Sunday, September 22, 2013


Out tomorrow, just ahead of a short series of UK dates, is the new Laura Cantrell album, “No Way There From Here”. Once again on the Spit & Polish/Cadiz imprint, it’s time for another birl the way only this lassie can serve it up. “No Way”... is the first full set of all-new material since her Matador release. Kicking in with “All The Girls Are Complicated”, she immediately transcends the pigeonhole labelled “Americana”. Or whatever sub-division of that you might consider her to reside in. This is American music though, through and through with all the twangs in all the right places.
Not sure who the musicians are this time out other than Mark Spencer but they serve up just the right backdrop for Laura’s tales. I think my favourite is “When It Comes To You”. This little nugget is set to become a classic like “Do You Ever Think Of Me?” or “Two Seconds”.
You may have heard “Can’t Wait” before. It made its debut on the Radio Free Song Club a wee while back and the recorded version here provides the connection with “Not The Trembling Kind”. Pop country perfection. As is the case with everything nowadays, you can just nip over to wherever and hear snippets and full tracks and decide for yourself. I hope to see some of you folks in Glasgow or that you’ll go to one of the shows and help the lady out by treating yourself to what can only be described as a proper album. Not a bunch of tracks that became so because there were enough “in the can”. “No Way There From Here” marks a time when a long player never outlived its welcome.
For a large part quiet and understated, just the thing for heavy rotation as the light fades earlier with every passing day.