Reviews

Creativity and commerciality are strange bedfellows. Whilst audiences often clamour for more of what they’ve heard in the past, artists are more inclined to look for those sparks of creativity that produce something new. It was such a search that led Marry Waterson and Emily Barker to work together at a songwriting retreat organised by… Read more »

Arguably one of the most quietly effective and successful musicians to come out of the folk revival John Tams remains a man who deals in gritty authenticity not the bucolic cosiness which can often descend when talking about endemic music. Getting as close as any to a truly English rock form, first by pushing the… Read more »

Given to a cavalier spirit and modus operandi that few folk singers could match in the 70s Nic Jones was undoubtedly at the peak of his powers when he recorded the tracks which populate this entry in the long running Topic series reappraising their significant artists. It was his open guitar tunings which made him… Read more »

From the Latin ‘recordari’ meaning to recall or call to mind gives this debut album by Finn Collinson its title. Recorder is one instrument I feel amply qualified to write about having reached a certain standard at junior school! My rendition of ‘Streets of Laredo’ has to be heard to be believed. Mixing traditional and… Read more »

A two time Grammy nominee, a career spanning 50 or so years, Duke is a master of the blues, but as this trawl through his back pages displays he is a multi-faceted player who can traverse many styles. No surprise really for a guy who has recorded with the likes of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits… Read more »

After the rapturous reception that was afforded their 2017 debut we are treated to another helping of southern fried soul by this young quintet from Memphis. Here the band continue their journey through the past recalling the heady days of the Stax label with a fusion of soul, blues and R & B that may… Read more »

Fifth album from this LA based combo who fall somewhere between Chuck Berry and the Ramones this is rock’n’roll meant to be experienced in a hot sweaty club with a beer in hand. You kinda know what to expect from these guys from the get go. The US punk scene spawned a host of bands… Read more »

Grace Morrison began as a backup singer for rock icons like Eddie Money and Joey Mollard (of the band Badfinger) became a regular on the USA festival circuit. She has won many awards and nominations and the Big Break contest where her music video was played on the season finale of American Idol. This new release ‘Reasons’… Read more »

In 2017 Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris; wrote & illustrated a book of poems called ‘ The Lost Words’ aiming to reinstate words associated with nature such as acorn, conker and kingfisher that had been dropped and replaced by attachment, broadband and pixel in the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Now the album which brings together… Read more »