From Atlanta, Georgia but based in Nashville, Ron Pope has amassed some incredible statistics over the years since he started recording. His Spotify listens and digital downloads number in the millions and he regularly sells out his shows in the States. His previous album (with his band, The Nighthawks), released in 2016, was the first to make waves over here in the UK and with Work he’s sure to cement his reputation. A fiercely independent artist, Pope has forged his way without any major label assistance and Work is released on his own imprint. It finds him straddling two styles – funky Southern rock and a rootsier countrified sound. That he manages both with some aplomb is a credit to him and the album is a very fine and varied listen.
Pope describes the album as almost a biography, the opening songs reflecting a rambunctious youth who could have ended up on the wrong side of the law before knuckling down to hard graft and learning about love and life. He opens with a horn section riffing away on the infectious Bad For Your Health which rocks like Little Feat used to rock as Pope sings of youthful rumbles and an encounter with a youthful femme fatale. The following Let’s Get Stoned is even more akin to Little Feat with a sinewy rhythm and New Orleans backbeat as Pope recalls more lascivious youthful encounters. Can’t Stay Here is another rocker although this time it’s Springsteen who’s the lodestone as the singer starts to encounter the reality of growing up. A tremendous triple whammy to kick off the album, these songs set up an expectation that the album will be a balls to the wall rocker but Pope dials it back for the remainder with the result that the end result is a more satisfying listen than if it had just continued in this vein.
The title song is a pared back acoustic number with Pope recalling Steve Earle on a song that one suspects is the most autobiographical here. He sings, “I had a teacher, she told my mother that she better find me a trade because boys like me well, we all grow up to be long term guests of the state” as he matures from a youth who liked to hang with his friends and have a smoke. Adulthood and relationships beckon and Pope has a jaunty country romp, Last, which is speckled with a banjo as he sets out on his amorous endeavours while his mortality his reckoned with on the country waltz of someday We’re All Gonna Die. Thereafter Pope roams around various styles with Partner In Crime the weakest link on the album with its E Street sheen just not hitting the target but Dancing Days is a fine raggedy jangle of a song with saloon piano and a Faces’ like sloppiness. The Weather has Pope and singer, Molly Pardon, harmonising a bruised and plaintive lament with fiddle and pedal steel embroidery and Pope ends the album with a solo offering, Stick Around, a love song that is bold and confessional. Here he professes his love despite any obstacle from either side and lays bare his failings in the hope that he can, in the fullness of things, stick around.
Work is an excellent piece of work which is well recommended.
“In my opinion, the best Americana band not actually from North America hail from our own capital city.” So wrote Alan Morrison of The Herald when he included The Long Haul in his list of the top 50 Scottish albums of 2015, placing it at number 10. Back then we concurred (although we’d have bumped the album into the top five) but then Blabber’n’Smoke have been big fans of The Wynntown Marshals ever since we first heard them ten years ago. Yip, ten years. If The Marshals were a married couple this would be their tin anniversary but instead of us buying them a gift they’ve offered one to us in the form of a retrospective album – 16 songs, 13 culled from their three albums, assorted EPs and singles along with three previously unreleased songs.
Rising from the ashes of The Sundowns (a fine band in their own right with their 2006 album Calabasas getting a 10/10 review from Americana UK), their first recording, a self-titled six song EP was a startling debut, confident and full of swagger. Their epic song about the ‘The Muckle Spate’ of 1829, 11:15, was an immediate classic and evidence that the band were able to sing about their Scottishness amidst any amount of pedal steel and twang guitar. Since then there has been three full albums and several EPs with After All These Years cherry picking from these and while the songs aren’t in chronological order it’s a fascinating opportunity to track their progress. While they have always acknowledged their debts to the likes of Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks, the various musicians who have populated the band over the years have left their mark as influences as varied as hair metal bands and more left field Americana acts such as The Weakerthans have inveigled their way into what ultimately is a Wynntown Marshals sound. Much of this is down to the one point of singularity throughout the records, singer Keith Benzie who has been there from the start and who was the band’s only songwriter in the early years. His voice identifies the band and it’s little changed from the early years, his relaxed and slightly worn vocals always winning (just listen to Being Lazy and be convinced).
