Cherry Red [Release date : 13.03.26]

The Long Ryders are a band whose who’ve been long associated with the advent of the Paisley Underground movement in the early eighties. Also Punk, Country Rock, Clarence White, Gene Clark, Walter Hill and The Byrds.
And maybe Garage Rock.

The band began in 1982. The influences listed above fluctuated as band members came and went. At the heart of the band are three survivors, Sid Griffin, Greg Sowders and Stephen McCarthy.
Tom Stevens “the best bass player of his generation” died in 2021.

Recorded in Poway, California, a small town with rural roots, and produced by Ed Stasium, who was with them from the start, High Noon Hymns follows the band’s hard won template.

Their previous works often explore complex emotional landscapes while maintaining audience friendly rhythms. It’s a balance not easily achieved but crucial in ensuring you don’t knock your listeners off balance.

And so, from the whimsical ‘Belief In Birds’ to the heartfelt blessing of Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’, the band’s musical brushstrokes provide a colourful backdrop to their pin sharp observations, mostly about love and the state of the US government.

As with all LR’s stuff, less is more, across the board. ‘Ramona’ takes aim at the USA’s immigration enforcement…‘The Iceman cometh’.

Even targeting “the liar in chief” on ‘Stand A Little Closer To The Fire’…’ is an understated protest, while at the other end of the spectrum, metal bands like Limp Bizkit and Lamb Of God don’t mince their words in criticising Trump.

But maybe the softly, softly route insinuates its way into the minds of the listener more effectively than a hammer and a nail.

Elsewhere, there is a lot of unshowy elegance about. The remarkably lean and confident ‘Four Winters’ recalls the post punk jangle of REM, and the Byrdsian ‘World Without Fear’ in itself a hymn to the power of love, are cases in point.

There are love songs too, of course. ‘How Do You Want To Be Loved’, is full of tender moments and remembered times.

The title track too is a love song, a hymn to a city… “The restless and their writers, who chronicle the age, all stand in California, turn another page”. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Josh Taerk - Sunday Session - 8 March 2026

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Power Plays w/c 2 March 2026

DODGY – It’s Not The End (Flip Flop Records)
THE SKBs – Hour Glass (indie)
LAKE – Boy On A Mission (indie)
KING FALCON Holding Out (indie)
HOKKA Heart Said No (Nuclear Blast Records)
STARBENDERS The Beast Goes On (Sumerian Records)
EDDIE AND THE WOLVES See Me Fall (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 2 March 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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