Alexander Wolfe. Morning Brings A Flood.

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Although this album has been kicking around since last year it’s getting a push as one of the tracks, Song For The Dead has bagged a place as the theme song for a new BBC comedy, Whites. Good enough reason to wheel it out and enjoy its eclectic mix of English pastoral and baroque rock settings. Wolfe’s story is fairly unique in itself. Full name Alexander Gordon de Menthon, a scion of a French aristocrat he funded this album through selling a family heirloom, a Rembrandt sketch, not often that happens.
Anyway, the result was an album that pulls in influences that include the likes of Tom Waits and Neil Young but the overall influences are English artists such as Paul Weller and even Peter Skellern. The Weller trick of fusing pastoral sounds with frighteningly good turbo charged guitar is given a good airing on the second song, Lazybones while the lengthy closer Stuck Under September is a close cousin to The Jam’s English Rose. The mellow Till Your Ship Comes In has shades of Nick drake particularly in the string accompaniment. While the overall feel of the album is of a wintry melancholia there are moments such as Teabags in Ashtrays which has wonderfully eccentric feel with Hawaiian guitar and merry go round circus music blending into a dizzying mix. The song that the Beeb is using, Song For The dead struts proudly sounding like a long lost Kinks song although Wolfe’s estuary English might not be his everyday voice one suspects. There are other joys, Empty Morning is a mournful lament with brass accompaniment reminiscent of Peter Skellern while This Submarine brings to mind folk rock experiments by the likes of Roy Harper and Michael Chapman from many moons ago.
A minor classic that might enjoy resurgence thanks to the BBC.

Website

Listen to Lazeybones

Steven L Smith. Outside of Tupelo.

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An accomplished luthier and self confessed fan of The Band (in particular Levon Helm), Merle Haggard and The Allman Brothers, Smith looks like a big bear of a man according to his picture on the sleeve. Appropriately enough he has a big sound as well. Vocally he comes from the Waylon Jennings school, gruff and loud, untutored perhaps but commanding attention. His songs are very much country rock with an acoustic bed over which the guitars (lead, pedal steel and slide) bite and caress, at times rocking away but able also to cradle a tender ballad. Listening to this folk such as Steve Young and Guy Clark came to mind while fiddle is used in a Charlie Daniels’ Style. While there is nothing new here when it comes to subject matter Smith writes convincingly about drunken truckers (Woman On A Pole) and fallen women who follow their dreams (Molly). Woman on A Pole in particular is a fine addition to the grand tradition of truck driving songs where a red neck trucker loses his heart and wallet to a pole dancer. It’s a grand opening song with the band playing at full tilt. Big Sky is an almost perfect country song with bright piano, rippling mandolin and fine swirls of pedal steel. Smith can write some fine and touching songs (Cowboy Song and Oregon in particular), and can also get down and dirty as on I Stole The Bible with devilish fiddle and bluesy slide. All in all this is an accomplished slice of country rock with a southern bent.

Website
Listen to Big Sky

Round Up Reviews

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Let’s hear it for the girls. Oops, sexism aside here’s a slew of albums received recently from a bunch of great female artists. One thing you can say about Americana is that there’s a decent ratio of male/female artists with 9 out of 20 women in the current EuroAmericana chart including three of the albums reviewed here.


First up is Ashleigh Flynn, originally from Kentucky and now based in Portland Oregon with her third album, American Dream (Home Perm Records) and a bit of a dream it is too. Flynn has a truly fine voice, well suited for these songs with a little bit of backwoods twang and a little bit Sarah Jones smokiness in there she makes it all seem effortless. The ten self-penned songs are all excellent from the poppy Mystery to the hard luck story of Isaac on 3rd and Burnside. To top it all Flynn has gathered a great band of musicians with fine contributions from Paul Brainard (Richmond Fontaine) on pedal steel and trumpet. The upright bass, played by Jim Bromberg is an important part of the equation but there is some fine fiddle and Dobro flying throughout. The Seventh Sea is a perfect example of the picking and playing here with Flynn’s vocals betraying her Kentucky background. A fine album indeed.
Website
Listen The 7th Sea

