Gabriel Moreno – Wound in the Night
Someone described Gabriel as an offshoot of Leonard Cohen and Neil Diamond. Listen to the title track and you’ll get it.
In many ways, this is not a usual entry for my feature album of the month, but it is utterly beguiling. The role of a troubadour favouring protest songs and commenting with acute social and psychological insight into our troubled times is alive and kicking out, which is pleasing to report. Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian singer-songwriter, currently based in London. An irresistibly engaging performer, he combines a Latin exuberance and passion with a rare lyrical calibre (he is also a poet with 12 books published to date). Performing on nylon string guitar and accompanied by pianist Ned Cartwright, he apparently creates a live experience that has been described as ”Taberna Folk” – at once both energetic and intimate, anarchic and absorbing.
The album was arranged and produced by Michael Collins (Allo Darlin’), Gabriel
Moreno and Ned Cartwright (Heartworn Highways). The album features the double bass of Billy McGee who has collaborated with legends such as Nick Cave and Marc Almond and it is mastered and mixed by Erik Wofford who produced and recorded Bill Callahan. Also featured on the album are cellist Maya McCourt, Tom Mawby on violin, Billy McGee on double bass and backing vocals courtesy of Pearl Fish and Ayesha Watling. Ty Watling supplies electric guitar on Growing Old.
Vintage instruments and analogue gear are employed to create a ghost-like Taberna-Folk sound where musical genres as diverse as Latin American troubadour music and Anglo-Saxon alternative/folk come together in service of the hypnotic and beguiling baritone voice. I’ve mentioned Cohen earlier, so let’s add Scott Walker to the mix, and you’ll get an idea of the esteem I am holding this observational commentator in. Intriguing
Rupert Wates – Elegies
Rupert Wates was born in London and since 2007 has been based in New York City. He has released 11 previous CDs of original material. He has been a full time songwriter since the late 1990s, when he signed a publishing contract with Eaton Music Limited and worked in London Moving in 2001 to Paris, Wates formed his own quartet and began playing live regularly. Then came the move to the USA where he has been ever since, winning well over 50 song-writing and performing awards.
“My goal in writing the material for this CD was to create and sustain a particular mood. Though all the songs are love songs – some based loosely on classical and Romantic texts, others more contemporary in tone….” They also cover the theme of loss: of youth, of a time and place, of a loved one who is absent or only a memory. His music is an eclectic mix of acoustic, melodic art/folk, with flavours of jazz, vaudeville and cabaret. Wates has a brand of melodic art/folk—haunting songs that ring true, and remind me of Gordon Lightfoot. High praise. Elegiac.
Gwenan Gibbard – Hen Ganeuon Newydd (New Old Songs)
Gwenan is currently studying for a PhD degree at Bangor University and the research has allowed her to concentrate on the folk songs of the Llyn Peninsula and neighbouring Eifionydd (north-west Wales). A century or more ago, Welsh was the only language, and the local people would gather together, socialise and share songs, stories, rhymes and verse as part of everyday life. Today this is a remarkable snapshot of history.
This is a local album but not just for local people – there’s plenty for us all here! We can relax to the sounds, and then dwell on the stories behind the songs. Gwenan is a singer and harpist/multi-instrumentalist following in a long tradition of this style of performance, supported discretely by Gwilym Bowen Rhys, Patrick Rimes and Aled Wyn Hughes. Whether love song, light-hearted, or lament, this is a lovely album, both musically and lyrically, history come alive. Lyrical.
Sean Taylor – Short Stories
For two decades Sean Taylor has honed his songwriting and performing, and this album showcases his craft, his vocals and piano or guitar joined by bassist and three-time song co-writer Mike Seal, also joined where appropriate by Paulina Szczepaniak (percussion), Justin Carroll (Hammond), Joe Harvey White (pedal steel), Ben Walker (guitars), Maria Bartz (violin)
His songs are best described as roots; influenced by blues, americana, ,jazz, spoken word and folk. ‘Snowdonia’ reminisces the painful pleasure of a February swim in Lake Snowdon, ‘Wildflower’ is a psychedelic paean to music, ‘Mona Lisa’ a rock and roll joyride, ‘Set me Free’ an autumnal love song, ‘Gravestones’ a dark humoured blues, and ‘Be Cool’ a stream of consciousness epic. This album is a collection of tales, encounters, experiences and moments in time. He’s an acoustic blues troubadour. Rootsy.
Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams – Should We Tell Him?
Brooks Williams knew of Rab’s music since his teenage years, and famously included one Rab song in every gig he did in the first five years of his professional career. They didn’t actually meet until Brooks invited him to sing on his album Lucky Star in Glasgow. A friendship was formed and a musical collaboration was born. This album is a long-time desire and an idea hatched 5 years before they got into the studio, and now a eulogy to Rab as much to the Everly Brothers.
Rab and Brooks, acoustic guitars in hand, sang the songs we hear on the album with Hilary Brooks on piano, Kevin McGuire on bass, Conor Smith on pedal steel and electric guitar and Signy Jakobsdottir on drums. With Paul Savage at the
mixing desk, they recorded these eleven songs over three days ‘live from the floor’. Rab & Brooks avoided the bigger, more well-known hits and instead found inspiration in a spiral-bound mimeographed songbook called “Songs By Don Everly,” meaning this has an audible heartfelt importance to them. And as Rab’s last performance, to us as well. Let’s tell him.
Filkin’s Drift – Rembard’s Retreat (EP)
Seth Bye, from Gloucestershire and Chris Roberts from Cardiff are folk duo Filkin’s Drift blending fiddle and guitar with close vocal harmonies. With the climate emergency sharply in focus and people looking for new ways of connecting post-covid, duo ‘Filkin’s Drift’ found an answer in the ancient Welsh bardic tradition. In the Welsh language, ‘Cerdd’ means music and ‘Cerdded’ means to walk. To Filkin’s Drift, this suggests an intrinsic connection between the acts of roaming and creating music. So why not a charity walk of the 870 mile Wales Coastal Path. Along the way, the duo will collect songs, stories, and tunes to incorporate into their gigs, weaving together a tapestry of shared experiences of the Welsh coast, 40 shows on the way. And the five track EP is a great sample collection. Check them out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQb4zlm3Yzk
https://filkinsmusic.com/cerdded/
Signia Alpha – Entropy
This is a group spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist Matt Webster, who provides drums, guitars and some vocals. Support comes from Paul Gray (The Damned, Wingmen, Sensible Gray Cells, Eddie & The Hot Rods) who adds his distinctive Rickenbacker bass guitar to all tracks. Others include singer-songwriter Harris (Chaing, Grim, Nowt, Zed) who co-writes and sings six songs, Mathew Seamarks (Disciples of Spess), co-writes and sings ‘Building Castles In Spain’, Simon ‘Nogsy’ Nolan (SpyBand, Zed), original vocalist for early ’80s anarcho punks Anti-System, co-writes and sings ‘On Diego Garcia’, guitarist Wulf Ingham lends his psychedelic solos to a couple of tracks, jazz saxophonist Keith Jafrate and flautist Chris Walsh sprinkle their melodic flourishes over several songs.
You get wall-of-sound Buzzcocks style pop-punk, an essence of New Model Army, a merest hint of Floyd or Beatles on occasion, and driving guitars, pounding drums and inevitably hook-led bass throughout, with some keyboard flourish at times. That said, ballad and mid-tempo are also on the menu to give good variety. There’s great energy and effort on show, making this a very good listen and it is so good to see Mr Webster still putting out such vibrant music and championing opinion. Lively.
https://m.facebook.com/p/Signia-Alpha-100063588307700/
Ben de la Coer – Sweet Anhedonia
Born in London and raised in Brooklyn, Ben experienced life in all its fullness, before several years on the road with various metal bands, then time in New Orleans before landing in Nashville in 2013 where he found a community of simpatico musicians and songwriters. This is his fifth album, helped by numerous guest appearances. Ben recorded the album with Jim White, a cult folksinger celebrated for his own Southern gothic sound.
Acoustic fingerpicking, electric amplification and a host of bizarre and evocative soundscapes cast Ben de la Cour’s stories against backdrops of sinister roots music, Springsteen-sized heartland rock, moody minimalism, and orchestral, cinematic bombast in a gripping collection of America-noir songs and even the occasional ode to love, hope and redemption. Bouncing between first-person narratives and sharply written character studies, these songs radiate a bruised, battered energy, with a voice that’s textured by years of touring and life. This music occupies the intersection between gothic Americana and dark, gritty folk. It’s a sound fueled by the stories and struggles of its creator, a lifelong searcher who’s never been afraid to shine a light on his own demons. Dark.
Spirit of Progressive Rock 
Thanks for your fabulous review.
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