Blog
The Box Tops – The Letter
‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops is one of my all-time favourite songs. It’s 1 minute and 53 seconds of greatness and still sounds absolutely amazing. I never tire of this track no matter how often I play it. My own copy of this 7'' is a 1974 French pressing of ‘The Letter’. But it’s not my only copy of the single.
Damien Jurado – Interview
Back in 2005 Damien Jurado played Whelan’s in Dublin in support of his sixth album, On My Way To Absence. He was a really gracious interviewee and happily chatted about how he got into music: “I stole my first bass at 13 from school and taught myself how to play an entire Black Flag record, that’s pretty much how it all started, I then started writing my own songs.”
American Spring
I was recently a guest on Keeping Track, Dave Hackett’s UCC98.3FM radio show. Dave asked me to pick seven songs to play on the show. It was really hard to pick the songs but I knew that ‘Fallin’ in Love’ by Spring was going to be my first choice.
Sufjan Stevens – Interview
From the Archives: I interviewed Sufjan on 27 October, 2004 prior to his gig at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College, Dublin. Seven Swans was just out and in this old interview for Songs To Learn And Sing on 103.2 Dublin City FM. Sufjan chats about recording the album with Daniel Smith of The Danielson Famile. Sufjan had moved to New York to complete a creative writing class but met Daniel and started focusing more on his music.
Guy Chadwick – Interview
Guy Chadwick released Lazy, Soft & Slow his debut (and only) solo album in February 1998, five years after Audience With the Mind, the last album by The House of Love. Lazy, Soft & Slow is one of those great albums that just gets better and better with age. I go back to it every couple of years and I’m always blown away by its subtle beauty.
Richmond Fontaine – Radio Session + Interviews
I recently remembered that Willy Vlautin and Dan Eccles from Richmond Fontaine had recorded a radio session for Songs To Learn And Sing, my radio show on 103.2 Dublin City FM, back in 2010. I found the session on an old hard-drive and then found two other old interviews with Willy on an old mini-disc.
My #CassetteTape Top 10
In Issue 15 (Aug-Sept 2023) of The Goo I reviewed High Bias - The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape by Marc Masters (University of North Carolina Press). As I read High Bias I started listening to some old tapes that I’d stored in my attic years ago.