Well, here we are in month two of what will no doubt be a tumultuous 2024 (and maybe even for music!) and your second new writer to the EP Roundup. So after Graeme Tait’s confident start, the first order of the day is to confess to our readers a technical glitch (not to be repeated), whereby two of the albums that came by had already been reviewed last month and a third proved to be a single!
So let me just reinforce Graeme’s review of The Teskey Brothers’ 5 track ‘The Circle Session’, with Josh’s amazingly soulful voice and Sam’s stinging guitar. Not being familiar with their music (which I will now explore), only their name, I have to say that ‘Drown in my own Tears’ is an absolute tour-de-force.
Let me also support his views on Lola Wild’s ‘Get Up’. She is certainly a talent to watch out for, an extraordinarily captivating voice, with a very retro but updated sound, drowned in ‘60s echo, but with ‘90s reverb guitar. To this listener she sounds a little like Connie Francis, as well as the influences that Graeme highlighted. The duet with Robert Chaney on ‘Here I go’ is simply gorgeous. It is very interesting that she has this retro sound while writing about very modern topics like the challenges facing one’s sexuality.
The first new EP I turned to just happened to be a single by Greg Townsend as a teaser for a forthcoming EP. A new name to this listener, Townsend hails from Central New Jersey and has paid his dues a s a member of bands Desoto Jones, and Perilune. The single ‘Cannonball’ is a nice 90s style gentle rocker written as a response to the effects of the COVID pandemic. He has a strong, very agreeable voice and a habit (as I discovered when I listened to his 2021 EP ‘Learning’) of using wordless vocals over swirling keyboards and guitars – a tribute to one of his heroes David Crosby. This latest track has something a little different in the form of very effective steel guitar. Nice, and an EP to look forward to.
East Sussex band The Longshore Drifters are an out and out country outfit covering honky tonk, traditional country, a little Tex -Mex and the Bakersfield sound. Their debut EP ‘The Grind’ is out now with four solid country songs. Lead singer and acoustic guitarist Michelle Miller wrote the first two ‘Eyes on the Prize’ and ‘Finish this Wine’, while Mark J Lee, lead vocal and electric guitar, wrote ‘Almost Fit’ (with its early Mavericks feel), and the title track with its shared vocals. John Hornig is the dominant musician, sporting his steel guitar chops across all the tracks and solos. Andy Maby on drums and Andy Francis on bass complete the line-up. The songs reflect on relationships, about yearning and failing and trying to keep the flame alive against the odds, and show promise after their many YouTube country covers.
From Scotland, with Celtic and Shetland roots, come Sean R McLaughlin and The Wind-Up Crows, with a three-track EP entitled ‘Ninewells’ . The opener ‘Cleaned’ is a quasi-protest song reinforcing the importance to the economy etc of the seas around Scotland. There are strong Pogues overtones to this one. ‘Feathers ‘ has a more Americana feel and features a beautiful chorus “Oh, the ceiling might be falling down And November winds are cold It’s a blue light, that’s filling up our days and nights With a fear of getting old”. Track 3 is the title track, a short song predominantly about mental health with some outstanding imagery. The EP has some excellent musicianship, with special mention of the fiddles of Euan McLaughlin and Vicky Gray. If this standard is kept up on the forthcoming album, it will be well worth a listen.
Nora Brown is an 18 year-old banjo/guitar prodigy still studying at Yale University. Stephanie Coleman is an award-winning fiddle player (and a member of the esteemed Uncle Earl) and by 20 years the senior of the duo, who met in Brooklyn in 2017. Their 4 track EP ‘Lady of the Lake’ (an outstanding tune beautifully played) is a tour-de-force of old time acoustic music and a culmination of several years of touring and playing together. It includes two instrumentals and two vocal tracks, including the beautiful ‘Copper Kettle’, a folk classic written by Albert Beddoe and interpreted by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. On this track, the brilliant Brown plays guitar and the two harmonize throughout to stunning effect. Brown has already released three solo albums (Coleman plays on them) and this debut recording of the two together presages a potentially interesting full album in due course.
Next up is Brian Mello, who has a four -track EP, ‘The Orchard’, on release. The title takes its name from the family farm in the San Joaquin Valley where Mello was brought up, and the title track of which is the centrepiece of the album. Each of the songs was written around the last 4 months of his father’s life, ‘The Orchard’ reflecting on the life his father led, listening in the truck to the sounds of Buck Owens or Merle Haggard or other 70s and 80s icons. That sound has influenced these four tracks, led off by ‘The Shovel and the Oleanders’ about the anticipation of the heartache ahead, and ends with ‘Fade to White’, the expectation of memories disappearing over time. Accompanied by a quality group of players hijacked from other established bands, the songs are clearly extremely personal and the title track has a mournful long steel guitar ending which is quite beautiful. ‘New Kind of Empty’ is a classic country tearjerker, where steel player David Philips shines again. Mello has a nice deep voice, has written a quartet of emotional songs and album is very well-produced – you should take a listen.
And finally, there’s ‘Do Something’, a 5-track EP by The Nautical Theme, a boy/girl duo from Dayton Ohio. Tesia Mallory (keys) has a sweet voice that harmonizes beautifully with Matt Shetler (guitar) on the softer side of these self-penned tracks, but which has an innate power that comes to the fore when they start ratcheting up the volume in a way that Simon and Garfunkel used to. The songs are predominantly about not being worn down by the weight of the world and trying to find ways to move forward. The tunes are very agreeable, the choruses delightful, especially the wordless choruses on ‘Don’t you Go‘., and the harmonies are glorious – ‘I’m not ready’ is the standout. Listeners might like to hear these songs with a fuller sound, but in current format the future still looks very promising.
