News Archives - Page 157 of 247

Florida Georgia Line WIN at 2018 Billboard Music Awards

Florida Georgia Line bagged the win for the category of ‘Top Country Duo/Group Artist’ at the recently held 2018 Billboard Music Awards. The Awards took place on Sunday (May 20) and was hosted by American songstress Kelly Clarkson at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. Kelly Clarkson opened the show with a tribute to the victims of Friday’s mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. “I’m a Texas girl and my home state has had so much heartbreak over this past year. And once again, y’all, we’re grieving for more kids that have died for just no reason at all” the singer and event host commented. Artists from across the music spectrum performed throughout the evening, with Korean pop band BTS becing the first-ever Korean act to perform at the ceremony, debuting their new single “Fake Love.” They took home the award for Top Social Artist. Old Dominion and Zac Brown Band were the runners up in the Top Country Duo/Group Artist category, which was won by Florida Georgia Line.

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New LP from Shooter Jennings

News / Editor

For nearly two decades, Shooter Jennings has defied expectation while constantly expanding the parameters of country, rock ‘n’ roll, and beyond. The scion of American music royalty, he has affirmed his own place in histories still to come as a truly limitless artist whose ambitious experimentation spans myriad genres and creative platforms, from releasing seven solo LPs, countless EPs, and founding his own label and multimedia outlet, Black Country Rock, to hosting his “Shooter Jennings’ Electric Rodeo” on Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country channel, producing music by Jamey Johnson, Wanda Jackson, and his mom, Jessi Colter, and the creation of acclaimed BBS Door games (available via his own BCRGames.com). Produced by longtime friend and collaborator, Low Country Sound founder Dave Cobb, at the renowned RCA Studio A on Nashville’s Music Row, SHOOTER sees Jennings staking out a fairly straightforward goal: to simply make a great country record. It should be noted, Jennings’ last studio album was a genuinely visionary tribute to Giorgio Moroder so in some ways, making a straight up country record is as much of a left turn as anything else in his brilliantly mercurial career thus far. But with tunes like “Fast Horses & Good Hideouts” and the brass-fueled boogie-woogie of “Bound Ta Git Down,” Jennings more than affirms his mission by returning to country’s original, if oft misplaced, mandate: singing songs about growing up and getting older, about going out and getting trashed. In short, making music for real people with real lives. With SHOOTER, Jennings truly puts his own mark on country music, living up to his extraordinary birthright with unparalleled passion, experience, and heart. “It’s a very honest record,” Jennings says. “There are no magic tricks. It’s really stuff that’s from the heart; it really encapsulates a lot of the styles I’ve done across all my records. Dave said, ‘Can’t we just call it SHOOTER?’ I said, I love that. Let’s just call it SHOOTER.” Heralded as one of 2018’s “30 Most Anticipated Albums,” SHOOTER is available for pre-order. All pre-orders are joined by an instant download of the project’s first single, “Fast Horses & Good Hideouts” which sees Jennings and GRAMMY Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell) sharing songwriting credit with iconoclastic character actor Randy Quaid. In addition, the single is joined by a new companion visual – directed by TK – that sees Jennings hosting his own variety show, entitled “Hey Shooter!” “Fast Horses & Good Hideouts” is streaming now at the official Shooter Jennings YouTube channel. “Randy and I had been corresponding for a while,” Jennings says of the song’s genesis. “I was trying to get him and his wife on my radio show, but nothing ever came of it. Then I asked him about one of the YouTube videos they made of him reading out of the Bible, I wanted to play it on the Christmas episode. He wrote back, saying I’d fulfilled this lifelong dream of his to read the Gospel on the radio, and he signed it, ‘Here’s to fast horses and good hideouts.’ I thought, that would make a great song! So then I went and wrote it.”

