Three Chords and the Truth UK

Since the inception of this blog, the end of December has been the domain of those intrepid and deeply personal end of year lists. Albums, gigs, songs and even festival sets have been subject to objective analysis during a comprehensive review of the previous twelve months. The longest running accolade has been favourite gig of the year, which dates back to 2012 when the blog was first launched. Album of the year quickly followed, and both reflective posts enabled a countdown that each year picked an arbitrary number to effectively rank. Even in the curtailed gig years of 2020 and 2021 there was sufficient incentive to anoint a show that elevated to first among equals. However 2022 sees a sea change in impetus, and perhaps a tilt towards the idea that art does not necessarily need some sort of numerical analysis to asses  its worth. Therefore despite generating an album listening list nearing a couple of hundred releases, they will be left in their original form of primary enjoymen...

  www.theagilmore.net Twelve months ago Thea Gilmore ripped open the package of a new phase in the creative atmosphere of the Midland Arts Centre to stunning effect. With that new phase firmly embedded a return was a no brainer as another tour was scheduled to launch the post-Afterlight stage of a career now stretching twenty-three years. The solo format has become de facto with the presence of guitars, keys and an evolving loop machine providing the comfort blanket of sound. Throw in a passion for words plus vocals blending the blunt and beautiful, and what rises is a foremost contemporary singer-songwriter forever evading those aiming to pigeon hole. For an hour and a quarter this evening, Thea Gilmore treated a Birmingham audience to a celebratory compact show packaging the past, present and future in a mist of musical marvel.  Afterlight's seismic introduction last year is still there, yet quite subtly included. The main set opens and closes in the same vein of the album w...

  www.elliegowersmusic.com From Beardy bubbles to sold out signs, it has been a crazy couple of years in the music life of Warwickshire-based folk musician Ellie Gowers. The first of these markers is a little niche and personal, but the second was enabled by those cramming the Kitchen Garden to celebrate a landmark show on the debut album launch tour. While Birmingham may not be quite the hometown show, it is increasingly becoming a fertile ground to increase a fanbase, and subsequently more and more are tuning into the wide reaching talents of an exceptional performer. Throughout the two sets this evening, Ellie put her confident and assured demeanour on full show to strip bear a passion and aptitude for curating a special song that etches a deeper mark on the local folk music landscape.  For a little preliminary context, Beardy bubbles refers to the miraculous socially distanced festival held in September 2020. From those first gently strummed chords at Beardy Folk festival ...

  www.jillandrews.com Success for artists striking out in new territories as live acts requires organic growth or instant impact. The former can only occur over time, but if the latter is in place from day one then the chances of succeeding are looking good. The best assessment of seeing Jill Andrews for the first time is to liken her traits to those of three fellow Nashville- based artists adept at ensuring their music travels with acclaim. The poise of Erin Rae, the song craft of Caroline Spence and the vocal air of Gretchen Peters all came to mind as the latest US singer-songwriter export parading on the fault lines between country, folk and Americana took to the stage for a mesmerising hour and a quarter during the Birmingham date of an inaugural UK tour. It doesn't require too much research to uncover the pedigree of Jill Andrews back home with a recording catalogue stretching over eighteen years in numerous formats and guises. The degree that pedigree was channelled into a po...

www.samlewistunes.com

www.michaelwestonking.com A balmy night at the end of June or a dreary rainy one at the beginning of November? Covid stepped in to determine the latter and who could argue that a darker background wasn't a more appropriate setting to showcase an album shining a light on life's darker corners. THE STRUGGLE broadly announces its arrival from a title landing the first blow and it evolves into a piece of recorded art deserving a platform for dissection. When you have waited a decade to turn the clocks back to a more solo focussed period of a career, maximising its effect is high on the agenda. Michael Weston King felt the presence of Clovis Phillips is the only just way of truly opening the pages of THE STRUGGLE and that an old favourite venue in the Kitchen Garden was an ideal place to ease out the contents of a record ripened by acute ears. Circumnavigating suburban Birmingham's flooded roads for an hour did briefly yearn for sunny June, but the prize of candid exposure ebbed...

  www.gazbrookfield.com Idiomatic by Gaz Brookfield

  www.laineywilson.com Lainey Wilson makes a rapid return to the ranks of recording artist status with a stylish album full of magnetic striking appeal. This Louisiana-born singer-songwriter makes an attentive entrance via the vogue-like cover and draws you into a depth of country flare, or flair - take your pick. BELL BOTTOM COUNTRY is an enthusiastic album packed with a breadth of sounds protruding out from the comfort of the well-resourced Nashville mainstream. The production is staple yet refined with a finished shine polished to dangle in front of both insatiable junkies and discerning veterans.  This is one of Wilson's strengths that draws her out from the pack of those jostling to be the contemporary face of a genre. The pop gloss is kept to a minimum to allow heaps of southern affection to ooze from the songs that are quintessentially country. This album is another release on the BBR Music Group / Broken Bow Records operation similar to 2021's ear catching SA...

