One sunny Spring morning Mrs Crotchety and I decided to drive over to Melton Mowbray and explore our nearest market town. There's a very pretty area by the church but it's not a particularly attractive place on the whole. It's mainly known for pork pies (Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe is famous) and Stilton cheese. There was also a well-documented episode in 1837 in…Read more Crazy Man Michael
Track
The Queen of Elfland
Somewhere in the backwoods of Alaska there's a singer/songwriter/guitarist who makes beautiful music and gives it away. Why? Because we already have enough 'stuff'; what we lack is 'human connection'. So, rather than burn CDs and ship them thousands of kilometres across the globe, he makes his songs available (for free) on his website. His name is Kray…Read more The Queen of Elfland
End To End
Some bands I like, some bands I love. If I love them I'll buy several of their albums; if I only like them I try to find a Best Of... CD and maybe one or two download tracks. Blondie I like. At least, I like most of what they were doing in the eighties. I…Read more End To End
Lay Lady Lay
A lot of complex, challenging music has featured on this blog recently so I'm going to choose a nice simple song as my track of the week: Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay. (There should be commas in there really but it's usually written without the punctuation and I'll stick with that convention.) The first time I…Read more Lay Lady Lay
Streets of London
If Leonard Cohen's songs are poems set to music then Ralph McTell's are stories. He tells them like your favourite uncle did as you sat on his knee as a kid. There's a warmth in his voice and a chuckle in his eyes as he lets the story slowly unfold. In Streets of London, though, there's a…Read more Streets of London
Albatross
Back in the sixties, when I was just a lad, every once in a while there would be a musical interlude to liven up the school assembly. One of these stands out like a beacon in the fading fog of my memory. One of the boys in my year was an accomplished pianist - his name was…Read more Albatross
Journey of a Sorcerer
A few days ago I was listening to the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC 6 Music when over the airwaves came the theme tune from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Stuart Maconie was doing the show solo that day and the track was part of The Chain - "officially the longest running listener-generated thematically-linked…Read more Journey of a Sorcerer
For 1000 Mothers
It's Mother's Day today and the obvious choice for the next track of the week is For a Thousand Mothers from Jethro Tull's 1969 album, Stand Up. It's a rip-roaring, defiant song in which flautist and vocalist Ian Anderson calls out to his mother (and father). "You had no faith in me", he says bitterly, "but…Read more For 1000 Mothers
Valerie
Most of the boxes have been unpacked and our new home is fit for a few select visitors. I'm not going to invite the Queen just yet, but family and friends are welcome. I would also be pleased to see the Zutons and their friend Valerie so that I can tell them how much I…Read more Valerie
Books From Boxes
Last week we moved house. This week we'll be unpacking many of our belongings. With a bit of luck we might even find our books somewhere at the back of bedroom 3. If we do I'll put on Maximo Park's Books From Boxes. This is the track from the Earthly Pleasures album that first piqued…Read more Books From Boxes
Crotchety Man 