Listening to.......

[davidmjs]

The new Olivia Chaney.  Not quite sure why she isn't absolutely huge, but is hugely talented.  It's gorgeous...

[Ian_]

 Thank you so much for that David. Really, the last fifteen years* have been an exceptional time for female artists  

 (* rough estimate)

[Will S]

Joshua Burnell in general, The Road to Horn Fair in particular. It seems to be a bit of a homage to 70s folk rock, akin to Offa Rex, whereas his newer material (Glass Knight) is more contemporary sounding, and quite catchy in places. Don't know much about him except he played Cropredy last year (I didn't go).

Any fans here?

I'd never heard of him until Cropredy, but loved his show, and went out and bought his last couple of albums.

[Jim]

Joan in the Garden, the new (19 minute!) song from the Decemberists forthcoming double album. Ruddy brilliant it is too. I’ve got a huge amount of time for this band, especially Colin Meloy who has performed loads of free one-hour solo gigs on Instagram. Just him, his guitar(s) and his iPhone. Wonderful stuff, and I’m hoping for some UK dates later this year, in addition to the one festival announcement so far.

I can only echo Adam's  thoughts on this.The new  track is a thing of wonder

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Grandaddy “Blu Wav”
This one is really growing on me.
Psych pop rather reminiscent of Mercury Rev at their best.

[Alan2]

Pentangle  :  Live at the  BBC   (Windsong/Band of Joy CD,  1995).

Quite an old CD now, and at least some of the material may have appeared  elsewhere since 1995.  A good listen, with  goodish  sound quality.  At the time it was of interest as it contains tracks from Solomon's Seal, which hadn't yet had a CD reissue.

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

Beautiful recent album by Father John Misty, Chloe and the Next Twentieth Century. I love his voice and his music/ lyrics. Bitterly regret, we didn't see him live, last year when he toured the UK, due to the timing not fitting in with work stuff.

[RobertD]

As some of you saw on Facebook the other day, I took delivery of the Horslips box set the other day and it has indeed been more than one can chew. Some 35 odd years ago when I was diving into anything remotely folk or folk rock I first became aware of Horslips. The only thing I could find at the time was a cassette of The Man Who Built America. I think because it didn't scream folk rock I never warmed to it. And thus my Horslips experiment ended then and there. But after seeing them at Cropredy in 2011 I picked up a few things but never got around to going deep catalog...until the other day that is. First I will say I was tempted when this box came out but it was more than I could really justify. But periodically I would check the pricing and the past few months I did see the price on Amazon starting to dip. A good (not great) return from the tax man convinced me this was the time to jump.

Purely as the aesthetic of a box set it is a thing of beauty. Between this, the Bakersfield Sound box from Bear Family, and the Blondie box set, I now not only have severe space issues, but also the dilemma (someday) about whether to keep the beautiful hardcover books from each set in the 'box' or take them out for the coffee table. That will be a conversation my wife and I will have to have lol.  Back to the Horslips set, I know there were many comments on here when it was finally shipped, and I went back to those comments, and agree. The original albums, plus the officially released live albums sound wonderful. The boxset version of The Tain sounds remarkably better than the other digital copy I have. The other official studio albums I had only heard bits of down the years so am not sure how they compare, but taking The Tain as an example, I think they did a wonderful job.  The Book Of Invasions is a revelation sonically. Of the unofficial live albums/rehearsals/sessions released for the first time in the box I am still working my way through them. It is as I expected though-varying degrees of sound quality and after a while you start to ask yourself do, I really need 27 different versions of Furniture. Then again, god knows how many versions of Matty Groves I have so this is the curse of the music collector!

To give myself a break I skipped ahead to some of the solo projects. Charles' album is very pleasant, The Host does sound very dated and I stopped about halfway through to save it for another time. Barry's album is also dated, but oddly I didn't dislike it as much as I anticipated. Jim's album is a mixed bag-just when you are getting into the mood of the piece it ends, but I like a lot of the ideas musically. It also made me realize how difficult it must be to write a good theme song. For a one-minute intro to a TV show it has to accomplish a lot stylistically and compliment the program. At the moment I am listening to the Fean & Carr album. Mixed bag but some good stuff on here

The layout of the book is very enjoyable visually, and I think the reason I invested in this set is because the past few years I have had a deeper connection with Irish culture, language, history, myths and of course the music. It has always been there, but it has become more important to me now. For example, in the past few months I have been slowly learning some Irish. Horslips certainly were a kick ass rock band, but in those common themes, the myths and legends, the tall tales, famine, emigration and political strife they managed to express something powerfully Irish. I'm glad I came around to them eventually.  

[PaulT]

"The Breaks" album by the Heritage Orchestra, Jules Buckley and Ghost-Face... an extremely funky set of classic early hiphop tunes, beats and, er, breaks arranged by JB. Bloomin' great for a long drive!

[Alan2]

Bert Jansch :  Sketches  (Temple Music  CD,  1990).

Sort of a career break perhaps. Bert revisiting his back catalogue.  Some nice versions.

[Ian_]

 Rosali - Bite down

 Really enjoying this - singer-songwriter country-folkish with a little bit of psych/noise sort of thing.....I'm not the most articulate at describing music....but joyous  

  https://rosali.bandcamp.com/track/rewind

[Alan2]

Loreena McKennit  :  The Book of Secrets  (CD 1997).

Perhaps this should be in the bargain bin thread
. .  £2 from the Amnesty shop.  Perfect condition.  

I'm not a great fan of ms McKennit. Listensble  and pleasant in a Clannad/ Moorish -Celtic kind of way.

[Will S]

Loreena McKennit  :  The Book of Secrets  (CD 1997).

Perhaps this should be in the bargain bin thread
. .  £2 from the Amnesty shop.  Perfect condition.  

I'm not a great fan of ms McKennit. Listensble  and pleasant in a Clannad/ Moorish -Celtic kind of way.

I have a couple of her albums, including that one, and there are times when it is just what I want to listen to.

[Alan2]

Daisy Rickman :  Howl   (Weird Walk LP,  coloured vinyl,  2024).

If you like drones, acid folk, wyrd folk etc this is worth checking out. You can but the vinyl  like I did, or you can stream. No CD.

[davidmjs]

Daisy Rickman :  Howl   (Weird Walk LP,  coloured vinyl,  2024).

If you like drones, acid folk, wyrd folk etc this is worth checking out. You can but the vinyl  like I did, or you can stream. No CD.

Or you can buy the download... https://daisyrickman.bandcamp.com/album/howl

[Alan2]

Daisy Rickman :  Howl   (Weird Walk LP,  coloured vinyl,  2024).

If you like drones, acid folk, wyrd folk etc this is worth checking out. You can but the vinyl  like I did, or you can stream. No CD.

Or you can buy the download... https://daisyrickman.bandcamp.com/album/howl

Yes I forgot that...🙂

[ColinB]

I tuned in to this week's Flower Power Hour yesterday as I saw that it was a Jon Anderson special. I hadn't heard about his new collaboration with a group of Yes-obsessives called Band Geek. They have a US tour coming up and have recorded a new record so it's not just a trip down memory lane.

Jon did say that they are concentrating on the Fragile/Close to the Edge era though on the radio show they didn't play anything from the latter, just 2 tracks from Fragile and almost played The Yes Album in its entirety which I thought was a bit strange. I mean I like The Yes Album but don't really want to listen to the whole thing on a radio show.

If you want to hear the FPH, it's on https://www.internet-radio.com/station/gingerfeatherfm/ this afternoon and over the weekend at 3pm.

[ColinB]

After watching some of the Jethro Tull at Montreux on Sky Arts last night I've downloaded The Broadsword and the Beast and A Little Light Music which has been my listening this afternoon. I had no idea that DM had played with Tull albeit briefly in the early 90s.

I was impressed with Andrew Giddings' keyboard playing at the Montreux gig. What are the studio albums like that he played on?

[bassline (Mike)]

After watching some of the Jethro Tull at Montreux on Sky Arts last night I've downloaded The Broadsword and the Beast and A Little Light Music which has been my listening this afternoon. I had no idea that DM had played with Tull albeit briefly in the early 90s.

I was impressed with Andrew Giddings' keyboard playing at the Montreux gig. What are the studio albums like that he played on?

There were only four, the first of which, Catfish Rising, he was a session player, appearing on only a few tracks. It's an OK album, I guess, not one I play much.
Roots To Branches I like quite a bit, especially the title track.
J-Tull Dot Com I don't have, so I can't say.
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is, as far as Christmas albums go, a good one.

Not the most celebrated of Tull eras, I think the band had run it's course by now. However, you may love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NejW8HKOyno&list=PLL44kuYYS8yk7WxmgO4OsoVX1MOlRf210 Catfish Rising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8VJp8Gdn4&list=PLL44kuYYS8ymA-anT-VHqd_5kkNziibwm Roots To Branches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C70T0QJ-5_4&list=PLL44kuYYS8yno2tHKdRbysNozxPEbATz2 J Tull Dot Com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr6TSEu2NUA&list=PLUWzM0_7WzGrKKafLG8yJS7GohT_Yooiz Christmas Album

[David V B]

Skydancers, the new album by Martin Simpson. On first listen it is superb, probably his best since Prodigal Son which I love. The title track in particular is gorgeous.