BBC Review
Bragg conveys truths about his
home country like few other songwriters can.
Billy Bragg’s first studio album since
2008’s Mr
Love & Justice – and his
13th in total – presents a very laidback, mellow side of the activist and
singer. Recorded in South Pasadena, California by producer Joe Henry, these 12
songs, much like his collaborations with Wilco in 1998 and
2000, are infused heavy with Americana and country influences.
While those Mermaid
Avenue records
consisted of Bragg setting previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics to
music, here there’s only one cover – a lilting, gentle take on I Ain’t Got No
Home, which was originally popularised by Guthrie himself. A sadly prescient
tale of a wandering worker struggling to survive in a rich man’s world, Bragg’s
take on the song is appropriately dejected and desolate, and it’s easy to
imagine him lost in the vast and dusty deserts of the American southwest. TBC Here.
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