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Songs Of The Week 2025: Take 4
As admirers have noted, Michell's compositions sound as if they could have been collected and sung a century ago. Except there is a subtle, thoroughly contemporary twist
5 days ago
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Songs Of The Week 2025: Take 3
McMurtry can make you smile with his wry humour but it is his snarl that commands your attention
Jun 28
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Songs Of The Week 2025: Take 2
Bridges Are All Burnt is hardly sunshiny as Wall’s rich vocal navigates a dark personal theme and Brown’s trumpet deepens the melancholy
Apr 26
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From Laura Nyro to New Radicals: My Desert Island Discs
Laura’s homage to the splendours of nearing 30 but feeling like a teenager is as celebratory as crotchets and quavers get
Mar 5
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Songs Of The Week 2025: Take 1
The stripped-back sound perfectly suits the songs that have acted as anchors through her life and will lift the spirits of all who hear them
Feb 22
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Hurray For The Riff Raff: Colossus of a song and my Album of the Year
A mouthpiece for the marginalised: no wonder this indie artist of Puerto Rican heritage received the Folk Alliance People’s Voice accolade
Dec 27, 2024
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My top 30 songs of 2024 – and my 10 favourite covers
Phil Shaw presents his favourite 30 songs from 2024: from John Cale and MJ Lenderman to Arooj Aftab and Lemon Twigs. Plus: his top covers
Dec 19, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2024: Take 5
Maloney’s most intimate and vulnerable collection of songs will be released on January 31, five years after her last full-length offering
Dec 13, 2024
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From The Beatles to Pink Floyd: My Desert Island Discs
The beauty of doing Desert Island Discs this way is you don’t have to tell Lauren Laverne about whether you were happy in your childhood
Nov 4, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2024: Take 4
Written by Becky Unthank to the old American folk tune of Nettleton, it slowly builds towards a choral climax with the voices of 60 devotees
Oct 25, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2024: Take 3
As Little says, this album was 46 years in the making: a life so thoroughly lived in has produced an outstanding set of authentic songs
Aug 24, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2024: Take 2
The journey to self-discovery can be a perilous one and few songwriters articulate the pitfalls more eloquently than Josienne Clarke
Jun 15, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2024: Take 1
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Giving: Cara Dillon In my pocket, I found from you A handful of our memories Cara Dillon’s mother,...
Mar 21, 2024
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Songs Of The Week 2023: Take 5
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Albert’s Place: Martyn Joseph Two of my favourite songs of the year were inspired by the same...
Dec 22, 2023
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My top 30 songs of 2023
Phil Shaw 1 California – CMAT A soaring voice, funny lyric and great tune from the excellent album Crazymad, For Me – all the work of...
Dec 18, 2023
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Songs Of The Week 2023: Take 4
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK The Insider: Robert Vincent Who to trust? It is one of the questions of our times, whether it’s our...
Oct 27, 2023
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Songs Of The Week 2023: Take 3
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Glory: Gabriels His baritone is just as spine-tingling as his falsetto. When Jacob Lusk sings, the...
Aug 26, 2023
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Songs Of The Week 2023: Take 2
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Where The Song Will Find Me: Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams is still recovering from the effects...
Jun 3, 2023
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Songs Of The Week 2023: Take 1
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK I Wanna Love You (But I Can’t Right Now): Bennett Wilson Poole With their eagerly anticipated...
Mar 25, 2023
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Anaïs Mitchell: Another Song Of The Week from my album of 2022
Neil Morton We just had to see out the old year with an extra helping of Anaïs Mitchell. Our Song Of The Week at herecomesthesong.com is...
Dec 29, 2022
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Songs Of The Week 2022: Take 4
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Robin: Dominie Hooper 2023 should be a landmark year for indie folk singer-songwriter Dominie...
Dec 24, 2022
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My Top 30 Songs of 2022
Phil Shaw 1 Point Me Toward the Real – Ezra Furman The story of a fragile character re-entering the world after being collected from a...
Dec 21, 2022
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Songs Of The Week 2022: Take 3
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Meet Me In The Silence: Susan O’Neill Irish singer-songwriter Susan O’Neill’s beguiling vocal and...
Sep 25, 2022
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Songs Of The Week 2022: Take 2
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Spit Of You: Sam Fender Indie rocker Sam Fender’s piercing observations on his North Shields roots...
Jun 25, 2022
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Songs Of The Week 2022: Take 1
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK She Sang Songs: Track Dogs Acoustic roots band Track Dogs have named She Sang Songs as one of their...
Mar 26, 2022
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Songs Of The Week 2021: Take 5
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK 4th Day Prayer: Allison Russell Allison Russell’s first solo album, Outside Child, has made such an...
Dec 24, 2021
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My Top 20 songs of 2021
Phil Shaw 1 Bloomsday – Samantha Crain Anthem to hope and a glistening beauty from the Choctaw songwriter, taking its title from James...
