2026 August Music: Rebekka Bakken, Crow and Gazelle, Ike Reilly, Effie Zilch,

Andrew Duncan, Stephen Dayvid McKellar

 

 

Rebekka Bakken is a Norwegian singer with a voice that is reputed to stretch three octaves. Some have called her a jazz singer, but she gets miffed when she’s placed in a box. Her new album Nord explains why she’s resistant to labels. “Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker” (“My Heart Always Wanders”) features a frenzied percussive instrumentation topped by haunting, slower vocals that evoke something spooky and ancient. “So Ro” (“So Calm”) similarly suggests something from the mists of time. Especially as dressed up with clarinet, pounding drums, and a splash of didgeridoo. Bakken can also enchant in English, as you can hear in “My Choicest Hours” As you might surmise from these three songs, Bakken might get called a “jazz” singer because her music is simply so different that no one has a better label. To me, though, her powerful voice has been forged in the dramatic Scandinavian past that has spilled into the present. That’s Syrian vocalist Saleh Mahfoud adding Arabic passion in “My Choicest Hours.”

 

 

Crow and Gazelle is the musical and life partnership of Mike McClure and Chrislyn Lawrence. They are about 180 degrees from Rebekka Bakken in that their arrangements are sparse and their vocals built upon close harmonies. Their new album Truth Be Told celebrates connections found, lost, and rebuilt. “The High Road” speculates that maybe life doesn’t move in a straight line, as good an explanation as any for how solid connections sometimes have to come around for a second act. A start, stop, go lick on guitar underscores that sentiment. “Sky is on Fire” is an ominous warning poem set to appropriate music, with vaguely Native American background textures. McClure and Lawrence like to mix poetry with music, but this one could be the soundtrack for the Apocalypse.  Luckily Crow and Gazelle bookend their album with the joyous “Down the Road.” You might wish to check out “Belly of theBeast” as well; as the PR material puts it, it’s where reflection gives way to confrontation.” A lot of folks are wondering where that tipping point is located. McClure expresses the sentiments that a “spiritual war” is gathering steam in which “love, not domination” will triumph. We can only hope that he’s right. Lawrence’s vocals set a gloomy picture of deep-seated divisions, the likes of which some activists think require a more confrontational approach.

 

 

The new LP Blind and Surrounded is something of an Ike Reilly family affair in that his son Shane is now part of the band. That said, Ike doesn’t go in for a lot of roses and rainbows. It’s more like hard luck, gravel-and-spit vocals, and gritty guitar. “Life and Death in East Moline” sounds a bit like an amped up John Prine offering without a wry smile. The lead guitar on “We Better Get Packed” cranks out danger in the form of getting out the door before whatever’s chasing you catches up. The song titles alone tell a story: “Bad Bad Man,” “Who’s Been Hurtin’,” “Gone For Forever….” Even the brighter tune of “New Bad News” has doubt in its DNA. But Ike’s best trick is putting pain and bad times in musical wrappers that make you want to rip up the dance floor before heading down the road.

 

  

San Francisco-based Effie Zilch is the duo of vocalist/guitarist Evanne Barcena and guitarist/producer Steve Wyreman.  As a producer, Wyreman has worked with heavyweights such as Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, and Rihanna, but if you think they have big voices, wait until you hear Barcena. As long as it has a groove– blues, funk, gospel, Motown, rock–Barcenas can sing it, and with gusto. Higher Calling  is the duo’s fifth LP and if it doesn’t get you moving, schedule a hip replacement. “On the Loose” sees Barcenas belting, I’m going to change the game/I’m going to break the rules, and we believe her. She goes for a big gospel sound on the title track, sounding a bit like Mavis Staples, and for funk on “Lover Boy,” though you guess is as good as mine about what the giant duck in her video is trying to convey beyond the assertion, I get what I want. (PS: The name Effie Zilch doesn’t signify anything; it was an invention of journalist Herb Caen.)

