AUK’s Monthly EP Round-Up – April 2025

My colleague Graeme Tait is taking a well-earned break this month, so he has graciously allowed me to step back in to fill his shoes for April’s review of the latest EPs. And what a very wide range of sounds we have under the Americana banner. It’s a bumper crop, so let’s get started.

Welcome Stranger hail from Orange County, California, a region very close to my heart, where gruff-voiced Zack Sweeney (a fireman) and Alex Forsythe (a record store owner) met and bonded over a love of music when they were trying to get tickets for a Bon Iver concert in 2021. Sweeney’s songs and Forsythe’s instrumental prowess led to the creation of the band named after Forsythe’s fiancée’s favourite store. Sweeney had worked on several songs and recruited multi-instrumentalist Yan Claremont to produce Hey Presto, a 5-song EP of worthy music and songs, “You’ll never mind how I leave”, songs that will connect with people who have gone through struggles with lost love, mental health, and just getting through.  Sweeney has a strange singing style, the words sometimes half-spoken, indeed lots of words that, without the lyrics, are a little difficult to follow at times, but the tunes are melodic, with some fine instrumentation holding it all together – keys, piano and guitar (reverbed in places) to the fore.  Indie-folk is the best description, with echoes of the likes of Justin Vernon or Fleet Foxes. The stand-out track is ‘Slow‘, a relaxed-paced ballad where Sweeney trades vocals and harmonies with Alison Martino. And the song builds to a soaring climax with swirling keyboards and strings washing over electric and steel guitars. ‘When They Let Up‘ starts with strummed acoustic guitar behind the first verse, and then the pace picks up for the chorus, drops back again and then powers forward with ever-present keyboards and guitars in the background. The band they put together is extremely competent, too. Good stuff.

Hal Wickman is a complete contrast. From Turku in Finland Wickman generated a lot of local with his self-titled country album that was released last year. For his latest EP project (“Four Traditional Pieces”)  he tackles four very traditional country folk songs with hints of gospel, which are interpreted in electric form rather than the songs’ historical acoustic settings. ‘This Train’, ‘Jesse James’, ‘Red River Valley’ and ‘In the Pines’, all familiar to long-time music buffs and so old, nobody really knows who wrote them, are very competently played with twin lead guitars (Shaun McMath and Rami Hanninen) in support of Wickman’s acoustic guitar and his deep resonant voice, which frequently betrays that English is not his first language. And that might be the challenge for some listeners.

Mannequin Shop is the nom-de-plume of Aaron Lee, from the southern United States, via New York City, to France where he now lives with his family. With a couple of EPs under his belt, his latest EP ‘Tattoo’ represents a change of style and lyrical content towards the americana genre. The songs are, on the face of it, about love and loss, but Lee points out that he finished the songs just as the American presidential elections took place, and he was left feeling somewhat bereft  “feeling like everything was falling apart, and it suddenly hit me that this feeling was the same feeling I’d been having as I contemplated some of the changes in my life and relationships”. You can see from the first three tracks where he is coming from, ‘I can see it now’, ‘My part’ and ‘No more’. The songs are uniformly interesting with different styles – mid-paced Tom Petty-ish, slow-grower ballad and jaunty pop-infused, in that order. After that, ‘C’est la Vie’ has a jangly mid-70s vibe and, like all the songs, a melodic tune. The final and title track is the most interesting track here, mid-paced with harmonica in the mix, with the permanence of a tattoo used as a metaphor for the tie that binds you to a lost past, ‘leaving a mark that won’t wash away’, says Lee. The album was produced in Athens, Georgia, with the help of a friend, and it has a nicely balanced feel with its mix of styles, good backing and a versatile voice. Worth investigating.

