Americana
The Pierces, Shepherd's Bush EmpireWednesday, 24 September 2014
The Pierces were on stage for little more than an hour, singing an enjoyable but quite predictable medley of their last three albums. Their sugar-glazed, glistening sound is filtered through all manner of electronic stabilisation and filtration... Read more... |
CD: Ryan Adams - Ryan AdamsSunday, 07 September 2014
I suspect that, a good few years after a dodgy couple of albums, Ryan Adams has reached a stage in his career where they’re all going to be dubbed a return to form. I seem to remember writing something similar about 2011’s Ashes and Fire – but here... Read more... |
CD: Jenny Lewis - The VoyagerWednesday, 30 July 2014
Context is everything. It’s the difference between that “lady without a baby” line that’s got everybody talking delivered straight up, and the knowing smile and cross-dressing Hollywood actresses that come with it in the song’s accompanying video.... Read more... |
CD: Fink - Hard BelieverMonday, 21 July 2014
The danger of working successfully in many genres is that fans come to expect something revolutionary with each release. A secondary threat is that you succumb to generic schizophrenia, and thus are never quite sure which voice to speak with. Fin... Read more... |
CD: Old 97's - Most Messed UpMonday, 30 June 2014
It feels as if the life-on-the-road song has become a rite of passage for those rock bands that manage to clock up enough years together, but after 20 years in the business Texan alt-country rockers Old 97’s probably have more of a claim to it than... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Gram ParsonsSunday, 06 April 2014
Gram Parsons: The Early Years Vol 1 & 2Without Gram Parsons, The Rolling Stones could not have transformed themselves into what they became in the late Sixties and early Seventies. The bond between the South Carolina-born walking... Read more... |
CD: The War on Drugs – Lost in the DreamMonday, 17 March 2014
Lost in the Dream takes a while to make its presence felt. Four tracks in, with “An Ocean in Between the Waves”, it all falls into place. A frosted-glass take on the Bruce Springsteen of “I’m on Fire” washes out from the speakers and submerges the... Read more... |
Need for SpeedWednesday, 12 March 2014
The history of computer games being turned into movies has not been a happy one (Max Payne, Battleship, Lara Croft), but the blockbusting Need for Speed car-racing franchise fares rather better. This movie version is of course simplistically plotted... Read more... |
CD: Drive-By Truckers - English OceansSaturday, 01 March 2014
If English Oceans is the Drive-By Truckers finest album since 2004’s The Dirty South - and I’d argue that it is - I doubt it was intentional. A little time away; more of a partnership of equals between founder members and songwriters Patterson Hood... Read more... |
10 Questions for Drive-By Truckers' Mike CooleyMonday, 24 February 2014
For almost 20 years, Drive-By Truckers have been one of Americana's most consistent and enduring voices – and, since 2001’s breakthrough double album Southern Rock Opera, probably the quintessential southern roots rockers too. Formed in Athens... Read more... |
CD: Samantha Crain – Kid FaceMonday, 13 January 2014
Drawing colour from country and Appalachian traditions while echoing the world-weary moods of singer-songwriters like Karen Dalton, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, the third album from Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain doesn’t... Read more... |
Landes, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings PlaceSunday, 05 January 2014
May this be a New Year sign and a symbol of a revitalized concert scene to come: an eclectic programme of dazzling range to draw in the new pick-and-mix generation, full of segues that worked and executed with the right balance of poetry and in-your... Read more... |