 

Not the album cover of Mend

 Last year I was wasting time on the Internet. I ran across a young Scot named Andrew Duncan holding court in London’s Trafalgar Square with his acoustic guitar and in occasional duos and bands with other musicians. This May, I was in London and, lo and behold, there was Duncan still busking in Trafalgar Square. I picked up a copy of Andrew’s CD, Mend. It has eight tracks, so it’s something in between an EP and an LP. Duncan has an inviting voice that’s slightly on the sweet side of things, but he also casts youthful cool. Here he is in London laying down some grooves and loops to sing “Mend.” It takes serious power and more mental agility than I possess to create his one-man band effect. It’s the only complete song from the CD I can find online at present, but he also does amazing covers. Check out his take on “Use Somebody” (Kings of Leon) or with Atticus Blue singing Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” You’ll notice that the crowd is bigger when Duncan does covers (Adele, Bastille, Coldplay….) Consider that tons of singer songwriters began as buskers working for tips in all kinds of weather. (He and I chatted in the rain under an umbrella.) The lucky ones score a hit so those not paying attention can wonder, “Where did this guy come from?” The streets, my friends, the streets. If there’s any justice, Andrew Duncan will be one of those who break through. Nice guy. Good songs. Great with tech. Strong guitarist. Hard worker. That ought to mean something.

 

 

Steven Dayvid McKellar was born in South Africa and now lives in Los Angeles. He’s an artist in multiple senses of the word. In addition to be a big-voiced singer and a songwriter, he’s also a poet and a painter. His latest EP is Harbor, Volume 2.   “Me and the Trees” is a mix of gentleness and full-blast vocals. Don’t worry about decoding it; McKellar is taking stock of himself. “The Nag in Me” has an introspective late night jazz feel. “My Own Heart” is my personal favorite track. The dark piano and pain in McKellar’s voice accents the reoccurring question How can I have known? That encapsulates both his fears and his hopes. It has just enough ambiguity to make us uncertain that a happy ending will occur.

 

Coming Soon:  Jason Heath, Jordan Whitmore, Frank Viele, new releases from Grey DeLisle and Surrender Hill, and more. (Yeah, I know that sounds like those dumb TV commercials that promise “Up to 60 percent off and more.” (Up to and more being your definition of a basic contradiction!)

 

Rob Weir

Music for Spring 2026: Catrin Finch; Boiled in Lead; Breabach; American MIle; Hallie Grace; Clayton Chaney; Michael Rudd

What could be better than spring and new music releases, including a few Celtic gems?

Catrin Finch hails from Wales, a place that knows a few things about great harp music. Her new Notes to Self has an interesting hook. She uses the prompt of writing letters to herself when she was 13 and went by “Katy,” then transposes the feel of those notes into music for an all-instrumental album. Finch is 45 now, and has learned a few tricks along her path. For instance, many of the tracks use repeating musical patterns topped by bass lines, and looping. There are, at once, memorable melodies and an intimate feel. “13 opens as if a teen is practicing her lessons, but quickly shifts to her mature side in which the strings ring like bells amidst quieter secondary melodies.  Call it where force meets airiness. The video for second single “Kin” takes this a step further. In a girl-is-the-mother-of-the-woman sweep we see footage of Finch as a child practicing before cutting to her as an adult playing “Kin.” The music is majestic with lullaby-like contrast , but we can see her having some fun. (Check out the sneakers!)  She’s more formal on “Clear Sky,” though its ringing strings could also evoke a gentle rain. Most of the record is on the formal side, but “Black Holes” is… well, it’s hard to say. Soundscaping for sure, but with enough structure to make it more than random.  Put simply, Ms. Finch simply commands her instrument.

 

 

 

Does the band Boiled in Lead ring any bells? This Minneapolis-based quartet has been around since 1983, generally (but not always) as either a punk band or some sort of Celtic outfit (Celtic rock/punk/post-punk/world music, etc.). Bass player Drew Miller is the only original member in a band that has changed styles and personnel to follow the direction the musical winds are blowing. Their punk roots notwithstanding, the Boiled in Lead moniker comes from a version of the folk standard “The Two Sisters” as interpreted by Clannad, that gentlest of plugged-in Celts. At one point, BIL was seen as America’s answer to Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. Later they drew comparisons to Hüsker Dü and more lately to Gogol Bordello.  On King of the Dogwoods BIL opts for a more subdued sound. Former lead vocalist Todd Menton has rejoined the band, Mo Engel now pounds the drums, and Haley Olson Miller plays a fiery fiddle. The song “King of the Dogwoods” does have a bit of early Steeleye vibe, though the song itself is somewhere along the musical spectrum between bluegrass and Goth. It’s about movie monsters and the things that perhaps lurk in the dark woods. Its very ambiguity is a step back from creepy. “Je t’Aime, Helena’’ sounds like something swampy from the bayou. They go full rock and reel on “Haley’s,” but what do you want to do with “Bucimis,” which is Bulgarian for both a folk dance and poison hemlock. It’s more a headbangers' dance than village fa-de-da, though one could imagine a poisoning. There are others built around folk melodies. So, what kind of band in BIL? The word eclectic comes to mind on an album with more variety than Jimmy Fallon.

