The second day of Dorset's End Of The Road is a scorcher – not bad for the first day of autumn. Van Dyke Parks must be pleasantly surprised, if he's still around.
Pondering what to write about this morning, it occurred to me that there were more things to say about my favourite albums of 2012 so far, following up from this Top 40 that I posted last week. For a start, a bunch of records that I forgot to include:
One of a bunch of interesting Record Store Day exclusives just turned up for this week’s playlist; a lovely EP from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy that involves Jonathan Wilson in some capacity, and features covers of Leon Russell and Merle Haggard.
Jack White played his first solo UK show last night [April 23], headlining the HMV Forum the day his debut solo album Blunderbuss'was released.
The former White Stripes man was watched by stars including The Mighty Boosh duo Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, plus Alabama Shakes, who are set to support him on his May UK tour dates, and BBC Radio One's Fearne Cotton.
For various reasons. I found myself in New York the other week, and in a resiliently unhip part of Williamsburg at a bar called Don Pedro. The opportunity had come up to see one of my favourite artists of the past couple of years, a firebrand piano man called Hans Chew, whose debut solo album, “Tennessee And Other Stories”, was a surprise entry at the sharp end of Uncut’s 2010 Top 50 (Lots more on that here).
