Combining Hannah Peel with Paraorchesta is one of those feats of attraction that cannot be denied, and The Unfolding, the fruits of their labour, is a masterpiece that defies genres. Peel began her career as something of a folk artist, although…
Jerry Leger knows how to write a song, and the 11 on Nothing Pressing clearly illustrate a man with a sense of humor, a sense of taste and a sense of just how weird the last two years have been. Though recorded…
In the same way that Joni Mitchell reflected the California vibe on Blue, Lia Ices mirrors a similar consciousness on Family Album 50-some years farther down the road. Her 2014 album, Ices, marched to a synthetic beat with layered electronics and loops. Having moved…
You have to play the hand you’re dealt, and Simone Felice has played his cards despite a life that hasn’t always been the way he’d have wanted it, which is what makes All The Bright Coins so fascinating. Having spent the last…
Aoife O’Donovan can surprise you, as she does on Age of Apathy. For a singer who often uses quiet rather than trying to bowl you over with the strength of her voice, some of her thoughts can be a bit disconcerting.…
Neil Young has always felt at his best when he’s playing rough and ready, and his best foils have always been Crazy Horse. Together they have created some of the most deceptively simple music, raw rock that captures a moment…
Everything changes over time. That’s certainly true for Sea Wolf’s Through a Dark Wood. Some of the pain has passed and now songs that didn’t make sense when the album was released in March of 2020 resonate differently. Eighteen months have…
Capturing magic in a bottle is hard, doing it twice is almost impossible. But that’s what Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have done with Raise the Roof. The first notes of ‘Quattro (World Drifts In)’ suggest that while it has taken…
Devin Hoff first heard Anne Briggs’ music about ten years ago, and that moment changed his life, leading him to spend thousands of hours listening to Briggs and eventually recording Voices from the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs). Striking a chord…
At the age of 63, Billy Bragg finds himself in an interesting place, one that he never expected to be in, documented on The Million Things That Never Happened. The thing is the Bragg we expect in some ways has never…