New Music - Part 19 - Sunrise Festival 2013 - Part 1

No. I haven't vanished; I have just been busy and, in part, that has involved working through the photographs, memories and musings of that which was Sunrise Festival 2013 last weekend.
I didn't think that I had taken photos prolifically. The reality proved to be slightly different - exactly four-hundred of them as it transpired! It is therefore time to dive in - to define what it was that made an impression and why.
I am, indeed still unsure of the subject of this one that I took on Saturday afternoon. Neville Staple, the other photographers, or merely just the fact that I could? I really can't say because I didn't think about it in that way at the time. 

More likely, I didn't really think about it at all and often that is the best way.

It probably hardly needs to be said that much of my time was focussed on the artists and acts less well known, though perhaps that is less obvious at a smaller festival such as Sunrise but I shall start with one that I have seen live and mentioned here before and one of several who stick resolutely to playing their own material.

Frome's Molly Ross - Spit & Sawdust stage - Friday.

This next is of an artist I first heard of, live, on the small Sunrise Stage at Latitude Festival 2009. To see that she was on the roster for Sunrise Festival 2013 was one of the things that made me get a ticket forthwith.

Tallulah Rendall, Main Stage Sunset 2013, Saturday afternoon.

The first time I saw her she was playing with a band - this time she was solo but that bass guitar is a clue. She played several songs from her forthcoming album 'The Banshee and The Moon', which involved live sampling of both guitars and vocals as loops that she then played and sang over. The multi-layered result was very special and the aforementioned album is on my wants-list already. It will be good any-which-way, I'm sure of that, but how about 180gm vinyl...

A band gloriously unpredictable and liable to appear in almost any situation was Calico Jack. They played live several times and also danced with the little kids at others...

Calico Jack live on the Spit and Sawdust stage, late Saturday evening. Here is a taste of that.
  
'Blue Shoes' is a track from the band's début CD Holdfast (2012).

While most pirates and privateers are usually assumed to hunt the oceans far and wide this bunch, although boat-dwelling, are pirates of the inland waterways and have the Kennet & Avon Canal as their home patch.

Free Music Player for Myspace at ReverbNation.com

Lyrics again - Wine and Roses

It is ages since I have done any lyrics, which once was a regular event. Thank-you to whoever has just asked me for those for 'Wine and Roses', a song from Heidi Talbot's latest album 'Angels Without Wings' (2013), released by Navigator Records. They will be posted here tomorrow, once I have checked them against the aforementioned original recording.
Indeed this is likely to become a post featuring at least one other artist to release on this label in 2013.

Wine and Roses

I see the young ones slowly strolling
On the Friday Promenade.
The sun is low, their faces glowing
Hopeful hearts out on display.

In their dreams are wine and roses
Quiet picnics in the park.
Holding hands and rubbing noses
Softly kissing in the dark.

I was much the same in my day
All impatient and unsure.
But alone I soon surrendered
Pledged my soul, so young and pure.

For he gave me wine and roses
Quiet picnics in the park.
Held my hand and we rubbed noses
Softly kissing in the dark.

I see the young ones slowly strolling
On the Friday Promenade.
The sun is low, their faces glowing
Hopeful hearts out on display.

I'd never trade our life together
Though we had our rocky times.
My heart it rose and fell so often
Like the constant shifting tides.

It wasn't all just wine and roses
Quiet picnics in the park.
Holding hands and rubbing noses
Softly kissing in the dark.

I am old and all alone now
My children gone and far away.
They used to ask what lovers are
I never knew just how to say.

But love is more than wine and roses
Quiet picnics in the park
Holding hands and rubbing noses
Softly kissing in the dark.

If you have never seen Heidi Talbot live then really you owe it to yourself to do so. I had the wonderful fortune, at Truck Festival 2011, to do exactly that. It was a tiny stage and she was part of a trio with John McCusker and Kris Drever. To be quite honest, in the UK folk world at least, things don't come much better than that.  This fuzzy photograph is the best that I could muster in the circumstances...