Although The Marshals can be considered (on paper at least) to be a bit of a moveable feast with members coming and going, in reality there’s been a healthy heartbeat throughout with only occasional surgery required. Guitarist Iain Sloan was on board for the second album, Westerner, while bassist Murdoch MacLeod was well embedded by the time The Long Haul came out. Both added not only their instrumental talents but, along with Benzie, wrote songs with the result that The Long Haul was a major step up from Westerner while the trio along with newly added keyboard player, Ritchie Noble, and drummer Kenny McCabe achieved their summit (so far) with the excellent The End Of The Golden Age. By then the band had garnered enough accolades to be signed to the premier European Americana record label, Blue Rose, a significant salute.
To the album then and it’s notable that from the start The Marshals are fully formed. From Westerner, Snowflake is a cracking country quickstep while Thunder In The Valley is a fine example of Benzie’s narrative tales and a harbinger of things to come with the addition of keyboards. Of note is their reinterpretation of LA Guns’ Ballad Of Jayne which is transformed into a very fine slice of yearning country rock, the band fully cocked, guitars squirreling around sweet pedal steel and a sturdy rhythm section. Much of this was carried onto The Long Haul, the sound more fleshed out with more democracy in the writing and it’s MacLeod’s Tide which takes the accolades here as The Marshals roam around a carousel swirl of dreamlike guitars on an impressionistic tide of sound. It’s a live favourite and deservedly so but the snappy chiming guitar rock of Canada, the churning Low Country Comedown and the magnificent Curtain Call, a tale of Victorian magic gone wrong suffused with melancholic strings, attest to the mature nature of the album.
From The End Of The Golden Age, Red Clay Hill buzzes and burns with sizzling guitars as Benzie again salutes the local landscape turning a coal bing into a romantic destination and the title song is just a joyous slice of power pop with sublime harmonies that’s as good as anything Teenage Fanclub have turned out. Meanwhile the wistful Being Lazy floats on a bed of acoustic guitars, sublime pedal steel and gilded keyboards as Benzie emotes quite wonderfully.
If the above isn’t enough to pull you in The Marshals offer up three unreleased songs. Different Drug is a reworking of a song from the first EP and an opportunity to see how the band have evolved from a country rock combo into a more organic creature, the guitars more tantalising as the keyboards add colour and warmth. Your Time is in a similar vein to the songs from The End Of The Golden Age, guitar and organ to the fore as Benzie turns his hand to another fine (and perhaps autobiographical) tale. Finally, Benzie and the band offer up a sumptuous tale of unrequited love on the glorious Odessa replete with ecclesiastic organ and a restrained but emotive guitar solo.
So, 10 years of The Wynntown Marshals, encapsulated. To go back to the opening sentence here, they are the best Americana band in the land although they transcend that genre (especially as no one seems able to define it). Simply put, The Marshals have matured into a thrilling rock band able to spin an excellent tale over their multilayered sound – in fact they sound just like, well, The Marshals. Here’s to the next ten years.
There are two gigs to celebrate their tenth anniversary and the release of After All These Years. The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh on September 1st and then at The Hug & Pint in Glasgow the following night. The album is available to order here.
Almost three years on from their debut album, The Tower, James Edwyn & The Borrowed Band are poised to release its successor, High Fences. The Tower made Blabber’n’Smoke’s end of year best of list back in 2015 so we were quite excited to get a taste of some of the new material at this show which was held to celebrate the release of the first single from the album, Passing San Ysidro.
This was the first time I’d had the opportunity to see the band live and they put on a very impressive show honed by several appearances on the festival circuit over the past few months. They opened with a couple of songs from the first album with the peaceful easy refrains of Maslow up first, its mild folk rock feel at the beginning picking up some pace and power towards the end as Edwyn and Emma Joyce harmonised well on the catchy chorus. There was a similar dynamic to the second song, I Figure Son, initially a plaintive deathbed piece of advice to an offspring until a middle eight which then grew into a frenzied piece of rock’n’roll with swirling organ. Several other songs from their debut were dotted throughout the night with Across The Wooden Door a fine example of a slow country shuffle which has a touch of Ryan Adams about it. Again, Joyce was excellent in her harmonising while Scott Keenan’s stately keyboards added a touch of faded grandeur. The Last Waltz (not the Humperdinck song!) was another fine wallow in country sadness but the effervescent On Meeting The Man In The Suit which came towards the end of the set was a thrilling update of skiffle with Edwyn showing off his acoustic guitar skills.
There were a couple of new songs, some of which might be on the new album, with Try Not To Think Of Now a fine rumble of a song with a throbbing bass line and grand organ sweeps and overall reminiscent of Jesse Malin. Get back Off tilted and swayed in a manner which recalled The Band with some Southern soul swept in for good measure. In addition, they broke a general rule not to do cover versions to offer up an excellent Midnight Special which was dedicated to Edwyn’s father who was in the audience.
Of course, the evening was there to salute the first single from High Fences which is Passing San Ysidro and which was delivered as the second last song of the night. It’s a powerful slice of what we used to call country rock with Ronnie Gilmour’s electric guitar chiming away over jangled acoustic guitar and a propulsive beat with the piano adding an E Street feel to it. Edwyn strode above the stirring music with a powerful vocal including an impassioned semi spoken interlude. It’s a great song and it bodes well for the album.
Support on the night was provided by Steve Grozier who unfortunately had to battle against the somewhat noisy comings and goings at the back of the room as people were still arriving as he played. Nevertheless, he persevered offering songs from his first EP and his forthcoming one with Where The Roses Grow particularly engaging but it was his tribute to Jason Molina which really stood out.
Passing San Ysidro is available on itunes and you can preorder the new album here and as part of Glasgow Americana there is an album release show at The Hug & Pint on 6th October.
Not to be outdone Steve Grozier celebrates the release of his second EP, A Place We Called Home, again at The Hug & Pint, on 1st September.
Mention the so-called “Paisley Underground” and folk will wax wonderfully on The Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, The Long Ryders, Green On Red and The Bangles. Whether or not this was an actual movement or just some bands lumped together geographically (LA for the most part) is still moot and several of the main actors actively disavow the term these days. Anyway one of the bands lumped in here was True West, a name rarely heard these days, who released two albums and who at one point seemed poised to break into the big time. Despite touring with REM, noted by Prince, front page on the music weeklies and lined up for an Old Grey Whistle Test TV slot while on a UK tour (nixed due to work visa issues) unfortunately that didn’t happen and they disbanded in the mid eighties.
Key to True West’s sound was guitarist and songwriter Russ Tolman who quit the band in 1985 to pursue a solo career which kicked off strongly with several impressive albums released between 1986 and 2000 before everything kind of petered out. There were a couple of single releases while Tolman beavered away in producing and occasional live dates including a short lived True West reunion. Now, 30 years after going it alone, Tolman has geared up again with an avowed intention to get back to recording and touring and his opening salvo is this handsome retrospective plucked from his back catalogue, 20 songs in all. It’s a welcome reminder for those who have followed him and an excellent introduction for anyone new to him as it follows his trajectory from grungy desert rock to synthesized LA country music.
Handsomely packaged with informative liner notes by Pat Thomas and Tolman himself the album avoids a strict chronological delivery of the songs but broadly speaking it opens with earlier and snarlier cuts before settling down somewhat into the late nineties before ending with latter day songs (although it closes with a 1994 number). This allows one to follow Tolman’s progress including his vocal delivery (he states in the liner notes that when recording the first album, “I was deathly afraid of singing – I’d never done it before). Despite his misgivings, his voice is always intriguing, on the early songs perhaps betraying a tendency to delve into a punkish sneer (no bad thing) before settling into a fine approximation of Lou Reed and Lloyd Cole, a cool laidback narrative voice. Song writing wise however he springs fully formed from the womb and the compilation is a strong argument that he be considered in the same vein as contemporaries such as Steve Wynn, Chuck Prophet and Howe Gelb.
From his first album, Totem Poles & Glory Holes, Looking For An Angel is a punk like thrash of guitars with Tolman sneering away and the song not a million miles away from early Dream syndicate or Giant Sand. Down In Earthquake Town, represented here by two songs is richer in its textures with Planes, Trains And Automobiles a sublime mixture of exotic percussion and Spanish guitar as Tolman offers a flyblown tale of lost love with a wonderful twang in his semi-spoken delivery. By the time of Goodbye Joe (1990) Tolman is really at the top of his form with Marla Jane as exhilarating as Chuck Prophet’s recent offerings, a thunderous riff topped with some delicious guitar curls it stomps along with a fury. The opening lines to Blame It On The Girl (Ah fuck it, just throw it away…) lead into a spectacularly dynamic slice of rock’n’roll that beggar’s belief, the hip vocals and squalling guitars the equal of any Tom Petty song.
