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DVDfever.co.uk – Rita Hosking: Come Sunrise CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Rita Hosking
- Released: January 2010
- Rating: 10/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Number three from fab country singer.
It may well be early days in 2010, but youre unlikely to hear a better country album all year.
Californian Rita Hosking now releases her third album, which is set to raise the bar on the genre now exploding across the states.
A descendent of Cornish miners, Hosking knows how to deliver an earthy and tender collection that blends folk, country (and shades of bluegrass) into superbly crafted original sounds and stories about loggers, trailers, waterfalls, culture clash, forest fires, loss, and inevitably miners. In effect, all things Californian, well, maybe not LA as such, but certainly if you come from the sticks Davis city Shasta County – which occupies the northern reaches of the Sacramento Valley to the southern reaches of the Cascade Range, so on paper at least, it sounds incredibly beautiful with enough landscape and fauna to be considered inspirational. And thats where, in most part, Hosking has set her controls.
We can only imagine the wealth of her indigenous environment, simply because it aint jam-packed with people, with a population density of 43 folks per square mile. As soon as you hear her voice, you can tell this gal was born to be a country singer the twang is country through-and-through, and luckily shes got the musical goods songs- to support that fabulous voice.
Many of the songs themselves have a relaxed ambiance which features her gentle acoustic approach, but the key to their appeal is her great band of 11 contributors, who throw down lashings of violin (Come Sunrise) pedal steel (Let Em Run/ Montgomery Creek Blues) and banjo (Come Sunrise).After Promised Land, she ups the tempo a tad, with Precious Little rolling out as a smooth shuffle, while follower-on Hiding Place being the laziest track on the entire album. Effortless balladeering accompanied by the simplest of instrumentation and it works wonders. The subliminal guitar solo is the icing on the cake.
Little Joe is a plucky hoedown blast featuring some dazzling banjo skills from Danny Barnes and just enough fiddle to keep the indigenous sound intact.The one song that truly stands out from this excellent collection is Holier Than Thou. Its a soft and gentle sway that allows Hoskings voice to feature more than any other. Theres some dazzlingly understated banjo work, possibly the best on the CD.
Breaking the mould comes crunching lightweight rocker Upside Down, bringing back shades of Neil Youngs country rock exploits, whereas closer Im Going Home has a simple and genuine porch mood.Rita Hosking will be touring the UK in July 2010 with accompanist Sean Feder on Dobro and banjo.
The verdict The real deal.
Weblink2:ritahosking.commyspace.com/samandruby (music samples)
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Let Em Run
2. Come Sunrise
3. Montgomery Creek Blues
4. Promise Land
5. Precious Little
6. Hiding Place
7. Little Joe
8. Holier Than Thou
9. Shes Waiting
10. Upside Down
11. Im Going Home View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.