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Zack Logan announces his debut album, single, and UK shows

Live events, News / Editor

Life’s tough when you’re raised by wolves, but you learn about life. Raised By Wolves is Zack Logan’s debut album: a 10-track collection of songs inspired by the singer-songwriter’s own travels and experiences of people and places in the towns and states of the American South. Born in the small town of Newton, Mississippi, Zack Logan grew up listening to John Prine, Townes Van Zandt & Robert Earl Keen. As he’s lived his life, Zack has gone on to soak up the best of the Southern sound, travelling thru Mississippi (via Tennessee & Texas) and is now releasing his own debut album. “Raised by Wolves is a collection of songs that were written over a few years’ span between Mississippi, Lousiana & Tennessee,” Zack explains, “I was moving around a lot. The songs are about the people and places around that time, along with the feelings of being lost and found”. Zack recorded Raised by Wolves at Welcome To 1979 Studios: an internationally-respected and highly distinctive Nashville studio, specialising in vintage vibe and gear, where the likes of Alison Krauss, Steve Earle and Pete Townshend have all recorded (as has Zack’s own hero John Prine). The 10-track album showcases Zack’s vocals, guitar and perceptive songwriting skills, and will be released in the U.K. in August 3rd 2018. The songs cover a range of tones and emotions, from the fun of ‘Dogs Chase Cars’, with its jaunty fiddle solo, to the honest if downbeat portrayal of a small town in ‘Home I Call a Place’, and the lively confessions of ‘Trouble Doing the Right Thing’. To herald the album, Zack is releasing his favourite song from it, ‘Annalee’, as a single, along with an accompanying video. “Annalee has always been my favourite song to play,” admits Zack, “I feel like it’s a good representation of my writing and playing style, mixed with the music that I grew up on. I had just moved to town and really hadn’t met many people yet. I was just staying up late and writing by myself in my apartment. Annalee was one of the songs that came out of that. It was written with more of a lonesome feeling than a heartache.” Annalee is a song of moving on from a failed love, seeing the flaws and being freed by a sense of closure. It’s moving, even subtly witty. Zack’s lyrics deftly capture a snapshot: a man looking back as he leaves behind a striking former love and one-time muse, who’d only love on her own terms, if at all. “’… I’m so sick and tired of writing songs about you,” sings Zack, “Well I used to find a needle in a haystack for you. And you could call on me when you had no-one to call, but Darling, I’m down to the last straw.” Annalee makes a great introduction to Zack Logan and will be released on all digital platforms on 11th May. Later this year, Zack will also make his U.K. debut at the very first HRH C.R.O.W.S. festival at O2 Academy in Sheffield, (headlined by Devon Allman, son of the legendary Greg Allman), between the 8th & 9th September 2018. For further information on Zack Logan, please check out his website at www.zacklogan.net.

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Bringing the sunshine – Emma Stevens

