There was a fire today across the street. After sticking some strawberry bread in the oven I was lying on the floor in front of the fan, trying to visualize ice - or turn myself into it - and the street filled with sirens... and then more sirens... really close... I jerked up, thinking that maybe my strawberry bread was under attack (the oven in the new apartment and I are still getting to know each other), but she was not the cause of the emergency. I popped my head out the window and no less than EIGHT fire engines were lining my street, along with four or five cruisers and an ambulance! I was shocked that eight trucks could even fit on my street.

I imagine I looked something like this:

(and when the action started to dwindle...)

Though I didn't have anyone to take self-portraits with, I did get to meet my neighbor and her beautiful plants out on the fire escape. I took a bunch of pictures for my sister, who feels for fireman as I do for musicians. And, yes, there is an undeniable allure:

Fortunately no one needed to be rescued - I don't think anyone was home. Apparently the people in that building have jobs or something... hmm. A couple windows suffered dearly and I'm sure someone is going to need new wallpaper - what an awful thing to come home to. I was very impressed with the NYFD response. And dear god they must have been hot.

The past couple weeks have flown - catching up with a lot of old friends and meeting new ones. I've written a few new songs I'm excited about... and I am still in love with my apartment, the oven that it is. I leave water in the tub all day and dunk my head periodically. On the subject of heat, the men in Manhattan have gotten significantly cuter since I last lived here - right now I'm in a cafe and my laptop is strategically positioned so that I can discretely admire one of the most beautiful creatures ever to eat vegan pancakes. It's almost painful. Who knew a mohawk could be so angelic?

I went to see The Bacchae at Lincoln Center last week to chill out and get uptown for a few hours. Visually, it was fantastic and very inventive - Alan Cumming was masterful - but I struggled with the synthesized music and I agree with The Times that the tragic ending was abrupt (and yet seemed to drag on and on - we know you killed your son! Stop whining and get back to the wine!) Anyway, above is a picture I snapped of the Allen Room beforehand.

Lastly, here are a couple pictures of me playing on the Telluride main stage. They were taken by one of the incredible festival organizers of Planet Bluegrass. I just found out that I am one of ten finalists (out of nearly 700 entries!) in the Folks Festival next month, which means I'll be heading back to Colorado to play with Jakob Dylan (and possibly marry him so that I may finally reunite with my daddy), Josh Ritter, Patty Griffin, KT Tunstall, Amos Lee, and lots of other wonderful musicians.

A lot of you have sent me links to pictures that you've taken at shows - thank you! I am going to devote a section of the site to photos by you, so if you have any feel free to send me a link (no attachments, please)! Stay cool and see you soon.

"we are swimming with the snakes at the bottom of the well
so silent and peaceful in the darkness where we fell
but we are not snakes and what's more we never will be
if we stay swimming here forever we will never be free" 

1983 - U2, War
1984 - Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
1985 - The Cure, The Head on the Door
1986 - Crowded House, Crowded House
1987 - Guns N' Roses, Appetite for Destruction
1988 - The Bangles, Everything
1989 - The Cure, Disintegration
1990 - Temple of the Dog, Temple of the Dog
1991 - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
1992 - Frente, Marvin the Album
1993 - Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream | Counting Crows, August & Everything After
1994 - Hole, Live Through This | Green Day, Dookie | Live, Throwing Copper
1995 - Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
1996 - Tool, Aenima
1997 - Radiohead, Ok Computer
1998 - Alanis Morissette, SFIJ | Smashing Pumpkins, Adore
1999 - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication | Live, The Distance To Here
2000 - Smashing Pumpkins, Machina: The Machines of God
2001 - Incubus, Morning View
2002 - Audioslave, Audioslave | Frou Frou, Details
2003 - Placebo, Sleeping With Ghosts
2004 - The Killers, Hot Fuss
2005 - Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
2006 - Amy Winehouse, Back To Black
2007 - Patty Griffin, Children Running Through

War is an interesting animal. It carries a variety of symbols. Its images are powerful. Patty sings from the perspective of a loved one, first person. Meg takes it to the second person, as if conversing with the returned soldier who took his own life. Both artists incorporate ribbons. Reminders. Both remind us of the feelings involved, that human beings fight in wars and they confront other humans, many of them innocent. And how do people deal? How do they handle the loss, the trauma, the agony? Go and type. Make pies. Self-medicate into a funnel of depression. The woman feels helpless. Jeffrey Lucey felt helpless.

I guess you can push through the day until enough time passes and it doesn't hurt as much. I guess you can write songs and sing sadly. I guess you can petition the military mental health organizations to improve their PTSD programs. I guess you can mourn for the little bit of yourself that has died inside when someone you love has died way too young fighting a war that seems to have no end. Pies were her end; getting to the end of each day moved her along. Jeffrey Lucey, though, he could only see one ending. It had gotten to be too much.

When I went to the Pomegranate Gallery to look at Iraqi art, my mind spun with curiosity and a strange sympathy. Almost all the art were portrayals of war and divided nations. All dark, solid, jagged lines and aggressive strokes with thick, unhampered textures. A lot of intertwined themes involving the colors of Iraq's flag and the idea of stitching together the Sunnis and Shiites and Kurds. Walking through that gallery moved me. I couldn't understand the history and the bloodshed and the tradition. I don't get the oil and the power and the politics. This isn't going to end anytime soon.

mind procession

looking back

following the trail

looking down

they keep attacking

looking out

but we bury those

looking up 

WANDA JACKSON & THE LUSTRE KINGS

Every Night is Saturday Night- About Wanda Jackson and her roll in the birth of rock-n-roll

Wednesday June 25, 8pm High Noon Saloon 608.268.1122 $15 adv $17 dos - 21+

BUY TICKETS NOW !

-------------------

Also don't miss crooners

ROSE POLENZANI (born in our own Waukesha WI)

"Evocative stories that one wants to curl up with, like a cherished book..." says Time Out New York

"Somewhere in-between the raw emotion of singer Patty Griffin and the poetry of Anne Sexton, you'll find Rose Polenzani."
 -Utne Reader

Lots of free downloads, check 'em out then buy her albums at the show!

Rose Polenzani- Blue Angel, 2004 August

Rose Polenzani- Explain it to me, 2004 August

Rose Polenzani- Merzidotes, 2004 Tabletop People

Rose Polenzani- Fell, 2001 Rose Polenzani

Rose Polenzani- Mary Lee, 2001 Rose Polenzani

Rose Polenzani- Or (featuring the Indigo Girls), 1999 Anybody

Rose Polenzani- Abalin (featuring Andrew Bird), 1999 Anybody

Rose Polenzani- You Dont Know, 1998 Dragersville

Rose Polenzani- In The Middle, 1998 Dragersville

+

MEG HUTCHINSON

"I've heard it said that we become writers not because words come easily to us, but because we are always struggling to find the right words. I know this to be true in my own life. Every day I'm struck by something that leaves me speechless. Usually it's something very simple, very ordinary..

Of all the possible words, in every possible combination, what are the right ones for that moment? What are the words that have never been used before to describe something we all know? That's what I'm after." -Meg Hutchinson

Seeing Stars- Meg Hutchinson

with special guest ROSE COUSINS Friday, June 27, 6:30 pm early start time High Noon Saloon 608.268.1122 $10 -

18+

BUY TICKETS NOW !

Fourth person to email MJ@TrueEndeavors.com with the show in the subject line will get through the doors for free with a friend!

We will always respect your information

By the way, these songs are on my most 25 played on my Nano - the first may start a bit slow but toward the middle and end, it definitely picks up. The video's not one of the best I've ever seen but the song is one of my better running ones.

Snow Patrol, Open Your Eyes

And, on the more mellow side of things, Patty Griffin, Heavenly Day.  My suggestion is that after a run, lie down on the grass and look up at the clouds like she says in the song. I did that recently, and I felt instantly much younger and less stressed. Guess I should have done that a few times or listened to this song a few more times this week at work.  I'm happy to say I've been to at least one of the places shown here.

I'll be back online sometime on the 28th. Keep on blogging so I have a lot of reading to catch up on when I get back! And of course, happy running.

I'll be sure to post some pictures (with Bubbleshare, now that thanks to Penny, I know about that and wordpress looks to support it) of the Cape, maybe some whales if we see them, especially for you landlocked souls, and the New Charles River Run.  We may go to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket for a day, not sure yet. Anyway, it'll be nice to unplug for a little while, ya know? (Please believe me when I say you don't want to know what real estate on those islands costs. It's a whole different world, that we just visit by ferry.)

Thanks to everyone for reading, especially these last few weeks when I was down on my running. Knowing that there are others out there going through it at the same time makes things a little easier, and of course the moral support is wonderful.  Thank you.

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Katiejane Garside
Darling, they've found the body: an exhibition ••••
Woom Gallery, Birmingham

For those of you who have followed her from the early days of Daisy Chainsaw through to her current band, Queenadreena, Katiejane Garside's debut art exhibition, 'Darling, they've found the body' is not to be missed. Currently on display at Woom in Birmingham's famous Jewellery Quarter, 'Darling...' presents a whole new side to one of rock music's most underrated frontwomen. Despite already boasting an enviable array of talents, Garside recently decided to throw her hat into the ring of the art world. Having often been the source of great speculation and controversy in the media, she has always seemed enigmatic, eccentric, and, according to her more cynical critics, utterly mad. 'Darling...' offers the chance to learn more about what makes Garside tick and what has propelled her this far into what has been a fascinating career to date.

