Waxahatchee ft. M J Lenderman – Right Back To It

The new Waxahatchee album ‘Tiger Blood’ is out now and a must hear if some springtime alt-country promise is your bag. More than that though, this song especially flows so naturally it instantly sounds like a lolling western standard, so sweetly do the verses sail by ahead of that ear worm chorus. Is it a song of long term loving commitment or the sound of someone with too many questions about the routine of longevity? The key line seems to be “you just settle in like a song with no end, if I can keep up we’ll get right back to it” but I admit I haven’t dissected these lyrics anywhere near enough yet, the music is just too irresistible and seems to say enough anyway. Wonderful song…

Adrianne Lenker – Fool

The new solo album by Big Thief’s Adrianne is called ‘Bright Future’ and already sounds like one of the records of 2024 to me. It is clearly an act of necessity that she keeps a second outlet for her songwriting because Lenker has absolutely been boiling over with new music these last few years. Big Thief’s last long player alone was a bumper fun 20 song effort but following them as I do via live concert clips online, there is rarely any evidence in a slowing up of new ideas. Just like her songs with the band, solo Adrianne presents music that is not always immediate but still gives the listener a desire to keep on playing, allowing her songs to present their many charms over time as layer after layer slowly rises into view…

Charlie Parr – Little Sun

Superb live rendition of the title track on Charlie’s new Smithsonian Folkways released album. This is his eighteenth album and as before, his recording process has focused on capturing the raw and ready feel of live performance. Never a man for lingering studio indulgences, he has all the same admitted that for this record hanging out in the studio felt more comfortable, something which may be attributed to the presence of a producer, Tucker Martine. It is the first Charlie Parr record with such a studio focal point and it has to be said, the end results make for a rather fine singer-songwriter album in the Americana vein, well worth checking out…

Shannon & The Clams – The Moon Is In The Wrong Place

Another title track from a new album, this time a band who I have previously associated with a more retro fifties kind of sound. Here however, the textures have far more of a sixties feel. A sixties guitar band with an eager fascination for science fiction too, think of The Byrds doing ‘Mr Spaceman’, something which can especially be heard in the crackly wireless-like guitar sounds that feature heavily. Later though, the fuzz guitar plugs in and suddenly this is an out-and-out garage rocker. Shannon & The Clams are taking it to other planets…

Keith Richards – I’m Waiting For The Man

There is a new Lou Reed tribute album coming out called ‘Power Of The Heart’ featuring Lou’s music played by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Rufus Wainwright, Lucinda Williams, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Rickie Lee Jones, Mary Gauthier, Bobby Rush, Automatic, The Afghan Whigs and Rosanne Cash as well as this incredible version of a Velvet Underground classic by Keith. If ever there was a man who is a nailed on obvious choice to cover this number, they probably found him here and what a job he has done. Every sweaty palmed detail of the after hours back street deal going down in the songs lyric is lived and tasted in Richards vocal, walk it home…

Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment

We do not hear from Beth anywhere near enough but at least when that voice does resurface, it is with music that wholly justifies the wait. Be warned though, this song is probably not what you need to hear if you are feeling low or depressed, the message in it is heavy and the sadness in the music does feel low and helpless. But something in Beth’s voice carries it, makes it moving rather than bleak and when the “all we have is here and now” lyric is sung, rather than acutely sensing the emptiness that lies ahead, you might just want to squeeze every last drop out of the here and now and grab life with both hands. Music this good is like magic, it can pull you in opposite directions…