Exclusives, News / Editor

As scientists desperately search for new ways of saving our oceans and the animals whose survival depends on it, singer-musician Emma Stevens is using her own platform to inspire others to care for our planet, hosting a series of free pop-up environment gigs leading up to World Environment Day. The first time that I saw Emma Stevens perform I was filled with a sense of optimism, the delicate melodies ringing out, filling the intimate space of the historic building with lively tones that spoke of a warm summer’s day, spent on the beach or around a campfire. It is perhaps what makes Emma so memorable…like most of her music, her attitude is positive and welcoming. It was clear from the performance that evening just how much Emma delights in sharing her talents with those who come to watch her perform. Now the free-spirited songstress is taking her passions to the next level, offering a free outdoor performance in every town she visits during her To My Roots tour this spring and sharing dozens of sunflower seeds with attendees in a bid to raise awareness for the environment. It isn’t the first time that Emma has sought to get the conversation going on environmental issues – last year the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist began an enormous tree planting session that saw plenty of fans do their bit for the environment. This year World Environment Day falls slap bang in the middle of Emma’s tour and she’s making it her mission to shine a light on the need for communities to engage in preserving natural habitat. “I’ve always been really passionate about looking after our planet and raising awareness…the environment was something that my mum got me into in my early childhood days, I love nature and a lot of my music reflects that. There’s lots of lyrics and symbolism with nature in my music…I’ve got a platform here and I take my platform really, really seriously.” Emma’s mother died from cancer six years ago, but her influence continues to live on. Live performances are dedicated to her and there is an overall feeling that she is never far from Emma’s thoughts in her music and songwriting. It’s an opinion that Emma seems to confirm to me: “Because ‘Sunflower’ was the first song I wrote after I lost my mum, the word sunflower and the picture it paints has always been really close to my heart. “My mum was my greatest inspiration. If it wasn’t for her I don’t know if I would be doing this, she was the one that always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and when I lost her I realised how short life can be. “In the two weeks before I lost her, I told her I’m going to commit to doing music, so she designed the artwork for me for my first album, which is really special. She was an amazing artist.” In the past, Emma has spoken of having an “absolute addiction” to string instruments and a “love” of country music, so it’s no surprise that her third album TO MY ROOTS released last year put guitar, banjo, mandolin and ukelele on full display. It’s something that has emerged from going it alone in the music industry – something that is fairly new to Emma. “Before I decided to commit to being an artist full-time (five year’s ago) I battled with confidence and I battled with not being good enough. That turning point for me was when I lost my mum and I thought, do you know what, I am so lucky and privileged to be alive and to be able to have the ability to write songs, I want to go out on the road, I want to meet people that have been through something the same as me and I want to connect to as many people as I can through my music. It’s been cathartic and healing.” So is being a solo artist proving more fun that being in a band? “I love being able to go out there with my guitar and be totally self-sufficient and self-contained, I could be anywhere and as long as there’s a guitar, I can create songs and there’s something really special about that. It can be a really lovely, intimate moment when you’re performing at a set, just with your guitar, on the mandolin or on the ukulele, and the song can just speak for itself…” This year will be the second To My Roots tour – the last one, back in 2017 involved the full band, whereas this time around Emma will be touring as a three piece, rich with harmonies and acoustic instruments that are apparently “a little bit more intricate than a full band with a drum set”. From a surfer chick in South East England to amassing three million Spotify plays (that’s not to mention over a million video views on the back of four EP and three album releases), it’s clear that Emma has her eyes set on bringing even more folk-pop fusion to the table. Right now, she’s working on new music that should unfold later this year but her dream is to collaborate with some of her music idols: “There are so many artists I’d love to work with. I’ve always loved Kate Rusby, she’s one of my favourites and I think our voices would compliment each other really well. In terms of a group, I have always loved the Dixie Chicks – they have been one of my favourite bands growing up, I was just so influenced by them, they’re the reason I picked up the banjo.” I can’t resist asking whether there are any future plans to revisit Nashville and whip up some collaborative material. “I’ve got to a point now where it’s not about how quickly I can put music out it’s about the quality of it. [Nashville] has been a place that has just called to me ever since I listened to the Dixie

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'People Get Old' from Lori McKenna's forthcoming album out today!

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THE TREE, the anticipated new album from Grammy, CMA and ACM Award-winning singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, will be released July 20, with ‘People Get Old’ emerging today. The new album takes one of McKenna’s signature themes—family—and builds a tapestry of experiences she has lived and overheard, been told and dreamed up. Of the album, McKenna comments, “I love people’s stories about their families—the way they tic and the ways we’re all crazy and love each other. I hope my songs shine a little light on that for a second. Maybe our stories remind us of our families and what they give us. It’s beautiful, and sometimes we take it for granted.” The Tree is McKenna’s eleventh studio album and second in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile). Recorded by Matt Ross-Spang over seven days at Nashville’s historic RCA, the 11-song album features McKenna (vocals, acoustic guitar), Cobb (acoustic/electric guitar, mellotron), Anderson East (electric guitar), Brian Allen (bass), Chris McKenna (mellotron), Chris Powell (drums, percussion) and background vocals from Kristen Rogers, Natalie Hemby and Hillary Lindsey. In celebration of the release, McKenna will embark on “The Way Back Home Tour” this summer. The headline tour kicks off June 29 at Annapolis’ Rams Head On Stage and includes stops at City Winery venues in Boston, New York, DC, Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Philadelphia’s World Café Live and Nashville’s CMA Theatre among others. McKenna will also join Alison Krauss on two tour dates in Ohio this June. The new album follows a series of breakthrough years for McKenna following the release of her Grammy-nominated album, THE BIRD & THE RIFLE. The album—which garnered Grammy nominations for Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song (‘Wreck You’) and Best American Roots Performance (‘Wreck You’) and two nominations at the Americana Music Association’s Honors & Awards—also landed McKenna a profile on “CBS News Sunday Morning” and a performance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” In 2017 McKenna became the first songwriter to win back-to-back Best Country Song awards at the Grammys since Shania Twain in 1999-2000 with her solo-penned, No. 1 hit ‘Humble & Kind’ following 2016’s win for ‘Girl Crush’ (co-written with Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey). McKenna also won Song of the Year for ‘Humble & Kind’ at The 50th Annual CMA Awards and became the first songwriter to win the award in consecutive years since Vince Gill (1991-1993) and the first female songwriter to win back-to-back nods in the history of the CMAs. She made history at the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards becoming the first woman to be awarded Songwriter of the Year. McKenna’s current songs include Carrie Underwood’s lead single, ‘Cry Pretty,’ written with Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey. LORI MCKENNA’S “THE WAY BACK HOME” TOUR DATES June 14—Sylvania, OH—Centennial Terrace (supporting Alison Krauss) June 15—Kettering, OH—Fraze Pavilion (supporting Alison Krauss) June 29—Annapolis, MD—Rams Head On Stage June 30—Northampton, MA—Iron Horse Music Hall July 1—East Greenwich, RI—Greenwich Odeum July 18—Boston, MA—City Winery July 20—New York, NY—City Winery July 21—Philadelphia, PA—World Café Live July 22—Washington, DC—City Winery August 3—Ann Arbor, MI—The Ark August 4—Chicago, IL—City Winery August 5—Minneapolis, MN—Dakota Jazz Club August 15—Atlanta, GA—City Winery August 16—Charlotte, NC—North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center August 17—Nashville, TN—CMA Theatre, Country Music Hall of Fame