Dec 16, 2021
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Songs Of The Week 2021: Take 4
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Bright Star: Anaïs Mitchell Bright Star sounds as if it might be a Christmas single but the Anaïs...
Dec 13, 2021
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Songs Of The Week 2021: Take 3
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK The Nameless: Jacob and Drinkwater Alt-folk duo Tobias ben Jacob and Lukas Drinkwater have captured...
Sep 25, 2021
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Songs Of The Week 2021: Take 2
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Soho: vulpes (Maz O’Connor) Inhabiting the alter ego of vulpes, London-based songwriter Maz...
Jun 27, 2021
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Songs Of The Week 2021: Take 1
Neil Morton FEATURED SONG OF THE WEEK Deserving: John Smith John Smith’s new album The Fray has arrived like vaccine for the soul. The...
Mar 28, 2021
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A ride called nostalgia: My 20 favourite fairground songs
Phil Shaw The funfair, as distinct from the carnival and circus, has provided a rich seam of material for songwriters. Surprisingly, a...
Feb 27, 2021
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My Songs of the Year: From Gabriels to Dylan and The Avalanches
Phil Shaw 1: Love And Hate In A Different Time – Gabriels An extraordinary song for momentous times from the Los Angeles trio. Yes, there...
Dec 24, 2020
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Songs Of The Week 2020: Take 3
When Rosanne Cash sings ‘Deliver me from tweets and lies’, there can be only one person she has in mind. But her timely new track, Crawl…
Dec 19, 2020
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Songs Of The Week 2020: Take 2
Rhiannon Giddens always sings passionately about racial and social injustice, from slavery to civil rights. Now she takes on the gaslighters
Aug 30, 2020
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From Aretha to Nina via The Czars: My top 50 greatest cover versions
Cover versions can be divisive, among bands as well as fans; I recall Graham Nash fleeing The Hollies over their decision to record an LP of
May 16, 2020
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Boss class: My fifty favourite songs by Bruce Springsteen
Inspired by a recent Guardian piece by Alexis Petridis, listing the best 50 Bob Dylan songs, here is my (very subjective) top half-century…
Apr 27, 2020
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Songs Of The Week 2020: Take 1
In My Room: a perfect title to describe the humble songwriter’s location of necessity during the global shutdown. From their rooms they've…
Apr 18, 2020
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Oddball's Coming Home: 10 leftfield songs about sport
A 1968 single by Townshend, Daltrey, Entwhistle and Moon, and a relative flop which peaked at No25, Dogs is about greyhound racing, beer…
Feb 17, 2020
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Songs Of The Week 2019: Take 2
We all need a harmonious new year after the dissonance of 2019, and who better to provide a message of hope and empathy than The Secret Sis…
Dec 29, 2019
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Dolly, the Cameroon connection and the power of storytelling
Cameroon’s Bamenda Highlands is a vibrant, verdant region awash with life. Rust-red tracks cut through mountainous forests that brim with…
Jul 31, 2019
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Songs Of The Week 2019: Take 1
The Boss takes a quiet slip road off E Street, transporting me back to Friday night treats in the late 50s-early 60s watching cowboy films…
Jul 8, 2019
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Songs and gongs of 2018
Our final Song Of The Week of 2018 is an encore from Anderson East's album of that name, the southern soul ballad This Too Shall Last…
Dec 27, 2018
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Six of the best from our 2017 Songs Of The Week playlist
We at Here Comes The Song have bombarded contributors, subscribers, readers and listeners with our Songs Of The Week by Twitter, Facebook…
Dec 30, 2017
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'Tis the season to be different: an alternative festive playlist
Presenting an alternative festive playlist… to show there's more to Christmas music than Noddy Holder, Roy Wood, Shakin’ Stevens and that…
Dec 16, 2017
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Flipside of The Beatles: From The Liverbirds to Rory Storm
The so-called Swinging Sixties weren’t just about The Beatles. No, no, no. Here are some of the finest – and perhaps less obvious – among…
Oct 9, 2017
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Indelible mark of Zevon: 10 more from the songwriter's songwriter
Surreal, darkly comic tale of revenge from the 1978 album Excitable Boy and the last song Warren Zevon played live, on The Late Show with…
Aug 14, 2017
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They say it's your birthday: 10 songs for a best wishes list
From their debut album Life’s Too Good. The Icelandic band fronted by Bjork are classed as alternative/indie; it's certainly alternative but
Jul 18, 2017
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London Recalling: 10 songs with capital locations in their title
There are fine homages to the pretty hilltop spot in NW3 by Madness and John and Beverley Martyn, but the former Mr Kate McGarrigle edges it
Apr 11, 2017
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The name-droppers: 10 songs that put the list into playlist
This strange 1991 single by the Irish indie band A House starts with the ‘singer’ recalling a quote: ‘All art is quite useless according to…
Mar 22, 2017
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