Reviews roundup – Suzy Bogguss vs. Eileen Rose vs. Peppermint Heaven

Reviews roundup – Suzy Bogguss vs. Eileen Rose vs. Peppermint Heaven
SUZY BOGGUSS
Lucky
Proper

Well I love Merle Haggard, and I like Suzy Bogguss, but do I really need an album of Suzy singing Merle Haggard classics? After all, it’s just as much the way Hag sings them as the way he writes them. But Ms Bogguss has decided to give it a go, and it all works out rather well.

Across twelve songs, she gives it her best shot, aided by the likes of backing vocals from Gretchen Peters, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Matraca Berg, and musical contributions from the likes of Charles Treadway (organ) and Chris Scruggs (guitars and mandolin). It’s all very gentle and laid back, which works on songs like ‘Today I Started Loving You Again’ but misses the mark on edgier numbers such as ‘The Bottle Let Me Down’.

It’s an interesting experiment for a woman to take on songs so rooted in the consciousness as manly and masculine, and even if she can’t bring the personal pathos to songs as powerful as ‘Sing Me Back Home’, it’s always a pleasure to hear these songs. Especially when so expertly performed.

BUY AT AMAZON

EILEEN ROSE
Be Many Gone
Holy Wreckords

Four years on from “Luna Turista” and Eileen Rose has returned with another enjoyable and rootsy record.

As befits a record with one foot in the country camp, there are a lot of heartbreaks, and when the slide guitar comes, um, sliding in on songs like ‘Prove Me Wrong’, then it is an absolute delight. However, Ms Rose does like to bounce around genres, so the jazz tinges of ‘She’s Yours’, and the rockabilly lite of ‘Just Ain’t So’ might take some folks by surprise.

She must also have a penchant for indie pop, if the appearance of The Pixies Frank Black is anything to go by, but then she has toured with him in the USA. Granted, the song in question is drippibg with mariachi and accordion, so we’ll let that go. Musically, everything sounds great, even on the lesser numbers, but then she has got an amazing recording outfit together with fiddler Buddy Spicher (Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris), drummer Johnnie Barber (Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Paycheck), bass player Brad Albin (Vince Gill), and guitarist Rich Gilbert (Jack White, Wanda Jackson).

The ballads are better than when she tries to rock out, but pound for pound, it’s well worth a listen

BUY AT AMAZON
PEPPERMINT HEAVEN
The Delicious EP
Megahit Records

And now for something completely different.

Yes, Peppermint Heaven are as far away from rootsy music as you could get. The Los Angeles duo are, for some reason, influenced by the likes of Howard Jones, Pet Shop Boys and Tears For Fears. Yes, really. And so it comes to pass that Juno and Spark (their real names, fact fans) have teamed up with Buzz Junkies, Almighty and Mike Rizzo Funk Generation for this eighties styled danceathon.

I can’t believe I typed that last sentence, but this four track EP is actually quite good. The EP comprises mixes of ‘Into Gold’, and ‘So Unbelievable’, provided by the aforementioned peculiar names, with Almighty’s mix of ‘Into Gold’ the best of the bunch, as it leaves room for the synth pop to breathe. The bass work is particularly fine, and if you are the sort of person who “gets ones groove on”, then this is one to enjoy.

BUY AT AMAZON