Saturday Shuffle 144

 

Blondie just made it to the Shuffle at 11:59. Another 1 minutes and they would have  been into Sunday Compolation territory 

Not that they would be pariticularly bothered unlike Martha Ffion who is Someone Who Cares

Primal Scream next with Bobby Gillespie proclaiming that he's Gonna Cry Myself Blind.

I very nearly included Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a search revealed that it had never appeared before on the Shuffle or indeed the Blog for that matter. It turns out I was spelling it wrong and it has previously been on both

No spelling mistakes or previously included songs will be forthcoming on SS145

Blondie - 11: 59

Martha Ffion - Someone Who Cares

Primal Scream - (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind)

* this originally appeared yesterday by mistake so apologies to those of you who have already read it

Lucky Lene

 

Unlike the Colorblind James Experience  here Lena Lovich did not have her music featured in the I-Pod Playlist Lucky Numbers in addition to her picture.

This was primarily because I don't have her song Lucky Numbers. I have since rectified that. It charted on 17th February 1979 and was in the charts for 11 weeks peaking at number 3.

She subsequently had another 5 chart entries up until the end of 1982 all of which were released on Stiff

Her second song Say When was the best of the rest. I have a copy of that from the album If It Ain't Stiff'...

My pal Donald got chucked out of his house for wearing that badge and ended up staying with his sister's boyfriend.  When you see the quality of the music they were churning out it was probably worth it.

That's given me an idea for a new series!

Lene Lovich - Lucky Numbers

Lene Lovich - Say When

Oh, Go on Then ...

 

I felt a little bit guilty yesterday when I teased you with the above picture but offered no music by the band Colourblind James Experience here.

Time to make amends.

Originally from Rochester, New York and laterly San Francisco the band led by Chuck Cuminale (aka Colorblind James) were active from 1978 to 2001

They shot to prominence in the UK in October 1998 when the preformed sessions for both John Peel and Andy Kershaw and for a while their song Considering a Move to Memphis was everywhere in Indie circles.

They then disappeared about as quickly as they had appeared

I have four songs by them in my Music folder including the one mentioned above and here they are:

Colorblind James Experience - Considering a Move to Memphis

Colorblind James Experience - A Different Bob

Colorblind James Experience -Fledgling Circus

Colourbling James Experience - Dance Critters

I- Pod Playlist - Colorblind James Experience

 

Today's post was supposed to be the last in the I- Pod Playlist series. That was until I had discovered that I had missed one off my list

Colorblind James Experience is the title of a Playlist featuring colours. Therefore there will only be a picture of the band but no music by them.Sorry.

Still there were plenty of good ones to choose from.

Let's start with a catchall namely All My Colours by Echo and the Bunnymen.

You could say the some for The Men They Couldn't Hang and The Colours but they restrict themselves to the Red, the Blue and the White.

The album Young America by The Poems was first released in 2006. Drew raved about it on Across the Kitchen Table but it was only on the re-release by Past Night From Glasgow that I was able to appreciate it in all it's glory. The vocals on Blue Eyes Coming come courtesy of Kerry Polwart, sister of Karine.

Contact in Red Square is a track on Blondie's second album 1978's Plastic Letters. I've only ever had it on vinyl so had to source a digital copy. Not sure if Blondie counts as a colour.

The 18th and final Playlist Mind Your Language will feature next time round.

Echo & the Bunnymen - All My Colours

The Men They Couldn't Hang - The Colours

The Poems - Blue Eyes Coming

Blondie - Contact in Red Square

Oh Danny Boy

 

In yesterday's Surinamese post I commented that one of the songs selected had a passing resemblance to the traditional Irish folk song Danny Boy.

This in turn had me going down a Danny related rabbit hole.

There are probably hundreds if not thousands of recordings of the folk song Danny Boy which I have just discovered was written by an Englishman Frederic Wetherly as opposed to an Irishman. Few if any will better the version by Johnny Cash on American IV:The Man Comes Around.

The first musical Danny which sprung to mind was the Dundee band Danny Wilson who contribute The Second Summer of Love to this post.

Not to be outdone The Ramones pitch in with Danny Says. You can't go surfing if it's twenty below. Fact.

Daniel Wylie was the lead singer of the Cosmic Rough Riders. He has also recorded some solo albums and Make Love to the World is the opening track on Ramshackle Beauty.

Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura) and Danny O'Keefe (Crybaby) got  together in 2018 to record the imaginatively titled album Tracyanne & Danny. I think that O'Keefe is may favourite song from the album.

