Prego!!!

Greetings, dear friends. I am back from Italy and - some lingering quirks with Box permitting - ready to resume normal service.

We'll kick off with tracks from a couple of CDs I picked up over there. Neither of them could really be described as "must have", but for the combined cost of €4 they were worth a punt.

First up is Franco Battiato's 1981 album, "La Voce Del Padrone". According to Wikipedia, this was the first Italian album ever to sell a million copies. 33 years on it is difficult to work out what got the Italians quite so excited, although the same could be said for a lot of things from the 1980s I suppose. Anyway, it is OK. Next is a track from "Le Cena Delle Ceneri", a 2011 mini-album by Andromeda Lodge. Not really my cup of tea at all this one.

"Cuccurucucu" - Franco Battiato

"Una Stagione All'Inferno" - Andromeda Lodge

Andromeda Lodge are from Pesaro, and it was in Pesaro that the musical highlight of the holiday occurred - a free concert on the prom from Moreno "Il Biondo" Conficconi and his Orchestre Grande Evento. Il Biondo is one of the greats of the Emilia-Romagna music scene, and the show had something for everyone. Highlights included a red key-tar, a tribute to Valentino Rossi - born up the road in Urbino - and guest vocalist and future Mrs Goggins, Anna Maria Allegretti. But not, unfortunately, any of these line dancers.

Cloudless Skies

I am off on my holidays shortly. I had hoped to leave you with a selection of summer sounds to keep you smiling until I return, but Box is playing silly buggers again. It claims that all my files have been deleted, which clearly isn't true seeing as you still play them using the links in earlier posts.

So until I return from my travels - or until Box sorts the problem out, whichever is longer - here is our traditional Summer holiday clip. To be fair, it is better than anything else I would have put up.

Have fun!

Single Song Sunday

I promised you a super Single Song Sunday and, with all due modesty, I think I've delivered. How can eight versions of the world's most wistful song, "We Had It All", be anything other than super?

I knew it first through the Dobie Gray version, which always reduces the Goggins sisters to tears as our father insists on announcing when it comes on that he wants it to be played at his funeral. I expect him to keep saying that for many years to come.

So we will start with Dobie, Donnie Fritts (who co-wrote the song with Troy Seals), and Waylon Jennings (who made the first recording of it in 1973). All sorts of big names have covered it since - the Stones, Dylan, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner - but we don't have any of those. I think you'll like the ones we've got though.

"We Had It All" - Dobie Gray

"We Had It All" - Donnie Fritts

"We Had It All" - Waylon Jennings

"We Had It All" - Two Dollar Pistols (with Tift Merritt)

"We Had It All" - Green On Red

"We Had It All" - Maggie Bell

"We Had It All" - Owen Gray

"We Had It All" - The Rockingbirds

And here are a right pair of old reprobates singing it like they mean it.

Jambatani Time

Some overdue Tsonga disco for you, courtesy of our old friend Mr. Jambatani. Today's selection come from his 2010 album "Bomba Muchangana". If you want to know more about the album, and Mr J himself, best to look at this article that appeared in The Sowetan at the time.

Quite by chance Mr J highlights in the article the two tracks I had already decided to feature when I came across it. This is what he has to say about them:

"Songs to look forward to on this album include Bomba Muchangana, which encourages all Tsonga-speaking people to be proud of being Tsongas and not feel inferior and to promote their culture and ethics, and Lava Dlaka, a song that encourages everybody young and old to have dreams, because dreams can be achieved as long as somebody is focused."

"Bomba Muchangana" - Mr. Jambatani

"Lava Dlaka Leswiya" - Mr. Jambatani

This is for our pal Bram (aka DJ Leblanc), who is a great fan of Mr. Jambatani, and of living your dreams.

Goin' Back And Fourth

I know some of you out there like our intermitent "Single Song Sunday" series. We may have a corker for you this Sunday if I can get my excrement together, as I believe our American friends say. To keep you going until then, here is a mini-version which also doubles as a belated tribute to Gerry Goffin, who passed away a couple of weeks ago.

"Goin' Back" - Dusty Springfield

"Goin' Back" - The Byrds

"Goin' Back" - Nils Lofgren

"Goin' Back" - The Move

And look who else we found!

Wedding Songs

Yesterday I went to a friend's wedding in Mottingham, a part of South London I had never heard of before and which - judging by what I saw of it - is unlikely to be requiring a tourist information office any time soon.

It does however have an excellent library, which is selling off unwanted stock at the moment. It had a small but unexpectedly interesting selection of CDs going for 50p each, and I was able to snap up albums by the likes of Baaba Maal, Ismael Lo and Yerba Buena. I also grabbed a couple by acts new to me, which is what you are getting today.

First up is Think Of One, who are from Antwerp but made the album "Camping Shaabi" in Morocco with local musicians. Second up is Doğan Mehmet, Brighton born and bred but of Turkish heritage. His album "Gypsyhead" is billed as "an Anglo-Turkish, Gypsy-Punk style mix". I have not had a chance to listen to either album yet and picked these tracks at random. See what you think.

"Antwaarpse Shaâbi" - Think Of One

"Ozman Aga / Eighteen Months" - Doğan Mehmet

They had a ceilidh at the wedding, which resulted in utter chaos as you could imagine, but makes this an appropriate choice of clip. We'll dedicate it to Katherine and Jonathan - happy life!

Shoals Galore!

Nothing says "It's July" like songs about fish. So here you are.

IT'S JULY!!!

"Tropical Fish" - Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

"The Fish Needs A Bike" - Blurt

"Fish Heads" - Barnes & Barnes

"Little Fishes" - Patrik Fitzgerald