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Michael Head launches UK Folk on the Dock music fest in Liverpool

Live events, News / Editor

Folk On The Dock producers Fit The Bill have chosen Liverpool legend Michael Head to launch this year’s folk, roots and acoustic music festival with an exclusive, ticketed performance at the Museum of Liverpool on Friday 24th August 2018. Martin Blore, Executive Producer of Folk On The Dock, explained: “It is testimony to the festival’s success that in our third year we are able to expand the festival from its base at Albert Dock along the Liverpool waterfront. The atrium in the Museum of Liverpool is the perfect, contemporary space for a music concert that enables the audience to enjoy an up close and personal performance.” He added: “We discussed with Paul Gallagher, the Deputy Director of the Museum of Liverpool, the idea of hosting a performance, as the venue has leant itself to similar intimate gigs in the past, with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. We considered a couple of options for our wish list of performers, but all agreed that Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band represent the very heart of Liverpool and are the perfect choice to launch the three day festival over August Bank Holiday weekend.” Michael Head is an effortless and deeply soulful songwriter, forming his first band, The Pale Fountains, with his younger brother John in the early 1980s. After releasing two albums for Virgin, he formed his second band, Shack, in 1986 and they managed released five critically acclaimed albums including Waterpistol in 1995 and HMS Fable for London Records in 1999. In 1997 he released what is arguably his most acclaimed and accomplished album to date, The Magical World Of The Strands, under the name of Michael Head introducing The Strands. In 2013 he formed Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band and released the 2017 album Adiós Señor Pussycat, thereby attaining further critical acclaim and a number one position on the independent album chart. Michael Head added: “It’s a great venue and performing my music right next to the River Mersey at the Museum of Liverpool really appeals to me. We’ve turned down a few opportunities to play at conventional music festivals, but this felt different, working with like-minded people to play a special show to launch this festival in the heart of my home city.” This year’s Folk On The Dock runs from the 24th August until the 27th August with free stages all around Albert Dock, Liverpool and legendary BBC Radio presenter Janice Long will once again host the free Dock Stage. Last year the event attracted 90,000 visitors over the bank holiday weekend. Tickets for Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band go on sale on Saturday 12th May 2018 at 9am and can be purchased online from www.michaelhead.net/boxoffice

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“Stay Wild” released today by Shook Twins folk group

