Like everyone who writes about music I’m reliant on the PR companies to feed us with records to write about. Bloody Great PR are exactly that and have been good enough to send a package of recent releases. Stereo Naked I wrote about at Americana UK. The fascinating album from Frank Richard ‘Rough Enough’ will hopefully be my first piece for Fatea Magazine soon and that leaves us with two related albums recorded in the wild at home and in a church in New Mexico. The diversity of these four albums speaks to the health of Americana and Folk music at the start of 2022.
Zoe Wilcox – Breaking The Chrysalis
Opening song ‘Calling Me Home’ is a laid back folk/country shuffle with a fiddle refrain that makes an atmospheric start to the album. ‘White Angel’ is more up-tempo, driven by an upright bass and banjo. The rest of the album covers a good range of American roots styles, mandolin on ‘Parsifal’, and something reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies take on ‘State Trooper’ on ‘Four On the Floor’.
Wilcox voice has a sound that comes from many folk traditions. On ‘All That’s Stable’ she could be from North East England, on other songs from nowhere but her home in New Mexico. ‘Christianne’ has an unmistakably Cajun vibe, and like many of these songs it is impossible to site still to the groove on this one. ‘Don’t Bow’ could be from the Appalachians, even played for Morris Dancing. ‘Where’s that Ring’ is another song that hits a groove and just keeps going. It’s a natural for Country radio and in a fairer world would be massive hit. There is enough variation in the songs that the sound doesn’t get stale. The album title song steps away from the funkier feel of much of the album, with just voice and Banjo. This is where the quality of Wilcox’ voice stands out best. ‘Enough Love for Now’ builds from that simple arrangement back to a fuller band sound.
This is Wilcox first solo album after years of writing and playing music with others, and she has the mature songs and singing to make this a genuinely great album. There is no filler, and you have to hope that it isn’t ten years before the next album arrives.
Production is from Bard Edrington, also Wilcox’ husband, who performs on several of the songs, along with his Hoth Brothers bandmate Boris McCutcheon. They also feature on…
Bard Edrington V – Two Days in Terlingua
I’m not the first to make the comparison between the recording of this album in Santa Inez Church at Terlingua at the edge of the Chihuahua Desert, and the Cowboy Junkies use of The Holy Trinity Church in Toronto for their album named after it, but the similarities don’t end there. Second song ‘Property Lines’ has more than a touch of Junkies about it, with a guitar close to Michael Timmins’ and Karina Wilson’s fiddle solo as atmospheric as anything the Canadians have done. ‘Shut The Screen Door’ has a pedal steel piece courtesy of Alex McMahon to supply the atmosphere. ‘Strange Balloon’ ditches the country for a threatening distorted guitar and a minor key fiddle that is again close in spirit to the Cowboy Junkies.
You can hear the sound of the room the album was recorded in throughout, and the slower ballads, especially ‘No Reason’ the recording comes alive, with the interplay between guitar and fiddle drifting hypnotically for over six minutes until the song just gently fades away.
After playing this album for a week or so, it has definitely made it into my albums of the year list, watch this space for that coming up shortly, and with Edrington’s distinctive voice coupled with that of his wife and Karina Wilson in places gives the whole album a quality that sets it apart from some of the rather “by the numbers” Americana being produced at present.
Also worth your attention is his band The Hoth Brothers with Boris McCutcheon and bass player Sarah Ferrell. Rooted in Appalachians folk it is another aspect of the breadth of current roots music.
Of course Bandcamp is the place for both these albums, find them here…
I’m struggling to find videos of the music from either album, so you’ll have to preview them on their Bandcamp pages or the dreaded Spotify.
