THE DYNAMOS - 50 Years And More

From Scotland’s Far North, comes one of our longest surviving bands. THE DYNAMOS who go back to the early 1960’s, and their latest outing is a look back at their history in the aptly titled “50 Years And More” (Pan Records). The band have seen more than a few changes in line up over the years, with only drummer Robert Cameron lasting the course.  Robert’s shares some great memories in the extremely fascinating CD booklet.
There were many vocalists throughout the past 50+ years, and this album features eight singers from the past to the present- Anne Duff, Geordie Jack, Brian Henderson, Heather Mackay, David Shearer, Manson Grant, and the newer breed of Keith Macleod and Brandon McPhee.
The Dynamos are known for their versatility, and the ability to change styles from Country to Pop to Scottish with ease. Where else would you find “Loch Lomond” and “Beer Barrel Polka” alongside “I Knew The Bride” , “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” and “Farewell Party”. It’s a format that has stood the test of time, and will continue to do for many years to come.
I really enjoyed reading about the Dynamo’s half century, and the songs that have meant so much to them, and their fans. There’s also a DVD which shares even more memories.

IAN GREIG - Jim Reeves Remembered

Last year marked the 50^th Anniversary of the death of Jim Reeves, who, to this day, remains one of Country music’s favourite singers. Elgin’s IAN GREIG has marked the event by sharing some of his memories of Gentleman Jim, on “Jim Reeves Remembered” (Pan Records).

The album kicks off with a “Tribute To Jim Reeves”, the old Larry Cunningham hit, and closes with Ian’s own self penned tribute, and in between ten of Jim’s songs that struck a chord with Ian.

Many tribute albums to Jim have concentrated on his vast array of hits, but Ian has avoided the most obvious covers, although he does cover “I Love You Because”, the first Jim Reeves song he heard on the jukebox. That was certainly sixpence well spent!

Elsewhere, there’s “I’m Gonna Change Everything”, “Across The Bridge”, “This World Is Not My Home” and “You Kept Me Awake Last Night”.

As Ian says on the CD sleeve notes, he has tried to pay tribute to his hero, not by mocking his voice, but by singing his songs. Having said that, Ian’s voice certainly suits these songs to a tee.

The album was recorded in Wick, with additional recording in Nashville by Phil Anderson, including Hank Singer on fiddle, and vocal harmonies by Marcia Ramirez, a Nashville singer songwriter, who has also appeared on dozens of CD’s from Nashville stars like Rodney Crowell, Hank Williams Jr and Billy Dean,

Ian has come up with a wonderful tribute to his hero. Jim would’ve been proud, I’m sure.

GLG BAND - Distractions

Another Scottish release is from the GLG BAND, from The Borders. George L Goodfellow has been playing music since the late sixties, originally in a folk band, but most recently collaborating on writing songs with American based musicians. “Distractions” is his 5th album, and features 14 tracks all written, or co-written by George.
The album features a nice selection of songs, most notably the opening track, “I Miss You Already”, “When I Walk” and “Tell Me”.
“Ava’s Song”, “What Is It I’ve Done Wrong” and “Ah’m Thinkin” are a bit more uptempo, and “These Four Walls” stands out for being really traditional Country.
“Old Home Movies” is quite a catchy number, which is possibly the one most likely to pick up airplay.
There are also two songs, which feature Hawick songstress Lois Niblo, “No Dignity”, which is a duet, and “Are You Sure”, which she leads.
It’s a really pleasant listen, and worth checking out.
www. GLGBAND.com

