Steven Rafferty

Dan Friese “Jane Songs” (Independent, 2020)

October 20, 2020 Steven Rafferty 0

No matter what you’re into, chances are good that you’ll find something to like on the debut album from Dan Friese—a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Eugene, OR. The songs on the album range from boot-stompers with […]

Stephie James “These Days EP” (Independent, 2020)

September 30, 2020 Steven Rafferty 0

It’s normally a safe assumption that you can tell most of what you need to know about a person by the company that they keep. So, when a young singer-songwriter can boast of work done for […]

Scott Hildebrand “Fill Your Cup” – Listen

September 11, 2020 Steven Rafferty 0

It’s always interesting to hear a new artist for the first time and it’s especially so when you get to hear them with a minimum of outside influence and professional polish layered on. The new EP […]

Classic America Albums: Cracker “Kerosene Hat” (Virgin, 1993)

August 26, 2020 Steven Rafferty 1

The early nineties was a weird time in America. It was weird socially. It was weird culturally. A lot of that weirdness was voiced in music and a lot of that music found an audience. Of […]

AUK’s Chain Gang: Benjamin Tod “The Mountain”

August 24, 2020 Steven Rafferty 0

In last week’s instalment of the Chain Gang, Tim Newby described the connections between Ola Belle Reed’s ‘High on a Mountain’ and Roy Acuff’s ‘Wreck on the Highway’ as “tenuous”. In contrast, the connections between Reed’s […]

Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Tom Waits

August 5, 2026 1

The musical influence of Tom Waits over the last seven decades has spanned far beyond what one might define as americana. His deep, gravely voice, has been described as having been soaked in a vat of […]

Paul McClure “The Good And The Bad Of It”

August 5, 2026 0

The Rutland Troubadour returns for album number four. Paul McClure, on his fourth album, decided to go to pastures new and left the rural north and travelled south to East Sussex and the fine Bex-Pop Studios […]

Artists with Hearts of Gold contribute to two more albums of Neil Young covers

August 5, 2026 0

Includes tracks from My Morning Jacket, Lucinda Williams and MJ Lenderman among others. Cinema Music Group, Killphonic Records, and City Slang have announced Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 2 – Out of […]

Articles by Steven Rafferty