Three Chords and the Truth UK

  www.iseehawks.com The band with the fabulous name. It is admitted that the name was the initial pull back in 2008. In those days before streaming there was an alternative 'try before you buy', but that aspect of the music industry known as file sharing has long been shut off. Anyhow the I See Hawks in LA album of that year HALLOWED GROUND did pass the test and moved into the realm of purchased music setting off a mission to track their career. Now forward wind a fair few years and they are still active in an epicentre of California and a hinterland stretching as far as Europe. In fact 2021 sees the release of their umpteenth album with ON OUR WAY being as typical of I See Hawks in LA as we have come to expect.  The new album is a record that both challenges and soothes. There are parts where you feel in the safe hands of a band churning out some good quality yet staple fare of folk 'n' country rock, or Americana if you want a catch all term. Alternatively, there are b...

  www.darrinbradbury,com ARTVERTISEMENT is the enigmatic follow up to Darrin Bradbury's 2019 release TALKING DOGS AND ATOM BOMBS. That album had Kenneth Pattengale from The Milk Carton Kids at the helm but this time Bradbury has gone alone on that facet. However the result is along the same lines of an album dropping into your vicinity souding quite like no other and drawing you into the web of an artist provoking an element of curiosity to their work. The rapid fire of nearly a dozen tracks peppering your senses in little under half an hour is repeated with the same effect of straining your mental sinews to pop down the channel the artist is leading you to.  Listening to ARTVERTISEMENT many times continues to draw comparisons with Micah Schnabel. Both are idiosyncratic and fuse poetic folk with punk sensibilities to subscribe to a singer-songwriter set housed within the broadening boundaries of Americana. To actually try to dissect and understand all the lyrical subtleties su...

www.joshokeefe.com The resume of Josh O'Keefe suggests an artist whose dream has paid off and appears to have a career chugging along nicely. However a blank page is presented when you land in a town who knows nothing of you and ten paying customers decide to take a punt. At this point you may question where the last decade has gone or more likely knuckle down and dig deep into the resolve that has accumulated the sum of that resume. From a tentative start where he surveyed the scene and searched for the biting point of his musical clutch, Josh O'Keefe suddenly clicked into gear and proceeded over the course of two sets spanning an hour and a half to show what the resume tells. Despite heading west from his UK home nearly a decade ago to seek the musical nirvana of dusty roads leading out of Tennessee and collecting some impressive notches on the way, Josh O'Keefe came to my attention first in the recent lockdown when appearing on one of the twice weekly virtual Green Note ...

For the record Shrewsbury Folk Festival is a four day event which adds a Friday evening and Monday afternoon slot to a full slate of sets across the weekend. The beauty of such an event in an accessible town centre setting is the opportunity to be a day visitor and experience it as an array of high class gigs. On the surface it appears that the majority of attendees embrace it as a wider music and dance festival with the booked artists merely part of an offering that extends into activism. From an operation of two major timetabled stages that enable the viewing of just six sets per full weekend day, it is hardly a dashing around event, but you are compensated by each performance packed full of substance and a decent length.  For 2021, the organisers opted to go down the open aired stage route as opposed to the vast marquees that have been the feature of previous years. While this decision was heavily based on offsetting the possible extended imposition of Covid restrictions, it was...

  www.rolandrobertsband.com ALL ABOUT THE TIMING is the debut album from Roland Roberts and on the evidence of the content he has just got that about right, well at least in the context of landing a ready made record into the laps of folks who will love his style. This is one where a country ramble gentle rolls along blending crafted musicianship with tight songwriting to tip your hat to those who have laid the path for the wise and informed to follow.  This 10-song strong album kicks off with the cracking tune ' Beautiful Soul' blessed with the most luscious of chorus melodies that plants remnants of Kacey Musgraves' ' Merry Go Round '. A blast of harmonica introduces ' Picture on the Wall' and stays the duration as we head into traditional seventies singer-songwriter mode. The sort of sound that a sold shed load in the day. ' Wake Up' is a little darker with the definitive line 'you wear desperation like a bad cologne', while the opening...

  www.malcolmholcombe.com The inimitable and enigmatic Malcolm Holcombe surfaces out of lockdown in the only true way he knows, namely recording another album to maintain a rapid flow of releases that has seemed to accelerate in recent years. TRICKS OF THE TRADE in its basic format comprises of a dozen new tracks. For those wanting a little extra, there is the deluxe edition with an additional track, and who could wish for anything more than an extra dose of this North Carolinian famed for putting an almost unique stamp on his interpretation of American roots music. If you have been fortunate to catch him on one of his many live shows including several European excursions, there is an indelible mark on your memory. For me there was the initial awe of over a decade ago witnessing him rocking in a dining chair while letting his music counter the theory of balance. More recently it was an appearance in front of a Friday night social club crowd who if they were a little perplexed, did ...

