Tbilisi (Or Not Tbilisi)

Hello there. Apologies I have not been about much recently, but I have been without a telephone line or Internet access for most of the last fortnight while I moved house. But it seems everything is finally working again (or possibly not. While typing this post I have also been on the phone to some idiot in the BT call centre who claims they have cut the line off again in the last couple of hours. I don't think this is true as the new number seems to work when I dial it, but to be honest with BT nothing would surprise me).

Anyway, no sooner do I say hello, than I have to say goodbye. I am off tomorrow for a couple of weeks in north-eastern Turkey and southern Georgia, which should be fun. Who knows what musical treasures will be found there? I will no doubt inflict some of them on you when I return, and I will also try to catch up on the backlog of things I had planned to share over the last couple of weeks, which include some fine stuff via ReviewShine,  assorted African chanteuses and some photos of the mighty Pierce Turner at his recent London gig.

To keep you going until then, here are 15 (count them) songs about Georgia. Unfortunately they are all about the wrong Georgia, but they are so good I am sure you can overlook that. There are the standards from Ray Charles, Brook Benton and Gladys Knight of course, but the rest aren't far behind - I would particularly recommend Joe Simon, Robbie Fulks and the Gosdin Brothers.

"The Little Grave In Georgia" - Charles Louvin

"Rainy Night In Georgia" - Brook Benton

"Night Like This In Georgia" - G.C. Cameron

"Midnight Train To Georgia" - Gladys Knight & The Pips

"How You Goin' To Georgia" - Eddie Hinton

"Have You Ever Been To Georgia" - The Peddlers

"Going Back To Georgia" - Nanci Griffith (with Adam Duritz)

"Georgia Song" - Odyssey

"Georgia On My Mind"- Ray Charles

"Georgia Morning Dew" - Johnny Adams

"Georgia In A Jug" - Johnny Paycheck

"Georgia Hard" - Robbie Fulks

"Georgia By Morning" - Tim Rose

"Georgia Blue" - Joe Simon

"Georgia" - The Gosdin Brothers

There can only be one choice of clip. Before we got barred, me and Mister F used to trawl the karaoke nights of the East End trying to persuade women to sing this just so we could pretend to be the Pips. We know all the words and movements. Maybe there will be some nice woman in Batumi who will let us accompany her.