Search This Blog

Monday 25 April 2022

Keeping Up with the Joneses - Nic

 


A change of genre this week to folk and a change that I'm sure will meet with  the approval from George and many others.

Nic Jones' 1980 album on the  Topic label Penguin Eggs was voted the 2nd best folk album of all time on the BBC Radio 2 Mike Harding Folk Show - second only to  the recently featured Fairport Convention's Liege and Leaf.

Nic first crossed my radar  having watched an inspiring documentary on BBC4  (The Enigma of Nic Jones - Return of Britain's Lost Folk Hero ) on his recovery from a serious road accident in 1982 which resulted in many broken bones and temporary paralysis. 

I thought after watching it that I would make it my business to acquire Penguin Eggs and what a terrific album it is too- 9 tracks.  While not quite a concept album there is very much a nautical feel to many of the songs and it is pretty traditional in nature even although  he puts his own stamp on them.

Allmusic has described the album as one of those rare records where not just every song, but each instrumental part is worth hearing

For those like me wondering as to the origin of the album title look no further than the lyrics of  the track The Little Pot Stove where for the crew of a whaling ship fresh penguin eggs were seen as a culinary luxury.
Despite permanent injuries following his accident which have impinged on his guitar playing and stopped him playing the  fiddle he  made a welcome return to music as part of  the Nic Jones Trio -with his son Joe amd Belinda O'Hooley and as a duo with his son. He is now 75 and I am not aware as to any recent activity. Given his injuries I hope he is enjoying as healthy a retirement as he can.

The above is essentailly a re-hash of  posts I did in August 2014 and  June 2021 I haven't really anything more to add




Apologies  to the few who still be reading my No Depression posts for the absence yesterday. The feature required a little bit of research that I had neither thre time nor the inclination to do. 

I am now off on safari for a few days so nothing to see until the weekend, at the earliest

Saturday 23 April 2022

Seen at King Tuts - Kenickie

 


Kenickie

Friday 29th May 1998                  £6.00         Ticket No: 00023

Sunderland pop punk band Kenickie are probably best known for bringing DJ Lauren Laverne to the world's attention.

She was the lead vocalist and lyricist and additional guitarist  with her brother under the stage name of Johnny X on drums, Maria Du Santiago on lead guitar and Emily -Kate Montrose on bass.

All nom de plumes with the real names being Lauren and Pete Gofton, Ann Marie Nixon and Emma Jackson. They were on the go from 1994 to 1998 and released two albums during that time  At the Club (Emidisc 1997) and Get In (EMI 1998)

They disbanded on 15th October 2018 after a gig at London's Astoria so I would imagine that when I saw them it would probably have been the last time they played in Glasgow.

They are probably best remembered for two of their singles Punka and In Your Car. Both appear on At the Club which I picked up in a charity shop a few years after the gig.

I did however have the CD single of In Your Car, the tracks of which are featured below, and which probably inspired me to go and see them. From what I remember they were pretty bouncy and good fun.

There weren't too many (mostly) female bands around in that genre at that time and they have been credited for having inspired other female bands

If the name is familiar but you were not aware of their music that will be because they were named after Kenickie (played by Jeff Conaway ) the second in command of the T-Birds after John Travolta's Danny Zuko in the film Grease. In aprevious post I inadvertently said that they were named after one of the Pink Ladies.

Kenickie - In Your Car

Kenickie - Private Buchowski

Kenickie - Killing Fantasy

Friday 22 April 2022

A Quatro Quartet

 


We are still talking box sets.

Upon the completion of the Fairport Convention -5 Classic Albums boxset it was suggested in some quarters that I follow it up with Suzi Quatro and The Rock Box Set 1973 -1979.

A whopping 7 CD albums - Suzi Quatro (1973), Quatro (1974), Your Mama Won't Like Me (1975),Aggro-Phobia (1976), If You Knew Suzi (1978) Suzi ...and Other Four Letter Words(1979)  and the 1977 album Live and Kickin'.

