Following on from my blog post yesterday here’s the first of what may well be a number of sequels…
I’d like to credit Alec Bowman, a film-maker, photographer and fine musician in his own right for introducing me to Arborist. Here’s a song I’ve been playing on repeat, A Northern View from their same name album.
It’s that time of the year again. The music magazines are already publishing albums of the year from their perspective. Over recent times I’ve made it slightly easier on myself by dividing the year into two. So back in June I posted in three separate instalments the standout albums for me up to that point. And now here are the my favourites from the second half of 2018.
Before I post any further, I recognise there is always a risk, whenever you post a list like this, that another fantastic album or EP is just around the corner. I’ve got that covered anyway, I will post an addition in a few weeks from now should I stumble upon a few brilliant new releases that are too good to leave out.
Oh, and one other thing. I’ve always struggled with brevity, if you listen to the show regularly and my conversation between tracks you’ll understand I’m sure. So this is not a lovely neat list of 10 or 20 records. That’s just impossible to slim all the great records to that small number. And finally it’s not a list that is in any sort of order. It’s simply a random posting up of the records that have meant something to me with wherever possible a video of a track I like from the album or EP. I’ll filibuster no more, here’s the list…. Enjoy exploring and please feel free to post up any comments and indeed recommendations you may have for me for releases that are your favourites from 2018.
Jess Morgan – And I can’t keep still EP
Eliza Gilkyson – Secularia
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus – Boygenius EP
Katherine Priddy – Wolf EP
Kristian Kjellvander – Faux Guernica
Rab Noakes – Welcome to Anniversaryville
The Milk Carton Kids – All the things that I did and all the things that I didn’t do
Jess Morgan – Blue Jay single
Steve Tilston – Distant days
Robby Hecht and Caroline Spence – Two People
Alden Patterson and Dashwood – By the night
Jason McNiff – Joy and Independence
Lera Lynn – Plays well with others
The Innocence Mission – Sun on the square
Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes – Some girls quite like country music
Amanda Shires – To the sunset
Drew Morrison and the Darkwood – Electric-Notes Wild
Elephant Micah – Genericana
Lori McKenna – The Tree
Kerry Devine – Away from the mountains
The Cowboy Junkies – All that reckoning
M G Boulter and the Free – Blood Moon EP
Dan Webster – Devil Sky
Vanessa Peters – Foxhole Prayers
Grace Petrie – Queer as folk
Treetop Flyers – Treetop Flyers
Tunng – Songs you make at night
Drew Morrison and the Darkwood – Electric Notes Wild
Curse of Lono – As I fell
Me for Queen – Loose end
Gilmore and Roberts – A problem of our kind
Annie Dressner – Broken into pieces
Austin Lucas – Immortal Americans
Glorietta – Glorietta
The Willows – Through the wild
Ciara O’Neill – Arrow
Martyn Joseph – Here come the young
Sinnober – Projection
David Berkeley – The Faded Red and Blue
Ed Harcourt – Beyond the end
Kitty MacFarlane – Namer of clouds
Phillip Henry – True North
Jesse Matas – Tamarack
Kelly Oliver – Botany Bay
John Smith – Hummingbird
Marc Ribot – Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
Nathan Bell – Love bones and stars
Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou Fair Lady London
Cam Penner – At war with reason
Karine Polwart, Steven Polwart and Inge Thomson – Laws of motion
I remember seeing Jack Harris play a set in the Saloon stage at Truck Festival a few years back. I really like what I heard and made a mental note to investigate his excellent music further. And when Winter Wilson appeared on the show to do a live session in 2016 I asked them to choose some tracks they enjoyed by other artists or bands. It just so happened one of them was by Jack Harris, Sylvia Plath’s Lullaby, a superb song from The Flame and the Pelican.
So I was delighted when I discovered Jack had a long awaited new album out, produced by Gerry Diver, a fine producer. The album is The Wide Afternoon. Listen to it and you can completely see why fellow singer songwriter, and another Quiet Revolution favourite Anais Mitchell describes him as “a priest of song” and Q magazine refer to him as “a unique lyrical mind”.
