Etenesh Wassie & Mathieu Sourisseau
Yene Alem
(Buda Musique, 2018)
more details
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Singer-songwriter Charlie Jackson is backed by his band The Heartland Railway. Alternative country inspired by Jason Isbell, Dwight Yoakam, and Ryan Adams among others.
320 kbps | 122 MB | LINKS
“Find A Light” feels like a victory lap, a ticker tape parade, a celebration if you like of everything they’ve done up to this point. It’s 13 songs are exactly what you expect from them – hell, more than that, it’s what you want from them.
That’s not to say that it all follows the same formula, in fact there is a hypnotic, fuzzy side to “Flesh And Bone” but Charlie Starr – who wrote or co-wrote all these songs- has the kind of voice that suggests he was reared on “Simple Man” and he’s only going to sound one way.
“Run Away From It All” is a classic in all senses. At once familiar, but brilliantly, classily done. Destined to be a real favourite, there is a papable sense of contentment. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” sings Starr, “baby we can run away from it all” and there is an escapism – and yes entertainment – here.
“The Crooked Kind” has a kind of garage rock urgency about it, and the line about “got to grab hold of something” is perhaps a reminder to themselves to keep riding this wave, while “Medicate My Mind” makes no bones about the fact that it is as blissed out as a man can get, and it ain’t moving for nobody.
The fact is, that like AC/DC, say, or Iron Maiden, BS have a natural way of sounding. “I’ve Got This Song” is a gorgeous blue collar ballad, with a country tinge and it sounds perfect, “Best Seat In The House” rivals Eric Church for the rockin’ honky-tonk title, and the quite brilliant “I’ll Keep Ramblin’” (featuring Robert Randolf) casts them as fire and brimstone preachers of the Rock N Roll variety.
“Seems So Far” deals with the last ten years in laid back fashion, and the big ol’ groove to “Lord Strike Me Dead” is not one to mess with and the sound of summer is all over “Let Me Down” which sees Amanda Shires provide fine harmonies, but the feel is at odds with lyrics – about the only time on this record where anyone sounds fragile.
A collection full of highlights probably has its absolute gem in the form of “Nobody Gives A Damn” – this album’s “Shakin’ Hands With The Holy Ghost” perhaps? – but it provides an erudite attack on those who chase fleeting fame.
Not something you could ever level at Blackberry Smoke, that. They’ve paid their dues and they will reap the rewards, which is why “Till The Wheels Fall Off” is as unapologetic as it gets, and why “Mother Mountain” is so happy to sound like it came out in the late 1960s and was written in a commune somewhere in the desert.
So this record has its subtleties of course, but put bluntly, you don’t buy a Blackberry Smoke record, or go and see them live to be “challenged”, there’s a time and place for that, maybe. Here, though, you want this. You want “Find A Light”, moreover, so do they, and that’s why this is so very good.
Tracks:
01. Flesh And Bone
02. Run Away From It All
03. The Crooked Kind
04. Medicate My Mind
05. I’ve Got This Song
06. Best Seat In The House
07. I’ll Keep Ramblin’ (feat. Robert Randolph)
08. Seems So Far
09. Lord Strike Me Dead
10. Let Me Down Easy (feat. Amanda Shires)
11. Nobody Gives A Damn
12. Till The Wheels Fall Off
13. Mother Mountain (feat. The Wood Brothers)
192 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Americana artist Don Gallardo will release his new album Still Here on April 27.The follow-up to Gallardo’s 2016 record Hickory and funded in part by the fans,Still Here places an emphasis on Gallardo creating songs with other writers, which is a first for him; his past four records had very few collaborations on them. Per the press release, the 12 songs on Still Here were written by Gallardo with contributions from seven different songwriters: Tim Easton, Carey Ott, Mando Saenz, Luke Amelang, Robby Hecht, Doug Williams, David Borné and Jesse Cole.
With a variety of writers comes a variety of different songs, from tracks about past relationships and family to observations on the music industry and even observations about the late 16th century. Who doesn’t want to listen to a song about what happened between 1501 and 1600? Not only is Don Gallardo working with new voices, but he’s telling all kinds of new stories.
The record is a fully hands-on effort for Gallardo, as Tuesday’s release notes that he’s not only a co-songwriter but also self-produced the record alongside producers David Pinkston and Dylan Alldredge. Although he’s reaching out to other creatives to broaden his musical horizons, that doesn’t mean he’s any less involved in every aspect of his upcoming album. Aside from the successful Indiegogo campaign to make the record, he’s writing the songs, producing the music and lining up a spring 2018 tour ahead of the record release.
