Tag: Singer/Songwriter

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Billy Bragg “The best of Billy Bragg at the BBC”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date November 10, 2024
No Comments on Vinyl love: Billy Bragg “The best of Billy Bragg at the BBC”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Billy Bragg
Album Title: The best Of Billy Bragg At The BBC 1983 – 2019
Year released: 2019
Details: 3 x LP, heavyweight vinyl

The skinny: That thing I mentioned back at the beginning of the year? The thing where I put on a record and do nothing but listen to it, read the liner notes, enjoy the album artwork, follow along with the lyrics, and really just experience each record? Yeah, I’m still doing it, albeit at meandering pace. I started alphabetically and am just now reaching Billy Bragg ten months later. I’ve been a fan of the Bard of Barking since high school and yet, for the longest time, have had few of his records* on my vinyl shelves. So a few years ago, when I saw on the upcoming release charts a compilation of his best performances on BBC radio, I jumped at the chance and hit the pre-order button. This 3 LP set pressed to heavyweight vinyl shows Billy Bragg at his purest, for the most part, just him and his guitar, telling it like it is.

Standout track: “Levi Stubbs’ tears (with Frank Turner at Glastonbury)”

*His record reissues have been few and far between since I started collecting – the only proper studio that I’ve seen re-released has been the 30th anniversary of his debut, which of course, I purchased.

Tags 12", Alternative, BBC, Billy Bragg, British rock, Compilation, Folk-Punk, Heavyweight, John Peel, Singer/Songwriter, Triple vinyl

Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Corb Lund [2024]

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date July 19, 2024
No Comments on Live music galleries: Corb Lund [2024]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Corb Lund performing at Ottawa Bluesfest 2024

Artist: Corb Lund
When: July 11th, 2024
Where: SiriusXM stage, Ottawa Bluesfest, Lebreton Flats Park, Ottawa
Context: So this year’s edition of Ottawa Bluesfest wrapped up five days ago and as is usual when I purchase a full festival pass, it’s taken me a few days to recover from the grind. Indeed, I always find myself glad it’s over but at the same time, sad and missing having live music to see every night. All told, I went to seven of the ten nights of the festival and saw more than twenty excellent sets. Hands down, my favourite of the bunch was Corb Lund’s 8pm set on the SiriusXM stage on the second Thursday night. I’d heard of the Canadian country singer-songwriter before, of course*, but had never really given his music a chance**. I had done a small sampling in the week before seeing him so was somewhat familiar with some of the tunes. Lund and his band powered through a set that played on the rockabilly, blues, and rock country side of the genre. With lyrical themes of trucking, farming, and drinking, he had the crowd jumping like maniacs and knocking back cans of Canadian like it was water. Corb and his cowboy hat never took himself too seriously but his talent on the guitar was palpable and his voice hit all the right notes, even when he yodelled. His backing band kicked ass, as well, with Grant Siemens setting the tone on the lap steel and Sean Burns knocking us all out with his upright bass chops. It was such an eye-opening performance, that I’ve resolved myself to make up for all the lost time without his music in my life and would definitely jump at the chance to see him and his group perform again.
Point of reference song: “Redneck rehab”

Lyle Molzan on the drums

Sean Burns on the upright bass and mouth organ

Corb Lund

Grant Siemens and the lap steel

Sean Burns and Lyle Molten

Corb and Sean Burns sharing the mike

Grant Siemens

Corb Lund taking it away

*In fact, my friend Tim left Mark and me to catch a bit of his set at Osheaga back in 2013.

**Not because I was prejudiced in any way against listening to him but as usual, a case of so much music, so little time.

Tags Alt-country, Alternative, Canadian, Corb Lund, Country, Live, Live music, Music festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, Singer/Songwriter

Playlists

Playlist: New tunes from 2024, part one

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date June 1, 2024
2 Comments on Playlist: New tunes from 2024, part one

Well, hello there. Did you miss me?

Yes? No?

It’s been a minute (or over a month) since I last posted to these pages. This hiatus wasn’t planned. Life just happened to get in the way, as it has a habit of doing.

My intention was to post this first part of my annual playlist of new tunes just over six weeks ago. The playlist was put together, vetted, and reviewed near the beginning of April, and yet, I didn’t have the words to go with them.

Indeed, 2024 has been a mixed bag so far, good times and bad. Stuff has happened, life has moved on, and yet, I’m not sure I can point to anything specific or any detail anything of note for the first three months of the year. Nevertheless, if I look back at the previous year for comparison, I gotta say things are an improvement, right?

Right.

Well, at the very least I can point to music as a constant in the pro column. There has been some brand new discoveries, as well as new stuff from old faves. The music has definitely been there. And for that, I am grateful.

This will mark the sixth year running that I’ve done this exercise of sharing the best of the new music that has caught my ear during the year in playlist format. As I have for the last few years, I’ll be doing a separate part for each quarter of the upcoming year. This first part here is made up of twenty five songs from albums released between January and March and all things being equal, you ‘should’ see twenty-five more songs from the spring months at some point in late July.

So without further ado, I’ll present the music that has helped keep me going over the first three months of 2024. Highlights include:

Starting at the midway point in the playlist, we have “Caesar on a TV screen”, a single by British indie buzz band The Last Dinner Party and listening to it, it’s obvious that they are worthy of all the hype heaped upon them
Speaking of expectations, lots have been heaped upon the new album by Liam Gallagher (Oasis) and John Squire (The Stone Roses) and in my opinion, the results have been mixed but on certain singles, like “Just another rainbow”, we have seen these expectations realized
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a band that are revered for very good reason and their latest fits right in with some of their best, “JAMCOD” is just a perfect example of how excellent this band still is
Dan Boeckner has wowed the indie music world with the various projects he has unleashed over the years, like Wolf Parade, Divine Fits, Handsome Furs, and Operators, and “Don’t worry baby” is just one of the many great tracks on his debut solo album
Closing things off with “Peace sign”, the first single released off “Interplay”, the latest and very excellent album released by shoegaze icons Ride

Here is the entire playlist as I’ve created it:

1. “Literary mind” Sprints (from the album Letter to self)

2. “Sometimes, I swear” The Vaccines (from the album Pick-up full of pink carnations)

3. “No caffeine” Marika Hackman (from the album Big sigh)

4. “How lost” The Fauns (from the album How lost)

5. “Gone” The Umbrellas (from the album Fairweather friend)

6. “Say goodbye” Future Islands (from the album People who aren’t there anymore)

7. “I got the fear” Torres (from the album What an enormous room)

8. “Change my mind” NewDad (from the album Madra)

9. “Waves” Kula Shaker (from the album Natural magic)

10. “Language” New Model Army (from the album Unbroken)

11. “Caesar on a TV screen” The Last Dinner Party (from the album Prelude to ecstasy)