Ceremony seems to suggest formality, yet Tiny Ruins new album is far less formal than the title suggests. Hollie Fullbrook wrote the album during walks with her dogs along the turbulent landscape of “Old Murky” – Tāmaki Makaurau’s (aka Auckland’s)…
“Sometimes these are the best dreams I’ve ever had/Like a sparkle of crystals in the palm of my hand”. From the opening lines of Arborist’s third album, we are welcomed into a world observed from a different angle. Arborist, aka Mark McCambridge,…
Lucy Farrell has been a name on the English folk circuit for a number of years, duetting with Jonny Kearney for a while and gaining acclaim in supporting slots or the likes of The Unthanks and Bellowhead. After winning the…
Esther Rose has lived a bit of a nomadic existence, and now living in Santa Fe, after stays in Columbiaville, Michigan; and New Orleans, Safe to Run suggests that trading places has had a certain appeal. It’s as if she…
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” So begins L.P. Hartley’s 1953 novel The Go-Between, but it could easily apply to this wondrous reclamation of a past that had almost been considered lost forever. The story…
Sometimes things just don’t fit. Angel Olsen had that problem with ‘Nothing’s Free’, the first track from her new EP, Forever Means. Soulful in a way that the other songs on Big Time weren’t, it became obvious it wouldn’t make…
Creating one of the densest openings a song has ever had, The New Pornographers take ‘Really, Really Light’ from Continue as a Guest and rather than sounding soft and reflective they almost sound like Electric Light Orchestra. Everything jangles and…
“My God it’s good to see you/ Right here in the flesh.” With that Celebrants takes a look at what has gone on in the nine years since Nickel Creek released their last LP. Times and people change. Examining that…
Inspiration can come from anywhere. In the case of Almost A Sunset by Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman it seems to come from everywhere. Gargoyles, Robin Hood, tight rope walkers, even lions in revolt are spun into gold by the…
Life works in mysterious ways, Iris DeMent nearly gave up on the songs from Workin’ On A World, the album that had its genesis after America’s 2016 presidential anomaly. By 2020 the recordings helmed by Richard Bennet and Jim Rooney…