Enter the Haggis Soapbox Heroes UFO Music UFO 1006 **½ Enter the Haggis bring plenty of bombast and the youthful fervour of energy-driven acts like Nickel Creek or Rascal Flatts to the world of Celtic rock on this earnest fifth release. Based in Toronto, the quintet hurtle headlong at their all-original material, with a strong Irish musical core placed […]

Eddie Cochran The Very Best Of Eddie Cochran EMI 50999 212278 20 **** A brilliant Best Of from a shining star whose talent was snuffed out long before his time With the 50th anniversary of Eddie Cochran’s tragically premature death only two years away, his reputation and influence among succeeding generations shows no sign of waning. The handsome and charismatic […]

Dani Wilde Heal My Blues Ruf 123 *** If ever an album was less in need of healing, it’s Dani Wilde’s HEAL MY BLUES. The 21-year-old Brighton resident’s talent appears to be in rude health. Is it just imagination or are young British female blues singers more of the exception than the rule? However, on listening to Dani Wilde it looks as […]

Clelia Adams Wildflowers Self-released CA2008 *1/2 Misguided release featuring a lack of innovation fails to deliver Though a well-intentioned collection, gathering together a decent number of country standards and contemporary classics, this is one of those misguided projects which brings nothing new to much-loved material. Italian-born Australian Clelia Adams clearly feels great affection towards the songs on her fifth studio […]

City Fritter From The Ocean To The Desert ** There’s talent in there somewhere but it’s very well hidden in a well of mediocrity On City Fritter’s website biography it says they’re an amalgam of all the best elements of country, folk and classic rock. It also says they’ve played at some of California’s most prestigious clubs and even […]

Billy Chernoff A Better Way Spotted Pony Records ** Chernoff’s fifth album, A BETTER WAY, comprises of 11 self penned numbers which deal, in the main, with various aspects of love. The opening track, Let Me Be (With My Darling Once Again) is a convoluted tale of lost love while on the following two numbers Chernoff bemoans his misfortune […]

Bill and Gloria Gaither Homecoming Picnic Gaither Gospel Series. CD: SHD2724 . DVD: SHDVD4771 ***** Great live recordings from Fiddler’s Grove historic village, Lebanon, Tennessee Filmed on location this is by far the best recording from the Gaithers for some time. Perhaps it is the relaxed outside atmosphere which has brought out the best of the artists represented on the […]

Bill & Gloria Gaither A Campfire Homecoming Gaither Gospel Series. DVD: SHDVD4769. CD: SHD2723 *** More live recordings around the camp fire of Fiddler’s Grove, Lebanon, Tennessee Obviously the Gaither organisation thought it a good idea to do two live recordings, but I don’t think this one works quite a well as the HOMECOMING PICNIC. It is certainly not as […]

Beth Hirsch Wholehearted Electric Bee ** Breezily attractive summer album. This latest release from LA-based Beth Hirsch will probably be very differently received depending on whether you’re already a fan of the pretty but flimsy kind of soul-inflected pop that she deals in. Surprising as it may seem to those who find it eminently forgettable fluff, it’s expanding, if anything, […]

Alex Nackman Still Life Moves: Long Road Records An 1751 – ** ½ New York City based Alex Nackman has been described as being a ‘Brit-Pop influenced Roots Rocker’ and that seems to be a fairly accurate assessment of this singer-songwriter who opened his account in 2003 with GOOD IMPRESSIONS, notching up his fifth release with this, his latest […]