Ben Bedford
Portraits
(Cavalier Recordings)
★★★★

BEN BEDFORD’S name may not be familiar to too many record buyers on this side of the Atlantic but his captivating musical narratives certainly repay closer investigation.

Portraits provides an ideal introduction to the Illinois-born singer-songwriter’s richly rewarding sound, with the contents of this specially curated retrospective drawing on material from Bedford’s first three albums, Lincoln’s Man, Land of the Shadows and What We Lost, which were recorded between 2007 and 2012 but never officially released in Europe.

A series of tour dates were scheduled to tie in with the release of Portraits but these have now sadly been shelved until life returns to normal. Bedford’s expressive vocals and exquisite guitar work underpin a series of thought-provoking character studies which rank among the finest examples of understated Americana that you’ll be likely to hear in this or any other year.

Kevin Bryan

Kirk Fletcher
My Blues Pathway
Cleopatra Records
★★★★

BORN in 1975 in Bellflower, California, Kirk Fletcher is one of a new generation of US bluesmen, who earned his blues chops playing with white West-Coast blues artists including Lynwood Slim and Junior Watson.

Making his recording debut in 1999, he later joined powerhouse blues outfit The Fabulous Thunderbirds and later the Mannish Boys on a number of their albums.  

This set, his sixth album, features a mix of covers and originals with two numbers co-penned with Robert Cray’s bass player Richard Cousins

Among the covers are AC Reed’s Rather Fight Than Switch, Sonny Boy Williamson’s Fattening Frogs For Snakes and Houston blues man Juke Boy Bonner’s Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal, with Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica.

Among the originals is a fine tribute to Texas guitarist Denny Freeman in what’s a 2020 contemporary blues offering which ain’t bad at all.

Tony Burke

Dream Wife
So When You Gonna ...
(Lucky Number)
★★★★

KNOWN for explosive and engaging live sets, Dream Wife’s debut album couldn’t quite translate that energy into the studio. Their follow-up So When You Gonna ... poses a question and the answer is “Now!”

Opener Sports! channels Rapture-era Blondie while Hasta la Vista has echoes of Clare Grogan and Altered Images. Lead singer Rakel Mjoll’s voice, helped by tight production, has really grown.

This is an 11–track tour through modern pop-punk driving the “girls to the front” or women in control agenda. Produced entirely by a non-male team it’s a call for action on a personal level and for a more inclusive music industry.

Although tracks touch on serious issues like abortion, miscarriage and gender equality, this is a fun album — the punkier edge may have been pruned, but the music, lyrics and vocals have all improved.

Revel in early 1980s music recalibrated for a modern age.

Mik Sabiers

Brian Protheroe
The Albums 1974-76
(Cherry Red)
★★★

THE MULTI-TALENTED Brian Protheroe is probably best known to ardent culture vultures these days for his acting contributions to TV soap operas such as The Bill and Eastenders.

But those with very long memories may well recall his three-year exposure to  the vagaries of the  music business during the 1970s.

This brief flirtation yielded a minor singles success in the shape of the quirkily memorable Pinball, alongside the three excellent albums that he recorded for the Chrysalis label during this period.

Protheroe’s collected works have been brought together here by the good people at Cherry Red to create this highly listenable three-CD set, showcasing gems such as his beguiling adaptation of Shakespeare’s Under The Greenwood Tree, featuring noteworthy  guest appearances from two of Brian’s high-profile Chrysalis stablemates in the shape of Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and Barriemore Barlow.

KB

Bobby Rush
Rawer Than Raw
(Deep Rush/Thirty Tigers)
★★★★★

AGED 86, Bobby Rush is a stalwart on the US blues festival and  juke-joint circuit. Best known for his 1971 big soul-blues hit Chicken Heads, constant touring has ensured he maintains a solid fan base and ongoing popularity.

In recent times, he’s been playing acoustic blues sets, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, and this set - recorded between 2015 and this year — is about as stripped back as you can get.

