The Allman Brothers Band - S/T - Side 1

01. Don't Want You No More
02. It's Not My Cross To Bear
03. Black Hearted Woman
04. Trouble No More

The Allman Brothers Band was formed in March 1969, during large jam sessions with various musicians in Jacksonville, Florida. Duane Allman and Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe) had recently moved from Muscle Shoals, where Duane participated in session work at FAME Studios for artists such as Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, and Wilson Pickett, with whom he recorded a cover of the Beatles' "Hey Jude" that went to number 23 on the national charts. Duane began to put together a new band, and invited bassist Berry Oakley to jam with the new group; the pair had met in a Jacksonville, Florida club some time earlier, and became quick friends. The group had immediate chemistry, and Duane's vision for a "different" band — one with two lead guitarists and two drummers — began evolving. Meanwhile, Phil Walden, the manager of the late Otis Redding and several other R&B acts, was looking to expand into rock acts. Rick Hall became frustrated with the group's recording methods, and offered the tracks recorded and their contract to Walden and Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, who purchased them for $10,000. Walden intended the upcoming group to be the centerpiece of his new Atlantic-distributed label, Capricorn.
After the duo moved to Jacksonville, they began to put together large jam sessions. Dickey Betts had played in Oakley's previous band, the Second Coming, and became the group's second lead guitarist, while Butch Trucks, with whom Duane and Gregg had cut a demo less than a year prior, fulfilled the role of the second drummer. The Second Coming's Reese Wynans played keyboards, and Duane, Oakley and Betts all shared vocal duties. The unnamed group began to perform free shows in Willow Branch Park in Jacksonville, with an ever-changing, rotating cast of musicians. Duane felt strongly that his brother should be the vocalist of the new group (which effectively eliminated Wynans' position, as Gregg also played keyboards). Gregg accepted the invitation and entered rehearsal on March 26, 1969, when the group was rehearsing "Trouble No More" by Muddy Waters. Although initially intimidated by the musicians, Gregg was pressured by Duane "into singing [his] guts out". Four days later, the group made their début at the Jacksonville Armory. Although many names were suggested including Beelzebub, the six-piece eventually decided on the Allman Brothers Band.
The group moved to Macon, Georgia by May 1, where Walden was establishing Capricorn Records. The band performed locally, as well as eighty miles north in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, and practiced at the newly minted Capricorn nearly every day. The group forged a strong brotherhood, spending countless hours rehearsing, consuming psychedelic drugs, and hanging out in Rose Hill Cemetery, where they would write songs. Their first performances outside the South came on May 30 and 31 in Boston, opening for the Velvet Underground. In need of more material, the group remade old blues numbers like "Trouble No More" and "One Way Out", in addition to improvised jams such as "Mountain Jam". Gregg, who had struggled to write in the past, became the band's sole songwriter, composing songs such as "Whipping Post" and "Black-Hearted Woman". Much of the material collected on The Allman Brothers Band was written between May and August 1969, and premiered live. According to Johanson, the group gauged crowd reaction to the numbers and adjusted the songs accordingly. "Before we went into the studio, we had a very clear idea of what we were all trying to do musically and that it was unique, totally different from anything else that anyone was playing," said Betts. "From the earliest rehearsals, we all had the same mindset."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Allman_Brothers_Band_(album)

Fucked Up - Looking For Heaven and Not Finding It

Our good-faith assumption that the slow placidity of part one of this ultimately 5-hour epic was a means of introduction turns out to have been wisely made. Year of the Monkey, the second part of Fucked Up‘s quintuple-album-length trilogy also comprising its second and third hours, takes the increased eventfulness of “Rivers and Lakes,” the closing track of Year of the Goat, and builds from there as the base. “Looking for Heaven and Not Finding It,” opens with the striking of a temple bowl, a common preface to Buddhist prayer, as all of the tracks of this cycle have thus far. The following half-hour is spent in the land of light charted by Yes, with major-key joy and brimming golden dewdrops sprinkled everywhere. This is fitting: the story at this point features Monkey, or Sun Wukong, attempting to find a way into heaven aside from the front gate, with the music acting as visions of the lakes and gardens and pavilions of that golden resplendence.
Fucked Up by this point have not just referenced prog but played it enough that it no longer comes across as a hardcore band spreading their wings but rather a prog band showing their comfort over a polyphony of styles, such that when Hüsker Dü-informed post-hardcore arrives as always, it feels like a well-cued musical shift rather than a retreat back to the known. The confidence the band displays here is awe-inspiring especially due to the already-apparent complexity of the work; no longer do they feel like a band playing at the ragged edge of their ability but now like a masterful group simply following the story as they may.
The next hour, comprised of the two songs “Before Us Tigers Stood” and “Monkey Meets the Dragon,” features musical callbacks to motifs established in those previous Zodiac releases, a fact that will please anyone who’s committed those many hours of material to wield against this 5-hour ultra-Wagnerian close. The impact of the songs however is not predicated on the understanding of the complex inner mythology of the Zodiac series; Fucked Up wisely deploy clear hooks and obvious drama, letting the mood of the piece arrive from itself rather than outside, leaving those little references as pleasing treats for the attentive rather than requisites to appreciate the work. These two pieces drama more obviously from heavy metal, sounding quite often like pastiches of Iron Maiden’s current prog metal triple-guitar era, especially with the intertwining lyrical guitar melodies. The band’s practice with explicitly metal performance on both the Oberon EP as well as on Year of the Horse provide a powerful bed for them to draw from.
What surprises is the wide-eyed use of synthesizers and sequencers, drawing from the same post-prog space as M83 and Metric, when bands that pushed the progressive edge began to resolve their work back toward clear pop composition. The band once dabbled in this form on Dose Your Dreams but here it feels less like an affect to sustain an album and more just another place for the camera eye to go. It’s hard not to get more than a whiff of Rush over the expanse, not just in the macroscale composition held together by approachable melodicism, but also in the particular hopefulness of the melodic sensibility. These songs seem to sparkle and gleam in their joy, even as Monkey finds himself enmeshed in greater and greater peril posed by, you guessed it, Tiger and Dragon, representing two of the four winds guarding heaven. Isolated to just these two pieces alone, the Grass Can Move Stones project would have proven its worth as an exercise in the limitlessness of prog and the endless inventiveness of hardcore and alternative musicians.
“Empty is the Hand,” the closing piece, repeats the swirling dramatics of Year of the Horse, gesturing finally to the alchemical and occult themes that have underpinned Fucked Up’s work since their earliest days. That the narrative here, as everywhere it seems in Fucked Up’s catalog, is an allegorical one analyzing archetype and function should be pretty obvious; otherwise the grabdiloquence of the whole thing falls apart under its own ludicrousness. But it is precisely Fucked Up’s commitment to the Wagnerian sweep of this project, comfortably putting away time scales that would sit nicely next to Der Ring des Nibelungen, that makes it so enthralling. The middle of this epic breaks into a nasty and violent mix of death metal and sludge metal, executed to such delightful perfection that it raises the question why the band doesn’t work in this style more often.
After an opening hour that felt like a mere prelude, they have committed the second and third hours to a hybrid of heavy metal, prog, space rock, psychedelia, hardcore, kosmiche, raga rock and alternative rock that feels effervescent and invigorating, delivering on the promise of a similar hybrid offered by The Mars Volta years ago to scattered success or that “Reoccurring Dreams” from Zen Arcade sketched out for the alternative crowd forty years ago now. That Year of the Monkey ends on a cliffhanger should be expected, given that there are two hours left to go, but it still hurts nonetheless.
Perhaps Year of the Monkey will be revealed to have benefited from the Empire Strikes Back effect, being the second in a trilogy neither has to set itself up or offer a coherent conclusion, freeing it to pursue the primacy of drama. It still remains difficult to judge this project as a totality given so much remains to be seen of it, four further tracks comprising the concluding two hours of this wild epic that itself is the close of a 12-album cycle produced over roughly 20 years. As it stands now, however, Year of the Monkey is not only an exceptional continuation of the Grass Can Move Stones meta-epic but also perhaps the best Fucked Up record yet, sitting next to Year of the Horse, The Chemistry of Common Life and David Comes to Life as a viable answer to that only ever-increasingly impossible question.  From: https://www.treblezine.com/fucked-up-year-of-the-monkey-review/