I'll spare you anything from our cover star. Kneel and say an Ave there for me!

Johnny Cash - Danny Boy

Danny Wilson - The Second Summer of Love

The Ramones - Danny Says

Daniel Wylie - Make Love To The World

Tracyanne & Danny - O'Keefe

Blog Country 142 - Suriname

 

Similar to Blog Country 140 Aruba Suriname is a former Dutch colony .Under Dutch rule it was subjected to slavery to harvest the sugar plantation.It is the smallest country in South America in terms of both population (632,638) and territory It gained independence in 1975

Right, now that's out of the way let's have some music.

Lets start with Saramaccan Sound who are duo of brothers namely Dwight Sampie and Robert Jabini – who write and perform flowing acoustic songs sung in Saramaccan, the language from the Americas with the most African elements. 

There song is Some Kind of New Beginning which sounds not unlike Danny Boy.

Dropati is considered by many to be the mother of modern day Baithak Gana  a form of music originating in Suriname described as a mix of Hindustani folk music with further Caribbean influences. Manikdar Jhabeeya is such a song

I can't find much about Kater Kerma other than he is 37 and his genre(s) are hip hop and rap .Don't let that put you of as Paana is not unpleasant 

John Eduard Touwslager (December 21, 1968 – June 9, 2005), better known as Papa Touwtjie, was a  Surinamese reggae  artist and rapper. He is considered one of the most influential reggae artists in Suriname.As a result of a family dispute, he was shot by his brother and died of his wounds in June 2005. Here he is with Santa Boma

Conchita Leeflang is the daughter of Frank Leeflang  who was the Minister of Internal Affairs and Justice and temporary Prime Minister of Suriname. Even stranger she had a relationship with Kid Rock which lasted about a year. Now she is mostly based in the Netherlands .Her offering is I Brake.

This one turned out to be much harder than I first thought. The next one is likely to be even more tricky .

Sarmaccan Sound - Some Kind of New Beginning

Dropati - Manijdar Jhabeeya

Kater Kerma - Paana

Papa Touwtjie - Santa Boma

Conchita Leeflang - I Brake

Por Vida - A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo

 

From 2004 Por Vida is a 20 track 2x CD on Or Music and is a tribute to the songs of Alejandro Escovedo.

It is essentially a fundraiser following his collapse from Hepatitis C complications in 2003 with health insurance not affordable to the majority of ordinary people in the US.

Alejandro is a universally respected Americana singer song writer as the stellar tracklist highlights with the great and the good lining up pay their respects.

Here is the blurb from the Americana bible No Depression.

I've gone for three of my particular favourites - Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks and Son Volt

I'm pleased to say that the great man is still going strong as his discography demonstrates.

Lucinda Williams - Pyramid of Tears

The Jayhawks - Last to Know

Son Volt - Sometimes

Saturday Shuffle 143

 

Firstly apologies for my no show yesterday. Real life got in the way followed by a dose of the dreaded lurgy.

We start this week's Shuffle with Thorns the final track on Weirdo the third album by Carla J Easton from 2020. We parted company around then as her music was getting too poppy for my liking.

A band you could never get tired of are The Cramps. They have graced the Shuffle a few times previously but never with Can Your Pussy Do the Dog.

Likewise XTC are no strangers to this place who produced consistently good songs such as Generals and Majors

They will only be happy if the Saturday Shuffle retuns next week

Carla J Easton - Thorns

The Cramps - Can Your Pussy Do The Dog

XTC - Generals and Majors

Dwight

 

Every couple of years or so I feel that I have a moral obligation to point you in the right direction when it comes to the music of Dwight Yoakam.

As you can see from his discography he has released 17 studio albums from 1986 to 2024. That's a lot to get your teeth into.

I'll make it more easy for you. You only really need the first five albums all of which are absolutely essential. You do not require to go beyond 1993 There may be the occasional semi decent ones here and there thereafter which are worth a listen, but not many .

For further proof I refer you to my ICA from JC's place back in April 2018.

I think a track from each of the five is in order.

I will return in a couple of years to repeat this message. Think of it as a public service.

Thank you.

Dwight Yoakam - South of Cincinnati

Dwight Yoakam - Readin', Rightin' Rt.23

Dwight Yoakam -Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)

Dwight Yoakam - Sad,Sad Music

Dwight Yoakam - Two Doors Down

All you'll ever need here

The Von Bondies

 

The  Von Bondies were a four piece Garage Band from Detroit who were active from 1997 - 2001 with the obligatory reunion from 2020 to date. Lead singer and guitarist Jason Stollsteimer has been the only constant member followed closely by drummer Don Blum.

