December 2021: season two of Music from North Eastern England had its origins in this post from Bill Taylor, published in August. Now that I have reposted, with minor updates, all seven instalments of the original series, it is time... Read more →
Just when I thought I had one solution to the failure of my attempts to showcase Ed Pickford's noble anthem in appreciations of ordinary people, The Workers’ Song, as sung by the Pitmen Poets, a much better one popped along.... Read more →
Jagged forks of lightning tore across the sky above Marseille as I began a two-hour drive home from the airport, listening to the opening tracks of Bare Knuckle, a copy of which had been waiting for me on a fleeting... Read more →
May 2022 update: Bob Dylan's 81st gave the prolific and much-followed Twitterman Eric Alper a perfect excuse to ask one of those questions of his: effectively 'name your favourite Dylan cover'. I reported it at this link and listed a... Read more →
CLICK ANYWHERE ON THIS PARAGRAPH TO EXPLORE THE FULL COVER STORY SERIES - COMPARING DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME SONGS AND SOMETIMES TUNES Brexit is the poisoned chalice that just keeps on dispensing its noxious social and economic pollutants. Whichever... Read more →
May 2021 update: Ralph McTell’s second most famous song. I have been an admirer of his music for decades. I first saw him at the Sunderland Empire, taking the stage a little nervously after a pulsating support set from Lindisfarne,... Read more →
Roberts and Rusby: Barnsley's finest Picture: Bryan Ledgard MY FOLK ALBUMS OF THE 1990s * Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts (Pure), album of the 1990s (1995) * How Are You Off For Coals? (Fellside) Bob Fox and Benny Graham (1997);... Read more →