 

 

I recently saw the Scottish band Breabach in concert and picked up their latest recording, Fás, a Scots Gaelic word that means rejuvenation, sprouting, or growth. The CD is from 2022, but it wasn’t yet part of my collection. I will go on record as saying they are far more exciting live than in the studio, but the song "Fás" is a good way to introduce yourself to a band whose Gaelic name translates “bouncy.” Breabach (bray’-ah-bak) will bounce you right out of your seat when both Calum MacCrimmon and Conal McDonagh put down their Celtic whistles and heft the Highland pipes. “The Old Collection” is a lively tune that shows how the band balance the pipes with normally quieter instruments such as fiddle, guitar, and double bass. The melody and song leads come from the husband/wife team of Ewan Robertson (guitar) and Megan Henderson (fiddle), which Henderson picking up most of the Gaelic-language offerings such as “Fàs” or “Eadar an DàBhràigh” (“Between the two braes), the latter on which she warbles like a fragile bird. “John Mackenzie’s March” is a lovely tune and song about loss. Breabach might not yet have the stature of classic bands like Silly Wizard, the Tannahill Weavers, or Ossian, but they’re getting there! Side Note: When I visited Orkney a few years ago I met Megan's brother and uncle!

 

To move away from Celtic, fans of Southern and country rock should sample American Mile and their album American Dream. “Straight from the Heartland” might make you think these guys are Bread Basket-born, what with talk of dusty roads, a beat-up truck, and a “worn-down home,” but they are based in Los Angeles. Lead singers Eugene Rice and Joe Perez belt out gritty songs and have voices made for arena rock, which is no doubt why they draw comparisons to both Aerosmith and Tom Petty. “Hard Workin’ People” has a soulful, funky feel to a song that celebrates the working class and an appreciation for their challenges. “TuffLivin’” is more of the same message, but their live version is dynamite: two electric lead guitars, bass, and a full drum kit. They’re plugged in, loud, and American Mile has stories to sing about.

 

 

Hallie Grace is an Indie-pop singer, so naturally she gets compared to Taylor Swift, Maggie Rogers, Sara Bareilles, etc.  I suppose that’s inevitable when: (a) she has just released her first full-length album Motivation, and (b) she plays piano as do those better-known figures. Nonetheless, it’s ironic for someone with a song titled “Imma Just Do Me” Motivation contains 11 tracks that investigate life’s ups and downs and what to do when the second of those arise. She should know; she’s had quite a few herself. Grace, now based in Charlotte, is the kind of artist who appeals to Millennials and Zoomers, peppy, kind of sassy, and confident of her abilities. “Vice” has dance grooves but I was more impressed by Grace’s balance of lower, darker tones and her birdlike highs. “Her Fight Remains” is a look at battling disease, especially Epidermolysis Bullosa skin disorder (sometimes called “butterfly skin”). Grace tends to go vocally from gentle to strong. Sometimes the production on her full-tilt vocals comes off as overproduced, but it’s hard to deny that she has a great set of pipes. “When the Rain Falls” reminds me of Patty Griffin and given my enthusiasm for Ms. Griffin consider that’s high praise. 

 

 

Clayton Chaney recently dropped the single, “When the Light Comes In” from his new recording Too Far. It’s a musing on love and religion, but the title alone could be his theme song. He left Arkansas for Los Angeles at age 18, and put performers like Roger Miller aside for meatier material from bands like Dawes. Chaney has a big voice and a fondness for flamboyance. After all, he has a song titled “Something About Los Angeles.” It’s a country-folk song as well, but somehow California country sounds different. It’s cleaner production-wise for one thing, in-the-studio kind of way. I’m fond of title track, “Too Far,” which is about dreams that don't come true, yet has a hopeful edge. Call is stripped down country acoustic that wears its honesty on the guitar stock. It has a homespun feel that hits you like a freight train after some of the glitz wears away. “Roots Grow Deep” has a similar feel and, man, can this dude stretch his voice.

