Max Richter: Dream 3 (in the midst of my life) and the sound of serenity
Russell Cunningham In 1951 the composer John Cage visited the anechoic chamber at Harvard University. Upon entering he had expected to...
- Jul 18
Kate Ellis: The story behind my song The Story You’ve Been Told
Kate Ellis And when you feel you’re breaking It’s just your past unmaking You’re perfect, you are whole I don’t know what you’ve been...
93 views
- Jul 12
Kurt Vile: Like Exploding Stones and the pain of the creative process
Rob Steen Time to fess up. I was more or less a Kurt Vile virgin until last week. My son, Joe, had raved aplenty but only one song, One...
53 views
- Jul 1
Jukebox Story: A magical music machine for the single-minded
Phil Shaw In the days before ubiquitous mobiles, a mate who owned a jukebox was having it repaired when the engineer asked if he could...
320 views
- Jun 30
Elvis Presley: In The Ghetto and its enduring relevance
Rob Steen I probably shouldn’t be writing this. After all, I am by no means an Elvis fan. I giggled at his movies, never bought anything...
282 views
- Jun 20
Brian Wilson at 80: The Beach Boys and You Still Believe In Me
Phil Shaw It scarcely seems possible but Brian Wilson – still celebrated for his sumptuous teenage symphonies for The Beach Boys six...
180 views
- Mar 1
From Red to blues: Got My Mojo Working by Muddy Waters
Ian Tasker If you are talking blues standards then they don’t come much more ready-made, boil-in-the-bag than Muddy Waters’ Got My Mojo...
160 views
- Feb 24
The Beatles: I Need You and a personal appeal for Help!
Tim Woods What kind of Beatles fan are you? Maybe the obsessive type, the sort who whistles the chorus to Honey Pie without even...
581 views
- Oct 29, 2021
Cowboy: Please Be With Me – and please remember Duane Allman
Ian Tasker Today is a day for remembrance, reflection and wondering what might have been, for exactly 50 years ago on October 29, 1971,...
694 views
- Oct 20, 2021
Steely Dan: Bodhisattva and the outfunking of The Skunk
Rob Steen Bodacious cowboys. Snook-cocking hipsters. Coolest white dudes on the Seventies block. Steely Dan, aka The Dan, are the...
388 views
- Oct 12, 2021
Duster Bennett: Worried Mind and British blues of the vintage kind
Phil Shaw Perhaps Robert Johnson’s deal with the devil at the crossroads was to blame for all the blues artists, here and in America, who...
435 views
- Sep 30, 2021
Lindsey Buckingham: Swan Song and the spoils of an inner war
Rob Steen Lindsey Buckingham has pulled off quite a coup with his latest album. Emulating Sting, not to mention leaving Paul, Mick, Keef...
495 views
- Aug 19, 2021
The Band: In cahoots with Van Morrison for 4% Pantomime
Rob Steen Freddie and Bowie. Crosby and Bowie. Crosby and Nash. Mahalia and Mavis. Aretha and George Michael. Michael McDonald and Joni....
1,771 views
- Jul 29, 2021
Jason Mandell: The story behind my song Soul Of America
Jason Mandell in Los Angeles There’s a great Julian Barnes line: ‘I don’t believe in God, but I miss him.’ That’s kind of how I felt...
108 views
- Jul 19, 2021
Whitney Houston: How Will I Know and a daughter's dance of delight
Tim Woods As a parent, you have certain responsibilities towards your children. You need to keep them safe, provide them with a home, put...
156 views
- May 26, 2021
Allison Russell: How a Nightflyer became an angel of the morning
Neil Morton Reading the harrowing back story of Allison Russell while listening to her remarkable debut solo album is a humbling...
5,773 views
- May 13, 2021
Ronald Isley at 80: Behind A Painted Smile lies a voice for the ages
Phil Shaw OK, so who’s the oldest singer or musician from the rock ‘n’ roll era onwards still performing? When the question was posed at...
659 views
- May 10, 2021
World Party: Karl Wallinger, Always and the McCartney parallel
Rob Steen So I sat in the attic, a piano up my nose And the wind played a dreadful cantata (cantata, cantata) Sore was I from a crack of...
1,192 views
- Apr 4, 2021
Billy Connolly: Everybody Knows That and the ballad years
Shug Hanlan It is impossible to mistake the looks of genuine joy and affection on the faces of the various ‘celebrities’ assembled for...
515 views
- Mar 29, 2021
The Beautiful South: I'll Sail This Ship Alone
Tim Woods Record sales that topped 15 million. Eight top 10 studio albums, with two reaching No1 in the charts. Twenty-two singles that...
682 views
- Mar 13, 2021
Nick Drake: Northern Sky and the short life of a brighter talent
Ian Malin Fifty years ago, in the second week of March, an album that now has almost mythical status was released and hardly anyone...
1,757 views
- Feb 25, 2021
Oasis: Round Are Way, six minutes of joyous, rollicking perfection
Tim Woods There are people out there who don’t like Oasis. Plenty, in fact. Some find the constant bickering between the Gallagher...
1,831 views
- Jan 31, 2021
1971 revisited: The Beach Boys and the majesty of Surf's Up
Ian Malin Meet the New Year. But to paraphrase The Who it’s the same as the old one. This dark lockdown is worse really than anything in...
528 views
- Jan 31, 2021
1971 revisited: Carole King and the beautiful legacy of Tapestry
Rob Steen Hyde Park, July 3, 2016. For the first time, Carole King, one of the most successful songwriters of the 20th century, is about...
