Top Topham - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing

I have discovered many, many very fine albums through Mark Barry's recommendations.  For me, though, this wasn't one of them.  

Unusually, I wasn't quite as taken with this album as Mark and some others have been.  It's an instrumental album which is fine by me; my reservations lie in that I don't find Top Topham's playing very inspiring.  He's a good guitarist, there's no doubt about it, but much of the time here I don't find much in the way of soul or inner fire in what he does.  The style struck me as bit like Hank Marvin's playing on the early Shadows records; I love those records and Hank's playing is simply great in the context, but for me that same slightly pop-ish feel doesn't quite fit with the bluesy material here.  As a result, I found this a bit of a disappointment.  It's not a bad album by any means, but after a while I start to miss any real guts in the music and I get that "do I really want to hear another track of this?" feeling.

Plenty of good, thoughtful reviewers think this is a really good album so don't let me put you off, but personally I'm not bonkers about it.

Chris Smither - Live As I'll Ever Be

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant album

This is a brilliant album.  I'm generally not all that keen on live albums, but Chris Smither is often at his best when playing live and solo, and this is an example: it's a songwriting and guitar genius at work.

Smither has been making quietly excellent albums for almost 40 years now.  His songs are enjoyable, original, thoughtful and often witty and they are widely admired and recorded by other songwriters and musicians.  No-one does them quite like he does, though; he's a fabulous guitarist and a really good singer of his own material and the combination (with his feet providing a rhythm track) produces something really special.  There are endless highlights here, including an utterly wonderful cover of Killing The Blues, and it's an album I return to again and again.

If you don't know Chris Smither's work, this would be a pretty good place to start.  If you do, just buy this; it's the great man performing superbly.  Very warmly recommended.

Sharon van Etten - (It Was) Because I was In Love

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent album

This is excellent.  I came rather late to Sharon van Etten's work with Are We There and then the wonderful I Don't Want To Let You Down EP, but I hadn't heard her debut album before this remastered reissue.  I am very glad to have heard it now.

Sharon van Etten is an excellent songwriter; she manages to be quirky, often eschewing ordinary structures, while remaining melodic and very listenable.  Her lyrics are often quite dark, often remarkably honest and always fascinating and the combination produces something special, I think.  She is also a very fine performer, with an almost agonised delivery sometimes, excellently thought-out harmonies and a way of often sliding around and onto a note which brings real depth of feeling to her vocals.  The remastering seems very good to me, giving each song depth and genuine atmosphere, and it's a very fine album as a result.

In short, this is a really good album by a really good singer-songwriter.  Warmly recommended.

Kris Delmhorst - The Wild

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A fine album

This is a good album from a very fine artist.  Kris Delmhorst, as well as being an excellent songwriter, has a lovely, individual delivery.  It's less evident in The Wild than in some of her previous albums, but she has a way of sometimes hitting a note from below and sliding onto it which is extremely effective and evocative.  Combined with good material and excellent production, this makes the album a bit of quiet class, I think.   For me, it tails off a bit with the two closing tracks, but it's still a fine piece of work and warmly recommended.

(I would also strongly recommend Delmhorst's Strange Conversation from 2006, which I think is an absolutely superb album and one of my all-time favourites.)

Rough Guide to East Coast Blues

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A great collection

You simply can't go wrong with these Rough Guides to the Blues.   I have lots of them now and they are all excellently curated, have remarkably good sound for the age of the recordings and, above all, contain fantastic music.

This is a collection of East Coast Blues which is very ragtime-influenced, so it's often pretty good-time, foot-tapping music.  There are some very well-known names here, including people like Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell (from whom Ralph McTell took his stage name), Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee…it's a roll call of astonishingly brilliant musicians which speaks for itself.  There is also some less well-known people, but they're all very good and I am glad to have made their acquaintance.

I make no pretence at expertise in the Blues, but I am a fan and I listen to a lot (and attempt to play some, too).  These Rough Guides are a treasured part of my collection; they are invariably an great listen in themselves and often introduce me to stuff I didn't know and send me off looking for more.  Personally, I am especially fond of this kind of ragtime blues and the wonderful guitarists who play it, and I can recommend this very warmly indeed.

Megan Henwood - River

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine album

I have somehow contrived to miss Megan Henwood's music until now and I took a bit of a punt on River having heard good things about her.  I wasn't sure what to expect but I'm impressed.

This is an album of melodic songs with both musical and lyrical intelligence.  They are very well produced so the overall sound is just great and Henwood's vocal performance is terrific, I think.  She sounds at times a little like Martha Tilston with echoes of Thea Gilmore and – especially in The Dolly, her love song to Oxford – of Janis Ian.  She deserves comparison with these excellent singers, but she's unmistakeably her own woman with her own sound and her own message. 

Just as a little example of Henwood's lyrical ability, I think this, from Apples, makes a telling comment rather beautifully:

"She wipes her tears with her sleeves

Where her heart used to be

For she's swallowed the keys

With her medicine."

River is a fine, thoughtful and very enjoyable album with a good, varied selection of material.  Even at a time when we exceptionally blessed with so many very fine female singer-songwriters, I think it stands with some of the best of recent albums.  Warmly recommended.