Sara Watkins - Under The Pepper Tree (Album Review)

March 26, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

As a ground-down and curmudgeonly father of two, I am possibly not the best person to be reviewing Sara Watkins’ new children’s album. Children’s album. To me, it’s a chilling pairing of words. Having endured eight long years of inane toddler CDs on perpetual repeat, I like to think that this particular hell-genre has in some way contributed to my frankly harrowing mental and physical decline. I put it to you that children’s music is just one of the many unpleasant forms of torture visited upon unsuspecting parents the world over and therefore ought not to be encouraged.

Son Of Town Hall - The Adventures of Son Of Town Hall (Album Review)

November 06, 2019 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

We’ve been rather taken with transatlantic duo Son Of Town Hall since catching them at Cecil Sharp House last year (review). The pair are made up of London-based singer-songwriter Ben Parker (in a past life, one half of Ben & Jason) and Santa Fe-based singer-songwriter and author David Berkeley. Here they are, eighteen months later touring the UK once more, this time in support of their long-awaited debut LP. Their live show can’t really be translated to record (you just have to go) but the album does its best to bring the uninitiated up to speed, with the aid of its accompanying newspaper inserts in which their tale is wittily woven.

I'm With Her - See You Around (Album Review)

February 12, 2018 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Bluegrass, Folk

Celebrated bluegrass stars Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz first joined forces as a trio in 2014 and, having dabbled with some singles and live appearances in the last couple of years, they’re now releasing their debut album ‘See You Around’. As individual live performers each has a formidable reputation, so catching them as a band on their current tour is surely a must (they’re back in the UK in May if you missed their recent London show). Given Jarosz’s modest collection of Grammy awards and the lauded, long-established band and solo careers of O’Donovan and Watkins (of Crooked Still and Nickel Creek fame, respectively) it’s little wonder that this release carries with it the weight of high expectation.