Firstly, if you're planning on going, there is the issue of getting to the venue. Unless you're familiar with the city, it can be a long and confusing walk to the exhibition, so I recommend that you take a taxi or train there. The distance from Birmingham New Street Station and Woom is reasonable, so a taxi should not cost any more than four to five pounds, and is the quickest option by far. You will find it next to the jewellery college in Vittoria Street, where you are given a friendly greeting by the owners upon entry. Admission is free, but they have a wide selection of related merchandise at agreeable prices at the front desk should you wish to have something to remember your visit by.

Coming to the first room of the exhibition, you are immediately greeted with facets of Garside's life and mind, hanging from every wall, in every corner, as clips from her recent solo musical project Lalleshwari play in the background. Although it's not overwhelming, you immediately realise that you are seeing a sizeable part of Garside's personal life laid wide open for others to see. At first it feels slightly voyeuristic but you soon become accustomed to it, knowing that she would not display these things if she didn't want people to see.

Among the first things you will notice as you get your bearings are the displays on the walls of letters, bills, journal entries on old, torn paper and negatives, home-made dresses displayed on surreal mannequins, personal effects arranged in a fireplace, along tables or suspended from the ceiling. She has added to most of the letters with sentences and sketches and self-portraits, showing an impressive and seldom-seen skill for drawing; artefacts in display cases, the most memorable being an old set of scales to which she has stuck taxidermied butterflies, one for each year of her life so far. You'll see photographs both large and small, depicting her in the middle of various moments, some more directly artistic, some candid, each showing subtle glimpses into her private world, past and present; polaroids of her daubing walls with verse in red paint, posing with shop mannequins, some of her in her kitchen or bathroom, blown up to a larger scale - the latter with Garside as nature intended, a mask being the only exception to her nakedness. There is a definite sexual element to them, and the exhibition as a whole, but it's not to make you uneasy. This is Garside being as open and honest as she wants to be. She is somehow simultaneously androgynous and feminine, exuding the aura of one eternally young and pretty.

The videos - one for the exhibition itself and the other a promotional clip for her forthcoming album Ruby Throat - sit at the very end of the exhibition. The first is very much a dark, surreal affair that's centred on a pair of 'dreamdolls' she created: Genica Pussywillow and Sleeplikewolves. It's hard to describe and do justice - watch very carefully and you'll understand what I mean. The Ruby Throat promo, meanwhile, exudes a different kind of mystery and peculiar fragility as Garside moves like a grown-up ragdoll in an overgrown plant-strewn midnight garden, inviting you to come out and play alongside her.

All of these things, though separate little works in their own right, come together to form a window. A window that Garside has put together to allow us to see a little of her world, and, whether or not it was her intention, see that she is as human as any of us. You will walk away feeling you have got to know her, the real her, a little better.

Sean Hudspeth

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Mary Gauthier
Between Daylight & Dark ••••
Lost Highway

There couldn't be a more apt title for this fifth release from Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier. It's plain from a cursory listen that the human dramas set out in these songs inhabit that moral and emotional twilight of the soul implied by the four words - Between Daylight & Dark. Gauthier (for the uninitiated that's pronounced go-shay - no stripy-shirted Gallic fashion pixies here!) and her music are polar extremes to the mullets and Stetsons country of CMT. Not for nothing has her output been labelled ‘country-noir'. Each tune is a small window on a real life full of hope and pain, dignity and disappointment.

If this all sounds a little dour and depressing don't be fooled. This might not be your average party music but sit tight and be rewarded with an authentic emotional experience. Recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs it's the passion of Gauthier's performance that shines through each rootsy track, producing a surprisingly uplifting and energising result - particularly considering some of the subject matter.

Closing track ‘Thanksgiving' is a case in point. A story of visiting relatives in prison on that most family-centred of US holidays it is filed with conflicted poignancy and insight into the dignity of the human soul. Gauthier is quoted as saying "It's absolutely about the words." With lines like "My Grammy looks so old now... / her hands tremble when they frisk her from head to her toes / they make her take her winter coat off and then they frisk her again / when they're done she wipes their touch off her dress, stands tall and heads in", who would dare to argue?

Between Daylight & Dark is the very definition of a grower. A little difficult to like at first listen, but impossible not to love in time.

Trevor Raggatt

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Bebel Gilberto
Momento •••½
V2

Given the principles of nature and nurture it's understandable that Bebel Gilberto, youngest member of the Gilberto bossa nova dynasty, has a remarkable voice. Whether that statement is applied literally to her seductively silky vocals or figuratively to her music's unique blending of trad-Latin rhythms with chillout pop sensibility, it's no less true. Bebel Gilberto has a remarkable voice.

On Momento, her third solo album, Gilberto looks set to cement her place at the leading edge of contemporary flavoured Latin music. The opening track sets the agenda in the clearest terms. This isn't the Rio de Janeiro of carnival - rather the sounds conjure up a reverie composed of a heady mix of laidback Brazilian fragrances. This is a tranquil moment(o) sitting atop the summit of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, soaking in the view of the city nestling amid the forests with a golden beach arcing away into the distance. Or perhaps it's a late afternoon resting on that same strand before wandering into a sophisticated nightclub where the beautiful people slink the night away. The hints of odd electronic noises layered amongst the music only serve to further heighten this otherworldly dreamscape. Blissful!

So intoxicating is this Brazilian cocktail that it's hard to believe that large parts of the disc were recorded in New York and London with avowedly Western producer Guy Sigsworth's fingers on the faders. Still, the music here is 100% Brazilian and 100% designed for the supposedly more sophisticated palate of the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps the wisdom of involving her regular band members alongside Sigsworth's swirling keyboards was the masterstroke needed to lend the required authenticity and consistency in Latin feel and sound. Whatever the reasons, it works in spades.

The original compositions are blended with three inspired covers, ‘Caçada' (written by Gilberto's uncle and famed Brazilian songwriter Chico Barque), ‘Tranquilo' (by the young Rio-based producer Kassin) and finally the Cole Porter classic ‘Night & Day'. This latter track takes on a particularly languid bossa nova feel as Gilberto's voice is supported by simple acoustic guitar and percussion before opening out into a smokier jazz club feel. This, of course, is one of the few English language tracks, but so captivating are the performances across the album that the Portuguese lyrics on the majority of songs go unnoticed. Somehow, sinking into the warm arms of Momento we know Gilberto's seductive meaning all too well.

Trevor Raggatt

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Thea Gilmore
The Threads EP ••••
Self-released

Gilmore's second EP comes six years after the brilliant As If and is her first release since the birth of her son Egan last November. Originally available exclusively from the merchandise desk during her acoustic tour this past Spring, a limited run of The Threads is now available to purchase from www.theagilmore.net. And the good news is that it's more than just a half-hearted collection of acoustic demos or dubious outtakes from her last album proper. The distorted opening chords of ‘Teacher Teacher' dispel both assumptions as electric guitar adds some bite.

This is clearly not acoustic and it's much more English sounding than 2006's Americana flavoured Harpo's Ghost; it feels like something from the Avalanche sessions, perhaps a bit less glossy. ‘Are You Ready?' continues this feel with one of those strangely compelling, hypnotic choruses that Thea writes so well, perfectly offset by Nigel Stonier's swirling guitar and counterpoint vocals. With its typically politicised lyrical bent it's pretty much a classic Gilmore tune.

The sumptuous ‘Icarus Wind' brings the mood right down as Gilmore turns her gaze inwards with perhaps her most tender composition to date. She sounds suddenly vulnerable and emotionally raw, picking out a sparse piano motif and singing slightly higher than usual. It's a trick that worked so well for PJ Harvey recently and Gilmore is almost as convincingly ghostlike. The EP draws to a close with 18th Century traditional Irish ballad, ‘The Parting Glass', again delivered nigh on perfectly with subtle guitar textures and Gilmore's intimately rendered vocal. A church-like ambience adds a welcome tenderness as she creates a holy moment of rejoicing in present company and a remembrance of friends past. Truly gorgeous stuff.

Like As If before it, The Threads EP is a more than worthy addition to Gilmore's already thoroughly impressive canon. And with no plans to ever re-press it once the first limited run is gone, our advice is to grab a copy now or be forced into an eBay bidding frenzy later when you realise you really need this disc. You have been warned.

Trevor Raggatt

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The Go! Team
Proof Of Youth ••
Memphis Industries

Energetic, noisy and hard to ignore, The Go! Team certainly made a name for themselves the first time around. Beginning as the kitchen project of founding member Ian Parton (clearly far too cool for a bedroom project like many others made by one man with no budget) in his mum's house, their 2004 debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike went from being an underground and critical favourite to a Mercury Music Prize nominee through the unbeatable power of word of mouth (albeit with flirtations with major labels along the way). Endless touring, numerous festival appearances and a clutch of EPs later, Parton and his troop of multi-instrumentalists greet us with their second full-length offering Proof Of Youth. Unfortunately, the title is the only thing of any vigour or freshness about the album. What's the difference between this and their debut? Um, very little...really. Proof Of Youth follows the blueprint of Thunder, Lightning, Strike almost step by step, but forgets to bring the spark.

Lead single ‘Grip Like A Vice' is a perfect illustration of what's gone wrong. Where The Go! Team used to excel at mixing well chosen samples and live instrumentation, here it sounds more like they have sampled their previous record than anyone else's. Exactly the same guitar sounds float above identical brass and drum loops, everything seemingly sticking to an if-it-ain't-broke blueprint until even the vocal raps over the top appear identical in tone and arrangement. A weak comeback single that fails to get into gear paves the way for a similarly limp and soulless album. The Avalanches, whose debut album received huge critical and public acclaim, had the sense to leave their cut-and-paste musical efforts confined to one cherished album, presumably because they recognised the limitations of a fun, but ultimately constricting format. By constructing album number two in the same fashion as their last, The Go! Team have left little room for experimentation and have made a record that is, by all accounts, alright, but utterly pointless.

