The latest releases reviewed.
RICHMOND FONTAINE Thirteen Cities Décor ****
Willy Vlautin's songs are musicial bedfellows to his novels and short stories. They come from the same space and the same desperate, lonely outsiders populate them, hovering on the edge of despair. Thirteen Cities was recorded in Tucson, Arizona - Calexico territory, and Joey Burns of same was among the back-up musicians. But the stamp of grim and grainy storytelling remains the same as on previous RF outings, although this time producer JD Foster allows a little more air and colour into the music. Even so, Thirteen Cities takes time to click into gear, but it is a worthwhile investment, as Vlautin's sharply distilled stories and disconnected melodies are a haunting soundtrack for a lost generation. www.richmondfontaine.com Joe Breen
JOHNNY CASH Live From Austin, TX New West ****
The idea of another Johnny Cash album rescued from the vaults may be one too many for some, and certainly any self-respecting, half-awake country fan will have all these tunes in one or more versions. But this television show from January 1987 (also available on DVD) captures old gravel voice in fine reflective form, adding weight and meaning to a heap of JC classics, from Ring of Fire and Long Black Veil to Sam Stone, I Walk the Line and a particularly heartfelt Sunday Morning Coming Down. The amazing thing about Johnny Cash is that, regardless of when or what he recorded, it all seemed to flow from the same source - that deep spring of humanity from which wrong and right play out their age-old game. As time rolls on, Cash's stature seems to grow. This will only add to it. Joe Breen
EDDI READER Peacetime Rough Trade ****
Veering ever closer to her folk roots on each successive record, Eddi Reader's follow up to her Robbie Burns collection declares its allegiances on its sleeve, with one ear cast to the past and the other fixed firmly on the present. Regular collaborator Boo Hewerdine cosies up to English folk heroes John McCusker and Mick McGoldrick (not to mention our own answer to Astor Piazzola, Alan Kelly) and wait for it . . . the Coldstream Guards, whose accompaniment on The Shepherd's Song is sublime. Reader's soaring vocals almost match the magnificence of Declan O'Rourke's Gallileo - but not quite. Songwriter John Douglas's hand weighs lightly but indelibly on the divine Should I Pray, and Safe As Houses is a collective sigh of relief breathed long and slow after the London bombings in the summer of 2005. Challenging, reflective, mesmerising. www.eddireader.com Siobhán Long
