Mexican Jim

St Andrews is a student town with a large number of Charity Shops.
However, by and large the CD selection is not great.
There are, however, one or two exceptions  which will feature in this blog over the course of time.

The above Jim Reeves CD was purchased in Sue Ryder.
It is a live recording and the quality of the recording is not great.

However, I freely admit I bought it primarily for the cover alone - check out those Cowboy Boots!!

Jim Reeves -Mexican Joe

Shiny Shiny Shiny Boots of Leather

Sticking with the Boots theme here is a cover by Trish Murphy from her Rubies on the Lawn album of the Lee Hazlewood song made famous by Nancy Sinatra:

Trish Murphy -These Boots Are Made For Walking

And by way of a wee bonus here is Ms Sinatra herself:

Nancy Sinatra -Sugar Town

How's Your Ukranian?

I have had the honour of a Ukranian visitor to this blog.

By way of a thank you here is a little something from your countrymen.

For those of you whose Ukraninan is a little rusty it starts of along the lines of Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather, Whiplash girl child in the dark.....

You know the rest



The Ukranians - Venus in Furs

Festive Greetings

I hope you all survived Shane McGowan's birthday yesterday.

I believe he is now 56 and well on the way to his bus pass'

The Pogues -The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

St Nicholas

Ricky Ross in his excellent BBC Radio Scotland  Another Country show refers to him as Sir Nick.

I've gone one step further and gone for beatification, although thankfully he is still very much alive.

Nick Lowe -So it Goes

The Holly and The Ivy

I'm afraid this is about as seasonal as this blog is going to get.

Here is some Holly (Golightly) and (Poison ) Ivy  - did you see what I did there??

Holy Golightly and the Brokeoffs - I Wanna Hug Ya, Kiss Ya, Squeeze Ya

The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck

The Second Winter of Love

Like many folk I purchased Forever Changes by Love primarily because it featured regularly in lists of the Best Albums of all time - and jolly good it is too.

I recently got Da Capo out the library and last Saturday I happened across Love in my local charity shop, this tripling my Love collection in a couple of weeks.

Electra as doing CDs with both the mono and stereo versions of all the songs.

The second winter of Love indeed!

Love - Can't Explain
Danny Wilson - Second Summer of Love

Should have gone to Specsavers

I can say, with a fair degree of certainty,  that this is the only time that Sting will feature on this blog

I think this featured on the Specsavers advert about sheep shearing

It is from the Long Black Veil which also features the likes of the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and Sinead O'Connor

I recently purchased their latest album  -Voice of Ages

This is full of Americana luminaries including the Punch Brothers, Low Anthem ,Secret Sisters and the Civil Wars. Top stuff - the highlight being Hard Times Come Again no More with wee Paulo Nutini.


The Chieftains - Mo Ghile Mear (Our Hero)

I've Joined the Masons!

Willy Mason is a name that I have heard but I can't say that I was familiar with his music until today

Got a promotional copy of Where the Humans Eat from Chest, Heart and Stroke today and am putting it down as a find

Willy Mason - Sold My Soul

Divided by a Common Language

My good friend Dod alerted me to " Divided by a Common Language" -A collection of UK Americana on
Clubhouse Records

Absolutely splendid - 15 top notch songs I would thoroughly recommend purchasing this.

The only band I had any stuff from before was the Redline Palimino Company  namely By The Time You Hear This ....

Imagine my delight, therefore, when I happened across another one of their records Don't Fade in a Community Shop in Dingwall.
It was in a pile of CDs which had featured on the local Community Radia show.
When I asked whether it was on sale I was told to just take it. But being a nice chappie I felt obliged to leave a small donation.

Redland Palimino Company -Settle Down

In the Bleak Midwinter

Something to cheer you up on a cold Winter's Night

Bhundu Boys - PombiBhundu Boys - Pombi

Satan is Real

I got the Charlie Louvin book "Satan is Real " out the library recently and a jolly good read it is too.

Talking of things satanical I purchased my first charity shop CD since this blog began at the weekend

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan - only Icky Thump to go!

White Stripes - I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)

Phenomenal

Back in the day when I was more solvent I went to SXSW in Austin for two to three years on the bounce - before it became really popular for the BBC junkets.

I saw a lot of great Americana stuff mainly in fringe shows as opposed to the official line up - the Polyphonic Spree on someone's front lawn for instance!

Also made a few discoveries including this which also features on the sampler A Proper Taste of 2008

Ruthie Foster - Heal Yourself

Pitlochry - Home of World Music

Pitlochry is a quaint Perthshire tourist town - not somewhere you would associate as a hotspot for World Music.

Well you would be wrong!

Here is an offering from the wonderful Natacha Atlas with another exotic act to follow at a later date (what a tease!)

Natasha Atlas - Yalla Chant

For Folk's Sake

This is Proper Folk Too!! popped through my letterbox this week and jolly good it is to.
It took my a while to get into Folk Music- I used to think it was all woolly jumpers and Morris Dancing

However, I have gradually mellowed and come round in no small measure to the quality of stuff on offer from Proper Records

That's Proper Folk!! is one of my best Charuty Shop finds and in particular this which is utterly awesome

Martin Simpson- Never Any Good