Bob Dylan’s delivery drips with sarcasm on the opaque lyric of Idiot Wind, from my favourite album Blood On The Tracks, but the meaning remains elusive.

(more…)

Tim Hardin’s struggles with addiction are mirrored in Black Sheep Boy, his heartbreaking tale of alienation from his family.

(more…)

I’ve been waiting a long time for the right moment to post this song. After spending yesterday at Lord’s bidding farewell to Jimmy Anderson, England’s greatest ever bowler, after 21 years, this is that moment.

(more…)

Texas troubadour Micah P. Hinson’s plaintive love song stays in your head long after its two minutes are over.

(more…)

John Bramwell: The Cluny, Newcastle – Live Review

Britain’s finest musical wordsmith winds up his extensive UK tour with a gig of two halves: dark songs of drinking and disaster from his time with I Am Kloot and harmony-drenched songs of happiness and hope from his solo repertoire.

Harry Chapin is someone I vaguely recall in the same MoR mould as John Denver and Jim Croce, making sentimental string-laden songs with sermonising social messages. Which is true. But I do him a disservice.

(more…)

Bill Callahan has been plying his lo-fi trade for more than 35 years. I caught him at one of his first UK gigs when he still went by Smog.

(more…)

Lana Del Rey must wonder who she has to fuck to win a Grammy Award. Once again this week she walked away empty-handed.

(more…)

RIP Melanie Safka (1947-2024)

I remember Melanie – just “Melanie” – as a hippie chick with long hair, black eyeliner and a warbling vibrato. I first heard her singing a song called Ruby Tuesday. I was a child and she sounded like one too.

(more…)

This was the first song I ever heard by Tori Amos. It’s also the last, when it played over the closing titles of an episode of Beef last night. A wacky song by a kooky redhead, it was a good fit for what is a wacky TV show about a man and a woman with extreme anger management issues.

(more…)