Having published my review of their single "Japan" which comes out tomorrow, it was serendipitous that Monday Nights were playing this afternoon at Leamington Food Festival & I popped down to (hopefully) hear them perform it live.

 Well the band (which was a five piece Monday Nights with the four who play on the single: Jacob, Ali, Matt & John joined by Andy Mort on keyboards) certainly had it on their setlist along with favourites like "Turrah" and "Petrichor", a brand new one (which isn't even scheduled for the forthcoming ‘Meet You After The Earthquake' EP) and even a cover of "Teenage Dirtbag".

If only I'd been able to enjoy their beauty in the form the band intended. They tried their best but were obliged to battle the abysmal sound. Unfortunately, the organisers had not made any attempt to address the serious issues I had to report last year & once again used the same person with neither sound engineering skills nor experience.

The band eventually stepped in & tried to fix their sound itself but even that entailed members having to stop playing their own instruments which hardly helped put their songs across. The sight of Ali deserting his drum kit and the bandstand in order to try and rectify the problems while the others played on, summed it all up.

I hate being at all negative but if I have to choose sides, then I'm on that of the musicians and audience. Both were let down badly in 2023 and that the same thing happened in 2024 is inexcusable. It's insulting to artists of the calibre of Monday Nights that they were booked to play an event when the organiser knew from prior experience that their performance would not be transmitted adequately. It also robs professional sound engineers who need to put bread on their own tables of employment when opportunities are given instead to someone incapable of doing the job on the grounds of a personal relationship apparently. (Is it also a bit corrupt?).

 As an audience member who has now seethed through two years of hearing musicians I wanted to hear properly & whom I respect treated like this, I'm outraged. Perhaps fortunately I didn't have time to wait for the Folly Brothers' set which I'd hoped to catch: to have their music dealt with in this way would have been pretty hard to bear.

 Please buy "Japan": as my review says, it's a fantastic song. Please go and see Monday Nights live as they are a very skilful and subtle band when you can hear what they are doing. If you are a musician reading this & are invited to play Leamington Food Festival next year, I urge you to consider whether being treated as a commodity like the food & drink on sale & having your music mangled is worth it: unless of course they put their house in order before then. One can only hope so.

I do hope that you are already aware of the celebrations planned for the 10^th birthday of FarGo Village in Coventry on Saturday 28^th & Sunday 29^th September.

On the first day, The Primitives headline the performance side, supported by "Hot Music Live Presents" featured bands Batsch, Project Overload & Duck Thieves plus Special Brew (one of whose members has several tracks on HMLP), The Bellows & Bobbie Dazzle.

On Sunday it's another HMLP featured act, the Dirt Road Band, headlining (and earlier they have a Q & A) with Clemency supporting plus Amit Dattani, Willow Taiwo, Coventry Poet Laureate John Bernard & Band and The Swaps (who again feature a member who is part of HMLP).

And that's just the music: please check out their website for the full lineup plus details of which events require tickets (which can be found at: http://www.fargovillage.co.uk/whats-on)

Over those ten years, I imagine many of you have attended gigs at FarGo: whether at the Big Comfy Bookshop (now longer in operation) or in The Box, Commonground, Just Dropped In Records, or the Twisted Barrel.

Making excellent regenerative use of former industrial facilities, FarGo has so much to offer, but is constantly aware of the issue of being just that little way out of the city centre: like all of Far Gosford Street and the other historic streets cut by the  ringroad, it has experienced the negative effects of the psychological barrier created: despite the walk being actually quite a short one.

These are reasonable concerns but to me somewhat balanced by the heritage of the street in terms of music venues over the years; the Beer Engine, the original location of The Empire and the Hand and Heart and even more so because it is arguable that the slight separation contribute to the atmosphere at FarGo and differentiates it from  the problems too many of the venues in the centre faced.

It's this friendly, safe gig experience I hope many of us have had there and its associated sense of community amongst the varied businesses grouped together & forming a close knit entity rather than simply being in proximity to each other that I discussed with FarGo General Manager Holly Hewitt today (yes you will recognise that name as she is also a talented musician whom we have covered in surprisingly many contexts).

