Released this week: Keaton Henson - Dear...

Keaton Henson - Dear (Oak Ten)
Most musicians are shameless show offs. What other kind of folk would be happy to bear their slipshod souls, open up about their obsessions and let the whole world know of their fondness for internal rhyming structures? Not to mention prancing about on stage in Topman’s finest and singing in public, in front of other human beings. Your average Joe or everyday Josephine would, quite rightly, find all of the above utterly terrifying. Which is why 23-year-old Keaton Henson is such a curious case.

Suffering from such awful stage fright that no proper gigs are happening anytime soon, Henson is unlikely to become the next Bono. And thank goodness for that. His 10-track debut album was recorded in his bedroom, which, we are told, is somewhere in the unglamorous outskirts of London, under Heathrow’s equally razzle-dazzle-free flight path.

A crafter of small music and slow sounds, his songs creep up on you – they don’t shout for your attention, but whisper for it. With his fireplace fingerpicking and fragile voice, at times you want to give him a great big hug and a mug of warm cocoa livened with a nip of confidence-boosting brandy. As an introduction to Keaton Henson, Dear… is the very definition of intimate.

His breakthrough track, You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, takes the traditional singer-songwriter template, strips it back and layers the bearded Henson’s coy countertenor with an emotional gut-punch similar to that of Bon Iver’s first album, the break-up woodsman blues of For Emma, Forever Ago. Addressed to a former girlfriend, he finishes with the plaintive call of "does his love make your head spin," repeating it as guitar strings throb and Henson’s heart breaks all over again. It would almost be too much to bear, were it not for the soft melody dragging you deeper into his spellbinding sorrow.

Happily, Dear… isn’t all despair and despondency – though be warned, it mostly is. Sarah Minor is a gentle surmising of unreserved adoration despite a person’s faults. "And though your skin’s sheet white and your arms carry scars / Your hair isn’t clean much, your lungs black with tar," he lists, with a demonstrative tremble. Keaton Henson isn’t a show off, but with talent like this, he has every right to be. - Leonie Cooper (BBC)

Released this week: Gustav Mahler - Kindertotenlieder / Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen...

Gustav Mahler - Kindertotenlieder / Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (contralto: Sara Mingardo; cello and conductor: Luigi Piovano; Musici Aurei) (Eloquentia)
For many of us, a song cycle devoted to the subject of childhood death makes for a slightly uncomfortable listen, however beautiful the music itself may be. Musici Aurei's new recording of Mahler's heart-rending Kindertotenlieder is certainly both beautiful and uncomfortable. It's also absolutely riveting.

Originally scored for medium voice and orchestra, the Kindertotenlieder appear on this disc in their incarnation for chamber orchestra, a reduction penned by Rainer Riehm in 1987. The intimacy created by the pared-down ensemble, not to mention the arrangement's pellucid Schoenbergian style (at the time, Riehm had recently completed Schoenberg's unfinished reduction of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde), ups the emotional ante as it is; but this tautly expressive interpretation pushes the sense of grief and loss to an almost palpable level. Add Sara Mingardo to the mix, and it's pretty much unimprovable. Although usually a performer of Baroque repertoire, Mingardo is a natural partner for this work with her extraordinarily rich contralto depths and interpretive capabilities. She delivers Mahler's literally breathtakingly long lines with effortlessly poised legato control. Her vocal tone is another delight, its warm bloom creating a lovely counterfoil to the viscerality of her accompaniment.

Other death- and loss-inspired works, often with links to Schoenberg, make up the rest of the disc: Schoenberg's chamber reductions of four of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of the Wayfarer), Mahler's early Quartettsatz, and Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque. Musici Aurei's interpretation of this last work, which Busoni wrote in memory of his mother, will creep under your skin just as effectively as their Kindertotenlieder does, its musicians stretching out a stomach-knotting sense of quiet, grief-stricken tension over the course of the piece's 10 minutes. In fact, as programmes go, this is one of the most expertly compiled and emotively performed you'll find around. If perhaps not the cheeriest. - Charlotte Gardner (BBC)

Released this week: Great Lake Swimmers - New Wild Everywhere...

Great Lake Swimmers - New Wild Everywhere (Nettwerk)
The best joke on Canadian folk-rockers Great Lake Swimmers’ fifth album is that it sounds absolutely nothing like a New Wild Everywhere. Of course, jokes are fairly hard to come by on a record chocked with sleepy, lilting stomp-alongs like these, but fortunately the gaps are filled by warmth, quality and not a little fiddle-playing. Songs that contain enough of these things (even the fiddle-playing... especially the fiddle-playing) do not need to innovate – they need merely to be gorgeous and rewarding, and close to everything on New Wild Everywhere is perfectly that.

Though they’re often compared to the more sugary side of Will Oldham, it’s actually a deeper-fried Americana that Great Lake Swimmers are more closely aligned with. The much-missed rootin’-tootin’ country rockers The Anomoanon (led by Will Oldham’s brother Ned) and the equally fondly regarded The Butterflies of Love can easily be imagined hammering along to Ballad of a Fisherman’s Wife, all sharing an gentle, carefree abandon. Elsewhere, more seriously, the slowly circling Think That You Might Be Wrong gently coagulates into a glorious sort of melodic gloop, a worthy soundtrack to the harshest relationship breakdown.

On the Water is not dissimilar from Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues in both contemplative lyric and melodic shape, but GLS mainman Tony Dekker has learned tricks Robin Pecknold has yet to even attempt. Making a virtue of simplicity, Dekker becomes a man swimming for his life in slow motion, eventually drifting aimlessly. No attempt to be transformative or adventurous with the tenets of his influences is made, the result being an expression that’s totally without chinks. Neatly, that seems to be something that chimes across the whole of New Wild Everywhere.

Even a version of the band’s own Fields of Progeny sung in French (the lovely Les Champs de Progeniture) cannot hinder the album at its conclusion. Indeed, rather than adding even more ammunition to the idea that the Great Lake Swimmers’ appeal is singular, it’s proof that they’re able to make their music ceaselessly repeatable, open to gentle tweaking and subtle extension. Leaving the invention to others is the smartest thing they could do – sometimes it’s enough just to be good at what you do. - Daniel Ross (BBC)

BBC6 Music Highlights Tuesday 3 April 2012

Morning:

10:00–13:00
Lauren Laverne
The Horrors play live for Lauren.

Afternoon:

13:00–16:00
Radcliffe and Maconie
Stuart talks to author Richard King about his new book How Soon is Now?

Evening:

19:00–21:00
Marc Riley
Fiction
London band Fiction are in session.

