Singles Selection – Issue #22

Sun-drenched country-rock from Oxfordshire meets smoky Americana from Brooklyn as The Annie Keating Band and The Dreaming Spires join forces!

I suppose that it had to happen at some point. Brooklynite Annie Keating is a regular visitor over this side of the pond and her UK touring band has, for quite some time, featured the silky skills of Dreaming Spires’ in-demand drummer, Jamie Dawson. And, it has to be said – the Spires’ brand of gritty Americana is the perfect match for Annie’s poetic, melodic product. And, if this particular marriage of like kinds doesn’t quite rock your boat then consider this: The lineup for Put Me In Your Hands also includes superslide guitarist Joe Coombs…

“…sounds like a lovechild of Tom Petty and The Band,” says the single’s press release – and that’s a shrewd observation. Joe’s slide guitar features from the outset and Annie and Spire Robin swap vocal lines. They sing together on the song’s chorus and, whilst Robin seems to play the tough-guy, Annie’s voice has a vulnerable feel to it. Weepy fiddle provides an earthy counterpart to Joe Coombs’ soaring guitar and, as Annie and Robin sing the “Put me in your hands – I don’t need to know your name” refrain, it all becomes quite anthemic.

Oh – and Annie Keating & The Dreaming Spires will be touring the UK this autumn. Details can be found here.

Another band who’ve earned their ‘ATB regular’ badge, Jimmy Regal & The Royals follow up Don’t Know Diddley and further tease the upcoming Snap Back album with what Joff Watkins calls: “a true life story inspired by yet another cheap and terrible car I’ve owned,” adding how “Cars are much like life. Often letting you down, leaving you stuck in the middle of nowhere, and with memories of the good ones you’ve had.” At least he says ‘life’ rather than ‘women’…

Musically inspired by funk and American electric bluesman Cedric Burnside, there’s a distinct bemoaning standing by the roadside (not a crossroads in sight) and the car won’t start. Cue a Basil Fawlty style thrashing methinks, although we need to make do with a galloping tempo and rustic slide guitar.

What else can a poor boy do but park up and work off the frustrations of being done wrong with a walloper of a tune.

Hot on the heels of their 2025 smash hit debut album, Bound to Break, UK country collective First Time Flyers are preparing their follow-up. Coming Home (the album) will be with us in the Spring of 2027 and, to set our juices flowing, First Time Flyers have just released the album’s lead single – its title track.

Coming Home (the song) was born during a writing session, during which the band found themselves talking about how much their lives had changed. Various band members confessed to the lure of their hometown roots and the conversations became the foundation of the song. Collecting stories, making mistakes, self-discovery and – eventually – finding a way back to the people and places that have always felt like home. Those are the elemnts that make up Coming Home.

First Time Flyers are all seasoned artists. Jake Morrell, Poppy Fardell, Tim Prottey-Jones and Vicki Manser are all multi-instrumentalists, too – and accomplished vocalists to boot. The band’s sound is characterised particularly by the group’s tight four-part vocal harmonies.

And those harmonies are a firm feature of Coming Home. Rousing, vibrant acoustic guitars and a solid drumbeat get the song off the ground; Poppy’s lead vocal is forceful and fresh-sounding. Built around the lyric: “I had to leave to learn, to roam, but happy’s in these bones,” Coming Home is a song that bursts with life.

Bound To Break went straight to #1 on the official UK Country Chart. Without doubt, First Time Flyers will be looking to emulate that success with Coming Home. The title track is a clear indication of that intent.

Quite the week in what, in an ATB signed executive order, is now called Ontariana, with a new song also from Mary Gauthier, ahead a new album, Reckoning, due later next month.

As ever, Gauthier writes best about what she knows, and, even if the pills ‘n’ booze tale recounted here isn’t her own, she is familiar with both the subject of the song and the subject of the song. And, as her weathered voice travails the lyric, don’t you know it.

Based over a languid Lay Lady Lay style simple strum, it unfolds graphically, in a typically resigned, matter of fact descriptive narrative; a format with which the singer excels. After a few albums of drawing in inspiration from other sources and other individuals, it feels she is back on the territory she knows best. And that’s grand.

We didn’t hear from them for over three years, then – just like buses – Neon Waltz (the self-titled ‘Most Northerly Band in Britain’) hit us with two vigorous singles in the space of just 8 weeks. Something is clearly stirring in the band’s home manor of John O’ Groats…

Recorded in Glasgow, new single Winner came about in typically Neon Waltz circumstances: a small studio, working against the clock and, to ice the cake (as they put it) – intermittent standoffs with a busy Mexican takeaway next door.

But, despite the chaos of its genesis and its development, Winner comes along with a strong message, rooted in watching a friend pass through one of life’s cruel tests. Drummer Darren Coghill explains: “The song was written with a good friend in mind, who went through something pretty difficult in life that, really, shouldn’t need to be. Having not been in the same situation myself, I was trying to imagine their overwhelming sense of relief once it was done. The longer the struggle, the greater the reward sort of thing.”

Power chords issue a call to attention before frontman Jordan Shearer cuts in with his vocals. the sound is bright and poppy and there’s clear passion in Jordan’s vocal delivery, especially as he reaches for the: “But in the last race, I’m in a great place” refrain. Dreamy psychedelia takes over as the song drifts into its anthemic climax, before – suddenly – the lights go out and all is, once again, quiet.

Toronto singer-songwriter (and recently-anointed father) Matthew Barber releases Find the Time, his 11th album, in late November. We’ll be onto it as soon as it emerges and, in the meantime, Matthew has started the ball rolling with the album’s lead single, These Days.

Matthew’s recent ascendancy to parenthood has prompted him to ask himself: “How can I be a better person?” and “How can we make the world a better place?” Those are the questions that will pervade Find the Time and, with These Days, Matthew fires his opening salvo.

These Days is, according to Matthew: “… a snapshot the day-to-day flow of work and family, acknowledging the long and winding journey from initial lustful attraction to diapers and daycare. It’s about partnership and a deep appreciation for good fortune against all odds.”

These Days is a slice of the kind of bright, punchy, accessible rock that it’s impossible to dislike. Choppy guitar, crisp drums and a tight-as-new shoes arrangement – they’re all here to enjoy. There might be a touch of knowing world-weariness detectable in Matthew’s voice but, when you’re a new parent, those are emotions that come with the territory.