,

DARK ENOUGH TO SEE THE STARS

I tend to go to the desert every year, down on the border by Terralingua, and just sort of make a big deal out of being under the stars and experiencing It wholeheartedly. I think the idea is that we can’t see the stars in our normal day-to-day experiences, because we’re not looking. But when something knocks us off our regular life—and oftentimes that is some kind of a struggle or a painful event—we begin to get more introspective. I think it’s a metaphor for that. 
,

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: the gemology of Shawn Colvin

Colvin was recognized for her career accomplishments when she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award at the 2016 Americana Honors and Awards Show. Presenting her with this prestigious award was Bonnie Raitt, who said Said Raitt, ´She’s simply one of the best singers I’ve ever heard — and a truly gifted and deep songwriter and guitarist… She was ground-breaking when she emerged and continues to inspire me and the legions of fans and other singer/songwriters coming up in her wake´.

Steve Earle: RESPECTING THE SONG and its practitioners

long after he broke into the alt-country business with his definitive Guitar Town debut from 1986, Steve Earle went on to pay dutiful tribute via collections of covers that tipped the hat to his crucial tutors, who look barely out of their teens themselves

UNDER MILK WOOD there are words beyond language

Blake returned to, and abandoned, the project multiple times until the 1990s, before embarking on the series in earnest: "As soon as I decided to illustrate Under Milk Wood, I researched it, read it and listened to it again and again. I still play it a couple of times a week and read it once a month. I've always treated it as a separate piece of work. I work on Under Milk Wood at home in the evening. It's almost like a 'separate me' doing it."

the return of GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL

The 36th Glasgow Jazz Festival brings its annual supply of world class musicians and upcoming superstars to the city’s already vibrant jazz scene. Glasgow will be transformed with a wealth of home-grown and international jazz talent from Thursday 16th until Sunday 19th June 2022.
,

MARLENE BEWICK; meanders down Memory Lane

The voluntary sector was very strong in Rochdale and they too deserve massive credit for they work they did, of course
,

How we celebrated CANARY ISLANDS DAY

The lighting was angled in to  nooks and crannies around the square and up into the trees, and as the wind gently skittered the leaves and branches it was if we were looking up into the sky in a trippy, Beatle-esque magical Mystery tour kind of way.

RADIO AND  HOT BISCUITS WITH BEWICK

Because I have a jazz friend who works with a club called the Hanoi Jazz Lovers, who has promoted my show to her members, I have quite a following in Vietnam

AND LARRY YASKIEL IS AWARDED …..

Larry Yaskiel, who founded one of the oldest English-language publications in Spain, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the British Community in Lanzarote, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, published on Thursday 2 June 2022. 

Day 5 of our Ledanear to Song in-print Festival THE ALCHEMY OF CREATIVITY

the best practical and academic advice i have ever been given about the art process was succinct enough to be an acronym (CIP), standing for copy, innovate, practice. I have always felt that if read as Kip, that acronym would imply that not only should we copy, innovate and practice we should sleep perchance to dare to dream