Undeciphered eyes of amber ... A few days ago an email dropped into my inbox from Ana Patan offering a free download of her recently released album, Spice, Gold and Tales Untold. There was no mention of that artist in the Crotchety Vaults and she offered no description of her music, just the briefest of…Read more Spice, Gold and Tales Untold
Handshakes …
It was nearly time to pick up the weekly click-and-collect grocery order from the supermarket. Mrs. C checked the website for unavailable items and substitutions. Item 1: half a dozen wholemeal bread rolls; Item 2: half a dozen multi-seed bread rolls. For the wholemeal the supermarket had substituted multi-seed. Bizarrely, for the multi-seed they had…Read more Handshakes …
Ocelot of Salvation
2021 has started on a high note. This blog has already mentioned three artists who were new to me until this year (Siv Jacobsen, The Staves and Noisy Diners). This week's Release Radar has continued the trend, introducing the Old Man to two more (Lau, Yasmin Williams), while Burning Shed has added Lifesigns to the…Read more Ocelot of Salvation
The Princess of the Allen Keys
The Princess of the allen keys is the title of a newly released album by Noisy Diners. It is subtitled The history of Manto. To the Crotchety Team that presents a four-part puzzle: what, we wonder, is the connection between 'princess', 'Allen keys', 'noisy diners' and 'Manto'? It's a puzzle we have been unable to…Read more The Princess of the Allen Keys
The Staves
There's an economic and cultural schism in the UK. It's called the North/South divide. In the South the people are wealthy, urbane and sophisticated; in the North they are poor, primitive and uncouth. Colloquially, the boundary between these two regions runs through Watford. When a southerner refers to people living in places "north of Watford"…Read more The Staves
Karta & Kompass
Urtidsdjur's self-titled debut album, originally released only on vinyl, is now also available on streaming services. To coincide with this milestone the band has released a video of the Karta & Kompass track. As you can see, their unerring navigational skills have brought them to their destination in high spirits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFnilOaU1Q The figure on that…Read more Karta & Kompass
A Temporary Soothing
Siv Jakobsen is a Norwegian mystery. She has no page on Wikipedia. Her Facebook page is uninformative. Even Google struggles to find much information about the singer/songwriter who recorded her latest album, A Temporary Soothing, in the rugged beauty of Devon, UK as 2018 marched on into 2019. But a little perseverance at the Crotchety…Read more A Temporary Soothing
Unchain My Heart
Unchain My Heart was written by a guy called Bobby Sharp (about whom I know nothing more). It was recorded by Ray Charles in 1961, by Trini Lopez in 1963 and, of more relevance to this post, by Joe Cocker in 1987. Here's a somewhat muted video of Joe Cocker's version. I recommend you turn…Read more Unchain My Heart
Now We Are Six
Six years old and, if the statistics are anything to go by, better than ever. That's the Crotchety Man blog. We broke the 100 followers barrier this year and both the visitor and view counts were well up on the last 12 months. ... now I am six,I'm as clever as clever,So I think I'll…Read more Now We Are Six
The Priest
Grantchester is a village just outside Cambridge (the UK city famous for its university, not the suburb of Boston, MA). It was the setting for a series of whodunnit short stories, The Grantchester Mysteries, by James Runcie. The books spawned a TV series called simply, Grantchester - the headline picture here is a still showing…Read more The Priest