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The Shooks first emerged in 2008 with their independent debut ‘You Can Have The Rest’ followed by Window, and 2014’s ‘What We Do—which’ garnered acclaim from USA Today and more. Organically stirring up a buzz, they engendered fandom in fellow creators such as Langhorne Slim, The Lumineers, Mason Jennings, and iconic best-selling author Neil Gaiman who claimed, “They make music that twines through your soul the way vines cover an abandoned shack in the woods.” Along the way, the full band, including Niko Slice [electric guitar, mandolin, vocals], Barra Brown [drums, vocals, drum pad], and Josh Simon [bass, vocals, electric guitar, synth], has shared bills with everyone from Ryan Adams to The Indigo Girls. See below for the girls’ tour dates. TOUR DATES May 11 – Black Mountain, NC – Leaf Festival May 20 – Joshua Tree, CA – Joshua Tree Music Festival May 24-25 – Bradley, CA – Lightning in a Bottle May 27 – Novato, CA – HopMonk Tavern – Novato (with Rainbow Girls) Jun 02 – El Prado, NM – Music on the Mothership Jun 20 – The Shitty Barn – Spring Green, WI (with Shawn Butzin) Jun 21-24 – Rothbury, MI – Electric Forest Jul 13 – Eastsound, WA – Orcas Center presents Center Stage Live Concert Jul 14 – Friday Harbor, WA – San Juan Community Theatre Jul 15 – Lopez, WA – The Lopez Center for Community for and The Arts Jul 20-22 – North Plains, OR – Northwest String Summit Aug 03-05 – Loveland, CO – ARISE Music Festival Aug 24-25 – Fayetteville, AR – Fayetteville Roots Festival Sept 12-15 – Nashville, TN – AmericanaFest

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Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes announce return to the UK

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Australian alt-country/Americana outfit Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes have announced their return to the UK next month including an appearance at Maverick Festival, coinciding with the European release of their fourth album ‘Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music’ on June 29th 2018. The album opens with the band’s semi-political brand new single ‘I Hope That I’m Wrong’ – in the words of lead singer and songwriter Bryan: “I wrote this song around October 2017. It was about nine o’clock in the morning, and I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen and I sat down and read the newspaper. The song started playing in my head and it was as though every headline I read triggered a new line or a new verse. I guess it was around the time that the #MeToo movement started, and as soon as I wrote the opening words “Women, do what you must/There’s not a man in the world you can trust” I knew that I wanted that to be the first line anybody hears on the new album (which we were already half way through recording). “The song came together so quickly in my head – it was fully formed within minutes, and when I picked up my girlfriend’s guitar which was leaning on the kitchen table, I was already in the right key and could play it from beginning to end. There are songs on this album that I laboured over for months – years in one case – but ‘I Hope that I’m Wrong’ was the opposite. If someone had told me I would one day come up with a song that discussed climate change, greed, poverty and sexual harassment I’d have told them they had me mistaken for somebody else. But I guess that’s what this is, and it took about as long to write as it does to sing. “Like a lot of this record, ‘I Hope that I’m Wrong’ was cut live in the studio – we did have a few goes at it, on different days, in different moods, to get the one that felt right – which happened to be the last take we did.” Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes have built their reputation on storytelling. Over the past eight years they have released four records, toured Europe and the USA multiple times, shared stages with Americana and country heavyweights and picked up a string of awards, including the Golden Guitar for ‘alt country album of the year’ with their landmark release ‘Black Coffee’.Since emerging in 2009, Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes have become known as the finest Australian exponents of Americana Music, winning the prestigious Golden Guitar Award for Alt-Country Album of the Year in 2014 and being finalists again in the category in 2016 (Lachlan returned to the awards to present the very same award to Kasey Chambers in 2018). At home they have played the main stage at every major country and roots festival, as well as supporting international acts such as Steve Earle, Joan Armatrading, Shawn Colvin and John Hiatt in theatres across the country. Lachlan and band have also toured the USA several times and made their first visit to Europe in 2017, where they performed shows in Switzerland, Germany and The UK (where the band was a highlight of the iconic Maverick Festival). Tour dates Wed 27 June: What’s Cookin, Leytonstone, London Thurs 28 June: Chapel Arts Centre, Bath, UK + Dan Webster (UK) Friday 29 June: The Howlin Wolf, Glasgow + Imogen Clarke (Aus) Sat 30 June: MacSorleys Music Bar, Glasgow + The Weeping Willows (Aus) Tues 3 July: The Winning post, York + Amelia White (USA) and Dan Webster (UK) Weds 4 July: The Woodend Gallery, Scarborough + The Roamin Jasmine (USA) Thurs 5 July: The Green Note, London + Jonathan Byrd (USA) Fri 6 July: Maverick Festival, Woodbridge, Suffolk Sat 7 July: Maverick Festival, Woodbridge, Suffolk Info & tickets from lachlanbryanandthewildes.com

