Old Californio METATERRANEA

Old Californio
Metaterranea
Self Released

Lush, well-crafted Pop Infused Americana With Superb Attention to Detail, and Tasty Slide Guitar Too.

Could Old Californio be the Steely Dan of Americana with their songs full of lush, well-crafted solos, clean, well-recorded instrumentation, and tight vocals; or would they instead be considered the Americana Electric Light Orchestra (sans the string section) with their Beatlesesque harmonies, attention to pop detail, and tasty slide guitar?
Either way, after six albums in sixteen years, vocalist Rich Dembowski and guitarist/singer Woody Aplanalp, have crafted yet another album of pure folk and country infused pop songs their special way, with some grand help from some of the genre’s best musicians.
Dembowski’s clear concise diction sometimes runs counterpoint to the subject matter, but meshes well with the instrumentation.
The mix throughout is very “a place for everything and everything in its place,” (the Steely Dan reference I mentioned earlier) which aims to showcase the excellent musicianship throughout. Speaking of the musicianship, all of the players on this album are heavy hitters—longtime drummer Justin Smith played with Howlin Rain and the Seeds, Jon Niemann is a longtime Los Angeles session keyboardist, Jason Chesney played bass with Mike Nesmith, and Paul Lacques is a guitarist and lap steel player with Stan Ridgeway, Chris Hillman, and the fabulous I See Hawks in L.A.
The album opener “Old Kings Road” is a love letter to the the El Camino Real, the “royal road” of old California, and the many dive bars and barrooms that dot the highway along its 600 mile stretch.
“Come Undone” is tight harmonies with sweet slide guitars and some tasty bar room piano along for the ride:
“And where you finish everything begins
l And everything else starts where you end
And the difference between the two
Is what you are where you’re at
but cannot contain you
Everything comes undone in time”
“The Swerve” begins with layers of picked electric guitars swirling around the vocal harmonies. More slide guitar to fill out the solo while the vocals get a touch more aggressive near the end, before it all ends with a feeling of peace.
The subject of weeds has become suddenly popular among songwriters.
“Weeds (Wildflowers),” is the fourth song I’ve heard this year alone about it being okay to be a “weed” and not a flower, with Old Californio’s offering being a brightly lit pop folk song about embracing what we are:
“Weeds are all wildflowers
Where no gardens are
I’m a weed in the garden
just a weed in the garden
Like Adam and Eve in the garden
We’re all weeds in the garden
but Weeds are all wildflowers”
The guys get noisier on “The Seer” with crunchy guitars, but keeping the contrast brightly lit with some more of that sweet slide guitar throughout.
The guys get jazzy on the album closer “Just Like a Cloud” which finishes with a psychedelia fuzz guitar solo done Old Californio style, apparently all recorded live in the studio.
This is the most “warts and all” track on the album and the most ambitious.
To say it’s the most interesting doesn’t detract from the other songs at all, it’s just this one is a standout for being the one where Dembowski and Alplanalp forget all about “Americana” and get authentically deep.
What?
A guitar solo can’t get deep?
Metaterranea is Old Californio bringing great musicianship to the studio for another album of great tunes. A celebration indeed.

Review by The legendary Roy Peak
Released October 27, 2023
https://www.facebook.com/oldcalifornio/

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RMHQ Radio Show Ep75 at Nova Radio NE, Newcastle

RMHQ Radio Show
Episode75
Nova Radio NE
Newcastle
Sunday 29th October

When I stared doing this new version of our radio show 18 months ago, I planned mixing a few new songs in with Roots/Americana/Blues songs from my extensive collection.
While finding new music was never going to be a challenge as I receive 20+ new albums ever week for reviewing.
But as time has gone by mailing lists have been updated and I now receive just as many singles every week, some as teasers for forthcoming albums but many simply songs people are releasing as genuine singles.
Some weeks I can keep this in check with a 50/50 split, but it’s getting harder with some of these being offered as EXCLUSIVES which is flattering for a Community Radio Show.
With Halloween on the horizon I was compelled to include a couple of relevent songs, all of which came to me as either Halloween singles or from two EP’s of similar ‘scary’ songs … so I chose acts you probably haven’t heard of.
Also, this week I played two songs from a Various Artist tribute to The Judds (who I didn’t know) and later I found out my mate Jeff King who does a pure Country Show on Nova Radio NE also played two from that album … which I hope shows how good and eclectic it is.