She kindly took a few minutes out of overseeing FarGo's hosting of Coventry's River Festival (the main musical performance today being Wes Finch & Ben Haines in The Box  which I greatly enjoyed) and arguably it's these events where FarGo shines the brightest: they certainly make best use of all the resources & spaces.

It's clear that these high days excite her & the rest of the FarGo family:  the one we were part of, getting ready for the Birthday celebrations & the recent hosting of Pride all were cited as particular highlights.

Even so, there was far more musical activity going on at FarGo than even I was aware of. The huge number of Joe Colombi's Sink or Swim promotions were known (how could I miss them?) but other promoters use the spaces too: for example their Sonic Boom show on 25^th October is actually promoted by The Tin with Deliaphonic.

More good news is that the Commonground hosted Friday night sessions which veer towards DJs and more experimental music are continuing: hopefully funding concerns are being remedied.

What I didn't know was that they are offering Flat Badger a space to develop a different sort of open mic with live backing: this starts next week (alongside the FarGo record fair). Let's hope this goes well and doesn't suffer from the problems which bedevil so many open mics.

In terms of the broad appeal of FarGo, Holly was candid at how the atmosphere works best Wednesday to Sunday. So many businesses are run by sole traders who  close on Mondays & Tuesdays  for their own recuperation. One response to this is that Holly & her team are opening a market (not unsurprisingly in FarGo's Market Hall) where 30 creative businesses have stalls to sell their wares but FarGo manage it all so they do not have to staff the stalls themselves: with occasional DJs to heighten the shopping experience.

I wonder how many people realise that there are actually forty-one businesses currently in the Village?  I'd have guessed fewer but several don't have frontages onto the public spaces. One such is new arrival Noiseworks which has moved in from the opposite side of Far Gosford Street but now deals in repairs only rather than sales.

The team are very aware that the danger of having such a successful 2024 is that maintaining that high level of interest & dynamic in 2025 will require thought & hard work and are already onto this: devising new events based around "food & music: that's what people like: that's what people come for" but also more dance, building on activities for skateboarders and visual art exhibitions.

FarGo self-defines as businesses who are "fiercely independent" which I admire. Standing out against the predations and banalities of globalised chains and retaining senses of autonomous creativity: and creating a communal safe space to foster these. So although they may be fierce to defend their values, they are also very community minded: and it's this which creates the palpable feeling you get there & why original music of extremely diverse formats can be played in environments where artists & audiences feel relaxed.

FarGo worries about the distance from the city centre. Commercially, I'm sure they are right to do so, but I think that it also brings advantages. I honestly don't think you could build a community which works so well any further in. The slight sense of separation may well be a major advantage In that respect.

However as we've seen FarGo do not deal in complacency & neither should those of us who value what they are doing. The Birthday weekend will be spectacular & needs support: but so do all the other days it's open.

I raised my thoughts on the sense of community at FarGo with Holly & think that I'll leave you with her thoughts exactly as she articulated them.

"There's so much going on. Everyone's so friendly: you're bound to meet someone & talk to someone and find out what's going on in Coventry: like stuff going on at the LTB or The Tin and other such cool little venues . There's great coffee, great cakes, lots of vegan food available… there is that level of generosity, caring about each other and wanting to see everyone do well: that is definitely very prevalent & is what makes it have heart, makes people want to stay here. There are people who have been here the full ten years."

It's been a while since the last Monday Nights release ("Seasonal Aisle" back just before Christmas of last year) but they've been honing their debut EP which will be named ‘Meet You After The Earthquake' and will be out later this year.

This will include previous single "Turrah" (from last July) and a series of other tracks, some, like "Japan" which comes out tomorrow, appearing as singles first.

Written by the core members Jacob & Ali (the latter of whom produced it too), they are joined on "Japan" by Ali's Trust Club colleague Matt Good on guitar and John Glanville on bass.

 Yet another in their ever growing series of attractive sounding (and structurally sophisticated) songs about the sort of things which no-one else thinks to write about (like the smell of rain for instance), this one is again a deeper themed track than a surface skim listen could uncover for you. You're going to need repeated spins to get the most out of "Japan".

 In fact there is immediately a strong connection between this track & the overall EP title as Jacob was reflecting on Japan's frequent peril from earthquakes and tsunamis, their need for consequent preparedness and then he compared that to our comparative fortune in that respect. However from that point he detected a relative national complacency which he feels is merely part of a regrettable strand in British society more generally.

