Corrina Rose Logston - Bluegrass Fiddler

Rating: 4/5

Review
Fine music and playing

As its name suggests, this is an album of bluegrass music where the fiddle is strongly to the fore throughout.  It's well played and enjoyable, although I find that a few tracks at a time are enough.

Corrina Rose Logston is a very fine player indeed.  She has delved into some of the less well-known parts of the bluegrass repertoire, which makes for an album with a very traditional feel which I like a lot.  Her band of guitar, mandolin, banjo and bass play excellently, most of the time in a support role but with the occasional lead sound which shows what fine musicians they all are.  There are just two vocal numbers (I Don't Blame You and Foggy Mountain Top) in which Logston does a good singing job, too. 

My only reservation about this disc is that in spite of the variety of waltzes, hornpipes, reels and so on, I find an entire album of fiddle music just a bit much.  However, in smaller chunks it's just great and you may not share my personal reservations.  Certainly it's an album of enjoyable music, excellently played by very good musicians and I can recommend it.

Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker - Overnight

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A lovely album

This is a lovely disc.  I saw Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker supporting Richard Thompson recently and was impressed enough to try their album; I'm very glad I did.

This could be described as modern folk music with Josienne's voice and Ben's guitar well to the fore.  There is some occasional subtle added instrumentation and the effect is lovely.  Josienne has a very beautiful voice and really knows how to use it to put a song across; she has an excellent balance of emotion and restraint which gives every number a real meaning.  Ben is a very fine guitarist who is thoughtful, imaginative and very skilful in his work, so the combination of the two of them produces something rather special in places, I think. 

The material is thoughtful with a tendency to melancholy, which is fine by me, but I do think it could do with a little more variation in emotional tone.  On stage, Josienne has a very engaging dry wit in her introductions and I'd like to see a little more of that shine through the music.  Nonetheless, this is an album of good songs, very well performed and I can recommend it warmly.

Magna Carta - Seasons

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Still good in parts

This remains a pretty decent album in places, but for me it's more of a pleasant nostalgia trip than something which still has real musical merit.  I never owned a copy of Seasons, but heard it a lot as someone would often play it when I met up with friends when I was 17 or 18.  It may give you an idea of the sound of Magna Carta that I did (and still do) own a copy of Tir Na Nog's eponymous album and I realise I've muddled tracks from the two albums up in my mind in the near half-century since then.

Track 1, Prologue lasts about 20 minutes, took up the whole of Side One of the LP and has that acoustic guitar and pleasantly harmonized folky sound which I loved, along with spoken passages about minstrels, a pilgrim drawing his mantle tight about him and so on which really appealed to me at that age.  Frankly, it sounds a bit juvenile to me now but it still has a period charm which I rather like.  It was always a very one-sided album for me and Side Two's collection of shorter songs still sounds pretty thin, I'm afraid.

I have rounded 3.5 stars up to a rather generous 4, because  if you have an interest in the folky sound of the late 60s/early 70s, this is probably worth getting for Prologue and – who knows? – you may like the rest more than I do.  Cautiously recommended.

Doo-Wop - The R&B Vocal Group Sound 1950-1960

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A cracking set

This is a cracking 3-CD set.  It's a refreshing mixture of very well-known tracks and some real obscurities which forms a very decent guide to R&B-style Doo-Wop in the 1950s.  The digital transfers have been well done and the sound quality is very good.

Frankly, the track list speaks for itself.  Serious collectors will probably have these tracks (although perhaps not all of them); I'm a more casual enthusiast with quite a few of these elsewhere in my collection but there's a whole lot here I didn't know and which I'm very glad to have.  It's terrific music and a source of huge pleasure.  Very warmly recommended.

Amelia White - Rhythm of the Rain

Rating: 4/5

Review;
A very good album

Amelia White is a fine artist and this is a very good album.  I liked last year's Home Sweet Hotel and Rhythm of the Rain is even better, I think.

The album has plenty of punch from both White and her band, with songs to match.  They are well crafted and tell a good variety of stories; the standard is good throughout with evocative lyrics based in telling detail and couple, like the opener Little Cloud Over Little Rock and Said It Like A King really stand out for me.  She has a great, smoky, laid-back voice with real soul and power and I was powerfully reminded of Eliza Gylkison several times – which is high praise.

In short, if you like good Americana you'll like this.  Warmly recommended.

Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Rocking The Roots

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Great stuff

This is an album to make you tap your feet and smile.  It's not a wild departure for Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings; as you'd expect from the title, it's a live album of Rock & Roll, Blues and Jive gems, which is exactly what I want from them.  It's all brilliantly done, as you'd expect from a band of this quality – including true greats like Georgie Fame and Albert Lee.

It's well recorded and is just a pleasure to listen to.  Probably not much more needs to be said; if you like Bill Wyman's work, you'll like this.  Warmly recommended.