710 views
- Jan 27, 2021
The Creation: Making Time and the sound of red with purple flashes
Phil Shaw ‘Our songs crop up in strange places,’ said Eddie Phillips, lead guitarist with The Creation, who briefly rubbed shoulders with...
505 views
- Jan 5, 2021
Bert Sommer: Jennifer's journey from oblivion to Woodstock folklore
Sharon Watts in Beacon, New York The name Jennifer has ‘muse’ written all over it. Just ask Kurt Weill, Little Richard, Tommy Tutone,...
866 views
- Dec 14, 2020
Man Without A Soul: Lucinda gives the Trump era a fiery send-off
Ian Malin Don’t worry it will soon be over. For those of us still standing anyway. The year the music, and pretty much all entertainment,...
561 views
- Dec 3, 2020
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Janey Needs A Shooter
Chris Hewett Those of us who have spent the best part of 50 years surfing the mighty swells of Bruce Springsteen’s music – or, just...
290 views
- Nov 29, 2020
Elliott Smith: Pretty (Ugly Before), soundtrack to a troubled soul
Tim Woods There are different ways for musicians to be successful. The most obvious is through the charts: No1 singles or albums that go...
352 views
- Nov 10, 2020
The Grateful Dead: The spirit of Brokedown Palace lives on
Andrew R McGaan in Chicago One of the Grateful Dead’s most beautiful songs, both musically and lyrically, is a love song, a sermon, and...
3,660 views
- Oct 28, 2020
Allman Brothers Band: In memory of Duane and Whipping Post
Exactly 49 years ago today, on 29 October 1971, a long-haired motorcyclist was making his way through the Georgia town of Macon when he was…
705 views
- Oct 21, 2020
Gaz Brookfield: The Old Normal and other new lockdown songs
When Covid19 first struck and lockdown imposed, the West Country folk guitarist Gaz Brookfield – a type 1 diabetic more conscious than most…
221 views
- Oct 19, 2020
Between The Wreck and a hard place: all aboard the Rescue Train
What do you do in times of Covid19 if you are a musician in a rock band? Rishi Sunak might suggest you retrain as a delivery driver…
94 views
- Oct 2, 2020
In praise of songwriters: Rumer and the art of interpretation
Nearly 20 years ago the music journalist Max Bell was invited to a gig of a London-based folk-indie band La Honda in the cafeteria of a…
149 views
- Aug 27, 2020
Isle of Wight 50 years after: the enduring majesty of Baez and Cohen
If you can remember the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, you weren’t really there. That follows, does it not, because the whole crazy, chaotic…
170 views
- Jun 14, 2020
Marvin Gaye: Abraham, Martin and John. Not forgetting Bobby
If the last few gruesome weeks in Britain and America have taught us anything it is that both countries are governed by small men, men who…
3,818 views
- May 22, 2020
Robert Jon & The Wreck: Tired Of Drinking Alone
Every now and then a band comes along that blows your socks off. Robert Jon & The Wreck are that band for me and this track – from their new
208 views
- May 20, 2020
Suzanne Vega: Gypsy and a cherished Glastonbury memory
Many of us have a song that evokes a particular time, place or person: that anthem from your youth, or a slushy tune shared with a first…
1,003 views
- May 3, 2020
Gillian Welch: The hush and the hurt of I Made A Lovers Prayer
There is more to the harmonica than meets the lips, to the extent that a careless student of the instrument might blow some serious money on
383 views
- Apr 13, 2020
Thom Yorke: Last Flowers
When the panic swept through England, the scale was measured in loo roll. The supermarket rush for toilet paper evoked the run on Northern…
272 views
- Apr 7, 2020
Jason Isbell: Traveling Alone
Jason Isbell tells an amusing tale about meeting Bruce Springsteen a few years back and being bowled over when The Boss began to sing the…
1,449 views
- Mar 27, 2020
Sixties discoveries: From The Fourmyula to The Millennium
Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. But is it possible to be nostalgic for a time you never knew
141 views
- Mar 26, 2020
Paul Simon: American Tune
Churches and cathedrals will remain silent this Easter so there will be little chance to hear O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, a choral work by…
325 views
- Mar 18, 2020
Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson: Alexandra Leaving
If poetry is the ‘music of ideas’ – an intriguing definition of the barely definable, put forward by the writer Peter Whitfield – can music…
4,190 views
- Mar 8, 2020
Badfinger, sad singer: Day After Day
Has there ever been a sadder, more violent death in pop than that of Pete Ham? Grisly ends are not exactly unique in rock. Think Marvin Gaye
1,700 views
- Feb 17, 2020
Richard Dawson: Two Halves and a singular voice
Time for a sheepish confession, or a proud boast, depending on your view. Of the thousands of 7” singles I have bought, blagged, swapped…
286 views
- Jan 12, 2020
The Police: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Desert Island Discs? Pah. How about a single musical morsel for sustenance, one solitary assemblage of crotchets and quavers with which to…
451 views
- Jan 2, 2020
Black Grape: Dadi Waz A Badi and the Trumpian parallel
When Hollywood makes its Donald Trump biopic, which with horrifying inevitability it will, the soundtrack will be by Black Grape. And the…
109 views
- Dec 12, 2019
Lindisfarne: Winter Song, Alan Hull's timeless cri de coeur
Don’t get me wrong. As Jewish as I am, I’m all for Noddy Holder roaring ‘It’s ChrisssssssssMAS!’ or John Lennon hoping war is over or Roy…
1,000 views
- Sep 22, 2019
Eric Clapton: Layla (and Other Assorted Love Songs)
Launched into the stratosphere with arguably (in my humble opinion, indisputably) the greatest opening riff in the history of rock, Layla…
497 views