So what of the song itself? Well given the profundity of the theme, going for a cod-Japanese  musical template would have been a bit obvious & cheapening. It's an excellent rock song (though there seems to be a cameo by the Tokyo underground and a pachinko reference for local colour).

 Understatement has always been a Monday Nights characteristic: their emphasis has always been on their music rather than image. However "Japan" is musically at least their most overtly forceful & rock based song: possibly bringing in a musician from another band with a different sound has helped to morph Monday Nights' own into something harder: more in line I suppose with evocation of natural disasters on colossal scales & for laying into (and waking up) our own semi-somnolent society.  At any rate, this is a message delivered with eloquence & passion & I'd be surprised if those did not help it get across effectively.

Tickets are already selling quickly as Leamington's eminent music venue, Temperance opens its doors on Thursday 12^th September for an evening of music curated by local folk campaigners, CVFolk.

This is the third takeover by CVFolk since the venue launched the Leamington Folk Club in February 2022 to host monthly ‘Performers Nights'. These often feature a blend of the more established names on the local folk circuit playing alongside rising star artists.

Guests appearing on this occasion are:

·       Kristy Gallacher, back from maternity leave and fresh from her powerful performance at Warwick Folk Festival. Kristy makes a long-awaited return with her set of beautifully written songs and brilliant guitar accompaniment.

·       Daisybell making their long overdue debut appearance at Temperance. The talented triumvirate of Katherine Fear, Anya Fay and Charlie Adams have built up a national reputation as a powerful force in folk entertainment.

·       Paul Gibson, who is no stranger to the Temperance stage and other CVFolk events. His repertoire of skilfully written and well-executed songs demonstrates an ability to connect with audiences and their real-life experiences.

·       Firedaze, the highly-rated folk-rockin' duo featuring Rack & Ruin's bass-player Chris Radley, and dynamic singer and guitarist Steff Hutchinson.

·       The Harvesters – in this case, the original duo version of Ian and Sue Hartland. They also perform their Temperance premiere with songs and tunes of back-porch Americana and include some percussive step-dancing to add to the impressive instrumentation.

The show will be hosted by the club's inimitable singer, songwriter and compere Andi Wolf, known for matching the eloquence of his self-penned songs with a relaxed and quirky style of patter.

The club format has recently changed to allow each act a little more time to engage with their audiences. It originally comprised nine artists performing just three songs each, but numbers have recently been trimmed down to six acts, playing slightly longer sets. 

Tickets usually sell out and there are still some available at just £5 (plus booking fee) from Eventbrite via Temperance's website, https://www.temperance.bar. Doors open at 7pm.

The latest (Dan) Bygrave single "Falling" is currently out on Beat Rebel Records: following up "Long Road Home" from last May.

Like that song, the startling opening draws you in with its chilly gpthic piano hinting at another dip into the melancholic following both its predecessor and "Friday Night". However this one dives deeper still. Sections of relatively composed narrative are interspersed with a refrain whose words are pretty anguished & his delivery takes them down into despair.

You have to admire his skill at crafting such songs so well & each successive one progresses in terms of these attributes: the skeletal backing strips the arrangement back as far as it will go & there is considerable space for his words to reverberate in your heads to compound the effect.

However if I'm being honest, the more of this style of track he creates, I think not so much of how well he has made each one but as to his state of mind. Are these songs autobiographical? I hope not, but the emotions do come across as very genuine. If it's third party story telling then he's really good at it: perhaps he's just homing in on intense emotional states even if they are a bit macabre. It makes for compelling listening but it's deliberately very unsettling. Since artists aim to make an impact, he's definitely succeeded here once again.

As noted in my round-up from the 2024 Warwick Folk Festival, one of my personal discoveries was the duo Yonderland whom CVFolk's Pete Willow had already commended to me & whose set I finally caught on the stage he was curating.

At that point they definitely went on my list of bands to see again if possible and whose recorded work needed checking out.

However they pre-empted me on the latter as, picking up on my mention, very kindly sent me a copy of their current album ‘Midnight Train': though from what they tell me, the next one shouldn't be too long in coming down the track.

Recorded (like the critical & popular hit ‘Tiny Boat' by Lauren South) by Bill Bates at Leamington's Heathcote Studios, it's refreshing to hear more original material of this calibre: some of which I heard at the festival.

