Kronos Quartet - Folk Songs

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An outstanding disc

This is terrific.  I thought it would be good, but this collaboration with Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Natalie Merchant and Rhiannon Giddens is even better than I expected.

The Kronos Quartet are a superb ensemble who, for well over 40 years, have made magnificent recordings of their own and have collaborated with the likes of Bowie, McCartney, Björk, Nelly Furtado and many others.  Here they have recorded an album of folk songs with four outstanding singers.  The choice of material is excellent, some haunting traditional melodies alongside social comment in songs like Factory Girl.  It's uniformly excellent (although personally, I find the closing Lullaby a little ordinary by comparison).

The arrangements are fantastic, with the quartet giving real life to the songs and sounding in some places like a hurdy-gurdy, in others like a rootsy Appalachian folk ensemble and so on.  The singing is quite brilliant, as you'd expect from these four outstanding singers, and the whole thing is a pleasure from start to finish.

In short, I think this is an outstanding disc which I can recommend very warmly indeed.

Kentucky Colonels - The New Sound of Bluegrass America

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Terrific stuff

This is terrific stuff.  The Kentucky Colonels' are chiefly remembered these days for Clarence White (a truly excellent guitarist, later of The Byrds) but there's plenty else to enjoy here, too.

The album features tracks with a pretty traditional bluegrass line-up, with guitar, banjo, fiddle, dobro and stand-up bass.  The standard of playing throughout is excellent with some fabulous pickin' on both guitar and banjo well to the fore.  The singing is also very good, with that slightly rough sound the music needs to sound authentic (even though the band is a bunch of Californians).  I find it a real pleasure, and always end up with a huge smile in my face while listening.

The album was recorded in 1963, but the sound is pretty good – it's certainly good enough for me to enjoy the music without worrying about the quality.  Personally, I think this is a hugely enjoyable album; I'm glad to see it being made available again and I can recommend it warmly.

Martha Tilston - Nomad

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good album

I like this album a lot.  I have become a real admirer of Martha Tilston's work over the last few years and I think this is a very worthy addition to her catalogue.

Nomad is a very personal exploration of her life and emotional responses to it.  Her lyrics are excellent – intelligent, perceptive and often self-critical.  I find they often have real resonance with me and set to her sometimes slightly quirky but lovely melodies and arrangements, they often go to the heart of things.  Martha sings beautifully here; she has a fine, characterful voice and the skill and experience really to put a song across.

In short, this is a very good album from a very good singer-songwriter.  Warmly recommended.

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie - Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Disappointing

Oh dear.  I have the greatest respect for both Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, but I think this is a pretty feeble effort, I'm afraid.  The material is very average, the performances lack much fire and the production is pretty thin.

This is an album of rather bland pop songs.  The lyrics are unexceptional and the tunes fairly catchy but rather forgettable.  Frankly, the sound reminds me of The Archies.  (Oh come on – you must remember Sugar, Sugar even if you wish you couldn't.)  It's amiable enough pop, but it doesn't add up to anything much in the end.

I won't go on and on about it, but I was disappointed in this album.  I expected something far better from two fine musicians (and a band which, apart from Stevie Nicks is effectively Fleetwood Mac).  Instead, I got an album made up almost entirely of unoriginal, fairly disposable trivia.  It could be worse, but personally I wouldn't bother.

Jade Jackson - Gilded

Rating: 4/5

Review:
An impressive debut

I like this album.  I took a punt on it after hearing a couple of samples and I'm glad I discovered did.

Jade Jackson's style is a sort of rockier, country-tinged Americana which she does very well.  She has a good, slightly strangled, breathy voice which she uses very effectively, often sounding a little like Eliza Gylkison or Lucinda Williams.   Her band is tight and responds very well to her and to the material, so the overall effect is very pleasing.

Jackson's songs are good with a couple of real gems, most notably for me the outstanding Bridges.  I did find that some of the album got a little bit samey, with a minor-key, twangy sound which could have done with a little more variation, but individually they're good songs which are lyrically intelligent and musically interesting.

This isn't a great album but it's a pretty good one – and as a debut I think it's impressive.  I can recommend Gilded and I'll be looking out for more of jade Jackson's work in the future: I think she has real potential.

Thea Gilmore - The Counterweight

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine album from Thea Gilmore

Thea Gilmore is one of the finest of the current excellent crop of singer-songwriters in my view, and a new album from her is a real event for me, especially after four long years waiting for new material.  This is another really good one.

Thea has produced a collection of songs with her trademark mixture of biting social comment and open-hearted compassion and humanity.   She has a real gift for a great melody and brilliant lyrics and although not every song here is outstanding they're all good, with several absolute gems, like the fabulous Rise, for example.  The real heart of the album lies, I think, in The War, a superb, very moving song which is a tribute to Jo Cox, the murdered MP. It includes the lines,

"In the time of hate, throw down the counterweight

Tear out that fang and state

You're worthy of more"

Perfect.  There's nothing I can add to that.

There's plenty of bite elsewhere about the scramble for empty fame, the falseness of the social media life and so on, often with lyrics which are, as always, pithy and original like (from Leatherette),

"God loves a trier, fame loves a liar

You've got to use and abuse to scrape the sky;

Haven't made it yet…"

And often ingeniously witty, as in Another Damn Love Song:

"It's a case of synesthesia,

I'd do anything to please ya

Every colour leads me back to you."

Thea's voice is still simply wonderful and she sings with real commitment and sincerity.  The arrangements and production are musically intelligent and very effective, and the band is excellent. 

There are a number of noticeable lyrical references to Avalanche here.  I'm not sure The Counterweight is the absolute masterpiece that Avalanche remains, but it's still a very, very fine album from one of the very best we have.  I can recommend it very warmly indeed.

Gene Clark - White Light

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Still a good album

This album has held up pretty well over the years.  It's not a classic, but there's some very good stuff on it.

I confess that Gene Clark's solo work passed me by at the time.  I loved The Byrds, but I lost track of Clark after he left, so I thought I'd go back and see what I'd missed.  White Light is a bit mixed, but it's still a very decent album.  Clark, of course, was a fine singer and also a very decent songwriter.  Some of this sounds pretty generically post-Woodstock, with some rather ordinary lyrics and familiar-sounding arrangements and chord sequences, but there at also some genuinely fine songs; With Tomorrow and For A Spanish Guitar, to give just a couple of examples, have real poignancy and some originality.

So...I'm glad I looked into this.  There's certainly enough quality on White Light to make it worthwhile and if you like that slightly mournful, occasionally slightly fey early 70s sound, you'll find a lot to like here.