Shawn Colvin - Uncovered

Rating: 2/5

Bland and samey

Shawn Colvin is a very good singer, but I'm afraid I didn't think a lot of this collection of covers.  It has it's moments, but overall it's a bit weak.

To be worthwhile, a cover version needs to bring something new to a song – a new musical perspective, an insight which you didn't get before, a different mood which shows the song in a new light or something similar.  This true of James Taylor's classic version of Handy Man, for example, or Bryan Ferry's more recent Johnny And Mary – there are a lot of great examples.  This album started so promisingly with a lovely reworking of Springsteen's Tougher Than The Rest as a rather tender, melancholy supplication that I had high hopes…but I'm afraid the rest was a disappointment.

The whole album has very a very similar feel throughout – minimal backing with sad, echoing vocals – so that it began to sound samey very quickly and some great songs just blended into the general "feel" with much of their individuality lost.  Some do have a different approach from the originals, but for me the general sameness of the album swamped anything in the way of new impact.  American Tune, a truly great song, just sounds like Colvin trying to do exactly what Paul Simon did but not as well, which is a cardinal sin in a cover.  Worse, she makes small changes to the lyrics; in the first verse "I'm all right…" becomes "It's all right, just weary to my bones," and in the last verse "…you can't be forever blessed – still,  tomorrow's going to be another working day and I'm trying to get some rest" becomes "…*and* tomorrow's going to be etc."  These are tiny but important changes; the superb precision of Paul Simon's lyrics is a significant part of his brilliance as a songwriter and altering them robs the song of some of its real insight and depth, showing an insensitivity to great lyrics which I find hard to forgive.

I'm sorry to be harsh about a fine artist, but as an album I don't think this adds up to much.  It's not offensive and it's decently performed but it's very bland and samey overall.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Minnie Driver's album of covers, Ask Me To Dance, is significantly better than this for it's variety and insight into the material.  I know it sounds absurd to say that a Minnie Driver album is better than one by Shawn Colvin but I think it's true, and I'm afraid I can't really recommend Uncovered.

The Imagined Village - The Imagined Village

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Brilliant

I think this is quite brilliant. It's an album giving a new take on traditional English folk songs by an eclectic mix of some of England's finest musicians in all sorts of genres. People have said that "traditionalists" and "purists" will dislike this. Well, I have spent a lot of time in smoky folk clubs listening to unaccompanied ballads, for years I was a member of a Morris Ring side, I still have my box set of A Song For Every Season LPs by The Copper Family and so on...and I love this.

It sounds as though it might be dreadful. Cold Haily Rainy Night with sitar and Indian percussion, for example? In fact it's brilliant - the original is sung very traditionally with fabulous (and very English) harmonies from The Young Coppers and the arrangement and production just make it shine and give it real impact. Benjamin Zephaniah's gently rapped update of Tam Lin is similarly great. Some songs have re-worked words to reflect modern social times rather than those of centuries ago, others just have more modern musical treatments. The production and introduction of more contemporary aspects of English music is perfectly judged throughout and there isn't a duff track on the album - as you'd expect with this excellent line-up.

I think the key is that these are genuinely excellent musicians who are very knowledgeable about the material and treat it respectfully but not over-reverentially. It is exactly in the folk tradition for people to hear songs and make them their own using the language and idioms of their heritage, and the good versions survive while the poor die because people aren't interested in singing them. I think these will survive for a long, long time. It's one of the best "folk" albums I've heard for ages (a friend only recently introduced me to it) and I recommend it very warmly indeed.

The Milk Carton Kids - The Ash & Clay

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Very impressive

This is the first Milk Carton Kids album I have heard, and I am very impressed. It is a lovely album of songs sung in duo close-harmony and accompanied by some fine acoustic guitar work. It has a bit of a feel of Simon and Garfunkel about it, but other influences are evident, too. The opening song, Hope of a Lifetime, brought me up short on just its second line as I heard Graham Nash's top line on Teach Your Children exactly reproduced for a bar or two. Honey, Honey is a rocking bluegrass number very reminiscent of Peter, Paul and Mary, and the spirit of the Everly Brothers hovers close by in quite a few places throughout the album...and so on.

Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan sing beautifully together and their guitars sound just great. They are plainly very good guitarists - there is some terrific virtuoso stuff on Heaven, for example - but they also have the musical sense to keep it relatively simple most of the time, which is entirely appropriate to the material.

The songs themselves are a varied and thoroughly enjoyable mixture of the tender, the soulful and the joyously vigorous. I really like them, and some - the title track, for instance - have real lyrical substance. Whether these songs have the noble bone structure to give them real enduring beauty will only be clear with time. I suspect they may have it and I will be surprised if this album ever fades to become just a pretty period-piece. I think it's something rather special and recommend it warmly.

Minnie Driver - Ask Me To Dance

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good album of fine covers

I hadn't heard her previous albums but I like Minnie Driver's film work very much, so I took a punt on this. I didn't have high expectations, but it turned out to be rather a good album.

The first thing to say is that Minnie Driver is a good singer with a very nice voice which she knows how to use. She has a slightly husky tone and smooth delivery which is almost jazzy at times. I get several flashes of Maria Muldaur during the album, but Driver is her own woman and delivers this eclectic selection of covers very well. Despite its title, this certainly isn't a dance album; it tends toward the slightly mournful and sultry which works extremely well most of the time. The slow, contemplative version of Stevie Wonder's Masterblaster, for example, is quite brilliant in my view (she wisely leaves out the verse about "Peace has come to Zimbabwe," by the way). I have always hated the song Fly Me To The Moon, and it says a lot for this album that I quite like the version here. Neil Young's Tell Me Why is very good, and others are just as effective.

A good deal of this is due to the excellent arrangements and production, which bring a genuinely fresh take to familiar material. It's beautifully judged and Driver has assembled a fine band who really get what she is trying to do here, so the overall sound is great – fairly laid-back and quite rich while never being overdone.

This isn't an classic album, nor one which will shape music history but it's a very good piece of work which I like a lot. It has significantly increased my respect for Minnie Driver, and I can recommend it.

Keith Richards - Crosseyed Heart

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A cracking album 

This is a cracking album.  I had reservations before trying it because great musicians who have flourished in great bands don't always make great solo albums, by any means.  (This even applies, in my view anyway, to towering musical geniuses like Pete Townshend.)  However, this is a really good solo album even if it's not perhaps a great one.

Keith Richards has been so often lampooned as a mumbling, incoherent, drug-damaged wreck that it's sometimes possible to forget what a truly great guitarist and songwriter he is.  This is a mixture of originals and covers, every one of which is a belter in its way (with the possible exception of Goodnight Irene, which isn't all that memorable but is still perfectly OK).  There's the mix you'd expect of blues in various styles and good ol' Rock & Roll – and I like it, yes I do.  :o)  From the opening title track, a great picked blues with just Keith and his guitar, through world-weary country-tinged songs like the excellent Robbed Blind to Stones-like rockers like Something For Nothing, it's a terrific, varied set.

Lyrics and vocals aren't Keith's strongest suit, but he does just fine here.  Lyrically, it isn't the richest album you'll ever hear, but there's wit and atmosphere, and the words and Keith's delivery fit the music perfectly.  He doesn't attempt vocal feats which he can't manage, and what emerges is just right to my ears.

In short, this is a bit of class from a truly classy musician to whom I owe a vast debt of gratitude for 50 years of great music.  It's well worthy of him, and I can recommend it very warmly.

Elise Weinberg - Greasepaint Smile

Rating: 3/5

Review:
A rather ordinary period piece

This is an album recorded by Elise Weinberg in 1969 but never released.  Weinberg was a part of the Laurel Canyon scene, which shows strongly here – there is a mix of the wistful with just her and her acoustic picking to the fairly rocky in band numbers like City Of the Angels, with shades in between.  Elise Weinberg has a fine, husky voice which put me strongly in mind of Melanie Safka (I am showing my age here, I know), there are some notable guest artists – including Neil Young contributing lead guitar to Houses – and it's all decently produced.

I think I'd have liked this album a lot in 1969.  It went with the mood of the time, it has some decent stuff on it and as a 15-year-old would-be peacenik I searched out a lot of this stuff, some of which has endured and a lot of which hasn't.  I don't really think this has.  It certainly deserves to see the light of day, but I have to say that the material overall isn't that great, the guitar work is perfectly nice but pretty ordinary and after a couple of listens I've heard enough for now.  I'll probably go back to it a few times, but more as an interesting historical record of a time than for real enjoyment of the music.  The lyrics feel a bit limp these days and musically there's nothing especially interesting here.