Muddy Waters	Got My Mojo Working (LIVE)
Robert Plant & The Honeydrippers	I Get a Thrill
Robert Plant & Allison Krauss	Rich Woman Blues
Sam Lewis	Loversity
Chuck Prophet	Pin a Rose (Kim Richey)
Paris Adams (The Adelaides)	Alien
Jaime Wyatt	World Worth Keeping
Dion and Carlene Carter	An American Hero
Fairground Attraction	A Smile and a Whisper
John Douglas	Orange Crayons
Wynnona	Girls With Guitars
Lainey Wilson & Dolly Parton	Mama he’s crazy
Ella Langley & Jamey Johnson	Young Love
Ian M Bailey	I’m Not The Enemy
Matt McGinn (lp 27/10)	God Only Knows
The Rhynes	Time on Your Hand
The Byrds	So You Want To Be a Rock & Roll Star
Angela Petrilli	The Voices
Wily Bo & ED Brayshaw	Red Jacket and Jeans
Al Lewis	My Daughter’s Eyes
Jerry Leger	Wounded Wing
Mary Gauthier	Thank God For You
Nick Edwards	Grown Men Shouldn’t Cry
Hannah Rose Platt (David Morrissey – HALLOWEEN)	Bedtime
Dolph Chaney	This Halloween
Librarians With Hickeys (Halloween)	Ghost Singer
Steve Stoeckel	Whistling Past Graveyards

Matt McGinn BEHIND EVERY DOOR

Matt McGinn
Behind Every Door
Dolmen Lane Records

Acutely Observed and Cleverly Balanced and Thought Provoking Northern Irish Folk Songs

Following Matt McGinn on Social Media isn’t easy as he seems to be the ‘hardest working man in Folk Music’ these days…. doing ‘something’ most every day, barely taking time off to recharge the batteries.
The best part of that ethos is that he comes up with fascinating and thought provoking songs and albums that rise above what we think we know as not just Irish Folk Music but Folk Music itself.
On This latest release The Music, featuring a stinging traditional Irish melody with incisive lyrics about Irish people in particular; who feel they have to leave their homeland to seek a better life across the oceans; but also applies to the hundreds of thousands of ‘displaced human flotsam and jetsam’ that are wandering the world looking to put down roots somewhere safe.
Yes indeed, that is a very articulate start any album, and while a high watermark for what is to follow, isn’t anywhere near being the strongest song here!
I’ve been listening to and reviewing McGinn’s’ records for 5 years now and while I normally steer clear of ‘Folk Music’ I keep getting drawn back to his songs time and time again; mostly because I love his voice as much as I do his words.
Sitting here today, I’m struck by the way Matt has constructed these particular stories and songs; he uses his and their Irishness as a starting point to capture your attention, but when you scratch the surface of Making Waves, the deceptively simple and beautiful To The New Year and Lig Duin they are universal stories that will resonate with anyone who has a broken heart after they watch the national and international news every day.
In his defence BEHIND EVERY DOOR has many layers and isn’t a ‘simple protest/political’ album; but when you look out of your window, you can’t help but feel that the world is going to Hell in a handcart, and if you’re an emotional songwriter like Matt, what else are you going to imbue your songs with?
On the dark and brooding Nightmare Alley he uses metaphors and imagery to compare a failing relationship with said Nightmare Alley, which isn’t just clever but bordering on musical genius in my book.
This is far from a depressing album by the way; McGinn’s use of light and shade, not just in his arrangements but the way that the album is balanced is clever and thought provoking, with the toe tapping Shine Your Light following the desperately emotional and thought provoking Rainbows which is about the strength and bravery it takes to be different in not just the parochial corners of Northern Ireland, but the world at large.
McGinn’s voice isn’t as sad as it may sound at first; it’s strong and wise and particularly expressive on the two songs I’ve selected as my Favourites; God Only Knows (NO! Not the Beach Boys Classic.) but a song about our obsession with owning land and property in a world where people are living in both squalor and on the streets …. powerful stuff indeed.
The other is an 11 minute Folk Opus about a busker on the streets of Belfast in the 1960’s called Willie Campbell. Channeling his inner John Martyn and (a young) Van Morrison, McGinn reflects on a more innocent city seen through the man’s eyes of a man who died before the first bullet was fired in The Troubles; but don’t think this is a jolly toe-tapper; it’s an epic piece of music and story in the grand tradition, that features strings, an amazingly soft fiddle, Uilleann Pipes and a virtuoso piper Darragh Murphy as well as Matt McGinn on vocals and guitar that all combine to keep you enthralled and rooted to the spot every time you hear it; and if the tragically beautiful final two minutes don’t reduce you to tears; there’s no hope for you.
It’s always difficult to say one album is ‘better’ than another in an act’s canon of work, and in this case each of Matt McGinn’s albums have been very different from each other; but if we look back in twenty years and this particular releases isn’t regarded as his best work, we really do have some treats in store.

