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…
You wonder if Laura Marling has ever stood still. From the moment she released her first EP at the somewhat impatient age of 17 everything she has done has been a progression, a departure, a new set of ideas. With…
Covers albums are notoriously difficult to pull off effectively. Mixing the necessary reverence to the artist whose tunes are being re-rendered with trying to tease out additional nuances is fiendishly challenging. For those that pull off the trick like David…
Brandi Carlile has a firebrand of a voice. It has shades of country, pop and blues in its powerful range, a little like a female version of Ryan Adams. Her music is cut from the same cloth, a commercial take…