TINA LIE - FREE ENOUGH TO FALL       SIWU MUSIC

Award-winning singer-songwriter Tina Lie (pronounced Lee) was born in Olso and grew up playing the piano and singing in a children’s choir. Her singing career started when she met her husband and guitar player Brede Vestby and formed the Tina Lie Band. As well as playing in her native Norway, she has performed at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club and toured many times in the USA, where audiences are mesmerised by her powerful and heartfelt voice. Tina Lie’s latest album, Free Enough to Fall, was produced by Nashville’s Byron House, who has worked with artists such as Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. Also featured on the album are Mauro Magellan, Shaun Murphy, Keith Sewell, Grammy Award-winning Native American flautist Bill Miller, and celebrated multi-instrumentalist Fats Kamplin. Tina Lie brings a European sensibility to Americana on this great collection of songs. Highlights include the seductive Black Swan, the beautiful Gambling With The Stars, a fine version of Do Right To Me Baby (one of Bob Dylan’s less-covered songs), the rocking Pirate’s Heart, the wonderful Freedom Child and the closing track, Winter Moon. Often compared to Janis Joplin, Tina Lie has a distinctive voice that is all her own as she performs with rare passion and conviction.

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER - THE AGE OF MIRACLES     ROUNDER 43113321

Mary Chapin Carpenter began writing the songs for this album in the summer of 2007, shortly after she had suffered a life threatening pulmonary embolism which forced the cancellation of all touring and performing for that year. With time on her hands, she was inclined to look inward and try to answer the question ‘what now?’. Recorded over the past three years, The Age of Miracles is a personal exploration of regret and resilience from the world-renowned singer-songwriter as a well as larger, more universal expression of wonder at the times we are living in. Co-produced by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Matt Rollings, the album features a great line-up of musicians, including longtime collaborator Matt Rollings (piano, B-3 organ), Russ Kunkel (drums), Duke Levine (electric and acoustic guitar) and Glenn Worf (bass), with guest vocals from Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. Highlights include the title track (expressing the need to invest in optimism and the hope that the world can teach lessons of humility and grace), Mrs. Hemingway (about the first wife of Ernest Hemingway, using her voice to look back at the lost years of the Lost Generation) and and the defiantly positive I Put My Ring Back On.  These fine, reflective songs, infused with a poignant awareness of mortality, are superbly performed by Mary Chapin Carpenter with her usual warmth, tenderness and honesty.

JOHN FAHEY - TWILIGHT ON PRINCE GEORGE’S AVENUE     ROUNDER 01166190932

American fingerstyle guitarist and composer John Aloysius Fahey was born in Washington, DC, in 1939. He pioneered the steel-string guitar as a solo instrument and his style has been hugely influential. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, and later incorporated classical, Portuguese, Brazilian and Indian music into his work. In 2003, two years after his death, he was ranked 35th in Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time’. John Fahey laid the foundation of an entire school of folk-based instrumental guitarists, from Leo Kottke to Peter Lang and Will Ackerman, but there’s no mistaking the mesmerising feeling and sound of the original. Released here in the excellent Essential Recordings series are some of the best solo guitar pieces Fahey recorded for Rounder’s subsidiary label Varrick. Although recorded when he was struggling with poor health and poverty, his virtuoso guitar playing here remains as fresh and gloriously inventive as ever. Highly recommended. See more Essential releases here

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO - LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL       ROUNDER  01166122112

From Lafayette, Louisiana, accordionist and zydeco musician Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural has taken the Creole zydeco sound to audiences around the world. Born in Lafayette, Louisiana, Dural acquired his nickname as a youth, because, with his braided hair and looked like the character Buckwheat from Our Gang/Little Rascals movies. Buckwheat’s father, a farmer, was an accomplished, non-professional traditional Creole accordion player, but young Buckwheat preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues, adapting these influences to  Zydeco - a form of American roots music that evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from various forms of Creole music. Tom Moon, in 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, selected the Grammy-nominated recordings on this rousing album as Buckwheat’s best. ‘When they hit the sweet spot - see Hot Tamale Baby and Zydeco Boogaloo - it’s the musical equivalent of a high-revving big rig that’s just discovered a previously untapped cruising gear. And intends to roll that way all night.’ Other highlights in this life-enhancing collection include Walkin’ To New Orleans, made famous by Fats Domino, and the traditional Lache Pas La Patate. ‘A down-home and high-powered celebration, meaty and muscular with a fine-tuned sense of dynamics…propulsive rhythms, incendiary performances.’ - The New York Times.

JOHN HIATT – THE OPEN ROAD           NEW WEST RECORDS 

The brilliant American guitarist, pianist, singer and songwriter John Hiatt has played many musical styles, including blues and country. He was working as a songwriter in Nashville when his song ‘Sure As I’m Sittin’ Here’ was covered by Three Dog Night and became a top forty hit, earning Hiatt a recording contract with Epic Records. Since then he has released eighteen studio albums and two live albums. His songs have been covered by artists such as Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash, among many others. Looking at life through the rear view mirror was the inspiration for John Hiatt’s new album, The Open Road. This is Hiatt’s most energetic outing in years and these gritty, intelligent songs sizzle with the heat from two-lane blacktop on a summer’s day. Hiatt sings with real heart and soul, and with his touring band (Kenny Blevins on drums, Patrick O’Hearn on bass and Doug Lancio on guitars) he has produced a terrific set of eleven songs that gives ‘Garage Rock’ a new meaning. Outstanding songs include the opening title track – an instant classic – as well as the beautiful, Dylanesque Haulin’, the epic blues of Like A Freight Train, Homeland, the reflective Movin’ On and the last track, Carry You back Home. Highly recommended.