Released October 27th 2023
https://www.mattmcginnmusic.com/

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Various Artists A TRIBUTE TO THE JUDDS

Various Artists
A Tribute to The Judds
BMG

A Fitting Tribute From Nashville’s Finest, Old & Young and Beyond.

Mrs Magpie likes Classic Country more than I do, but that doesn’t explain why we don’t own any The Judds albums in our bulging collection; especially as this is their 40th year in the music business.
In fairness Id probably still have missed it out, review wise had this been a Greatest Hits by the band themselves; as it isn’t really the type of music we write about, but the mix of acts paying tribute really piqued my interest and I’ve really, really enjoyed it; more or less having it on heavy rotation in the office and living room over the last two grey, wet and cold Autumnal days.
As I/we don’t know any of the originals, I have had to treat this album as if it’s one of those Various Artist albums I used to buy years ago, full of acts and songs that kick started my love of Country, Alt. Country and even Americana.
The album gets off to a great start via Reba McIntire, Carly Pearce, Jennifer Nettles and Gabby Barrett combining for a stomping Girls Night Out which is equal parts danceable toe-tapper and thoughtful Anthem that will have ladies across the globe thinking thinking or maybe shouting “Hell Yeah!” when they hear it.
This is followed by Lainey Wilson and Dolly Parton taking it in turns to make Mama He’s Crazy very memorable indeed; and Dolly, bless her heart, never attempts to smother Lainey Wilson’s parts, which have actually made me research her, such is the power in her voice on a song that simply aches with longing.
I want to say that there are surprises around every corner; but Hell! Every song here has been either a pleasant surprise or occasionally a mind blowing one!
Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild (whom I don’t know) go straight for your heartstrings with their take on Rockin’ With The Rhythm of The Rain and while didn’t think LeAnn Rhimes could surprise me anymore; but Have Mercy is as gritty, soulful and heartfelt as anything on her first album.
It’s a similar sensation the first time you will hear Love Is Alive by Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton; it’s an absolute stunner, from what I assumed to be something of an odd couple; but boy does it work.
Even though they are probably zillion selling acts (or should that be streams?) there are plenty of other acts who are brand new to us, but their songs have seriously impressed both Mrs Magpie and myself with Megan Moroney’s rendition of Why Not Me, Wendy Moten & O.N.E Duo taking both our breaths away with Had a Dream For The Heart and the finale, Love Can Build a Bridge by Jelly Roll (?), K Michelle and The Fisk Jubilee Singers all making us scanning Amazon, Bandcamp etc to see what either these individuals or pairings have that we now need to buy.
There are also two songs that just about stay the right side of ‘twee’ that I’m including as ‘Guilty Pleasures’ and that’s Grandpa (Tell Me About The Good Old Days) by Cody Johnson & Sonya Isaacs, which is good ole solid, backs to the wall Country with a capital ‘C’ as is John Deere Tractor by Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley with Molly Tuttle. OK they aren’t as ‘cool’ or ‘introspective’ as us Alt. Americana fans normally like; but Hell they made me smile … and there ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Now we are getting down to the nitty gritty where I decide on a Favourite Song, but with so many contenders it’s been a fun chore trying, especially as my ‘star system’ let me down … with 6 x 5 star songs in my notes!
I think I’ve narrowed the runners and riders down to three, Wynonna and Trisha Yearwood combine every bit as well as you’d expect on Cry Myself To Sleep so it has to be included; and perhaps the oddest pairing on this album; Carl Perkins & Raul Malo punch holes in not just your speakers but your heart to on the glorious toe-tapper Let Me Tell You About Love, making it something of a Modern Classic.
Then, there’s one really special song from two singers I’ve barely heard of on a song that I’ve never heard, but even the first day I played this album the tension and biting lyrics in Young Love (Strong Love) by Ella Langley and Jamey Johnson stood out like a poppy in a golden cornfield. Seriously; I sat with my jaw hanging wide open the first time I heard it and … well, it’s a Country pairing made in Nashville Heaven and it’s my Favourite Song here courtesy of that sixth star out of five!
I’ve genuinely surprised myself by how much I’ve enjoyed this album (Mrs. Magpie was a given) and I’ve now spent too much money buying albums from acts it’s unearthed for me; not least Ella Langley, which alongside promoting the fine work of The Judds themselves, I presume is the purpose of the exercise.