That's not to say it's unpleasant as such; ‘The Wrath Of Marcie' is a sweet track, possibly the album's highlight, but it's really only ‘Feelgood By Numbers' part two. Or part one, but rehashed. There is little shift in the album's tone from start to finish, and at this point in time, the lo-fi production values and slightly too trebly EQ balance begin to grate. Lots of artists and outfits have done this now, particularly in the three years between Thunder, Lightning, Strike's release, re-release and succession. If Parton et al. wanted to repeat the tone of their earlier work, the songwriting should have at least moved on, but it hasn't, and even at it's strongest Proof Of Youth falls flat.

It is less a proof of youth than an admission of immaturity. The Go! Team are still stuck in their career of three years ago, and the only thing really ‘young' here is the level of craftsmanship as the songs are ultimately hollow, lacking either direction or development. Very disappointing.

Rod Thomas

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Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
You Can't Buy A Gun When You're Crying ••••½
Damaged Goods

Holly Golightly is a true, if underappreciated, icon of women in music, having co-founded the all-girl garage band Thee Headcoatees in the early ‘90s (associated with Thee Headcoats and the twisted lyrical world of Billy Childish), and, 13 solo studio albums later, is still producing gems under her own terms. But who the hell are The Brokeoffs? Why they're essentially an ever-revolving band of musicians orbiting around one man, the mysteriously titled Lawyer Dave (real name David Drake, or weren't we supposed to know that?), whose self-released 2005 album Rest Stop marked out a natural collaborator for Ms Golightly - an exquisite piece of musical matchmaking.

Much of Golightly's riotous appeal lies in that she recognises the beauty of blues and rockabilly is that the most important aspect is conveying the essence of borrowed musical roots, not playing it to perfection or being to the manner born. On You Can't Buy A Gun When You're Crying she invites us all to enter her echo-filled room, kick the boxes, tap on every available saucepan and pot and away we go with ‘Devil Do', a hypnotic chant to that ol' horndog Satan. But make sure you listen all the way through as you kick off your shoes to companion piece and closer ‘Devil Don't', a slice of sheer abandon to shambolic sonic joy.

Along the way you'll go ‘Just Around The Bend' as the madame sashays around the saloon with a light fatigue dogging her heels and a tinge of 1930s cabaret chic. Your journeywoman will then lead you through a land of whiskey slouches where ‘Everything You Touch' pays close heed to the sound of Exene Cervenka (former wife of 'Lord Of The Rings' actor Viggo Mortenson) from The Knitters, X and, more recently, the Original Sinners, with lashings of slide guitar and lilting atmosphere. A run-in with the cops will reiterate the album title (apparently a genuine law in the USA) but it won't matter as the song just oozes country cool with its pervading loved and lost scenarios so brilliantly described in the lyrics.

Elsewhere, ‘So Long' is finger-pickin' good with meandering sad lyrics sung as a duet, while ‘Time To Go' maintains the same atmosphere with a train-like chugging rhythm. You're still travelling at this point, no matter what the destination may be. The most haunting locale you'll visit has to be ‘I Let My Daddy Do That'. Golightly takes us to the deeper than deep South and is the most delta-wistful track on the album. Hopeless can be cool after all.

Every bit the rebellious southern belle (one suspects with the heart of a tomboy) and less her alter ego image of the protagonist in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' with whom she shares her name, may Golightly long continue to kick up the dust and the southern blues. Everyone who's prone to a hard luck mood and wants something to sink beers to without feeling tragedy should buy this record post haste for a deliciously languid, lost weekend.

Sara Silver

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Lesley Gore
Ever Since ••••
Engine Co.

You've gotta feel for Lesley Gore, the ‘It's My Party' girl who insisted that she'd cry if she bloody well wanted to thankyouverymuch. After four years in the glaring spotlight in the mid-1960s, she was all but washed up come her early 20s. Even the release of two Carole King-inspired albums couldn't save her career, and she was forced into virtual retirement by the end of the decade, resurfacing sporadically to perform on Golden Oldies tours and talk about how she used to be famous. Now, in 2007, not having released a single note on record since a dodgy collection of covers 25 years ago, Gore has decided it's high time for a comeback.

Of course, comebacks are tricky affairs. One of Gore's peers, Mary Weiss, the innocent, clear-cut voice of The Shangri-Las, unleashed her debut solo album earlier this year more than 40 years on from her last release with the group. It was a mess. The album, recorded as an homage to the era she first fame in, lacked the purity and spark of the original records. Her sound had scarcely progressed one iota and Weiss wound up sounding more like a hokey tribute to herself than the genuine deal. And therein lies the dilemma of the comeback: do you carry along the same route or try and catch the coattails flapping from the top of the nearest passing bandwagon? Should Gore have hired the hitmaker of the moment and sluttily vogued over beats, possibly replicating Cher's success from the late 1990s? No, probably not. Still, it would have been a sight to behold.

Instead, what you will find on Ever Since is thoroughly sensible, middle-of-the-road pop. Which really isn't a bad thing, no matter what the NME might tell you. There is much that will seem familiar on this album, from the warmth of the production (courtesy of one Blake Morgan) to the knowing lyrics. While the arrangements are mostly tasteful and adult contemporary, Gore gives a nod to her past life with the kind of doo-wop harmonies found on her earlier hits. There's even a smart lyrical reference to ‘It's My Party' on the title track, where she coos "All the parties I've been to you were missed", romanticising all those missed opportunities for love.

Also harking backwards, Gore recreates her past hit ‘You Don't Own Me' and the song she co-wrote for ‘80s flick ‘Fame', ‘Out Here On My Own', surprisingly effectively. Elsewhere, the benefits and wisdom of age come to the fore on ‘Not The First', where she caringly chastises a misguided, naïve woman pursuing the wrong guy, delivering lines like "you're not the first to think you'll be the last" with a motherly concern. Ever Since may not be cutting edge but Gore's world-weary vocals, which make her sound like a more accessible present-day Joni Mitchell, are what gives the album a magical touch. Always direct, Gore isn't trying to be something she isn't, or someone she once was, and that's the glue that binds this set together so well.

Keith Anderson

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Patty Griffin
Children Running Through ••••½
ATO

It's a real injustice that the name of Patty Griffin does not reside in the category called ‘household'. Of course this isn't the case for those in the know - Griffin's music has been covered by artists ranging from Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter and The Dixie Chicks to Bette Midler, Jessica Simpson and Solomon Burke - but recognition beyond the cognoscenti is long overdue.

Griffin's music resides in that American folk, pop, country, rock nexus exploited so effectively by Sheryl Crow and many others (although her sensibilities are decidedly more folk and country than that particular wildflower). In fact, the loping talkin' feel of ‘Stay On The Ride' is reminiscent of some of the best of Crow's songs. Having said that, I suspect that the converse is a more accurate statement since the strange, existential tale of a mysterious old man taking a bus ride into destiny could easily have served as a skewed blueprint for Crow's stream of consciousness breakthrough hit, ‘All I Wanna Do'. This strangeness serves to heighten the heartbreak contained in track which follows, the equally chilling and heartwarming ‘Trapeze' - a down-home story of lost love in the circus.

Across the album arrangements are generally sparse, throwing the listener's attention squarely on to Griffin's arresting voice and haunting lyrics. Where fripperies such as strings and horns are applied it's with taste and discretion. One such instance is single ‘Heavenly Day' which also features guest vocals from Emmylou Harris and luscious grand piano from Ian McLagan of The Small Faces. It's a testament to the varied sounds on the album that this is followed up by the jangling dobro, autoharp and Tex-Mex horns of ‘No Bad News' and the stripped back folk of ‘Railroad Wings'.

From the naked opening double bass notes of ‘You'll Remember' to the wistful closer ‘Crying Over', Griffin's pure country tones drill down to the emotional core of the songs, revealing a new dimension of philosophical and metaphysical depth to the American folk-country genre and moving the story-song far beyond simple narrative. Griffin's career to date, has never shown less than brilliance in both in writing and performance but Children Running Through looks set to be a coup de grace, taking her music to new heights and establishing her as another National Treasure of the 50 States.

Trevor Raggatt

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Charlotte Gainsbourg
5:55 •••
Because

If the surname rings a bell - and let's face it, it should - then yes, this is the latest musical offering from the daughter of actress/singer Jane Birkin and her one-time paramour, the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. In many ways, 5:55 could be described as her second debut, coming as it does no less than 20 years after her first, Charlotte For Ever (notable for the controversial single ‘Lemon Incest'), which was entirely penned by her father. She was only 13 when it was recorded. In the interim, Gainsbourg has enjoyed a successful and award-winning career in cinema, appearing in over 30 films - in fact, you will soon be able to see her starring alongside Gael Garcia Bernal in Michel Gondry's hotly anticipated 'The Science Of Sleep' - so it's a wonder she's come back to the music again aged 35. That she has is thanks to meeting Air's Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel at a Radiohead concert, an encounter that led through a fortuitous chain of events to the involvement of producer Nigel Godrich, string arranger David Campbell and lyrical assistance from Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy.

Laidback and jazz-like in spirit, the main comparison that springs to mind when listening to 5:55 is Black Box Recorder. Like Sarah Nixey, Gainsbourg's delivery is arch and sinister at times, most apparent on the claustrophobic in-flight tale of ‘AF607105'. With Cocker's lyrics sketching a very 'Lost In Translation' sense of displacement, Gainsbourg's performance is suitably detached yet welcoming and gorgeously creepy. Then there's the title track, which is a bold way for anyone to introduce an album, let alone someone who's been away from music for so long. Easily the sexiest song on the album, her breathy Gallic tones interpreting more of Cocker's sensitively written words over soft drums and rippling piano. Having said that, ‘Tel Que Tu Es' isn't far behind in the sexy stakes, helped as it is by Gainsbourg singing mainly in French. Later on, however, ‘Little Monsters' proves that this was no mere trick of language.

All this sultriness can get a bit wearing over the course of the album's 40-odd minutes so it's a relief when Gainsbourg lets her sang-froid cool slip a little on ‘Everything I Cannot See', but even amongst the Tori Amos hyper-ballad piano stylings lies a heart that's mostly still. 5:55 is a beautifully arranged album - see how the violins gently usher along the tender vocals of ‘Beauty Mark' - and it's wonderfully constructed, too. It's just that sometimes it appears to be devoid of any real emotion or feeling, and that's a crying shame.

Russell Barker
originally published September 20th, 2006

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Garbage
Bleed Like Me •••½
A&E/Warner

When it comes to the fortunes of Garbage, this reviewer appears to be in something of a minority. While their decade-long career has witnessed an inexorable fall from favour of their moody para-gothic industrial machinations that, to these ears, was never wholly convincing, for me they have matured like a reasonable cheese. So while they've always been on the outer shores of my tastes, this latest release has them fighting the tide and moving further inland.

Making albums has never been easy for Shirley Manson and co. - this is only their fourth in a decade and arrives a full four years after 2001's unworthy BeautifulGarbage. During that time, Manson's marriage collapsed and the band themselves were close to implosion. Drummer Butch Vig went so far as to quit the sessions entirely, and was temporarily replaced by old Nirvana buddy, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, before Vig returned just a few months later, seemingly re-energised. Although opener ‘Bad Boyfriend' retains Grohl's punishing drums, Bleed Like Me is very much a Garbage record, albeit an older, more attractive proposition. The sequencing is appealingly well balanced and the genres it careens through are less ill-advised than those of BeautifulGarbage. There's a hint of playful New Wave revivalism (‘Run Baby Run'), metal-tinged power chords (‘Why Do You Love Me'), synth-pop mechanics (‘Metal Heart') and, most refreshingly, the sinister acoustics and pained whispered vocals of the standout title track. It's a guise worn well and should be further explored if the rumours are wrong and this isn't their swansong.

Recovering from the commercial near-suicide of BeautifulGarbage may have seemed insurmountable even to the casual observer, and Bleed Like Me can certainly be criticised for knowing its audience a little too well (or at least assuming it does). But, the terrible Janet Jackson boobgate-inspired ‘Sex Is Not The Enemy' aside, that's not entirely misjudged. The album provides a decent quality:guff ratio with its danceable, festival-friendly riffs and, if it is to be their last as a unit, a fitting farewell.

Endre Buzogány
originally published November 7th, 2005 

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Anja Garbarek
Briefly Shaking ••••
Angel-A OST •••
EMI

A decade on from her startling English language debut, Balloon Mood, delightfully quirky Norwegian chanteuse Anja Garbarek returns with not one but two new albums, Briefly Shaking and the ‘Angel-A' soundtrack. To be fair, the latter contains little in the way of new material and what's there is largely instrumental. But as the soundtrack to maverick director Luc Besson's (‘The Fifth Element', ‘Léon The Professional') mysterious new film, shot in black and white on the streets of Paris in almost total secrecy, it is more than up to the task. Given that this is Besson's first film without composer Eric Serra, there was a certain element of risk in taking Garbarek on, but Besson is clearly a fan; five old songs are seamlessly scattered among the newer ones.

Of course, the risk was really very tiny. Not only has Garbarek been consistently excellent throughout her career, she also has an outstanding pedigree for this sort of thing, following as she does in the footsteps of her world-famous jazz genius father Jan, who has often dipped a toe into creating musical moods for fiercely independent European cinema. As they have often done in the past, father and daughter collaborate on a number of tracks, notably on new song ‘It's Just A Game' with its jazzy but subdued reassurance that "this is as good as it gets". Don't you believe it though. The sublime ‘No Trace Of Grey' is so convincingly sweet versus sinister that it could well have been recorded at a teddy bears' picnic in, say, the bathroom of cabin one of the Bates Motel.

Sticking with a murderous theme, the actually quite frightening ‘Can I Keep Him?' (the only song to appear on both albums) is written from the point of view of serial killer Dennis Nilsen, who lured several young men back to his home in Muswell Hill, north London [just round the corner from Wears The Trousers HQ!], and chopped them into pieces. It's a towering example of Garbarek's skill as a writer; she plays with the lost pet interpretation of the title and then, as Nilsen kills, the previously serene instrumentation explodes into beats so harsh and aggressive that it sounds like a trio of typewriters at war. Being taken inside the head of a mass murderer is rarely an attractive listen, but Garbarek's portrayal is up there with Sufjan Stevens's John Wayne Gacy Jr. in its almost sympathetic exploration of its subject.

It's little wonder, then, that Garbarek has since remarked that she should have called the album ‘Beauty & The Beast' instead of Briefly Shaking. That title comes from the chorus of the excellent first single ‘The Last Trick' with its dark lyrical content, candied vocals and unsettlingly perky backing. It was written as Garbarek was struggling with her muse after giving birth to her daughter and could well have been her swansong had it not been for the thunderbolts of inspiration found in tales of horror and crime. ‘Sleep', for instance, tells the story of a woman who was kidnapped and locked in an underground bunker but works equally well as a metaphor for her burdening creative imprisonment.

The most keenly felt difference between 2001's Smiling & Waving and Briefly Shaking lies in the addition of drums, particularly on songs like ‘Dizzy With Wonder', a thunderously intense and dramatic number in which Garbarek plays the role of an observer surveying some twisted, post-industrial landscape, and ‘Shock Activities', with its slightly overblown kickass rock bits and unexpected mid-song shift into a cod-Gwen Stefani breakdown but with far greater charm. Other highlights include ‘My Fellow Riders', with its piping keys and gently throbbing electro pulses, and ‘This Momentous Day', an ecstatically unpredictable monster that juxtaposes flute and strings with grinding guitars and coolly passionate vocals.

Having said all that, while Briefly Shaking is easily Garbarek's darkest album to date, it's also her most accessible and lavish. Motherhood certainly hasn't reined in either her knack for telling unusual stories or her beguling way with a drop-dead gorgeous melody. Considering that she doesn't play a single instrument yet still can pen such epic compositions, her achievements are simply astounding. She may not be the most prolific of artists, but with every release improving on the last, seemingly unbetterable album, it's only a matter of time before her brilliance is properly acknowledged. File between Laurie Anderson and Björk and play with an alarming regularity.

Alan Pedder
originally published May 7th, 2006 

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Mary Gauthier
Mercy Now •••
Mercury

Within just a few seconds of a soft guitar solo delicately feeding into a slow, slurred drawl, you already know you're in the safest of hands. Such is the comforting hallmark of prime Louisiana export Mary Gauthier, whose saturnine world has been documented thus far over three sometimes stellar albums, and right from the starting blocks the gentle ear candy of her fourth, Mercy Now, signals no drop on the quality-o-meter. Revelling in its masterful weaving of guitar, percussion, cello, Hammond organ, banjo and an electric guitar with a tear-inducing twang, Gauthier once again delivers the goods with ten solid songs, including two covers (Harlan Howard's ‘Just Say She's A Rhymer' and Fred Eaglesmith's ‘Your Sister Cried') and a re-recording of her own ‘I Drink', offering folk and country in equal measures. As each track uncovers a little bit more of the mystery and history of Gauthier, the end product as a whole whips away the smokescreen to reveal what our genial hostess has been keeping herself busy with since Filth & Fire became the New York Times's indie album of 2002.

The songs are both intimate and revealing, and are testimony to the art of personal storytelling which is as intact here as it has been on any of her previous albums. Influenced by the truth-telling of Dylan, John Prine, Patti Smith and Neil Young, and at times reminiscent of label buddy Lucinda Williams, Gauthier is in good company and has no doubt been encouraged to keep the stories coming, narrative after narrative. Hers are told in the barest of settings, stripped back and open. The first track, ‘Falling Out Of Love' is so close to spoken that the listener receives an intimate, seemingly confidential one-on-one recount of a failed relationship. The pained lyrics, memories, anecdotes and post-relationship ache soon rise clear before Gauthier declares her determination in the refrain of "Let me out, set me free." On the following track from which the album takes its name, the internal has become external and her concerns for both family and country are voiced.

Mercy Now delivers a plentiful dish of family issues, woe, personal trauma, disillusion, longing and addiction; the essential heartache ingredients of any Mary Gauthier record. Yet it is because of this rich bloodied vein of emotional injury, rather than in spite of it, that real beauty exists in her work. ‘Empty Spaces', a gripping tale of passion gone awry, is the perfect example, rounded out with wonderful harmonies. By consistently pulling down the barriers to let her blood and guts shine through, Gauthier touches on the essence of what it is to live. Rawness, intimacy, reflection and survival are abundant in her songwriting and Mercy Now is a touching creation and a journey worth taking, though be prepared for a somewhat bumpy ride.