In a similar vein is Lynne Hanson, based in Canada, originally from the American south. She too fronts a fine band of pickers and writes all the songs on Once The Sun Goes Down. Where Flynn’s album has an organic feel around the production, this album has a burnished feel with David Baxter’s production similar to Daniel Lanois’ trademark sound. Guitars ripple and burn while the percussion has a brooding quality to it best heard in Here we Go Again. Hanson’s voice is planted firmly in front and on a song like No More Rain she recalls early kd lang but the best elements here are the slower pieces. Somewhere A Lonely Flower is a sublime, impressionistic account of a trip to London while the last song, Lilacs Dancing, catches a romance in the moment it starts. Riptide is a sinewy snarl of a song with evil sounding guitar over a ripple of banjo. Again, a cracking listen.
Website
Listen Here We Go Again


Tara Linda’s Tortilla Western Serenade is a different kettle of fish altogether. Linda defines her music as tortilla western, “a musical genre blending spaghetti western, rock and Tex-Mex styles; roots music influenced by the land and stories of the American Southwest. So far so good. This boils down to a collection of songs, some with the rock inspiration to the fore as on the fabulous opener, Muse’s Duel with its twang guitar and mariarchi horns which is incredibly invigorating. Dream out Loud is another guitar-based song that is sexy and sinister while Crossroads showcases the guitar playing of Az Samed as it grumbles menencingly. This approach reaches its apogee on Leavin’ Texas (Drivin’ Slow) where LA punk inspired guitar and screeching Mexican horns collide
A good part of the album however is more restrained. Songs about historical Mexican figures (Teresita de Cabora, Padre Kino) have a more traditional “conjunto “ (the button accordion, the bajo sexto) approach. That some of the accordion is played by Flaco Jiminez is a recommendation in itself. For a debut album this is impressive and is heartily recommended for anyone into Calexico, Los Lobos or even Ry Cooder.
Website
Listen Muse\'s Duel


Finally we have Annie Keating with Water Tower View. Keating comes from a folkier side with an earthy delivery, her vocals husky, at times sounding like a female John Prine, at others reminiscent of the frailty of Melanie Safka. Her subjects are the usual folk topics, tales of losers for the most part and one might wonder what more there is to say about the underbelly of American life. However Keating has the ability to take a well worn scenario such as gambling in On the Loose and breathe new life into it.
With some very sympathetic backing from a variety of players all of these songs beg to be heard but the standout songs are The Borderline with a very restrained backdrop and Keating’s vulnerability well to the fore and the closing Scene I/Scene II which, as the title suggests, is like an aural movie. Intimate and engaging, an excellent recording.
Website
Listen The Borderline

Marianne Dissard. L’Entredeux.

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A while back we reviewed Susie Hug’s latest album, recorded in Tucson with the help of Calexico, here Marriane Dissard performs a similar trick with an album produced by Calexico’s Joey Burns, recorded in Tucson and released on the same label, Vacilando ‘68.
Dissard is a filmmaker who relocated to Tucson with her then partner, Naim Amor, several years ago. She was the femme fatale vocalist who graced the Calexico song The Ballad of Cable Hogue on their Hot Rail album leading to her setting out as a recording artist in her own right. The title L’Entredeux can be translated as in between two and reflects her position as a singer very much in the French chanteuse tradition but recording with some of the cream of Tucson Americana musicians. Burns produces and plays guitar, bass and piano (and wrote the music for the majority of the songs), band mate John Convertino adds his unique shuffle and Willie Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael pops up on one song. In addition Dissard’s ex partner Naim Amor (another honorary Tucsonian) writes, sings and plays on several tracks.
While there is none of Calexico’s epic Mexicana forays on display, the committed listener will recognise Burns’ (and indeed Convertino’s) fingerprints all over the album. To Burns’ credit he has not produced an album of Cable Hogue retreads but added a deeply sensual backdrop to Dissard’s excellent voice. The songs are very much in the European tradition ranging from the Djangoesque Les Draps Sours to the Europop confection that is Les Confettis but any similarities to Eurovision pap are firmly stamped out as the players add layers and embellishments that drip with conviction. The best example is Flashback with its strong guitar outro while Merci De Rein Du Tout is sublime in its multilayered form.
Over it all is Dissard’s voice, strong, sultry, sexy, at times she sounds like a successor to Juliette Gréco, a soundtrack for anyone for whose vision of cool is early Godard, Gauloise cigarettes and left bank beatniks. When she sings on Sans Facon the effect is hair raising while Cayenne seeks out another (sometimes) French speaker from the Americas in the form of Leonard Cohen.
While Dissard sings all the words in French one doesn’t need to understand them in order to succumb to this album’s beauty.
Available via the internet for some time this UK release has two live songs added and is available here while Dissard’s website is here