KRISTA DETOR - COVER THEIR EYES             CORAZONG 255 102

Krista Detor is a singer/songwiter/pianist from Bloomington, Indiana, whose first album, MUDSHOW (CORAZONG 255 087) was released in 2006. With great songs such as The Ghosts of Peach Street and The Hampton Sisters (Glory) it received international critical acclaim and reached the top of the Euro-Americana Chart. Her music defies genre, but the quality of her writing has been compared to the likes of Leonard Cohen, Laura Nyro, Tom Waits and Joni Mitchell. Cover Their Eyes, made together with partner and producer, David Weber, features a collection of brilliantly provocative and compelling songs that push the edges of genre while remaining close throughout to the lyrical thread that defines her work. The album spans era and style, incorporating the musical influence of some of the places in which Krista Detor has lived and travelled – the southern USA, the Midwest and Europe. All distinct on their own, these regional and cultural influences are woven together in a continuous pattern of sound and story. This is a writer with the rare ability to convey her songs, layered with affecting images, via a mesmerisingly beautiful voice and acute musical sensibilities. Sultry, introspective, melancholy and poetic, these twelve new songs are richly textured and soulful. Highlights include the smoothly laid-back Pretty Horses Run, The World Is Water, the lovely Robert Johnson Has Left Mississippi, a jazz-tinged Dinner With Chantel and the highly personal title track. Krista Detors voice and piano accompaniment are backed by sypathetic arrangements and an array of excellent musicians, inluding Dave Weber (guitar, vocals, cajon) and Steve mascan (bass). Krista Detor will be in the UK for a Charles Darwin songwriter workshop this month and will play a concert in Black Heath Halls on March 20, 2009, at 8 pm.

CHARCOAL - INNEKE23 & THE LIPSTICK PAINTERS     CORAZONG CRZ 255113

The enigmatically named Belgian singer/songwriter Inneke23 was bass player in the legendary garage rock band DeBossen, and a member of female punk band Hari’Kiri. She is now part of alt. country/roots band Inneke23 & The Lipstick Painters, performing music inspired by such country and Americana artists as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Mary Gauthier, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and The Carter Family. The name Lipstick Painters apparently came to Inneke23 in a dream in which she had missed the show of her favourite band. Her friends tried to cheer her up by telling her that upstairs in a little room a great band - ‘The Lipstick Painting’ - would be playing at the after show party. Unfortunately she woke up before the show started, but the name of the mysterious band has stuck. The aspirations and ambitions of Inneke23 are reflected in her personal, intelligent, warm and varied songs, which range in mood from sadness to aggression, from joy to mystery and from dreams to heartache. Her voice is assured, sometimes wistful, and the band is as tight as they come. Standout tracks include Sweet Headed Girl, a cover of the Stranglers’ No More Heroes and the brilliant Happy In The End - ‘Sad stories without liars can be happy in the end.’ As the album cover says, ‘some of the words appear to have been written for nobody ’cept you.’  Highly recommended.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS – RAMBLIN’ / HAPPY WOMAN BLUES           RETROWORLD

Three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, started playing guitar at the age of twelve. Her first two albums for Folkways - Ramblin’ (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980) - received little attention but after moving to Nashville she gradually started getting more notice for her work as a singer and songwriter of rock, folk and country music. She made a series of acclaimed albums and Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded a cover of her song, Passionate Kisses, for which Williams received the Grammy for Best Country Song in 1994. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, made in 1998, broke through into the mainstream when she toured with Bob Dylan. Those first two albums have now been reissued on the Retroworld record label. Ramblin’ is a collection of fourteen folk and country blues cover, recorded with just Williams, her acoustic guitar and some additional guitar. As such, it nonetheless shows that she was already a strong and idiosyncratic vocalist with an unmistakable sound as she interprets original blues from Robert Johnson to Memphis Minnie to The Carter Family. Outstanding tracks include Great Speckled Bird, the traditional Make Me Down A Pallet on Your Floor and an achingly beautifully version of Satisfied Mind - quintessentially soulful Lucinda Williams. Happy Woman Blues features mainly her own songs including I Lost It, which would reappear on Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. The album features a full backing band and was the first recording to establish Lucinda Williams’s songwriting credentials. Her country and blues roots are again evident throughout these compositions, and are offset by her fresh, contemporary treatment. Both these albums are essential listening and give fascinating insights into the work of an artist who has matured into one of the finest contemporary singer-songwriters.

MARY GAUTHIER - GENESIS (THE EARLY YEARS)       PROPER PRPCD035

Mary Gauthier (pronounced ‘Go-shay’) was born in New Orleans in 1962. Given up at birth by a mother she never knew, she was adopted by an Italian Catholic couple in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Aged 15, she ran away from home (stealing her parents’ car) and drifted between drug rehabilitation, halfway houses and living with friends, spending her 18th birthday in jail. She studied philosophy at Louisiana State University before dropping out due to drug problems and moved to Boston, where she eventually became manager of the restaurant where she worked as a dishwasher. Financial backers paid her way to Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and she opened a Cajun restaurant called Dixie Kitchen (the title of her first album). She wrote her first song at age 35 and sold her share in the restaurant to finance her second album, Drag Queens in Limousines, after which she began to play at major folk festivals. Her third album, Filth and Fire, was named indie CD of the year by the New York Times. Genesis (The Early Years) is a compilation of thirteen songs from Mary Gauthier’s first three CDs, with the added bonus of two previously unreleased live tracks (I Ain’t Got No Home and I Don’t Know Nothing About Love). Gauthier’s difficult early experiences provide plenty of material for her songs, which often resemble vividly told short stories showing compassion for the disenfanchised and forlorn. Standout tracks include her autobiographical Drag Queens in Limousines, Camelot Motel and the haunting I Drink (a favourite of Bob Dylan).

