Torgeir Waldemar - No Offending Borders (Album Review)

March 20, 2017 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alt-Country, Classic Rock, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Norwegian singer-songwriter Torgeir Waldemar released his debut album in 2014 to widespread acclaim, and a Norwegian Grammy Award nomination, for a record that had a marked 70’s Laurel Canyon influence. At first glance, the tall and bearded Waldemar looks like he should be fronting a Black Metal act with an indecipherable logo, luckily images are often deceptive, and Waldemar is more folky troubadour than extreme metal screamer as his debut disc proved. Three years on and ‘No Offending Borders’ finds Waldemar intent on expanding on his musical palette.

Benjamin Folke Thomas - Copenhagen (Album Review)

February 27, 2017 by Rich Barnard in Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Album Reviews

Originally from Gothenburg but now based in London, Benjamin Folke Thomas has already made a name for himself on the folk scene; it is, after all, his actual middle name.

Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire - Swithering (Album Review)

December 13, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Folk

If you were a successful BBC radio DJ with not one but two regular shows; if you assembled international tributes to Bob Dylan; if you worked as a musical director for film and you curated annual festival events like the Roaming Roots Revue then I'd have thought you might want a little rest from music on your days off. This is certainly not true of Roddy Hart who, on top of all of the above, has been touring and making music of his own since 2007.

The RGM Christmas Music Round-Up 2016

December 08, 2016 by David Vousden in Folk, Country, Christmas, Traditional, Holiday, Album Reviews

With the holiday season fast approaching the Red Guitar Music team thought it might be time to take a look at some of the seasonal music released this year. Now I will admit, grudgingly, to having a reputation for being a little bah humbug with regard to all things tinsel and fairy lights. Rumours that I make Ebenezer Scrooge look like Father Christmas are really only rumours (honest) so without further ado here is the Red Guitar Music Xmas round-up.

Anna Elizabeth Laube - Tree (Album Review)

November 01, 2016 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

The latest album from singer-songwriter Anna Elizabeth Laube is the enchanting ‘Tree’ a record that is about finding a home and laying down roots. The much travelled Laube, who was born in Iowa, raised in Wisconsin and is now resident in Seattle, must know this feeling of home can be as difficult to find as it is to categorize. It was this recent move to Seattle that would prove to be the unexpected inspiration for the new album while the environmental issues that are so important to Laube are again evident in her songs.

Gitta De Ridder - Feathers (Album Review)

October 19, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Album Reviews, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

If you like delicately crafted and quietly shimmering acoustic music then the debut LP from Gitta De Ridder is something you really ought to know about.

Greg Cornell, Lynne Hanson, Cody Jinks reviews

October 16, 2016 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Americana, Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

With so much good music reaching us at Red Guitar Music these days we thought we'd add a few more in-brief style reviews for albums we feel are worthy of your attention from Greg Cornell & The Cornell Brothers, Cody Jinks and Lynne Hanson. As regular readers will know we have an eclectic approach here at RGM so you'll find a little folk an album of murders ballads and some old-school country for your perusal

Seth Lakeman featuring Wildwood Kin - Ballads Of The Broken Few (Album Review)

September 15, 2016 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Album Reviews

Sometimes a project just has a way of coming together and the superb new album from Seth Lakeman is a case in point. When Seth met Wildwood Kin at a charity event he was struck by the ability of the trio (sisters Emillie and Beth Key and their cousin Meghann Loney) to effortlessly create harmonies. One roughly recorded demo on a mobile phone of Seth and the girls singing together enticed famed producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon, Paul McCartney) to get involved and the result is a sublime combination of strident instrumentation and delicious vocal harmonies.

