Reviews

Review: The Wynntown Marshals – Westerner

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The Wynntown Marshals: Westerner (Charger Records, 2010)

Another reviewshine favourite of mine is The Wynntown Marshals from Edinburgh and they deliver high quality scottish americana and alt.country. After being addicted to scottish pop music and alt.country in general for the past ten years, The Wynntown Marshals often sounds oh so familiar.  Sometimes I think of records as my friends (just how sad is that) and I surely can form a strong friendship with Westerner, because it seems like we come from the same place and know groups like The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, Richmond Fontaine by heart. Despite that familiar sound, The Wynntown Marshals aren’t mindless copycats. They just have better influences than most and have been able to create a versatile album that works beautifully as a whole. There’s this kind of lighter country jangle with pop melodies and (should-be) hit potential, slower and moodier country balladry and everything in between. Maybe that one completely stunning and outstanding song is missing, but there’s a bunch of really good songs and I like everything that is on the record.

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The Wynntown Marshals at myspace

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Reviews

Review: Chase Fifty Six – Allatoona Rising

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Chase Fifty Six: Allatoona Rising (Dirtleg, 2010)

Chase Fifty Six from Georgia is one of the best groups that I’ve found through Reviewshine. I was about halfway though the first song Mary Jane when I knew that I was going to like them. It just sounded like my kind of music and that certainly proved to be the case. A bit of rockin’ alt. country like Drive-By Truckers and another bit of moodier folk rock and americana like NQ Arbuckle for example and a whole lot of damn good songs.  The finest half of Allatoona Rising is just stunning and songs such as Mary Jane, Goodbye Princess, Let It Go aren’t overshadowed by any of the higher profile and higher budget americana releases of the year. After a couple more listenings I probably feel bad that I didn’t throw in one half of a heart more, because I’m already thinking about it..

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Chase Fifty Six Website
Chase Fifty Six at myspace

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International music, Reviews

Review: The Avery Set – Returning to Steam

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The Avery Set: Returning To Steam (2009)

I recently joined Reviewshine. It’s a place where bands/labels/promoters can easily send digital promos to bloggers. I can fully recommend it, because I’ve been enjoying it a lot. The only problem is that even my tiny, unprofessional blog has gotten well over hundred submissions in the past two months and to be able to go through them all properly, I think I need to have more lives than a cat. Therefore it’s important to leave a good first impression and Nashville-based The Avery Set did just that with their excellent single Blown Away. After being blown away by this country-flavoured Jellyfish, I knew I had to download the whole album. The reason why the word Jellyfish constantly comes into my mind while listening to The Avery Set is that the singer/songwriter Chris Zehnder’s voice reminds me of Andy Sturmer. It could be just me, but to me their vocals sound so similar occasionally. Not that I mind at all. I freakin’ love Jellyfish and The Avery Set is certainly flirting with my heart so openly that I might not be able to resist their charm much longer and eventually will fall for them as well.  Returning To Steam is  full of country-tinged rock songs that range from playful and incredibly catchy to beautiful and instantly moving.  It’s not entirely flawless and there’s a few songs that I’m not that big fan of. Nevertheless, Returning To Steam is mostly very impressive effort and The Avery Set is able to provide enjoyable moments to both indie rock hipsters and alt.country followers. I might need to buy a physical copy as well..

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The Avery Set Website
The Avery Set at myspace

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