Review: Kathleen Edwards’ ‘Covers’

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Apr 182025
 

You can’t get a more direct than Covers, Kathleen Edwards’ newest short LP/long EP. It lets you know exactly what you got, even before you press play. That is commendable, but then Edwards has never been much for one to conceal her thoughts or her situation. This Canadian singer supreme has had a rocky old trail over the past decade or two, since electing to step away from critical acclaim in 2014, after four well-received albums of polished country and roots-derived songmanship.

The Ottawa coffee shop Edwards subsequently opened and ran was called “Quitters.” That might have been a self-deprecating jibe in name, but it was only later she revealed her then battle with depression had led to her tactical withdrawal from the music business. She returned to music in 2020, we all know what then came along to wreak worldwide havoc. This is her second release since her return, and her first since COVID lockdown and her eventual sale of Quitters.

The eight songs on Covers are a good mix of the likely and the unexpected, broadly drawn from Edwards’ fellow ranks of singer-songwriters. Springsteen, Petty and Pride are among the former, but songs from The Flaming Lips and Supertramp get a turn also. With backing of electric guitars, keyboards, occasional strings and a rhythm section, Edwards sings and plays acoustic. Greg Leisz and Scott Thurston are two of the accompaniments dropping by, on guitars and bass, respectively, each a sign of her esteem amongst peers.
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Review: ‘Post Malone Tribute to Nirvana’

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Apr 112025
 

Post Malone Tribute Nirvana
Post Malone has triumphed as a rapper, a rocker, a pop star, and a country artist. If there’s a solid core within this multiplicity, it’s that Malone is, in essence, a Kurt Cobain fanatic.

It’s literally written on his face: the Nirvana song title “Stay Away” is inked into his forehead. A portrait of Cobain occupies Post’s upper arm. “WHATEVER” is tattooed across his left palm, “NEVERMIND” across the right. If the world needs a celebration of the iconic grunge band, Malone’s the man to bring it.

Post Malone: A Tribute to Nirvana makes its debut on Record Store Day 2025. But the only thing new about the release is its yellow vinyl format. The album’s 14 songs are drawn from Malone’s COVID-19 lockdown performance in April, 2020. That show was a live-streamed fundraiser for COVID victims; the new album is likewise a benefit, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit organization MusiCares. (Specifically, the donation goes to the Addiction Recovery/Mental Health arm of MusiCares, which is in itself a nod to Cobain.)

Joining Malone for the all-Nirvana set were Brian Lee on bass, Nick Mac on rhythm guitar, and Travis Barker of blink-182 fame on drums. And what a set it was! With a righteous cause and a hard-hitting band, Malone seemed large and in charge. On top of his vocalist/guitarist frontman duties, he emceed the fund-raising operation; between songs Post gave shout-outs to the more generous donors, and kept one eye on the chat window for any big names signing in. (Both Courtney Love and Krist Novoselic entered the chat at different points.) Host Malone did it all, and he did it in a dress (yet another bow to his hero). All this without forgetting a single word or chord in the hour-long set.

For the album release, of course, we get only the songs themselves, not the party-down atmosphere, the banter, the beer breaks, the false starts. But that’s kinda the bad news: an electrifying show, a sense of something happening, doesn’t always get encoded into the record grooves. Songs can lose their juice when taken from their context. The livestream raised over $4 million in donations–a huge success–but A Tribute to Nirvana, the record, amounts to little more than a solid if somewhat perfunctory outing.
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Review: Steve Knightley’s “Positively Folk Street”

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Mar 212025
 

Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas which, when executed with precision, reap the most rewards. Such is Positively Folk Street, where Steve Knightley, once one half of U.K. folk and acoustic standard bearers Show of Hands, looks back to those initial influences, the ones that sparked up his dedication and desire to pursue a career in their footsteps.

As a callow youth, picking up a guitar in his teens, Knightley was of the right age to latch right onto the acoustic charm of early Dylan, principally The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. As he says, “I had no idea Dylan had drawn so deeply from our own folk tradition to shape many of his songs,” That point was hammered home as he then encountered Martin Carthy, at Sidmouth’s famous folk festival, hearing earlier “versions” of those self same songs. (Carthy was name-checked on the cover of Dylan’s breakthrough album, if not formally credited with any the songs or their arrangements, but the two of them have subsequently made up and remain friends.) On Positively Folk Street, Knightley celebrates both, with a selection of songs made famous by either.
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Review: Thea Gilmore’s ‘These Quiet Friends’

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Feb 282025
 

These Quiet FriendsThea Gilmore has been on quite a journey these past few years, and, against the odds, has shown herself to be a survivor, when the odds were more she may barely wash up. One of those artists seemingly around for ever, it is a shock to realize she is still only in her mid-40s, despite a staggering catalog of over 20 albums, starting in 1998.

