a music blog
Kitty Wells, who died five years ago this week, had success in country music with her proto-feminist song ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’. The history of this song can tell us much about sexism in music, issues which are sadly still prevalent today. Continue reading “Kitty Wells & The Recurring Problem of Sexism in Music”
It’s half way through the year so thought I would do a round up post of my favourite albums and songs so far. This may change as the year goes on, as things fall away or reignite and as new albums are released but here are my thoughts right now. Continue reading “Favourite Albums & Songs of 2017 So Far”
Recent BBC research has found that only 6% of headline acts at festivals this year are women, and shockingly there are no female headliners at Glastonbury at all, despite its liberal leftie reputation. Lorde, the biggest star out there right now is only second on the bill on the second stage! Is it really that much to ask in the 21st century to have female headliners and a 50/50 split of male and female acts on a festival bill? Continue reading “Festivals Are Failing Female Acts”
This week the stars of the TV show Nashville are in Britain to tour. Take a look at these venues – Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Arena, Glasgow Hydro – these have huge capacities and most of these shows are selling well. It seems ludicrous, really, considering none of the people on this bill have ever had a hit song or even released a successful album of their own. Continue reading “The Problem With ‘Nashville Live’”
My blog is officially three months old today! I feel I’ve learned so much about what is involved with music blogging and just wanted to share my thoughts on the experience so far. Continue reading “What I’ve Learned From Three Months of Music Blogging”
The longlist for the prestigious Scottish Album of the Year award was announced last week in Glasgow. The last two winners were both female: Kathryn Joseph for her stunning album Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I’ve Spilled in 2015 and last year Anna Meredith won for her experimental opus Varmints. This year there is an interesting mix of albums nominated for the award (the full list can be found here) and so I thought I’d share some thoughts on the long listed albums which are by female artists. Continue reading “Thoughts on the Scottish Album of the Year Longlist”
Nowadays in popular music escapism is the name of the game. Songs are often nothing more than an attempt to make the listener feel good – even ballads are autotuned and polished to perfection. Raw emotion is no longer acceptable.
But look at the world. Look at all the terrible things that are happening. More than ever we need to hear songs that tell us the real stories of people’s lives – of their heartbreak and pain and suffering. These songs are still out there, but you won’t hear them much on the radio or at award shows. When Miranda Lambert stepped up to sing Tin Man at the ACM awards she said it was a ‘risk’ but it was a performance which proved that sad songs still have the most power. Continue reading “Why ‘Tin Man’ Is The Sad Song We Need Right Now”
The Ivor Novello awards, given for song writing, are to take place in London this week. They are strange awards in many ways – sometimes rewarding just for commercial success and other times recognising artists beyond the mainstream.
What makes this year’s nominations list stand out for the right reasons is the inclusion of Laura Mvula, who was recently dropped by her record label. Now you would think if they signed you for a five album deal then they at least believe in your talent and potential. But in this case they dropped her after her second album failed to reach their sales targets. And they did this by email. Continue reading “Why A Win for Laura Mvula Would Be A Win for All Women in Music”
The Americana music awards are a fantastic showcase for quality music, sweeping up all the great acts that country music award shows have left behind as well as giving the respect due to classic artists. Of course the definition of ‘Americana’ may never be fully concrete but if you glance back across the history of these awards you can see that they honour a great variety of musicians. Continue reading “Why the Americana Music Awards Needs Female Only Categories”
Highway Queens 