Read...and feel warmer

Tom Russell has a fine piece on his blog about a road trip from El Paso - here. When it's so cold here in the UK it's good to feel some desert heat vicariously. And to learn a new word - kachinas, Hopi indian dolls. I really must get out to there sometime soon and, in the meantime, find a way of dropping kachina into a British winter conversation...

For anyone who doesn't know Tom's music: you should. Classic, strong, country-inflected songwriting and a fine voice - last year's Blood and Candle Smoke 

or the earlier Borderland are good places to start.

A new review - Cloud Control

As promised, a review of Cloud Control's Bliss Release now added here.

For those who haven't yet caught it, Balcony TV's latest zeitgeist-surfing triumph is a very entertaining Jessie J session and interview here. With Wu Tang in the can and Chuck Prophet soon to follow, they're really on a roll. OK, I may be biased, but it's definitely worth a daily 5 minutes of everyone's time.

New on the site

I've added another song to the work section of the site and, bowing to popular demand (ie one query some months back - thanks, Ann), made some links to a Myspace page where you can hear rudimentary demos of this and the other songs posted here. I'll aim to persuade some of my much more talented musical collaborators to produce some more fleshed-out versions soon...

Recommended: a record and a show

I have now added a review of Brasstronaut's Mt Chimaera here. They have a really distinctive sound and the record gets better and better with repeated listens: there's a lot going on.

I was introduced to Brasstronaut by the excellent Balcony TV. Do also have a look at a more recent performance there by Australian band Cloud Control - click here. I think they'll be another good discovery.

Finally, I mentioned that A Christmas Carol was on its way from .dash. More information here and tickets now available for dates between 30 November and 24 December. If you can get to London then, it will make your Christmas complete...and remember, they're watching you...

Hunter-gatherers, camels, etc

The simple pleasures are often the best. A brisk walk into town on a cold and sunny Sunday morning, and a brisk walk back again an hour or two later, with a bulging bag of records.

The periodic record fair has relocated from the barn that is the Brighton Centre to the decidedly cosier confines of the  Komedia. Fewer stalls and some tedious manoeuvring through the crush, but still nothing quite like flicking through the boxes of vinyl and finding the occasional gem.

There is something qualitatively different  and pleasing about buying nine albums at once rather than the one or two you might more usually get on a shopping trip. And doing so without being culpably extravagant, when a lot of them come out of the £3 and £4 boxes. Yes, going to a record fair is rather like going to the sweet shop when Blackjacks and Fruit Salad were still four a penny AND YOU HAD SIXPENCE…

There’s always a lot of dross, of course – scratched, tedious, overpriced or simply already present on your shelves. But usually also some combination of  reasonably-priced, interesting  and desirable things you hadn’t previously known existed, as well as fillers for some acknowledged gaps (the ‘known unowneds’, as Donald Rumsfeld might call them, were he a vinyl fan and more given to self-parody).

What you learn you can’t do at record fairs is go with a specific shopping list and expect to find the things on it:  you have to come at the gaps obliquely and take them by surprise. A nice original copy of Who’s Next was in that category this morning, a fine album featuring the great Keith Moon on thunderous form and a silly sleeve that may be a commentary on 2001: A Space Odyssey,

so much for monoliths…

As for the new treasures, a dead heat for first prize this morning:

• from the stall of an amiable French chap who often seems to make the trip over for the Brighton fairs, an 80s double album by Johnny Hallyday recorded on a trip to Nashville and featuring duets with people like Emmylou Harris and Tony Joe White; and
• an irresistibly titled Dollar Brand album African Space Program, featuring a number of camels on the cover in quite a lot of…space…in...Africa.

Looking forward to hearing them both, along with the others.

PS and very nice to hear some kind words at the fair about this blog – thanks, Mark, and hope you found something interesting too.