Category: English pieces (Page 4 of 11)

www.jeneehalstead.com

Thematic monument.

In 2008 Jenee Halstead made quite an impression with her self-released The river grace. In Evan Brubaker’s serene production she combined folk, country and singer-songwriter with her very emotional lyrics. They breathed enormous loneliness, also because of the often metallic sound of her voice.

The five songs on Hollow bones, an ep that was added to a later version of  The River Grace, were strongly influenced by country, but only the title song contained the mystery that was heard so strongly on Halstead’s debut.

However, in her eleven new songs Continue reading

www.ernesttroost.com

Second youth.

Ernest Troost has at least two personalites: after studying both jazz guitar and classical music at the Berklee School of Music, he has written music for films and tv series for some 35 years, getting an Emmy and several nominations in the process.

However, on 7 January 2011 he played fourteen self-penned songs live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles. Eight came from All the boats are gonna rise (2004) and Resurrection blues (2009),  two CD’s on which he combined folk and acoustic blues. The other seven are new songs about love that he wrote recently.

During a visit to McCabe’s some ten years before that recording he had felt the urge to perform again, something that he had not done anymore since his days as a student, just like songwriting.

Since then Troost has become Continue reading

Exceptional.

Gretchen Peters is still known as a singer-songwriter that is influenced by country, but there is not much that reminds you of that on her fifth solo CD. In the stately opener/title song she combines layered pop music with autobiographical lyrics.

In it she strikes a balance of her life in metaphors and despite everything the message is clear: there is no other escape route than straight ahead. It proves a Continue reading

www.karagrainger.com

Kara Grainger already made a great impression with her debut Grand and Green River in 2008. The Australian singer/guitarist debuted under her own name then, but already sang before that in her brother Michael’s band, Papa Lips. She also recorded two albums with that band that remained unnoticed in the rest of the world.

The eight songs on her second CD, which is only available as a download, were recorded live in studio with a band and depart from the blues. Now living in the US, Grainger proves in them that she knows the classics, but transcends the genre at the same time.

Robert Johnson’s C’mon in my Kitchen gets a Continue reading

www.lincolndurham.com

Overwhelming debut.

Singer-guitarist’s Lincoln Durham’s first cd contains eleven songs. It is easy to categorize them as blues, but that would do Durham wrong.

Influences from country-blues are clearly present because of his many different, mostly old guitars, but his often swinging, logically rounded melodies mix a sizeable quantity of singer-songwriter through that. That is a long way away from the Texas State Youth Fiddle Championship, which he won when he was ten.

Durham is only accompanied by two different guitar players, among whom producer Ray Wylie Hubbard, while drummer Rick Richards firmly holds the songs together.

That results in an intriguing combination: Continue reading

www.gerrygriffinmusic.com

Moving.

Canadian Gerry Griffin has been a professional musician since 1963, but as a harmonica player he always stood in the shadows, although it was in Long John Baldry’s and Willy Dixon’s among others.

In 1996 he recorded his debut,  Hour Glass. Apart from the harmonica, he sang and played   the acoustic guitar and the mandolin in ten songs, recorded live with a band in the studio. He got inspiration for these semi-electric, already often folky songs during an unjust prison sentence in Northern Africa and Spain.

Although he regularly played live with his partner in music and life Heather Houston afterwards, his work as a recording engineer, producer and composer of sound tracks stood in the way of a second record.

That gave his songs time to mature, because Griffin plays the ten songs on this second cd in Continue reading

Masterpiece.

Anna Coogan’s solo debut The nocturnal among us made an impression and so the American singer-songwriter already toured the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany, despite the fact that the record was self-released. On the basis of these ten songs on this second cd she Continue reading

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www.johnnymaxband.com

Go Johnny, go!

Canadian singer Johnny Max has already had a radio programme for six years that is somewhat misleadingly called The Sunday Morning Soul. That is because he prefers the blues, although he is not narrow-minded, just like on predecessor A Lesson I’ve Learned.

He sings twelve songs on his fifth record, mostly written together with drummer Vince Maccarone, bass player Wayne Deadder and guitar player John Findlay. They and keyboardist Jesse O’Brien draw enthusiastically from blues, soul, jazz and funk.

The four new, but experienced band members play Continue reading

www.johnnymaxband.com

Graduated.

Canadian Johnny Max is the singer of a five piece blues band, but also the deejay of a rootsy radio show. That may explain the eleven versatile compositions, which were mostly written by him and keyboardist Martin Aucoin.

They play traditional Chicago blues as good as the title track’s soul blues and funky New Orleans-shuffles just as authentically as Write Your Name, the piano ballad inspired by Ray Charles. Apart from that Continue reading

BoJack Records

www.judejohnstone.com

Justice at last?

A little over two years ago Jude Johnstone’s fifth solo-CD Mr. Sun once again did not bring her the recognition that she has deserved for years. She does get it in music circles, because not only did Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris amongst other have hits with her songs, in these then new ones Jimmy LaFave, John David Souther and Rodney Crowell sing background vocals plus Emmylou Harris once again. Moreover: in Don’t Wake Me Up,  a song that is a little too radio friendly, Springsteen saxophone player Clarence Clemons, who discovered her, plays a solo.

It is the only song in which Johnstone makes concessions to a certain extent, hoping Continue reading