Gem Andrews - North (2018)

After the 2015 retreat that was stripped-back ‘break-up’ album ‘Vancouver’, country artist Gem Andrews returns to her spiritual home in the North East of England for a full-band, full-throated successor.

Running deep and dark, thematically, with the social and economic mistreatment meted out on the region over decades, this is ‘North’.

In a set showcasing probably her most powerful songs yet, Andrews is by turn hopeful, despairing, yearning for the region, yet neither loses sight of, nor regard for, the warmth, care and good humour of its people.

Backed by full harmonies, blooming fiddle melodies, piano and accordion on a sea bed of acoustic double bass and drums, Gem pays tribute to local legends, including the late, great poet Julia Darling, in an intimate yet stirring (and even bracing) collection of very fine songs that marks a further notch in the career of one of the UK’s finest alt-country writer and performers. One for fans of Patsy Cline, Lucinda William, and The McGarrigles.