There's nothing actually wrong with Greasepaint Smile; it's a perfectly competent album which reflects its time, but I think it belongs in that time and it's much more of an interesting period piece than something to be played repeatedly.  I'd suggest finding some samples and seeing what you think; you may like this far more than I do, but personally I can only give it a rather lukewarm recommendation.

Dave Edmunds - Original Album Series

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant box

This is a simply brilliant 5-CD box.  The five albums in it are: 

Love Scuplture - Forms & Feelings (1970)

Dave Edmunds - Get It (1977)

Dave Edmunds - Tracks On Wax 4 (1978)

Dave Edmunds - Repeat When Necessary (1979) and 

Dave Edmunds - Twangin'... (1981)

I have owned and loved these four Dave Edmunds "solo" LPs on vinyl since they came out, so I'm delighted to have them so cheaply on CD as well, and the Love Sculpture album is a very welcome bonus.

I doubt whether anyone looking at this page needs me to describe or review in detail Dave Edmunds' music from this era because you'll know him well.  It's really brilliantly played Rock & Roll-dominated rock music which sounds deceptively simple but is superbly controlled and played with that restrained edge and precision which gives it real bite.  Edmunds is a fine guitarist and singer and the band are excellent: the core of Billy Bremner, Nick Lowe and Terry Williams are tight and have a fantastic driving beat.  There are also some great guest appearances – most notably for me Albert Lee's sensational guitar on Sweet Little Lisa.

I won't go on.  Classics like I Knew The Bride, Girls Talk, Crawling From The Wreckage (incorrectly titled on this page, by the way) and others speak for themselves, and there's a wealth of hugely enjoyable music here.  My advice is just to snap this up – it's a cracking set which I can recommend very warmly.

Rickie Lee Jones - The Other Side Of Desire

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine album

I really like this album.  I confess that I haven't really been aware of Rickie Lee Jones since enjoying Chuck E's In Love very much, so it's been a long gap, but I'm very glad to make her acquaintance again.

This is a varied and in places rather quirky album with some great stuff on it.  The variety of just the first four tracks gives an idea of what to expect:  Jimmy Choo is a great, smooth, jazzy song with some very distinctive vocal work; Valtz de Mon Pere is a lovely New Orleans-tinged love song; J'ai Connais Pas sounds like a really good Fats Domino song (and the backing certainly owes more than a little to Blueberry Hill); Blinded By The Hunt is a soulful, bluesy and very affecting song which puts me rather in mind of Randy Crawford…and so on.  I don't like everything here, but everyone will have their own favourites and it's a matter of taste rather than musical quality, which is excellent throughout.

Rickie Lee Jones is a great singer.  She has been around long enough now to be able to put a song over with real skill and meaning even though her voice really isn't what it was - she sounds a bit like an eight-year-old with a cold on I Wasn't Here, for example.  However, she varies the quality of her voice excellently (I get echoes of Bjork, Marianne Faithfull and others in various places) and the effect is often just great; For example, I find her sometimes cracked, trembling quality on Christmas in New Orleans very affecting.  It's an object lesson in performance, I think and the result is really special in parts of this album.

I have given it five stars because of this, even if there are some weaker moments (to me, anyway): the majority is very good indeed and some is really great.  It's a fine album overall and warmly recommended.

Patty Griffin - Servant of Love

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another excellent album from Patty Griffin

This is real quality stuff from Patty Griffin; her album American Kid was one of the best albums of 2013 and this, while different in feel, is just as good. 

Simply put, Patty Griffin is sensational and this is terrific, although it's anything but easy listening in places and there's little with the immediacy of Rain, for example (one of my favourite songs anywhere).  My advice, if you have any interest in this genre or just in songs with deep musical and lyrical intelligence, is don't hesitate.  This is excellent.