Even a folk trio should not have four members! Roddy Woomble was a surprise guest here.

New Music - Part 18 - PJP Band - ...and so it goes

I can honestly say that, whilst most of my family live there, in the more than six years of writing this blog I have never once mentioned a band that is based in Plymouth.
Until today...
... and so it goes - PJP Band. I certainly didn't see this coming, so thanks to Amazing Radio for alerting me this evening. It is a fine album, indeed I have since spent too much time listening to it streamed. Better still it is available now either as download or as 2 x 12" LP contained in a gate-fold sleeve (limited to 250 copies).
It is not cheap but their bargaining chip is good...
"This is a deluxe run, and a beautiful product to own, even if you don't have a record player... yet." 
Well, at least that is not a problem for me and both have very recently been treated to a new stylus too. It is, as far as I can tell, the first release by Plymouth-based independent label OUF Records.
I hope to hear more music out of Plymouth, in any genre, sooner rather than later. To state it another way - Plymouth has a population broadly similar to the whole of Iceland...

New Music - Part 17 - The Graphite Set - These Streets EP

This is a rare case indeed.

I know I want this on vinyl, because I can and therefore it is already on pre-order, but that is not just because I want the music with the tone that 12" vinyl affords. I want it as much for the artwork that the 12" EP has and the download will either not have or will at best only have bundled as a pale imitation. That is not, however, to slight the music for a single moment. One of the best things that happened yesterday is that, as part of the final artist announcements for End of The Road Festival 2013, The Graphite Set was amongst them. The release date is June 3 (vinyl) or, if you can't wait, June 2 on download.
To help you wait, here is 'In Your Eyes' from said EP.

Live in Frome - Chantel McGregor

It is now much tidier and no longer weed-overgrown as it appears in this picture, which is obviously a good thing, but would you have suspected that it is as well as a Grade 1 listed building and after 251 years in use as a non-conformist chapel, and subsequently the better part of fifty years quietly decaying, now an arts venue, including live music whilst also home to a thriving architectural practice?

It is a bit much to ask, I know, but it is true. Maybe it was meant to be slightly forbidding.

Whether that is true I can't say but it is still formidable, not least because it is a very intimate venue indeed. There are no corners in which to hide and that applies as much to the audience as to the artists. I still wonder, however what the founders and subscribers for the building, when Frome was a town very rich indeed on the wool trade, would make of it all now. I'd like to think, as in their time they were forward-looking and sometimes almost to the point of revolution, they could see the positive side of it all. It might have been a challenge...

Rock four-piece Albany Down kicked things off with a solid set only marginally disrupted by some issues with the lead vocalist's mike and associated lead that were soon sorted out. Two albums, 'South of The City' and 'Not Over Yet' notwithstanding, these things can happen to anyone at any time and so here is Albany Down, live at Rook Lane Chapel Frome.

A great deal of stuff on one of the shallowest stages, which is why the monitors are actually placed on chairs in front of the stage and barely out of the way of the legs of those in the front row of the audience. Sometimes the publicity says "intimate gig" and this was that and then some.  There were a number of memorable tracks, all their own, and some fine guitar moments too.

On another day they could have been headlining and almost everyone, myself included, would have gone home happy but it was not to be one of those days.
This is where I started to wonder really what those wealthy subscribers, who paid for the building of this edifice over three centuries ago, might be thinking.
Not only is it being used for wicked enjoyment. This happened: Chantel McGregor...

"Tis a Wednesday evening; you should be a-busy weaving."

It only got better after that: this is after all an artist who only the previous day (and the first day of this tour) had not only been nominated in the short-list for 'Best Female Vocalist' by The British Blues Awards 2013 (an award she won in 2012) but also in the short-list for 'Best Guitarist' and the first time a female artist has ever been nominated in the category.