Merci De Rein Du Toit listen

Tom Feldmann & The Get-Rites. Tribute, The Gospel Sides of…

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Tom Feldmann’s previous albums, Driven To My Knees and Side Show Revival showcased his deep rootsy voice and a deliciously funky backwoods blues that is akin to Keb Mo and Taj Mahal in exploring the roots of Americana. In addition he appears to have a deeply held religious bent which has informed his songwriting, this has allowed him to mine the deep vein of spiritual and gospel traditions. Here on his latest album he pulls all of this together in a wonderful collection of spiritual songs originally recorded by the likes of Son House, Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton and others of that ilk.
Feldmann performs four of the ten songs solo, just voice and a National Reso-phonic guitar, the remainder have the band backing. Throughout the album his bottleneck and slide playing is excellent, at times sinister and threatening, at others joyful. The playing on Fred McDowell’s The Lord Will Make a Way is a particular standout, a deep dark throb of a song with stinging slide guitar and an evil lope. While the blues predominate there are sprightly and uplifting moments such as the solo rendition of Charley Patton’s Lord I’m Discouraged which has a Carter Family feel to it. The pedal steel on Leave It There (Washington Phillips) and I’m Going Home (Dock Reed) adds a gloss to the starkness of some of the songs.
Listening to this I was reminded of an old Fairport Convention tune, The Lord Is In This Place, How Dreadful Is This Place which in turn was informed by Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground. Johnson himself is represented here with his song It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine and the album serves to remind us that God does indeed work in mysterious ways inspiring dirt poor, discriminated against Black Americans to find beauty in hardship.
For information on the songs, the artists who wrote them and Feldmann’s reasons for picking them go here where he has described the album far better than I ever could.
Website
Listen to Needed Time (Lightin\' Hopkins)

Old Dollar Bill.

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This debut album from the Edinburgh based country duo, Old Dollar Bill is a definite progression from their EP Cheap But Sweet released last year. While the EP was composed of Steve Earle covers and songs lifted from Springsteen’s Seeger project here we have a collection of songs all composed by the band themselves. While the Earle influence remains evident (on Friendly Fire for example) they can hold their head high with this offering. For a two-man band (with additional support on piano, accordion and fiddle from friends) they can certainly whip up a storm, guitars, mandolins and banjos whip and flail throughout. Clark carries most of the vocals in a convincing manner while Henry adds just the right touch of percussion with one track in particular, the instrumental Bill’s Ruckus where he thunders away to great effect using a Brazilian Surdo drum and 2 or 3 bass drums.
While there are obvious debts to the likes of Ry Cooder and the Band (Levon Helm in particular) the songs in the main stand up to scrutiny. Romance, booze, the Devil and booze again all feature. Of the drinking songs Me And My Wine is a wonderful boozy waltz while Drink With Me is a particularly tuneful country pop song that one can imagine Gram Parsons could have crooned. Clark’s vocals almost match some of Parsons’ southern nuance with a hint of the Stones’ country leanings and the piano playing (by Neil Pearlman) adds a wonderful honky tonk feel. I Swear I Killed My Liver (Over You), apart from earning points for its wonderful title is a classic country drinking song delivered with gusto. Befitting their urban hillbilly attitude Cousin Kelly is chock full of tasty licks and feisty fiddle playing while Henry’s vocals capture the housing scheme day time TV attitude perfectly. Caroline (The Devil’s Bride) is a tale of a young man humbled when the tables are turned and he feels used and abused by a flighty female. On a lighter note there is the sweet and sour tale of the singer’s admiration for a waitress on Tables For You while the final song Throw in The Towel fires on all cylinders. Clark spits out the words while his mandolin and Dobro spark against each other in a song that the Pogues might have been proud to have penned.
Old Dollar Bill appear regularly in Edinburgh, hopefully they will be over here in the west to see if they can carry these songs off as successfully as they do on the album. Check out Ike Sheldon of The Wilders endorsement on the image above, just about says it all I reckon.
Website here
Listen to Drink With Me