KATHRYN ANDERSON - The Road Less Travelled

KATHRYN ANDERSON, although based in the south of England, was born in Stirling. She is a singer songwriter and has just recently spent a month in Nashville working on new songs, and picking up some local gigs like Tootsie’s. In the meantime, we can listen to “The Road Less Travelled” a six track CD recorded on a previous visit to Music City.
The EP features a couple of tracks that have already been sent to radio, including “Write a Letter” and “Just Another Country Song”. Both are catchy numbers, which have won her many fans. “Wrong Side Of The Radio” is also one that I think would work at radio.
The title track is a good upbeat number to kick off the CD, but the one that really impressed me was “Guitar For Sale”. Don’t know if it’s based on a personal experience, but it’s about having to leave her beloved guitar behind, because the airline won’t let her carry it on board. Only a songwriter could come up with such a traumatic problem, and then sing about it. Great song.
Really enjoyed this CD, and look forward to hear more before long.
Check her out @ www.kathrynandersonmusic.com

MARTHA L HEALY - Better Days

In the last issue we introduced you to Glasgow singer songwriter MARTHA L HEALY, with her Acoustic EP. Well, she launched her full Nashville recorded CD “Better Days” at Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry on St. Andrews Night, and what a superb album it is.

The title track kicks it all off with some lovely Cajun accordion. It’s a good time uptempo fun song to get things started with.

“The Lovin’ Kind”, which follows, is a very interesting track. The intro has quite an “eastern” feel to it, but once into the song, Martha delivers a great vocal performance like one of the 60’s pop divas.

“Enough”, “13 Hours”, “House Of Love” and “Shame,Shame,Shame” are sensitive ballads which Martha proves she can handle as well as the fun infused “Too Much Vodka”, which comes from the pen of Wendy Newcomer.

“Burtonport” stands out for being different. The song digs into Martha’s Irish heritage, but also comes over with an old southern Texas feel to it. It’s about the village where Martha’s Nana grew up in Co. Donegal in Ireland. It's the story of how she passed on a strong sense of identity and roots down through the generations. A real personal song that really works.

Martha has a lot of soul in her voice, which she uses to best effect across the album. With simple musical arrangements, and boosted by Rory Hoffman’s  accordion, this is an exceptionally strong debut album.

As an advance to the album, Martha has the “Better Days EP (Unplugged) doing the rounds.   It features 5 tracks. There’s quite a variety of material, which really shows this little lady’s vocal talent .

“Enough” is a nice acoustic opener, whilst the closing track, “Healin’ Wind is even more simply arranged.  “Shame” is a strong painful ballad, made all the more effective by some neat harmonica. “13 Hours”, another ballad, has a strong Country feel to it.

But just to show her variety, Martha hits the bottle on ”Vodka”, a song written by Carrie Newcomer. There are several songs on the same theme, but Martha really delivers on this uptempo morning after post mortem. Great song, some really nice instrumentation, and really catchy.

I was really impressed with Martha’s vocal style. We’re gonna hear a lot more of her. 

You must give her a listen.

www,marthalhealy.com

DANIEL MEADE - As Good As Bad Can Be

One of the first Country albums that you should seek out in 2015 is from a young Glasgow guy called DANIEL MEADE.  His first album, “As Good As Bad Can Be”, got rave reviews since it’s release in 2013.  That led to several impressive gigs with the likes of Sturgill Simpson and most recently, The Old Crow Medicine Show. Daniel headed for Nashville back at the start of the year, and came back with a superb album, “Keep Right Away” (From The Top Records), which is released January 19th.
All the tracks are self penned, with a couple of co-writes.  Daniel’s style is old style Country with a superb modern approach. He has been likened to Hank Williams, Jerry Lee, Justin Townes Earle and The Old Crow Medicine Show. I’d throw in BR549 and Junior Brown for good measure. That should give you an idea of what to expect from Daniel.
The album kicks off with the uptempo radio single “Long Gone Wrong”, which has already received Radio 2 national airplay.
In the main, the album is upbeat, with tracks like the title track, “Rising River Blues”, “Trying” and  “Livin’ On Tootsie Time”.
“Not My Heart Again”, another feel good number which bridges classic Country honky tonk with a bluegrass beat, features some smart harmonies from Shelby Colvin. There’s also a duet with singer songwriter Diana Jones, “Help Me Tonight”, which is one the slowest songs on the album. Their voices work well together and really shows another side of Daniel.
“Sometimes A Fool’s The Last To Know”, is another ballad which stands out. Pure Country.
There’s a false start to “Sing It Loud”, which features Joshua Hedley. It really ads to the live atmosphere that comes over on the album. It’s a rowdy homage to the way Country music was once loved.
Daniel may be turning the clock back to a time when Country was Country. But I’m all for that. It’s already a strong contender for my Album of the Year 2015.  A stunning album.

