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R2/Rock'n'Reel

R2/Rock'n'Reel

R2 is a music magazine published bi-monthly in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1988 as Rock'n'Reel, changing its name to R2 in early 2009. It covers a broad base of music, from the mainstream to the fringes of roots, rock, folk, singer-songwriter, blues, world, country and beyond.

84 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Alabama Shakes: Shakin' All Over: Alabama Shakes

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, Summer 2012

They've already created more buzz than a swarm of angry bees and, good news, they're returning to the UK later this year. Brittany Howard of ...

American Music Club: The Golden Age of American Music Club

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

MARK EITZEL sounds very chipper – not at all the lugubrious character that comes across in his songs. With the release of American Music Club's ...

Eric Andersen

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2008

ONE THING Eric Anderson likes to make very clear is that he is not a folk singer. ...

Eric Bibb

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2014

DR JOY DEGRUY coined the term Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome to describe the multi-generational trauma experienced by African Americans as a consequence of slavery. In ...

Ryan Bingham

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2015

RYAN BINGHAM'S IN a more hopeful place these days. And though his humility wouldn't countenance my or anyone else saying so, it makes you glad ...

The Black Keys: The Ongoing Adventures Of Two Complete Knuckleheads

Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2010

"WE DIDN'T KNOW what the hell we were doing," laughs the Black Keys' frontman Dan Auerbach, in a not entirely successful attempt to sum up ...

Mary Black: There's something about Mary Black

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2009

MARY BLACK wouldn't class herself as a dreamer, even though she's realised a few dreams others of us have maybe harboured. Playing London's Royal Albert ...

Al Kooper, Blood Sweat & Tears: Al Kooper: The Blood, The Sweat And The Tears

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, February 2007

"...ALMOST NO one alive has lived as much rock 'n' roll history as Mr. Kooper in his assorted lives as performer, producer, sideman, songwriter, author, ...

The Blues Band, Paul Jones, Manfred Mann: Paul Jones

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

SELDOM HAS the descriptive shorthand "long-awaited" been more apposite than in the case of Starting All Over Again, a rare Paul Jones solo album released ...

Joe Brown

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2007

WHATEVER YOU think you know about Joe Brown, forget it. ...

Jake Bugg

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014

JAKE BUGG is giving me the run around. He has already postponed our interview twice at short notice, and now here he goes again, evading ...

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan: Dishing the Dirt: Isobel Campbell

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2008

ISOBEL CAMPBELL has just killed a bluebottle, a crime of muscacide for which she carries absolutely no remorse.  ...

Carolina Chocolate Drops: Sweet Sounds: Rhiannon Giddens and Carolina Chocolate Drops

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

RHIANNON GIDDENS'S birthday back in February was a bittersweet occasion. The Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder-member's celebrations were tempered by her grief upon learning of the ...

Mary Chapin Carpenter: Modern Miracles: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2010

Having successfully overcome a major health scare, and now with a UK tour imminent – her latest album finding favour with fans and critics alike, ...

Eliza Carthy: Strange Folk

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2010

WHEN Christian Koch wrote in The Guardian earlier this year that British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin was a big fan of "that most ...

Rosanne Cash

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

THERE COMES A time in every young man or woman's life when dad mounts the pulpit and delivers a homily on the kind of music ...

The Chieftains: Hail to the Chief: Paddy Moloney

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010

Paddy Moloney talks to David Burke about the band's latest album, a collection highlighting a "forgotten" chapter in the history of neighbouring Mexico and America. ...

Christy Moore

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014

LOOKING BACK often means you can no longer be arsed looking forward. That you'd much rather retrace your footprints on the road behind than make ...

The Clancy Brothers: Liam Clancy: The Last Man Standing

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

JOHNNY CASH TOOK Trent Reznor's 'Hurt', a lacerating hymn about heroin addiction, and recast it as a profound meditation on his own mortality. But equally ...

