by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Album | Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – Reunions
“Thought I was alone in the world, until my memories gathered round me in the night” Jason Isbell sings on ‘What I’ve Done to Help’, the opening track to Reunions. The rolling chorus repeated like a mantra towards the end,…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on The Amazing Devil – The Horror and the Wild
“Every brick you’ve hurled, I’ll use to build the world” The Amazing Devil’s record begins, as all should do, with the wind howling and a low bass reverberation, with Joey Batey and Madeline Hyland’s spoken-word delivery. It then spills directly…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on My Girl the River – Cardinal in the Snow
My Girl the River is the project of Louisiana singer and musician Kris Wilkinson Hughes. The band is fleshed out by her husband Joe and daughter Ruby on double bass and harmonies respectively. Cardinal in the Snow is the follow…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Mr. Alec Bowman – I Used To Be Sad & Then I Forgot
A scoundrel of the mundane, Mr. Alec Bowman describes himself in the sleeve notes to this album. He goes on to dedicate it to his grandparents and to those who are struggling to stay alive, amongst others. The album itself,…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Album | Lucinda Williams – Good Souls, Better Angels
“The world’s falling apart – it’s like the apocalypse” spits the accompanying press release to Lucinda Williams’ latest record Good Souls, Better Angels. It sounds like something that could’ve been written about these strange times we’re living through, but it…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Album | Ron Sexsmith – Hermitage
Ron Sexsmith is a name that needs no introduction to anyone reading these pages. The songwriters’ songwriter proves that that’s an accolade much deserved on Hermitage, his 17th studio album. We are greeted by birds chirping and playful and plaintive piano on…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Live | Sam Lee @ EartH
Entering EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney) for the first time, I was almost overwhelmed by its beauty. Its simple and stripped bare architecture. Its sloped wooden seating reminding me of a US school gymnasium hall. A slogan draped across the front…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Album | Sam Lee – The Old Wow
Sam Lee is a man who needs no introduction to anyone reading these pages. This is his fourth solo record and deserves as much recognition as his Mercury Award debut effort, Ground of its Own. This song hunter extraordinaire has…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Navarasa: Nine Emotions
An admission to begin with: As someone who has only dipped in and out of James Yorkston’s music over the years (despite being impressed by everything I’ve heard) this collaboration had totally passed me by until this moment. Navarasa: Nine…
by Mark Buckley • • Comments Off on Album | Fruit Bats – Gold Past Life
If ever an album was tailor-made for a road trip (and this road trip has to have the words ‘great’ and ‘American’ in its description), it’s Fruit Bat’s latest record, Gold Past Life. Eric D. Johnson – the project’s singer/songwriter –…