When I get the urge to hear some soul music, I often go straight to Otis. And when I go to Otis, I tend to go straight to Try A Little Tenderness. It was only when this came on the radio the other day that I remembered what a highlight it is on the immortal album Otis Blue.

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Here’s some banging techno: a self-styled “queer non-binary anthem” – More Femme, More Masc – straight out of New York City. Listen closely and you may discern the chords of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car in there.

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I’m not sure I even like this song, but I feckin’ LOVE that monstrous guitar riff. And sometimes that’s enough. I’m also drawn to the title of the song, which is Unpopular Parts Of A Pig. And its lyrics, which are indistinct but seem interesting and funny.

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The Last Town Chorus cover David Bowie’s upbeat single Modern Love and improve it by turning it into a melancholy country ballad.

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Fifty years ago this week Gram Parsons died in Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn in California, filled with morphine, barbiturates and alcohol, at the age of only 26.

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Hank Williams would have been 100 years old on Sunday. Instead he died, on New Year’s Day 1953, at the age of 29.

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Last night I went to see these guys, Dead Writers, at a goth-filled Camden pub with the apt name The Black Heart, on my way back from cricket at Lord’s. And I had a very good time.

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There was no escaping this song in the summer of ’77, though I was far more interested in the Pistols and the Clash than chart-topping disco tunes.

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Maybe I’ve got a bit soppy because I’m feeling a bit sad and fragile but Mereba’s haunting electro-ballad hits me right there. Especially its lyrics.

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Here we are on the hottest day of the year and I’m reflecting on the hottest gigs I’ve ever attended. One of them, on a night like this, was by Nas at the 100 Club.

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