by C. Familton When news first broke that Neil Young & Crazy Horse were reconvening there was a palpable sense of excitement in the virtual air online yet for many that initial burst of joy quickly turned to apprehension when word seeped out that their first new release was going to be a collection of … Continue reading
New Zealand isn’t generally known for its exponents of americana yet there are a bunch of great bands doing justice to the genre if you dig deep enough. One of them is Christchurch’s The Unfaithful Ways who are about to head out on some national dates in June. They released their debut album Free Rein to great acclaim last … Continue reading
Seattle -based singer songwriter Shannon Stephens has a new album Pull It Together coming out on Asthmatic Kitty right about now. Check out the first single/video Care of You with its gorgeous swooning vocal and super rich and organic sound. She has a ton of great people working with her on the album including duets … Continue reading
by Chris Familton Bob Dylan must surely be the most covered artist of the last forty years so when another compilation of versions of his songs comes along it is easy to dismiss it as another batch of standards reinterpreted. The hook with this one though is twofold. Firstly it is a fantastic cause with … Continue reading
by Chris Familton Kurt Wagner is a unique musician in that he has managed to build a career out of musical understatement. His work carries with it a slight of hand, bursting with subtleties, be it of the lyrical or instrumental kind. He is also quite the unassuming frontman with his white shirt, jeans and … Continue reading
by Chris Familton Pat Capocci had the task of getting the still sparse crowd in the mood for the return to Sydney of Justin Townes Earle. With a wide gulf across the dance-floor between band and audience Capocci and his combo didn’t seem to mind one bit as they fired off song after song of … Continue reading
Sydney’s Sam Shinazzi has released a new video for the song Movie Of Your Life, one of the highlights from the 2011 LP When The Light’s Come Up. Continue reading
written by Chris Familton Justin Townes Earle has made a habit of changing it up on each of his three albums. The Good Life found him very much in the traditional country and folk songwriter mould while Harlem River Blues saw him using New York as a source of inspiration. Now Earle has shifted geographically … Continue reading
On Record Store Day, April 21, Nonesuch will release Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which includes the original two volumes of Mermaid Avenue (the second re-mastered); a third volume with 17 previously unreleased recordings from those sessions; the 1999 documentary on the sessions, Man in the Sand; and a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora … Continue reading
Taken from the brilliant new album Maraqopa… http://vimeo.com/34849480 Continue reading
written by Chris Familton Kurt Wagner is the closest thing to an artist in residence at this year’s Sydney Festival with his band Lambchop also playing and Wagner doing a solo show at The Famous Spiegeltent. Tonight we were treated to KORT, the collaborative project of Wagner and Nashville country singer Cortney Tidwell who pay … Continue reading
written by Chris Familton Those lucky enough to see all three of Kurt Wagner’s manifestations at this year’s Sydney Festival experienced a wonderful insight into his influences, the way he creates his music and how deeply he believes in country music as an art form. As KORT (with singer Cortney Tidwell) he dug into her … Continue reading
written by Chris Familton Jolie Holland returns with her fourth studio album and this time she has made a discernible effort to reduce her jazz and folk flavoured americana to simpler structures and cleaner palettes. In many cases the songs benefit from these amendments but they also lose some of what made Holland such an … Continue reading
Secretly Canadian have posted a letter from Jason Molina’s (Songs:Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co) family giving some insight into why the devastatingly talented singer/songwriter has been off the radar since 2009. It seems he has been battling addiction of some kind and has now accrued large medical bills as a result of having no medical insurance. … Continue reading
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