Jesper Lindell – Everyday Dreams

A debut album packed with warm sentiments and timeless soul 'n' blues.

There are so many artists around today who take inspiration from the classic soul and blues era of the fifties and sixties that the vintage tag has become almost meaningless. Timeless would be a more apt description and one that fits well for this debut album by Sweden's Jesper Lindell. Full of that subtle sympathetic musicianship we've come to expect from Swedish musicians, Everyday Dreams is equal parts classic mid '60s Stax/Volt and gently rolling blues, with shades of Van Morrisson's Tupelo Honey and artists such as Leon Bridges, The Black Keys and Ray LaMontagne.

It's a record full of warm sentiments and soulful vocals. Lindell's blue-eyed soul voice that takes centre stage and carries the album from start to finish, equally at home on the uptempo numbers as it is on the album's softer, more intimate tracks. Lindell has obviously immersed himself in that great wealth of music that America has produced. Everyday Dreams draws from the deep well of soul, blues, country, folk and gospel. Admirably Lindell doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. There are no boundary-pushing production techniques or ill-advised genre mash-ups, just great songwriting, well-produced and great performances from all the musicians involved.

Perfect Sunday evening listening for these dark winter nights. Get your fire lit, crack open a bottle of something nice and kick back with your loved one with this album playing. As Lindell sings on 'France' - “I'll I wanna do is spend my time drinking wine with you.” What could be better.

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The Story of The Band - Harvey Kubernik & Kenneth Kubernik

(This review first appeared in issue #87 of Shindig! magazine.)

STERLING BOOKS

This coffee table book doesn't claim to be the definitive telling of The Band's story but it does cover their active years in a winningly enthusiastic way. Aside from it's scrapbook style layout equally balanced between words and pictures, its USP is its drawing from various interviews dating back over several decades, most conducted by the Kubernik brothers themselves. As respected LA-based music writers the pair have encountered and interviewed members of the Band several times over the years, along with producers, engineers, peer musicians and members of The Band's road crew. In addition the book contains eye-witness fan accounts, contemporary record and concert reviews, and reminisces from key journalists, DJs, promoters and other industry shakers and movers. All key moments in the Band's career are brought into sharp focus by this multiple voice and viewpoint approach.

The book's subtitle (From Big Pink To The Last Waltz) is somewhat misleading as the pre-Band era is also covered including their time as the Hawks backing Ronnie Hawkins in the clubs of Toronto. The history-making days as Bob Dylan's electric backing band on his 1966 battle-fray tour also get good coverage.

Don't expect any startling revelations, dirt-dishing or gossip but do expect a celebration and exploration of just what it was that made The Band and their music so special. As one of the era's most photogenic acts the photographs are a treat too, several of which are previously unpublished. They're accompanied by illustrations of ticket stubs, posters, handbills, set-lists and hand-written studio and stage notes.

William Tyler - Goes West

(This review first appeared in issue #87 of Shindig! magazine.)

Merge CD/LP

Listeners to Tyler's occasional It's All True podcast series will be familiar with his insightful take on music's relationship with human emotions. Equally articulate whether discussing the importance of silence, white noise or obscure indigenous folk music, it's this deep thinking that underpins his guitar playing. Goes West is the first record he's made since relocating from his home town of Nashville to the Californian coast. A ten track instrumental album of ambient Americana, it finds Tyler in a hopeful, even optimistic mood. Despite being an in-demand electric guitarist here he's restricted his own playing here to acoustic guitar but is ably backed by a hand-picked band of sympathetic players.

With an ego-less virtuosity and precise technique similar to that of Brit-picker Martin Simpson, Tyler makes melodic journeys that have roots in British and Appalachian folk, bluegrass and southern country, but mood and magic take precedence over any genre-specific stylings. Majestic.

decker. - Born To Wake Up

(This review first appeared in issue #87 of Shindig! magazine.)

Royal Potato Family CD/LP

The opening seconds of singer/songwriter Brandon Decker's new record features a sparse and lonely sound collage – footsteps, a drum pulse, chanted drone and the distant howling of wolves. It comes as little surprise to learn he takes much inspiration from his Arizona desert surroundings, coming across at times like a modern day Morricone in search of a film. This ghostly wind-through-the-cacti ambience is best invoked on 'The Garden' with its lyrical echoes of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock', and 'The Saint', a bruised but ultimately optimistic emotional ballad.

At the core of Decker's songwriting lies an belief in redemption and the need for spiritual nourishment, but peppered among the intimate loner folk are tracks with a polished indie rock sound. His inner-Springsteen finding an outlet on 'Burnin' Grass' and 'The Matador', both tracks containing stadium-worthy vibes and melodies. Conviction, inner belief and landscape-informed outlook makes this an impressive soul-baring.

