Greatest Hits - Laura Barnett - Book Review

Greatest Hits

Laura Barnett

Book Review 

The beautiful retro cover of this novel pulled me in.  The heart of the book hit me like a ton of bricks and I couldn’t wait to get it home.  An English singer-songwriter called Cass Wheeler selects tracks for her Greatest Hits album and she picks the songs that have meant the most to her in her life.  At the start of each chapter the lyrics of each song are placed and the story of her life unfolds. 

Laura Barnett is a former freelance arts journalist with a love of rock music and this is the reason the book is so convincing. She has worked for most of the broadsheet newspapers. She spent half a year reading biographies of successful female artists like Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny and Chrissie Hynde.  She also spoke to publicity people and tour managers to provide a vital framework upon which she develops all her characters, their traits and real life problems of both human nature and creative partnerships. Good examples of course aren’t hard to find – Simon and Garfunkel, and Fleetwood Mac spring to mind, but you’ll know others I don’t. (Please feel free to add via comments or an email)

The story isn’t a fantasy.  It’s like reading a star biography and kept me hooked through the story of a career woman in music.  It’s a terrific second novel from Laura Barnett whose debut was The Versions of Us.

The book is also augmented by an available recording of the songs by singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams which is called “Songs from the novel Greatest Hits” . I have two of her albums Little Black Numbers and Old Low Light so I know the album will be a worthy purchase when I get around to it.  Kathryn has also more recent good form as she has also released Hypoxia which came from a writing commission and was inspired by Sylvia Plath’s book The Bell Jar.

Greatest Hits has inspired me to make my own playlist on YouTube, not only of my singles collection but also albums that have had an impact in my life.   Have you the stamina to do the same?  I’ve been called geek and nerd (these are the nicer ones) so don’t let anyone else know until you’re finished and ready to share to cyberspace!

NE

Poetry - War on Terra

War on Terra

Abandon the weapons.

Gather the shards of humanity

From the ruins of religion.

Slash the cords of hate

That bind to the grave.

Be braver 

To plant new flags to

Older world colours of kindness.

NE

Arcelia - Building on the Land

Arcelia

Building on the Land

How Now Records

“This ain't rock n roll..” David Bowie began on his song Diamond Dogs, neither is Building On The Land by Arcelia.  It’s not folk, country or easy-listening.  Instead the highly-listenable mature vocal trio of Gavin Alexander, Simon Foster, and Teresa Gallagher are trailblazing a new genre which recognizes its fan base.   It’s for people who may be over 30, who horror of horrors, still wear jeans,   and who aren’t ready for shapeless beige or corduroy, just yet.  They don’t need their trainers to be adorned with symbols or stripes of a certain angle.   It’s music for adults with themes of family and life happenings.

Gavin Alexander on acoustic guitar writes all the songs and I found the lyrics, almost poetic, which I’ll come back to later, if you’ll allow.   All three members have great voices, and together with the deft jazz –like hands of Perry White on piano and Martin Elliott on acoustic bass, the sound is melodic and endearing.   It is quite possibly an unconscious reflection upon Kent – The Garden of England, with its pastoral landscape together with embers from the Canterbury scene. 

What is not mere speculation, (Did the cover cast a spell?),  is the quality of this recording, made at Arcelia’s  own studio in Kent , which is largely down to Simon Foster, an experienced sound engineer, co-founder of How Now Productions and  present member of The Flying Pickets. 

Teresa Gallagher is also a voice artist and her reading of Dickens’ Bleak House was a Times Audio Book of The Year.  If that’s too high-brow, she’s also been heard in TV series such as Thomas & Friends.  She’s a true all-rounder, having experience also in radio dramas.

Is this a perfect album? - Not quite.  Nine out of the twelve tracks however,   are exceptional.  Workhouse was a commission (Gresssenhall  Workhouse in Norfolk) and is outstanding – “From 4am till very late, the men unpick the oakum, I scrub the laundry cloth so white, 30 lashes if outspoken” Teresa softly sings.  I was slightly disappointed at each end of the album therefore,   as each end didn’t reach the same heights as the nine.   I would have led with The World or the title track, that would have been better indicators of what was to follow.  Alternatively,   I would have used Teresa’s experience to make a reading of Gavin’s lyrics.  

