Category: Features

I’ll Always Love You, iPod Nano

And so it goes that the iPod Nano and Shuffle are no more. With a name that means very small and minute it feels somewhat poetic that few people seem to care about the fate of the Nano, beyond the sites who covered the story there are only a few real lovers out there bemoaning its death. The Shuffle even less so. So allow me not to write the obituary, but instead to explain why I love my Nano and will only be parted with it on pain of death. Continue reading “I’ll Always Love You, iPod Nano” →

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Feelin’ Empty: Ten Saddest Miranda Lambert Songs

Summertime sadness is the sweetest kind. It’s that feeling you get when it’s too hot outside and you just want to sit in a dark room and wallow in depressing music until autumn comes and you can breathe again. Miranda Lambert knows the power of the heartbreaker and how listening to sad music can actually make you feel better. So here’s a list of her ten most tearjerking songs – I recommend you drink some wine and hug a dog while you read/listen. Continue reading “Feelin’ Empty: Ten Saddest Miranda Lambert Songs” →

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Dee Dee Warwick & Erma Franklin: Forgotten Sisters of Soul

The history of music is littered with lost treasures once overlooked and out of circulation, now easily rediscovered through the internet. None are more deserving of your time and ears than two women, who by fate or chance, have always lingered in the shadows of their more successful sisters. Dee Dee Warwick and Erma Franklin both came from talented musical families and found the path of their careers strikingly similar in their struggles for success. Continue reading “Dee Dee Warwick & Erma Franklin: Forgotten Sisters of Soul” →

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Ten Awesome Tiny Desk Concerts

 

If you have a spare fifteen minutes (or a few hours) I can think of no better way to spend it than listening to some of the best musicians playing NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. These sessions are now legendary, breaking new artists as well as bringing in those at the top for a more intimate performance.

Of course there are so many now it can be hard to find the time to search through them, let alone watch them all so I have picked ten great ones for your viewing pleasure (and to be honest I’m partly making this list for myself so it’s easy to find the links) Enjoy!  Continue reading “Ten Awesome Tiny Desk Concerts” →

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Festivals Are Failing Female Acts

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” →

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When Tina Turned the Country On!

 

The early life of Anna Mae Bullock sounds like the story of a potential country music star – she was raised in rural Tennessee, she worked in the fields, she only listened to country and western on the radio, she spent her childhood singing in church, her parents abandoned her and she raised herself the hard way. However instead of taking the path to the Grand Ole Opry she joined Ike Turner’s rhythm and blues band in St Louis, became Tina Turner and the rest is music history.

In the sixties and early seventies everything about her life was under Ike’s megalomaniacal control – it was his name, his songs, his style, his fist, his way. When Tina released her debut solo album, Tina Turns the Country On! in 1974 this signalled the beginning of her attempt to break with Ike both personally and professionally. While ultimately a commercial failure, the album is a fascinating glimpse into the life and times of one of music’s most successful female performers. Continue reading “When Tina Turned the Country On!” →

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