Rae Radick – Keep ‘Em Guessing

We’re at the end of another working week (if you’re lucky enough to be working) and that calls for a bit of a knees-up. In the past, we might have looked forward to Friday evenings because a trip to the pub would have followed the day in the office. And as the alcohol flowed so would our conversations. The office joker would do bad impressions of Boris whilst others just let off steam about the things that were causing them sleepless nights. I’m sure those evenings will return.

But, just in case you need an extra fix of bar life and the fun that can happen within them, today’s Sonic Breakfast treat comes straight from a Stateside tavern. In that bar, we find Rae Radick and her friends having fun, playing pool and singing karaoke whilst putting one leery punter firmly in his place. 

 

‘Keep ‘Em Guessing’ is a good time, toe-tapper that clearly draws influence from the country-rock sounds of Shania Twain. Even if it’s not the sort of music that you might typically be drawn to, I urge you to give it a chance. It’s music designed to make you smile – the video simply amplifies that – and we’re probably all in need of a bit of happy juice right now.

I ask Rae, a touring member of the American Bombshells (look them up, I had to) what she’s most looking forward to in 2021 and she’s quick to assert what she wants. “What would make it a great year is if COVID was no longer hindering artists from performing at gatherings, and I can get back to my second home…the stage.

From the evidence supplied in ‘Keep ‘Em Guessing’, Rae is quite the performer. I’d go to any bar she might be in and I’d try my very hardest not to be the drunken barfly loser propped up on a stool. 

Have a cracking weekend.

Catherine McGrath – Starting From Now

I’m not sure I care too much about discovering the new ‘Taylor Swift’. It’s not that I’m particularly dismissive about her music. She’s just somebody who’s largely passed me by. I could be wrong but I’d file her under the sort of Country crossover music that rarely registers above insipid. She’s the one they’d cover on X Factor if they wanted a week away from the R’n’B’ standards, right? I concede I’m probably doing Ms Swift a disservice.

 

So – when I receive a set of press E-mails about Northern Irish singer-songwriter, Catherine McGrath, and mention of Taylor is prominent within each release, I’m reluctant to give it a fair shot. She might be the rightful heir to the Taylor Swift crown but that don’t impress me much. Somebody reminds me that I was an early endorser of Ward Thomas (here) but I maintain that’s a different kettle of fish.

 (Click on page 2 for what I really think about Catherine)