 

 

 

Folks in Western Massachusetts may remember Michael Rudd, who lived here for a time after leaving New Jersey. He lit off for the West and now lives in New Mexico, a place that can stun with its beauty and make you weep over its poverty. He was the principal of a K-8 school at Acoma Pueblo, which has been occupied for over 900 years yet has a poverty rate of around 24 percent. Rudd went back to music after hearing songs in his head; his third studio album Ways of the World samples some of them. It’s an often poetic album that examines the human condition by digging deeper and pondering transcendence rather than the quotidian. If you know New Mexico, a song like “Water” resonates, though Rudd’s deep voice takes us to the depths of the soul. “On My Way”oozes darkness, but again in a contemplative way. Rudd uses strong baritone to sing the blues, bring us down, and lift us up. One example is “There’s a Rainbow in Your Mind.” There’s a rainbow in your mind/You got thunder in your shoes… You got nothing, left to lose. If you want bluesy Americana at a faster tempo try “Not Today.”

 

Rob Weir

 

 

Not Today:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF844OsFF6k&list=RDlF844OsFF6k&start_radio=1

Music for April and May 2025: Michael Rudd, Ron Pope, Grey DeLisle, Mary Bue, Mar Grimalt

Mary Bue

 

Faithful readers will notice that my posts have been delayed lately. It’s called “being on a book deadline.” Here’s a music column as I didn’t get one written in April. That’s okay, though, as things usually get a little slower in the spring.

 

 

One of the better projects I heard was from Michael Rudd. His path has been a bit twisty. He became a teacher and has been in New Mexico, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and back to New Mexico, where he’s now a principal at Acoma Pueblo, an indigenous adobe settlement atop a dusty high mesa. At some point he began to hear songs and tunes in his sleep. His second solo album, Going to the Mountain contains some of the results from his trip to the liminal side of things. The title track is a Western song that bespeaks his twisting path to full humanity. It opens with the words I know where I’m going/’Cause I know where I’ve been but if that sounds pretty tranquil, hang on. It’s also about a guy always searching for something. It’s a very western song; note I didn’t qualify it as “country.” It’s big and open like his gravelly voice and is as honest as a lot “country” is overly processed. “Before the Demon Comes” is in the same vein. He rocks out on The Far Side.” The thing about dream songs is that they take you to unexpected places, so be prepared to travel.

 

 

Ron Pope has been around a bit too. He comes to us from Nashville via Georgia with a stop at NYU. He and his wife (Blair Clark) founded Brooklyn Basement Records and, if Pope’s name sounds familiar, he scored big time in 2007 with his platinum hit “A Drop in the Ocean.” He hasn’t slowed down a bit. Pope has released two dozen LPs and EPs, has toured, and he and Blair are raising a daughter. Depending on who is telling the story, his music is either Americana, country, or folk. Pope’s most recent LP is titled American Man, American Music, which is as good a label as any as he’s never quite what you anticipate. “Klonopin Zombies”  suggests social commentary on drug abuse, but it’s actually a personal song about how he was not in a good place after his grandmother passed away just eight days after her husband died. As you can see from the live performance, he’s a hard-working musician who’s unafraid to delve into topics mystical, painful, or sublime. Re: the sublime, Pope gives us “In the Morning with the Coffee On,” a love song centered on joyful small things. In a duet with Taylor Bickett, “I’m Not the Devil” he reminds us that he’s a good guy. Yet he also sings about veering from the straight and narrow on “Mama Drove a Mustang” whose blancmange  of rock, bluegrass, and country is atypical for someone with a voice as robust as his. Good stuff.

 

 

 

Grey DeLisle is a comedian, songwriter, and voice actress (Scooby-Doo! DC Comics, video games, etc.) As a singer she once did a tribute project to June Carter Cash, so it won’t surprise you to hear that her new project The Grey Album is a country album or, that as Los Angeles-based artist, she’s unabashed of having been married and divorced three times. DeLisle tells us rockabilly style, “I Can’t Be Kind.” She also sings “Hello, I’m Lonesome,” “Daddy Can You Fix a Broken  Heart,” “The Last Last Time,” and “I’m a Wreck.” In other words, DeLisle is from the old-fashioned heartache tradition of country music. As you will also hear, her vocal styles are insouciant, saucy, and an independent spirit. Credit her with the verve and nerve that gives us the term moxie. 

