singer-songwriters
Reissue CDs Weekly: David Kauffman and Eric CaboorSunday, 12 April 2015![]() David Kauffman and Eric Caboor: Songs From Suicide BridgeThe tale of David Kauffman and Eric Caboor is not unusual. Two singer-songwriters form a duo, play some live shows to zero interest, record an album which goes nowhere after it’s... Read more... |
CD: Waxahatchee - Ivy TrippSunday, 05 April 2015![]() The rich, knock-off church organ drone that opens Ivy Tripp disorientates from the off, while at the same time telling you all you need to know. It may have been the simplicity and directness of Katie Crutchfield’s lyrical and composition style that... Read more... |
CD: Laura Marling - Short MovieSaturday, 21 March 2015![]() The best singer-songwriters, you might say, survey life's experiences with a forensic eye. That’s certainly true of Laura Marling. Her new album Short Movie chronicles the singer's recent stint in LA where she'd relocated for a couple of... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Bridget St. JohnSunday, 01 March 2015![]() Bridget St. John: Dandelion Albums & BBC CollectionPigeonholing Bridget St. John is gratifyingly difficult. Although generally categorised as folk, her early albums actually posited her as a singer-songwriter following her own path. Like... Read more... |
Bob Dorough and Friends, Pizza Express Jazz ClubSaturday, 21 February 2015![]() Aged 91, and as frisky as a newborn puppy, the US singer, pianist and songwriter Bob Dorough is a sui generis stylist whose smart lyrics – delivered in an understated southern brogue – and nimble pianism which nods to both bebop and swing masters,... Read more... |
CD: Father John Misty – I Love You, HoneybearSunday, 08 February 2015![]() Fifteen seconds into I Love You, Honeybear, it’s clear this an album concerned with sonic grandeur. Strings swell while a mournful pedal steel evokes the dejection of Gene Clark’s White Light, the 1971 album by the ex-Byrds member which has come to... Read more... |
CD: Esmé Patterson - Woman to WomanSaturday, 07 February 2015![]() Woman to Woman, the second solo album from Denver songwriter and former Paper Bird front woman Esmé Patterson, has an origin story almost as interesting as the music. Teaching herself to play Townes Van Zandt’s “Loretta” during some down time on... Read more... |
10 Questions for Rumer 2015Monday, 02 February 2015![]() Last autumn Rumer reappeared with her third album, Into Colour, surprising everyone with a lead single that was disco-flavoured. The rest of the album was closer in scope to the opulent LA easy listening and classic West Coast singer-songwriter fare... Read more... |
CD: BC Camplight – How to Die in the NorthThursday, 15 January 2015![]() Decamping to Manchester from Philadelphia after a personal crisis seems an unlikely move. But this is what Brian Christinzio – who is BC Camplight – did in 2012. How to Die in the North was recorded in Bredbury, near Stockport.As cross-continental... Read more... |
CD: The Callstore – Save No OneThursday, 08 January 2015![]() At first it seems akin to entering a world conjured by Efterlkang at their most elegiac. Strings swell and what sounds like a cimbalom chimes. A wordless vocal sighs. After the opening instrumental – titled “Intro” – “Lovers Lane” (sic) surges... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Roddy Frame - Seven DialsThursday, 25 December 2014![]() Far too many years ago, Roddy Frame – masquerading as Aztec Camera – took his first bow with an album of wonderfully vital pop songs. High Land, Hard Rain was jaunty with youth but somehow freighted with musical wisdom, the fruit of ingesting a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The CzarsSunday, 14 December 2014![]() The Czars: Best ofQueen of Denmark, John Grant’s first solo album, seemed to arrive from nowhere in 2010. Here was a singer-songwriter with a unique voice evoking disparate wellsprings Eric Carmen, Randy Newman and Lionel Richie. When taken with a... Read more... |
