Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda
Country songs were originally cowboy songs which were originally worksongs. The Sons of the Pioneers are still going, although obviously not with the same lineup as when they started in…
On my first visit to Kilkenny city in December 2003, I picked up a CD of “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”. Along with the then-recent revival in popularity of Johnny Cash,…
Authenticity seems to be a recurrent concern in popular music – from Richey Edwards “4 Real” self-mutilation to hip hop artists perpetual concern with being “real”. Country is no exception…
For me, a little Lee Hazelwood can go quite a long way – there is something grating and mannered after a while about his musical persona. Still, when he is…
In my teenage years I thought Joy Division or The Smiths of The Cure of “Pornography” were the ne plus ultra of angst. Boy, was I wrong.
Let’s face it, this is one of the great album covers and one of the great country story songs. You don’t get the likes of this from Radiohead.
One of the first, if not the first, albums I bought independently with my own hard-saved chore money was the Talk Talk compilation Natural History. It turned out this was…
A while back I posted “Be Still”, a poem by Agnes Hunt RHSM which is displayed on a board at the Holy Family Retreat Centre in Glencomeragh, Co Waterford. There…
Séamus Sweeney 