Lori McKenna - The Tree

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good album

The Tree is a fine album from Lori McKenna. She has been a very classy songwriter and performer for many years now, and this is among her best work, I think.

The Tree is a set of ten songs, largely about domesticity, family and relationships which all have McKenna’s gift for a good tune and thoughtful, evocative lyrics running through them. The Lot Behind St. Mary’s, for example is one of the best evocations that I have heard of young love and adult nostalgia for it, and there’s plenty more of the same quality here. As always, she sings excellently in that distinctive, haunting voice and the arrangements are slightly restrained which brings out the best in every song.

I’ve always liked Lori McKenna’s work and I think this is a first-rate album even by her standards. Very highly recommended.

Hot Hundred Hits of the 60s

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A brilliant compilation

This is a quite brilliant compilation, I think. It's packed with little gems in all sorts of genres from the (mainly early) 60s.  A glance at the tracklist will give an idea: from classics like The Girl of My Best Friend or Runaway through wonderfully sentimental stuff like He'll Have To Go and Tell Laura I Love Her to comedy novelty songs like My Old Man's A Dustman or Right Said Fred, it's a terrific trip through my childhood.

I have a lot of this stuff already, but there's a good deal here that I don't.  It's still a great bargain and it's just a pleasure to put on a disc and smile my way through it.  The digital remastering is excellent and you simply can't go wrong here.  Go on – you know you want to!

Denny Gerrard - Sinister Morning

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Very dull

Reading the description and some rave reviews of this obscure album from 1970 I thought it would be interesting.  Sadly, it wasn't; I found it very dull.

Denny Gerrard was in demand as an arranger and as an instrumentalist in the late 60s, but on this evidence he wasn't a very distinguished songwriter and his singing was very uninspiring.  There's a decent overall sound to the album, but with weak material, rather banal lyrics and soporific vocals it really doesn't add up to much for me.

I can't agree that this is a "lost gem".  I think it's just another very average album which may have sounded OK at the time but which has been understandable forgotten.  It plainly carries good memories for some reviewers, but I'm afraid I can't recommend it.

The Dave van Ronk Collection 1958-62

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine collection

This is a very good collection from across the early career of Dave van Ronk. 

Van Ronk was one of those influential folk artists who never quite made the headlines himself but was widely respected and had a profound influence on some great artists – most notably Bob Dylan.   You can see why from this disc; he was a good, innovative blues and folk guitarist and a truly great singer who cared deeply about the folk/blues roots.  The early jug band stuff is enjoyable enough in a knockabout way (although it's not very good sound quality), but it's the more mature work which really impresses, played and sung with a power and artistry which really gets inside the songs.

If you have any interest in the folk/blues revival movement, or indeed in folk and blues in general, I can recommend this collection very warmly; it's a fine introduction to an unsung hero.

Eddie Cochran - Memorial Album

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Brilliant

Eddie Cochran was one of the true Greats, and you only have to look at the track list to know that this is brilliant: C'mon Everybody, Summertime Blues, Somethin' Else, Three Steps To Heaven…and so on, and so on.  It does tail off a bit for the last couple of tracks and, as a reissue of the original 1960 album only lasts just over half an hour, but you still get some of the greatest Rock & Roll ever recorded.

The digital remastering is very well done and you just can't go wrong here.  Very warmly recommended.

Evensong - Evensong

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Still a decent album

I missed Evensong at the time of its original release in 1973.  I'd have loved it then, I suspect, and it's still a pretty decent album coming to it fresh 45 years later.

The music is folky, slightly psychy and very much of its time.  It's quite lavishly produced in many places with acoustic guitars, strings, recorder…you get the idea, and the songs themselves are a variety of the romantic, the slightly mystic and so on, and even a rather good anti-war song in Take Your Son To Church Mother.  It's slightly cringeworthy in places (it's early 70s "mystic" – of course it is) but in general it's very listenable.  It's not especially original; I keep spotting bits and thinking "That's like Bob Lind's Elusive Butterfly/ Alternate Title by The Monkees…" and so on, but I like it as a period piece.

This isn't a classic album, but it has held up better than many from that time and if you're interested in the folk-influenced music of the early 70s, Evensong is well worth a listen.