If the Grammy Awards didn’t quite reflect your tastes in
music, you’re not alone. So here’s the beginning of my very alternative take on some other artists
and albums that, in my humble opinion, deserve recognition for outstanding
achievements in the music industry.
I’ll start with three remarkable albums by female artists.
Emergency
of the Female Kind is the title of Amy Thatcher & Francesca Knowles' debut album. Thatcher & Knowles are a duo from Newcastle featuring
accordion and drums. It’s quite startling to hear Amy’s accordion accompanied
by Francesca’s full drum kit, and with vocals and synths thrown in, the duo
create a quirky and often intense sound. In what might be a riposte to Sparks’
1974 hit, opening track ‘This Town Is Big Enough for the Both of Us’ has echoes
of Gotan Project, ‘Power to the Loser’ has some of the edginess of Garbage
while the title track begins with a sprightly, traditional-sounding accordion
before mutating into an old-school synth motif set against Francesca’s
shape-shifting drumming. Winners of Fatea
Band Of The Year 2023, I look forward to hearing more from Thatcher &
Knowles in 2024.
https://www.atfk.co.uk/
Rachel Baiman moved to Nashville from Chicago when she was eighteen.
Her third album
Common Nation of Sorrow blends political activism and
self-disclosure in an engaging folk-country style. Stand-out tracks include ‘She
Don’t Know What to Sing About Anymore’ (great title) and a rewrite of John
Hartford’s ‘Self Made Man.’ The
video of ‘Self Made Man’
is well worth a watch and captures Rachel’s sense of fun as well as her multi-instrumental
musicianship. Rachel is currently touring with a few dates in the UK. Catch her if you can.
https://www.rachelbaiman.com/I’m not sure if folk artists are ever ‘propelled to fame’ but
Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow certainly achieved widespread recognition for
their theme tune to the BBC drama
Gentleman Jack. When I saw them
perform at Shrewsbury Folk Festival last August that song certainly went down
well, along with the new material from the latest album
Cloudheads. Belinda
and Heidi are both on the autistic spectrum and the title track to this
engaging album is a glorious celebration of their experiences of growing up
neurodivergent. Musically, the song evokes a dizzying feeling of sensory
overload while the lyrics explain: “Too loud, too bright, just not quite right,
everybody’s talking in riddles and rhymes, I need more time to process and
find...” Belinda is touring the UK currently, joined at certain gigs by Heidi.
https://ohooleyandtidow.com/gigs/
Follow the Passengers in Time blog for more of my ‘alternative Grammy’
recommendations!
