Hollow Hand – Wish Road South

There is an instantly familiar feel to this album but in the best conceivable way, so much so that the entire content of this review could just me sitting back and referencing the top-tier sonic nods and clear as day influences that are flying past. I will refrain from doing that, but I will shout out a few of the obvious ones, not because there should be any implication of copying, but actually because the signposts of inspiration are carried out with such class that I want folks to understand what a great album this is. So, we have a very clear Velvet Underground three chord trick swagger, a hint of early seventies Bowie glam and the kind of melody driven pop nous that bands like ELO built careers around and a singer songwriter like Elliott Smith carved out new standards in acoustic pop balladry. The song ‘Black Metal Corpse Paint’ even throws in an old Captain Beefheart album title (‘Safe As Milk’) into the lyric which I doubt very much was anything but deliberate. That said, all the tasteful hero worshipping in the world will only carry you so far if the new songs you wrap it around are not up to much. The song writing of Hollow Hand though is so strong here, everything sounds like it has been crying out for this kind of energy all along. The story of its creation features more than a few top names as well on the journey to an album named after the early‑morning bus route that ferried Hollow Hand main man Max Kinghorn-Mills to the studio. It may be a metaphor for the where he finds himself at with this fourth LP release, for ‘Wish Road South’ captures Kinghorn‑Mills stepping out of his old habits and into a looser, bolder, band‑driven future.

And so, it transpires that Hollow Hand’s new release has emerged from an encounter with reckoning for Max Kinghorn‑Mills, the man whose performing name has always been essentially a solo venture but finds itself very much in a branching out phase today. He hit a point where the songs that were sketched out for the record no longer matched the fire he felt after months on the road. Touring behind previous album ‘Your Own Adventure’ had thrown him into the orbit of other musicians; Irish bands with wild, instinctive energy, Caitlin Rose’s touring ensemble, Aoife Nessa Frances’ world, and a run of European dates with MJ Lenderman that refined his sense of what his own project could be. “The way I’ve made albums previously has usually been huddled away in the tradition of a bedroom producer,” says Kinghorn-Mills. “But with this one I expanded my horizons and it made me realise there’s so much more to playing, and being in a band, than just recording the songs.” Returning home, he realised the solitary, bedroom‑bound approach that had defined his earlier records could no longer carry him forward. So, he scrapped the half‑finished version of the album and rebuilt from the ground up, forming a tighter unit with Oliver Newton and Leo Clarke in a new Brighton studio where the songs were played into being rather than assembled in isolation. With the shift towards live tracking, shared investment, and a richer sonic palette the door flung open to a warmer, more confident record, later pushed further out by Clarence Clarity’s left‑field mixing instincts.

The record kicks off with a sound that should instantly point to the newfound audio avenues enthusiastically being explored throughout. ‘Flowers In The Garden’ is a sweet melange of hurdy gurdy bagpipe noises and drone with an anthemic, sing it from the terraces, melody resolution that truly satisfies. ‘Here Are The Tulips’ possesses some classic tension and release playing, it feeds into the major/minor electric jangle that the folk-rock genre wears in its purest form, but it is executed with such panache, the sound feels like a long-lost friend returning home. It is a gleaming little piece of pop perfection, happy sad in its progressions and simultaneously echoing so many eras and times without sounding retro for a second, I guess this means it might be operating in the realm of the timeless. The joy of plugging in and riffing on an irresistible three chord pattern is indulged in repeatedly. Even on the softer tunes like ‘Love Again,’ which offers tenderness and understanding in the lyric, is pushed on by solid, meaty strumming whilst ‘Kiss The Boot’ finds a chunky bit of abandoned Velvets gold dust to re-use with interest. There is so much more though, at times this could pass for a psych record with its distorted spoken word interludes, found sound, multi-layered string sections and general sense of mayhem prevailing, punctuated by the arrival of another shiny nugget of a song. ‘Heavy Metal T-Shirt’ is actually one of the poppiest selections here and another curve ball is thrown when ‘Drinking With Judy’ ups the energy stakes with some new wave urgency. By the time we close of ‘Green Meadows Of England,’ played out under tangibly grey skies and ‘A Gentle Place,’ a lovely baroque closer, it is blatantly obvious that the one other throwback ‘Wish Road South’ offers is its appreciably satisfying arc as an album. Add to that the absence of any weak tracks or filler and it all adds up to a mighty fine piece of work. It stands as a reminder that even in a post‑Bowie, post‑Reed, post‑Petty world, there are still artists willing to capture the spark and, on this evidence, Hollow Hand is running with the flame and holding it firmly in safe hands.