My first thought was that you could have too much of a good thing and then I remembered her cover version of Born to Run.

I suspect that it would be a classic case of the law of diminishing returns and decided  instead to focus on her first four classic singles which appear in order below and which reached numbers 1,3,14 and 1 respectively in the UK Singles Chart.It won't be long now before these are in the public domain.

I only have the debut album but it is in a pretty poor state. Fortunately I managed to source a better copy of 48 Crash.

Let's hear it one more time for Suzi!

Suzi Quatro - Can the Can

Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash

Suzi Quatro - Daytona Demon

Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive


Thursday 21 April 2022

Gang of Four 77-81

 


77 -81  was a box set from Matador records in 2021 consisting of the Gang of Four's first two seminal albums Entertainment! and Solid Gold remastered, seven exclusive singles, the never officially released Live at American Indian Center 1980 and a download code featuring 26 never-before-issued outtakes, rarities and studio demos from Entertainment! and Solid Gold. Also included is an epic 100-page, full-colour handbound book. 

I don't have it and as it retails for around £85 it is unlikely that I ever will. I have featured them on a few occasions before with the choice of tracks usually rotating between To Hell With Poverty, At Home He's a Tourist and I Love a Man in Uniform.

I thought that I would offer up three alternative tracks today with are not radically different but perhaps less well known

Armalite Rifle appeared on the Damaged Goods EP from October 1978.Outside the Trains Don't Run on TIme was the last track on side 1 of Solid Gold from March 1981. And finally Damaged Goods from the debut album Entertainment! from September 1979

Even after 40 years their songs still sound fresh and relevant.We could do with more bands like this now given everything that is currently going on.

Gang of Four - Armalite Rifle

Gang of Four - Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time

Gang of Four -Damaged Goods



Wednesday 20 April 2022

Cherry Oh Baby

 


Yesterday's featuring of Cherry Bomb by The Runaways and last weeks cover of  Teen Canteen's How We Met (Cherry Pie) by Lemon Drink got me thinking of other songs with Cherry in the title.

The most obvious one is probably Cherry Oh Baby by UB40 but I couldn't bring myself to pulling out Labour of Love. So here is the original by Eric Donaldson instead.

Black Cherry is the title track from Goldfrapp's second album from 2002. 20 years ago - gosh.

Jackrabbit Slim is the name of an album by Steve Forbert. It is also the name of a Rockabilly singer who had a song called Cherry Pie in 2005.

While we are here we may as well feature the Teen Canteen original

Cheerio Baby.

Eric Donalson -Cherry Oh Baby

Goldfrapp -Black Cherry

Jack Rabbit Slim - Cherry Pie

Teen Canteen - How We Met (Cherry Pie)


Tuesday 19 April 2022

Girls Go Power Pop!

 


I've just discovered an album that I downloaded and then forgot all about. I can't remember having played it before.
The album title is quite self explanatory.Released on the ever excellent Ace label in 2020  Girls Go Power Pop! was released with the following blurb

Nothing shakes some action like a snappy guitar-based pop song delivered with a powerful beat, boundless energy and joyous enthusiasm … especially when performed by girls!

25 tracks and I would say that I am probably only familiar with about half a dozen of the acts so quite an education.

I couldn't not feature the first track which is one of those that I actually know. Cherry Bomb by The Runaways sets a pretty high bar for the rest to follow.

Nikki & the Corvettes is a new name to me. A Detroit trio who were on the go between 1977 and 1981. They do a fine job on He's a Mover

My final choice today is another new to me one. Universal Honey are a Canadian Power Pop band fronted by vocalist Leslie Stanwyck. They have been on the go since 1992 and have released seven albums. Just Before Mary Goes is a song from their 1993 debut album Magic Basement.

Expect trip two sooner rather than later!

