Martha Wainwright - The Traitor (Leonard Cohen cover)

Love this . . . . so moving . . . . 

sign off the day with some Martha

We haven’t had any Martha Wainwright for way too long and this will have to make up . . . . . . . her first solo album [+BMFA!] etc blew me right away! 

Awesome peerless woman

Now the swan it floated on the English river
Ah, the rose of high romance, it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
And the judges watched us from the other side

I told my mother, "Mother, I must leave you
Preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumor of a shabby ending reach you
It was half my fault and half the atmosphere"

But the rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
And the swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
And if she withered I would be to blame

The judges said, "You missed it by a fraction
Rise up and brace your troops for the attack"
Ah, the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh, see the men of action falling back

But I lingered on her thighs, a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison sank and it paralyzed my will

I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers

That they had been deserted from above

So on battlefields from here to Barcelona

I'm listed with the enemies of love

And long ago she said, "I must be leaving

Ah, but keep my body here to lie upon

You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping

Run some wire through that rose and wind the swan"

So daily I renew my idle duty

I touch her here and there, I know my place

I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty

And people call me traitor to my face 

L. Cohen 

Nick Drake - Place To Be [Pink Moon]

Might start to wind down for the day with some Nick Drake . . . . . 

Place to Be by Nick Drake, from "Pink Moon".

When I was young, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older see it face to face
And now I'm older gotta get up clean the place.

And I was green, greener than a hill
Where flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be.

And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day is done
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY III : BILLY STRINGS

 Possibly sad that Billy felt it necessary to say but say it he will . . . . and nothing wrong with standing up to be counted!

Well said, Billy we all agree here

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Talkin’ Harmonica Blues live [Colourised] 1964

 

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Talkin’ Harmonica Blues live [Colourised] 1964

Blues.In.Colour

Sonny Terry: Harmonica & Vocal Brownie McGhee: Acoustic Guitar

"Terry wasn’t born blind, he lost sight in one eye when he was 5, the other at age 18. That left him with extremely limited options for making any sort of feasible living, so he took to the streets armed with his trusty harmonicas. Terry soon joined forces with Piedmont pioneer Blind Boy Fuller, first recording with the guitarist in 1937 for Vocalion.

Terry’s unique talents were given an extremely classy airing in 1938 when he was invited to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall at the fabled From Spirituals to Swing concert. He recorded for the Library of Congress that same year and cut his first commercial sides in 1940. Terry had met McGhee in 1939, and upon the death of Fuller, they joined forces, playing together on a 1941 McGhee date for OKeh and settling in New York as a duo in 1942. There they broke into the folk scene, working alongside Leadbelly, Josh White, and Woody Guthrie.

While Brownie McGhee was incredibly prolific in the studio during the mid-‘40s, Terry was somewhat less so as a leader (perhaps most of his time was occupied by his prominent role in Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway for approximately two years beginning in 1946). There were sides for Asch and Savoy in 1944 before three fine sessions for Capitol in 1947 (the first two featuring Stick McGhee rather than Brownie on guitar) and another in 1950.

It was the folk boom of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s that made Brownie and Sonny household names. They toured long and hard as a duo, cutting a horde of endearing acoustic duet LPs along the way, before scuttling their decades-long partnership amidst a fair amount of reported acrimony during the mid-‘70s. "

https://linktr.ee/blues.in.colour

Al Stewart : BBC Rock Hour 4th Dec 1980 [Two Versions] “VOODOO WAGON & ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST"

AL STEWART - BBC ROCK HOUR 4/12//1980

There was a bit of a fuss t’other day the draftervoi posted on the Voodoo Wagon his version of the BBC recording of the Al Stewart concert for their classic Rock Hour ‘Sessions’ series (no. 5 at the University of Reading from 1980 since you ask!), responses bemoaned the quality of the prior posting over at ATSE [Paul at Albums That Should Exist] 

Now I didn't really want to get involved but don’t much care for comparisons and not being the biggest fan of Stewart left it for a while. But then having downloaded them both the original all that time ago now it seemed only fair to give drafter’s version a listen!

I do think the criticism of Paul is a tad snitty and mealy mouthed to be fair as he always tells us visitors when he has tampered with the recordings and added audience noise or re-edited and re-mixed at times. . . . drafters’ version seemed untouched but then both are IMHO! They both struck me as being largely only chaptered differently but the recordings remain the same albeit one is MP3 and the other FLAC so it is quite hard to compare. 