Danny Neill

Find the new Hollow Hand album via this link: https://www.hollowhand.com/

Monthly Playlists

September 2026 Playlist

For this month’s playlist I am accompanying it once again with a giant photo feature. This time I have been digging out a series of photos I took twenty years ago this month at the Spitz Festival of Folk in London. It was a month long event at the club venue on Spitalfields Market and looking back on it, was collectively one of the greatest folk festival line-ups I have ever witnessed. Vetiver head up the playlist because, as I recall, their ‘To Find Me Gone’ album was causing quite a buzz at the time and their set at the Spitz was particularly memorable, especially when Devandra Banhart jumped up to join them onstage. That was one of many highlights my camera captured, including a wild Fence Collective night, a pregnant Beth Orton playing a delightful set alongside Bert Jansch and the brilliant Davey Graham being as enigamtic and mesmerising as ever. Enjoy the playlist and photos…

*Tunng at the 2006 Spitz Festival of Folk opening press night*

*Devandra Banhart joins Vetiver on stage*

*Pictish Trail with King Creosote and Adem at Fence Collective Night*

New Release Reviews

ANYX – Starlink

The music of ANYX feels like it comes from a forbidden, derelict terrain. The sonic landscape overwhelms the listener from the outset as a feverish electric guitar note repeats and circles us until the icy exterior cracks and a full blown ethereal gothic wonderment bursts forth over funereal pounding drums, mournful keys and a voice that sounds nothing short of Nico returning from the other side. And this is just the ‘Ladybirds Spine’ opener, the preview track revealed a couple of months ago that served this album release up as one to look out for. This is the sound of an industrial landscape painted autumn grey, showered with freezing rain and yet humming with a self-fuelling energy and vibrancy that we simply cannot turn away from. It is like the Velvet Underground harvested from a war torn eastern European regime, albeit one where the sixties art school nonchalance is replaced by a biting modern-day realism, ANYX is an entity rising from the rubble with a momentum that can wipe the desolate surrounds clean and in so doing, breathing fresh life and shining new light on the dirt and dust. This is an album with grime all over its tough exterior but possessing a whole solar system of beauty and wonder lurking within the grooves, you just have to get on board and the forthcoming audio rewards are plentiful.

ANYX is the solo project of Berlin‑based artist, musician and vocalist Anna Lucia Nissen, emerging after her period fronting the trio Anchoress. ‘Starlink’ marks her first release under this name, developed in close collaboration with former bandmates Alexander Rathbone and Tobias Textor. The album reflects a shift toward a more personal, self‑directed practice that reconnects with Nissen’s background in visual art: she builds songs from her voice and lyrics outward, adding sparse instrumentation only once the core structure is set. This method gives her work a sculptural, deliberately constructed quality, grown with minimal elements such as harp, keys, guitar and double bass. Alongside this formal approach, Nissen’s writing often engages with broader questions about how people move through contemporary life, including the tension between human‑made systems and the natural world. Her interest in adopting different perspectives (sometimes human, sometimes animal) also informs the thematic reach of the project.

All told though, it is undoubtedly Anna’s resonate tenor voice that gives this art rock project its bones, not only that but it also reveals a sensitive beating heart at the core of the work. You can hear this especially well on centrepiece song ‘Strange Times.’ The bells that toll at the songs opening, a backdrop to radiant guitar lines that possess the pull of a coiled spring, all provide a progressive palate for the vocal that ponders the uneasy relationship between humanity, mythology, technology and the natural world. Then slowly something changes, as the arrangement leaves space for air some light gets in and it suddenly feels like we are elevating, drifting away as the moment fades atop the warmest organ chord imaginable. Earlier the mesmerising ‘Window In Your Eyes’ also shows the organic syncopation that exists between Anna and the musical tools she works around, this time debuting a harp into her sound that, by her own admission, grows into a conversation between voice and instrument. Once again, the closing passage is pushing us into the realms of the glorious. This line between light and shade, tension and release is walked across all nine tracks. It is there in the whispered voice of ‘Spring Birds’ watching from the margins or the way church doors seem to fling open in ‘Marian’ to reveal the most dazzling and divine hymn. It all serves to make ‘Starlink’ the kind of stand up and get noticed debut that should break through with force, there is very little else remotely like this music around right now.