Helen Griffiths
originally published August 7th, 2005

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Inara George
All Rise ••••
Loose

When you're the daughter of a preternaturally-gifted musician, in this case, celebrated Little Feat guitarist Lowell George, there's a certain sense of destiny at work, and Inara George is certainly no stranger to the industry. Whilst at college she fronted a pair of indie bands, Lode and Merrick, both of which boasted a small but devoted following, despite at first having no intention of following in her father's footsteps, studying instead classical theatre. In the lead up to this, her debut solo album, George was singing back-up for Idlewild, Van Dyke Parks and Jackson Browne, the latter of whom returns the favour here. Then last year she enlisted the production skills of Michael Andrews, composer of the score to cult film ‘Donnie Darko', and work on the album began.

The result? All Rise is a graceful, elegant album of mostly downbeat love songs that showcases George as a singer, songwriter and lyricist of considerable depth, carving for herself a distinctive niche without depending on reputation once removed. Most of the songs wrap comfortably around well-crafted melodies and inventive song structures, with George's vocal always the centrepiece. Comparisons with Suzanne Vega and Cat Power's Chan Marshall are not too far off the mark; George's wide vocal range keeps her from sounding sedate yet lends the songs a greater depth of feeling. On the opening combo of ‘Mistress' and ‘Fools Work', she sings in the manner of a sultry but delicate coffee house chanteuse, while on guitar-pop numbers like ‘Turn On/Turn Off' and crown jewel ‘What A Number', she proves she can rock out as well as anyone.

To her credit, George manages to convey strong emotions in her lyrics without burying the listener with overwrought and angst-filled metaphors. In ‘Mistress', the narrator wistfully asks, "Will you take me as your mistress? / sure and short of breath / could you carry on your business? / do you already know / the way to my door? / ‘cause you made your way inside / a dozen times before." On the more upbeat ‘Genius', she tackles the topic of feeling inadequate in a disarmingly simple manner, singing, "Everybody wants to be a genius / you're not the only one / yith all the things that you might do, which one of them will you get to?"

It's not flawless, however; there's a few minor quibbles that detract from five-star greatness. Though George throws in a hauntingly beautiful and sparse cover of Joe Jackson's ‘Fools In Love' to mix things up, there are points in the album where the songs seem to fit and flow together too well, to the point where it's sometimes easy to get lost in the tracklist. A bit more attention to the sequencing may also have solved the uneasy listening that is the album closer, ‘Everybody Knows'. While this might have better served its purpose as an experiment on a B-side or been allowed more time to grow before recording, here it almost feels like a throwaway. Though it shows a different side to George's songwriting, it rather unbalances the disc. Yet despite these caveats, All Rise is an accomplished, excellent debut album, and one that generously leaves plenty of room for growth whilst undoubtedly holding its own, with or without the pedigree.

Loria Near
originally published November 11th, 2005 

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Lisa Germano
In The Maybe World ••••
Young God

It's hard to disagree with Young God Records founder Michael Gira when he claims that Lisa Germano belongs "right up there with the cadre of strong, emotionally raw, challenging and original women singers such as PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull, Cat Power and Björk", though quite why she isn't, commercially at least, is and isn't obvious. Like Harvey, Germano makes music that's more often than not unremittingly intense, sometimes catching you off guard with unexpected shots of humour - a tried, tested and triumphant Björkian trick. Like Faithfull and Chan Marshall, her lulling voice is both narcoleptic and ravaged, deceptively sombre and extraordinarily distinctive. But where the self-professed Emotional Wench truly excels and betters even these mighty pillars of all her peers is in her ability to establish a mood and immerse you so deep inside it that you're never quite sure whether the gut knots she invokes are down to claustrophobia, fear or rapture.

If this were Germano's first ever album, hacks would be stabbing each other in the eyes with pencils in a race to coin a brand new genre. But it's not, it's her seventh in a 15-year career and no one has quite managed to pin her butterfly down. And really what's the point? Still, if it's a label you want, I'm prepared to make the effort and after much consideration have plumped for ‘dreamo' - sort of like emo through an opiate haze, where snot-nosed woe-is-me's are banished in favour of sophisticated dreamweavers who far outstrip generic dear diarists with delicately nuanced tales of human nature. Oh, and a little self-deprecation as the reward of actual life experience. That's always good.

Funnily enough, a few of In The Maybe World's dozen songs could easily be shredded into out-and-out rock monsters in the hands of another. Take ‘Red Thread', for example, whose emo appeal surely lies in its call-and-response telephone exchange of "go to hell", "fuck you" - you can practically hear the crack as the receiver collides with its cradle. But Germano is too wily a creature to languish in the obvious, twisting the lyric to broaden the moment into a greater realisation that anger is just as valid and healthy an emotion as love, and that one can often drive the other.

Elsewhere, her main preoccupation is death. The fortunately unprophetic ‘Too Much Space' arose from her fear of losing her dad after a serious health scare; ‘Golden Cities' arrived on the occasion of her much-loved cat's death from cancer; while the solo piano elegy of ‘Except For The Ghosts' is a decade-old number written in honour of her friend Jeff Buckley, exploring his headspace in the moment he accepted he was a goner. ‘Wire' and ‘Into Oblivion' are equally affecting, packing more emotion into a single line than Conor Oberst at a wake for his own credibility.

Germano's charm is incontrovertibly eerie and certainly fanciful enough to put the less enlightened off, but this is her finest work since the dementedly brilliant Geek The Girl and ‘maybe' just won't cut it. If you're asking whether to investigate further, the magic word is yes.

Alan Pedder
originally published July 23rd, 2006 

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Giant Drag
Live at Academy 2, Manchester ••½
February 17th, 2006

It's fair to say that Los Angeles duo Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese, collectively known as Giant Drag, have problems. Problems that need to be ironed out if they are to achieve a level of success beyond that afforded to artists of the cult variety and stand on a higher platform. As evidenced on last year's debut Hearts & Unicorns, both are very talented musicians and it's hard to argue with their live performaces too; tonight's support slot for The Cribs sees Annie hit every note perfectly and Micah display his mastery of the art of playing the drums and synthesisers simultaneously. The problems are not in the songs either; these have a wonderful post-grunge feel and tracks like ‘yflmd (You Fuck Like My Dad)', ‘Drugs' and ‘My Dick Sux' reflect the duo's innate sense of quirkiness.

The problems arise when the audience is blissfully unaware of Annie's unusual banter, and it can come as a damning blow in the live context. She's overly perverse and either an obsessive liar or a very bad comedienne, depending on your view. Joking about child paedophilia and incest is hardly the way to the nation's heart, although a few in the crowd do warm to her, if only out of sympathy. Perhaps trying to capitalise on that, Annie points out the audiences at their two previous shows "didn't like Giant Drag", but it's more than obvious why. Whilst Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would simply dismiss the jeers of a faux-macho yell of "show us yerr tits!" or "fuck me!" with a sneering "suck your own dick" when she first came to the country, Annie clearly hasn't taken any tips from the shrieking New Yorker. Either she tries to join in on the joke and adapt her stories to include members of the audience, or, like most bands, she pretends not to hear the calls. Considering how irritating hecklers are, you could never criticise a band member for doing this, but given their abrupt nature Giant Drag are going to have to get used to such crude shout outs, and, in my opinion, the best way to deal with them is to bluntly put the caller back in their place.

Even so, the duo offer an interesting live show, and to give their music justice it's worth seeing a gig. At the very least, it will certainly help you to form your own opinion, because like Marmite, you either love, hate, or are allergic to Giant Drag.

Tiffany Daniels
originally published March 6th, 2006 

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Thea Gilmore
Harpo's Ghost ••••½
Sanctuary

It's a handsome little irony that staunchly British indie singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore has produced what could be a career-defining album that has Americana running through it to the core. Sonically, Harpo's Ghost is simultaneously a progression and a departure from her previous releases, melding her unmistakable vocals and ear for a melody with sounds that recall classic American recordings from the West Coast to Greenwich Village via Texas and the Mississippi Delta. The relative commercial success of 2003's Avalanche afforded Gilmore the opportunity to experience the United States firsthand as a touring partner for Joan Baez, and it's her experiences of this trip and subsequent bout with depression that dominate the album - even the title is somehow redolent of excess, decadence and decay.

‘The Gambler' kicks things off accordingly with what initially seems like a plodding, weighty mid-paced ballad reminiscent of those that dominated Aimee Mann's last album but soon raises the stakes with crashing guitars and Hammond organ riffage set firmly to 'rouse' while Gilmore dares everyone to spin the wheel of fortune. Light and shade have rarely been contrasted so magnificently and from hereon in the bar is set at neck- cricking height. Fortunately, songs that fall short are few and far between. On her voyages, Gilmore has clearly enjoyed meeting the multitudinous stuffed shirts that infect the higher echelons of the media industry, and ‘Everybody's Numb' bites back in excellent fashion. In a diatribe against the sacrifice of creativity in favour of bottom-feeding mediocrity, Gilmore positively drips with sarcasm as she spits through gritted teeth, "pleased to meet you boys / you know it's been a while / since I had to fake delight / just to raise a smile", buoyed aloft by a funky drumbeat. Perfect!

Harpo's Ghost alternates between philosophical musings and the intimate story songs so beloved of Nebraska-era Springsteen, burrowing even further than she has before into the realms of the dysfunctional psyche. ‘Red, White & Black' tackles those who refuse to acknowledge life's inescapable ambiguity, colour and shade - specifically those in "the United States of Emptiness" who are blinkered to their own political environment and its effects on the world at large - while ‘The List' follows the misadventures of a couple on a downward slide, looking for redemption in all the wrong places. Elsewhere, on platform eight, ‘Whistle & Steam' shows that when the Gospel train's-a-comin' there may just be some who are reluctant to get on board.