21:00–00:00
Gideon Coe
Ed Harcourt at Glastonbury 2002, plus tracks from Misty In Roots, Velocette and Mojave 3.

Late:

04:00–05:00
The Live Music Hour
Roger Waters, The Stiffs and The Cortinas.
Roger Waters in New York in 1985 plus Peel sessions from The Stiffs and The Cortinas.

LISTEN TO BBC6 MUSIC

The Archers: 2/4/2012

Synopsis:

Brian makes a breakthrough and Tom feels overloaded.

Brian’s feeling deflated by all theopposition to the dairy unit. Rufus suggests one decisive last push and shows Annabelle and Brian a short DVD as an example of a visual way of showing its advantages. These include the possibility of having a small patch of grazing near the indoor unit, as some of the heifers will be drying off. Annabelle is unsure at first, but Rufus wins her and Brian over with the idea.

Tony wants to help Tom out in the office, but despite the extra work, Tom tells him he’d like to see it through himself. Tom also reminds Tony that he has to take it easy as they don’t want another scare.

Later, Brenda is spending her afternoon off with Tom. She’s brought a picnic along as she felt he was quite stressed earlier on. Tom says he’s realised that there are lots of ways to smarten things up in the office such as new software. He doesn’t want Tony to think he’s changing everything in his dad’s absence. Brenda suggests Tom take it a little easier and reminds him he can only do so much. She encourages him to make the changes in the office and that Tony will understand.

Listen

Episode written by Adrian Flynn

Justin Lee Collins to stand trial at St Albans over harassment...

Television presenter and comic Justin Lee Collins is to go on trial accused of harassing a former girlfriend.

Mr Collins, 37, of Kew in London, appeared at St Albans Crown Court charged with causing computer games developer Anna Larke fear of violence.

The Bristol-born presenter pleaded not guilty to the charge and will face trial on 24 September.

Judge John Plumstead granted bail with a condition he does not contact Ms Larke or her family.

Mr Collins, who was on Channel 4's Friday Night Project, is currently appearing in the West End show Rock of Ages.

He split from his wife of seven years Karen soon after Christmas 2010.

Source: BBC

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Adele confirms she will release new music in 2012...

Adele has told a French radio station she will have a new single out by the end of the year, but her next album will take "a good two years" to record.

The news will fuel speculation that the artist will record the theme tune to the latest Bond movie, Skyfall.

She has been the bookmakers' favourite since last year, but no official announcement has been made.

Speaking to France's NRJ, the singer added she needed to find time to write the follow-up to her hit record, 21.

"If I didn't write my own songs, I'd be out next week with a new album," she said.

"I have to take time and live a little bit. There were a good two years between my first and second albums, so it'll be the same this time."

Adele added that she was not worried about recreating the success of 21, which has now sold more than 20 million copies around the world.

"I don't think I'll feel the pressure for the next album to be as big as the last one because I know that's not really possible," she said.

"What's happened with this album is very rare anyway."

She said her ideal duet partner would be the late Etta James but she would also like to sing with Beyonce.

"I adore Beyonce, I've been listening to her since I was about 11," she told NRJ.

"I think her work as an artist and a singer is enviable in terms of the length of her career and how she's grown and grown but most of my inspirations are (from) old music and sadly they have all died."

Adele's second 21 recently overtook Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon in the list of best-selling UK albums.

The LP has now sold more than 4,142,000 copies in the singer's home country, making it the seventh biggest-selling album of all-time.

The singer from north London has enjoyed a stellar year with two Brit awards and six Grammy awards to her name.

Source: BBC

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Released this week: Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society...

Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society (Decca)
After the breakthrough of 2010’s Chamber Music Society, the album which saw bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding grab a Best New Artist Grammy as Justin Bieber’s publicists wondered, “Who’s she?” comes the tricky business of, “What’s next?”

Jazz snobs might already be turning up noses and closing down ears at a musician tainted by mainstream accolades, but Spalding was touring with saxophone colossus Joe Lovano a few months after waltzing off with the headline-making statuette. So everybody would do well to avoid a rush to premature judgment. In any case, as she showed on her 2008 album Esperanza, she really has her heart in that hallowed place in the 70s when soul, funk, jazz and Latin sounds liberally intertwined to break down the barrier between highbrow and pop sensibilities in African-American music.

She likes songs as well as solos. Her guiding spirits are Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter, both of whom she covers here. Hence there is no end of chordal finesse, finely wrought melodies, subtle but nonetheless hard-edged rhythmic pulsation, and above all a glowing sound canvas – electric piano colours à la Innervisions are dominant. Spalding is too able a musician to botch this template, so the obvious enquiry is: does she bring sufficient personality to the table to avoid being derivative?

For the most part, yes. There are times when the sources of inspiration are perhaps just too telegraphic, but a piece such as Cinnamon Tree, with its swish countermelody of hauntingly low, grainy strings has a subtle lyricism similar to what can be heard on Spalding’s auspicious 2006 debut Junjo, while a rollicking, densely layered reprise of Shorter’s sadly neglected gem Endangered Species shows a pleasing degree of lateral thinking. Furthermore, a quite sprawling list of star collaborators – the aforesaid Lovano, drummer Jack Dejohnette, and guitarist Lionel Loueke among others – ensures a high standard of execution.

While some may accuse Spalding of playing safe, the 27-year-old has produced quality material at this still early stage of her career. We know that she has talent as abundant as her Afro. The essential question is: what will it grow into? - Kevin Le Gendre (BBC)

Released this week: Clark - Iradelphic...

Clark - Iradelphic (Warp)
It’s interesting to note that the sleeve housing Chris Clark’s latest (sixth) album was designed by Ghost Box co-founder Julian House. That label’s USP is a thing called – ahem – hauntology, in which artists such as Belbury Poly stir electronic music and fragments of pop and public service ephemera into a heady, pastoral, melancholy brew. The other notable here is the helping-hand of Clark’s Warp labelmate and purveyor of his own bucolic electronica, Bibio. These are the two most-telling reference points for Iradelphic, if only because there’s not a lot that links it with Clark’s own canon.

As with previous Clark albums it is an intricate, boffin-clever, topsy-turvy album. But after two albums of pummelling, energy flash-informed electronica, it seems Clark’s determined not to be pigeonholed as that noisy Warp fella. He said as much recently when explaining that he’s "hunting down that elusive paradox. To create something that didn’t sound like what I’ve done before. But was also unmistakably me."