Danny Neill

Follow the link for more on ANYX and how to get yourself a copy of the album: https://anyx.bandcamp.com/

New Release Reviews

Dent May – The Big One

Well, this is a thing of beauty and wonder is it not? When making music that is adjacent to pop music, albeit a popular music that honours the standards and craftsman like processes of the past far more than the committee produced formular driven electronic pop that we hear so much of today, creating something as fantastically satisfying on a musical level as this is actually damn hard work. Realising sounds that push and pull the heart strings, rise and fall like a living breathing entity, that can caress the ears and nourish the soul with their lush presentation is not a process that happens by accident. This needs the ear of a true musical soul, not just that but one who can translate those echoes of the mind into the real world, play the notes and arrange the combinations of melodic traction, tempo and feel into something that works on record and is primed to manipulate the audio reactions in the listener. This is a deep skill and from the moment you let the needle drop on this album, it is abundantly clear we are being driven by someone well versed and practised in the art of classic pop song craft. These may be lazy comparisons but think Beach Boys, early Bee Gees and Beatles (the three B’s) and that is the style Dent May is observing with a piece of work like this. The great news is, May is absolutely up to the task.

Of course, none of this has happened by accident. Dent May has been a long-term devotee of seventies singer-songwriters like the similarly Beatles influenced Harry Nilsson as well as Paul McCartney around the time of ‘Ram.’ It is only now though that he is really letting those influences bleed into his recorded output but because he does so without inhibition, they stand tall and proud. It is an interesting direction because for all the meticulousness in the production, not to mention the detail in the arrangements (there are guitar figures, piano sweeps and swooping emotive strings to be heard in abundance) the sessions that launched these tracks were actually quite loose and explorative. For Dent’s seventh full length release he abandoned his previous bedroom aesthetic in favour of collaborative jamming sessions with friends and colleagues, an idea designed to explore the potential for a fuller, tastier sound. It was recorded at the Los Angeles Honeymoon Suite studio with Paul Cherry producing. This freedom has opened the door for Dent to flex considerably his melancholy pop magic, the combination of the bitter and the sweet heard in these songs is surely enough to satisfy even the most discerning of pop classicist enthusiasts.

The willingness to capture spontaneity and true analogue feel is heard on a song like ‘Second Wind,’ a track recalling how a low feeling Dent was invited for a night out but, not feeling up for accepting, he waited until catching his second wind before choosing to take the social option against his natural instincts. The way it rises from pastoral acoustics to pounding piano keys and a skipping beat as the evening town is hit by the narrator before the tired yawns of the graceful closing section arrive, is a thing of genuine loveliness. Of the very Gerry Rafferty leaning title track, Dent acknowledges that it is the work of a man painfully aware of the natural disasters that could be coming our way, not to mention the ticking clock of mortality. This is no surprise to me, because the music plays like the work of someone urgently driven to locate the natural joy available to us in our brief window of existence. Aside from environmental concerns, he says of ‘The Big One’ that it is also about “any personal life-altering moment that shakes you out of your comfort zone.” This is the story across all eleven tracks here, the traumas and joys of day to day living wrapped in a masterclass of pop writing and recording, directed by a man prepared to walk the happy/sad line fearlessly, scooping up every drop of audio magic he finds on that path and heating it to perfection. Sometimes there is truly little to say about albums like this other than, it has been made with a purity of intent and vision which leaves us with an album that really needs proper listening and will frequently reward those who do.

Danny Neill

You can find the new Dent May album via this link: https://dentmay.bandcamp.com/

New Release Reviews

Margaret Glaspy – I Am Both

Around the release of her fourth full length album, the follow up to 2023’s highly rated ‘Echo The Diamond,’ Margaret Glaspy has been musing on her place in the world as a working musician. She is turning away from notions of success that are the accepted measuring tools, thinking of what she does instead as more of a public service. “You show up in city after city and you bring the music with you” Margaret ponders, “and hopefully it reaches whoever needs to hear it. I feel very honoured to be of service in that way.” Maybe this purity of intent is an indication of why this album stands tall with such undeniable effect. This is a work that plays as if all obstacles on the pathway to creation were aggressively swept aside, there is something in these songs that has more focus and indeed more hair-raising stimulants than we had any right to anticipate. At times there appears to be so much raw emotional detail in some of the lyrics that you could reasonably assume that this singer is emerging from a period of intense personal trauma, although the pre-release declarations from the artist herself all lean towards these being fictional, song writing excursions, albeit from someone more than capable of stitching a few authentic real morsels into the scenarios she sings about.

