http://www.hortonrecords.org

http://www.kalynfay.com

Here we have the much anticipated follow up to Tulsa, Oklahoma born and raised, Kalyn Fay’s debut album Bible Belt. Fay has a fine set of players join her. The line up includes labelmates Carter Sampson and Lauren Barth plus fellow Oklahoma singer-songwriter recording act John Fulbright and Jared Tyler. Some of you will be aware of Tyler from his work with Malcolm Holcombe, both on record and performing live. It’s an impressive line-up got it also includes Paddy Ryan, Matt Magenkurth, Olivia McGraw, Rachel La Vonne, Cooper Waugh and Bo Hallford among others.  

Fay is the real deal. A particularly fine writer, she engages the listener from the off. You couldn’t wish for a better opener than title track, Good Company as she speaks of becoming tired of the…

Young Vin Mott plays a mean blues harp and sings with a warm and enthusiastic voice on this album, his follow-up to his 2017 debut set, “Quit The Women For The Blues”. He has some good material too, and, with an insight rare in the blues these days, he writes in the CD booklet that “what makes this music great and gives it charm is its flaws and lack of heavy production”. So it is that this set comes across as an authentic and convincing blues release, with Vin wailing away and the little trio accompanying him raw and right on the nail. Guitarist Dean Shot provides some fine Elmore James styled slide playing on the title track and is spot-on elsewhere. Vin pays tribute here to the likes of Little Walter, Big Walter Horton and others with a rollicking blues sound…

Two blues veterans get together here; Benny, born in 1939, was bass player for his brother, the illustrious Freddy King, and these days he makes excellent blues albums himself. Singer and guitarist Cash McCall – aka Morris Dollison Jr. – had an R’n’B hit back in 1966 and worked at Chess Records as a session musician and songwriter. He has this set’s only original composition, the nicely traditional ‘Money’.

For the remainder of the set, the two draw on the classic blues of the 50s and 60s, the music they grew up with. Benny is singing better than ever – listen to him romp joyously through the Elmore James standard, ‘Shake Your Money Maker’, with Butch Mudbone playing the iconic slide guitar licks, and Jason Mingledorff…

Dee has been called “The Duchess Of The Blues” in her native Minneapolis, and here she lives up to that title with a strong, powerful and energetic set of gritty blues and soul. Etta James is obviously a strong influence, as can be heard not only on the sixties rhythm and blues sound of ‘Strongest Weakness’, with Craig Clark supplying some fiery wah wah guitar, but also with a gospel flavoured reworking of The Eagles’ classic ‘Take It To The Limit’, which Etta also covered. These two follow the aptly titled opener, ‘Hot And Sweaty’, and lead into the rocking title track, an infectious duet between Dee and Craig, and the boogie-woogie of ‘Back In The Saddle’, also featuring fine sax work. ‘Last Two Dollars’ is a fine rendition of this soul-blues classic, ‘I Sing The…

Singer, guitarist and bandleader Trevor is from New Jersey; he received his first guitar for his fifteenth birthday, but only turned to the blues much later when he met Bobby Whitlock (keyboards player with Derek & The Dominoes, and much else, including being the first white artist to sign to Stax) and his wife CoCo Carmel. This is the band’s debut album and Trevor is certainly making up for lost time – it is a very fine blues-rocking  set, with echoes of vintage rock and roll (‘Future Plans’) , The Rolling Stones, the opening track, ‘Jack’), grungy, grinding blues (‘Baby I’m Through With You’) and a couple of very fine slow blues (take a listen to ‘Saddest Thing’). ‘I Wrote It Down’ is a huge, wide-open sounding mid- to slow-tempo blues, with some…

When Joshua Tree regulators and musical residents (many are also members here and on the House Concert Hub) heard the Medicine Show Radio Merican Moose Mobile would be starvaiging through The Mohave Desert, more than one said "your gonna experience something magical".  I'm here to tell you, they were right!

It came in the…

Something a bit different this month, I thought I would feature one of the bands that really impressed us on the recent Medicine Show Radio Moose Mobile Colorado Stravaige.

We saw them play the …

http://www.martynjoseph.com

Welsh folk act, singer songwriter Martyn Joseph has long been a favourite. Soon after he first emerged on the folk scene 35 years ago. I happened to catch him a decade or so later when he was part of a show featuring American act Janis Ian, who at the time was making her recoding comeback and Martin Stephenson. Here Come The Young is typical of Joseph’s work. His unbending vocals, and well written observations of various aspects of life he’s heard of or experienced first hand are reminiscent of Ralph McTell. Non more so than the title track Here Come The Young, that sees him on the offensive in double quick time. I enjoyed use of mandolin immensely, and the general strength and commitment to his performance.

Never void of optimism he…

http://www.redbeetrecords.com

East Nashville musicians, singer-songwriters Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and bluegrass award winning songwriter and more, Thomm Jutz have been back in the recording studio. Riverland follows their 2017 release Profiles In Courage, Frailty , And Discomfort with a concept album about Mississippi. It’s troubled history regards segregation, the American Civil War plus its writers, and the mighty, often written about and revered, Mississippi River. Backing up their…

Good day ladies and gentlemen,

Well, it’s cold. Really cold. But we don’t have to dwell on that and instead look forward 50 days to Spring. Right? In the meantime make sure to not leave your pets outside for more than 5 minutes and remember for yourselves, frostbite sucks.

In other looking ahead news we’re wrapping up the plans and arrangements and are looking forward to being back in the EU and the UK in March/ April. After a short holiday in Istanbul we’ll be heading to Berlin and then to London to start a 3 week tour on March 31st at Twickfolk. The tour will take us down south to the coast and then through the Midlands and up into Scotland (I love Scotland) and then back down to Sheffield for a show with the Fargo Railroad Company. That’s going to be a…