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Our latest posts
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music Features
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find” Album Reviews
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time” Features
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now Previews
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Paper Verses “Windstill” Album Reviews
HomeAuthorsGordon Sharpe

Articles by Gordon Sharpe

About Gordon Sharpe
Retired music fan longing to get back to the Lakes and hoping to visit Scotland before much longer - somehow South Cheshire just doesn't cut it. Still seeking the grail in terms of a convincing description of what Americana really is but really enjoying the search. And still wondering when Kenny Rogers will get his just deserts
Album Reviews

Classic Americana Albums: Lyle Lovett “Pontiac” (MCA/Curb, 1987)

March 24, 2020 Gordon Sharpe 2
I am sure it is an apocryphal and familiar story, but it does have a point regarding Lovett’s surprising union with Julia Roberts. There was speculation about how the one might manage to live with the […]
Album Reviews

Jennah Barry “Holiday” (Forward Music Group, 2020)

March 17, 2020 Gordon Sharpe 0
Phrases like charming, lovely or sweet are deemed as virtual insults these days – anaemic praise for something soft or unconvincing – but Jennah Barry’s new album, ‘Holiday’, deserves all these descriptions in the most positive way. […]
Album Reviews

Letitia VanSant “Circadian” (Independent, 2020)

February 18, 2020 Gordon Sharpe 0
Circadian Rhythms are the natural cycles that occur, “Within a period of wakefulness and sleep, of light and darkness”, and it is this that informs Letitia VanSant’s latest collection of songs.  On first hearing they sound […]
Features

Support Your Local Venue: ‘Biddulph Up in Arms’

February 6, 2020 Gordon Sharpe 3
Today AUK launches a new feature about those small local venues that are the heart and soul of our music. Often run on a hand to mouth basis by dedicated individuals, sometimes at their own cost, […]
Album Reviews

Darling West “We’ll Never Know Unless We Try” (Jansen Records, 2020)

February 4, 2020 Gordon Sharpe 0
Darling West are Norwegian duo Mari and Tor Egil Kreken, partners in life and music. A little research reveals quite a buzz about this pair who have spent considerable time Stateside with great success. This is […]

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our latest posts

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

Features
September 21, 2026 2

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

Album Reviews
September 21, 2026 0
Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970

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

Features
September 21, 2026 0

Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now

Previews
September 21, 2026 0
Album art for Paper Verses Windstill

Paper Verses “Windstill”

Album Reviews
September 21, 2026 0
Features

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 […]
Album Reviews

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
Features

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

September 21, 2026 0
“You told me goodbye, how was I to know/You didn’t mean goodbye, you meant please don’t let me go?” Well. It’s the age of nostalgia, so it feels just about right to reminisce about an old […]

  • Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music
  • Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”
  • For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”
  • Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now
  • Paper Verses “Windstill”
  • Sounds from beyond the Shed 245 “Stop….thief…”
  • Brown Wimpenny “Shady Grove” – chugs like a fast train
  • Video: Ethan Setiawan & Fine Ground “Ships at Sea” – wonderfully-warm and woozy
  • Something for the weekend: Teenage Fanclub “Be With You Tonight”
  • Benjamin Tod “Country is Dead”
Billy Bragg Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen Chuck Prophet Courtney Marie Andrews Dean Owens Drive By Truckers Emmylou Harris Jason Isbell Johnny Cash John Prine Lucinda Williams Margo Price Neil Young Peter Bruntnell Robert Vincent Ryan Adams Steve Earle Sturgill Simpson The Band The Byrds The Delines Tom Petty Wilco Willie Nelson
  • Jonathan Smith: Bravo! Thoughtful and smart piece of writing, on a subject that matters. Thanks, Tim
  • keith hargreaves: Great article Tim
  • Patrick Hurley: A most unexpected list to kick things off with. It seems only reasonable to repeat here a definition I’ve come…

Latest interviews

Behind the Songs

Behind the Songs: Maya de Vitry – “All My Faith”

September 15, 2026 0
Behind the Songs: Maya de Vitry – “All My Faith”If you arrive at All My Faith looking for something that sounds like Gillian Welch, you might find your thirst briefly satiated by No Time to Rush, the final […]
Interviews

Interview: Adam Chaffins on what is great about flea markets, dive bars and trailer trash

August 28, 2026 1
As one of the most resourceful songwriters in americana, Adam Chaffins welcomes you to the latest from his wacky, witty world in Trailer Trash: Doublewide (Spirit Nashville Recordings, 2026), a collection of narratives about schemers, dive […]
Interviews

Video Interview: Richard Olson of the Hanging Stars and Tim Prottey-Johns of the First Time Flyers on the Long Road Festival

August 26, 2026 0
Why musicians love the Long Road Festival. In preparation for Americana UK’s David Jarman‘s preview of the Long Road Festival, he interviewed Richard Olson of the Hanging Stars and Tim Prottey-Jones of the First Time Flyers. […]

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News

Bear’s Den to release new EP next month

May 23, 2023 1
Bear’s Den has announced the details of their new EP ‘First Loves’ set for release on June 23rd through Communion Records. This release comes after their fourth album ‘Blue Hours‘ was released last year. ‘First Loves‘ includes […]
Album Reviews

One Eleven Heavy “Desire Path” (Beyond Beyond is Beyond, 2019)

October 8, 2019 0
They seem like a particularly American thing, these ever-changing congregations of individuals; coalescing around an idea to make music together while at the same time performing in/with/for numerous other bands. Do these in fact represent ‘real’ […]
Live Reviews

Live Review: Saturday at Ramblin’ Roots Revue, Bucks Students’ Union, High Wycombe – 15th April 2023

April 28, 2023 3
Saturday’s headliner at Ramblin’ Roots, Robert Vincent, told AUK: “It’s good to be back around everyone, seeing all these musicians together again.”  Indeed, there’s still a particular and renewed sense of the communal joy to be […]

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