The Runaways -Cherry Bomb

Nikki & the Corvettes - He's a Mover

Universal Honey - Just Before Mary Goes


Monday 18 April 2022

Keeping Up With the Joneses -Howard

 


George has done a good job pretending that he is eagerly waiting for Norah as the potential highlight from this series.

However, I know that he is a long time fan of the synth pop legend that is Howard Jones .He is jealous that I have a copy of Best of Howard Jones and in particular the fact that I only paid 20p for the privilege.

I mean to say look at his credentials.His 1984 debut album Human's Lib reached  number one in the UK Album chart. From 1983 to 1986 he had ten Top 40 singles , six of which (including the three below) reaching the Top 10. Hardly surprising then that he has a net worth of $16 million

I'm happy to report that he is still going strong, no doubt on the retro circuit. Sadly the same can't be said of his hair.


Howard Jones - What is Love?

Howard Jones -New Song

Howard Jones -Like To Get to Know You Well

Sunday 17 April 2022

No Depression#59 -Nickel Creek

 


No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country

#59 -   September - October  2005

I'm not averse to a bit of Bluegrass in small doses although I prefer the more traditional stuff to the  mainstream stuff from the likes of Alison Krauss & Union Station and this edition's cover artists Nickel Creek.

A trio consisting of Chris Thile on mandolin and siblings Sara Watkins on fiddle and vocals and Sean Watkins on guitar.and vocals. They were child prodigies appearing with Thile's father Scott from 1989 when Sean the older of the Watkins siblings was only 12.
In 2000 they met with Alison Krauss and invited her to produce their  album Nickel Creek which received two Grammy nominations and led then to supporting Lyle Lovett on tour.

The 2002 follow up This Side won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. No Depression concentrates on 2005's Why Should the Fire Die? released on 8th August on the Sugar Hill label. It is not one I have or have heard but I managed to find a few of the tracks.
Jealous of the Moon was always going to feature given that it was written by Gary Louris of The Jayhawks alongside Thile.
Tomorrow is a Long Time is a Bob Dylan cover and we finish with Stumptown, an instrumental.

The band split in 2007 so members could expand their musical horizons.The inevitable reunion took place in 2014.

For the One From the Top I've gone for a proper Alt Country band Son Volt which is much more like it
I note that on this their Tenth Anniversary Spectacular that the strap line has changed from referencing Alt. Country (whatever that is) to Surveying the past,present and future of American Music.

Only a few more weeks of this series to go!













Saturday 16 April 2022

Seen at King Tuts - Drive -By Truckers

 


Drive-By Truckers 

Saturday 23rd November  2002                   £7.00         Ticket No:1  3

Tuesday 2nd December   2003                      £7.50        Ticket No:  GA2  4

Monday 5th September    2005                     £10.00      Ticket No: GA4 24


I don't know whether I've seen Drive-By Truckers live anywhere other than King Tuts. I'm 95% sure that I haven't but there is a sneaky wee bit of me that thinks I might have, but  if so I'm not sure where.

One think is for sure and that is that these three concerts covered the time when, for me, they were at their peak. From a period when Jason Isbell was on board (giving them a third great songwriter and singer alongside Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley) and before they became progressively rockier.

The band grew in confidence and popularity during this period and easily sold out Tuts for the later two shows at least. I don't recall one concert being necessarily any better than the others (they were all great) but over time I suppose there was an opportunity to hear new songs from more recent albums.

I've gone in order with a track each from the three albums which preceded these shows

Southern Rock Opera was released in September 2001 on the Soul Dump label and subsequently re-released by Lost Highway in 2002 It was their third album and the one which brought them to my attention and to most other folk as well. It was a concept album of sorts with songs being linked with references to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Jason Isbell was not on this album but had replaced Rob Malone in late 2001 so was part of the lineup in 2002

The show in November 2002 probably road tested a number of songs from Decoration Day  which was released in June 2003 and  which would certainly have comprised most of the songs on offer in December 2003.