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Brothers Osborne announce 2018 UK tour

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Brothers Osborne have announced a 2018 UK tour, which includes performances by Planet Rockstock. The headline UK tour will take place in November & December this year, with songs from the second studio album PORT SAINT JOE sure to be included in the set. The announcement comes as the award-winning duo – originally from Maryland, now based in Nashville – are poised to start their first ever headline tour of the UK & Ireland, with venues selling out fast and upgrades taking place where possible. TJ & John Osborne first visited UK shores in March 2017 to perform at the Country2Country events in London and Scotland, followed by a one-off, sold-out headline show in London; they then joined friends and Nashville neighbours The Cadillac Three on the latter’s UK tour late last year, all of which has seen a dramatic rise in the Brothers’ profile, supported by the release of two studio albums via Snakefarm Records in the UK – PAWN SHOP (re-issued here in 2017) and the recently arrived PORT SAINT JOE, heralded by lead single, the combustible ‘Shoot Me Straight’. The November-December visit also takes in a debut appearance at Planet Rockstock in South Wales; this will be the sixth annual festival hosted by Planet Rock, who have been strong supporters of The Brothers from the start, with current single ‘Drank Like Hank’ currently sitting on the station’s A-List. Recorded in a Florida beach house away from the sometimes sterile environs of the studio, PORT SAINT JOE has been hugely well-received, attracting widespread attention with its raw, honest, uniquely homemade feel; indeed, the record was mostly captured in a series of live takes, retaining the atmospheric background noises of wind, roaring water and the excited and ‘refreshed’ encouragement of visiting Nashville friends. This unconventional location proved a perfect complement to the Brothers’ music, which instinctively bends both rules and genres… “PORT SAINT JOE’ is a sonic representation of who we’ve become, not only as a band but as people,” says guitarist John. “Every show we’ve ever played together is on this record. Every song we’ve ever written and every mile we’ve ever ridden has led to the making of this record. Imperfections and all.” A diverse collection, ‘PORT SAINT JOE’ touches on emotive ballads, southern slow jams, roots-y rave-ups and half-lit drinking songs, including the hugely atmospheric ‘Weed, Whiskey And Willie’. Full list of dates for November/December 25th NOVEMBER, GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY 27th NOVEMBER, NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY 28th NOVEMBER, MANCHESTER ACADEMY 30th NOVEMBER, NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY 01st DECEMBER, PLANET ROCKSTOCK 02nd DECEMBER, LONDON O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN General sale of tickets are available from May 11 at 9am GMT at www.livenation.co.uk/artist/brothers-osborne-tickets

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The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers is "contemporary old-time country with a sense of humour…"

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The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers DON’T THINK ABOUT TOMORROW TONIGHT Self release **** Contemporary old-time country with a sense of humour If you’re a fan of old-time country music then the new album from The Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers is going to float your boat so high it will end up ten miles inland. Lovelorn and lost but still able to at least see the sunny side of the street, the titles here tell their own tale: the punning ‘Fools Were Made To be Broken’, ‘Come On Back, Break My Heart’, ‘It’s Lonely At The Bottom’: this is classic heartbreak set to a jaunty melody driven along by fiddle and steel guitar. Effectively a duo (Nikki Grossman & Joe Hart) augmented for the studio, they have a sense of humour too so this is no po-faced homage. The wry post-relationship song ‘If You Don’t Exist’ and particularly ‘This Song’ – we have no idea if we know the words or indeed the tune – which in other hands would be cynical here is just fun It’s not easy pastiche either. The dozen songs all stand up in their own right, the sound is contemporary as is the production – no valve amplifiers or recordings in a backwoods cabin here fortunately. Hank would be proud: no higher praise is possible. Jeremy Searle https://www.sapsuckersmusic.com

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