As he sashays into the nineties Tolman settles down somewhat and the brace of songs here find him fronting a melodic jangled rock as he becomes more comfortable with his voice. Something About A Rowboat and Sleepin’ All Alone do recall Lloyd Cole’s Commotions particularly with the vocal delivery but then again there’s the snarling That’s My Story And I’m Sticking To It which returns to the Paisley Underground days with organ jabs and tortured guitar reminiscent of Green On Red. 1998’s City Lights album offers the delightful Monterey with its sweet delivery disguising the acerbic lyrics and the laid-back country rock of Salinas which again belies Tolman’s fine digs at the picture perfect scene one might expect. More up to date there’s one song from New Quadraphonic Highway, a visionary album that had Tolman experimenting with synthesizers to create his notion of cosmic cowboy music as he amalgamated them with pedal steel (played by Tom Heyman). Most recently, there’s Los Angeles, a digital only single from 2013 which, after several years of inactivity, was the first blooming of his rebirth and which sweeps along with a multilayered guitar, organ and keyboards swirl and another song which should ring bells for anyone into any of the acts we’ve already mentioned.
The album closes with a 1994 song, Dry Your Pretty Eyes, a song that somewhat apes The Velvet Underground but is a fine encapsulation of Tolman’s talent as he has evolved into an excellent singer and an acute songwriter. As Pat Thomas, the author of the album’s liner notes remarked on the Paisley Underground, it was a “marriage of classic rock and punk” and on Dry Your Pretty Eyes Tolman proves that he can do that in spades.
Summing up, if you have any interest at all in Steve Wynn, Chuck Prophet et al then you have a duty to listen to this. Hopefully there’s more to come.
Richard Thompson pleased a great many people with his 2014 release, Acoustic Classics, where he handpicked several of his songs and delivered them solo stating at the time, “I really wanted something that would reflect the acoustic shows but we didn’t have anything like that, Just some old, slightly scratchy recordings of solo sets that I wasn’t really happy with.” It seems that he was happy with the result as he’s gone and done it again with this second volume where he again goes through his extensive back catalogue coming up with 14 gems and this time he’s included his Fairport Convention days with three of the songs taken from that period.
He opens the album with the acerbic She Twists the Knife Again which is perhaps the least successful of his renditions here although his staccato guitar runs reflect the jagged lyrics. The Ghost Of You Walks which follows is more representative of the album as a whole as Thompson settles into his familiar melancholic mood while his guitar playing is expressive and tender as is his singing. The first of the three Fairport songs, Genesis Hall, follows suit with Thompson reining in the Fairport waltz arrangement unveiling it as a modern folk classic with the words (written about a raid on squatters with Thompson’s police officer father participating) allowed to ring free. Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair and A Heart Needs A Home, both from his partnership with ex wife Linda, follow with the latter particularly affecting.
It’s of note that Thompson can invest songs that were originally recorded with full rock band arrangements with as much power and drive using just his acoustic guitar. Here Pharaoh and Gethsemane (from Amnesia and The Old Kit Bag respectively) pack a punch with Pharaoh in particular stern and glowering, its message undimmed and particularly apt for these benighted times. Guns Are The Tongues, another powerful protest song is the one song here that has added instrumentation with a mandolin added to the guitar and again Thompson invests it with a powerful dignity.
He goes all the way back to one of his earliest and best known songs when he tackles Meet On The Ledge and while the original can probably not be beat it’s great to hear Thompson sing this. The biggest surprise on the album is with a song of similar vintage, Crazy Man Michael. Originally released on Liege & Lief when Fairport were digging deep into folk music it proved that Thompson and co-writer Dave Swarbrick were able to deliver songs that reeked of tradition and here Thompson is just perfect as he maintains the eerie folk magic that informed the original.
It’s another triumph then for Thompson and a must for his many followers. And for those wanting more there’s another disc of Acoustic Rarities available via his Pledge Music Page here.