The pair are multi-instrumentalists/vocalists Jane Moss (who plays ukulele & percussion) and Paul Monks (guitar, tenor mandola, bass & percussion being his instruments) and in an interesting feat of equality & democracy, the dozen tracks featured are split between them in terms of composition.

There are "On Chesil Beach", "Cherry Blossom Street", "Sun in My Eyes", "Purple", "Turn of the Tide" and "I've Been Here Before" by Jane and Paul's "Little Bird", Teracotta" (sic), "High Water Line", "Le Voyage Dans La Lune", "Changes in the Wind" and "(Sleeping on the) Midnight Train".

Equally democratically, these alternate between the writers in sequence.

The arrangements match the live versions on this record, though I understand that the next one will venture into larger production territory. What this turns out to be will be interesting: in the meantime what attracted me to Yonderland was how they delivered their well crafted & imaginative songs in such an open way: good quality musicianship for sure but otherwise keeping arrangements simple with the song at the heart of the performance.

And that's really the theme of the album & this review. The album title focuses on a train, but there are so many maritime themed songs that it seems that, like ‘Hot Music Live Presents' featured band The Sunbathers, Yonderland's hearts are drawn to the shore: and that seems to unite both writers.

The mood is a set of gentle, charming songs whose mood fits perfectly with the subject matter. Just listening to this album can heal you if your stress level has risen too high.

Like all well-constructed ones, it starts & ends with very strong tracks ("On Chesil Beach", and  "(Sleeping on the) Midnight Train") which are highlights of their live set. The former tells you what you are going to experience & the latter signs you off just as effectively. In between you voyage through poignancy, a little melancholy and a lot of mindful enjoyment of being somewhere rather special.

A manifestation of serendipity led me to this beautiful collection & an aura of that quality informs the songs. I'm glad to be able to recommend them & their creators to you.

Following my interview with Coventry Music Lead Mark Steele (which in turn was prompted by my enthusiasm for that organisation's "Live On Stage" project), I was interested in learning more about how they encouraged young people who might not have considered participating in music (through factors such as lack of opportunity, lack of family experience in music etc) to do so.

To that end, my thanks to Mark for facilitating time with Arjun Jethwa and to Arjun for generously talking with me just as preparations for the new education year were taking off.

Arjun is an Engagement Officer (one of several) within the service but specifically he has the remit of Connector (which is a great term for such a role) and his work is funded by Young Sounds UK who have worked for the last quarter of a century to build ways to bring youngsters from lower income families into music.

A lot of our conversation kept on reverting back to a central idea of young people's voices: empowering them to express themselves & their experiences in their own way through music, lyrics and through writing about music. We spent a lot of time discussing how, for example, some might use this magazine as a platform and although the outcome was highly positive and optimistic on both sides, it's such early days yet that we'd probably best not jinx anything by saying too much until the foundations have been laid.

Going back to my talks with Mark, Michelle, Mason, Nina, Project Overload, Loophole etc, Arjun made it equally clear how encouraging musicians to be themselves was the key objective: not trying to force them into boxes of adults' making. A flautist of classical background himself (and his hands-on work with Coventry Music is very much woodwind focused), he feels that he can adapt the role of his instrument to any genre or style that he is aware of & so would pass that sense of open-mindedness & flexibility onto all those he works with.

Working with Young Sounds UK therefore requires a lot of work keeping himself aware of all possible projects, grants & opportunities out there so that he can signpost individuals towards ones which best meet their needs & aspirations.

As the overall aim is the maximise the number of young people who engage in musical activity, he and his colleagues have to be aware of areas in Coventry where participation rates are lower ("the cold areas") & which therefore are priorities for fostering engagement. With a background in widening participation myself, I explored with Arjun whether he found working through "gatekeepers" helped him encourage potential learners: I was most interested in how confident he was in terms of connecting directly with young people to persuade them. He spent a lot of time prior to coming to Coventry in freelancing around the country, building enthusiasm for playing & composition & clearly brings so much in this respect to his current role. I was also intrigued by his revelation that in general he found it relatively easier to convince the children to try music than it was to persuade the adult enablers around them whose support would be needed: such as schools and parents.

