James Hyland - Western  (click on image to watch video)

 04 May 2020

   James Hyland has been making music in Austin, Texas for nearly two decades. He has successfully toggled between a solo career and the  lead singer/guitarist for the South Austin Jug Band. Three albums as a solo artist are matched by three band efforts. His latest solo release, “Western,”  was nearly seven years in the making. 

  The album opens with the razor-sharp “The Edge Of Comancheria,” which features rustic banjo, a tick-tock beat and James’ sonorous rasp. His vocals land somewhere between Leonard Cohen’s gruff gravitas and Steve Earle’s San Antone sneer. 

  Over the course of 20 songs, “Western” is expansive and ambitious in all the right ways. From the rattlesnake Blues of “Texas Ranger,” the prickly locomotion of “First Westbound Train” and the Soulful ramble of “I Was Never Lost” to the lovesick “Kera,” the plaintive “Hill Country” and the spectral Bluegrass of “Ghost.” 

  The best tracks here display James’ trenchant wit. On “Nashville Song” he yearns to write an establishment hit and simultaneously bites the hand that he hopes will feed him; “Nashville folks, let me apologize, I don’t mean to offend, surely you realize what they’re doin’ and what they done to the Country song/You had old Johnny Cash, even had Steve Earle, you got the best Bluegrass pickers in the world, but it’s the other stuff, you can’t spend enough on the radio.” On “Swing It Your Way” he offers a persuasive argument for the 19th amendment from a Latter Day Saint, plural marriage perspective. Meanwhile, “The Ballad Of Eddie Mullet” is a tart narrative featuring a family of outlaws all rockin’ Carol Brady’s signature ‘do.

  Other interesting tracks include the down-home bluster of “Weather On The Wood,” the moody “Dark And Weary World” and  “Top Floor,” which shares some musical DNA with Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susannah.” The album closes with the lonesome ache of “Full Moon.” 

Eleni P. Austin - I was born into a large, loud Greek family and spent my formative years in the Los Angeles enclaves of Laurel Canyon and Los Feliz. My mother moved us to the Palm Springs area just in time for puberty and Disco.  I have spent over 40 years working in record stores, starting back in High School.

I wrote music reviews for the Desert Sun from 1983 to 1988. I began doing the same for the Coachella Valley Weekly in 2012.

I live in Palm Springs with my wife and our amazing dog, Denver. 

To Read All of Eleni P.'s Reviews, Click Here

James Kahn - Matomoros  (click on image to watch video)

 28 March 2020

Remember when Steve Earle and The Pogues collaborated on Steve’s epochal 1988 album, “Copperhead Road?” James Kahn sure seems to. He has taken that gritty Country Rock-meets-Celtic Punk sound and added some intriguing flourishes on his latest album, “Matamoros.”

The album serves as a companion piece to his novel of the same name. A Civil War saga that takes place below the Rio Grande, it’s filled with smugglers, soldiers, good-time gals, reprobates and rogues. The sprawling title-track sets the scene, powered by piquant mandolin and sawing fiddles. The lyrics chart a course, as the novel’s protagonist winds his way from Memphis to Mexico.

Over a 14 song set, the listener is introduced to a French Foreign Legionnaire on the jaunty “Scully’s Lament” a seafaring buccaneer on the rollicking “Solomon’s Shanty” and El Guerrero Quintero,” a covert Cuban confederate who’s tale is anchored by peppery Mariachi horns.

The best tracks here range from the fanciful “Rio Allie” which blends cascading mandolin and barbed-wire banjo fills, the courtly and propulsive “Mighty Fine Texas Rangers” and the poignant “Mildred’s Waltz.” He even touches on the legend of “La Llorona.” Other interesting songs include the piano-driven “Gypsy Moth” and the bluesy twang of “Harley’s Lament.”

James Kahn has created an insular world richly detailed and deftly executed. The characters of “Matamoros” come alive through this melodious Celtic-Country convergence.

Eleni P. Austin - I was born into a large, loud Greek family and spent my formative years in the Los Angeles enclaves of Laurel Canyon and Los Feliz. My mother moved us to the Palm Springs area just in time for puberty and Disco.  I have spent over 40 years working in record stores, starting back in High School.

I wrote music reviews for the Desert Sun from 1983 to 1988. I began doing the same for the Coachella Valley Weekly in 2012.

I live in Palm Springs with my wife and our amazing dog, Denver. 

To Read All of Eleni P.'s Reviews, Click Here

Jay Ryan Beretti - Superman  (click on image to watch video)

 14 April 2020

Jay Ryan Beretti is a curious cat.  His sound lands somewhere between Rockabilly, Gospel, Blues and Folk. Born in 1972, Jay is originally from Saint-Etienne, France. At the age of five he discovered Elvis Presley, and that was that, he became obsessed. By the time he was a teen, he formed his first band, The Pain Flowers, and enjoyed a bit of hometown success.