Roundup Time

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The Art Gomperz Band are a sparkling little combo with a sound as fresh as a mountain stream on their CD, A Different Story to Tell. With a classic line up of acoustic guitars, Dobro, mandolin, banjo and bass there are no surprises in these 12 cuts which range from bluegrass to country folk to gospel. Fronting the band is Jenna Mammina whose voice is attractive and well suited to the genre. The album as a whole is a tribute to and based mainly on the songs of the late Bev Hahn with whom band leader Dan Geib played as a duo and whom he planned to record these songs with. Following her death Geib decided to record the songs with the new band line up, recruiting Mommina to deliver the words. While Geib and Mommina both contribute songs the standout is Hahn’s Don’t Worry Anymore, a fantastic piece of country gospel which the band whips into fine shape with a fine sense of exuberance and where Mommina sings like an angel in the vein of Loretta Lynn. Overall a nice little album and a worthy tribute to someone whose loss was obviously a major blow to all involved.

Art Gomperz Band website
Don\'t Worry Anymore


Earl Pickens and Family caused a minor stir a few years back with their bluegrass version of U2’s album The Joshua Tree. Gathering is a collection of original material that shows that they don’t need to rely on the Irish superstars for material. The opening song Time is a fine bare boned ballad with some plaintive fiddling from Bruce Derr. Do You Have a Secret is a dark bluesy song with sinister fiddle and skeletal banjo which is enhanced by some spectral keyboards. The band can also produce attractive country pop as heard on The Broom which showcases the harmony vocals of Pickens and Jessie Yamas while fiddler Derr references the old song Diggy Liggy Lo. All this and no sign of Bono, a definite plus.

Website
Time


On a different tack Australian Spike Flynn has released his debut album It’s Alright while in his mid fifties. As befits a man of his life experience this is a world weary, knowing and slightly philosophical take on things. Meditating on the blues as on the opening song It’s Aright which clocks in at nearly nine minutes, Flynn is obviously not in a hurry to tell his tales. It’s Alright could have fallen out of an early Tom Wait’s album with its vignettes of small town life and the smoky saxophone that accompanies it. The sax is present also on Silver Nitrate Serenade, another lengthy mood piece with lyrics that catch an emotion and a moment in time so well such as
“the strong black coffee shoots my nerves, full of tin foil and memories and rust, and a mind almost spent checks its change for the rent.”
This is rain drizzled neon lit night music and Flynn captures it again on several other songs on the album including The Pennywhistle Lament. With a voice that at times is similar to Butch Hancock, Flynn also turns in some well written uptempo folk songs, That’s The Way it Goes in particular sounds as if it should be a folk song standard while Falling Rain Blues is similar to latter day Bob Dylan especially on Time out of Mind. All in all this is terrific stuff.

Website
Spike Flynn The Penny Whistle Lament


Winding up this roundup we have US 32, a husband and wife team who on Tumblin’ Home rollick through 13 songs that in turn are catchy (Mabel’s Car, Credit Cards), evocative (the title song, Hamer House) or plain beautiful (Under the Bridge). Named after an American highway Michael and Christy Kline take the listener on a tour of Americana with some excellent back up from accomplished players on fiddle, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steeel guitars. Mabel’s Car with Christy on vocals sounds like one of Kathleen Edwards’ poppier efforts while she nails a sweet country voice in Under The Bridge, a tearful lament of lost love caressed with pedal steel and fiddle backing. Husband Michael’s voice is less impressive but he manages to deliver on Chasin’ the Sun, a jaunty tale of leaving one’s troubles behind and heading for the horizon in the hope that things will improve. He fares better on the title song, a civil war tale based on a letter written by Kline’s great , great uncle who fought in the war. With whistles and bagpipes evoking a martial feel the song is slightly out of place compared to the rest of the album but is undeniably heartfelt.

Website
Mabel\'s Car

Holy Modelling

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Peter Stampfel and Baby Gramps. Outertainment. Red Newt Records.