One major route is that Arjun visits schools & puts on practical & hopefully inspirational demonstrations in assemblies or to year groups or even separate classes. This direct approach must take far more time than promotion via say social media but pays off and allows dialogue with the target group.

Almost inevitably this tactic encompasses a range of schools from those where music is part of the culture & pupil expectation, with a dedicated and experienced member of staff promoting it to ones where neither culture nor post holder is necessarily currently in place and where therefore part of his role might involve facilitating the infrastructure for music to become more part of the learners' experiences.

Returning to the idea of youth voices, this coming year will see Arjun involved in project work around what music young people are actually listening to & what they want to be involved in. That said, having made it clear that connecting with young musicians in terms of their own preferences helps their training massively, due to his confidence that you can fit any instrument into any genre, he believes strongly that the key is simply to learn the instrument & then apply it to one's own favoured music.

He expanded on this by talking passionately about his belief that music can build bridges between cultures and in that context, having a skill which enables someone to engage in playing music from a range of traditions, certainly constitutes a bridging tool for them.

As part of his scrupulous & methodical approach to getting things right,  has a questionnaire which he has devised to take into meetings with new people & thus structure his exploration of their aspirations, enthusiasms, experience, existing skills etc but also what they feel they have to offer: and Arjun applied that part to me in our discussion which helped move it towards the ideas outlined briefly above regarding "Hot Music Live".

I'll leave the penultimate words to him:

"Music is a really small world.. everybody knows each other. We need to be better about speaking about the opportunities we can give people & we need to be better at upskilling the next generation in what they can do in this industry: whether that's being a musician or for example going into music journalism….so that people see music as a viable option for a career because I feel many people don't."

I think that what is emerging from my investigations is an incredibly promising hint of what the local music scene may look like in a few years' time when a great many of the young people affected by these initiatives start to dominate it. Preconceptions, prejudices & rigid orthodoxies are becoming things of the past. I'd already noticed (and it was a point of pride for Mark) how so many of the bands coming through Live On Stage were diverse in membership: in gender,  ethnicity and age. You can certainly also add to that a sense of diversity of sources & inspirations: the idea that genre is defining to a sound is being eliminated by what Arjun and his colleagues are working at. Thus  liberated from any sense of needing to fit in with what's gone before, the musicians are free to play as they feel & write about what they want to say.

This month sees music campaign group CVFolk adding fundraising to its remit to promote, support and celebrate local folk music.

Its monthly ‘Second Sunday' show takes place at Coventry's Albany Theatre on Sunday 8^th September and features an evening of lively, feel-good, foot-tapping music to raise cash for the Alzheimer's Society.

Headline act, Robert Cooper & Friends consists of a seven-piece line-up of Leamington musicians, known for their longstanding support of local causes, especially those related to dementia.

Inspired by the musical legacy of the late and celebrated local musician Steve Boyer, singer and guitarist Bob Cooper shares his enjoyment of all styles of music – anything from folk to country to ska – by organising and supporting such community events as Sydnifest and the Dementia Café. Some of the performers appearing with him have worked with Bob and Steve as The Hanksters, so expect some Hank Williams classics in their up-tempo set..

Hard-working and popular Rugby trio The Scutters are also on the billing. They comprise frontman, vocalist and guitarist Des Fraser, with Steve Redshaw (vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo) and Richard Noton, (cajon and percussion), and play a hot mixture of well-known songs with many folk and Irish classics included. You may well have seen them going down a storm on the CVFolk's Stage in Coventry's Upper Precinct during the MotoFest weekend last June.

To start the evening, the voices and guitarwork of local duo, Squire Gillespie provide impressive arrangements of well-chosen songs. Colin Squire and Carole Gillespie's repertoire include some originals, often telling great stories.

On a personal note, I've planned this event to acknowledge the excellent support that my wife, Chele and I received from Alzheimer's Society when we provided home care for the final six years of my mother life. Mum came with me when I performed at Steve Boyer's Dementia Café sessions in Leamington, during the early stages of her illness, and she always gave me a round of applause whenever I practised songs at home. So this will be a special evening of music, merriment and memories.

The music starts at 7.30pm in the Albany Theatre Studio. All artists are playing for free and there's no admission charge. Instead, the usual ‘caddy' collection will take place to raise as much as possible from donations.

