Three Chords and the Truth UK

  www.ghostofpaulrevere.com The first curiosity with this album was checking who is Paul Revere and seeking the relevance. Apart from being a key historical figure of a nation's fledgling days and a fellow native of the New England states, enlightenment is none the wiser other than it is a catchy name for a core rock trio hailing from the great state of Maine. Curiosity aside, The Ghost of Paul Revere have put their name to a rather fine album that elevates from dependable to impressive once garnering a few spins. GOOD AT LOSING EVERYTHING weighs in at twelve tracks, slimmed down in reality to ten when stripping out a short instrumental and an even shorter 43 second fading out finale.  While these two tracks are not quite representative of the album they do reflect the diverse nature that enables a record to rattle through its 39 minute duration without finding a seamless groove to define a sound. Instead we get a mixed set of Americana staples ranging from some rousing rocker...

  www.theeholybrothers.com The year's end may soon be approaching, but there is still time for an album to spring a surprise. While MY NAME IS SPARKLE is unlikely to rattle the cage of the year's big hitters, it is capable of rousing interest and far from falls by the wayside. You could go as far and say that the album is a compelling piece of innovative art as the project appears to start life as a secular-spiritual play before rolling out as a set of easy listening folk-pop tunes that are kind to the ear. Thee Holy Brothers (the collaboration of longstanding LA based folk-rock practitioners Willie Aron and Marvin Etzioni) are the architects behind this fascinating project that is heavy on the narrative and more than a little inquisitive in how it transmits from record to listener. There are almost two different stratospheres that this album resides in. One where you pay no real attention to the backstory and take the tracks at face value of being exceedingly catchy tunes. The...

  The latest album from Granger Smith powers towards its destination like a blinkered thoroughbred waiving away any distractions that may knock it off course. The intended audience are a ripe target eager for the content and willing to lap up the sensibility of this deep rooted Texas country artist. Armed with the intent and tools perfectly equipped for the job, you get all the bases covered with plenty of little extras thrown in. Granger Smith doesn't hanker for navel gazing acclaim and advises that his music is absorbed with a huge smile. This is an artist who fully understands the industry memo alongside a road map to a hungry base.  COUNTRY THINGS is perpetually idealistic in focussing on an embedded outlook alongside cultivating an image of life through the lens of a limited periphery. Granger Smith uses every ounce of his pride, wit and musical nous to inject a streak of optimistic fun into a record that skates across a rink of cliches while never losing sight of th...

www.martinsimpson.com A studious looking folk singer, acoustic unplugged guitar, the family cat and a simple title of HOME RECORDINGS; a quartet of defining features that perfectly sums up the latest offering from legendary English folk artist Martin Simpson. Not one ever short on ideas and inspiration, Simpson has shrugged off the impeding traits of 2020 and set out on a mission of which he has excelled at for many years. Expect the stripped back sound of a frugal recording environment expanded by some virtuoso blues-style finger picking, and a raft of tunes both familiar and revisited showing Simpson's ability to speculate and interpret.  HOME RECORDINGS, a contender for the most simplistic and explicit title of the year, is no short sharp release as fourteen tracks tumble across a listening time gracing just shy of three quarters of an hour. Word laden songs rub shoulders with a smattering of instrumentals, and fans of American folk standards won't argue with ' Angel Fro...

  www,benglover.co.uk The work of Ben Glover, Gretchen Peters, Colm McLean and Kim Richey has been entwined on many levels over the last few years that it is of no surprise that all four names crop up again in one of the year's surprising yet so tantalising releases. It is not quite a case of getting the band back together after a long break, but the momentous effect of recent events makes it seem like an eternity since Ben was writing with Gretchen, touring and collaborating with Kim, and spectacularly calling on the exceptional guitar playing service of Colm.  Essentially SWEET WILD LILY is a Ben Glover release, but he has long made claim to being the king of the co-operatives, and all four names link up on this four track EP in some way or another. Let us begin not with the title track, but the release's most recognisable feature. Following in the footsteps of the menacingly dark ' Blackbirds', Glover has decided to record his own version of a Peters co-write, this ...