The Dirty South was released in August 2004 with A Blessing and a Curse out in April 2006. Therefore the show in September 2005 was just about bang in the middle and would feature songs from both. I never got round to picking up A Blessing and a Curse which suggests that I had moved on by them.

I picked up The Big To-Do and a burn of Go- Go Boots but is was not until 2020's magnificent The Unraveling that they began to catch my attention and to feel relevant again.


Drive-By Truckers -Dead,Drunk and Naked

Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day

Drive-By Truckers - The Sands of Iwo Jima




Friday 15 April 2022

Fairport Convention: Full House

 


Today we have drawn a Full House given that this is the title of Fairport Convention's 5th album from July 1970 again on the Island label and also the last to feature on the 5 Classic Album series.

A couple of important chances in personnel from Liege & Lief. Sandy Denny had left to form Fotheringay leaving the band without a female singer for the first time.Founder member Ashley Hutchings had also left to form Steeleye Span with Dave Pegg joining on bass. It was also the last album to feature Richard Thompson who was to leave to pursue a solo career so very much a changing of the guard.

Although not in the same leage as the 1969 triumveate it was never the less reasonably well received  with Rolling Stone describing the album as an English equivalent to The Band.and Allmusic claiming thai it was actually more viscerally exciting than its predecessor

Before the album was officially released Richard Thompson requested tha the song Poor Will & the Jolly Hangman be pulled as he was not happy with his guitar solo.It was too late to replace the album cover and the remaining tracks appeared in a different order.

The 2001 reuissue includes all eight tracks in the original order and this is the version in the boxset.


My verdict -it was interesting to heare their 1st and 5th albums which bookend the great 1969 sequence of What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief. They both have their merits so overall I'm pretty happy wth this 5 CD Boxset.




Thursday 14 April 2022

Lemon Drink

 


Lemon Drink are a band that are signed to Last Night From Glasgow. They are a four piece consisting of Sophie Bartholomew (Vocals & Guitar), Kristie "KC" Cunningham (Lead Guitar), Lauren Peters (Bass) and Harry Smith (Drums)

They released their debut single A Song For You in October 2019 and followed this up with an EP Better Run in March 2020 just as lockdown kicked in.
LNFG writes Their debut EP, ‘Better Run’ (released 13/03/20), features 3 brand new tracks that further showcase their wit and zeal in the face of everyday challenges experienced by 20-something women. The EP was recorded at La Chunky Studios with production duties split between Johnny Smillie (Thrum), Jonathan Lilley (The Gracious Losers) and Chris Smith (Life Model).

 They also appeared on The Isolation Sessions with a cover of Teen Canteen's Cherry Pie . I am not aware as to whether there are plans for an album in the near future but note that they are scheduled to play the Hug & Pint on 31st July

That's just about all the information that I have save this blurb  from Alive and Gigging




Wednesday 13 April 2022

Broken Chanter and Raveloe

 


I went to see Broken Chanter, ably supported by Raveloe , at  Shawland's Glad Cafe on Friday night and very good they were too. The show was put on by Lloyd Merideth from Olive Grove Records and it was good to have a chat with him

Broken Chanter, as many of you will know, is a band led by David McGregor who used to be in Kid Canaveral. To date they have released two albums on Olive Grove/LNFG 2019's eponymous Broken Chanter and pretty recently Catastrophe Hits.

This show was to promote the latter but the set included songs from both. The four piece band were in great form. David has a a wonderful self deprecating sense of humour and interacted with the packed audience and fellow band member  between songs.Cambridge, where he recently played, came in for a particularly hard time.

For me the highlights from Catosrophe Hits were the opener Dancing Skeletons, A Sad Display and the excellent and topical Extinction Event Souvenir T-Shirt. I should imagine that you will be wanted to buy this album to hear these for yourself. Therefore I'm sharing Should We Be Dancing? from the debut album which was also excellent live. The album can be purchased via Bandcamp

The albums are a mix of indie rock and folk with a slightly Gaelic feel. The last time I saw him there was an emphasis on the folk side. This time round it was all out indie rock.