Covering Skip James’s Hard Time Killin’ Floor, Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightnin’, Willie Dixon’s Shake It For Me, Sonny Boy Williamson’s Don’t Start Me Talkin’ and Muddy Waters’ Honey Bee, he also delivers originals, including Down In Mississippi, Let Me In Your House and Garbage Man.

This is authentic down-home country blues from the Mississippi delta, which I thought would never get recorded again.

TB

Adeline
Interimes
(Unity Records)
★★★

TRANSLATED as “In the meantime,” Interimes is effectively a 24-hour musical diary from Franco-Caribbean singer Adeline.

An intriguing seven-track offering, it takes the listener through a long and somewhat funky morning, noon and night.

Opener Stay Up has a trippy start, echoing Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain with the refrain “I don’t want to go to sleep tonight” setting the scene:  After Midnight starts with a simple piano and then moves into a smooth, old-time soulful groove.

Middle combines Adeline’s bass guitar and voice to good effect and there’s an almost lounge-like,  sumptuous and then funked-up cover of Black Sabbath’s Planet Caravan that is a novel and welcome interpretation.

Interimes’s vocals, beats and production are all tight but while this outing is accomplished, it’s a slightly too short, musical interlude that could have been expanded to showcase more of the talent, tunes and voice that Adeline obviously possesses.

MS

Charley Crockett
Welcome To Hard Times
(Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers)
★★★

A DISTANT relative of legendary US folk hero Davy Crockett,  Charley Crockett survived a major health scare early last year when the discovery of a congenital heart condition necessitated open-heart surgery from which the Texan country troubadour is now thankfully fully recovered.

This life-changing experience has obviously informed the lyrical content of Welcome To Hard Times, a conscious attempt on Charley’s part to create a “dark gothic country record” an deliver an album which will change the entire conversation about country music.

This delightfully eclectic offering is the result, with Crockett  blending elements of Americana, pure Nashville balladry and the finest psychedelia to create a heady musical hybrid which finds its most compelling expressions in Rainin' In My Heart, The Poplar Tree and Welcome To Hard Times itself.

KB

Various Artists
Peephole in My Brain: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1971
(Grapefruit)
★★★★

1971 was a year when the airwaves were filled with soft rock, emerging glam rock, singer-songwriters and the tail end of the underground.

Reflecting those eclectic times, Curved Air, Atomic Rooster, The Move, The Kinks, The Hollies, Procol Harum, ELP, Barclay James Harvest, Cressida, Stray, Magna Carta and Medicine Head fill this three-CD and the accompanying 40-page booklet.

Status Quo had yet to tear up the college circuit but blues band Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts became toe-tappers Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs.

Let's not forget that among the myriad of artists who failed to make it onto the nightly Sounds of the Seventies. Jonathan King appeared on TOTP backed by the legendary Fairport Convention and Tony Blackburn chose Edgar Broughton’s Hotel Room as his Record Of The Week.

It was indeed a weird year musically.

TB

HAIM
Women in Music Pt. III
(Polydor)
★★★★

IT’S back to the beginning but also a new direction as HAIM release their third album.

With a cover shot in the very diner they played their first gig in some 20 years ago, and a more innovative sound, this is a band growing older, more confident and prepared to experiment.

First track Los Angeles is signature guitar-rock and harmonies but then things change. I Know Alone is a dance-beat driven exaltation to loneliness — all the more relevant now — while Up From a Dream has a deep bass riff that rocks in a glam like way.

There’s folky guitar on Leaning On You, I’ve Been Down echoes Sheryl Crow, while Man From The Magazine tackles lazy music journalists and Summer Girl mixes classic HAIM and novel jazz pop, recalling The Cure’s Close To Me.

New sounds and instruments but still unmistakably HAIM, this album improves with repeated listens.

It’s time for more Women in Music.

MS