Mid-winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Short days. Too cold to go out much. So let's pass the time curled up on the sofa and listen to some music. Here's a short playlist taken from my latest Spotify Release Radar. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2aZ3sl0wRJB4Y3N7BxzeUf?si=b43206d7e12d4c90 The first piece looks forward to the month ahead. It probably won't be any warmer…Read more 3-Piece Suite
indie
Wild Grey Ocean
If your name is Fender, it would be hard not to be a musician. Fortunately, Sam is a rather good pianist, guitarist, singer and songwriter. In fact, he is one of the biggest stars in the pop/rock/indie style around today. And he deserves to be. This song came up on my Spotify Release Radar last…Read more Wild Grey Ocean
Nothing Left to Say
I'm a firm believer in the adage, "If you have nothing to say, say nothing". And, when I started this blog post, I had nothing to say about Imagine Dragons. So it came as a bit of a shock to discover that they were phenomenally successful in the 2010s, especially in the U.S. They had…Read more Nothing Left to Say
Unremembered
It seems to me that 'unremembered' is not quite the same as 'forgotten'. A forgotten memory is lost forever; unremembered events remain in the locked mental storage cupboard, waiting to be rediscovered when mistress Serendipity stumbles upon the key again. In 2011, the vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, commissioned the American composer, Sarah Kirkland Snider,…Read more Unremembered
Sunlight to Blue …
A Burning Shed recommendation this week: Sunlight to Blue ... Blue to Blackness, a 2008 album by The Durutti Column. The band's name has always puzzled me. It turns out to come from an anti-fascist military unit in the Spanish Civil War under the leadership of one Buenaventura Durruti. (Although the commander's name is spelt…Read more Sunlight to Blue …
Lightning Blog
Crotchety Man is spoilt for choice and pushed for time this week, so this will be a lightning blog covering a very mixed bag of musical delights. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/30KeiOLVyhGOxkhIwhxkPd?si=1bff15e7d15b4b0e We start this Spotify playlist with a band I damned with faint praise in this post back in January 2020. But Rick Mitarotonda's Goose has a knack…Read more Lightning Blog
Tiger
Desire is a tiger ... Rachel Sermanni is a Scottish folk singer-songwriter. There's an originality in her compositions that reminds me of Laura Marling and fully justifies the 'indie' rider in many articles about her style. Tiger, from her 2019 album, So It Turns, is a particularly fine example of both her lyrical and instrumental…Read more Tiger
Rabbit Hole
Cyberspace is full of holes - rabbit holes that lead to wierd and wonderful places. From the familiar safe haven of Spotify I suddenly found myself tumbling through the subterranean halls of pop music, immersed in the stream of a recent release with hardly a sniff of hip hop. How wierd is that? The sounds…Read more Rabbit Hole
Spice, Gold and Tales Untold
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 …
Crotchety Man 