Saturday Shuffle 82

 

Welcome to the first Shuffle of 2025 when we welcome two familiar bands and a newbee to the series.

First up we have Talking Heads with the epic Life During Wartime from their third studio album Fear of Music from as far back as 1979.

A first appearance from Alice Clark an artist who had little commercial success but whose eponymous 1972 album has rightly earned legendary status.Hard Hard Promises is the track which popped up on the shuffle.

The final offering is also taken from another legendary album. 1997's Songs From Northern Britain is my favourite Teenage Fanclub album and one which was on my turntable just the other day. A few songs by the Fannies have featured in this series but it is the first time that track 3 a Raymond McGinley  composition Can't Feel My Soul has had an airing.

Hopefully future Shuffles can live up to this standard. No pressure!

Talking Heads - Life During Wartime

Alice Clark - Hard Hard Promises

Teenage Fanclub - Can't Feel My Soul

I Des

 

In the Wiki blub for King Cresote's album I Des a quote is included by Steven Johnson from MusicOMH which describes the album as a slow burning set of songs full of delicate beauty and affecting idiosyncratic warmth.

I'm going to focus on the slow burning bit as I have not really been able to get my head around this one. It probably needs a few more listens

Released in November 2023 it was his first album in 7 years but remarkably his 50th album to date. During the hiatus he read David Stubbs' book Future Days about the German Krautrock scene of the 70s leading him to immerse himself in this genre leading to the inclusion of a 36 minutes and 34 seconds track Drone in B#. 

I'll spare you that as it doesn't do much for me. On the other hand Blue Marbled Trees is pretty good and Susie Mullen is great fun.

It was his last scheduled album on the Domino label. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Blue Marbled Elm Trees

King Creosote - Susie Mullen

Blog Country 105 - Senegal

 

They took their time but now the African countries are coming thick and fast. The next one to stick their head above the parapet is Senegal the westernmost country of Western Africa with a population of around 19 million.

You will not be surprised to note that Ernie has featured acts from this country many times before including a number of artists as part of the the EAO.

However for once I don't need his assistance or help from You Tube as I have a CD called The Sound of Senegal which I picked up in a Charity Shop in Kingussie in 2021.

The tracklist and some blurb from Amazon can be found here. The likes of Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal if not household names have enjoyed international recognition.Therefore I will plumb for some of the lesser known artists omitting the ones I featured last time round.

I'm kicking off with Ismael Lo, who apparently is known as the "Bob Dylan of Africa" with the song Jelebi.

Ismael is followed by Malik P Sow who performs poly-rhythms known as mbalax which he combines with a modern pop sensibility.

Finally we have Lemzo  Diamo  another mbalax band formed by former Super Diamono member Lemzo Faye.

The next Blog Country will be considerably trickier given that I didn't even know it existed!

Ismael Lo - Jelebi

Malik P Sow - Teddungal

Lemzo Diamono - Chance

New Years Dy Homage

 

Happy New Year to you and yours and a particular welcome to any new readers who may not by familiar with the CCM New Years Day tradition.

We remember  two of the absolute giants of  20th century music who both happened to die on this day some 44 years apart.

Hank Williams, the Hillbilly Shakespeare, died on this day in 1953 aged just 29 whereas Townes Van Zandt was 52 when he died on New Year's Day 1997. Two troubled souls which perhaps contributed to the  melancholy and honesty of their music.

Their influence on those that followed is obvious on many a Country song and on the whole Americana/Alt Country scheme. 

Here are a couple of songs from both of them. I make no apologies if they have appeared here before.

Finally and again in keeping with  tradition I'll get in first and note that it will  obviously be downhill now on these pages for the rest of the year. before anyone else does.

Hank Williams - Take These Chains From My Heart

Townes Van Zandt - Kathleen

Hank Williams - Your Cheating Heart

Townes Van Zandt -Waiting Around to Die