LISA McHUGH - A Life That's Good

LISA McHUGH. Lisa grew up in Glasgow, but moved over to Donegal to pursue her musical career, and it has certainly paid off for her. She has quickly become one of the busiest and most popular entertainers on the Irish Country scene. And she has spread her wings lately, by branching out into TV presentation, with her own series on Irish TV.

No wonder it’s taken 2 ½ years to get time to release her third major album, “A Life That’s Good” (Sharpe Music).

The album features a bright mix of Country, old & new, a little bit of pop, and even a couple of Irish tunes.

There are three of Lisa’s recent singles here, “Hey I’m A Woman”, “Applejack” and the current radio hit “Hillbilly Girl”. There’s covers of Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With The Boy” , Shania’s “Any Man Of Mine” and even Roy Acuff’s classic “Night Train To Memphis”, (athough, very much based on Dolly Parton’s version) which is one of the stand out tracks.

The title track comes from the Nashville TV series soundtrack, written by Ashley Monroe & Sarah Siskind, and there’s also songs from Kasey Musgraves, John Legend, and even Taylor Swift !

Lisa co-wrote “Hey, I’m a Woman” and also wrote “Left To Love”, a beautiful ballad that stands out on a largely uptempo album. I hope it proves to be a winner, and encourages Lisa to further her writing.

The two Irish numbers are the rousing “Ireland” written by New Jersey born Americana artist Greg Trooper, and the ever popular “Home To Donegal”, which she does an exceedingly warm version of.

It’s been a while coming, but well worth the wait. Another winner from Lisa McHugh!

JACQUI SHARKEY - Love And Other Things

JACQUI SHARKEY grew up in Glasgow, but is based in West Donegal these days. After great reviews for her last album “A New Dawn”, Jacqui is back with “Love And Other Things”, which was produced by Manus Lunny from Capercaille.

Jacqui’s rich warm vocals are often compared to Anne Murray, but Jacqui makes no concessions on this album. There’s no Anne Murray songs. There are four that she has written herself. “My Perfect Storm” is a beautiful song (co-written with Ian Smith), which instantly caught my attention.  The pairing also wrote “Remember Who You Are”, which had quite a folky feel to it.  Other originals include “Pretty Words”, which was a single for Jacqui some months back.   

There are also covers of the Nanci Griffith/Tom Russell hit “Outbound Plane” , the James Taylor/Carole King classic “You’ve Got A Friend”, Mary Chapin’s’ “I Was a Bird” and the traditional “The Water Is Wide”.  One interesting cover was “Tell These Hands”, written by Australian singer Sara Storer. It’s quite a light upbeat number, which showed a different side to Jacqui.

Jacqui cut her musical roots while at University in Glasgow.  She’s another wonderful Scottish talent which we’ve let go home to Ireland.

She’s a lovely singer, and “Love And Other Things” is a lovely album to have in your collection.

www.jacquisharkey.com

DEAN OWENS - No Man's Land

DEAN OWENS is one of Scotland’s most respected singer songwriters and modern Country troubadours. He found his feet playing with The Felsons, but is very much established as a solo artist these days.

His latest release, which came out just in time for Remembrance Day, is a 4 track EP called “No Man’s Land”. The lead track, which is supported by a You Tube video, “Closer To You”, was inspired by the story of a soldier returning from the front writing to his loved one about how it gets harder to be away from home the closer you get to returning, Dean has written a song that poignantly describes the emotions of those at war and those they love.

