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Album Reviews
Album Review: Anna Coogan - The Nocturnal Among Us (Self Release)9 March 2010 - 12:00amThere's very little on THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US that gives us a clue to Anna Coogan's original plan to work in the field of Opera. After becoming disillusioned with the academic constraints of Salzburg, coupled with equal measures of home sickness and love sickness, the Seattle-based singer-songwriter found inspiration in the singing of Alison Krauss in...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Macmaster Hay - Love and Reason (Self Release)13 February 2010 - 12:00amThe very idea of a collaboration featuring little other than harp and drums at first seems a little adventurous, but this new album by Mary Macmaster, one of the world's leading innovators of the harp and it's various cousins, including the clarsach and the Camac elecro harp, together with notable drummer and percussionist Donald Hay, LOVE AND REASON comes over as a sort of Celtic Meeting of the...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Gerry McNeice - Small Town Boy (Self Release)1 February 2010 - 6:02pmI've been bumping into Otley based singer-songwriter, musician and bassist Gerry McNeice quite a lot just lately, who seems to be getting around just about everywhere. If he's not playing upright bass with the Duncan McFarlane Band or Morrising-On with some Flash Company, then he may well be appearing in your neighbourhood with a bunch of fine musicians who form his own band...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Fiddler's Bid - All Dressed in Yellow (Hairst Blinks Music)30 January 2010 - 11:17amI'm probably the wrong reviewer for this as I'm a long term believer in the 'less is more' concept, especially when it comes to fiddles. In fact I am pretty much grounded in the opinion that one fiddle is really enough in any context. Ok, maybe two as long as they're scraping along in harmony. Don't misunderstand me, I adore hearing a fiddle on any piece of music, whether it be a jig or a...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Bellevue Rendezvous - Salamander (Journeyman)25 January 2010 - 8:56amBellevue Rendezvous are an instrumental trio from Edinburgh featuring the varied talents of Gavin Marwick on fiddle, Ruth Morris on nyckelharpa and Cameron Robson on cittern, guitar and jaw harp. Edinburgh based Gavin Marwick is no stranger to the Scottish music scene and has performed at many festivals, concerts, theatres and dances throughout the world with various bands and...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Cherry Lee Mewis - Southbound Train (Self Release)20 January 2010 - 8:26pmWhen I first picked up from my door mat the envelope containing the new SOUTHBOUND TRAIN record by Cherry Lee Mewis, I found it difficult getting past the name on the sleeve. Was it a joke? The name sounded very much like one of those highly irritating tribute bands I have an aversion to and I was almost expecting a handful of accurately executed versions of Great Balls of Fire and Whole...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Janet Robin - Everything Has Changed (Hypertension)16 January 2010 - 5:41pmOn the sleeve that accompanies the new album by Janet Robin, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED, we have the singer-songwriter-guitarist coming at us purposely with her acoustic Taylor - brandishing it more like - all smiles and ready for action. No stranger to the big stage, Janet Robin has worked with the likes of the Lindsey Buckingham Band, the Meredith Brooks Band and Air Supply and has made a...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Jochen Roß and Jens-Uwe Popp - The Ten Islands (Independent)14 December 2009 - 12:00amFor the most part THE TEN ISLANDS is an instrumental album, but like all good instrumental albums, it includes a handful of songs as well. Joking apart, the songs included on this album do serve to complement the instrumental pieces remarkably well, all three traditional songs beautifully sung by Canadian singer Lisa Winn; The Banks o' Doon, Kelvingrove and Smile in Your Sleep. The...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Various Artists - The Village (429 Records)13 December 2009 - 6:20pmWith three stunning Dylan covers to get this little celebration underway, Rickie Lee Jones, The Duhks and Lucinda Williams prove once again that Dylan songs are very often done much better by others than by the man himself. Rickie Lee Jones takes on a sort of Three Dog Night Mama Told Me Not To Come groove to retell the Subterranean Homesick Blues stream of consciousness, whilst Sarah Dugas...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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Album Review: Gerry Rafferty - Life Goes On (Hypertension)21 November 2009 - 12:00amMany of us who have followed Rafferty's career with any modicum of interest would be happy, I would imagine, to see his smiling face once again, as included in the booklet that accompanies this collection. Photographed with Enzina Fushini before Mont-Saint-Michel in France, the singer-songwriter appears decidedly chipper with obligatory trademark tinted-specs, after a decade of speculation...By: Allan Wilkinson |
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