Carole King - Writer

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still a cracking album

This is Carole King's first album from 1970 and to me it still sounds just great. It's not the towering classic which Tapestry was to become the following year, but Carole King has always written great songs and performed them really well. That's certainly true here.

This is a fine collection. All these songs show King's magnificent melodic gift and her wonderful ability to set her melodies with intelligent, often beautiful harmonies and arrangements. Gerry Goffin wrote the lyrics, of course, and by 1970 the two of them had been writing superb songs for others for many years. Up On The Roof, for example, had been a hit for the Drifters in 1962 and is still a classic song; King closes this album with her own, excellent version of it. Goin' Back has been a standard of the repertoire since Dusty Springfield recorded it 1966 and the version here is terrific, I think. There's not a duff track on the whole album and some are simply brilliant.

Carole King is in excellent voice throughout this album and her piano playing is terrific. Any two seconds of the album would be instantly recognisable as Carole King and probably recognisable as coming from around 1970, too. That makes it just fine with me; it's a cracking collection of fine songs by one of the greatest of singer songwriters and I can recommend this very warmly.

Comment Comment | Permalink

Buddy Holly - Collected

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A fine collection of great music

 Buddy Holly's music itself hardly needs a review from me. The man was a true giant of Rock & Roll both as a songwriter and performer and many of his songs have become enduring classics. They're all here on this 3-CD set (or 3-LPset, if you prefer), as is a very fine selection of less well-known material and the main reason for this review is to provide a full track list. The transfers are well done and the sound is good (or as good as it gets on these old recordings), so the titles will speak for themselves.

There's not really any need to say more; just look at the songs you get. This is simply great stuff, and if you're looking for a good collection of Buddy Holly's work this will serve you very well.

CD1
01. Peggy Sue 2:30
02. That'll Be The Day 2:28
03. Heartbeat 2:09
04. Everyday 2:07
05. Rave On 1:49
06. Oh Boy 2:07
07. Peggy Sue Got Married 2:05
08. Words Of Love 1:54
09. Crying, Waiting, Hoping 2:13
10. It's So Easy 2:10
11. Not Fade Away 2:20
12. It's Too Late 2:23
13. Ting-A-Ling 2:41
14. Last Night 1:55
15. True Love Ways 2:51
16. It Doesn't Matter Anymore 2:05
17. You're So Square (Baby, I Don't Care) 1:36
18. Wishing 2:02
19. Brown Eyed Handsome Man 2:03

CD2
01. Blue Suede Shoes 1:55
02. Bo Diddley 2:22
03. Raining In My Heart 2:50
04. Modern Don Juan 2:41
05. Ready Teddy 1:32
06. Rock Around With Ollie Vee 2:12
07. Down The Line 2:03
08. Because I Love You 2:39
09. Early In The Morning 2:07
10. Love Is Strange 3:06
11. It's Not My Fault 1:51
12. Shake Rattle And Roll 1:24
13. Valley Of Tears 2:09
14. Holly Hop 1:44
15. Gone (Version 3) 1:11
16. Reminiscing 1:56
17. Well...All Right 2:14
18. Honky Tonk 3:28
19. Look At Me 2:03

CD3
01. That's My Desire 2:26
02. An Empty Cup (And A Broken Date) 2:13
03. Rock Me My Baby 1:50
04. Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight 1:54
05. Love's Made A Fool Of You 2:01
06. Queen Of The Ballroom 2:21
07. Come Back Baby 1:49
08. Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue) 1:27
09. Girl On My Mind 2:18
10. Love Me 1:52
11. Midnight Shift 2:11
12. Send Me Some Lovin' 2:35
13. Dearest (Ummm, Oh Yeah) 1:53
14. What To Do 1:54
15. Maybe Baby 1:55
16. Slippin' And Slidin' 2:34
17. Fool's Paradise 2:30
18. Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie 1:54
19. That Makes It Tough 2:16

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Power In The Blood

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A terrific album from a real force of nature

Some musicians are just an unstoppable elemental force. There aren't many, I think, but Buffy Sainte-Marie is one (Neil Young is another, but it's hard to think of too many more). It's not to do with her style of music or the quality of her musicianship - although Buffy is a very fine musician and songwriter - but the sheer, enduring, almost bulldozing power of the woman herself. It's admirable and often thrilling to experience, and this album is terrifically thrilling as well as being full of thoughtful songs and fine music.  From the opening of the brilliant reworking of It's My Way you know you're in for something special. It's powerful and absorbing, and it's also very enjoyable to listen to - it always leaves me with my spirits lifted and my head held a little higher.

I saw Buffy Sainte-Marie perform live from close range way back in 1971 and she was electrifying. Judging by this, she's even more electrifying now, getting on for half a century later. We have had some superb albums from veterans in the last two or three years - Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas, Richard Thompson's Electric, Robert Plant's Lullaby..., Springsteen's Wrecking Ball and others have all been outstandingly good - and this is up there with the best of them, I think. I think it's something quite special.