There’s been a bit of a buzz in the blogosphere regarding this debut from Cornish band William The Conqueror, partly due to an impressive appearance at last year’s Americana Fest in Nashville and a nomination for best song at this year’s UK Americana awards. A listen to the album however begs that age-old question, what is Americana? (Answers on a postcard please) as it draws from and reflects so many other genres. Appearing on Loose Music helps as they are rightly considered purveyors of quality “Americana” music but Proud Disturber Of The Peace is quite idiosyncratic, grungy, folky, lo-fi and even soulful at times, it’s really a trip into a singular vision. The closest equivalent I can think of is the music that emanated from the early days of The Fence Collective, a bunch of folk who tore up the rule book back at the tail end of the nineties.
The trio (Ruarri Joseph, Harry Harding and Naomi Holmes) recorded the album live with few overdubs or post production resulting in an up close band sound, the instruments piling on top of each other. The opening song In My Dreams hurtles in resembling the jangled frenzy of The Velvet Underground and the street busking bustle of The Violent Femmes while the following Tend To the Thorns is a trip into the epic “big music” sound of The Waterboys with some Echo And The Bunnymen thrown into the mix. Third song, Did You Wrong, is another thrash in the instrumental department although here Joseph adopts a laconic and cool vocal delivery. Thereafter however they settle down somewhat with the remainder of the songs less frenetic.
Pedestals builds on Joseph’s talkin’ blues style (which again is rather laid back although impassioned) as the band vamp along with some horns adding atmosphere. Keeping the horns they plunge headlong into street r’n’b territory on the slippery rhythms of The Many Faces Of A Good Truth which recalls Gill Scott Heron while Cold Ontario continues in a similar vein. Mindful of Joseph’s previous stint as a folk singer Mind Keeps Changing recalls early folk rock a la Greenwich Village with echoes of Tim Hardin although it builds into a muscular keyboard driven rock song by the end while Manawatu, which closes the album, has classic folk harmonica amidst its thrusting instrumental climb to a rousing climax. Best of all perhaps is the title song which gathers much of what surrounds it on the album as the band ride tempo changes, guitars burst into bloom and the rhythm section busks away with some fervour. Over this Joseph almost croons with a cool authority which reminds one of Morphine’s Mark Sandman’s beat vocals.
I guess that looking back on the litany of comparisons up above then William The Conqueror are certainly to be considered in the world of alt whatever. What matters is that the album is a great listen that pushes the envelope somewhat. Give it a shot.
From Ashville, North Carolina, The Honeycutters’ last album, On The Ropes, was on several best of lists at the end of last year with the majority of reviewers homing in on singer and songwriter Amanda Anne Platt, the de facto leader of the band. On the eve of their first tour of The UK, they will release their newest, self-titled, disc. Self titled perhaps but Ms. Platt has decided to step up to the plate with this one, the result being the newer moniker of Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters. Blabber’n’Smoke spoke to Amanda last week and we started off by asking her about the name change.
I’m sure that you’ve been asked this by everyone and it’s mentioned in the press release but can I ask you why you’ve finally put your name out front before the band? I mean you’ve always been the focus of the band and you’re singled out in reviews and I was wondering if it was a way of you reminding people that, with the great wave of female artists that are about now, that you are one as well.
It’s been a topic that has come up with every album we’ve put out. Should we use my name or the band name? Even on our first album back in 2009, we considered it but in recent years there have been some changes in the band line-up that made me think more about it. To be honest, my co-founder and ex boyfriend who played guitar in the band until 2013 came up with the name so after he left, it’s felt a little odd using it. However, I think it’s a good name and as the band has grown and changed that name has grown new significance, so I don’t want to part with it completely. Nevertheless, putting my name out there has at least given me the feeling of more freedom from the past. It does also feel as though I’m claiming some girl power, I suppose. Instead of just being “the chick from the Honeycutters.”
Your last album, On The Ropes, seemed to be less reliant on mandolin and Dobro with pedal steel, electric guitar and organ more to the fore with something of a soulful feel on several of the songs. I think that this is continued on the new album with an even “rockier” touch on Diamond In The Rough. Are you becoming more “country rock” than country or folk as you progress?
