As anyone who knows me be will be aware, playing, purchasing, watching and listening to music has consumed an inordinate amount of my life. It has forged friendships, fueled arguments and lead to home storage quandaries.
My beloved N has been encouraging me for a while to express this in a forum other than my living room and my head, partially out of genuine encouragement and possibly mostly out of indulgence.
This is it then.
My intention is capture gigs I’ve been to, records I’ve purchased and any other ephemera relating to my brief time on this planet. It might be about music. It also might be about road cycling. It also might be about whisky, chocolate and coffee.
Anyway to start off, here’s a current musical squeeze.
This is Andrew Combs. We first encountered him supporting Caitlin Rose at Dingwalls in Camden last year. He immediately brought to mind Heartbreaker-era Ryan Adams forged with Roy Orbison classicism and Gram Parsons honky tonk. The gig was almost an old-time classic revue show. The first support band Steelism backed Combs and then Caitlin herself. Andrew dropped into Caitlin’s set and Caitlin dropped into Andrew. They did a great version of “Tiger By The Tail”, a Buck Owens classic, here from an American gig, I think.
His first album “Worried Man” was a great starting point and a track from his follow-up was included in Rough Trade’s Counter Culture 14 CD as a taster.
Well, the new album, All These Dreams, has been released and I picked it up last week on vinyl. It fulfils the promise of the debut and absolutely does not suffer from the second album dip. The Orbison influence is there but so are other classic Texan Songwriters (Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Willis Alan Ramsey). In fact, to emphasise the point, Rough Trade are packaging it with a free “Influences” CD which includes all of these artists plus more. It’s easy on the ear but has enough grit to draw you in. “A Month Of Bad Habits” is the immediate standout. It’s got a title that George and Tammy would be proud of and works both in a band and a solo setting.
So my first unreserved recommendation is “All These Dreams” by Andrew Combs. You can pick it up from Rough Trade (here) and be quick to catch the influences CD) or via Andrew’s Bandcamp page, here.
Looking at Combs’ website, there are no European dates listed except for a festival later in the summer. Hopefully, he’ll combine that with a few gigs of his own around the date.
Well it would be rude not too……..
PS click through the highlighted texts for more good stuff
BlackCountryRock 
Stuart I’m really pleased you decided to write this, as a fellow ex blogger and music/ art nut it’s fantastic to always discover new and sometimes old music through friends!
I love Caitlin Rose and saw her at Union Hall in Brooklyn in 2013, actually spoke to her at the bar, she’s very talented!
Keep writing!! It’s great…
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Caitlin is a family favourite. Shanghai Cigarettes and Own Side Now are guaranteed singalongs “This will never be right and I will never let go.”
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Why buy mags when you offer an inform unbiased choice of music new & old. Good craic(fun).
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Thanks Kev – I’m having fun
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Keep this going, mate. I have Worried Man and loved it but didn’t know Combs had a second album out. Will be getting it now – thanks.
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Thanks Diane. The new album is possibly even better.
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Looking forward to listening – which on reflection, sounds really rather weird!
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Thanks everyone for your kind words. The next post will go up this week.
If you “follow” my blog, you will get it delivered to your inbox as soon as it is available (plus it makes me look really popular!)
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Great start Stu. I love the Andrew Combs track. I’ll definitely find out more about him. As someone who has limited opportunities to see good music in the South West (I was roper in to see Bad Manners a couple of years ago – things are that bad) it’s great to hear about stuff I don’t know or haven’t heard. I’ll let you know when I’m next in London and perhaps we could meet and go and see someone or something. Looking forward to the next instalment.
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Blair – thanks for that. Really glad that you enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to do. The next post will be up later this week. Let me know when you will be in London and we can hook up.
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Please share as well via your media tech colleagues and FB friends and “follow” the blog.
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I haven’t heard any of these but they may be in a similar vein to the Andrew Combs album, which criminally is mentioned
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/18/the-best-alt-country-albums-of-2015-so-far
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Sorry – should have said isn’t mentioned
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