Caro Emerald - Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An unexpected treat

I took a risk on this album after I heard a snippet of "That Man" on the radio and loved the sound. I didn't regret it at all. It's a hugely enjoyable album with a 30s and 40s swing sound (and hints of the Andrews Sisters) combined with 2010 production. Caro Emerald is a really good singer and she gives very good material a real sparkle. There is an excellent brass section, a fine keyboard player and terrific rhythm sound from percussion, guitar and double bass, with the addition of a bit of synth and scratching. I'm not a fan of scratching at all, but it isn't obtrusive and works really well here. The overall effect is irresistible from smoky ballads to swing numbers you just can't sit still to.

This was a real departure for me, but I'm delighted that I've discovered it. If in doubt, my advice is to buy it - it's a classy, joyous treat.

Caro Emerald - The Shocking Miss Emerald

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good, but...

This is a perfectly decent follow-up album from Caro Emerald. She is a very good singer, that enjoyable fusion of swing and modern sounds is still there and some of the material here is good. People like me who found Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor such an original and joyous treat will certainly like it, but for me the terrific musical zing and zest which I loved in Deleted Scenes isn't quite there on this album.

Part of this is that Miss Emerald isn't really at all shocking here, but plays it pretty safe. The old sense of a bunch of really good musicians having a great time has been overlaid and dimmed by a much more expensive, corporate gloss. Sweeping strings and slicker, more impersonal production have largely driven out the immediacy of the terrific, gutsy brass section, for example, so the humorous twinkle of Dr Wannado, the irresistible swing of That Man and the infectious beat of Back It Up are harder to find here. Some of it is great, and there's a lovely light feel to songs like Completely, Pack Up The Louie and Liquid Lunch, but this is an album which seems to take itself far more seriously than Deleted Scenes, and for me it loses something as a result.

I don't want to carp; plenty of people will love this, and fair enough. I do like it - it's just that for me it lacks the real sparkle which made Deleted Scenes such a treat.

John Hulburt - Opus III

Rating: 4/5

Review:
very good guitar work

This is a very good album, originally from 1972, of largely ragtime guitar from a forgotten artist.  It was dragged from obscurity recently by fellow Chicago guitarist Ryley Walker who deserves a lot of credit for bringing about this re-release after stumbling across the album in a remainder bin.

John Hulburt was playing and recording this at a time when Chicago's music scene was full of rock, so it's a bit of an isolated oddity coming from there, but it's fine stuff, nonetheless.  There are clear influences of John Fahey with blues tinges evident in places, too.  Much of the music, though, is very well played, smile-inducing rags.  There's some very fine playing and the overall effect of most of the tracks is just great.  A flute appears a couple of times which doesn't work well for me, and the few vocal numbers aren't the strongest either – and it has to be said that Inner Garden is a terrible song.  However, the bulk of this is great, and there are tracks here (like the closer, Hallelujah! I'm On Parole Again) which I find irresistible.

This is a very welcome find for me, and if you like a well-played guitar I can recommend it warmly. 

Cruisin' in the 60s

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fantastic collection

This is a fantastic collection of 75 tracks from the early 60s. It has some very well-known tracks from people like The Everlys, Elvis and Roy Orbison, some real rarities and a lot of "oh yes, I remember that - it was great!" songs. Just a look down the track list on this page should be enough to persuade you that it's a terrific set, and a real bargain at this price. The digital transfers have been done very well and the sound quality is excellent (in that it reflects the quality of the original recordings closely).

It's a great listen. Personally I'm delighted to have things like Let's Go Tripping by Dick Dale (which always makes me think of the great John Peel), and the sensational version of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah by Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans. You will have your own highlights, but any collection which features both Bobby Darin and John Lee Hooker gets my vote for its sheer uncritical joy in the music of the period.

This is just a great collection - it only takes a short blast from any of it to get me smiling and moving. Don't hesitate if you have any interest whatever in this period.

Martha Tilston - The Sea

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A gem

I think this is an excellent album from Martha Tilston. I like her previous two albums (Machines Of Love And Grace and Lucy And The Wolves) very much, which consisted largely of her own songs. Here she has recorded an album of mainly traditional English songs, largely reflecting her family's strong musical traditions and involving her family and friends in the performances. The result is beautiful and haunting, I think.

