singer-songwriters
Garland Jeffreys, Jazz CafeTuesday, 09 October 2012
Garland Jeffreys, a 68-year old singer and songwriter, is not simply New York City’s best-kept secret but American’s music’s most consistently underrated and overlooked talent. Garland is a remarkable talent and his latest album, The King of In... Read more... |
CD: Martha Wainwright - Come Home to MamaSunday, 07 October 2012
Motherhood doesn’t always bring out the best in singer-songwriters. On the album Aerial Kate Bush, for instance, sings “luverly luverly luverly Bertie…you give me so much joy/ and then you give me more joy”. Yeuch. So when I heard that recent mum... Read more... |
Christine Tobin embarks on autumn tourThursday, 04 October 2012
Christine Tobin’s latest CD Sailing to Byzantium brings to life the lyrical magic of W B Yeats’ poems and has been widely acclaimed. Reviewing the album earlier this year, I wrote that "Tobin has created an unqualified masterpiece. Setting poems... Read more... |
CD: Neil Sedaka – The Real NeilMonday, 01 October 2012
After 65 years in music, over 55 of them as a solo artist and songwriter, it’s a tad surprising that Neil Sedaka has taken until now to declare he’s revealing the real Neil. Even when his former girlfriend and Brill Building colleague Carole King... Read more... |
CD: Beth Orton - Sugaring SeasonThursday, 27 September 2012
Sugaring season refers to the time of year when maple trees are "tapped", gallons of sap collected and boiled down to make the sweet syrup that goes so well with pancakes. The words trip off the tongue; conjure images of homeliness and those early... Read more... |
Interview: 10 Questions for Tori AmosMonday, 24 September 2012
The past few years have seen the anniversary reissue, or concert tour in which classic albums are performed in their entirety, become something of a standard. Not so for Tori Amos, who this year is celebrating two decades since the US release of her... Read more... |
CD: Suzanne Vega - Close-Up Vol. 4, Songs of FamilyThursday, 20 September 2012
It’s been 27 years since Suzanne Vega began pressing her almost fey coffee-shop songbook on a receptive global audience. The albums came out at a measured lick – seven by 2007 - each making a successively smaller impression on the charts. Then two... Read more... |
CD: Cat Power - SunWednesday, 29 August 2012
You’ll know by now, perhaps, that Sun is supposed to represent a “rebirth” for Chan Marshall, the famously intense singer-songwriter who performs as Cat Power. Since the release of 2006’s The Greatest Marshall has shunned her own material, instead... Read more... |
CD: Ry Cooder - Election SpecialMonday, 13 August 2012
Ry Cooder is an unpredictable quantity. He’s a prickly, opinionated old coot who doesn’t seem the type to pass a night in the pub with. He’d probably not get your jokes and moan about the Rolling Stones nicking his songs. His musical output is... Read more... |
Searching for Sugar ManMonday, 23 July 2012
Cult figures from rock music’s golden age are numinous today but few are more obscure than Sixto Rodriguez. The Mexican-American singer-songwriter released two albums on Sussex Records in 1970 and ’71. In the US they were quickly deleted and he... Read more... |
Sharon van Etten, Oran Mor, GlasgowFriday, 13 July 2012
It is sometimes hard to be enthused by midweek gigs. Last night was one of those occasions, at least for the 30 seconds I thought I was going to be watching most of the show on the iPhone screen of the six feet of beard that planked itself in front... Read more... |
Regina Spektor, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 03 July 2012
Regina’s Spektor’s kooky New York piano gal shtick sure divides audiences. For every person who finds her a perfect antidote (I refuse to say adorkable) to all that’s mainstream and soulless, there is someone else who wants to punch her on the nose... Read more... |
