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.
We kick off our latest Shortcuts with a fine dollop of country rock songs from Glasgow’s Bone Idle Bros on their debut, self titled, album. Apparently the album has been pending for some time, knocked sideways by the pandemic, but now unveiled, it’s an excellent listen – energetic, fun, well played and memorable. At times there’s a skifflish, rudimentary rush to the songs but then some sweet pedal steel swerves in, elevating the band well beyond street entertainer status. ‘Sometimes‘ is a stand out track, slightly reminiscent of prime time Lindisfarne in its sing-along descriptions of daily life and with a tremendous harmonica laden middle eight, this song finds these Scotsmen challenging Old Crow Medicine Show for a good time listen. ‘I Had Another Drink’ has a loose Stones’ like ramshackleness to it while ‘Whisky And Pills’ is slightly reminiscent of Green On Red as it rattles along with a banjo added to the mix on a song which probably goes down well live. Toss in ‘Between The Light And The Dark’, another song which recalls The Stones’ forays into country rock along with early Ryan Adams, and the closing song, ‘It’s Easy’, which ends with a string flourish and you have an incredibly strong debut. It’s raw and rough edged and all the better for that
AUK gave Joseph Shipp’s previous album an 8/10 score and while we wouldn’t be so generous this time around it’s fair to say that his second album, “Dig Deep”, is well worthy of a listen. He’s a master in crafting songs which are quite diaphanous as they shimmer with floating vocals and flurries of guitars contained within. For this reviewer it’s just a little bit too mannered to totally engage with but there’s no doubting the attraction of a song which has echoes of Sparklehorse in its DNA as on the opening number ‘Heavy Cold’ while ‘Strange Voodoo’ exists in a universe of its own with its repetitive guitar loops. Our favourite here is ‘Phantasy‘, as delicate as a spider’s web on a frosty morning, a gossamer thin love song.
Although she hails from Texas, there’s little red dirt contained within Sarah Pierce’s album “Blessed By The West”. Although she does mention red dirt in the opening song, she spends most of her time hymning the grandeur, the delights and the history of the American west with ‘Cowboy Way (Tied To The Ride)’ fairly characteristic of the disc. She does include three songs (‘The Librarian’, ‘The Messenger’, and ‘Rough Stock’) she says are about “strong women that defined the character of the west in the late 18th and early 19th centuries… songs about women that were willing to break all the rules.” Reminiscent of the type of Western songs written by Ian Tyson the album is a very pleasant listen with lots of pedal steel and fiddle to whet the appetite as you saddle up. Here’s the title song.
“Interludes” is the debut album from Lincoln the Lawyer, a San Diego-based musician who fuses a post punk attitude with bold folk like and idiosyncratic story songs, coming across like a mash up of Jonathan Richman, Stan Ridgeway and The dB’s. ‘Rutabaga‘ is perhaps the best example of this somewhat convoluted way of describing these songs, but our Lawyer here is engaging throughout with ‘Segue Sam’, with its retro organ groove and spooky guitars, a grand description of a self deluded womaniser while ‘Sleep My Chickens’ is probably the weirdest song about chicken farming (not that there’s many) that you will ever hear. “Interludes” is a blast from start to end, eccentric but full of fun and surprises.
Todd Hearon’s “Impossible Man” comes with a fine set of credentials. Produced by Don Dixon, recorded in Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Studio in North Carolina with a cast of musicians including Peter Holsapple and Dixon himself, it’s a solid set of songs which reflect the effort put into it by Hearon et al. It’s let down however by the lack of standout songs with Hearon never managing to flag anything as out of the ordinary. That said, there’s no harm in succumbing to the likes of ‘Adeline’, a sweet song with echoes of Townes Van Zandt and the immersive shimmer of ‘Too Deep To Feel The Bottom’ while the opening cut, ‘Deadman’s Cove‘, is the most perfectly realised song here. The title song, which closes the album, starts off promisingly with a country rock grumble but pretty soon it loses its way as Hearon strives for a climatic chorus.
We head way down to Australia to listen to Small Town Romance’s second album, ‘Home Fires’ and it’s a winner. A duo (Flora Smith and Jim Arneman), they conjure an excellent old time harmony sound with retro guitar stylings on the opening title song, somewhat like The Everlys backed by Santo & Jonny, it has a fine David Lynch like soundtrack feel to it. While they don’t repeat this trick, the remainder of the songs are all quite excellent, whether it be the free flowing LA like country rock sounds of ‘Wish The Worst’, the Western romance of ‘Festival Town‘, some Tex-Mex on ‘Cut Run’ and ‘Piece By Piece’ or the slight Little Feat influence on the blues fun of ‘Piss Fit n Boogie’, they hit their target each time. With Smith and Arneman taking turn on lead vocals, they offer plenty of variety as they roam through a solid set which deserves to be heard.
We close this latest round up with an intimate album, “Broken Little Heart” from Canada’s Ian Sherwood. If you like Paul Simon then we daresay you’ll like this album as Sherwood, over an impressive, low key and restrained band, sings a set of songs which paint life as a bit of a struggle. The opening song ‘Billboards’, sets the tone with its late night ambience, electric piano and mournful horn solo, a mood retained on ‘One Wheel Off’ and on ‘Motel 6′. At times Sherwood comes a bit too close to AOR radio fodder for our likes but he redeems himself on the jaunty ‘In Love With Love’, a song which is quite warming with a slight Celtic skip in its step.