Those of us who cut our folkie teeth in the late 60s and early 70s, will know songs like Lovely On The Water, Blackwater Side, Lowlands of Holland and so on very well, familiar from folk clubs and albums by Pentangle, Steeleye Span, Fairport and others. These are fine, fresh versions, though. Martha Tilston has a lovely voice for this material and she's an excellent guitarist - with more than a hint of her childhood family friend Bert Jansch in several places. Her fellow musicians are uniformly excellent, and even her uncle Kevin Whatley - an unlikely name on a folk album - shows he's a very competent singer here. The arrangements are very good, giving real atmosphere and meaning to each song and the whole album is a high class treat, in my view.

Martha Tilston is one of a good number of very fine, young-ish folk musicians performing now, and it is good to know that English folk music is in such excellent hands at the moment. If you have any interest in folk music, or just like a well-made album of lovely songs I can recommend this very warmly. It's a little gem.

Suzanne Vega - Close-Up Series

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Brilliant - among Suzanne Vega's best work

All of these Close Up albums from Suzanne Vega are really excellent. For me these stripped-down re-workings of her songs shed a new light on many of them and in a lot of cases I prefer them to the originals.

That haunting voice is still wonderful - a little huskier and more breathy perhaps which only adds to the atmosphere of the recording. The principal instrument is her acoustic guitar, played beautifully and often solo but augmented by delicate additions of things like organ and electric lead where appropriate. It takes really good material to shine with such minimal production, and these complex, often quirky songs show what very fine music and lyrics Vega has produced. The whole thing sounds intimate and personal (as was the intention), made more so by being quite close-miked and beautifully recorded. It is simply excellent throughout with great hits sounding original and fresh (there is a simply stunning version of Luka, for example), and less well-known songs making you wonder why they are less well-known.

You almost certainly know Suzanne Vega's work if you are considering this, and are perhaps wondering whether you need new versions of songs you already own and love. I wondered the same thing but took a chance on this series and I'm delighted I did. I was worried it might be like those outtakes and demo versions which get added as bonus tracks to CDs and often aren't very good. These albums are nothing like that at all - they are a joy. This package also contains a disc of material not included on the original four CDs and DVD of a fine live set, making it excellent value, too

I think this box contains some of Suzanne Vega's best work, and I recommend it very warmly.

Annie Lennox - Nostalgia

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Great versions of familiar songs

It goes without saying that Annie Lennox is a truly great singer and the production and arrangements on this album are excellent, so whether you like this album will depend entirely on whether you want another version of some of these great American classics. They are all excellent versions, but for me this genre has been rather overdone in recent years and, from the point of view of the material alone, I'm slightly less keen on this album than on some of Annie Lennox's other work.

That said, it's still very good. I have been a fan of Annie Lennox since the days of The Tourists and she was stunning when I saw Eurythmics in concert 30 years or so ago. If anything, she's an even better singer now; her voice is still great and she has a fantastic depth and control. She is in fine voice here, for sure. She gives every song real meaning and the overall sound is great, the selection of material is good, if a little predictable, and these interpretations stand very well beside the greats of the past. (Something in me still baulks slightly at a white artist recording Strange Fruit, by the way, but Annie may well have earned the right with her admirable and tireless championing of humanitarian causes. It's an absolutely stunning version, too, so it's probably a needless worry.)

In summary, it's an album of great songs, excellently sung and produced. The only issue for me is the familiarity of the material, but if you don't share my slight reservation about it then I can recommend this as a fine album by a genuinely great singer on top form.

Neil Young - Storytone

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Neil Young back to his best

I'm delighted to say that I think this is a terrific album from Neil Young. After A Letter Home, which I still can't listen to without wincing, he has produced a real gem, I think.

My advice is to make sure you get the Deluxe Version, which includes a disc of all ten songs sung as a solo set with just Neil and his guitar or keyboard and some harmonica, as well as the same set in arrangements with a band or large orchestra and chorus (sometimes both). I really like both discs; they are similar in mood in some places and quite different in others (Say Hello To Chicago, for instance, sounds like two completely different songs), but the songs work very well in both arrangements.

