Peter Oren - The Greener Pasture

New album from singer-songwriter Peter Oren out 24th April from Western Vinyl

FFO: Eerie Gaits, Bon Iver, Rayland Baxter, Bob Mould

His first new release since 2017's Anthropocene, Oren has recorded this album himself in his hometown of Nashville, Indiana. This is the first project he has mixed, mastered and produced himself and recorded mostly in seclusion at a cabin near his hometown surrounded by hilly and wooded acres totally 60.

The album involved him trading files with fellow musicians some he has never met in person, yet he has produced an album that is at both times about connecting in this large world, and in these unsettling times of pandemic that theme of unity and togetherness is even more telling.

Highly rooted in the history of Americana roots, blues and country and western, while it is indebted to that rich history of American musical genres, Oren is writing about prevelant first world problems so not tales of backwater gangs but as in 'Ones and Ohs' it is about excessive phone usage and becoming a slave to this modern technology at your fingertips.

'Fun Yet' (track 6 on the album) concerns the need to have fun despite all the ability at those same fingerprints. 'John Wayne' is about the search for heroes and icons in these times of trouble. So this album is as much about looking forwards as looking back in its stripped down woozy wonderfulness.

Opening single 'Gnawed to The Bone (Come By)' is about feeling isolation understandable when recording in isolation and the theme coming through the album is about Oren combating this period of isolation and having to overcome those fears of vulnerability and gain a voice amongst the chaos and loneliness.

That first single was released on 19th February, here we are two months later and the world is very much different to then. We are all coming together in periods of reflection and contemplation, and it is works like this that will help us do this - becoming a voice for the people who themselves are seeking answers amongst this weird dystopia we find ourselves living in.

The Greener Pasture is a rich work of individualism for the people, it is out on all platforms from 24th April from Western Vinyl.

Other Lives - For Their Love

The long awaited album from Oregon band, Other Lives, is out from Play It Again Sam Recordings.

A band that has a richness of sound and unity in their performance, and a timeless nature to the compositions as if they are songs pulled from the collective consciousness with a universal appeal and general freedom in their sound.

This comes from the overlong hiatus the band have subjected themselves to since the 2011 debut Tamer Animals and out of creative uncertainty the band have re-emerged in a personal necessity and it is a joyful rebirth we witness on For Their Love.

The album starts off slowly, admittedly, but slowly the band creates this aura of Americana with great ear worm songs such as 'Lost Day' which epitomises the ear that the band has for swooning melody coupled with mystical lyrics and lush harmonies stemming from the band as a unit but also where the album was recorded in the Oregon mountains as featured in the video above.

The songs evoke visions of this great lost American soundtrack to an indie film from Jim Jarmusch or John Sayles ('Cops'), images of road trips on lost highways ('For Their Love'), landscapes blowing in the ever changing environment which harkens back to this genuinely organic feel of the album layout.

This is the sort of album that will be great to listen to in most environments, from a festival backdrop to garden barbecues to listening parties. Hopefully in spite of the current climate, this album will find a willing and deserving audience for this swooning soundtrack to Americana by way of Stillwater, Oklahoma.

For Their Love is our on 24th April on all platforms

My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity.

Rio Grande: Blu-ray review

Eureka Entertainment release RIO GRANDE, the final instalment of the Cavalry Trilogy starring John Wayne directed by John Ford

The last entry of the oft-forgotten 'Cavalry Trilogy' that featured John Wayne and was directed by John Ford; Rio Grande (1950) followed the hits Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) and is thought of as the most underrated collaboration between the illustrious pair.

The film marks the end of that trilogy, but also a new beginning to their partnership and the first film that Wayne would appear opposite Maureen O'Hara (The Quiet Man coming in 1952).