Gilmore also excels when mining a rockier seam, tossing liberal doses of fuzz bass and a garage band vibe into the mix alongside more subtle arrangements. ‘Call Me Your Darling' sees her channelling the spirit of late-‘60s Dylan through the modern filter of the Counting Crows, while ‘We Built A Monster' (one of two tracks co-written with Mike Scott of The Waterboys) blends West Coast psychedelic guitars with lo-fi attitude in a stinging riposte to our 'special relationship' with capitalism and consumerist philosophy. First single ‘Cheap Tricks' is an obvious choice for a new assault on the charts, being an intelligent, hook-laden, passionate stomper that's anything but bargain basement.

An unexpected pleasure, ‘Contessa' successfully combines Mississippi jug band blues with the sort of expansive Eno-esque soundscapes that made U2's The Joshua Tree so cinematic and captivating, but it's up to album closer ‘Slow Journey II' to leave us weeping in the aisles. Slow and doleful, its despairing lyrics of a weary traveller trudging on to an inevitable oblivion are perfectly accompanied by distorted harmony vocals and evocative cello. Except it's not really the end. Hidden track ‘Play Until The Bottle's Gone' blasts away the clouds with a cheery little country- tinged ditty on the cathartic effects of music. Maybe things aren't all that bad when you've got inspiration from a Neil Young record and can "just pick up your plywood and learn to sing the blues". Gilmore's very own ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life?'. Maybe not quite, but it's an appropriately British attitude to close a great, great album.

Trevor Raggatt 
originally published August 22nd, 2006

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Pepi Ginsberg
Orange Juice: Stephanie/Stephanie ••••
Self-released

Philadelphia has long been an underrated hub of creativity where bohemians can feel completely at home, thriving in a town where the rent is so cheap that you can pay all your bills by working part-time. Pepi Ginsberg - yes, that is her real name - appears to be one of those artistic souls doing just that. Her destiny - to become extraordinary to be exact - was laid out early when she was named after her German grandmother who started a school in Palestine and married one of the organisers behind the Jewish refugee ship Exodus, best known through the seven-hour marathon movie of the same title starring Paul Newman. Fittingly, Ginsberg is one of those rare people who seem wise beyond their years, but in an entirely touching way. With a voice that's filled with an ancient pain, so blue and lazy that it's sometimes on the verge of being out of tune, she really is a poet in disguise, painting tender, sadly beautiful pictures with words worth framing, all enhanced by her unusual speak-sing style. 

However ambiguous the title, much of Orange Juice: Stephanie/Stephanie burns with spontaneity and truth. A number of songs take a fairly straightforward approach to folk music; the opener ‘China Sea', for example, takes a delicately played guitar and adds prosaic lyrics to give a stripped down performance that's emotionally sound and ushers Ginsberg in, closer to her audience. Similarly, ‘Maroon Coats' and ‘Cool Green Castle' take the same folk influences and skilfully evoke a feeling of melancholy and nostalgia that's entirely believable.

On songs where Ginsberg recruits a band, such as ‘Needlenumb' and ‘Kettle Song', the structured and fairly ordinary arrangements may make for a fuller sound but occasionally trip up her free-spirited voice, making it seem a little bit clumsy. The starkly emotional 'Orange Juice: Stephanie/Stephanie Part 1' and 'Part 2' provide a much better framework for her unrestricted singing. That's not to say that Ginsberg is shy of experimentation. The self-explanatorily titled ‘Zelda's Song (As Sung By A Young Spanish Woman)' finds her singing in a Spanish accent all the way through, while ‘You, Your Brother & Me' has a theatrical tinge that's reminiscent of Tom Waits.

Most of the time, Ginsberg's songs feel comfortable but not predictable; her voice pushes over lazy guitar rhythms with the appealing nous of a well-adventured soul. At one point she sings, "if your song wants to be a colour, drink it," and judging by this debut, that's exactly what she's been doing. And there's plenty of colour to spare; these dozen songs are but a very slim margin of what is floating around this songwriter's head - apparently she chose them out of 185 songs written in just over a year.

Anja McCloskey 
originally published October 5th, 2006

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Girls Aloud
The Sound Of Girls Aloud ••••
Polydor

Sugababes
Overloaded: The Singles Collection ••••½ 
Island

When some of the top selling (and best) pop singles of the year are built around tribal beats, heavy bass and dirty, muscular synths (yes ok, produced by Timbaland), it's easy to forget how startling it was to hear a chart-topper as bold as 'Freak Like Me' back in 2002. The audacity of a pop act, more importantly a girl group, taking a previously underground bootleg, drafting in its own cutting-edge creator (Richard X, where have you gone?) and then kicking it into touch with their own crude hybrid of R&B and electro, made the rest of the top ten look as dull and predictable as a coachload of Pop Idol contestants on the drive down to London. Borne out of the brief but influential trend for electroclash, 'Freak Like Me' was the start of a renaissance, not only for the Sugababes but also for UK pop. It's unlikely 'Sound Of The Underground' would have ever found its way into the hands of Girls Aloud had the Sugababes not set the template. It's the reason, on their second single, 'No Good Advice', they chew up 'My Sharona' and spit out the pieces. In fact it's fair to say that these three records not only sounded the death knell of the boy band, but put the final nail in the coffin and then revved up the hearse.

Listening to Girls Aloud can cause you to wonder at what point does it all go right? Five reality show contestants, a faceless production team, the obligatory tacky videos/costumes/dance routines and the added bonus of having Louis Walsh as your known 'mentor'. Yet there are few pop acts now capable of producing anything even half as exciting or distinctive as most of the songs here. Whilst it would be easy to attribute their success to Brian Higgins' Xenomania production team, it's the execution of that material that makes the band so enjoyable. The girls may have their tongues in their cheeks half the time but they throw themselves headfirst into their performances; 'Biology' being one of the best pop vocals of the last few years. By comparison, a band like The Pussycat Dolls are usually too busy posturing to even notice what backing track is playing. In fact, it's difficult to imagine any of the competition attempting half of these songs for fear of sounding ridiculous, which probably explains the Girls' appeal – a willingness to experiment and a refreshing lack of vanity. It's why their best songs, 'Love Machine', 'Biology', 'Wake Me Up', 'Something Kinda Ooooh', are so different from one another but so distinctively Girls Aloud. Despite Cheryl Tweedy's insistence that numerous other bands have aped their 'sound' (Charlotte Church, All Saints...The Beatles, probably), The Sound Of Girls Aloud is exactly that, like no other pop act. Only four years in the making, it manages to compile 13 top 10 hits, about two-thirds of which are brilliant, exhilarating pop. It's a shame, then, that we're getting this relatively rushed compilation so soon. Okay, so the shelf-life of a manufactured girlband is routinely less than a pint of semi-skimmed but with a new album scheduled for 2007, a retrospective now seems somewhat redundant. Another year and a couple more killer singles could have perhaps bumped off the more tedious inclusions – specifically, a cover of The Pointer Sisters' 'Jump' and an earnest, but misjudged attempt at The Pretenders classic, 'I'll Stand By You'. Funnily enough, it's when they play it safe that they fall down.

The Sugababes, on the other hand, have gotten quite good at playing it safe, or rather playing to their strengths. At this point, they seem quite happy to embrace their diva status, as the two new songs on the collection show. This is no bad thing; 'Easy' is bold, sassy pop and 'Good To Be Gone' is a glam-rock stomp through 'Independent Women' territory. On the whole, the 'babes have taken a more conventional route through the pop/R&B landscape than the pick 'n' mix approach of Girls Aloud but their saving grace has always been their believability - starting out as miserable teenagers; Siobhan Donaghy's departure; the initial awkwardness of sandwiching smiley Heidi Range between the more knowing Keisha Buchanan and Mutya Buena; even the fact that they share the writing credits, often taking it in turns to write verses. Listening to 'Ugly', you find yourself genuinely warming to Keisha. Listening to 'Stronger' you realise why Heidi chooses it as her favourite performance. Girls Aloud will never produce something as resonant because they don't have a back story. Whilst the Sugababes may sometimes come across a little po-faced – 'Shape', the duet with Sting, being a particular example – they are at least convincing. Diane Warren's 'Too Lost In You', a song that could have sounded needy and overblown, is tackled with maturity and confidence. In fact, when Heidi's vocals collide with the strings during the middle eight, it's one of the most arresting moments on the album.

Perhaps the omissions of the sublime 'Soul Sound' and 'New Year' from their debut album, One Touch, are because the vulnerability of those tracks jars slightly with the almost Amazonian proportions they've risen to. Perhaps they just didn't want to dwell on the initial line-up for too long. Incidentally, we should be glad that Siobhan Donaghy's contribution to the group wasn't removed altogether; initial plans to have new recruit Amelle Berraba re-record her vocals thankfully scrapped at the last stages. As it happens, Overload – the Sugababes' first single – is the album's high point, still as fresh and feisty as it was on release. The omissions, whilst upsetting, do at least represent a wealth of choices. Girls Aloud unfortunately seem to be running on empty a good couple of tracks before the closer, 'I Think We're Alone Now'. Yes, covering a song still played at every wedding, school disco and Christmas party is such an uninspired choice that you can only presume it's a pisstake. The Sugababes round out their set with two of their four No.1 singles – 'Hole In The Head' (cheers again Xenomania) and 'Push The Button', possibly their most assured moment. It's a clever move that leaves you wanting more and raises one question: with both bands (dodgy covers aside) at the top of their games, whatever next? The answer, as you may already have heard, is joining forces to cover Aerosmith and Run DMC's 'Walk This Way' for Comic Relief. Oh dear.