And for the diaries - CVFolk's guest for Sunday, October 13th is the fabulous all-star band of Leamington singer and songwriter Amber Liadan.

Well, after reviewing releases by Eight Miles High last October (new songs)  & this July (from a 1991 live session), I think that we can safely say that the standby switch on their career, activated in 1993, is now definitely turned off.

A new three song EP (the tracks being "Freedom Street", "Let You Down" and "Rainy Day") has now joined their body of work, having been recorded at Hedgeside Studio back in February of this year.

There is of course a cross-over of personnel with Some Kinda Earthquake whose resumption of creativity we've been covering (as recently as last week) and so detecting a current of enthusiasm for returning to unfinished business amongst this pool of musicians isn't too difficult. Far too many bands pack it in prematurely (artistically speaking) for all manner of reasons but reconvening, let alone picking the threads back up so long after letting them drop, is usually beyond the circumstances of most: at best such groups tend to include a nucleus of original members with new additions taking the place of those who aren't available.

Not so here fortunately. Looking back on their phase one records, the songs are credited collectively. This time round, although I'm sure their general level of collaboration is as it was, guitarist Greg Sibley is responsible for writing all three songs.

I suppose that he & they (his colleagues being Simon Kelly (vocals),  Mark Patrick (keyboards and programming), Simon Ward (bass) and drummer Gary Cody), had a walk a fine line between meeting the expectations of their 1990s fans & articulating who they are in 2024.

In the event, they pretty much keep both constituencies happy I'd have thought. With the groove being the key as always, Eight Miles High detach themselves from the restrictions & limitations of adopting an early 90s pastiche sound (let alone production values). What they've chosen in order to do this is a light, summery feel to all three songs. This offers comparisons to such a wide range of precedents from early 1970s soul to some of the Style Council's endeavours, that any specific 90s feel is hard to detect as such. Thus liberated from the weight of history, they also turn in an EP suitable for the season coming to its end: neat work.

With their experience, they make it sound so effortless which makes it the right vibe for the job. However ultimately, like Some Kinda Earthquake the overwhelming sense given is that that they are just enjoying playing together & that it's a joy rather than a chore nor a job of work. Under such circumstances, no wonder the scent of effort is undetectable. Long may they get pleasure from making fine music like this together: I understand that dates for more recordings are already in their diaries for 2025.

I had a very pleasant couple of hours in this afternoon's late summer sun enjoying those fine acts The Twin Flames & Hannah Woof. However I can't say that getting to do so was straight forwards & had my research skills deteriorated too much, I'd have missed them & been pretty fed up

It's quite depressing how Leamington's Ecofest event hasn't apparently learned from last year & once again, having booked excellent acts, failed to say who they were. The event social media posting merely promises vague "Music on the bandstand" alongside the equally banal & uninformative promise of unspecified "fun  ‘have a go' activities". From my perspective, as previously expressed, treating them as generic entertainment isn't very respectful of the artists. From that of anyone identifying as an organiser, one would have thought that the point of booking good performers would be to increase footfall for your event in the shape of their fanbase. Even just copying standard practice and naming acts would seem a better starting point. Fortunately, I suspected that there might artists worth reporting on & so I delved into the depths of the Warwick District Council website & there, nestling amongst the information on local rubbish collection & parking policy, I eventually found the details I needed: but how many people would bother to do that?

As I don't want to sound like a stuck record, I'll move on & accentuate the positive.

I'd seen Holly & Jane at the Art in the Park event earlier in the month but here they seemed to have a bit more time & were able to play more songs: though they didn't get to demonstrate the full range of the many instruments they can bring to their Twin Flames act. It didn't I suppose matter as it's about the quality of their interpretations of songs not trying break records as multi-instrumentalists. I didn't give enough prominence before to the quality of their harmony singing & that needs putting right here.

Although they have a wide repertoire, their hearts seem to lie west of the Atlantic and much of their set today was American roots in some form or another: some familiar & approached from their idiosyncratic angle, others fresh through being unknown to us listening.

