Album Review- Kristen Ford- Pinto

In 2016, I caught Kristen Ford in concert in a small Chicago venue and was immediately taken as a fan.

Ford played a loop style “one man band” concert which even then seemed to be a fad from a decade earlier. Technology made “looping” easier and musicians found a way to make it sound good. Famously, KT Tunstall would hit the US Top 40 charts twice in 2005. 

A year previously, Howie Day had a Top 20 hit with “Collide”, the culmination of seven years of work constantly touring and making a reputation for accompanying himself on samplers and effects pedals. (If you want to check out Ford's early work in this style- she has a fantastic cover of Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" you can look up on YouTube), Tunstall has remained a star in Europe, but has yet to have another US hit. Day’s career has been marked by self-sabotage. 

Other prominent loop artists like Andrew Bird expanded their pallet, and lest we forget, Ed Sheeran started as a looper. There of course is a long history of “one man bands” going as back probably as far as time itself, and along the way cult figures like Hasil Adkins and Nash the Slash, and there always will be. But even in that context, some of those road warriors like Scott H Biram and Bob Log 3 don’t have the visibility now that they experienced circa 2005 when they might grab a review or mention in Pitchfork. 

But of course, it’s the songs that matter and Ford had those. Fame isn’t fair (just turn on the radio and you are likely to hear JJ Abrams’s daughter within the hour) and I was shocked that someone so talented was not so well known. Ford is the type of artist that truly must love their work. She constantly tours and records. She spent the early part of her career self releasing albums. 

As she has established her career more in recent years, those albums seem to be scrubbed off her webpage and streaming services. But I believe she recorded four albums between 2011 and 2017. I am most familiar with 2014s Dinosaur and 2017s Rend and Renderer which have some real gems on them. Showing her versatility and depth, consider some of her other projects. She formed a duo with cellist Kels Van Stran called EVRGRN and they released a 2020 album. She also was part of a hip hop duo with MC Genesis Blu called the Blu Janes who released their album that same year. Ford’s online presence now treats 2021s self released War in the Living Room as a debut album. It is a mix of Ford’s styles (and has now been re-released on Righteous Babe Records.) What is cool is that it was co produced by June Millington the singer/guitarist of rock trailblazers Fanny (It is co-produced along with engineer Brett Buillon who worked with Low). 

In 2022, Ford met Ani DiFranco and ended up signed to the Righteous Babe record label. DiFranco is a musical hero of Ford’s but the partnership seems logical. Both are prolific songwriters who have generally chosen to do things their own way through hard work and constant touring. Both write politically conscious folk music, though they blend multiple genres including Hip Hop, Punk, Funk and Jazz. Both are multi instrumentalists 2025s Pinto is Ford’s shot at greatness. Released on Righteous Babe, DiFranco coproduces, cowrites with Ford on four songs and sings on album opener “Here’s to You Kid”. Also producing with DiFranco and Ford is John Driscoll Hopkins of country hit makers Zac Brown Band. Hopkins duets on Richest in the World. Nashville indie rocker Joseph Jared of the Dangerous Method sings on the album’s closing track. 

The album is engineered and mastered by Randy Merrill who has seemingly done the same for the biggest albums of the last 25 years (Taylor Swift, Adele, Harry Styles, Chappel Roan, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga) Pinto is a fantastically put together album. Like a lot of her previous work, there is defiantly a sense of being “on the road”. Upon listening, I can’t help but think that Ford and I couldn’t be much more different, though I doubt she thinks anything of me listening. It is hard not to think that the great “on the road records” have been made in a genre that has been dominated by straight cisgender white males for most of its history, and before that decades of fiction novels dominated by same. So even with modern exceptions to that (Ezra Furman’s excellent 2018 album Transangelic Exodus for one) and besides the fact that Springsteen and Dylan seemingly perfected the art, it does seem notable when a queer biracial female drops the perfect “road album” but this time it has tampons, weed and long term lesbian relationships. 

It’s also probably a shame this album didn’t come out in the Lillith Fair years or that golden era circa 2012 -2014 where artists like Tegan and Sara, DiFranco, and Tori Amos were big deals before Pitchfork and its ilk flipped over from covering songwriters to highlighting pop music. The best moments are spread out throughout the album. My choices are “Grrl in the Mirror” a rollicking story of past loves. “Wild Heart” rocks hard with the arena rock cock rock getting a gender change . “Pop Pop Fizz Fizz” is a fuzz guitar fan’s dream meet an “us outsiders taking on the world” vibe. Between the references to sports bras and Kardashians, Ford is equally adept at the more-than-just-breakup-song “Whiplash” and at the political (but no less rocking “White Man’s Dream”) 

Opener “Here’s to you Kid” is kind of lightweight given the DiFranco debut but sets up the album quite well. The album closes with “Brand New Pair” which is a bit of a love song that is an absolute perfect ending. The angelic vocals open it up to interpretation. It is perfect for the “movie” feeling album gives and I can picture it as a happy ending but the song also has an unspoken weight that could mean things aren’t so perfect. The Great American Records have allusions to Charles Starkweather and Abraham (from the Book of Genesis) but what makes those albums so good is the autobiographical elements. I am not surprise that Pinto is good, but I am surprised how gripped in it I became. 

There are still plenty of great American albums being written - the Killers’ 2021 Pressure Machine album for one- and I am making assumptions because I assume there is surely some artistic license here, too- but Pinto joins that list of great insightful American journey albums.