Clannad

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2013

"PEOPLE ALWAYS say that we broke up. We never broke up – we're a family," says Moya Brennan of Clannad's return to the studio for ...

The Corrs

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, February 2016

IT'S BEEN A long hiatus, punctuated by the joy of nativity, the sorrow of bereavement and the pursuit of singular ambition, but the Corrs – ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Old Friends, New Record: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2013

It was a long time coming but, as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell explain to David Burke, their new album together was all a matter ...

Sheryl Crow

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2014

SHERYL CROW'S made a country album, they said. She's living down there in Nashville, hanging out with Vince Gill and Brad Paisley, going to church ...

The Delines: Willy Vlautin's New Band

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, December 2014

ON RICHMOND FONTAINE'S last tour, Willy Vlautin used to dream about being in a country soul band with support act Amy Boone. Then one night, ...

Damien Dempsey: Dublin Boy: Damien Dempsey

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

Damien Dempsey has a few things he wants to get off his chest and finds a willing listener in David Burke. ...

Willy DeVille

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, 2008

The artist formally known as Mink demonstrates a direct and colourful use of language as he discusses his rich and varied career with David Burke. ...

Steve Earle: Alive and Kicking: Steve Earle

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2011

STEVE EARLE IS, as his fellow Americans are wont to say, in a good place. "I'm pretty happy. I've got a new little boy, a ...

Eels: E is for Eels

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2008

MARK OLIVER EVERETT, alias E, alias Eels, is a respectful though reserved interviewee. ...

Simone Felice: Beyond Thunderdome

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2012

Acclaimed singer-songwriter and sometime novelist Simone Felice talks life, love and near-death with fellow author – and R2 philosopher – David Burke. ...

Donnie Fritts

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2016

DONNIE FRITTS MAY be an alumnus of Muscle Shoals, the Alabama mecca of southern soul, and a renowned songwriter and recording artist in his own ...

Mary Gauthier: Liberty Belle

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008

Singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier was something of a late starter – but once she picked up that pen she certainly had plenty to write about. Having ...

David Gray: "I was ready to throw off the past"

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

YOU'D THINK having three number one UK albums and two that charted in the US top 20, not to mention the biggest selling Irish album ...

Nanci Griffith: Blue Moons and True Believers

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

About to make a welcome return to our concert halls and with a new album imminent, Nanci Griffith is in conversation with R2's David Burke. ...

John Hammond

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

TOM WAITS owes it all to his wife, Kathleen Brennan. The one-time raggedy man and barfly, a sartorial amalgam of Frank Sinatra's Capitol covers, Be-Bop ...

The Handsome Family: Handsome is as Handsome does

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, August 2009

WHAT DO YOU GET when you cross the Platters with 19th century Romanticism? Why, the new album from the Handsome Family, of course. ...

Lisa Hannigan: Companion Piece

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2012

David Burke spends a little time with Lisa Hannigan and hears how her latest solo album, Passenger, is an altogether more relaxed affair. ...

Ben Harper

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2016

WHEN BEN HARPER reunited with his band, the Innocent Criminals, for a sold-out four-night run at San Francisco's Fillmore in March, 2015, seven years after ...

John Hiatt: Tune-up: John Hiatt

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2008

JOHN HIATT WAS a complete fuck-up. The year was 1984 and his addiction to booze and cocaine induced what he referred to as "a semi-blackout ...

Hurray for the Riff Raff: Protest and Survive

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012

MUSIC AS AN instrument of change – remember that concept? It may seem a little naïve at a time when even the mighty have fallen ...

Jackie Leven: Outside In

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2009

In a frank conversation, Jackie Leven recalls his difficult early years, his experience with heroin, and how he can come up with four albums a ...

Joe Jackson: Still Looking Sharp

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

David Burke catches a rare sighting of pop music's invisible man. ...

Joan Armatrading: Joan As Blueswoman

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

EARLIER THIS YEAR a new album by one of Britain's most enduring singer-songwriters debuted at the top of Billboard magazine's blues chart in the United ...

