“Lisa Bastoni returns after 10 years to wow us with this amazing self-written vocal masterpiece…After taking an extended break to have a family, she is back with this amazing record, due to be released early in 2017. ‘’The Wishing Hour’’ is a fantastic record, user-friendly enough to be accessible to the layman but with a variety of textures to pick apart on every listen. I highly recommend it. 9/10 stars.” -Americana-UK
“Ten cracking tracks…the songs are Americana of the highest order, think along the lines of Gretchen Peters or Patty Griffin, with high quality musos to match. (4/5)” -Maverick UK –
Lisa Bastoni had a thriving singer-songwriter career going until she took a break to start a family with her husband, novelist Christopher Boucher. Now, after nearly ten years away from writing and performing, Bastoni returns to music with The Wishing Hour (January 2017), an impressive new record produced by hit Nashville songwriter and producer Felix McTeigue (Lori McKenna/Anais Mitchell/Martin Sexton). The album features Bastoni’s longtime friend and collaborator, Red Sox organist Josh Kantor, as well as guest appearances by New West recording artists The Mastersons, singer Kelly Hogan (Neko Case/The Decemberists), Lula Wiles’ Ellie Buckland, and John O’Reilly, Jr. (Mandy Moore/Jason Mraz).
While some of the elements of the album were recorded in different studios in New York and Nashville, all of the basic tracks at the heart of the record were recorded on a laptop in a corner of the the kids’ playroom of her Watertown, MA house in the wee hours of the night.
The ten tracks on this record — including standouts “It’s the Staying that Hurts,””Weightless” and “Wichita” — are a collection of starkly honest, beautifully crafted, and ultimately uplifting timeless Americana songs.
In the past, Bastoni has shared the stage with artists including Arlo Guthrie, Lori McKenna, Regina Spektor, and Little Big Town.
For the purpose of better taste, this album was made in coffee machine. This is what lies in the description of the debut album by a Swiss band Coffee For The Restless. The band members are: Simon Gabahuler (bass), David Gabahuler (drums, vocal), Selina Isler (vocal), Roman Staub (vocal, guitar, drums), Lukas Oberholzer (guitar, vocal), Tobias Kalt (guitar, banjo). The album is titled Coffee Show which hints its lack of seriousness. Besides the above mentioned description, the band was not very verbose, but their style is labeled
This is a band who plays with sarcasm, irony and humor. They do not rely on cynicism and that is a good thing because they don’t hold themselves as superior to other bands with similar tendencies, rather they play as they are the only band in the world and you have no choice but to listen to their music. Or it’s as If there is no one to listen to them. Coffee Show is extremely laid back. Casual concept offers only one principle – fun, fun, and fun. Irony of the album is that this is a country band who decided not to make a party with whiskey. They threw party with coffee. Maybe for the morning after. Still, this is not the album for drinking coffee. It invites you to listen to it when you gather your friends and decide to drink something stronger. I can totally imagine listening to them in a local bar, drinking few bottles of beer per hour. Tuning of this big band is conspicuous, but the rawness is omnipresent also. This is a consequence of their decision to do everything on their own, without additional interventions or help on the side. Coffee Show sounds like they recorded it while getting drunk. And I say this in a very positive connotation. Tuning does not compensate for the absence of post-production, but that does not ruin the charm of their music.
Lukas’ and Selina’s vocals come through in a number called Melanie that sounds like gothic Americana performed by Tarantella. It is the only song where female vocal is emphasized. Wolf Lied and Zombie In My Backyard are first two rockabilly and hillbilly tracks on the album, and it comes as no surprise I labeled them this way since the band is more oriented towards rock than pop. Title track pulls off the concept of the album, while Cigarbox makes your ears smoke. Love Your Enemy is almost a blues song, while the biggest potential to be hit lies in track Coffee For The Restless. How crazy is that you have a track the same name as your band?
Coffee For The Restless have a long way to come to the spotlight. But it doesn’t even seem like they want a spotlight. It seems that all they wanna do is have fun in their living room.
This is a long awaited album from Gretta. Gone are EEPs and EPs. This is an album. Produced by Paul Ruske. I think that I can hear one of my faves singing some back up vocals in there, Jen Mize? This is a polished album. It is probably not what a lot of fans were expecting. Goodness, if Gretta had finally given us an album and it was of her doing Kookaburra impersonations, I would have gladly bought it.
It is so sweet and sad and gentle in parts and in others, the Boom in Boomtown is definitely felt. Gretta has such a mixed musical background that every release was always going to be different from the last one.
