R.E.M. were around a long time before Out Of Time Laps. In fact I prefer most of their 80s output apart from that album and Automatic For The People.
Ok we're heading way down south today to the beautiful city of Auckland, NZ.. Neil Finn is just a genius songwriter and is still doing it today... It must be something in the water down there because Liz Stokes is one of my favourite current songwriters... This is another favourite current band, soothing Folk... This band should've been way bigger and show their influences like Pixies, Pavement and VU...
I love the music of Blind Willie McTell. Probably my favourite country blues musician. There is an exceptional biography called 'Hand me my walking shoes' which debunks alot of the mystique about this blues musician and recasts him as benefitting from a decent education at a blind school. He does not seem to be a very sympathetic character. I find these kinds of autobiographies fascinating but the McTell book on another level in tracing his roots from the American Civil war and also putting him into a social context which was far more favourable than his conremporaries. There is more info on him than in other books about Robert Johnson or Blind Lemon Jefferson. I find the lyrics quite revealing too, 'Your southern can is mine' being particularly repellent. Can is the slang for a 4 letter Anglo Saxon word beginning with C. His musical partner ,Curley Weaver's sister was interviewed without success as she refused to speak to any white people. I think there is a tendency to romanticise regions like Geogia yet this book makes ut clear how run down they still are and the appeal of cities like Atlanta. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in music. I am fascinated by these old country blues artists where the myths are stripped away to reveal very unusual lives.
