A quick glance around the schedules

[johncorrigan]

Terminally unhip perhaps but some there's a Radio 4 programme tomorrow on Hank Marvin !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015n6wd

Impressed by Amos Lee on Transatlantic Sessions on Friday, a new name to me.

I thought that was a great performance too zola....wasn't aware of him either.

[Lateralthinking1]

I agree on Amos Lee. Very good.

Have been working my way round the radio dial for several days now. Some of the old comedy on R4E is revealing. Shows that many of the current ills - particularly political - are not wholly new. Have decided that Men From The Ministry is better than I had thought, if in a corny way, Round the Horne is as good, Take It From Here is ok but not as good, and The Navy Lark is almost unfathomable, ha. Not sure if I understand it at all.

A lot of Tony Bennett on R2. Really like that guy - so decent - and the Great American Songbook was a good listen even if it did unfortunately have Parky. Johnny Hartman was new to me - very good.

6 Music has it pretty much nailed on the "popular" music side. Daytime M-F is all good, or good enough, except for the breakfast show guy. Sorry - don't like him. As for Cerys, I have dipped in before but for the first time I listened to the whole programme. I think she's absolutely brilliant. I could listen to that voice all day, her choice of music is superb and the individual items of presentation are not too obtrusive except for the film club. The thing she did with the poem and then the accompaniment to Jackie Oates were very good indeed. She - and Lauren Laverne - are such an antidote to the radio ladettes who I cannot stand.

[Lateralthinking1]

......Just watched Later. I thought that this was a very, very, good edition.

Little Roy performing tracks from the Nirvana cover versions album. An astonishingly good concept. For some light to be put onto that darkness, good as it was, is arguably overdue if not exactly obvious. And what a tricky proposition! It could only have worked coming from a fairly uncommercial artist with considerable status and an integrity of his own. "Lithium" was a treat.

Loved the Seven Seas. Something very retro 70s about this band. You can see many wincing at the ELO lyrical reference. I almost did. Still, there was a bit of Nile Rodgers there along with something even more familiar that I can't quite put my finger on. Doobies? Not sure - but it all sat very well in an indie country-ish framework. Enjoyed it a lot.

The Civil Wars. Yes, good too. Just a hint of humour in that performance? Slightly odd, hopefully knowingly, but probably the best version of Billie Jean I've heard, not that any of the other versions were great. Initially I thought they were going to be the White Stripes mark two but there were some tight, gymnastic and original harmonies.

Tony Bennett. Again, very good. My comments about Bennett's show at the Palladium are on the jazz board.

Laura Marling. Now this is a different album from her, isn't it? A much fuller sound. I like it better. Her appearance does remind me of a young Shere Hite, her voice sounds increasingly like that of Tanita Tikaram, the lyrics are somewhat PJH and there is now quite a lot of Too-Rye-Ay in the background. I doubt that she would like this description but it works for me. Surely it can only be a matter of time before Marling and Harvey record together. They are becoming two pieces on the same chess board.

Miles Kane. No sorry - but 5 out of 6 is a result.

[johncorrigan]

Lat, On the subject of Nirvana, a band where my familiarity totals about three tracks, I found Tom Ewing's review of the 20th anniversary of Nevermind interesting - still haven't heard it all but I might........ one of these days.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/oct/06/nirvana-nevermind-20-missing-out

[johncorrigan]

Terminally unhip perhaps but some there's a Radio 4 programme tomorrow on Hank Marvin !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015n6wd

Purely by chance () I heard this programme which was mildly enjoyable - the most interesting thing I learned was that Jimmy Page played on this record by Cliff and the Shads......not guitar....harmonica.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj9ARUH9DVU

[Lateralthinking1]

Nirvana

Just going back to Nirvana quickly, I have three cds. Back in the day, they played in London with Tad and Mudhoney. There was some joking among my gig going friends as to whether we should attend it. Grunge. It was a sign. We were approaching 30. Perhaps we wouldn't always be adapting to new music trends as easily as John Peel as we had thought. Several fell at this hurdle.

Given all the hype, I kept open minded while feeling it wasn't my thing. Well, grunge never became my thing but Nirvana did so. What I found in them was a new form of melody that wasn't immediately obvious. Can a melody be pared down? I think it can be and I believe it was by them. It led to a new listening experience and it endured.

The lyrics were on the dark side for my tastes but often just came in on the right side of the line. For all of the depressing lifestyle stuff that accompanied Cobain, dare I say there was subtlety there and one that was not without intelligence. Roots too among the thrash. For the latter, check out the acoustic cover version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on "Unplugged". And of course there was that energy. A razor sharp heat that many copied but failed to convey because they lacked musical authenticity.

[Lateralthinking1]

Singer Songwriters

Doing these individually to make them more digestible.