They released three albums - Lack of Communication (2001, Sympathy for the Record Industry), Pawn Shoppe Heart (2004, Sire) and Love, Hate and Then There's You (2009, Majorodomo)

I have burns of the first two (via the much missed Record library perhaps).I've not listened to them in an age so I have decided to downgrade from a Burn to a Download to free up space on the shelves

I have just had a listen to the title tracks of the first two albums and feel vindicated with this decision. See what you think

The Von Bondies - Lack of Communication

The Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart

I-Pod Playlist - Lucky Numbers

 

I was shocked and quite frankly appalled to find out that I don't have a copy of the song by Lene Lovich which inspired the title of this the penultimate I-Pod Playlist post. The only consolation is that there are many more great songs to choose from the 104 on the list. Oh, and I'm giving you 5 songs instead of four. 

I'll try to give you them in numerical order even though there is a sticky start given there are two starting with the number 2 namely Song 2 by Blur and 2-4-6-8 by the Tom Robinson Band.

We then jump to number 9 with Dave Alvin and Nine Volt Heart..

Next we have Strawberry Letter 23 by Shuggie Otis and finally 54-46  the prison number of Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals fame.

We conclude this series next time round with Mind Yer Language.

Blur - Song 2

Tom Robinson Band - 2-4-6-8 Motorway

Dave Alvin - Nie Volt Heart

Shuggy Otis - Strawberry Letter 23

Toots & the Maytals - 54-46 That's My Number

Down On The Farm

 

It's amazing where inspiration for Post themes come from.

Often they are fairly random. For instance, I was in the shower yesterday and I thought I should post some farm related songs. And no, I wasn't covered in slurry.

It makes sense to start with The Farm and Groovy Train. Alternately I could have started with The Farmer's Boys and In the Country.

Not to be outdone here are The Housemartins with Me and the Farmer or perhaps XTC and Love On a Farmer's Wages .

Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm took on a whole new meaning in the 80's courtesy of the Evil Witch 

There may be a subsequent  farmyard visit in due course.

Feel free to  don your wellies and pitch in with any thoughts.

The Farm -Groovy Train

The Farmer's Boys - In The Country

The Housemartins - Me and The Farmer

Bob Dylan - Maggies Farm

XTC - Love on a Farm Boy's Wages

Birthday Boy

 

My baby brother turns 60 today. Hopefully he has recovered from his surprise party last night.

As some of the readers of  this Blog will be aware his music of choice is Rockabilly and Psychobilly. He's just about hanging onto that quiff but not for much longer I suspect!

Here are a few tunes he will hopefully like to help blow away the cobwebs.

Happy birthday Dave!

Stray Cats - Rumble in Brighton

The Shakin' Pyramids - Take A Trip

The Meteors - Out Of Time

King Kurt - Destination Zululand

Saturday Shuffle 142

 

Welcome to the 142nd Saturday Shuffle and the first for the second quarter of 2026 - How did that happen?

First up are Alabama 3 with U Don't Danse to Tekno Anymore a track from their 1997 debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane which quite frankly is the only one of their albums worth having.

Next we are going back over 60 years. It's Mannfred Mann making their debut on these pages with If You Gotta Go Go Now taken from Jon Savages 1965 - The Year the Sixties Ignited.

Stay With Me as we conclude in 1972 with today's cover stars and fellow debutants  Blue Mink .

More decade defying Shuffling next Saturday

Alabama 3 - U Don't Danse to Tekno Anymore

Manfred Mann - If You've Gotta Go Go Now

Blue Mink - Stay With Me

May Day

 

It's the 1st of May today - the start of Spring and hopefully of good weather.

If you can take yourself away from the Maypole I have some mainly folky and pastorial songs for you today.

In years past I sometimes featured Imelda May on this day but I thought I would go for something more gentle as you could do yourself a mischief dancing around a maypole to her songs.

Bellowhead -One May Morning Early

Waterson Carthy - May Song

Sharon Shannon - Sally May Melia

Some Steady Eddies

 

In the last line of last week's Unsteady Eddie post I ventured that there might be enough material for a further Eddie related post. And here it is 

We kick of with Erin Moran. An Erin as opposed to an Eddie? Worry not as professionally she goes by the name A Girl Called Eddy .Here she is with Tears All Over Town.