Eilen Jewell - Sundown Over Ghost Town

Rating: 3/5

Review
Nice but nothing special

I quite like this album.  It's a nice, country-tinged Americana album, with perfectly decent songs, well performed by a good band and sung very well by Eilen Jewell who has a good voice which she uses very well. The thing is, there's masses of decent, well-performed Americana around at the moment and for me, this doesn't really stand out. We are blessed at the moment with a lot of truly excellent women singer-songwriters on both sides of the Atlantic who are producing some really outstanding work (I've listed a few favourites at the end of this review in case anyone's interested.), but I don't think this album really stands comparison with them. There's nothing wrong with it at all and no-one with an interest in this genre could possibly dislike it, but...I've listened to it a number of times now and it hasn't really stayed with me at all and I confess that the last time I actually lost interest half way through and put on something else.

I don't want to put anyone off: Eilen Jewell is plainly a talented artist and it's a perfectly decent album, but for me it just fades into a pleasant but rather unmemorable background.

(Just in case anyone's interested, these are just some of the albums from female singer songwriters in the last two or three years which I think have been really outstanding.  They are, in no particular order:

Mary Gauthier - Trouble & Love
Thea Gilmore - Regardless
Amy Speace - How To Sleep In A Stormy Boat
Emily Barker - Dear River and The Toerag Sessions
Natalie Merchant - Natalie Merchant
Olivia Chaney - The Longest River
Amy LaVere - Runaway's Diary
Sharon van Etten - Are We There
Eliza Gilkyson - Nocturne Diaries
Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up From Bones
Amanda Shires - Down Fell The Doves
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Alela Diane - About Farewell
Kris Delmhorst - Blood Test

Suzanne Vega – Close-Up Series and Tales From The Realm…
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Anais Mitchell - Young Man In America
Lori McKenna - Massachusets
Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park and Pageant Material

Ruth Moody – These Wilder Things)

Mary Gauthier - Trouble & Love

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another excellent album from Mary Gauthier

This is another very fine album from the great Mary Gauthier. It's been four years since The Foundling and she has come up with another intensely personal album of excellent, autobiographical songs - this time telling the story of a relationship break-up, the consequent emotional damage and the beginnings of recovery.

As you'd expect, these are songs of real quality. They are beautifully crafted with straightforward, singable tunes which form great settings for the personal, emotionally powerful lyrics. Gauthier's admirers (like me) will know what to expect and won't be disappointed; she's doing what she does best here and doing it brilliantly. While perhaps not quite as raw as she was in The Foundling, this is nonetheless an album of pain seeking balm and redemption, which she expresses as few others can. How You Learn To Live Alone, for example is a profound and oddly beautiful evocation of the withdrawal from life which can follow intense emotional hurt and is an outstandingly honest and insightful song. That slightly fractured voice, her acoustic guitar and a brilliant group of musicians and singers bring all these songs to life wonderfully. The arrangement and production are pitch-perfect, making everything shine without ever swamping it.

I loved The Foundling even though it wasn't a commercial success. Trouble & Love is a bit more accessible, I think, but it shares a lot of what I loved about The Foundling - thoughtful, sincere and meaningful songs with good tunes and great performances. Here we have just eight songs and a total of about 40 minutes of music. No padding or superfluous material; Mary Gauthier has distilled what she wants to say into this eight-chapter story and it's just brilliant. It has the enduring beauty which comes from being built on noble bones, and I think I will be playing this for many years to come.

There have been excellent albums recently from two other greats of the genre with Eliza Gilkyson's Nocturne Diaries and Kris Delmhorst's Blood Test. If anything, I think this is my favourite of the three, which is really saying something. I recommend this very warmly to anyone who likes an intelligent, listenable song performed by a singer/songwriter who really knows what she's talking about and means what she says. It's truly excellent.

Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up From Bones

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good album

This is a really good album. I liked it on first hearing, then found myself playing it regularly and it has really grown on me from there. These are songs with real musical merit and lyrical substance and they will endure in a way that many songs don't, I think.

I find it a little hard to categorize the music (which is probably a good thing).
There is a fine variety of material from the punchy and slightly spiky, like the opener Over The Edge, to the truly beautiful like the genuinely affecting love song Gone Too Soon. Sarah Jarosz is a fine musician and a very good singer, so the songs are excellently performed. She has a very good band and an excellent sense of how to arrange her songs, and the production is very well-judged and varied so the album never sounds samey and every track sounds fresh.

I would warmly recommend this album to anyone who likes a good song, well arranged and performed. For me it stands out from much of the mass of quite good Americana-ish music around at the moment. I think Sarah Janosz is a class act and I'll definitely be looking out for her work in the future.

(After seeing her live at Bush Hall in 2014 I can confirm that she is very, very good indeed. Fine songs and brilliant musicianship - I really hope Sarah Jarosz meets with the success she deserves.)

Richard Thompson - Strict Tempo!

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Unusual but brilliant

This album is a little gem in my view, consisting of instrumental tracks played almost entirely by Thompson himself on a variety of instruments, with Dave Mattacks playing drums (and piano on Ye Banks And Braes.) The music is largely traditional, but played with a real modern zing (although in strict tempo, of course) on electric guitar, mandolin, banjo and other instruments. It is hugely enjoyable from start to finish, and you would have to be made of stone not to smile with pleasure at Rockin' In Rhythm, to name but one.

This isn't what one normally expects from a Richard Thompson album. There are none of the beautifully crafted lyrics, often mournful tunes and distinctive vocals of his self-composed work so if you're looking for that you might be disappointed. What you will get is brilliant playing and truly joyful music and I, for one, love this for what it is - a one-off, different album by a wonderful musician playing music he loves magnificently.