The two latest programmes on BBC4 featuring singer-songwriters are still available on the I-Player. I have really enjoyed these series but in a bittersweet way. How could so many years have disappeared in the blink of an eye? So many thoughts. The ones who are still here. The ones who left us many years ago. The ones who still show that they are the same and yet different. All the "what ever happened to that way of thinking and believing among the young?" And "whatever happened to that songcraft?".

Still, when there aren't feelings of loss, there is considerable appreciation of the richness of music back then. Of what too the BBC provided and kept for us now. I feel that we knew that we had it good then but maybe we didn't know it fully. It looks clearer now. And I find it interesting how the boundaries between what was deemed cool and what was not cool tend to blur over time. Not in every case but many. An underrated aspect I think of the enjoyment of being a "music fan".

So, only in this decade perhaps could you combine Donovan, Buffy Sainte Marie and Roger Cook. Donovan will never age conventionally, nor Sainte Marie. It is interesting to see how members of the audience who are presumably of the same age as the performers and far from stuffy nevertheless appear conservative compared with these performers. That division does still remain. Anyway, I thought that the programme was very good indeed. Did he do that one? Did she write that one? The banter between the songs was great. Buffy in particular was a revelation. Compelling. Can't believe that she is 70. Was very impressed.

The other programme featured many of the great and the good - John Sebastian, Lee Hazlewood, Jimmy Webb, Lesley Duncan, John Prine, John Martyn. I don't think that there was a god awful performance on it. Perhaps the best of the lot for me was Kevin Ayers. That performance from 1972 was definitely of its time and ahead of it. He should have been a bigger household name.

[Lateralthinking1]

Later

This one is also still available on the I-Player. Peter Gabriel was pretty good. There will always be some irony that he of all people was at the forefront of world music. He has never been what I would call a roots musician. However, he explained to Jools that his hero was Otis Redding. A gig in 1967 was his favourite of all time. That surprised me.

I like Peter but it might just be that I wouldn't appreciate some of his projects if they were done by other people. The reworking of earlier tunes with the New Blood Orchestra was full of grandeur but fortunately it stopped just short of pomp. Isn't this generally the way with him? Genuinely moving here. A bit Genesis there. Still, "Solsbury Hill" is one of my favourite songs. It has some personal meaning for me and it was a thrill to finally see him singing it live at Womad a couple of years ago.

Oddly, he can seem awkward in performance. He did on that day and I find it difficult to understand. In his youth, he was almost a performance artist, not that all the dressing up did much for long term credibility. On Later, I thought SH was the weakest of the three performances. He looked a bit wooden and his vocals seemed slower than the accompaniment. The other songs though were very good. Taken as a whole, I did enjoy it more than many of the artists that have been featured on the programme.

Like the Horrors. I don't hate them but I feel that I have heard it all before. Noah and the Whale were alright. They have a way with a tune. I don't feel though that they really mean it. They look and sound like product. I did quite like Ghostpoet to my surprise. He is doing something slightly different with rap. It is about time somebody did. The songs had relevance.

Steve Tilston was there to talk up Bert Jansch, rightly so, but he gave an accurate portrait of the person rather than a eulogy. He also did a song. While I welcomed a bit of folk on the programme, he wouldn't exactly be my all time favourite guitarist. Lana Del Rey was very interesting. I did enjoy her performance but it left questions. Is she substance over style or vice versa? Only time will tell. Overall, the mix of guests has improved. The programme has returned more to what it was a few years ago.

[johncorrigan]

Joe Boyd's in with Cerys this morning for a bit of British folk scene type chat. Robin Hitchcock's in too, I assume to play a tunertoo.

[johncorrigan]

Joe and Robin were on talking about Joe's 'White Bicycle' Project....sounded pretty interesting and RH did a great version of 'River Man'.......and there was a very fine version of 'Hares On The Mountain' by Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell which was recorded this week as a 6 Music Session. Well worth a listeen, I thought.

[Globaltruth]

I've found this programme on the World Service - The Strand

Features Fatoumata Diawara on a recent one.
Some other earworthy episodes, just 1 slight problem...
Only 18 minutes long...for a global culture review.

Here's the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsn3

[johncorrigan]

Paul ( and others), you might enjoy this wee 15 minute R4 radio programme about Jessie Lee Jones from the 'Musical Migrants' strand. Sounded like a true Country song.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015yt4c

[johncorrigan]

I notice that Brian Wilson is the interviewee on 'The first time with.....' on 6 this Sunday coming.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0162gml

[Globaltruth]

Apparently you can also download some anti-Gaddafi rants on Despotify.

[Globaltruth]

Tony Allen alert...

Anyone going to this event at the Barbican
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/eve...l.asp?ID=12610

Maybe Dr. Lucy will capture some of it for our enterainment on her global vegetable show...






(that'll be world roots)