Wayne is Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, attached to the Texas frontier in 1879 to protect settlers from attacks by Apaches. When Yorke's son – a West Point flunkee turned Army private – is assigned to his father's regiment, tensions flare upon the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife Kathleen (O'Hara), who wants their teenaged son out of Yorke's unit. After Apaches attack, the stakes of Yorke's mission escalate, and he must journey to Mexico where the Apaches are hiding out. With his son and two old recruits (Ford/Wayne regulars Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.) as accompaniment, Yorke faces his toughest battle.

This back against the wall mentality comes out through Wayne's impressive lead performance, holding it all together with a strong ensemble around him. This role comes in the midst of a great purple patch of Wayne's iconic roles - in 1948 he played Tom Dunson in Howard Hawks' Red River, the role that prompted Ford to say, 'Damn, I did not know the sonofabitch could act' and in 1956 Wayne would play his most famous role of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. Wayne was the biggest star in Hollywood stepping between war and western films regularly with great success.

When watching Rio Grande, it is another example of Ford's mastery of scene setting and action sequences - the vistas of Monument Valley provide Ford a virtual playground to enjoy with Wayne his main subject. The character of Kirby having to walk the fine line between a soldier of duty and that new found streak of parenthood that has been thrust upon him in the most stressful of situations.

Highly enjoyable and recommended for all western film aficionados, this is a beautiful 4K restoration on Blu-ray. 

The features include a video essay by Tag Gallagher, archival documentary featuring Maureen O'Hara with specific audio commentary also and a feature-length audio commentary by Stephen Prince.

Rio Grande is out now from Eureka as part of their Masters of Cinema series.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

Sunwatchers 'Oh Yeah?'

Fourth album from New York psych-rock four piece Sunwatchers out now from Trouble in Mind Records

Sunwatchers are a four-piece band from New York, who are the most potent mix of musical influences from a broad spectrum. Mixing funk, free jazz, prog, rock and punk into a cauldron of non-conformity, Sunwatchers harbour interests in not listening to reason and instead want to create a free-for-all of musical content.


If played loud, this is just adrenaline charging music full of character and life unlike many listeners would have heard before and yet while there is an intensity to the madness there is still a melodic mastery taking place as heard in 'Brown Ice'

The album culminates in a 19-minute closer 'The Earthsized Thumb' featuring African guitar melody before all components take hold and join together.

For all the mayhem taking place this is still the most accessible and mainstream album Sunwatchers have released, and for fans of The Flaming Lips lyric-free pieces will be a good gateway for new fans. Embrace the madness.

Oh Yeah? is out now from Trouble in Mind Records.

My thanks to One Beat PR for the release and review opportunity.

Nothing's Lost - Prints In The Snow

Debut album out now from Yorkshire four piece, Prints in the Snow

Formed in 2010 by the pair, Laurie Armitt and Catherine Preston, they were joined by music journalist David Simpson on drums and by former Hermit Crabs guitarist Mark Waudby. This album was released in 2019 on the band's bandcamp page and still available.

From the opening track 'Waiting for the Feeling' there is an energy that permeates from this band, a tightness of their collective spirit coming through the ether. The drive of that album opener is in stark contrast to the next two tracks, 'To Be Home Again' and 'Sleep' where the sombre reflectiveness washes over the listener, which continues in the little gem 'For Grace'

There is a power to this four piece that radiates throughout the nine track album, with pieces reminiscing of lost opportunites, past glories and fading chances, which comes from the ages of the group in their more mature years.

There is a yearning in these songs, reminiscent of Mike Scott and the Waterboys, music which is very much British and makes you think this is a lost soundtrack to some fabled lost Lindsey Anderson kitchen sink drama from the early 1960s or that renaissance of British film in the late 1980s.

Yet you still get the rock of 'Desdemona' a song of requited love, this is an album as much about love and the love of music and not an angry political album. That is followed by 'Be Still My Heart' a lovely track that recalls the gushing work of Richard Hawley or Billy Bragg - a song with a tag line that pulls on your ear to nuzzle into your memory slipstream.