            In 1997, he was invited by Graceland to represent France and perform at an event that commemorated the  20^th anniversary of Elvis’ death. Since then, he has spent most of his life on the road. He released a debut album, “Runaway Heart” in 2003, now he has returned with his new record, “Superman.”

            The ten-song set  opens with the title track, which provides a showcase for Jay’s stentorian vocals. Jay has written or co-written six of the songs here, which includes the Countrified croon of “My Life,” the mournful piano ballad “I’m Down” and the measured Soul of “Without My Baby.”

            His stand-out original cuts are “Hear My Call” and “Don’t Cry.” The former is an insistent Gospel-Soul blend powered by stately piano and stinging guitars. Lovelorn and bereft, Jay’s anguish is palpable as he pleads with a higher power to facilitate a romantic reconciliation. The latter is smooth and supple, here Jay seems to be channeling the  lachrymose charms of another ‘50s antecedent, Johnny Ray.

            His choice of covers are a bit of a mixed bag.  Just as Gary Jules drastically reconfigured the Tears For Fears song “Mad World,” Jay tackles “Lovesong” by the “Cure.” But slowing the song to a snail’s pace renders it listless and lugubrious. He has better luck re-fashioning David Guetta’s dance hit “Lovers On The Sun.” The original mixed seductive dance grooves with Spaghetti Western accents.  Jay whips the arrangement into a wild Rockabilly Rave-Up.  He also offers a cinematic take on the Roy Orbison deep cut, “Life Fades Away.”

            Jay Ryan Beretti has clearly found his niche. “Superman” displays his protean vocal style and pays homage his musical heroes. 

Eleni P. Austin - I was born into a large, loud Greek family and spent my formative years in the Los Angeles enclaves of Laurel Canyon and Los Feliz. My mother moved us to the Palm Springs area just in time for puberty and Disco.  I have spent over 40 years working in record stores, starting back in High School.

I wrote music reviews for the Desert Sun from 1983 to 1988. I began doing the same for the Coachella Valley Weekly in 2012.

I live in Palm Springs with my wife and our amazing dog, Denver. 

To Read All of Eleni P.'s Reviews, Click Here

Barbara Bergin - Blood Red Moon  (click on image to watch video)

 24 March 2020

Barbara Bergin traveled many roads before beginning her music career. Born in the Bronx, she spent time in Kansas City and Houston before settling in Austin, Texas. It was there she began a thriving career as an orthopedic surgeon and raised her family. Now that her kids are grown, she traded in her surgical scrubs for spurs and a guitar. She has just released her debut, “Blood Red Moon.”

The album opens with the title track. Thrush acoustic guitar notes lattice over high lonesome harmonica, electric riffs, and shivery slide guitar. Barbara’s vocals sandwich somewhere between Nanci Griffith’s bespoke grace and Mary Gauthier’s world-weary rasp. The lyrics chart a course of romantic confusion; “Now I want a man who can give me all he can, and I’m following his footsteps in the sand, and when I find him, I’m gonna hold on with both hands.”

Both “My Life’s Good” and “Possum’s In The Corn” speak to the bucolic pleasures of life on the farm. The former is a rollicking shuffle, the latter a banjo-riffic barn-burner. Meanwhile, “She Danced With The Prince Of Whales” and “Captain Of The Robert E. Lee transport the listener to bygone eras.

The best tracks here include the Folk-flavored regret of “Warm Place,” the hard-charging travelogue of “Whistlin’ Train,” the shimmery “Low Water Bridge,” the Gospel Rave-Up of “Let’s Get Up” and the playful “Daughter’s Lament.” The album closes with the rollicking skip-to-my-lou of “Like Father, Like Son.”

To quote the Jayhawks, “slow, steady, wins the race.” Armed with an arsenal of great melodies and a lifetime of experience, Barbara Bergin has created a debut that will continue to resonate for years to come.” 

Eleni P. Austin - I was born into a large, loud Greek family and spent my formative years in the Los Angeles enclaves of Laurel Canyon and Los Feliz. My mother moved us to the Palm Springs area just in time for puberty and Disco.  I have spent over 40 years working in record stores, starting back in High School.

I wrote music reviews for the Desert Sun from 1983 to 1988. I began doing the same for the Coachella Valley Weekly in 2012.

I live in Palm Springs with my wife and our amazing dog, Denver. 

To Read All of Eleni P.'s Reviews, Click Here