 The Judds will also be partnering with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), in honor of Naomi Judd. For more information on NAMI, please visit: https://nami.org/home.

Released October 27th 2023
https://www.thejudds.com/

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Lisa O’Neill at Sunderland Fire Station

Lisa O’Neill
The Fire Station
Sunderland
25 October 2023

Tonight’s Fire Station gig is the first of a run of five UK dates for Lisa O’Neill and her band and she was enthusiastically welcomed to the stage and opened the night solo, performing Blackbird on acoustic guitar, a song which featured in the hit TV series Peaky Blinders.
The opening lyric
‘Blackbird, sit on my shoulder and tell me a song’
in many ways set the tone for the rest of the evening. The natural world in general and birdlife in particular being a recurring theme throughout.

Flanked for the remainder of her set by Brian Leach on dulcimer and organ and Joseph Doyle on upright bass, she asked that the audience to refrain from taking video and photographs in order to focus on the live music experience.
It’s a request that was followed to the letter and the subsequent 90 minutes in her company turned out to be an entrancing reflection on life and history.
The essence of folk music right there in a nutshell; but Lisa O’Neill manages to transcend traditional Folk, a box that she doesn’t quite fit into, there are elements of trad but it veers off into psych-folk and beyond at times. Especially when the deep harmonic drones of O’Neill’s shruti box, Doyle’s bowed bass and Brian Leach’s hammered dulcimer kick in.

Before Lisa performed the title track of her latest release All of This is Chance, a re-working of a 1942 Patrick Kavanagh poem called The Great Hunger, she explained it’s about the ‘oppression of the imagination and is a bit abstract’.
It was very cryptic but enthralling too and the 7-minute song ended with a few whistled notes.
Maybe Jude Rodgers writing in The Guardian was close to the mark when she described O’Neill’s music as ‘raw and unvarnished folk for austere times. Uncompromising, stunning, soul-shaking stuff’.

Live, the music is unfussy yet captivating; the voice singular, unmistakably Irish and the song content at times deeply philosophic, with social comment too, notably on a newer song, ‘When Cash Was King’, which she calls a ‘trutheen’ – a little truth.
It was about an experience she had last year trying to buy coffee with cash and couldn’t.
‘It dawned on me that if a person is without a credit card or a mobile phone in the big cities, then they are at a huge disadvantage and unable to purchase even the basics.’

It’s hard to pick out any highlights from what was a consummate performance but at a push the standout was the story of an Irish woman who relocated to Rome and in 1926 attempted to assassinate the Italian fascist dictator, Mussolini.
Lisa told us in her intro, that in order to ‘take the bad egg out’ Violet Gibson had armed herself with a revolver.
She fired once, but Mussolini moved his head, and the shot skimmed his nose; she tried again, but the gun misfired.
She was arrested and released but, believing it was she that was insane and not Mussolini, Violet Gibson saw out her days in a psychiatric hospital in Northampton, England.
Lisa O’Neill, inhabits this song, taking on the persona of the would-be assassin. The amazing song/story – Violet Gibson, like the evening’s opening track Blackbird, was lifted from her 2018 album Heard a Long Gone Song.

For the evenings penultimate song the trio were joined by Oisin Leech who had earlier fulfilled his support artist duties with considerable poise.
He cleverly used a harmonica to add character to a compelling cover of Bob Dylan’s All The Tired Horses before Lisa told us that it had been an unexpected honour to be commissioned to record the tune [written by one of her major song writing influences] and it was her version that was used to close out the 36th and final episode of the aforementioned BBC TV series, Peaky Blinders.

