New Cover of 'Faded Love' by Patsy Cline

From my forthcoming album Blue Eyed Country Boy, here's a little taster of the country direction my music's been taking over the past few years.

I first heard this song, 'Faded Love', performed by a great country quartet in Legend's Corner in Nashville. It is a country classic and was performed by the original first lady of country, Patsy Cline. It is one of my favourite country songs and I've recorded it with a really simple electro-acoustic backing - no layering, no backing vocals, just raw, acoustic and as they say, 'pure country'.

Faded Love

A Think Piece: Biggest Bands of 2007 (Part 1) - Razorlight.

Razorlight. No one can look at the music scene today and not acknowledge the frustrating hold this band of strung-out egos enjoys over the broader public.

Johnny Borrell is the typical lead singer, with his uncanny ability to appeal to men and women alike by acting like a jumped-up Jack Flash in horrifically tight skinny jeans and torn t-shirts. And then he’s dating Kirsten Dunst? I can remain mildly confused yet uninterested in this fact, so long as it does not lead to attempts to launch her singing career off the back of it - having just watched Spiderman 3 in which we are treated to numerous scenes in which Kirsten’s thin, tuneless voice is painfully showcased, I sincerely hope not.

Johnny scandalously demanded writing credits for the smash hit ‘America’, despite the fact that the band’s drummer (who actually wrote the song) had himself ripped it off from the far superior Jewel song, also curiously entitled ‘America’, in 2003. If you’re looking for a good anti-Bush/Right wing America song, listen to Jewel’s, or perhaps Rufus Wainwright’s poised ‘Going To A Town’, where a critique of Republican homophobia is artfully coupled with religious imagery and devastatingly beautiful classical infusions.

In other words, there really is very little reason to actually bother with Razorlight. So don’t!

Shea Seger: The Phenomenon That Was...

Shea Seger released her one and only album, May Street Project, in 2000. It was crammed with a Texan blonde's first forays into country-rock with hip hop tinges. At times, the hip hop infusions were a little, let's say, 'nineties' but even they could not detract from the sheer brilliance of Seger's writing style.

Captivating lyrics and mesmerising hooks landed the husky-voiced girl on MTV and even the cover of the Saturday Telegraph magazine; (this might sound odd but if you make it to the Telegraph's Saturday magazine, let alone steal the cover shot, you're going to reach a serious amount of people). 'Clutch',with its Gwen Stefani-tinged funk beats set against painfully beautiful folk-rock melodies, was loosely repeated on the music channels, followed by a spattering of television appearances. As far as I was aware, there was no tour.

And then...nothing. Silence. Alongside the sounds of May Street Project's undeniable genius ringing in my ears, I recalled with sickening clarity Shea's declaration in that infamous Telegraph magazine interview that she would give music 'a go' and if it didn't work out, would head back to Texas and do something else.

Shea (or friend of Shea) if you are reading this, please don't tell me that is what you did. This girl is a mystery - no website, no up-to-date fan sites or blogs, nothing. Even May Street is curiously listed as 'not yet published' on Amazon.co.uk. I can only hope that she will go the way of another favourite mystery girl singer/songwriter of mine, who resurfaced recently, released a staggeringly good album and even found the time to write me a few emails. That girl was Loni Rose.

So Shea? We're waiting...

A Rant: Nu Wave, Nu Rave…Nu Crap?!

Nu Rave music dominated the line-up at Reading and Leeds this year, most notably in the BBC’s television coverage. Yet again, tired, has-been presenters were pulled out of ‘retirement’ (one radio session a week for £X00,000 is not a real job) in another pitiful attempt for grown-ups to pretend they are cool and ultimately act like children playing follow-the-leader.


Even off-beat underground turned ‘commercial’ artists such as Patrick Wolf were ignored in favour of an unending diatribe of tuneless, badly dressed and usually female singers prancing around on stage looking wasted on Red Bull. The latest versions of ‘S Club Kids’ were paraded before my eyes as ‘bands’ catered to childish crazes and naïve stupidity. Imagine my horror when for an instant, I thought I spied a former classmate from University playing guitar and singing backing vocals for the New Young Pony Club. Fortunately, I was mistaken and I am pleased to say that my old friend is doing much more worthwhile things with his time.

I am all in favour of people having different musical tastes. Whilst there are innumerable artists/bands and musical genres that I generally would rather not listen to, I can ALWAYS acknowledge musical talent and creativity where it is deserved. One example might be KT Tunstal. Personally, I’m not a fan but she’s got more talent in her little finger than the likes of CSS and the aforementioned Pony Club put together. I’d even go so far to say that at least James Blunt can sing in tune (however annoying he might be at times), which is more than I can say for the female singers of these ‘Nu Rave’ bands who are more interested in dancing around like demented lunatics than actually giving a decent showcase of their music.