GospelbeacH - Let It Burn

Elegiac American beauty.

Oh man. Where do I start with this with this one? Just a few short days after the review copy of this album had dropped through the letterbox came the news that guitarist Neal Casal had passed away. The guy was 50 years old. I never knew him of course but as is the way with musicians they have a mysterious effect on your inner life. It's subtle, mysterious, hard to pin down, but at the same time very real and valuable. I first heard his work on the records he made with Ryan Adams and the Cardinals and it was clear from those classic albums that he was a man of taste. Always serving the song, enhancing its message and bringing out each track's emotional heart. It's a style of playing that he brought to each project he worked on, whether with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood or GospelbeacH on their latest album Let It Burn, which turned out to be Casal's last recorded work. Listening with that knowledge gives the album an unintentional elegiac quality, but such is the strength of the songs, its emotional resonance would still be present had the circumstances been different.

It's the third album from the band . Their previous record, Another Summer Of Love, which came out in 2017, had a slight Anglophilic bent, even borrowing lyrics from The Jam. Aside from a reference to Winston Churchill on 'I'm So High' and the early '70s Bowie vibe on 'Unswung', Let It Burn is firmly rooted in Americana. Its mood is a winning blend of downbeat and defiant, in a way a reflection or snapshot of modern America itself. All the songs were written by vocalist/guitarist Brent Rademaker with drummer/vocalist Trevor Beld Jiminez. They deal with personal darkness but not in a forced or laboured way. There's a freshness and spontaneity to them. Ditto the arrangements - plenty of vocal harmonies and tight playing but with enough space for the songs to breath. A cliché perhaps to say it but to my ears it's the band's best album thus far, and one with a touch of Zen about it. High and low emotions are felt, then let go in order for the next ones to come. Not a bad way to live let alone make records. Apologies to anyone who's read this expecting a standard review format. No scrub that, no apologies, this one is for Neal. Thanks for the music and rest easy.

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Kacy & Clayton - The Siren's Song

(This review first appeared in issue #78 of Shindig! magazine.)

New West CD / LP

It's a brave move to reference the enticing voices of Greek mythology in an album title, though more than justified here. This follow-up to 2016's Strange Country finds Canadian cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum reach new heights in terms of songwriting, performance and sound. With eight original songs, all of which could be taken for old or future folk/country standards, plus a version of traditional British folk tune 'Go And Leave Me', you're unlikely to hear a stronger collection of songs this year.

Produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy at his Loft Studio in Chicago, the addition of drums and bass is a masterstroke, lending some buckskin-clad country drive to the pair's folk stylings. The songs still take centre stage, full of characters, stories and emotion. There are countless sublime moments – not least the stacked harmonies of the title track, Kacy's pure voice, and Clayton's tasteful guitar adornments throughout. Irresistible.

Ryan Martin - Gimme Some Light

Regret, realisation and redemption. Tales from the crossroads of modern masculinity.

Ever since the early '70s, a time referred to by some as “the me decade”, there's always been an array of confessional singer-songwriters in the musical firmament. Call it the Dylan effect. Having ditched the political for the personal in the mid'60s our Bob-ness inspired a generation of (mostly male) musicians to wear hearts on sleeves and encouraging the baring of souls, with each subsequent generation adding a new wave to the genre. Some were bad, many good, and a select few were amazing. So here we are now in the time of #MeToo, a long-overdue watershed moment in gender politics. It's an interesting time for female musicians with lots of great music being made. By extension any male singer-songwriter secure in their own talent should be able to rise to the challenges that the current social and political climate presents.

Ryan Martin is the latest sensitive musician to come to the fore. A Californian currently residing in New York, I doubt Martin would claim to be a political writer, or overly concerned with gender politics for that matter but his latest and second LP Gimme Some Light does capture something of what it means to be a man in today's world. It's as open and honest an LP you're likely to hear all year, with a rare emotional complexity. Rather than the bold declarations, sureties and definite opinions we associated with the age of social media and political bombast, there's nuance, self-doubt and vulnerability. A sense of him saying “hey I may have messed up in the past, I can't promise to be perfect in the future, but I can try to be better.” It's refreshing to hear such honesty.

Martin's back-story is a colourful one involving a traumatic car accident, addiction, subsequent treatment and spells in jail. The dark times inform but don't define his music. Gimme Some Light is infused with the notion of turning things round, steering away from all that's destructive and finding a better place, a better way of being. And the tunes and arrangements are pretty good too! With a similar buffeted and bruised Americana to that of Neil Young and Ryan Adams, Martin's autobiographical songs paint a picture of a man at times down but not out.

