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PREVIEW AMERICANA MARISSA NADLER Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Mon 4 May

We journalists are forever putting musicians into convenient categories, only for artists to spend their careers trying to escape them. So it is with Marissa Nadler, American purveyor of sweeping dream-folk over her last three albums, who’s just turned in a far more eclectic record than anything she’s done before. ‘I was getting really tired of people pigeon-holing me,’ she says. ‘I didn’t want to be labelled as a folk singer the rest of my life. I've always seen myself as just a songwriter, I think labels can be really dangerous and creatively stifling.’

The result is Little Hells produced by Chris Coady (who has the likes of TV on the Radio on his CV), an

PREVIEW _;,\;:;\g THE THRESHOLD HOUSEBOYS CHOIR Stereo. Glasgow. Sun 3 May

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album that swithers beautifully from old-time blues to rrrr rm; tam-(tr )I It tr ;IIII‘1I‘.III<UNII‘.I: Goldfrapp-influenced pop to prog-folk balladry. Irrah Narlu, RUIH'II I’Iartt .‘Ihrl Rage Lyrically, it’s Nadler’s most direct offering yet, a /\<);I.tl‘;l iltr: Manhrrre rI )a/rrI Pullman songwriter confident enough in her abilities not to - - - _‘ -9,

beat around the bush. ‘l'm not using cryptic coding 3! , Rh -‘ anymore in my songs, I really just say it like it is,‘ she . I, ;‘

says. ‘These songs are very confessional, and I think my music will continue to move in that direction.’ With a new three-piece band of friends in tow to . .. flesh out things on stage, Nadler admits to looking forward to hitting the road, unlike previous solo jaunts where she keenly felt the loneliness. And the band are making a decent racket, too. ‘It’s not quite rocking out, there are no Sabbath riffs,’ she laughs. ‘But it’s definitely a more robust thing we’ve got going on.’ (Doug Johnstone)

PREVIEW M ,‘I) SAINT ETIENNE ABC. Glasgow, Wed 13 May

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Arr ‘.‘. Ma. 2%“: THE LIST 61