Folk
Streets of Laredo – Hey Rose
Despite obvious problems with their national rugby union side, I have a massive soft spot for Kiwis. I didn’t know this bunch were from NZ (albeit now based in Brooklyn in New York), but I’m also a sucker for country and a bit of folk and their name seemed to fit that bracket. I was …
Boss Caine – The Rhythm and the Rhyme (Part 3 of Backseat Mafia On Tour: York)
Years ago when Gomez first emerged there would always be at least a strain of suspicion running through reviews. For the generous, the fact that this group of adolescents wrote about life experiences they couldn’t have had, in places they might only have seen as wide-eyed tourists, channeled through one particular singer who sounded like …
Album Review: The Provincial Archive – Maybe We Could Be Holy
“We hope for a warmer November But we’re changing with the air It’ll be colder soon And we’ll be in the darkness through the daytime Waiting for phone-calls from your shaking voices” Such a sad autumn, young as it is. I can’t and won’t explain the sadness. There are many things that have helped to …
Album Review: Smoke Fairies – Ghosts
There’s something otherworldly about Smoke Fairies. Their name, taken from the Summer mist that collects in the hedgerows of the lanes in the duo’s, school friends Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, home county of Sussex. But it’s their ghostly goth-folk, coupled with a healthy dose of Americana, and looked over by the shadow of 4AD …
Track: Son of Dave – new single and kickstarter campaign
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable, so said Janis Joplin, before she went ahead and gave her audiences the blues by administering a reportedly strong batch of heroin into her own veins and promptly passing away. But Blues audiences have never really seen anything like Benjamin Darvill, a.k.a. Son of Dave. Although he’s …
Meet: Emily Ireland a.k.a. See Emily Play on Sheffield, new songs, performing and more
I nearly wore out my copy of Kate Bush – The Whole Story when I first started work. For some reason, I found playing The Man with a child in his eyes was just about the most soothing thing it was possible to listen to when I got home from those first steps into being …
Live: Secret Cinema presents Laura Marling – Cardinal Pole Lower School, Hackney, London
ON A WEEKEND in which some of her fellow folk revivalists were busy dividing opinion at Worthy Farm, Laura Marling was finishing a run of unique, ‘immersive’ nights in a world far removed from the easy, egalitarian vibes of Glastonbury. Marling, now LA-resident, is ploughing a furrow very much independent of the likes of the …
See: Second Hand Heart – Hold On, plus Video
I used to be a big fan of the Australian Soap ‘Neighbours‘. Yes, I know it’s still on here in the UK, but now I have other things that occupy my mind. Like writing about Music and Art just about every waking hour for a start. But in my teenage years especially, they did a …
Track: Josh Record announces new tour dates and releases Kate Bush cover, Running Up That Hill
Who doesn’t like a good cover. In fact, who doesn’t like a good Kate Bush cover (or a good cut-up piece of Kate Bush, remembering Utah Saints something good) for that matter. It’s the sort of pub discussion that men, well men who like music, have in pubs – the best cover of all time. …
See: Emily and the Woods release new video for small song / announce Summer tour dates
My father used to take us to the woods, quite a lot of the time. They didn’t have much money (I’ll never live the embarrassment of my home-made elasticated school trousers, but needs must I suppose) and so at the weekend, when me and my brother (and latterly my sister) were tearing the house apart, …