Tom Petty is one of the strongest and most resonant of all the artists connecting the 1970s to current Americana. In a desperately shortened career that still spanned over 41 years he wrote songs that appealed to the plaid wearing beer-drinking hell raisers, the shiny popsters with their beatboxes and hip shoes, the blue-collar workers heading out to their dead-end jobs singing to their dashboards about freedom and every other social grouping besides. Continue reading “AmericanA to Z – Tom Petty”
Much of the debut album from El Misti sounds as if it springs from a well sunk into the ground deep in the redwood forests of California or the scrublands outside Austin, Texas not the hinterlands of Liverpool and Cheshire. The tracks speak of a powerful love of acoustic Americana and blue-collar worker’s music from the dustbowl to the bleachers. 
A concept album of sorts as Peeples interprets songs written by women with a band of all men, by design, playing them. This is to mark the 100th Anniversary of women fighting for and gaining the right to vote in the USA and “was made in recognition of the courage and fortitude of those brave women, as well as the continuing struggle for women’s equal protections under the law.” An undeniably admirable concept and indeed starting point for a piece of work.
The London five piece’s second EP release opens with the glorious, propulsive ‘Trains’. Hanging on a repeated guitar phrase the song is brimming with ideas and excitement from the layered West Coast sound through to the delightful harmonies and breezy vocals – think The Fernweh or even Gerry Rafferty and you’ll be in the right ballpark. Marvellously upbeat and optimistic in tone and feel.
Well, well, well, just occasionally something floats into the inbox that holds the attention and makes the misery of the post-Brexit world disappear into the ether. Pond Diver ( name needs work I respectfully suggest) are just that thing with their new EP. Coming from the thriving Muscle Shoals scene they kick off with the luminous ‘Loosen Up’ which springs from some beautiful guitar shapes and tones and sports a gorgeous vocal turn with production featuring organ and bells and whistles to spare. 
Approaching an album by Wilco is an interesting proposition for a committed Wilco fan. Is it going to be a magnum opus – ‘A Ghost Is Born‘ or ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot‘; a slight but fuzzy affair ‘Star Wars‘ or ‘Schmilco‘, or something different again – and there’s the rub. Wilco fans like different but not too different – they are cut from the same cloth as Old Shakey. They like it that he sticks the middle finger up to doing what’s expected but… but they’d really like to hear a new ‘On the Beach‘.
This is a sweet and simple confection that punches above its short minute count on the strength of its songwriting, production and musicality. Opening with ‘Tell Me Why’, you could be fooled into thinking you’re getting a Neil Young cover, instead of which there’s a Macartneyesque ditty complete with whistling and some gorgeous harmonies and choruses.