The album offers 11 new songs inflected with folk and blues. The overall sound of the album is fascinating in itself, Gerry Diver weaving in violins and eerie percussion. There are songs of dangerous men, literary women, stolen horses, waterlogged houses and vanished birds. All in all another brilliant release from the Welsh singer songwriter.
Devon Sproule The Gold String
I’ve been a fan of Devon Sproule’s music since I was sent a copy of her 2007 album Keep Your Silver Shined. A great album and I’ve followed the Canadian/American musician’s career since then. A couple of releases have followed that one on Coventry-based record label Tin Angel Records and an excellent collaboration with Mike O’Neill called Colours.
So I was really pleased that Devon released a new album this year, The Gold String. And as you might imagine it’s another superb record. Great live too, I was lucky enough to catch Devon at The Greystokes in Sheffield in March. But don’t just take my word for it, here’s what others have said “Sproule’s lyrics glance off each other arrestingly, juxtaposing images.” (Financial Times) and “Her quirky affectations bring to mind Bjork, and forays into the dark, Michelle Shocked.” (Village Voice).
I’ve enjoyed Robb Johnson’s music for years now. I like his social conscience and the political dimension that come through in many of his songs. Check out his back catalogue and songs like Hope St Tomorrow Afternoon, Be Reasonable and many more. He also does humour extremely well and tenderness, songs that will bring a tear to your eye, such as the gorgeous Don’t close the bar. But these are from his previous albums yet the new album My Best Regards is full of songs that are equally as compelling as the ones I’ve mentioned already.
On the album Robb is joined by pianist Jenny Carr and bassist John Forrester, as well as his son Arvin playing drums and percussion. The songs cover subjects from the personal to the political; from birthdays to migrations; from late night bus stops to the Sidmouth promenade; from Babbacombe Model Village to Franz Kafka and Prague. They additionally cover new babies in Hollingdean, MPs’ 10% pay rises, and Turkish red wine and charity shops in Broadstairs. My standout track, if I have to select just a mere one song is When the Tide Comes in recorded with the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani. I must have played it a good few times on the show. And I can envisage it finding it’s way onto a future playlist too.
Check out my Best Regards, I feel certain you’ll like it.
I must acknowledge that I’d not come across Joe Purdy until I received a copy of this album in the post. I try and discover as much new music as I possibly can but sadly some good stuff can escape under my radar. But with Joe Purdy better late than not at all.
This record is excellent, an American singer songwriter with a Dylan-like vocal style in some respects. In fact he’s been described as planting his feet deep in the tradition of folk artists such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Right up my musical street, protest songs for 2016, Joe’s been referred to as a passionate observer and participant of our times. Yep, I’d concur with that. He’s a great find, only wish it hadn’t taken me quite so long.
Children of privilege is my current favourite song from the album. Have a listen here.
It’s been a fine year for quality music. This continues my personal favourite releases of the year from the latter half of 2016.
Once I’ve completed this I’m going to set myself an additional challenge which will be to distill from all my favourites the 20 must buy albums of 2016. Added to this I’ll also go for my 20 songs of the year selected from the full list of my favourites for the whole of the year.
Ruth Theodore – Cactacus
Ruth started creating her own music as a teenager, teaching herself guitar and busking on Southampton High Street. She’s lived in London since 2006.
I first discovered her gorgeous music in 2010 with her album White holes of mole hills. Captivated by this I’ve tried to keep an ear out for her music ever since so was delighted when I was sent a copy of her current album Cactacus which is released on Aveline Records in conjunction with her own River Rat Records. The other difference with this album is that whereas previously Ruth has produced her own records, for Cactacus the acclaimed producer Todd Sickafoose who has worked memorably with Anais Mitchell and Ani Di Franco, two artists I’ve been a longstanding fan of the music of.
The songwriting is outstanding and subject matter is varied. Many standout tracks with ‘The Carcass And The Pride’, ‘Everything is Temporary’, ‘Kissing in traffic’, ‘Loop Hole’, ‘You Can’t Help Who You Love’ ones that I’d like to draw particular attention towards. Cactacus is definitely one of those albums I just keep going back to and I’m can pretty much guarantee you’d do the same if you got yourself a copy.
