Since it is 1st December and nothing new of any note likely to come out between now and end of year thought I would be first up to post a top 20. This in no particular order but probably fair to say those at very top of list are my favourites:-

Hiss Golden Messenger – Halleleujah Anyhow Conor Oberst – Ruminations Baxter Dury – Prince of Tears Four Tet – New Energy Kevin Morby – City Music David Rawlings – Poor Davids Almanac John Moreland – Big bad Luv Zara McFarlane – Arise Jason Isbell – The Nashville Sound Ray Davies – Americana Penguin Cafe – The imperfect Sea Chuck Prophet – Bobby Fuller died for your sins Blue Rose Code – The water of Leith Curse of Lono – Severed Randy Newman – Dark Matter Lucinda Williams – Sweet Old World (2017) Ian Felice – Kingdom of Dreams St.Vincent – Masseduction Rodney Crowell – Close Ties John Murry – A short history of decay.

This morning we received a notice from Lichfield District council that from 1/1/2018 if we want our Garden waste collected we will have to pay £36.00 per year. The amount isn’t excessive but I have a big problem with how this has been introduced without any discussion and an assumption has been made that households will pay the fee as it is troublesome to take the waste to the tip ourselves. I believe it is the thin end of the wedge as if this is accepted there will be an assumption next that general waste and plastics etc can also be charged for without any dissension. Fuckers. Any other council adopting this stance?

If there was any doubt that Ian McNabb can’t write a great song this should dispel it:-

https://youtu.be/Hy7LTdL_ulw

Sharon has a posthumous album just released ‘Soul of a woman” which is rather splendid.

This song from it is very catchy with great horns:

We were in London on Friday to attend a University open day for my daughter and her friend. They wanted to go shopping afterwards and we agreed to split up and meet back at our car in Perivale at 6pm. My wife and I were travelling on the Central Line train back to the car at around 5.10pm and the driver announced that Oxford Circus station was closed due to an on going police investigation. We didn’t think anything more of it until we got to East Acton which is overground and thus our mobile phones were working. We received a frantic call from our greatly distressed daughter telling us there had been a terrorist incident and they were locked in the Reiss store just round the corner from Selfridges. Naturally we got back on the train in the direction of Bond Street the nearest tube station even though we understood it to be closed at that time. We decided to exit at Marble Arch but thankfully just as we were about to exit the station one of the members of staff told us Bond Street had just re-opened. So back on the train and we were eventually safely reunited » Continue Reading.

A story in the paper yesterday that a mother has contacted her 6 year old sons school and asked them to stop showing the Sleeping Beauty film to the kids because it condones sexual advances on sleeping ladies without their consent. Seriously what the fuck is happening to our society.

Holier than thou pious crap of the highest order.

What next banning Jack and the Beanstalk because the Giant is racist to Englishmen?

Was listening to the excellent Tim Buckley complete album collection and in particular the song Pleasant Street which lead me to think how many songs have street names in? There must be 100’s. They can have a made up name or an actual name and I will accept roads, avenues and boulevards as long as they have names. So for example Van Morrison’s On Hyndford Street and Elvis Costello’s Rocking Horse Road are allowed but most definitely not U2’s Where the streets have no name. So over to you guys.

A couple of times in the last week in Uncut and Mojo I have seen references to Yacht Rock. What the fuck is it, who invented it and can someone give me some examples of it?

In the excellent Uncut Ultimate Guide to Steely Dan I have learned much about this wonderful band that I wasn’t already aware of. When David Palmer left after Can’t buy a thrill they lined up a number of possible replacements before they decided that Donald should perform the vocal duties. One of these was rather surprisingly Gerry Rafferty. Thank God they lost his number.

Those wonderful people at Soul Jazz records are releasing the third in this series of Krautrock compilations. If it matches the first two its a nice Christmas present. Coming out 1st December.

This afternoon I went out in the car. As I turned the engine on I selected the Four txt album New Energy to accompany on my journey. Halfway down the lane there was a Mitsubishi SUV parked on the side of the road with the reg B4 TET. I mean seriously what are the chances?

but they sometimes do good compilations. This months Krautrock compilation is fabulous.

As my mum lives reasonably close to my office I usually pop in for a bacon sandwich once a week. Following the bacon sandwich and to accompany my cup of tea she usually asks me if I would like a bar of chocolate. They are stored in a Tupperware container and last week her selection included Fry’s Peppermint Cream bars. It is so long since I saw these that I had assumed there had stop making them. I have to say it was a delight. But the question is whatever happened to the Fry’s Five Centre bar?

Shamelessly I am posting this in the hope that I get some good recommendations. Ordinarily most of my reading is fiction but I have phases of reading biographical/autobiographical books and get a lot of enjoyment out of the good ones.

Over the years the ones I recall enjoying most are:- Bob Geldof – Is that it? Viv Nicholson – Spend,spend, spend. Miles Davis – The autobiography with Quincy Troupe.

Also an honourable mention for Strange affair – the biography about Richard Thompson by Patrick Humphreys.

So recommendations please or if you prefer just your favourites if you don’t mind another list post.

The war on Drugs as far as i know is a band and not just Adam Granduciel even though I admit he is most influential on their albums. Listening to the new one it struck me that only he appears on the cover and on the inside cover – there is a small concession on then lyric sheet where a photo of thew whole band appears. Have the other members of the band allowed him to assume this leader position and are the okay wirth it? Is it an ego trip on his part? Not a bad album by the way.

Hi fellow AW’ers. Any of you read any of the Varoufakis books? Saw his latest in Waterstones this week and it looks like an illuminating read. Should I start with this one or his earlier tomes? Or abandon any ideas of reading any of them?

I set my self a challenge of playing a minimum of 3 cd’s every weekend that I haven’t played for a year. This weekend I played Bobby Charles – Last train to Memphis,Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s harvest and Michelle Shocked – Captain swing. Michelle Shocked sounding great – she is an odd one. Seen her live twice – Excellent at one gig and shambolically awful at another. Still love her though.

Tony Christie of Amarillo fame lives in Lichfield. Apparently when he goes into the local chippie he gets some vinegar from the pickled egg jar for his wife. Wonder if he has that on his rider when he tours?

Fuck me you can get easily mixed up in this music malarkey.

Steely Span or Steeleye Dan. Thurston Moore or Scott Thurston. Bryan Adams or Ryan Adams. Michael Chapman or Mike Chapman (Chinn and Chapman). Its a positive minefield I tell you.

Any more mix ups out there?

I think Millie Jackson had one of there great soul voices and should have been much bigger than she was. Controversial song subjects probably put paid to that. Here she is in splendid voice:

Last night I heard by off chance that Jimmy LaFave died 2 weeks ago. He was graced with a fantastic voice and aside from his own songs he was a fabulous interpreter particularly of Dylan. I was in Austin for SXSW last year and was honoured to see him perform an amazing show at the Saxon pub with my mate @Baron harkonnen and another friend. We were blessed to see him that night.

I stumbled on this on Youtube, recorded 3 days before he died and at a concert for his benefit. Watch it until the end – it is unbelievably poignant.

Rest easy Jimmy.