 

Pharaoh's Daughter - Yonati

I love the idea that our ancient tales and archetypal characters are still a root source for many of the stories we tell and the music we make. As if the music itself is an ever-evolving vessel for carrying the wisdom through the ages, and the music maker merely a custodian of sacred truths. And if this is true in a very general sense of much music made today, consciously or otherwise, Songs of Desire is a very deliberate exploration of such an idea.
Conceived nearly twenty years ago, the idea was brought to life by musician and Pharaoh’s Daughter band leader Basya Schechter, who studied with scholar and musician Yosef Goldman, to explore, uncover and fully understand the deeper meanings of the texts known as The Song of Songs. This, in turn, enabled her and the band to create a sonic vision of what, for thousands of years, had been merely words captured on parchment, the dry and dusty world of academia and canon, thereby breathing new life and relevance into the stories. Once lifted off the page, this important collection of poems, dreams, and metaphors pulses with tales of romance, yearning, and forbidden love, carefully reworked into something sensual, seductive, human, relatable, and, most importantly, alive. And these stories in particular, and the themes in general, are found as a very human heartbeat in the sacred tomes and texts of faiths across the globe.
And just as this vibrant re-presentation of this important and much-discussed story moves through Spanish, French, Arabic, Yiddish, English, as well as the original Hebrew, it is the language itself that adds to the mystery and melody; musically, sounds are drawn from all over the musical map, across genres and geographies, and where language might be a barrier, it becomes music in its own right.
“Asleep” sets the scene: lovers meet for a secret nighttime tryst in the City of Peace, but it also introduces us to the exotic sounds that carry the story being replayed here. Anchored by a busy beat, the surrounding space is filled with the sounds of the traditional and the modern: Oud and guitars, flutes and violins.
As soon as the opening bars of “Yonati” drift in, a sonic picture is painted, this is not here, this is not now, at least it seems so to those of us in the modern West, this blend of Middle Eastern folk traditions, of music that came to the us by another path, of what would centuries after these stories were written be termed “arabesque” is almost an act of spiritual and sonic time travel.  From: https://dancing-about-architecture.com/songs-of-desire-pharaohs-daughter-reviewed-by-dave-franklin/ 

 

