Great Springsteen Darkness Re-Issue Interview Clip

An almost 30minute interview:

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Springsteen World Exclusive!! (possibly)

Listen in to the tremendous Ricky Ross Another Country Radio Show on BBC Radio Scotland this Friday Oct 8th at 8.00pm for what may well be a WORLD EXCLUSIVE first listen of the full track Save My Love from the forthcoming boxset.

You really did hear it first here....



http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hh26l

As always though pleasemake sure you visit the brilliant backstreets.com pages for up to date news. And buy from there too if you can (and as I have done often)

Better Things First Listen

"BETTER THINGS" FIRST LISTEN


BBC Radio2 has given Bruce and Ray Davies' "Better Things" a spin, and you can hear it online now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00tw3h8/The_Early_Breakfast_Show_29_09_2010

— just click "Listen now," and advance to the 1:24:35 mark.

Ray Davies and Springsteen Duet - Forthcoming Ray Davies Album See My Friends

Released on 1 November this looks a really interesting release, not least becasue The Boss duets on the best ever Kinks single...

"Ray releases "See My Friends", an album of classic Kinks songs turned into unique collaborations on Universal UK on November 1st. (Europe to be same week, US to follow early next year) There is a new microsite for the album athttp://www.seemyfriends.co.uk/ which will be updated weekly with new information.

On this one of a kind album, Ray collaborates with a formidable selection of artists on tracks from his incredible songwriting career, revisiting his back catalogue and crafting new versions of his classic songs. Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Metallica features on this diverse collection of material. 

Highlights include 'Days'/'This Time Tomorrow' with Mumford & Sons, 'Better Things' with Bruce Springsteen, 'You Really Got Me' with Metallica and 'A Long Way from Home' with Lucinda Williams and Ray's first choice with the late great Big Star/Boxtops singer Alex Chilton

"This project came about almost by accident," says Davies of the project, which was kick-started when he recorded a version of 'Till The End Of The Day' in the summer of 2009, with Alex Chilton.

"With some tracks I had to appreciate the style of the other artists, otherwise it would have sounded unbalanced. And I wanted the album to work as an entire listening experience but each track had a life of its own," explains Ray.

Ray was happy to go where the music took him, in every sense: Oslo via Denmark, Germany and Belgium to record with Metallica, New York to record with Jon Bon Jovi, New Jersey for Bruce Springsteen, Chicago for Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins and his own north London base, the legendary KONK studios, for much of the rest. "This record is well-travelled already," explains Ray.

Paloma Faith, Jackson Browne, Black Francis of the Pixies, Lucinda Williams, Amy MacDonald and Spoon also feature on the record, which follows Ray's acclaimed tour of North America and the UK plus a stand out set on Glastonbury's Pyramid stage this summer.

The tracklisting for 'See My Friends' is:

1. Better Things - Ray Davies & Bruce Springsteen
2. Celluloid Heroes - Ray Davies, Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora
3. Days/This Time Tomorrow - Ray Davies & Mumford & Sons
4. Long Way From Home - Ray Davies, Lucinda Williams & The 88
5. You Really Got Me - Ray Davies & Metallica
6. Lola Ray - Davies & Paloma Faith
7. Waterloo Sunset - Ray Davies & Jackson Browne
8. 'Til The End of The Day - Ray Davies, Alex Chilton & The 88
9. Dead End Street - Ray Davies & Amy Macdonald
10. See My Friends Ray Davies & Spoon
11. This Is Where I Belong - Ray Davies & Black Francis
12. David Watts - Ray Davies & The 88
13. Tired Of Waiting - Ray Davies & Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol)
14. All Day And All Of The Night/Destroyer - Ray Davies & Billy Corgan "

Station to Station - Deluxe Re-Issue

My copy arrived this morning and I have to say I am stunned at the quality of this set.

It is light on unreleased music, bar the live set, but the attention to detail, packaging and sheer quality are a joy.

I'll post some photos later.

Roddy Hart - Road Of Bones

Very limited edition of a new lp by Roddy Hart has jsut been released. Get yourself sorted...

The album was recorded in Scotland in Spring 2010, and features 10 new Roddy Hart original tracks:

1. Restless Soul

2. If We Should Meet Again

3. Waiting For The Sun

4. Close To The Flame

5. Boxes

6. Girl Called Jo

7. Edge Of Love

8. Day By Day

9. Playing Solitaire

10. Road Of Bones

Forgotten Album Friday #13 - Counting Crows - August And Everything After

I think that Counting Crows were a bit of a victim of their own success....how do you follow Mr. Jones....well with a cover of Big Yellow Tax I suppose, albeit several years down the line. There is much more to this band than the Hits compilation - and much more so than a cover of a Joni Mitchell song.

Counting Crow's "August and Everything After" is a brilliant debut album. The opening song "Round Here" sets the tone for the entire album, fantastic lyrical story-telling songs accompanied by great hooks and melodies.

While there is no there is no denying that "Mr. Jones" is a catchy pop song, there is way more to this album than that. This is an album of love and loss, of regret and of reaching for a better place. Duritz lyrics are superb and the band create a great sound-track for him. Its a bit like Van Morrison's vision of what he could achieve withe Caledonia Soul Orchestra. Duritz sounds weary a lot of the time on this record....but you have the feeling throughout than things are going to work out fine.

Essential tracks:


Round Here: 
Mr. Jones:
Anna Begins:
Rain King: 
A Murder of One:

Side note: my friend Michael and I saw the band on this Tour. Barrowlands I think, 6 November 1994. Michael will know for sure! Great gig though.

Darkness on The Edge of Town Boxset - The Promise Video Update and More Views of Packaging

How good does all this look:

http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?vid=1121171&forumId=global&filter=featured&view=null&autoplay=true#/video/index.html/eNrjcmbOUM-PSXHMS8ypLMlMDkhMT-VLzE1lzmcu1CzLTEnNh8k45+eVpFaUsDFyMjKyeZdlppbbZualpFaopWXmlKQW2Sbm5KgauaTkJ5fmpuaVJBZlphazMQIA-NggPA==

Band of Joy - Live Stream

Hope you enjoying this, courtesy of NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129992517&ps=cprs

Neil Young Le Noise - Full album stream

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129955938

David Bowie Station to Station Live at Nassau Coliseum lp Cover

And very nice it is too:

Springsteen - Darkness Cover Picture

Never seen before, full length, no typeface. Iconic.

Josh Ritter - Oran Mor

A great gig last night at Oran Mor in Glasgow with Dawn landes supporting Josh Ritter. I think they are Husband and Wife actually.

I was too busy enjoying myself to take proper mental notes but the new material sounded fantastic live and the set list was excellent mixing in some great songs from his now pretty lengthy back catalouge, I think 6 albums now?

Highlights were:

Wolves
Change of Time
Lantern
Good Man

Darkness Boxset - New Interview Clip

Tift Merritt - Free Downloads

Follow this link for a free digital ep including two live tracks.

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/FreeDownload/freetiftmusic