June Tabor
Topic 70 @ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London ••••
September 18, 2009
Though she keeps up a fairly consistent touring schedule these days, a London appearance by June Tabor has become a rarity and, therefore, something to be treasured. Having been performing live for over 30 years now, she remains a thoroughly commanding, singular stage presence and was the ideal choice to bring the 70th anniversary celebrations of Topic Records to a close. As is often the case with Tabor, tonight’s show was organised thematically, in this case focusing on songs reflecting upon the relationship of the British people to the sea. The selection of material was solid and in some cases surprising, including many songs that Tabor has not yet recorded, encompassing the dolorous and the humorous, the intimate and the epic, the ancient and the contemporary. Surrounded by a superlative quartet of her regular musicians – Huw Warren on piano, Mark Emerson on violin/viola, Andy Cutting on accordion and Tim Harries on double bass – she supplemented the songs with instrumentals and a couple of poems and prose pieces, all thoughtfully and elegantly sequenced.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, christina courtin, music
Christina Courtin
Christina Courtin •••½
Nonesuch
Christina Courtin’s label-debut album throws the listener some unexpected curves. Touted as a purveyor of light country-tinged jazz, in the Norah Jones mould, Courtin proves herself to be a more idiosyncratic and experimental artist than that flawed comparison suggests. This is an engaging, pleasingly confounding collection of songs, the most memorable of which turn out to be somewhat closer in spirit to Joanna Newsom than Norah Jones. An alumna of Juilliard, where she studied the violin, Courtin’s previous collaborators have been a diverse bunch, including Yo-Yo Ma, Teddy Thompson, Ryan Adams, Dawn Upshaw and Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov. While none of those big names turn up here, Courtin has nonetheless surrounded herself with a dependable cast of musicians, including drummer Jim Keltner, keyboardist Benmont Tench, guitarist Marc Ribot, pedal steel supremo Greg Leisz, Punch Brothers violinist Gabe Witcher and the venerable Jon Brion.
Filed under: album, mp3, review, video | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, diane birch, music
Diane Birch
Bible Belt •••½
S-Curve
The fact that Diane Birch’s debut album conjures the sprit of 1960s/70s soul and singer-songwriter pop – LaBelle-era Laura Nyro, Carole King, Karen Carpenter, Dusty Springfield, even Elton John – might not make the record seem like the most attractive prospect to potential listeners. After all, another album in thrall to all things retro would seem to be just about the last thing the world needs right now. But, with Bible Belt, Birch – a Michigan-born preacher’s daughter who spent her childhood in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia – delivers a likeable, well-crafted and surprisingly fresh-sounding record that’s strong enough to overcome most of one’s reservations.
Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, bonnie 'prince' billy, holly throsby, music, will oldham
Holly Throsby
A Loud Call ••••
SRD / Woo Me!
A Loud Call is a nicely ironic album title for Holly Throsby, creator of some of the quietest, gentlest, least assertive music of recent years. The Sydney singer-songwriter’s two previous albums, 2004’s On Night and 2006’s Under The Town were both spare, low-key, unassuming affairs, steeped in rural imagery and sensitive observations and crowned by Throsby’s distinctive warm and sleepy vocals. The title of A Loud Call does not, as it turns out, presage any major developments in Throsby’s signature style. The atmosphere remains mostly hushed and intimate, the instrumentation acoustic, with Throsby’s sensuous voice (sounding better than ever) right up front. Nonetheless, Throsby expands her palette subtly on this, her most collaborative record.
Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, music, shawn colvin, thea gilmore
Thea Gilmore
Recorded Delivery ••••
Fulfill
Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin Live •••
Nonesuch
In this modern age, when a concert can end up on YouTube just a few hours after its occurrence, you might expect the live album to have been deemed to have outlived its usefulness. In fact, it remains a surprisingly popular form, particularly for those artists who are less comfortable in the studio, whose music only really lives and breathes in front of an audience, and whose fans desire some kind of official, decently mastered record of their concert work. While it’s unlikely that these two releases – Thea Gilmore’s first live document, Shawn Colvin’s second – will make much of a dent beyond the artists’ usual constituency of admirers, each is a pretty satisfying listen. Despite the differences in their ages and approaches, Gilmore and Colvin’s work bears comparison. Both are sophisticated, literate songwriters working in the roots-rock idiom, whose music combines intelligent observation, introspection and social comment.
Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, gretchen peters, music, tom russell
Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell
One To The Heart, One To The Head •••
Western Songs
Once a staple of the country genre, the male/female duet album has made something of a comeback of late, with Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler’s likeable All The Roadrunning (2006) and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s phenomenally successful Raising Sand (2007) just a couple of recent examples. It seems that many contemporary listeners would agree with the words of John Prine, whose 1999 album In Spite Of Ourselves found the lucky Mr. Prine duetting with Harris, Iris DeMent, Dolores Keane, Lucinda Williams, Patty Loveless and others: “There’s something about two people singing to each other or about each other and finally with each other that sounds really good to me.”
Filed under: album, review | Tags: 2009, alan pedder, alex ramon, music, tori amos
Tori Amos
Abnormally Attracted To Sin •••
Island
With her tenth studio album Abnormally Attracted To Sin becoming her fourth in a row to clock in at over 75 minutes, it’s time to face facts: Tori Amos is, in the most literal sense, generous to a fault. What’s more, it’s a fault that gets more and more frustrating with each overstuffed biannual offering. Equally cursed and blessed with a gift that keeps on giving, Amos could justifiably lay claim to the title of the hardest working person in the industry, and there is much to be admired in her tenacity and acumen. But where is the line between the desire to provide and a staggering lack of editorial control? Somewhere, Amos has crossed it.
Filed under: album, mp3, review, video | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, annie clark, music, st vincent
St. Vincent
Actor ••••
4AD
Annie Clark’s 2007 debut Marry Me was rapturously received by practically everybody, with critics falling over themselves to hail the arrival of a distinctive new art-rocker – one who’d already paid her dues as a collaborator with Sufjan Stevens and a member of The Polyphonic Spree – and favourable comparisons to Bowie and Bush flew thick and fast. To some (OK, apparently very few) of us, Marry Me sounded a little posed and cluttered, its arrangements consistently inventive but sometimes over-elaborate, its lyrics more clever-clever than actually insightful. But there was no denying that the album’s strongest tracks – the dynamic opener ‘Now, Now’, the mind-blowing ‘Paris Is Burning’, the seductive closing kiss-off ‘What Me Worry’ – clearly picked out Clark as a compelling artist to watch.
That promise is confirmed by the eagerly anticipated Actor, an album that finds Clark honing and developing her idiosyncratic artistic vision. Co-produced with Spree colleague and Modest Mouse associate John Congleton, the album teams Clark with some new collaborators, among them Hideaki Aomori, Alex Sopp (Björk, Phillip Glass) and Midlake’s McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander. As before, Clark operates her own extraordinary arsenal of instruments, and her arranging and performance skills remain pretty astonishing. (Only Mike Garson’s inimitable piano-playing, a highlight of Marry Me, is sadly missed here.) Anyone who struggled with the restlessness of Marry Me may not find some of their reservations entirely assuaged by Actor – if anything, it is more relentless and aggressive in its quest for fresh, strange sounds – but the end result is unquestionably a highly accomplished and rewarding piece of work.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: alex ramon, music, 2009, nickel creek, sara watkins, john paul jones
Sara Watkins
Sara Watkins ••••
Nonesuch
This solo debut from Nickel Creek singer and fiddle player Sara Watkins finds her carving out her own distinctive niche in contemporary American roots music with thoroughly appealing results. Sympathetically produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones (who follows in Robert Plant’s footsteps by making inroads into the current Americana scene), the album takes a typically collaborative approach, teaming Watkins at various times with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Tim O’Brien and Benmont Tench, plus Nickel Creek bandmates Chris Thile and brother Sean Watkins. The result is a pleasing collection that mixes exuberant Creek-esque instrumentals with introspective Watkins-penned ballads and well-chosen covers that connect Watkins both to old-timey country traditions and contemporary singer-songwriter pop.
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, alex ramon, music, rachael yamagata
Rachael Yamagata
Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart •••½
Warner
British listeners have been made to wait quite a while for the official UK appearance of Rachael Yamagata’s second full-length album, a double-disc set that came out in the US and Japan last October, after originally being slated for a 2007 release. But good things come to those who wait, and Yamagata’s album is certainly a good thing. Not a great one, by any means, but a sensitive and engaging record that builds on the promise of her 2004 debut Happenstance and is marred mainly by its rather clumsy two-part structure.