The Grateful Dead - Box Of Rain / Brokedown Palace / Attics Of My Life / Ripple

American Beauty was the result of a prolific period of the songwriting partnership of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter – one that yielded two studio albums in one year for the Grateful Dead. This was the only time the band would return to the studio so quickly. However, unlike the previous effort, where almost all the songs were written solely by the pair, the album saw more input from the rest of the band. Included are Phil Lesh's "Box of Rain" and Bob Weir's "Sugar Magnolia", both written with Hunter, and "Operator", Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's only singing-songwriting effort on a Grateful Dead studio album.
The album was produced after the discovery that the band's manager, Lenny Hart (father of drummer Mickey Hart), had renewed their contract with Warner Brothers Records without their knowledge, and then skipped town with a sizable chunk of the band's wealth. In between near-constant touring and gigging, recording began only a few months after the release of Workingman's Dead – without their regular sound crew, who were out on the road as part of the Medicine Ball Caravan tour (which the Dead were originally scheduled to join). Instead, studio staff engineer Stephen Barncard replaced Bob Matthews as producer – "a move that irks Matthews to this day" (Matthews had co-produced the band's two previous albums). Barncard also mused "I had heard bad stories about engineers' interactions with the Dead but what I found were a bunch of hardworking guys".
Both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty were innovative at the time for their fusion of bluegrass, rock and roll, folk, and, especially, country music. Lyricist Hunter commented "We went back into American folk tradition but, being experimenters, nothing would do but that we try to reinvent that." Compared to Workingman's Dead, American Beauty had even less lead guitar work from Jerry Garcia, who increasingly filled the void with pedal steel guitar. It was also during the recording of this album that Garcia first collaborated with mandolinist David Grisman, a friend who had recently relocated to California following the dissolution of Earth Opera. "I just bumped into Jerry at a baseball game in Fairfax, and he said, 'Hey, you wanna play on this record we're doing?'" commented Grisman, whose playing is heard on "Friend of the Devil" and especially "Ripple". Howard Wales, another musician from outside of the band, added keyboards to three songs. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann commented, "Wales came to us through Jerry, who played with him in side projects. [He] had done session work with James Brown and the Four Tops before we brought him in for American Beauty." MIT student Ned Lagin, a jazz pianist who had corresponded with the band after attending their 1969 New Year's Eve concert at the Boston Tea Party, also contributed piano to "Candyman". Lagin subsequently sat in with the band on occasion from 1970 to 1975.
Phil Lesh, in his autobiography Searching for the Sound, commented "the magnetism of the scene at Wally Heider's recording studio made it a lot easier for me to deal with [the loss of my father] and my new responsibilities. Some of the best musicians around were hanging there during that period; with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, the Dead, Santana, Crosby, Nash, and Neil Young working there, the studio became jammer heaven. Thank the Lord for music; it's a healing force beyond words to describe."
Though both albums focused on Americana songcraft, Workingman's Dead mixed the grittier Bakersfield sound with the band's psychedelic roots, whereas the mostly-acoustic American Beauty focused more on major-key melodies and folk harmonies, evincing the influence of Dylan and studio neighbors/friends Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. Kreutzmann later explained, "The singers in our band really learned a lot about harmonizing from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who had just released their seminal album Déjà Vu. Jerry played pedal steel... on that record. Stephen Stills lived at Mickey's ranch... and David Crosby enjoyed partying as much as we did. So our circles overlapped."
Crosby has demurred on this point: "Sometimes they have given us credit for teaching them how to sing and that's not true. They knew how to sing; they had their own style and they had the most important quality of it down already, which is tale-telling". However, he has also stated "The idea is – when you hang out with other musicians – to sort of cross-pollinate your idea streams, and that naturally happened between us on a level that was very rare. We would listen to what they were doing with time signatures and with breaking the rules, and it appealed to us a lot."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Beauty_(album)

 

The Magpie Arc - Wassail

Creation stories are rarely straightforward, and even the apparently simple task of getting a talented bunch of musicians together to record some songs is often fraught with setbacks. In The Magpie Arc’s case, the major problem was unavoidable: the band began its journey just as the Covid pandemic reared its head. This made the timeworn trajectory of recording, releasing and touring obsolete, for a while at least, and might have contributed to the decision to release the first twelve songs as three separate EPs. Everyone had to find new ways of working, even folk-rock supergroups.
And The Magpie Arc have certainly earned the right to call themselves a supergroup (even if, through modesty or a wish not to be associated with the word’s more bombastic connotations, they eschew that particular descriptor). The current line-up consists of award-winning Nancy Kerr (Vocals, fiddle and strings), world-renowned Martin Simpson (Vocals and electric guitars), Findlay Napier (Vocals, electric and acoustic guitars), the former Albion Band member Tom A Wright (Vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, programming, electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars), and Alex Hunter (Electric bass guitar) who doubles as the band’s manager.
Glamour In The Grey is their first full-length and the first chance the band has had to function as a band in the more traditional sense. The result is an album that goes beyond the excellence of those first EPs: the edges are sharper, the interplay between musicians is understandably more well-honed, and the whole thing feels more condensed. There is a mixture of material from the band’s three songwriters and a sprinkling of traditional songs, but the overall sound is impressively coherent.  From: https://klofmag.com/2022/11/the-magpie-arc-glamour-in-the-grey/

 

Masheena - Been Waiting

The history of Masheena dates back to the early 2000s, when Luis, Tarjei and Ole agreed to start a Thin Lizzy coverband after more than a few beers one night. That band never materialized, but the guys kept active over the years in other projects like Abbath, Royal Rooster, Lost At Last, Ilti Milta, Meelodi, Odisea, 4Tet and St. Satan.
After reigniting a smoldering fire, mellowed by time and sober expectations after spending half a lifetime in rehearsal rooms, and against better judgment, in 2021 Luis sent a few demos to Tarjei who literally had to dig out his bass from the basement after having sworn to never play in an original band again.
The legend Amagedda, known from Immortal’s debut album, the Abbath-fronted “I” and Demonaz’s solo album joined together with string virtuoso Ole rehearsing the songs in a barn in the outskirts of town transformed into a rehearsal cave.
Rather than re-inventing music itself, the purpose of Masheena is to share the joy and love of hard rock. The intended EP with songs from the demos quickly grew to a full album.
Musically, Masheena are inspired by both the sunny and shady grooves of the 70s, the shameless hedonism of 80s hard rock and heavy metal, as well as the jagged riffs and darker vibes of the 90s alternative rock and metal scenes.  From: https://www.masheena.rocks/bio

