Alasdair Fotheringham

Van Darien “Levee” (Independent, 2020)

May 4, 2020 Alasdair Fotheringham 0

In the (highly recommended) film ‘Still Crazy’, as plans forged by the 1970s British psychedelic rock group Strange Fruit for a comeback tour run headfirst into a morass of cliched band problems like XXXL egos, deep-rooted […]

AUK’s Chain Gang: Guy Clark “Cold Dog Soup”

April 21, 2020 Alasdair Fotheringham 0

Connections between James McMurtry, last week’s AUK Chaingang link, and Guy Clark – no longer with us, but who started out writing around 20-25 years before – are multiple and powerful. Both are key figures in […]

Slow Parade “Hi-Fi LowLife” (Independent, 2020)

March 26, 2020 Alasdair Fotheringham 0

From the moment ‘Hi-Fi Lowlife’s opening track ‘Waiting on the Smoke to Clear’ kicks off with a swirling blast of electronic fuzziness, only for a set of gently resonating piano chords to carve through the aural smog […]

Frazey Ford “U Kin B The Sun” (Arts & Crafts, 2020)

February 28, 2020 Alasdair Fotheringham 0

After starting out with the retro folk band the Be Good Tanyas, for her third solo album since 2010, Vancouver-based artist Frazey Ford has all but completely eliminated the Americana influences that permeated her previous two […]

Katie Blount “Dark Water” (Independent, 2020)

February 17, 2020 Alasdair Fotheringham 0

‘Dark Water’ is a tough album to review, but for a reason that does British singer-songwriter Katie Blount’s nine-track debut no discredit whatsoever. The “problem” is that while ‘Dark Water’ packs several punches of the folk-tinged […]

Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music

September 21, 2026 2

If a music writer opens ten press releases this month, they’ll spot something odd. They all sound like the same person wrote them. Not because the artists share a publicist, or because there’s a house style […]

Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”

September 21, 2026 0

A cycle of Appalachian folk songs from writer and activist Si Kahn, subtitled Songs for Strong Kentucky Women The subtitle for this album is “Si Kahn’s Songs for Strong Kentucky Women”. Si Kahn is one of […]

Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970

For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”