EILEEN ROSE & THE HOLY WRECK - LUNA TURISTA   FLOATING WORLD RECORDS FREEM5020

Italo-American Eileen Rose’s fifth album was recorded in Berlin and in her adopted home town of Nashville, Tennessee, with her relatively recently acquired backing The Holy Wreck that includes the excellent Rich Gilbert on electric guitar and pedal steel and Nate ‘86′ Stalfa on drums, with fiddler Joshua Hedley and Aaron Oliva appearing on several tracks. Luna Turista features nine of Eileen Rose’s own compositions plus a tender version of Waylon Jennings’s Luckenbach Texas. Her beautiful golden voice has gained impressive conviction and versatility and is heard to great effect on an album that reveals Rose’s most accomplished work to date and could finally earn her the mainstream recognition she has long deserved. She moves with impressive ease from reflective tracks such as Third Times a Charm and the lovely Silver Ladle to the defiant rocking of All These Pretty Things. Other outstanding songs include the moving Sad Ride Home, reflecting personal losses Eileen Rose has experienced recently, such as the deaths of her brother and her father, and the Dylanesque Strange, which also appears on a bargain-priced sampler album from Floating World Records - THE WORLD IS YOURS (WORLD 1). The other 17 tracks on this one include some of the latest work by the label’s admirably eclectic roster of artists, ranging from veterans such as Detroit’s Mitch Ryder, the legendary Gary U.S. Bonds, ace guitarist Robin Trower and ‘the greatest Cajun band in the world’ Beausoleil, to newer names such as Eef Barzeley, Umphrey’s McGee, Sharon Robinson (a fine version of Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows), the soulful Toni Childs and an inspired final track by Ravi Coltrane, son of jazz greats John and Alice. First class.

MADISON VIOLET - NO FOOL FOR TRYING       TRUE NORTH

Hailing from Scottish small towns in Canada, Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac have chosen a musical path that channels their parent’s vintage record collection comprising the likes of Neil Young and Dolly Parton. The duo’s collective identity, Madison Violet, came into being nine years ago after a chance meeting at an appropriately titled restaurant, ‘The Green Room’. Since then, they have gradually developed a sound of their own, which has been described as both city-folk and tumbleweed pop. Their first two CDs - Worry The Jury and Caravan - were widely acclaimed, earning them two ECMA awards nominations in the ‘Folk album of the Year’ and ‘Best Group Recording’ categories as well as a Canadian Folk Award nomination as ‘Vocal Group of the year’. The accomplished singer-songwriters have also toured extensively, supporting artists such as Ron Sexsmith, Chantal Kreviazuk, Indigo Girls and The Temptations. This new album has taken them down a road lush with gorgeous harmonies, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and upright bass. The songs are infused with heartache and loss but the listener will always find an uplifting twang in their sound, one that may invoke the essence of Lucinda Williams or Steve Earle. Highlights include the opening tale of life on the road, Ransom, the quietly emotional yet devastating ‘Woodshop’, the countrified Best Part of your Love, the jaunty Lauralee, and the beautiful title track. Smoothly produced by Les Cooper, these intimate, well-crafted songs are performed with subtle restraint and true feeling. Madison Violet will be making a welcome tour of the UK early in 2010 and details of this can be seen here

STEVE MARTIN - THE CROW             ROUNDER CDROUN0647

This is comedian, actor, author and virtuoso banjo player Steve Martin’s first musical recording since his 1978 hit, King Tut.  The new album is no novelty record by a man with an arrow through his head though. After playing on the Grammy Award winning Foggy Mountain Breakdown with Earl Scruggs, Martin began writing a string of new banjo songs, some with lyrics and some as instrumentals. Forty-five years in the making, The Crow features some of the best 5-String banjo music around as Steve Martin is joined by friends such as Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, the legendary Earl Scruggs, Tim O’Brien, Pete Wernick, Tony Trischka and Mary Black. Martin wrote or co-wrote all of the bluegrass-style songs, many of which are likely to become future classics. ‘I have loved the banjo my whole life,’ Martin says. ‘The songs on this record represent the influence of a dozen players and a thousand tunes, and I thank them all. But it’s the banjo itself I thank most for generating nostalgia for experiences I never had, joy I was yet to experience, and melancholy that was yet to come.’ Recorded in Dublin, Hollywood, Nashville and New Jersey and produced by John McEuen, The Crow comes with a 24-page booklet featuring Steve Martin’s writing on the role the banjo has played in his life, along with his inspiration for each song that appears on the album. Highlights include the down-home opener, Daddy Played the Banjo, a breakneck Pitkin County Turnaround, the quirky Late for School, an Irish folk-influenced Freddie’s Lilt, the lovely Words Unspoken, Pretty Flowers (on which the great Dolly Parton duets with Vince Gill), a delicate Clawhammer Medley, Mary Black’s vocal on Calico Train (also appearing in an instrumental version), Blue River Waltz and the title track, The Crow. Irresistible stuff.

JEFF & VIDA - SELMA CHALK             ROSEBANK RECORDS

In eleven years of playing together, Jeff Burke and Vida Wakeman have performed at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the main stage of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and even Malaysia’s Rainforest World Music Festival - all part of their rigorous tour itinerary, which often has them on the road for over 200 dates a year. Vida Wakeman’s unmistakeable voice has been compared to everyone from Loretta Lynn to Gillian Welch, but none of the comparisons are quite accurate. Her delivery is a home-grown, rootsy style with just enough twang and just enough toughness. Although they have lived in Nashville since Hurricane Katrina devastated their New Orleans home, she and musical partner Jeff Burke have carried the musical roots they discovered and nurtured in The Big Easy to Music City - strong songwriting, solid performances, and a love and dedication to their craft. To record their long-awaited fourth album, Selma Chalk, she and musical partner Jeff Burke brought together some of Colorado’s best country and bluegrass pickers, including banjo renaissance man Jake Schepps and remarkably young fiddler Justin Hoffenberg. The album starts with the rollicking Heartache Train and other standout songs include the Alabama Sky, the wonderful Sharp as a Knife, the breathless Little Sara and Time Will Heal Your Wounds, which already sounds like a classic. Blending traditional bluegrass and modern alt-country, these songs have that elusive, genuine front-porch feel. ‘In a city that values its rhinestones, they are managing to make music that is real and true, the thing itself as opposed to a parody of the thing’ - New York Times. Jeff & Vida are on tour in the UK until 26 September.