Julie Fowlis: Gael Force: Julie Fowlis

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2008

JULIE FOWLIS spends a lot of time singing to people who, on the whole, haven't got a clue what she's singing about. But it makes ...

Dolores Keane

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2015

DOLORES KEANE has been through the mill. Conspicuous by her absence from Irish folk song this century, she spent most of those wilderness years inveterately ...

Alison Krauss: Flight Plan

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2011

IF I WERE TO tell you that Alison Krauss has won more Grammy Awards than any other female artist, and is third on the all-time ...

Kris Kristofferson

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2013

HUMILITY can be a deceptive character trait. Those who profess it are not always quite as humble as they seem. Like Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "He ...

Lambchop: Damage Control: Lambchop's Kurt Wagner

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2008

LAMBCHOP DEVOTEES can rest easy: despite frontman Kurt Wagner's solo tour of Europe last autumn, the Nashville collective have not made their last elegantly sombre ...

Lyle Lovett

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

DAMN THAT Lyle Lovett, he sure is one elegant gent. While this R2 writer, in a Prada or Armani suit, would look plain guilty, Lovett ...

Shelby Lynne: Suiting Herself

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2010

"I ALWAYS COME off to cats like you as negative, but it's not that way. I'm just honest." Shelby Lynne's been explaining what it is ...

Loretta Lynn

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2016

THE WORD "legend" has been devalued by misappropriation in modern linguistic currency. These days it is increasingly (and stupidly) used as a synonym for "star" ...

Aimee Mann: Boxing Clever

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

AIMEE MANN reckons she could take Bob Dylan in a boxing bout. It would be a close run thing but age and height advantage would, ...

Laura Marling

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2009

DESPITE ALL HER best efforts to stick a spike in the wheel of success, Laura Marling is fast-becoming the most talked-about young singer-songwriter of recent ...

John Martyn

Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, August 2008

All my life I've thought of you as Scottish but you were actually born in England weren't you? ...

John Martyn: Still Wide-Eyed and Increasingly Legless

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2008

INTERVIEWS ARE like minefields. Amidst the chummy showbiz chat, there's almost invariably at least one potential hair-trigger moment when someone like me has to ask ...

Leyla McCalla

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2016

IF THE Haitian government wants to improve the international perception of its country, appointing Leyla McCalla as cultural ambassador with a roaming brief could be ...

Don McLean

Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2015

THE OBJECTS OF pop culture iconography never grow old. Elvis Presley is forever framed as the hip-thrusting, kiss-curled, impossibly beautiful boy king, just as Bob ...

Christy Moore

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2016

WHEN YOU THINK about it, email is only a truncated form of letter writing. The art of literary correspondence re-imagined. And every bit as revealing ...

Sinead O'Connor: Faith and Courage

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

TRUTH WILL always out in the end. And the truth-sayers will be vindicated where once they were vilified. ...

Dolores O'Riordan: Travelling Light

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2009

Dolores O'Riordan, former singer with the Cranberries, tells David Burke of her journey close to the edge during those heady days of pop stardom, and ...

Joan Osborne: Between the Covers

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

SOME ARTISTS are indelibly associated with one piece of work their whole lives. What once was a gift in terms of eliciting public acceptance can ...

Courtney Pine: Common Cause: Courtney Pine is making all the right connections

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2011

IF THE JAZZ police, those self-appointed protectors of a genre that's about freedom of expression (the irony is obviously lost on them), didn't know what ...

Corinne Bailey Rae : Corinne Bailey Rae: Faith, Hope And Charity

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2010

NOT EVERY do-gooding celebrity is like Bono, you know. There are those among the nouveau riche who'd rather eschew the kind of attention the U2 ...

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream Effect: Bonnie Raitt

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, June 2012

IT'S BEEN A TOUGH seven years for Bonnie Raitt since the release of her last studio album, Souls Alike. She lost both her parents, Broadway ...

