Some Bonnie Music

Last Friday night I was in the music room listening to Rickie Ross presenting the excellent Another Country on BBC Radio Scotland. Mrs CC was watching TV in the other room.
When a particular song finished I heard a shout from next door "Who was that singing? It's very good"
"That was Bonnie Prince Billy" I replied. "I've got a couple of his albums"
"Well you never play them" came the retort.
And do you know what she was right (indeed Mrs CC, like most women, is right even when she's wrong)

So time to rectify that anomaly.Here is the bearded wonder with a couple of tracks from his excellent 2001 album on Domino records Ease Down The Road proving that less is often more.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Careless Love

Bonnie Prince Billy - At Break of Day

Face The West

You were very nearly getting Oletta Adams today.
I was standing at the counter of a sale of work in the Caledonian Hotel, Ullapool with a meagre amount of change in one hand and an Oletta Adams CD in the other when I was persuaded by the  silver tongued gent behind the counter that I would be far better off purchasing Edge of Reason a 2000 album by Face the West

Face the West is/are seven young men from the Isle of Lewis who in 2000 had an average age of 18 and who play traditional Scottish music.

The Isle of Lewis is famous for the Lewis Chessmen and for being the last place in Britain where the Sabbath is  rigorously observed by the vast majority of the population.
Everything is closed on a Sunday and they even used to go as far as chaining up the swings as Heaven forfend it wouldn't do to have the weans enjoying themselves.

The bunch of weans on this record however appear to be particularly enjoying themselves.

Face The West - No Sheep Here

Face The West - Eilean Beag Donn a Chuain

Albums I Haven't Listened To In Over 30 Years - Moonflower

I'm sure that we all have albums in our collections which we have not listened to in  a number of years.
I have gone for a short series of those I have not listened to for over 30 years and in some cases for considerably longer.
It is a relatively short series as many of the albums I bought at the time were on pre-recorded cassette and  are currently rotting in a landfill somewhere.
The first culprit is Moonflower a 1977 album by Santana.
Carlos and the boys churn out some Latin percussion and jazz fusion over four sides in an album that features a drum solo -FFS!
I obviously haven't listened to the whole thing but gave their cover of the Zombies She's Not There and the instrumental Zulu which I remember quite liking at the time a quick blast.
Actually these two tracks weren't as bad as I thought that they may be.
I am still eternally grateful, however, that punk came along and saved us from all this!

Santana - She's Not There

Santana - Zulu

A Right Couple of Jesses

This week I have had the urge to post some Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.
Now as every blogger knows it is foolish to ignore such urges.
So with this in mind I looked out Treats a  sampler from Barsuk Records which includes the brilliant Lonely Still and Reckless Burning.
They played ok on the hi-fi but for some strange reason my burning software would not recognise the disc.

Time for Plan B - the only other Jesse Sykes I appear to have is the track The Dreaming Dead from Americana 2004 one of the many splendid Uncut Americana compilations.
And as an added bonus as luck would have it Jesse Malin is also on this CD with Mona Lisa so you are getting two Jesses for the price of one

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter - The Dreaming Dead

Jesse Malin - Mona lisa

Hospital Tales

Dirk on the ever excellent Sexy Loser has a new toy - some mixtape software.
If you ask him nicely he will happily make you a mix with a theme of your choice.
The Robster requested a hospital themed mix and Dirk duly obliged with his usual terrific taste.
 Dirk is a generous guy who invites feedback from his readers
When one or two, myself included, politely suggested a couple of other songs which could be included he went to trouble of producing an updated mix.
It was suggested that Take Me Down to the Hospital by The Replacements  from their Hootenanny album be included and he included this in the mix.
They also had Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out from their great 1984 album Let it Be.

It looks as though my requested mix is next on his list and I can hardly wait!

The Replacements - Take Me Down To The Hospital

The Replacements - Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out

Some Sunday Soul

It's two birds with the one stone time with one of my recent holiday purchases featuring on the Sunday Soul slot.
So Natural from 1993 was the third studio album by Rochdale's finest  Lisa Stansfield.
She wasn't an artist that I got into at the time but I have recently picked up a couple of her albums on my charity shop trawls.
The album reached number 6 in the UK charts but wasn't released in the States.
It has more ballads on it than her previous dance-pop orientated records.
The title track So Natural is the first track on the album and in my opinion is head and shoulders above the rest.
Never Set Me Free is probably the pick of the rest of the songs.
After a few years in the wilderness Lisa has just released Seven her 7th album (surprisingly) and her first release for a decade.

Lisa Stansfield - So Natural

Lisa Stansfield - Never Set Me Free

Saturday Lucky Dip

Was there ever a more laddish band than Rod Stewart and the Faces?
Pool Hall Richard which reached no 8 in an 11 week run in the UK singles charts in 1973 features on this week lucky dip album Uncut's Unconditionally Guaranteed  October 1999 as part of a Greatest Hits compilation Good Boys ... When They're Asleep The Best of the Faces released in that year.
All Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the song as "unremarkable". He's wrong there

How do you follow The Faces?
With a beautiful song by Shelby Lynne  from her I am Shelby Lynne album and Nick Lowe performing an audition for Swiss Adam's eternal Friday Night Rockabilly series. That's how.

The Faces -Pool Hall Richard

Shelby Lynne - Black Lite Blue

Nick Lowe -I'm Coming Home