The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...

Right then. The Bateleurs have dropped a new single, "For All To See," and it feels less like a simple release and more like someone throwing open the shutters on a sun-drenched Lisbon morning. This is Blues/Rock, clearly indebted to those early seventies giants, but carrying its own specific weight, its own regional accent humming underneath the swagger. https://open.spotify.com/album/3dGBpR6WGZ4bXJQjMqg5kh?si=9mA58maeTIOdopxn-cx9iA The track thrums with the energy of...