Articles by Rick Bayles

This might be one of those “marmite” albums – one to polarise opinion. Bill Bloomer hails from Illinois, though it would seem he spends much of his time globe-trotting and playing in various bars and small […]

Great music is often connected to the landscape it springs from and, listening to it, your imagination will immediately take you to that land. ‘Lord of the Desert’, from US folk group 3hattrio, immediately transports you […]

Albums capture your imagination in different ways. Some grab you by the throat and demand that you listen, some come with a reputation to live up to, some come with expectation and curiosity; every so often […]

This is the third solo album from Glen Hansard, singer/songwriter, frontman for excellent Irish rockers The Frames and actor, forever famous as Outspan Foster, the guitar player in the film “The Commitments”. This is a man […]

The Mining Company is singer/songwriter Michael Gallagher, indulging in the modern fashion of operating under a band name rather than his own. “Mountain Fires” is his second album, following on from 2016’s “Burning Sun and The […]