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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. 
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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

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.

day 4 of our Lendanear To Song in-print Festival: TAKE IT EASY, JACK EASY

Certainly after saying elsewhere on these pages this week that song-writers always seemed to me reluctant to discuss their methodology I have found, in researching Alan Bell´s biographical  items on line that he seemed to be the exception to that rule.

Day 3 of our Lendanear To Song in-print Festival: ACCIDENTS HAPPEN

Another song we recorded on that debut album was Doing The Spacewalk, a sweet little love song of three eight line verses with no bridge and no chorus, but with a compelling, driving guitar riff from Colin. We listened to Helen add her gorgeous vocals and told her how grateful we were as she stepped back out of the booth. We nipped back in and immediately begged Dave to distort the hell out of what we had just heard. He added echo and applied fade and fluffers and tweeters and all manner of stuff, until it sounded like Helen was hearing Colin´s lines from across the universe and was repeating them to a life form we had yet to meet.
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WARREN ZEVON: an assessment of credentials

It is certainly true that wherever you look in the rock and roll hall of fame, you will find there is ´heartbreak spoken here.´! And that is one of the Warren Zevon song titles that shares its name with a book..

THE JUDDS: a tragedy of our times

It seems unbelievable to me that after driving down from Manchester to London (some thirty five to forty years ago) to see The Judds perform their UK debut, that I find when called upon, I cannot recall which theatre that was. What I can recall is that I fell in love with Naomi Judd in the course of a ninety minutes concert. She danced, smiled, blew kisses, and flashed her petticoats but she and daughter Wynonna, driven by the younger´s guitar, created harmonies to the very ´limits of the marvellous´. Both had flaming red hair and both were very attractive with Naomi´s energy and enthusiasm adding to her beauty.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

So, as has so happened so often over the past four years I have been writing these daily blogs, my memories have failed to queue in a chronological order, forcing me to dive into some research to prove (or, more often, disprove my points). In doing that I have excellent essays by a couple of great journalists and what makes them great is that they write in such enthusiastic manner that they persuade me to revise some of my long held prides and prejudices.