Since my book Alien Water (see HERE) was published in March, there have been many comments from readers that it has sent them off down endless interweb wormholes searching for the music or musicians referred to in it. And I've had a steady stream of requests asking if I could put together an Alien Water Playlist.
Well, I started thinking about this – bearing in mind I will not endorse the evil Sp*tify – and quickly realised it was a task that would be very time consuming to do properly. But then, lightbulb moment! Back during the lockdown era a few years back I supplemented the usual monthly Podwireless programmes of new releases with some extra "specials", which between them pretty much cover a lot of that ground. So here are links to them all…
First up, a pair which I titled Deserted Island Discs
One of the benefits of the pandemic lockdowns – there had to be some! – was that they allowed more time for listening to old favourites, usually a rare luxury. So while it was quiet outside, I made two random and totally self-indulgent selections of music I've loved and accumulated down the years since discovering there were alternatives to the pop music heard on the radio when I was a young teenager.
unsurprisingly, marked the 50th anniversary of my Village Thing label which released some two dozen albums and a few singles from 1970 to 1974. It has a track from each.
did the same for my label Rogue Records which ran from the early '80s through the '90s.
21st Century English Folk
was a two-parter presenting exactly what it says in the title – English folk music made since the millennium rebirth.
A celebration of English instrumental music.
Another two-parter that celebrated the wonderful roots music of our neighbours, made at the time of the great Brexit disaster.
A 2020 celebration of the early years of one of my first musical heroes and lifelong friends, who sadly passed away in 2024.
It's A Good Thing! – Country Blues Classics
40 solid gold pre-war country blues gems!
20 wonderful tracks by the great women singers of West Africa, mostly from locally released cassettes.
My own music
I
prefer not to play my own music in Podwireless programmes, but if you'd like to
hear a sampling of the things I've done down the years, you can listen to – try
before you buy! – the two recent career-spanning Onwards! compilations
via Bandcamp.
Onwards! 1
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