Mitsoura - Kelushka

The magical voice of a singer who will conclude the tenth year's festival resonated from several Slovenian stages in 1994 as part of the then nomad, excuse me, travelling ethno-festival Okarina, including the rain-washed Ljubljana castle. Mónika Juhász Miczura - to friends and fans simply Mitsou - was back then the singer of surely the most precious of Hungarian Roma bands Ando Drom. Mitsou learned traditional songs from her mother. She says her mother was about to embark on a wonderful career following numerous awards, if only she had been prepared to move to a bigger city. But she was too poor, she couldn't even afford to buy shoes, and was ashamed to leave her home village on the Romanian border and leave for Budapest barefoot. If we have been deprived of 'Mitsou Senior's' singing, we can rejoice even more at the chance to delight in the evocative and magical singing of her daughter, whose talent was discovered by Jenö Zsigó, the leader of Ando Drom band, at a children's workshop.
Although she is no longer a member of that group, Mitsou continues to carry out its mission in a unique fashion, in her new band Mitsoura. Ando Drom translates as 'On the Road' and the owner of such a penetrating, sonorous voice went on a risky adventure in search of variation and innovation which could surpass traditional Roma music. Risky, because many have been burnt before her as they combined traditional and electronic music. Nevertheless, our heroine came out battle-hardened and fresh, with a clear vision of what she wants (and what she wants to achieve from it) from the currently trendy blending of the traditional and the super-modern.
The fusion of her stunning voice with electronic music is never a one-way street, it never has one meaning only; her voice is not merely compulsory decor for the stoned ambience atmosphere. On the contrary, the prevailing feeling is of Mitsou electrifying Roma music, of her showing how much electricity there was in it from the very start. She has surrounded it with ambiental, atmospheric sounds to bring one's attention the spacious, extensive quality of this essentially nomadic people's music. There is, of course, the presence of trance, since she reminds us of the experience of trance itself - translocation, travelling - which is so effortlessly achieved by Roma musicians. The songs on her alluring debut album (Mitsoura, 2003) are - Roma and Indian as well - almost all traditional, as are most of the instruments playing with electronic instrumentation: the cimbal (mostly played by master Kálmán Balogh), kaval, zurna, viola, tabla etc. Old and new, yet never in conflict or confrontation, but in true harmony and co-existence. The trance will be even deeper in concert thanks to the accompanying visual animations inspired by Indian motifs and Roma art work.  From: https://mestozensk.org/en/artist-collaborator/mitsoura

 

BoDeans - Closer To Free / Save A Little / Texas Ride Song / Idaho

The BoDeans were formed in 1984 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, by high school friends Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas, both serving as guitarists and vocalists. Initially, the duo performed under the pseudonyms Beau BoDean for Neumann and Sammy BoDean for Llanas, drawing from a playful nod to the character Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies. They began playing local gigs around Milwaukee's East Side music scene, honing a raw roots rock style influenced by Midwestern heartland sounds. In 1984, the band expanded its lineup with the addition of bassist Bob Griffin and drummer Guy Hoffman, completing the core quartet that would define their early identity. Seeking broader opportunities, the group relocated to Minneapolis in 1985 to perform more frequently in the vibrant regional club circuit, including notable shows at venues like First Avenue. Their persistence paid off when demo tapes recorded during this period caught the attention of record executives, leading to a signing with Slash Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., later that year. The band's debut album, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, was released in October 1986 and produced by T Bone Burnett, whose minimalist approach captured their energetic, unpolished roots rock essence through live-in-the-studio sessions. The record featured the single "Good Things," a driving track that highlighted the duo's harmonious vocals and guitar interplay, establishing them as an authentic voice of Midwestern rock. Critics praised the album's raw conviction and fresh take on American rock themes, positioning the BoDeans as a promising act emerging from the heartland. To promote the album, the BoDeans embarked on extensive initial tours, including opening slots for major acts like U2 during the early legs of The Joshua Tree Tour in late 1987, which helped build their live reputation and fanbase across North America.
The BoDeans achieved a more polished sound on their 1991 album Black and White, produced by David Kahne and featuring contributions from session musicians including drummer Kenny Aronoff, which explored themes of everyday Midwestern struggles and relationships through roots rock arrangements. Released on Slash Records, the album marked a step toward broader commercial appeal with tracks like "Black, White and Blood Red" and "True Devotion" highlighting the band's evolving blend of folk-inflected pop and heartfelt lyricism. Despite critical mixed reception for its slicker production compared to their rawer early work, it solidified their reputation as heartland rock practitioners. The band's breakthrough came with the 1993 release of Go Slow Down, produced by T-Bone Burnett, which returned to a stripped-down, organic sound emphasizing acoustic guitars and narrative songs about personal freedom and resilience, drawing from their Midwestern roots. The album's lead single, "Closer to Free," initially modest upon release, gained massive exposure in 1994 as the theme song for the Fox television series Party of Five.  From: https://grokipedia.com/page/BoDeans 

 

Mamalarky - Broken Bones

What can you expect from an album called Hex Key? A bunch of songs about assembling flat-pack furniture and adjusting bike handlebars? Nothing Mamalarky do is predictable, so you can’t rule that out. The U.S. indie psych-rock four-piece – Livvy Bennett (vocals, guitar), Noor Khan (bass), Dylan Hill (drums), Michael Hunter (keyboard) – has a knack for leaving you puzzled. Their 2018 debut EP which they recorded as a trio – Khan joined later that year – is called Fundamental Thrive Hive. They played their first show as a quartet in a wristwatch factory. There is an instrumental on their debut album, with the title “Singalong”. Quirky?
Possibly, but the band never veers into gratuitous quirkiness. After all, they are consummate professionals who have played and/or toured with the likes of Cherry Glazerr, White Denim, and Faye Webster. It’s just that, like these artists, they resist being pigeonholed and relish flouting convention. Nothing is off limits as they relentlessly pursue the goal of creating songs that are so many perfect little worlds, each one with its own distinctive character. They take sounds, moods, and lyrics that, at first glance, do not seem compatible, then make that pastiche work.
Their own lyrics seldom provide an apt summary of an artist’s music, but Mamalarky are an exception. On “Dance Together”, a track on the band’s second LP, 2022’s Pocket Fantasy, Bennett sings “It’s so appealing / Glittering fractals moving across the roof / I belong in a state of constant motion.” Like fractals, Mamalarky’s songs are complex and reveal infinitely detailed patterns when you zoom in. And they’re never static – they swirl, cascade, ripple, and grow.
Given their approach to songwriting – or rather, songcrafting – the group do not strive for sonic consistency on their albums. On the contrary, they want the maximum amount of diversity. “The worst thing you can say about a Mamalarky song is ‘This sounds like another song of yours’”, Khan once said. Accordingly, the variety Hex Key offers throughout its 13 songs is bewildering.  From: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/albums/mamalarky-hex-key-reach-peak-torque

The Byrds - I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better / The Bells of Rhymney / He Was A Friend of Mine / The World Turns All Around Her

