Rough Guide To Ragtime Blues

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent compilation

Amazon seem to have conflated reviews from a variety of discs here; to be clear, this is a brief review of The Rough Guide To Ragtime Blues.

It's brief because all that really need be said is that this is another excellent selection from Rough Guide.  The music is simply fantastic and a reminder, if one were needed, of what phenomenal guitarists and performers so many of those old blues players were.  There's lots of terrific stuff here from people I knew but some more obscure gems which I didn’t know, like the Allen Brothers and Pillie Bolling, for example.  It's enormously enjoyable stuff throughout.

The sound quality is pretty good in general, especially considering the age and circumstances of some of these recordings, and this is a really cracking compilation all round.  Very warmly recommended as an introduction to this wonderful blues genre.

Stephen Stills & Judy Collins - Everybody Knows

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Unexciting stuff

I'm afraid I don't think all that much of this album.  It's performed by two towering greats of music, but the result really isn't that great; it's pleasant enough but pretty forgettable and with none of the stardust which covered the work of both Collins and Stills in their glory days.

The album actually gets off to a pretty decent start, with a version of The Traveling Wilburys Handle With Care which has enough originality in it to make it a worthwhile cover version.  However, this is a complete album of covers, and I find the rest of it pretty bland and unimaginative.  Girl From The North Country?  Again?  Why?  Everybody Knows is just more evidence for the old saw that no-one can sing a Leonard Cohen song the way Leonard Cohen can't…and so on.

I don’t want to be too harsh, because there are some decent harmonies in places and the band do a good job with some slightly unimaginative arrangements, but overall I can't get very excited about this.  It's not going to get many airings here, and I'll be sticking to my Collins and Stills albums from that magical period in the late 60s and early 70s which produced so much great stuff from both of them.

Paul Brady - Unfinished Business

Rating: 5/5

An excellent album

I think this is an excellent album.  To my shame, I hadn't come across Paul Brady until recently when Mark Barry's fine book of Overlooked Albums guided me to Brady's 1978 album Welcome Here Kind Stranger.   I liked it enough to try this new release and I'm very glad I did because it's a very enjoyable bit of class.

Unfinished Business is a very enjoyable, varied collection of songs; it includes a couple of traditional ballads in excellent arrangements and a great collection of co-written material which goes from the touching to the witty (I *love* I Love You But You Love Him, for example), to the toe-tapping and everything in between.  Musically it's great, with direct melodies and great arrangements and production which make it accessible without ever being facile.  Brady himself is a terrific musician and a very fine singer, and the overall effect is just great.

It's always a real pleasure to come across an unexpected gem and that's what this has been for me.  There's a lot of very good folky/country-ish music being made at the moment and this is among the best of it, I think.  My advice is to listen to a few samples and if you like what you hear, don't hesitate.  This is a fine musician in great form and very warmly recommended.

Brandy Clark - Live From Los Angeles

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good live album

This is a very good live album from Brandy Clark.  She's a fine songwriter and her albums so far have been excellent.   Here she shows that she can give a very fine live performance, too.

This is a small-scale, acoustic set; Clark is backed by just her own guitar and the vocals and excellent guitar work of Miles Aubrey and the effect is great.  Her songs tell fine stories and they come across with genuineness and real power here.  Even rockers like Stripes lose none of their bite and the tender songs like Hold My Hand are beautifully intimate.  The chat between songs is engaging and witty and although I could have done with a little less whooping from the audience, the recorded sound is excellent and very nicely balanced.

I have loved Brandy Clark's two studio albums so far and this is a fine addition to her output.  She deserves far greater recognition, in my view; I doubt that a live album will achieve this, but it's a very pleasing treat for her existing fans.  Warmly recommended.

Jake Bugg - Hearts That Strain

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good, country-tinged album

Ladies and gentlemen, Jake Bugg has left the building.  Or at least, he's left the building in Clifton where he grew up and has moved on a long way from that raw, electrifying power which made his first album so spellbinding.  Here he has moved as far as Nashville, and it shows in the very country-tinged sound of this album.  I think it's a very good album, although not everyone may agree.

You can't go on being an angry teenager forever, and Jake Bugg has mellowed but his songs still retain a melancholy, rather bleak tone.  I suspect some of the people I grew up with in Nottingham might have described him as a bit of a miserable bogger.  There's nothing wrong with that in music, though, and there are some lovely songs on Hearts That Strain.  In The Event Of My Demise, Indigo Blue and the title track show a real musical depth and developing lyrical skill, I think; he has the ability to write words which don't quite make literal sense sometimes, but still convey something important.  It's a major quality of Dylan's and Leonard Cohen's work, and while I don't want to bracket him with those two towering geniuses it's a sign that there's enduring and developing talent here.

I liked Jake Bugg's first two albums very much but wasn't nearly so taken with On My One.  This, while not quite having the sensational impact of those early records, is a fine album again and an indication that Bugg still has a lot to offer us.  Recommended.