Another relocated artist is David Hanners, who now lives in Manchester but grew up in Illinois and lived for some time in Texas, in a part of that state that provides the title and focus throughout his 6-track EP, “Llano Escatado“. This is an expanse of 32,000 miles of featureless terrain (larger than 12 other US states), apart from the cities and infrastructure that have been built over the years on this land – like Lubbock, where Nanci Griffith hailed from or Tucumcari (just over the New Mexico border where Lowell George was ‘Willin’ to go). The two tracks that bookend this EP are descriptive of the region, ‘Romance of the Gun’, a track that Hanners has been gestating since his days with the band Roadkill in the 1980s, explores the desolation of the region, while ‘US 87′ describes the main highway that runs through the region for more than 800 miles in Texas, with reverbed electric guitar on both tracks to emphasise the loneliness of the place – very cinematic. The other four tracks are story songs about murder or, border smuggling or shale drilling, all brought to life with a reporter’s eye (Hanners was a journalist for many years). They have some great descriptive lines – From ‘Floyd County Blues’  come “Man, he looked beat, like the backside of hard times”, and, later in the same song, when the murderer is on death row: “I don’t need your pity / it’s too late for that / But I’ll take any mercy God is handing out”. His songs have been described by one critic as ‘authentic sparse prairie-folk’, an apt description for these acoustic guitar-led songs from Hanners himself, overlaid with very atmospheric electric guitar courtesy of Kevin Kadidio. Hanners’ voice, a lived-in growl, is a perfect vehicle for these songs. Well worth a listen, and I’d explore his back catalogue, too.

In a folksy vein is Scottish troubadour Tom Houston, with his 6-track EP “River is Me”, not surprisingly water-themed. The EP starts off with the wonderfully atmospheric ‘I am the River #33′, with Houston on acoustic guitar, the really special Mary Erskine (aka Me for Queen) on vocals and cello, and Kate St John on piano. It’s a wonderful opening track and is followed by the humorously lyrical ‘Smiling at the Croft’ (Kate St John shines again). Houston’s voice is warm and mellow with a Scottish lilt that is apparent on most tracks. ‘Backs to the Wall‘ features Cathryn and Lucie Robson (from the group Bamboozle), who Houston had invited to re-record one of their favourite Houston songs and very melodic it is, too, with great harmonies. Houston is a very seasoned folk songwriter despite having only gone ‘full time’ in 2018. His long-time friend Neill MacColl produces and adds a variety of guitar sounds and keys throughout. ‘Salt and Rope‘ is a very folksy, lively song with Phil Alexander’s accordion leading the instrumentation on a track about colonial takeover. ‘Lingering#22‘ is a beautiful song with twin acoustic guitars and soft-pedal drumming and described by Houston as “ the ghosts of causes fought and lost and…. Lingering”. A very fine EP which might just as easily have found its way into our monthly Folk Roundup but which is perfectly welcome within the Americana umbrella.

The only female solo entry this month is from Little Lore (the nom-de-plume of one Tricia Duffy). Her new 6-song EP “River Stories” is, unsurprisingly, another water-themed album, driven by her tenancy as songwriter-in-residence on Johnson’s Island at the mouth of the Grand Union Canal and the River Brent in West London. The island is an artistic community, home to about fifteen studios for budding painters, sculptors and designers, and open to the public.  Little Lore has lived all her life beside or near a river or tidal creek (Oxford, Cambridge, just outside Portsmouth), so the theme for her EP is close to her heart. And so it sounds on this charming EP, full of pretty tunes all sung in her sweet yet powerful voice. The outstanding track is ‘I Can Breathe Underwater’, a lovely mid-paced song about the after-effects of falling in a swimming pool at a very young age and getting to cope with a fear of swimming; yet opener ‘The River’ (with empathetic violin and cello in the background on this and other tracks), the sprightly yet metaphoric ‘Waterlog‘, the lilting ‘Run with the Tide‘ (about living ON the water)  and ‘Johnson’s Island’ (about the artist studios) run it close. Lore plays acoustic guitar, and long-term friend and multi-instrumentalist Oli  Deakin (who lives in New York and contributed the closing track ‘Haul Me in the River‘) plays virtually everything else. It is a lovely EP from a singer-songwriter who has spent time working on the cruise ships in America, 20 years in TV production and more recently in change management and strategy in the media sector while at the same time developing a side career and enthusiastic reviews as a songwriter in which she has a Masters Degree. As a strong advocate for the genre, she is the London Chapter Co-ordinator for the Nashville Songwriters Association International. A force to be reckoned with and with an EP that needs to be listened to over and over.