The obvious new development is the simple, looping guitar that’s present almost throughout. Then there’s the massive arsenal of instruments, from vintage Cold War microphones and harpsichords to modular synths, he employs. But more than anything it’s the mood that’s turned. It’s out with angry, abrasive head-bangers and head-scratchers, and in with warm, soothing, elegiac, sun-dappled tracks.

A few, such as the minimal piano piece Black Stone, appear as sketchy outlines still requiring colour. And certain segments might stray too far into folktronica territory for some heads. But there’s much to take in on this new path. The verdant Henderson Wrench, with its weaving guitar picking, and the melodic synth progressions of Corn Touch recall the pretty, TV theme-inspired work of Bibio and the exotic curios in the Ghost Box catalogue.

Two tracks feature the brittle bluesy voice of Martina Topley-Bird. The first, Open, is a shuffling, trippy tune beautiful in its simplicity. The second, Secret, is rickety trip hop with found sounds. But the definite highlight is a 10-minute triptych called The Pining. On it Clark nails this gentle tone he’s aiming for without dulling his madder tendencies – it drifts through tin-pot melancholia, a burst of In Rainbows-era Radiohead pop, a ghostly house breakdown, and then concludes with Nils Frahm-like minimalism, all twinkly prettiness with a fondness for Tangerine Dream and sunrises peeping through hedges. Some Clark fans will be disappointed with Iradelphic, but many others will see the promise in this little treasure. - Chris Parkin (BBC)

Released this week: Chick Corea & Gary Burton - Hot House...

Chick Corea & Gary Burton - Hot House (Decca)
Duos are often feted for their intimacy, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have any energy. At their most dynamic, pianist Corea and vibraphonist Burton, formerly sidemen to Miles Davis and George Shearing respectively, make for a Catherine wheel combination, playing scores of notes in quick succession with a percussive drive and sharpness of attack that reflect a cast-iron command of bebop.

Sparks of excitement fly over the quicksilver melody of the title-track, a Tadd Dameron classic largely associated with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In negotiating the myriad chord changes and jumps in pitch needed to really capture the hyperventilating character of the piece, Burton emphatically highlights how liquid yet crisp and resonant the vibraphone can be, almost as if bells had been set into a keyboard that he drums instead of fingers. This set of mostly covers by jazz and pop icons like Monk, Brubeck and The Beatles lets the duo flex their muscles as soloists and both prove indeed adept at executing lengthy, winding figures and breathless shifts of tempo.

Yet, in contrast to the storms comes the calm of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin’s My Ship, in which a gilded romanticism has faint echoes of Crystal Silence, Corea and Burton’s gorgeous 1973 debut that marked them out as purveyors of eerie proto-ambient music. As for Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Once I Loved, this new album’s highlight, it’s a reminder that both men, who played with Stan Getz, an early adopter of bossa nova, can capture the blend of leisure and melancholia that lends the idiom its subtle power. Corea weaves in a propulsive, broody bassline, built on small intervals, that enhances the dark emotional undercurrent and creates a tonal weight to offset Burton’s far lighter timbres.

The set mostly sustains this kind of quality, but it could have benefited from a touch more of the abstract thinking of which both artists are capable. While diehard converts won’t feel short-changed, others might wonder whether the duo could have sprung more surprises similar to the appearance of the Harlem String Quartet on the classical fantasia Mozart Goes Dancing. - Kevin Le Gendre (BBC)

THE CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD (BLACK CROWES) TO RELEASE DEBUT STUDIO ALBUM 'BIG MOON RITUAL' JUNE 4th VIA SILVER ARROW/MEGAFORCE RECORDS‏...

THE CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD
TO RELEASE DEBUT STUDIO ALBUM
‘BIG MOON RITUAL’
JUNE 4th
VIA SILVER ARROW/MEGAFORCE RECORDS,
TO BE FOLLOWED BY COMPANION ALBUM
‘THE MAGIC DOOR’
IN SEPTEMBER

“We really feel these records set the stage for another full year, where we’ll see how far we can go with it. We already feel successful because we have the freedom to do what we want. And it’s always cosmic. The times demand it.” -- CHRIS ROBINSON

In 2011, after more than 20 years of intense gigging and recording, CHRIS ROBINSON set off to shape something new, a fresh rock mythology, a breathing kaleidoscopic thing stuffed with chooglin’ soul, bedrock boogie and shuffling wisdom birthed in intimate clubs and amongst the tall trees of the Golden State and eventually taken nationwide as the CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD evolved. What began as an experiment without expectations turned into a 118-show journey for Robinson (lead vocals, guitar), Neal Casal (guitar, vocals), Adam MacDougall (keys, vocals), George Sluppick (drums) and Mark Dutton (bass, vocals) that surprised these seasoned pros as music of unshakeable solidity and exuberant reach poured out of them, a New Cosmic California sound with tendrils reaching to the original Fillmore West, Topanga Canyon and outwards towards far horizons.

The music of the CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD finds its fruition on their studio debut album BIG MOON RITUAL, due out June 4 via Silver Arrow/Megaforce Records, to be followed by companion album THE MAGIC DOOR in September. A CRB tour will be announced shortly.

“Thom and I have wanted to work together for a long time,” says Robinson about the album’s producer Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Papercuts). “We talked about it at a show in Los Angeles and I told him as we stood behind George’s drums, ‘This is it (gesturing at stage gear). We’re not bringing anything else with us into the studio. This is what brought us here this year, so this is exactly what this is gonna be. We didn’t even change strings from the last Cali run [laughs].”

“This music is unashamedly what we’re into,” says ROBINSON, who cites Neu!, Melanie, Flatt & Scruggs, Mel Tillis and Morton Subotnick as regulars in their van listening. “It’s not a psych band because you have a Prince Valiant haircut and wear Beatle boots. It’s psych because that’s where our heads are. We want to make music that blossoms. We want to make music that sounds cosmic.”

For a full year, the CRB road tested their ideas, and in the process turned into an empathetic, limber congregation of talents, something different than any of their previous work with the likes of Phil Lesh & Friends, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and JJ Grey & Mofro. By the time of their sold-out four-night run at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall last December, the BROTHERHOOD were fully switched-on. This is the band that entered Sunset Sound in Los Angeles in January 2012, setting up shop in Studio B and coming out the other side of a six-day session with 27 different songs with 97 takes, most of it captured straight off-the-floor with only minor enhancements after the fact.

“Part of the master plan was not to do anything besides touring the wheels off the thing for the first go-around, and it worked for us and allowed us to figure out who we were,” says ROBINSON. “One of the best things about the lack of a proper music business is if you have an idea, you can do something. If everybody is on the same page, and it’s not about the dough on the table, and it’s really about something you believe in, then you can get there.

