Towards the end of her generous set, Nadia Reid spoke of her studio in Salford and how it takes two buses and over an hour to get there from her new home in Manchester. But, said a close friend, it’s all about the journey.
Its two-and-a half years since their Covid-delayed show amid the monsoon-like storm of January 2023 and the Cowboy Junkies never expected to be back so soon.
From the opening chords, Beanpole, the debut album from Georgia Knight, is something special. For starters, how many writers play autoharp as their central instrument?
C. W. Stoneking sings us songs of spells, fraught love and odd occurrences. Deft finger work on a 1957 Gretsch guitar and vocals that hail from the Delta, not Australia’s Northern Territory of his birth.
Kaylee Bell has just released Cowboy Up and the 13th Floor’s Robin Kearns gives it a spin (or two).
It’s a truism but beauty dwells in simplicity. Nothing fancy as Folk Bitch Trio walk on. Three musicians. Grace Sinclair, Jeanie Pilkington, and Heide Peverelle, close friends from school days. From Naarm/Melbourne. They sound – and say they feel – like siblings.
To the sound of Jumpin’ Jack Flash Wunderhorse take the stage. All sound and energy like a wave crashing in from the craggy coast of Cornwall. All four band members clothed in black and bathed in red light.
The bard is back. When Paul Kelly walks out, it feels like seeing an old friend: the long-time lyrical laureate from across the ditch. The next most well-known Kelly after Ned, toting a guitar not a gun. Legendary in his own way.
Sweeping, layered sound panoramas prevail on Traces, a collaboration between Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman. It’s all a wonderfully other-worldly journey: music to take us places beyond the usual.
Kiwis may not be enamoured by what’s going on in the U.S. these days but many do have an enduring love affair with American music traditions.
