Roots

The latest releases reviewed

GEORGE STRAIT
Troubadour
MCA
***
Strait by name and straight by nature, King George hasn't got to be country royalty - if that's not an oxymoron - by ruffling feathers. The stats are impressive: almost 70 million albums sold since his 1981 debut. You would be forgiven for writing the Texas singer off as a mass-market appeaser. But you would be wrong. Strait is always aware of his fans' desires, but he is a class act, careful in his selection of material (he buys in all his songs), and conscientious in his adherence to traditional country-music values and sounds. So the poignant steel guitar and the jaunty bittersweet honky tonk piano fill in the lonely spots around his rich mellifluous voice, as he eases his way through songs of mature reflection and others a tad less profound but no less successful. He's 56 and not hiding it, but he can still crank out a good tune, as evidenced on River of Loveand the closing If Heartaches Were Horses. www.georgestrait.com
JOE BREEN
Download tracks: I Saw God Today, River of Love, Troubadour

THE TOM FUN ORCHESTRA
You Will Land With A Thud
Company House
****
There are lots of excellent reasons for going to this weekend's Kilkenny Rhythm 'n' Roots Festival, such as legend Chuck Prophet and rising names such as Eilen Jewell, Tift Merritt and Sam Baker, but if you are lucky to be there make sure you catch this bunch of exuberant Cape Bretoners. There are shades of The Pogues, Beirut and even new British folk-rockers Bellowhead, while singer/guitarist Ian MacDougall is a most accomplished Tom Waits sound-alike. It's a musical stew, with lots of sweeping and intriguing pieces, if a little clunky at times, but their spirit is willing and the effect (mostly) compelling. The Scottish traditional influence on Cape Breton is apparent, but so is a rock'n'roll instinct - and they truly land with a thud. www.tomfun.ca 
JOE BREEN
Download tracks: When You Were Mine, Throw Me to the Rats, You Will Land with a Thud