An album by music lovers for music lovers in all its faded glory, during this period of self-isolation it is an album that befits this prolonged period of reflection and contemplation; a small minor masterpiece ripe for a larger audience.

Follow Prints In The Snow on Twitter @printsinthesnow.

Read my interview with David Simpson here for his book 'The Last Champions'

Perdition's Child - Anne Coates

Fourth book in Hannah Weybridge series by Anne Coates from Urbane Publications

Since I started writing book review blogs a few years ago, I happened upon a writer called David Barker who wrote a sterling action thriller Blue Gold about the threat of water having wars fought over it.

Barker has since written three books featuring his protagonist, Sim Atkins, but the book read with such a zip full of vigour, great set pieces, easy to follow narratives and page turning pleasure.

Published by Urbane Publications, a small independent publisher that brings diverse voices to an eager audience. That word eager is key to their Twitter bio, a word that breeds enthusiasm and joy in writing and that is systemic in the work of Barker.

This reviewer is pleased to report that the book reviewing today, Perdition's Child by Anne Coates, repeats much of the same Urbane DNA - a different sort of book, a pacy thriller that was gorged in one day of reading over a long Bank Holiday weekend.

Anne Coates - Author of Hannah Weybridge series

Hannah Weybridge, is a freelance journalist, who seeks for the truth. This is the fourth book in the series, previously Hannah has combated crime against sex workers while trying to raise a young child without a father figure.

We find her on holiday with a new beau, the abrupt parting at the airport leads to her returning to work and walking into a string of strange murders connected by the link that they are all Australian citizens, back in the UK looking for the truth of their heritage and lineage.

Weybridge finds herself embroiled in the mystery of odd deaths, a bag lady taking over her deceased brother's residence thanks to the help of a lofty QC acquaintance, a gentleman who appears at inopportune times and the relationship between orphanages and religious bodies.

Coates writes with a whip-crack narrative, dialogue flies off the page providing characterisation, exposition and structure in multitude that is both pleasing and effective.  This effortless style of plotting and character helped this reader entering a four-book strong universe which is always the key to a good writer of crime fiction - being able to create a universe where someone can enter without feeling like a stranger.

The placing of the narrative in 1994 before the advent of global media taking ahold of all people helps - a world where people would be somewhere when they said, papers were trusted before becoming gossip-mongers - giving an unlikely nostalgic spin on matters.

If you like this work, go seek out the David Barker books and also Simon Michael's Charles Holborn series about a barrister in the 1960s in the shadow of the Kray twins hold over London.

Perdition's Child is out now from Urbane Publications.
My thanks to them for the review opportunity

Eerie Gaits - Holopaw

The new album from Eerie Gaits - Holopaw - is out now from Sound As Language

The side project of John Ross of Wild Pink, has been much anticipated, and is the second full length release following the debut of Bridge Music in June 2017.

Eerie Gaits is the instrumental sound board for Ross' compositional output, and fittingly during this weird period of social and cultural history, Holopaw is an album of contemplation and introspection during the period of collective lockdown.

From the opening track 'What's Eating You' Ross sets himself out as making an album with something for everyone, a wide array of influences from American music history abound from alt-country to electronica, country riffs to ambient sounds.

A hallmark album for this would be Bon Iver's debut 'For Emma, Forever Ago' which was released in July 2007; this is the album Justin Vernon would have made had he not felt the need to sing. Ross has created an album of nine-ambient compositions that are full of joy and community as opposed to Iver's paean to loneliness.

From the naturalism of 'Out In The Tall Grass' to the quietness of 'Oia' which shows a range of emotions in less than two minutes; from minimalism to full blown euphoric expressions.

The dexterity and virtuosity of this album is a wonder to behold, it seeks to be heard above the crowd and if given the right platform it will do - an album that is both wondrous and wonderful, it bears repeat listenings and in this day and age - currently of lockdown - you may have the time to do so.

Holopaw is out now on all formats via Sound As Language.
My thanks to them for the review opportunity.