SONDAR records

For the past few days just about everyone I've spoken to has mentioned Dolly Parton. She seemed to touch people's lives not as a celebrity but as a person.

Dolly made records in more than just the musical sense. Eleven…

Eric met Gloria at Halifax Town Hall. Two years younger than him, only sixteen, he thought she was gorgeous. Three years later they married.

"A few years after that, Gloria told me: you don't say 'I love you' much any…

"Down beside the village green
Every year we lay a wreath
For the local men who went to fight
But never made it home

They were heroes every one
Fathers, lovers, brothers, sons
Their memories will outlast the names
We…

"Well, I need someone to hold me
But I'll wait for somethin' more….."

George Michael had escaped from the image of Wham, with which he'd become disillusioned and depressed. Now, full of confidence and enthusiasm, he was eager to create…

“Are you going? Are you going to the tea party?”

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were always their own type of party. In the mid Seventies they were the number one live draw, with a highly theatrical stage show. Yes,…

“Hey, dig those crazy guitars daddio!”

Have you ever seen any of those low budget 60's B-movies cashing in on the teen craze? They usually had a lead actor in his late forties sucking in his stomach and trying valiantly…

"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay…."

When I first heard this song it was like nothing else in the charts. The sound is sparse…

A mere three weeks after the Get Back sessions The Beatles were back in the studio. The concentrated jamming and recording together had got them musically tight, and they'd experimented with combining unfinished songs, fusing Paul's ‘I’ve got a feeling'…

"And I thought to myself, why waste my tears
On you or anyone else..."

Ah, the breakup song. Someone must have made a scientific analysis but I'm not going to search for statistics. I can say with confidence it's high…

Every so often I read about musicians discovering music as children - wow, what a precocious bunch they are. Did you nod your head to Miles Davis and Stockhausen in the nursery? Maybe you sneaked discs from an elder sibling's…

"Oh, fortune and fame's such a curious game
Perfect strangers can call you by name
And pay good money to hear "Fire And Rain"
Again and again and again"

James Taylor - 'That's why I'm here'

I love…

"Neither music, nor life, should be a lonely journey.
And if it is, the journey can change".

These words greet you on the homepage of David Fee's website (www.feetunes.com). A fine sentiment, beautifully expressed. Typical David.

‘All aboard’…

You know, sometimes songs just go off into the world and do their own thing. 

I remember the first time I played this, enjoying the sunshine with friends in a Bristol park. Just me and an acoustic guitar, the song…

Allen Shamblin had been a real estate appraiser. “I remember one morning driving into work in Austin and I was miserable. I was pounding on my dash in my car just saying, ‘No! This can’t be my life.’ About that…

Saying ‘Yes’ on impulse can lead to interesting experiences - which is how in 2007 I found myself learning traditional Shona songs phonetically before a one-off performance on stage with Chartwell Dutiro at Bath Spa University theatre.

Bizarrely, I scarcely…

I'm writing on International Friendship Day, so what better choice could there be.

The original version is Ringo's featured song on the Sgt. Pepper album. And there's the lovely detail that the other three Beatles gathered round the microphone while…

Some tunes are epic. Here's my favourite ‘Bond theme that never was’. (I'll include a link to the animation video by Jackson Pope, watch while you listen for an additional layer of enjoyment). 

Sometimes in a co-write what one person…

So! I thought it would be interesting to write a few words about a song every Tuesday. It could be one of mine, music by a friend or music that means something special to me. To start us off, here's…

Every now and then I like to give my guitars a little TLC. They're not being gigged over much but they spend most of their lives out of their cases. (Guitars need to be grabbable for when inspiration strikes). Consequently…