Support was from Glasgow based singer songwriter Kim Grant who goes by the stage name of Raveloe.She featured most of the songs on her 2021 EP Notes and Dreams on Olive Grove and a few new ones. She also told a very amusing story about a dead dog in a suitcase. I'd seen Broken Chanter before but this was the first time I had seen her and she didn't disappoint.

All in all an excellent evening.

Broken Chanter -Should We Be Dancing?

Raveloe -Post It

Tuesday 12 April 2022

Northern Soul Tuesday

 


Major Lance first crossed my radar when he appeared as a featured artist on the Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show on 6 Music one Saturday evening when there was nothing good on the telly.(no change there )

This led me to acquiring the above Best Of collection which was released by Sony in 2000.The back cover of the CD tells us that Chicago boasted its own instantly identifiable brand of sould during the 1960s and no artis typified that breezy, lighthearted, utterly infections Windy City sound than Major Lance.In a town loaded to bursting point with scintillating ,loose limbed dance specialists, the nimble,rail-thin Lance introduced a series of dynamic steps to the appreciative masses in front of percolating grooves cooked up by songwriter Curtis Mayfield,producer Carl Davis and arranger Johnny Pate that helped to define the city's soulful preeminence.

Tht saved me writing something a lot less flowery. Trivial facts time: his real name is actually Major Lance and he had nine children one of whom is Keisha Lance Bottoms who until recently was the mayor of Atlanta.

He was an important presence on the UK Northern Soul Scene and briefly re-located here from 1972- 1974. He died in 1994 aged between 52 and 55 the uncertainty being due to conflicting accounts of his date of birth.

Major Lance - Mama Didn't Know

Major Lance - The Matador

Major Lance -Rhythm

Monday 11 April 2022

Keeping Up with the Joneses - Grace

 


Here's Grace!

Whenever you hear that and especially if the syllables are elongated you know that it could only apply to one person. The totally unique Ms Grace Jones.

Born in Jamaica in 1948 (making her 73 years young) her family moved to Syracuse, New York when she was 13. She is a bit of a polymath given that over the years she has been a model, an actress (including the James Bond film A View to a Kill) and a singer. She has had great success in all three fields.

She is renowened for being feisty and for taking no prisoners..Just ask Russell Harty



I've told this story here before but in my younger days I had a pretty much life sized billboard poster of Grace Jones which hung proudly on my bedroom wall for  a good few years and which scared the bejesus out of any tradesman popping in to carry out some work!

She has been responsible for some fine tunes over the  years mostly on the Island label and sometimes with the great Jamaican rhythm section of Sly and Robbie in tow.

Here are three off her best

Grace Jonea- My Jamaican Guy

Grace Jones - Pull Up to the Bumper

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

Sunday 10 April 2022

No Depression #58 - Lizz Wright

No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country

#58 -   July - August  2005

This is a bit of a strange one and had me wondering if this was a case of No Depression ticking an Equality box.

I picked up Salt the 2003 debut album by Lizz Wright on the Verve labal on a whim in a St Andrews charity shop. I have it currently on the Soul shelves but in reality it is pretty much a jazz album albeit with the occassional gospel  number as befits a minister's daughter.

