Album Review | Self Release | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 3/5 If the general theme of John Jenkins’ new album is perhaps lost youth, the ageing process and mortality, then the songs are delivered in a deceivingly youthful voice.  The immediate expectation, judging by the cover shot, is of old time fiddle tunes … Continue reading John Jenkins – Growing Old (Songs From My Front Porch)

Album Review | Self Release | Review by Marc Higgins | Stars: 4/5 Canadiana, the title gives a massive clue, as a bewildering nearly 50 years into a twisting career Canadian Philip Rambow delivers an album of his own take on the broad church that is Americana.  The cover is a group period photo with … Continue reading Philip Rambow – Canadiana

Album Review | Last Music Company | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 3/5 Former Glas guitarist James Oliver explodes onto a busy rock and blues scene with a fine debut packed with American cars, twangy guitars, burning Elmore James slide licks and a no nonsense Hugh Cornwell “Go Buddy Go” vocal.  Oliver’s retro rock … Continue reading James Oliver Band – Twang

Album Review | Hard Danger Studio | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 3/5 It’s hard to believe that even back in the 1970s, finding and collecting blues records was something you had to work at. The records were just not available, so the opportunities to discover the pioneers of the blues could only really … Continue reading Libby Rae Watson and Bert Deivert – She Shimmy

Album Review | Self Release | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 4/5 The most immediate sign that this is an album for children and families, is probably Stacey Thomas’s vivid artwork; a trailer load of musical instruments, an assortment of pond and wild life and two very distinct flags, though the song titles come … Continue reading David Gibb and Brady Rymer – Songs Across the Pond

Album Review | Quiet Loner Records | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 4/5 In places reminiscent of the late Jackie Leven, albeit shifted from the Kingdom of Fife to the Sheriffdom of Nottingham, Matt Hill tells a good tale.  Each song is a story, often cinematic and in at least one place set to … Continue reading Matt Hill – Savage Pilgrims

Album Review | Noyse Records | Review by Marc Higgins | Stars: 4/5 “Temperamental Year” has a smooth pop County vibe, bouncy Tom Petty guitars and the sweet sweep of the pedal steel.  Armed with a map Norma says you can trace the Appalachians from Tennessee diagonally North like a, spine to the Canadian east … Continue reading Norma MacDonald – Old Future

Album Review | Self Release | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 4/5 Lisa Marini may well have become a lost soul had it not been for the healing power of music.  Despite a problematic adolescence, absconding at a young age, bits of petty crime, drugs and busts, unstable parenting and resulting despair, music arrived … Continue reading Lisa Marini – Born in Tribes

Album Review | Glitterbeat | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 4/5 The Pace Setters is a reissue of an album originally released almost forty years ago by the Ghanaian band Edikanfo, a name that translates as ‘leader’ or indeed ‘pace setter’.  At the invitation of the eight-piece band’s manager Faisal Helwani, Brian Eno produced … Continue reading Edikanfo – The Pace Setters

Album Review | BMGS4 | Review by Allan Wilkinson | Stars: 5/5 If we consider just for a moment Bob Dylan’s body of work over the past six decades, then narrow it down to the opening tracks of each of his albums, we’re already into genius territory.  Let’s recap; “Blowin' in the Wind”, “The Times … Continue reading Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways