VA - Bowie Heard Them Here First

Following up on the soul/girl group focus of the Dusty Springfield edition of the always interesting Heard Them Here First series, this selection of songs covered by David Bowie is an eclectic mix of genres, to be expected given the chameleonic nature of his career. If you thought "Alabama Song" was first performed by the Doors (as I did), pick this up and hear who really recorded it first. The perpetual journey of musical discovery continues...

"The latest release in our Heard Them Here First series traces the career of David Bowie via an eclectic selection of the other writers’ songs he chose to record...As one might expect from the chameleonic Bowie, the featured tracks emanate from a diverse array of musical genres, eras and artists, from Lotte Lenya & the Three Admirals' 1930 recording of Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill’s 'Alabama Song' to the Pixies' spiky 'Cactus' from 1988's Surfer Rosa. Other unlikely bedfellows: Johnny Mathis and Iggy Pop; Bobby Bland and the Velvet Underground; Jacques Brel and Chuck Berry; Martha & the Vandellas and Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, make for a strikingly wide-ranging programme." - Ace Records

LEWIS - L'Amour

Just over two years after Weird Canada's Aaron Levin first posted about this peculiar, gently creepy record, Light In The Attic have finally reissued it, out now on CD with a vinyl edition soon to follow on July 8th. Anyone looking for some whispered new-age L.A. loner synth-folk to file near (but not too near) their Jandek and Arthur Russell records should look no further.

"In 1983, a man named Lewis recorded an album named L'Amour, which was released on the unknown label R.A.W. And that’s about all we know..The ingredients are simple: smooth synthesizers, feather-light piano, ethereal, occasionally inaudible vocals and the gentle plucking of acoustic guitars, but the effects are arresting...L'Amour is a true discovery of the blog age, uncovered in an Edmonton flea-market by collector Jon Murphy, passed on to private press fanatic Aaron Levin, shared on the internet and speculated over by lovers of curious LPs. There’s almost no information about Lewis or the album on the internet...Lewis remains a ghost, a total mystery, but the music will be heard." - Light In The Attic

NED DOHENY - Separate Oceans

While we will have to ask you to keep your shirt on when in our shop, this new Numero single-disc anthology is your best heat-beating alternative, taking from his three '70s studio albums (one of which was Japan-only), and featuring many previously-unheard demos, including a handful of collaborations with Glenn Frey and Don Henley. If you're a fan of the likes of Jackson Browne, Boz Skaggs, Hall & Oates and Todd Rundgren but haven't yet heard Ned Doheny, welcome to the world of your new favourite blue-eyed soul songwriter!

"Over the last three decades, Doheny's albums have slid in and out of print on LP and CD, budget jobs without any involvement from the self-described 'avatar for casual vulgarity.' Separate Oceans examines Ned Doheny's first ten years adrift in song, pulling together choice album cuts and 11 previously unissued demos. An 8000-word essay is illustrated by images from the archives of noted rock photographers Henry Diltz, Moshe Brahka, Clive Arrowsmith, and Gary Heery, creating the first ever overview of this unheralded marina rocker." - Numero Group

THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS - Dylan's Gospel

Unavailable for the past 10 years with copies of the out-of-print CD selling for hundreds of dollars, it's a joy to see this finally available again. And with Light in the Attic releasing it you're guaranteed a top-notch package; it's a perfect companion piece to their previously released revelatory gospel set from Pastor TL Barrett. Dylan notably found God in the late-70s but, based on the evidence here, it was in him all along. Undoubtedly, my favorite reissue of the year.

"In the summer of 1969, producer Lou Adler gathered twenty-seven of the best backup singers in Los Angeles to cover the music of Bob Dylan during a marathon two-day session. 'Sometimes there were more than twenty-seven voices,' Adler told Rolling Stone in 1969, 'because on several occasions real brothers and sisters stopped by and grabbed a part. It sounds corny, but that was the spirit of the thing. The tape stopped, but they were still singing.' Adler called his gospel choir The Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles, and they made songs like 'Lady Lady Lay,' 'I Shall Be Released' and 'The Mighty Quinn' sound like they were written to be sung in church. 'You can find something spiritual about almost all of his music,' Adler says today. 'It's something that goes beyond just being a pop song, there's always something deeper than that in a Dylan song.'" - Rolling Stone

DYLAN SHEARER - Garagearray

As his response at the end of one of the few interviews we've been able to find with him attests to, Dylan Shearer is, in his own words, a "super obsessive music collector," which made complete sense (and admittedly further endeared him to us) upon reading such confirmation, since Garagearray unshowingly and unaffectedly hones in on a particularly early-'70s UK psych/folk slow/sadsack sweet spot, recalling such heavyweights as Kevin Ayers, Syd Barrett and Bill Fay while totally holding its own and sounding fresh and unique. Highly recommended and fully worthy of the attention of more ears!

"If Dylan Shearer's prior record Porchpuddles felt like the warm embrace of the sunniest of psychedelia, his new release Garagearray is the bittersweet glow of the post-trip comedown. Where Porchpuddles still had one hand gently resting on the leg of psych and garage, Garagearray seems to have bid adieu to the whole affair, instead turning in an album of sad, shy folk rock." - Side One Track One             

COURTNEY BARNETT - The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas

We were intrigued last fall by writeups in the British music mags that the shop carries concerning an Australian songwriter who kept being referred to as a 'slacker Sheryl Crow,' or something thereabout. Courtney Barnett's Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas exceeded our buzz-based expectations, though: her easygoing vocals and everyday narratives are complemented by poppy melodies and sturdy guitar work. We had to
wait until April 15th for the domestic release of her two EPs, but it looks like Barnett will be spending much more time in North America. She performed on the Jimmy Fallon show last night and will be playing in Toronto (for the first time!) this June as part of NXNE.

"The temptation with a words-first artist like Barnett is to conceive of the music as a word-delivery system, to get all the lyrics out and then to end the song as quickly and cleanly as possible when that’s done. But that’s not how Barnett rolls. She and her band play it shaggy and expansive and vaguely traditional...but they’re just one part. Pianos and organs overlap and dart in and out of each other. The riffs have real bite to them, and triumphant guitar solos sometimes flare up from the landscape around them. Songs regularly spread themselves lazily across six or seven minutes. The construction is never exactly tight; there’s some Pavement in the way things happen according to their own oblique logic (there’s probably also some Lemonheads in the sunny-stoner vibes that waft through from time to time, too), but this isn’t an indie record. I get the feeling that, if you called Barnett’s music 'bluesy,' she would not take it as an insult...But what Barnett chases musically is the loose immediacy of classic rock, and she gets the way that stuff works much more than the various '70s revivalists on the festival circuit seem to manage." - Stereogum

VA - Lou Adler: A Musical History

Plenty of classic tunes by legends like Sam Cooke and Carole King on this collection of music produced by Lou Adler, but the real gems are the tracks from lesser-knowns like Dante & The Evergreens, The City and Peggy Lipton. Fans of 20 Feet From Stardom should check out the wonderful covers by The Blossoms/Darlene Love ("Stoney End") and Merry Clayton ("Oh No, Not My Baby"). However, most exciting of all is The Brothers & Sisters' version of "Blowin' In The Wind," a preview of the much-anticipated Light In The Attic reissue of Dylan's Gospel, due to be released April 1st.

"The latest release in our Producers series contains key tracks from the career of Grammy-winning record producer, songwriter, publisher, record company owner, film director and all-round music biz mogul Lou Adler, an architect of the California sound...Adler, whose story is told in more detail in the picture-packed booklet, much of it in his own words, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award in 2013. 'If you asked me how to succeed as a record producer,' he said on being presented with his accolade by Cheech & Chong, 'I’d say it helps to work with three of the best singers and songwriters: John Phillips, Carole King and Sam Cooke.'" - Ace Records

Adler – whose story is told in more detail in the picture-packed booklet, much of it in his own words – was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award in 2013. “If you asked me how to succeed as a record producer,” he said on being presented with his accolade by Cheech & Chong, “I’d say it helps to work with three of the best singers and songwriters: John Phillips, Carole King and Sam Cooke.”  - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/lou-adler-a-musical-history#sthash.nf53htta.dpuf

The latest release in our Producers series contains key tracks from the career of Grammy-winning record producer, songwriter, publisher, record company owner, film director and all-round music biz mogul Lou Adler, an architect of the California sound. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/lou-adler-a-musical-history#sthash.nf53htta.dpuf

The latest release in our Producers series contains key tracks from the career of Grammy-winning record producer, songwriter, publisher, record company owner, film director and all-round music biz mogul Lou Adler, an architect of the California sound. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/lou-adler-a-musical-history#sthash.nf53htta.dpuf

RONNIE LANE AND SLIM CHANCE - Ooh La La: An Island Harvest

A rollicking rock revue, Lane and his post-Faces outfit recorded two albums for Island, Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance and One For The Road, both collected on this double-disc set along with alternate takes as well as a BBC concert from 1974.

"If Lane still doesn't get full credit for his role in two groups dominated by their turbo-charged vocalists, his post-Faces career is even more badly undervalued. A new anthology confirms that he did some of his greatest work in the mid-'70s with Slim Chance, a loose rustic-rock band he built in his own image, the good-time exterior masking genuine soulfulness...After leaving the Faces he'd retreated to Fishpool farm, near the village of Hyssington on the Welsh-English border. The music he made there was dug from the soil and baked in the sun. Mixing eclectic covers with originals and drew from rock'n'roll, country, folk, blues, early jazz, vaudeville and blue beat, Fishpool sounds a bit like a Welsh Big Pink, only with sheep farmers living down the lane rather than Bob Dylan." - The Guardian

THE WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream

Playing two nights here in Toronto next month to support this new album (the first night of which having already sold out), Adam Granduciel's War On Drugs are a band whose fanbase is growing noticeably with every record, and it seems to be a near-certainty that Lost In The Dream will deservedly gain them that many more new listeners.

"Lost In the Dream is a beautiful, warm and comforting thing, for all the unhappiness that went into it. Picking up where Slave Ambient left off, it sounds as if Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had made a lost album with Mark Knopfler, sometime between Born in The USA and Tunnel Of Love, but all concerned had been listening to very little apart from space-rock and krautrock. When Granduciel talks about his musical background, you realise it's not that surprising a combination. He grew up in Dover, Massachusetts, listening to classic-rock radio, then had what he calls his 'a-ha moment,' hearing The Perfect Prescription by Spacemen 3." - The Guardian

"Adam Granduciel, the man behind The War On Drugs, has been recording trance-inducing Americana since 2005, and along with his longtime friend and former bandmate Kurt Vile created a whole new style of folk-based rock reverie doused in an ocean of synthesizers. Lost In The Dream is the band’s third full-length, and continues to develop the Tom Petty-meets-Sonic Youth sound they pioneered. On all of the band's previous releases, Granduciel would build the core of the songs himself, playing most of the instruments and endlessly tinkering with the mixes until they'd reached an adequate level of perfection. He's had various musicians play on previous albums but with Lost In The Dream, Granduciel decided to change things up. He recorded the core of these songs with two collaborators, longtime bass player Dave Hartley and pianist Robbie Bennett." - PopMatters

SID SELVIDGE - The Cold Of The Morning

A starkly arranged, mostly solo set of country blues and folk interpretations (opening with a bold rendition of Fred Neil's "I've Got A Secret [Didn't We Shake Sugaree]" which coolly and confidently holds its own against Neil's version), this reissue of The Cold Of The Morning is yet another labour of love from the folks at Omnivore Recordings, one to file aside such earlier essential archival Americana from the label as Gene Clark's White Light demos and Townes Van Zandt's Sunshine Boy studio outtakes and demos.

"The Cold Of The Morning is a mid-'70s Memphis classic that almost never saw the light of day. Selvidge and producer Jim Dickinson created this 12-track song cycle live in the studio in 1975, with Selvidge on vocals and guitar, plus Dickinson on piano with Memphis' iconic Mudboy and the Neutrons on two tracks. The cover photo was by William Eggleston. The record seemed destined for greatness.

But when Peabody Records’ benefactor decided not to put it out at the last minute, he gave the rights to the recently pressed LP to Selvidge, who drove down to the plant, loaded up his car and distributed the discs himself. The album eventually found its way into regional stores and the national press, even reaching the Cashbox charts; this was enough to take Selvidge to New York. But life intervened, and bigger record deals were not in the cards.

Co-produced by Sid’s son, Steve (of The Hold Steady), The Cold Of The Morning has been expanded to include six previously unissued tracks from the original sessions. Consisting of originals, blues standards, and Broadway classics, the record is not only a snapshot of a time and place, but of Selvidge himself." - Guitar World

BOB FRANK - S/T / PETER WALKER - "Second Poem to Karmela" or Gypsies Are Important

Light In The Attic follows up a recent first-time vinyl reissue of stone-cold country-soul classic (and staff favourite since it was reissued on CD a few years back) Bobby Charles with two titles (apparently the first in a new 'Vanguard Vault' series dedicated to the label!) that are even more obscure but both just as compelling in their own ways: Bob Frank is a charmingly bawdy set of songs mainly telling tales of ne'er-do-wells and the down and out from 1972, while "Second Poem to Karmela" is Peter Walker's long unavailable 1968 follow-up to Rainy Day Raga, with flute and violin added to tamboura, sarod and guitar, making for an Indian-infused instrumental jam session very similar in sound and spirit to Sandy Bull's "Blend" series and Bruce Palmer's sidelong excursions on The Cycle Is Complete.

SUN KIL MOON - Benji

Mark Kozelek's been on a roll as of late, having already participated in three releases on his Caldo Verde imprint last year. This newest under the Sun Kil Moon mantle is his most universally-acclaimed since perhaps this project name first appeared back in 2003, and deservedly so (at least in our opinion), as Kozelek expands on the stream-of-consciousness style he started on 2012's Among The Leaves, moving his locus of attention from the realities of the road to his family and memories of his native Ohio.

"[Benji] is one of the least abstract, least ironic, most straightforward albums I have ever heard. The album's 11 vignettes—at a certain point I hesitate to even call them 'songs'—come across as short stories ripped from the pages of Kozelek's diary. They are rendered in the simplest of terms, often so blatantly and artlessly that you can't help but cringe. There isn't a shred of subtext on the whole album; almost every track can be summed up in its title...The whole production would be grotesquely comical if it didn't feel so unflinchingly, unapologetically sincere. And here's the thing: Benji doesn't resonate in spite of its awkwardness, but wholly because of it. Where so many artists would coat their lyrics in a thick buffer of nonchalance and ennui, Kozelek makes absolutely no pretension of playing it cool." - Tiny Mix Tapes

ANGEL OLSEN - Burn Your Fire For No Witness

With more subdued, slow-burning tracks such as "White Fire" occasionally countered by the full-on riff-rock of songs like "Forgiven/Forgotten," Burn Your Fire arguably hews closer to how Angel Olsen and band have sounded on the road since supporting her haunting debut Half Way Home.

"Half Way Home, the 2012 album with which Angel Olsen built her name, was a great album, but its greatness was the sort that you can only really admire from a distance. Whether purposefully or as a byproduct of the way it was recorded, Half Way Home sounded like the sort of record you might dig up at a deep-south flea market. Olsen’s voice was a spectral operatic trill, and it danced above her skeletal acoustic folk and old-timey country songs like a flame flickering over a match’s head. It sounded like some ancient relic, albeit one in miraculously mint vinyl condition, and its mysterious distance made for much of its appeal. Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Olsen’s new album, isn’t an experimental piece of work by anyone’s standards, but it represents a vast step forward for Olsen. Musically, she’s changed everything, combining her ghostly folk with some beautifully executed ’90s-style indie fuzz. But the real great thing about the new album is this: Olsen suddenly sounds like a real person, not like some long-dead ancestor whispering to you in a dream." - Stereogum

BILL CALLAHAN - Have Fun With God

This dub treatment of last year's Dream River makes perfect, unexpected sense straight from first listen, emphasizing the cyclical riffs and percussive accompaniment that were on the tapes all along, while leaving enough of Callahan's vocals unmuted to manage to tease out flashes of narrative and ensure that the originally-sung stories aren't entirely left by the wayside. Take the next stool down at the bar, No Protection—you've got company.

"[This] experiment serves to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music, to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines. This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed Dream River and handled the remixes for Have Fun With God, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan's vocals." - Uncut

the experiment does serve to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music; to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines.”
Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99

the experiment does serve to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music; to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines.”

This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed “Dream River” and handled the remixes for “Have Fun With God”, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan’s vocals.

Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99

the experiment does serve to draw attention to the enduring spaciousness of Callahan’s music; to the sense that the most significant details in his songs are unspoken, hidden in the interstices between his lines.”

This last point is hammered home very hard when you hear the project in its entirety. Brian Beattie, who mixed “Dream River” and handled the remixes for “Have Fun With God”, hasn’t wandered too far from the original: the eight songs run in the same order, and are recast not as reggae, exactly, but as reverb-heavy and mostly instrumental pieces that point up the rich musical subtleties that initially underpinned Callahan’s vocals.

Read more at http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/wild-mercury-sound/have-fun-with-god-bill-callahan-in-dub#AjHjEKv7hQVpxBkb.99

BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY - S/T

We were very excited to source a limited amount of CD/LP copies of this self-released, self-titled effort straight from the Royal Stable—like its eponymous predecessor, what it lacks in running time it more than makes up for in tenderly oblique acoustic balladry, and some of the strongest, strangest Will Oldham songs we've heard in years.

"Will Oldham hasn’t run out of tricks in his 20-plus years of sharing his music with Louisville and beyond. Having played with identity and consistently challenged the music industry's rigid rules throughout that time, Oldham's latest twist is a self-produced, self-released album that originally had only been available at local shop Astro Black Records. The collection is his first full-length since 1994 to consist entirely of his voice and guitar, otherwise unaccompanied, and it's telling to hear how much older and more confident he sounds now compared to then." - LEO Weekly

THE NEW MENDICANTS - Into The Lime

Although the group name might not yet register, The New Mendicants consist of a trio of Toronto transplants (of varying degrees) whose names you'll likely recognize: Joe Pernice, Norman Blake and Mike Belitsky, banding together to play a brand of sprightly-strummed pop which blends the singing and songwriting voices of Blake and Pernice to breezily catchy effect. 

"Into The Lime does much to dispel the received wisdom that side projects are little more than exercises in vanity wherein the cast-off songs from the individual players' day jobs are given a new lease of life in order to satisfy egos while nursing the bruises of rejection. No, this a welcome shot of vitamin D in the cruellest month of the year where summer seems to be an eternity away while the filling of tax return forms only adds to the harshness of January." - The Quietus

DOUG PAISLEY - Strong Feelings

With longstanding co-producer Stew Crookes capturing a live-off-the-floor feel from such players as Garth Hudson, Bazil Donovan and Emmett Kelly and guest vocal turns by Mary Margaret O'Hara, Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas and Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station, Strong Feelings serves both as a great intro for those new to Paisley's work as well as another solid batch of songs sure to satisfy his already-substantial fan base.

"Doug Paisley is a singer-songwriter out of place and time. His songs are steeped in the steely resolve, forlorn soul-searching, and regrettable heartbreak of classic country tunes. His guitar parts can be as spare and searching as a Nick Drake ballad, or as ornate and filigreed as the stitching on a Nudie suit; his vocals are equal parts Merle Haggard and Jackson Browne, a wistful tenor with a slight quiver. Like its predecessor, 2010's Constant Companion, Strong Feelings is an exquisitely warm, intimate recording—you can hear Paisley's fingers shift on the strings of his guitar, and the faintest creak each time Garth Hudson presses down on his keyboard." - The Grid

"Paisley gave himself a little extra time while making his new album. After recording his previous two LPs in something of a hurry, the Canadian singer and songwriter allowed himself to stretch out more in the studio while recording these ten songs. The result is an album of tasteful subtleties: warm guitars unspooling over the gentle hum of an organ enveloping Paisley's AM-gold voice with just a hint of a twang, on songs that glide by like beautiful scenery." - Wall Street Journal

NICK LOWE - Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family / ELIZABETH MITCHELL - The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In And Out Of The Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook

This year's batch of new holiday music includes titles from Erasure, Bad Religion and the two releases highlighted here, so if you've played out Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas and Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You, why not explore some new holiday tunes? Also, be sure to check out Jingle Bell Rocks!, screening at the Bloor Cinema over the next few days, for more off-the-beaten-track festive sounds.

