Category: English pieces (Page 5 of 11)

Hey, hi

24 December 2010 / Ruud

Nice of you to call! It’s been quite a while since the last time. No, I do understand: on your site were many shows in the North and the West. Great that they also book you in other states, really. Over in your town there are many clubs, but still….. We only see you very rarely that way and of course we do not travel that easily anymore. Besides: I wouldn’t dare to go out into the streets over with you at night. What you see about that on t.v., is it really that bad? It’s ashame that you don’t have fans over with us. Left the church choir, didn’t you?

What? You want to go back to the studio again? Record your third CD? Continue reading

Launch Contemporary classics category

22 December 2010 / Ruud

Just because any categorisation is arbitrary, we follow our own taste and we beg you to differ, although we do ask you to consider if our choices couldn’t be yours as well.

That is why we created the category we call Contemporary classics. Our personal preferences are in that category: records that should surely stand time and be just as good in ten years’ time, or longer still.

You will understand that the artist’s reputation is not the reason we picked the record. It is the music itself and first and foremost the feeling we get every time we take the trouble to really listen to it.

If you don’t know these records, that is just what we advise you to do: listen to them, as long as you are aware that you might get addicted to them.

Rob Jungklas – Mapping The Wreckage

7 December 2010 / Ruud

www.robjungklas.com www.madjackrecords.com

Triptych.

Rob Jungklas was on the brink of musical success at the end of the eighties, but married and found a job. As a result of the divorce of his wife and son and the purchase of a second-hand guitar the English teacher from Memphis made an overwhelming come-back in 2002. Arkadelphia, the CD with which he tore apart the silence, still is of an unknown, timeless ferocity, just like Gully, which was released five years later.

In the ten songs on his third CD there is no way of comparing Jungklas to Continue reading

Erik Göransson – These Will Be The Days

5 December 2010 / Ruud

www.erikgoransson.com

Talented expat.

The Swedish singer-songwriter Erik Göransson, who operates from Barcelona, self-released this twelve song-debut earlier in 2010.

With his good English pronunciation and his thorougly structured songs his folky pop immediately appeals. Both his up-tempo songs and his intimate ballads are Continue reading

Annie Keating – Water Tower View

23 November 2010 / Ruud

www.anniekeating.com

Wide view.

Annie Keating made three CD’s already since 2004, of which only the positively reviewed Belmont reached the Netherlands. On her fourth she sings eleven self-penned compositions in a mix of roots, folk and country with melancholy as a main ingredient.

Keating, also playing the acoustic guitar, is backed by Continue reading

Rain Perry – Internal Combustion

19 November 2010 / Ruud

www.rainperry.com

Sacred fire.

Despite three covers of well-known songs Rain Perry’s seven self-penned songs attract attention on her third CD. The really very unusually titled opener The Compartmentalized Thing is a cleverly structured, swinging song about selling your emotions on stage, complete with surprising a rock guitar and infectious horns. Perry phrases longingly around the beat in an clear mix of disbelief and desire. It is a characteristic example of her evocative singing, also Continue reading

K.C. McKanzie – DryLand

26 October 2010 / Ruud

Rich harvest.

K.C. McKanzie is a German folky singer-songwriter’s stage name and not without reason: in her thirteen self-penned songs on her fourth CD she once again combines folk, Americana and singer-songwriter.

On her CDs and on stages in Germany, Denmark, Switserland and the Netherlands her guitar or banjo are just as important as Joe ‘Budi’ Budinski’s banjo or bass, which he also regularly plays with the help of drum sticks. Because of the drummer in nine of these songs the music tends a little towards folkrock.

In the complete yet open sound McKanzie’s folky melodies Continue reading

Kirsten Thien – Delicious

19 October 2010 / Ruud

www.kirstenthien.com

Surrender.

Kirsten Thien chose guitar playing and singing above the banking world some ten years ago and already released She Really Is in 2001 and You’ve Got Me in 2006.

It resulted in many live gigs, but no breakthrough. From the very first notes of Love Is Made To Share Thien proves how unjust that is. That opener overpowers because of Continue reading

Lynne Hanson – Once The Sun Goes Down

19 October 2010 / Ruud

www.lynnehanson.com

Canadian Lynne Hanson makes a huge step in the direction of roots music on her third CD, although the country feel of Things I Miss and Eleven Months is still audible. She describes the eleven new songs that she wrote in her kitchen consequently as ‘porch music with a little Texas dirt’.

Still she transcends that genre with influences from Continue reading

The Comforters – Two Piece Orchestra

9 October 2010 / Ruud

www.feelthecomforters.com

Consolation.

Pia and Jason Robbins lived in LA, but found more rest in Eugene, Oregon. There they recorded their fully convincing, highly melancholic debut Transplants, which they put out themselves and which rightly got airplay in the U.S. and in Europe here and there.

With Jason at the controls again and on acoustic and electric guitar, bass and percussion plus guests on drums, cello, glockenspiel and trombone, Pia and he sing and play ten perfectly sounding, layered folky pop songs on this somophore album, which was once more self-released.

On it, yet again beautifully melancholically sung ballads are alternated with mid tempo songs. They range from Continue reading