Nashville's Jeremy Ivey releases his debut album, The Dream and the Dreamer, through Anti- Records. The 9 tracks (32 min, 29 sec) on first listen appear to be up-tempo but dig a little deeper and Ivey's look at a bleak world come to the fore.

The tracks 'Diamonds Back to Coal' was written during the week of the Vegas shootings and the alt-right march. But in all honesty, the background to the songs isn't overly important for you to enjoy them on a shallow level. It's only if you want to dig a little deeper and occupy Ivey's head space to see the world through his eyes.

On a first play through, the overwhelming feeling is that this is a collection of solid, if a little cliched, country-esque songs. Tracks like 'Greyhound' probably won't travel very far out of America, unless you're familiar with how important it is to millions as a low cost travel option. The only possible way to describe it to a UK audience is to imagine that the track is called 'Megabus' or 'National Express'... But even then, culturally the reference will fall way short.

Musically, Ivey may not be overly impressive, but lyrically he's an expert storyteller. 'Gina the Tramp', for example, will drag you in and keep you hooked.

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Nick Smithson