Marry Waterson & Emily Barker - A Window To Other Ways

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A terrific album

I think this is a terrific album. I have loved Emily Barker’s work for a long time now and this is another cracker in her discography. Barker’s last two albums have been with the wonderful country trio Applewood Road and the equally excellent, Nashville-based Sweet Kind Of Blue. It is typical of her that in a change of style she is now collaborating with the quintessentially English folk singer Marry Waterson and between them they have produced an album of real quality, with thoughtful, musically diverse songs and a wonderful overall sound.

It’s hard to categorise the music here, other than that it’s very, very good. There’s a mix of folk and soul really, with intelligent lyrics about a range of things. I’m particularly fond of Little Hits Of Dopamine - “I’d rather be rock and rolling but you just keep on scrolling...I’m right here, right now and you’re missing out...” - but there is plenty of food for thought and musical enjoyment throughout the album.

In short, this is a bit of real class from two excellent performers and, in Emily Barker, one of the finest songwriters around at the moment. Warmly recommended.

Gordon Giltrap & Rick Wakeman - From Brush & Stone

Rating: 3/5

Review: A bit dull

Both Rick Wakeman and Gordon Giltrap are excellent musicians, but I’m afraid this album is just a bit dull. Both play superbly, of course, but the material isn’t very inspiring and there is an air of slight blandness over the whole recording. There’s nothing actively wrong with any of it, but it just doesn’t hold my attention. Sadly, I can’t recommend this.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Rating: 3/5

Review:
A bit disappointing

For me this album hasn’t aged very well. It’s the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s first album from 1967 and although the musicianship and enthusiasm is still evident, the material and arrangements don’t sound all that good any more.

It may be that I’ve grown up a little in the half century since this came out, so I’ve heard a lot more music. For example, compared to the great original of Candy Man by Mississippi John Hurt or the brilliant cover by Chris Smither, this sounds pretty bland. The pot-pourri ofByrds-like harmonies, vaudeville and a bit of bluegrass seem rather an uneasy mixture now and although there are some enjoyable moments, as an album it’s not great.

I went back to this just to see what I’d liked all those years ago but was a bit disappointed. You may feel differently, but I can’t really recommend it.

Patty Griffin - Patty Griffin

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine album

Patty Griffin is still great. She’s been making quietly excellent albums for so long now that it’s no surprise to find that she’s still at the peak of her form. Her voice is just fabulous here; haunting, expressive and beautifully controlled and the songs she sings with it are vintage Griffin. There isn’t a weak track on the album and some, like River for example, are among her very best, I think. She writes such beautiful melodies and combines them with thoughtful, insightful lyrics. River is apparently a response to her coming through breast cancer, but like so many of her personal songs it has a more universal sense – this time of resilience and indomitability.

This is, in short, a first-rate album from a genuine great of the genre. Warmly recommended.

Joni Mitchell - Previews Of The Past (Live 1994)

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Great music, lots of talk

This is a recording of an interview interspersed with live songs broadcast on the day of release of Turbulent Indigo in 1994. The cover says it is a Canadian broadcast, but the interviewer says clearly that it’s a Southern Californian station.

The music is great. It is always a pleasure to hear Joni play live and she’s terrific here. The word genius is now overused and devalued, but I think she is genuinely someone to whom it can be justly applied; she’s fantastically talented and skilful, and she also thinks and composes in ways that ordinary mortals don’t, however good they are. There’s a good mix of songs, with several from Turbulent Indigo, of course, and her voice and guitar work are sensational, as always.

Much of the disc is talk. The interviewer isn’t bad; she sounds a little out of her depth sometimes, but fair enough – I most of us would be if we were interviewing Joni Mitchell. It’s interesting to hear Joni talk, of course, but as an album to keep and play repeatedly...hmmm. There are just six songs here among the talk (around 25 minutes of music in total) and, excellent though they are, that’s not a lot of music really.

So...I’d say this is one for the completists. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of it and the sound quality is fine, but you’ll need to decide whether it’s something you’re really going to play enough to make it worth buying.