★★★★★
The 20th album from a discography with few equals in Canadian roots music, finds tireless troubadour Fred Eaglesmith at the very top of his game. Like fellow maverick Neil Young, Eaglesmith is never content to make the same album twice. 2010's had a retro noir vibe, while 2012's was a lo-fi one mic affair. Here, he time travels back to 1966, infusing his ever-eloquent material with rock, R&B; and the Tex-Mex tropes of the time ( and Question Mark & the Mysterians were inspirations)...
- exclaim.ca
2014-01-15
★★★★★
The latest fine album of gritty alt-country from this Canadian troubadour contains a number of perceptive, well-written tales of everyday folks and their struggles.
- kexp.org
2012-01-26
★★★★★
Veteran Ontario troubadour Fred Eaglesmith has a following large and loyal enough to keep him constantly on the road, but he remains seriously undervalued by critics and the industry establishment ? no deserved Polaris or Juno nominations, for instance. Undeterred, he just keeps on putting out high quality records at a prolific rate. 6 Volts, his 19th, maintains the high standard. It's more stripped down than 2010's Cha Cha Cha and is, in fact, about as lo-fi as you can get...
- exclaim.ca
2012-01-26
★★★★★
This Canadian troubadour takes a sharp left turn with the most musically adventurous and toughest-sounding record of his career. Snarling guitars and clanging percussion alternate with hard-country steel balladry. Most important, the songs are also his best batch yet, and taken as a whole, they sketch a powerful portrait of living on the edge.
- kexp.org
2012-01-26
★★★★★
The latest album from veteran Ontario troubadour is one of his finest collections of songs in quite awhile. Recorded in mono with the band gathering around a single microphone, the sound is raw and intimate, with jagged bursts of shuddering electric guitar providing a raucous edge to an otherwise rootsy blend of pedal steel, banjo, mandolin, drums and Eaglesmith's weathered vocals...
- kexp.org
2012-01-26
★★★★★
This Canadian singer-songwriter is revered for his impressive catalog of hard-bitten tales chronicling the struggles of working-class folks. His 18th album is not only his best in quite awhile, it ranks with his finest work...
- kexp.org
2012-01-26
★★★★★
Ontario's Fred Eaglesmith once again delves into elemental and primal aspects of human existence with the eloquence, literacy, musicality, and emotional potency that have become his trademarks.A self-described Buddhist, Tinderbox finds Eaglesmith visiting what might resemble a Pentecostal Church high on storied Sand Mountain, Alabama where — at least in literature going back 100 years — deep spirituality has co-existed with deep depravity, but where faith and hope abound...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
A.GIFcult hero on the roots scene in his native Canada for nearly two decades and increasingly revered by U.S. critics and audiences, singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith has crafted the finest, most thematically rich album of his career with his latest effort, Tinderbox. Drawing heavily from country and folk conventions and from vintage acoustic blues, the album finds Eaglesmith at his gritty, straightforward best...
- www.slantmagazine.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
In the studio, musicianship renders this Canadian singer-songwriter one more rough-hewn troubadour with his heart pinned firmly to his hollow-body. On this live double, his need to shout over bar talk and penetrate the sloppy strum-and-thrum of his drumless good-enough-for-folk-rock band combines happily with the best-of effect, resulting in a raucous celebration of male chauvinism Montgomery Gentry should only envy--for its powers of observation, class solidarity, and laugh lines...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-02-27
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