Review Corner

Category: Country

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    Jarrod Dickenson: Ready The Horses

    Good as Laura Marling is, she’s beaten into second place by this superb album from Dickenson. From the moment it starts playing, it’s a joy. Hailing from Waco, now living in Brooklyn, Dickenson has a honeyed, soulful voice and writes semi-acoustic soulful blues and country tunes. Like Marling, the music is reflective and mature, and…

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    Sarah Darling: Dream Country

    This charming album has enraptured us in the Review Corner this week. The sleeve is simple, with a celestial, dream-like air about it; the Bandcamp (or Pledgemusic, whatever) donors are presented in a star map, each supporter a small place in heaven. Imagine fluffy pink and unicorns, and you get a feel of the general…

  • Courtney Marie Andrews: Honest Life

    Musician Courtney Marie Andrews has been on the road since she was 16, when she left home in Arizona for her first tour. She travelled up and down the West Coast, busking bars and cafés. Then for a decade or so she’s was a session and back-up singer and guitarist for nearly 40 artists, including…

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    The Travelling Band: Pinhole Sounds Volume 1

    This is technically an EP but it’s also a mini-album, a sampler of work from The Travelling Band and bands they like, featuring Jo Rose and Pit Pony, Barbarisms and A Dyjecinski. It came out in November and it slipped by us; searching on the internet, it appears to have been scandalously overlooked. The origins…

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    Dr John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell: This Time It’s Personal

    The original new wave poet and Strangler produce an album of their favourite tunes. Given that an early Stranglers classic was Walk On By it’s perhaps no surprise; what is a surprise is how good Cooper Clarke’s voice is; think Richard Hawley. Nearly as good as Walk On By is their cover of MacArthur Park,…

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    Scott Fagan: South Atlantic Blues

    Bowie’s gone, Lenny Cohen’s gone but never fear — here’s Scott Fagan, the best sixties folk/soul singer you never heard of. Play this without knowing the backstory and it’s attention-grabbing: one assumes it’s a young dude channeling the sixties, but confidently: he makes no concessions to modern tastes and his voice is powerful in the…

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    Will Varley: Kingsdown Sundown

    He’s an interesting guy is Mr V. He began playing open mic nights in London in the early 2000s, then set up Smugglers Records with the band Cocos Lovers (who we last saw at Green Man). He released his debut album Advert Soundtracks in 2011 and toured the album on foot, and has since toured…

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    Copland: Appalachian Spring / Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

    The themes of these two pieces are almost opposites yet the music is quite similar — presumably why they have been paired — both pieces being bouncy and crisp, the liveliness of the speakeasy life portrayed in the first piece (Hear Ye!) matching the crispness of the pioneer life in Spring. Hear Ye! Hear Ye!…

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    Skinny Lister: The Devil, The Heart, The Fight

    Londoners Skinny Lister beat the listener into smiling submission; it’s impossible not to find something to like or a toe to tap on this raucous and lively album. The sound: imagine if Frank Turner played punk sea shanties. They’ve got the same earthy folk sound as Turner but with added concertina and tin whistle. The…

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    Hattie Briggs: Young Runaway

    This enjoyable folk/pop album reminded us of Texan singer Keri Noble. We bought her 2005 album Fearless and play it quite often still; what makes the album is her voice, which is crystal clear and refreshing. Nothing you could put your finger on, just honest and easy on the ear, with no vocal gymnastics, quirks…