2019 delivered another bounty of homegrown treats in the form of full-length albums that captured the range and spirit of Australian and NZ Americana music. We encourage you to hit the links to read reviews, listen and buy any new discoveries you might make from our list of favourites, head to a show, buy …
The Cryin’ Pedal Steel You’d be hard pressed to find an instrument so intrinsically linked to the sound of country music as the pedal steel guitar. Acoustic guitars and fiddles are ubiquitous instruments that cross a number of genres but for the pedal steel, country music is its undeniable home. Developed from the lap-played Hawaiian …
D.C CROSS ECSTATIC RACQUET No Drums Records D.C Cross is the latest chapter in the career of Darren Cross, he of Gerling fame and more recently as a solo artist and one half of the folk noir duo Jep and Dep. His solo albums have been sonically varied affairs with alt-country, folk, electronica and psychedelic …
THE LIFE OF A BIG BOSS MAMA The Australian market is becoming more of a priority for Tami Neilson, she’s was recently here in May for the Blues On Broadbeach Music Festival and now she’s set to return for the Dashville Skyline and Out On The Weekend festivals. Chris Familton gets the lowdown on all the …
1969: A Watershed Year For Americana Music Half a century ago, in a single calendar year, an avalanche of albums were released that would go on to have a lasting and monumental impact on what would become known as alt-country and more recently Americana music. Looking back at 1969 and pursuing the list of albums …
SONGS OF TRIBUTE For my Waitin’ Around to Die column in Rhythms I recently took a look at some of the outstanding releases in the field of tribute albums. Specifically those that fall under the umbrella of Americana and alt-country, whether it’s in recognition of an artist’s body of work or a fundraiser to assist them …
THE MIRROR OF TRUTH On his new album The Crossing, Alejandro Escovedo takes an unflinching and poetic look at America and the immigrant experience. By Chris Familton Alejandro Escovedo has been surrounded by music his entire life. His father played and listened to Mexican music, his mother loved big band jazz music and his rocker …
Kansas City’s Fritz Hutchison has just released Wide Wild Acres, an album that bristles with heartfelt intent and cascading melodies that tumble across a landscape of Americana and indie rock. ‘Fortunate Flaws’ sounds like a lost Wilco gem viewed through a faded CCR filter. It’s built on the back of Hutchison’s gloriously lazy and ragged soulful voice that … Continue reading
August Knight gets bare and desolate on this stripped back take on his song ‘Arizona Rain’. Though minimal in its musical dressage, it still sounds lush within its high and lonesome pedal-steel draped sound. Over all of that, Knight hits the sweet spot between heartache and simple lyrical impact. “Arizona rain bring me an angel, … Continue reading
The enigmatically named Secret Emchy Society from Oakland has a new track out which races along on a quick-shuffle, honky tonk heartbeat as Cindy Emch barrels out the song with high spirits and playful verve. Emch has been named by the Huffington Post as the ‘First Lady of Queer Country’ and No Depression christened her “Equal … Continue reading
Vickers Lee Cunningham is coming your way from Houston, TX with his sweet, swingin’ honky tonk sound. Smooth pedal steel and a healthy dose of twang are the backdrop for his laidback drawl as he sings about making your own luck in the game of love and life. Continue reading
BETWEEN THE PAGES As any righteous fan and music nerd will attest, biographies and autobiographies of their favourite artists and albums are an invaluable insight into the life and creative journey of a songwriter. Even in this day and age of smorgasbord information access via the internet, an in-depth and well-researched book by a writer … Continue reading
River Tramps are a Floridian and Texan duo based in Nashville who have recently released their debut single ‘Mare And The Maiden’. Adam Cohen and Nikole Martine have a fine way with country folk phrasing, both old-timey in its western feel but also contemporary in the production sheen. The allowance of space in the song … Continue reading
Simple exquisite melodies are the winning hand on this song from Brooklyn’s Late Cambrian. There’s a touch of George Harrison, the tenets of power-pop in a stripped-back setting and a psychedelic country-tinged wander through psych pop. All in all it’s a wonderful track that buried itself in our short term memory when we first heard … Continue reading