Matthew Hall
previously unpublished

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The Go! Team / The Grates / Smoosh
Live at Koko ••••
March 1st, 2006

Frankly, it's been a fantastic year for The Go! Team. Their debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike has become a major, if slow-burning hit - unbelievably, it was first released back in September 2004 - receiving widespread acclaim and annihilating genre labels left, right and centre... oh, and notching up a nod for the Mercury Music Prize. It should come as no surprise then that the Brighton/London six-piece are in a celebratory mood. This, their biggest UK tour to date, is completely sold-out, including a three-night residency at London's Koko. Tonight's line-up is yet another exercise in diversification for the Go! Team; they've put together a stellar female-fronted bands bonanza by roping in Seattle's Smoosh and The Grates from Australia.

In case you hadn't heard already, Smoosh are sisters Asya and Chloe who are, respectively, 13 and 11 years old. Having already found celebrity fans in Sufjan Stevens, Sleater-Kinney, Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Death Cab For Cutie (whose drummer has been teaching Chloe) and now seemingly The Go! Team, their premise is a basic one - Chloe plays drums while Asya sings and presses the keys. Surprisingly, the limitations of their instruments by no means inhibits their sound. So while each song may sound different from the last, one thing is consistent throughout - their attitude. There's something scarily fierce about Asya's vocal delivery. Even at her tender age, she is showing the angry/uplifting makings of her older mentors in Sleater-Kinney. Equally, Chloe's rhythms are primal and driving, and the relatively stripped-down arrangement really does showcase their musical abilities.

Their set is comprised of tracks from their excellent debut, She Like Electric, and a whole lot of new songs that amply disprove the doubters who claimed it was a fluke. That said, the uninitiated denizens of the audience clearly don't know quite how to react to the duo. Obviously aware of their age, they are appropriately supportive and somewhat cautious; are they being exploited by a twisted svengali á la t.A.T.u? Do they write their own songs? Is it fair to take them out of school to tour with older rock bands? Fortunately, Smoosh exercise a much greater degree of control over their career than Richard and Judy's faux-lesbian enemies, and furthermore are prodigiously talented, with an originality and freshness unrivalled by most other bands so often jaded by the industry and wearing their influences all too plainly on their sleeves. Finishing with the grinding ‘La Pump', a positively filthy electro-pop tune, Asya and Chloe exit stage right, their curious audience still slightly confused but primarily enthusiastic.

Next come The Grates making a great first impression by bounding cheerfully on to the stage. Singer Patience is a day-glo princess and perhaps a not-too-distant relative of Yeah Yeah Yeahs's Karen O. Their music is similarly sparse - garage rock guitars, pounding rhythms and ecstatic, if somewhat deranged, vocals. Running from one side of the stage to the other, Patience makes for a manic and energetic figurehead, shaking her hair and pulling faces at the crowd. Though they are undoubtedly effective at warming up the crowd, the similarities with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are almost too much - the voice and nonsensical yelps are trademark O. But to their credit, even if The Grates do excessively imitate, they at least do it well and with tunes and an energy that other carbon copiers have failed to muster. Happily, their upcoming single, ‘19-20-20', is an undeniably spiky slice of angular art-pop.

Despite such strong support, the show belongs unarguably to The Go! Team. The balconies of the former theatre are packed with brightly dressed punters, while the band is even more colourful than usual thanks to the special London-only addition of cheerleading backing dancers. It feels like a carnival, and perhaps appropriately, it is the day after Shrove Tuesday and the end of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro. Their frontwoman Ninja, clad tonight in a yellow cheerleader skirt and a blue vest top, may not even be 5'2" but she commands the crowd like no other. Indeed, she puts so much energy into the performance that the band's instrumental tracks are scattered throughout the set to allow her ample recovery time. Each song is properly introduced and Ninja makes each one an opportunity for some kind of crowd participation. Arms are waved, chants are chanted and it all begins to feel a little like a commune - during ‘We Just Won't Be Defeated' there's an irrepressible feeling of oneness.

It would be foolish to argue that The Go! Team's huge success is purely due to Ninja's leadership. Their music is like dreamscapes, entirely positive, uplifting and utterly indefinable. In the live context, their show is an exhilarating blast through their album and a handful of new songs. In total, it lasts just over an hour but somehow feels sufficient. The Go! Team see no need in labouring the point, secure in the knowledge that even a short dose of their infectious magic is enough to put smiles on every last attendee as they exit into the slightly grimmer reality of Mornington Crescent. The band themselves may not know what the future holds - Thunder, Lightning, Strike is composed predominantly of samples and getting legal clearance was a long and difficult task - but, for the moment, they seem plenty rewarded by their crowd-pleasing antics and formidable reputation as pioneers of inimitably fantastic pop.

Robbie de Santos
originally published March 18th, 2006 

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Nina Gordon
Bleeding Heart Graffiti ••½
Warner Bros.

Previously famed as one half of the creative force that made up the moderately successful grunge-pop cross-over band Veruca Salt, this second solo album sees Nina Gordon continue to reinvent herself and draw a firm musical line beneath her indie-tastic past. For where Veruca Salt would churn out fast-paced rock with alternative cred and a tuneful, energetic formula, Gordon's lone singer-songwriter schtick could hardly be more different. It's as if she's morphed from early ‘90s Liz Phair into Liz Phair nowadays, or even Sheryl Crow. With heavy production that's much too big on niceness, gone are the kickass power guitars and in their place comes an almost easy listening, coffee table atmosphere where the only truly sweet stuff to be found is disappointingly coated in sticky mainstream saccharine pop.

Despite coming a full six years after her first solo venture, Tonight & The Rest Of My Life, Bleeding Heart Graffiti carries on almost precisely where that album left off. There's a sense that she's more confident in her direction and the tunes are certainly stronger than before, but mostly it's more of the same. The theme of loves gained and lost permeate throughout with lyrics that are bittersweet and honest, and it's clear that she's had to suffer some bad times to get as far as she has. In that respect, Gordon seemingly wants to be taken as a serious pop artist in the vein of Aimee Mann; however, in some places she comes across more like Natalie Imbruglia with chart-friendly songs that could easily soundtrack your weekly shop at Tesco or your Monday morning Starbucks skinny latté with soy milk.

There's some nice touches though. For instance, the sequencing lets you imagine that there is something of a concept at work here. From the upbeat beginnings where Gordon sings of relationships in bloom to the overwrought emotions of the ending where love's beyond redemption, the songs gradually get more and more melancholy. Still, songs like ‘Suffragette' and first single ‘Kiss Me ‘Til It Bleeds' are winning pop tunes that will lodge in the memory, for a while at least. But then there is heartache, with presumably cathartic, open-wound tales of trying to make sense of it all. Indeed, there is perhaps a little too much of the downside of love and it's a shame that there isn't more of the gleeful poppiness of the openers. Indeed, many of the sadder songs were recovered and re-recorded from Gordon's aborted 2004 release Even The Sunbeams, written during a phase in her life that she has since "snapped out of".

With a baby on the way and a new-found focus, who knows where her next record will take her. For now though, despite having a clutch of well-written songs to its name, Bleeding Heart Graffiti can only be chalked up as something of a disappointment. Still, given its history, it's fair to say that Gordon has been paying up on those dues and deserves some solo success. Just don't look back in anger.

Stephanie Heney
originally published July 23rd, 2006 

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The Gossip
Standing In The Way Of Control •••
Backyard

Meeting The Gossip would be quite an experience if their everyday speech is as riddled with clichés as their unfortunate lyrics. Though certainly both beautiful and powerful, it's hard to appreciate lead singer Beth Ditto's vocals when she's wrapping her tongue round bothersome blandness like "fight fire with fire", "I'm a fool for you" and "as pure as the snow", all of which should really be reserved for anodyne boybands. Worse still, the band sees fit to commit the heinous crime of rhyming "crying" and "lying". Who do they think they are, Oasis?

This grumble aside, there are other problems. At first the album seems fairly unremarkable, a little too reminiscent of your average local don't-give-up-your-day-jobs who manage to sound quite similar to the music you actually like but leave the nail's head decidedly un-whacked. The ballad ‘Coal To Diamonds' may gloriously showcase Ditto's vocals, which for my money are unrivalled in the genre, but it's rather monotonous all the same. Situated midway through the album, ‘Eyes Open' is the first real gem, just as upbeat as you'd expect from The Gossip but with added bluesy soul. ‘Keeping You Alive' is also a standout, boasting a chorus that would easily fill any self-respecting dancefloor with hand-clapping disco fans.

Okay, so it seems a little unfair to review this album having only listened to it in the comfort of my home. It clearly needs to be accompanied by some alcohol-fuelled shape throwing, somewhere with an audience that doesn't give a shit how trite the lyrics might be. By all accounts, The Gossip's live show is an experience not to be missed and it's easy to see how these songs might come alive. Concurrently, they are immediate and rousing, despite one or two unforgivable blips, and at least half are destined to be favourites of your average dance-punk DJ. Perhaps most exciting when viewed as a pre-show taster, it's worth a listen, but standing in the way of control? Hardly.

Lynn Roberts
originally published July 14th, 2006 

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The Grates
Gravity Won't Get You High ••
Universal

This debut album from Australian upstarts The Grates should be subtitled ‘...And Neither Will We', such is the disappointment with which you may be faced had you caught the foursome while touring with The Go! Team and The Zutons earlier this year. Where their live show is a riotously enthusiastic neon bonanza, their energetic zaniness translates with severely mixed results on record.

