The latest releases reviewed

MICAH P HINSON AND THE RED EMPIRE ORCHESTRA

Micah P Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra

Full Time Hobby Records

****

You don't need to know the grim details of Micah P Hinson's history to know him - just listen to this voice. There is a resigned, fatalistic tone in the weighty baritone, as if the Texan carries the woes of the world on his shoulders. And yet this new collection of self-penned country-folk missives shimmers with the belief of a survivor and a romantic. Recently married and relatively settled, Hinson celebrates his new-found contentment with songs such as the opening Come Home Quickly, Darlin', the endearing When We Embraced or the epic songscape Sunrise Over the Olympus Mons. There are shades of Calexico in the moody You Will Find Me, and the ghost of Roy Orbison weaves through We Won't Have To Be Lonesome Tonight, but Hinson is his own man with a distinctive and substantial talent to match.  www.micahphinson.com JOE BREEN

Download tracks:When We Embraced, Sunrise Over the Olympus Mons

CROOKED STILL

Still Crooked

Signature Records

***

Crooked Still are following a very interesting path. Ostensibly a bluegrass band with a strong interest in old-time and American traditional music, this Boston five-piece flirt with the genres, playing fast and loose with set ideas of how traditional music should be played. Cellist Rushad Eggleston has been replaced by Tristan Clarridge and fiddle player Brittany Haas, while the extraordinary banjo player Greg Liszt has returned refreshed from his sojourn with Bruce Springsteen's Sessions band. Singer Aoife O'Donovan's gentle voice remains an oasis of chilled emotional intelligence, while her comrades tease out the edges of a well-chosen selection of mostly traditional songs such as Ola Belle Reed's Undone in Sorrow. The cello adds drama, but this combo are still finding their way as on the epic workout, Pharaoh. www.crookedstill.com JOE BREEN

Download tracks:Undone in Sorrow, Captain, Captain

BRENDAN QUINN

Sinner Man

Deep Cove Records

***

Having ploughed up the roads with The Bluebirds for more than two decades, country singer Brendan Quinn has sawed and planed, honed and polished his voice and songwriting skills to their essence, and this slickly produced collection owes more to Johnny Cash and JJ Cale than it does to the heyday of the showband era. Arty McGlynn's restrained production sets a tone that's pitched perfectly close to Quinn's no-nonsense vocals, which excel on the JJ Cale cover Ride The River. With a band that includes Henry McCullough, McGlynn, Rod McVey and Ted Ponsonby on guitars, keyboards, dobro and vocals, this is not so much wide-open prairies as hatches battoned down on salty stonewalled acres. A home brew that reeks of local flavour. www.brendanquinnmusic.com  SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks:Day's Gonna Come, Ride The River