Rita Hosking
Come Sunrise
Self-Released
available on Rita's website
now also available on cd baby
The first thing that hits you with this disc is the strength and power of Rita Hosking’s voice, and the fierce passion it contains. The eleven songs are all her compositions, and it is her voice that drives them home. Her songs are about everyday life and the occurrences that bring it alive, personal and make it interesting; songs of new days, trailers, stray dogs, and loss. Rita Hosking has made a name for herself in the Bluegrass music field where she often plays with her backup band Cousin Jack, and they have had numerous honors bestowed upon them. Yes, there is at times a twang of Mountain Music that goes back to the songs of her Cornish roots, however it isn’t a stretch as she grew up in rural Northern California in the mountains. The soulful lonesomeness of mountains and a yearning come through in these songs.
Much credit has to go to Rich Brotherton as Producer, who also recorded the disc and mixed it at his home studio in Austin, Texas, and the players he assembled to display these songs. Brotherton is renown as Robert Earl Keen’s guitarist and as Producer they join up to successfully explore this new direction with the crème of Austin’s musical scene that he assembled. Lloyd Maines, a noted producer in his own right (in some circles this could be a problem, words in the air say all was smooth and no egos) is on Dobro, Glenn Fukunaga on upright bass, and Danny Barnes on banjo just to name a few of those that contribute to this beautifully crafted disc. The exciting atmosphere in the studio of creative minds working together, which translates to joy and good recordings comes through on this disc loud and clear. With the songs that are powerful and immediate, as is her delivery of them, this is a disc that shows a wonderful “new” talent. There is a patient urgency to her singing that brings life to the songs.
Johnsmith – Gravity of Grace
Elixir Records - www.johsmithmusic.com
Johnsmith wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 13 songs on this his 6th disc. His beautiful tenor voice is there and he has enlisted a wide variety of people to help him flesh out the music on this disc. Musicians of repute such as Jimmy LaFave, Ray Bonneville, Tim O’Brien, and Darrell Scott to name but a few of those who contributed. Tom Prasada-Rao produced this disc and did an excellent job of keeping the focus on Johnsmith, his voice, and the songs, while contributing work on nylon, high strung, tenor, steel string, and 12 string on all the tracks as well as violin, backup vocals, and percussion on assorted other tracks.
Some of the melodies will sound very familiar or close to other songs by other writers, such as “Ring That Bell”, sounds very like Tom Waits’ Get Behind The Mule”, and “Jaybird” sounds like the old call and response tune “Mockingbird”. However these songs’ melodies go back much further in time and all songwriters almost can’t help but be influenced by what they have been listening to and in some cases it is probably not a conscious decision, just that there should be a way of sharing credit. The songs are good and his word craft is damn good and then there is his voice and presentation that are superb. His backing musicians are tight and it is a very easy disc to listen to. A wonderful disc that shows his growth as a songwriter and singer.