MARTHA L HEALY - Keep The Flame Alight

This month sees the long anticipated new album from Glasgow based singer-songwriter MARTHA L HEALY. It’s been four years since she released her highly acclaimed debut album, “Better Days”. Martha took a life sabbatical two years ago, moving to Nashville for several months, to work on “Keep The Flame Alight” (Frog Eye Records), and the end result is released this month, with a launch party on Saturday afternoon, October 6th at The Glad Café in Shawlands, as part of the Glasgow Americana Festival.
The album kicks off with “No Place Like A Home”, a song she started writing before heading for Nashville. It demonstrates that, despite recording the album in the States, Martha’s roots are from this side of the Atlantic. It’s a strong song which really shows that Martha’s magical vocals. A perfect start.
The title track tells of keeping the balance of chasing creative goals, and personal wellbeing.
“Woman With No Shame” is a light and breezy insight into the life of a high flying female executive, who has it all, yet has nothing.
In a similar vein, “Living Someone Else’s Dream” is a bit more uptempo than the other tracks, but covering a lot of common ground- doing what others want, and not doing your own thing.
“Fall In Love Again” is a strong song, about not letting an old love go.
“We Will Be Okey” is a pleasant song offering hope and promise, whilst “Sisters To Strangers” is a ballad, which shares the pain of family break ups.
There is a celtic feel to several of the tracks. “Unmade Bed” is a good example of this. I love the accordion sound on this one. “Mickey” is another. A slower story ballad telling of an Irish lad, who left the home farm in search of fame in London. It’s a really strong song, and a bit different to anything else on the album.
The album covers a range of personal emotions, some ups and some downs. She counters with the closing track, “Don’t Give Up”, offering inspiration and hope. 
Nine of the album's ten tracks were self-penned and the one co-write is with friend and Nashville artist, Wendy Newcomer, who also brings the background vocals. David Spicher produced, with  a host of Nashville session players, including Bill Cooley, who is well known for his work with Kathy Mattea (guitars/bazouki), Todd Lombardo (guitars/mandolin), Rory Hoffman (accordion, piano), Eamon McLoughlin (Fiddle), Dave Racine (Drums) and Chas Williams (Dobro).
Bringing her Nashville experience home, Martha set up a Glasgow chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, who meet regularly, to collaborate on songs together.
Martha has brought her own Nashville experience home with this new album.
A superb album, from a real shining light on the Scottish music scene.
Highly recommended.

BRANDON McPHEE - All I Want To Do

BRANDON McPHEE has really made his mark in recent years. Firstly as a champion accordion player, and also as a fine Country singer. He has brought both styles together on his latest album, “All I Want To Do” (Pan Records).
There’s one original song on the album. “She Wrote It In A Country Song”, which was written by Crawford Bell. It’s probably my favourite track on the album.
The album kicks off with Brandon’s version of “Bubbles In My Beer”, a cover of the Willlie Nelson version. There are a few other covers from “the masters”, including Johnny Cash’s “Give My Love To Rose” and Marty Robbins’ “You Gave Me A Mountain”. There’s also his take on “We Should Be Together”, previously recorded by Crystal Gayle and Don Williams.
Brandon is a big Billy Ray Cyrus fan, and has included “Someday, Somewhere, Somehow”, alongside “Achy Breaky Heart”.
He also covers Debby Boone’s “Are You On The Road To Loving Me Again”, acknowledging that he found the song on a Gerry Ford LP he found in a charity shop. Gerry’s playing Brandon’s music on his radio show out in Australia, so this is payback. He does a good job on the song.
There’s more Down Under connections, with two songs which he found courtesy of Australian duo The Sunny Cowgirls, The first, “Take These Wings” is quite a beautiful, inspirational number, the other being a Sunny’s original, “Little Bit Rusty”. He even gets one of them, Celeste, to join him on harmonies on the track.
There is Scottish music on the album too, with a couple of dance tunes, a version of “The Dark Island” and his version of The Alexander Brothers’ “Jimmy Shand The Legend”. Brandon is touring with “The Jimmy Shand Story” this month.
Recorded in Wick, the album features local musicians, Manson Grant, Robert Cameron, Alastair MacDonald, Gordie Gunn, Addie Harper and Keith Macleod, with Ireland’s Crawford Bell, The Benn Sisters and Richard Nelson, alongside Nashville based Orcadian Philip Anderson.
Another winner from young Brandon!

KATEE KROSS - Body & Soul

KATEE KROSS is a young lady from Bishopbriggs, who has been making plenty of noise on the Scottish music scene in the past couple of years. She performed twice at last month’s Millport Festival, to add to her list of appearances, which include supporting Seasick Steve at Wembley and the Kelvingrove Bandstand, and working with Barbara Dickson and Sandy Thom, to name a few.
Her third album, “Body & Soul” will be released on Saturday, October 13th at Nice’n’Sleazy in Glasgow.
The album does a great job at showcasing this young lady’s writing and singing talent. Several of the songs have appeared as singles, including the gentle opening track, “Bluebird”, which really is a beautiful introduction to the album. The instrumentation on this track is very simple, and lets Katee’s voice to show it’s full potential. The same applies to “Heart Of Wood”, another stunning song. Other ballads include “Troubled Mind” and “Worried Mind”. 
Of the upbeat songs, another single, “Count To Ten” really stands out. It shows that Katee isn’t just a ballad singer. “Working On The Dream” and “Shadow Falls” are also upbeat numbers, the former having quite a honey bop feel to it.
Although Katee’s music will appeal to Country fans, I think she’s demonstrates a lot of crossover potential. That said, “Old Soul” has particular Country appeal. It has quite a soft Country sway to it, which really stands out for me. And, “After The Show” takes us to another era. With a hint of harmonica, and backing vocals, she conjures up memories of Patsy Cline, without sounding anything like her.
Katee is certainly making an impression with her music, and that can only be enhanced with the release of this new album. Another homegrown talent we should all be getting behind!