NE

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

Kiss The Gun - Nightmares - Rock Review

Kiss The Gun

Nightmares

3Ms Music Ltd

Kiss The Gun is the handiwork of bassist and Salisbury scene man, Dave South.  Together with Graham Exton on rhythm guitar, they wrote the seventh track on Nightmares, Tainted Heart which was recorded, uploaded and spotted by 3Ms and put out as an EP in April 2016.  Recruiting Rob Taylor on drums and Gerry Hearn on lead guitar, left only one chamber to be filled in this five-chamber, 72°cylinder rotation revolver – i.e. that of a vocalist.

Georgian-Armenian Nadin Zakharian flew in from Tbilisi at Dave South’s request after spotting her online and you’d be hard-clicked to find a better vocalist for this melodic rock group.  Her vocals are clean and powerful, polished and controlled throughout the album, but especially on the ballad Drowning that also features consummate acoustic guitar.

Dave South has been in the music business before.  Firstly in the NWOBHM scene and more recently in a change of direction he started writing club music.  However, he has returned once more to his first love and he has galvanised Kiss The Gun through a sense of humour, his song writing and trust in each individual member of the band, (repaid in spades and then some) to record Nightmares in just five days.

The flair and energy is palpable and James Patrick has captured both the sound and the excitement in this recording.  Gerry Hearn has a freshness perhaps gained through recent spells with Jessie J and Pixie Lott adding to his experience of playing with Uriah Heep.

Nightmares is a very upbeat album, with the same instant accessibility of another of my favourite albums Metal Rendez-vous by Krokus, where it will reside alongside in my ever-expanding music collection.  

NE

Bootsy Collins - Funk Review

Bootsy Collins

World Wide Funk

Mascot Records

Not content to take Sounds and Melody Maker as the only Gospels of music, I also bought Black Echoes in my teenage years influenced by my sister’s Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder and Shining Star by Earth, Wind & Fire (a song covered by Stryper!)

Trying to flip through the second-hand albums without losing my fingertips or my patience, at the outdoor market in Wakefield, I pulled out a sleeve that combined science fiction, adolescent humour and risqué cartoons, that being a teenager, I bought.  My mother’s knitted eyebrows of disapproval completed the feel-good factor.  It was called One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadelic and featured Bootsy Collins on bass.  I wasn’t to know that it became a funk classic but I also enjoyed the rock of Maggot Brain and Lunchmeataphobia just as much.

Funk was an expression of open-mindedness, happiness, love, dance, but also of day-to-day struggles which included a rejection of negative black stereotyping.  James Brown was the Master of Funk and Bootsy (named by his mum) became a player in his band The J.B’s.

Funk is a combination of Blues and Soul with a heavy bass line that stresses the first beat in the bar, often called the ‘one’.

The fifteen tracks on World Wide Funk provide great variety and good sequencing and whilst they employ the ‘one’ and jangly short guitar chords, the material doesn’t dwell in the past but updates it, especially through the vocals.  The musicians Bootsy gathers around him,  which includes several big names, are too many to mention here, but each song delights whether the groove is fast or slow.  I can’t remember enjoying this genre so much since Diamond & Pearls, Prince and Phenomenon,  by LL Cool J.

World Wide Funk recaptures the fun of the dance and the beat, provides Bootsy with a return to form, and concluding with a description that will appeal to the man himself, he manages to pop out a career best.

NE

Emily Askew Band - Folk Review

The Emily Askew Band

Alchemy

Askew Records

Pick at random an album from your music collection.  When were the songs written? Were they from a couple of years, twenty-five or fifty years ago? Does it feature a cover version perhaps of a classic from yesteryear?  The Emily Askew Band have crafted a thrilling debut album featuring songs and compositions from five hundred years of music from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.

Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque tunes are skilfully brought back to life through a folk music interpretation of the source music.  The band have little to influence them. They can’t tap into famous examples of their music like a jazz, rock or country artist can.  Thus, their bravery in ploughing a furrow of Early Music, knowing mainstream appeal is unlikely, has left its mark on me.

The band has a great knowledge of harmony in blending fiddle, viola, bagpipes, recorder, guitar and frame drum to perfection.  If I knew the recorder could sound this good, I would have gladly mastered a third song after Three Blind Mice and Go and Tell Aunt Nancy.  If I was a music teacher I would play this album to my students at the start of the new term to challenge perceptions that pop and hip-hop are not the only genres of music.

