Richard Schroder excels himself with this single. Beginning with that ever-professional, crisp & organic country sound, We All Start Somewhere progresses to captivate brilliantly, with detailed, fresh story-telling, and a fine balance between scene-setting & emotional honesty.
Country
Armed initially with only an acoustic guitar, soulful vocals and a poetic, hopeful yet realist outlook, Bobbo Byrnes paints a powerful picture with his decidedly relevant new single.
Patriotism and love, family and service, gratitude and longing all mashed together without a sleigh bell in sight!
Celebrating an impressive three decades on the live scene and thriving within the music world in general, New York’s White Collar Crime emerge with a stunning collection of songs under the title 30 Years In The New York Rain, and it’s a total pleasure to listen through.
Battle Ready is a slow-burning track that sneaks up on you as you listen through. There’s a dark narrative lurking behind the beauty of the arrangement. Tuneful and tastefully produced, that all makes it classic country, in a nutshell!
Leading with a touch of that country twang, a blues or folk-like soundscape, a quietly uplifting shuffle of a rhythm, and an almost trip-hop-like aura on the whole, the song strands tall on the strength of its own concept, and Kris Angelis more than delivers.
The leading vocal is notably accessible, that boy-next-door tone intrigues during the verses, then peaks with superb passion and vibrancy for the chorus, and meanwhile the instrumentation continues to weave an upbeat and musically satisfying web around listeners.
There is no question of a lead vocal performance being copied and pasted into position here, the variety of takes between the repeated patterns is as organic and fresh as you like, giving the song a living, beating heart to focus on. Smooth.
Americana in a reasonably gentle set of colours here (despite the subject matter), as Josef McManus’ White Owl Red sets out its stall with a careful political agenda: ‘Just tryin’ to make things a little better’. A rolling and tuneful backing track lends authentic support to the softly-sung thoughts about the undisputed horrors caused by … Continued
In a timeless production that feels simultaneously classic and contemporary, there are plenty of hooks in the melody and backing vocal arrangement to make the insistent motifs memorable.
Dave’s voice has the right level of gravitas and directness to deliver stories, and a sweet and gentle vibrato that ends phrases with a tidy elan. I’d like to wheel out the phrase ‘labour of love’ to describe the collection at this point. It’s just superb!
Is there such a genre as ‘stoner country’? If not, it’s possible that Jesh has invented it! Warm and woozy in the way that a bottle of firewater shared around a campfire on a cold night might be.