"The Bells of Rhymney" is a song by the folk singer Pete Seeger, which consists of Seeger's own music accompanying words written by the Welsh poet Idris Davies. Seeger first released a recording of the song on a live album in 1958, but it is the American folk rock band the Byrds' 1965 recording that is the best known version of the song.
The lyrics to the song were drawn from part of Davies' poetic work Gwalia Deserta, which was first published in 1938. The work was inspired by a local coal mining disaster and by the failure of the 1926 General Strike, with the "Bells of Rhymney" stanzas following the pattern of the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". In addition to Rhymney, the poem also refers to the bells of a number of other places in South Wales, including Merthyr, Rhondda, Blaina, Caerphilly, Neath, Swansea, Newport, Cardiff, and the Wye Valley.
Two decades after Gwalia Deserta was published, Seeger used one part of the work as lyrics for his song after discovering them in a book by Dylan Thomas. The song was first released as part of a suite of songs, including "Sinking of the Reuben James" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", on Seeger and Sonny Terry's 1958 live album, Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry. Another live version of the song was included on Seeger's 1967 compilation album, Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits.
Arguably the most famous rendition of the song is the version recorded by the American folk rock band the Byrds. The Byrds' recording of "The Bells of Rhymney" was committed to tape on April 14, 1965, and released as part of the band's debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man.
At the time of recording, the song was a relative newcomer to the Byrds' repertoire, having first been performed during the band's March 1965, pre-fame residency at Ciro's nightclub on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Lead guitarist Roger McGuinn (at that time known as Jim McGuinn) had brought the song to the band after becoming familiar with it as an arranger on Judy Collins' third album, Judy Collins 3, which itself included a cover version of "The Bells of Rhymney". Although the Byrds were anxious to correctly pronounce the Welsh place-names in the song's lyrics on their recording, they, like Seeger, actually mispronounced the name Rhymney as "Rimney" (it should be pronounced as "Rumney").  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells_of_Rhymney

The Story - Missing Person Afternoon / The Angel In The House / Mermaid / The Barefoot Ballroom

Jonatha Brooke’s background in English literature informs many of the songs on Angel in the House; the album takes its title from a poem by Victorian poet Coventry Patmore. In the poem, Patmore extols the “virtues” of womanhood: to stay at home by the hearth, take care of the husband and children, and always have a cheerful countenance.
Brooke found inspiration in English writer Virginia Woolf’s response to the poem: “Woolf got a hold of the poem and used it as a metaphor for that particular phantom that tells us, as women, not to offend, not to do our work, but to flatter and coo. The song comes down to the struggle we still have with that notion of womanhood,” Brooke explained in the Elektra release. In the Billboard interview, she added: “I think that I and my generation are still messing with this stupid angel that says, ‘Why don’t you take care of your house before you write a song!’”
Set up as a series of drawing room ballads, the first song on the album, “Mermaid,” addresses the image of women portrayed in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Little Mermaid.” Referring to the difference between Andersen’s version and the commercially popular, sugary-sweet, Walt Disney film version of the tale, Brooke wrote in the album’s liner notes: “In the original story, she doesn’t get the guy, she doesn’t live happily ever after, she loses her voice, her tail, her family and turns into sea foam.”
Cramton described “Mermaid” in the Metro Times as representative of the “multilayered meanings” present in many of the Story’s songs. “They voice the frustrations of many women who want bustling lives but fear public reprisals for ‘neglecting their feminine duties.’” People magazine called Angel in the House “the year’s most radiant folk record,” while White, writing in Billboard, suggested that “fans of the fragile gleam of Grace in Gravity will find Angel in the House a darker prism.”
The title track of Angel in the House was also inspired by a literary work—this time, a short story by Grace Paley about a middle-aged woman who is forced to reexamine her life: “My mother moved the furniture / When she no longer moved the man.… / She wanted to be a different person.… / And he walked away.” “My mother is a big part of the song,” Brooke told White in the Billboard interview. “It’s about me and my mother, and … any woman who’s been torn between desires and what they’re supposed to do as a female in this world.”
Kimball added her own feelings about the song, which conjured up memories of her parents’ divorce: “That was an awful time; they were very friendly, almost too friendly, and I wanted them to be more angry with each other and more separated.”  From: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/story

 

Midlake - Antiphon

Midlake don’t get enough credit for being ahead of their time. Actually, they don’t get any credit, understandable in light of the Denton, Tex., sextet's antiquated imagery and sepia-drunk sound. But the formula that made The Trials of Van Occupanther a sleeper hit in 2006—bearded indie-folk meets California soft-rock meets Fleetwood Mac at their most glassy-eyed—would likely make it a massive success in 2013. It’s certainly in their best interest to revisit that style after the clock-stopping Tull torpor of The Courage of Others, and guitarist Eric Pulido claims their fourth LP Antiphon “is the most honest representation of the band as a whole.” Except he goes on to say, “as opposed to one person’s vision that we were trying to facilitate.” Pulido got an internal promotion to frontman after the departure of singer-songwriter Tim Smith in 2012, and...shots fired?
Antiphon does somehow manage to be a “forget everything you know about Midlake!” album as well as a “return to form,” at least if you remember that Van Occupanther was preceded by the burlier, less precious (title aside) Bamnan and Silvercork in 2004. Pulido’s words foreshadow a more aggressive tack on the part of Midlake and they certainly oblige during the first half of Antiphon. If the title track and “Provider” don’t exactly boogie, they’re at least rollin’ and tumblin’, with the shuffling beats and sticky, distorted guitar leads that invert Midlake’s previous ratio of rock to folk. More notably, the flutes and other non-strung instruments are pushed to the periphery, foregrounding a lightly psychedelic blues that I suppose recalls Fleetwood Mac before their big personnel shakeup. Likewise, Pulido begins the record asking the listener to “start a war,” and goes on to speak of foxholes and space shuttles. There’s even one song called “It’s Going Down”, which doesn’t sound all that more vigorous than what came before it, but hey, make your own Yung Joc "meet me at the farmer's market" jokes.
But throughout, it’s clear that Smith’s departure is an amputation that doesn’t change Midlake’s DNA. They’ve got a couple of opening gigs for Pearl Jam in the near future, so that should give you an idea of whether they’ve retained the earnestness of their previous work. Pulido doesn’t have Smith’s distinct, dulcet tone, though it’s actually to Midlake’s advantage on Antiphon. His vocals are alopecia-stricken, almost fascinating in their lack of texture even when layered in harmony, offering no resistance to the bulkier music backing him. So Antiphon never sounds awkward even when he sings about space travel on “Corruption” (“we went to the moon/ with a tycoon”) in a way that comes off as quaint as the more typically Midlake-y concerns like sorting out “The Old and the Young” and having a good woman waiting at home by the fire.
The bigger shift is in the production, provided by Grammy-nominated Tony Hoffer. His most frequently cited credits are Beck and Air, who both ended up working with Nigel Godrich on their very next albums, so I’ve come to think of his aesthetic as a kind of Radiohead starter kit. Midlake get that kind of sound here—you wouldn’t call it overproduced, but there’s tons of production if you know where to listen for it, as the stereo panning is neatly utilized, the percussion crisp and non-obtrusive, while all of the folk instruments are spit-shined and shellacked. It’s a retro-modernist (or modernist-retro) schematic, aspiring for Laurel Canyon decor while paying West Hollywood rent.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18696-midlake-antiphon/