You might even have got the impression that she was thoroughly enjoying herself and, with music and the faultless backing of Richard Ritchie (bass) and Keith McPartlin (percussion), who can blame her.

Towards the middle of the set she played and sang three songs, all cover versions, solo:

• Rhiannon ( Stevie Nicks)
• I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt)
• Nothing Else Matters (Metallica)

That is not to say that the many tracks from the album 'Like No Other' were not equally noteworthy, the album opener 'Fabulous' particularly so, or indeed the new track 'Disco Lover Suicide', for they were. I think, however, that the final straw for the luminaries behind the founding of Rook Lane Chapel came with the sudden revelation. They had been changing the playlist throughout and she had to tell her band-mates, there and then, that the penultimate track of the main set would be a cover and here they are playing it:

Jimi Hendrix' 'Voodoo Child'.

New Music - Part 16 - Americana Both Sides of the Atlantic

This is about two albums that I have come to my attention in the last couple of days. One has been released only recently and the other is due in six weeks or so: both incorporate several trends in the way new music, and the music industry in general, is changing shape in an almost organic way.
I'm actually going to start with the one that has not yet been released for, without it, I would very likely not have discovered the one that has.

This is the début album from the Brighton/London based singer-songwriter. Crowd-funded, it is self-released on June 30, 2013. This is not to say for a minute that it is going to be some parochial take on Americana.
It was recorded in East Nashville under the guidance of Chris Donohue (Emmylou Harris and, more recently, The Civil Wars) with many well known roots musicians playing parts. Neither is it an album of covers and standards for, with one exception she has written or co-written all but one of the songs in this collection. For a more extensive biography see here.
  

The second album is this - the history behind it is even more complicated than at first it might seem.

This is their latest studio album and a 2013 release by, as were the forgoing ones, Chicago-based independent label Bloodshot Records. At the heart of the band are two natives of Detroit, MI who some while back decided to reverse the migration that led to the explosion of blues and rock, and relocate to Tennessee: Kurt Marschke (lyric, guitar vocals)  and JD Mack (drums), not brothers as it might seem, and the line-up had already been prone to evolution as is so often the case. The fact is that then it did include brothers from London: Spencer Cullum (guitar, lap-steel and pedal steel) and Jeff Cullum (bass). Then the dynamic changed again.
These two albums serve to define, to an extent, just where things are now and how much has changed; much of it for the better I believe.

Or perhaps some East Coast singer-songwriters...

This is an idea that only really crystallized for me today. In truth it has roots that go back much further. Consider this a start - a declaration of my intent to do something. In a strange way the catalyst was reading the Latitude 2013 line-up. I had so many good times there in 2007-2011 but I really don't regret the fact that I'm not attending in 2013. There are of course many acts/artists that I'd like to see - some of which I already have seen and others that, at the festivals that I am attending this summer, I will have the chance to see in smaller surroundings. Aside from that, Latitude in east Suffolk is a long way from home - a round trip of almost 500 miles - and that costs in both time and fuel. I suspect that, sooner or later, the lure of Latitude will tempt me back.
All I need to do now is work out what it is that I want to write.
In some ways the hardest part is now done - for me the hardest part of any project is getting started and this entire blog is a fine example of that!

Samantha Twigg Johnson performing with 10-string cuatro at Folk Weekend Oxford 2013.

Studio stage, Old Fire Station. In this instance the artist, originally from Illinois but now based in Oxford, UK, and album 'Organ of Habit' (2007) were unknown to me up until this point.

This is not however the case with the following. The 2011 album 'Strangers Who Knew Each Other's Names', by New Yorker Annie Dressner, has been known to me for a while.

Further to that she has been on my list (albeit a rather lengthy one) of artists that I wish to see live. That particular issue has been neatly resolved as she too has moved this side of the pond and, even better still, is one of the artists at Frome's Acoustic+ on May 24. 

Anyone for a little West Coast pop?

This will not be to everyone's taste. I know that but if you fancy an early summer dose of West Coast pop, and obviously I do and that is why I am mentioning it, how about this from Seattle-based Seapony?