Ruth Theodore - Cactacus (Album Review)

September 02, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Album Reviews

It’s been a decade since I first heard Ruth Theodore. I remember a tiny girl playing in a tiny bar in Kentish Town to a tiny crowd. Nonetheless, she made a big impression. It was rare, at that time, to find a female singer-songwriter who wasn’t all insipid waif and whimsy (thanks, Dido) and Ruth Theodore, although blessed with a beautiful voice, backed it up with amazingly accomplished guitar skills, songs of substance and huge onstage cojones. It felt like I’d stumbled upon Britain’s answer to Ani DiFranco, because, basically, I had. She’s been a mainstay of the London circuit ever since and, living on a narrowboat deep in the East End, she’s a genuine troubadour of the capital. I’m very heartened to discover that with her fourth album, Theodore has matured but lost none of her youthful bite. Listeners ought to beware, Cactacus is a record with spikes.

Terra Lightfoot - Every Time My Mind Runs Wild (Album Review)

August 18, 2016 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Hamilton, Ontario singer and guitarist Terra Lightfoot is clearly intent on making a statement with the release of ‘Every Time My Mind Runs Wild’ the subdued vibe of her debut album, released back in 2011, is but a distant memory. For her sophomore release a new band has been enlisted and producers Gus Van Go & Werner F, best known for their work with The Stills, are behind the desk. The result is a strident rock record that manages to successfully perform the delicate balancing act of maintaining Terra Lightfoot’s roots, soul and blues influences while adding a catchy pop sensibility.

Darlingside - Birds Say (Album Review)

July 11, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Folk, Acoustic, Album Reviews

It’s little wonder that Darlingside’s quad-vocal acoustic loveliness has had glowing reviews back home in Massachusetts, with critics comparing them to the legendary likes of Crosby Stills, Nash & Young and Simon & Garfunkel. Even though their sound is heavily informed by these godfathers of acoustic music, Darlingside are much more than just hippy throwbacks. Amid the bliss of the mandolin, banjo, lush acoustic guitars and strings, more contemporary heavyweights Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes and Nickel Creek are all brought to mind as well. Birds Say gets a UK release on July 15th (the band already having released an EP and debut album Pilot Machines in the US) and they will be playing a short UK tour at the end of this month starting with a slot at the Cambridge Folk festival.

Ben Abraham - Sirens (Album Review)

June 16, 2016 by David Vousden in Singer-Songwriter, Pop, Folk, Album Reviews

Way back at the beginning of the year and my day started, as usual, with a trawl through my inbox when I discovered the link (cheers Jay) to a video entitled ‘You and Me’ by Australian singer-songwriter Ben Abraham. The video put together by the very clever people at Production Company Oh Yeah Wow is visually stunning, the set decoration / lighting in the final third really is a thing of beauty. The video perfectly complements the song and it really caught my attention. I had no clue who Ben Abraham was but I was keen to find out.

Mikko Joensuu - Amen 1 (Album Review)

June 09, 2016 by David Vousden in Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Album Reviews

“Sometimes it feels like darkness has taken over. I know sometimes it feels that hope’s just not there” are the opening two lines of ‘Enjoy It While It Lasts’ from ‘Amen 1’ the debut solo album from Mikko Joensuu. Needless to say when you match the lyrics to plaintive pedal steel, gently picked acoustic guitar and the swell of strings it’s obvious that Mikko Joensuu is dealing with some seriously weighty issues. The fact that the track has an incredibly stark, raw beauty to compliment the melancholy marks ‘Amen 1’ as the beginning of something a little bit special.

Andy Shauf - The Party (Album Review).

May 16, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Alternative Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Album Reviews

With 2015’s self-recorded and highly acclaimed The Bearer of Bad News, Andy Shauf put himself firmly on the musical map, playing all the instruments and recording the album single-handedly. Barely more than a year later, here he is with The Party, his debut release for ANTI- and it’s a very impressive thing. As I write, Shauf is quite deservedly being exposed to a wider audience, supporting The Lumineers on their current European tour.