Natalie Merchant - Beloved Wife / River / Cowboy Romance

I’ve always found being passionate, open, vulnerable, and transparent to be among the greatest qualities a person can have.  We are so programmed to close off to other people about anything deeper or more personal than work, entertainment, the weather, and current events, that it’s almost shocking when we are allowed into the personal thoughts of an artist.  And when those personal thoughts are arranged in the right way, and the words are chosen carefully enough, we tend to call those things works of art.
After fronting the alt-pop 10,000 Maniacs for the better part of a decade, Natalie Merchant took her talents to the studio for her solo debut Tigerlily.  I love solo debuts because I like to believe the artist has been collecting songs for years without a venue to display them.  They are, in so many cases, loaded with poetic gems that give us a massive picture window into the soul of the writer/performer.  I have no idea if this is true for Merchant and Tigerlily, and I don’t want to look it up because I may be wrong.  My perception of Tigerlily is that it’s Merchant finally breaking free of the restrictions of pop and working as part an ensemble, and finally having the artistic license to say things she’s been holding inside. 
With her pitch-perfect, bright and emotional vocals, the entire album is driven by her voice, her words, and some gorgeously sparse musical arrangements.  It’s a truly poetic album.
“River” is a beautiful tribute to the recently deceased (1993) River Phoenix, a once-in-a-generation acting talent that succumbed to the temptations of Sunset Blvd.  I was a huge River Phoenix fan and his death was truly a tragedy; a talent and a soul so bright snuffed out long before its time.  Merchant not only mourns his death, but chastises the media for essentially dissecting his life and his youthful indiscretions, all while his family, his friends and his fans were still in mourning. 
So many critics at the time of Tigerlily’s release praised the album but also used words about Merchant like “lighten up” or “too intense”.  I even read one that said “get over yourself”.  Why is it that Daniel Day Lewis gets Oscars for his intensity and Bob Dylan gets Pulitzer prizes, while women get told to smile more and stay in their lanes?  From: https://eons.substack.com/p/natalie-merchant-tigerlily 

 

The Zombies - If It Don't Work Out / I Know She Will / Walking in the Sun

Everyone knows that The Zombies had already called it a day before Columbia Records even released Odessey & Oracle; how Al Kooper championed it and cajoled the heads of Columbia to issue it (finally) and how “Time Of The Season” became a massive – but fluke – hit in 1969.  Once this happened, The Zombies were in demand again but Colin Blunstone, Hugh Grundy and (the now sadly deceased) Paul Atkinson were tending to other matters.  Rod Argent and Chris White took the reins and headed into the studio to record a “follow up” single for “Time Of The Season” – Chris White at the producer’s helm; Rod Argent handling keyboards and lead vocals.  Joining them in the studio were Bob Henrit on drums, Jim Rodford on bass and Russ Ballard on guitar – the band now remembered as Argent.  They recorded a single, the gorgeous, heartbreaking and delicate “Imagine The Swan” – and duly released it on CBS in the U.K. and the Date imprint in the U.S.  It didn’t go anywhere, unfortunately, but this group proceeded to record a total of six new songs:  the aforementioned “Imagine The Swan”, its B-side, the soulful instrumental “Conversation Off Floral Street”, the haunting and majestic epic “Girl Help Me”, the sad and wistful “Smokey Day”, the rollicking “She Loves The Way They Love Her” and the laid-back “I Could Spend The Day” – all great songs taken on their own merits.
The idea was to couple them along with some previously unreleased material by the original line-up that had been (criminally) languishing in the Decca Records vaults in the U.K. with some cleaning up and embellishments.  Dusted off were “If It Don’t Work Out”, “I’ll Call You Mine”, “I’ll Keep Trying”, “I Know She Will”, “Walking In The Sun” (which dated back to 1964) and the incredible “Don’t Cry For Me”.  An interesting and highly believable combination of songs – 6 with Argent as lead singer and 6 with Colin Blunstone’s remarkable voice.
One more “taster” single was released by Date in the U.S. and Canada – and disappeared without a trace – “If It Don’t Work Out” coupled with “Don’t Cry For Me”.  Thus, the album, tentative titled R.I.P. was permanently shelved and The Zombies’ name was consigned to memory as shortly thereafter, Argent made their triumphant debut.
Many of these songs have circulated over the years – I first locked into most of them (save for “Smokey Day” and “I’ll Keep Trying”) via a 1988 compilation called Meet The Zombies; many people were first turned on to these “lost” tracks through the (now) seminal 2-LP set on Epic from 1974, Time Of The Zombies and like all great albums that never were, there have been various versions of what this album would have been shaped as, if it had actually been released.
Fast forward to 2014:  the good people at Varese Sarabande (the American label who reissued Odessey & Oracle) released R.I.P. in its intended running order on vinyl for Record Store Day; shortly thereafter, the CD edition appeared.  With detailed and informative liner notes by the always-incredible and brilliant Andrew Sandoval and reissue production by Cary Mansfield and Andrew Sandoval, you have a seamless collection of the 12 songs, sounding better and stronger than ever, plus mono mixes that had previously been unreleased.  From: https://popdose.com/reissue-review-the-zombies-r-i-p/

