Chicago’s Erik Hall took four years to make his second album, racking up thousands of miles travelling between his home studio and the Michigan farmhouse where he also recorded – giving the album its name, Driver. And as opener ‘Bawl,…
As winter turns to spring, summer comes into view and we begin to shed the extra layers of clothing. Time then to find some music to listen to while dozing in the sunshine or taking a walk in the country.…
When a band like The Leisure Society releases their fourth album, there’s bound to be slight trepidation. After being lauded by critics for their first three releases and being counted among Brian Eno and Ray Davies favourite bands, there’s a lot of pressure…
For a Villagers fan like myself, getting to not only listen to the new record, Darling Arithmetic, before its release, but to actually talk to the man behind the musical magic, Conor O’Brien, was probably akin to a Game…
Michigan artist Ben Schneider’s debut album as Lord Huron, Lonesome Dreams, was all about wide open spaces, its cover depicting a lone rider peering into a starless desert night. Based on a Western pulp fiction concept it found our hero…
Rarely has a record been more appropriately named than Joy, the third album from welsh duo Paper Aeroplanes. From opening track ‘Good Love Lives On’ to the concluding ‘Goldrush’, Sarah Howells and Richard Llewellyn lead the listener through an album of bright optimism,…
Josh Rouse approached The Embers of Time, his 11th studio album, at something of a turning point. Facing a mid-life crisis after ten years as an ex-pat in his adopted Spanish homeland coupled with the strains of raising a young…
I can clearly remember the first time I clapped eyes on Steve Wold. I was watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny when the main man introduced a guy sat on a chair, wearing dungarees, with a box at his feet and a…
For a recently gathered collective, there is a satisfying and even surprising restraint and confidence about Grand Lake Islands and their first full-length release Song From Far. The Portland group are the brainchild of Erik Emanuelson, who quit his job…
Music is a big part of my life, but there are some things that are obviously more important, family being one. It’s pretty impossible to sum up in a few words how they have shaped me as a person, but…