Americana
The Indigo Girls, Facebook Live review - lightening the bluesFriday, 20 March 2020
Like all other performers, the Indigo Girls were forced to make the “heart-breaking decision” to cancel their spring tour. And in that moment, “we knew we wanted to play a free livestream show,” Amy Ray and Emily Saliers said in a statement. “... Read more... |
Celtic Connections 2020, Glasgow review - Yorkston/Thorne/Khan and Roaming Roots Revue celebrate joy of collaborationMonday, 03 February 2020
While there’s usually something for everybody on the Celtic Connections festival programme, where Glasgow’s midwinter festival tends to shine is in its collaborations and special events. Over the past 18 days the city has hosted folk icon Peggy... Read more... |
Anaïs Mitchell, Bonny Light Horseman, Roundhouse review - heart-warming folk blissMonday, 03 February 2020
Anaïs Mitchell should be a star: she sings like a dream, oozes presence and charisma, and writes songs of classic simplicity, poetry and depth. Her other outstanding quality is a natural modesty and a delight in just being herself on stage, and... Read more... |
Gerde's Folk City at 60, The Iridium, New York City - a celebration of the legendary folk clubSunday, 26 January 2020
Fifty-nine years to the day, 24 January 1961, that a young college dropout named Robert Zimmerman clambered out of a car on the Manhattan end of the George Washington Bridge, having hitchhiked across the country to reinvent himself as Bob Dylan, the... Read more... |
Album: Squirrel Flower - I Was Born SwimmingSaturday, 25 January 2020
The first album from the Boston-bred songwriter Squirrel Flower opens and closes with autobiographical songs. “I-80” opens with the artist - real name Ella O’Connor Williams - giving up on lyrics, poetry and, later, giving up on love, its rootless... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Liz Lawrence - Pity PartyFriday, 03 January 2020
Picking the best album at the end of the year is always unfair on the early releases. Recency bias means the newer albums carry more excitement. Better Oblivion Community Center's self-titled debut would be a major contender if it had released in... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me TomorrowTuesday, 31 December 2019
2019 has been quite the year. Amongst other difficulties being a grown-up hurls at you on the reg, I lost my guiding light (may her adventures on the other side of this universe be everything and more). And the testing times that ensued sees me now... Read more... |
The Lumineers, SSE Hydro, Glasgow review - a stomping but exhausting nightSaturday, 23 November 2019
There was something fitting about the Lumineers entrance in Glasgow. As “Gimme Shelter” blared around the SSE Hydro, lights pulsating over the crowd, it was drummer Jeremiah Fraites who took the stage and started the opening beat of “Sleep On The... Read more... |
Greener Grass review - American suburbia goes haywire in surreal dark comedyFriday, 22 November 2019
The pink, turquoise and orange world of Greener Grass is a riot of derangement. Here is the suburban dream gone haywire, where, out of politeness, a woman gives her baby to her friend because she admires it. Every adult wears braces, hair... Read more... |
Darlingside, Cecil Sharp House review - finger-picking goodFriday, 22 November 2019
The four young men who comprise Darlingside met at Williams College, in the Berkshires which, each October, declares a “Mountain Day” when students hike up Stony Ledge and celebrate with donuts, cider and a cappella singing. Perhaps on one such hike... Read more... |
CD: The Lumineers - IIISaturday, 07 September 2019
It’s fair to say that things are going pretty well for Denver folk-rockers the Lumineers: Grammys, two platinum-selling albums, huge arena tours, support slots for the likes of U2 and Tom Petty, and the massive boost of having one of their songs (... Read more... |
CD: Whitney - Forever Turned AroundWednesday, 28 August 2019
As days get shorter and the sun tucks itself behind a blanket of clouds, Whitney return with the bittersweet sound of summer ending. Forever Turned Around is the long-awaited follow up to 2016’s Light Upon the Lake, and the band have lost none of... Read more... |
