Frankie and the No-Go Road

A concept album that follows the trials and tribulations of an everyman hero named Frankie in his struggles through life, symbolised by the Wétiko (a creature of Native American legend): this is certainly not your average Americana CD. Rita Hosking is a former teacher, whose folky country songs are literate and ambitious but never pretentious.

For the most part, these songs are walking-pace, bluesy grooves that will appeal to fans of Po’Girl or Anaïs Mitchell. ‘Power Moving In’ picks up the pace with more of an old-time feel, with some modal mountain-style banjo that has a similarly propulsive effect on the more sombre ‘Spirit Canoe’. Lyrics are Hosking's strong point and arresting lines and images come thick and fast. Her songs are observational, political and philosophical in an unaffected, organic way. It's not often you’ll hear lyrics such as ‘heaven and hell are the same’ or ‘there will be no resurrection, no raising of the dead’ in music this country-ish. Hosking also has a knack for placing herself in the heads of others, voicing the thoughts of hard-working people with hard-luck stories. ‘We don’t want no blood mister, we just want back our land,’ a line from ‘Our Land’, is one of several moments that recall the protest songs of pioneering female bluegrass singer Hazel Dickens. This will appeal to anyone who loves reading earthy American literature as much as it will fans of laid-back acoustic harmonies.