This month's song from Thea is a bit different. This is her introduction: "Isn't technology marvellous? This month, here's a technological experiment for ya.. You all know that I've been writing like a demon for the next album.. which means time in the studio has been short. So I thought I'd send you over something I recorded on Garageband in the dastardly iPad. It's great fun.. However, it means you are listening to my voice coming from the picturesque surrounds of my utility room.. the mountain of washing acted as a very [...]
FOLK LEGEND SANDY DENNY PLAYLISTED AT RADIO 2 FOR THE FIRST TIME: THREE DECADES AFTER HER DEATH DISCOVERY OF LOST DIARY SPARKS UNEXPECTED HIT SINGLE "LONDON" TO BE RELEASED ON 21 APRIL 2012 ON EXCLUSIVE SEVEN-INCH VINYL Sandy Denny , the beloved London born folk legend who tragically passed away in 1978 has been playlisted at Radio 2 for the very first time in her solo career, over [...]
The end of another month brings all the Angels a new Thea Gilmore song. This one is very much a new song, written and performed the day before it was sent out last week. This is what Thea says about It's True: "I've been deep in writing mode, getting songs together for a new album.. so this month, I'm sending you a song that I literally wrote yesterday. It may end up on the record, even I'm not sure what I think of it yet but its about as hot off the press as its [...]
I had other plans last night - dance class chaperonage and an early fast food supper out with the kids; a long school committee meeting; a late-night blog entry that bowed to a particularly delicious crop of video-driven mailbox coverage. But Mother Nature had a different idea, and here, in a town ravaged by October blizzards and June tornadoes, we've learned to listen to her insistent ways. And so, after months of startling sun and warmth, and what was surely the driest season on record, winter came at last to our little pocket of [...]
The end of another month brings us lucky Angels another offering from Thea Gilmore. This month is a rejected song from the Victor Gregg documentary entitled This Is The Time. Thea doesn't say anything about the song but it's certainly a departure from her typical sound. This is a dark, slightly tribal and with a distinct Native American vibe. Part blues and part Americana with a distant wordless chorus - this is very atmospheric and moody. In other news, here are Thea's latest tour dates (with [...]
A great start to 2012! Thea Gilmore has given all her lovely Angels a fantastic new song, exclusive to all subscribers and no one else! Hold Still is a deep and meaningful piano ballad with huge deep echoing vocals and plenty of atmosphere. Here's what Thea says about the song: "This is a title that I've had for a while and I could never quite write the right song for it. I'm still not sure that the song quite lives up to its idea, so you may hear another [...]
The January release holds a special place in the ebb and flow of artistry; though it runs the real risk of being forgotten by the time it comes to make our year's end lists, it also finds the market just gearing up again after a spate of holiday absence and Christmas releases. Thanks to tip-offs and promos from the usual sources, our fresh eyes have spotted three albums - each one due to drop this month, all well worth watching for - plus a few bonuses on the event horizon. As always, read and click for [...]
The final song from Thea this year for all her lovely Angels is another double: the rather pleasant But Me and a brief take of Auld Lang Syne. But Me is full of haunting, echoing, spacious vocals set to a simple guitar backing. No write-up or explanation from Thea this time but the message is positive and upbeat in spite of a sedate and measured delivery. A gorgeous love song emerges in the last minute. Thea's take on Auld Lang Syne is equally beautiful and as expected. A cappella and only one verse but a rare [...]
It's coming on 2012, and all around us, bloggers tout their 2011 taste, jostling to be the best and first match for your own preferences, inviting debate over position in the ranks. And so, as we do every year as the calendar comes to a close, we struggle with the conceit of The Year In Review, surveying a year's worth of posts, writing a never-ending series of half-hearted drafts, flinching every time we approach the task, yet feeling guilt every time we put it down. My reluctance to pass judgement isn't a cop-out. [...]