STEPHEN FEARING - THE MAN WHO MARRIED MUSIC   TRUE NORTH TND527

Stephen Fearing was born in Vancouver on Canada’s west coast but grew up in Ireland, having moved there at the age of 6 to live in Dublin. Now resident in Ontario, the multiple Juno Award winning singer-songwriters is one of the foremost performers in Canada. Mixing powerful lyrics, creative arrangements and great guitar work, Fearing has built up a loyal international audience over a couple of decades with a wide range of songs - from his 1988 release ‘Out to Sea’, to his most recent album, ‘Yellowjacket’. A founding member of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, he has also collaborated with artists such as Richard Thompson, Sarah McLachlan, Tom Wilson, Colin Linden and Suzie Vinnick. ‘The Man Who Married Music’ is a ‘Best Of’ collection, with tracks handpicked by Stephen Fearing to feature some of the best music he has released over his career as well as two brand new tracks - No Dress Rehearsal and The Big East West. The well-crafted songs tell memorable stories and his deep voice is backed by fine virtuoso guitar playing. Stephen Fearing will be touring the UK in October – see the website at www.stephenfearing.com

RIBBON OF HIGHWAY, ENDLESS SKYWAY     MUSIC ROAD RECORDS MMR CD 101

Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, in 1912 as the second son of Charles and Nora Belle Guthrie. His father - a cowboy, land speculator, and local politician - taught Woody Western and Indian songs as well as Scottish folk tunes. Woody Guthrie’s musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children’s songs, ballads and improvised works. Many of the songs are reflect his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, when he travelled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs along the way. The ‘Dust Bowl Troubadour’ was married three times and fathered eight children, including folk musician Arlo Guthrie. Guthrie died in 1967 from complications of Huntington’s disease, a progressive genetic neurological disorder. During his later years, in spite of his illness, he served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. The Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway concert has received rave reviews over the ten years that this special tribute performance to the great singer-songwriter and folk musician has been touring. Featuring Jimmy LaFave and a rotating cast of guest musicians, Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway incorporates some of Guthrie’s impressive prose writings into the show along with his music. This double disc showcases the best of the tour and features Bob Childers, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, Slaid Cleaves, Eliza Gilkyson, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Ellis Paul, Kevin Welch and Michael Fracasso, with special appearances by Pete Seeger and Fred Hellerman. A warm, informative and enjoyable treat for any Woody Guthrie fan. ‘Woody is just Woody...He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people.’ - John Steinbeck.

HIGH WIDE & HANDSOME – THE CHARLIE POOLE PROJECT     PROPER RECORDS (2ND STORY SOUND)  PRPVD052

The American old time banjo player and country musician Charles Cleveland Poole was born in 1892 in Spray, in the northern part of North Carolina, near the Virginia border and in the heart of the cotton mill belt. His father worked in a mill, and, by the time he was twelve, so did Charlie, changing bobbins 60 hours a week for a $3 wage. He learned banjo as a youth and also played baseball. His three-fingered playing technique was the result of a baseball accident when he characteristically bet that he could catch a baseball without a glove. He spent much of his adult life working in textile mills but his talent for singing and playing the banjo freed him, for a while, from the noise and lint of the spinning room. Wandering as far west as Montana and as far north as Canada, he busked at train stations, courthouses and general stores. He picked up a couple musicians on the road and in 1925 his band, The North Carolina Ramblers, went to New York City to record for Columbia Records. Their 78 of ‘Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues’ sold an astonishing 102,000 copies at a time when there were only 600,000 phonographs in the Southern United States, though the band only received $75. Between his first and second sessions for Columbia, Charlie Poole sold half a million records. The Ramblers played schoolhouses, theatres, barn dances and speakeasies, with Charlie livening up the act by means of somersaults and buck dancing, as well as jokes, stories and humorous asides. Meanwhile, his wife back in Spray never knew where he was or when he was coming home, except for the odd telegram. By 1931, with record sales crippled by the Great Depression, Poole’s career seemed to be over. He found himself back in Spray, working in the mill, and his drinking took on marathon proportions. One day he collapsed on the street and died in an upstairs bedroom in his sister’s log house. He was 39 years old. High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project is the 20th studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. This lovingly created album, complete with an excellent 70-page booklet, pays tribute to the legendary singer and banjo picker. The 30 tracks include new versions of songs made popular by Poole from 1925 through 1930 as well as original songs by Wainwright and producer Dick Connette reflecting the artist’s life and times. More than 25 performers contributed, including Wainwright’s children, Rufus, Martha and Lucy. The songs and musicianship are superb, full of life, humour and reflection, making this a touching tribute to a true original.

THE ROOTS OF BOB DYLAN       PROPER PROPERBOX 150

Born on 24 May 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, Robert Alan Zimmerman grew up in nearby Hibbing. ‘The Greatest Songwriter Ever’ has released more than 40 albums since his 1962 debut began to change the world’s perceptions of popular music. Around five hundred songs later (Like a Rolling Stone was voted the best song of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and the NME) Dylan continues to surprise, challenge, mystify and fascinate in equal measure as he pursues his ‘Never Ending Tour’, having performed thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. Dylan not only represented the future of music in the Sixties but was also a standard bearer for all of the great American musical genres that preceded his arrival on the scene. Throughout his career he has taken various elements of Folk, Country, Blues, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Bluegrass, Western Swing, Rockabilly, Pop and just about anything else he has heard and forged them together into his own unique style. This superb CD set chronicles Dylan’s personal journey and features some of the most famous artists of all time, including Bessie Smith, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Charley Patton, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers and Little Richard, together with less well known music by people such as Charlie Poole, Blind Blake, Clarence Ashley and the great Bukka White. As well as 60 lovingly selected tracks on three CDs, the box set also includes an informative booklet and a lengthy DVD, ‘Talkin’ Dylan’, featuring interviews with Joe Boyd, Sid Griffin and Mike Marqusee. An indispensable treat for all self-respecting Dylanologists.

