SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
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Hopeless romanticism as old as the hills
IAN SINCLAIR reviews albums by HC McEntire, A Grave With No Name, and Ghost Music
Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker
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The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
HC McEntire
Lionheart
(Merge Records)
★★★★
THE DEBUT solo album from the frontwoman of Mount Moriah, Lionheart is inspired by the American South, the Bible and the desire to challenge the hetero-normative ideology of country music.
HC McEntire recorded the songs at home in North Carolina, with assistance from a bevy of talented musicians including Angel Olsen, Tift Merritt and guitar virtuoso William Tyler. The smouldering romance of opener A Lamb, A Dove sets the tone, with McEntire singing: “I have found heaven/In a woman’s touch/Come to me now/I’ll make you blush.”
Elsewhere, she stirs in gospel, folk, blues and rock. Quartz In The Valley swings along nicely with some great freewheeling piano, with McEntire’s vocals reminiscent of Marianne Faithfull singing The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.
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Read Sisters, the journal of the National Assembly Of Women, below.