CD - New Folk Sounds - Various Artists

Reviews, By onyadonna, 1st May, 2008

What a great CD, this is right up my alley! New Folk Sounds is a twin disc pack sporting 43 tracks that include some of my favourite artists – The Waifs, The Audreys, Kasey Chambers, K.D. Lang, Holly Throsby, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle… it even includes Willie Nelson!

A couple of great thing about this CD is it features a vast range of Australian independent artists and just about an equal ratio of female to male singers. This is no hillbilly country CD – it’s mainly acoustic and pretty mild without being too wishy-washy.

The Waifs start of the CD with a groovy track called Lighthouse. Then The Audreys come in with Oh Honey, which shows off the vocal stylings of Taasha Coates. Fans of Ryan Adams will be happy with this great track of his – Sweet Illusions. Kasey Chambers sings one of her classics, Nothing At All. Mark Knopfler sings a slow, easy track, A Place We Used To Live. Beth Orton adds a mild but boppy number, Conceived. Willy Nelson adds a bit more country to the album with Blue Hotel. K.D. Lang shows us her country side with a country classic, I’m Down To My Last Cigarette.

And who was expecting Violent Femmes with Country Death Song to be added to the compilation? That’s enough about disc one, lets move on to disc two.

Disc two has a bit more alternative country, unlike disc one, which tends to be more like new folk. Calexico give us a nice easy country and blues track with Bisbee Blues. Where would any alternative country compilation be without Lucinda Williams? She adds her amazing Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. The Drive-by Truckers add a deeper sound with Dead, Drunk And Naked. Kings of Leon rev things up with their classic Red Morning Light. Crazy About You by Whiskeytown adds something to sing-along to. Baby’s Gone Home by The McClymonts adds some fun-rockin’ country. Steve Earle keeps it going with Guitar Town. Teddy Thompson contributes his deep vocal stylings with Down Low. Glen Phillips sings Courage, a simple sad country song and J.J. Cale adds more sad country with My Baby & Me.

This is one jam packed offering. I haven’t even named half of the tracks, there are many other great artists and songs on this disc. Whoever selected these tracks has done a great job and this compilation will be enjoyed by many for years to come.

New Folk Sounds is out now through Universal Music.

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