country
LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallThursday, 24 September 2015
Nothing will ever test the depth, breadth and sheer virtuosity of a large orchestra more than Mahler’s symphonies. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the two unsurpassable concert experiences, for me, have been Bernstein’s Mahler Five at the Proms... Read more... |
CD: Don Henley – Cass CountyThursday, 24 September 2015
The title of Don Henley's fifth solo album refers to the rural area of East Texas where he grew up, listening to country music stations like Shreveport's fabled Louisiana Hayride and absorbing the building blocks of the country-rock sound he forged... Read more... |
DVD: Far From The Madding CrowdTuesday, 01 September 2015
Danish director Thomas Vinterberg specialises in claustrophobic, asphyxiating atmospheres, from his breakthrough family abuse tale Festen to the more recent study of small-town paranoia, The Hunt. Moving from domestic close-up to the Wessex wide... Read more... |
CD: Iris DeMent - The Trackless WoodsWednesday, 12 August 2015
Iris DeMent’s settings of poems by the great 20th century poet Anna Akhmatova are as original as they are courageous: it's so easy to fall short of the genius displayed by the Russian mistress of the lyric verse. This is a work of love and devotion... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tennessee Ernie FordSunday, 26 July 2015
Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American SingerAlthough there are different American music charts, success in one category but not another is not a marginal accomplishment. A major star on the country chart can be as popular, heavy... Read more... |
CD: Jason Isbell - Something More Than FreeSunday, 19 July 2015
When you’re a big Bruce Springsteen fan, as I am, there’s a game that you end up getting quite good at: one in which you have to separate the stories, about the hard-drinkin’, hard-livin’ workingman, from the multi-millionaire songwriter. Roots... Read more... |
Glastonbury Golden Greats, BBC FourSaturday, 20 June 2015
Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury is an odd time. For some it means carrying on carrying on, trying to wring the very last drops out of the weekend and putting off the inevitable, stomach-churning lurch that will signal a nosedive into a colossal... Read more... |
CD: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard - Django and JimmieSunday, 31 May 2015
Merle and Willie – these kind of senior country summits can either be a bit of a coaster, all well and good underneath your tumbler of Bourbon, or actually something to write home about. Keep this one away from the liquor. It’s produced by Buddy... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Jack White – LazarettoFriday, 19 December 2014
Jack White (the former John Anthony Gillis) was born in Detroit and now lives in Nashville, a geographical progression you can hear in his music. He loves rude, dirty rock'n'roll but also has a fine instinct for country music, both of which... Read more... |
The Heart of Country – How Nashville Became Music City USA, BBC FourSaturday, 08 November 2014
It’s supposed to represent everything simple and homely, for a white audience at least, its tales of God, family and heartbreak the stuff of everyday America. For British listeners, more at home with “Parklife’s” dirty pigeons and cups of tea than... Read more... |
Sheryl Crow, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 01 November 2014
Sheryl Crow doesn’t do genres. She may have recorded her first authentically country album, Feels Like Home, in Nashville recently, but for her, the tag seems to mean little. “It’s country, but it just sounds like a Sheryl Crow record,” she told the... Read more... |
First Person: From Insolence to DefianceWednesday, 17 September 2014
Not that long ago, certainly when I was old enough to know better, I managed to get myself mugged by a gang of teenage street girls down by Lisbon docks. I had been following a long chain of beer and whisky glasses from the end of one bar to the... Read more... |
