Americana
CD: Tanya Tucker - While I'm Livin'Friday, 23 August 2019
When Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin released the former’s stripped back, soul-bearing American Recordings in 1994 the impact was massive. Not only did it show a way that country music could cross over to a much wider audience, the alt-rock crowd, for... Read more... |
CD: Bon Iver – i,iSaturday, 10 August 2019
If you’ve been paying attention, you might have already heard most if not all of Bon Iver’s curiously named i,i album – weeks before its physical release on August 30. The band debuted two tracks (“Hey Ma” and “U (Man Like)”) at London’s All Points... Read more... |
Graham Nash, Alexandra Palace review - from Salford to Woodstock and backMonday, 05 August 2019
It was one of the great moments of Woodstock as Stephen Stills, amid the applause for “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, tells 400,000 muddy people: “This is the second time we’ve ever played in front of people, man. We’re scared shitless!”Crosby , Stills,... Read more... |
CD: Morganway - MorganwaySaturday, 03 August 2019
On the face of it, the idea of “an East Anglian Americana collective” is a little weird, but then East Anglia’s an area that’s historically been host to a lot of Yanks and it was from one of the USAF bases that the late great Paul Oliver, the... Read more... |
Lucinda Williams, Barbican review - memories, heartache and Southern secretsMonday, 29 July 2019
“I’m talking about these songs in more depth than I usually do, revealing a few secrets along the way,” says a black–jeaned, cowboy-booted Lucinda Williams after singing “Right in Time”, the achingly erotic first song on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road... Read more... |
CD: Violent Femmes - Hotel Last ResortWednesday, 24 July 2019
Violent Femmes might be one of America’s most distinctive-sounding bands. There’s no mistaking the combination of Gordon Gano’s laconic, speak-sung vocals and Brian Ritchie’s bass that has been at the heart of the band since the early 80s. On Hotel... Read more... |
CD: Daughter of Swords - DawnbreakerThursday, 04 July 2019
With shifts from the crepuscular to the distinct, Dawnbreaker is the aural equivalent of a stygian day periodically lightened when banks of cloud break to allow knife-like sunlight through.The album begins with “Fellows”, where an unadorned acoustic... Read more... |
Tony Bennett, Royal Albert Hall review - still cutting it at 92Saturday, 29 June 2019
I remember my first time in San Francisco, February 1982, crying at the sight of Golden Gate Bridge. I still shed a tear – it and the Bay are so very beautiful and the city is, like Venice, crazy-wonderful, defying all logic. It’s impossible to set... Read more... |
Billy Joel, Wembley Stadium review – The Entertainer deliversSunday, 23 June 2019
While Elton John was picking up another bauble and tinkling the ivories in Paris, the world’s other Piano Man was heading to London and Wembley, where he last played three years ago. It was Billy Joel’s only British gig in a stadium tour that kicked... Read more... |
CD: Calexico and Iron & Wine - Years to BurnFriday, 07 June 2019
Anyone familiar with Calexico and Iron & Wine will be unsurprised by Years to Burn. The 32-minute album (one track of which is a short instrumental) showcases lilting, mid-paced, reflective, country tinged and acoustic-bedded songs fleshed... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Red Rooster Festival 2019 - bustling Suffolk stately home hoedownTuesday, 04 June 2019
Only those who’ve just popped in from an early 20th century Tennessee cotton field will have recently observed more pairs of dungarees in one place than at Red Rooster. It’s a festival that prides itself on a rich diet of Americana alongside a... Read more... |
The Waterboys, Roundhouse review - energetic delightsSaturday, 25 May 2019
Was it imagination or did The Waterboys’ audience at London’s Roundhouse, invited to sing along to “The Nearest Thing to Hip”, really sing extra-loud and lustily on the line “in this shithole”? On a momentous day that seemed to push Britain further... Read more... |
