed out on them first time around.

As ever there is a “hidden” song at the end of each of the discs, chosen by our editor Mark. January’s choice is somewhat left field as Basement Jaxx’s “Take Me Back To Your House” wakes you up after the statuary wait after the 20^th song. There are glimmers of a banjo in it but it’s definitely not Americana. In a complete contrast, February features Mason Jennings’ ‘Adrian’, a stark threnody sung by a man waiting to be hanged, one voice and a guitar delivering a powerful message. Tracey Chapman’s ‘If I’ve Loved Right’ closes the March disc while April is graced by the addition of ‘Faded Glamour’ by a band called Animals That Swim who had a brief shot at fame in the 1990s with songs which, according to one reviewer, hovered close to the Go Betweens.