Each tuneful catch on this album has been chosen with great care and relevance from all walks of life. There are dances, songs of devotion, songs of love, songs of joy and songs from the Court.  English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin texts, manuscripts and melodies have been hand-picked and added to the merrily melting pot of this album, Alchemy, whose magical ingredient is a little more fun via the folk.

NE

Poetry - I still have two Sunday newspapers

- Written years ago, and submitted to a competition, but publication required payment and you can't take the cash out of a Yorkshireman ;-)



I still have two Sunday newspapers

I still have two Sunday newspapers
and it's Thursday!

Tranquility and a chance to read them
Have drifted away.

Education, entertainment, information
Lay unread,

As another day's drudgery inspires
Only thoughts of my bed.




NE
My sister has made a fabric collage of her interpretation of the poem below as an unexpected Easter 2018 present. Thanks Sis!

Rex Brown - Rock Review

Rex Brown

Smoke on This

Steamhammer/SPV

Iconic cover, kick-ass title, unexpected treasure!  Former bassist with Pantera,  Down,  and Kill Devil Hill, Rex Brown distils over forty years of life in rock music to leave a cask strength rock album.  Reinventing himself, he adds gruff vocals and driving rhythm guitar to his normal bass duties. 

I don’t think I’ve smiled as wide since hearing ZZ Top and AC/DC in their prime after Brown announces “Smoke on this..” and unleashes blues rocker Lone Rider followed by the equally catchy Crossing Lines.  Buried Alive deals with the sad loss of ex-Pantera, band-mate, Dimebag Darrell and it’s dark and deep, ranging from his acoustic to the superb lead guitar of Lance Harvill with whom he shares the song writing.  Train Song catapults the fun right back at you and I hope my grinning didn’t become gurning!  For Get Yourself Alright he commands a sitar and delivers with the swagger of Oasis and Nirvana combined.  Fault Line, his first song he tried his lead vocals on, is a slower-tempo acoustic triumph.

The second half of the album displays that his tastes can vary from “Sinatra to Slayer”.  Relax – It’s still all rock.  What Comes Around, is something Lenny Kravitz wouldn’t be ashamed to put out. Grace shows a pop-rock lighter side of the artist and So Into You is a slow burner that builds to a crescendo of riffs and lead guitar.  The penultimate Best of Me is pure Floyd, right to the fade-out, before One of These Days wraps up in style, this rather welcome return to music that doesn’t need analysis.  Play it, Hear it, Love it!  If this is too 2017, then take the artist’s advice instead which I found in the liner notes – “Live loudly and embrace your loved ones everyday”

NE

Julie Fowlis - Alterum

Julie Fowlis

Alterum

Machair Records Ltd

Don’t be put off by the still life effect of the cover, its Latin title (Other, another, otherness), or that most of the album is sung in Gaelic.  Let me assure you that these diverse rhythmic stories are easily understood through the pitch and timbre of the delicate vocals and the melodies provided by the understated instrumentation. The pipes, flutes and whistles are pared down to provide a softer acoustic sound and the guitars, including those of her husband Éamon Doorley, cellos, and double bass benefit accordingly. The faster foot-tapping dance music accompanied by the technical fast rap delivery style of Gaelic, is astonishing with the clarity of stresses and syllables.  Yet it’s the more powerful slower tempo songs that impress the most in their emotional interpretations, that include two in English, Windward Away and Go Your Way, that contains the line “May the West Wind speed your travels and the sun be on your hair” which seems a much nicer sentiment than the hurt and anger expressed in Fleetwood Mac’s similarly titled Go Your Own Way!  Julie’s voice is the bright star of this album.  She can match the exact tone of the instruments playing alongside, including a bouzouki and flute and pipes and it creates real ambience with nuances that perfectly capture the landscape and peoples of the Highlands and Islands, from where she was brought up in North Uist.

NE

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

Jazz : Terje Rypdal - Bleak House

Terje Rypdal

Bleak House

Round 2 Records

If music is a living entity, as these pages and the struggle for even more storage for cd’s  continues at home suggest , then this re-issue of Terje Rypdal’s Bleak House from 1968 must surely be in its DNA, carried across the decades and swathes of popular music.  It’s revealed in the music of say Sky, Stone Roses, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Santana and Korn.  It’s Fusion and to misquote AC/DC for effect – Fusion aint a bad place to be!  It’s not to be confused with the often bloated jazz funk indulgencies which featured too much improvisation and not enough composition.   On the contrary, Terje was following in the footsteps of both classical and jazz composers such as Gershwin, Stravinsky, Ravel, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington and Charlie Mingus who blended jazz and classical music.