Fionn Regan: History Lesson

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2007

THE PRETENDERS and the one-trick-ponies are always found out in the end. The procession of new Dylans has been relentless – and mostly underwhelming – ...

Fionn Regan: Shadows and light

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2010

Fionn Regan has just released his much-anticipated second album. It was something of a long haul, as he explains to David Burke. ...

Fionn Regan: History Lesson: Fionn Regan

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2007

THE PRETENDERS and the one-trick-ponies are always found out in the end. The procession of new Dylans has been relentless – and mostly underwhelming – ...

Richmond Fontaine: Willy Vlautin: It's only rock'n'roll

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2010

Devotees of Richmond Fontaine can rest easy: frontman Willy Vlautin's burgeoning reputation as a novelist doesn't portend the demise of the Americana outfit – at ...

Rodrigo y Gabriela: Natural Acoustics: Rodrigo y Gabriela

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2010

YOU'D THINK a pair of former thrash-metal heads from Mexico City would have the kind of backstage rider that was a hedonistic Eden. Not a ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015

DON'T TELL THE wife, but I've fallen for Buffy Sainte-Marie. She probably doesn't feel the same way about me, but then being well-versed in the ...

Seasick Steve: Lucky Charm

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2012

His is a remarkable success story but, Seasick Steve tells David Burke, he takes nothing for granted ...

Ron Sexsmith: A spoonful of sugar

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, September 2013

Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith's true-life confessions are easy to swallow, says David Burke. So why isn't he more widely prescribed? ...

Sharon Shannon for President

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, January 2010

HERE'S A MAD IDEA – Sharon Shannon as Ireland's next President, replacing Mary McAleese and thus maintaining the recent tradition (established with the appointment of ...

Declan Sinnott: All the right noises

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2012

Declan Sinnott's recently released solo record is cause for celebration, as David Burke reports. ...

Bruce Springsteen: E Street shuffle: Bruce Springsteen

Retrospective by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

The Boss is coming to town! David Burke looks at the career and impact of the man whose been described as "the Steinbeck of rock'n'roll". ...

Pop Staples, The Staple Singers: Freedom Song

Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2008

David Burke talks to the indefatigable Mavis Staples ...

Joss Stone: Water for Joss Stone's Soul

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2015

"PEOPLE WOULD SAY, 'So, who do you think you are singing these soul music songs when you are 16 and you're white and you're from ...

Ben Taylor: Sons and lovers: Ben Taylor

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2007

David Burke talks to Ben Taylor about his dislike of folk music and his plans to shake it up a bit. And then there's the ...

Travis: Interview

Profile and Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2007

"WHEN THE wrecking ball of success whacks you," reckons Fran Healy of Travis, "your life goes in fifty directions at once. We had to stop ...

Ruby Turner: The Gospel according to Ruby

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, October 2009

"THEY CAN KEEP their big record deals. Gone are the days when I'm going to be told what to do. I can go to bed ...

Suzanne Vega: Blue Notes

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, November 2007

THE SONG 'Bound' on Suzanne Vega's quite brilliant new album, Beauty & Crime, finds her wondering "if you might still want me". ...

Laura Veirs

Interview by Johnny Black, R2/Rock'n'Reel, March 2010

"I DON'T OWN MANY THINGS," Laura Veirs tells me. "I'm not a things person." ...

Gillian Welch: Air Miles: A Transatlantic Conversation with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, Fall 2011

MOBILE PHONES, don't you just hate them? I know that to most of the Earth's populace they're as essential as a limb these days, but ...

Lucinda Williams

Report and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, May 2014

HARD TO BELIEVE now, given her adulatory reputation among commentators and contemporaries alike, but when Lucinda Williams was hawking her songs around, looking for a ...

Holly Williams

Profile and Interview by David Burke, R2/Rock'n'Reel, July 2014

HOLLY WILLIAMS carries her lineage lightly. Which can't be easy when your grandfather was Hank Williams Sr, the beating heart and tortured soul of country ...

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