Whimsical Creature - Begin Again Again

Formed in late 2024, Whimsical Creature are a British progressive rock duo from Reading, consisting of I Am the Manic Whale's Michael Whiteman and Ella Lloyd. The project's impetus can be traced to a late summer camping trip taken by both members' families, where the two agreed to write material more acoustic and stripped-down than Manic Whale. With Whiteman the chief lyricist and composer, Whimsical Creature perform a style of folky, neo-tinged prog-pop which greatly resembles Big Big Train (the pair even played a set at the BBT fan gathering A Mead Hall in Winchester).
After a handful of gigs and singles (one of which a cover of Chris Squire and Alan White's "Run With the Fox"), Whiteman and Lloyd revealed their debut LP Wistful Thinking in 2025. The self-released album is an explicitly acoustic affair, with Whiteman handling guitar, bass and piano, Lloyd juggling flute, autoharp and glockenspiel, and both musicians sharing vocals and percussion. Whiteman's songs speak of human resilience, an appreciation of the natural world, the Cottingley Fairies hoax and scepticism about the rise of AI.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=13074 

Irreversible Mechanism - Nocturnal Light

You are a couple weeks away from the release of your second album, Immersion. How does it feel?

Of course we are very excited. We put a hell of a lot of effort into this record: so many thoughts, so many problems to solve, dozens of demos and months till we got how we wanted it to be. It’s part of our life and now we’re waiting for the moment then people all over the world will hear what we made.

Immersion sounds great, I really enjoyed the use of ambient sounds. Do tell us more about the album.

It’s a concept album, so there is the story which walk through each track. Every song has it’s own theme, but still it’s a part of the journey. It’s really difficult describe the general idea within few words. We tried to create the entire world in this record, with it’s own rules, colours and atmosphere.
In general it’s a lot more dynamic, comparing with our previous record, but in the same time it’s more solid, more intimate, more deep and personal, that means the band is progressing, evolving in every single way. And we should say that it’s something we really proud of.

What was the writing and recording process for the album? Did you try anything new this time around?

It differs a lot from previous record. This time we used seven string guitars, six string and fretless bass, a little bit different approach to guitars and bass tones. Other ways to create atmosphere, more ambient sounds as you’ve mentioned before, different drummer, different vocalist. We added clean vocals, so it’s took it’s part in songwriting too.

The album features Dan Presland on drums. How did he become a part of the recording?

We worked with Lyle Cooper on our first album, so it’s not the first time when we used session drummer for the record and the good thing about this, that we can experiment with the sound just by using different people, different personalities.
We knew Dan from his works with Ne Obliviscaris and actually he was the first person we asked. We sent him couple demos and fortunately he liked it. He had his own musical vision to the drum parts and we should say it was perfect for what we’ve been trying to reach. We really happy to work with him, he is truly professional and a very nice and talented guy.

You have released a music video for the track, Abolution. How important do you think music videos are in the age of YouTube?

It’s very important, but we should say it’s not necessary. As the music for us, musicians, it’s a great tool if you used it properly. The great way to introduce the band to the audience, it’s music, it’s mood, it’s colours, it’s energy. To show something what’s hidden in the band’s songs and lyrics to make it easier to understand. And it makes so much easier to the listener to discover new music, new bands. So, it’s not only about band promotion, it’s about heavy music culture in general.

From: https://themetalwanderlust.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/interview-irreversible-mechanism/

 

Fleetwood Mac - Spare Me a Little of Your Love / Believe Me / Why

Publication of the first volume of Mick Fleetwood’s memoir Love That Burns led to a series of articles discussing the book and the pre-1974 versions of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood’s first volume ends at the end of 1974, as he introduces new band members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to the group’s keyboard player, Christine McVie. McVie was a Mac veteran already, having joined unofficially with Kiln House in 1970. McVie had proven to be a strong band member, writing some good songs, becoming the group’s only female vocalist, and adding musically with her keyboard work.
Most articles I’ve seen discuss the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac in great detail, centering on Green’s outstanding guitar playing as well as his songwriting and singing and his eventual crash and burn. But for me, the period of greatest fascination and least attention is from 1971-1974 when Fleetwood Mac was neither fish nor fowl.
They were no longer a British blues band, but neither were they an arena rock act. They produced great pop material, but with some amazing shading and color that belied the fact that they were still a rock band. Their sound began to skew much more to the American side of the Atlantic, as did their personnel. Most of the records they produced in this time period are flawed but contain a lot of deep musical moments that make it worth sifting through some less than stellar tracks.
During this time period, Christine McVie contributed 15 songs to the Fleetwood Mac catalog. While many have not been part of the group’s set lists for many years, they form a solid body of work that shows she was writing great material long before Buckingham and Nicks joined the band.  From: https://newdirectionsinmusic.substack.com/p/christine-mcvie-fleetwood-mac-songs

Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025

 Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025 - Part 1

 

 Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025 - Part 2

 

It's hard to believe, but the Norwegian band Maldito is a hitherto largely undiscovered jewel in the current musical landscape of loud and heavy sounds. Maldito formed in Liverpool in 2015 while the band members studied at the renowned Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Inspired by rock and prog of the 70s, combined with a touch of 90s pop rock, the band has developed their own unique style of music. The band made their breakthrough in the blues and rock scene in 2019, after the release of their first album and their tours through Norway, Germany, England and the USA.The band's live performance, bursting with power, will be remembered by everyone who has seen it. Their rousing energy, the memorable guitar riffs and their songs inspire both the older and the younger generation. "Four guys who make the place shake, but at the same time are exceptionally tight in their blues-based rock format. With the energy of Jack White (White Stripes) and the drive of the Rival Sons, this is undoubtedly a band to look out for in the future." (Blues News) We experience geniuses who develop from blues to rock to metal – and yet there are still these typical, floating pop melody moments. A mixture that is as exciting as it is intelligent, and this music does not have to shy away from any international and historical comparisons with, for example, Blue Oyster Cult, The Beatles or Yes.  From: https://nica-jazzclub.de/en/events/maldito-335 