There are toe tappers, ones that will have you crying in your merlot and others that will have you joining in on either the protest or just because it is a damn catchy tune.
This album is very Forrest Gumpish. It’s like a box of chocolates, you don’t know what you’re gonna get.
I am so glad to finally hear the finished product. It was well worth the wait. Just don’t take so long with the next one, GZ, I only have a few years left in me.
Tracks:
Slaughterhouse Blues: The first single off the album. A very catchy, hum along, tap along, sing along song with a deeper layer or two.
Go On: A nice, easy beat to this one. Bluesy, down home number. Reminds me of a song from Jennifer Warnes off her Famous Blue Raincoat album (A Leonard Cohen tribute).
Queen of Boomtown: One of the finest songs of the year. I love how Gretta can flex her voice in a million different ways. Just an awesome, powerful song.
Whiskey Shivers: Not a pretty song in subject matter, though sung beautifully. It feels familiar.
This Is Gonna Hurt – One of my favourites off the album. Gretta’s voice reaches down into the soul and back up into the sky. Beautiful haunting musicianship too. I’d actually like to hear it with a full on orchestra. It would take it to another level.
Alright With Me – This has that steady riding across the plains Western feel to it in instrumentation but the words are that of a modern day heartache.
Let it Go: This is a big change-up from Gretta’s usual music. It is almost head banging stuff at one point, at other times there are Monkees-like riffs. I really like it but it is different.
Round and Round (With Henry Wagons) – I love Henry and that adds to this song first up. He is one of the great characters of alt. Country music. He’s just so different to the norm with his entertainment style and his music in general. It does have that feel of what Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue did a few years ago – that is not a put down, that’s a compliment.
Jude: A bluesy, soulful song with attitude. Love it. A midnight hour listening to song.
I Don’t Ever Want to Say Goodbye: This is more of a folk tune, more like the Gretta we would expect to hear, not that the surprises weren’t welcome ones, this one just feels like a favourite pair of slippers, A sad song that is a fitting finale to the album.
I have known Gretta for a while now, she is one of the finest singer/songwriters around and her versatility shines on this album.
Word and reputation of My Darling Clementine having gradually grown over the course of the last three albums, the most recent being The Other Half, an audio book and live show project built around their songs with crime writer Mark Billingham.,
Michael Weston King and wife Lou Dalgleish, aka My Darling Clementine, return with Still Testifying, their third loosely conceptual collection of troubled relationship-themed songs. This time, however, featuring an impressive roster of musicians whose ranks include guitarist Martin Belmont, Alan Cook on pedal steel, bassist Kevin Foster, Geraint Watkins playing organ and accordion and Nick Penetelow on sax, it sees a further move away from the countrypolitan sound of the debut with its George and Tammy template into more country soul waters.
It gets underway with The Embers and the Flame, a rework of The Other Half show closer Precious As The Flame, co-penned by the duo and Billingham, about the difference between love and in love, only this time with more resonator guitar and a lashing of horns driving it along.
They trade verses on Lou’s waltzing road song piano/organ country soul ballad Eugene, a song born from, but not about, her being taken ill in America and being cared for in the titular Oregon town. From here, it moves on to another slow number, Michael’s 60s Atlantic soul-infused Yours Is The Cross That I Still Bear(originally stripped down contribution to the Bear Records Family 40th Anniversary box set) about the connections that are hard to break, even when a relationship ends.
Something that characterises a lot of his writing is the way he sneaks in references to other songs, and he’s having a field day on the soft waltzing duet Since I Fell For You, one of the more honky-tonk flavoured numbers, with lyrical nods to Helen Shapiro (“walking back to happiness”), The Searchers (“every time that you walk in the room”) James Bland (1880 minstrel tune Hand Me Down My Walking Cane), Elvis Costello (“I tripped at every step”) Ray Price (“my shoes keep walking back to you”) and even Crowded House (“I fall at your feet”) as well as interpolating Van Morrison and Penn/Moman as they sing about going “from the dark end of the road to the bright side of the street.”
Echoing the guitar lines of Last Train To Clarkesville and the tune of Silver Threads and Golden Needles, There’s Nothing You Can Tell Me (That I Don’t Already Know) is another of the more country track about a couple who’ve been around their separate blocks a few times but are still willing to give love another shot.
Having been feted for her answer song No Matter What Tammy Said, Lou’s taking another shot with Jolene’s Story, a whispery sung with distant drums and strings sequel to the Parton classic, but from the home breakers side of things, revealing how they both ignored the pleas and how the two of them are still together, guilty as charged.
