Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats at Forecastle Festival
When the 2017 Forecastle Festival schedule was released, Bob and I were excited to get the chance to see Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats here in Louisville. The Saturday afternoon show was just perfect -- great weather, a great crowd, and a really solid set.
If you've listened to any of Nathaniel Rateliff's music, you know it was a high-energy set, with influences ranging from roots/Americana to gospel to blues and soul. At times, there's some good old jam band mixed in with a little Bell Bottom Blues-era Clapton. I'm not a music writer, but I know it was a great set. Rateliff had a great rapport with the audience while playing a tight, fun set. His best-known tracks, Look It Here and S.O.B., were the big crowd-pleasers of the hour-long set, and I found myself wishing I could follow the band on down to Birmingham for the Sloss Festival the following night. I guess that's how music festival habits get formed.
Joy Williams Venus Album Review
I was a huge fan of the Nashville-based duo The Civil Wars. I LOVED the way Joy Willams' haunting, ethereal voice soared opposite John Paul White's soulful sound. Like a lot of Civil Wars fans, I wasn't quite sure what to expect of Joy's post-Civil Wars solo album. Of course, when One2One Network offered me the opportunity to review the album, I was thrilled to give it an early listen.
Williams' solo album, Venus, tells a beautiful, uplifting story of modern womanhood. Themes of mothering, relationships, and strength abound. The songs don't have the dreamy, old-time feel of Civil Wars tunes; rather, they're often straightforward tales of love, loss, or celebration. "Sweet Love of Mine" will resonate with mothers or anyone else who has a very special child in their life. "Woman (Oh Mama)" is beautifully celebratory, and if "Before I Sleep" hasn't already been slated for a movie soundtrack, it should be soon! Of course, for Civil Wars die-hards, it's easy to interpret a few songs as being about the band's breakup; perhaps "One Day I Will" is just that, or maybe it's about the end of another type of relationship. That's the beauty of Venus; many of these songs go beyond Joy's own experiences and touch something universal in the listener.