Review, buy Alt. Country: Swing the Statue, Back to the Sweethearts of the Rodeo Vol.1, Giro d'Italia, Here You Come Again, Little Bit Is Better Than Nada, Electric Waco Chair, Julie Roberts [CASSETTE], Room No.4, Fine Art of Self Destruction [Bonus Track] [Aus Import], Tombstone Every Mile, Mountain Stage Vol.2, Retreat from Memphis [VINYL], Red River [VINYL], So Rebellious a Lover, American Tradition [CASSETTE], Dust on the Bible [CASSETTE], Wanted - the Outlaws [CASSETTE], I Don't Want No Part of It, I Love Everybody [CASSETTE], Long Stem Rant

While her debut has been promoted through a glitzy high-fashion photo package and items in trendy magazines, South Carolina native Roberts, who has the looks for such hype, also delivers the goods. Her smoky, beguiling voice echoes Bonnie Raitt and a young Tanya Tucker. She and producer/guitarist Brent Rowan shun the blaring arena rock or folk-flavored pretense that plagues many debuts. This one emphasises solid, quality commercial fare in an Americana-based setting heavy on acoustic guitars and rhythm. Roberts sets the tone with Jamie O'Hara's fetchingly acerbic "You Ain't Down Home". The winsome "Unlove Me" and let-it-rip "Just 'Cause We Can" each pack a wallop; so does the witty morning-after chronicle "Wake Up Older" and the dark, evocative "No Way Out". No overdone power ballads here. Understatement drives her elegant, heartbreaking interpretation of Julie Miller's "I Can't Get Over You". In the end, Roberts remembers an axiom many on Music Row long ago forgot: a powerful voice, simple, honest storytelling, and no-frills music are still what country's about. -Rich Kienzle, Amazon. [+]

com.

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Room No.4 (Arthur Dodge)

Tracks Room No.4

Wormhole
Let My Reach Exceed My Grasp
Why Not Your Baby
Fell
Gates
Creature of the Night
Sister Played Piano
My Baby's in My Town
Hustlin' California
Carry Me
Ghost Car
Hung On

Publisher: Blue Rose
Release date: 2004-10-04
RRP: ~~£13.99~~
Price: £1.87

Review Room No.4 / Arthur Dodge:

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Review Jesse Malin / Fine Art of Self Destruction [Bonus Track] [Aus Import]

Fine Art of Self Destruction [Bonus Track] [Aus Import] (Jesse Malin)

Tracks Fine Art of Self Destruction [Bonus Track] [Aus Import]

High Lonesome
Queen of the Underworld
Fine Art of Self Destruction
Wendy
Brooklyn
Xmas
TKO
Riding on the Subway
Brooklyn (Acoustic)
Solitaire
Downliner
Cigarettes & Violets
Almost Grown

Publisher: Alberts
Release date: 2002-11-25
RRP: ~~£14.99~~
Price: £11.80

Review Fine Art of Self Destruction [Bonus Track] [Aus Import] / Jesse Malin:

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Tombstone Every Mile (Bill Kirchen & Too Much)

Tracks Tombstone Every Mile

Lovin' Cajun Style
Lover's Rock
Without Love
Cool Lovin' Baby
Fool on a Stool
Tombstone Every Mile
Think It Over
Secrets of Love
Tell Me the Reason
Rockabilly Funeral
All Tore Up
Bottle Baby Boogie
One Woman Man

Publisher: Demon
Release date: 1994-07-05
Price: £49.99

Review Tombstone Every Mile / Bill Kirchen & Too Much:

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Mountain Stage Vol.2 (Various Artists)

Tracks Mountain Stage Vol.2

Red Wine and Promises - June Tabor
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
Simply - Sara Hickman
It's a Big Old Goofy World - John Prine
Arms of Love - Robyn Hitchcock
Summerfly - Russ Barenberg, Jerry Douglas, Maura O'Connell
You're No Good - John Wesley Harding
Tank Park Salute - Billy Bragg
God Is a Real Estate Developer - Michelle Shocked
These Blues - Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Standing on Shaky Ground - Delbert McClinton
Where've You Been - Kathy Mattea

Publisher: Phonogram
Release date: 1993-01-01
RRP: ~~£15.99~~
Price: £9.84

Review Mountain Stage Vol.2 / Various Artists:

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Review The Mekons / Retreat from Memphis [VINYL]

Retreat from Memphis [VINYL] (The Mekons)

Tracks Retreat from Memphis [VINYL]

His Bad Dream
Ice Rink in Berlin
Hostile Mascot
Never Work
Our Bad Dream
Chemical Wedding
Flame That Killed John Wayne
Do I Know You?
Lucky Devil
Spirals of Paranoia
Submerged
Eve Future
Missing You All
Machine
Insignificance (Conversation with Boche)
Soldier
Spinning Round in Flames

Publisher: Quarter Stick
Release date: 1994-05-02
Price: £8.99

Review Retreat from Memphis [VINYL] / The Mekons:

Mere months after releasing "I Love Mekons," Jon Langford and crew respond with their 18th disc since 1979. Still reeling with a wry laugh from their brush with the major leagues at the turn of the decade, here they've downsized to a five-piece, ditched the musical eclecticism, and returned to tough, direct rock & roll delivered with laissez-faire punk passion. "Spinning Around in Flames" and "The Flame That Killed John Wayne" are classic Mekons. -Jeff Bateman.

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Red River [VINYL] (Knife in the Water)

Tracks Red River [VINYL]

Watch Your Back
Nevada Spider
Party
Young Blood in the River
Machine to Tulsa
Nightingales of Evelyn
Sundown, Sundown
Promenade
Rene
Broad Daylight

Publisher: Overcoat
Price: £47.99

Review Red River [VINYL] / Knife in the Water:

Their first album was hailed as, "Spiritualised crossed with Gram Parsons," but the second outing from this Texan quintet (named after a 1962 Roman Polanski movie) probably has more in common with Cowboy Junkies and American Music Club. It would be easy to dismiss them as yet more lugubrious alt. country deadbeats with a singer who can't quite hold a tune, except that their hypnotically compelling swirl of organ, steel guitar and acoustic strums makes it hard not to pay a little more attention to "Rene", a percussively driven tale of violent murder, or "Sundown, Sundown", a re-make of an old Lee Hazlewood cut with organist Laura Krause playing Nancy Sinatra to vocalist Aaron Blount's whispery Hazlewood. As with the first album, there's death, doom and despair aplenty, but there's also a bigger, cleaner production sound and a few cuts, such as "Young Blood In The River", where the rhythm picks up, providing a welcome contrast to their usual slo-core pacings. Finally, when grating electric guitars chords suddenly slash through the languid waltz tempo of the closing "Nightingales Of Evelyn", it seems to suggest that Knife In the Water might, one day, decide to rock out just a little. For a band that started off with the intention of playing just one low-key gig together in a Texan field, they've come a long way. -Johnny Black.

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