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February 15, 2008

So what have I been listening to?

I am entirely aware I haven't blogged here for four months. Sorry. The explanation is that I bought a new computer that didn't have the web address on the bookmark bar. I know that's not a very good explanation, but there you go.

In the only non-spam comment I've received in the hiatus, Ken Josenhans perfectly reasonably asked for news of what I'm listening to. I know it's a poor substitute for blog entries, but I direct you to my Last.fm homepage, or indeed to the 'recently listened' widget in the sidebar of this very blog. I appreciate that nobody reads the blog directly any more. But still, it is there; also in the sidebar are my del.icio.us links.

As to what I am listening to, overwhelmingly it's new music. In the last four months I have picked up:

• a variety of Christmas songs from iTunes Plus, mostly filling holes in my collection;
  
• Rubber Folk, the Mike Harding show tribute to Rubber Soul;
  
• The first Nick Drake I've ever bought, Pink Moon. Yes it's great, I should have known. A gap in the collection. I got it from Fopp!
  
• Starry Gazy Pie by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan. I think I have all their albums now. From eMusic.
  
• The excellent, great value, Show of Hands 'Best of' collection Roots. One disc is all the best-known songs, the other is new versions of the fan favourites. A fabulous introduction.
  
• Also Steve Knightley's solo album Cruel River. I quite like this, but I think it much less exciting than Witness, SoH's last studio album.
  
• A key eMusic find; a compilation of tracks recorded at The Sidmouth Folk Festival. Many of these are really very interesting.
  
• Wild and Undaunted by nu-Folk darling Lisa Knapp. I really like this album; fresh, simple arrangements of traditional songs.
  
• The Blowzabella Wall of Sound, a Christmas present for Steven, who likes Blowzabella even more than I do. I also learnt the traditional tune "Blow Zabella" over Christmas, though I think I've forgotten it again now.
  
• The new Duhks album, Migrations; one of Marianne's Christmas presents. She just looked at the CD in a sort of 'what am I supposed to do with this' way. I don't think she really associates CDs with music at all.
  
• The Fairest Floo'er, Karine Polwart's new album. I don't really have a sense of this album yet; I got it on eMusic the day before my downloads expired.
  
• Last Orders, by the winners of the 2007 Young Folk award. Just fabulous melodeon playing from Joe O'Connor. This is the first Fellside album to turn up on eMusic for a very long time.
  
• A new album of Christmas songs from Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, Ringing the Changes, "A Latin Latin Christmas" was not what I was expecting.
  
• The second album by the Pine Leaf Boys, Blues De Musicien. I've been meaning to get something by them for ages; this was on eMusic.
  
• Threads, by Ruth Notman. Good on her for getting a contract with Topic, and you can see the influence of a slightly bigger record company on this album; the arrangements are pretty lush. Last summer she toured as a duo with Bryony Bainbridge, but Bryony doesn't appear on this album; the harmony vocals are instead provided by Bella Hardy, another rising star.
  
• Make No Bones, a new double album by John Kirkpatrick. We saw him at the folk club, after a catalogue of errors and mishaps, and bought this album there. It's designed to reflect his current live set; this is very much what you hear if he plays your local club.
  
• A Bed of Roses, by Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight. This is a 'regularisation' of my collection; I've had these tracks for years, but I didn't own them. Now sorted.
  
• Having got that, I noticed that eMusic also had Oliver Knight's solo album, Mysterious Day. I'm not sure about it yet; but I wouldn't have bought it on CD. I think this is another example of the way that people who have eMusic buy more music.
  
• We saw Crucible at the folk club and liked them so well we brought home both their albums, Crux and
  Changeling. Gosh they were great live; do catch them if you can.
  
• Finally, eMu suddenly turned up two Men they Couldn't Hang albums that I didn't have, simply because they aren't easily available; The Domino Club and How Green Is the Valley. Of course I do have most of the tracks in other places. But I was still delighted.

  
  

  Posted by Alison Scott at 01:07 PM | Comments (1)