Way back in the 1960’s there were none so weird and way out as the Holy Modal Rounders. Initially an acoustic duo comprised of Peter Stampfel on banjo and fiddle and Steve Weber, guitar, they jerked songs featured on the Harry smith Anthology of American folk music into the psychedelic sixties. In a decade long musical odyssey they ganged up with the inflammatory Fugs for a few albums and featured on the Easy Rider soundtrack. With members coming and going (including both founders) at various times their journey culminated in a zenith with Have Moicy!, a collaboration with Michael Hurley and Jeffrey Frederick that is generally considered one of the lost treasures of the 1970’s. A Stampfel/Weber reunion in 1999 produced a fine album in Too Much Fun that revisited some of the glories of their first two albums.
Since then Weber has for the most part retreated from the music biz (although he has released some vintage live recordings recently). Stampfel however ploughs on and over the years has released albums with The Bottlenecks, The Du-Tels (with ex Beefheart guitarist, Gary Lucas) and as a solo act. No matter the format however he retains a goofy childlike sense of wonder and above all an enduring love for and knowledge of American folk music.
Here Stampfel teams up with a character who seems to be as idiosyncratic and, well, as goofy, as him. Baby Gramps is a Seattle institution having busked and played there since perhaps the sixties. A well kept secret until he appeared on Rogues’ Gallery, a collection of pirate themed sea chanteys a few years back, Gramps has a voice that has been described as Popeye like and he shares Stampfel’s irreverent and iconoclastic approach to the classics of old time American music.
The result is a triumph, the best album Stampfel has been involved in since Too Much Time,. As a duo they stamp their personalities on individual songs while complementing each other vocally. Indeed it’s not too far fetched to say that Stampfel has eventually found a replacement for his long lost soul mate Weber. While the overall sound and feel of the album owes more to Gramps’ grizzled approach which keeps Stampfel’s often hyperkinetic style in check there are moments when both do let loose. Blues, folk and tin pan alley songs all get the treatment. While Gramps starts the album in fine style with Buzzard on the Gut Wagon, a growled hammered blues with vocals that recall Beefheart, he excels on Monkeys have No Tails in Zamboanga, a nonsense song that uses a style similar to Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence with some fantastic vocal interplay between the two, Gramps burbling and gurgling while Stampfel wails along, fantastic stuff. Stampfel’s contributions range from a wonderfully high and lonesome version of Heigh Ho (yes, the Disney song from Snow White with massed whistling) and a delightfully dotty ditty about the toilet habits of his puppy dog. He gets to showcase his fiddling chops on Wake Up Jacob which with Uncle Eph’s Got the Coon and Bar Bar is the nearest we get here to a Holy Modal traditional sound with Gramps taking the Weber part. The chalk and cheese pairing of their vocals is best seen on their rendition of Surfing Bird, the sixties garage punk staple which gets a demented outing here and demonstrates that there is no need for amped up fuzz guitar to create a cacophony. The album ends on a triumphant note with Ghost Train of Freak Mountain , described by Gramps in the liner notes as
“based on the mysterious legend of the ghost train running through Freak Mountain, which is a real place, but not found on any map.”
Well, no map perhaps but its topography is well described here.
While the likes of Seasick Steve have popularised traditional American folk blues recently this album portrays two artists who are steeped in the idiom but who present it through an unpolished, intensely personal viewpoint. It might not be pretty but it is pretty amazing. Special mention should be given to the unobtrusive bass playing of Dave Reisch who has served with Gramps, Stampfel and Michael Hurley over many years and who performs the same duties here and Curtis “King chamberlain who adds little touches of jaw harp, penny whistle and jug.

Norman Savitt and Friends.


Norman Ira Savitt is New York based guitarist who has long had an association with Peter Stampfel and their small circle of (mutual) friends. Armed with a deep knowledge of old time American music and familiar to those who frequent the websites and message boards of folk like the late Tuli Kupferberg (of The Fugs) he has released his first ever album, a meditative and peaceful collection of instrumentals based on his finger picking skills. Whether solo or accompanied by harmonica, cello, violin or penny whistle the result is wistful, at times elegiac with pieces dedicated to Ken Kesey and Chris Whitley (an old friend of Savitt’s).
It’s always tempting to mention John Fahey when a guitarist releases an album like this and although Savitt’s playing lacks Fahey’s baroque eclecticism and occasional dissonance the feeling generated when playing the album is similar to that of Fahey’s more straightforward pieces, Alex at Six in particular fits this bill. David Amram’s penny whistle on this tune evokes primitive cultures and the quills used by Canned Heat on Going Up The Country. Elsewhere Savitt, (with the aid of Eugene Friesen on cello) conjures up wintry English folksong on Prayer for Peace and Celtic mist on Alone. Howard Levy (from Bela Fleck’s band and who produced) adds some haunting harmonica to several tunes while violinist Susan Mitchell colours the tribute to the Reverend Gary Davis, One for the Rev where Savitt uses some Davis licks to great effect.
Savitt’s liner notes indicate his affinity to nature and the great outdoors and in an untutored, Carradine like zen mood, one could imagine that listening to this album is akin to watching a pebble fall into a still pond and digging the ripples long after they’ve gone.
Both albums are available here