Eddie Kendricks is most famous for being a member of the great Motown band The Temptations. He has also turned his hand to some solo stuff including Shoe Shine Boy 

Eddie Shaver was the son of the great Billy Jo Shaver. He did some work as a duo with his dad but as a solo artist he graduated more towards heavy rock such as If It Don't Kill You. Sadly, he died from a heroin overdose on 31st December 2000 aged just 38.

After singing with The Delfonics and The Stylistics Eddie Holman found solo fame with the song Hey There Lonely Girl.I'm afraid that you are not getting that but rather Eddie's My Name.

Eddie Spaghetti was in the running to feature on Sunday's Bloodshot Records Sampler 2015 but I held over The Value of Nothing for today.

We conclude with Ed Harcourt and Sleepyhead.

I may, or may not , return with another Edward related post in due course.

A Girl Called Eddie - Tears All Over Town

Eddie Kendricks - Shoeshine Boy

Eddie Shaver - If It Don't Kill You

Eddie Holman -Eddie's My Name

Eddie Spaghetti - The Value of Nothing

Ed Hardcourt - Sleepyhead

I-Pod Playlist - Johnny Reggae

 

No!

Comeback!

Jonathan King will NOT be featuring here.. There are 381 songs on the Playlist and he is not on any of them. Deep breath and relax. 

In the order I have written them down we start with Burning Spear fronted by the legendary Winston Rodney who is still going strong at the age of 81. Here they are with Slavery Days.

Next up are another legendary act namely Black Uhuru who have Derrick "Duckie "Simpson as their main man. Their song Youth of Eglington references the Brixton riots. . Not to be confused with Eglington Toll in Glasgow or The Eglington Arms hotel in Eaglesham (great Pakora by the way)

Staying on the subject of riots the Birmingham band Steel Pulse weigh in with Handsworth Revolution commemorating unrest in their local area

The poet Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Jamaica in 1952 but moved to Brixton in 1963. He is probably best known for his poem Inglan is a Bitch. Ok, so it probably isn't technically reggae  but it's in the playlist.

It would probably be sacrilege not to include Bob Marley so here he is with the Wailers and Punky Reggae Party.

It's the penultimate Playlist next time round with the theme being Lucky Numbers

Burning Spear - Slavery Days

Black Uhuru - Youth of Eglington

Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Inglan is a Bitch

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Punky Reggae Party

S.A.H.B.

 

The Space Conundrum continues with space on the shelves scarcer than hen's teeth.

I have two Best Of  compilations by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, one on CD and the other a burn along with the vinyl of Live at the Hammersmith Odeon.

It therefore made sense to convert the Burn to a Download thus releasing some space.

The band have appeared here on a few occasions and so I thought that I should feature a couple of tracks which have not appeared here before.

Two of their classic tracks for you today namely Framed and Next.

Is your name Alexander?

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next

Bloodshot Records Sampler -2015

 

CCM favourites Chicago's Bloodshoot Records released a number of  Samplers in the mid 2010s. It is a good way to catch up with music from their stable and to pursue further those artists you wish to follow up.

This is the 32nd entry in the Sunday American Series. I think I have enough to get to 50 (although I haven't counted them yet) and don't propose to go any further you will be relieved to hear 

My main concentration on Bloodshot was more in the early years of the Century.I'm aware of the vast majority of the 20 acts on the Sampler but it is interesting to see a few newbies. You may be interested to note that this Sampler is available as a free Download on Bandcamp I think I paid a couple of quid on the name your price option at the time.

Today I've gone for a couple of old favourites namely Mekons & Robbie Fulks and Bobby Bare Jr. I hadn't clicked that the band Deer Tick who I discovered a year or so later had recorded on Bloodshot

Well worth nothing of anybody's money!

Mekons & Robbie Fulks - Beaten and Broken

Bobby Bare Jr - My Baby Took My Baby Away

Deer Tick - If I Should Fall With Grace From God

Saturday Shuffle 141

 

I hope I'm not tempting fate as it was a gorgeous day here yesterday. Spring may be finally making an appearence 

Recently whenever I head towards the Jayhawks albums more often than not I find myself plumping for Rainy Day Music as opposed to Hollywood Town Hall or Tomorrow The Green Grass  so clearly I'm not about to Save It For a Rainy Day.

I also find myself listening to a fair bit of Whiskeytown even although Ryan Adams is persona non grata these days. It is a bit unfair to persecute his former band members for his shortcomings. Faithless Street remains a perennial favourite.

To conclude lets lighten the mood a little courtesy of Warren McIntyre and Starry Skies with Sweet Honey Blue 

More rambling meandering next Saturday.

The Jayhawks - Save It For a Rainy Day

Whiskeytown - Faithless St

Starry Skies - Sweet Honey Blue

Unsteady Eddie

 

I was re-reading a post recently featuring the late great Eddie Hinton and it got me thinking about other musical Eddies.

Given his short and troubled live I have christened this post Unsteady Eddie but most, if not all, of the other artists featured are on the strait and narrow. He was indeed a Hard Luck Guy. Another one to thank Kershaw for.

In the order that I have downloaded them the next one up is/are Eddie & the Hot Rods with Do Anything You Wanna Do.

Eddie is followed by Eddie in this case the mighty Eddie Cochran with Somethin' Else.

Next up is Guyana's finest Eddy Grant who is Living On the Front Line .

We conclude with Scotland's own Eddi Reader and her wonderful version of the Boo Hewerdine song Ontario.

I'm sure that there is scope for a further post. Over to you for suggestions.

Eddie Hinton - Hard Luck Guy

Eddie & the Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do

Eddie Cochran - Somethin' Else

Eddy Grant - Living On The Frontline

Eddi Reader - Ontario

Blog Country 141 - Benin

 

We are back in Africa for Blog country 141 namely Benin. A French speaking country in West Africa formerly known as Dahomey.

As is always the case with all things Africa Ernie has been here before as part of his Odyssey and other various posts. I try not to step on his toes by searching for other artists to the ones he has featured.

However I'm going to feature Benin's most famous musical artist Angelique Kidjo given that I have her album Logozo from which the song Ewa Ka Dijo is taken.

Next up is Norberka. I'll let her introduce herself -  my name is Kpanou Agbla Norberte, alias Norberka. I’m a singer of Beninois traditional music. I also dance and sometimes I play percussion. Here she is performing at the Dagbe Cultural Institute & Arts Centre in Ghana. I'm afraid I don't have the name of the song.

I'm also afraid that I have not been able to find out much by Zeynab Mousse other than she has a song called Tadegla. I'm not doing too well, am I?

Maybe Sagbohan Danialou can yeild some more information. It seems that he was born on 11th December 1951, he is part of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou and his musical genre is Champeta. His offering today is Ahouankouno which trips lightly off the tongue

We conclude with Naomi Ehigie A gospel music minister. Based in Benin Edo state and also a proprietress, Philanthropist. Marriage counselor. a preacher and a teacher of the word . Her offering (see what I did there?) is Where For Dey O

We are off to South America next time round

Angelique Kidjo - Gwa Ka Dijo

Norberka - Dans Dagbe

Zeynab Mousse -Tadgela

Sagbohan Danialou - Ahouankouno

Naomi Ehigie -Where For Day O

 

Hanging Stars Shenanigans

 

A couple of weeks ago I posted a piece on the album Across the Silvery Lake by The Hanging Stars here

I had bought it from Norman Records on vinyl. Then last Friday I opened the door to the Postie who presented me with another copy which was signed by the band no less. There was no paperwork attached to it and I had no idea where it had come from.

A few days later I noticed that it had appeared in my Bandcamp folder. I have no memory of ordering it from there as I had noticed the postage from Norman Records was cheaper. It looks as though I must have ordered it twice!

Stay with me as it gets even stranger.

Later that day a  CD copy of their third album A New Kind of Sky popped through my letterbox. Again no paperwork or clue to where it came from.

In the comments on my last post C had put a comment and a you tube link of their earlier incarnation  The See See.  C introduces CC to See See!. I duly headed to Bandcamp and ordered a CD of their album Once, Forever & Again.

It has not arrived as yet and I wonder if A New Kind of Sky was sent in mistake.

I shall keep you posted!

The Hanging Stars - I Woke Up in July 

The See See - Mary Ann

I-Pod Playlist - Jesus

 

Last week Jail, this week Jesus.Our coverstar would perhaps have been better in the former.

The playlist features all things religious but I thought I would stick with Jesus even although I did a fairly lengthy Jesus series back in 2023 in which some, if not all, of the songs below featured

One that I don't think was on that series is Marie Knight with Does Jesus Care. Maybe he does but I know that his doppelganger certainly doesn't

Lord Cut Glass knows how to deliver a killer insult with Even Jesus Couldn't Love You.

