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MUSIC Album reviews with Kevin Bryan, Tony Burke and Mik Sabiers

Latest releases from Larkin Poe, Swamp Dogg, Mike Zito, Dion, London pub-rock bands, Lady Gaga, Austra and Charlie Dore

Larkin Poe
Self Made Man
(Tricki-Woo Records)
★★★★

IF YOUR thoughts turn to Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks or Dolly Parton when you think of women in country music then it’s time to add southern gothic sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell — AKA Larkin Poe — to your playlist.

The duo’s fifth studio album Self Made Man drips with slide guitar, a southern drawl of sadness but also hope and it's a pristine combination of blues, country rock, religion and riffs aplenty.

Holy Ghost Fire sparks from the off. Keep Diggin’ is dirty blues, the kind of which Band of Skulls would kill for, while Ex-Con channels southern country rock luminaries Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Rebecca’s lead vocals are honey-like with a timbre that draws you in and the riffs are down and dirty, while Megan’s slide guitar sits seductively on top of the mix.

This is pure, albeit slightly twisted, country that rocks in all the right ways.

Mik Sabiers

Swamp Dogg
Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
(Joyful Noise Recordings)
★★★★★

R&B artists like Ray Charles, Solomon Burke, and Percy Sledge all recorded brilliant country-soul albums. Now add Swamp Dogg to that list.

Jerry Williams Jnr made his R&B debut aged 12 in 1954, recording soul in the 1960s and then worked as a songwriter/producer for Atlantic. He adopted a new persona in 1970 — Swamp Dogg — and released the killer album Total Destruction Of Your Mind.

Recorded in Nashville with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Polica’s Ryan Olson and the late John Prine, standouts here include Freddie North’s hit She’s All I Got, which Williams penned with Gary U.S. Bonds,  I’d Rather Be Your Used To Be, Sleeping Without You Is a Dragg — both great tearjerkers — plus Memories and Please Let Me Go Round Again with Prine.

Another veteran soul artist returning to make a great album.

Tony Burke

Mike Zito
Quarantine Blues
(Gulf Coast Records)
★★★

WHEN Royal Southern Brotherhood co-founder and Gulf Coast Records supremo Mike Zito found his recent European tour cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the highly regarded bluesman wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered an album during his enforced 14-day quarantine.

The various members of  Zito’s regular band were rapidly roped in to underpin the highly regarded  singer and slide guitarist’s sterling efforts, recording their individual contributions to the project from their own homes.

The finished product has now been released as Quarantine Blues and this hastily assembled package is a surprisingly visceral and life-enhancing affair, with energised gems such as Don’t Let The World Get You Down, Dust Up and After The Storm emerging as the cream of a uniformly excellent crop.

Kevin Bryan

Dion
Blues With Friends
(Keeping The Blues Alive Records)
★★★★★

1950s teen idol Dion DiMucci, of The Wanderer and Runaround Sue fame, is now 80 but he looks good and still has a great voice.

He says this album is the fulfilment of a “lifelong vision” — a set of self-penned originals and blues numbers recorded with an impressive guest list.

On board are rock-blues hero Joe Bonamassa, rockabilly cat Brian Setzer, Jeff Beck, John Hammond Jnr and Rory Block, bluesman Joe Louis Walker with Van Morrison, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, slide guitarist Sonny Landreth and Paul Simon on Dion’s Song For Sam Cooke (Here in America).

There is also strong Springsteen contingent, with E Street band member and Sopranos actor Stevie Van Zandt, vocalist Patti Scialfa and Bruce himself on the gospel number Hymn to Him.

A remarkable album, complete with intro-notes by Bob Dylan.

TB

Various Artists
Surrender To The Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene Of The 1970s
(Grapefruit)
★★★★★

THE ANTIDOTE to stadium and prog rock, pub rock centred on London music venues including the Tally Ho!, The Kensington, Lord Nelson and The Nashville.

It featured bands like Eggs Over Easy, Bees Make Honey, Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Ace and Graham Parker all playing country-rock, R&B, boogie and rock’n’roll to packed houses.

Brinsley Schwarz became the finest pub-rock band around, despite the farce created in 1970 by their management, who booked them a gig at New York’s Fillmore East with 120 suitably refreshed journalists in tow.

This three-CD set charts the rise and music of these luminaries of the pub-rock scene, including lesser-known bands such as Brewers Droop, featuring a very young Mark Knopfler.

Four hours of music, a 48-page booklet – it’s the definitive document on London pub-rock bands.

TB

Lady Gaga
Chromatica
(Interscope)
★★★★

FEATURING string interludes, Eurodisco, Chicago house, bubblegum K-pop and even a bit of acid, Chromatica sees Lady Gaga return to her dance-pop roots.

Though charting her depression, loneliness and mental health, there’s actually a lot that’s uplifting.

Alice is classic Gaga, with uptempo electro-pop and rapid repeated lyrics, the robo-funk-like 911 is more autotune than vocals, while Sour Candy with K-pop superstars Blackpink is a deep-house stomper that will get even the stiffest statues moving.

It’s heavy on the house and almost steals from Madonna —  Babylon is Vogue in all but name but Gaga knows how to curate a tune.

Guest spots make the record. Ariana Grande takes Rain on Me to another level and as soon as Elton John kicks in on Sine From Above, the star quality shines through. Chromatica is a competent return, but a bit too infused with Gaga’s influences.
MS

Austra
HiRUDiN
(Domino)
★★★★

WRITTEN following the end of a toxic relationship, Katie Stelmanis — effectively Austra — radiates self-realisation and personal change, built upon a unique voice, on this record.

Stelmanis is classically trained and her vocals trip over everything, adding operatic interludes or church-like choruses.

Opener Anywayz reveals the bleak reality of trying to save a doomed relationship as it switches from choral beats to haunting electro-pop. Risk It is a trip-hop Bjork-infused break-up song that sees Austra’s voice – and hope – soar sky high.

Mountain Baby sees Stelmanis sing with clarity while almost battling against a babbling children’s choir, and the album ends with Messiah, which channels the best of Arcade Fire while remaining authentically Austra.

The combination of odd-pop, mixed beats, esoteric imagery and orchestral vocals delivers. This is personal, cathartic and somewhat strange but it all comes back to the voice which, siren-like, calls for repeated listens.

MS

Charlie Dore
Like Animals
(Black Ink Records)
★★★★

ECLECTIC contemporary folkie Charlie Dore has followed a fairly singular career path since Where To Now, her well-received debut  album for Island Records.
 
This first saw the light of day long ago in 1979, yielding a minor singles success, with the infectious Pilot of the Airwaves.

Dore has divided her attentions between the delights of music making and the tempting lure of a theatrical career in the interim, choosing to venture into the recording studio from time to time to assemble affecting collections such as Like Animals, part of her enduring creative partnership with her long-term musical soulmate Julian Littman, of Steeleye Span fame.

Terrible Lie,  A Hundred Miles of Nothing and the haunting Ordinary Names are the most appealing of Dore’s latest batch of poetic musings on the vagaries of the human condition.

KB

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