Americana and suchlike

[Ivor]

He's bloody good isn't he?

[Ivor]

spending my Tower vouchers on stuff I missed a while back...




very like Fleet Foxes and/or Bon Iver but that's no bad thing in this case. Only one listen on but it sounds really good.

[Derek]

I have that CD a while now and like it a lot.


But this is just magic, recommended!
Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance - PATTERSON HOOD (Drive by Truckers)

[Gerry D]

One reason the sound of La Grande is so purposeful is that, for the first time, Gibson remained in the producer’s chair throughout its making, bouncing between home-recorded vocal sessions – piling as many as 15 Laura Gibsons on certain tracks – and proper takes at Type Foundry Studios alongside engineer and good friend Adam Selzer (M Ward, Norfolk and Western) and some great players including Calexico’s Joey Burns, members of The Dodos (Meric Long and Logan Kroeber) and The Decemberists (Nate Query, Jenny Conlee), clarinetist Jilly Coykendall, and the drumming duo Rachel Blumberg and Matt Berger (affectionately known as Blumberger). Don’t get the wrong idea, though. While La Grande’s stage is shared with some very special guests, Gibson is at the center of every last note; contributing bits of bass, guitar, piano, pump organ, vibraphone, synthesizer, marimba, even a marching drum. The result is richer and more revealing than any of her previous records – two solo albums and an experimental LP with Ethan Rose – but it never loses sight of her start as a young singer-songwriter who felt more at home playing in an AIDS hospice (where she had a standing weekly gig for two years) than in Portland’s vibrant (and at the time, overwhelming) indie music scene.

[tweber]

[Fran]

Listening to this tonight and its stunning..... thanks to Derek.




SQ is very good throughout....

[Gerry D]

Classic Hiatt ...


...and this is still great ...

[jadarin]

[jadarin]

[mcq]

The biggest treat of 2013 thus far has been Iris DeMent's latest album, Sing The Delta.  DeMent's first two albums are, to my mind, unalloyed masterpieces and two of the greatest records (regardless of genre) of the past 30 years.  Her voice is an instrument of pure, unvarnished beauty, eschewing sleek silkiness in favour of a coarse rawness which cuts directly to the emotional quick.  Her new work, arriving 16 years after her last album of original material, is a beautifully unforced masterclass in emotional naturalism.  Her voice has lost a little of the rawness of her first two albums, but has grown and matured in depth in the tonal shadings of its richly burnished tones.  Like all the great singers, her command of vocal phrasing is impeccable.  She knows just when to raise her voice and when to retreat, creating all sorts of emotional fulcrums within a song. Nothing is exaggerated here, she appears to be simply responding to the emotions buried deep within her songs.  Musically speaking, this is a conflation of country, gospel and soul.  It is worth pointing out that, just like her earlier work, this album demands patience on the part of the listener.  These songs are about life's hard won truths, the insights that are gained by coming through moments of intense grief.  So many songs cover these well-trodden subjects and so many of these songs are as forgotten as quickly as they are heard, as reliant as they are on maudlin sentimentality as a means of emotionally manipulating the listener's attention.  DeMent's art is more subtle, more naturalistic, more unforced.  This is music that needs time to seep into your soul.  She has lived with these songs for the past 16 years, working them over, thinking them through, and releasing them only when she felt herself satisfied with the results.  The result is an album that simply feels so very true and pure, an uncommonly rich and multi-layered experience that grows and deepens with each passing listen.

"Before the colours fade from view
I sit alone remembering you
And all those things you'd say and do
And the feel of being next to you
The angles of your sweet, old face
The voice that filled my life with grace
I linger in this sacred place
Before the colours fade"

(from Before The Colours Fade)