I first heard Lo Carmen’s music on her 2009 album It Walks Like Love and was immediately taken by her ability to weave beautiful, otherworldly sounds out of indie rock, dark psych folk and dreamy gothic country. A solo EP and a collaborative album with her father Peter Head later and Carmen has finally released … Continue reading
On his third solo album Melbournian Dan Parsons immerses himself deep in US west coast-styled country folk music. There’s a light touch to his music that at first gives it a breezy, occasionally easy-listening sound but behind the sunny and drifting pop melodies there are tales of troubled souls trying to find their way. The … Continue reading
Friedman, the author and provocateur, has also been a musician since the early 1970s and finally, after 39 years, he’s recorded a new studio album. It’s a mix of Friedman originals and a raft of covers including Merle Haggard’s ‘Mama’s Hungry Eyes’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl from the North Country’ and a duet with Willie Nelson … Continue reading
A long time between drinks for Keith Richards solo albums, the last one was 23 years ago, and he’s even used the same band for this checklist of the usual ragged blues, low slung rock ’n’ roll and even a dodgy Gregory Isaacs reggae cover. That aside, the quality quota is high across the board. … Continue reading
On her tenth album Patty Griffin dives deep into the mysteries of love and nature, soundtracked by an organic and smokey mix of blues, jazz, folk and country noir. She possesses the kind of sultry tone that suggests hidden meaning, raw emotion and bruised romance. Songs snake and meander by, woven around drones and mantra-like … Continue reading
Papa Pilko & The Binrats come charging out of the gate with ‘On Your Own’ and lay down a rip-roaring swampy blues-funk testimonial that sets the scene for the rest of their debut album. Tried and true influences are at play but the way the band combines them is a winning formula. John Lee Hooker, Tom … Continue reading
Lachlan Bryan is one of those artists that straddles the worlds of commercial and alt. country, equally comfortable in Tamworth or an inner-city bar. The Mountain finds him exploring a more soulful sound complete with weeping pedal steel, fiddle, piano and shuffling drums. The emotional quota is high and generally hits the mark as Bryan … Continue reading
Their name may be a bit misleading as this is more of a breezy country sound than hillbilly music of the traditional kind but Jemma Rowlands and her Clifton Hillbillies still execute their take on country music with catchy melodic verve. Pedal steel, banjo and fiddle decorate these bittersweet songs that walk the on the … Continue reading
Small towns and the escape from them or retreat to them are often the subject of songs in country music. In recent times we’ve had Jenny Queen (Small Town Misfits) and Hurray For The Riff Raff (Small Town Heroes) address the topic in their album titles and now NSW songstress Fanny Lumsden has dug into … Continue reading
Four albums into her solo career, Suzannah Espie continues to mine the soulful and personal side of folk and country music. That she does so with such honesty and directness whilst still blending subtlety and beautiful melodies reinforces her standing as one of this country’s finest singer/songwriters. Espie has tackled the subject of motherhood on … Continue reading
Lindi Ortega won plenty of new fans when she visited Australia for the Out On The Weekend festival last year and now she’s set to build on that with an impressive new album. She wraps up country and soul music in warm and familiar fashion, relying equally on the sultry and surly qualities of her … Continue reading
This is the first album of new material since Nicholson’s marriage break-up with Kasey Chambers who he’d recorded his two preceding albums with. In that sense this is a new start and it’s a quietly confident one that reflects on the personal attrition of such a traumatic experience as well as geographical locations and depression. … Continue reading
Starting with a lo-fi drum pattern Good Lovelies quickly arrive with their sweet intertwined harmonies to elevate the opening track into a quirky, sparkling pop-laced folk song. They’ve tried to mix things up on their new album, sonically and in their songwriting and at times it works very well. Too often though the curse of … Continue reading
Over the years Tex Perkins has become a versatile musician, a gun for hire traveling from one band project to another tribute show and so on. Beasts Of Bourbon has been revisited though Cruel Sea hasn’t but a group that Perkins keeps returning to and one where he sounds the most relaxed and free from … Continue reading
On her sophomore album there’s a subtlety to Ribeiro’s music that finds form in both her voice and the sonic qualities of the songs. She shares a deadpan singing style with Courtney Barnett but it contains darker shades of sensuality, folksiness and coyness with ethereal qualities that at different times bring to mind Hope Sandoval … Continue reading
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