It won't change the world - it doesn't need to.

Why opportunity can be everything and budget nothing.

Given a suitably massive budget, and the access to resources that it brings, then surely commercial musical success will be assured? Well, for some decades that was very much the modus operandi of the major labels and for a long while it worked, in so far as the successes were more than able to bank-roll the flops as well as the often ridiculously wasteful corporate processes, functionaries and flunkies that the industry acquired along the way.
It has been seen before, and indubitably it will be seen again, in a great variety of industries... The idea that something is 'too big, for which read too self-important, to fail'.
Trains it has repeatedly been discovered do not actually run at all well when fuelled by gravy and, as any fireman will tell you, the best strategy is almost always to keep the fire even, lean and hot: The costs, both pecuniary and physical, within proportion to expectation and yet the ambition beyond both. This is a fact that the legion of independent record labels have long been acquainted with and this is a 'taster CD' from just one of them that arrived here with me today.

Owlet Music is based in beautiful, rural mid-Wales, very far from the centres of the UK music industry. That doesn't matter one bit - they have both the talent and the opportunity available to them but without the commotion and distraction of the cities. I suspect that I shall be writing much more on this and related themes in the coming months but, in the meantime, Owlet has just delivered one of the finest LPs of 2013 so far. It is hardly shaping up as a barren year and neither does it look like changing in that respect in the coming months.
That is Trwbador - Trwbador, the début album from the duo that I have mentioned before. Another one to watch, by the way, is Casi Wyn from Bangor and her EP1 (Recordiau IKaChing). 

Valerie --- a cover of that cover...

The Zutons' 'Valerie' was a fine song from the off, there is no doubt about that.
Then Amy Winehouse covered it and the rest, not all of it good in a sense, is history.

Now it has been covered again, by London-based Kalina Starhemberg (vocals) and Gael Cabado Barreno (guitar & beatbox). It is interesting how very far songs can travel from the place in which they started.

Then again there is so much good stuff to listen to at the moment and long may that last.

Added May 1, 2013:
Thanks to Barrie Moore for alerting me to this, another cover of 'Valerie'.


This one is by Sydney, NSW based singer Tiger K and was new to me until today.

Folk Weekend Oxford 2013 - The Pub Sessions

I caught part of several of these and they provided some of the highlights of my weekend. The first was that in James Street Tavern on Friday evening and, before I go further, this is exactly the kind of pub that we must all treasure and support: see here. I had never been there before - and first impressions count more than most - so I shall start somewhat after midnight or, in other words, very early Saturday morning...

A little time and some more ale later but still going strong.

This next is from the session in the café-bar in the Old Fire Station on Saturday afternoon, which was a monster in terms of both duration and participation.  This is just a snapshot of the centre of the musical melée at this time.

I did some counting ... this included nine fiddles, four melodions, three flutes, two clarinets (and a fair few other instruments too) all playing together. It worked beautifully.  The next picture is another view of the same, focussing on reed instruments including two piano accordions, and taken just seconds later.

Next to mention is the 'Scandinavian Sessions' in the 'Far From The Madding Crowd' pub on Saturday. It was fascinating not just for the music played but also for the instruments used to play it. Here are two of them...

In the foreground is a fiddle with nine strings, only four of which you can bow while the remaining five are sympathetic. The other even more complicated instrument, which is being played, is a nyckelharpa and it has sixteen strings, of which twelve are sympathetic, and both instruments are now largely confined to Scandinavian music - the nyckelharpa to Sweden in particular. The long, dark, winter nights must make the development of such complicated creations appealing but, I have to say, the effort was well worth it; they both sound absolutely wonderful.

Folk Weekend Oxford 2013

I booked my ticket for Folk Weekend Oxford, the second edition of this festival, the very same evening that I heard the first rumours that the second edition of Frome Folk Festival (February 2013) would not be taking place as planned. That said, I would very happily have attended both and I very much hope that it will be possible to do exactly that in 2014.
  