  www.karenjonasmusic.com Just a fleeting visit from Karen Jonas here to keep you updated what she is doing in between likely major projects. For fans of her music in the UK we had the recent highs of the excellent album SOUTH WEST SKY AND OTHER DREAMS and an impressive virtual showcase at the 2021 UK Americana Fest coupled with the disappointment of her scheduled visit last summer succumbing to the pandemic. In the meantime, the newly released SUMMER SONGS is a four track EP keeping the wheels moving including three originals and a popular cover.  In line with the seasonal theme of the album cover and title, a version of Don Henley's popular classic ' Boys of Summer' opens this EP. Apart from the obvious vocal differences, the blueprint of the original is closely followed and your viewpoint is likely forged by how much you rate this song.  The remainder of the EP sees Jonas in laid back summer mode with a snapshot of the slower paced numbers that make up part of the...

  www.gracemorrison.com From the tones of the title track that introduces Grace Morrison as a recording artist, you feel in the presence of someone without pretence. In fact the overarching effect is one of carefree abandonment, yet still cautious of where the music is going to get picked up. Whatever is the desired outcome, sprinkling the sound with the delicate twang of Lloyd Maines's pedal steel guitar is going to court the country fraternity and enamour a wing that doesn't mind a wander down pop's luscious and spacious highway. DAUGHTER is a classic case of sharing the personal in a way to engage the many and the approach taken by Grace Morrison is an alluring one to boot. Across the twelve tracks that have been committed to evolve DAUGHTER into a product of enhanced substance, you get themes from a perceptive stance that are as open to admirable interpretation as that of just kicking back and loving a sound that has formed a soundtrack for many years. Associations can ...

www.hannahrarity.com It was predicted early on that the live music landscape for the remainder of 2021 would be dominated by home based talent. Early indication suggests that there is going to be a healthy diet of Scottish folk musicians particularly framed by the female vocals, which have such a mesmerising presence of interpreting song in its many guises. Last month Eddi Reader paid the English Midlands a visit with her touring show, and in the autumn a similar gig hinterland is set welcome visits from Karine Polwart, Siobhan Miller and Jenny Sturgeon. However let's park the past and future for a moment and focus on the present when the beautiful voice of Hannah Rarity was savoured for the first time. The Acoustic Music Centre sounds like the sort of round the clock grassroots venue that continues to support a scene in its organic form. Closer scrutiny reveals it is a pop up operation to curate folk music in the vast cultural pool that is the Edinburgh Fringe for three weeks in A...

  www.propermusic.com/rdp2101-midnight-carnival.html Mark Germino is a name you may recognise or not. If you are in the former camp, memories of an influential singer-songwriter who rubbed shoulders with roots industry luminaries will surface alongside recollection of the song ' Rex Bob Lowenstein'. On the other hand, it is perfectly understandable to be in the latter group due to a lengthy gap of recording inactivity that has been filled by a near-lifetime's worth of good music elsewhere. Seemingly out of nowhere, we are presented with a brand new Mark Germino album perfectly set up to be one of the year's surprise packages. MIDNIGHT CARNIVAL unleashes it hefty content upon keen ears via a Red Parlor Records/Proper platform and you will soon conclude that a rich and fertile past has re-surfaced into a prosperous present. This fourteen track album absorbs, teases and ultimately delivers as Germino metaphorically wanders down America's long and winding songwriting h...

    www.himynameisro.com 'Hi my name is ro' is the handle that greets you when tracking her online and almost prises the response 'nice to discover your music' once the debut album is listened to. The artist in question is Ro Myra. A new name to many and another welcome recruit to the ever fulfilling sound putting an alternative indie tilt to lo-fi folk Americana. Among the first things to greet you upon gazing the cover are an evocative title in NOWHERE, NEBRASKA and a desolate image of miles and miles of nothing. From an element of space to be filled, attention switches to seven songs meticulous spun, and the air soon fills with a swirling array of tunes sweeping up the emptiness in a comforting blanket of attentive music.  To fill in a few details, Ro Myra is a Nashville-based artist and original native of Nebraska. No surprises for the link there. The album is self-produced and the solo status extends to the composition of each song. The calling to be a recording...

  www.seanmcconnell.com Sean McConnell follows up his well-received 2019 album SECOND HAND SMOKE with a brand new collection of songs primed to raise his standing as an esteemed singer-songwriter bobbing in the spacious waters between mainstream country, Americana and heartland rock. From the swirling confusing imagery of the album cover, A HORRIBLE BEAUTIFUL DREAM is a reflective album taking stock while depicting an artist seeking a sound footing in an ever changing world.  The last few years has seen Sean McConnell raise his profile in the UK including a spot on the Front Porch stage at the Long Road Festival. Time has been spent assessing his pitch in the vast pool of American singer-songwriter music and the new album extends this exploration through thirteen fresh tracks mainly of a solo write origin. This status doesn't really define McConnell as an artist as evidenced by four collaborative tracks on the album including familiar names Natalie Hemby, Dan Tyminski and the ...