Showing posts with label Singer-Songwriter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singer-Songwriter. Show all posts

Tuesday 10 April 2018

Ani DiFranco - Binary - Album Review


Ani DiFranco
Binary
Righteous Babe/Aveline




If you were impressed by Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globes speech, then let me introduce you to another confident, self-made woman of integrity who has also spent her life being a committed activist for positive change against the ‘isms we are familiar with and those we may not, like reproductive rights and patriarchy.  Ani believes equality is essential before we can solve the bigger issues. 
It deserves discussion because the pressing needs facing Earth, of poverty, access to water, starvation, wars, terrorism and environmental destruction are too important not to address.

The vocals sound somewhere between Grace Jones and Alanis Morrisette and the staccato delivery, whilst fitting the jazz rhythms well, doesn't offer the variety I was expecting.  The exceptional line in the song Play God about reproductive rights, “Every chance I can, I pay my taxes like any working man, and I feel I’ve earned My right to choose, you don’t get to play God, man, I do”, demonstrates her beliefs and a mastery of the written and spoken word, but I was dying to hear more melody, less words, and a little space to hear more flair from the whole band.

Influenced by Pete Seeger, Suzanne Vega and Michelle Shocked, Ani is not your typical pop star.  She’d “rather be able to face myself in the mirror than be rich and famous”.  It’s a shame there isn’t more like her so that she could relax to include more human stories like the track Pacifist’s Lament (“But there is nothing harder than to stop in the middle of a battle and say you're sorry”) but she confesses herself that “Some people wear their heart on their sleeve.  I wear mine strapped to my boot.”

Binary may not be my first choice for my living room, but as a politician with conviction, she’s my kind of presidential candidate.

NE






Thursday 8 March 2018

Carrie Martin - Folk Review


Carrie Martin
Seductive Sky
Bucks Music Group Ltd

Returning in earnest to music following the raising of her twins, Carrie Martin has released her third LP, Seductive Sky, gently encouraged by Gordon Giltrap, with whom she has shared occasional touring stages.  She shapes her self-penned songs into a cohesive and graceful groove.  I liked the originality and creativity of her output.  Her delivery of the songs is also precise in its enunciation, that helps the listener appreciate the lyrics.  It reminds me in places, of the whimsy of Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day. Maria in the Moon is inspired by the third novel of the same name from her friend Louise Beech, also from Hull, which is an intelligent piece of marketing and on the strength of this track, a full album collaboration could beckon and could emulate the success of mixed media projects between poetry and painting.  The song perfectly displays Carrie’s unique singer-songwriter credentials.  Time, in memory of her friend is a beautiful piece of music with the truth of its lyrics.  No Return to Yesterday and The Woman in Me and the excellent upbeat You Make Life Look Easy also impressed. 

I would have liked just a touch of her rock roots from her earlier career and would offer that Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Caro Emerald, and Paloma Faith arguably found success from more leftfield compositions alongside their more mainstream styles, but music is often about our preferences and each artist needs the freedom to explore their creativity in the moment which Carrie ably displays.

NE


Thursday 1 March 2018

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real - Review


Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Fantasy Records

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real release their sixth album which continues to build the brand of strong song writing and emotionally charged vocals.  Its appeal is broad and there is little to dislike – except for the last track which should have been left off altogether.  It’s all-the-more surprising when six of the 12 songs are really absorbing with towering performances from the band whose name is their badge of integrity.

Sharing stages with Bob Dylan, BB King and of course his father, mentored by and working on the road and studio with Neil Young, has been time well spent but it’s their own hard work that is reaping the dividends.

Two expansive tracks impress the most.  Opener, Set Me Down on a Cloud, is about loss of life which many of us must face that features Lukas on guitar and has a Southern Rock feel.  The autobiographical Forget About Georgia at the other end of the album, also over seven minutes, matches and references the best songs containing the name of the Southern state.  Possibly the best country song I’ve heard, it’s the painful tale of losing a girl called Georgia, only to be reminded of her whenever he has the misfortune of singing Georgia on My Mind with his father on tour.  Emotive vocals in the first half are matched with sombre guitar in the second and should have been the last track.

Perhaps the band are having fun, or maybe they are listening to the advice of Messrs Young and Nelson Snr about keeping your audiences keen and carving out a career.  Six outstanding tracks on an album isn’t an accident.  If I’d been in the band, I’d have been thrown out for the quaint complaint of musical differences.  I enjoyed this album tremendously but feel it could have been invincible if the choice of songs had been more consistent. 

NE



Wednesday 21 February 2018

Bruce Cockburn


Bruce Cockburn
Bone on Bone
True North Records

“No one would have believed..” (Wells – War of the Worlds) that a songwriter could encounter writer’s block after thirty-plus albums. There was reason enough.  Canadian singer songwriter and acoustic guitarist Bruce Cockburn had spent three years expending his energies on his 2014 memoir Rumours of Glory. It was the power of poetry of the Canadian Al Purdy ( I will check out) that was the inspiration to get things moving again.  Bone on Bone not only includes the six minute tribute 3 Al Purdys, but also ten other compositions that are the antithesis of our social media obsessed culture. My notes read substance, substance, substance!  Incorporating folk and jazz, my favourite track was the beautiful acoustics of track three Forty Years In The Wilderness about pushing yourself, moving forward and following your calling which we can all easily relate to.  I enjoyed the sublime arrangements more than the vocals which felt dense, almost claustrophobic at times, no more than album opener,  States I’m in, about illusion and self-delusion.  Stab at Matter mercifully is more upbeat but the overall tone of the recording hints at an unease about something with an uncertain outcome and made it a less likeable album for me.  I preferred the livelier tenth track Jesus Train that not only was more joyous but I thought showcased his vocal range more strongly.  I also liked the seven minute JJ Cale-like shuffle of False River about an environmental warning about a trans-mountain pipeline. This is a praiseworthy but unsettling album that rises above the ordinary throughout.


NE

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