Tim Martin

Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants “Ghost of Rock and Roll”

July 16, 2025 Tim Martin 0

Retro country wrapped up in a shiny modern coating. Good time music for summer listening. The press release which came with Mackenzie Roark’s second album tells us, “after years of working her way into prominence in […]

Peter Rowan “Tales of the Free Mexican Air Force”

July 14, 2025 Tim Martin 2

A career reflection from one of the key names in americana music, with support from collaborators old and new. Peter Rowan was americana before it was even a thing. Around 1970, he played with jazz-influenced roots […]

Bluegrass Briefs: Bela Fleck, Mason Via, Sister Sadie, J.D. Crowe

July 4, 2025 Tim Martin 0

Bluegrass is a genre that has expanded to fit the ambitions of its practitioners in recent years. We’ve looked at Bela Fleck’s experiments with it in previous columns, but has stretched genre to breaking point with […]

Amanda DeBoer Bartlett “Braided Together”

July 4, 2025 Tim Martin 0

Fine songs about children and motherhood, set to only intermittently great music. A common way for P.R.s to direct the attention of reviewers to an album is “RIYL,” which stands for “Recommended If You Like”. In […]

Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Mark Knopfler

June 25, 2025 Tim Martin 2

I came fairly late to Mark Knopfler’s solo albums. In fact, I didn’t investigate them deeply until I reviewed “One Deep River” for AUK. Since scoring that 9 out of 10, I’ve examined some of his other post-Dire […]

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”