Also, if this were to be the Margaret Glaspy equivalent of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks,’ (there is plenty of evidence that he is a big influence, especially in some of the wild and free harmonica playing we hear here) then it is a homage that respectfully understands the appeal of zooming in from a multitude of different perspectives. These audio vignettes have fine brush strokes that rarely nail moments down, preferring to play with time and chronology, prompting the curious effect of getting to the heart of the matter more than once. Part of this directness is attributed to Glaspy’s self-imposed release from the grip of social media. She saw this as a route back to original thought, not to mention some clarity of purpose, and sketched out these songs first with pen and paper before doing some even more retro polishing on a typewriter. This momentum is captured in the immediacy of the final work, produced by three-times Grammy winner Joe Henry. There is a fearlessness to the simplicity in some of the hooks, a confidence to play the notes that serve the narrative best and are guaranteed to reel in the listeners. Beyond that, there is a strength evident in the indie-leaning, acoustic warmth that has been captured, as Margaret alludes to herself when saying “I always think of myself as more of a photographer than a sculptor in the studio. It’s about capturing the moment rather than layering and building things up over time.”

Opening track ‘Michigan’ parachutes us into the troubled emotional terrain that bubbles across the surface of the whole album. “You said you didn’t need me, but who’s standing in whose driveway?” Potent lines like this enrich the whole track, emanating from the broken-hearted thoughts and deeds that permeate a recent relationship break up. It is writing of a fine crafted stripe, offering the suggestion of a narrative but exploding with moments that possess a universal familiarity that people are bound to identify with. ‘That Rose’ plays around with perspectives too, this time resulting in an album highlight, a sly reminder that jealous feelings are not exclusive to the betrayed. ‘Reminder,’ by contrast, feels like a peephole into the singers’ inner monologue, evaluating her place in the world and recalibrating all the coping strategies we need to survive, it is a do not throw your hand song that ducks and weaves rather than go for the knockout. At other times Margaret hits her targets with lethal precision, like on the beginning of ‘Petty’ with its seething opening line “can’t you read my mind? I thought telepathy was a requirement for love.” ‘Common Ground’ ploughs through the debris of shattered love too but like so much here, is lifted by the life affirming grit of the music.

‘James And Marie’ walks a more traditional storyteller line, especially by naming the lead characters from the outset, but again the momentum of the acoustic rhythmic riffing pushes the track into another realm far away from standard acoustic balladry. The subject matter takes on a wider brief with ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ wherein Glaspy recontextualises segments of a 1957 sermon by the legendary civil right leader. Finding inspiration from his transcendent speaking, she shines a light on the truth in his words and their pertinence in modern day America and the world over. By the time we close on the title track, it feels like Margaret has arrived at a moment of self-enlightenment. The song is based on a female character that the writer looks up to deeply, a multi-faceted character with a real clarity of thought. But maybe she is also seeing a little of herself in there too? Or at the very least the person she aspires to be. All I can conclude is that, on this evidence, Margaret Glaspy is fast evolving into an expressive artist who also contains multitudes, travelling on a significant upwards trajectory of her own, she presents as one of the most engaging musical troubadours of our time.

Danny Neill

You can get yourself a copy of ‘I Am Both’ via this link: https://margaretglaspy.bandcamp.com/music

Live Reviews

Kathleen Edwards – Lighthouse Arts Centre, Halifax, Canada 1st August 2026

Kathleen Edwards does not remember her previous concert stop off in Halifax with much warmth. Such is the feelgood happiness in the room tonight though, she is prepared to recall the now, thanks to passing time, amusing story for this audience. It was back around 2012 and was easily one of the weirdest weeks of her life. It turns out that before the show Kathleen had got stung by a wasp and all hell broke loose. The singer actually ended up in ER with a full body issue. “The stocks of camomile lotion rocketed that week because of me,” she jokes. By the time they all got to Halifax for the gig she was so messed up by the mix of Benadryl and steroids, due to the reaction to the sting, that the punch-drunk performer ripped her guitar off in the middle of the show and somehow managed to smash herself in the head. This resulted in a goose egg and a concussion which stayed with the stricken songwriter for the remainder of that tour.

The anecdote is arguably a good metaphor for the way the life of a working musician was beating Kathleen around at the time, leaving its scars and taking its toll. She sings as much in tonight’s wistful rendition of ‘Glenfern,’ extended to incorporate a heartfelt hello to the large audience, but this is a bad indictment on the modern-day mess of her industry that it preceded a period when Edwards walked away from music altogether to go and run a coffee shop. In my opinion, an artist of her calibre and repute should have been appropriately rewarded for her work, enjoying protection from the pressures and stresses of simply maintaining a career and carrying on. That struggle does permeate the music she has produced since stepping back into the ring with 2020’s ‘Total Freedom.’ Launching ‘Save Your Soul’ from last years ‘Billionaire’ album, there is more than a hint of foreboding at those going after fools’ gold with its cautionary refrain “who’s gonna save your soul when your money’s no good?” From the same album we are treated to ‘Say Goodbye, Tell No One’ – already one of the all-time great turning away songs – as the sight and sound of Kathleen brandishing an electric guitar in a full band show and nailing every number feels like a real privilege. Acts this good should be packing out stadiums (regrettably acts nowhere near as classy as this frequently do fill stadiums) and yet here we are in a cool Canadian arts theatre with a singer songwriter in the classic Tom Petty, Lucinda Williams mould taking full advantage of a deep, rich back catalogue and appearing to be as elevated by the experience as we are.

