mon 25/08/2025

country

Simone Felice, Electric Circus, Edinburgh

Nothing tests an artist’s mettle more severely than having to negotiate a full-blown case of tech-horror. Half way through the third number last night, a particularly sweet version of “Summer Morning Rain“, an ear-scorching sonic car crash brought...

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Giant Giant Sand give away mp3

Maverick songwriter Howe Gelb has launched Giant Giant Sand - the new incarnation of his loose collective Giant Sand - and previewed their new album Tucson with a track giveaway. Gelb describes Tucson as "a country-rock opera" revolving...

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The Arts Desk Radio Show

Welcome to theartsdesk's first radio show with Peter Culshaw and Joe Muggs, recorded with the extremely able help of Brendon Harding at Red Bull Studio London.In the course of this show, Peter and Joe take a look at the depth and breadth of music...

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Afrikan Boy Hard Times video unveiled

After some time as a cult favourite thanks to diverse DJ play, the reworking of reggae classic "Hard Times" by Afrikan Boy with grime producer Darq E Freaker and country/soul singer Jeb Loy Nichols has a video.Afrikan Boy, South London rapper and...

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theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Todd Snider

He has been called “America’s sharpest musical storyteller” by Rolling Stone, and has enough talent to give Bob Dylan’s talking blues a run for their money. The East Nashville-based singer-songwriter, guitarist, yarn-spinner, troubadour and amiably...

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The Civil Wars, Shepherd's Bush Empire

The Civil Wars are one of those bands rendered suddenly white hot in the UK by a classy performance on Later with Jools Holland. They’re a photogenic country-ish acoustic singer-songwriter pairing whose style is just un-country enough to fit neatly...

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Nanci Griffith, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

“I know what I was angry about when I wrote this,” Nanci Griffith told the crowd as she introduced “Hell No (I’m Not Alright)”, “but you can get your anger out about whatever you want.”It seemed a little odd that Griffith left the big hook (if the...

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CD: Lionel Richie - Tuskegee

When an artist releases an album of new readings of old material, there’s usually cause for concern. But not with Lionel Richie’s new release, a foray into light country. In fact, given Richie’s recent efforts to stay down with the kids, maybe he...

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Black Cab Sessions: music TV catches up with the net?

Tonight on Channel 4, a new music series begins with a fantastic premise. A group of music obsessives drive around the USA in a London black cab, finding interesting musicians and recording them performing and talking in the back of the cab. Sounds...

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Carolina Chocolate Drops: Leaving Eden and Moving On

Something falls with a clatter from one of Dom Flemons’s pockets. The Carolina Chocolate Drops’s banjo player, guitarist and all-round picker and plucker has a lot of pockets. Earlier, he’d produced a pipe from one, a tobacco pouch and tuning pipes...

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CD: Nanci Griffith - Intersection

Nanci Griffith, the Lone Star State’s dirty realist, has done much of her better work with a Democrat in the White House. I remember interviewing her once soon after the first Gulf War, when she was glum about the prospect of George Bush Snr walking...

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Lindi Ortega, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh

Canadian singer-songwriter Lindi Ortega took to the stage last night in a rococo Edinburgh broom cupboard looking like a country-fried Amy Winehouse in widow’s robes. As with most first impressions, it proved misleading. The visuals might have...

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