Completing a trio of water-themed EPs, we have the concept 3-track album “Speak Wreck Speak!” from a collective put together by various pairings of mainly Irish folk songwriters, which speaks to shipwrecks and the dangers of the open seas. Stephen Murray recites his own poem ‘The Sound of Light’ (about the ‘graves of yellow men’  who were shipwrecked off the coast of County Clare) over haunting keys, organ and assorted guitars produced by Mike Smalle. Adrian Crowley recites (part intones) his own words in his deeply resonant voice about the ‘Wreck of the Julia‘ off the coast of County Galway in 1873. Crowley and Sean O’Hagan produce the assorted sounds behind his voice. Mike Smalle returns in support of Simon Fisher Turner, who speaks/sings his own words on ‘Exile’, which describes the dangerous crossing over the Atlantic to the USA back in the day against some really mysterious keyboards and electronic sounds. Part of a series called Bring Your Own Hammer where songwriters are invited to submit songs/poems about historic shipwrecks, this is rather an acquired taste, but not without interest, largely due to the captivating voices of the reciters.

Ivor Game operates out of the West London area and releases a 5-song EP entitled “When will you fall into my loving arms”. Game has been around for many years and tours around the UK (and the States and overseas from time to time). He has written dozens of songs and has released a full album of songs, albeit that the run-time is no more than 19 minutes over 12 tracks. The songs he sings are light, catchy little vignettes of life and rather charming. The same can be said of his new EP, five very concise songs about the difficulties of relationships and maintaining them. His lyrics are very straightforward and very relatable. He plays a melodic acoustic guitar as accompaniment to his slightly high-pitched voice. ‘When I Think of You‘ is the prettiest yet shortest song here. Interesting.

Strange and haunting is The Fields of Mildew, created 10 years ago by a German artist known only as R, whose EP “IV” is the latest in a series of dark folk pieces exploring feelings of loss and despair and the meaning of human existence in desolate, barren landscapes. Taking the area known as Teufelsmoor (Devil’s Swamp) north of Bremen as the focus for his stark music, “IV” starts with ‘Ignis Fatuus‘ (‘Foolish Fire’, often interpreted as a flickering light appearing over marshy lands).  With a swathe of overlaid guitars, it is eerie and evocative. ‘Vanishing‘ has similar guitar stylings, often discordant in support of a semi-spoken narrative about disappearance. ‘Tempest (Absence of Youth)‘ is rather more upbeat in pace but very dark lyrically (the recognition of wasted time as life passes by), but with some scintillating electric guitar motifs in the background until it slows down for the outro. The guitar tones over the remaining three tracks are pretty much the same and are captivating whether the song is more upbeat (‘The Lowering Splendour‘), slower (‘Spirit of Eternal Life’) or the final track (‘Lluvia’, meaning rain in Spanish) which is a rather hauntingly beautiful, yet ghostly, instrumental. Folk music certainly, but not as we know it. It’s minimalist and hypnotic and worth a listen.

Kier Byrnes and the Kettle Burners are a high-octane group from Boston, led by Byrnes, who writes, plays acoustic guitar,  and shares lead vocals with Dan DiBacco  (electric lead guitar), but the ace in the pack here is Jason McGorty on accordion that dominates each track and gives the band the opportunity to branch out into a variety of styles across their new EP “After the Fall”, named following a very serious accident that befell Byrnes last year. The opener ‘White Russian‘ is a fast-paced rocker about a failed relationship that sounds just like a Russian folk song on steroids. ‘Quarter Life’, with its clever title,  explores a sad soul who is trying to reconcile a failed relationship and getting older while still being relatively young.  The medium-paced ‘When the money’s all gone’ is a challenge to a partner as to what she will feel about him if he loses his money. There are great accordion and electric lead solos on this track and a fun la-la-la-la-la chorus at the end. ‘Train’s off the rails‘ is a nice metaphor for a failed relationship, and the song speeds up as the relationship accelerates to its end. ‘Hurting or Helping‘ questions the choice of whether to go for the money (all Chat GPT and Tesla cars) at the expense of childhood dreams. And after a slow, slightly Spanish-sounding start, ‘Dark Eyes‘, with a French feel to it, returns to the speed and ferocity of the opener with splendid electric and nylon acoustic guitar turns from DiBacco, a sizzling drum break from Brian Lilienthal and high-intensity accordion from McGorty, some more la-la-la choruses and an ending with a long organ note.  This is a really joyful EP which can be enjoyed without exploring the occasionally dark lyric matter. They must be great live.

