What with the eternal wisdom of Gareth Jenkins, I have to confess to not being in the mood to finish off my piece on Gene, so you can look forward to that on Monday. No, really.
Instead, a couple of musings. Firstly, the Ryan Adams concert that was shown as part of the BBC Four Sessions last night was fantastic. Yes, it was one-paced, yes it was quite heavy on 'Easy Tiger' material, but it really did show what a superb voice Adams has. Songs like 'Desire' and 'How Do You Keep Love Alive' suddenly clicked, and I came away from the programme realising that I like him a hell of a lot more than I thought I did. As a result, 'Cold Roses' and 'Easy Tiger' both got an outing today, and for the first time since I bought 'Cold Roses', I could understand its strength as double album. It always seemed a bit over-long and samey before. Not so now. It's on again tonight at 01:05, if you're reading this straight after it's posted.
I picked up all four CDs in The Northern Soul Story series this week and I'm playing the third volume as I type. Each CD is based around one of the key Northern Soul venues, this third one being centered around Blackpool Mecca. Now, Northern Soul simply being a title for some upbeat American soul music means that these are bloody good compilation CDs from the simple soul perspective, let alone any specialist interest. If you like your Stax, or if you've looked longingly at the 'Complete Motown Singles' boxsets then these are for you. At around £6 each in most shops, it's a relatively cheap set of cracking soul tunes. In amongst a raft of names you've never heard of nestle James Carr and Earth, Wind & Fire. All good fun, and just the tonic when your rugby team's lost by 57 points.
Instead, a couple of musings. Firstly, the Ryan Adams concert that was shown as part of the BBC Four Sessions last night was fantastic. Yes, it was one-paced, yes it was quite heavy on 'Easy Tiger' material, but it really did show what a superb voice Adams has. Songs like 'Desire' and 'How Do You Keep Love Alive' suddenly clicked, and I came away from the programme realising that I like him a hell of a lot more than I thought I did. As a result, 'Cold Roses' and 'Easy Tiger' both got an outing today, and for the first time since I bought 'Cold Roses', I could understand its strength as double album. It always seemed a bit over-long and samey before. Not so now. It's on again tonight at 01:05, if you're reading this straight after it's posted.
I picked up all four CDs in The Northern Soul Story series this week and I'm playing the third volume as I type. Each CD is based around one of the key Northern Soul venues, this third one being centered around Blackpool Mecca. Now, Northern Soul simply being a title for some upbeat American soul music means that these are bloody good compilation CDs from the simple soul perspective, let alone any specialist interest. If you like your Stax, or if you've looked longingly at the 'Complete Motown Singles' boxsets then these are for you. At around £6 each in most shops, it's a relatively cheap set of cracking soul tunes. In amongst a raft of names you've never heard of nestle James Carr and Earth, Wind & Fire. All good fun, and just the tonic when your rugby team's lost by 57 points.
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