I’ve loved the music of Edinburgh based roots/americana collective Southern Tenant Folk Union since they emerged in 2006 so always look forward to a new album from the band. Since their last release, The Chuck Norris Project, the the membership of the band has changed a little however Pat McGarvey remains a constant and has been joined by Scottish singer songwriter Rory Butler, fiddle player Katherine Stewart, percussionist Steve Fivey and from Inverness, double bass player Craig Macfadyen.
In trying to find a name the band chose the ground breaking multi-racial tenant farmers collective from the new deal/dustbowl era the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. They’ve been described in the music press as ‘A folk band for the Occupy era – passionate, political and mischievous’ and Join Forces, which is their 7th album, and it’s predecessor 4-track EP What would you give for a leader with soul, are influenced by politics and social justice. And their sound is influenced by bluegrass, folk and americana.
I’ve enjoyed Al Lewis’s solo releases, particularly his Battles album from a few years back. On that he was joined on a number of the songs by Sarah Howells from the Welsh duo Paper Aeroplanes. He sounded great on his own but I loved him collaborating with a female voice.
Over the last 18 months Al has put out three EP’s with American singer songwriter Alva Leigh. Their voices sound excellent together. Al is from North Wales originally and is now based in South Wales and Alva Leigh is from Mississippi but moved to London with her husband in 2012. After the EP’s I was very much hoping a full length album would emerge and this was released in September, entitled ‘Ghost. It’s a collection of self-penned originals recorded in January 2016 at Urchin Studios in London with Matt Ingram. My advice is get a copy and then work your way backwards through the EP’s.
Well this is the last entry for my blog charting my favourite releases for the first 6 months of this year. Completed just in time to get ready to compile my favourites from July onwards!
Norrie McCulloch – These mountain blues
I like an amazing number of singer songwriters and bands from Scotland. This blog thus far has identified quite a few of them. 2016 saw me add a name to the list, that of Glasgow purveyor of americana or ‘celticana’, er, perhaps not the latter. Scottish Americana is the term that the esteemed Folk Radio UK have used so that’ll do for me. Dave McGowan of Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian can be found assisting Norris on the album along with Stuart Kidd and Marco Rea. The whole record, surprisingly for these digital times, was recorded wholly in analogue in an ancient building in Stirling, as opposed to a traditional recording studio. The album had a timescale of 3 days for recording. The end result is beautiful. Norrie has travelled across the Southern states of the US and the album resultantly has both an American and Scottish feel and sound to it.
Favourite track from the album? Hmm, where to start. OK, today I’ll opt for the wonderful title song. Check it out for yourself.
I first heard Peter Bruntnell’s music on the wonderful Whispering Bob Harris’s Radio 2 show. The album was Normal for Bridgewater back in 1999 and that was my introduction to this superb singer songwriter’s music. Peter delivers americana with a British influence.
He’s based in Devon and has made a slew of fine albums since Bridgewater was released. Not da Comrade, the Welsh for goodnight comrade incidentally, is the latest of these and was recorded in Peter’s home studio. The opening song on the album Mr Sunshine is very topical as I write this, well worth having a look at the video on Peter’s site.
The songcraft throughout is of the highest level, songs that draw you in and absorb you. Willy Vlautin of the sadly no more Richmond Fontaine has described Peter as his favourite singer songwriter no less. Add to this that the NME claimed that “Peter Bruntnell’s records should be taught in schools” acclaim from Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, Jay Farrar, John Murry or Kathleen Edwards who all concur that Peter Bruntnell is a writer with rare and mysterious qualities you really can’t go wrong if you buy a Peter Bruntnell album.
Richmond Fontaine – You can’t go back if there’s nothing to go back to
I mentioned Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine earlier. His band have made consistently excellent, finely crafted albums since they formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994. Vlautin is also a novelist which when you listen to his songs you can understand how he might translate that songwriting talent into writing compelling novels.
Willy formed The Delines, another fine band a few years back and maybe with the new project and the work as an author he felt it was time to bid farewell to Richmond Fontaine. I’m glad that we will still be able to enjoy his music yet I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one with a penchant for quality americana/alt-country who’s going to miss Richmond Fontaine.
I’ll leave you with a favourite song from the album, difficult to select just the one, I could have peppered this blog entry with them, but I’ll go for this song….
