Three Chords and the Truth UK

This event was originally a beacon of live music hope in the dark approaching days of December before then switching to hopefully becoming the first shoots of spring in March. Unfortunately both these stagings succumbed to what has become the norm over the last fourteen months as the gig circuit ground to a halt. Never has the saying 'third time lucky' ever been truer as finally Ramblin' Roots got the show on the road with a double headed presentation to become one of the first gigs to spring out of the current lockdown. While those attending this show on the Friday had the purest of experiences, us attendees on Saturday may have impishly benefited from the warm up. Seriously all artists invited to perform in this revised format of the Revue evenings no doubt gave their all on both nights and likewise it didn't take long to dust off any gathered rust. Danny Wilson Robin Bennett and Friend(s) Without a full blown festival in both now 2020 and 2021, the team behind the Ra...

26 becomes the new 25 for English folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman as they kick off a celebratory milestone of performing in their current format. Of course 'year 25' was cruelly robbed from them in terms of getting out and about, with a musical existence confined to their Dartmoor base and an enforced period of readjustment and reflection. Just prior to lockdown, the retrospective bandcamp release aptly titled ON REFLECTION came out to support their silver performing anniversary, and the first the show back since the easing of the situation carried on the nostalgia feel in a similar vein. While this wasn't the Kitchen Garden's first live show in the new post-second wave world, it was the gig rehabilitation for yours truly and a return to the scene of that moment in March 2020 when unknowingly at the time live music was about to grind to a halt. There was one low key gig in the autumn and a single outdoor festival day, but that now appears an apparition in a se...

www.jesseterrymusic.com For a slice of cool and cultured Americana, you would be right on the mark if you choose the latest album from Jesse Terry. Of course this Connecticut-born singer-songwriter is no stranger to UK fans in recent times with tours and a presence. In the run up to the release of WHEN WE WANDER, he participated in one of the popular Green Note twice weekly streams and is using his contacts to reach multiple parts of the UK market. The key thing is the product is up to scratch, thus making it a convenient engagement and a pleasure for fans with smart ears to tap into another record awash with sharp songs delivered in a sweet and sincere manner.  The bright demeanour protracting out from the album cover reflects an artist at ease and one embedded in the positive light that the songs reach the listener's ear. Maybe the breezy image does belie a frantic process in steering an album release through the violent waters of a once-in-a century pandemic. Now that the seas h...

  www.soolineloonsmusic.com Soo Line Loons won't keep you very long on their  eponymous third album and may just have a little bit more to offer than surely the most curious of band names to cross your path this year. The nine tracks weighing in a couple of minutes short of the half hour mark is enough time for this Minnesota-based Americana band to soak you in their raucous blend of fast paced earthy music drawing on facets of fully blown tub thumping folk rock forever tipping a nod in a blues direction and expressly inspired story telling.  For the record, Soo Line Loons draw their name from a local railroad in their home state and probably are a little surprised to see their album cross the waves to the land of the Tube, trains notoriously late and a rail network forever flitting between private and public ownership. Putting an international time division to one side, music knows no boundaries and there is a ready made ...

  www.craigcardiff.com Among the throng of Canadian artists that have had their homegrown brand of folk music exported overseas by various means and mechanisms, the list has not been graced by Craig Cardiff yet. Now after 25 albums and EPs spanning at least as many years, this Ottawa-based singer-songwriter has been picked up by the expansive operation True North Records and thus an opportunity to make splashes in foreign markets as well. ALL THIS TIME RUNNING in its raw state is an eleven track collection, expanded by over 50% when bonus, big band and explicit versions of songs are added to a no doubt available format to duplicate the promotional campaign. This is an album that requires the listener to twiddle the dial a few times to alter the reception. It could do with a killer track to pin its no doubt high substantive base to. The album does lead towards a mainstream feel of some of its folkier parts being smoothed out in order to meet a market. That is all fine and well, ulti...

  www.philhooley.hearnow.com The back room is full of dreams, hopes, frustration and reality. It is also the ultimate place of self-actualisation when the dust settles. Those who scoff the back room do not frequent it. Those who believe in the back room contract it from experience. The back room belongs whole heartedly to both sides of the divide - egalitarian and bereft of filters. Phil Hooley without doubt knows the back room like the back of his hand and so will those who tune into a debut solo album that knows the clock has struck the decisive hour.  Of course fame and fortune may provide a ticket for Phil Hooley out of the back room. If it does the back room will seek its next entrapment, one seduced by the dream and hope, though likely pounded by the frustration and reality. One side of the divide may change, but the paying side of the divide remains stoic and entrenched. That is because solace is sought in the back room. It feeds a craving to belong and freedom from the...

  www.anniekeating.com Annie Keating has been a consistent performer for many years, never falling below the high bar set when first discovering her through the 2008 album BELMONT. Those were the days where you were more likely to pick up recommendations through the music mags rather than today's proliferation of online barrage. Like now Annie Keating always had a good European presence and often saw the north eastern United States has a starting point to spread her music. In line with her previous seven releases, the latest offering as found its way overseas, albeit the digital mode has certainly eased the passage. Some have already said that BRISTOL COUNTY TIDES is her best yet. That assertion may be a little premature as it's such a hefty package of work. Like the old adage, a dog is for life not just Christmas, this demanding album warrants more than just release day. However it must be said that all roads look like leading to a pinnacle and not just the Massachusetts coast...

  www.mariamauldaur.com Throughout an active career approaching sixty years, American roots icon Maria Muldaur has delved back into the time vault of many aspects of her country's rich musical history. Honing in on a desire never to sit still, she is forever intent at chipping away on projects and couldn't resist turning her hand to New Orleans jug band jazz and associated old time blues tunes once hooking up with real deal exponents of that style Tuba Skinny. The result is LET'S GET HAPPY TOGETHER,  a golden dozen of rip roaring songs that breathe fresh light on the originals that all surfaced in the twin heyday decades of the twenties and thirties.  The key to enjoying this collection is that there really isn't one. No prior knowledge of the songs chosen or indeed of Maria Muldaur's award hauling past is required, or any particularly embedded fondness for this style of music. Yet the execution is so true, real, engaging and compulsive that the urge to reach out fo...

  www.gnossmusic.com THE LIGHT OF THE MOON may not be the first release by emerging Scottish folk quartet Gnoss, but it could be the one that catapults them into a similar realm of peers such as Skerryvore, Rura, and going back a wee bit further, Runrig. A common feature of all these bands is a capable blend of high octane traditional fanfare awash with fiddles, pipes, whistles and strings coupled with finely crafted musicianship from some of most talented players scattered across all points north of the border.  From an inflated dozen tracks (basically eleven plus a short sub-minute prelude), the band filter in a bias towards the tunes with seven instrumental pieces almost doubling the four songs that generally showcase the slightly mellower side of Gnoss. The full complement of songs and tunes are all original compositions, yet this release checking in just shy of forty minutes often has that well worn traditional feel. There is a common thread of dedications among the title...