Even Beth from The Gossip needs to understand that when the focus of your performance becomes you stripping off and prancing about from one end of the stage to the other, whilst attempting to stay in tune and failing miserably (even Britney lip-synchs darling), it actually detracts from your ‘performance’, rather than enhancing it as she seems to think it does (and as irritating wannabe music ‘aficionados’ such as Jo Wiley, Zane whats-his-face, Edith ‘boring’ Bowman, Fern ‘I love everybody’ Cotton blah blah would try to argue). It could also explain the mass exodus of so many former Gossip fans who recalled the band from cool music-nerd events including All Tomorrow’s Parties. Back then, she used to sing. Now, she moans and strips. All the time. Maybe they will remember their point (decent music) when Beth gets it out of her system by launching her own clothing line but even this irks me. I know it’s supposed to be different because she does so much to stand up for feminist issues/gay rights/broader anti-Republican political issues (my favourite type) but this still reeks of corporate commercialism in-line with the likes of JLo and Jessica Simpson. But I digress…


When the overall focus of a genre is more about the ‘fashion’ its followers wear like sheep and the number of glo-sticks revellers can hold at once whilst dancing the running-man, it’s time to step back, accept it for the mediocre ‘fad’ that it is, bundle the lot up with similarly disposable trash like Girls Aloud – who I dare sat will be around long after this horrific phase has passed – and get back to real music where it’s actually about, er, the music. Look nice whilst singing, yes, get your hair done and at times, be a bit ‘out there’ and try to become a style icon – a feat that so few have achieved - but when you favour all of this over the music, I no longer care. And neither should you.

Coming up in my next rant…’Since when did Tuneless Chavs Rule the Airwaves?’

Tegan & Sara Review: Komedia, Brighton

Racing through hits old and new, the Canadian twins left an exuberant crowd at Brighton’s Komedia utterly breathless. Carefully interspersing well-known favourites with tracks from their latest release, The Con, allowed onlookers to revel in the girls’ back catalogue whilst marvelling at how far they have come and how much they have grown – musically and lyrically.



On first listen, The Con does not fit together quite so perfectly as Tegan and Sara’s preceding albums If It Was You and So Jealous but on further inspection, it is categorically their strongest, most dynamic and memorable record to date. This transferred effortlessly into the live performance.

With their smart whit and ironic humour, the girls kept us entertained with tales from the road between songs and treated us to unconventional explanations of what each song from The Con was inspired by. Most memorable was the tale of the girls attending a summer school in Canada where they ran around bare footed whilst learning about God. I can’t even recall which song this was supposed to explain but the sentiment was appreciated.

The crowd was a mixed bunch of hipsters, newbies and what appeared to represent a large proportion of the local teenage gay scene. Tegan and Sara are habitually praised for their unaffected approach to being gay sisters in a male-dominated industry. They admit their pride at being able to stand up as examples of real success, regardless of their sexuality and the way many fans clearly look up to them as role models. The girls operate a strict no ‘drinks, drugs (or sex)’ rule backstage whilst on tour, reiterating their dedication to both their music and their fans – behaviour that will defy all rock critics who seek out gratuitous gossip from thrill-seeking groupies.

The Quin twins’ energy and vitality is never entirely conveyed on their albums so all opportunities to experience them live must be taken. Slamming guitars and keyboards all night, they demonstrated their genuine passion and talent for live shows. The rawness of Tegan and Sara’s vocals when performing live is what really sets these girls apart from their competitors - that and the fact that they write incomparably superb songs about heartbreak, loneliness and anger in such simplistically poetic terms.

Stand-out tracks of the night were the raucous harmonies of ‘Speak Slow’’, the soul-searching meander of ‘Where Does The Good Go’ and title track from their latest release, ‘The Con’.

For the first time in a long time I found myself completely absorbed in a live performance sufficiently captivating to prevent me from being distracted by common concert woes of annoying neighbours bopping into me, the tallest guys in the room standing one foot in front and lack-lustre sound systems (take Camden’s KoKo, for example) that usually reduce me to an aching mess willing the unfortunate performers to shut up and let me hop the train and go home. But in the girls’ own words, Not Tonight…

Tegan & Sara Review: Brighton Komedia coming soon...

In the run up to my review of the INCREDIBLE Tegan & Sara show I went to recently, here's a little taster. It's a brilliant acoustic performance of 'Where Does the Good Go?' which perfectly exhibits the girls' musical and comedic talents.

Speak soon...