[by Ken Hunt, London] Séamus Ennis, Yasmin Levy, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Peter Bellamy, David Crosby & Graham Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Everly Brothers, Marty Robbins, the Grateful Dead and Leonard Cohen populate the isle this month.
30. 9. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Nightingales serenade and sing us back home. In between come Hedy West, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Chavela Vargas, Radhika Mohan Maitra and Mike Seeger. This is, to some extent, a confluence of memories, dreams, reflections and applied coincidence inspired by Marianne Faithfull and her 2007 book (with David Dalton) entitled memories, dreams & reflections.
24. 8. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Woodrow Wilson ‘Woody’ Guthrie (1912-1967) was born the day before my father. He was born on 14 July 1912 and Leslie Hunt wasn’t, so to speak. Both of them were hugely influential figures in my musical, creative and political development. Here’s a celebration of Guthrie’s work, with a little help Cisco Houston, Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Madeleine Peyroux, Billy Bragg and Utah Phillips.
14. 7. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Another month with varying degrees of noise and loads of work-related choices. This month summons Jackson Browne, Mehdi Hassan, Jefferson Airplane, James ‘Iron Head’ Baker, The Radiators from Space, Neil Young, Sam Lee, Rokia Traoré, Country Joe & The Fish and back to Jackson Browne to do their bit to keep a freelance music writer sane.
11. 7. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London]Aged 50, Joe Strummer died of a suspected heart attack at home in Broomfield in Somerset on 22 December 2003. In the warm glow and slab reality of his death, he seemed to have changed people’s perceptions of ‘reality’ more than most ever do. He was never the Bob Dylan figure that some claimed him to be after his death, though. Mind you, he did get to guest on Dylan’s Down In The Groove (1988). Strummer and co-creator Mick Jones were the nearest thing to Dylan than Britain ever spawned, as it were, the other side of Lennon and McCartney. As partnerships go, theirs was a keeper.
2. 7. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt] Ahmet Ertegun will predictably be most remembered for the big acts and platinum hit-makers. He and Nesuhi Ertegun also pay-rolled a project of immense significance for the worlds of US vernacular music – folk, blues, gospel, work song and beyond. That project was Atlantic’s Southern Heritage Folk Series (1960), seven LPs, also released in Britain, culled from 80 hours of field recordings made sometimes under the most arduous, sometimes the most exhilarating of circumstances.
18. 6. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] No blurb, just straight into this month’s music. This month summons Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat, Al Andaluz Project, Hedy West, The Ex, Scissor Sisters, George Mraz and Iva Bittová, Fairport Convention, Big Mama Thornton, Bill Monroe with Pete Rowan and Little Feat. As usual, loads of work-related currents. There’s a greater element of noise than usual this month. That’s down to other currents flowing around the fictitious island.
18. 6. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] No blurb, just straight into this month’s music. This month summons the shades of The Band, Julie London, John B. Spencer, Andy Irvine & Dónal Lunny’s Mozaik, Khameesu Khan, Judy Collins, the Kronos Quartet, Emily Portman, Andy Irvine and the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band.
18. 5. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] Bass player Chris Ethridge (top right in photograph), who died on 23 April 2012 in his birth town of Meridian, Mississippi was one of the sidemen whose curriculum vitae was lit with musical magic and yet overshadowed in some way by one of his early excursions into working as a musician, even though he played bass with Willie Nelson during in the 1970s and 1980s.
18. 5. 2012 | read more...
[by Ken Hunt, London] More music for a balmy life on the fictional desert island. April’s selections come courtesy of Christy Moore with Declan Sinnott, Madeleine Peyroux, Gangubai Hangal, Janis Joplin, Santana, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, Chumbawamba, Sheila Smith, the Grateful Dead and The Animals. Lots of Irish thoughts and thoughts about Ireland ripple through this month’s selections.
23. 4. 2012 | read more...