Kevin Welch - A Patch Of Blue Sky
Having praised Music Road Records as recently as the Sam Baker post I’m at it again, this time sparked by the announcement of a handful and a half of Kevin Welch dates. Their signing of Kevin was a masterstroke and Patch Of Blue Sky is a minor classic, dolorous perhaps, but not without that sun-shaft-of-redemption. Welch’s voice is what can perhaps best be described as ‘well lived in,’ no bad thing at all, but his pen is sharp and his mind sharper. Smart poetry fits the framework of a fantastic ensemble cast including son, Dustin, Bukka Allen on keys and Fats Kaplin on pedal steel, with a nice walk on part for Eliza Gilkyson to share vocal duties on Andaman Sea. As well as the tour dates, which are listed below Kevin will record a Bob Harris session when he’s in London, so more of that when it’s broadcast. I’ve also found Kevin’s latest entry on Music Fog and although not on the new album, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Continue reading »
A daily meander through the Proper Records archives, highlighting births, deaths, anniversaries and other obscure nuggets of information – all of which happened on this day in (our) history. Enjoy!
Continue reading »
Hanggai, who have a new album out in October, have launched a throat singing contest on YouTube. To participate, users are asked to upload videos of themselves throat singing to YouTube, the first 50 participants will win the new Hanggai CD while the winner will be invited to perform with Hanggai on stage at one of their shows. The closing date for entries is the 12th September so get practising and if you need some tips, here’s an introduction to throat singing followed by the 1st lesson from Hanggai.
The group will be posting additonal video-lessons regularly which will cover the basics of throat singing and you can check them out by going to youtube.com/hanggaiband.
Continue reading »
Fay Hield
Looking Glass
(Topic)
Fay Hield has been singing traditional songs from an alarmingly early age. In 2009 a new concert line-up with Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead) came into being, built around a striking repertoire of often obscure material drawn from rarely-thumbed collections. This spicy stew of songs and ballads, catches and caprices is showcased on her debut solo CD – Looking Glass. Instrumentation includes fiddles, concertina, nyckelharpa, symphonie and guitar. The sound is at once crafty and nimble, airy and graceful, full of zest and nuance, sensitive to the tradition yet utterly distinctive. Fay leads with a voice whose rough edges are still thrillingly intact, and which goes straight to the living heart of the songs.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Continue reading »
A while back we brought you a live track from Drew Nelson who kindly played a few tracks for the Proper staff on his last visit to the UK.
We also recorded a Properganda Podcast with Drew which you can listen to below (and also subscribe to on iTunes here), I particularly like the part where Drew talks about meeting hospital patients who have checked themselves out for a cheeky pint and a cigarette.
Drew returns to the UK this month to play a string of dates (see below for full details).
Continue reading »
Jimmie Vaughan - Plays Blue Ballads & Favorites
Here’s one for you budding guitarists and there’s a video clip for you to check it out posted below. The key to Jimmie Vaughan’s latest release is clearly in the title as he selects some of his favourite songs from his mental jukebox. The Texan guitar slinger punches in the numbers for tunes originally recorded by the likes of Roy Milton, Jimmy Reed, Roscoe Gordon and Little Richard, with a Willie Nelson favorite tossed in for good measure. This is a man steeped in music and especially the blues who has been a fixture of the Austin area roots scene since the late 60s, forming the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 74 with harp player Kim Wilson, a band that led the American roots revival. He cut one album with his late brother called Family Style in 1990, but Stevie Ray’s tragic death just weeks later knocked Jimmie off his feet and it was four years before he was back in the studio again. Since then he hasn’t been exactly prolific, but then there was the small matter of getting married and raising a young family that gave him a much needed boost in the face of the tragedy that still haunted him.
Continue reading »
A daily meander through the Proper Records archives, highlighting births, deaths, anniversaries and other obscure nuggets of information – all of which happened on this day in (our) history. Enjoy!
Continue reading »
Recent Comments