Eh? My AW is today riddled with requirements to type in odd words, due to “unusual use”. I sense we have been hacked, AW, not me. Anyone else?

Recently there was some to and fro around whether life is long enough to allow re-appraisal of music deemed earlier of being below par. The overriding was that it wasn’t, and that, once dissed, never should the chance to reconsider be worth the energy and effort. strangely, I am in the position of owning the first two albums by Django Django, the Scots/Irish/Anglo combo, who actually have notched up 5 albums since 2021. At the time I recall I thought the debut lacked some lustre, smacking of a Moody Blues with access to a modern studio and al the tricks therein. I had been buoyed in by the reviews. I can’t explain why I then bought the second, especially as I thought the same. I don’t even like the Moody Blues. I am on a re-burning project, after the great crash of 2022 (my great crash of 2022, as my MacBook died, ingloriously), taking also the time to get rid of superfluous. Fully intending to get rid, I listened again. Both records are quite good. Better even, I rather like both. So there!

OK, we, mostly, “know” each other, back to front and side to side, a 20 year shared history, our peccadilloes and our prejudices all well aired.. But, we pretend, sure, we pretend, still to be cutting at that harsh edge of modernity, be it popular, populist or preposterous. Or not, many still chowing down on heritage gruel, Merseyside or Mekong adjacent, but, here’s a thing. Who would be the single artist, band or conceptual consequence you could not live without? I’m going to say R.E.M. You. (Don’t all say Beatles band.)

Summer really is icumen in, so time to get the tent out the garage, air the sleeping bag and review your set of heritage Ts, it’s festival season!! I’m kicking off with Bearded Theory, in a fortnight, ahead of New Forest, Sidmouth and, fingers crossed Beautifyl Days? Anyone coming! Or what and where are your tips and favourites? And, for the naysayers, is there any single performer you would sleep in a field to see, eating noodles off a cardboard plate, supping ale from a recyclable glass(deposit included in first purchase)?

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I don’t know how the fb bots do it, but they sent me this. And it’s fandabodozi!!!!!

…. Is what the wife calls the pedal steel guitar, that evocative mix of soaring beauty and lazy cliche, unfairly lumped always in with country. To be fair, it can be a wondrous centrepiece to country, and I love it therein, but offers so much more. Good old BJ Cole is as responsible as any for the genre diversity it can be applied to, adding his mellifluous tones to classical, jazz, electronica and ambient, but suddenly there are players popping up all over the place, in all sorts of settings. Here is a new favourite, David Murphy. If you have seen the Delines, or Richmond Fontaine, before that, this side of the pond, chances are he will have been the fella on steel, depping for the non-travelling Tucker Jackson. He’s Irish, and has decided steel is just what trad and Irish classical needs. See below.

Just this. (See below)

That RT certainly knows how to bring back lapsing penitents. I was of the view to sit out the forthcoming tour, in part down to the conflated ticket prices, telling myself I’ve seen him a zillion times, or thereabouts. And the he announces his UK band. Michael Jerome has his own project now, but Taras Unpronounceable remains on bass. Mrs T3, Zara, remains 2nd vocals. So @niallb ‘s would be alter ego, Dave Mattacks is back, and instead of his guitar roadie sidling on and sitting in the shadows for 2nd gutsr, it’s only Zak Hobbs taking that role. He is the son of RTs only non musical child with Linda, and has clearly learnt at the feet of Gramps. I saw him play with his Auntie Kami in her band, The Rails, back in 2016 at Cambridge, and he is a right chip off the old block, giving his Uncle James Walbourne a good run for his money. Now I wanna go!! (There are loads of sons playing with their Dads in bands these days; is this a first grandson?)

A sideline discussion piece, really, triggered by @kaisfatdad and his big band thread. String quartets got a mention and set me thinking about the role of string sections in pop, rock, folk, jazz, even blues.(See the vid!) Done well it is glorious, with that glory more often exception than the rule. Think back to just about all pop music of the 60s, where a full orchestra was the norm, bolted on about as subtly and melodically as a fish nailed to a bicycle. So bad I still have a mortal fear of ranked violins in most settings. Yet, when done well, with nuance and care, not just replicating the main theme but louder, it is wonderful. The Walkabouts album with the Warsaw Symphony Orch, as mentioned by @fentonsteve , is one, anything orchestrated by Robert Kirby another. (Nick Drake) There is a Scottish violinist, Senaid Aitken, who I also rate highly for the string arrangements she can lavish upon music, adding way more than just volume. Look out for her name; I think she was responsible for the strings for AW favourite Gretchen Peters. Anothe name always guaranteeing great arrangements is Fiachra » Continue Reading.

Desperately seeking etc…… Does anyone own this very rare album, by late 20th century duo, Occasionally David, a complete cover album of Love’s Forever Changes. Only 300 copies were ever produced, on vinyl. There seem no eel market accessible files, mp3 presence on Spotify and that ilk, YouTube links or indeed much trace at all. (Yes, I can pay north of £30 for a record to be sent from Germany, by Discogs, but don’t really need or want that amount of physical.) I am doing a pice about cover versions of the songs on Forever Changes, and it is the last piece in my jigsaw. Maybe the good Baron, aka @andyourbirdcansing ? I am looking for, cough, a review copy in MP3 format if possible. (And yes, I have contacted, or tried to contact, Both the record company concerned and each of the two individuals who made up the band, Clive Whitelock and Ray Bate, neither of whom have any recent online/social media presence.)

