Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers
Ramble Music City: The Lost Concert
(Nonesuch)
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IN 1992 Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers won a Grammy award for their live record At The Ryman.  

Rhino’s James Austin has now unearthed another live recording from the outfit — a concert two years earlier in Nashville.

Having toured for several months, the band are in top form, and the 23-song set — ranging across the country music canon, from AP Carter and The Louvin Brothers to Townes Van Zandt — certainly gives value for money.

As her fans will know, Harris has one of the great voices in popular music and is a fine interpreter of other people’s songs.

There is a majestic take on Wayfaring Stranger and a cover of Paul Simon’s The Boxer.

She closes with Boulder To Birmingham, her grief-stricken tribute to her musical partner Gram Parsons, who died in 1973.

Consummate country music.

Matthew E White
K Bay
(Domino)
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SINCE his 2012 solo debut Virginia’s Matthew E White has collaborated with a number of musicians, including Lonnie Holley, Flo Morrisey and Natalie Prass on her first longplayer.

K Bay is his first record in six years, and what a record it is. Fizzing with ideas and energy on a scale to rival Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, there is super cool party atmosphere to the first half of the set.

Electrifying opener Genuine Hesitation was created out of two recordings of the same song being stitched together, one traditional band version and one bigger band instrumental take, while the big soul of Let’s Ball wouldn’t sound out of place on Sign O’ The Times.

Only In America/When The Curtains Of The Night Are Peeled Back is a real left turn, a slow-burning ballad lifted by horns and strings.
Exhilarating.

Son Volt
Electro Melodier
(Thirty Tigers)
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“I WANTED politics to take a back seat this time, but it always seems to find a way back in,” Son Volt leader Jay Farrar says about Electro Melodier, the US band’s 10th studio record.

There are some personal songs, like, Diamonds and Cigarettes, his tribute to his wife of 25 years.

However, the set is infused with concerns about where his country is headed. And, as usual, the message comes on a bed of earthy alt-country and Farrar’s gravely, wise vocals.

With its Won’t Get Fooled Again-style synths, The Globe is a rousing internationalist anthem, while Living in the USA is a laid back descendant of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

“Share a little truth with your neighbour down the block/We’ve all got fossil fuel lungs while we run out the clock,” sings Farrar.  

Stirring stuff.

Ian Sinclair