Before I start on more detailed commentary concerning who and what I saw I have to mention my respect for the organizing committee and all the volunteer stewards and technical staff. From the printed programme to the nitty-gritty of keeping everything on-track and running-to-time across multiple venues, which is no mean feat in itself, they also arranged for near perfect weather too. That is a big ask, especially in light of the last year or so!
On offer were performances by large ensembles in almost incredibly intimate venues, such as Oxford Fiddle Group in the Studio at The Old Fire Station.
  

Slightly more than half the OFG seen here in the accompaniment of Appalachian tap dancing. I would have needed a fish-eye lens to get the whole picture in a venue that seats about fifty. I might try stitching two pictures together in due course. The audience outnumbered the performers by only a ratio of 3:1!

To this, for the taking of which I had to turn my back on the gaze of Apollo.
  

Emily & The Tunesmiths, playing under the watch of the Greek Gods,

in the atrium of the Ashmolean Museum.

I shall head to The Old Fire Station Theatre for just two of the acts that I saw there. For now these are focussed on just one artist from each, although both acts and their sets were sublime.

On Saturday, Tyde... with Andrew Waite playing piano accordion.

  

On Sunday The Melrose Quartet.

Richard Arrowsmith playing melodion.

    

That, I'm delighted to say, was not even the half of it and that is to say nothing about the sessions.

RSD poster spot #5 - The Portraits & Upbeat Records, Bude

This is a special, one additional to those on the side-bar posts. The poster doesn't lend itself to 320px wide. Aside from that The Portraits are so good and Bude has a small independent record store, Upbeat Records, in which they are performing.

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Venue/5411

New Music - Part 15 - all out of Wales

It is a while since I have done something quite like this, something so geographically defined. This morning, when perusing the detail of the End of The Road 2013 artists, I noticed that North Wales duo Golden Fable, whom I have mentioned before, are on it.
This then reminded me of three other artists/acts from Wales that have recently come to my attention. 
Of the five tracks on Casi Wyn's EP 1, which is released tomorrow by Welsh independent label IKACHING, the only one sung in English is the last and that is 'Winter'. To keep you on edge here it is.
  

This next is a self-titled album released at the start of April 2013 by Trwbador, a duo from west Wales, and actually their second album. It is available, if only very sparingly, on vinyl too; specifically white vinyl on their bespoke label Owlet Records.    

Trwbador - Trwbador (2013)

This is just the end of the start.

This next one was released in February 2013 by another independent label from Wales, Recordiau Gwymon, is vinyl 10" EP 'In Luna' from Aberystwyth songwriter, harpist and vocalist Georgia Ruth Williams.

Somewhere that folk meets blues, accompanied by harp, fiddle, percussion and much more:

This, from the 'La Luna EP', is Through Your Hands.

This is, interestingly, just scratching the surface of new music from Wales that has come to my attention in the last couple of months.

Hello, weekend.

Blogger seems to have fixed the recent issues with, in particular, side-bar lists. This is, of course, good news.
Better still is that it was also sunny and less cold here today: indeed, so my car told me, it was 10ºC when I was on my way home from work at about 5pm this afternoon. That would be the first time in double figures for three weeks. I have loads of live, and local, music coming up but I'm particularly put in mind of this artist that I saw for the third time, live at The Cheese and Grain three weeks ago.
  
This album is astonishing.

Piano-led music didn't start or end with Adele.

New Music - Part 14 - Kelly Richey - Sweet Spirit

Kelly Richey has returned, after 2008 release 'Carry The Light', with a new band and a new studio album 'Sweet Spirit' and again it is released on her own label 'Sweet Lucy Records'. It has not had a UK release as yet but no matter. This is the track list:

• 1. Feelin' Under
• 2. I Went Down Easy
• 3. Leavin' It All Behind
• 4. Something's Going On
• 5. Everybody Needs a Change
• 6. Fast Drivin' Mama
• 7. One Way Ticket
• 8. Risin' Sun
• 9. Dyin'
• 10. Workin' Hard Woman

It is on its way to me from the US and, while we are about it, here is the album artwork. Blues rock of the highest order awaits if the samples I have heard are in any way representative of the whole. I'm pretty confident that this is so.