Afro Celt Sound System - The Source (Album Review)

May 12, 2016 by David Vousden in Folk, World Music

The original mission statement for Red Guitar Music was a simple one; write about music we liked in the hope that our readers would feel the same about the acts we covered. We had no idea of the range of music that would turn up in the RGM inbox or even, on occasion, on good old fashioned physical CD. It really has been a revelation and our musical horizons have extended far beyond the boundaries we set at the very beginning. This eclectic approach seems to have gone down well and we hope regular readers will continue to discover new music which brings us to Afro Celt Sound System.

Fraser Anderson - Under The Cover Of Lightness (Album Review)

April 29, 2016 by David Vousden in Singer-Songwriter, Folk

In late 2014 Red Guitar Music was pleased to review a very fine album by Scottish singer-songwriter Fraser Anderson. The album ‘Little Glass Box’ was originally self-released in 2012 and sold at gigs but a deal with the Membran label allowed the album to reach a much wider audience. This was a very welcome development as ‘Little Glass Box’ is a gem and the soulful, folk sound of the album was compared in the press to Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and John Martyn, esteemed company indeed. Two years on and Fraser has relocated to Bristol, England after a decade living in France and has also returned, musically, with ‘Under The Cover Of Lightness’.

Gretchen Peters - The Essential (Album Review)

January 29, 2016 by David Vousden in Americana, Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

We enter 2016 and find Gretchen Peters embarking on a UK tour only a few months after her last visit to the UK where she performed a string of sold out shows. In 2015 the ‘Blackbirds’ album had given Peters her highest chart placing ever in the UK where she has been embraced as both a singer and a songwriter, which has not always been the case for artists in Nashville (Chris Stapleton may have recently changed that way of thinking). To coincide with the tour UK label Proper Records has put together a stunning two disc career retrospective set that will please fans old and new.

Oktoba - Smoke Signals (Album Review)

November 15, 2015 by Rich Barnard in Americana, Folk, Singer-Songwriter

Oktoba is the brainchild of Brighton-based singer-songwriter Chris Athorne. His debut EP Tales and Shadows was positively received last year, so Athorne has wasted no time in assembling a good cast of supporting musicians for an album proper, enlisting the manifold talents of Tim Bidwell as producer and engineer. Bidwell, best known for his work with fellow Brightonian Kate Walsh, clearly lavishes wagonfuls of care and attention on his subjects and, as a result, this release sounds fantastic. There’s oodles of space and texture in the arrangements and it’s impeccably recorded and mixed, as you might expect. All this really helps Oktoba stand out among the vast crowd of confessional male songsters vying for our attention.

Glen Hansard - Didn't He Ramble (Album Review)

October 20, 2015 by Rich Barnard in Americana, Singer-Songwriter, Folk

The Frames’ redheaded frontman has come a long way since the world first glimpsed him as a scrawny, fresh-faced guitarist named Outspan in The Commitments film back in 1991. In the same year, Hansard’s real-life group released their Island Records debut and The Frames still remain one of Ireland’s best-loved bands, nearly twenty five years on. He returned to the big screen in 2006, via the nicely understated film Once, which was pretty much built around his music and that of Czech singer songwriter Markéta Irglová. The runaway success of Once, now immortalised (for better or worse) by its conversion to a West End musical, marked the start of Hansard’s transition from cult star to national treasure.

The Unthanks - Mount The Air (Album Review)

January 19, 2015 by Rich Barnard in Folk

The darlings of folk return with their first album in four years, Mount The Air. The fact that it is independently released, and is something of a serious, one-paced record, suggests that The Unthanks don’t want to play by anyone’s rules but their own. Their popularity means that they are still courted by major labels but nonetheless they are choosing this time to go it alone. So, they are making this music on their own terms and thus are fully able to indulge themselves with sprawling, slow-building epics; long passages of jazzy meandering and neat instrumental vignettes. It’s at this point I should also warn off anyone with an allergy to trumpets. There is a whole flood of trumpetry happening here, courtesy of the great Tom Arthurs.