Oh no, here we go again... Just saw Amy's thing on facebook.

RIP - Charlie Louvin

Gracias to SLQ for flagging this up via fb. No idea what it is but it's great!

Laura Cantrell’s return to Glasgow at the Recital Room yesterday went very well. Arranged very last minute to the extent that it didn’t make the brochure, the show was sold out well in advance of the evening. Later tonight, she and Mark Spencer will perform as part of the Dylan tribute rolling revue (much of it not so thunderous for my dinero) and I’m pretty sure that will introduce and re-acquaint her accordingly ahead of a return in May to punt the new “Kitty Wells’ Dresses” set to appear on Shoeshine/Spit and Polish on Easter Monday, the day after Roy and Cyril blitz London with them A-Bones.

A nicely paced set consisting new and old favourites and the lady’s voice sounding damn good. I had no idea that mark was in Son Volt these days but his fretwork is as mellifluous as it ever was. And if you don’t have tickets for their whistle stop at The Water Rats on Wednesday then you’re too late.

There were one or two moments when the clock was well and truly turned back and hearing some of those songs again made me realise how much I missed them. Strangely, the first thing I heard this morning was a clip on Radio Scotland of Laura rehearsing “Mr Tambourine Man”. If everything goes to plan then the re-establishment of Ms C into the hearts and minds of UK audiences will be the formality that it ought to be but in these days of the zip attention span, then you can never underestimate the flakiness of any particular audience at any given time.

And to some extent I include myself in said demographic.

Thanks to Robster for the YT link. Seeing as how SVT wasn't playing ball...

Who?

Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. , that's who! And with a January installment of its last-Thursday-of-every-month residency at the tiki bar where the weather's always tropical, Otto's Shrunken Head!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27th / OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD/
538 East 14th Street (just west of Avenue B) in snowy ol' Manhattan /
Two colossal shows, from 8pm sharp until 10pm / No cover!

Frostily yours,

Michael
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.

"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"

What was that Commodores thing about "easy like a Sunday morning"?

I never realised how much this sounded like "the sound of young Glasgow"... Thanks to Angel Aparacio Trujillo for flagging it up via fb.

I’ve been following this non-story about the slowing of “digital” sales and also the ongoing seemingly end days of HMV. Opposite sides of the same coin. Have you been in an HMV lately? It’s like going into Homebase or B&Q, a very depressing experience. There are bargains to be had if it’s landfill you’re after but it ceased to be a music store eons ago. Let it die and support the true independents that struggle on week to week.

The slippage in digi-sales is perhaps a direct ailment of getting nothing for your money. Oh, the tune? That’s incidental because there are several generations that aren’t educated to the fact that artists might have to be recompensed for their work. There are those who buck the trend, that work hard and get sales, but they’re way below what they used to be. Just today, I saw that ad at the cinema where they harp on about the film being recorded by a camera in the theatre and being made available for “download”. Who in their right mind, that you know, would seriously watch anything of that quality on their flat screen HD TV let alone anywhere else.

To my mind, anyone recording anything thusly is wasting their time or at best needs their heid looked. It’s greed that strangulating these industries, the same symptom that puts popcorn sales before the film and charges over the odds for (just the) tune(s). Ignorance of not respecting artwork/photos and liner notes or lyrics is not necessarily a crime. It’s about respect and valuing the work that has gone into creating it. Neither of these commodities is taught to any degree because we’re all caught in the glare of consumerism even at this late stage.

There was something on TV about selling hooky cigarettes and tobacco this week and how much the government is losing in revenue from this. Perhaps that's why petrol is going through the ceiling, the toffs have got to make their corn somehow. The garage that I go to is the closest one to the refinery but it's still nudging £1.30 a litre. Getting angry about something like this takes my mind off other matters and correlates with needing to find something beyond the bullshit we are constantly bombarded with.

A friend recently asked the pertinent question of “where would we be without music?” in relation to it helping them and theirs though a rough patch. It doesn’t even bear thinking about is perhaps the answer but it ain’t ever going back to how it was so we need to get used to that. So lap up the experience of the record store or the cinema while you still can because there those out there that won’t be happy until each and every one is boarded up and that you have to go through their cartel. Do everything you can to stop that.

LUX LIVES!!! 2011 - Edinburgh edition.

I curse the consideration that put this on the same night as Laura in Glasgow but as you're aware, I curse a lot... and have to sadly sit this one out but you don't have to.

BMX Bandits 25th Anniversary this Sunday (23rd)

Can't view the Matt and Kim vid due to copyright restrictions so instead I shall digest the Glasgow Film Festival program and try and figure out what to see. This will undoubtedly be followed by falling asleep in front of the TV and waking some time later wondering WTF? I've no idea why I'm committing this to the blog but at least it's something. Tomorrow is Friday (right?) maybe that's significant. Then again.

I’m going to try something here, just to see if it’s still possible or if I can still do it, perhaps both.

There are reasons why I haven’t been around these parts much lately. Something happened that really took the wind out of my sails but there are positive aspects to the horizon. I booked my ticket for the Loney/Jordan/A-Bones bun fight in April. And much more imminent is the arrival of wir ain Ms Laura Cantrell to Glasgow this coming weekend for Celtic Connections. She has her own (sold out) show on Sunday and is also taking part in the Dylan tribute (Monday). It’ll be good to see her and hopefully there’ll be news on when her Kitty Wells tribute album will be available.

There’s a brand new Eric and Amy track on the latest episode of Radio Free Song Club...

I’ll attempt to take up the slack on what I haven’t been doing this past while but it could take some time to gather any sort of momentum. Add the ongoing work on the bunker (that I wish had never started) to the fankle and the urge to scurry off into the sunset (or should that be moonset) is high.

All I ever seem to do here is post RIP's these days...

RIP - Don Kirshner

RIP - Susannah York

Glasgow Film Festival programme launches on Thursday (January 20th).

Ms Laura Cantrell is at The Water Rats in Kings Cross, The London on January 26th.

Tickets can be booked here.

The Godmother of rock'n'roll on BBC Four tonight.

(Thanks to Mr Percival for the link)

Unbelievable! (Thanks to Mr Duff for the linkage)

RIP - Trish Keenan (Broadcast)