LIVE: Knotfest Australia (Brisbane), 2024
KNOTFEST 2024 RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane, May 24 by Samuel J. Fell [First published in Rolling Stone (online), March 2024] I was somewhere out the back of Machinery Hill when the Jack Daniels began to take hold. You know, to paraphrase. But there were bats. Lots of bats. Swooping low, big wing-span bats; fruit bats, lodging in the …
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ALBUM – Catherine Britt
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, July 21] COUNTRY Catherine Britt Catherine Britt & The Cold Cold Hearts (ABC Music/Universal) 3.5/5 Catherine Britt knows country music, and as such her seventh studio record bristles with knowhow. Instrumentation courtesy of Michael Muchow, Andy Toombs and Australian legend Bill Chambers lend it the …
ALBUM – Shannon Shaw
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, June 16] Rock/Pop/Roots Shannon Shaw Shannon In Nashville (Easy Eye Sound) 3.5/5 Well versed in the ragged and raw, coming as she does from a garage-punk background via the long-running Shannon & The Clams, Shannon Shaw shows on …
ALBUM – Dave Hole
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, May 26] BLUES Dave Hole Goin’ Back Down (Independent / Only Blues Music) 3.5/5 Most people, at 69 years of age, begin to slow down – not so blues maestro Dave Hole. Releasing his tenth record this month, the Perth-based Hole has actually turned it …
ALBUM – Joshua Hedley
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, April 28] COUNTRY/AMERICANA Joshua Hedley Mr. Jukebox (Third Man Records / ADA) 4.5/5 In the grand tradition of old-timey country crooning comes Joshua Hedley’s debut record, an album that aches with sorrow, with longing, with memories of times gone spent crying into beers over lost …
ALBUM – Courtney Marie Andrews
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, March 31] AMERICANA/ROOTS Courtney Marie Andrews MAY YOUR KINDNESS REMAIN (Fat Possum Records / Inertia) 3.5/5 In Rough Around The Edges, a sparse piano-accompanied track from Courtney Marie Andrews’ second full-length record, the 26-year-old Arizona native sings of “The beauty in simple things.” She sings …
Album – Neil Young & Promise Of The Real
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 30] NEIL YOUNG & PROMISE OF THE REAL The Visitor Reprise Records / Warner Australia Neil Young is Canadian, but he loves the USA. It’s of these two facts that we’re reminded straight up, via the first two lines of Young’s new studio album, and …
Album – Suicide Swans
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 11] SUICIDE SWANS Augusta NearEnoughRecords With second long-player Augusta, Toowoomba quintet Suicide Swans have endeavoured to expand their sonic repertoire – a common aspiration as a band approaches that difficult second record. More often than not however, a band falls into the trap of broadening too far, sacrificing cohesion …
Album – Catherine Traicos
[Published in the Spectrum section of The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 11] FOLK/ROOTS Catherine Traicos LUMINAIRE (Independent) 4/5 Singer-songwriter Catherine Traicos’s sixth record, Luminaire, was reportedly the most difficult for the Melbourne-based artist to pull together. Three years in the making and almost not seeing the light of day, Traicos has said she didn’t know if she’d …
LIVE – Out On The Weekend Festival, 2017
[Published in Rolling Stone (Aust.), November 2017] OUT ON THE WEEKEND – Seaworks, Williamstown (Melbourne) – October 14, 2017 Leather-soled boots crush Melbourne Bitter cans against cracked concrete, the flattened discs frisbeed into yellow-topped bins. Cigarettes are rolled and zippo lighters flicked – metallic chink – plumes of smoke wreathing around black-banded cowboy hats. Pearl button-snaps, sideburns half …
LIVE – Mullum Music Festival 2017
[Published in Rolling Stone (Australia), November 2017] SLOUCHING TOWARDS MULLUM Mullum Music Festival, November 17-19, 2017 – Mullumbimby, NSW The rain starts around midnight. Friday. Fat drops, cold for November. Stiff breeze off the ocean, pushes the wind chimes around a bit and they tinkle melodically in protest. The palms dance in the dark; I …
LIVE – Byron Bay Bluesfest, 2017
[Published in Rolling Stone (Aust.), April 2017] Bluesfest 2017 – A Celebration Of Eclecticism, by Samuel J. Fell Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay – April 13-17 (for all pics by Carl Neuman, head to the Rolling Stone website here for slideshow…) While the others get their bags from the back of the truck, pull on boots …
ALBUM – The Rolling Stones
[Published in Rhythms magazine, January/February 2017] The Rolling Stones Blues & Lonesome Polydor A few years ago I read with great interest Keith Richards’ biography. The most fascinating parts, to me anyway, were his descriptions of the origins of The Rolling Stones, and the blues music that so fuelled their desire to play – it’s this music then …
ALBUM – Wayne Hancock
[Published in The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age, December 09/2016] Wayne Hancock Slingin’ Rhythm Bloodshot Records With his eleventh studio album, Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock has proven, once again, that he is indeed the master of juke joint swing. The Austin, Texas-based Hancock, who’s been active since the late ‘70s (although not releasing his debut …
ALBUM – Archie Roach
[Published in Rolling Stone, November 2016] Archie Roach Let Love Rule Liberation Music Archie Roach’s tenth record is a gem. At its core is the theme of love, but overall it’s an eleven song-long message of hope, “what I wish for” as Roach himself says. Covering a range of styles, Let Love Rule centres around his …
LIVE – Mullum Music Festival, 2016
[Published in Rolling Stone, November 2016] THE MAGIC OF MULLUM, by Samuel J. Fell Mullumbimby Music Festival Mullumbimby, NSW November 18-20, 2016 You can hear it long before you can see it. A New Orleans-style second line street parade, starting down by the Council chambers, slowly making its way up Burringbar street. It’s all brass, trombones and trumpets, …
ALBUM – Jordie Lane
[Published in Rolling Stone, October 2016] Jordie Lane & The Sleepers Glassellland Blood Thinner Records / MGM It’s been a while between drinks for Jordie Lane, but as his new studio effort attests, he’s not lost anything in the interim. GLASSELLLAND is Lane in vintage form, his strong and warm voice framing a set of songs …
LIVE – Out On The Weekend, 2016
[Published in Rolling Stone, OCTOBER 2017] AMERICANA FESTIVAL LETS LINEUP SHINE BRIGHT, WRITES SAMUEL J. FELL Out On The Weekend Seaworks, Williamstown (Melbourne) Saturday October 15, 2016 There’s a gale warning for Port Phillip Bay, although one doesn’t need a warning. Winds batter windowpanes and shake down trees, limbs flailing and cracking, the power of it all …
ALBUM – Matt Malone
[Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, July 08/2016] Matt Malone S.I.X Heart Of The Rat Records A “unique fusion of the traditional and avant-garde” is how Matt Malone’s debut album is described, and for once it’s not merely publicity hot air. Stripped and bare in the outlaw country tradition but with the menace and slow stabbing guitar …