Album Review- Curtis Harding- Departures and Arrivals- The Adventures of Captain Curtis

Listening to Curtis Harding’s 2021 album If Words Were Flowers was a revelation. It led me to his two previous albums- 2014s Soul Power and 2017s Face Your Fear- all three are terrific. 

Of artists who have come out in the last 10 years, Harding is probably a Top 3 “most listened” to for me. Harding’s pedigree is the kind of multi-genre path that is reflected in his music. That’s probably coincidental but it is a list of some of my favorite artists of the last 25 years. In 2002, he made his first appearance on the hip hop soul debut album of Cee Lo and His Perfect Imperfections (he would appear on Cee Lo’s 2010 solo album The Lady Killer too). In the latter part of that decade, he worked with members of garage bands The Black Lips and Night Beats. 

His debut album (2014s Soul Power) would be released on the garage rock heavy Burger Records label. There was even a brief collaboration with Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds in that same time frame. He moved to Anti Records and producer Danger Mouse for 2017s Face Your Fears and start collaborating with Sam Cohen of Apollo Sunshine that would continue on the next album. 2021s If Words Were Flowers might be my favorite Harding album to date. Produced and cowritten with Cohen, it’s a soul album, but an album that sounds out of time. The video for “Can't Hide It” imagines Harding in 1971 on a "Soul Train" type show, and it evokes Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and Stevie Wonder. And of course, with the name similarity, it’s impossible not to also think of Curtis Mayfield. You can hear a multitude of genres coming together- soul, pop, funk, gospel, hip hop, psych, jazz and R&B. Unfortunately, there’s no longer a home for this type of music outside of indie rock. 

It’s great that he’s found a home on ANTI-, with its roster of Mavis Staples, Bettye Lavette and Booker T Jones. But it’s also sad that he doesn’t get a bigger audience. You can name a list of recent artists that had that similar 70s sound - enough it’s a genre within itself- Durand Jones, Charles Bradley, Black Pumas, Michael Kiwanuka, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings- and this crowd does well with critics. There is also the Americana-adjacent Adult Alternative format which has given us St Paul and the Broken Bones, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes and Nathaniel Ratliff to name a few- that play in bigger venues and inch their way a bit more onto radio playlists Which isn’t to say Harding isn’t doing well. It’s just the frustration of a fan that wishes he was a household name. 

 I have to admit some trepidation for listening to 2025s Departures and Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt. Harding has had such a solid three album run that eventually he will release a dud, right? But I need not worry. Even if it might not have quite the killer single of "I Can't Hide It", it’s a solid album. As you can guess from the title, it’s a bit of a concept album. The music again is soul backed by lavish orchestration. The theme isn’t pushy though it does tie the whole thing together. Opener "There She Goes" is punctuated with what sounds like Ernie Isley’s classic 1970s guitar. 

Across the album we are sent to "Hard as Stone" with its indistinguishable lyrics floats out in the world of OutKast and Cee Lo to a dreamy bliss and later the disco stomp of "The Power" with plenty of high hat and keyboard riffs along the way with dabbling in the sounds of the Fifth Dimension and Marvin Gaye along the way. This album is such a thrill for me as a listener taking me to some classic records with no missteps along the way. I don’t know what the future holds (no pun intended for such a futuristic concept record) for Harding but he’s doing amazing work. ("There She Goes" follows Harding's 2021 video "Can't Hide It" in giving nostalgic vibes visually as well as audibly, in this case a Night Gallery/Twilight Zone pastiche)

Album Review- Rhett Miller- A Lifetime of Riding By Night

In July 2025, Old 97s bassist Murry Hammond released a solo album. Last month, lead singer Rhett Miller released his tenth solo album. 

There is a new Old 97s album likely forthcoming next year. The Old 97s have not had any lineup changes and their interviews focus on them as the friends they have been for the last 40 years. U2 is the only other band I can think of quickly that portrays similar chemistry. While lead singer solo albums seem redundant, Miller has generally been purposeful in making them something different. While there are some moments on his solo albums that have the rollicking alt country of Old 97s, that’s usually the exception 2025s A Lifetime of Riding by Night has its own vibe. It’s focused on Miller’s lyrics as the accompanying music is stripped down for an intimate folky feel. This also may be an effect of Rhett’s recent vocal cord surgery. 

Hammond produces while cameos and the guest list on this album consists of Evan Felker of the Turnpike Troubadours, Caitlin Rose, Jesse Valenzuela (of the Gin Blossoms), and Nicole Atkins. Rhett (and the 97s) contains multitudes but it bears reminding that this is the singer who gave its one of the great songs of the last quarter century can write a tune. (I am referring here to “Question” from the 2001 album Satellite Rides, probably the band’s most well known song. It appeared prominently in the TV series Scrubs . Miller re-recorded it in 2006 for his solo album The Believer) his is an also a guy who has covered Prine and Jon Langford. As fun as the 97s are, let's not forget just how talented of a lyricist he is. Miller’s albums are often different than the Old 97s- they are more pop, less alt country. This album doesn’t sound like much of his previous work, but has a wonderful distinct vibe. 

I give Hammond a big thumbs up for capturing that mood. Rhett has always written some great reflective lyrics of life as a musician - the rollicking “Longer than You’ve Been Alive” off the Old 97s 2014 Most Messed Up album as one example. There’s definitely some of that Mott the Hoople style career rumination, but here he tackles it from a more self reflective angle on the disc's title track. “All Over Again” is a positive looking song that is the hallmark of Miller’s solo records. “Be Mine” might be the best song here because it combines that optimism and the detailed narrator sides of Miller. There’s surely an alternate world where only Miller’s solo albums exist and he is an underappreciated troubadour.