This week's Roots releases reviewed

KIERAN KANE

Somewhere Beyond the Roses

Compass Records ****

There are many predictable things about US singer-songwriter Kieran Kane; he is invariably A) interesting B) good and C) unpredictable. For instance, how many musicians travelling down the roots freeway would release an album with an instrumental core of baritone sax and five-string banjo? And how many would be inspired by the limited chord sequences of 1950s- era blues giants such as Muddy Waters. One of those players, Little Walter, provides the rivetting closing cut here, Tell Me Momma, but the bulk of the other 10 tracks are either Kane originals or collaborations. Deanna Varagona’s baritone sax warmly fills the role of bass, guitarist Richard Bennett produces a range of classy fills and embellishments, and while the chordal range might be limited, Kane’s emotional and stylistic reach reveals ever more subtleties with each listen. A challenging but hugely enjoyable album. www.kierankane.com

Download tracks: Tell Me Momma, Why Can't You?

RICHMOND FONTAINE

We used to think the Freeway sounded like a River

Decor ****

The first and final tracks of this engrossing Americana collection operate like emotional bookends. Neither the evocative title track or A Letter to the Patron Saint of Nurses, with its echoes of Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby, abound with epic activity. They are about nothing and about everything; the nondescript lives of ordinary people trying to make their way in a hard world. Yet such is the skill of writer-in-chief Willy Vlautin that these small lives, be they fiction or memoir, assume an importance – we feel for them. The sense of regret which hangs over most of these songs is familiar territory for RF, but this album is the band’s most complete work to date. Tracks such as Lonnie, Maybe We Were Both Born Blue, Ruby and Lou and The Boyfriends (with its seductive mariachi brass) work really well as songs and not just as vehicles for Vlautin’s dirty reality lyrics. www.richmondfontaine.com

Download tracks: A Letter to the Patron Saint of Nurses, Lonnie, The Boyfriends