 

 

 

The Wailin’ Jennys - One Voice - Live on eTown

Right after a band’s name, how a group comes together and not only grows, but sustains—and in the case of folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys, sustains for nearly 20 years— is the next most notable aspect of a band’s story. Though what might surprise some, is the fact that there was never a grand plan or slowly developed strategy for the Manitoba, Winnipeg trio to become an ongoing endeavor back in 2002. To that end, it feels fitting that the first track on The Wailin’ Jennys debut album 40 Days—a song titled “One Voice,” written by founding “Jennys” member and vocalist Ruth Moody—would also go on to become bigger than the sum of its musical origins. 
A three-part, vocally cumulative, acoustic song that builds on a partially repeated lyrical premise of this is the sound of one voice… voices two… voices three… all of us, the hymn-like piece seems not to leave much mystery within itself. However, its simplicity bears more surprises than its surface character gives away.
“You know, sometimes songwriters describe that experience of almost like, receiving a song. And ‘One Voice’ is maybe as close as I’ve ever come to that experience where it just sort of starts, it just kind of arrives, and you just are lucky enough to be there with a pencil and you write it down,” Moody says. “Conversely, I think the seriousness of the song maybe comes from the fact that it was my way of processing, a very, very serious and emotional moment.”
Indeed, Moody was quite fortunate to have pencil and paper within easy reach, as the fated stage for igniting the idea behind “One Voice” was none other than a room full of emotive musicians, all running on the perpetual energy of an open jam session.
“The music and lyrics came very easily and spontaneously,” she explains. “The Wailin’ Jennys toured folk festivals across the country and we were at this one camping festival. There was one night where all the musicians were gathered backstage, around the kitchen, and the jamming went late.
“People just kept starting songs, everyone would join in,” she continues. “It went from sort of rowdy jams, to really moving, intimate, sharing from individuals. I don’t know that I thought about it consciously in this way but, I think the thought just really hit me: If only the world could be more like this—that just the power of music could bring people together. And so, I was so moved by this at around two in the morning, I went up to my tent with my flashlight and just wrote down the words to the song.”
This duality of internal and external experience isn’t the only interesting set of opposites sewn into the song’s foundation. Given “One Voice” became rather iconic for not just Moody, but The Wailin’ Jennys as a whole, it’s interesting to note how despite being one of the earliest projects the band undertook after coming together, “One Voice’s” solitary compositional approach ended up enduring as the primary songwriting method for the band. 
“The band has sort of talked about maybe sharing some ideas but it’s just worked really well for us to stick to that formula of writing our own songs, and we arrange them together,” Moody explains. “I think, the fact that we’ve been in a band for 19 years now—let’s put it this way: It hasn’t hurt us to to always respect the fact that that we’re all solo artists as well because I think that balance is important.”
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of “One Voice’s” finished iteration, comes from how others’ feelings of resonance have manifested through so many altered arrangements of countless cover performances. The sheer creativity and degree of deviation from the piece’s original three part, acoustic folk structure that The Wailin’ Jennys ended up embracing, speaks to the song’s fundamental flexibility. “I think by nature “One Voice” is a folk song but I’ve heard some arrangements that definitely sort of went in different directions from the Wailin’ Jennys and they have also been emotionally effective.” says Moody.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-uniting-behind-the-meaning-of-the-wailin-jennys-one-voice/

 

Timechild - Son And Daughter (Queen cover)

As much as I enjoy having a feeling with my favorite moody sludge, or letting out that single, definitely masculine tear down my cheek with a beautiful progressive concept album, an urge persists for the thrill of the arena-sized riff and rattle of proper heavy metal. You know, the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you’re a pitch down when you’ve only had a pint, or allows you to imagine your engine revving with the force of at least twice its listed cylinder count.1 Timechild knows this feeling, and with their 2021 debut And Yet It Moves, they presented a solid, proto-metal-inspired outing—your Deep Purple, Rainbow, UFO, and related acts—with focused musicianship and a voice that knows how to soar.
Continuing down their chosen path, Timechild takes the feel-good sounds of hard rock past and fuses a modern-looking, 00’s radio melancholy to form their own brooding yet bolstered identity. Cuts from Blossom & Plague don’t feel far away from the T-injected dad jams of a band like Tremonti or the soulful and virtuosic AOR thump of Winery Dogs, but this unheralded Danish act plays without a notion that bands like that even exist. Hungry and targeted, Timechild instead comes off holding homage as a tool in the kit, reminiscent of fellow Scandinavian throwback act Audrey Horne. And similar to that act, one founding member, Martin Haumann, has spent much of his career far outside the trad circuit, helming the kit for the techy, thrashing Mother of All and the folky, atmospheric calls of Afsky and Myrkyr. Unfitting pedigree—and the unlisted talents of his bandmates—aside, Timechild supplies a bluesy swing and rumble (“Call of the Petrichor,” “Buried in Autumn”) that matches a band that sounds as if they’d been playing for far longer than three years.
Lead vocalist Anders Folden Brink immediately glues the experience together with his warm, gritty baritone croon. Truth is, though he’s uncredited in the metal world, Brink spent some years prior to Timechild with SEA, who boasted a less propulsive but equally rock attitude as this entity. No surprise, he shines there too, but Timechild has allowed him to lay pipe across sneaky, cutting riffs in a junkyard metal fashion (“The Dying Tide II,” “Hands of Time”)—feel good tunes held out with calloused hands. With the spectacle and machismo of peak Coverdale-Whitesnake, and backed by the kind of dark vocal layering pioneered by Alice in Chains, album highlights “Call of the Petrichor” and “Only Our Shadows Remain” see Brink both calling wildly for a stadium-sized crowd to holler yet towering above them at his most dramatic moments.  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/timechild-blossom-plague-review/