Two more to go in this busy month, and Adam Sherman is next up, and he delivers a 4-track EP, “Nowhere But Here”, which kicks off in excellent style with ‘Gratitude‘ (with its shades of Tom Petty), a song about being grateful for the good things in life in the face of all that is wrong. Sherman has been a mainstay of the Boston (Massachusetts) music scene for nigh on 50 years and currently has a permanent residency at The Plough and Stars pub in Cambridge, Mass – he was former leader of the locally renowned Private  Lightning and The Souls before going solo, taking a break to work on his artistic talent, then returning to solo producing and releasing music over the last few years that has been well received for its laid back, relaxed melodic vibe.  The other three tracks on the EP speak to love and loss but acceptance of the loss with grace. ‘How Hard I Tried’ is a lovely earworm ballad about heartbreak,  ‘Torn and Tattered’ with its slightly familiar sound, takes a slightly darker look at providing comfort in the face of heartbreak, while ‘Pure as Yours’ explores falling deeply in love.  Robin Lane, another mainstay of the local scene, lends lovely harmonies throughout, and supporting Sherman on acoustic guitar is a very accomplished group of musicians – Mark Usher on electric guitar, Matthew Hutchinson on piano, Jon Evans on bass and lap steel, and Dorothea and Eva Samaha on violin and cello respectively., with very pleasing string arrangements by producer Ken Field. There is nothing particularly ground-breaking here either in the sound or the lyrical content, but I challenge you not to enjoy these four terrific performances from Sherman’s rich, velvety voice and melodious tunes, and I urge you to look into his back catalogue.

Finally, and I think I may have saved the best for last, is Merrick Winter, an American-born Englishman!  He was born and raised in an Anglo-American family that was based in Fairfield, Iowa (home to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which resulted in him meditating by the age of 10) before the family relocated to the UK when he was 12. He started producing and performing in bands as he studied at King’s College London. With one good EP and a couple of singles to his name, he now releases “The California Zephyr“, a 6-track EP with an orchestral version of the title track in addition. He kicks off with a laid-back but gently rocking pastiche of the 70s Laurel Canyon songbook,  ‘Carry it Forwards,‘ a really cracking song about the challenge of not beating yourself up.  Matt Zara provides most of the instrumental backing, with Winter shining on acoustic and electric guitar. ‘Chicane‘ is a protest song which again rocks gently with a change of pace in the chorus, with a funky baritone guitar playing the verse licks. Then we have the outstandingly gorgeous ballad ‘Rosa‘, a story of lovers meeting in Cuba in the 50s, which enlists the delightful vocal talent of Catalan star Lau Noah, sharing the vocals, harmonising and adding classical guitar with a flourish to end a really wonderful Latino track. The slow title track follows a trip across the USA on this iconic train, The California Zephyr and addresses the landscapes and people he meets on the trip, underpinned by a beautiful string arrangement – think Stephen Bishop for a comparison.  ‘Alki Beach’ has a great Paul Simon folk-rock feel, with Simon’s lyrical approach apparent too, as Winter tracks a conversation they had with a stranger on a bus. The piano-led ‘The Seeker‘ is jazzier a la Norah Jones but with Randy Newman’s quirky humour and vocal inflexions, in a song that questions Buddhist enlightenment in the light of the new generation’s have-it-all approach to life. And then there is an atmospheric orchestral version of the title track with the Lockeland  Strings.  This EP is a delight, and Winter should become a star, with his observant eye leading to absorbing lyrics, his ear for melody and his talent as a guitar player. Really very good.