The Vaselines tell us that Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam which seems to me to be a bloody good trade -in

Finally we have James Scott Bullard with  Jesus, Jail or Texas a song that could be included in three different Playlist posts in this series.

Only three more to go I think with the next one being titled Johnny Reggae

Marie Knight - Does Jesus Care

Lord Cut Glass - Even Jesus Couldn't Love You

The Vaselines - Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

James Scott Bullard - Jesus, Jail or Texas

Simply Red

 

2026 Charity Shop Purchases #16 - Red Foley - The Essential Recordings

Slim pickings on my latest Clarkston Charity foray Only the one purchase from my first post of call Barnardos.

I have some proper Country for you today courtesy of Clyde Julien Foley better known as Red Foley one of Country's biggest post WW2 stars,

From 2016 on the Primo label  The Essential Red Foley is a double CD with 40 tracks which cost me a pound though it is on sale on Discogs fron $10 upwards

Although he came from Kentucky he seems to have had an affinity with Tennessee given that side 1 includes three songs referencing that State. Mississippi and Alabama also get a reference.

I'll quote the blurb on the back of the CD

This collection celebrates the career of a true pioneer, and a master of all forms of Country Music, from ballads through to blues and even Rockabilly. He was an inspiration to many Rock'n'Roll artists, and both Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis covered his songs. His sophisticated, smooth,mellow vocals were incredibly influential in bringing Country to mainstream America.

Red Foley - Tennessee Saturday Night

Red Foley - Tennessee Border

Red Foley - Tennessee Polka

Blue Rose Collection Vol.7

 

The Best

The Rest

The Rare

Blue Rose Collection Vol.7 becomes the 31st entry in the American Compilation series joing Vol.8 which was the 13th entry. I'm not sure if we will reach 50,but we will certainly not exceed it.

Let's start with a CCM favourite the band Jolene of seen in Helensburgh fame. Constantinople is taken from their 3rd album Antic Ocean which was released in the year 2000.

I think that Trish Murphy may be the only female artist on the CD so it is only fair that she gets an outing with Outsider.

I couldn't choose between Gimme Back My Dog by Slobberbone and Neil's On The Radio by Big In Iowa so it is only fair that both feature.

Jolene - Constantinople

Trish Murphy - Outsider

Slobberbone - Gimme Back My Dog

Big in Iowa - Neil's On The Radio

Andy Kershaw R.I.P.

 

I was all set to draft the next Saturday Shuffle when I received a text from my pal Pete advising that the DJ Andy Kershaw had died at the age of 66 from cancer. Not that much older than me FFS.

I know that he had his issues particularly when his relationship broke down and he was jailed for three months for violating a restraining order which significantly impacted on his broadcasting career.

I was far more influenced by him than I was by Peel. Indeed, he even had me tuning in to Radio 3 for the first time ever when his show was moved there in 2001.

He made a considerable impact on my musical tastes and indeed on my budget.

His documentary on Bob Dylan's 1966 "Royal Albert Hall" concert  when he went electric had a huge influence on me and pretty much turned me onto his music.

He introduced the world to Jim Ford and Harlan County and as George has noted he also pointed us in the direction of Carl and Pearl Butler.

Then there was the African music and his championing of James Carr.

A significant part of my musical education and collection is down to him.

Rest easy Andy and thank you for the music.

Bob Dylan - Leopard - Skin Pill-Box Hat

Jim Ford - Harlan County

Carl & Pearl Butler - Don't Let Me Cross Over

Four Brothers - Uchandifunga

James Carr - Forgeting You

The Shuffle will return next Saturday

Alphabet Soup - A Random ABC

 

Totally devoid of ideas for today's post I resorted to shutting my eyes and hovering the mouse over and randomly stopping at artists beginning with A,B or C

For the letter A the cursor stopped on the folder for the Northern Irish band Ash. I decided to go for the song Kung Fu hence the picture of Kung Fu Panda.

For B the cursor alighted on Barry Adamson. If you are wondering why he is filed under B rather than A that's the way the folder works. If I  had a Barry Adamson album, which I don't it would be filed under A on the shelves 

Similarly Cat Stevens would come under S as opposed to C

Apologies again for the lack of inspiration. Hopefully I'll get my mojo back soon. Suggestions, or even contributions, welcome.

Failing that there are only another 14634 songs/folders to go!