 

 

 

Mary Bue is another woman of many talents. She is a yoga devotee, has studied psychology, was hailed in 2020 as the best songwriter in Minneapolis, and has made her own Beatles-like pilgrimage to India. Her recent album The Wildness of Living and Dying is like a musical mind meld of her interests. It has themes of what she calls “world-sorrow” plus eco-awareness, expanded consciousness, and a potpourri of styles ranging from “piano poems” to electric instrumentation. The title track is heavy on dark keys and steady drumming, which make a fine contrast to her lovely voice. “Bedding Down with the Deer” has elements of Joni Mitchell in her younger, earthier days, though Bue takes full advantage of today’s mixing capabilities to backfill it with atmosphere. Be sure to check out “The Bones and the Marrow” video to capture Bue in a whirlwind of kinetic energy. She spends most of the video running and imploring us to stand tall amidst the tall pines within an electric arrangement spotted with sing-song mini raps. Mary Bue has (literal) down-to-earth values but she’s no head-in-the-sand blind optimist who is sure things will self-repair. This is her 9^th album and watching the video helps me understand where all her energy comes from.

 

 

Mar Grimalt is a vibrant singer from Mallorca, one of Spain’s Balearic islands. Her album Espurnes I coralls translates “Sparks and Corals,” and that song alone shows us that when you have vocal talent to spare you can create magic with nothing more than a melody and a frame drum. Call her voice the spark and the malleted drum its hard coral contrast. She can also pick up a guitar and pick out “Cançò Final,” a cançò being a folk song in a style linked to 13^th century troubadours. Grimalt sings as a woman sews in the background. Mar Grimlat won’t floor you with power or flashy technology. She has been quoted as saying that we often fail to appreciate what we have because it “weighs us down like tons and tons of concrete.” She should know; her family operates a concrete factory. She’s so retro that that “Reculls des versos” is again voice and frame drum and all the echoes and synth you hear were added in post-production.

 

 

Rob Weir

Music: Caleb Klauder/Reeb Wiilms; Effie Zilch; Michael Des Barres; Les Arrivants; Kylie Fox

Once upon a time country music was a cross between cornpone and old-time hill music. Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms take us back to those days on Gold in Your Pocket. “He’s Gone” is a flat-picked song with splashes of old time fiddle full of guitar breakouts and 1950s ambience. “Shame Shame Shame” is straight out the Wheeling Jamboree with walking bass and some rapid-fire mandolin. Klauder and Willms hail from Washington State and now live in Portland, Oregon, but songs like “Too FarGone” have a decided Appalachian vibe. Check out the pedal steel and the lyrics of “Gold in Your Pocket” and you’ll know right away that these artists draw more from the past than the stadium rock with a twang that is today’s country music. They do it well, but is this what country audiences want these days? I can say for sure, but Klauder and Willms are a nice change of pace.

 

 Effie Zilch is the name of a San Francisco-based collaboration between Evanne Barcenas and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Steve Wreyman. On their seven-track EP Multitudes they evoke quite a few other acts, most notably Delaney and Bonnie and JJ Cale. Barcenas has a strong, smoky voice as you can hear on the blues-influenced “Prayin’ Amos.” “One Hundred Years” is quiet and folky, but she airs it out on “Only Fools” like a soul queen and Wryeman lets it rip on guitar. I don’t know their back catalogue, but I note they are often billed as a “rock” band. To my ear, though, Multitudes is more bluesy. Plus, their song “Carousel” would be at home in a honkytonk bar.

 

 

If you really want some rock n’ roll, check out the new record from English actor/musician Michael Des Barres. Its title might sound familiar: It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (But I Like It). It is, of course, the title of a 1974 hit from The Rolling Stones. Des Barres' new project is of 1970s cover songs. Baby Boomers have the new Bob Dylan film, so it’s only fair that Gen X gets its own nostalgia trip. Des Barres shreds some chords on “Search and Destroy” (The Stooges). You’ll also hear “Love is the Drug” (Roxy Music), though Des Barres’ voice bottoms out in a few places, and David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes.” He’s better on Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen.” Des Barres can still cut wood with his axe but, he’s 76, not 18 and not a young dude. He can shout it out and has a remarkable amount of power for doing so, but he resorts to spectacle and showmanship when he slips out of mid-range tones. That said, he’s probably better at singing 70s’ songs that aging Xers singing along to their car radios to the golden oldies.