'All The Good Men' fades in with a background of ambient white noise before piano and pedal steel lead the way into a song which sets the emotional tone and themes of the album. There's regret but it comes with tempered with realisation. 'Destitute Darlings' is an E-Street Band rocker worthy of The Boss himself, full of passionate street-level romance delivered with bar-band wall of sound. But there are many great songs here, a mix of sparsely arranged ballads and full on rockers, all melodically memorable and from the heart. Gimme Some Light is proof that the future need not be toxic after all.

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The Parson Red Heads - Blurred Harmony

(This review first appeared in issue #69 of Shindig! magazine.)

Fluff & Gravy CD/LP

Thirteen years since they formed as a student band these Portland, Oregon-based journeymen and women release their fourth and most satisfying album to date, interestingly without the aid of expensive studios and name producers. Okay, so they don't try and reinvent the wheel but they do keep it turning rather beautifully. This album's wheel conjures up desert highways, gentle breezes and the sun setting on a shimmering horizon. Their music is a sumptuous blend of cosmic Americana, Paisley Underground, and jangle 'n' harmony guitar pop.

Fittingly for an album that takes its name from a Donald Justice poem, there are themes of nostalgia, regret, stock taking, family and thankfulness for life's small mercies and everyday gifts. Add those to the rich layered guitars, pedal steel, four-way harmonies and genuinely catchy melodies and you have the sound of '70s FM radio remade as an aural security blanket. A sensual, soothing balm for the soul.

GospelbeacH - Another Summer Of Love

(This review first appeared in issue #68 of Shindig! magazine.)

Alive CD/LP

Whether 2017 yields a season of goodwill remains to be seen. This follow up to GospelbeacH's 2015's debut Pacific Surf Line can only help it happen. Its ten tracks of lush, cosmic Americana could only have been made on America's west coast, so the opening lyric cheekily borrowed from The Jam (“In the desert there's a thousand things I want to say to you”) is a neat attention grabber. You know you're listening to a band with serious pop-nous.

GospelBeacH's sound recalls Tom Petty's mix of roots rock and new-wave, along with the grown-up country rock of Chuck Prophet. Though recognising they may be peddling an idealised version of the Golden Sate their take on Cali-rock is seductive – catchy tunes, tasteful song-serving guitar solos and accomplished musicianship that doesn't stray into session-player blandness. Not one for neophiles, but those of us who value quality can bask in its revitalising sun-drenched goodness.

San Antonio Kid - San Antonio Kid

Swabian tumbleweed and twang!

With the horrendous battle for the White House currently raging, perhaps it's time to remind ourselves that the USA is not all bad. It has after all given us so much in cultural terms. And especially where music is concerned. The broad umbrella widely known as Americana has taken hold everywhere. In the Swabian town of Augsburg, Germany lives a quartet of urban cowboys who go by the collective name of San Antonio Kid, their name taken from a 1941 cult western movie.

Their self titled eight track album re-imagines Ennio Morricone's paeans to wide-open deserts but via a traditional guitar band set-up. Kind of like a surf band that's got sick of the ocean and re-located 500 miles inland. It's a gem of an album for anyone who loves a bit of Lee Hazelwood, Spindrift or Alt-country in general. On top of that it may contain the best whistling solo ever committed to tape (or Pro-Tools for that matter!) on 'Strangers', a track that would have made the Kill Bill soundtrack had they got round to recording it fifteen years ago.

Anyway it's not just me that digs 'em. Their brand of tumbleweed twang has garnered them recent tours with like-minded Brits The Hanging Stars. Check out this album and watch out for them bursting through a saloon door near you soon!

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The Magic City Trio - A Funnel Cloud In Albuquerque EP

 

Southern Gothic tradition found alive and well in. Currently residing in the deep south of Blighty!

Despite the band's fascination with nascent Americana, The Magic City Trio actually hail from the deep south of good ol' Blighty, deep in the heart of London. Not for them is grime music or the kitchen-sink observational brit-pop one usually associates with the nation's capital . Instead they make music that owes more to the American deep south - supersticious settler music, pre-war old-timey ballads, God-fearing folk songs, Mariachi and early country music are the basic tenets of their sound. Throw in a bit of Spaghetti Western vibe, some Duane Eddy twang and you have a pretty tasty recipe!

The band have travelled and gigged extensively and have just released their debut EP, A Funnel Cloud In Albuquerque, which features the title track along with another original track (A Prayer For Hope And Happy Times), and a traditional Baptist Hymn (The Lone Pilgrim). The deluxe CD version also features alternate takes of the two original songs.

Fans of The Louvin Brothers, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, The Band, and early Americana in general will surely find much to like in their time and space hopping music. Look at for the band this year as they make a transatlantic tour of open mic nights. Even better get in touch and book them for a show or house gig.

The Magic City Trio are -

Frank Sweeney (guitar, vocals, harmonica)

Annie Holder (guitar, vocal, autoharp, kazoo)

Adi Staempfli (bass, vocals)

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