Stanley Records, Mother Hen Touring and Post To Wire are extremely pleased to announce that their 3CD/47 track compilation Take Me To Town: An Australian Alternative Country Compilation will be released on September 28th. Full details coming soon! Here are the first three album launch shows in Sydney, Cronulla and Newcastle. Take Me To Town …
The Gateway Drug to Americana Music Finding an entry point into a genre that you previously had little interest in, even disdain for, can be a revelation, a hidden door leading to a lifetime of new discoveries and musical obsessions. For me it was having my eureka moment with the godfather of Americana – Neil Young. …
His debut album heralded the arrival of a timeless and exciting new country and folk voice, yet for Marlon Williams he’s only just starting to realise his songwriting ambitions with the baroque pop sound of his new album Make Way For Love. Down the phone line from New Zealand, Marlon Williams has just landed at …
IN THE WAKE OF THE NASHVILLE SOUND Ahead of his recent return to Australia with his band The 400 Unit, Jason Isbell took Chris Familton through what he’s been up to in the wake of last year’s The Nashville Sound. “I still don’t think of myself as a country musician,” says Jason Isbell, talking about the …
Honky tonk, hard country and outlaw combine for this rippin’ new single from Gethen Jenkins. There’s some great playing right across it, from lead guitar to pedal steel, backed by a swinging freight train rhythm section on this shuffling drinking song. Hell of a voice too – gruff and deep, in the tradition of Waylon … Continue reading
A Different Thread are a British/American duo – Robert Jackson from Staffordshire, UK and Alicia Best from North Carolina, USA. who conjure up a whole range of Americana (country, folk, bluegrass) influences on their new album On A Whim which was released last week on September 13th. This song flies along courtesy of the violin … Continue reading
It’s that time of year and it’s never sounded sweeter than on this Neil Young-indebted new song from Melbourne’s Sean McMahon. Wistful, melancholic and bucolic, it sways along on McMahons fine vocal and some great pedal steel and harmonica. Continue reading
The Quill is a collective astral-folk orchestra based in London, headed by Nicky Francis. Nicky’s music is of a psych-folk sensibility, paired with grand pieces of explosive orchestral crescendo. Each track of the debut album The Tower at Hunter’s Moon (release due in the northern hemisphere autumn 2018), is characterised by large-scale rhythmic arrangements, silky strings and choir elements. … Continue reading
THE ROCKY ROAD TO HARMONY A caravan snakes its way across the Nullarbor; singer-songwriter, husband, toddler and Rascal the dog ensconced within as dust billows into the late afternoon air and a burning sun casts a warm glow over their travels. That’s the scene as Catherine Britt heads out on another adventure, just one of … Continue reading
Ben Mastwyk dials into an authentic country sound that honours both the heartfelt storytelling side of the tracks and the boot scootin’, honky tonk dance-floor. It’s a talent that few possess with many guilty parties falling into either serious introspection or ending up looking like cartoon cowboys. Mastwyk wrote most of these songs in the … Continue reading
We’re only a couple of weeks out from the release (Sept 28th) of Take Me To Town, the 3CD compilation of Australian alt-country music put together by Stanley Records, Mother Hen Touring and ourselves. We’ve already posted the pre-order links so if you want to ensure you get a copy then hit the link and … Continue reading
Here’s something a bit different. Different in the sense that there’s such a smooth soul streak running through this song. All the while there’s a country sway and sun kissed vibe of open highways and desert vistas. Country yacht rock perhaps? It’s a sweet slice of soulful Americana regardless. ‘Mexico Sunrise’ comes from Philadelphia’s La … Continue reading
Here’s the new single from JP Harris‘ new album Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing (due out October 5th on Free Dirt Records), co-produced by Old Crow Medicine Show member, Morgan Jahnig. The song rips and tumbles along, it’s a fun country-rock workout that details touring life with his band The Tough Choices. Fittingly it has a … Continue reading
SONGS OF THE SILVER SCREEN Twilight On The Trail is the musical intersection of a childhood of Saturday morning western movies and formative years spent on the edge of the Mojave desert. For Jen Mize and Mark Sholtez, their tribute to the great cowboy songs and crooners of the 1940s is a project forged in … Continue reading
Hillstomp are a due that tear up the folk blues handbook and let the torn pages scatter across the stage in a whirlwind of stomping rhythms, breakneck picking and strumming. They’ve got a new album called Monster Receiver, which is set to be released through Fluff and Gravy Records on October 19th. The LP features guest … Continue reading
LOST GEMS AND REISSUING NOSTALGIA One of the features of the last few decades has been the ever increasing proliferation of reissues. They come in all forms – remastered, remixed, re-pressed and expanded and thankfully the world of Americana music is no exception. Reissues serve two important purposes. Firstly they cater to the nostalgia crowd … Continue reading
SONGS FROM THE BROKEN RADIO “I was nominated for best new talent and I was in my 40s and everyone else was in their 20s so I was the oldest new guy in country music which was nice.” That’s singer/songwriter Michael Waugh discussing his nomination for Best New Talent at the 2017 Golden Guitar Awards. … Continue reading
There’s something about this lead track from Altameda’s (Edmonton, Canada) sophomore LP Time Hasn’t Changed You, due out in March, 2019 via Pheromone Recordings. It cuts across a bunch of different sounds – 70s FM rock, a country swing and strut and a big horn-led chorus, draped in gang backing vocals. It has that soul thing happening too, making … Continue reading
In the wake of the untimely and much mourned passing of Tom Petty there have no doubt been countless concerts in honour of the great man. Sydney songwriter, musician and producer Michael Carpenter has organised some fine tribute shows and now he’s taken it a step further with a full album of Petty covers, in … Continue reading
