Few people who read this will have heard of The Barnes Blues Band, and fewer still are likely to see them play. But they are worth attention for two reasons. First, they are really good. If you like your electric […]
0
For a brief moment in mid-August it may have seemed as if the British folk and folk-rock scene of the late-’60s to mid-’70s had time-warped into the new Millennium. On display were Fairport Convention, the founders of British folk rock, […]
Word behind the stage after Steeleye Span had finished their performance at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention was that the venerable British folk-rockers had taken themselves up a notch. They had – and a lot of it was down to Jessie May Smart, who […]
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 […]
Listening to Afro Celt Sound System’s new album The Source (out April 29 on ECC Records) is like tuning in to Youssou N’dour meets the Chieftains. If that sounds unlikely, keep the faith. This album is a celebration two forms of roots music […]
It does not sit well with a part of me that Record Store Day (which in Britain was on April 16) brings with it new vinyl that could be seen as exploitative. This year, for example, brought no less that three […]
One for the joys of rummaging through record bins – vinyl, that is – is that you come across things you have never heard of and would probably not find easily on CD or MP3. Welcome to the world of […]
Andy “Thunderclap” Newman died on March 30, aged 73. When I mentioned this to my colleagues at work, there was a universal “Who?”. Not what a musician would want, but Newman would probably have been delighted when, after I played […]
Spring is supposed to be a time of renewal, so what, thinks I, could be better that a trip to a record fair to pick up some vinyl that could use a new life? The venue was in Reading, a […]
A is for “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” a jazz classic partly written by a Madagascan royal; G is for “Greenville,” a Lucinda Williams country putdown redolent of 20th-century Russian Acmeist poetry. Veteran music producer and author Joe Boyd is nothing if not eclectic in “Joe […]
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
SUBSCRIBE NOW
SUBSCRIBE NOW