Another revival from the Billingham project, featuring pedal steel, accordion and piano, the slow swaying Friday Night, Tulip Hotel is a bittersweet sketch about a couple’s regular illicit rendezvous that inevitably ends in tears.
Calling Bacharach & David to mind, Just A Woman is another Dalgleish-penned number about a woman’s unfaithful lover going off and marrying someone else, a close thematic relative to The Other Half on the debut album.
Penetelow’s yakety sax swings into Tear Stained Smile, a classic late 50s countrified rock n roller you could imagine Elvis having sung, except this one’s about an adulterous couple, an ill husband and suffocation. After all, you can’t have a proper country album without a murder ballad.
Clocking in at six minutes, the penultimate Two Lane Texaco is the longest track, a sepia-toned old fashioned waltz about the those small American towns that died when the highways were widened and the industry on which they were built (oil, here) moved on, the song soaked in nostalgia with reference to Wolfman Jack although, perhaps less romantically, The Megawatt Valley mentioned is actually the site of power stations in Yorkshire.
It ends with Shallow, a 40s style crooner about relationships that start off in harmony but are, washed up on the shore of the sea of love, the couple’s equally talented daughter Mabel delivering the line about how “she sang him The Roses of Picardy while he sang The Workingman’s Blues.”
Laying claim to be the best British country album of the year for the third time and shaping up to be their most successful yet, long may they continue to bear witness.
Named as one of the best country albums of 2015 by The Telegraph-UK, this debut record was independently released late May, 2015. A Good American Life was recorded/produced in Grand Rapids, MI by Michael Crittenden (Troll for Trout, Drew Nelson, Josh Rose, Ralston Bowles) and mastered in Athens, GA by John Keane (R.E.M., Cowboy Junkies, Robert Earl Keen, Nanci Griffith, Uncle Tupelo). The album features Rob Avsharian on drums (Andy Timmons Band), John Connors on bass (The Verve Pipe), Drew Howard on pedal steel (Jill Jack, Drew Nelson), Craig Griffith (The Verve Pipe) on harmonica, and Tara Cleveland singing background vocals. The album features 12 songs, all but one of which were written in the ten months leading up to its production.
“Sonically, the album consistently retains a dusky hue, reminiscent of Nebraska-era Springsteen or early Red House Painters. Ed’s music is essentially acoustic at its core; the recordings include some accompaniment complete with flourishes of overdriven, midwestern guitar shapes and pedal steel over top spare and sure drumming, while the occasional harmonica embellishes the quintessentially American folk sense of these tunes. Ed’s baritone vocals retain an easy, warm, and melodic tone, his lyrics refreshingly well articulated with just a touch of sardonic wit beneath the heartfelt and at times aching delivery.” –National Country Review
“Many if not most tracks on this album are quite straightforward blue-collar Country-Folk songs that could or should have come from the pens of Springsteen, Kristofferson or more recently Sturgill Simpson….” – No Depression
For country-roots singer/songwriter Dave Reader, song writing has been a lifelong passion. The native Albertan, who currently lives north of Rocky Mountain House, has always had a deep desire to express himself through music. Now with the release of his second full length album, Dave has shown that he is an adept songsmith and also capable of delivering an authentic, heartfelt performance. For anyone needing a break from the mindless, cookie cutter drivel coming from most stereo speakers today; this would be a good place to start.
Born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and raised in various hick towns throughout the province, Dave Reader comes by his blue collar, redneck roots honestly. Those roots show through in the songs that he writes; songs about homesteads, Harleys, tractors, freight trains, farming and the oil patch. Songs about fathers and sons, regret and heartbreak, love and loss. Songs with just enough hope sprinkled in to see your way clear to the next sunrise.
Rednecks Railroads And Rust was produced by multi-instrumentalist/engineer Ben Crane at Jinglebob Music Studio. The pairing proved to be a perfect fit. Alongside his own expert playing, Ben was able to wrangle up some of the best studio musicians in the industry, to add their personal touch to the tracks. The end result is an impressive 12 song collection of country-roots music, tinged with a wide range of influences, from blues to bluegrass, to early rock ‘n roll.
The opening track, When I Grow Up, is a rollicking rock ‘n roll song with a decidedly fifties, doo-wop feel, but beneath the up-tempo surface, the song delves into an examination of childhood dreams versus reality. Talkin’ Fort Mac Blues takes an unapologetic look at life in the oil sands city, both good and bad. Featured on this track is former Merle Haggard guitarist, Redd Volkaert, who gives the song a wonderful ‘Working Man Blues’ feel. Slowing things down, If Not For You is a desperately sad, yet hopeful, gospel flavoured song. From the first wistful guitar notes to the stunning four part harmonies, this song has classic written all over it. The poignant, Fishin’ With My Old Man tells of a boys relationship with his father over the years, and his regret over not having spent the time with him that he could have, while he still had the chance.
