singer-songwriters
CD: Tori Amos - Unrepentant GeraldinesSunday, 11 May 2014
“If 50 is the new black, hooray, this could be your lucky day,” Tori Amos sings on “16 Shades of Blue”, the track from new album Unrepentant Geraldines most obviously touched by the big birthday that the singer, who has been releasing music since... Read more... |
CD: Wallis Bird - ArchitectSunday, 13 April 2014
The ease with which Wallis Bird can flit between genres armed with nothing but a guitar and her warm, raggedly bluesy voice has been apparent since at the very least her 2012 self-titled third album. Even still, those of us who fell for that album’s... Read more... |
CD: EMA - The Future's VoidMonday, 07 April 2014
Erika M Anderson’s dystopian follow-up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Past Life Martyred Saints was always going to be prescient, but in the end even she was taken by surprise. “Facebook just bought the company that makes … the VR headset I am... Read more... |
CD: St Vincent - St VincentThursday, 20 February 2014
Perhaps the most effective way to sum up St Vincent - the self-titled fourth album from the one-woman avant garde powerhouse known to her friends as Annie Clark - is that it’s the closest she has come on record to the visceral, engrossing experience... Read more... |
Suzanne Vega, Town Hall, BirminghamTuesday, 04 February 2014
Suzanne Vega clearly likes her new album, Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles. Either that or she’s got this promotional lark down to a fine art. Tonight we were treated to seven of its ten tracks, which is not something you might expect... Read more... |
CD: Suzanne Vega - Tales From the Realm of the Queen of PentaclesSaturday, 01 February 2014
With that warm, slightly husky voice of hers - not unlike that of an old friend at the other end of the telephone - Suzanne Vega has always been one of those singers I’d happily listen to reading the Yellow Pages. To be honest, there are parts of... Read more... |
Video Exclusive: Judith Owen's Ebb & FlowMonday, 27 January 2014
Judith Owen has form for hanging around with the hairiest of musicians. Her husband is, of course, one Harry Shearer AKA Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls. Lately, however, Owen has been hanging out with a trio, who, although as hirsute as Smalls, prefer... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dory Previn, Count BasieSunday, 26 January 2014
Dory Langdon: My Heart is a HunterAs a singer-songwriter, Dory Previn’s reputation rests on the extraordinary quartet of albums she made for United Artists in the opening years of the Seventies. This, her debut album, was issued in 1958.... Read more... |
Inside Llewyn DavisThursday, 23 January 2014
Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel and Ethan Coen's brooding homage to the Greenwich Village folk scene, is set in 1961 (January probably), just before Bob Dylan's revelatory songs popularised it. The film is named for its protagonist, a working-class singer... Read more... |
CD: David Crosby – CrozThursday, 23 January 2014
Croz is everything a David Crosby album should be. That’s not to say it’s the sound of laurels being rested on or evidence of an artist coasting and returning to default settings. Rather, that instead it’s a statement of who this man is and why he... Read more... |
CD: Damien Jurado – Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal SonMonday, 20 January 2014
Damien Jurado last surfaced as one of Moby’s collaborators on the Innocents album. From the sound of Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, Beck might have been a more logical musical partner. Texture-wise, Jurado’s new release sits alongside Sea... Read more... |
CD: Samantha Crain – Kid FaceMonday, 13 January 2014
Drawing colour from country and Appalachian traditions while echoing the world-weary moods of singer-songwriters like Karen Dalton, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, the third album from Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain doesn’t... Read more... |
