Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and friend Joe Westerlund met at a high school jazz camp in Wisconsin, before moving to North Carolina and forming the band DeYarmond Edison. After fellow member Justin Vernon left to find solo success as Bon Iver, the trio regrouped as Megafaun, mixing rich, three-part harmonies, banjo-twanging Appalachian folk and [...]

Rising from the ashes of 80s anarchist punk band The Mob, Blyth Power emerged as the folky autocratic mouthpiece for drummer Joseph Porter and his obsession with trains, British history and cricket. Following an inverse line up formula to that of Spinal Tap, the singing drummer has remained a constant while guitarists, bassists, backing singers [...]

Joy Thomas is reformed

If you could be present at any point in the past when and where would you go?

My answer, for a good while, has been 25 November 1976, in the front row at the Winter Ballroom as The Band and their friends recorded The Last Waltz. I am an archivist [...]

Jen Blacker gets back to basics

I’m used to seeing Canadian singer Annabelle Chvostek with full band back up, if not with her ex-band mates the Wailin’ Jennys, then with her trio she brought to the UK last year. So a stripped down solo set was a real treat. It’s good to get a little raw. [...]

So you’ve decided to sleep with a hippy. I’m sure you’ve got your reasons. It’s been a long strange road for all of us, and lord knows I’m in no position to judge. But before you dive headlong into the patchouli patch you’re going to need a few things.

Get yourself a really incomprehensible political [...]