Alice Coltrane channels the spirit of the blues in her approach to jazz piano on this grief filled instrumental composition from 1970.

(more…)

David Allan Coe was an asshole; about that there can be little disagreement. A self-mythologising braggart, he was never slow to trade on his troubled past, even if much of it was in his imagination.

(more…)

I have to confess I didn’t know the name Beverley Martyn until I read of her death at the age of 79. More fool me.

(more…)

Tena Stelin is a UK singer who was a pioneer of the roots revival that began in reggae music at the end of the 1980s. This was his first release.

(more…)

Nathan Bartell never found fame and fortune and had become a church minister when his funky soul tune was rediscovered half a century later.

(more…)

Nick Drake teamed up with African percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah on sessions for his classic album Five Leaves Left.

(more…)

Ernie Hines achieved belated recognition when Our Generation was famously sampled by Pete Rock and CL Smooth on their 1992 hip-hop classic Straighten It Out.

(more…)

Kenny Knots is far from a household name, even in specialist reggae circles, but was a regular one on the sound system scene in the UK in general, and Hackney in particular.

(more…)

Electro-funk would not have existed without this landmark tune from back in 1982, blending krautrock with the embryonic genre of hip-hop.

(more…)

Here’s some classic conscious reggae from Rod Taylor, produced by Mikey Dread, released back in 1978 and sounding just as great today.

(more…)