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Rock, June 2019

Johnny Black | Aug 28, 2019

This month we review: The Skints, Matthew Edwards And The Unfortunates, The Cranberries and Pretty Archie

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Rock, May 2019

Johnny Black | Jul 25, 2019

This month we review: James Morrison, Hajk, Josefin Öhrn And The Liberation and Ishmael Ensemble

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Rock, April 2019

Johnny Black | Jun 20, 2019

This month we review: Jon Amor, Delicate Steve, Crows and Nick Waterhouse

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Rock, March 2019

Johnny Black | May 14, 2019

This month we review: The Steel Woods, Katie Doherty And The Navigators, Deep Cut, and MXMJoY

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Rock, February 2019

Johnny Black | Apr 03, 2019

This month we review: Raoul Vignal, Me And My Friends, Michael Blyth & The Wild Braid, & Frankie Davies

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Rock (January 2019)

Johnny Black | Mar 06, 2019

This month we review: Foxtrott, Me And My Friends, Amos Lee, & Ed Motta

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Rock (December 2018)

Johnny Black | Dec 01, 2018

This month we review: KT Tunstall, John Butler Trio, Ian William Craig, and Advance Base

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Rock (November 2018)

Johnny Black | Nov 01, 2018

This month we review: Josh Taerk, The Molochs, Epic45, and Texti-tv 666.

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Rock (October 2018)

Johnny Black | Oct 01, 2018

This month we review: Protoje, Tom Bailey, Jack Carty And Gus Gardiner, and C Diab.

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Rock (September 2018)

Johnny Black | Sep 01, 2018

This month we review: Toure Kunda, Maddy Prior, Hannah James And Giles Lewin, Dan Stuart, and Judith Owen.

Rock

The Coal Porters

Johnny Black | Dec 10, 2010

The Coal Porters are but one facet of the abundant creativity of renaissance man Sid Griffin, who also helms a band called Western Electric, runs his own record label and writes excellent books on musical themes. The Porters, however, are the incarnation of Sid that you’re most likely to encounter in your favourite live music establishment, and their fourth album, Durango, is as splendid an alt-bluegrass excursion as you’ll hear all this year. A sprightly bunch of fiddle, mandolin and banjo-driven songs are fleshed out with choice covers, including a yearning version of Neil Young’s ‘Like A Hurricane’. Plus a video documentary on the band.

Rock

Lights

Johnny Black | Dec 10, 2010

Despite my instinct to reject Valerie Anne Poxleitner, aka Lights, because of the overtly religious content of so many of her songs, this Canuck electro-singer-songwriter has won me over on purely musical grounds. Her synth structures are gorgeous, if derivative, and her voice has hints of Kate Bush that make even her frequent use of auto-tuned vocals acceptable. (Actually, if I’m honest, I have no problem at all with auto-tune, so long as it’s used as a musical tool rather than as a repair kit). What I like most about The Listening is its fresh, innocent and disarming simplicity, like the very earliest electro-pop albums back in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

Rock

Jimmy Webb

Johnny Black | Dec 10, 2010

You don’t need me to tell you that the Jimmy Webb songbook includes a bunch of timelessly great classics, like ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ and ‘Galveston’. What Webb has done here is not just to re-interpret those songs with the assistance of superstar chums Billy Joel, Glen Campbell and Lucinda Williams, but also to take the opportunity to accord the same treatment to some of his lesser-known compositions, most notably ‘PF Sloan’ as a duet with Jackson Browne, and ‘If You See Me Getting Smaller’ with Willie Nelson. It’s not consistently wonderful, largely because Webb has never had much of a voice, but at its best it’s pretty darned wonderful. Sound Quality: 90% .

Rock

Department Of Eagles

Johnny Black | Dec 10, 2010

This is a charmingly odd collection of tracks recorded (and rejected) by eccentric New York folk-rock experimentalists Department Of Eagles prior to making their second album, In Ear Park. They were laid down in January 2006 in far from ideal conditions but, nevertheless, the collection boasts several appealing melodies with imaginative lyrics and free-wheeling musical arrangements, interspersed with several wilfully odd snippets described as Practice Room Sketches. It’s all very cerebral and sometimes sonically challenging but well worth wading through to get to sublimely bizarre moments like ‘While We’re Young’, ‘Brightest Minds’ and ‘Golden Apple’. Sound Quality: 80% .

Rock

Court Yard Hounds

Johnny Black | Dec 10, 2010

With The Dixie Chicks on a seemingly endless recording hiatus, two thirds of the band, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, have emerged as Court Yard Hounds. It’s hard to imagine any fan of the Chicks not enjoying this outing but, happily, Robison and Maguire have come up with something noticeably more intimate and personal than a Chicks album. There’s a delightfully down-home quality to cuts like the Jakob Dylan duet ‘See You In The Spring’, and Robison’s recent divorce seems to have pushed her into emotional spaces she might not have otherwise explored. The anger of ‘Ain’t No Son’, the defiant spirit of ‘It Didn’t Make A Sound’ and the touching honesty of ‘Fear Of Wasted Time’ make this pretty damned irresistible.

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