Australian Anne McCue left our shores well over two decades ago with her black Gibson Les Paul and a knapsack.  She was raised in working-class Cambelltown in a loving family including a father with an amazing recording collection; a ghost that would haunt her years later. 

Anne played gig after gig, after gig, in tiny bars, to major supports, and residencies. Driven by her music, her home was where opportunity knocked so she could record and play. Developing her craft as a minstrel of the world with a bucketful of personality, playing live in truckdriver rest stops, juke joints and to the hippest venues in town, she’s spread her music from Vietnam, England, Spain and her now home of Nashville, Tennessee.

“Second Winter” feels almost like a concept album. Those are familiar with Kuepper’s work since his solo debut of “Electrical Storm” of 1985 will find it all like a passage between the past and the shadows of previous melodies and phrases. It's rather haunting.

Even the cover of the record has captured the ambience of the front of his first solo album (also made with long term collaborator, drummer Mark Dawson.) This shot shows four identified figures leaving an entrance of a stone building.

What a daft name for a band. Their Wikipedia page (trust it if you dare) asserts that they are a “funk-punk’ band ‘in the 1980s”. Formed in 1980, disbanded ‘by mutual consent’ (says Wikipedia) in 1986.

Charlie Higson - formerly of punk outfit The Right Hand Lovers (oo-er, missus, mine’s a large one) - David Cummings and Terry Edwards formed The Higsons. Charlie Higson is now described as an actor, author, writer, producer, comedian etc etc and he’s bloody well known around the UK, mostly from The Fast Show. If you can’t place him yet, it doesn’t matter.

It’s a truism that most record labels take a few releases to find their feet and assert their character and Patrick Boissel’s LA-based Alive-Naturalsound is no different.

Starting life as the Bomp-associated imprint Alive-Total Energy in the early ’90s with a deep dive into Detroit Rock, it’s reached extensively into garage, soul and power-pop territories to be a home to The Black Keys, Swamp Dogg and Paul Collins, among others.

But it’s in the area of hard-edged, ‘70s style guitar rock that has Alive has most recently found a happy niche, with the likes of Americans Buffalo Killers (semi-pastoral crunch) and Radio Moscow (Hendrix-tinged psych jams) especially standing out. They’ve now been joined by Datura4 from Fremantle, Western Australia.

The term Oz Rock is a catch-all phrase that’s scope is broader than a Queensland cow cocky’s accent but there’s something inherently recognisable about the music. The best of it is urgent and full of dynamics.

Once upon a time it was forged in year-long tours of a vast circuit of massive beer barns; nowadays it’s as much a creation of the odd gig in small-ish, grungy bars and digitally-assisted backshed studios.

Which brings us to Melbourne band The Vendettas and their second album. This isn’t a bad record but it’s very much music made with eyes on the prize. While that target isn’t going to be mainstream airplay in their home country, it could be a contract with a label in a bigger market. Many are called but few are chosen. The Vendettas might just do the business in Europe like Airborne or follow The Lazys to Canada.

A while ago a mate gave me the thumbs up about Blondie Drummer Clem Burke's new band Empty Hearts. I figured anything Burke's involved in is gonna be top shelf stuff - and how right I was this time.

The Hearts formed in early 2014 as a supergroup of sorts, comprising Chesterfield Kings bassman  Andy Babuik, Elliott Easton (The Cars) on guitar, Burke and Wally Palmer (The Romantics) out front on vocals.

"90 Miles Down a Dead End Street" kicks things off at a frenetic pace with some focussed intent, lots of “na na na's added in. Easton's killer riff helps blast-off single "I Don't Want Your Love" off. A chorus you only dream about follows.