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Popa Chubby—Tinfoil Hat—Dixiefrog ASIN : B08Q6RKQFN

Popa's last gig was in Key West Florida in March 2020, he came

straight home to isolate at his base 'Chubbyland Laboratories' in
New York State's Hudson Valley where he produced the dramatic
song 'Can I Call You My Friends?'. This had such a good response
when he posted it on the internet that he carried on to record a
whole album playing all the instruments (including lots of great
lead guitar), doing all the vocals as well as producing the album.

We begin with the title track 'Tinfoil Hat' - Popa's take on the
virus deniers and the cover features the man himself wearing the
said hat but 'Baby Put On Your Mask' is a rocker where he in fact asks his girlfriend to comply with
lockdown regulations. 'No Justice No Peace' and 'Someday Soon (Change is Gonna Come)' refer to
the Black Lives Matter movement and '1968 Again' with its nice acoustic slide guitar notes that
despite the optimism at the time very little has changed for black people since 1968. Other tracks
like ‘You Ain’t Said Shit’ refer to President Trump's tardy response to the Covid crisis and some of
the ill-informed comments that he made, while 'Another Day In Hell' details some of the individual
personal tragedies that Covid has caused. While I don't doubt Popa's sincerity in making this

record, I do wonder if his rather eccentric approach and some of the humour here deflect from the
very serious messages.

Graham Harrison

Valerie June—The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For

Dreamers—Fantasy Records ASIN : B08STTNTW7

If Valerie's last album 'The Order of Time' was a step up from
2013’s “Pushing Against a Stone” with better production and a
more unified sound this new album produced by Valerie and Jack
Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) in L.A. and

Miami just before lockdown in 2020 is another step forward with
an even greater sophistication, including strings (courtesy of
Lester Snell) on some tracks. Gone is the down-home folkiness of
her early work which mixed bluegrass and blues, banjos and
ukuleles - although I've got to say that when I saw her live with a
band she was different again, much tougher and focussed than her earlier more whimsical material.

'Stay' is a brave place to start, a lilting, poignant track that slowly builds adding marching band
drums, restrained brass and strings, 'You and I' and 'Colours' are more folky and again both subtly
build from an acoustic guitar accompaniment. 'Stardust Scattering' is a delicate trance blues very
much like her earlier work, while the more R&B 'Call Me A Fool' (featuring Carla Thomas) is more
reminiscent of her live act. However, 'Fallin' is just Valerie singing over an acoustic guitar, whereas

'Smile' is built on a prominent drum track and with Valerie's whistful voice punctuated by both
brass and strings. 'Within You' is ethereal, 'Two Roads' is a deeply soulful country ballad with nice
pedal steel adding an eery feel in the background and 'Why The Bright Stars Glow' is a melodic
piano-led ballad. 'Home Inside' is a gospel lullaby with Valerie's double-tracked voice - "Some call it
prayer...I’d be a fool to let it have a name”.