SAM BAKER - COTTON       MUSIC ROAD RECORDS MRRCD104

Sam Baker grew up in the prairie town of Itasca, Texas. In 1986, at the age of 32, he was travelling to visit Machu Picchu in Peru when the train he was riding on was blown up by a terrorist bomb. Several passengers were killed, including a family sitting next to him, and Baker almost died from horrendous injuries, including shrapnel in his leg, renal failure, brain damage, hearing loss and a permanently mangled left hand. Somehow he overcame these obstacles to develop his quietly powerful performance style and the long physical, emotional and spiritual journey helped form his quiet and passionate view of the world. He had to re-learn to play guitar left-handed in order to sing and play his unique, compelling and original songs. Cotton is the third album in a masterful trilogy that also includes Mercy (2004) and Pretty World (2007). The cost of forgiveness is weighed against the cost of not forgiving. Other characters walk onto the stage: a field hand, a pulp wood logger, a serving girl, a young Mennonite. Once again beauty is a constant. Outstanding tracks include Moon, the beautiful Angel Hair and the wonderfully poignant Snow. Cotton is even more profound and touching than the earlier albums and completes the trilogy triumphantly. Highly recommended.

CATHERINE MACLELLAN - WATER IN THE GROUND       TRUE NORTH  

Singer-songwriter Catherine MacLellan comes from Prince Edward Island and has become one of the most respected names in the Canadian roots scene. Her pure, ethereal vocals and poetic lyrics have inevitably brought comparisons to Joni Mitchell, and she has built up a loyal fan base and been a hit with critics worldwide. Her previous album, Church Bell Blues, was top of the iTunes Canada Roots charts and this new release, Water in the Ground, is an outstanding collection that features some of the most prominent musicians in Canada, including Treasa Levasseur, Justin Rutledge, David Baxter and cellist Phil Sedore. A lighter and more cheerful mood is prominent throughout most of the CD. From the jaunty first track, Take A Break, to the poignant finale, Flowers on Your Grave, Catherine MacLellan creates spacious, dreamy soundscapes that allow the listener get lost in the songs and musical conversations. The Water In The Ground package also includes a copy of MacLellan’s debut, Dark Dream Midnight, previously only available by mail order. The songs here are much less sunny, with the highlight being the lovely though melancholy Until One Of Us Goes.

SAM BAKER - PRETTY WORLD         sambakermusic.com

Sam Baker’s 2004 debut album MERCY gained critical and popular acclaim, making him one of the biggest underground Americana success stories of recent years. With his 2007 follow-up, Pretty World, this unassuming Texan moved triumphantly from cult-hero into the mainstream consciousness. His raspy vocal style and intelligent, delicately phrased lyrics are supported by a sparse and carefully arranged backdrop of music. At times he almost talks through the songs, with his gravel tones inflecting deep humanity into the miniature short stories he tells. Produced by Walt Wilkins and Tim Lorsch, this outstanding album also features such fine musicians as Joel Guzman on accordion, Lloyd Maines on dobro and steel, with Gurf Morlix, Marcia Ramirez and the excellent Chris Baker-Davies adding vocals. Baker’s musical influences include fellow Texan songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, as well as John Prine, Leonard Cohen and early Dylan, but his work is as much influenced by literary heroes such as Faulkner and Hemingway. Pretty World is an exceptional album filled with compassion, insight and great lyrical beauty.

JOAN BAEZ - GONE FROM DANGER     PROPER RECORDS PRPCD046

American folk singer and songwriter Joan Baez has performed publicly for fifty years, releasing more than thirty albums. Usually considered a folk singer, her music has ranged from rock and pop to country and gospel, and she has always been a passionate activist in favour of nonviolence,  civil and human rights, and the environment. Famous for her early relationship with Bob Dylan, she is has recorded many of his songs, including Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word and Farewell Angelina, and has been an outstanding interpreter of the work of artists as varied as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Kris Kristofferson, The Beatles and Stevie Wonder. Her 1997 album Gone From Danger has songs by less well-known writers - Betty Elders, Sinead Lohan, Richard Shindell and Dar Williams - all of whom toured with Baez over the next year or two. Following the acclaimed Day After Tomorrow album, her first new studio recordings in five years, this collector’s edition reissue features the original Gone from Danger album together with a bonus CD of Mountain Stage performances of the same songs, minus Lily and Mercy Bound. Each songwriter joins the lineup for their particular compositions, apart from Baez’s opening solo version of of Dar Williams’s If I Wrote You. There are also three songs that not on Gone From Danger - Long Bed from Kenya (written by Betty Elders), You’re Aging Well (a duet with Williams, minus the band), and Bob Dylan’s classic To Ramona. The songs demonstrates Baez’s admirable ability to find talented new writers and performers and unselfishly bring them to the attention of a wider audience.