It does feel like all in attendance have chanced upon the secret place where the good stuff is happening. Earlier in the day we had wandered the streets of Halifax, soaking up a city that was absolutely heaving with holiday weekend entertainment from buskers to amusements then later fireworks that sounded like a war zone. Kathleen tells us she had checked out the local area too, enjoying her dream breakfast at ‘Steve-O-Reno’s’ and inviting the owner, who registers her presence with a shout out, to the gig tonight. It is a nice, empathetic touch from someone who put heart and soul into running her own coffee business and the song she dedicates to her guest, ‘Asking For Flowers,’ is a similarly switched on lament. The country ballad template of the tune allows space for the key line to really register. “Asking for flowers is like asking you to be nice” hits so hard because it feels like it is sourced from a real place, a low hanging piece of raw emotion that had to be picked. Her impressive range too is illustrated when playing a violin solo on the brooding ‘Goodnight California’, but such is Kathleen’s connection to this line up, she is happy to let the number fully hit the heights with the entire bands combined energy and telepathy, especially the Crazy Horse-like guitar soloing.

This band can rock out with force as well, the delicious riffing on last years ‘When The Truth Comes Out’ earning guitarist Gordon Tough a shout out and when reaching back to some of the oldest tunes in her catalogue, like on ‘Back To Me,’ the same stimulating energy pumps us into the present moment, showing how the craft in Kathleen’s writing has been of a higher stripe right from the outset. She is in a real sharing mood tonight too, we learn, for example, that the seed of ‘Little Red Ranger’ was Kathleen trying to manifest a vision of the song she can imagine singing when finally treading the boards at Massey Hall, but most tellingly the generosity is evident between the players on stage as scintillating keyboard and pedal steel solos own their place in the spotlight. Pounding keys provide the pulse of momentum as the set peaks through ‘Change The Sheets’ followed by ‘Six O’Clock News’ which mines the electric wild mercury sound, forever hot currency when tapped into like this. To finish things off the encore is the decisive one-two punch of early classic ‘Mercury’ followed by a lilting cover of Neil Young’s ‘Powderfinger,’ the extended soloing of which only served to underline the quality in the playing of the whole group. This was just one of those rare nights when everything, from performer to group to location to sound to feeling to response, came together so incredibly well. Memorable.

Words: Danny Neill Photos: Sophie Reichert

You can buy Kathleen Edwards latest record and other releases via this link: https://kathleenedwards.bandcamp.com/music

Monthly Playlists

August 2026 Playlist

The name Wayne Rooney might not be one that readers of the music press, or musical criticism and appreciation in general, regularly associate with this particular field of the arts. For those who do not know him (I am aware that there are many readers of this site in the US and Canada so you will be many) he is a former professional footballer who became famous in the early 2000’s as a dynamic and rare young talent playing for Everton but soon enough Manchester United and England. His peak playing years were rightly celebrated for their domestic success laden, bullish attacking flare in a way that his subsequent moves into management have not been. Wayne Rooney does not come across as an especially confident or engaging communicator, whether this was too much of an obstacle to overcome in club management I cannot really say, but given that some of his managerial positions ended in the early termination of contracts it is a fairly safe guess that this was not an asset. All of which makes, for me, his current regular sports broadcaster employment a surprising appointment to put it politely (as a disclaimer I should probably add I am an Arsenal supporter so writing nice things about ex-Man Utd player Rooney does not come naturally). Often when a piece of analysis is thrown Wayne’s way, he seems diffident, over repetitive and a million miles removed from the bolshy footballing bulldog we used to see on the playing field. However, there was one piece of commentary of his during the half time of the recent World Cup Final that, I honestly believe, summed up the thoughts of millions.

