10. John Illsley – VIII
John Illsley rose to fame as the bass guitarist for Dire Straits. As a founding member and – along with Mark Knopfler – one of two band members to stay the 15-year distance, Illsley played a major role in the development of the band’s sound. Since Dire Straits’ last tour in 1993 Illsley has earned a reputation as a painter, with solo exhibitions in London, New York,
Sydney and across Europe. ‘VIII’ is Illsley’s eight solo album, and since the mid-90s, he’s the owner of a pub in the New Forest, United Kingdom. He was so worried that someone else would buy and destroy it, he decided to buy it before something bad would happened.
“It’s a Long Way Back” is a terrific opening track. Hushed, half-spoken, lyrical references to ‘Deptford Town’ and ‘six-blade knives’ further enhance the familiarity as John’s understated vocal is nicely augmented by some rather lovely female backing vocals from Hannah Robinson, and John’s two talented daughters, Jessica Van den Bogaerde and DeeDee Illsley, while top blues/session guitarist Scott McKeon fires off numerous Knopfler inspired guitar flurries. John and his band repeat the trick on “Which Way Is Up” via a groove that seems ridiculously effortless.
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9. Matt North – Bullies in the Backyard
Matt North’s nomadic days are over. He’s been living in Nashville since 2010, moving there from Los Angeles where he lived for thirteen years. Prior to L.A., he lived in San Francisco for three years.
Michigan-born, North grew up in Champaign, Illinois. He started playing drums around the age of nine and began playing music the old fashioned American way, in a garage. As a teenager, he was drumming with the late Jay Bennett of Wilco.
‘Bullies In The Backyard’, North’s second LP, features 10 songs written under the cloud of a seven-year lawsuit Matt’s family ultimately won against Nashville Public Schools due to violations against his son’s special needs. The Federal Court verdict changed precedents and now benefits families nationwide facing similar challenges.
The musicians North colloraborated with are some of his favourite Nashville musicians. ‘Bullies In The Backyard’ was recorded in his home studio with Matt’s core band of Nashville A-listers:
Stuart Mathis (Lucinda Williams, The Wallflowers) – guitars
Chris Donohue (Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris) – bass
Michael Webb (John Fogerty, Chris Stapleton) – keyboards
Kirk Donovan (trumpet), Paul Thackner (saxophone), and Diego Vasquez’ (trombone) brass sound really work on “The Last Angry Man”, “Hollywood Forever”, “Firing Squad”, and “Stay On The Outside” as does Michael Webb’s (piano, B3, Wurlitzer, Vox Continental) playing throughout the album.
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8. Roger Street Friedman – Love Hope Trust
‘Love Hope Trust’ is singer-songwriter Roger Street Friedman’s fourth release, and produced by Grammy-winning producer, guitarist, and songwriter Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Judy Collins, Willie Nelson), furthering a multi-album artistic continuum between Roger and Larry (2020’s ‘Rise’). The album also features Jason Crosby (Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh) on keyboards, Teresa Williams and Lucy Kaplansky on background vocals, and a cameo by the legendary Gil Goldstein on accordion.
Roger and Larry co-wrote the title track “Love Hope Trust”, “Vapor In The Air”, “Ghosts of Sugarland”, and “Annabelle”.
‘Love Hope Trust’ is a musical odyssey where you will find love, hope, or trust in each song.
Roger’s voice and delivery is perfect when singing “but you can’t silence the ghosts of Sugarland” in the haunting “The Ghosts of Sugarland”,
one block east of Ellis Creek on Highway 90A
in the graveyard of the old Imperial Farm
the bones of convict laborers lay
up until their bones were found this story went unheard
for the sons of bitches that burried them away
didn’t want you to know a word
There’s so much love, hope, and trust in this great album.
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7. Sophie & the Broken Things – Delusions Of Grandeur
Move over Lucinda Williams, make some room for Sophie Gault.
Gault grew up on a 10-acre farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in a quiet, rural home miles away from the summertime resort towns that dot the Atlantic coast. Surrounded by country roads, she developed a love of music that reflected the atmosphere around her — from the blue-collar roots-rock of Steve Earle to the raw, ragged country music of Lucinda Williams. She began playing the guitar at age 12 while jamming with her family at backyard parties.
