A.J.
ROACH may announce himself as being from Edinburgh, Scotland, these days but the voice he does it in remains the cumulative product of generations of Virginians, raised mostly in the church but not above a little off-the-books private enterprise. It's a voice that lends almost unshakeable authority to the songs Roach sings, although Granddaddy, for one, also rings true because Roach researchers know that his grandfather really did operate an illicit liquor trade and his own personal, small-scale mint.
An 'old soul in a young man's body' tone is only part of Roach's singing strength. As he soared off in praise of the night sky as seen from a Caribbean island on Barrio Moon or lamented humans' inability to learn from history on Pleistocene, the title track from his superb latest album, he hit strings of pure notes of which a choirboy would have been proud. Well, a choirboy who had a mischievous streak. Like his fellow Glasgow Americana guest Eliza Gilkyson, he can even add a "whistling" solo and make it sound like an instrument. Roach's subjects aren't always wholesome and his characters aren't always innocent but sitting with just his guitar for company and occasionally singing a cappella and using the room's acoustics to fullest effect, he showed that rare ability to transport the listener to the heart of the action, whether it be the San Francisco streets he once drove around as a cabbie, or his mentor, New York folkie Jack Hardy's Greenwich Village intimate songwriting workshops, or the "domestic" he conjures up in his allegorical marriage of a merman and a sea lion.
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article