Good morning with our Middle of the Week Song the traditional Gospel Plough sung by Robert Plant and Suzi Dian, arranged by Robert Plant and Saving Grace.
Gospel Plow is also known as Hold On, or Keep Your Hand on the Plow and is listed on Roud Folk Song Index number 10075. The lyrics are based on Luke 9:62. Have a nice day.
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #80 – The These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs edition is now on available to listen to on mixcloud.
Amazing Songs & Other Delights airs every other Monday, 3-4pm (gmt+1), on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).
Amazing Songs & Other Delights #80 – The These Are a Few of My Favourite Songs edition features 17 of my favourite songs, including my favourite song, Will Your Me Tomorrow sang by The Shirelles, and three songs I would have love to have written, Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake, A Lady of a Certain Age by The Divine Comedy, and Canção de Amigo by Um Zero Amarelo. Of course I would have loved to have written all the other songs. 🙂 You can read about the songs and my choices here.
Tracklist: 01: Julie Andrews – My Favourite Things 02: The Shirelles – Will Your Me Tomorrow 03: The The – Sometimes I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake 04: The Ramones – Baby I Love You 05: The Devine Comedy – A Lady of a Certain Age 06: Josh Rouse – James 07: The Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb 08: Um Zero Amarelo – Canção de Amigo 09 Elvis Presley – (Marie’s The Name) of His Latest test Flame 10: The Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) 11: Mick Harvey – October Boy 12: Mark Lanegan – Don’t Forget Me 13: Ben Watt – North Marine Drive 14: Tiwiza – At u Azeka 15: Erica Buettner – True Love and Water 16: Butler-Blake-Grant – Bring An End 17: Queens of the Stone Age – Mosquito Song
My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights # 78 – The Debuts & More edition airs Monday, 7th, 3-4pm (gmt) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com(or on the app).
How many times will I write debut album is anyone’s guess. Other than debut album, collaborations, a couple of super groups (oh mine! are the 70s back?… ) and nineteen songs can be found on this edition of Amazing Songs & Other Delights. Scots abound too. Can you slop them all?
The musical genres are varied, at times in the same song. Folk, folk adjacent, dance music, americana, indie noise, hip-hop, romantic music, gentle pop, and some other flavours. Agrupamento Musical Os Tais’s Liga Pra Mim and Calvin Harris’ Smoke The Pain Away are examples of musical cross pollination.
Agrupamento Musical Os Tais are rappers Mike El Nite and the duo João Não & Lil Noon. Agrupamento Musical Os Tais is one of those things that to fully grasp you may need to be Portuguese and aware of our bandas de baile (electric ball bands that played, and still play, local clubs, associations, our equivalent of workers men’s clubs, fetes, carnivals and the likes). Liga Pra Mim is from their debut album Dance, Romance. Dance, Romance has shades of everything, from pimba (wikipedia is your friend), to kizomba, through hip-hop, house, a dash of pop, all wrapped in deliberated tacky elegance.
Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles is Alan Sparhawk of Low and bluegrass-folk band Trampled by Turtles.
The 90s is the third single by super group Butler, Blake & Grant. Super group being a bit of a joke. No stadium tours and 20 gear trucks, or Spinal Tap drama in sight. Butler, Blake & Grant are musician, songwriter and producer Bernard Butler, Norman Blake, of Teenage Fanclub, and James Grant of Love and Money fame. Their debut album has just come out. The 90s is sung and written by Bernard.
Sweet Peace was written by me and Bill Rivers for my 3rd anniversary 3rd anniversary show and is now on Swim the Universe the new Oh Bobby (Bill Rivers & Simon Hayward) album.
Mister Romantic is actor John C. Reilly musical alter-ego. Dream, a romantic, 1920s vibe song, is the first single from debut album What’s Not To Love?
Scottish singer and musician Alasdair Roberts teamed up with another Scot, Scottish Gaelic singer Màiri Morrison to sing The Bonny House of Airlie, a traditional Scottish ballad of the XVII century. As is traditional in these sort of ballads The Bonny House of Airlie tells a tragic real story, the burning of the castle of the Earl of Airlie castle and the murder of his family.
Lies is a song by The Hard Quartet, another super group, formed by Stephen Malkmus, of Pavement, Matt Sweeney of Superwolf, Emmett Kelly and Jim White.
God Knows by Tunde Adebimpe, of T.V. On The Radio, and Trey Calloway’s The Ballad of Righteous close the show. The Ballad of Righteous is a classic americana tradition storytelling song.
Tracklist: 01: Agrupamento Musical Os Tais – Liga Pra Mim 02: Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles – Stranger 03: Beirut -Guericke’s Unicorn 04: Bill Fox – Terminal Way 05: Butler, Blake & Grant – The 90s 06: Calvin Harris – Smoke The Pain Away 07: Courting – After You 08: Flávio Torres – Vamos 09: Màiri Morrison and Alasdair Roberts The Bonny House of Airlie 10: Mark Fry – Not On The Radar 11: Mister Romantic – Dream 12: Model/Actriz – Doves 13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace 14: Reb Fountain – He Commands You To Jump Into The Sea 15: Sex Beat – This Machine Kills No One 16: The Hard Quartet – Lies (Something You Can Do) 17: The Ophelias – Salome 18 Tunde Adebimpe – God Knows 19: Trey Calloway – The Ballad of Righteous and Wrong
words & video by Raquel Pinheiro; photos: João Octávio Peixoto/TMP
To say Bill MacKay’s concert was extraordinary, would be underwhelming. Sublime is a better word. Transcendental, another good one. Those words still don’t do justice to the music, guitar, playing, singing. In fact, being there is the only thing that would do it justice.
Beauty, poetry spoken with an electric guitar as I’ve seldom heard it. Bill sings too, and tells little stories about the songs, however, his visual, sound, poetic mastery of the guitar is the domain of few.
The songs from MacKay’s latest album Locus Land (by the way it’s Terra do Gafanhoto, Bill 🙂 ) gain a different, spiritual, otherworldly dimension live. They become a time within time. A time of gentleness, until the final piece served: Arcadia. Bill stood up to play Arcadia in full, distortion mode adding a sharp dramatic contrast to the tone of the concert.