I see Hannah Woof play live all too infrequently but the rarity adds to the piquancy of when I do manage to do so. Adapting her set for a family festival, she popped a number of covers in, which she delivered in her classy fashion, but her own work is so powerful that it formed the heart of what she did in my opinion. Last year I heard her play "Rendezvous" live: my first hearing & it made a huge impression upon me: as noted in my review then & subsequently when it came out as a single in late July 2023. Therefore I was delighted when it featured today. To me the most Hannah Woof-ish of Hannah Woof songs, it remains a favourite. The EP it later became part of, ‘Heartbreak Hotel', appeared last September & to date remains her most recent release. However the good news is that she's been recording this year, a follow-up is being prepared & she treated us to a preview of one new track called "Sweet Stranger". Slightly less acerbic than "Rendezvous", nevertheless it cuts deep and after building, plunges right over an emotional precipice into some very personal ideas: like all the best of her songs, it has the power to shock within the sweetest of settings & when has Hannah ever been afraid the speak her mind? This is one of our area's finest writers & performers and deserves a much wider audience.. which I tend to say in each review. Maybe the world will start listening.

Some artists like to tease new releases: others keep them more strictly under wraps to spring them upon us as surprises. Jake Rizzo operates very much at the latter end of the spectrum and frankly I knew as much about the impending release of his new single "Brand New" as most of you probably did.

To say nothing of the rather major news that he & his wife have relocated to Philadelphia.

Under the circumstances, the title & sentiment of the song are therefore understandably less surprising than its appearance out of the blue.

I have no doubts that Jake's talent will be appreciated in such a different setting: his artistry has never been parochial and limited to a British sensibility: it has mass appeal. US audiences will get his songs & add to his existing fanbase. Fortunately modern communications will ensure that the latter won't be cut off from his music, though presumably we'll be seeing less of him in the flesh. I'm sure all those who have love his music already will wish Jake & Amber all the best on their new adventure.

His first release from Stateside isn't directly addressed the move, though clearly it must inform the general gist. The good news is that he hasn't ditched his style, but "Brand New" seems to have a slightly more R&B (in the modern sense) feel which no doubt will go down well on both sides of the Atlantic & deal with any transitional issues. Equally his usual instinct to go for optimistic takes on whatever the theme of any particular song might be is also still intact: a statement of positive intent which will indicate to his new acquaintances as much about the man as the musician.

I have been fortunate enough to hear Ellie Gowers' new song "Love in a Park (on a Sunday Afternoon") live twice this year in very different arrangements: solo & acoustic in February & with her new trio at Warwick Folk Festival (with Joss Mann-Hazell on bass guitar & double bass and Scarlett Churchill on drums). That it stood out even in the company of other terrific fresh material in both versions is a key indicator of its inherent qualities.

You'll be used to Ellie's scintillating original folk work & her high intensity songs in modern idiom, but I'm pretty sure that this might be her first true pop song. You have certainly never heard her like this before and I'd also say after so many songs of care for others, it's good to hear her concentrate upon her own enjoyment of life for once: this is a state of bliss she's earned.

It's clear that Ellie has been enjoying herself a great deal recently, both with her new group and as part of Filkin's Ensemble. However since this song was written last year, the convergence of her writing & her life must owe more to the latter falling into alignment with the former than as a Summer 2024 diary. It's a true tale of last year though by all accounts.

Being both a writer of music & lyrics of the highest quality, she expresses this through both aspects of the composition. The former offers so much to the music fan: it's her first adventure into the funk and if she ever collaborates with New Order, it might come out a bit like this. Some people may call it lush. Who am I to contest that with them. As for the words, this is new territory & opens so many exciting new possibilities.

As noted in my review of the preceding single "A Moment", when I first heard this one, I thought that it was ideal single material & have frankly been expecting its arrival. That "A Moment" was released before it did, at the time, surprise me a little given the obvious commercial potential of the song we're now focusing on, but after some reflection, as outlined last time, I came to understand her reasoning. It didn't affect the overall issue naturally as here it is in all its glory. That even with this banger in hand she still prioritised artistic considerations tells you yet more about Ellie.

"Love in a Park (on a Sunday Afternoon)" reaches out to new audiences her work to date probably has not yet reached: as such the benefits to her career, commercial wellbeing, airplay etc are clear. The quality of the song also makes it one of those "Records of the Year" type list candidates for those who can compile such things.

Look out too for Ellie's gig at the Tin on 9th November when hopefully she'll be playing this one amongst many others.