I’m familiar with Odetta as the voice of the Civil Rights Movement back in the ’50s and ’60s and I know Martin Luther King called her the Queen of American folk music. But I’d never heard this ’til now.

(more…)

It’s impossible not to love Snap!’s hybrid of hip-hop, house, soul and a dash of heavy rock. It kicked off the whole dance music scene when it topped the charts in early 1990.

(more…)

It was when The Clash invited Joe Ely to join them on tour in 1980 that I began to understand the parallels between punk and rebel country music.

(more…)

Here’s UK dubmeister Dennis Bovell making a cameo appearance on fellow dub maestro Elijah Minnelli’s new album, the interestingly titled Clams As A Main Meal.

(more…)

I vividly remember the first time I heard Public Enemy. It was the most exciting new music since I first saw and heard the Pistols, Ramones and Clash.

(more…)

Here’s another Northern Soul classic, courtesy of The Younghearts from Los Angeles,  California. This was their debut single in 1967, with a falsetto vocal that calls to mind Smokey Robinson.

(more…)

This is The Stranglers song Golden Brown as you’ve never heard it before – transformed into a slice of smooth jazz. And it’s wonderful.

(more…)

It’s not often you hear people describe a guitarist who doesn’t generally do solos as one of the all-time greats. But countless other guitar greats gave that accolade to Steve Cropper.

(more…)

Soft Cell’s biggest hit was the inevitable play-out song at the funeral of Dave Ball. It was never going to be anything else.

(more…)

Jimmy Cliff was one of the first reggae singers to enjoy a hit single in the UK. And one of the outliers who turned Jamaica’s national music into a global sound.

(more…)