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 …
When Kyle Jenkins sings ‘I fell in love with your methadone eyes, upon the ground where we lied’, it gives you an idea of the territory that Suicide Swans are operating in – warts and all human emotion and experience. It’s tempered with a sympathetic and empathetic casting of Augusta’s characters and presented in a …
Today we’ve posted the first episode of our brand new online music show Post To Wireless. Its current home is on Mixcloud where we’ll be publishing a new show each fortnight. Join me, Chris Familton, for a selection of alt-country, folk, blues and rock ‘n’ roll songs, information and interviews. We’ll be drawing from the …
Here they are, the 40 albums that I personally felt were the most important, fascinating and listenable in 2017. It was a near impossible process to collate them on a spreadsheet and make decisions and adjustments as to the creative worth of one over another. I’d highly recommend all the albums on this list and …
The Horizon Just Laughed comes on the back of the loosely thematic trilogy of albums he recorded with producer and musician Andrew Swift. They were psychedelic in nature though still rooted in the folk form. In contrast, this feels like a retreat from the density and experimentation, to a place of reflection and solitude. Jurado … Continue reading
“I like you honey, being with you is like being alone”. It’s a line in I’ve Hurt Worse that sums up the lyrical concerns of Courtney Marie Andrews’ sophomore album in two ways. The rocky terrain of personal relationships and the mental health issues of modern society. If her debut was an impressive introduction to … Continue reading
Lucero are back with a new album scheduled for release on August 3rd via Liberty & Lament/Thirty Tigers. Among The Ghosts will be their ninth LP and marks their 20th anniversary as a band. It sounds like they’ve gone for a tantalising blend of the big, live and loose sound based on ‘For The Lonely … Continue reading
Rhino have finally gone and done what plenty of people have been calling for, for a long time now – remastered reissues of the Buffalo Springfield catalogue. On June 29th they’ll release What’s That Sound? The Complete Albums Collection comprised of 5-CD and 5-LP box sets of the band’s three albums as originally issued between 1966 and … Continue reading
Diamond Duck release their self-titled debut EP this week and it’s a wonderful showcase for the talents of Jimmy Daley and Brian Campeau. Lush and ornate are two words that come to mind listening to the EP. The duo’s harmonies are beautifully intertwined, rising and falling, complementing and contrasting each other. They recall some of … Continue reading
Ruby Boots today releases her new single ‘Believe In Heaven’, ahead of her imminent return for three full band shows in Australia (see tour poster below). Bex says, “This song is about desire, so I wanted to create a world of what I thought my desire would look like at the time when I … Continue reading
On first listen to Ross Cooper’s third full length, I Rode The Wild Horses, you’d be excused for mistaking the subject matter as just another songwriter assuming the role of cowboy. However a little research reveals the Texan native is in fact a cowboy assuming the role of writer. Born and raised into rodeo, Cooper’s … Continue reading
Melbourne quartet Pony Face have released their new single ‘Justine’, taken from their 2017 LP Deja Vu. The album drew strong reviews and found them digging deeper into their mix of brooding rock, alt-country and gothic psychedelia. ‘Justine’ finds its groove and holds it with a steady tension over four minutes. It’s all about restraint, … Continue reading
RESHAPING ROCK ’N’ ROLL REPUTATION From his home in Nashville, TN, Deer Tick head honcho John McCauley rasps down the line and fills in Chris Familton on the evolution of their live shows and why they’ve released two new albums. Living on the cusp of bar-band rock ’n’ roll and ragged alt-country, with a carefree punk spirit, Deer … Continue reading
Nine albums in and Calexico are still pushing the boundaries of expectations and their own creative urges. Many of their albums have sounded produced and polished – polite even. Here they dismiss any need for a clean or cohesive sound, instead adding some grit and distortion and a gauzier texture to some the album’s 15 tracks. … Continue reading
EMOTIONAL RESCUE Ahead of Blair Dunlop’s second visit to Australia, he took the time to chat with Chris Familton about his new album – it’s blend of English folk and American country music and the role that anxiety played in its genesis. With his brand new fourth album, Notes From An Island, in his back … Continue reading
Deer Tick, The Smoking Flowers, Justin & The Cosmics @ The Lansdowne, March 27th 2018 The swagger and rock hit early with Nashville’s Justin & The Cosmics laying down some primal leather and denim-clad rock ’n’ roll. The brothers Collins led the charge on guitar and vocals, the latter showing a fine line in deadpan banter, middle … Continue reading
Dori Freeman only released her self-titled debut album in 2016 but she’s already gone and followed it up with Letters Never Read, an album that takes the template of her first release and adds greater warmth, soul and depth of writing. Freeman has again employed the services of Teddy Thompson as producer, and he in … Continue reading
A couple of years ago, with little money in her bank account, approaching 40 and feeling burnt out, Lindi Ortega contemplated giving music up but instead she left her label, management and agent, got engaged and left Nashville and moved to Calgary. That led to the release of her EP Til The Goin’ Gets Gone … Continue reading
Reflecting on The Disarmers previous record, Sidelong, it is near impossible for this reviewer to hear train beat and tremolo without immediately conjuring the Old 97s, and if this is the jump off, think of Sarah Shook as Rhett Miller’s badass younger cousin. Sidelong, re-released on Bloodshot in 2017, was originally recorded and self released … Continue reading