New Music - Part 13 - Tasha Taylor Johnson

It is none too rare for something like this to happen and oft-times I make nothing of it. This, however, was destined to prove an exception. I only got the chance yesterday evening and having now listened to the album four times I must say I'm impressed.
That album is 'Feed Your Ego' and is to be released by Quiffman Records (her own independent label) on May 5, 2013. The artist is Tasha Taylor Johnson. There is plenty going on here and my first thoughts are about how it is a throw-back to earlier times but almost always in a wholly good sense. Track-by-track dissections are not really my kind of reviewing. The mark of an album, I believe and especially in these download days, is if it stands as a satisfying whole. This one does.
She is young, this is her first album but that, as has been the case quite often of late, should not cloud your conceptions of it. My first thought was "OK, then", because I had no idea what to expect. My second thought was rather more telling; "I need to see this live."
Some things, many things actually, are so much better live and this music had all the hallmarks of being one of them. Of course I have as yet had no possibility of testing this theory. Here, instead and plundered from the website mentioned above, is a reason to believe that I might be right:

The image itself gives the only clues as to where this is. If it isn't 'The Old Queen's Head', Islington, London then tell me about it.
  
This is one of the songs from 'Feed Your Ego'.

Ol' Blues Eyes might be rolling his, whilst rotating in his grave, at the lyric. What the hell - who cares anyway - this album is so much fun. In a way I think that he might have seen the funny side of it, and Nancy likewise. I'd wager that Basil Kirchin would not have been displeased. 
  

*** SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ***

Why am I not adding new items in 'Recently Listened To...' and why are the light-box views of images not working? These are Google Blogger issues at the moment and are widely reported. I hope that they will be fixed sooner rather than later.

The EP and me.

Around about six years ago I had a problem concerning music.
I had started blogging about six months previously, and discovered that liked doing so, but now I had a shortage of new material.
This was soon to presage my conversion to festivals, but I didn't yet countenance it at this time; that would take another three months or so. It did however turn my mind towards looking for new music beyond that which could be heard on the mainstream radio or learned about in the traditional music press.
What this means is that, for me at least, music changed forever. Way back then I thought that the EP - in any format - was a thing of the past although I had a few from back in the day.  That was only one thing that I was totally wrong about!
If I were to put all the (physical) EPs that I have accumulated since then in a pile it would be quite impressive. I shall continue by mentioning a few more that have very recently come to my attention...
The first is very recent and, as far as I am aware, currently only available as a download. It is from an act that, while dividing its time between widely spaced parts of our island, pulled this out of the bag.

It is their début release and I owe it to For Folk's Sake for bringing it to my attention and needless to say there is plenty more great stuff on show there.

The next one is very real, in a CD sense, and it arrived this week. I have mentioned this EP and the artist Pip Mountjoy before. This is the follow-up to the 2012 Lousiana EP. I have, more than anything, Deer Shed Festival to thank for letting me find out about this artist.

Still unsigned, I believe, but for how much longer? Certainly BBC Introducing have her locked on the radar and she's playing at venues and supporting better known artists as each month passes.
This next artist I have to thank Folkroom Records for bringing to my attention, courtesy of their first compilation.
Salwa Azar works a line surprising, and works it very well indeed. This EP is also download only and, oh my goodness, is it worth it.

It also provides a pivot on which to turn to a new album, but not her own although she has mentioned a forthcoming Kickstarter project, that has caught my attention very recently. In fact an artist that became known to me via another valuable resource for discovery - Amazing Radio.

