Why the Cranberries, at Salut! Live of all places? It's a variation of the question I find harder and harder to answer as the years go by.
What is folk? If we have been known to betray purist ideals in the past, but also approve of folk-rock, where do we now draw the line? There are degrees of commercialisation that come into play, but should not in reality affect the argument since everyone who sings or plays professionally does so a) because they can, and b) because they hope it will produce an income (whether their ambitions in that direction are to earn a living wage or a fortune).
So you're a teacher and need to forget an Ofsted visit to your school, however favourable the inspectors' eventual verdict. Pete Sixsmith found solace in a memorable Natalie Merchant concert at the Sage on the banks of the Tyne (May 25) ...
My knowledge of children’s poetry is a wee bit limited. Charles Causley, Ian McMillan, Roald Dahl and a handful of others appear on my radar. After buying and playing Natalie Merchant’s wonderful In Your Sleep, I was aware of a few more.
Pete Sixsmith, normally to be found writing on football at Salut Sunderland, should have been at a non-league game last night. Salut! Live has been so quiet of late that he agreed to be deprived of that outing and sent on another. There was ample reward ...
PAUL BRADY: TYNE THEATRE, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, APRIL 14 2010
As readers of our sister site will know, it takes a lot to get me away from football on a Wednesday night. I can usually be found standing on the terraces at Shildon or Tow Law watching a game as part of my therapy and obsession.
So, when I saw that Paul Brady was playing in Newcastle, I had a dilemma that took all of 20 seconds to resolve. The Strabane Street Singer won hands down.
How times change. Just when the fine Devon singer-songwriter Jenna should be attracting bigger and bigger audiences, she faces an instant slump from seven figures to two. Read on to see why it's not as bad as it sounds ...
JennaBrother (Hands On Music))
We'll get to a review of Jenna's follow-up to her debut album Barefoot and Eager in due course. Skip the whimsical thoughts that follow if you wish only to see what I think of Brother.
Show of HandsArrogance, Ignorance and Greed (Hands on Music)
From my observations of ardent Show of Hands fans in assorted venues big and small, I'd guess that a typical reaction to the appearance of a new album is to look for a fresh anthem or two.
The three adjectives in the headline are taken from Lucky Gilchrist, a spellbinding track on the Unthanks' new album that marks the death of a Glaswegian friend of Rachel Unthank, Gary Gilchrist. They could also apply to the album.
Here's The Tender Coming is the complete answer to those who cried "can't sing", "not folk", "commercial sellouts" and the rest during the strange debate - especially at Mudcat - that led to Salut! Live's gripping interview with Rachel 20 months ago.
Bob Fox is one of the greats of English folk music. Billy Mitchell is a classy former member of Lindisfarne. If you hate football, skip the next paragraph or four ...
Sharon Shannon (plus lots of friends)... Saints and Scoundrels (Independent Records)
It is now an established feature of Irish music that any new Sharon Shannon album will feature not only the wonderful Co Clare accordion player and fiddler, but whichever other artists she has roped in for the session.
Not before time, Salut! Live returns to business. The moving is done, for now, and with abject apologies to readers and to artists and their champions who have sent CDs into the void of this neglected site, here we go again ...
Ruth Notman ... Si Tu Dois Partir (Mrs Casey Music)
Over at The Guardian, we are told, people cannot stop playing Ruth's remake, 40 years after Fairport Convention took it into the charts, of the Frenchified version of Bob Dylan's If You Gotta Go, Go Now.
It happened last year, so no surprise that it has happened again. Votes are cast, lists compiled, the year's best CDs chosen (best as in the best I've heard, on a purely subjective judgement, for those uncomfortable with the word). And then the doubts creep in. Should Graham and Eileen Pratt have been somewhere in any list of 10? Probably, but there's a limit to how many albums you can put in joint 10th just to fit more in. And what about Tom Bliss (above) and Brian Peters? Read on.....
Tom BlissThe Whisper (Slipjig)
Years ago, my wife, who is French, would travel home from work by a tortuous route that covered much of County Durham. It started with a lift from Shildon to Chester-le-Street (not passing Pity Me, but that's another story), and continued with at least one bus on to Stanley and finally to Hobson (where we lived, though not necessarily by choice). One evening, the bus that normally said "Stanley" said "No Place" instead. I leave it to the reader's imagination to think about the kind of conversation that ensued between young French lass and grumpy north-west Durham bus conductor.
What our ancestors chose to call some of the small towns and villages of England is a joy to behold. I used to opt for the A1 for journeys back north at least partly because the exits offered a higher standard of place name than the M1.
Tom Bliss was gripped by similar thoughts as he drove up and down the country smiling at the signposts as they flashed by. One in particular, pointing the way towards the Oxfordshire villages of Mixbury and Evenly, read to him rather like an extract from a Chaucerian cookbook.
With his highly developed imagination and sense of fun, Bliss proceeded not to those villages but to the pages of a good gazetteer, dug out a long list of candidates and turned his own amusement into a splendid poem in which dozens of place names are arranged to form the ingredients and instructions of a wonderful recipe.
If The Whisper contained nothing else, it would be worth the entrance fee of whatever the CD costs. In fact, there is much, much more, from the strident marching beat of Sound the Drum to the understated beauty of The Sin of Mary Prout, a Victorian mum driven by post-natal depression, which no court then recognised, to kill her baby daughter.
If you like intelligent songs, handsomely sung and accompanied, pleasant instrumental pieces and the dry humour of a natural stand-up comic with perfect timing, this may well be the one to spend that unused Christmas voucher on.
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