 

 

The band Yarn formed in Brooklyn and is now based in North Carolina. It’s a collection of hardworking road warriors who play 170 gigs a year, have 11 albums, yet somehow are relatively unknown. On Born, Blessed, Grateful & Alive Yarn play country, rock out, and sometimes venture into folk music. Yarn’s lineup is both stable and fluid. It is the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Blake Christiana and includes drummer Robert Bonhomme, and bassist Rick Bugel. Yet is also includes a rotation of electric guitarists, including Andy Falco (Infamous Stringdusters), Matteo Joseph Recchio (Heavy Peace), and Joel Timmons (Sol Driven Train). The album’s title is embedded in the song “These Words,” a sort of country-meets-rock song about being down and out–I lost everything when I lost my mind–and makes an appeal to heaven in the way country songs are prone to do. Christiana has a soothing voice, but the band can bring it. “Turn Off the News” is somewhat evocative of a chill Allman Brothers. It’s probably good that Yarn is now in North Carolina, as they currently have a Southern rock vibe. But they retain a bit of Brooklyn ‘tude.”Play Freebird” is a serious song, but one can’t help but think there’s a bit of satire aimed at the drunken idiots who yell out for a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover at concerts. There might be too much midrange music on this album, but Yarn is a band worth knowing.

 

 

Les Arrivants are a Montreal trio that play classical Arabic and Persian music plus Argentine tango. In keeping with Montreal’s vibrant world music and jazz scenes, the band–Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud), Amichai Ben Shalev (concertina-like bandoneon and Hamin Honari (percussion)–are more into precision than attempts at middlebrow arrangements. This is evident in the title track of Toward the Light. The same is true of tangos such as “Bagelissimo,” or on up-tempo compositions such as “City of Ashes.” If you’ve never heard an oud, listen to the last composition. The oud seems as if it was invented to render introspective and melancholy music. Search for some of the trio’s live performances to experience their focus and musicianship in context.

 

 

Kylie Fox draws Joni Mitchell analogies because she’s Canadian and has a jazz soul. She also gets compared to Kate Bush because she’s prone to being unorthodox. Mainly there’s a lot going on inside her musical canvas. As you can see in her official video of “Brandi Baby,” Fox is filled with youthful insouciance and, as you can hear, she has a serious set of pipes. If you’re not convinced, try her title track "Sequoia” It’s an odd hybrid that could be a paean to nature, a warning to preserve it, a backdoor love song, or all three, but there’s no question of Fox’s command of it. “Alberta” is another tree song and why not, young folks these days have a far healthier view of the environment than most of their elders. Besides, I kind of like a singer who can sing about Alberta and an “Armadillo” on the same record. Plus, there’s got to be some synchronicity going on; Joni Mitchell grew up in Saskatchewan and Neal Young in Manitoba. That’s all three prairie provinces folks. And, yep, it’s also a forced analogy! Watch for Kylie Fox; I have a feeling we will be hearing from her.   

 Rob Weir

 

 

November 2024 Music Roundup: Julian Taylor, Banning Eyre, Dekel, FBR, Srikanth, Toc de Crida

 

I’m running out of superlatives for the amazing West Indian/Mohawk/Canadian performer Julian Taylor, he of the silky smooth but powerful voice and incisive pen. If you’ve not heard Pathways, by all means correct that oversight. That song alone is worth the sticker price. It’s a gentle and poignant look at moving through life. Who can dispute advice such as … be gentle, be kind be grateful, take time, remember we’re in this together/let’s just be who we are, follow our hearts, and dream that love is forever. Yeah, he’s that kind of performer–the sort who can make you weep, feel wistful, and occasionally sad or mad. “Love Letters” is a sweet waltz tempo song, but he even induce calmness by asking Do we even know what we’re doing to ourselves. “Ain’t Life Strange” implores us to look deep into ourselves, especially when we feel “numb.” Taylor even gives us a bit of achy breaky country in “Running Away,” but at least it’s more prairie country than another overly processed Nashville song. Once again Julian Taylor is my artist of the month.

 

 

Banning Eyre and I share history in that we both once wrote for Global Music Magazine and we both play guitar. That’s about where the similarities end, as Eyre in an amazing guitarist and I astound people with my ineptitude. Eyre’s Bare Songs 1 is a 14-track delight that highlights his bright and precise picking. It ranges from the dreamy “Fifteen Rounds and No Decision” to the Galician-meets-Ukraine “Portal 7 " to the rain-like “Kaku Hiva” to “Djelimady,” the latter reminiscent of Eyre’s forays into Afro Pop. This is a perfect album for serious listening or tasteful background music.

