guitar
CD: Kev Minney - Stories of the SkyWednesday, 30 August 2017![]() A striking and memorable debut made possible by a combination of crowd-funding and an Arts Council grant, Stories of the Sky combines 31-year-old Kev Minney’s twin obsessions, music and astronomy.Born in Northampton, and Brighton-based these last... Read more... |
Indigo Girls, Islington Assembly Hall review - exhilarating and generousMonday, 31 July 2017![]() For an act that hasn't visited the UK since 2009, the Indigo Girls might have been surprised at the audience's familiarity with their work. It’s now a given that artists have to tour to sell records, but judging by the vigour with which the audience... Read more... |
CD: The Isley Brothers & Santana - Power of PeaceWednesday, 26 July 2017![]() In media coverage of Woodstock, Santana always seems to be overshadowed by the oft-mentioned cultural significance of Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner”. However, go check their performances, side by side, for pure visceral thrills, and it’s Santana’s... Read more... |
East Neuk Festival review - Schubert, brass and nine electric guitarsTuesday, 11 July 2017![]() Elisabeth Leonskaja, Schubert's greatest living interpreter, was always going to be Queen of Scotland's East Neuk for three summer days; her performances of four piano works and the "Trout" Quintet with outstanding string players were transcendental... Read more... |
CD: Pete Fij/Terry Bickers - We Are MillionairesMonday, 10 July 2017![]() To anyone other than Eighties and Nineties indie obsessives, the guitarist from The House of Love and Levitation and the singer from Adorable getting together in 2014 did not cause a stir. However, both had stylistically leapt away from their pasts... Read more... |
CD: Justin Adams featuring Anneli Drecker - RibbonsThursday, 15 June 2017![]() Rarely has an album’s artwork better reflected its content: blackness, or the void from which light occasionally emanates. This is a collection of instrumentals enhanced by vocals, rather than what might be called songs. The opening minimalist piece... Read more... |
CD: Ride - Weather DiariesSaturday, 10 June 2017![]() In 1990, Ride were in the first wave of the Shoegazing scene to get out of the blocks and into the studio to record their iconic debut EP. Four albums and a sack load of EPs and singles later, however, they called it a day and the four lads from... Read more... |
CD: Imelda May - Life. Love. Flesh. BloodWednesday, 05 April 2017![]() As Imelda May releases her fifth CD, it can’t but help that Bob Dylan has come out as a fan – it was, she wrote, "like being kissed by Apollo himself". No doubt his buddy T Bone Burnett passed him a copy of the album, for he produced it in Los... Read more... |
CD: Tamikrest - KidalWednesday, 08 March 2017![]() Tamikrest’s fourth album is well-presented, good enough, but a little hamstrung by what have become the clichés of the modern Touareg genre: the lilting rhythms of a camel cruising slowly across the dunes, intertwined guitars that smoothly swirl... Read more... |
Josh Ritter, St Stephen's ChurchSaturday, 18 February 2017![]() The only British gig in Josh Ritter’s so-called work-in-progress tour took place in the somewhat unlikely venue of St Stephen’s Church, Shepherd’s Bush, a rather fine example of gothic revival style. It’s almost opposite Bush Hall, which would have... Read more... |
CD: John Mayall - Talk About ThatSunday, 22 January 2017![]() In the era of star-making TV progs and here-today-gone-tomorrow musicians, just how wonderful is it to have a new album from a man who marked his 80th birthday three years ago by signing a new contract with Eric Corne’s Forty Below Records?John... Read more... |
10 Questions for Singer Fantastic NegritoWednesday, 14 September 2016![]() Fantastic Negrito, aka Xavier Dphrepaulezz, is a singer from Oakland, California. His music is steeped in the raw and urgent spirituality of the early blues, especially Robert Johnson. Yet he refuses to be pigeonholed as a blues performer,... Read more... |