Whilst her own writing is sharp and incisive, she is neither a stranger to covering the work of other artists. That’s how we know her here, with her 2011 track-by-track recreation of Dylan’s John Wesley Harding meeting with no small approval. Prior to that she had issued 2004’s Loft Music, a diverse set that ranged from Creedence Clearwater Revival through to Phil Ochs, via the Ramones and Neil Young. On Don’t Stop Singing (also in 2011), she was gifted the opportunity to put music to a set of posthumous orphan lyrics written by Sandy Denny. (The fact that UK Denny tributers the Sandy Denny Project have covered one such song, “London,” is a wry testament.)

Anyhoo, here we are in 2025, and here is These Quiet Friends, a second set of disparate covers. The mood is here more consistent than the earlier set, that mood being generally low key and pensive, perhaps given away by the album title. An impression is that these songs helped sustain her over the brick wall her personal life crashed into, back in 2021. The details aren’t for here, but rather than a career-put-on-hold stalling release, this set provides a companion to Gilmore’s new material, which continues, her muse anything other than consumed by circumstance.
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Review: The John Martyn Project – Volume 1

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Jan 212025
 

John Martyn ProjectMuggers. Burglars. Aggressive panhandlers. Chris Stein of Blondie and Chris Frantz of Talking Heads were penniless musicians in the New York of the ’70s and ’80s. It was a good day when they were not robbed. However, when they wrote their memoirs (Stein’s Under a Rock and Frantz’s Remain in Love), they did not appear to have much rancor towards those who stole from them, who were just trying to make their way in a city that had its issues. If a drug dealer swindled one of them, and then went on to star in The Sopranos, then that was just the circle of life.

They were also musical and personal partners to astonishingly talented female musicians (Debbie Harry and Tina Weymouth, respectively). They saw behavior that, unfortunately, still plagues the music industry today.  They wished for better morals and supported their partners as they could. They could not speak on behalf of their partners, but in many cases they could understand others wanting to be with their lovers and doing it in a civil way, as they were supremely talented and desirable. There was no ill will towards those who were jealous of them.

Frantz and Stein, along with the many other overlaps and notions of not carrying grudges, were also aligned on one further thing. John Martyn was an unforgivable asshole.

The John Martyn Project are not delicate flowers. Bonding at Music School during late nights of listening to records and enjoying exotic herbs, they bemoaned the fact that such beautiful music came from such a conflicting source. However, it is not their intention to deny the obvious. At their live shows, they often ask the audience to recount their encounters with Martyn. A cheerful nod if you bought him a drink merits a thumbs up. A stream of profane invective, either humorous or threatening, gets an appreciative nod. Actual physical violence from the “Great Man” gets a small round of applause. There is frequently someone in the audience with a story of this latter sort. They are not a “Tribute” band, as they don’t play slavish recreations of recorded tracks, and have no wish to honour the man, but they want to channel his inspiration.

Active as a touring project since 2018 they have now released their first album, The John Martyn Project – Volume One.  It is an amazing refreshing and energizing romp through (mainly) the ’70s highpoints of Martyn’s catalogue.
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Review: Brigid Mae Power’s “Songs For You”

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Dec 182024
 

The name Brigid Mae Power may be unfamiliar, as well may be many of the songs on her newest album, Songs for You. At least in these iterations. Those already familiar with Ms. Power will need no such prompting, mind, and may just need a pointer towards Songs for You‘s existence.

A quick bio for the novices: Of London Irish stock, Power’s family relocated back home to Kilkenny when she was 11. She produced a ream of self-released EPs between 2010 and 2014, catching the ear of the Irish media, who found her ethereal vocal style possessed a “spiritual resonance.” After meeting Peter Broderick, the US roots singer and multi-instrumentalist, at a gig, he took her to his home studio in Portland, OR, and he produced her international debut, following which a further three albums have appeared, each gathering increasing acclaim. She has since married. But Songs for You has a special extra resonance, in that it is dedicated to the memory of her father.

Anyone attending shows or festivals in the UK over the last 40 years, particularly in London, will be familiar with the name Vince Power, the sometimes controversial figure who opened the Mean Fiddler venue in 1982. With ambition to celebrate both Americana and folk music, particularly Irish, he certainly achieved that. His fiefdom swiftly expanded, as a welter of other clubs opened, and before long his eyes were on the burgeoning festival circuit. In his time he had responsibility for an astonishing roster that included turning around the fortunes of Reading and Leeds, having a say in Glastonbury and setting up his own Phoenix and Hop Farm festivals, amongst many, many others. This included the “chain” of Fleadh festivals worldwide, devoted to a celebration of the Irish in music. Quite a fella, he died in March of this year, remembered to many as the “Godfather of gigs.”

Now his daughter has picked artists that her father held in regard, guaranteeing their ongoing presence on a world stage via his promotions. Largely playing solo, with some bass and drums from Shahzad Ismaily and Ryan Jewell respectively, it makes for both a fitting tribute to her dad and a further introduction to her own haunting vocal style.
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