Check out the top cover albums of 2011, featuring Duncan Sheik, Hussey-Regan, Steve Cropper, the Jolly Boys, Marissa Nadler, and more. Plus, download an MP3 from each!
This month's feast of sound from Thea Gilmore to all her lovely Angels In The Abattoir is a cover of Mark Knopfler's Piper To The End. Thea original had a new song ready but 'technical issues' got in the way so we will have to wait for that. Anyway... this appears on the documentary Victor that was broadcast by the BBC earlier this month. Thea says "It just so happens that Mark is a very good friend of the guy who wrote the novel 'Victor'.. a lovely man called Rick Stroud.. so imagine the [...]
Someone says it's going to snow, but the weatherman predicts only rain, a constant drizzle. Still, I've got socks with snowflakes on them. I predict I won't wear them. I predict that despite the promises I made about yoga and art supplies, I will sit and watch it not snow out my window. I predict that I will crack it open so I can feel the cold. I predict the laundry will sit in its heap, the cat will slip into the igloo made by my knees under the blanket, and that I will lie for hours and shovel these [...]
This is lovely. Thea Gilmore playing one of Sandy Denny's newly discovered lyrics- Don't Stop Singing
Thea Gilmore is a huge Dylan fan and this song is from her complete cover of Dylan's John Wesley Harding album.
This month Thea has provided her lovely Angels with five (yes five!) demos from her 2000 album The Lipstick Conspiracies. This is not my favourite Thea Gilmore record; her début Burning Dorothy and follow-up Rules For Jokers are both excellent in comparison. Anyway, the five demos are: Lidocaine Baby Exit Route Forgotten Generation Y Night Driving Thea says about the demos: "These come with a proviso though.... the next time I see you all, you must must promise not to laugh in my face about [...]
Thea Gilmore - After ten lauded solo albums in a decade, U.K. songwriter was tapped for a thrilling but daunting task: compose, arrange and perform new music built around previously unscored lyrics from Sandy Denny, the seminal British songwriter who tragically died in 1978. A member of Fairport Convention, the greatest of all U.K. folk/rock outfits, Denny released four best-selling and groundbreaking solo albums in the 70's but may still be best known in the U.S. for her vocals with Robert Plant on "Battle of Nevermore" from Led Zeppelin IV // Release : [...]
It's been a busy time for Thea Gilmore. So much so that we didn't get a July song at all. She has a good excuse though...a new baby son born a couple of weeks early and requiring some much deserved rest and recuperation. Now at the end of August, Thea wanted to make it up to her devoted Angels by providing two songs but a call to provide for a new Amnesty International collection of Dylan (who else?!) tracks. A studio version of I'll Remember You (previously performed live) will be her contribution. This month's song is the [...]
The British singer-songwriter adds new colors in her album-length cover of Dylan's 1967 classic. John Wesley Harding just might be Bob Dylan's strangest album-and that's saying something. Released in December 1967, 18 months after a serious motorcycle accident led him to drop out of the public eye, it's an understated acoustic collection that was startlingly (and willfully) out of step in the year of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request. It was also unlike any previous Dylan album. Steeped...
A really interesting song this month, recorded by Thea while on her way to Glastonbury... I will let Thea introduce the song: "We're travelling to Glastonbury festival to play John Wesley Harding on the acoustic stage.. I have very deliberately avoided all TV footage of the festival so far because its been raining solidly for three days and I don't want to know the quagmire that we're about to drive into. I am at this point, 35 weeks pregnant and the size of a house, literally, a good sized, 4 [...]
Thea Gilmore: Ever Fallen In Love [ Purchase ] I am crazy about acoustic versions of songs that weren't originally acoustic. I'm also crazy about unconventional covers of songs, namely, ones that give a song a whole new perspective than the original gave it. This cover of the Buzzcocks classic track "Ever Fallen In Love" gives it a whole new feeling, a feeling that almost feels more natural considering the subject matter. It is song about falling in love with someone inappropriate, whether it be because they're your [...]
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