Monthly Archives: May 2011

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It’s magic, man!

BEATLES ALERT: This post was prepared in a factory that handles Beatles music. If you suffer from Beatles allergy, look away now.

Many of you will remember the contributions of magicman, and he is missed on RR by many of us. Some of you will be aware that he is a renowned film and TV actor, based in Brighton, and that he is also a leading light and prime mover in the Brighton Beach Boys, a tribute band. They have been going for ten years, and for the last five of them, have staged an annual award winning Brighton Festival event, Pet Sounds versus Sgt. Pepper. This involves them playing both albums in their entirety, to a packed church in Kemptown.

Given the studio-complexity of both albums, they enlist the help of the Psychedelic Love Orchestra, to provide string and wind back up.

I love Brighton Festival, and took the opportunity to see magicman in action, and enjoy a brief chat with him about RR/spill, Dorian, African and black American music, and the pleasure he gets from being in the Brighton Beach Boys. In an ensemble 15 strong, he is the only one who is not a professional musician, but you wouldn’t know it from his dexterity on sax, keyboards and vocals. I enjoyed meeting and chatting to him,

I have to admit that this is not normally the sort of thing I go to – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tribute band before, and I’m not into nostalgia, with so much great music in the here and now. I felt a bit like my gran going to see Vera Lynn do wartime songs when the war was a distant memory. But having said that, I enjoyed the evening immensely in a guilty pleasures sort of way, and the band do a great job. And the audience was drawn from all age groups, not just wrinklies like me!

Here’s a few clips I took at the gig for your delectation (magicman is the one in the hat, and then hatless for ‘Within you, without you’). Given that the venue was a church, we start fittingly with ‘God only knows’. The second youtube is a short vid from LatestTV, with magicman talking about the band.

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The All-New ‘Spill Weekly Song Challenge – Week 5

Or, in case ToffeeBoy‘s around, Challenge 31 b…

Anyone really still need a recap of the rules?

A new challenge appears of a Tuesday evening [next week's amylee's turn, any takers for June 14th or beyond, please make yourself known in the comments below. Ta!]… No song may be chosen twice in the same week (at least, not by the same artist) – well, that’s how I’m interpreting it anyway – and TFD & Chris get first dibs at the Tom Petty & the Grateful Dead catalogues unless anyone else really really really really really needs one of their songs for that week’s challenge and is quicker to the draw…Dr*pb*x folder can be made available should anyone feel the need… Did I forget any vital information?

This week’s challenge is to choose a song in a language you don’t understand. Have fun!

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EOTWQ. ‘SPILL! the musical

After the roaring success of The ‘Spill, the movie, they’ve decided to take things to Broadway, as they do. We’ll need a lot of reworking though… to return to life as ‘SPILL! the musical.

1) The plot… what’s the story? Remember that we need to shoehorn some songs in. (But we’re all fairly good at that at this point!)

2) The libretto. Give us an example of the lyrics. Could be a couplet, a verse, a rousing chorus or a whole damn song. Whatever your time and creative energy permits.

3) The composer. Who will we trust to write our music? What will it sound like?

4) The cast. Who will play whom?

5) The sets & costumes. Give us a brief description of the set design, and tell us what everybody will be wearing.

and…

***** JAZZ HANDS ******

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Guitar Solo Battle! Round Three!!

In the opening round of the battle, Boris were seen off by Williamsbach’s deployment of the vicious Roy Buchanan – Roy’s Blues (live ’76) solo into the open battlefield. Roy’s protection of Williamsbach as King Of The Castle Of The Axe was brief and bloody – a sophisticated attack from Mnemosene caused a mortal wound via the use of a non-battle tested Ry Cooder “At the Dark End of the Street” (1977 Live). The solo begins in the video above at 2″56′ and is the one to beat in round three.

Mnemosene is now Queen Of The Castle Of The Axe – and the challenge is to dislodge the reigning champion by inventive and awesome guitar skills!