The key to this album's quality is some very, very fine songwriting which shows most clearly in the solo set. It opens with Plastic Flowers, with just piano and Neil's voice. It's a song about how he lost a love as a young man and has some great lyrics, like "I showed plastic flowers to Mother Nature's daughter." It's very beautiful and very affecting. Other songs like Glimmer, I'm Glad I Found You and When I Watch You Sleeping are just as good: simple, tender, heartfelt and genuinely moving. It's one aspect of Neil Young at his very best. Other songs are more eco-warrior in content, but the overall tone of the album is of mellow reflection on love and life's experience.

Neil's voice sounds a little older and more wavery in places, but that's just fine with me, and his performances here are excellent. He really means every word as he lays his heart on the line for us, and musically he's on fine form - especially in the solo set he plays and sings with real sincerity and a simplicity and grace which masks the great skill needed to make a set like this shine with the quality this one has.

Having listened a lot I think I marginally prefer the solo set, but that's just my personal taste. It's all very good indeed (and Who's Gonna Save The World sounds just sensational as a huge production number) so you may disagree.

Heaven knows what Neil will give us next - he's quite capable of making an album of popular showtunes played on the didgeridoo and recorded on a wax cylinder (just joking, Neil - *please* don't), but for now I'm thoroughly enjoying this very fine album (probably among his best in my view) and I recommend it very warmly indeed.

Future Islands - Singles

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A first-rate album

I agree with the chorus of praise for this album.  I hadn't heard Future Islands before seeing them on the Jools Holland programme. I thought they were excellent and risked the album; I wasn't disappointed.

The music is great - it took me back to the early 80s with strong echoes of Vince Clarke, Steve Strange, New Order and any number of other bands in the arrangements in various places (I thought there were hints of The National, too). What really makes this special, though, is their excellently named frontman Samuel T. Herring. He manages to look like a slightly overweight nerd from the accounts department while also delivering fantastically emotional, powerful vocals and producing his own unique dance moves. It's a great combination and this is a first-rate album in my view.

My advice is to listen to a few samples. If you like them don't hesitate - this is an album of real quality from start to finish.

Michael Chapman - Live at Folk Cottage (1967)

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent early Michael Chapman

I thought I'd caught the beginning of Michael Chapman's career (I still have my original, much loved LP of Rainmaker) but this live recording predates Rainmaker by a couple of years and shows that he was already a very fine guitarist and performer. It's very blues orientated but pleasingly varied both in its blues styles and with a sprinkling of the unexpected like a great version of That'll Be The Day and three fine instrumentals, one of which is an amazing riff based around Davey Graham's Anji. It's all brilliant, hugely entertaining and really high-quality playing and singing in that distinctive and effective mouth-full-of-cotton-wool way Chapman has.

If you have any interest in blues or great acoustic guitar work, don't hesitate. This is fine musicianship in an engaging atmosphere. It's also surprisingly well recorded for the time and place and the sound is very good. Very, very warmly recommended.

Willa Mamet & Paul Miller - Let Somebody Love You

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Not a great album

This album has its merits, but I have reservations about it.

Willa Mamet has a nice voice and Paul Miller is a very decent guitarist; they have taken a variety of songs and made what are generally very pleasant recordings of them.  They have no accompaniment other than Miller's guitar, so it's a very intimate, relaxed feel with some good harmonies and some very nice guitar work on some songs like Wichita, for example.  As an album, though, this has some pretty sever limitations.  For example, if I'd heard their version of The Eagles' Desperado in a club I'd have thought it was a pretty good adaptation and enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it's worth repeated listening and the same is true of much of this record.

More seriously, they have changed the tune in Dimming Of the Day.  I think this is one of the most beautiful songs of the last 40 years or so; the original Richard and Linda Thompson recording is magnificent and Alison Krauss's cover is very good, too, so it can be done well by others.  However, I find it hard to forgive the desecration of such a lovely tune by changing it, presumably because Willa Mamet can't quite reach the high notes they've altered.  You don't do that to a great song: as anyone who has performed at whatever level should know, if you can't sing a song well, then don't sing it.  It's a shame, but there it is; you just have to find songs you can sing.  I'm sorry to be harsh, but what they have done here is just wrong.

Apart from Dimming Of The Day, there's nothing wrong with this album but it's a bit ordinary to my ears.  Others may enjoy it more than I do, but I can only give it a rather lukewarm recommendation.