She ended this utterly spellbinding performance with a lullaby; ‘Goodnight World’ which also happened to be the final track on All of This is Chance.
The song fading out with Lisa O’Neill whistling, then she wished us all ‘a nice Autumn’ and that was it, the house lights come up, the room empties, and we are off into the cold evening mist of a melancholic, drizzly night, not entirely what you would wish for but somehow it seemed strangely perfect.

Review by William Graham https://downbytheriver9.com/

https://lisaoneill.ie/home/

The Third Mind THE THIRD MIND/2

The Third Mind
The Third Mind/2
Yep Roc

Alt. Country Goes Prog and Wins

Although I don’t think I’ve actually played it since reviewing it, I definitely enjoyed the debut album from ‘Supergroup’ The Third Mind a couple of years ago, and don’t think I’ve lost any sleep waiting for the follow up.
I know that sounds an odd opening to a new album review, which again I’ve enjoyed ….. but it’s fair to say both albums have been ‘challenging’ for an average music fan; and deliberately so as both are something in the ‘experimental’ sphere.
Both the label and I say they are a ‘Supergroup’ and they are, guitarist Dave Alvin, veteran alternative music bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, Eyelids), guitarist David Immerglück (Counting Crows, Monks of Doom, Camper Van Beethoven), drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra, John Cale) and vocalist Jesse Sykes from her own critically acclaimed group, Jesse Sykes and The Sweeter Hereafter.
In many ways THIRD MIND/2 starts from where the other album leaves off; with the band assembling with a handful of songs but no prepared arrangements, then following a chat …. the producer presses ‘record’ and away they go on their collective merry way …. and the results are both fascinating and totally engrossing.
Prepare yourself, there are only six songs here with the shortest coming in at 5 minutes and the longest just shy of 11!
The uninitiated may not know what to make of opening track, an 8 minute Groovin’ Is Easy, as at first it sounds like Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd going Countryish with a young Grace Slick on vocals …. but is a whole lot better and cooler than you’d ever imagine.
For something meant to be ‘loose’ the playing is both exceptionally tight and fluid at the same time, especially the guitar interplay …. if such a thing is possible.
This is followed by Why Not Your Baby which carries on in the same direction, but a lot more laid back with the focus on Jesse Sykes alluring vocals on an emotional song steeped in mangrove fog.
The construction of each track does feel completely different as the album progresses via repeated plays; and when played in order give you the impression it could even be a Minor Rock Opera or Opus in many ways; as it is difficult to imagine the pleasure you’d get from hearing In My Own Dream or their 11 minute Gothic interpretation of the Folk Rock standard Sally Go Round the Roses, if they were taken out of context; as here they make complete sense and at times the stunning guitar playing sends a shiver down your back.
Which now only leaves us two songs to discuss, and both merit my accolade of Favourite Track, the finale A Little Bit Of Rain simmers like a bewitching Summer storm on the horizon, but never explodes as you feel it might; yet still leaving you short of breath as it fades to grey.
The other song, deemed to be a Favourite of mine is the only new song here, Tall Grass a co-write between Sykes and Alvin and simply unlike anything either have written before, and as Jesse Sykes herself says about it “It’s a midnight serenade, a love song, and a bit of a eulogy to the land itself.” and I couldn’t have phrased it better myself.
Dave Alvin and Jesse Sykes normally ply their trade in sweaty clubs; but this music is surely destined for Concert Halls with an intricate and colourful light show (the second coming of liquid wheels?) and a seated audience who will listen intently to every note and word; then discussing the hidden meanings in darkened corners of pubs for months to come.

https://www.thethirdmind.net/
CD/Download release 27th October 2023
LP Release 10th November 2023
https://thethirdmind.bandcamp.com/album/the-third-mind-2
https://yeproc.11spot.com/the-third-mind-2.html