Even war has rules:

1. One entry each

2. Please note when the solo you want to highlight kicks in (minutes and seconds, plz)

3. Each of you has one vote each, for either your favourite challenger posted or for the reigning champion, so wait til there’s a good lot of contenders and then cast your vote. You can’t vote for your own submission.

4. A submission cannot have been used in previous rounds

HAVE AT YE!!! 

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Wondering which way to go

Well, it’s a funny old life. You bumble along for a while, and then just when you think you’ve got it sussed, everything changes. Not that I’m complaining, I’ve had a very fortunate life so far.

Thing is, as of Wednesday I will be unemployed for the first time since I left school, nearly 34 years ago. I have been applying for jobs, and will continue to do so, but competition is fierce and the incentive, I must admit, is not great. Of course, I will need to eat, etc., but I can probably survive for a few months at least before panic sets in (or the snow starts to fall). I am being politely encouraged to take myself off for a week or two by myself and not to come back until I have had a good time, but I have absolutely no idea where to go or what to do when I get there.  Friends and relatives are scattered to the four winds and I would be hard-pressed to visit all of them without getting travel-sick, or without offending anyone along the way. So what I’m looking for are some helpful ideas – bearing in mind that I am of a certain age and not likely to enjoy (say) living it up in Ibiza or even wallowing in a field at Glastonbury. And that my passport has expired. And that if I was a bloke I would already have my walking boots on, my beard at the ready and a pint of real ale to hand.

What would Spillers do? Answers on a postcard, please … and here is some music to get you thinking:





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Earworms – May 30

“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.”
Aaron Copland

Jo Stafford – You Belong To Me
This was Stafford’s greatest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart). It was an amazingly popular hit; it was on the radio constantly for weeks.
goneforeign

Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra – Pompton Turnpike
Time for an old, oldie earworm. I’ve always loved this since I saw my Uncle (great dancer) doing the most remarkable slow motion jitter bug to it when I was a kid. The signature phrase just won’t leave your ear either. This one is from 1940.
Fintan

Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks – Who Do You Love?
1964 remake of Bo’s track. The line-up of Hawks were the ones who became The Band. Robbie Robertson playing lead was about 16 when they cut this. (Doncha hate precociously talented kids???)
RockingMitch

Niña Pastori – Cartita De Amor
A song that always reminds me of holidays in Andalusia. The singer asks for help to choose something to wear for a night out with her lover. Memories of sitting on a sunny balcony of an evening waiting for wife and daughter to get ready to go out. Smiley, sunny music.
maki

Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers
The latest Lykke Li album is another treat from her. None more earwormy than “I Follow Rivers”.
glasshalfempty

Catatonia – Strange Glue
I suspect Cerys Matthews’ voice may be a Marmite issue for many of you but I love her pissed-little-girl-who-smokes-50-a-day tone, especially when singing lines like ‘When faced with my demons/I clothe them and feed them’. The almost oompah-pah-pah music makes this one of the most stirring paeans to self-loathing I know.
Chris


Please send submissions to earworm@tincanland.com. And remember: please try and keep your blurb succint. Apologies to those whose text I’ve cut. No offence intended of course – just trying to keep things snappy! Enjoy the choons… (I know I did.)

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it’s MY party

Please indulge me – I’ve found this great fun.
But then my Birthday is on the First (didn’t realise Jon liked me so much he’d do a RR for me)
I usually spend the week before a birthday calming the black dog but this has cheered me up.
Mostly because it gives me the ideal opportunity to post a playlist for my own birthday – I do mixes for all my friends normally, so I don’t get a chance to be totally selfish – this is completely for me it’s 1.6 hours long – skip through freely.

I’m off in the morning, going to see the original 2tone graphic designers exhibition on Bank holiday Monday.. and see DJ’s playing Ska tracks on Margate beach (I think it’s still on) as long as the Mods and Rockers don’t revive their friendly meetings.

