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CONCORD OF SWEET SOUNDS

Sidetracks & Detours hope to introduce you to many of the artists who have performed for RMS since the founding of the organisation in 1980.
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T Bone Burnett Finds The Other Side

he blues element flavors all the songs on The Other Side, sometimes subtly, sometimes obviously.
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LISTEN OUT FOR LAVERY ON THE JAZZ SCENE

With influences spanning jazz, neo-soul, and samba, Lavery's sound defies categorization, promising a musical landscape that's as unpredictable as it is enthralling.
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WILLIE NELSON AND HIS GUITAR

Willie Nelson’s talent as a genre-bending musical artist is undeniably special
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A BOOK FOR THE (VAMPIRE) WEEKEND:

there is a novel of that name and that too has garnered compliments.
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ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US

Vampire Weekend also riffs on their own past cleverly with "Mary Boone," an update on their choral ballads named for the influential gallery owner imprisoned for offenses connected to tax fraud, and "The Surfer," which continues the legacy of Modern Vampires of the City's "Hudson" with its mournful allusions to famous waters (in this case, the Water Tunnel 3 project). The band balances all of this looking back with a significant step forward: making peace with the existential questions they raised on their previous albums. Nowhere is this move towards acceptance more apparent than on the closing track "Hope." Steady where the rest of the album is volatile, its eight-minute litany would be crushing if it wasn't for the liberation Koenig finds in admitting "Our enemy's invincible/I had to let it go." Similarly, the ease with which the band raises the bar is equally impressive and appealing. Only God Was Above Us isn't just a great album in its own right -- it's one that enriches the understanding of Vampire Weekend's entire history.
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GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living

Norman Warwick learns from Paste mail-in: GRATEFUL DEAD influencing the living “I remember the sound of his laugh and the mixture of smoke and whatever aftershave,” says Sam Grisman, recalling Jerry Garcia in his living room.…
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BRASS BANDING up North

Thom Bamford, in a written essay in a recent I Love Manchester  newsletter, says that Brass Banding is a rich and deep tradition across the north of England and a huge deal across parts of Greater Manchester.
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HALF A CENTURY AGO:

when Paste published its review of the albums of fifty years ago and announced they had selected thirty great albums I was somewhat sceptical. I couldn´t believe that what I consider to have been a year in the musical wilderness could have produced that number of great albums.