Also given that Voodoo’s version is edited to be less tracks struck me as odd and hardly a fair comparison. Basically you download a version on FLAC format that is abridged for reasons best known to someone else or the MP3 version from ATSE that has two more tracks and from what I can hear hasn’t been tampered with at all from the BBC originals!

You pays your money and you takes your choice . . . . oh, except that you don’t do you!?

Here therefore are the two posts together and hope you enjoy both ( I DID!) and they made me reassess my feelings about Al Stewart and the band were really very VERY accomplished indeed. 

Al Stewart - BBC Rock Hour 151 Uni Reading Voodoo Wagon

9 Tracks [FLAC]

Al Stewart BBC Sessions Vol 5 Reading Uni | Albums That Should Exist

11 songs [plus chat between songs] MP3

PAUL ATSE

Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat (live) - The Old Grey Whistle Test - 1976

I don’t know what do YOU think!?

Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Paul McCartney - Solo Ballads (1969-2026) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Paul says: Here we are, with the last album in guest poster Mike Solof's eight album series of the best rockers and ballads from the solo careers of the four ex-Beatles. As I mentioned in the write up to the last album in this series, for Paul McCartney's solo rockers, McCartney has had a long and prolific career, so there's just more of his songs. That led to a solo rocker album just for him, and now this solo ballad album just for him.

As usual with this series, the songs generally come from the well-known studio albums. That's the case here. However, there's a surprise in that one song, "Best Love," is a Paul lead vocal on a song that appeared on an album by comedian Steve Martin (who also happens to be a surprisingly good banjo player, so it's a serious song). 

Also, four of the songs are special edits made by Mike, the ones with "[Mike's Mix 2026]" in their names. That's because some of these songs were a little rocking to truly qualify as ballads. So Mike edited them to make them sound more gentle and mellow. 

Although this series is over, Mike wanted to carry on making rocker and ballad best ofs for other musical acts. Hopefully you will see one result from that posted here soon. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 I'm Carrying 
02 Once upon a Long Ago [Mike's Mix 2026] 
03 Waterfalls
04 With a Little Luck [Mike's Mix 2026]
05 Here Today 
06 Best Love (Steve Martin & Paul McCartney)
07 This One [Mike's Mix 2026] 
08 Maybe I'm Amazed [Mike's Mix 2026] 
09 My Love 
10 My Valentine 
11 Distractions
12 This Never Happened Before 
13 Wanderlust 

(all tracks Paul McCartney except where noted) 

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers - "Best Love" (featuring Paul McCartney)

Rounder Records

ADVERT: Eno listening Sessions

Brian Eno Station launch on YouTube Channel & Opal Listening Sessions

Brian Eno Station is now available on his official YouTube channel. Visit here for a non-stop streaming experience of his videos and music.

 

Opal listening sessions coming soon to your local record shops. Limited quantities of art prints (all countries) & essay booklets (US, UK/EU only) by Brian will be handed out. See local event page for details.

Another Day on Earth and Drawn From Life Released October 16th on Opal Records.

Pre-Order/Pre-Save albums here

Visit the NEW official Brian Eno website

Dave Swarbrick - Sword Dance/ Young Black Cow [SMIDDYBURN] | plus Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Dave Pegg, Simon Nichol (Fairport!) | jt1674

 

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/829282740804403200/dave-swarbrick-sword-dance-young-black-cow

Thought For The Day II

 Sir Ian visits a sacred text . . . . ring any bells . . .contemporary resonances? 

Ian McKellen performs Sir Thomas More, Act II, Scene 4,  William Shakespeare (c. 1593) at the Royal Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon for the BBC's 'Shakespeare Live! From the RSC

Maestro Martin Carthy: Godfather of all Folk Music talks about Keith Christmas | Sound Techniques Movie [for Phil . . . mostly]

 MARTIN CARTHY on Keith Christmas ‘Fable of The Wings'

Martin Carthy talks about a personal favourite, 'Fable of the Wings' by Keith Christmas which he regularly performed live to a traditional tune.

Book pre-orders open now!

https://soundtechniquesmovie.square.site/

Martin Carthy et al - Fable of The Wings 

Keith Christmas - Fable of The Wings

why you may ask . . . this is Keith at 28 on OGWT!

Keith Christmas - Country Farm

oh you wanted to learn more . . . . .

Keith Christmas tries to help us novices . . . . Fable of The Wings