1 Birthday Boy John Otway, Wild Willy Barrett
2 The Birthday Song Candy Bars
3 Happy Birthday To Me (Feb. 15) Bright Eyes
4 Birthday The Accidental
5 Birthday Boy The Residents
6 Happy Birthday! Modeselektor
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Gil Scott Heron – RIP

I woke up this morning to the sad news that Gil Scott Heron had died yesterday.

I was first introduced to his music by a friend whose dad was a big jazz fan and I was instantly captivated by the wonderful mixture (dare I say fusion?) of jazz, soul, rap, poetry and even – yes! – pop in his work. His warmth, humour, passion and sincerity shone out from everything he did. It’s a huge shame that we will hear no more from the great man.

His live double album Tales of Gil Scott Heron is never too far from my iPod’s play list and I think I’ll spend most of today listening to it. Here a few highlights from Gil Scott Heron’s long and varied career.




I hope you all know the most surprising piece of Gil Scott Heron trivia: his father played for Celtic.

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All I Got Was A Cake & This Lousy Playlist

Diagram Brothers – Hey Dad!
Why? – Gemini (Birthday Song)
Get Well Soon – Born Slippy (Nuxx)
Laurie Anderson – Born, Never Asked
Arthur Russell – Hiding Your Present From You
Beloved – Celebrate Your Life
Simple Minds – Celebrate
Yello – Move, Dance, Be Born

Luxuria – Flesh
Julian Cope – Kolly Kibber’s Birthday
Soledad Brothers – Miracle Birth
Ral Partha Vogelbacher – Birthday In Beijing
Thee More Shallows – Pre-Present
Larsen – Rebirth

**Edit**

Less Post-Rock, More Pop.

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Guitar Solo Battle! Round Two!!

In the opening round of the battle, Boris were seen off by Williamsbach’s deployment of the vicious Roy Buchanan – Roy’s Blues (live ’76) solo into the open battlefield.

Williamsbach is now King Of The Castle Of The Axe – and the challenge is to dislodge the reigning champion by inventive and awesome guitar skills!

Things are now more democratic, so here’s the rules:

1. One entry each (Chris; I’m looking at you….)!

2. Please note when the solo you want to highlight kicks in (minutes and seconds, plz)

3. Each of you has one vote each, for either your favourite challenger posted or for the reigning champion, so wait til there’s a good lot of contenders and then cast your vote. You can’t vote for your own submission.

HAVE AT YE!!! 

ROUND TWO IS NOW CLOSED FOR ENTRIES! 

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Music for/by Little Owls!

If I was more of a cynic, and the sort of person who participates in blogs as a means of getting in a bit of sneaky product placement, I might have drawn on this album for my answer to Darcey’sDad’s music challenge. Owlet Music Vol.I is a recent compilation from the label run by Trwbador, a duo with whom I have a certain well-known affiliation, who contribute their Christmas song from last year; various of the tracks do seem to have a clear affinity with their style (lots of acoustic guitars, some electronic beats and an air of homespun eccentricity), and others clearly fall into their “well, we just liked it” category. Unfortunately my favourite wouldn’t have counted for the “you must own one track and one track only” challenge: Das Wonderlust get two bites of the cherry. You’re Only Young Once is almost as good as Swan Song – it’s more consistent for a start, whereas I loathe the spoken interlude in the latter with a fiery passion – but in the end, gloriously histrionic gothness wins the day. I hear echoes of Toyah’s Thunder in the Mountains, but then I’m old…

Of course, one of the major hazards of being a reviewer of a certain age, so to speak, is that everything tends to remind me of stuff I heard thirty years ago. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it might sound like that to someone else. I can’t think of any way of describing Francesca’s Word Salad‘s Something’s Missing in comparative terms (“a less contrived and commercial X”) that isn’t going to seem insulting, so let’s analyse the lyrics instead… “I’ve got three wheels on my tricycle… I’m an only twin…”: on the face of it a simple ditty about the fact that one’s life doesn’t feel complete without that special someone, but clearly the real message is (arguably) that, with a little raising of consciousness, you can realise that you actually have a perfectly serviceable bicycle, your parents’ undivided attention, and no arguments about what dvd to watch in the evening. This interpretation may be wishful thinking.