The article gives that background but concentrates on her second album Dreaming Wide Awake, again on the Verve label, and released on June 14 2005 shortly before this edition appeared.
Wiki states that while the record  maintains the jazz and pop blend it incorporartes folk music which didn't stop it reaching number one in the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz chart (pretty niche)
This is picked up in the article which tells how she confided in producer Craig Street that she liked artists such as Jeff Buckley, Damian Rice , Nick Drake and Fiona Apple.
They then discussed how they could use her favourite records as a template for the album Hence the likes of Neil Young's Old Man  and Joe Henry's Stop appear on the album and feature below. Maybe different subject matter but to me they are not that radically different to the jazz of Salt and certainly not Alt Country. This is acknowledged in the editorial which concedes that it not country but that it does relate to the American musical landscape upon which the magazine has long been based

For the One from the Top or in the case of this edition the One From the Bottom I've gone for Graham Parker from his Bloodshot Americana paper. 2005's Songs of No Consequence is the album featured. I don't have that one so you are getting one from its 2004 predecessor Your Country.






 

Saturday 9 April 2022

Seen at King Tuts -Shawn Colvin

 


Shawn Colvin

Saturday  9th November 1996                      £8.50      Ticket No: 00199


The date on the ticket would suggest that this concert was part of a tour to promote what was probably Shawn Colvin Colvin's most famous album A Few Small Repairs which was released on 1st October 1996 on the Sony label.

You know the one - it has  a painting on the cover by Julie Speed* of a three eyed woman holding a lit match. It is apparently a concept album about Colvin's divorce which was on-going at the time and it inspired her to write Sunny Came Home which subsequently won a few awards.

She plays a blend of contemporary folk and Americana which is quite pleasant but nothing startling. This probably explains why I can remember little if anything about this night over a quarter of a century ago.

The only other thing I have by her is a copy of her album Cover Girl from 1994 which I got in a charity shop. As the title suggests it is an album of cover songs. I shall spare you her version of Every Little Thing (he) Does is Magic and will give you her interpretation of Steve Earle's Someday instead.

As far as I am aware she is still going strong. She played at the last Celtic Connections pre- Covid on the night that Glasgow having a particularly heavy snow storm leading to my pal Pete missing the gig. That's his excuse anyway.

Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home

Shawn Colvin - You and the Mona Lisa

Shawn Colvin -Someday

* the aforementioned album cover






Friday 8 April 2022

Fairport Friday - Liege & Lief

 


I very nearly forgot to put this on today. Indeed I even had another post scheduled which I've had to rearrange.
That would have been an absolute travesty in that Liege & Lief  the band's third album from 1969 (just squeezing in in December) is generally regarded as their greatest album.
The Virgin All - Time Top 1000 Albums book of 1998 goes one further placing it at number 1 in a list of The All Time Top 50 Folk Albums. What We Did on our Holidays comes in at number 5 with Unhalfbricking at number 6. Their three albums from 1969 in the top six. Says it all really.

It was their first album that was almost entirely inspired by traditional British music with the band's arrangem
ents of traditional songs or new material written and performed in a similar style. It is seen by some as the first folk rock album. 
Whereas it never got as high in the album charts as Unhalfbricking (17 as opposed to 12) it hung around for 15 weeks beating its predecessor's 8.
It is their highest in Virgin's all-time top 1000 albums at 149.(What We Did is at 301 and Unhalfbricking at 341) The blurb highlights that is was a catharsis for the band following the crash that I mentioned last week and was the first album where fiddler Dave Swarbrick was permanently involved..

The 6 band members and those featured on the cover are Swarbrick, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Ashley Hutchins  and the new drummer Dave Mattacks

Stay tuned for the final instalment next week (if I remember!)
Apologies for all the stats


Thursday 7 April 2022

The Invisible Way

 


It is a wee while since Low the Minnesota band fronted by husband and wife Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker have graced these pages and more often than not when they do it tends to be with their Christmas EP.

In additon to the EP there are four Low albums on the shelves one of which is a burn and is the one which features today. From 2013 on the Sub Pop label The Invisible Way was the band's 10th full length studio album

I never know which genre the band fits most neatly into. Wiki has them down as Indie Rock/Slowcore/Dream Pop. Sometime I think that they would be more comfortable on the Americana shelves particulalry in this case given trhat the album was produced by Jeff Tweedy in Wilco's studio in Chicago.