“It’s about being boutique,” continues ROBINSON. “If before you wanted to have a million people hear what you do, now we’re making music the right way for the right people. When we got to these cool sonic spaces we took advantage of them. It was totally the most radical recording session I’ve ever done, especially in terms of aesthetics.”

The complete track listing for BIG MOON RITUAL is:

Tulsa Yesterday*
Rosalee
Star Or Stone
Tomorrow Blues
Reflections On A Broken Mirror
Beware, Oh Take Care*
One Hundred Days Of Rain*

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Thom Monahan

All songs written by Chris Robinson except (*) written by Robinson/Casal

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If music be the food of love, play on‏...

SHAKESPEARE: THE SONNETS
Shakespeare’s poetry. Shakespeare’s instruments. Modern songs.

Out on April 23rd (Shakespeare’s birthday)

Written during the time of Elizabeth I and re-imagined for the Diamond Jubilee year of Elizabeth II, these are the most precious words ever written about love. Performed on instruments from the early 17th century, played by the cream of the world’s period instrument specialists, conceived with immense passion, commitment and integrity, Shakespeare: The Sonnets was recorded in London over the last 6 months.

Fresh from his success of recording an outsize Renaissance mass for a massive 40 parts that had not been heard for 400 years (and winning a Gramophone Album of the Year Award in the process), Robert Hollingworth, director of vocal ensemble I Fagiolini (also a judge on the UK’s Choir of the Year and involved in a number of films) was looking for a new challenge. To a specialist of the Renaissance period, Shakespeare’s sonnets are an intriguing challenge: the most romantic and personal poems ever written but rarely set to music.

All the lyrics are Shakespeare’s own and no additions made, although occasionally lines have been moved around to fit the contemporary song structures. Within this, the meaning is never altered and the emotional content of the sonnets is always sustained. What is amazing is how modern some of Shakespeare’s language is: ‘Blind Fool Love’, or the ‘blues’ sonnet ‘No Longer Mourn’ - or the final track, ‘Love is a Babe’.

Singers from all over the UK perform on the album, but finding players of these rare and ancient instruments ought to have been incredibly difficult. In actual fact, the UK is the world leader in modern performers on these recreated ‘period’ instruments, and experts in playing in period style.

For example, Erin Headley plays the lirone - a 13 string cello-type which is so difficult to play that it has not been heard for hundreds of years. In fact Erin is one of only a handful of professional lirone players in the whole world. Also Lynda Sayce, who played lutes, Renaissance guitars and theorbo is the lead lutenist and a world authority on the instrument. Her theorbo (a type of giant Lute with a very long neck) is a copy of one originally made in Venice in 1608 and now housed in the Royal College of Music, London. It has strings lengths of over 170cm and a massive 2 metre neck!

The originals of these instruments are in museums and often unplayable, so modern replicas are now handmade to order by makers who have rediscovered this ancient art. A harpsichord and virginals can be worth £20,000 each: lutes, harps and theorbos £10,000 each. All the instruments benefit from stable temperatures with no air conditioning, often problematic in modern life.

However the important feature of this project is its blend of early instruments and playing styles with modern recording techniques and the very modern groove. Percussion is played by famed drummer Geoff Dugmore who can usually be found playing with Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart and Tina Turner, as well as helping out modern day X Factor winners like Matt Cardle.

The Music:

1) Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore. Sonnet 60
2) Against that time - If ever that time come. Sonnet 49
3) Who will believe my verse in time to come. Sonnet 17
4) How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st. Sonnet 128
5) O, never say that I was false of heart. Sonnet 109
6) Love is too young to know what conscience is. Sonnet 151
7) No longer mourn for me when I am dead. Sonnet 71
8) Thou blind fool love. Sonnet 137
9) Those lines that I before have writ do lie. Sonnet 115
10) When I do count the clock that tells the time. Sonnet 12
11) Shall I compare thee to summers day? Sonnet 18

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David Hockney lands South Bank award nomination...

David Hockney's current Royal Academy exhibition is among the nominations for this year's South Bank awards.

His exhibition, A Bigger Picture, is up against Grayson Perry's The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum in the visual art category.

Architect David Chipperfield is also in the running for his design of the Hepworth art gallery in Wakefield.

The pop music shortlist is an exclusively female affair, made up of Adele, PJ Harvey and Kate Bush.

They are recognised for their latest albums - 21, Let England Shake and 50 Words for Snow respectively.

Lord Melvyn Bragg will host the awards ceremony, previously affiliated to ITV's axed arts programme The South Bank Show.

It will take place at the Dorchester hotel in London, and will be broadcast on the Sky Arts digital channel at 2100 BST.

"Although this is a celebration of British arts by British artists, we have a world class list of nominees," said Lord Bragg.

The Hockney exhibition, which ends on Easter Monday, has extended hours for its final week, with the gallery open until midnight between Monday and Thursday this week and until 2200 BST on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's musical production of Roald Dahl's Matilda is nominated for best theatre production, alongside the National Theatre's One Man and Two Guvnors and the Royal Court's Constellations.

In the TV drama category, two Channel 4 productions are nominated - This is England '88 and Top Boy.

Joe Cornish's debut Attack The Block will go up against Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's novel We Need To Talk About Kevin and critically-acclaimed documentary Senna in the film category.

Channel 4's Fresh Meat, BBC 4's Olympic mockumentary Twenty Twelve and BBC Two's Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle are up for best comedy.

Author Andrew Miller's historical novel Pure is up for best literature, alongside Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life and Jeanette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?

Other categories include dance, opera and classical music.

Breakthrough award nominees include Booker nominee Stephen Kelman, soprano Sophie Bevan and Call the Midwife star, Jessica Raine.

Source: BBC

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Banjo musician Earl Scruggs remembered in Nashville...

More than 2,000 mourners paid tribute to pioneering US banjo musician Earl Scruggs on Sunday at a public funeral at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs were among the country stars who performed at the memorial to the late bluegrass artist, who died on 28 March, aged 88.

Scruggs' closed casket sat just below the stage, with a banjo behind it.

The performer was also remembered on Sunday at the Academy of Country Music Awards, held in Las Vegas.

Comedian and banjo player Steve Martin took part in a tribute alongside country band Rascal Flatts.

"No one will ever play the banjo like Earl," said musician Charlie Daniels at the Nashville event, which also saw performances from Vince Gill, Marty Stuart and Patty Loveless.