Probably the most melancholy song on the record is the touching, Don’t Wanna Work The Farm. Carrying on with the father-son theme, this is the heart rending story of an only son caught between his father’s wish for him to take over the family farm and his own desire to move to the big city to pursue his dream of becoming a musician. Bruce Hoffman’s steel guitar on this track could pull tears out of a stone and Ben Crane’s arrangement is breathtaking. Closing out the record is the long but well worth it, The Ghost Of Johnny Cash. A fantastic tribute to the man in black, the seven minute, spoken word number, recounts the tale of a man, recently released from prison, who encounters a vision of Cash in the desert. The twin Spanish trumpets played by Nashville’s Steve Patrick add a distinctly southwestern feel to the tune and morph perfectly with Bruce’s haunting steel guitar. Dave’s baritone vocals do a stellar job of conjuring up the man himself. For any Johnny Cash fan, this song is a must have.
In this day and age, a more authentic, honest record would be hard to come by. From Dave Reader’s raw, yet emotive, no frills singing style, to his straight from the heart, hit you in the gut, songwriting; to Ben Crane’s masterful arrangements and bleed every note, instrumentation, these songs hit the mark. He’s been a long time coming but Dave Reader is back, and by all indications he’ll be here for a long time to come.
For Portland, Oregon songwriter Anna Tivel, the open road is more than a way to bring her songs to new places, it’s also a near-endless source of stories. On her new album, Small Believer, Tivel taps into the stories she hears every night, after every show. “When you’re touring,” Tivel explains, “you’re naked onstage each time. You’re doing this vulnerable thing in front of strangers and it encourages people to open up themselves.” You’ll see it after one of Tivel’s shows, a young woman who steels up the courage to go up and speak to her. Something in a song has touched this person and her story comes tumbling out, tears streaming down her face. It’s powerful to watch, and a testament to the intimate connection between the songwriter and the audience. For Tivel, herself a naturally soft-spoken introvert, perhaps people see in her the struggle they see in themselves to be heard in such a noisy world.
The songs on Small Believer were written while Tivel was touring, but also in-between shifts at the odd waitressing job, or driving Meals on Wheels in her spare time. She has an extraordinarily keen eye for recasting the images she sees into song. To make Small Believer, Anna Tivel drew her close community of friends and collaborators in Portland, starting with Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Della Mae), who produced the album. Nevins shared a deep love for the kind of quiet stories Tivel loves to tell. Nevins brought together Portland collaborators to make the understated accompaniment that pervades the album: slow-driving fiddles, accordions, electric guitars moving beneath and supporting Tivel’s soft words. Released on Fluff & Gravy Records, label-head John Shepski has long championed Anna’s music along with other great, unheralded Northwest songwriters across genres.
Debbie Lori Kaye was a diminutive singer and guitarist with a large voice who was born in New York, but grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Her father was a disc jockey at CKCY and asked a local group, (Those) Rogues, to allow her to sing in the band. She and the band toured around Southern Ontario for nearly a year until she left to appear on the Tommy Hunter Show
Columbia Records took notice and signed the teenager to a long term deal. The country vocalist made her first showing on Canadian RPM Magazine charts with “Picking Up My Hat” in February 1965. It entered the Country singles chart at #1 on February 8 and stayed there until the week of August 23, 1965. It returned to number in December of that year until Columbia released her next single – a remake of The Shirelles’ 1962 hit “Soldier Boy” – at Christmas time. She rode the RPM Top singles chart to the Top20 with the song in 1966 and the song remained in the Top 40 for 10 months.
In 1966 Columbia released “Baby, What I Mean”, “Playground” and “Ride Ride Ride” (a Lynn Anderson song), none of which charted. But, she would return to the country charts in June 1968 with her next single “Come On Home” which made it to #12.
“Baby’s Come Home” was released in May 1969 and managed to hit #13 on the RPM country singles chart.
She switched to the SSS International label in 1970 and entered the Canadian RPM chart in October that year with “Taste of Tears” which got to #16.
Kaye was nominated twice for a Juno Award in 1971 as ‘Best Female Vocalist’ and ‘Best Counry Female Artist’.
Another label change found her on Polydor for her final chart action with “God Bless The Child” in January 1973 on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart. The song climbed to #15 by March 1973.
