CHUCK Ragan’s latest album, Gold Country, may be coming out a few lifetimes after the gold rush of the midnineteenth century, however there’s a timeless quality to the album that embodies the hope and hard work that helped define that period in the American consciousness.

That has a lot to do with the fact that there’s nothing preconceived about Gold Country. It’s simply the sound of a talented songwriter doing what his kind has been doing for centuries: playing simple songs alongside a close group of friends not for hope of financial gains, but because he has no other choice.

Ragan is performing at Northumbria Uni on March 15.

Sophie Stratford