The two tracks below have featured here before from magazine compilations.Plastic Cup was on an Uncut compilation from April 2013 called The New Music with Just Make it Stop appearing on Mojo: Presents 2013 The Best of the Year

Low - Plastic Cup

Low - Just Make It Stop

Wednesday 6 April 2022

The Basement Tapes

 


When I went to John's my local newsagent on Saturday to pick up my breakfast roll and paper I noticed that the lastest instalment of the DeAgostini Dylan Vinyl series was The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and the Band.

As it was a  pretty reasonable price I felt that this was an opportunity to replace my burn and asked him to put it aside for me until Sunday when I duly  arrived with sufficient funds to purchase it. Given the huge rise in utility prices it may well be my last purchase for a while.

Most of you will be familiar with the background. From 1975 and hot on the heels of Blood on the Tracks it marked the official release of what had long been the world's most bootlegged bootleg. The tracks had  originally been cut in the basement of a rented house near Woodstock known as the Big Pink during the gap between Blonde on Blonde (and Dylan's subsequent motorbike crash) in 1966 and John Wesley Harding in 1968

Dylan was joined by Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko,Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson who had previously backed him as the Hawks but who were now The Band. Despite key tracks such as This Wheels on Fire and I Shall Be Released being missing from the "official bootleg"it reached number 7 on the US Billboard chart and number 8 in the UK Album chart and was widely acclaimed by the music press.

I don't like using my USB turntable for new records so the tracks below are taken from my burn so apologies for that.

Bob Dylan & the Band -Goin' to Acapulco

Bob Dylan & the Band - Bessie Smith

Bob Dylan & the Band -Nothing was Delivered

Tuesday 5 April 2022

Hinterland

 


Long suffering readers will know that I am not a huge fan of electronic music and as such it very rarely, if ever , makes an appearance on these pages. Well, it does today.

I bought Hinterland the second album from 2015 on the Warp label by Mancunian Julie Campbell under her nom de plume LoneLady.I bought it on the back of the track Bunkerpop appearing on a Mojo compilation called Modern Life is Rubbish subtitled 15 tracks of everyday British angst.

Julie apparently drew inspiration from the landscape of her childhood home in Audershaw and the tower block that she had been living in as an adult but you had probably worked that out for yourselves. 

As I'm now at the Ls in my cataloguing I gave it its first listen in ages. I found it quite enjoyable but maybe a bit intense and I would struggle to get through it all in one sitting. The kind of album for me that it is better to dip in and out of.

LoneLady - Bunkerpop

Lonelady - Hinterland



Monday 4 April 2022

Keeping Up With the Joneses - George

 



I have reached the letter J in my cataloguing project which has thrown up the fact that I have albums by eight solo artists with the surname Jones. There is a healthy mix of genres so it seemed about the right length for a series.

There are also around another 30 that I have songs by digitally which could extend the series well into the winter. Having said that after last weeks sunshine it seems like winter has already arrived in Scotland.

Lets start with the Possum himself ,good old No Show Jones. The man whose then wife Tammy Wynette hid his clothes and car keys to stop him going into town to buy more drink.Undettered the bold George drove into town naked on his garden tractor. I would like to think that this is not an urban myth.

There are so many great songs to choose from. Here are three of his best.

Another Jones next Monday

George Jones - She Still Thinks I Care

George Jones -Things Have Gone to Pieces

George Jones - Stranger in the House

Sunday 3 April 2022

No Depression # 57 - John Prine

 


No Depression - The Bi-monthly Journal of Alt- Country

#57 -   May - June  2005

After last week's Vic Chesnutt I am on slightly more familiar territory this with with the legend that is John Prine.
Having said that I don't have that much material of his and am not familiar with the featured 2005 album Fair & Square.
I know enough about him to know that he was a terrific songwriter and a top bloke. Most of you will  recognise some of his songs even if  it is the versions that have been covered by someone else .
Examples include Bonnie Raitt with Angel from Montgomery, Swamp Dogg with Sam Stone and both Alabama 3 and Nanci Griffith with Speed of the Sound of Loneliness. Here is a fuller list

Mrs CC and I  once won tickets to see him at the Glasgow Concert Hall. He was about an hour late in coming on and  extremely apologetic but quickly won the audience over with an absolutely terrific show playing for a couple of hours by way of compensation.

