AUK Short Cuts: Sequoia Rose, Everett Wren, Old Lost John, The Red Barn, Rooster Blackspur, Sara Bug, Hollowsage & the Three Mile Islanders, Tessio, The Popravinas! and Gabriel Minnikin

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.

Sequoia Rose is a Californian bluegrass player who gravitates towards the recent “jam” style as popularised by Billy Strings. On “ain’t got there yet” (no capitals) he offers a fairly rough and ready set of songs which benefit from the lack of polish, adding a fine sense of grit to the neat finger picking on display. The title song opens with Sequoya Rose sounding like an acoustic version of Nirvana before the sound opens out as the picked strings weigh in with a fine mandolin solo striking up. There’s a sense of The Allman Brothers in ‘Honky Tonk Heart’ and some of the psychedelic flourishes favoured by Billy Strings on the lengthy ‘Cosmic Love while a cover of Peter Rowan’s ‘Midnight Moonlight’ is a welcome reminder of an excellent song. If you dig this latest bluegrass fashion then the album is well worth a listen especially as it’s available as a free download if you sign up to the man’s mailing list here.

Fiddler Everett Wren is another musician updating a traditional American style with his quirky take on folk and pop on “Cascade”. While we are on familiar territory when he plays it fairly straight as on ‘Angie & Tim Reel’ and the traditional ‘Banish Misfortune’ and ‘Weeping Willow Tree’, some of the album finds him fronting a muscular rock backing; ‘Ungrounded’ pounds along with lyrics reminiscent of the late John Hartford while ‘Starlight adds a horn section and ‘Coffee and Jam’ wanders into Lynyrd Skynyrd territory.  There are a couple of much more mannered songs which again bring to mind Hartford but which lack the master’s quirkiness.

Old Lost John is recoding alias of Swedish folk/americana song smith Tomas Thunberg who AUK has reviewed on several occasions in the past. “Forgotten Pains” is his fifth album and it holds fast to the template of relatively unadorned acoustic songs with close up vocals which populate the previous releases. The main talking point is that the 10 songs here all date back to 2004, recorded on cassette to sell at gigs on limited edition CDrs.  Now remastered, the songs shine throughout with the highlights for this reviewer the beguiling ‘Dreamwood’ and the melancholic love song ‘Before You Know.

From Sweden we hop over to Norway to have a listen to the self titled album from The Red Barn. They’re a four piece instrumental band who have truly inhaled the air of Americana with the album coming across as an offspring of The Friends Of Dean Martinez and John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. Had he not died recently David Lynch would have been well advised to consider them for a future soundtrack. The opening number is a perfect example of ambient Americana with its glistening pedal steel while ‘Mr. Goomba has a noirish creep with blowsy horns adding a fine sense of sleaze, it summons up visions of the decrepit Orson Welles in “Touch Of Evil”. If you are a sucker for imagined soundtracks with an Americana vibe to them then this is highly recommended.

Rooster Blackspur is a female New Mexican singer who has transported herself to Nashville to record a seven song EP in Cinderella Sound Recordings, one of the city’s oldest recording studios, hence the EP title, “Nashville (The Cinderella Sessions)”. It opens with a gritty slice of honky tonk, ‘Kicking Up Dust’ featuring the legendary harmonica player Charlie McCoy. It’s a great song but the remainder of the disc fails to match it with Blackcrow delving into balladry on songs such as ‘Hard Road’ andLonely Angels. Towards the end she bounces back with the vibrant ‘I Saw You’ which finds her stretching her powerful voice while the band stretch out with a hint of cosmic cowboy in the vibe.

Staying in Nashville we discover Sara Bug who digs into a classic Nashville country sound while sounding like a youthful Dolly Parton at times on “Into The Blue”. This is more country than Americana but Bug is able to write some great songs such as the opening track, ‘No Man No Kids which is a fine declaration of independence. Even better is the incredible ‘Send Me An Angel’ which uses Bug’s terrific voice to portray her as an innocent who is praying for a good man and rebuking God as, the last time she prayed, He sent her “a liar a cheater a liar a leaver.” A cover of ‘The First Cut Is the Deepest’ is a tad overblown but overall “Into The Blue” should please anyone who is interested in well crafted mainstream Nashville pop.

We don’t get too many albums sent to us by funeral directors but that’s what Sagen Pearse seems to have as a day job in Ontario. He trades musically as Hollowsage & the Three Mile Islanders and AUK offered their first album a generous 8/10 review. Our review referenced Gregory Alan Isakov and Iron & Wine as comparisons and that still holds on the second album “Aftermath” as Pearse offers a set of wordy, somewhat introspective songs which work well when they are stripped back. However, at times, there’s too much chest beating accompanied by a rush of instrumental overkill, best evidenced on ‘Tragedy Of Neon’. When Pearse dials it down as on ‘Smoke’ he draws the listener in and he strikes a fine balance between the bombast and the finesse on ‘Lock And Key.

Tessio are a singer-songwriter duo from Derry comprised of Jude McCandless and Callum Feeney. They reference the Everly Brothers in their publicity but we reckon they are much closer to that Scots duo, The Proclaimers, in their intent. That’s not to say they are anything like the Reid Twins but there are glimmers here and there although Tessio have no trace of their Irish heritage in the vocals. Their self titled debut album is very much a tentative toe in the water with the duo sounding as if they were recording in a bedroom in the hope to be discovered. That said, there’s promise on several of the songs such as ‘Hang It On My Back’ which is quite energetic while ‘Knock Upon My Door is a finely balanced song with just a hint of menace in it.

The Popravinas! hail from Santa Monica and come across as a fun band on their fifth release, “Low Chance”. They dig power pop and country rock and deliver their songs with a fine sense of insouciance. ‘Closest Thing To A Smile’ swings mightily with twangy guitar all the way through and there’s a fine sense of humour in evidence on ‘The Girl Who Didn’t Want To Hear Any Tunes, a song described by guitarist and singer Eddy Sill as being about a past girlfriend who “Couldn’t stand to hear any music. Drove her absolutely crazy… I heard it could’ve been a medical condition.” It’s a song reminiscent of Fountains Of Wayne and a much better recommendation than that would be hard to come by. As the band say, “Why not grab a beer and see who’s making this racket?” and we will not disagree with that.

We end this roundup with Gabriel Minnikin, a Canadian who has a lengthy pedigree with the likes of Blue Rodeo, Gordie Sampson, KD Lang and Diana Jones. On ‘Anne Lorraine’, named for his partner, Minnikin takes the listener on a richly textured voyage which is partly inspired by the watery landscape of Nova Scotia, family memories and good old rock’n’roll. The last of these is well represented in the vibrant ‘Egg McKinnikin which hurtles along the highway with a fine sense of braggadocio while ‘Navy Blue’, a song inspired by his seafaring grandfather finds Minnikin delivering a catchy electronic pop song. He’s quite theatrical on the intricacies of ‘Snake & Ladders’ which resides within a dizzy fairground melody and on ‘Township Of The Troop’ Minnikin delves into Leonard Cohen territory with some aplomb.

About Paul Kerr 482 Articles
Still searching for the Holy Grail, a 10/10 album, so keep sending them in.
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