Any group that has been hailed as the best new band in Austin, Texas, has got to be worth investigating—particularly with a CV as good as the Band of Heathens. The winners of the Best New Band category at the 2007 Austin Music Awards have a unique story to tell and a gritty blend of […]

Following on from her critically well-received debut album EVERYTHING I’VE GOT IN MY POCKET, Minnie Driver has just released the excellent Americana styled album SEASTORIES to prove once and for all that her debut was no fluke, and that she has the credentials to be known as a singer-songwriter in her own right. In fact […]

The album sort of just lay around for several months, but slowly by judicious radio play, word of mouth and a sort of grassroots growth more and more people started latching onto the songs and music of Sam Baker, especially over here in the UK. He never really had many expectations of MERCY, other than that […]

When we see Eve Selis performing in small theatres, intimate clubs, pubs, bars and large festival stages across the breadth of the UK it’s easy to forget that the glamorous lady up there on stage opening up her innermost emotions and giving her all is in reality a housewife and mother back home in Southern […]

Carlene Carter A Strong Country Lady  ‘This hell-raising angel’s had a fair share of heartache. . ./But you’ll never know just how it feels/’Til you fall all apart and your heart don’t wanna heal,’ she pines on the title song. A plaintive piano ballad sweetened by strings, the song also throbs with longing for her late sister. […]

Amy MacdonaldYoung Glaswegian songstress, now a truly International star—but a star that still believes the music comes first—talks to Jim Soars Anyone with a modicum of interest in music will by now have heard of the phenomenon that is Amy Macdonald. The twenty-year-old singer-songwriter from Glasgow hit the headlines in July 2007 when her sizzling debut […]

With two awards already under her belt, Luan Parle is ready for and capable of incredible success. She bagged the Irish Tatler music award for Woman Of The Year and the Meteor award for Best Irish Female Artist last year. This has been a fantastic achievement and the support she has received from her homeland […]

Tell someone you play the 5-string banjo and you’ll get one of two responses: a mocking, grinning attempt at When I’m Cleaning Windows sung back at you, along with obligatory air ukulele, or a request for Duelling Banjos, the DELIVERANCE theme tune. Needless to say, we as a nation, know very little of this marvellous […]

News that Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were collaborating wasan eyebrow-raiser. It certainly didn’t sit too comfortably withdie-hard bluegrass fans who had had to tolerate the bluegrassdiva recording duets with such rock icons as John Waite, not tomention interpreting non-bluegrass material from the likes of theBeatles, Bad Company and the Foundations Outside of bluegrasscircles there […]

Blake Shelton is pure Country—and that’s no bull. Because there’s not a hint of pop or even rock inflections in his vocals or musical arrangements, he has not always enjoyed the kind of chart consistency that the major labels demand. Since making his debut in 2001, he’s achieved several number one hits with such memorable […]