As for Super Cute Voices, they remind me of Pop Will Eat Itself. Which is a good thing.

The album is available on Spotify, if you want to discover the delights of Telefair, MeiMei and other artists who didn’t grab me enough to feature them here. I’ll leave you with Vera Gogh and Home Town, which feels sad and rather beautiful, as all songs about hometowns tend to be…

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Guitar Solo Battle! Round One!

Okay ‘Spillers! Let’s battle! 

The weapon is the guitar, the attack is the solo….

I’ll swing my axe first, and if you think you can offer up a champion to dethrone my reigning king, please do so in the comments, and we will judge whether they have been a worthy adversary or not.

Whoever beats my contender will go through to the next round, and face the next six-string challenger!

Here’s Boris with Michio Kurihara guesting on guitar, the solo kicks in about halfway through and doesn’t really stop. The song is called “Starship Narrator”.

HAVE AT YE!!

***UPDATE*** ROUND ONE IS NOW OVER! ROUND TWO IS LIVE!! NO MORE SOLOS IN THIS POST PLEASE!! 

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Weird ? I don’t know the meaning of the word

Having been wickedly accused of posting “weirdness” on here I decided that I might as well.
So I’ve been trawling down the back of the sofa and have come up with a few tracks from the left hand path , musically speaking.
I’ve chosen tracks that , I think, aren’t “trying” to be “weird”, I have plenty of those, these are songs that are odd for a number of reasons, subject matter, performance or just pure “out there”ness.
Endure !
Continue reading →

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Gratefully Dead

Eric Burdon and the Animals – Gratefully Dead

Stumbled on this rare slice of psychedelic acid garage punk funk rap whatever and still can’t stop listening to it. Released as the B-side to San Franciscan Nights in the UK only. Can’t find any lyrics. Can’t find any other info on it online. No idea what the overlapping vocal track is. What i do know – thanks to this article courtesy of our intrepid Dead expert (thanks, Chris) – is that Eric and the Animals took the stage and did a set with the Dead’s equipment on March 26, 1967, and this song seems to be recorded soon after that show. I can’t imagine why they didn’t give this song a wider release, it’s the best thing i’ve ever heard in my life. Any further info on the song very welcome.

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Dragonflies and Cigarettes and Beer

I still want to get a slideshow up like GF’s last year, but it’s going to be quite awhile until i get around to that. So in the meantime i thought i’d just throw these ancient shots up that i took about a decade and a half ago, as due to quality issues i can’t really do anything else with them. I love to hang out with and shoot dragonflies and haven’t done it in many years. Continue reading →

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The days are getting longer – the weeks seem to be getting shorter: EoTWQ

I am so happy to see so many posts on the ‘Spill. Recently it seems you log off for half an hour, log back on and there’s a couple more up. Are we finally settling into WP? I really hope so. Anyway, loads of great new stuff; the 30 day challenge and the weekly posts it’s inspired, earworms going strong under new, improved and totally inspired tutelage, Ubu’s weirdness for the world, that fellah wittering on about flamenco and lots of other stuff. Mrs Maki logs on to the ‘Spill first thing every day and she’s not even an official ‘Spiller! But I’m missing the EoTWQ. Maybe they’ve run their course. Maybe with all the questions we ask each other almost incessantly they’ve become obsolete. But, anyway, here’s a set. Let’s see how it goes and if anyone wants to offer to do some next week, or whenever, that’d be cool.
1. When did you realise that music was going to be important in your life? Was it when listening to something? Or when playing something? ‘Cause music is important to all of us, right?
2. Take a song, any song. Use it as the soundtrack to an existing movie scene or tell us about the scene you’ve always imagined for it.
3. As the days get longer (Northern hemisphere bias, I know), do you slow down and enjoy them more? Do the longer evenings really make a difference?
4. Are you a good luck charm or a jinx? I think I must be a jinx – recent examples would include my finally getting back to the UK to have dinner in a favourite pub only to find out that weeks after my visiting they lost their Michelin star! Plus none of my favourite groups have had a number one single – but maybe that’s not such a bad thing!
5. You’ve got a hundred quid to spare. What are you going to spend it on?