Finally while we’re on things Rounder related a mention for Charlie Messing. Sprawling Epic. Charlie Messing was once a Rounder, late in the days but a member of that fabled troupe so a sneak preview of his forthcoming album was serendipitous. Apart from his part in the Rounders story Messing has played with Link Wray and Robert Gordon and backed up Loudon Wainwright. In addition he has a wealth of tales to tell of the New York scene from the boho sixties to the punk seventies and beyond which used to be available on his now defunct webpage. Indeed he’s like a musical Zelig, being there at fortuitous moments and this is reflected in his music.
Sprawling Epic looks to be a fairly eclectic pick of his own songs and a few choice covers (including Tom Waits, Michael Hurley, Dean Martin and Blind Willie McTell) all sung in his peculiar and endearing hangdog way. Low key and laid back it has a simple charm. Check back for news of the release date.

Peter Stampfel and Baby Gramps Bar Bar
Peter Stampfel and Baby Gramps Buzzard on the Gut Wagon
Norman Savitt and Friends Alex at Six

Various Artists. I Like it Better Here -Music From Home

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The first release from the Hemifran label (who are one of the prime distributors and publicists of Americana in Sweden) is an odd affair. To launch the label not only have they reached across the Atlantic they’ve also delved into the past and come up with a collection that celebrates the classic seventies era of singer/songwriters. The inclusion of folk such as Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Jack Tempchin, Steve Noonan and Greg Copeland, all bona fide paid up members of the Laurel Canyon set is impressive. In addition some lesser-known names of the time and some contemporary continental artists pitch in with some very simpatico styled songs.
Of course some would argue that much of the music of this era was bland, drug fuelled narcissism or that it paved the road to excess as exemplified by the uber group that was the Eagles. However much that was recorded then remains vital and the best parts of this collection recall the optimistic and indeed groundbreaking sounds that continue to fuel much of today’s Americana.
The opening song, This is My Country, by Joel Rafael, recorded live, features Crosby and Nash on vocals and is the most nostalgic song here. Recalling that pairs’ glory days, the sound of Nash protesting hasn’t changed one iota over the years. The remainder of the album sounds more contemporary while maintaining the innocence, anger and values that the likes of CSN&Y espoused. Jack Tempchin (writer of the Eagles’ Peaceful Easy Feeling) contributes a fine rootsy acoustic blues song. Greg Copeland recalls the edgier side of L.A. on 27 Red House Road while Steve Noonan‘s Goin’ Home relates a tale of him, Greg Copland and Jackson Browne building a spooky urban scarecrow to keep drug addicts away from their door. Both songs are superb. With some fine up tempo country rock from Mikael Persson (Home Sweet Home) and the excellent Steve Stills styled acoustic jab of Home Nights by Sugarcane Jane the newcomers more than hold their own. The album ends as it begins with a live song from a seventies survivor, Jackson Browne, with a great rendition of The Rebel Jesus that demonstrates that some of these guys are still as vital and significant as they were then.
Check out the website here
And listen to Jack Tempchin here

The Wrights. Red and Yellow, Blue and Green.

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Husband and wife duo, Adam and Shannon Wright from Georgia had a taste of stardom when they were caught up on the coat tails of Adam’s uncle, country superstar, Alan Jackson with their debut album released on a major label and touring in the big time. Unfortunately their second album was nixed by their label leaving them to find their feet again as independents.
A classic couple they complement each other in the grand tradition of Gram and Emmylou or most recently Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. There are moments on this fine release when one could be fooled into thinking this is indeed the follow up to Raising Sand. Apart from the vocal interplay there is some sublime guitar playing not too far removed from the contributions Marc Ribot added to the Plant/Krauss collaboration and the production is on a par with T Bone Burnett’s.
The nine songs range from the haunting opener Since You Left Me to the rockabilly rhythms of The way That I’m Living. Special mention however goes to Flying Home which is a polished diamond of a song, sweet as the early Eagles where lush guitars sweep the song along and We were Made to Love, a haunting song, soft and hushed. Above all there is a shared affinity with The Everly Brothers tradition, a tradition that is shared by Plant and Krauss and Parsons and Harris
All in all a gem of an album that deserves to be heard.
Website
Since You Left Me