While in college, Gault spent a summer in Nashville and decided to stay. It wasn’t long before a visit to Bobby’s Idle Hour, Music Row’s neighbourhood bar, led to a chance meeting with Gault’s longtime songwriting idol: Julie Miller. The two struck up a long conversation, and Gault left the venue later that evening with a heightened level of inspiration. Sophie’s band name is a nod to Julie Miller’s own song, “Broken Things.” ‘Delusions Of Grandeur” is an outstanding debut.
Sophie & the Broken Things are:
Lemmy Hayes: Drums & Percussion
Twon Haugen: Bass
Ken Perkerwics: Bass
Austin Hoke: Cello
Russ Pahl: Dobro
Micah Hulscher: Keyboards
Jules Belmont: Electric Guitar, Resonator Guitar, Baritone Guitar, Pedal Steel, 12-String Acoustic & Electric Guitar
Siobhan Maher-Kennedy: Backing Vocals
Sophie Gault: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar & Vocals
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6. Paul J. Bolger – Hard Truth
Paul Bolger has been telling stories with pictures, sound and imagination since the late 80s. He’s an artist, writer, director and producer who recently stepped back into songwriting and recording. He uses one art form to fund the others, so if success can be measured in doing what he wants, then that’s how this Waterford, Ireland singer-songwriter gets things done.
Four of the ten songs (“The Start Of It”, “Godforsaken”, “Lady Love & The Cavalier”, “Different Sky”) were previously released on his 2018 limited-edition EP. The new remixed and remastered versions on ‘Hard Truth’ feature the wonderful vocals of Della Mannion. The album also showcases the mighty talents of Dave Molloy (acoustic & electric guitars / keyboards / percussion / mandolin) who also produced and recorded the album, Ron O’Flynn (bass), Michael Black (drums / percussion), Tabitha Agnew (banjo), and Cathleen Flynn (piano) creating a blend of Irish vibe and rootsy rock and roll that give PJB’s songs a fresh urgency and ambition. “I wanted to widen my sound on ‘Hard Truth’ with a smaller band,” says Paul. “As my last effort was a big team, yet intimate, Canadian / Irish / American affair, I wanted to see how far I could push these songs with fewer people performing.”
Bolger’s self-titled debut was released through Wolfe Island Records, in Summer 2020, making Paul the label’s very first East-of-the-Atlantic signing. The songs were worked up from ideas and demos PJB brought with him when he went to visit producer Hugh Christopher Brown on Wolfe Island, Ontario in Summer 2018.
“If my first record was a slightly keyboard driven whisper, then ‘Hard Truth’ is an audacious guitar led shout.” Special guests on the album are Irish music legends, Horslip’s Barry Devlin on vocals and Rónán Ó Snodaigh from Kíla on bodhrán on the title track.
‘Hard Truth’ is dedicated to Paul’s late uncle Jimmy Jackson who was born and lived in Waterford.
Champion, Inspiration, Singer, Lost soul…
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5. Paul Cauthen – Country Coming Down
Paul Cauthen was driving tractors before it got sexy.
Don’t know if Paul Cauthen is “Country as Fuck”, but “hot dog holly golly dagnabit”, I love this album.
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Paul Cauthen knows he’s good at making records and great at entertaining. He’s from a family deeply steeped in music. Texan on both sides, his paternal grandfather went to school with Hank Williams while his maternal grandpa, who worked with Buddy Holly and the Crickets during his youth, introduced Cauthen to singing. His grandmother taught him to play piano, while his grandfather and great uncle were the song leader and preacher, respectively, of the local Christian Church of Christ.
Get along to the rhytym, get your feet moving to the beat. Country coming down.
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4. Caamp – Lavender Days
The Ohio quartet is the latest Folk-Rock sensation. The band was founded by Taylor Meier (guitar and vocals) and Evan Westfall (banjo) more than a decade ago. They launched the band out of Athens, Ohio where Meier was attending Ohio University.