Ash - Kung Fu

Barry Adamson - The Last Words of Sam Cooke

Cat Stevens - Hard Headed Woman

Blog Country 140 - Aruba

 

Confession time - I don't think I'd ever heard of Aruba and certainly would not have been able to point to it on a map.

It turns out that it is an island in the Caribbean and about north of Venezuela. It was part of the Dutch Antilles and it became a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in1986. Its popultion is equivalent to Greater Glasgow.

It was a bit of a struggle but I managed to find five acts (of varying quality) to feature today. I have not included the most famous singer from the country namely the recently sadly departed Bobby Farrell of Boney M fame

Lets kick off with Padu del Caribe who it seems is a legand and the father of Aruban culture. For those of you interested here is a fairly detaild Bio..His offering today is the song Arubanita.

Next up are the band Tsunami who apparently had a Euro Tour in 2024. Their song Blessings features reggae artist Blaka Dan.

It seems that Jeon is more than an artist - he is one of Aruba's strongest musical exports .Today's offering is the Spanish version of Caya Ta Papia

Vince Irie is a singer-songwriter born and raised on Aruba.He gained notoriety in The Netherlands when he appeared on the 4th season of The Voice of Holland in 2014. Here he is with the song Unfaithful featuring Ashwin Jaydee.

Finally , the one you have all been waiting for Wally Warning. Ewald "Wally" Warning was an Aruban roots reggae, ragga, gospel and Latin singer who lived in Munich, He sadly passed away in September 2025.

That's your lot. We are back in Africa next time round.

Padu Del Caribe - Arubanita

Tsunami (ft Blaka Ban) - Blessings

Jeon - Caya Ta Papia

Vince Irie (ft. Ashwin Jaydee) - Unfaithful

Wally Warning- E Ta Guia Mi

Oh go on then

Boney M - Nightflight To Venus

Talk About Country

 

A few days ago I was typing up a couple of posts for the blog. As background music I had an MP3 stick playing as background music

Something called Talk About Country popped up and it threw me completely. I had absolutely no recollection as to how ,where or when it came into my orbit. Old Age doesn't come itself.

Some detective work was clearly required. Hiting the search function on the laptop quickly did the trick and I was directed to Bandcamp where said album appeared and was attributed to an act called Legends of Country.

Thank you whoever was responsible for forwarding this in my direction.

Legends of Country -Talk About Country

Legends of Country - As Country As They Come

I-Pod Playlist - Jail

 

Unfortunately the Playlist has sent us to Jail this week - do not pass go, do not collect £200.

When it comes to Jail songs I suspect that for most of you the name Johnny Cash is one of the first names that springs to mind .

No Folsom Prison or San Quentin for you today but rather the less well known Starkville City Jail.

If he's unfortunate, like the Robins, he may end up spending Ten Days in Jail.

Next we have the words that surely every parent dreads - "Dad, I'm in Jail" Second only to "Dad, I like Bono"

If that's the case a quick phone call to Thin Lizzy to organise a Jailbreak might be in order.

We go from Jail to Jesus for next week's playlist

Johnny Cash - Starkville City Jail

The Robins - Ten Days In Jail

Was (Not Was) - Dad, I'm in Jail

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

Lips, Inc.

 

Welcome to Lippy Monday with a few lip related songs.

For no reason whatsoever other than it popped into my head over the weekend

I've resisted the temptation to include Funky Town by Lipps,Inc as the lip bit features in the act's name as opposed to the song and to include it would blow my chances of a follow up post.

Let's start with the Fun Boy Three and their song Our Lips Are Sealed. I'll spare you from the Urdu version.

Next up are Pulp with Lipgloss a song from their 1994 album His'n'Hers. 32 years ago, bloody hell

Even older is Lipstick by the Buzzcocks which was the b-side to the single Promises in 1978 and is also included on 1979's epic compilation Singles Going Steady.

We conclude with Louisville Lip by Freakwater:

Louisville Lip focuses on one alleged  incident  from the  life of Louisville's most famous citizen Muhammad Ali.  In 1960, Ali returned home to Louisville, Kentucky from winning the light heavyweight gold medal in the Summer Olympics in Rome.  Yet, the 18-year-old faced discrimination in his hometown. Reportedly, after being refused service at a restaurant, Ali threw his gold medal into the Ohio River.

Stay tuned to CCM for more lip smaking tunes and the occassional cultural history reference

Fun Boy Three -Our Lips Are Sealed

Pulp - Lip Gloss

Buzzcocks - Lipstick

Freakwater - Louisville Lip

Loose -New Sounds Of The Old West Volume Two

 

Welcome to the 30th in this series of Americana Compilations.I'm in two minds whether to stop here or to carry on as there are still a good few in the tank. Comments welcome.

