country
Album: Basia Bulat - Are You In Love?Monday, 23 March 2020
“No Control” feels like an instant pop classic. It opens with a brief introduction where layers of instrumentation are added in waves. There’s a restraint. Then, three-quarters of minute into what initially seems like a reflective mid-tempo ballad,... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 56: Kreator, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Disney, Twin Atlantic, Elton John, Buddy Rich and moreSaturday, 15 February 2020
Welcome to the biggest plastic reviews party on earth. Now that vinyl is steadily successful as niche musical medium, some have rightly been considering its environmental impact. Perhaps the best overview is given by Kyle Devine’s feature in the... Read more... |
Album: Tami Neilson - CHICKABOOM!Friday, 14 February 2020
What’s going to make you fall in love with Tami Neilson? Will it be the way she cackles her way through the chorus of “Ten Tonne Truck”, her foot-stomping rags to riches daydream about a down-on-their-luck performing family who head for Nashville... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Hank WilliamsSunday, 09 February 2020
Any knowledge of the Hank Williams narrative heavily influences how he is perceived. He died at age 29 on New Year’s Day 1953, in the back of a car while travelling to a show in Ohio. His schedule was punishing. A day earlier he had played in West... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Sturgill Simpson - Sound & FurySaturday, 04 January 2020
Country is as country does, and in 2019 it was busy having a very good year in the UK. The mega-festival C2C continued to pack out arenas, with alumni like Luke Combs and Ashley McBryde selling out their own headline gigs; young upstarts like Colter... Read more... |
Country Music by Ken Burns, BBC Four review - grand history of fiddlers on the hoofSaturday, 23 November 2019
Ken Burns is the closest American television has to David Attenborough. They may swim in different seas, but they both have an old-school commitment to an ethos that will be missed when it’s gone – the idea that television is a place to communicate... Read more... |
CD: Lady Antebellum - OceanFriday, 15 November 2019
Lady Antebellum have stayed in the mainstream country world Taylor Swift forded to full pop stardom. Beginning alongside her on Nashville’s aptly named Big Machine label, they’ve kept the genre’s knack for narrative, emotion and residual hints of... Read more... |
CD: Luke Combs – What You See Is What You GetThursday, 07 November 2019
With US number one singles and Grammys coming out of his ears, a record-breaking streak at the top for debut album This One’s For You and collaborations with country big-timers aplenty, Luke Combs is riding high. The North Carolina-born toast of... Read more... |
Kiefer Sutherland, Shepherd's Bush Empire review - actor totally convinces as country rockerWednesday, 23 October 2019
There’s no getting around it – it’s very surreal indeed to be in the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and see an eye-wateringly famous movie and TV star rocking out on stage. But it’s a testament to Kiefer Sutherland’s commitment to his musical side-project... 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... |
Duff McKagan, Islington Assembly Hall review – Guns N' Roses bassist revels in the spotlightFriday, 30 August 2019
Guns N’ Roses members do love a side project, from Slash’s Snakepit and Conspirators to Axl’s stint as AC/DC frontman. Bass player Duff McKagan has had plenty of them, including hardcore punks 10 Minute Warning, rock 'n' roll supergroup Velvet... 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... |