Here is a taste of that; 'Between Destinations' is the first single from album 'The Story Of Me'. This is the début album by Laurence Made Me Cry aka Jo Whitby. It is available now as digipack cd here or widely on mp3 from the usual sources.
  

Acoustic+ - Frome, 15 March 2013

It has been a few months now since the last edition of Acoustic+ but it returned with a vengeance yesterday. It is, without doubt, the best evening of music that you can get for £5 and this one was the first of the series to take advantage of the new stage in the Cheese and Grain.

It started off with Lady Nade, who I have seen live in Frome twice before - at Frome Festival Food Feast 2011 (in the Cheese and Grain) and then again at Frome Folk Festival 2012 (in the Masonic Hall), but playing as a duo this time.

Both EPs, 'All I Am' and 'Wrap Me Up, Pick Me Up, Take Me Home' were selling well.

Next up was Switch, one of two three-piece acts, on what was at least nominally their first ever public gig. To be fair you wouldn't have guessed that but on the other hand, young though they are, the members have both history and fans!

Switch have a self-titled CD EP and it seemed to be doing good trade too.

Next to play was Daisy Chapman, solo this time, and her third appearance at Acoustic+. She was showcasing some songs from the album 'Shameless Winter', to which I shall return before long. She decided to perform her opening song a capella. She had inadvertently left her tambourine at home, which might explain the vexed countenance, but the situation was soon rescued by Switch that loaned her one.

She also obliged us with the appropriate, given the weather yesterday, cover version that she played on her last visit to Frome - that being Rihanna's 'Umbrella'. One thing that was particularly noticeable this time was the use of live self-looping as accompaniment on many songs. I'm sure she did it before but perhaps I have become more attuned to spotting what is happening and how it is done.

Last to play was Crash and The Coots and they most certainly didn't disappoint either.

The next edition of Acoustic+ is on April 26.

Rock and Roll Joe

This is a little something for this dark, cold Sunday evening. It's been in my head all day so I decided to let it out...

Joe is every guitar player
Who played it from his heart.
Here's to Joe.
Joe is every funky drummer
Who knew when to stop and start.
Way to go, Joe.
  
And we all bow down to the ones that took us to him
The ones that took us some place where we needed to go
Then we all bow down to the ones that got us through it.
Here's to Rock and Roll Joe.
  
Joe is every bass player
Who played it from his balls.
Here's to Joe (Here's to Joe...)
And Joe is every fiddle player
Who slammed us to the walls.
Way to go, Josephine.
  
And we all bow down to the ones that took us to him
The ones that took us some place where we needed to go
Then we all bow down to the ones that got us through it.
Here's to Rock and Roll Joe.

Joe is every keyboard player
Who played it like he's from the South.
Here's to Joe.
Joe is every sweet horn player
That pressed that thing up to his mouth.
Way to go, Joe.
   
And we all bow down to the ones that took us to him
The ones that took us some place where we needed to go
Then we all bow down to the ones that got us through it.
Here's to Rock and Roll Joe.

New Music - Part 12 - Lucy Cait - Gabriel's Wharf

Folkroom Records is quite new to the game but don't you bet against it or the choice of artists.
Lucy Cait - Gabriel's Wharf EP is her first label recording and is to be released on March 18, 2013 by Folkroom Records (CD and d/l).  This is the title track:

It is uncompromising but also quite wonderful.

New Music 2013 - A malleable wishlist

The post title says it all really. I have just got to a point that, although rather enviable, I can't keep up. Here is a partial list of the albums that I really want to hear - The order in which they are listed is merely alphabetical by artist. Not all have been released yet, but some may be available in part to stream legally and I shall likely add some links to that, as well as some more thoughts that I see as key, in the coming days:

• Dear Reader - Rivonia
• Emily Baker - All at Sea
• Gabrielle Aplin - English Rain
• Little Boots - Nocturnes
• Pascal Pinon - Twosomeness
• Polly Scattergood - Arrows
• Widowspeak - Almanac
• Wild Belle - Isles

Of the eight I have already seen five of them live: the exceptions are Pascal Pinon (Iceland), Widowspeak and Wild Belle (both US acts). Widowspeak is already confirmed for End of The Road 2013.

