Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. The band’s music has remained an eclectic blend of swamp rock, rock and roll, blues, boogie and country. They were recommended to me by a friend who knew that I […]
John The Revelator
This being the season of Advent the church lectionary turns its thoughts to prophecies of the end of the world. The greatest and perhaps the most impenetrable account of the end times is to be found in the Book of Revelation. This put me in mind of the old song, John The Revelator, which is […]
Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish percussionist. Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire. Her father was Herbert Arthur Glennie, an accordionist in a Scottish country dance band. The indigenous musical traditions of north-east Scotland were important in her development as a musician. Her first instruments were the mouth organ and the clarinet. She studied at […]
Cocteau Twins
Cocteau Twins were a Scottish dream pop band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) andWill Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde in 1983. The group earned critical praise for their distinctive ethereal sound and the soprano […]
Lena Meyer-Landrut
Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut, also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer-songwriter. She grew up as an only child, and started taking dancing lessons at the age of five; initially doing ballet and later practising various modern styles, including hip-hop and jazz dance. Lena grew fond of singing and appeared as an extra […]
Julie Fowlis
Julie Fowlis is a Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who sings primarily in Scottish Gaelic. Fowlis grew up on North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, in a gaelic speaking community. Her mother was a Gaelic-speaking islander from a family of fishermen and crofters which originated on the remote island of Heisgeir, while her father hailed […]
The Flash Mob
A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via phone, social media or viral emails. The first flash mobs were created in Manhattan […]
Electric Light Orchestra
In 1968, Roy Wood — guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of the Move — had an idea to form a new band that would use violins, cellos, string basses, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound, taking rock music in the direction to “pick up where the Beatles left off”. The orchestral instruments […]
The Gospel Train
It would appear that the connection between vicars and trains (one in which I must admit never to have indulged) goes back a very long way. “The Gospel Train (Get on Board)” is a traditional African American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard gospel […]
Rachel Croft – New Album
I posted about Rachel back in June, when the world was young. She has now produced a new album entitled ‘The North Star’, which she describes as a winter collection. There are nine tracks ranging from traditional carols to Christmas songs and the more esoteric. The album opens with what she describes as a sultry […]