What does it sound like?:

This record should come with a health warning along the lines “Contains tunes, choruses and hooks that will become embedded in your psyche, that will catch you unawares by springing to life at any time of day or night”.

Your Life Is A Record has been out for about six weeks now, but as it has become such a huge favourite in our house I felt I needed to share the love for it.

This is Brandy’s third studio album. Given that her first, 12 Stories came out in 2013, she’s not churning out material at any great rate. What that indicates, and that this collection of 11 songs amply demonstrates, is that she believes in quality not quantity. A thick seam of 24 carat gold permeates this record. One indicator for me of its excellence is that my wife will sing along with songs she especially likes (thankfully, unlike me, she has a good voice and can keep in tune) and I reckon I’ve heard her sing along to every song here.

Both 12 Stories and 2016’s Big Day In A Small Town presented songs that have similarities to Randy Newman (more of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Here are the facts – this is a live recording of Judy Dyble and the Band Of Perfect Strangers. They are accompanied by the Ad Hoc strings. The performance was at St Barnabas’s Church in Cambridge, in September 2016.

I thought I had heard very little of Judy’s work. I’m sure I have heard her album as a member of Fairport Convention and probably some Trader Horne. Beyond that I thought I was ignorant, but according to Wikipedia (I don’t have any biography or sleeve notes to go with this) she retired from music in 1973, with a few appearances at Fairport reunions being her sole output until she returned to the music business in 2003. So it seems that there is not that much of a gap in my knowledge given that much of her catalogue since 2003 has only had limited release. Looking at Discogs the eight albums she has made since she returned in 2003 have been released on fairly obscure, independent labels.

So, potted history aside, what’s the album like, you want to know.

Can a record be too polite? In a song titled Silence, Judy sings (albeit with respect » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

At the age of 80 (she hit that milestone last May), at a time when some of her contemporaries are losing their voices and their creative wellspring is running dry, Judy Collins has produced a late career gem.

No doubt she would maintain her voice is not what it was, and I’m sure it must have lost some of the power of years long gone, yet it still sounds absolutely gorgeous, full of richness and pitched absolutely beautifully.

This collection is a collaboration, like her last release from a couple of years ago, Everybody Knows. This time, instead of the star billing with Stephen Stills, she is collaborating with the not particularly well known Jonas Fjeld. Chatham County Line also contribute, and I understand Fjeld has been a regular collaborator with them in recent years.

He sings in quite a husky baritone. He doesn’t have the greatest range, but he he contrasts nicely with Judy and they combine together to excellent effect. Let’s face it, Judy proved she can accommodate herself to all sorts, when she pioneered singing acapella along with the songs of humpback whales many years back on Farewell To Tarwathie.

Ostensibly » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I was very fond of Greenslade in the early 1970s.

I first saw them supporting Rory Gallagher. It seemed a bizarre combination – Greenslade a band consisting of two keyboard players, bass and drums supporting a guitar hero. It was a double bill of convenience as both acts were managed by Gaff Management (more notable for managing Rod and The Faces) and at the time it seemed a strange line-up, though in retrospect I now think it was eminently sensible. After all, what guitarist wants to front a band, only to be shown up by the brilliance of Rory half an hour later?

Anyway this album brings together a mostly good selection taken from Greenslade’s four studio albums (though not necessarily my choice – for instance from the Bedside Manners Are Extra album, I would have selected Chalkhill ahead of Time To Dream).

Let’s get the negative aspect out of the way first; that being Dave Lawson’s vocals. While never the strongest singer, when I listened back in the 1970s I don’t recall being bothered by them at all, but now, especially when he strays out of his natural range, I find him grating, » Continue Reading.