His sentiments were echoed by Skaggs, who remembered him as a "humble" man who "was always listening, not at himself but at the next generation".

Scruggs was known for his unique banjo playing technique. Involving just three fingers, it later became known as "the Scruggs picking style".

His playing was heard on the theme tune to TV series The Beverly Hillbillies and on Foggy Mountain Breakdown, featured in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde.

Source: BBC

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Review: Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis – A Whole Lotta Jerry Lee Lewis: The Definitive Retrospective (Salvo)
Salvo, bless their cotton socks, release some excellent box sets (check out The Move and Stiff boxes), and they’ve surpassed themselves with this one. Comprising of four discs, over a hundred tracks and with a playing time just a few minutes short of five hours, this is the most comprehensive collection currently available. It also comes with a 72 page booklet, which includes a 10,000 word essay and plenty of great photos and memorabilia.

I got the chance to see Jerry Lee Lewis a few years ago. Obviously frail and long past his best, he was physically helped to his piano, and the omens weren’t good. But as soon as he started playing, it was plain to see there was nothing wrong with his fingers, and there was enough magic to make you feel like you’d been born 40 years to late. Working through the discs here, the feeling of missing out is less pronounced. Although the early rockabilly cuts - “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On, Great Balls Of Fire”, “High School Confidential”, etc. – are all bursting with energy, there’s so much quality in the later recordings, whether they’re rock ‘n’ roll or country cuts, there’s surely never been a bad time to listen to Jerry Lee. Not that many of them sold well. After he married his 13-year old cousin his career crashed, though he always remained newsworthy. Incidents with guns, drugs and booze, and the deaths of later wives and sons meant a life lived in newspapers and on TV news channels; it’s just a shame that his records were ignored.

There’s been something of a renaissance of late with both his “Last Man Standing” and “Mean Old Man” albums selling well, and this beautifully constructed collection deserves no less. For beginners and fans alike, there’s a lotta wonderful music here to be enjoyed for the first time or rediscovered and enjoyed anew.
http://www.salvo-music.co.uk/
Rob F.

Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill sweeps Razzie awards...

Adam Sandler's movie Jack and Jill has swept the board at the Razzie awards, which highlight the year's worst films.

The comedy picked up a record 10 prizes, including worst picture. Al Pacino, who played himself, won the worst supporting actor award.

Sandler was named worst actor and actress for playing both Jack and Jill, a brother and his twin sister.

"He didn't play triplets, but he couldn't have won more awards if he had," said Razzies founder John Wilson.

It is the first time in the 32-year history of the awards that a film has won every category.

It also picked up worst screen ensemble and worst re-make / rip-off - as the film was based on Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda.

Worst screen couple went to Sandler and either himself, Katie Holmes or Al Pacino.

Dennis Dugan had the honour of being named worst director for two movies - Jack and Jill and another Sandler vehicle, Just Go With It - while Sandler and Steve Koren won worst screenplay for the former.

Worst supporting actress was David Spade for his portrayal of Monica in Jack and Jill.

Sandler's worst actor accolade was also in honour of his performance in Just Go With It, which co-starred Jennifer Aniston.

Razzie nominees rarely turn up to claim their prizes at the spoof awards ceremony, and Sandler was no exception.

The ceremony took place on Sunday night at a magic shop in Santa Monica, California.

The Razzie winners are usually announced the day before the Oscars but this year, organisers moved the show to April Fools' Day.

However, Wilson said he had received feedback from voters of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, who suggested they would prefer to hand out their prizes around Oscar time.

"I think our members prefer the faux glamour of having it be Oscar eve," Wilson said.

Nominees are picked by 657 voters in 46 US states and 17 other countries.

The Razzies - officially titled the Golden Raspberries - were founded by film fan and author Wilson in 1980.

Previous winners include Kevin Costner, Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock.

Source: BBC

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Feist takes home Juno threesome...

Feist was named artist of the year at this year's Juno awards, Canada's version of the Grammys.

The 36-year-old performer also picked up awards for adult alternative album of the year and music DVD of the year ahead of Sunday's ceremony in Ottawa.

Crooner Michael Buble won album of the year for his Christmas disc, while pop star Justin Bieber won the Fan Choice award for the second year running.

Veteran Star Trek actor William Shatner hosted the glitzy event.

"I just need a second," said Feist as she accepted the artist of the year prize, the 11th Juno of her career. "I'm just in shock.

"I guess all I can really do is try to express some genuine gratitude," she continued.

Feist began her career as a member of indie group Broken Social Scene before setting out as a solo artist.

Her career received a boost after the jaunty 1-2-3-4 was selected for use on an iPod nano advert.

Reviews for Metals were overwhelmingly positive, with critics noting a new "visceral quality" to the singer-songwriter's work.

Neither Buble nor Bieber attended this year's Junos, which kicked off with a performance from rock band Nickelback.

The group, previous recipients of 12 Juno awards, had been nominated in four categories but ended up empty-handed.

Adele's 21 was named international album of the year, while rock band Blue Rodeo were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Arcade Fire were the big winners at last year's gala, receiving album of the year, group of the year and two additional awards.

Source: BBC

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Review: Anne Smith

Anne Smith - Separated By Words (Independent)
Anne Smith is almost impossible to pigeonhole. The daughter of a pianist, she began taking lessons at six, and she’s been writing and performing music for as long as she can remember. She also designs clothes and teaches music; she’s a published writer and does her bit for charity (details on her website). Her sound and style of performance on “Separated By Words” is a little easier to pin down, her jazzy folk style is certainly easy on the ear, but listen closely to the words, and you’ll hear an artist with something say, and unafraid to ruffle a few feathers along the way.

Apart from a winning way with words, we desire the following three attributes from songwriters: sincerity, honesty and authenticity. The first two I think we can reach our own conclusions about, and the latter is written about in serious books and discussed on late night arts shows. Also, it’s probably overrated. Here, whether Smith is singing about the arcane mysteries of love (“Not Enough Road”), the prosaic, sometimes hurtful details of everyday interaction (“Mary, Do You Love?”), or the topics that cause universal concern (“Tillman's Tale”, “Temporary Suicide”), there’s a sense that she’s giving her all, telling it just as she sees it. In these troubled times, those are qualities worth seeking out.
http://www.annesmithgirlb.com/
Rob F.

BBC6 Music Highlights Monday 2 April 2012

Morning:

07:00–10:00
Shaun Keaveny
Happy 5th Birthday Shaun!
Shaun celebrates five years of presenting the 6 Music Breakfast Show.

10:00–13:00
Lauren Laverne
Simon Amstell joins Lauren, plus free music in MPFree.