He was a late developer having been writing songs since  being drafted to the army and as a mailman prior to being "discovered" by Kris Kristofferson and Paul Anka.
Along with his third wife, Irish woman Fiona Bunetta he set up the independent record label and mail order service Oh Boy Records in 1991. It was pretty revolutionary at the time and was a precursor for the likes of Bandcamp.
Sadly John died on the 7th of April 2020 aged 73 from complications caused by Covid- 19 

For this weeks One from the Top I've gone for the soul legend  Solomon Burke with the opening track from his 2006 country orientated album Nashville produced by No Depression favourite Buddy Miller.










Saturday 2 April 2022

Seen at King Tut's - Grand Drive

 


Grand Drive

Tuesday 22nd May 2001                       £5.00      Ticket No: 00018

Tuesday 12th November 2002              £6.00      Ticket No: 14  7

Satutday 24th July 2004                       £7.00      Ticket No: 44


It probably won't come as much of a surprise that there were a few acts that I saw at King Tuts on more than one occassion.

One such band was Grand Drive Here is the blurb from Discogs:

Grand Drive is  were an Alternative Country-Rock-Indie band
brothers Danny Wilson (lead vocals/guitar) and Julian Wilson (keyboards) were originally from Australia, but grew up in the stony southwest London suburb of Sutton in the '70s.
In school, they met bassist Ed Balch and formed their first group, Soul Green, with several temporary drummers. It wasn't until 1992 that they found a more permanent stickman in Paul Wigens and changed their name to Grand Drive, taking their name from a long, meandering road in South London that connected Raynes Park (where one of the Wilsons lived) with Sutton.

I must confess that I wasn't that much of a fan but my pal Goggs was. The only thing I have by them is a copy,courtesy of him, of True Love and High Adventure an album from 2002 on the Loose label.Stragely I have never seen anything by them in a charity shop.

It seems that they released a total of five albums between 1999 and 2007. They spilt in  2007 with Danny Wilson going on to form Danny and the Champions of the World a band that I have heard of but never knowingly heard.

Not to be confused with Danny Wilson the Dundee pop band of Mary's Prayer and Meet Danny Wilson fame

It is good to see that by 2004 that they had progressed from a Tuesday to a Saturday band with an appropriate increae in admission fee!

Grand Drive - A Ladder to the Stars

Grand Drive - Sleepy

Grand Drive - A Little Numb

Friday 1 April 2022

Fairport Friday - Unhalfbricking

 


We are now up to Unhalfbricking the band's third album and the second from 1969, in this instance July 1969. Notable for a few things. It is the album which features the magnificent Who Knows Where the Time Goes.In 2007 Radio 2 listeners voted this their Favourite Folk Song of All Time and they will get no argument from this quarter. I've posted it a couple of times before and make no apologies for doing so again.

It is also the first of their albums on which fiddle player  Dave Swarbrick makes an appearance.It would be the last one to feature drummer Martin Lambie who sadly died in a road accident alongside Richard Thompson's then girlfriend Jeannie Franklin.

Unusually for the time, and for a not that well known act, the name of the album or the band does not appear on the cover. I won't annoy Spence by mentioning that the couple on the cover are Sandy Denny's parents, It was ranked at  number 341 in my copy of the Virgin all-time top 1000 albums book published in 1998.

I actually did a post on this album in April 2021 but did not have a physical copy at that time.Fortunately that has now changed.

Fairport Convention -Who Knows Where The Time Goes

Fairport Convention - Percy's Song