THE TUMBLING SOULS - Between The Truth And The Drea

Country music from the Western Isles next, and, yes, it’s a bit different to anything you’ve heard on the mainland.
THE TUMBLING SOULS describe themselves as “Brand new music that sounds old, from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. A super group of local musicians playing cajun, country and folk infused songs”. That sounds pretty accurate to me, if a listen to their new album, “Between The Truth And The Dream” (Wee Studio Records) is anything to go by.
The band is led by Willie Campbell, with Stephen Drummond, Iain Spanish Mackay, David Calum Macmillan, Paul Martin, Keith Morrison, Louisa Maclean Barron and Jane Hepburn Macmillan.
Together they have created a sound, which has a real celtic feel to it, whilst embracing everything from Country and Folk, through to Cajun, bluegrass and even a bit of 60’s pop.
The latter is especially evident on “Heart To My Soul”, with superb harmonies.
The opening track, “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” recreates the sound of Scottish folk – country bands like The Clydesiders, and is a perfect introduction to the CD. 
“City Of Adelaide” is the catchiest folk song on the album, telling the story of a great grandfather sailing with Scottish emigrants down under. It’s a great wee tune. 
“Wishing My Time” has a superb bluegrass style harmony intro, leading into a superb Country foot tapper.
“Dance A Little Better” is a catchy little number, which reminded me a bit of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It has a nice Cajun feel to it. “Rain And Clay” and the closing “Years Go By” are also good catchy upbeat numbers.
 Stand out Country track for me has to be “Torn In Different Ways”, a mid tempo number, which I really enjoyed.
They slow down the tempo on a couple of numbers, including “King Of The Moon” and “My Foundation”, not to mention “Stornoway at 2am”, which is a really strong song.
Recorded in Berneray, with all songs written by Willie, this is a really interesting, and refreshing album. One you should really check out.

LONGSTAY - Calling Me Home

Perth has a long tradition of bands playing original Country Rock music, and LONGSTAY are the latest to join the list. Malcolm Swan and Callum Campbell front the band, with George Staniforth, Cameron McCafferty and Drew Spark-Whitworth. Originally formed as a trio in 2014, they quickly became regulars on the local music scene, and have grown to a 5 piece full country sound with the addition of drums, bass and piano. Despite having this 4 year pedigree on the live circuit, the average age of the band is still only 17!
Now comes their debut album, “Calling Me Home” (Goldrush Records), recorded in their hometown at Clearwater studios, produced by Gavin JD Munro (frontman from The Red Pine Timber Company).
Their musical influences range from Creedence Clearwater Revival through Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, right up to current day artists such as Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton. This heady mix is apparent in their own songs which form the core of their debut album.
All but three of the songs were written by Callum Campbell. The exceptions are John Fogerty’s “Lodi” and Chris Stapleton’s “Fire Away”, alongside Gavin Munro’s “A Ring Of Fire”.
The album kicks off with “Mariah”, an upbeat, guitar driven number, which is a good opener. Most of the album is quite upbeat. Stand out tracks include “My Turn”, which has quite a rocky beat, but the harmonies really shine through.  The closing track, “Leaving” is also really upbeat, with the addition of trombone and trumpet, courtesy of Chris Small. A bit of Red Pine influence coming through here.
“Too Long” and “Summerton” are a bit more mellow, although not what I’d call ballads.
One song, which is very much a ballad, is “Remember”, from which the title track comes from. It’s piano led, and again features some impressive harmonies. It has quite a celtic feel to it too. A bit different from any of the other tracks, but works well for them.
“Thoughts I Cant Find” is also a pleasant ballad, this time, guitar led.
“Forever”, has an impressive harmony led intro, before developing into quite a radio friendly pop-py number.
It is certainly more Country-Rock than mainstream Nashville, but for a team of Perth teenagers, this is one really strong debut album. We’re certainly going to hear more of them. That’s for sure!

RAYMIE WILSON - Missed Trains, Absent Lovers & Broken Whiskey Bottles

RAYMIE WILSON is something of a Glasgow musical institution. He’s been playing in the city bars since before he was age to get into such places, played on cruise ships, in a Hendrix tribute band, and with The Legendary Ladies of Rock’n’Roll in Singapore. He later found musician roles touring with Joseph And His Technicolour Dreamcoat”, and “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers”.
All the time, Raymie was jotting down ideas for songs, and thankfully decided to record his original material on several CD’s & EP’s over the past few years.
His latest collection, “Missed Trains, Absent Lovers & Broken Whiskey Bottles” has just been released. The first few tracks, including on the title track, and “Ward 53”, offer quite a raw guitar sound.
There are two very different tracks with the same title. “Chicago Saint (Pt 1)”, is quite bluesy, whilst Part 2, with a bit of banjo flavouring, sounds a bit more Country.
By contrast, “Boy On A Bridge” is quite a story song, with almost a gospel feel to it.
The banjo is prominent again on “Fallen Trees”, a real bluegrassy number, which Raymie’s gravelly vocals really fit quite nicely.
I also enjoyed “The Preacher And The Hobo”, which had quite an upbeat Celtic feel, mixed with Native American overtones.
“The Last Number”, which conveniently closes the album, is probably the straightest Country number, a well constructed ballad, with some nice steel guitar presence.
It’s an interesting album from Raymie, who Glasgow based readers can catch at The Snafflebit (Oct 13th), Blackfriars (Oct 21st/Nov 25th, or Mondays at The Beer Cellar.
www.raymiewilson.com