How did I miss Dan Hicks? His seductive blend of gypsy jazz and bluegrass, his cool and sassy lyrics, his bloody-minded determination not to fit it into any particular genre - all of that is tailor-made for me. Yet, until...
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This week's Friday Song will be a great encouragement to those brave British patriots who fear that too great a proximity to Europe will corrupt and pollute our glorious culture. The story of Georges Brassens, and more specifically his song...
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The killer words 'Tin Pan Alley' frequently appear in accounts of Hoagy Carmichael's career. That seems to me inaccurate. He was in many ways one of the first authentic singer-songwriters. Whereas the often brilliant Tin Pan Alley composers were writing...
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Soon after I became aware of the sparky brilliance of the New Orleans songwriter Carsie Blanton, I sent her one of my novels. She had announced on social media that she was, for reeasons I couldn't quite work out, prepared...
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I suffered a bad attack of the 1920s a few years ago, and have never completely recovered. It seemed to me then (and now) that there has never been such a glorious flowering of popular song, from Broadway to the...
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I had been looking forward to including something by Mac Rebennack , better known as Dr John, in this blog for two reasons - firstly, because his best songs are terrific and, secondly and less importantly, he was alive. It's...
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It's rare to come across a piece of film that captures the moment when one song transforms a show, but Jesse Winchester's performance of 'Sham-a-Ling-Dong-Ding' on Elvis Costello's TV show Spectacle in 2010 does just that. When I found it...
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When the daily news is a grim daily carnival of human inadequacy and ugliness, that's when we need music most. A rhythm, a tune, feeling - perhaps even a thought or two - put to a melody can remind us...
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Everybody likes a drink. Everybody loves a drinker. There's nothing like booze to make life a little more colourful, fun and generally worth living. Right? Well, maybe not exactly. Most of us know that, like any other highs, alcohol has...
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Has there ever been a song so widely covered, and so often ruined, as the astonishing 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' Even though it is one of my very favourite songs, I have struggled to find a version that...
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