There's a noticeable attempt to sound like a blues-rock band in that same bass-free way as Sleater-Kinney or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, though the sound is tinny and irritating rather than raw and intense. The songs mostly bounce along in a summery fashion and there's no denying that it's pleasant at times, particularly with the addition of some third-wave ska-inspired horns in ‘Lies Are Much More Fun'. It's when they try to sound angst-ridden and angry that things go awry. ‘Feels Like Pain' is a grunge-lite ditty with its token quiet, sullen verse and screamalong loud chorus, but comes across more like rubbish German rockers The Guano Apes than the more enjoyable likes of Hole. Despite being a fairly respectable slice of raw indie rock, even their breakthrough single, the chaotic ‘Trampoline', is horribly let down by embarrassing lyrics.

The trouble is that none of it sounds remotely convincing; the album feels like a smash and grab pic ‘n' mix of various bands The Grates are rather too fond of. Patience Hodgson's accent changes from Canadian to British to American and back to Australian, a sure sign of someone trying too hard to emulate their idols. Here's Karen O and there's Alanis, over yonder's Corin Tucker and lurking somewhere else is a yodelling Marlene Dietrich. OK, so none of it is really that terrible, it's just that the reasons to own this album are excruciatingly scant when there are better versions of every song out there already.

Robbie de Santos
originally published July 25th, 2006 

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Jennifer Greer
The Apiary •••½
Little Athena Productions

It would be quite the simplest thing to write a shallow review of Ms Greer's album...earnest girl at a piano singing deep and meaningful, jazz-tinged songs with relationship, psychological and political overtones = Tori Amos. Review ends. Go make a nice cup of tea. However, to be such a lazy so-and-so would be a gross injustice indeed. Greer's second album, The Apiary, does bear comparison with other piano-based musicians like Amos, Sarah McLachlan or even Norah Jones, but at their root the songs seem to be drawn from a greater songwriting well that encompasses the likes of Carole King and James Taylor. Her semi-stream of consciousness lyrics plumb the heights and depths of the human condition, acting as an internalised narrative on passing events, fused with invention very much of her own design.

The arrangements are based around a solid jazz trio format of Greer's piano, Damian Watson's bass and the drums of Brian Peltier. Other instruments are brought in only to serve and enhance the mood, carefully deployed where they can have the greatest effect. The jazz element is perhaps least pronounced on the opener Invited, which provides a brief, pastoral prelude to the dramas to come. ‘Honey Bee' lopes along with Mark Knopfler-styled guitar licks and piano runs in a manner that suggests the inevitable progress of life through the mundane, always hoping for the chance of some brief connection to the sublime. ‘Walking Home To You' continues in a wistful mood, lulling the listener before ‘Darkling' disrupts the mood, dissected by obscene and menacing distorted guitars. The song's brooding presence looms through the speakers; an avatar for life's dysfunctional underbelly denied by the more polite of societies.

Thus, it becomes clear that while Greer's playing is clearly influenced by jazz, she is not restricted to it and uses the influence to inform the more rock and pop sensibilities of her virtuoso skills. On songs like 'Stupid People Lost In Eden', Greer forges a subtly twisted rendering of the jazz sounds familiar from childhood Charlie Brown cartoons but infused with enough incipient terrors to show that real life isn't the idyll of an over- idealised youth. Indeed, The Apiary's second half is equally strong as the first; ‘Satellite' boasts a driving lefthand riff that's part boogie woogie, part James Bond theme, but wholly intense and ominous. Propelling the track forward, it perfectly assembles a desperate cat's cradle of sound around the lyrics of death, decay and inevitability. Other highlights include ‘Downtown Song' where Greer's dissonant la la's contrast with the jaunty melody to underline that "hope is a thing with feathers" and perhaps just as elusive as a bird, tying in nicely with the earlier ‘Origami Birds' where the sparse piano and cello create a dreamlike backing to musings on fragility and loss, complete with the sound of cowbells tinkling in a distant Vermont field. 

For a self-produced artist resolutely ploughing an independent furrow, The Apiary is nothing if not remarkably assured. Greer is clearly a long way down the road of defining her own voice, and if circumstance should bring her to a broader, international audience, she might one day be cited as a popular critical benchmark herself.

Trevor Raggatt 
originally published March 11th, 2006

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Patty Griffin
Impossible Dream ••••½
Proper

Defeatism is not a word you will find in the vocabulary of 41-year old Patty Griffin, but that's not to suggest some kind of deluded Pollyanna figure who could shrug off the apocalypse with a blink and an "oops" - she's tough in the way that a tree is tough. Since her debut, 1996's Living With Ghosts, that much has been clear. Already a formidable guitarist, this fourth studio album spices things up a bit with brass, piano and organ featuring on several tracks. Interestingly, three of them have been resurrected from her indefensibly shelved third album, Silver Bell, a victim of silly record company bureaucracy. While the album that eventually surfaced in its place, 2002's 1000 Kisses, remains one of the most exemplary singer-songwriter albums of all time, incredibly, Impossible Dream is better. At once more personal and universal than its predecessor, it's an intense deconstruction of the struggle of everyday lives. Consequently, some will dismiss it as depressing, but to do so is to bypass completely every subtlety and nuance of hope that infuses the sadness. Originally released in the US a year ago, the album finally makes it to the UK in support of Griffin's first UK tour dates in years.

The jaunty staccato blues shuffle of the opening track, ‘Love Throw A Line', is something of a red herring. Stacked with an almost tangible urgency, it's heavy on the spirituality but light on the palate. ‘Kite Song', too, is an easily digestible yet plaintive paean to optimism, made all the sweeter by backing vocals courtsey of Emmylou Harris and Julie Miller. Elsewhere, ‘Standing' takes its cue from gospel artists such as Mavis Staples, but tempers it accordingly to avoid, in her own words, making "bad white blues". The result is four minutes of being rooted to the spot in reverence.

The emotional core of the album is most evident on ‘Top Of The World', a Griffin original made famous by the Dixie Chicks on Home, and the heart-stopping seven-minute epic, ‘Mother Of God', both of which feature exquisite violin from the ever-wonderful Lisa Germano. ‘Top Of The World' is tailgated by a touching reprise of Impossible Dream from the musical, 'Man Of LaMancha', as sung by Patty's parents. It's a fitting sentiment for Griffin, whose songs have often voiced the viewpoints of the older generation, that her parents take these reins and allow her own laments to bubble over. Best of all, there's a moment approximately halfway through ‘Mother Of God' where her tender, reedy voice cracks beneath the weight of her emotion. It's these hiccups, these inimitable idiosyncrasies that render Patty Griffin so few of peers.

Holding an alarm clock in one hand while the other demurely hitches up her crinoline as a kite soars in the background, the Patty Griffin on the sleeve appears defiantly hopeful, as if waiting for something real to whisk her away.

Alan Pedder
originally published May 22nd, 2005 

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Patty Griffin
Live at the Lyric Hammersmith
May 31st, 2005

As any singer worth their salt should know, a whisper can be every bit as effective as a scream. In Patty Griffin, a woman who embodies the former but has the fire of the latter, the full range of capability is ours for the absorbing. Disarmingly shy at first, she seems almost embarrassed to have bothered us from whatever our Tuesdays typically bring, but the ice is soon broken after the first song, a stirring take on Bessie Smith's ‘Backwater Blues', when she realises that her guitar was unplugged for the entire rendition. To the credit of the Lyric theatre's acoustics, however, the difference is barely noticeable.

After a stomping ‘No Bad News', she offers up an engaging suite of songs from her latest album, Impossible Dream, released just the day before in the UK though it has long since been available in the States. Despite only being accompanied by one of her usual band, guitarist Doug Lancio, we miss none of the breezy shuffle of ‘Love Throw A Line' nor the lightly melancholic ‘Useless Desires'. Moving to the piano, Griffin treats us to a French lullaby once sung to her by her mother. Entitled ‘J'irai La Voir Un Jour (I Will See It One Day)', her emotive voice conveys every drop of the pensive hope that the title suggests. Staying at the keys, ‘Kite Song', another cut from the ‘new' album, charms effortlessly with its poignant imagery of dreaming and holding out for fulfilment.

New song ‘Free' sounds promising but the real highlight comes next with ‘Top Of The World', a beautiful and heartbreaking paean to those once loved and lost. The upbeat but lyrically desolate ‘Long Ride Home' follows before Griffin really lets her hair down and unleashes a surging version of the frantic ‘Flaming Red'. Unfortunately, a residual cough left over from a recent cold begins to trouble the singer in the closing songs of the main set. In fact, her confidence is visibly shaken by wracked renditions of ‘Icicles' and ‘Making Pies', two of her most vivid examples of top-notch storytelling. The audience seems not to mind and shouts in encouragement and sympathy. A standing ovation later and Patty, slightly tearful, gracefully returns for an encore during which she road tests another new song, ‘Up To The Mountain', inspired by the bravery of Martin Luther King, and old fan favourite ‘Mary'. Then she is gone, though we mill around for a few minutes uncertain of whether there will be a second encore. But Patty has other shows to play in the days to come and we've been plenty spoiled already.

Alan Pedder
originally published June 17th, 2005 

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Nanci Griffith
Ruby's Torch ••••
Rounder

This latest offering from folkabilly heroine and nigh-on icon, Nanci Griffith, is an interesting affair. An album of torch songs isn't perhaps the obvious addition to her folk and country-tinged catalogue. Griffith's vocal style could not be further removed from the likes of Dietrich, Lenya, Piaf or Lemper but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this context. That said, the songs here play less on her trademark Texan drawl than usual and her style is perhaps more naturalistic. One thing hasn't changed, of course, and that's Griffith's strength as a musical storyteller. And who has a better story to tell than the subject of a torch song with t