country
Glue, E4Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Jack Thorne's new eight-part drama is set in a fictional but recognisable small English village, Overton, where life is centred on farming and racehorses. A green and pleasant land? Not so much; this is a series with a group of pill-popping,... Read more... |
CD: Jenny Lewis - The VoyagerWednesday, 30 July 2014
Context is everything. It’s the difference between that “lady without a baby” line that’s got everybody talking delivered straight up, and the knowing smile and cross-dressing Hollywood actresses that come with it in the song’s accompanying video.... Read more... |
CD: Old 97's - Most Messed UpMonday, 30 June 2014
It feels as if the life-on-the-road song has become a rite of passage for those rock bands that manage to clock up enough years together, but after 20 years in the business Texan alt-country rockers Old 97’s probably have more of a claim to it than... Read more... |
CD: Willie Nelson - Band Of BrothersMonday, 16 June 2014
You’d have to go back to 1996’s Spirit to name a Willie Nelson album with more than one or two original new songs, so the nine for Band of Brothers is something like headline news. Produced by Buddy Cannon – their previous collaboration, To All the... Read more... |
CD: First Aid Kit - Stay GoldSunday, 08 June 2014
Something about First Aid Kit has always seemed a little too polished, too perfect. While there can be no denying that their 2012 breakthrough record The Lion’s Roar is a rich, lovely listen – in no small part thanks to the charm of Klara and... Read more... |
CD: Jack White - LazarettoSaturday, 07 June 2014
If they ever wanted somebody to make a sequel to Marty Robbins's Gunfighter Ballads and usher in a rockabilly revival for good measure, Jack White is the man. The 11 tracks on this new album - the follow-up to 2012's Blunderbuss - reek of rage, lust... Read more... |
10 Questions for Howling Bells' Juanita SteinMonday, 26 May 2014
Howling Bells have come a long way in the 10 years since they settled on a name and direction for their musical project, both physically - the four-piece uprooted themselves from Sydney, Australia to their adopted hometown of London to record and... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Gram ParsonsSunday, 06 April 2014
Gram Parsons: The Early Years Vol 1 & 2Without Gram Parsons, The Rolling Stones could not have transformed themselves into what they became in the late Sixties and early Seventies. The bond between the South Carolina-born walking... Read more... |
CD: Drive-By Truckers - English OceansSaturday, 01 March 2014
If English Oceans is the Drive-By Truckers finest album since 2004’s The Dirty South - and I’d argue that it is - I doubt it was intentional. A little time away; more of a partnership of equals between founder members and songwriters Patterson Hood... Read more... |
Nashville, Series 2, More4Friday, 07 February 2014
Since Nashville and country music are one giant soap opera, it's amazing nobody turned Tennessee's Music City into a TV series before. No matter. Here we are with series two, and it's as deliriously cheesy and melodramatic as ever.The first series... Read more... |
CD: Samantha Crain – Kid FaceMonday, 13 January 2014
Drawing colour from country and Appalachian traditions while echoing the world-weary moods of singer-songwriters like Karen Dalton, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, the third album from Oklahoma’s Samantha Crain doesn’t... Read more... |
CD: Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy - A Tell AllTuesday, 07 January 2014
Country music in the 21st century is the weirdest thing, and not much of it seems to have to do with the country any more. At its commercial end, it sells billions of records by men with tight T-shirts and women with very white teeth who all drive... Read more... |