He was born in Oslo the son of an orchestra leader and composer and he studied piano and trumpet before picking up the guitar inspired by Hank Marvin.  By 1967 his second band The Dream were performing Hendrix’s   Are you Experienced as part of the band’s live work.  Inviting Jan Garberek, the jazz saxophonist, and drummer Jon Christensen, and Christian Reims on Hammond organ from his band proved to be a stroke of genius.  Classical, Jazz and Rock were thus blended in this little over 33-minute tour de force. 

Within four seconds of opener Dead Man Tale, I’d taken this music to my heart.  Beautiful jazz guitar, skilful drums and striking Hammond organ ebb and flow firstly with a delicate vocal then his flute taking a turn in the spotlight for seven minutes of no strings attached joy.

Wes is more mainstream jazz with a walking bass and a strident brass section led by Jan Garberek into an almost big band sound that feels so much like a theme tune from a British crime film, I half expected Michael Caine to suddenly appear with a quip. 

Side A closes in serious style with the three part Winter Serenade, though I could only easily distinguish two parts.  Soft piano, mournful saxophone, fade-ins/fade-outs, cymbals, give way to a very experimental  but effective wall of sound, reminiscent of West Side Story percussion, fleshed out with a cacophony of discordant saxophones which is notable for its absence of musical cliché with merely the percussion providing the direction before subsiding to just the piano.

Bleak House, the title track, also over seven minutes opens Side B. Eerie guitar, bass and drums set the theme.  Brass enters stage left and is augmented by big band sounds swelling in prominence to centre stage, only to be nudged right by Rypdal’s Hendrix-like guitar which compliments the composition without overwhelming it.  Screeching saxophone and trumpet fight back against Django-like guitar and the theme returns in waves.

Sonority begins with the flute, slow jazz guitar, trumpet, trombone and such delicate percussion that it evokes the upending of and listening to rainsticks as a child.

The final track A Feeling of Harmony,  is simply acoustic guitar, vocal scatting, and flute utilised like a lead guitar, which is followed by compelling folk guitar that Bert Jansch made his trademark in Pentangle.

Each generation plays different music but Bleak House is a timely reminder of the grandeur of Jazz.  Sometimes the new sounds we are seeking have already been created, just awaiting rediscovery.

NE

Into The Unknown - Rock Review

Into the Unknown

Out of the Shadows

Vigilante Records

Into the Unknown’s debut release will propel this band much further than their album title suggests.  It’s a bold platter of rock solid songs that contains new wave riffs, rock fretwork and beguiling vocals from Lucie Hölzlová.  Like Siouxsie Sioux and Karen O, she creates her own musical niche.  The album opens with a cover of Don’t Pay the Ferryman, that banishes not only De Burgh’s original version into oblivion but also eclipses Lionheart’s version on their album earlier this year.  The band rock using walls of sound, fuzzy guitars, accomplished lead and engrossing vocals.  Two power ballads, Someone Like You (no, not Adele’s misery) and Breaking My Heart, are sensibly spaced apart on tracks six and nine, and the latter I discovered can also be viewed on a well-known channel, along with a short trailer for the album.  A clothed(!) cover of Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball is another highlight.  Nothing shows the ambition of the band better than the thirteen minute closer, Demons and Angels that is certain to become a crowd favourite as the band move shortly to live shows.  See you there!

NE

EP Reviews

Superman by Peter Donegan is a five-track Country EP of bold intent that is named after the first track.  Peter’s strengths are song-writing with lyrics that are believable and memorable.  On Ode to a Friend, it’s a more crossover sound, akin to Mumford & Sons- and all the songs have a very contemporary flavour.  For his next full-length album, in this crowded genre, I would be seeking a duet with the very best Country performers in the States, whilst simultaneously seeking a more offbeat duet for the UK market for more exposure on both sides of the Atlantic.  It shouldn’t be difficult to arrange as these songs sell themselves and Peter will encounter a lot of goodwill in the music industry in fond memory of his late father, Lonnie.    

