if you didn’t bomb you couldn’t ever know what it is like to truly nail it; this is true of yourself and in the work of others so last night I was sure to tell the guy at the door as I left after seeing his band that he was great; that the group was […]
Joel Ross Who Are You? Blue Note Joel Ross was just 23 when he released KingMaker – a hell of an album, his debut as a leader. Not much more than a year on he’s back with this second album leading the band (a killer-good band) and making a case for himself, already, as a […]
Welcome to Sweetman Podcast. It’s 2021. But I started this year with conversations recorded at the very end of 2020. Now we’re into fresh conversations recorded in 2021. And this is episode 247 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys Now – as you probably know, as […]
I second-guessed myself which I shouldn’t have done in the first place
Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died. He was 101, a month off turning 102 in fact. What a life. The poet and publisher would have been important had he never written a word himself – he was a founder and co-owner of the legendary San Francisco bookstore and imprint City Lights and as a publisher he was […]
Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon Noon Megaplum / ATO Records What a wonderful anomaly Leo Kottke is – a folk guitarist, but also a jazz guitarist and there’s classical in there, it’s just an absolute stew. He also doesn’t seem to have ever gone too far down the eccentric path (Bill Orcutt, Sir Richard Bishop) […]
all the books you’ll never read cannot help you. They sit like subs on the bench, awaiting a turn to impress the coach with no idea that it is the waterboy that collects up the jerseys, cuts the oranges, attempts to clean the dirty laundry
The Seekers: Meetings With Remarkable Musicians (and Other Artists) John Densmore Hachette Books John Densmore was a pretty good drummer but he’s a really bad writer. So it’s remarkable that he’s now up to book number three! The first was a given – a book about his time in The Doors; no one could argue […]
Will Bates Bliss (Amazon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Milan Amazon Prime’s new original movie, Bliss, is getting a right royal roasting. But I quite liked it. I’m not about to mount a huge defense but in a world where utter fucking cack like Behind Her Eyes and allegedly clever time-filling series’ such as Russian Doll […]
n. a mulligan is a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder He asked if I had ever thought of starting with a blank page and a list of skills shortages… He was talking about jobs, retraining, recruitment. It was partonising, condescending and […]
The Weather Station Ignorance Fat Possum You can make a serious album about serious issues that has groove, that has soul, that has not only heart but has actual art to it. It’s been done. Many times – and it always feels like a subtle magic trick. A few years ago Tracey Thorn did so […]
The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent When I started reading about rock music it was whatever bios the library at school had. The first book I read was a dry account of the murder of John Lennnon. Not that the story should be full of laughs or anything but this more about the killer and […]