Ana Egge - Bright Shadow

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A little gem

I really like this album.  I hadn't come across Ana Egge before, but I tried this because her "backing band" here is The Stray Birds whose Best Medicine I also liked, and I'm pleased to say that I think Bright Shadow is very good indeed.

Ana Egge has a lovely, rich voice which reminds me somewhat of Ruth Moody (which is a very good thing).  She sings excellently and really knows how to put a song across, and the arrangements and production are first-rate.  They are varied but generally understated, with delicate, sparely used harmonies and very well-judged instrumentation which make each song shine.  It's exemplary work.

The material is very good.  The opener, Dreamer, is very striking with just a slightly jazzy double-bass accompaniment for much of its length, and the addition of occasional harmonies, minimal drums and a guitar for the very last section.  I love it for its originality and very catchy feel.  The rest of the album is more rootsy and folky in feel, and it is also very good with a decent variety of songs, more excellent musicianship and an overall intelligence to it – I caught a slight hint of Sarah Jarosz in places, which is another high compliment.

In an era when we are very blessed with excellent female singer-songwriters on both sides of the Atlantic, I think this album stands out among the best, which is really saying something.  When I'd heard it for the first time I immediately put it on again from the beginning – always a good sign – and I have listened to it a lot since then with undiminished pleasure.  I can recommend this very warmly to anyone with any interest in this genre – it's a little gem.

(Just in case anyone's interested, these are just some of the albums from female singer songwriters in the last two or three years which I think have been really outstanding.  They are, in no particular order:

Mary Gauthier - Trouble & Love
Thea Gilmore - Regardless
Amy Speace - How To Sleep In A Stormy Boat and That Kind Of Girl
Emily Barker - Dear River and The Toerag Sessions
Natalie Merchant - Natalie Merchant
Olivia Chaney - The Longest River
Amy LaVere - Runaway's Diary
Sharon van Etten - Are We There
Eliza Gilkyson - Nocturne Diaries
Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up From Bones
Amanda Shires - Down Fell The Doves
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Alela Diane - About Farewell

Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power In the Blood
Kris Delmhorst - Blood Test

Suzanne Vega – Close-Up Series and Tales From The Realm…
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America
Lori McKenna - Massachusets
Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park and Pageant Material

Ruth Moody – These Wilder Things)

Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer - Child Ballads

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A fine, fresh take on great ballads

I like this album very much overall. It takes some guts to record some of these ballads after they have achieved legendary status in versions by truly great performers, but by and large Mitchell and Hamer pull it off very well.

I confess that I was a bit dubious about two US musicians, however good, recording these ancient British songs. I used to love to hear the ballads, usually unaccompanied, in smoky folk clubs in the 70s and then loved the accompanied recorded versions by Fairport, Pentangle and others, so they are deeply ingrained in me and I feel very protective toward them. Happily, I think that nearly all of these versions are also excellent and add a fresh feel to the songs which I like very much. There is some lovely guitar work and the harmonies are beautiful. They are not in a style we might expect in these songs and the tone is often brighter and brisker than we may be used to, but that's fine by me and I really like the feel of it.

The one exception to this is Geordie. This is such a beautifully tragic ballad that the slight jauntiness of the treatment jarred rather badly with me. It's not that I want it to be austere and grim - one of my favourite versions is by Trees on their album On The Shore, which is anything but austere - but it does need an air of lament about it which is somewhat lacking here.

That aside, this is a terrific album of hugely enjoyable arrangements of wonderful traditional songs, and warmly recommended.

Eric Clapton & Friends

Rating: 3/5

Review: Some decent early tracks and some absolutely dreadful stuff

This is a compilation of some good and some pretty mediocre stuff with distinctly variable sound quality.

I have only the mp3 download of this album, which came with no documentation so I can't elaborate on specifics, but the first disc is early work with The Yardbirds and the second is Eric in collaboration with Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Cream. The Cream tracks are listed as "feat. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker," and just the ignorance shown by that listing probably gives an indication of the quality of this compilation.

I'm afraid I have no idea where these recordings were sourced or what their copyright status is. What I can say is that it's good to have some of these early Yardbirds recordings and, given their age the sound quality is reasonable. Some scarcely feature Eric at all, but he's there already doing wondrous stuff on tracks like Snake Drive, for example. The second disc is a pretty mixed bag of some good collaborations and some frankly tedious stuff, and some of the sound quality here is absolutely dreadful - muddy, indistinct and with appalling balance so that guitar and vocals are scarcely audible.