Jerry Leger DONLANDS

Jerry Leger
Donlands
Latent Recordings

Slow Burning Lo-Fi Cinematic Canadian Country

I’ve been a fan of prolific Canadian singer songwriter Jerry Leger for quite a few years now (6? 7?) and can dip in and out of his various albums when the mood takes me, as each album is significantly different from each other.
Lazily I could say that he ‘progresses’ but there’s more to it than that; as a musician Leger constantly challenges himself to try new avenues to test his songwriting and even musicality.
Even though this album is again released on his friend and regular producer Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) label, Leger has gone back in time, via another legendary Canadian producer/engineer Mark Howard, who’s trademarked cinematic/atmospheric touch on the dials has graced many an album in all of our collections.
Not knowing that in advance the winsome opening track Sort Me Out really took me by surprise as it errs on the side of Chris Isaak, Elliot Smith or even Pete Molinari in the way the reverb fills the speakers while Jerry and his piano come through the beautiful fog like Bluebirds in the Spring.
To my ears Leger is channelling his inner Cowboy hear, as there’s a Lo-Fi Country sensibility to most songs, most especially I Was Right To Doubt Her through the slow burning Wounded Wing and ending at the last song on the album; Slow Night In Nowhere Town which is destined to either be a concert opener or closer, such is it’s understated powerful story.
Leger litters his songs with minute detail that regularly passes you by; but when you’re not concentrating when listening to Three Hours Ahead of Midnight he will take your breath away when he purrs ….
“Take my hand and we’ll see this through
Just like paper in the wind
Pushed into what we could do
But now we’re resisting
I will be your cuddly toy
Three hours ahead of midnight
Three hours ahead of midnight”

and it’s the same with the grizzly and desperate You Carry Me
“Remember the last time
And that time after
You saved my life
You didn’t just stand there
I don’t want you to wait for me
But I don’t want you to go
Is that so
You carry me, you carry me
Is that so
You carry me, you carry me.”
As many readers will already know, I have a huge soft spot for Canadian Roots music in all or at least most of its’ guises, and Jerry Leger is not just one of my Favourite Songwriters, but singers too …. with his soft and breathy vocals never sounding finer than on the two songs that I can’t seperate in my quest to choose a Favourite Song.
I’m a sucker for an enigmatic love song and I Need Love, with its gentle piano and searing pedal-steel ticks every box I have.
The other is a more cerebral and almost poetic song that needs a darkened room to bring the best out in it and that’s the skewed melancholic heartbreaker The Flower and the Dirt.
I’m not sure what difference Michael Timmins would have made had he produced this album; but by Jerry Leger putting his trust in Mark Howard has certainly paid off as together they have created something very different and memorable, creating a whole new avenue for Jerry Leger to delve into.

Released October 27th 2023
https://jerryleger.com/home/

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Anton O’Donnell TOMBER SUR PRW

Anton O’Donnell
Tomber Sur PRW
Need To Know

Quality, Well Constructed, Articulate and Imaginative Americana/Alt. Country.