The half time show at the Final was a disgrace really, such a pointless spectacle of absolutely no musical or entertainment merit whatsoever, that it is hard to believe it was desired by anyone other than Americans who have no real interest in football and the under-fire Fifa president Gianni Infantino. He had already got on the wrong side of football fans the world over by introducing hydration breaks, splitting the game into quarters for what it quickly became obvious was just advertising opportunities in disguise for US broadcasters. But his messing with half-time breaks, which should take a maximum of fifteen minutes, any longer and the players are going to have to warm up again, was a liberty too far for the majority. Pre-armed with a series of transparently untrue denial statements about the length of the time slot, the musical showpiece prevented the game from restarting for 27 minutes. At its conclusion on BBC TV, where Wayne Rooney was one of the analysists, the presenter asked all three of the experts for their reaction to the entertainment, receiving two generic pieces of half-hearted praise before turning to Wayne. “I thought it was crap.” His candour caused a bit of nervous laughing, but he brilliantly doubled down. “I’m sorry I just did. I like some of those artists but really, that was just crap.”

To be fair Wayne was probably mostly frustrated on behalf of the players and the true fans at the delay, by his own admission he was just there to see football. But this does not change the fact that the spectacle was just a load of bilge. Madonna’s opening segment was either pre-recorded or mimed or both; I hate to sound like a dinosaur, but I cannot accept choreographed dance routines built around sets and props with the music mostly, if not wholly, on tape as live performance. It is a visual feat but so what? There was way too much generic global EDM sounds and beats, indistinct and of no great distinction, and an acoustic solo piece by Justin Bieber which, live or no, sounded like nothing more than a toddler mumbling into his bedroom carpet after picking up a guitar for the first time and half figuring out a couple of easy chords. There is so much genuinely great music and talent out there, which this site shines a light on every week, that it annoys me how little it is tapped into at times like this. I mean if you must have music at least present something good, this was so lightweight that even musical co-ordinator Chris Martin decided not to pack his bouncy trainers and keep a low profile.

The other thing is it serves no purpose, the only people a mishmash of a presentation like this is trying to reach are those who have no real interest in the sport, who need a bit of variety and celebrity allure as insurance that this event is worth being seen at. But do any football fans, or the game itself, actually need Hollywood actors and big-name rappers having the TV cameras pick them out of a crowd looking bored on their phones, asking their escorts what is happening? To the best of my knowledge, football is already a phenomenally popular sport and the last thing it needs is unrelated entertainment or showbusiness add-ons to broaden its appeal. The supporters absolutely do not need it, and a World Cup Final is going to sell out, as would an entire World Cup if not priced so prohibitively, with nothing more than the football itself on the menu. If Infantino does not survive his current controversy I would love it if, next time the tournament runs in four years, it adopts a back to basic approach. No decoration, no filler, no tenuous thrills and spectacle. Just two teams walking out, lining up to sing their national anthems then immediately getting down to the playing of a ninety-minute game of football. Can you imagine what a deliciously simple and pure experience that would provide? Football is a game that, when boiled down to its core appeal, is both beautifully simple to follow and frequently beautiful to watch. That is all you need.

Danny Neill

New Release Reviews

Sam And Louise Sullivan – Love And Devotion

This is a record made by a duo who were raised, schooled, and immersed in the folk tradition but who wish to reach for something far away from that world sonically. In fact, they are looking at the whole other realm of FM radio with a sound that heavily references Buckingham and Nicks, the foundation of Fleetwood Mac’s gear change from blues purists to the dramatic pop sheen of their most celebrated era. There might just be something similar happening here, although the Sullivan siblings have not specifically grown a reputation within the folk world, if you listen close enough you can definitely detect the background embedded into the harmony rich, melodically memorable core of their songs. Take the opening track, which was also the lead single ‘Down On Love,’ the voices switch verses and take a chorus each as the song bounces along like the theme tune to a 70s sitcom, electric guitar fills adding to a mix that presents like a very polished pop brew. But hidden behind the modern production is a song that could exist very agreeably as an acoustic number, the drama belonging in the character driven approach of the leading male and female voices. Those vocals unite very well on the title track too, switching between long held falsetto backing notes and the semi spoken recitals of Sam whilst guitar lines send jolts of electricity through the mixing board.

