It is not often you come across a Gaelic rapper, a musician in 1970’s knitted jumper surfing a crowd in an inflatable boat, and, well, The Beach Boys. But it does happen. This year’s Cropredy festival (officially Fairport’s Cropredy Convention) […]
It is said that old music is only old if you have heard it, otherwise it is new. So it is with the latest release from Clannad, the Irish folk ensemble whose various versions date back to 1970. “Turas 1980” […]
I confess I have not thought about the Singing Nun for years, although occasionally that tune does get stuck in my head. (It is now – “Dominique, nique, nique “) So imagine my rather twisted musical joy at having the convent […]
The joy of hearing Hayseed Dixie for the first time is the realisation that the name is a play on AC/DC and this is not going to be normal bluegrass (or should I say this ain’t gonna be no regular […]
When a colleague and I interviewed Gregg Allman a few years ago, his main topic of conversation was his health. He had just had a liver transplant and was — not unsurprisingly — a bit fixated on it. He clearly […]
Eric Bibb, the veteran U.S. bluesman, is a migrant. He has lived in Scandinavia — currently Sweden — since the 1970s. He left America disillusioned at the time with what he says was the collapse of of the Civil Rights Movement […]
There are few people reading this who will be familiar with Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. They were British, lasted only between 1972 and 1975, had about 400 gigs and just two albums. Their main claim to fame […]
Just in time for the stocking-stuffer season, The Albion Christmas Band has brought forth a new album of – no surprises here – Christmas songs to go along with its annual tour of British folk venues and cosy theatres. It […]
There is very little that gets the folk/country juices going more than a good American train song.* Something to do with the workers who built and ran the railroads plus the travelers that criss-crossed the country trying to make ends meet. Haunting […]
My job, which is primarily concerned with politics and economics, occasionally allows me to do something musical — in the latest case my inner Pink Floyd just got a real outing. London’s venerable Victoria and Albert museum has taken to putting on […]