Kaye would make periodic appearances on CBC television variety shows including ‘Tommy Common’s It’s A Musical World’ (1975/76 season), ‘The Tommmy Banks Show’ and ‘The Tommy Hunter Show’ (1967-1969). She also appeared on the Willburn Brothers Show in 1966 and ‘Music City USA’ in the United States.
Kaye would later have her own one hour CBC variety show ‘The Debbie Lori Kaye Show’ featuring guitarist Frank Kitching as music arranger. Kitching was also guitarist in the band Parade with Kaye in the early 1970s that toured the US after her solo career had faded.
In 1994, RPM magazine ran a list of the Top Canadian Country artists to have charting hits that made it to #1. Debbie Lori Kaye ranked #22 on the list.
She was inducted into the Ontario Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Kaye now lives in Seattle, Washington and has spent many years rehabilitating after a bad car accident in 2006
Finally, almost two years after the first day of recording, here’s the debut album by Trond Svendsen & Tuxedo.
Yes, it took them a while to get the music on tape, but it’s been worth the wait. »Palomino Motel« is a beautiful album, showcasing singer-songwriter Trond Svendsen, but also the brilliant musicians backing him up.
Trond had been writing song for many years when producer Lars Linkas got to hear them back in 2012. They started working together and eventually to cooperation grew into Trond Svendsen & Tuxedo.
Trond Svendsen gets inspiration for the song from his daytime job as crime reporter, but also from life in general. And of course from the inexhaustible subject of love.
»Palomino Motel« was recorded on analog tape at Memphis Bound Studio in Hamar, Norway.
Tuxedo is:
Lars Linkas – guitars, banjo and anything with strings
Vidar Tyriberget – bass
Tommy Kristiansen – drums
Lars Viken – Hammond B3 and keys
Talk to any member of Nothin’ Fancy, whether a founding father or the young new bass player, and they’ll tell you that this album’s title, It’s A Good Feeling, sums up exactly how they feel about each other, what they’ve done, and where they are headed. Throughout their 20 plus years of performing professionally, their musicianship has been impressive, their songwriting has been on a steady course of perfection, and their vocals have proven to be recognizably exceptional: those are well-deserved bragging rights for a band that has had very few personnel changes over two decades and has one of the largest fan bases in bluegrass music.
It’s A Good Feeling features three songs written by Andes, including the title track and first single, and Caleb Cox contributes two. The balance of the album is filled with material that so perfectly fits the ensemble, you’d think they composed every song while the writers merely held the pen. That’s an amazing credit to the songwriters and a true testament to a band that knows what works. It’s A Good Feeling will no doubt make many of Nothin’ Fancy’s fans very happy this week as the band celebrates the official release at their 17th Annual Nothin’ Fancy Bluegrass Festival. This event draws several thousand patrons to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where guests enjoy three full days of national touring bands, headlined by the event’s hosts, Nothin’ Fancy.
After many years of singing she decided to walk another path and it was a necessity to record her own songs without concessions, just pure from her head and heart.
In the summer of 2013 Bregje Sanne Lacourt gave the kick-off for her first full length album ‘The Keeper of Changing Winds’, together with her sound engineer and pseudo-brother Michel Ebben. The album was released in September 2014.
She received only positive Reviews which is quite exceptional in the Music Industry.
Influenced by Blues, Country and Folk the album contains 11 songs partly written with Michel, partly on her own and two covers. ‘Got to Go (Cancion Del Diablo)’ was written by Michel en ‘Walking back Home’ was written by renowned songwriter and artist Eric Taylor. ‘U Don’t Know‘ was released as first single in May 2014.
The choice to release Jim Croche’s ‘Time in a Bottle‘ as a second single after ‘U Don’t know’ while it is not on the album, had to do with the fact that Jagoda Bobrowska wanted to shoot the video for this song. Bregje recorded it for friends who were pregnant with their first child.
Yolet Luijendijk aka Tante Pollewop is a wonderful artist who worked very hard on the cover of this album. It is a pencil drawing of Bregje Sanne Lacourt together with the elements of the 4 seasons. Seasons mean change and being the ‘Keeper’ could mean that we are in control or we try to take control of these changes. Richard Beukelaar was able to catch that same feeling but with a twist on camera for the songbook that soon will be available online and as merchandise at live shows. Arie Verhaar on drums and Erik Versluis on bass are the foundation of most of the songs. Backingvocals were sung by Wies Peeters (Delouise), Marinka Stam (KaLuLu), Vera Jessen Juhrend (Sommerhus), Jesse Reece, Rias Baarda, Richard Beukelaar, Steven Rietveld and Michel Ebben.
