Runaway's Diary - revisited!

To revisit an album on its day of release might seem a rather strange thing to do. Here is why I am doing it. I mentioned Runaway's Diary only a couple of months back. It was released only this week but Amazon has been bombarding me with the suggestion that I should buy it...
This was more correct than Amazon could know. I have had it for much of the last week, it cost slightly less but probably more of that went to the artist. Here it is (the digipack CD version).

It is signed too, but musically it is everything hoped for and that matters much more.

LaVere has over the course of her four solo LPs not been the most prolific of songwriters but when she does it tends to work well. Cupid's Arrow from the 2007 LP 'Anchors and Anvils' is a good case in point, but so is the title track. Rarely are they cheerful songs but that is of little consequence.
There are five on this disc and two co-writes with Tim Regan and they don't suffer by comparison with the four covers, one of which is Townes Van Zant's 'Where I Lead Me'. This also makes a point that I wish to raise, which is that like several other Americans of her generation, she is a fine interpreter of the songs of others. My first impression is that I like 'Runaway's Diary' more than the LP 'Stranger Me' (2011) that was released between these. I think however that I must now revisit that.
I never did get to the end of the lyric of the song Anchors and Anvils although I promised to. That's not a problem with Runaway's Diary as the CD comes with a lyric booklet.
Finally, you need to read a review written by somebody far more knowledgeable. The one that I proffer is this.

New Music - Part 16 - Americana Both Sides of the Atlantic

This is about two albums that I have come to my attention in the last couple of days. One has been released only recently and the other is due in six weeks or so: both incorporate several trends in the way new music, and the music industry in general, is changing shape in an almost organic way.
I'm actually going to start with the one that has not yet been released for, without it, I would very likely not have discovered the one that has.

This is the début album from the Brighton/London based singer-songwriter. Crowd-funded, it is self-released on June 30, 2013. This is not to say for a minute that it is going to be some parochial take on Americana.
It was recorded in East Nashville under the guidance of Chris Donohue (Emmylou Harris and, more recently, The Civil Wars) with many well known roots musicians playing parts. Neither is it an album of covers and standards for, with one exception she has written or co-written all but one of the songs in this collection. For a more extensive biography see here.
  

The second album is this - the history behind it is even more complicated than at first it might seem.

This is their latest studio album and a 2013 release by, as were the forgoing ones, Chicago-based independent label Bloodshot Records. At the heart of the band are two natives of Detroit, MI who some while back decided to reverse the migration that led to the explosion of blues and rock, and relocate to Tennessee: Kurt Marschke (lyric, guitar vocals)  and JD Mack (drums), not brothers as it might seem, and the line-up had already been prone to evolution as is so often the case. The fact is that then it did include brothers from London: Spencer Cullum (guitar, lap-steel and pedal steel) and Jeff Cullum (bass). Then the dynamic changed again.
These two albums serve to define, to an extent, just where things are now and how much has changed; much of it for the better I believe.

Answer In One Of These Bottles - Caitlin Rose - lyric

I've been meaning to post the lyric to this for ages and Friday night seems a good time to do it.
This is one of the self-written songs from the 2009 10" EP 'Dead Flowers' by Caitlin Rose. It was also her audience sing-along song when playing live in 2010:

Answer In One Of These Bottles
One night at the bar didn't get me very far
I didn't find the answer I was looking for
Drink-a one, drink-a two, I'm-a drinking just for you
The only answer I have found is to drink more.

There's an answer in one of these bottles.
There must be something they forgot to mention.
There's an answer in one of these bottles I know
So I'm gonna drink until I forget the question.
  
Passed out on the floor. What do I do it for?
When I walk in they say 'Honey don't you even start.'
Drink-a one, drink-a two, I'm-a drinking just for you.
To find out what it is that happened to my heart.
  
There's an answer in one of these bottles.
There must be something they forgot to mention.
There's an answer in one of these bottles I know
So I'm gonna drink until I forget the question.
  
I'm drunk, long gone, wondering just what I done wrong
Singing along 'Baby don't you want me no more.'
Drink-a one, drink-a two, I'm-a drinking just for you
To find out what it is that I've been drinking for.
  
There's an answer in one of these bottles
There must be something they forgot to mention.
There's an answer in one of these bottles I know
So I'm gonna drink until I forget the question.

There is a second song about drinking, by a different artist and the lyric to which I also intended to post this evening, but it is more complicated and while I have worked most of it out the details and post will have to wait until tomorrow.
  
Other posts about Caitlin Rose:
Caitlin Rose - Own Side Now - lyric
Caitlin Rose - Docket - lyric
Caitlin Rose - live at EOTR 2010
  

Note added March 8, 2011:

Caitlin Rose is now confirmed to appear at EOTR 2011
  
Note added March 14, 2011:
Caitlin Rose is now confirmed to appear at Latitude Festival 2011

The World Is Not My Home, but the good get better...

Another day, another EP but this time it is one quite genuinely from across the Atlantic and it was released on CD in the US - on April 1, 2009 - again on Archer Records. The title track is a cover of the traditional 'Railroad Boy (Died of Love)', 'Lazarus' is a take on a traditional lament and 'Green Grass' is a cover of the Tom Waits song and that is just half of it.

Added: Thursday, 14 May:

I'm sorry that this post sort of ended prematurely. I was tired and I published it rather than saving it. Thanks to whoever added a comment to this asking for 'links' today and I assume that it was to this post you were referring. If not please let me know and I'll try to fix that.

If you want to buy or legally download 'Died Of Love' here are some links:

US & UK CD (cdbaby.com)
US Download (amazon.com)
UK Download (amazon.co.uk)

I do not know of any UK distributors of the CD version but independent music distributor cdbaby do shipping to the UK very well and at competitive prices. They publish reviews, both their own and those written by customers, too.
For more press reviews of Amy LaVere, see here.