Afternoon:

13:00–16:00
Radcliffe and Maconie
Stuart is flying solo again and is joined by The Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan.

16:00–19:00
Steve Lamacq
Andrew Collins sits in for Steve Lamacq, getting the week started with Rebel Playlist.

Evening:

19:00–21:00
Marc Riley
Y Niwl
Marc has premier Welsh surf instrumental band Y Niwl in for a rip-roaring session.

21:00–00:00
Gideon Coe
Gideon plays Dr John in concert and The Wedding Present in session.

Late:

03:00–04:00
Insight
Roy Wood
Alan Black interviews Roy Wood about his music and career.

04:00–05:00
The Live Music Hour
Little Boots, New Model Army and Loop
Little Boots at London's Roundhouse in 2009, plus New Model Army and Loop in session.

LISTEN TO BBC6 MUSIC

The Archers: 1/4/2012

Synopsis:

Amy needs to talk and Shula is embarrassed.

It’s Palm Sunday and St. Stephen’s is busy. Benjamin the donkey proves to be fantastic with the kids, but may have gone astray when he saw Pat Fletcher’s hat.

Tom’s not taking any chances when it comes to Tony getting back into farm work, and Jazzer agrees to do a few more hours. They break up a bale of straw and Jazzer confesses his April Fool prank on Harry – itching powder in his cycle shorts!

Meanwhile, Jill tells Shula about Neil having something intriguing to discuss on Tuesday at the parish council meeting.

Alice invites Amy to Chris’s ‘forge christening’ on Thursday evening where he’ll make his first piece of iron-work as his own boss. Alice quizzes Amy on her new man, Carl, and Amy reveals she’s taking things slowly. Amy then opens up about a family secret. Her mother went to prison when she was younger after stabbing a girl. Amy has learnt the truth about the circumstances, and that she shouldn’t have doubted her mother. Amy now feels ready to put the bad things behind her, slowly but surely. Alice also mentions that Jennifer is popping round a lot to get away from stressed Brian. With two weeks before the planning meeting, he’s going to be a nightmare!

Listen

Episode written by Adrian Flynn

Released this week: Ry Cooder - Down At The Field...

Ry Cooder - Down At The Field (Left Field Media)
Having spent the 1960's honing his talent as one the most accomplished guitarists around and playing with such luminaries as Captain Beefheart, Randy Newman and the Rolling Stones, by 1970 Ry Cooder was ready to break out alone and grab has own piece of the limelight. Having signed a multi album deal with Warner Brothers, Cooder at last had a platform on which he could illustrate just why his skills were so in demand by others, and he subsequently released eight majestic albums over the course of the decade. Not bound to any fixed musical genre, over this time he displayed a full range of influences to create a quite staggering body of work which has earned him recognition as one of the all time guitar greats.

It was in the spring of 1974, having just released his forth studio record, Paradise and Lunch, that Cooder took to the stage within the intimate surrounds of Ebbetts Field in Denver, Colorado - a venue which holds just 200 at full capacity. With KCUV FM on hand to broadcast the whole event to those not lucky enough to gain entry, 20th May 74 was an inspired evening regardless of which end of the radio you were listening to. Showcasing the maestros deft touch, inventive musicianship and legendary ability to turn the songs of others into Cooder classics, the hour that followed clearly left the audience mesmerised - and upon listening back today, it is easy to understand why.

Drawing from the alternative Great American Songbook, choice covers of compositions by a host of Ry's musical heroes, including Sleepy John Estes, Blind Blake and Joseph Spence, Cooder elegantly graces the venue, the airwaves and now, almost 40 years on, this CD, with a display of breathtaking guitar mastery and a truly magnificent performance. Also included here are several bonus tracks taken from a show at New York s Bottom Line just four days before, also part of a radio broadcast, this time by NYCs WNYU FM.

Released this week: Elvis Presley - Such A Night In Pearl Harbor...

Elvis Presley - Such A Night In Pearl Harbor (Memphis Recordings)
The latest deluxe package from Elvis specialists MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE. Hailed as the greatest Presley concert ever! Elvis' last concert in March 1961 before returning to the stage 8 years later. Includes many number 1 hits and classics that were never performed previously or again such as A Fool Such As I, I Need Your Love Tonight, Such A Night and more.

The CD is accompanied by a 100 page book containing many rare and unreleased photographs with extensive linear notes detailing Elvis' arrival and performance in Pearl Harbor. Bonus content includes a preview radio broadcast, paid for by Col Tom Parker, of Elvis singing songs of faith and devotion in preparation for the benefit USS Arizona memorial fund concert. Features include special announcements, appeals and interviews.

Released this week: Amadou & Mariam - Folila...

Amadou & Mariam - Folila (Because)
Darlings of the world music scene, Amadou & Mariam are greatly loved for their willingness to experiment, and for the musical craftwork that has hallmarked their take on West African blues. The tale of how this celebrated husband-and-wife duo met at a school for blind youth in their native Mali is now common knowledge, their championship concretely emerging since their 2004 collaboration with Manu Chao, Dimanche à Bamako. Their inspirational live performances later made them part of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project, and the collaborative Welcome to Mali album of 2008 was highly acclaimed.

The pair’s new LP has been greatly anticipated, yet Folila is a curious beast, a three-in-one project whose peculiar history has almost left it overburdened by a diverse array of guest collaborators. According to producer/manager Marc-Antoine Moreau, the singers originally planned two albums: the first a crossover disc, recorded in New York with friends gained on the festival circuit, the second a back-to-basics unplugged set, recorded in Mali. Instead, we have ended up with the New York guest sessions reworked in Mali, along with some ill-fitting numbers voiced there by controversial singer Bertrand Cantat.

The disc starts on a high note with Dougou Badia, featuring a pleasant vocal interlude from Santigold while the rock guitar of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner nicely contrasts with Amadou’s bluesy riffs. Then, Wily Kataso is a radio-friendly ode whose vocal contributions by Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of Brooklyn’s TV on the Radio are fittingly atmospheric, despite the negativity of their lyrics. Later, Theophilus London turns Nebe Miri into poppy musing on a lover’s longing, but a big disappointment is Amp Fiddler’s contribution to Wari – couldn’t he come up with anything better than "I need money"? The disco-diva chorus Jake Shears brings to Metemya does little for this writer, and Ebony Bones’ rollicking lines seem a bit at odds with the core of C’est Pas Facile Pour Les Aigles.

