St Cuthbert’s Parish Church has seen a few things in its time: infamous body snatchers Burke and Hare were regular visitors to its churchyard, the watchtower built to protect against them and other “resurrectionists” still stands; Sir Thomas De Quincy, author of Diary Of An Opium Eater, and John Napier, inventor of the logarithm, are […]
In 1980, the weekly music paper Melody Maker declared Talking Heads’ Remain In Light album to be its Album Of The Year, citing its innovative African rhythmic influences as a key part of the album’s appeal. Two years later in the summer of 1982, rival paper NME was featuring four-page articles about African bands such […]
It’s not easy being a support act. You have thirty minutes to make an impression. On a good night, ninety five percent of the people in the room won’t know who you are, will have never heard any of your songs and have probably only turned up early to secure a decent seat for the […]
It doesn’t seem that long ago that the idea of rock stars in their seventies seemed ridiculous; rock and roll was a young man’s (and occasional woman’s) game. The boring old farts that punk had come to blow away in 1976 were barely in their thirties, and the punks themselves are now pensioners. Over the […]
Martha Wainwright is a songwriter. Her father, Loudon Wainwright is a songwriter. Her mother, Kate McGarrigle was a songwriter. Her brother, Rufus Wainwright and half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche are songwriters. Her aunts, Anna McGarrigle and Sloane Wainwright are songwriters. Her cousin Lily Lankin is a songwriter. There is a picture developing here; although not so […]
The brilliant Scott Wainwright at this years North West Audio Show at Cranage Hall in Cheshire. Feel free to subscribe to our Hifi Pig Television You Tube channel. Full report on the show to follow shortly.
The first time I saw Robert Cray was on The Old Grey Whistle Test in the early 1980s. Actually, that’s not true. The first time I saw Robert Cray was when he played bass in the soul review band Otis Knight And The Days who featured in the National Lampoon’s Animal House film that was […]
“Sometimes it seems unimaginable that you were ever any other way” sings Al Stewart on his song Carol. Sometimes it seems unimaginable that Stewart could have been anything other than a singer/songwriter. Moving from Glasgow to Dorset as a child, he went on to buy his first guitar from future Police man Andy Summers, took […]
Alongside their regular albums, The Unthanks have released a series of “Diversions”; albums that focus on a particular theme or style. The latest of these is How Wild The Wind Blows – The Songs And Poems Of Molly Drake. Molly was the mother of legendary folk-rock singer songwriter Nick Drake and actress Gabrielle Drake. Molly […]
A photo of Sinatra alongside Davis Jr and Dean Martin adorns the walls. The wallpaper is patterned with the Statue of Liberty and James Dean. Where you’d expect to see a domesticated rockabilly band or an alcoholism-riddled crooner onstage in this schlock ‘Merica-themed venue, there will soon be three of Ireland’s finest bands treading the boards […]
Hifi Pig’s James Fleming heads up to Dublin and the salubrious surroundings that are The Workman’s Club to see and speak to Strength NIA.
It’s been twenty years since Madeleine Peyroux released her debut album, Dreamland. Although the comparisons to Billie Holiday that dogged her initially have lessened, they haven’t totally evaporated either. Peyroux does share a certain smokey tone with Holiday along with the ability to warp time with her phrasing, stretching vowels beyond breaking point or shoehorning […]
Cambridge Folk festival has announce the first names for the 2017 festival.
I only came across Sarah Jarosz a couple of weeks ago when I heard her excellent cover of Bob Dylan’s Simple Twist Of Fate from her album Build Me Up From Bones but I quickly fell in love with both the track and the album. A quick Google revealed that she was playing here and […]
I hadn’t heard of Ezra Furman prior to last year’s Perpetual Motion People album which I described as my album of the summer. I’m glad to say that its appeal has not waned and it still gets regular plays. I haven’t heard much about Ezra since the album’s release either, so I was quite surprised […]
Every year Hifi Pig is invited to the Conservatoire de Musique at Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, France for an evening of jazz presented by the association Jazz Angle. It’s always an entertaining and well attended evening and, as relative newcomers to Jazz, it always throws up something new and unexpected that we’ve not heard before…and this […]