NANCI GRIFFITH - THE LOVING KIND           ROUNDER

Nanci Griffith was born in 1953 in Seguin, Texas. At the age of 6 she began to write songs and at the age of 14, when a campfire turn at the Kerrville Folk Festival caught the ear of singer-songwriter Tom Russell, she was on her way. Griffith’s career has spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she terms ‘folkabilly’. From the mid to late 1980s, she has released a string of albums that have influenced a generation of other artists. Since her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms (1993) she has since battled cancer twice and this new album (her 19th) is a fine return to form. The Loving Kind features 13 new songs, often with a political bent, and features producers Pat McInerney and Thomm Jutz on drums and guitar respectively, together with Matt McKenzie on bass, Barry Walsh on keyboards, Shad Cobb on fiddle and Fats Kaplin on pedal steel guitar, mandolin and fiddle. Nanci Griffith is at the top of her game as both songwriter and singer on these thirteen songs - nine written by her and four well-chosen covers. Two are by early mentor Dee Moeller - the rowdy Party Girl and Tequila After Midnight. Gale Trippsmith’s Money Changes Everything is a jaunty look at greed and the album closes with Edwina Hayes’ reflective Pour Me a Drink. The title track sets the tone, telling the true story of how for a mixed-race couple love triumphed over the social injustice that prevailed in the United States until 1967. Other outstanding songs include the upbeat Across America, a tribute to Townes Van Zant (Things I Don’t Need), the poignant Not Innocent Enough and the wonderful Cotton’s All We Got. As with Joan Baez, Nanci Griffith’s sensitive voice has grown huskier with time and this album, with its strong melodies and simple instrumentation, is her best in years.

RACHEL HARRINGTON - CITY OF REFUGE     SKINNY DENNIS RECORDS

Reared among the Pentecostal pines of Oregon, Rachel Harrington has been doing things in the wrong order for quite some time. She received extensive radio play before performing her live show, and was opening for Grammy winners and nominees before releasing her first record. Now, soon after her critically acclaimed 2007 debut, The Bootlegger’s Daughter, Harrington surrounds herself with a fine cast of supporting musicians for her latest album, City of Refuge.  Tim O Brien features on old-time fiddle, Zak Borden on mandolin and guitjo (a six-stringed banjo with the neck of a guitar), Mike Grigoni on pedal steel and dobro, Jon Hamar on upright bass, Dayan Kai on clarinet, and backing vocalists include Holly O’Reilly and Pieta Brown. The songs tell of characters seeking respite, escape or salvation, relating personal and mythical stories from the American West. The tales are inspired among other things by the memoirs of prostitutes during the Alaska gold rush (Karen Kane), the cantankerous Harry Truman of Mt. St. Helens, and the work of short story writer Raymond Carver. A sepia-toned cover photograph depicting a field on which a circus is being erected sets the tone for this bluegrass influenced music. Rachel Harrington conjures up an authentic, rough-hewn country voice that does full justice to melodic, understated songs that touch on love and death.

KIMMIE RHODES - WALLS FALL DOWN     SUNBIRD SBD 0015

Texan singer-songwriter Kimmie Rhodes grew up in Lubbock and began her singing career at the age of six with her family gospel trio. She moved to Austin in 1979, where she met DJ and producer Joe Gracey, an instrumental figure in the Austin progressive country scene, who she eventually married. In 1981 she recorded her first album, Kimmie Rhodes and the Jackalope Brothers when Willie Nelson invited her to use his studio. Since then she has recorded a total of twelve acclaimed solo CDs and her multi-platinum selling songs have been recorded by such star names as Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Waylon Jennings, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. A creative and prolific artist, she has also written and produced three musical plays as well as hundreds of songs, and co-authored a novella/cookbook with Joe Gracey. Walls Fall Down was recorded with an international cast of musicians including John Gardner (percussion), Glen Fukunaga (bass), Gabe Rhodes (guitars, keyboards), Brian Standefer (cello) and Kieran Goss and Ann Kinsella on backing vocals. Co-produced by Kimmie and Gabe, the CD was recorded, mixed and mastered by Joe Gracey in Kimmie Rhodes’ studio in Austin. In typically eclectic fashion, the songs range from the political (Your Majesty) to cosmic imaginings (Last Seven Seconds), to straightforward Americana (Make the Morning Shine, co-written with Ireland’s Kieran Goss and Brendan Murphy). Other highlights include the the gorgeous title track, a version of the Townes Van Zandt classic If I Needed You and a reinterpretation of The Beatles’ Fool on the Hill. In 2005, Sunbird also released TEN SUMMERS (Sunbird SBD 0012), a compilation CD featuring ten years of Kimmie Rhodes’ favourite recordings. Included among them are memorable duets with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and her friend Emmylou Harris. With her gentle songs, angelic voice and engaging personality, Rhodes is a truly outstanding artist. ‘Kimmie has the voice of a beautiful child coming from an old soul. She touches us where the better angels of our nature dwell, and I believe we need that now more than ever.’ - Emmylou Harris.

JOAN BAEZ - DAY AFTER TOMORROW       PROPER RECORDS PRPCD034

American folk legend Joan Baez has recently found considerable success with songs by Steve Earle, who has produced and plays guitar on this outstanding album. The other musicians include bluegrass veterans Tim O’Brien (mandolin, fiddle, and bouzouki) and Darryl  Scott (guitars, dobro, banjolin, bouzouki), as well as bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer/percussionist Kenny Malone. Three of the ten songs are written by Steve Earle,  including his philosophical God Is God and an a cappella Jericho Road. Other highlights include an emotional version of Tom Waits’ Day After Tomorrow, Eliza Gilkyson’s lovely Rose of Sharon and Requiem, Elvis Costello’s Scarlet Tide, Patty Griffin’s Christian allegory Mary, and the wonderful Lower Road by British singer/songwriter Thea Gilmore, who recorded her harmony vocal in Liverpool. Joan Baez’s remarkable voice has become pleasingly smokier with age and she brings her usual sincerity as well as a touching vulnerability to these perfectly chosen songs. Highly recommended.