Although his presence on Mogo adds an element of intriguing menace, Cantat’s contribution feels less successful elsewhere: his lyrics are a bit heavy-handed on Africa Mon Afrique, he somehow obstructs the flow of Oh Amadou, and sounds corny in English on Another Way; though the dubwise form of that track’s mix fares better. Better are the tracks Bagnale, with its blistering desert guitar courtesy of Abdallah ag Oumbadougou, while the unadorned Sans Toi and Chérie remind how great Amadou & Mariam sound on their own.

If your tastes are eclectic enough, and if you can get past the factor of contriving, you are bound to love this entire album. But more selective souls may find themselves reaching for the fast-forward button, as perhaps the original plan would have yielded a more cohesive whole. - David Katz (BBC)

Review: Spotlight Kid at The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 6th March

Spotlight Kid at The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 6th March
A rather grim, cold night, and the streets around this part of Liverpool city centre are pretty much both dark and deserted. The basement venue is welcoming, though, with a nice guy at the reception table making us feel that we belong.

The downstairs space has a straggle of people listening to the first band, Chemistry Lane, who are immediately ear-catching for their depth of sound, rather than just loudness, and the quizzical tunes (my comrade Steve mentions a possible Can influence - between the numbers, not during, of course). This is good stuff indeed, and this Chester based five piece do themselves proud, exhibiting an undercurrent of menace, whilst keeping the melody quotient pretty high.

Despite the appalling turn out they create a buzz amongst the near dozen of us who are listening, and they manage to continue this without actually playing music in any particular genre. They’re hard to pin down, and it’s such a good live performance I find myself applauding each song with an enthusiasm that I usually reserve for the headline act.

Chemistry Lane set list:
Pitch Black
Doe-eyed Coil
Lonely Bride
Darkened Smile

After a lame interlude with a band whose name I was not aware of (and I didn’t attempt to find out) we got to the main event. On came Spotlight Kid, four guitarists and a drummer, who immediately launch into a five-minute intro of measured escalation, to an almost damaging level of guitar attack, before Katty Heath takes the stage, and despite the guitar opposition, she takes it. A rather diminutive figure to begin with, she’d look even smaller surrounded by the four guitar players if it wasn't for her stage presence and her ability to command attention. It was straightaway quite obvious that she has a voice to match this presence, despite the absurdly loud guitars.

They are a really impressive bunch of musicians. This is shoegaze with a high reverb and semi-squall quotient, a psychedelic edge, and some alt. rock thrown in, so that it isn't always finding a path through MBV territory, which is also helped by the flawless vocals of Katty. They could have been playing to tens of thousands, rather than ten, for all they seemed to care. Each guitarist was lost in what he was doing, without veering away from the band's intentions, and with the drummer keeping superb time (being a superb drummer, a certain Chris Davis, ex-Six By Seven lynchpin) this outfit just let rip. What a tour de force this so nearly was. It was a pity that the sound technician(s) couldn’t judge it better, which would have ensured that we got a delightful earful, and not an earbleed.

Spotlight Kid set list:
Intro
Budge Up
Forget Yours
All Is Real
April
Creeps
See Feel
Plan
Haunting Me

Incidently, do check out their two splendid albums, 2006's 'Departure' and the new release 'Disaster Tourist'... you won't be disappointed.
http://www.spotlightkidsound.co.uk/
Kev A.

Preview: Paul Merton at De Montfort Hall, 10th April...

Paul Merton
Out of my Head

With Lee Simpson, Richard Vranch and Suki Webster.

Discover the bizarre workings of Paul Merton's brain, as he muses on the mighty behemoth that is his noggin. Paul returns to his stand-up roots for the first time this century.

Away from the Have I Got News For You desk Paul Merton proves he's got legs.

A night of sketches, music, magic, variety and dancing girls (two of them aren’t girls).

http://paulmerton.com/

http://www.demontforthall.co.uk/events/events.php/2012/813/paul-merton/

Tickets £23

Concessions £20

DOORS 7.30pm

Show ends at 10pm approx

De Montfort Hall
Granville Road
Leicester
LE1 7RU
www.demontforthall.co.uk
Box office enquiries: 0116 233 3111

Preview: Bombay Bicycle Club at De Montfort Hall, 25th April...

SJM Concerts presents
Bombay Bicycle Club
Plus Special Guests

Having just finished their sold out, UK album tour with a monumental show at Brixton Academy, Bombay Bicycle Club will embark on their biggest UK headline tour to date for April 2012.

Capturing the sound of a band effortlessly progressing and innovating at a startling rate, Bombay Bicycle Club’s critically acclaimed third album, A Different Kind of Fix crashed into the top ten of the charts at number six.

"One of Britain's greatest bands, BBC keep getting better." The Sunday Times

"Bombay Bicycle Club have, quite simply, found themselves." NME 8/10

"One of the UK's most inventive acts." The Independent ****

http://www.bombaybicycleclubmusic.com/

http://www.demontforthall.co.uk/events/events.php/2012/833/bombay-bicycle-club/

Tickets £17.50 (+ £1.50 booking fee per ticket on credit/debit cards until 31/03/12 - £3 per transaction from 01/04/12)

DOORS 7pm

De Montfort Hall
Granville Road
Leicester
LE1 7RU
www.demontforthall.co.uk
Box office enquiries: 0116 233 3111

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
COMPLETE APRIL 2012 TOUR

Sun, 15th April / Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Mon, 16th April / Brighton, Centre
Tues, 17th April / Wolverhampton, Civic Hall
Thurs, 19th April / York, Barbican
Fri, 20th April / Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
Sat, 21st April / Liverpool, University
Mon, 23rd April / Plymouth, Pavillions
Tues, 24th April / Portsmouth, Guildhall
Wed, 25th April / Leicester, De Montfort Hall
Fri, 27th April / Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
Sat, 28th April / London, Alexandra Palace

Released this week: Graham Coxon - A+E...

Graham Coxon - A+E (Parlophone)
He may be best known for years of exemplary service to Britpop, but it’s Graham Coxon’s art-rock solo efforts that find him pushing himself in the most interesting directions. And A+E is by far his finest work to date; a brilliantly inventive and majestically sprawling album which sees the multi-skilled musician take on a wry, Philip Larkin-esque role of the eccentric outsider, casting a cheeky eye over a very British kind of hedonism.