Black Stone Cherry have released Black to Blues, a six-track EP.  Built for Comfort, my favourite Hoochie Coochie Man and I want to be Loved, were written by Willie Dixon (as were Little Red Rooster and I just Want to Make Love to You) and have been performed by Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Bo Diddley, as well as by Cream, The Doors, Jeff Beck, The Stones, Led Zep’, and ‘Hendrix.  Black Stone Cherry carve out their own versions of the songs that they say run in their blood.  I also see it as merely a continuation of their evolving creativity (still strong after 17 years!) that saw them record Edwin Starr’s War and acoustic ballad The Rambler on their last album Kentucky.  Make sure there is a passenger alongside if you are listening whilst driving, as these tunes could conjure up the wrong type of blues in your rear-view mirror.

The Swift Drag from Austin, Texas are nothing like their name may suggest.  Their psychedelic music is far more satisfying and the title of their EP We Won’t Need That, perhaps implores us to let their music entertain us. Will Evans and David Jobe interlace drums, guitars and impassioned vocals into elaborate patterns combining the energy of The Doors and the creativity of The Black Keys.  It’s very “Burning Man” in its shamanic percussion, guitar technique and riveting vocals.

Self-released Days Like These by American born, Essex based Philip Marino is his third EP, ably assisted by The Felice Brothers which came about after replying to an open request to send demos in.  What sets this artist apart is his matchless deep and full-bodied voice, meaningful songs and acoustic mastery.  He’s got a strong following in the South-East for his live shows and airplay on national radio is increasing his well-deserved popularity.

Danish rockers We the Moon are the final band to make the cut for this issue. Rhea is a four-track triumph on Phillipa Records that has genre-resisting vocals and a heavy groove.  I particularly liked how the whole band builds a momentum to each song, bringing a refreshing unpredictability and a rawness to their music.

NE 

Glöde

Glöde

Ø

Membran Entertainment Group

Simon Glöde has crafted a captivating debut album simply called Ø, which means Danish for Island.  From the shortest track Jeg Vil Elske (I will Love, 1.44) to the longest track Exhale (7.10) for the last track, I was spellbound by the vocals and acoustics that made me want to listen intensely to the lyrics, reminding me of Al Stewart, America, Richard Hawley, Damien Rice and Alex Turner and this calibre is uncommon.  The songs themselves tell vivid stories and many are about the sea which is heavily influenced by his upbringing on Danish shore lands and more recently a sojourn in Hamburg.   It was easy to picture an ocean while listening to this music and so I was surprised that some natural sounds of the sea were not included on at least three tracks. It’s probable Mr Glöde was quite content with the depth already offered by this gently uplifting, recline and unwind album.

NE

Barb Wire Dolls

Barb Wire Dolls

Rub My Mind

Motörhead Music

Cretan female-fronted, self-styled, punk band, Barb Wire Dolls, flew to L.A at the invitation of Rodney Bingenheimer, who is credited for breaking The Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols and Blondie in the USA.  Motörhead’s Lemmy signed them to their label after seeing them perform at the Whisky A-Go-Go, during one of several residencies there.  I was disappointed therefore to find this album was too far removed from punk and closer to the pop of Blondie and Texas at times, especially in track two If I Fall, that interestingly has a similar howling at almost the same second minute that Roxy Music’s famous Let’s Stick Together includes. Desert Song, Gold and Fade Away are slower and have more complex arrangements and allow Queen Isis, the lead vocalist, the room to express her vocals to better effect and the guitars are much more authentic. If this band want to conquer the world, they need to either inject more venom into their sound, like they do in track ten, Contract, akin to say Penetration’s Coming Up for Air, or play to their current strengths which for me were the slower songs and arrangements which by definition, may not be punk.  They have more talent than they think and they should rely on their own instincts to guide them.

NE

Todd Anthony Joos & The Revelators

Todd Anthony Joos & The Revelators

The Burden

Cellar Records

The Burden is one of the very best Classic Rock albums in Christendom.  Try to combine for a moment, the guitars of Boston, the vocals of Journey or Kansas, the hooks of Bon Jovi and the easy listening style of The Doobie Brothers and this will get you close to the sound of Todd Anthony Joos & The Revelators.  The reality is even better.  Solid guitar playing, Hammond, acoustic prowess and the best vocals in this genre that I’ve heard in years, made me want to dash out for some denim flares such is the wonderful time and place the band’s music took me to.  The songs are credible, convincing and Christian in flavour but it didn’t stop me singing aloud ..”it ain’t over till it’s over, …devil get behind me….ashes to ashes, dust to dust..”, with the car windows down and loving every minute of this exceptional album.  It’s their fifth release in ten years and the experience gained by Joos, working as an engineer and producer for many leading bands shows in the deft production.

