Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters - Good Morning, Sunshine (2025)

Never say a motivated woman can't hang with the big boys because Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters certainly do. While they describe themselves as an "Americana rock 'n roll band"  their hearts appear to be firmly attached to the country-rock sub-genre, and they play it as well as any testosterone laden band from the 70s ever did. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Poco, late period Byrds, Chris Hillman's Desert Rose Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Eagles should all tip their hats to these ladies.

If you have any doubts about what I just wrote give a listen to The Riveters' new album, Good Morning, Sunshine. It's mostly an exuberant ride with a couple of ballads thrown in for good measure.

The music on Sunshine is edgy - but not angry, even while sometimes displaying a social conscience. It's also a party album with intelligent lyrics that will make the sun come out even in places where it struggles to shine, like Portland, Oregon where this eleven-song set was recorded.

The first track, "Drunk in Ojai," is an original tale about a night out that turned really, really bad, and the title song is about a gorgeous sunrise over the Columbia River Gorge. These two songs with entirely different moods prove the band is not just a bunch of girls singing about the good and bad aspects of romantic relationships that fill the albums of so many of them.

Sunshine is the group's second full-length studio effort. They've also released a live set, and in 2020 a digital 45 was featured here.

Flynn and bandmate Nancy Luca are the founders of The Riveters. Several other members revolve in and out of the band, but as long as the two leaders are fronting this fine outfit there should be more good music coming from the great Northwest.

Comments

Post a Comment

ALL-TIME POPULAR POSTS

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Image
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen...
Read more

Why Do 45 RPM Records Have Big Holes?

Image
Today we're going to find out why 45 RPM records have much larger holes than 78s and 33s. Believe it or not I often wondered about this burning question when I was collecting hundreds of these little seven inch gems back the 1960s. According to several websites, including Answerbag , the reason for the large hole used by 45s was simple. It was difficult for the old 78s, with their smaller holes, to find their way onto jukebox spindles. The large hole effectively eliminated that problem. Strangely, seven inch 45s were often pressed with the smaller holes used for LPs in many countries outside the United States, especially in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Overseas the inserts (commonly know as spiders) were manufactured into the large holes at the factories but they could be punched out if desired. The Beatles' British single of "Love Me Do," pictured here, is a typical example. Why were the spiders built into English 45s? I was unable to fi...
Read more

10 Great Beatles Songs You May Have Never Heard

Image
I recently paid a visit to a blog that I read regularly published by my British cyber-buddy, Martin Warminger. At his site, Music Obsessive , he just listed what are, in his opinion, the worst Beatles songs of all time . It's an idea I wanted to steal, and I could come up with a short but bad list, but for the sake of originality I decided to do something completely different instead. So, here is a list of ten songs by my all-time favorite band that deserve a better place in the annals of Beatles history. Most of them are only known by their hardcore fans. Here they are in chronological order. You can listen to a few of the rarer ones below. 1. I'll Be On My Way The only known recorded version of this very early, 1963, Lennon-McCartney ditty appears on Live at The BBC . The Beatles never put it on vinyl. Yes, it's simplistic and the lyrics even have the audacity to rhyme the word "moon" with "June." However, the song has one of those undeni...
Read more