Meet+Drink+Pollinate is a reflection on the humdrum habit of weekend boozing; the distorted vocal repetition, dirge-y guttural riffs and motorik beat reflecting the rather depressing drink, shag, sleep and repeat pattern that it’s almost heresy to question. If anything says Modern Life Is Rubbish it’s this. Running for Your Life is an anti-anthem for anyone that’s ever been lambasted for looking a bit freaky – "We don’t like your haircut or your attitude," he sings, aping his laddish tormentors, over punky, vicious guitars – and on What’ll It Take, the record’s most pop moment, skittering electronics dance around rumbling drums and chirruping feedback as Coxon asks, "What’ll it take to make you people dance?" before closing the track screeching, "What’s wrong with me?" All three tracks differ wildly in tone but all display a charmingly playful side to his oddball outlook on life.

This subtle wit is a theme throughout, with Coxon even making a sly dig at his younger self’s inability to enjoy Blur’s success on clattering opener Advice: "I’d write a new song when I was touring, man it was no fun, totally boring," he sings as the scratchy track judders and builds to a frantic close. And musically A+E is the most sonically experimental and diverse record of the guitarist’s career. He plays all of the instruments, including a mean blustering sax, and dabbles in krautrock (the thrum, throb and growl of City Hall), thrash pop (Seven Naked Valleys’ rhythmic attack), psychedelia (during the spiralling wig out of Bah Singer) and sweet acoustic ballads (Ooh, Yeh Yeh) – which, of course, he can’t help but heavily layer with strange bits and discordant squall, like a lost song from 13.

Now there’s nothing sweeter for a Blur fan than seeing Graham Coxon reunited with Damon Albarn, and together they make a pretty unbeatable musical pairing. But does he need his best buddy and former bandmate to deliver spectacularly creative pop? Absolutely not. - Camilla Pia (BBC)

Released this week: Bonnie Raitt - Slipstream...

Bonnie Raitt - Slipstream (Proper)
Bonnie Raitt's new album 'Slipstream' is daring, bluesy, and steeped with the inimitable slide guitar and soulful vocals that could only be hers.

'Slipstream' marks her first new album in seven years. While most of 'Slipstream' is self-produced and features Raitt's longtime touring band, four of the album's songs were helmed by celebrated producer Joe Henry (Allen Toussaint, Solomon Burke) and showcase his usual crew of extraordinary musicians. Additional guests include Bill Frisell, Al Anderson (formerly of NRBQ), Ireland's Paul Brady, and Maia Sharp. The album's twelve tracks feature Raitt's renditions of songs by such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Joe Henry, and Loudon Wainwright III.

Released this week: Dr. John - Locked Down...

Dr. John - Locked Down (Nonesuch)
Born in 1940, Dr. John is like no other musician. He came to prominence in the late 1960s when his combination of jazz, blues, soul and psychedelic voodoo hit a chord with a crazed America. On albums like Gris-Gris and Gumbo, his ‘Dr. John the Night Tripper’ persona was backed up with winning tracks, and at least two of his songs, Right Place Wrong Time and I Walk on Gilded Splinters, are acknowledged classics (the later having fallen victim to both Humble Pie and Paul Weller). After struggles with heroin, the former Mac Rebennack has enjoyed several career revivals and has also appeared on a lot of other people’s records – he is possibly the only musician ever to have played on records by both Hugh Laurie and Spiritualized.

Now, at a time when most acts are looking wistfully at either nostalgia tours or bed, Dr. John finds himself the subject of a cool reboot, that stalwart tactic of the heritage music industry. This time, his collaborator is not one of the usual tribute crew – Elvis Costello, Dave Stewart or one of several familiar middle-aged hipsters – but the relatively young and happening Dan Auerbach from the modernist blues band The Black Keys. Best of all, Auerbach is interested neither in providing pastiches of Dr. John’s old sound nor weighing it down with misguided over-contemporary tricks; Locked Down is an unusual album, clearly based in the 21st century with its jagged guitars, staccato beats and stark production, but it’s also true to the spirit of the artist on its cover, being mean, lean and funky.

At times the Doctor sounds like Captain Beefheart or Tom Waits, two acts he’s clearly influenced, while at others he’s a spectacularly scathing vocalist on songs like Revolution and Ice Age. The anger that fuelled his Hurricane Katrina EP, Sippiana Hericane, is still present, as is the sense of menace behind his best recordings. Always there’s the experience of almost 50 years as a recording artist in this music. The voice is still there, as is the attitude, and Auerbach has done an excellent job bringing an artist who will never be out of date into the 21st century. - David Quantick (BBC)

Released this week: Seth Lakeman - Tales From The Barrel House...

Seth Lakeman - Tales From The Barrel House (Honour Oak Records)
Gritty folk singer-songwriter and virtuoso fiddler Seth Lakeman could not have dug deeper into his roots for his 6th album, "Tales from the Barrel House." In his boldest musical statement yet, Seth, has not only written the songs, but played everything, produced and mixed the album.

This album is like the granite bedrock of Seth's West Country stamping ground - solid, hard and uncompromising.

Released this week: Ian Anderson / Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick 2...

Ian Anderson / Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick 2 (EMI)
In 1972, Ian Anderson wrote and recorded the Jethro Tull Progressive Rock classic album Thick As A Brick. The lyrics were credited at the time to the fictitious child character, Gerald Bostock, whose parents supposedly lied about his age. The record instantly became a number one Billboard Chart album and enjoyed considerable success in many countries of the world.

So, forty years on, what would Gerald Bostock – aged fifty in 2012 – be doing today? What might have befallen him? The anniversary “part two” album will examine the possible different paths that the precocious young schoolboy, Gerald Bostock, might have taken later in life through alter-ego characters with song-section identities illustrating the hugely varied potential twists and turns of fate and opportunity. Not just for Gerald but to echo how our own lives develop, change direction and ultimately conclude through chance encounters and interventions, however tiny and insignificant they might seem at the time.

BBC6 Music Highlights Sunday 1 April 2012

Morning:

10:00–12:00
Cerys on 6
With Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull
Cerys gets a flute tutorial from Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson.

Afternoon:

13:00–16:00
The Huey Show
Huey is joined by Bristol band Phantom Limb.

16:00–18:00
Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service
Jarvis is joined by actor, director and comedian Kathy Burke.

Evening:

18:00–20:00
Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone
A Rainbow in Curved Air
Freakmaster General Maconie features Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air.

22:00–00:00
Guy Garvey's Finest Hour
Guy's put together this show on his antipodean tour with the help of his band Elbow.

Late:

00:00–01:00
Don Letts
Don's selections include Beach House, Johnny Clarke, Bahamas and Portishead.

04:00–05:00
The Live Music Hour
Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny
Traffic live in 1970, plus Bobby Valentino and The Musicians, and Shawn Phillips.

LISTEN TO BBC6 MUSIC