 

     

 

Dekel is an Israeli singer and composer. Her new record Starlings showcases many things, including her love of nature. The title track is a haunting song with near drone-like cello setting the beat. Her voice and the pacing are pop-like, but there is much more depth and, yes, it’s partly about the humble little bird, but listen and you’ll hear that the starlings are witnesses. “So Much Logic” has accordion and clarinet. Although the song dances, the vocal is darker, and it pops like a cross between klezmer and something from Zorba the Greek. “Meet Me Halfway” is klezmer with a hip hop beat and I’ll leave it to you determine if the song is religious or the starting point for negotiating a relationship. On “Sing With MeSisters,” Dekel sings in deeper, more mature tones. It's an unusual song in that it toggles between introspective and anthemic. Put directly, Dekel is hard to pigeonhole. She has a habit of never being quite what you think.

 

 

Tim Hunter (acoustic guitar, vocal, harmonica) and Malarie McConaha (electric guitar, vocals) of FBR describe themselves as “two hippies,” but their music within a band of six is more rock, blues, and country. If you’re wondering about the name, it’s shorthand for Leonard Cohen’s song “Famous Blue Raincoat.” I suppose FBR sometimes sings about dark subjects, but their vibe on Ghost is not much like Cohen’s. “Before I Drown” is wrapped in an electric mix that gets progressively bigger to build McConaha’s desperation as she tells of a doomed relationship marked by fighting and booze. “Rain On” has a big rock sound as well with McConaha muscular vocals and splash of blistering guitar. By contrast, “Bottle of Blues” is country blues with a roadhouse vibe. Another departure is “Skies of Donegal Blues,” but don’t expect an Irish tune; it’s more of a big-voiced wailer. And why not? McConaha can deliver.

 

Short Reviews:

 

 

 

 

If you’d like to sample music from South India, try Jyotsna Srikanth and her album Carnatic Nomad. Carnatic music is considered “classical music” in India, a term that bears little resemblance to Western connotations. It refers to its complexity and its place in tradition. Srikanth, who now lives in Britain, is grounded in Carnatic violin and vocals. Other instruments include various hand percussion, lutes, and the stringed tambura that often acts as a drone. Try “Manasa Sancharare” to appreciate her string prowess and “Tiruppugal” for something a bit livelier.

 

 

 

The island of Mallorca lies off the eastern coast of Spain and north of Algeria in the Balearic Sea. The six-piece trad band Toc de Crida features lightly modernized tunes from North Africa, Catalonia, and Valencia, with some departures across the Atlantic. Their self-named album is joyous. No matter where they land the music sounds like you’ve stumbled upon a celebration and have just discovered an amazing group you never knew existed. Try these two tracks.: "Jota de Son Pudol" and "Can Bou." FYI, a jota is a Spanish dance and if you listen to other tracks and hear unusual bagpipes, it’s the xeremia, an odd-looking instrument that’s like a watermelon-shaped sheep’s bladder with attached pipes.

 

 

A xeremia

 

 

Rob Weir

October 2024 Music: Melanie MacLaren– Lucy Isabel – Abbie Thomas– Disappearing Act– Sicilian Music

 

 

 

 

October was a really great month for music, so much so I can’t get it all into one column. Let’s start with my Artist of the Month: Melanie MacLaren (above).

 

Melanie MacLaren might be the long-awaited Gen Z Folk Queen-To-Be. Her Bloodlust EP oozes “emergent talent.”  The eponymous title track has infectious melody hooks, bouncy internal rhymes, impeccable pacing, a voice that cuts through the instrumental mix, and something to say lyrically. Remember “Laika,” the little dog Russia sent to space to the sorrow and fury of millions around the world? Decades later, MacLaren adds her tears and outrage. Her finger-picked, gentle song brings the little pooch back to life in our hearts. “Get it Back” takes up the topic of things that slip away in different ways–moments glanced and lost from a speeding train window, death, grief …. The theme might be dark, but similar to “Laika,” there’s grace in memory. If you wonder if she can sound this good live, check out “Henry Hudson” (which isn’t on this EP). It’s about the man, the river, MacLaren’s family, changes in her New York neighborhood, and her innermost self. Who can’t relate to her linking refrain: Time, time, time/I’ll stay out of your way/If you stay out of mine. Kudos for having the guts to admit her shame of once judging of her grandfather’s trailer park: Thought I was too good for it, but I wasn’t. I am sincere when I say this song made me weep. MacLaren draws comparisons to Gillian Welch, but as much as I hate to saddle anyone with such a high-expectations comparison, how about Joni Mitchell in her wide-eyed youth? I don’t mean it in any copycat way, but, yeah, Melanie McLaren is that good. It would not be hyperbolic to call her voice ethereal. 

