Van Morrison is a great explorer of the power of resonance and in “Listen to the Lion” he gives us a powerful example. It’s basically a love song, but it explores territories which are older and deeper than most love songs. It still resonates with me years after first hearing it. Let me try and tell you why.

Like most people, my musical box contains its own personal mix. You’ll find stuff about discovery, about heroes. There are recollections of those songs which just won’t stop playing on your inner juke box. There are also pieces on Tango, which I discovered in France, and which taught me to dance and to live and listen to music differently. I hope you enjoy the mix!

Songsmith Wreckless Eric and that Special Someone. It’s summer up here in the Northern Hemisphere and time to fall in love again. How about making that definitive this time? Not as easy as it sounds? Questions like these are at the heart of (I’d Go The) Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric which tells the story of a mother’s answer to her son’s despair at ever finding that special someone. Take it away, Wreckless!

How can one song make such a big difference?
“Brass In Pocket” is a fine example. It changed everything for The Pretenders in 1979 as the Songsmiths series explains in this latest post.

At first hearing on the radio, “Where are we now?” sounded like somebody sleepwalking, a ghost from the past. Didn’t I know that voice, that London drawl, that downbeat drag? By the chorus, it was clearly David Bowie. Released overnight unannounced as the lead track for The Next Day on 8th January 2013, Bowie’s 66th birthday, “Where are we now?” was his first new solo single since 2003.
It is also the subject of the next instalment of the series Songsmiths.

The song “Brass in Pocket”, which came out in November 79 changed everything for The Pretenders.
A joint composition by Chrissie Hynde and guitarist James Honeyman Scott, it was so successful that it actually altered people’s perceptions of the group’s name : they were still Pretenders, but no longer pretending as in unending make believe; they were now pretenders as in contenders for the crown.
Hope you like this latest piece in the Songsmiths series.

I don’t normally do Christmas songs, having sung one too many carols as a youngster. I see them as decorative and unifying, but in the background. Yet it is Christmas again, and they’re back.
To continue my Songsmiths series, I’d like to share with you “Christmas in Paradise”, a song by Mary Gauthier (pronounced go-shay, s’il vous plaît).
Enjoy an alternative Christmas with Mary!

I only had one Humble Pie record in my collection. It was the single “Black Coffee”, which I’d seen them perform on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The singer, Steve Marriott, was in great voice. Then I did something which happens so rarely now : I flipped it over to see what they put on the B-side. I was expecting another soulful rock tune and I got “Say No More”, a song which stopped me in my tracks with its tenderness and desperation. This song opens the Songsmiths series about tunes which continue to play on our inner juke box.