Album Reviews
Mean Mary “Alone” (Woodrock Records, 2020)
The title of the new Mean Mary album says it all – ‘Alone’. It is Mary and her banjo. Or Mary and her guitar. OK, sometimes she combines the two into one instrument banjitar. Plain and […]
Album Reviews
Album Reviews
Emily Barker “A Dark Murmuration Of Words” (Thirty Tigers, 2020)
For her sixth full-length album release Emily Barker is taking on the world. Addressing climate change, racism, sexism and the myths of economic progress, Barker has, in her own softly spoken and articulate way, delivered her […]
Album Reviews
Various Artists “Back to Paradise: A Tulsa Tribute to Okie Music” (Horton Records, 2020)
The migration of people of Oklahoma, ‘the Okies’, to California from the mid-’30s to the mid-’50s, stirred by the Dust Bowl era, is a huge part of American history captured in the award-winning Steinbeck novel ‘The […]
Album Reviews
Grain Thief “Gasoline” (Independent, 2020)
It is a pretty great time for bluegrass right now, as a number of younger bands who have been clearly schooled in the traditions of the music, but who have also been raised with interests that […]
Album Reviews
Shane Casey “Silver Star” (Independent, 2020)
Opening with ‘Oh Father’ Casey’s arresting but ultimately disappointing album goes big on page one. Melancholic lyricism, swooping guitar solos over a frame of a handpicked acoustic guitar. It’s all loud, quiet, loud, quiet and we […]