UNCLE EARL – WATERLOO, TENNESSEE         ROUNDER 1161-0577-2

The American band  Uncle Earl was formed by KC Groves (mandolin, guitar and vocals) and Jo Serrapere, who has since left to pursue a solo career as a songwriter. The current line-up includes KC Groves, Abigail Washburn (banjo and vocals), Rayna Gellert (fiddle and vocals) and Kristin Andreassen (guitar, fiddle, banjo ukelele, vocals and clogging). The band’s old-time music sound has profound echoes of the rural Americana and this new album, Waterloo, Tennessee, is marked by a grandly elegant sense of loss; the breaths of something wistful escaping, bloodied but unbeaten, from the throes of a dying European empire. The music points toward the roots of stringband music (Scotch-Irish ballads, Celtic fiddle tunes, the blues), but by including original material and opening their sound to an array of influences past and present, Uncle Earl  arrive at something haunting and timeless, yet instantly appealing and accessible. Waterloo, Tennessee was produced by rock legend John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and the album’s standout tracks include the traditional fiddle tune Black-Eyed Susie, The Last Goodbye, the beautiful One True, Wish I Had My Time Again (a traditional song taken at breakneck speed), the delicate My Little Carpenter, the irresistible Sisters of the Road, D & P Blues (Drinking and Promiscuity), The Birds Were Singing of You, Bob Dylan’s Wallflower and the bittersweet I May Never. Guest musicians include Erin Youngberg, John Paul Jones, Eric Thorin and Gillian Welch. The g’Earls are in great form and their winning contemporary take on old-time music is artfully reflected in this collection of traditional and original songs. Highly recommended.

THE FELICE BROTHERS - YONDER IS THE CLOCK     TEAM LOVE TL-39

The Felice Brothers (Simone, Ian, and James) and their long time friends and bandmates Greg Farley and Christmas Clapton, hail from New York’s Catskill Mountains, where a homegrown sound has been working its way through the bloodlines for generations. After months of living in a 1987 special education bus, with arrests and genuine panhandler fun, a free-lance music writer Gabe Soria stumbled upon them singing and barking their wares at a farmers market in Brooklyn. One thing led to another and now the band travels the world performing their homegrown and gritty music as if they were hosting a sing-along on their front porch or in the backroom of a dusty tavern. Their rambling so far has brought them from busking in New York City subway stations to tours across the world that have included enthusiastically received performances at major music festivals. This latest album, Yonder Is The Clock, titled with a phrase drawn from the pages of Mark Twain, is a nod to all of the American ghosts that lend their narrative and characters to the music. The band’s studio was built from the remains of an abandoned chicken coop and it was there over the summer and fall of 2008 that they wrote and recorded this collection of folk-tinged alt country songs. Yonder Is The Clock is filled with marvelous tales of love, death, betrayal, baseball, train stations, phantoms, pandemics, jail cells, rolling rivers and frozen winter nights. The music’s disaffection and rough-hewn poetry brings to mind the authenticity of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, and this rootsy album is sure to earn The Felice Brothers an enhanced reputation.

EMMYLOU HARRIS – HEARTACHES & HIGHWAYS     RHINO R2 73123

Born in 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama, Emmylou Harris received a scholarship for drama to the University of North Carolina, where she began also to study music, greatly influenced by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. She released her first record, Gliding Bird, in 1969 and three years later was introduced to Gram Parsons by Chris Hillman of the Byrds. Emmylou began touring and recording as a backup singer for Parsons until his death in 1973. Her first album for Reprise, Pieces of the Sky, began a series of highly successful mid-70s albums on which her sound combined traditional, folk-rock, country and singer/songwriter styles. Heartaches and Highways is the first-ever comprehensive single-disc collection to span her career and features twenty tracks, including the a new recording, The Connection. Highlights include the classics Love Hurts (with Gram Parsons), the elegiac Boulder To Birmingham, Townes Van Zandt’s Pancho And Lefty, a fifties pop hit by the Teddy Bears, To Know Him Is To Love Him (with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt), the gospel style Green Pastures, the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, the a capella beauty of  Calling My Children Home, Gillian Welch’s Orphan Girl, and the lovely  Michaelangelo. With her prolific and wide-ranging output, any compilation of Emmylou Harris’s work is sure be incomplete but this album is the perfect introduction to an artist whose beauty, impeccable song selection and cool, crystalline voice have proved irresistible over more than three decades.

THE BELIEVERS – LUCKY YOU           CORAZONG RECORDS

Craig Aspen and Cyd Frazzini met seven years ago in bar in Seattle, brought together by their love for old school country music. Prior to becoming a Believer, Craig Aspen moved between New York City and New Orleans writing songs by day and bar-tending by night. Cyd Frazzini left her home in Denver, Colorado, and began performing in rock bands until she was re-introduced to bluegrass music and became determined to pursue and learn more about the Appalachian style and its influences on American folk music. Within weeks of meeting, Aspen and Frazzini were writing and recording songs and soon produced two critically acclaimed albums. As The Believers they have toured extensively throughout USA, UK and Europe, living for a couple of years in Nashville, and have now made their first for CoraZong Records. Co-produced with Steve Adamek and mastered by the TwangTrust’s Ray Kennedy, who produced albums for Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams amongst others. Lucky You effortlessly blends rock, country music and pop hooks while keeping one foot firmly planted in American roots. Highlights include the punchy opening title track, the rootsy Higher Ground, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, the beautiful Read It & Weep, Who’s Your Baby Now, the irresistible Ring, Ring, Ring, The Day the Circus Left Town and a gorgeous bonus track, Long Way to Heaven. Influenced by the likes of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, the Believers’ fine song-writing and assured harmonies also bring to mind Fleetwood Mac at their most convincing.

KATHLEEN EDWARDS – ASKING FOR FLOWERS       ZOE CDZOE 1115

The acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1978. Her attractive blend of country, folk and pop has made her a rising star on the alt country music scene and Asking for Flowers is her third studio album to date. It features eleven new songs, all written by Edwards, and finds her performing at the peak of her creative powers, supported by a group of excellent backing musicians, including keyboardist Benmont Tench from The Heartbreakers, drummer Don Heffington, bassist Bob Glaub, guitarist Colin Cripps and pedal steel master Greg Leisz. The songs tell indelible, clear-eyed stories of hope and resignation, humour and death, unconditional love and brazen inequality. Standout tracks include the title song about a beleaguered wife (‘Don't tell me you’re too tired, 10 years I’ve been working nights’), The Cheapest Key (in which many bridges are angrily burned), the controversial Alicia Ross, I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory, the poignant Oil Man’s War, Run, the driving Oh Canada and Scared At Night. Sounding at times like a cross between Lucinda Williams, Tom Petty and fellow-Canadian Neil Young, Kathleen Edwards bravely tells it like it is, with real emotion and an underlying fragility that makes her bittersweet music all the more convincing. Asking for Flowers, which she co-produced with Jim Scott, is her most accomplished album yet, revealing an artist who is reaching maturity as both songwriter and singer. Highly recommended.

