Joshua Seymour (Cherrywood) has stepped out on his lonesome for a solo album that digs deep into emotive and dark Americana. There’s a touch of Bon Iver, Iron & Wine and occasionally the band Spain in Seymour’s gothic sounding songs that are ornamented with stately piano, pedal steel, handclaps and all manner of stringed instruments. … Continue reading
After dalliances with an orchestra and antique lo-fi recording equipment Neil Young is back to playing rock n roll with a band. Not Crazy Horse this time but a group that includes Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah. It’s a political statement in the vein of Young’s other strident environmentally themed albums but even if … Continue reading
My Morning Jacket’s mystical musical powers seemed to be waning on their last two albums. There was a restlessness at play, a desire to shrug off the shackles of cosmic Americana rock and show they could do anything, or at least whatever they wanted. It didn’t work when they swung the pendulum too far outside … Continue reading
Jed Rowe has hit a fine vein of songwriting on his third album, drawing on the production skills of Jeff Lang and players that include members of Melbourne’s The Stillsons. Rowe’s songs fall easily on the ears, drifting by with a US West Coast feel, rich in vocal harmonies and slide guitar. Folk, country and … Continue reading
Matt Walker has been a stalwart of the roots music scene for more than two decades now and with Lost Ragas he may have found his perfect musical marriage. The quartet truly embody the phrase ‘cosmic country’, serving up a sound that mixes classic country, power pop and rock n roll. It’s like Sturgill Simpson … Continue reading
Attempts at an authentic presentation of traditional music can show up pale imitators pretty quickly but, on the flipside, those tagged as the real deal quickly rise to the top. The Deslondes are just that with five singer/songwriters blending country music with New Orleans soul and honky tonk with thrilling results. Their songs swing and … Continue reading
Ferrier’s sophomore album finds her with a full band, recording the instrumental tracks live to tape in two days. As a result there’s an immediacy and presence to her emotionally rich songs of relationships – good and bad. Ferrier’s voice is an easy fit with her folk and country-styled compositions, able to swing sweet and … Continue reading
Mark Lucas normally fronts the Dead Setters but here he steps out on his own with a collection of intimate and restrained songs. Lucas has decorated his compositions with fiddle, banjo, piano and even tuba without ever distracting from the personal and sometimes socio-political content of his lyrics. ‘Stranger’ possesses a beautiful, lilting melody, ‘Small … Continue reading
On stage Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan offset their earnest folk music with self-effacing humour yet their albums are wholly musical affairs which have in the past found them lacking personality and spirit. Monterey corrects that somewhat with their strongest songwriting to date but that depth of character is still missing, preventing the album from … Continue reading
James Thomson’s debut album was an impressive calling card, a introduction to a talented songwriter already sounding beyond his years in terms of his songs and their lived-in delivery. The promise of that first sprawling collection of songs has been refined and stylistically expanded on the exceptional follow-up Cold Moon. The balance and symmetry of … Continue reading
JW Linton hits straighter musical lines on his debut solo album than he does with Sydney band Ranger Spacey yet these ten songs are a rich collection of folk and country rock. From acoustic beginnings the songs have evolved into rich compositions that include horns, piano, pedal steel and strings that recall Calexico and Wilco. … Continue reading
From his early releases with The Unfaithful Ways and through three duo albums with fellow New Zealander Delaney Davidson, Marlon Williams has always been tagged as one to watch. Though this solo debut has been a long time coming he has toured and built a strong reputation as a live performer across Australia and NZ … Continue reading
Drawing on a range of country styles from Americana to traditional, pop to rock, Catherine Britt has produced a strong collection of songs on her sixth album. The opening title track gets things off to a rollicking and raw start before the beautiful ache of the string-laden ‘Good To Be Bad’ slows things down. From there … Continue reading
This week has mainly been about looking back at our favourite Americana albums (click on the image below) that have been released so far in 2015 plus reviews of recently released new albums (all 8/10) from Australian artists Liam Gale & The Ponytails, Raised By Eagles and Ruby Boots. We’d love to hear which albums have … Continue reading
Yep, we’re a third of the way through the year already so we thought we’d have a look back at our ten favourite albums that have been released in 2015. In no particular these are the records that have regularly been on the stereo and provided many of the musical highlights of our year so far. You can hit … Continue reading
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