It’s said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but twelve years seems like a lifetime in the music industry. Yet fans waited with bated breath for the fire of Beachwood Sparks to be rekindled. With the release of Across the River of Stars, the long wait is finally over. The pieces that made the band unique are still on display, from the Byrds-ian guitar vibe to the west coast Burritos and Gram Parsons countrified sounds, they remain relevant even as the clang of Father Time affects so many other country contemporaries. While Josh Schwartz may have succumbed to ALS back in 2017, the rest ..read more

“It was a warts and all album in a way that I never had done before […] a funeral to the life I was living”, Canadian singer-songwriter Donovan Woods muses on his seventh studio album, Things Were Never Good If They’re Not Good Now. In it, he scrutinises his life and his choices and it is plain that he is not necessarily content with what he sees inside. With this album, we see Woods pushing himself off from the bottom, away from the depths to which his struggles had taken him, and reaching for a fresh start. Co-produced with longtime collaborator James Bunton, it is a masterclass in vulnerab ..read more

Jake Xerxes Fussell seems like music’s answer to Dos Equis’ “the world’s most interesting man.” He hosts a radio show on North Carolina’s WHUP-FM in Hillsborough with Jefferson Currie II every Wednesday afternoon. Covering music from Bob Dylan and June Tabor to Nigerian soul music and Swedish fiddle tunes, they are both American folklorists, which only adds to the intrigue and eccentricities of When I’m Called.  Covering everything from the works of Benjamin Britten to an aircraft mechanic, this is a collection that never shocks, but surprises at every turn. The aforementioned aircraft m ..read more

Songwriter is the latest posthumously released album showcasing the talent of the great Johnny Cash – and this one is perhaps his most personal yet. Co-produced by his son John Carter Cash and longtime sound engineer for ‘The Man in Black’, David ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Songwriter brings Cash’s wonderfully rich vocals into the modern era. After discovering his father’s previously unreleased 1993 recordings, Cash joined forces with Ferguson to strip them back to vocals and acoustic guitar and then layer them up again to sound as they would if Cash had recorded them today. There is strong support fr ..read more

The world tends to play tricks on you when you least expect it. Though the Felice Brothers have been recording for almost two decades, singing songs of faith and despair, hope and heartbreak, dealing with every aspect of the human condition. Yet when it came time to release Valley of Abandoned Songs Ian Felice was content to put it out on Bandcamp. That is until he sent a copy to Conor Oberst. Having put out two previous Felice Brothers’ albums on a label he co-owned, not to mention recording Salutations with them almost a decade ago, when Oberst heard this new collection, he created Million ..read more

Lankum are unruly. While they play traditional Irish music, they don’t play it traditionally. At times this folk group seems closer to playing Irish heavy metal. They assault the senses one minute, then hit another button and come out with the sort of music one finds at the neighbourhood pub. It can be raucous as hell and as sweet as a Sunday morning, making Live in Dublin a virtually perfect document of their live performances.  They are shape shifters. ‘The Pride of Petravor’ works its way out of the ashes of ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’ with slow moving bowed guitars giving way to pipes ..read more

The Decemberists are one of the most literate bands on the planet. Not that should be a shock since Colin Meloy is also a published author with a series of young adult books to his credit, not to mention a children’s book, a novel and a yet to be revealed theatrical project. This makes listening to the Decemberists a bit different than hearing your typical rock band. Coming in the wake of a six-year gap where the world tilted a bit more precipitously on its axis, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again heralds a rebirth for the band. Conceived as a double album with four distinct sides, it begins ..read more

Arriving four years after her debut album Hemet introduced the world to Niamh Regan’s powerful brand of quiet and powerful introspection, we receive the follow up Come As You Are. Whereas the former was recorded in studios between Galway and California, the latter finds the Irish Regan sticking closer to her roots with the whole of Come As You Are finding its feet and spreading its wings in Donegal. Past recordings found Regan being compared to everyone from Laura Marling and John Martyn in her voice and intonation to Josh Ritter and Jeff Tweedy in her widescreen stor ..read more

2020 was a year of confusion, heartbreak, and resilience. It was tough, but it was also a time when creativity flourished in new ways. Thus it was with Oregon based songwriter Anna Tivel, who remarks, “I wrote feverishly in the strange chaos of that year, suddenly out of work and attempting to understand the shifting human fabric, the depth of desperation and the overwhelming tenacity of spirit.”  The result is Living Thing, an album full of life and rhythm, a study of the human condition and what we break down to when our daily routine is stripped back. Due to Covid restrictions, Tivel ..read more

Richard Thompson makes music unlike anybody else in the recording industry, and he’s been doing it since the late 1960s. Jamming with Hendrix, covered by a who’s who of the recording industry, received an OBE from Queen Elizabeth. What’s left to prove? That he’s still relevant? That’s where Ship to Shore comes in. If there was ever any question, Ship to Shore makes it clear that Thompson is still a songwriter beyond compare and a guitarist second to none.  His songs pack a punch, and right off the bat, ‘Freeze’ can shake you to your foundations as it tells the tale of a man stuck in plac ..read more