I think that’s a fair statement. Although who knows, the next album might be all acoustic! I’ve definitely been enjoying the “rockier,” more soulful feel of the band. When I first started playing my songs in front of people I was really in a period of backlash against all the punk rock that I got into in my teens. I grew up listening to country, folk, and blues at the hands of my parents, then rebelled against that in my teens, and then rebelled against myself by getting really heavy into old time country music like The Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers. So when I put my band together I had more of an ear for the acoustic instruments. It’s not that any of that appreciation has waned, but throughout my twenties I started listening to a lot of rock ‘n roll from the sixties and seventies and let that leak into my songwriting a little.
I’ve noticed in several of your songs that you sing about love’s bitter twists and its general unfairness regards women. Songs like Me Oh My, Not That Simple, Blue Besides and Golden Child. I was reminded at times of the likes of Loretta Lynn. Do you think that all is not fair in love and war?
Well, sometimes it’s not fair. With Me Oh My, that’s a song that I wrote when I was feeling the impossibility, as a woman, of having a good home and family life and also being a touring musician. I was 25 then and I had a lot to figure out about what I wanted and what my options really were. It’s not that I’ve figured all that out here at 31, but I think I see things a little clearer. A couple of those songs– Blue Besides and Golden Child, are also less about heartache (at least for me – I like a listener to be able to take away their own meaning) and more about accepting the grey areas of life and not giving up on a dream because you hit a rough patch. But to really answer your question, I think women do have a tougher go of it in love and in business sometimes. But there again, what does not kill us makes us stronger. In addition, you might get a song out of it.
The new album has songs about getting older (Birthday Song) and bereavement (Learning How To Love Him). Do you find yourselves thinking about “time being a gift” as the years go on?
I do, absolutely. This past year I’ve been confronted with several acquaintances losing their spouses and, more recently, the death of someone young that I’d worked with. It just puts things in perspective. Birthday Song was written on the eve of my thirtieth birthday when, instead of feeling panicked about the end of my roaring twenties, I found a patch of gratitude for being older and wiser, wise enough to know that I still don’t know anything and that’s OK. When I wrote Learning How To Love Him I was writing a love song, not a death song. I was imagining the whole of a life spent with someone in love, the ups and downs, fear and faith. We should all be so lucky to stick it out that long.
The Guitar Case is about life on the road, the ups and downs of touring and playing and although the refrain (the sun is shining…) seems quite optimistic overall, you paint a pretty grim picture of repetition and almost boredom. Is this your life on the road?
That was a very particular moment on the road. Not an isolated event by any means, sometimes the road just sucks. But the payoff of that is that when we hit the stage and I’m making music with people I love, it’s fucking fantastic. Nothing can top that. We’ve had many ups and downs and it’s easy to be bitter and I indulged that bitterness just enough to write that song. As we’re talking however, I’m staying at a beautiful hotel in Telluride Colorado with a panoramic view of the mountains. We’re all going to go for a hike before soundcheck today. This is also the road. Sometimes that dim light becomes blinding!
Eden is an exceptional song and the fate of the woman, stranded in Indiana after losing her job and her husband reminded me a little of The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, the character looking back and regretting things, realising she’ll never get to do the things she really dreamed of, exiled from Paradise. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to write this one?
I’ll start by saying that I was not raised in a religious household nor do I feel any affiliation with organized faith now. But I have always been fascinated with this idea of the Garden of Eden, the Fall from Innocence, and especially with it somehow being Eve’s fault. To me, I was writing a story about a woman who feels like I have felt at times living in this country, that she wants to get out into the middle of nowhere and let life be SIMPLE. There’s a lot of noise these days, and the “American Dream” gets shoved down our throats more and more while attaining it gets more and more impossible. Even faith gets convoluted with power and politics. It’s tempting to stop trying to make anything better and just escape and feign ignorance.
I believe that originally you are from New York. How did you end up in Asheville? I read somewhere you wanted to be a luthier and that’s what led you there, and how did you get into song writing and performing?
I did move from New York to Asheville to be a luthier, or to learn the trade. I built the guitar that I play, but haven’t finished anything since! Music got in the way, Ha! I also had recently dropped out of college and needed to put some distance between that whole situation and myself.