We first encountered Anton O’Donnell a couple of years ago when a mutual friend in Glasgow brokered a review for his ANTON & THE COLTS album NO END OF THE LINE which I described as Country Rock Deluxe From The Clydeside Delta and it was.
So, bar a single not long after he and they dropped off my radar until two weeks ago when this arrived on my doorstep.
Soon after I pressed play for opening track Kindness I realised that I was in for a much different listening party than I had 5 years previously. While O’Donnell has obviously surrounded himself with some superb musicians, it’s apparent that this solo record is a whole lot darker, deeper and no doubt personal.
This is followed by the windswept and atmospheric Skulduggery which has hints of Neil Young about it; but I’m damned if I can think which period though. The guitar parts are as spiky and electric as anything the time with Crazy Horse every delivered, but the lyrics and indeed narrative is straight out of After The Goldrush IMHO, but all wrapped up in O’Donnell’s desperately emotional West Side of Glasgow burr.
After playing the album twice I weakened and read the Press Release; and (you will like this) I was correct in my thoughts. There’s very much a West Coast ‘feel’ to these songs; although more the dark underbelly that inhabits the parts of Sin City and beyond that the tourist guides avoid, and it turns out O’Donnell wrote and developed these songs with the guys at Need To Know in Santa Cruz.
Without ever sounding like a concept album, there is a thread that seems to link each song throughout, making for a sympathetic flow of songs.
What is key here though, is the incisive songwriting throughout, with each song having ‘staying power’ as they compete with one another for the listeners’ attention.
The heartbreaking Dreams Fade Under The Weight is somewhat of a stunning song, O’Donnell’s voice sounding old and wise beyond his years as Rob Ickes Dobro, Eamon McLaughlin’s exquisite fiddle playing and Shannon Hayes background vocals take us into some weird cinematic region that your brain didn’t know existed.
Set It On Fire starts with an angry guitar salvo before Anton’s world weary voice glides in on a tale of our times
“I’ve never seen the streets so bare
Sirens and pigeons are all I hear
And the news keeps picking on my fears.”
I think we’ve all had cause to feel that way in recent years.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the album, a curve ball is thrown with Madman On the Loose, which digs so deep into the heart of Americana you’d never know the songwriter came from another continent; but probably it takes that kind of romanticism to fill four minutes with so much Technicolour imagery.
The album closer, Django is as absorbing as it’s’ intriguing, a bewitching Cowboy Song with enough fiddle, mandolin and pedal-steel to bring a tear to a glass eye, and the likes of which only Tom Russell ever wrote this well and listenable too.
As an album this is as complete as it gets with songs gliding and even bleeding into one another; but there really are plenty of stand out songs, which I’ve somehow narrowed down to two as my Favourite Songs.
While fitting in perfectly into this musical jigsaw, Roots is as universal as music gets, and even though this version sounds like it could be featured on an X-Rated Road Movie, I can easily imagine O’Donnell singing it alone in clubs across Europe leaving audiences totally spellbound.
It Never Lasts made we go WOAH! as it’s a full on intensely Alt. Country claustrophobic Rocker that will have musical masterminds desperately trying to unravel verse after verse, while the likes of me are happy enough chanting the chorus as if our lives depend on it.
I’m writing this review a couple of days after a ‘famous’ Singer-Songwriter in Americae wrote a dissertation that basically said that ‘there was too much new music around these days; meaning more quantity rather than quality.’
It’s fair to say this got my hackles up as this album; and generally the other 2-300 RMHQ reviews every year certainly fits into the ‘quality’ bracket that she was talking about, but she is unlikely ever to hear as there are far too few outlets (even on the Spotify unless someone famous puts a track on a Playlist) for Independent releases.
Hey ho ….. if you like your Americana/Alt. Country of the well constructed, articulate and imaginative variety, this is definitely for you …. try it, you will like it…. trust me.

https://www.facebook.com/antonodonnellatc
Released October 27th 2023

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Hannah White SWEET REVOLUTION

Hannah White
Sweet Revolution
Last Music Company

Personal and Wider Politics Set Against Plaintive and Melodic Structures

Catching Hannah in action at a couple of festivals recently and having been impressed by her mature Country-Soul sound, this release comes at a good time when wanting to hear more.

Hannah gets lumped in with the “Americana” tag, but that label is so wide and generic in its application that it’s becoming less of a useful reference point when trying to find the words to describe what’s going on here.
What we do have is soulful writing with a Classic Pop sensibility and that is clear from the off.
With its echoes of Chris Isaak’s “Blue Hotel” Hannah’s “Hail the Fighter” opens the album, followed by the 60’s girl group influenced “Ordinary Woman” which makes use of the genre in similar ways to Nicole Atkins on her “Memphis Ice” album, channelling soulful pop set against the emotional concerns of the modern woman.
Lead out single “Chains of Ours” follows – probably less of an obvious single than the preceding track, but in itself a bass-driven Fleetwood Mac anthem, ruminating on life’s restrictions.
“One Foot” takes more a rhythmic approach, but again it’s the clarity of White’s vocals that cut through the mix and elevate the song.
“One Night Stand” maintains a steady pace and mixes melody and rhythm in a way that’s reminiscent of early Maria McKee.
“The Aftershow” rattles along with a narrative lyrical force and yet again, there’s an insistent hook, this time of the minor key variety which gives it a bittersweet edge.
“River Run” takes the pace down a notch or two with a sparse backing that emphasises the clarity and purity of White’s delivery of this tale of judging one’s self against the passage of time.
“Right on Time” stays in a low emotional key with a melody that echoes the balladry of the Dusty Springfields of this world.
The third track in a row starting with “R”, “Rosa” is a gentle anthemic ballad that’s one of the standouts for me, in how the dynamic backing complements White’s vocal and melody.
“Clementine” has the killer line
“Being a woman in a man’s world is an act of revolution”
and it’s a funky manifesto before the gentle (musical) wind down of “A Separation” with its
“Will the circle be unbroken” melody framing a discussion of how the two parts of something both diverge and converge.
It’s a well-chosen closer, featuring Ricky Ross (of Deacon Blue fame) and highlight White’s thoughtful and melodic writing.
“Sweet Revolution” in its oxymoronic title, is a good summation of this release – personal and wider politics set against plaintive and melodic structures are a good way to start to change the world.
Hannah White is aiming high – and why not?