There are three further war themed songs and with a stunning cover featuring the original painting ‘Sea Of Red’ by Philip Braham. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Neilson Hubbard, ‘Closer To Home’ is taken from the forthcoming album, ‘Into The Sea’.

JANEY KIRK - Streets Of Loneliness

Fifer JANEY KIRK has been a long time favourite on the Scottish social club and cabaret scene, but has always had the ambition to further her career. Her recent albums, “Sweetheart Darling Of Mine” and “Don’t Colour Me Blue” have established her as a firm favourite on the Country concert circuit and exposure on various Showcase TV programmes, and on concert tours like “Ladies Of Country” and the forthcoming Derek Ryan Scottish tour.

For her new album, “Streets Of Loneliness” (Premier Records), she has teamed up with Jerry Donahue, who was a huge part of the folk music scene in the 1970/80′s with Fairport Convention and Fotheringay. The album has a line up of high profile players and is all self penned songs leaning towards a more modern country genre.

The title track is a really strong uptempo song, and has a great video on You Tube to support it. It’s really radio friendly, and should get her some good radio play.

“Love Triangle” is a catchy uptempo song on an old Country love theme. It works really well. 

“Apple” and “Black Widow Spider” are, perhaps, a shade more pop, but still quite listenable. “Count Me Out”, is quite different again, and really brings out the raunchiness in Janey’s voice.

I really enjoyed the catchy “Leave Me Alone”, about someone who thinks too much of themselves.

She can also deliver a neat ballad. “Here We Are” is quite a delicate sounding song, which suits Janey’s voice just as well. But my favourite is “Try Again”, another ballad, which features some really nice instrumentation, thanks to Jerry Donahue, and a really lovely delivery from the singer.

Then to close the album, something of a 4½ minute anthem. In Runrig style, she delivers a danceable uptempo version of “Wild Mountain Thyme”, which slows right down in the middle.

You can tell that Janey has put a lot of effort into the album. It’s an album that really picks up on her versatility and energy.  She has her own sound, and delivers it well.

Recommended.

LAURA KENNY - Fallen Soldier

LAURA KENNY is a Glasgow girl, who got great reviews for her self written album “Drive” a few years ago. After that album, she decided to travel the world, and got as far as Hong Kong, where she has settled.

Recently she has got back into music, performing around venues like “The Wanch”. She has released an emotional single called “Fallen Soldier”, following a visit to the Death Railway on the Thailand/Burma border, where allied soldiers were captured by the Japanese. Laura found a headstone in the cemetery nearby of a soldier named 'J.D. Kenny, age 25, which as she says in the song, “the same last name as me, and not much older”.  Who wouldn’t be spooked at that?

The event inspired Laura to write this beautiful song, which is available for download on ITunes.

Hopefully, we’ll hear more from Laura before too long.

FIRST CHARGE OF LIGHT BRIGADE - First Charge Of The Light Brigade

FIRST CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE have an interesting sound on their self titled debut album. The album is predominately the work of Yorick Cormack, the main songwriter of former Glasgow alt-country band The Endrick Brothers.

The other band members are John Carson, Paul Reza and Gordy Turner.

It’s quite a rocky sound that the quartet have brought together. Having said that, the opening track, “My One Track Mind” has a definite Steve Earle feel about it.

“Postcards (From Randy Newman)”, may have a strange title, but has a nice west coast Country feel to it (like Randy Newman, I guess). There are some nice harmonies on offer with “Second Hand Love”, and “Wheels” is quite laid back, in an Eagles sort of way.

The album was produced by Chris Gordon, and recorded in a Glasgow Southside flat, but sounds as good as anything coming out of a custom built studio.

There’s definitely Country influences running through the album, and it’s quite a nice listen, but don’t expect to hear First Charge Of The Light Brigade at your local Country music club.