New Music - Part 11 - Pip Mountjoy - Your Skeleton

To be quite honest, the first time I heard of Pip Mountjoy was when I was browsing the artist list for Deer Shed Festival 3, shortly before I attended it last summer. This is one of the very best features of festivals that showcase new artists. Her début EP 'Louisiana' had recently been released. Her second EP, 'Your Skeleton' has recently been released and is the reason that, now on the BBC Introducing programme, she has appeared twice in my New Music radar within the space of a year.

Downloads (GBP 3) are already available here.

CDs, again with hand-made covers, are also available and are likely to ship later this month.

Casual Conversations With A Woodpigeon

It is about to appear, I have mentioned this artist and band before, and yet this début EP also remains unknown to most.
Here it is... 'Casual Conversations With A Woodpigeon'.

As album titles go it is, I think, on a par with 'Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose'. It's not a short name, but an unforgettable one, and that matters. It is also a self-released EP, funded using Kickstarter. It is officially launched on March 26...

I'd heard bits and pieces before this point but then saw Cloudi and her band live at the first North Dorset Folk Festival last autumn and was very impressed. Still wondering? Well here they are live at Urban Outfitters, in Southampton, this very afternoon.
  

The second edition of North Dorset Folk Festival has a new venue, Marnhull Village Hall, and will take place on Saturday October 26, 2013.
Tickets go on sale soon. See you there.

Acoustic+ is back in Frome.

Friday, March 15 at the Cheese and Grain, Frome. Adults: £5; Children & un-waged £2.50.

  

I might add that this is a serious declaration of intent on the part of the organisers.

  
If you didn't see Lady Nade at either Frome Festival Food Feast 2011 or (the much missed in 2013) Frome Folk Festival 2012 then this is another chance. Likewise Daisy Chapman, another artist I have seen twice before at Acoustic+.  If you wonder what I mean then head to her most recent (2012) album 'Shameless Winter'.
  
Acoustic+ is just about as good value for money as it gets and I've only mentioned half of the line-up thus far!
Crash and The 'Coots (formerly Crash and The Bandicoots) are certainly well known locally. Now a four-piece you can find out more here (Facebook) and here (Soundcloud). Last but not least, is Switch (Facebook) and also on Soundcloud. It has not previously figured in these pages in its own right. This is the début EP (in its various colour schemes).

If there is one thing to be said about it all, it is the organizers of Acoustic+ don't get the credit that they deserve.

First Thoughts on Record Store Day 2013

Record Store Day 2013 is looking to exceed all previous events and all expectations. It takes place, all around the globe, on Saturday April 20, 2013. More special releases than even before, more locations and stores than ever before, and that's just the start.

Here's someone who has done quite well these last couple of years...

Who, or what, is going to be the next big breakout?

There is certainly no shortage of new music out there that is well worth listening to.

New Music - Part 10 - Siddi - Un Tro

There are three terms that frequently cause alarm in many readers and, in no rational order, they are thus...

• folk music
• concept album
• foreign language lyric

I'm delighted to say that I have found one that is so wonderful - it combines all three. That, in itself, is not a particularly difficult quest but this is the one I want to mention specifically...

... and it is constructed around a fairy tale, just to make it even more improbable.

It is the début album by Siddi, the sibling duo of Osian and Branwen Williams. They also have previous convictions for appearing with (fraternal trio Hughes) Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog. That includes live performance. The album Draw Dros Y Mynydd was amongst my favourites of 2012.
I just don't get the problem with things such as this.

HMV - what really went wrong?

I have made a few comments in the last few years albeit as an outsider and, some time ago (that says something), as a former customer.

This post is so good it is almost beyond comment:
http://jennakinstxs.tumblr.com/post/42226338294/sound-it-out