So, who are the pair making these sounds? Well, Sam and Louise Sullivan’s story reads like a long, looping folk song beginning on an old farm school along the Tualatin River in Oregon, where the brother and sister first learned the American and British traditional tunes that informed their musical instincts. After moving to New York in 2001 Sam fell hard for the mandolin and the finger‑twisting guitar of Reverend Gary Davis, while Louise immersed herself in Manhattan’s Irish sessions and sang with the Young People’s Chorus of New York. As a family band they played everywhere from Carnegie Hall to sea‑shanty gatherings at the South Street Seaport, all while enduring the kind of formative, slightly chaotic road trips (Elvis and Woody Guthrie pilgrimages, contra dances, old‑time festivals) that tend to fuse siblings into lifelong collaborators. College brought literature and visual arts, Philadelphia brought ceramics for Louise and high‑school teaching for Sam, and eventually songwriting arrived as a natural extension of their creative lives together. What began as home recordings made on a USB mic between loads of laundry grew into a fully-fledged band once they met Kevin Basko and Emily Moales, who nudged them toward amplifiers, reel‑to‑reel tape, and a looser, more immediate way of capturing performances. Their records ‘Papier Mâché,’ ‘Sweet Enough,’ and now ‘Love And Devotion’ balance arena‑sized pop ambitions with the trad DNA they cannot shake: the ballads, the ’70s harmonies, the blood‑born blend that echoes the folk‑inspired ceramics of their mother and the offbeat Americana chronicled by their father. Even as they lean into digital textures, that sweet old‑time feeling remains stitched into every song as this album unfolds.

Continuing with ‘There You Go Again,’ dreamed into existence in those bedazzled half-asleep, half-awake moments, gliding on a breath of a repeated backing refrain and a corrugated guitar figure that holds it all together, the otherness of the sound double accentuated by a shift at the close not unlike a tape changing speed. ‘Ms Mercedes’ is a deceptively simple sounding character study and yet, the easy on the ear portrait manages to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the production and arrangement without ever overcrowding the space. ‘Since I Left’ is a harmony rich back porch banjo ballad fed through an electric folk power blender while ‘Doing Time’ has a kind of resigned exhale that suits the reflective nature of the lyrics perfectly. It finishes with a solo that has an unexpected bagpipe texture overcoating the guitars too. ‘My Guy’ arrives with seconds of hazy backwards tape effect that re-appear later, alongside other rapid dream state audio sensations, in an otherwise straight-shooting song where psychedelics are applied liberally, tastefully but far from overplayed. ‘After All These Years’ has the thrust and appealing verse resolve then chorus eruption of a hit record. ‘Irish Goodbye’ is an emotive ballad of letting go before we close on ‘Treehugger,’ a pop-rock song pulsating with an electro heart and clearly pointing to further sonic and stylistic evolutions for this duo. They are surely going places, the rich offerings of craft, ideas, and execution to be heard here alone convince me of that. ‘Love And Devotion’ may not beat you over the head with its quality, but it will subtly entice you in and then lay you out deliciously song by song. Excellent album.

Danny Neill

You can buy a download of the album via this link: https://link.amazon/B0i7uJArG

*Sam & Louise Sullivan by Betsey Carroll*

Fresh Juice, Uncategorized

Fresh Juice 27th July 2026

Margaret Glaspy – Michigan

This is a mesmerising live rendition of the song that opens Margarets latest ‘I Am Both’ album, an arresting piece of folk‑leaning indie‑rock that clearly sets the emotional terms of the whole record. Drawn from a real visit to the Midwest, the song reframes that trip as a post‑breakup flight from New York’s intensity, a familiar fantasy for city dwellers seeking space to breathe. Glaspy’s direct vocals and pared‑back guitar work give the track its charge, forming a narrative where the geography becomes less the focus as the impulse to step away and recalibrate rises to the top. As an entry point to the record, it signals an album built on impressionistic detail and precise emotional stakes. You can order the album via this link: https://link.amazon/B00kz7ZMG

Wills Van Doorn – Aero

This track is one of the clearest demonstrations of Wills Van Doorn’s leap forward on ‘Enduro,’ a record that pushes his classicist power‑pop instincts to the fore with confidence. Still early in his career and unburdened by repetition, Van Doorn channels bright hooks, meticulous songcraft and a streak of spontaneity honed in Portland’s DIY scene. Produced in a whirlwind weekend with Johnny Payne and Beach House’s James Barone, ‘Aero’ soars with sensuous, Harrison‑esque guitar washes, octave‑vaulting verses and an elevating chorus; proof that his influences are not mere borrowed reference points but actually raw material forming something distinctly his own. You can get the album via the record labels website here: https://enigmaticbrunchrecords.bandcamp.com/

Lim Orion – Story

‘Story’ opens forthcoming album ‘ILK’ by placing Lim Orion, London‑based multidisciplinary artist Cara Sebastian, squarely inside the album’s central concern: reclaiming her voice through cathartic storytelling. Written during lockdown and amid emotionally fraught love, the track captures the suspended moment between indecision and hope, where distraction becomes a coping mechanism. Recorded live with her band, ‘Story’ layers blues‑tinged call‑and‑response vocals, swampy guitar hooks and organ lines that shift from dissatisfaction toward a bright, unruly release. It is a thematic and sonic overture for ‘ILK,’ a record built as a transportive vessel for finding freedom through narrative. You can find the song and more about the album via this link: https://limorion.bandcamp.com/track/story-3