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The All-New ‘Spill Weekly Song Challenge – Week 4

Hi all! I realize we’ve been at this nearly a month now, but for those as thick as me, here’s a repeat summary of the rules anyway. You choose one song in response to each theme, and post it with an appropriate justification, ideally a link, and as much personal anecdote and rambling reminiscence of days gone by as you can muster.

- A new challenge will appear every Tuesday – if it’s not there by 10pm (the traditional time for the 30Qs back in April) whoever has stewardship that week will be hunted down by the rest of us! We take it in turns to set the challenge – normally, whoever wants to set next week’s challenge, make yourself known over the course of the thread. If no-one has volunteered by, say, Friday, the job defaults to whoever posted first. No problems on that score at the moment: Debbym has next week, and I believe amylee has claimed the week after.

- No artist can be duplicated in one week – whoever posts firsts gets to keep their choice. No gratuitous selections of Tom Petty or The Grateful Dead just to piss tfd or Chris off as that would be mean, but no guilt if your perfect song inadvertantly treads on someone else’s toes. However, unlike in the 30Qs, song choices can be repeated in subsequent weeks (though we might want to impose a one-week prohibition of repeating songs) because it’s doubtful anyone’s going to want to keep track of everyone’s choices indefinitely.

- Challenge questions don’t have to be as pithily worded as the 30Qs – with so many of the big things in life covered last month, we’re inevitably going to be peeping into the cracks so we can probably afford to be more precise and/or convoluted in our questioning than would have been appropriate for the Facebook masses. We relish complexity and ambiguity!

- I’ve not set it up so don’t look at me but we can get together a Dropbox folder of choice cuts each week – people can simply put songs in the box on request or as they wish.

Feel free to add to and alter those rules. Now here’s my probably-the-least-pithily-worded-challenge-in-the-brief-history-of-the-ANSWSCs:

Inspired by a discussion between Mnemonic & nilpferd (I think) of the above linked song over on RR recently, which I’m eternally grateful to Abahachi for the introduction to, I wondered …

Which artist do you only own one song by, love it to death, but have never added to it?

Now I do mean ONE song! This is a challenge based on compilations, downloads and (dare I say it?) the ‘Box – even 7″ snigles tend to have two tunes by the band. You didn’t know that artist until stumbling across this one song: it blew you away, you now have it on heavy rotation on your Walkman/iPod/stereo . . . but you’ve somehow not got round to grabbing anything else the artist has released. Well, here’s your chance to wax lyrical about it, and see if any of the rest of us are fans who can tell you where to go next. But, I’ll say it again, you must only own THE ONE SONG by the artist, NO MORE! Unfortunately for me, that rules the Marcin Wasilewski Trio out, as the Professor also treated us to their version of Hyperballad a while back. Instead, I’ll post my choice as an early comment. I hope this works! Good luck everyone.

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Earworms – May 23

“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”
Sergei Rachmaninov

Krzysztof Komeda – Knife in the Water
Komeda trained as a doctor (and adopted a pseudonym because the authorities regarded jazz as suspect). In the 1960s, he produced a string of brilliant albums, helping to establish a ‘European’ jazz aesthetic, and also wrote the music for a series of Roman Polanski films. This, his debut, features the Swede Bernt Rosengren on saxophone.
Abahachi

Michelle Shocked – If Love Was A Train
This one has lodged itself over the last couple of days. No idea why because I haven’t played the album in ages. I had to give it a spin to see if I could lose the ’worm; it hasn’t worked yet. Michelle Shocked is someone who made a couple of good albums and then sort of just faded away. “Short Sharp Shocked” is her best though, in my opinion.
Carole