GILLIAN WELCH – SOUL JOURNEY             ACONY 50466 6868 2

Singer-songwriter Gillian Welch was born in New York City in 1967 and moved to Los Angeles at the age of four with her adoptive family. By the age of seven, she had learned to play the guitar and later discovered bluegrass music while studying at the University of California in Santa Cruz. Her eclectic musical style combines elements of bluegrass, traditional country, Americana, old time string band music and folk into a rustic blend that she calls ‘American Primitive’. All of her recordings feature the close-harmonies and unconventional guitar work of her long-time musical partner, David Rawlings. Gillian Welch is perhaps best known for her work on the hugely successful soundtrack of the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? - in which she also had a cameo as a girl in a record store trying to buy a copy of the Soggy Bottom Boys’ recording of Man of Constant Sorrow. This uncompromising musical renegade with four critically acclaimed albums and a Grammy Award writes and performs mostly with David Rawlings. The duo’s haunting songs are like rock and roll chamber music, with two acoustic guitars and voices blended together, and their third album, 2001’s TIME (THE REVELATOR) ACONY 50466 6875-2-4 marked a divergence from Americana towards a skeletal kind of rock and roll. Soul Journey finds Welch and Rawlings getting creatively looser, with a back-up band to flesh out the sound. The result is a blend of traditional songs such as Mississippi John Hurt’s classic Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor with self-penned tracks like One Monkey and the exquisite One Little Song. Other highlights include a Band/Neil Young-influenced Wrecking Ball, the unique and the reflective I Had A Real Good Mother And Father. Gillian Welch’s soulful and expressive voice is in fine form on an album that brings warmth and relevance to the American tradition.

PAULA FRAZER AND TARNATION – NOW IT’S TIME     BIRDMAN BMR 095

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paula Frazer grew up in Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Her father was a minister and her mother taught piano and played organ in the church so Paula grew up singing in the church choir and playing piano and guitar. After playing guitar and singing in various bands in Arkansas she went to San Francisco aged 18 started playing in bands such as Pleasant Day, Faith No More (guest guitarist) and Virginia Dare. She started Tarnation in 1991 and put out several records under this name before dropping it in favour of her own for such albums Leave The Sad Things Behind (BIRDMAN BMR078). On her newest recording, Now It’s Time, Paula Frazer reconvenes Tarnation for the first time in ten years. The band consists of Frazer, long-time collaborator Patrick Main (piano) and Jasmyn Wong (drums). With Now It’s Time, Paula Frazer and Tarnation reconnect with their past, presenting an olde tyme sound with whisping swirls of guitars and strings, framing Paula’s sweetly angelic voice. The songs depict loss and sorrow but seek and find solace, warmth and comfort in the act of music-making. The immediacy of the writing and production (it was recorded partly in her classic Victorian house in San Francisco on a 1/4" 8 track tape machine) add a pure and fluid sensibility to Frazer’s beautiful voice. Highlights include the opening track, August’s Song, the sad and beautiful Sleeping Dreams, Pretend (with string quartet), the sumptuous First Sign, Nowhere, and the gently resigned title track. With touches of Patsy Cline, Nick Cave and Joni Mitchell, this is a terrific album by one of the loveliest voices in contemporary alt country music.

TIM GRIMM - HOLDING UP THE WORLD       CORAZONG CRZ 255107

Tim Grimm has toured and recorded with his friend, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and appeared with Harrison Ford in the film Clear and Present Danger. His songs and performances have established him as a unique voice in Americana music as he walks the fine line between folk and country, while maintaining a strong footing in tradition.  He grew up in the woods and small town settings of southern Indiana, and he now lives with his wife and sons on an 80 acre farm close to where he grew up. His songs are full of the rural rumblings that have shaped his life - rich with descriptive details, and sung with warmth and intimacy. Holding Up The World, Tim Grimm’s fifth solo release in the past decade, is flavoured by the rural Midwest places and people he knows so well. The production is simple and he records his songs ‘live’ with guitar and vocal before layering instruments and voices to suit the song. Jason Wilber plays electric guitar, banjo and mandolin.  Most of the players hail from Indiana, including Kristta Detor (vocals, piano), Jan Lucas (vocals, harmonica) and Jennie Devoe (vocals). Holding Up The World examines what it means to be human, with songs that thoughtfully express anguish, uncertainty and yearning.  Grimm has been compared to Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen, but his wise, reflective songs stand on their own. He even risks covering Bob Dylan’s Blowing’ In The Wind and gets away with it. Other highlights include the contemplative title track, Long Way Round, Heart So Full and the beautiful Krista. Highly recommended.

MERMAID AVENUE - BILLY BRAGG & WILCO           ELEKTRA 62204-2 / 625522-2.

Billy Bragg and the highly talented American band Wilco combine admirably on these recordings that set some of the legendary Woody Guthrie’s lyrics to music for the first time, producing two outstanding albums. Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy take turns on lead vocals, and the group’s sound reflects the folk and country rock tradition made popular by Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons. Outstanding tracks on Volume One include Walking Guthrie's World War II, Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, and the flawless Ingrid Bergman). Among Volume Two highlights are Hot Rod Hotel, Secret of the Sea, the playful I Was Born and an atmospheric Black Wind Blowing. Beautiful music that pays true service to Woody Guthrie’s memory and integrity.