Heather Lynne Horton – Get Me to a Nunnery
The album, recorded in Chicago across 2022 and 2023, features Horton on guitar and haunting violin; her husband Michael McDermott on guitar, keyboards, piano, and bass; Will Kimbrough on baritone guitar; John Deaderick on piano, keyboards, and organ; Matt Thompson on electric bass and upright bass and Steven Gillis, who also mixed four of the album’s songs, on drums. It’s an immediately arresting album, with a tribute in mind, as Horton in the liner notes roots it in the spirit of the late Sinead O’Connor, ending this way, “My belief was that like so many of humanities protectors, only in her death would her genius be professed. With great sorrow, Sinead O’Connor dies in the exact days the record was completed. May the world redeem her.” That statement sheds light on the album title and what’s at the heart of Horton’s songs.
A debut album in 2012, follow up in 2017. She doesn’t rush, and quite right too. Horton’s hypnotic voice is recorded and produced to maximize its alluring appeal, and rides the velvety elements of the tracks. There is a forlorn tinge to her singing and to the songs, but this is by no means a wallowing record. In fact, Horton’s message is of strength and empowerment. There’s the gorgeous, folk-influenced opening track, ‘After All This Time’ with its wall of voices and powerful instrumentation. There’s the pulsating, potent ‘I Don’t Like Your Children’, a biting manifesto on kids’ untarnished knack for seeing the truth in people. There’s ‘Beatrix’, a lilting ballad that plays like a dream complete with cloudy scenes and washed-out colours. And there’s ‘Ten Times’, a lightly galloping number tackling the difficulties women face to be heard in today’s male-driven society. Lyrically provocative and empowering, the record is about systemic oppression and the strength we need to overcome the growing discrimination toward and condemnation of those who choose to be different. Yet, if one chooses to just lose oneself in the spellbinding music, healing qualities can be found there too. Cathartic.
www.facebook.com/HeatherHortonMusic
https://www.instagram.com/heather_lynne_horton
Wayne Brereton – The Robin’s Call
Wayne Brereton is a folk/ballad singer-songwriter from Co. Offaly in Ireland, guitarist in gigging bands since the age of fourteen and steeped in ballad / folk & traditional music from playing in his father’s band Turas. He was bass player and additional vocals for Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones as well as leading his own band, The Cardinal Sins.
Gaelic speaking Wayne cites Luke Kelly, Shane McGowan, Christy Moore and his Dad as his biggest influences for the crafting of his own style, with a love for the culture of Irish songs and ballads. Wayne’s grandmother Minnie was born in Scotland and raised by Irish parents, instilling his strong connection with Scottish ballads, folk music, and Australian folk music, a place some of his relatives emigrated in the early 1900’s. So there’s a strong heritage throughout. It’s one of those albums that leaves you homesick for a place and past, and yet fulfilled and spiritually full. Rewarding.
www.facebook.com/WayneBreretonMusic
www.instagram.com/waynebreretonmusic
Louis de Bernieres – Delicate Lies
As with his previous release Despatches, this album was engineered by David Booth at Louis’ home studio in Norfolk. All tracks written by award-winnning author (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) Louis, Beth Porter, Selina Hawker and the aforementioned David Booth all guest on the album. As an 8 year old, Louis began on ukelele, graduation to guitar at 17. Louis learned to play folk and ragtime, then baroque and classical, and then flamenco guitar. He
has learned to play several woodwind instruments, and can make sense of anything with frets and strings, including a favourite, the mandolin.
A singer songwriter afficionado of the likes of Leonard Cohen, Tom Paxton, Donovan, Paul Simon, Ralph McTell and Bob Dylan, his sings poetic stories. I’ve said it before and will say it again – the influences listed above are very relevant when you listen to his music, plus you need to think of others such as Jacques Brel. It’s not marmite, but it’s not universal appeal. If you like it, you’ll like it. Simple. Basic. Inviting. Indulgent.
http://www.louisdebernieresofficial.com
Ryan Young – Just a Second Album
An album delayed due to illness, there is a revitalisation and sense of repurpose. Accompanying Ryan on the album is acclaimed guitarist Craig Irving, as Ryan says “Everything was recorded in live takes with both Craig and I recording in the same space. I kept the blemishes and audio artefacts which were ignored in favour of energy. I’m more interested in how something makes me feel!”
The natural, intrinsic beauty of the tunes is what draws Ryan’s attention, and he perfectly showcases this in an intimate and exposed fiddle and guitar setting. Ryan can take a tune off a page and transform it into something almost unrecognisable. With Just A Second, he has taken both lesser played and well-known melodies, many of which were first learnt in childhood, and given them a whole new lease of life. His unique twists on classic tunes have been likened to hearing something for the first time, but with a warm familiarity too. Curl up by the fireside with a dram – or two. Fulfilling.
The Rosie Hood Band – A Seed of Gold
Sheffield-based musician Rosie Hood presents her new, debut as a band, album. Rosie Hood (vocals, tenor guitar, baritone ukulele) is joined by fellow Sheffield-based musicians, Nicola
Beazley (fiddle, five-string fiddle, vocals), Rosie Butler-Hall (fiddle, five-string fiddle, vocals), and Robyn Wallace (melodeon, percussion, vocals).
Featuring both traditional and newly written material, A Seed Of Gold draws inspiration from Rosie’s native Wiltshire, and themes of nature and human struggle run through the album and intertwine. With experience playing for ceilidhs, dancing and in brass bands, the instrumentalists bring a great dynamic lift and drive, continuing Rosie’s vision of re-working traditional English songs, as well as writing and arranging original material, touching on nature, human struggle, women’s voices and unheard stories. With outstanding musicianship and a deep understanding of tradition, Nicola, Rosie and Robyn’s sensitive playing combines perfectly with Rosie’s voice, skillfully and empathetically
lifting each song. Nature, natural, naturally uplifting.
The Pleasures – The Beginning of the End
The Pleasures are an Americana band fronted by Australian singer-songwriter Catherine Britt and Melbourne’s Lachlan Bryan. Together, Catherine and Lachlan bring all their experience and humanity to The Pleasures as well as two of the most authentic and character-filled voices in Americana music, joined in this debut by Damian Cafarella (bass) and Brad Bergen (drums).
The band produce a sound that is raucous, dirty and blues-inspired, yet occasionally interrupted by delicate moments of sublime country-folk. They might get labeled ‘country’, but there’s as much Jack White influence here as there is George Jones (in fact there’s plenty of both), alongside the plethora of mythologized girl-boy country acts with whom they will inevitably draw comparison. Not for the faint-of-heart, The Pleasures ’debut album plots the lifespan of a fiery relationship from the start, through to the finish and the aftermath. Raw, raunchy, risky. Irreverent.
Hank Wangford and Noel Dashwood – Promises Promises
Hank n Dash have been playing together and gigging since just before Covid and lockdown in the early ‘20’s. Most of the songs are new originals from Hank with a Conway Twitty cover. Wangford sings lead vocals and plays rhythm electric guitar and ukulele. The Dash sings harmonies and plays bass, dobro, harmonica and Asher lap steel.
Together they create a unique slice of Country stylings. There’s a tip of the hat to the great Bashful Brother Oswald, first Country giant of the dobro who fused Country and Hawaiian in his playing with Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys. Recorded live in a studio, it’s a joyful meeting of like minds, hearts and voices, a celebration of Americana and contemporary Country. A celebration too of the huge debt Country music and American music in general owes to dobro-led Hawaiian music. Influenced by country, folk and Hawaii, it infuses and inspires. Impressive.
http://www.hankwangford.co.uk/hank_news.html
Spirit of Progressive Rock 