From the year 2000 this is the second Volume of Loose Records - New Sounds of the Old West. They were very much the UK leaders when it came to Americana

If you look at the tracklist and you are following this series or indeed this Blog over the years you will recognise many of the artists. 2000 to 2002 were probably the peak years for Americana for me.

A dozen of the 17 tracks were in contention to feature but that would be somewhat presumptuous. Three it is then and 3 acts who are no strangers to these pages.

Let's go for the order they appear on the CD.First up we have Jim White with 10 Miles To Go on a 9 Mile Road which is a track on 2001's No Such Place on the Luaka Bop label his second and probably best album.

Another CC favourite next in the form of Peter Bruntnell .Again a song from his second album namely Darling I Suppose from Normal For Bridgwater.

I'm not sure whether I've seen Giant Sand or not but I have definitely seen front man Howie Gelb.The song Astonished (In Memphis) from their album Core of Enchantment.

We may or may not catch up again next Sunday.

Jim White - 10 Miles to Go on a 9 Mile Road

Peter Bruntnell - Darling I Suppose

Giant Sand - Astonished (In Memphis)

Saturday Shuffle 140

 

It is getting harder to come up with new songs for the Shuffle.

Songs by Little Richard, Gene Clark and Julian Cope were ruled out on the grounds that they have appeared in the series before.

I must add some more songs.

The first act to pop up with a song that has never appeared on the Shuffle were Simple Minds with Love Song.

It's a bit of a Weegie fest this week as the next shuffled song which has not featured before was Do You Wont To by Franz Ferdinand.

The third song to pop up was An Elegant Chaos by Julian Cope. Beautiful Love had popped up earlier but has featured before but the Arch Drude was not going to be denied.

Sparks remained on the substitute's bench and were not called into action.

Simple Minds - Love Song

Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To

Julian Cope - An Elegant Chaos

Over The Silvery Lake

 

About a month or so ago George texted me to say that he was listening to Over The Silvery Lake the 2016 debut album by The Hanging Stars.

I have a download of it and this was the gentle push for me to dig it out and to give it a long overdue listen.

I then discovered that it had been re-released in a vinyl format and it was a no brainer to upgrade it.

While "researching" for this post I have just discovered that they will be releasing their 6th album Just a Day, which will feature Gerard Love of Teenage Fanclub fame, on June 29th. It is available to pre-order on Bandcamp but I think I'll wait and give one of my local record shops some business

The Hanging Stars -I'm No Good Without You

The Hanging Stars - For a While

The Hanging Stars - The Hanging Stars

Blog Country 139 - Montenegro

 

We are off to the Balkans this time around with Montenegro a small mountainous country on the Adriatic Sea with  a population of 633,158. It is a relatively new country having gained its independence as a republic following the break up of Yugoslavia in 2006

Let's  post the acts in alphabetical order starting with some Montenegrin hip-hop (as you do ) courtesy of the band Barka Stoka which translates as Livestock from the town of Bar. Here the offer up the song Obavjestenga.

Next up is drummer and singer Aleksandra Prelević Palladino known professionally as Dolce Hera . Her contribution is Repeat.

Our third act is the Montenegrin Rock band NeonoeN who were originally scheduled to represent their country at Eurovision in 2025 but later withdrew due to a controversy over having previously performed their song in June 2023.I'm not sure what the song was, perhaps it was Merkur i Venera.

Nikolle Nikprelaj  is an Albanian  singer but is included here as he is  from Tuzi in Montenegro. Here he preforms the song O Prishtina pritna se po vina which trips lightly of the tongue 

Our penultimate offering is the Cetinge rock band Perper who are one of the country's most popular bands. I'll let you decide whether Niz Tvojo Leda justifies this claim.

Vesnai Zmijanac  is lined up as my final act. She is one of the most popular singers from the former Yugoslavia.. She is listed as being from Serbia but was born in Montenegro so she therefore counts. Kazni Me, kazni translates as Punish Me, Punish.

Next time around I will be punishing you with music from a country that I'd never heard of until now.

Barka Stoka- Obavjestenje

Dolce Hera - Repeat

NeonoeN - Merker i Venera

Nikolle Nikprelaj - O Prishtina pritna se po vina

Perper - Niz Tvojo leda

Vesnai Zmijanac - Kazni Me, kazni