 

 

 

Lucy Isabel scores with All the Light. Note the spelling of her name. Although Jared Anderson, the producer of her new LP, has worked with Jason Isbell, Lucy just happens to have a similar-sounding surname. She’s a New Jersey gal now living in Nashville. She works well with bands, but All the Light highlights her inner folk persona. “A Better Life” is typical of the honest, vulnerable, and hopeful songs on the album. It opens with a lovely arpeggio that slides into to a sweet melody that frames a song about a choice: to let go or settle down. “Blind Ambition” speaks truth to dreams, namely the realization embedded in the old adage that the older we get, the less we know–because life and relationships are more complex than we ever imagined. “Miles From Home” shows off some of the album’s polished production; call it bluegrass-inflected folk in a pop wrapper. Nonetheless, a stripped down song like “A Hero’s Welcome” is even more affecting in communicating love’s promises and vicissitudes.

 

 

 

 

If you want to switch gears, try Abbie Thomas and The Crazy Hearts and Not Gonna Lie. Thomas is a combination of blue-eyed soul, retro country, and big-voice jazz. The title track showcases said big voice in a soulful plea to “hold on” when things seem “impossible.” But she takes no crap. On “Bitch Make the Coffee” she stands up for female workers expected to endure abuse to keep their jobs. Thick bass lines, electric guitar, and jazzy keys set an ominous mood. “Wild & Free” is a nostalgic no-apologies song about growing up and making ends meet, though by implication it could be any family, anywhere, anytime. It has a jazzy feel, though the key structure breaks a few rules. It and each song on the record puts Thomas upfront and lets her riff with the band. She is an indie artist. I suspect that won’t last much longer, but it’s open for discussion how a label will, well, label her.

 

 The Disappearing Act is a band-not-band of three longtime friends from Texas. Dallas-based Salim Nourallah is perhaps the best known, but Bob Blumenfeld is also a fine songwriter, and John Dufilho has a knack for bringing everything together. For lack of a better term, the three are a cross between folk and 60s bands in their quieter moments. Mainly you get the sound of synergy. Got that? Maybe it’s best to listen. “Why is Everyone So Damn Happy?” is an ironic and upbeat support of being glum: Why is everyone so damn up/Why won’t everybody just shut up…. but I know this will blow away. You might imagine some blood-curdling thrills in a song named “Gun Barrel City,” but it’s actually as languidly-paced as a Jim Jarmusch film and just as deeply sardonic. Put a happier melody to this and you’ve got a carefree rejoinder in “Santorini,” and if you’ve ever been there you know exactly what they mean. If you like their vibe, also try “People in the Movies” or “I Feel Like I’m Howard Hughes,” the first evocative of a retro creepy film score and the second that could be from an offbeat early ‘60s TV program.

 

 

 

One reviewer has called Rachel McIntrye Smith the “Loretta Lynn for the TikTok Generation.” Maybe, though her old-style country vibe seems more like a natural inclination than an attempt to channel. I guess her slight twang and a song like “Stoke the Coals” invites such a Lynn comparison. As we hear on “Hold the Ladder,” though she’s more of a songbird than a hard hitter. This also comes through in “Grow Up Slow,” which walks a fine line between saccharine imagery and seizing her own identity. Unlike a lot of Southern wannabes, Smith actually hails from Tennessee, which stamps her EP Honeysuckle Friend with homegrown authenticity.

 

 

Finally, something that falls into the categories of folk music for scholars and specialized taste, there is Italy-Sicily, two dozen tracks (save one) collected by ethnomusicologist Sergio Bonanzinga between 1984-2004. A few things for the curious. Sicily, the “ball” kicked by the boot of Italy, has long been a crossroads. Although distinctive styles emerged in the 16^th century, Sicilian music shows many influences: mainland Italian, Greek, Arab, Byzantine…. It also features a lot of polyphony which, in simple terms, means individual melodies woven together to harmonize. Here’s your link for the entire album, from drumming to dances to village songs. You might find it useful to use your slider to see what grabs you. If you’re moved to buy a track or so, go to the Website for the French label Ocora and type in Bonanzinga as your finding aid.

 

 

Rob Weir