End Of The Road 2015 - Across All Stages - Part 2

After a week away from reminiscing over the festivals of the summer just gone I return to the last one I visited once again.
I mentioned the release of the LP 'Sprinter', the second by Torres from Athens GA, right back near the start of the year. When it was announced that she was playing EOTR 2015 she went straight on my list of must-see live acts and therefore here she is.

Mackenzie Scott and her band played The Woods Stage on Friday afternoon.

Opening The Woods Stage that is the main, as in largest, one on Friday lunchtime was another artist I have already mentioned in connection with his album 'All These Dreams'.

Andrew Combs and his supporting band.

Over to the tented Big Top Stage and something that, owing to the unavailability of another act, was a late switch to this stage from the much smaller Tipi Stage. This was fortunate for two reasons: the new venue was better suited to the music and, given the turnout, the Tipi Stage would have proven too small (this is an increasing problem more generally).

Jane Weaver, Big Top Stage, Friday evening.

I must admit that this is a case where, until she was announced in the line up for EOTR, Jane Weaver was an artist of who I was aware but little more despite the release of several albums.  I listened to her latest release 'Silver Globe' then in fact two, with the arrival of 'The Amber Light', and decided that she should be on my list of things to see live. It was a good choice, albeit rather different to the majority of the music I tend to favour, as well as being the only non-American artist featured in this narrative.

To return to type, this is an artist who I have seen before and would quite happily see again and again. Even Sufjan Stevens, headlining The Woods Stage on what was his first ever UK festival performance, couldn't keep me away for very long...

Mark Lanegan headlined the Garden Stage on Saturday evening.

Last but certainly not least, also on The Garden Stage but on Sunday afternoon in the glorious sunshine, was another US band that are blazing a trial through UK consciousness in 2015 due in large part to the 2014 LP 'Colfax'.

They played a number of new songs and these were at least as good as any that have come before in my opinion.

I interpreted that to be a statement of intent.

I shall be back with more about festivals soon, I'm quite sure. In the meantime it is time to catch up on new music and start considering all the music from 2015 that I have already listened to and await some choice releases that will appear over the next few weeks.

New Music 2015 - Part 13 - Torres - Sprinter

I wasn't planning on this but then, at least in my world, it is as well to go with the flow when writing about new music is involved. It is little more than a week since I mentioned that Torres was one of the artists confirmed in the first tranche of revelations for End Of The Road Festival 2015, and now this happens. Her first LP was self released and I commented on that too.
Things only get better.
Her second LP 'Sprinter' was recorded in both Dorset and North Somerset with recording and production from Adrian Utley (Portishead). This is the album artwork for it. The supposed release date in the UK/EU is 18 May 2015. The US release is by Partisan Records on 5 May 2015.

The first track, of the nine on it, to be revealed to the wider world  is 'Strange Hellos'. Here it is.

The full track list is this:

• Strange Hellos
• New Skin
• Son, You Are No Island
• A Proper Polish Welcome
• Sprinter
• Cowboy Guilt
• Ferris Wheel
• The Harshest Light
• The Exchange

End Of The Road Festival 2015 - The first artist announcement.

To cut to the chase here is the list announced today, completely without any comment on my part at least for now.

The accompanying video, which may or may not drop further hints, is here. 
The EOTR animals seem to have developed a taste for vinyl...

My ability not to comment further did not last long. Jessica Pratt was scheduled for EOTR last year but was unable to attend. Not only is it good news that she is on the first list of artists to be announced this year but her second LP 'On Your Own Love Again' is released, at least in North America, tomorrow (27 January) by Drag City Records. I shall add Jessica Pratt as my first 'one to watch' at EOTR 2015.

Reviews are all well and good. I have read several of this release already and perhaps I will write one myself in due course. The live truth will out in September and I'd be very surprised if I were disappointed.
Another inclusion that excites me is Torres. I bought the album last year, direct from her website.

I searched it on amazon.co.uk yesterday and the result, in terms of 'other artists I might like', was interesting.  Of the eight of them it suggested I have already seen all of them live at least once! I'm not sure whether this says more about me or Amazon's algorithm except to say that if I let Amazon choose suggestions for me based on all my searches in music it veers all over the place. It is often quite fascinating, however, so read into this what you will.

New Music 2014 - Part 12 - The many shades of transatlanticism

It has just occurred to me that amongst the various 2014 albums that I consider may feature in my year-end 'Best of 2014' list, the majority actually happen to come from the USA. It is in part a result of my liking for roots and Americana but, more generally, it is part of a trend towards transatlanticism (if that is a made-up word then I blame Ben Gibbard!) in such things.
This first is an example of what I'm thinking. If I were to ask many in the UK what came to mind when the words "music" and "Nashville" were combined, the answer would still represent the apparent status quo that existed from the late 1950s until less than a decade ago and that represents two generations... So what has changed?

The answer is not simple I think. There is no cultural take-over involved. It is indeed quite the opposite - UK music has changed and in the process become far less insular in both influence and ambition. Nashville has changed too, and in many of the same ways as it happens, in the sense that it realized that it could have a wider reach; therefore my adoption of the term 'transatlanticism' for all these changes of emphasis. The artificial distinction, imposed by both sides for so long, has simply melted away...

I chose Torres' début album for two reasons. One is that it was actually released in 2013 and as such does not impinge on my comments or thoughts on the albums of 2014. The other is that unless you knew otherwise I could probably convince you that Mackenzie Scott is a UK artist, from any town you care to think of.
That would be a total fabrication: she is from Macon City, GA and moved to Nashville, TN to attend Belmont University.
This album is certainly no Music City stitch-up. For one thing it is self-released, so it took a bit of finding on CD, but in no way is it amateur in any sense - from writing through to recording and production. It isn't standard Nashville fare either, but neither does it ape any of the recent UK acoustic singer-songwriter tropes to any extent. Some of the tracks could hold a candle to almost anything...  One thing it generally is not is cheerful, that is not to say that it does not lack optimism.

July 2014 is the 45th anniversary of Woodstock, arguably the festival that defined the course of modern festivals - and not least because it rained. This summer is the 50th anniversary edition of Cambridge Folk Festival (31 July - 3 August 2014) and it is now completely sold out.

This next suggestion is the fourth LP by UK band Redlands Palomino Company, which was recorded almost live in a chapel in Gloucestershire, England, and released by Clubhouse Records on April 14, 2014. I saw the band live at Truck Festival 2013 and was mighty impressed. Several portions of the video below were actually shot live at Truck Festival.

Opportunities await those that remember.
  

I was rather surprised to see Paul Simon and Edie Brickell both in the news this week and for all the wrong reasons. The best the UK press seemed to be able to do, as regards the latter, is to remind us that 'All I Am' was covered by Emma Bunton on her first post-Spice Girls album.
This is a case of damning with faint praise both-ways round: it assumes we can't even remember the original version, written by Edie Brickell and Kenny Withrow, from the 1988 album 'Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars'. While the aforementioned cover version is worthy of a footnote there is, at least in my opinion, a far better one and that comes from someone who is almost unknown in the UK. This is the 2008 album 'Deranged' by Stacee Lawson from Huntington, WV and, I should mention, the rest of the album is well worth a listen too.

This CD was self-released; mine (above) has no code at all. Stacee Lawson is out there still, playing live.