Buddy Miller – Dang Me
Genre-hopping guitarist Marc Ribot and old singing buddy Marc Anthony Thompson (aka The Chocolate Genius) help roots impressario Buddy Miller and his latest ensemble, The Majestic Silver Strings, unearth the dark side of Roger Miller’s jaunty Dang Me. Who paid attention to the lyrics before? Me neither.
tincanman

Gillian Welch – Forty One Dollars & Change
This is an earworm for my iPod at the moment – it’s come up three times in a week. As a way of expressing what’s left after a relationship ends it can’t be beat. So that’s all it was worth? Move on, girl, that’s what I say.
tfd

John Fogerty – Somewhere Listening (For My Name)
First thing John Fogerty did in 1973 after CCR split was make a bluegrass album on which he did everything; all the instruments, vocals, production… even the five band members in the cover pic are all him! This is an old gospel song. The vocal is magic, for my money, both lush in the ‘choir’ (all JF, remember) and raw in the lead. Me, I love a bit of gospel; it’s no surprise that so many soul singers started there.
Williamsbach

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – The Waltz
Amy was saying recently how “Come on Eileen” had turned her off Dexy’s. Fair enough, but… here’s a slow-burning fave of mine to attempt to redress the balance. Money-back guarantee if the agnostics haven’t been converted by the time Kevin howls, “There’s no beauty any more…”
bishbosh


Please send submissions to earworm@tincanland.com. Keep ‘em coming, people – stocks are fast depleting…

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Afterlife Part 1: Heavenly Pop Hits

MC 900 Ft Jesus – I’m Going Straight To Heaven
Adrian Sherwood – St Peter’s Gate
Wolfgang Press – Heaven’s Gate
R. L. Burnside – I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down
Raymen – Heaven Is Only One Step Away
Jim White – Phone Booth In Heaven

Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles – Rebel Side Of Heaven
Jesca Hoop – Havoc In Heaven
Virgin Prunes – Heaven
Girls At Our Best – Heaven
Jeffrey Lewis – Bugs & Flowers
Edwyn Collins – North Of Heaven

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Post-Black Metal

Now, I DO love a good sub-genre, so imagine my excitement over the last few years as i’ve slowly watched the merging of two of my favourites; Black Metal and Post-Rock into the beautiful beast of a sub-sub-genre that has finally been named Post-Black Metal. It takes the lo-fo production, dark atmospherics, and often the anguished howls of Black metal and combines them with a lot of instrumental workouts, Mogwai-style quiet/loud dynamics and even some very prominent shoegazey moments. The bands themselves also eschew the traditional corpsepaint and spikes in favour of the beardy indie bloke look.

I started noticing it a few years ago when some wags starting referring to US Black metal types Wolves In The Throne Room as “Grey Metal” for being all metally and black, but you know, kinda nice at the same time, with lyric sheets dealing in environmental meltdown etc, they read more like a Guardian Saturday supplement than an extract from the Marquis De Sade’s undiscovered even more hardcore, “De Sade Nights” script! And, I finally found a special feature in Terrorizer magazine a couple of months ago, giving the sub-sub-genre it’s name, which I wasn’t aware of before.

I apologise for being about six months too late with this post as a lot of the leading bands in the scene (a large proportion of which seem to be French for some reason) have jumped the shark somewhat in my opinion, releasing recent albums that have acoustic guitar and like, real, proper singing, which is just going too far.

Continue reading →

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Friday Night Flamenco 13 – Flamenco in Cadiz (1)

This week we’re back in Cadiz. There is general consensus that the Province of Cadiz and especially the area around Jerez de La Frontera must be considered the cradle of Flamenco as we know it today. Any list you could make of Cantaores, Bailaores, Guitarists and other flamenco artists and styles would inevitably show the importance of the area. The styles have developed and progressed all over Andalusia and beyond of course, but Cadiz is where most palos started.



We are going to take a more detailed look at many of the styles that originated and are still sung and danced in Cadiz.
Continue reading →