After a break for the festive season we are back with a third edition of Pun Fun, the exciting feature where I give you a theme and you adapt the title of a well-known song to reflect that theme.
Having enjoyed a bumper crop of fruit and vegetable puns last time out I have selected a theme with a more obvious link to the blog (and those of a fair number of participants):
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The rules are the same as last time. You each have one entry only, to be sent to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 18 January. Voting will start next Monday.
I don't suppose you need help identifying musical instruments but just in case you do the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology lists loads on its website, where you can also listen to clips of many of them.
You might be inspired to finds puns for the zaqq (Maltese bagpipe), the torupill (Estonian bagpipe) or even the mittlealtersackpfeife (German medieval bagpipe). Or you may prefer just to stick with the old joanna.
In Wednesday's post on the music of Guatemala I observed that some of the countries on our ongoing tour of the Americas may no longer exist by the time we get to them if Mr Trump has his way.
In response to this Walter commented that "we should post music from Greenland while it still belongs to Denmark". He followed this up with a series of direct messages to me in which he stated that if I did not do so voluntarily all options are on the table including military intervention to take direct control of the blog.
Some might say that having Walter in charge of the content here might be an improvement and I would not necessarily disagree. But I value my independence and world peace so here is some music from Greenland. It may be the start of a slippery slope but that is a risk I'm willing to take.
In chronological order: the grand old man of Greenland music Rasmus Lyberth with a track from his 2019 album "Inuunerup Oqarfigaanga"; some hip-hop from 1996 courtesy of Nuuk Posse and their classic album "Kaataq"; Nive & The Deer Children and their 2016 album "Feet First" on which Howe Gelb and John Parish have production credits; and bringing us bang up to date Varna GL whose latest album "Sila" was released just three weeks ago.
For the avoidance of doubt I should make it clear that all that stuff about Walter's expansionist tendencies was obviously nonsense. In real life he's one of the nicest men you could hope to meet and not in the least bit orange.
On an unrelated matter I got my first gig of the year under my belt on Wednesday - four acts on the bill at the Shacklewell Arms raising funds for WarChild. Its not a night that will live long in the memory but they were all perfectly pleasant.
For me the pick of the bunch was probably Alice Costelloe whose debut album "Move On With The Year" comes out on 6 February. Here she is with her brand new video. Mister F preferred Suki Emmanuelle so I've added the only video of hers I could find in the interests of balance.
After a short break we are back behind the wheel and making our way around continental America. I thought about bringing the Venezuelan leg forward in case it doesn't exist by the time we get to the letter V but in the end decided to stick with alphabetical order.
So this time out we are in Guatemala, which like many other countries in the region has suffered from US foreign policy and corporate greed. American interference throughout most of the 20th century contributed to a regular series of civil wars. Fortunately things have been relatively stable since a peace deal in 1996, with just old-fashioned corruption to worry about these days.
Guatemala is one of a number of countries for which I have struggled to find music online. While the Wikipedia entry for the music of Guatemala lists many names, a lot of them do not seem to be available though the usual channels. So I make no claims that what follows is representative, its just stuff I found and liked.
We will start with a couple of traditional(ish) acts. Jursino Cayetano is a Garifuna musician, a people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry who have a minority presence in several countries in Central America. This track comes from the same compilation that we featured when we were back in Belize on the second leg of our journey.
The San Lucas Band were a shoo-in for the post when I read the blurb for their album "La Voz de las Cumbres": "The first reissue of cult 1974 recordings of a Mayan brass band playing funeral dirges and popular songs in its distinctive extended harmonic and rhythmic style". I have nothing to add.
Next we have a couple of bands featured on a series of six track EPs titled "Sonidos Perdidos de Guatemala 1969 - 1989". There are four volumes - the link is to the first one - and they are a sort of companion piece to the "Sonidos Perdidos de Centroamérica" compilation that we featured when we were in El Salvador (and will no doubt do so again). Like that album, they were released by Tujaal Sounds and are available on a name your own price basis.
Apple Pie were formed in 1967 by the classic line-up of Gentry Ordoñez, Rico Molina, Wicho Zelaya, and Tito Henkle. The track below was first released as a single in 1970. Of Mino I can find out nothing at all.
Probably the best known internationally of the artists being featured today is Gaby Moreno, who won a Grammy for the best Latin Pop album in 2024 and was named as one of the BBC's 100 Women of the Year the same year. This track from her 2012 album "Postales" is a cover of an old Cuban standard that has also been covered by the likes of Bing Crosby, Cliff Richard, Mari Wilson, Cake and Dennis Brown. I feel a Single Song Sunday coming on.
Sticking with the distaff side of the Guatemalan scene we next bring you Di WAV (Daniela Carpio to her Mum and Dad) and her distinctive brand of indie pop. The EP from which this track comes, "Masoquista", was the 18th most streamed Guatemalan record on Spotify in 2019, so you really have no excuse not to have heard of it before now.
Our penultimate act hail from the city of San Marcos in the west of the country. The Crystal Stones describe their music as a fusion of Rock-Pop, Noise Rock, Post Rock and Rock-Funk, or maybe just Rock for short. Today's track comes from their 2021 album "The Love Club".
We finish as always with the MAR slot, filled admirably on this occasion by La Dubvolution with a track from their 2011 album "3 Es Sonsuelto En Souldub". Its one of the better MAR entries of the series to date and is well worth a listen.
Last Friday's post included a video by Alela Diane on which quite of few of you commented favourably and expressed your intention to explore her back catalogue. I'm here to help with the exploration. We start with a track apiece from "To Be Still" (2009) and "Cusp" (2018) before going a bit off piste with the third selection.
In 2013 the venerable Oi! merchants Hard Skin released an album called "On The Balls" and a companion album "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear" which had the same songs but with the lead vocals handled by assorted female guests. Some were not unexpected - Beki Bondage for example - others like Alela and Joanna Newsom definitely were. Anyway, its a jolly tune but perhaps not for those of you with delicate ears.
We're here to ease you very gently into 2026, although the Slow Motion Cowboys seem confused about the time of year. Possibly they move so slowly that it is still September in their world.
My final post of the year and its my annual woefully inadequate tribute to just some of the far too many musicians we lost this year, particularly ones whose sad passing may not have attracted the attention that they deserved.
We will start with Amadou Bagayoko of Amadou & Mariam and then keep going for far too long.
We're back! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas break.
Like Little Baby Jesus and his parents I spent Christmas night in an inn. In my case it was a Days Inn at the back of a Welcome Break services on the side of a motorway.
Weary travellers were guided there by the lights of the Starbucks drive thru. But an even brighter light shone from the open air laundrette at the side of the car park, where shepherds washed their socks by night.
Links stay up for a month or so. If you are an artist or copyright holder and want me to remove the link, or if you want to get in touch for any other reason, e-mail me on leggies27@hotmail.co.uk.