Review by Nick Barber
Released 3rd November 2023
https://www.hannahwhitemusic.com/

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Ian McNabb NEW BRIGHTON ROCK

Ian McNabb
New Brighton Rock
Fairfield Records

Songs Which Feel Familiar But Sound Unlike Anything He’s Recorded Before.

As Singer-Songwriter and Cultural Attache’s been Ian McNabb, a lot longer than he ever was an Icicle Worker I shouldn’t still feed the need to introduce an album review of his by saying Ian McNabb was a key ingredient of 80’s Popstars The Icicle Works, so I won’t.
We all have our favourite Musicians and bands; and I confess that Ian McNabb is mine; having seen him play live more than everyone else and also owning every album and single he’s ever released (inc a couple of unofficial ‘Live Albums’ too).
But, I still get very excited when a new album is on the horizon as he’s always reinventing himself and pushing himself forward lyrically and indeed musically; never ‘recording the same album twice’ even when commercially that would have made sense a few years ago.
WOAH there bonny lad!
What is this musical witchcraft that opens the first track Hamilton Square????
If I have one minor criticism of Mr McNabb is that his piano/keyboard playing was never described as subtle; yet here the piano intro and indeed what follows in that mode is simply beautiful, so I presume, even though its not clear that said pianist is cohort Ciaran Bell accompanying Ian who skirts around the type of left field love song I’d associate with Scott Walker at his saddest.
This is followed by the relatively jaunty Cheerfulness, which sounds quite self-depreciating to be honest, which is typical McNabb, not least when he croons ..
“I was waiting on you cheerfulness
Somebody told me I’m an old has-been
Out of ideas and gasoline
Tryna find a feast in an empty larder
My old bones seem to be landing harder.’
Where that criticism ‘real’ Ian has certainly got a cracking song out of it as a subtle revenge.
Next out of the traps is the punchy Rocker, Outrider … an angry metaphor laden Alt. Punk slice of North Western Americana, which feels familiar but sounds unlike anything he’s recorded before.
That’s the thing with Ian McNabb, his distinctive vocals are welcoming and usually warm like a long lost friend coming back into your life; but laden with simmering and desperately emotional stories that will make you gasp “Really?” and “Wow” alongside other similar epithets.
After all these years McNabb still has the ability to surprise his long standing fans, sometimes with his choice of subject matter – Officer of the Watch and the wacky sub-Floydian meets Orson Wells’ Interstellar Vehicle Has Landed in Port Sunlight and sometimes just with his challenging arrangements – The Bliss.
Then right in the middle of the album we have a stunning piano instrumental called Salmon Butties which acts as something of an interlude and shows Ian still isn’t afraid of taking huge risks with his music.
I keep talking about McNabb’s ability to pull surprises from his hat; and that’s never more prescient than his choice of ‘cover song’ – something so rare in his cannon of work, it’s worthy of discussion – and when that song is the Pomp Rock Classic, from Journey – I Want To Know What Love Is, which he strips down to skin and bone then adds a pulsating bass guitar, intricate and delicate piano and the feintest drumming I may ever have heard to take this song into a whole new stratosphere.
As always my choice of Favourite Song will change many times depending on my moods; but my instant reaction this week is that it’s a straight choice between the rather wordy A New Adventure that closes the record which is sort of ‘typical McNabb’ if such a thing is possible; as for such a sensitive soul he’s always ben capable of picking himself up, dusting himself down and treating any or all career and/or life mishaps as the ‘dawn of a New Adventure‘ and that’s exactly what he sings about here.
Something we could all learn from.
Then, there’s Don’t Shoot The Wounded, probably the darkest and deepest song here with Ian channelling both his inner CS&N as well as poet Phillip Larkin on a song that may be either/both an observation on the way the world is currently imploding or something especially personal … such is the strength and power of his songwriting, everyone who hears it will have a different interpretation.

https://www.ianmcnabb.com/

Released November 2023
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https://ianmcnabb.bandcamp.com/album/nabby-road