Watersongs

Those of you hang round here may remember me doing a feature on the great Gary Stewart a couple of weeks back, and then a few days later mentioning I was off to see Hiss Golden Messenger at Cafe Oto.

Well, you can imagine my surprise and delight when Yer Man Messenger covered Gary's "Drinkin' Thing" for an encore. Fortunately I had my wits sufficiently about me to capture the moment for you all, and here it is. The man providing tasty guitar licks, and almost entirely obscured by the traditional Cafe Oto gloom, is William Tyler (the support act and well worth seeing in his own right).



Their other encore was an equally good cover of "Bright Phoebus" by The Watersons. So naturally today you are getting a couple of Watersons' tracks, both from 1975's "For Pence And Spicy Ale" and the first very topical. Plus an epic tale from Mr Norma Waterson.

"Swinton May Song" - The Watersons

"Country Life" - The Watersons

"Famous Flower Of Serving Men" - Martin Carthy

The Bums Of Wexford

Morning dudes and lady dudes. I'm back from a week in Moscow, Dublin and Wexford. I did not have time to go music shopping in the first two, but while trawling through the charity shops of old Wexford town I came across a 1998 EP by a local band called D'Harma Bums. We give you the lead off track.

As a bonus I have added a few more recently acquired treats for you. In order, they are: some Thai and Bulgarian pop, some German hip-hop (requested by Mr F), and a Greek singer-songwriter of my acquaintance.

"I Don't Know" - D'harma Bums

"Roo Tua Reu Plow" - Christine Chirawongviroj

"Izberi Si" - Veselina

"Das Dynamische Duo" - Cheech & Iakone

"24,000 Pilgrims" - Stilpon

Other musical sons of Wexford include the mighty Pierce Turner and the unfortunate Ryan Dolan, whose last place in Eurovision this weekend was a travesty. He deserved more points for the giant drums alone.

All Over The Place

This will be the last you'll be hearing from me for ten days or so - stop cheering, it's not nice and nobody is forcing you to read this rubbish.

Anyway, there are multiple reasons for my impending radio silence. Tomorrow night we are off out to see William Tyler and Hiss Golden Messenger, which I'm looking forward to greatly. Then I head off to spend 24 hours in Moscow, followed by 48 hours in Dublin - both for work - before a relaxing long weekend in Wexford. That's where my people come from (on my mother's side, not the Goggins line, the Gogginses are all over the place).

So here is one each from the two performers at tomorrow's gig, followed by something from Russia and something from Ireland. Think of it as a virtual tour. At the end I have tagged on two tunes that have nothing to do with anything, but I have been grooving to them both today. Maybe you will too.

"The Green Pastures" - William Tyler

"Westering" - Hiss Golden Messenger

"Easter" - Inna & The Farlanders

"Here Come The Good Times" - A House

"Thula" - Ringo (not that Ringo, the South African one)

"Rukumbine" - Shenley Duffus

This is that Ringo

Gagged

This is a picture of Tom Cruise and Patrick Dunham Roper. The original version of this post explained a bit more but I have removed it under threat of legal action from one of the two protagonists.

Here are three songs roughly relating to acting. The Pipettes' number has been added as a protest against the way image-obsessed divas attempt to control what is said about them. And before any of the regular complainers write in, there is absolutely no way that can be interpreted as a reference to Elkie. We love Elkie.

"The Actor" - The Incredible String Band

"Movie Screens" - Midas Fall

"TV Show" - Puhdys

"Ain't No Talkin'" - The Pipettes

Tears In Your Beer

Since George Jones died recently I've found myself listening to him a lot, and also to the only two men who are in the same league as him when it comes to cheatin' and drinkin' songs - Merle Haggard and Gary Stewart.

Merle you will know, but it is possible you may not be familiar with Gary. While more of a rocker than the other two - on one album he was backed by the bulk of the Allman Brothers - it was with good reason he was called "the King of the Honky Tonks" when at his peak back in the 1970s. And like George Jones, he lived the live of which he sang.

Gary has been dead nearly ten years. He shot himself a few days after his long-suffering but much loved wife Mary Lou was taken by pneumonia. We still miss him.

"Out Of Hand" - Gary Stewart

"I See The Want To In Your Eyes" - Gary Stewart

"Quits" - Gary Stewart

"She Sings Amazing Grace" - Gary Stewart

Speaking of Gary's, the great Gary Johnson has today lead the mighty Yeovil Town to the play-off finals. Unfortunately I won't be able to get to Wembley as I am away, but I'll be scouring Wexford in the probably forlorn hope of finding somewhere showing the game.

For reasons unclear even to myself, this ones for Jamie McAllister and the lads.

Purple People

After lingering most of the week in Mozambique, we are heading vaguely homewards, stopping off first in Greece, where they are celebrating the Orthodox Easter. Here is some excellent garage/psych revival courtesy of Purple Overdose and their great 1988 album, "Exit #4".

"Elevation" - Purple Overdose

"Yellow Mole" - Purple Overdose

As a Bank Holiday bonus, here is some more garage/psych purplosity - but from the first time round.

"Voices Green And Purple" - The Bees

"The Purple Cadger" - Robin Scott

"Pink, Purple, Yellow, Red" - The Sorrows

"Granny Takes A Trip" - The Purple Gang

And you can't really have a purple post without His Purpleness, can you? But we're not going for the obvious one.

Tsonga Chongo?

We are going to stick with Mozambique for now, and introduce you to the music of the late Zaida Chongo. A big star in the 1990s in collaboration with her husband Carlos, she died in 2004 a couple of weeks short of her 34th birthday.

According to a mangled translation of an article in Portuguese on Wikipedia, "at one point marital disagreements and internal conflicts begin to take care of the couple when Zaida starts to get carried away by excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages", and it was this that led to her untimely demise.

Zaida was born in Xai-Xai in Gaza Province in southern Mozambique. The largest ethnic group in that province are the Shangaan (aka Tsonga). I'm not sure that I can technically justify labelling her music Tsonga Disco, but you'll spot some similarities.

"Alfandega" - Zaida Chongo

"Miela Ncata" - Zaida Chongo