Angela Easterling- Witness review

Angela Easterling Witness AngelaEasterling.com South Carolinian Angela Easterling, whom I wrote about here many years ago, returned in 2022 with a new album that grabbed me from first listen. So why didn’t I write about it when released in October? I just couldn’t find the right words, and quite likely still haven’t. Witness consists of…

Rate this:

Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Roots Albums of 2022

I have no idea how many roots albums I bought, received for review, actually wrote about, listened to through a brief flirtation with a streaming service, and sampled via Polaris Music Prize jury membership, as well as other industry-provided downloads during 2022. But when I review other lists, I see a lot I am familiar…

Rate this:

Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Blues Albums, 2022

I do enjoy blues music. Of all the roots styles I feature at Fervor Coulee, blues is the music I reach for when listening for enjoyment the least: I listen to it intently while reviewing and writing, but I just don’t often go to the shelves searching for blues music. That changed a bit this…

Rate this:

Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Roots Compilations, Tributes, & Archival Albums of 2022

This is my annual ‘odds & sods’ category, those roots albums that are various artist tributes to artists or subjects, archival recordings, or compilations created to highlight a style of music or an artist’s catalogue. Bluegrass Favourites of 2022 previously posted, with Blues and the overall Roots lists to follow. As my #1 bluegrass album…

Rate this:

Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Bluegrass Albums of 2022

It is that time of year. As the year concludes those of us who write about music get to reflect and indulge our personal preferences by reviewing the offerings of the past year and providing our perspectives on ‘the year’s best.’ I deliberately avoid the word ‘best,’ and always refer to these as my favourites.…

Rate this:

Skinny Dyck- Palace Waiting review

Skinny Dyck Palace Waiting Sound Asleep Records While I have quite loved everything Skinny Dyck has done on previous releases, I also appreciate his continued evolution as a country artist. On his Get to Know Lonesome album, one filled with terrific, fairly straight-ahead country tunes, the darkly expressive “Dreamin’” was favoured. Before many of us…

Rate this:

Spencer Mackenzie- Preach to My Soul review

Spencer Mackenzie Preach to My Soul SpencerMackenzie.ca Go for what you know. For youthful blues-guitarist Spencer Mackenzie, that appears to be rockin’ blues. During my formative, high school musical years listening to mainstream rock FM stations, I could hear Powder Blues, Downchild, and David Wilcox alongside a Rumours track, the next chart-climber from Pat Benatar,…

Rate this:

Robert Connely Farr- Shake It review

Robert Connely Farr Shake It RobertConnelyFarr.com My introduction to Robert Connely Farr came many years ago—a dozen?—when the Mississippi-native released a set with Jon Wood under the Mississippi Live moniker. I was a fine piece of stripped-down blues, the words about which I wrote long ago left to the ravages of print and the foibles…

Rate this:

pd adams This Curious Wonder review

pd adams This Curious Wonder Lake Front/PaulAdams.org Thirty-five years in the making, This Curious Wonder examines a world that pd adams has observed with both distress, wonder, and joy. Paul Adams is a poet and songwriter with a series of instrumental albums to his credit. This Curious Wonder appears to be his first lyrical effort,…

Rate this:

Rory Block- Ain’t Nobody Worried review

Rory Block Ain’t Nobody Worried: Celebrating Great Women of Song Stony Plain Records Into her seventies, Rory Block continues to rock the blues harder than many half her age. With this third release in her Power Women of the Blues series, Block turns to slightly more contemporary material and a wider definition of blues. Playing…

Rate this: