Iain David McGeachy OBE, known professionally as John Martyn, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. The Times described him as “an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues”. Mentored by Hamish Imlach, Martyn […]
Sandy Denny
Today I am paying tribute to one of the most beautiful voices in English Folk Music. I had the privilege to speak to her briefly in the interval of a Fotheringay Concert at Cheltenham Town Hall. It was a night of amazing music. I have ommitted her classic ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ as […]
Carol King
Carole King , who celebrated her 79 birthday yesterday, is an American singer-songwriter who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having […]
Steely Dan
Steely Dan are an American rock band founded in 1971 by core members Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagan (keyboards, lead vocals). Blending elements of rock, jazz, latin, R&B and blues and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics, the band enjoyed critical and commercial success starting from the early 1970s […]
99 LuftBallons
“99 Luftballons” is a song by the German NDW band Nena from their 1983 self-titled a;bum. An English-language version titled “99 Red Balloons“, with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct […]
Hetty And The Jazzato Band
Hetty Loxston, a classical and jazz-trained (bi-lingual) singer from London formed Hetty and the Jazzato Band at the end of 2015 with clarinettist, and childhood friend Charlotte Jolly, and three Italian musicians Fabrizio Bonacci, Riccardo Castellani and Alessandro Cimaschi, upon moving back to London after a period of living in Bologna and Rome for five […]
The Petersens
The Petersens are an American bluegrass family band from Branson, Missouri, the authors of the popular songs “California,” and “It’s Over.” Since the group’s inception, they have been a regular feature on Country Music and Bluegrass television specials. The Petersen children grew up playing music together, but first heard bluegrass in 2003 at the Gettysburg […]
Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
“Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” (also “Make Me a Pallet on your Floor“, “Make Me a Pallet“, or “Pallet on the Floor“) is a blues/jazz/folk song. It is considered a standard. Jelly Roll Morton explained the title: “A pallet is something that – you get some quilts – in other words, it’s a […]
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. In 1935, Davis received his first trumpet as a gift from John Eubanks, a friend of his father. He took lessons from “the biggest influence on […]
Elise Trouw
Elise Trouw is a U.S. singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Born in Newport Beach, California to parents Arie and Anne, Trouw moved to San Diego at an early age. At six, she learned to play the piano with the intent of being able to play “My Immortal” by Evanescence. At age ten, she started drum lessons […]