Luluc – Rewarding Melody

This track features on ‘Sweet Relief,’ Luluc’s fifth album and one of their most harmony‑rich releases to date. Written in the quiet spaces Zoë Randell retreats to and later shaped in the Brooklyn studio the duo built over the past decade, the song reflects the album’s central tension of modern life’s shiny surface set against its exploitation and existential pull. Begun on Christmas morning at J Mascis’s home, the album explores love, hate, beauty and distraction with Luluc’s trademark sensitivity. ‘Rewarding Melody’ distils that approach into a song that is understated, meditative and immediately affecting. You can get the album via this link: https://luluc.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-thief

Slow Accordion – ’71

This track is a standout moment on Slow Accordion’s fully improvised, analog‑recorded debut, an avant‑country funk excursion born from four Nashville‑based musicians creating in real time. The quartet of Oliver Wood, Matt Glassmeyer, Ted Pecchio and Mark Raudabaugh entered Glassmeyer’s home studio with no concepts beyond collective spontaneity, tracking live in a circle to four‑track reel‑to‑reel. Across the album, tone and energy collide with deference and space, and ‘’71’ captures that chemistry at its most hard‑grooving and exploratory. This is a vivid example of the band’s ethos of comjuring music on the spot, pushed and pulled into shape by instinct. You can get the self titled album this way: https://meadownoise.bandcamp.com/

Baby Rose – Let Me Go

‘Let Me Go’ finds Baby Rose (D.C.-bred, North Carolina–raised, now Atlanta‑based) leaning fully into the lived‑in, timeless tone that has made her contralto one of the most striking voices in modern soul. The track, from her forthcoming album ‘Yearnalism,’ channels the album’s core theme of yearning through a confession of sorrow, release, and the hope of parting without collapse. Sonically, it reaches back toward Muscle Shoals–era spirit while carrying her signature blend of soul, jazz, gospel, rock, and R&B, delivered with cinematic intimacy. It is a stirring statement from an artist long informed by deep musical roots and a bold focus. You can find out more this way: https://babyrose.bandcamp.com/

Music Mixes

New Mix: Fruit Tree Records – Fresh Juice 2026 Vol. 10

Welcome to Volume Ten in our mix show series of new music, latest release and soon-to-land gems, collectively known as Fresh Juice. This one takes in a mouth watering collection of up and coming sounds including Garage Rock, Soul, Heavy Psych, Power Pop, Indie Rock, Americana, Dark Folk, Folk, Jazz Rock and beyond so, as always, dig in and dig out. Full tracklisting below.

Tracks – Fruit Tree Records – Fresh Juice 2026 Vol. 10

Let Me Go – Baby Rose https://babyrose.bandcamp.com/

Cross My Heart – Lime Garden https://amzn.to/3RauH9z

Se Fue Se Fue – The Killing Floors https://thekillingfloors.bandcamp.com/album/demo

Love Light Beauty And Truth – Stevenson Ranch Davidians https://thedavidians.bandcamp.com/

Story – Lim Orion https://limorion.bandcamp.com/

To Pray Or Not – Almost Friends https://gusboggar.bandcamp.com/

Fasciculations / Boston Harbor Welcome – Hayden Stern https://www.haydenstern.com/

Waiting – Beth Orton https://amzn.to/4fOWSUO

’71 – Slow Accordion https://meadownoise.bandcamp.com/album/slow-accordion

Friday The 13th – Motorcycle https://dandyboyrecords.bandcamp.com/track/friday-the-13th

Gimme Your Love – The Screamin Kick https://roguerecords.bandcamp.com/album/kings-of-the-past

The Yeti’s Eyes – The Odyssey Cult https://odysseycult.bandcamp.com/track/the-yetis-eyes

That Rose – Margaret Glaspy https://amzn.to/3TjsgSz

Reservoir Drop – Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders https://amzn.to/4pKZNRN

Fruit Tree Records

Celebrating & discovering the best music, both old and new…

Author Archives: dannyneill71gmailcom

Hollow Hand – Wish Road South

September 2026 Playlist

ANYX – Starlink

Dent May – The Big One

Margaret Glaspy – I Am Both

Kathleen Edwards – Lighthouse Arts Centre, Halifax, Canada 1st August 2026

August 2026 Playlist

Sam And Louise Sullivan – Love And Devotion

Fresh Juice 27th July 2026

New Mix: Fruit Tree Records – Fresh Juice 2026 Vol. 10