I started writing while I was still in school. I lived about two miles off campus and would pass by a music shop when I walked back and forth and, as I mentioned I was really into early country music at the time and I noticed a banjo in the window one day. So I bought it. I think I started writing songs as a way to sort out my feelings about leaving home and everything I had known for the first 17 years of my life. Also, I wrote a fair number of songs instead of doing homework. I started playing them at open mics in the area and got some encouraging feedback. Since then it’s just been a series of small, logical steps.
You mentioned some of the musical styles and artists you were listening to in the past but can I ask you who has influenced you as a writer and singer and also who have you been listening to recently?
I sometimes feel like I’ve been influenced by anyone and everything ever but that’s a cop out. Like I said, I was brought up listening to a lot of earlier country artists like Earnest Tubb, Patsy Cline, The Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams. My dad is a huge fan of the blues, so artists like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins were well represented too along with folk music of the sixties like Joni Mitchell and Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan. My parents met and married in Austin, Texas in the seventies so the songwriters of that time and place were part of my upbringing too. I remember being a little older and listening to Lucinda Williams and Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker. The first CD I remember having for myself was the Rolling Stones’ Hot Rocks I’m a Stones over Beatles girl if pressed to choose (luckily no one ever really has to). In my teens I loved punk rock and grunge – Rancid, Gogol Bordello, Green Day and I was a huge Radiohead fan but I also liked straight ahead rock like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. Then there came the string band stuff and classic country. I developed a great love for Creedence Clearwater Revival in my 20’s then The Eagles, JJ Cale, Nina Simone, Warren Zevon, and all the stuff that now passes for “classic country,” Georges Jones and Strait and Conway Twitty and Charlie Pride and Tammy Wynette and Loretta and all of that. That’s the short version, I’m leaving so much out! Right now I’m totally hooked on Bruno Mars’ latest album 24k Magic. I think he’s a force for good in the pop music world. And anything Chris Smither ever does I think is brilliant.
Finally, you’re coming to the UK in August for a lengthy tour up and down the country. You don’t have many days off but is there anything you are particularly looking forward to doing or seeing?
I’d like to see some castles! And some honest to goodness British Pubs. We have a lot of what I think are good imitations in this country but I want to have a pint and eat some fish and chips – the real thing. Mostly I just love meeting people and swapping stories, so I’m excited to get out of this country for a minute and hear some different perspectives.
The album, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters. is released on Organic Records on Friday 4th August and the tour commences on the same day, all dates here.
From Atlanta, Georgia but based in Nashville, Ron Pope has amassed some incredible statistics over the years since he started recording. His Spotify listens and digital downloads number in the millions and he regularly sells out his shows in the States. His previous album (with his band, The Nighthawks), released in 2016, was the first to make waves over here in the UK and with Work he’s sure to cement his reputation. A fiercely independent artist, Pope has forged his way without any major label assistance and Work is released on his own imprint. It finds him straddling two styles – funky Southern rock and a rootsier countrified sound. That he manages both with some aplomb is a credit to him and the album is a very fine and varied listen.
Mention the so-called “Paisley Underground” and folk will wax wonderfully on The Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, The Long Ryders, Green On Red and The Bangles. Whether or not this was an actual movement or just some bands lumped together geographically (LA for the most part) is still moot and several of the main actors actively disavow the term these days. Anyway one of the bands lumped in here was True West, a name rarely heard these days, who released two albums and who at one point seemed poised to break into the big time. Despite touring with REM, noted by Prince, front page on the music weeklies and lined up for an Old Grey Whistle Test TV slot while on a UK tour (nixed due to work visa issues) unfortunately that didn’t happen and they disbanded in the mid eighties.
Richard Thompson pleased a great many people with his 2014 release, 
There’s been a bit of a buzz in the blogosphere regarding this debut from Cornish band William The Conqueror, partly due to an impressive appearance at last year’s Americana Fest in Nashville and a nomination for best song at this year’s UK Americana awards. A listen to the album however begs that age-old question, what is Americana? (Answers on a postcard please) as it draws from and reflects so many other genres. Appearing on Loose Music helps as they are rightly considered purveyors of quality “Americana” music but Proud Disturber Of The Peace is quite idiosyncratic, grungy, folky, lo-fi and even soulful at times, it’s really a trip into a singular vision. The closest equivalent I can think of is the music that emanated from the early days of The Fence Collective, a bunch of folk who tore up the rule book back at the tail end of the nineties.
Blabber 'n' Smoke 