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Erstwhile parishioner Tim Robinson, faithful correspondent of the Mancs live scene, has an alter ego as half an electronica duo, Nightdubbing. They have just released an album. It is good. Here were my thoughts, lifted from elsewhere. Lets show him some love! (Or downloads!?!)

“Well this is a bit different, mindful the At the Barrier badge of eclecticism seldom strays into what might get labelled dance/electronica. But, then again, does this either, being more a bleary-eyed stagger into the chill out room? Commonly labelled as Balearica, this sort of music gets increasingly a bad name, not least through the cack-handed opportunism of record companies bandwagon jumping, with hastily cobbled together compilations and concoctions, often little more than some beats over some languid background music. (Harsh? You must know what I mean.) But when done well, thinking of early Café del Mar and Claud Challe’s Buddha Bar releases, it can be something to relish, along with any necessary sundowner of need or choice. (Dawn-upper??)

First things first, however, as, despite even the duo responsible, Tim Robinson and Carl Emery, describing this fourth release as “Balearic Disco Dub with Shoegaze Sonics,” at least one of them has never set foot on the » Continue Reading.

Anyone, like me, finding the shutters slowly coming down on the on-line Guardian? Having been an avid devoured of their “cpoy” over the years, increasingly via the app, if still reliably purchasing the Saturday one and the Observer. For the last few years I have come to learn how to “yes, later” their pop up pleas to subscribe, now blocked for 10 days, having overshot an arbitrary limit. Not really a complaint, per se, more a wistful observation. Not as if you can read owt else much for free….

And so it goes, the vainglorious ask if anyone is Shroppy bound soon, for the w/e leading up to the bank holiday. It’s the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, dont’cha know. Less adventurous line up than Cambo, but it’s a good venue and has a nice vibe. I’m expecting to meet up with the good @thecheshirecat , it being one of his singing and colliding weekends of merit. (Colliding? English for gracing a ceilidh) Joachim Cooder looks a wild card, and I look forward to Hanging Stars, amongst the standard folkier fare, a broad brush encompassing Oysterband, Blue Rose Code, Leveret and Talisk. Anyone else coming?

https://shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/line-up/who-is-on-when/

So, having hoovered* out the tent, it’s time to load up the back pack and head off to Cherry Hinton park again, a week and a day tomorrow, for, Cambo, as nobody calls it. A very good line up indeed, methinks, as well as, spit, the Proclaimers. Anyone in for a wassail? *not really; it’s still in the car boot….

https://www.google.com/search?q=Cambridge%20Folk%20Festival%20line%20up&tbm=isch#imgrc=F5IMr0qxxnKW_M&imgdii=1lr-47sIBzqViM

Further to the recent post about air, guitar, air bass, air drums etc etc, this woman surely wears the crown!!!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0djYSyS4k3vjnyKKV4tcmpgeqYVa3P1BNWy9m3qSqBjvukVoexMVmWG6PtAuL1HCcl&id=728602094

If you love music, I don’t really think Glastonbury is for you. At least, I now know it isn’t for me. It reminds me, in a way, of a decent pub, cosy and convenient, with a good choice of attractive features. BUT on New Years Eve. So rammed with incomers/amateurs, intent on doing the pub experience as “large” (sic) as they can, making sure also everyone knows it. Thousands of the fuckers. Disclaimer, this wasn’t my first time, if certainly my last. I went a couple of times in the early 90’s, when it was a much smaller event, altogether more contained and less corporate. Feral and edgy even, with peace and love mixing freely with drugs and threat. Loved it, I think, but the change between 93 and 94 was already apparent, the size seeming to double overyear (and that wasn’t the fence jumpers!) This time I had blagged a press pass, saving me a wedge I am glad to have saved, along with certain “advantages” in the camping and, um, facilities, for which, at 66, I am grateful. “Don’t like music?” But there is so much on offer. For sure, and that is the rub, with a 100 » Continue Reading.

Well it’s coming up again soon, wondering if anyone can be arsed/can afford to go. Me, I am, after bagging a press pass, go me, making it 29 years since I darkened their fields. Can’t say the line up is all that appealing, at least to an old folker like me; Cambridge and Shrewsbury looking a lot better. But hey, any recommendations around what/who not to miss? And, anyone up for a mini-mingle?

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/line-up/line-up-2023/?stage

The logical next step! If we can only have 8 albums, how about some compilation/greatest hits. Clearly, some may be doubles and are allowed…. Richard Thompson/Guitar, Vocal Byrds/History of REM/Best of (the IRS version) Robert Plant/Digging Deep: Subterranea Rolling Stones/Forty Licks Flying Burrito Bros/Close Up the Honky Tonks Teenage Fanclub/4766 Seconds Massive Attack/Collected