I've given this three stars because I'm glad to have some of the early stuff and one or two of the later collaborations, but be warned that some tracks on here are so poorly recorded that they should never have been included on a commercial release. One for diehard fans and completists, really, and it comes with a severe health warning.

JJ Cale - Live

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine live album

This is a really good live album.  JJ Cale was a very fine musician and guitarist underneath all that apparently effortless cool, and it shows throughout this album.  Fine singing, great guitar work, a lovely atmosphere and a terrific, tight band all add up to a really good album.

It's true that, being cut from several concerts it lacks some of the atmosphere of a single live concert in places, and once or twice the sound balance puts JJ's voice a little too far back, but overall it's terrific.  From a wonderful, tender Magnolia to a rumbustious, sort of reverse Mama Don't in which the instruments leave one by one, it's a really enjoyable album and a fine record of a true great in fine form.  Warmly recommended.

The Who - BBC Sessions

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good Who collection

This is a good record of The Who playing live at the BBC in the 60s with some great stuff on it, along with some slightly less enduring tracks.

They were a brilliant live band – one of the finest I've ever seen – and it shows here.  There's terrific energy and drive, of course, but also real skill and musical virtuosity;  some of the harmony singing, for example, is excellent.  Both Roger and Pete show what virtuosi they were in their different ways and so does that magnificent Moon/Entwhistle rocket which propelled them. 

The material is varied but good.  There are great versions of some of their best-known songs of the time plus some very welcome recordings of more obscure album tracks.  Things like the cover of Dancing In The Street don't work so well for me, but overall it's a fine collection.

The sound quality is pretty good.  It's clean and well balanced, although Entwhistle's bass sounds a bit thin on some of the earliest recordings.  The Brian Matthew voiceovers are a little irritating, but that's the way it was done then and I can live with it.  Overall this is a very good Who collection with a generous number of tracks and I can recommend it.

Joni Mitchell - Club 47 (Live, 1968)

Review: 4/5

Review:
Great music, indifferent sound

This is a recording made from FM radio of a live Joni Mitchell performance in January 1968.  She plays solo and is, of course, brilliant, but the editing and sound quality leave a good deal to be desired in places.

This was recorded just before the issue of her first album, Songs To A Seagull.  Many of the tarcks from that album are featured here, and I found it a strong reminder of how very good many of them are.  Singable, joyful songs like Night in the City are still a pleasure, but I also remember the extraordinary impact things like I Had A King had on me at the time: poetic, profound and truthful lyrics and some of that extraordinary melodic and harmonic inventiveness which have made Joni Mitchell a unique talent.  It's also slightly surprising that both Chelsea Morning and Both Sides Now feature here but weren't included on the album (they appeared on the follow-up, Clouds).  I'm also glad to have some songs here which I don't have anywhere else in my pretty extensive Joni Mitchell collection

The performance are very good indeed.  It's very obviously unadulterated, with quite a bit of retuning (she has always used a lot of different tunings), some of which don't quite leave the guitar perfectly in tune, for example.  Joni's singing and playing is fabulous, though, still making me marvel at the ease with which she sings some of those extraordinarily difficult melodic lines and hits every note bang on.  There's a little interaction with the audience, which I like a lot, and the balance of music and audience noise is well managed.

The real problem with this disc is the sound.  It's adequate for most of the time, but not great, with a slightly muddy, phasey quality.  There's a horrendous piece of tape slide in the opening track and a couple of other glitches elsewhere and no attempt has been made to edit out some intrusive ident announcements.  Frankly, whoever did the "remastering" really needs to pursue a different career if this is their idea of a properly remastered disc.

I can still recommend this: Joni is on fine form, the music is great and the sound isn't bad enough to ruin it, but it's a qualified recommendation because of the somewhat dodgy sound.

(And as a footnote, I do worry slightly that the early live recordings which are appearing are somewhat cynically cashing in on the publicity surrounding Joni's recent illness.  It's not a reason for me to ignore good music, but it's a concern.)