Projects like Voices From The Cones need full journey status to establish their true worth. While album preview, release and launch are all notable landmarks, it is the iceberg analogy of what you haven't seen and the shift above the surface that truly define the effect. From idea spark to studio recording, the initial part of this journey out of public view likely struck the hard yards. Creativity now passes the baton on to commercial endeavour to give this project the best chance of reaching and fulfilling audiences with an appetite for archival folk transmission. The Glasshouse Arts Centre in Stourbridge stands on the physical sands of a trade sunk into the heart of a community and commandeers one part of the spirit. The other part is every curious mind that absorbs the message and art of Voices From The Cones, whether hailing from this south western corner of the Black Country or anywhere else accessing a far reaching digital release.  Voices From The Cones primarily protr...

  www.dan-whitehouse.com The glass influence can be seen all over modern day Stourbridge. The Glassboys fly the sporting flag, while a bite 'n' pint can be had in The Glassworks pub. To these you can add the ongoing work done by The Glasshouse College in their chosen field of education. Now the world renowned glassmaking tradition of this Black Country town gets a different slant in the arts world. This is in the shape of a meticulously curated and creatively spun body of work unveiled to the world under the banner VOICES FROM THE CONES. Spearheaded by local singer-songwriter/musician Dan Whitehouse, this concept album brings to life 400 years of industrial heritage in the timeless volume of words and song. Commissioned by a partnership including the Ruskin Mill Trust, archives have been trawled; first hand experience sought and anecdotes collected to morph into a dozen songs brimming with a past life under the control of Whitehouse and his accomplices. These range from local s...

  www.mgboulter.co.uk On an evening when Smethwick was temporarily twinned with Southend-on-Sea, Thimblemill Library maintained its winning run of inviting very literary-focussed singer-songwriters to the most literary of settings. Stories, anecdotes and intuitive song influences spilled out of M G Boulter to such an extent they could well have created a section on the heaving shelves to house an alternative work of word art. The theme was a celebration of an album that has proved more than durable in its eighteen month existence in spheres of those hooking up on its contents at various points of a seminal journey. CLIFFTOWN may well be nearing the end of its cycle as an artist's focal point, well at least until it re-emerges for the customary anniversaries. However there has been room for a swan song as this Essex-based singer-songwriter refreshed the presentation for a final tilt in this phase. This was the third time seeing M G Boulter live since CLIFFTOWN entered its commercial...

  www.mlockwoodporter.com SISYPHUS HAPPY is the sort of record that if you allow it to burrow deep into your pores a sumptuous high will surface. M Lockwood Porter has captured and savoured a particular fertile patch of his creative whims to tumble headlong into a record that seemingly came out of turbulent personal times. From a clear inner signal to slim down the operation, the result is a simpler production and rounded sum of ten compulsive tracks showing this Oklahoma-raised/Bay Area-based artist is firing flat out on what is now his fifth full length release.  The title is the first interesting thoughtful point on a record getting its release on the increasingly influential label Black Mesa Records. Sisyphus was famously known in Greek Mythology for pushing a boulder eternally up a hill; a metaphor for life's frustrating repetitive blocks. If M Lockwood Porter felt this in his professional career, the fruits of the new record suggest a successful alleviatio...

  www.bonfireradicals.com Bonfire Radicals have cut their cloth as a vibrant live band on the local gig and festival circuit. Their take on folk music leans heavily almost entirely towards the instrumental spectrum and this is reflected in the latest release. THE SPACE BETWEEN is the second album from this Birmingham-based band and fully formed to transmit a taste of the live performances from stage to home. While this is a studio effort you still get the feel of absorbing it in a shared space and feeding off some element of group motion. Nine tracks form this album with a defined split of eight instrumentals and a solitary song. The latter is the Birmingham murder ballad ' Mary Ashford' , a tune written by Midlands-bred musician Jon Wilkes with traditional lyrics enhanced by a final verse accredited to the band. The theme is a famous nineteenth century legal case with ramifications still felt today. The final verse brings things two hundred years up to date with a fiery respon...

  www.themagpiesmusic.com UNDERTOW is a record born out of collaboration and decked with surplus panache to project forward the careers of three hugely talented musicians. Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Kate Griffin weave in acres of artistry producing a folk album successful at linking generations and continents. The Magpies can have a fluid existence outside the studio, but once in the recording realm the trio format sparkles and shines to maximise the enhanced input.  This self-released effort is a follow up to 2020's TIDINGS. In those pre-shutdown times The Magpies were gaining traction to become one of folk music's hottest new properties. That traction is now accelerated in an eleven-track album packed to the hilt with so many fascinating facets. A trio of traditional titles rub shoulders with a pair of originally composed tunes, a quintet of new songs and a cover to turn heads. A re-interpreted pop cover shouldn't headline a folk album, so mentioning the band's ...

  www.townmountain.net Good things happen to those who wait and are able to capitalise on good fortune. Asheville-based band Town Mountain have certainly done the hard yards over the last fifteen years and now a timely boost is in order after being picked up by influential label New West Records. The result is their music getting a wider reach and LINES IN THE LEVEE will increase traction with an international focus. If Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson can blast out of genre confines into cool quarters in far away lands, there is no reason why TOWN MOUNTAIN can't follow suit and bring their take on country and Americana music into an alternative realm. Just two more associated name checks before digging deeper into this gem suggests that you wouldn't be far off describing the sound of Town Mountain as flourishing on the fault line where Old Crow Medicine Show meets an unpolished Zac Brown. Coming from deepest North Carolina helps frame the southern sentiment that runs throug...

  www.dannygeorgewilson.com There is enough electricity to light up the Worcestershire Way when Danny Wilson and Paul Lush ignite their guitar duals. Maybe its more Lushy letting it rip and sparking off the acoustic riffs, but the effect is the same. Mind you, playing in front of a scintillating rhythmic pairing of Joe Bennet and Steve Brooks is heaven sent. Throw in some keys from one of the architects of the latest album courtesy of Henry Garratt and the Danny George Wilson Band was firing on all cylinders as they leapt closer to completing a successful run of autumn dates.  A return to St. George's Hall for Danny Willson saw his band open the 2022 Bewdley Festival on a night a little different to the usual Severn Sessions that has hosted Americana music in this riverside town for several years. Gone for the night was the youth and local support act, though guest of the evening Katy Rose Bennett did lay claim to some brief Bewdley roots. There was also an air of formality in...