  www.garyvanmiert.com Sometimes you can be guilty of spending too much time looking for a record's hidden depth when the appeal is designed to be clear, simple and transparent, In the case of Gary Van Miert it is just to make a fun album that purely indulges a lifelong passion to savour and share the spirit of classic country music. If you're going to dive full length into a celebratory project then you might as well drop the day name and conjure up a tag that yells from the treetops what you want everybody to get. So here's born The Sensational Country Blues Wonders! complete with enhanced punctuation and an all encompassing title boring to the core of country music. THE WORLD WILL BREAK YOUR HEART is not clamouring for awards, recognition or influential status, nor does it proclaim to save any genre. It is straightforward entertainment, free of pretence and wholly representative of a performer who has apparently gained a cult notoriety on the Jersey City music scene.  Ap...

  www.mannyblumusic.com The music of Manny Blu is definitely at the heart of the polarisation of country music as it rides the wave of the movement that courts the huge numbers vacated by a dormant soft rock market. It yearns for the adulation of a rapturous live audience and makes sure the sound bounds to a crescendo in each track. Subtlety is not there by design and maybe it is best consumed in social settings where a shared appreciation is rife. If the five tracks of NEW INK are on a mission to make a designer record for a moment in time, then it is absolutely spot on. Perhaps it doesn't warrant too much navel gazing and will maybe fit a time when pretensions are shed. This record is a diversion from my mission, but maybe we need a pitstop occasionally. Fifteen minutes to kick back and let inhibitions ebb away is not a lot to ask and a space has been found for the time being. 

  www.chuckmelchin.com The pandemic has thrown a lot of artists of course, but on the other hand many are finding alternative ways of channelling their creative focus with remote interactions becoming the norm. Los Brujos are one outfit born out of the ashes of 2020 and announce their arrival in the sphere of recorded music with the release of a debut EP titled ALCHEMY. The band, and the five tracks forming this extended play, are the fruition of long term colleagues Michael Spaly and Chuck Melchin getting together. Both took time off their respective own bands to deliver a record that tempts, teases and ultimately delivers across a brief expanse of 18 minutes.  Shades of dreamy psychedelia lace the opening number ' Reckoning ', very much in mystique synch with the classical imagery confronting you on the cover. ' Bronco' follows to deliver enchanting harmonies complete with mandolin interplay.  A slightly more uptempo number follows in ' Everything I can' ceme...

  www.mydarlingclementinemusic.co.uk You frequently come across debates about the merits of recording covers versus original music, and the various credentials. Of course not every artist can be an equally adept songwriter and the traditional trajectory of music would be very different if versions lay dormant in the realm of the originator. With reference to the latest My Darling Clementine record, it is not a case of being devoid of original material or intuitively raising the profile of hidden music. In contrast, this latest venture to record twelve Elvis Costello songs is very much a calling.  After recording three successful albums almost entirely comprising of self-written songs, Lou Dalgleish and Michael Weston King have parked the original material on one side and used their My Darling Clementine moniker to re-interpret a dozen Costello songs in the guise of their trademark country duet style. Apart from indulging a brace of life long passions, the duo attracted the ser...

  www.darrellscott.com Live gigs - oh so retro as we approach the final months of ill fated 2020. On the other hand if you are missing your up close and personal fix then checking out Darrell Scott's new record could be just the tonic. For fifty minutes one of American roots music's most esteemed practitioners will take you back into a world of audience cackle, enthusiastic applause, group singalongs and introductions both witty and insightful. The sound is as pure as the Colorado air which acted as the location for this live recording.  To be more precise the gig was held in a renovated catholic church in the village of Jaroso on the New Mexico border. You can see that Scott didn't exert much thought in drafting the title of the album, but simplicity runs riot right through the record from the sparse instrumentation and isolated cover image to an audience providing an intimate homely feel. To counter the enthusiasm for this record, critics could point out that music like t...