NE

Some Weird Sin – On Tour with Iggy Pop

Some Weird Sin – On Tour with Iggy Pop

Alvin Gibbs

Extradition Publishing

This book has made me want to explore the iconic albums The Idiot, Lust for Life, Kill City, Blah-Blah-Blah, New Values, Instinct and Post Pop Depression and the back catalogue of the author’s band.

In this way, the book must be deemed a success.  I knew nothing about James Newell Osterberg Jr and the author Alvin Gibbs entertains and informs the reader of what it’s really like to be part of a successful touring band with the magical moment of earning next to nothing one moment to $1500 a week plus $30 daily expenses the next.  The author is the ex-UK Subs bass player and the book details his eight-month long tenure of Iggy’s World Tour 1988. I approached the book with caution.  I’d bought Real Wild Child and liked the Passenger immensely and that’s as far as my knowledge went. I’m far better informed now.  I was sceptical of an involved musician writing the story and I was sceptical after research revealed the author had written two previous books on Iggy Pop.  My fears disappeared when the author spectacularly sets out in his introduction the reasons for his update which I will leave to the reader to discover on their own.  Some Weird Sin could refer to the more salacious episodes on tour but in fact relates to the first song Mr Gibbs had to practice for his new position.  He writes well and is often humorous and I recommend it as a fine read for any music lover or even as a general reader as towns and cities, band politics and the psyche and personality of both Iggy Pop and Mr Gibbs are described as well as the gigs.  Despite the poor quality of the photographs that look as if they have been lifted from a fanzine, they do add a reality rather than the gloss that a perfectly shot image may suggest and they were in keeping with the time of punk.

I read the book in three longish sessions and it was an engaging read and I particularly relished the opportunity to hear about the relationship between Mr Pop and Mr Bowie.  It’s a concise two hundred-and-eight-page turner about life on tour that I want to pass around, such is the quality of the style and the abundant content that the author shares about one of the industry’s greats.

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers

The Long-Awaited Album

Rounder Records

Yes, it's that Steve Martin, the comedian, linking up with the accomplished Steep Canyon Rangers  for   a third album.  Playwright, pianist, banjo player and collector, art collector and juggler, he's no one-trick pony.  Taught by a future member of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, he's played the banjo since a child, ostensibly to fill time during his comedy routines.  This doesn't explain why he adopted the difficult 'clawhammer' style of playing favoured by the many Africans who brought their instruments with them from Africa to America.  It allows for more intricate melodies and five no. 1 albums in the Bluegrass Charts (2009-15), one solo, two with the Steep Canyon Rangers and two with Edie Brickell (married to Paul Simon) testify to the quality of musicianship on offer.  For this album, the band together display joyous clean speed in banjo and fiddle, especially for the tracks, Santa Fe, Office Supplies,  Angelina the Barista and Promontory Point.  I didn't like the capers of Caroline, Strange Christmas or Night in the Lab,  that may have been better left for the tour.  Fortunately the slower tracks balance the album well.  All Night Long, Bad Night, the simple but exquisite, Always Will, and the storytelling of Girl from the River Run were all strong tracks, that together with the faster tracks, took me by surprise when I discovered I had given nine tracks out of the fourteen, full marks for the challenging and distinctive material.

NE

Currents

Currents

The Place I Feel Safest

SharpTone Records

Growing up with my two brothers one of us would ask “Who wants a fight?”.

The sofa was eased back and to protect our pocket money, breakables were safely stashed behind it.  The Place I Feel Safest by Currents would have been the perfect accompaniment to the flailing limbs and the punishment we exchanged.  Coming from Connecticut, above New York, with a new vocalist in Brian Wille, and a new label in SharpTone, Currents have released an exciting dynamic djent album full of brutal riffs, aggressive vocals, perfectly weighted bass and the drums of founding member Jeff Brown.  Extreme metal may be polarising but this band impressed me with the technical brilliance of their onslaught on the ears.  Screaming vocals dominate each track for a journey through the soul of the vocalist.  Interest is maintained by the balancing of the gloomy songs with the buoyant guitars of Ryan Castaldi and Chris Wiseman.  What I liked about this band is they know how to build drama through the clever use of either melody, exquisite clean vocals or harmonies that demonstrate they possess a complexity with hints of a broader appeal than this heavy genre is sometimes criticised for.