"[Quality Street] is an amalgamation of Christmas classics, unusual covers and some newly written original songs. Ron Sexsmith contributes a song especially written for the album, along with a new Ry Cooder/Nick Lowe tune. It's the new songs written by Nick Lowe, though, that are the heart of the album—'Christmas At The Airport' is a playful take on the travel tie-ups we've all experienced, complete with Ray Conniff-style backgrounds punctuated by terminal PA voiceovers. Meanwhile, the stunning 'I Was Born In Bethlehem' unfolds as an inventive retelling of the nativity. Lowe says, 'It’s this amazing story that everyone knows, but I was trying to write it as if you'd met Jesus on a plane, and he just started chatting away about that night. I tried to make it very conversational and sort of matter of fact.'" - Rockshot UK

"The Sounding Joy is a spirited collection of folk carols drawn from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s 1953 songbook American Folk Songs For Christmas. Featuring Elizabeth Mitchell and a luminary list of her musical family, friends, and neighbors, this album celebrates the spirit of community and homespun traditions that existed in times before the commercialization of Christmas. Natalie Merchant, Aoife O’Donovan, Amy Helm, John Sebastian, Dan Zanes, Happy Traum, and many others including special guest Peggy Seeger all add their voices to pay tribute to a collection revered in the canon of American Music." - Smithsonian Folkways

CASS McCOMBS - Big Wheel And Others

Two years after the downer-folk/lighter-rock one-two punch that was WIT'S END soon followed by Humor Risk, McCombs' newest throws all his approaches in the pot, making for an 85-minute-long, double-disc effort that's all over the map in the best of ways.

"The titular 'Others' aren’t a mess of B-sides and throwaways—following the manly-man trucker of 'Big Wheel,' those others are all the dreamers, drifters, dealers, waitresses and wastrels populating the westbound highway. This isn't the Disneyfied hoboing of that rabble-rouser with the illegitimate sons, nor is it the faithful road that’s no place to start a family. Working from cover-to-cover through the American Songbook, McCombs bears equal witness to the principled and the unscrupulous, delivering a travelogue of country folk, folk blues, cemetery blues, lounge jazz, free jazz, rockabilly, cock rock—you name it, it’s all represented." - Paste

"Unless you are listening to one of his seven albums, perhaps a little hypnotised by his gifts and the one setting in which everything about Cass McCombs seems to make sense, this artist can seem a perplexing figure. [...] In 2011 he released two compelling, confusing and challenging albums in WIT'S END and Humor Risk, the latter he promoted by only doing postal interviews. If that wasn't enough to make an awkward fit with a culture driven by snap judgements, instant accessibility and short attention spans, here is an album with 22 tracks of wilful, exploratory music and his familiar wizened poetry. And a cover of a Thin Lizzy song.

There is no getting around the fact Big Wheel And Others is a slog on first listen and will always remain so for some, yet McCombs is nothing if not a songwriter who knows catchiness: somehow, each of these songs is memorable for its structure and compositional bite, though some are better than others. The triumphs are among the best things he has done." - The Quietus

MOLLY DRAKE - S/T

Gentle and soothing but subtly ominous and wisely wistful, the (until-now) private piano parlour tunes of Molly Drake are as melancholy and beautiful as the work of her son, someone else whose songs were similarly only fully appreciated after his passing.

"Squirrel Thing Recordings is proud to announce the release of Molly Drake—a self-titled collection of never-before-heard songs recorded in the 1950s at the Drake family home, and lovingly restored by Nick Drake's engineer John Wood. According to Joe Boyd, legendary producer of Five Leaves Left and Bryter Later, 'this is the missing link in the Nick Drake story.'

In the privacy of her home, Molly Drake wrote music and poetry, and played her songs for family and friends. With the help of her husband Rodney, she recorded them to tape and direct-to-disk recorders, but they were never published in her own lifetime.

For fans of Nick Drake, Molly Drake reveals an undeniable influence on her son’s celebrated canon. But moreover, these songs present a comprehensive first look at a singular and sophisticated artist in her own right." - Squirrel Thing Recordings