With the addition of Matt Vinson on bass and Joseph Kavalec on the keyboard, the band built up a grassroots following beyond their college hometown based on the inventiveness of Meier’s songwriting, the exuberance of their live performances, and their constant touring.
Caamp is an acronym that stands for Consuming abnormal amounts of Makers and PBR. When you go to a Caamp show, you do exactly as their acronym name suggests.
Caamp has released three previous full lengths – their self-titled 2016 debut, 2018’s ‘Boys’, and 2019’s ‘By and By’. ‘Lavender Days’ is the band’s most mature effort to date, striking a masterful blend of warmth and wistfulness in its folk, country and blues-hued vignettes.
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3. Luke Winslow-King – If These Walls Could Talk
Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ follows 2018’s excellent ‘Blue Mesa’ which was recorded in Lari, a medieval hill town located in Tuscany, Italy.
Now based out of Spain, Luke Winslow-King, known for his slide guitar work, plays vintage blues and jazz, with influences from New Orleans, where he was based for 15 years. The beautiful title track, “If These Walls Could Talk” is about making a house into a home and finding a beautiful place to live and enjoy freedom and beauty and love. The song is dedicated with love to Luke’s sweetheart Noelia González Gascón. Musical and lyrical portions of “If These Walls Could Talk” are extrapolated from Don McLean’s “(Vincent) Starry Starry Night”, Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train”., and Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill”.
“Lissa’s Song” is a musical tribute written by Luke Winslow-King and his guitarist, Roberto Luti (who hails from Italy) that honors the life of the late “Washboard” Lissa Driscoll (1963-2017), a New Orleans street singer and former wife of Roberto, who touched the lives of countless people through her one-of-a-kind country-blues renditions.
The album ends with the beautiful “Leaves Turn Brown”, dedicated to the loving memory of Luke’s late father, Kurt Balzuweit.
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2. Kaitlin Butts – What Else Can She Do
Kaitlin Butts is a throwback to classic honky tonk spiked with a rebellious spirit. Behind her flowing locks of auburn hair, oklahoma twang, and a wry grin,grows a devastating storyteller and an equally demanding, radiant voice.
Raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kaitlin Butts began singing as a child, raised on musical theater, pop and alternative rock. She was drawn to country in her teens, gravitating toward Miranda Lambert in particular. Butts learned Lambert’s songs as she took guitar lessons, which in turn inspired her to start writing her own material. Upon her graduation from Union High School in 2011, she attended the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma where she dabbled in indie rock in addition to country.
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1. John Mellencamp, Strictly A One-Eyed Jack
Most of the songs were written before the pandemic, and the album was to accompany a tour, but two tours were cancelled. A One-Eyed Jack is the most dangerous playing card. There are only two in a deck, and one of them has a sword behind his back. Most people only allow you to see half of their face and so you really don’t know what people are thinking. People only allow you to see what they want you to see. We’re all One-Eyed Jacks.
John Mellencamp embraces the stubborn independence of an artist who unquestioningly follows his heart and his muse. The Little Bastard has been releasing one great album after another since 2010’s ‘No Better Than This’ or even going further back to 2003’s ‘Trouble No More’, his first covers album, covering the likes of Robert Johnson, Son House, and Woody Guthrie.
Mellencamp has also been painting for as long as he’s been making music. He produced a musical with Stephen King, The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. He remains involved with Farm Aid. With Willie Nelson and Neil Young, he organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on the land.
In the fall of 2021 John came together with Bruce Springsteen to duet for the first time on the single and video “Wasted Days,” the first single from John’s ‘Strictly a One-Eyed Jack’, his 25th studio album which was released when Mellencamp was 70 years of age. Yes, the album is a thematically bleak record, but what a damn great bleak record. Andy York is amazing as always on acoustic and electric guitar, autoharp, banjo, and bass.
2022 also saw the release of the biography written by seasoned music writer Paul Rees, titled ‘Mellencamp’ which was a great read.
The cover painting is by John’s son, Speck Mellencamp.
I’m looking forward to back to back Mellencamp shows next March at the Orpheum Theatre.