NE

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

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band

Lay It On Down

Provogue

Lay It On Down is the eighth album by the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, six of which hit No. 1 in the US Blues Chart ( from 1995-onwards).  He is a fiercely ambitious artist, even after awards and platinum album sales- “We’re still breaking new ground”, the modern bluesman maintains.  This ambition is exemplified by the insistence on writing the greatest songs of his career for this album, many of which were written in Nashville and the storytelling does indeed strike the listener.  Shepherd himself insists that each song takes you on a different journey. Diamonds & Gold, Nothing but The Night, Lay it All Down, Hard Lesson Learned and the personal Louisiana Rain would all make strong singles in an expanding repertoire and could win the band a deservedly wider audience.

Interwoven with blues numbers for his long-standing fans, this album is going to be huge.  It’s the quality of the songcraft that elevates this good album to a great one.  The title track Lay it On Down is a melodic song about the beauty you see in someone that they can’t see themselves and crucially letting them know.

The sheer satisfaction of listening to this album is astonishing.  It makes you play it again to catch all the textures on offer.  It would be an absolute certainty to pack for any road trip – I mused absent-mindedly, whilst playing the CD merely on my commute to work.

NE

Cellar Darling

Cellar Darling

This Is The Sound

Nuclear Blast

Swiss outfit Cellar Darling, formed only last summer after musical differences in the folk metallers band Eluveite, create a multifaceted alternative pathway using the reinvention of folk tales for the modern age as their inspiration.  The band is driven by the intelligent and powerful drumming of Merlin Sutter, leaving space for his fellow musicians , Ivo Henzi  (guitars/bass)  and Anna Murphy (vocals/ hurdy gurdy/flute/ keyboards),  to fashion their new musical direction with confidence and panache.

Heavy riffs, an extensive vocal range from sheer power to the ethereal, and compelling percussion, produce an engaging and refreshing encounter. The hurdy gurdy (a stringed instrument that looks as terrifying as a crossbow), gives the sound a timeless feel with its drone-like quality.  It became popular in the Renaissance period, which means “rebirth” in French.  It’s a very apt description for this experienced trio for their debut album “This Is The Sound”.

NE

Earl Grey

Earl Grey

The Times You Cross my Mind

Midsummer Records

Mönchengladbach early twentysomethings Earl Grey are definitely worthy of your ears for this, their third EP The Times You Cross My Mind.  Formed only a couple of years ago they combine punk vocals (in English) with a maturity of melody or aggression on a whim.  Over thirteen minutes and five tracks, they display the confidence and swagger gained from their extensive touring schedules.  From the first bars of 1.37 minute opener Nothing (that is anything but!), to the closing melodic fadeout of the last track Hollow, I enjoyed the energy and musical flair of each post-hardcore track. The strong production of their sound makes you sit up and listen.  Catch them early in their career as they are destined for stardom.

NE

Wintersun - Metal Review

Wintersun

The Forest Seasons

Nuclear Blast Records

My spirit and soul soared at the intensity of the listening experience of the third studio album from Wintersun, a Finnish metal band that is fronted by Jari Mäenpää (vocals, studio guitars, and programming) with Kai Hahto providing an impressive energy on drums especially with his pummelling blast beats.  The whole band was involved in the production of this breath-taking release.  It is the elaborate delivery of the imaginative ideas on this project over four tracks (54 minutes running time) that holds your complete attention. Like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, each track gives a musical expression to a season but the difference here is this is a year seen through a mythical forest and the album demands a listen in its entirety to fully appreciate the genius of  this masterpiece.  Black metal and clean vocals - especially on the last track Loneliness (Winter), intricate mixes, recurring themes, choral and orchestral arrangements  are spliced with the ferocious guitars of Teemu Mäntysaari and new addition  Asim Searah.  The peerless time-signature and tempo changes that feel so much more natural than many other bands help to make this recording one of my top ten albums of all time.  It’s hard to find fault with a release that Mr Mäenpää  calls his first perfect album he’s ever done.  The Forest Seasons could become a present-day classic.

NE