solas2010 was class
you should have been there.

great music, speakers, weather, activities, and fun for all the family.
it was great to be a part of something like this.
where sourcing affordable, local produce, sold at affordable prices, (£2 for an organic venison burger. nice!) was as important as getting the right band. Where giving the festival the right feel & vibe was more important than having a pub.

It was a delight and joy. I still can’t quite believe how well everything went. Someone gave me feedback based on turning Solas from a 4star festival into a 5star. Trust me, a 4star rating is deserved and accurate. It really was good. You should have been there.

thanks to lots of people I worked directly with including,
Dominic,
Hoggy & Gordon @GBR,
Ben & E&MS crew,
Bill,
Sam,
Martin & Dave,
Jonny @Wiston
and the solas directors.

Here’s to many more.

PS Becoming a Solas Saint would be very helpful. please consider helping Solas to grow and develop the conversation between Arts, Justice & Faith, http://www.solasfestival.co.uk/give.php

had this song in my head for about a month now. it is gorgeousness. I wonder how/if it applies to where I am currently.

Like A Radio by Over The Rhine

confused
ever since i spied you in the rooms of my mind
now i can’t deny you

bleeding and bruised
like a vagabond in rags i’ve walked the streets to you door
to find just what’s in store

i see you
you and many others in your clean well-lighted place
where i would find disgrace

but i do
know i’d find contentment just to be your furniture
i need nothing more

in the thick of the night take me out of the cold
let me sing inside
like a radio
in the thick of the night before we grow too old
let me sing inside
like a radio

shivering and cold this night’s conducive to a
flight into my soul but i stand here
though my heart grows bold
once on the inside i can quietly persist
and hold my tears

and so still i wait
though i grow much weaker
i will not faint
i’ll stay true

believe me when i say
i’d climb to heaven
crawl beneath the lowest hell
to stay near you

Like A Radio by Over the Rhine,
lyrics and melody: Detweiler
music: Detweiler and Hordinski

Solas Festival is happening 25th-27th June. and I, somehow, have managed to be a part of the process of making this entire thing happen. (I knew i should have stopped my addiction to turning up at meetings!)
I am quite pleased to be involved withe the Solas festival bods in trying to do something creative and new and quality within Scotland. It is quite weird and affirming to sit as a equal in a room with people you respect and work with, to work together on a project with internationally exhibiting artists, people who’s songs I sing and have taken on, with people who’s books i have read and been influenced by. I was e-mailing a friend yesterday and writing down what my involvement was an i didn’t realise quite how much i was doing . but by the time June comesI won’t remember all the time I volunteered to it.

So what is Solas? Solas is an arts festival wrestling with the issues around the intersection of faith/arts/justice. It is an attempt to look at what is Scottish, and how these themes play out within a Scottish context. Mr Gay writing for the website says it so much better than i can;

“Solas Festival is an independently funded and managed organisation which works in Scotland to promote the celebration and exploration of relationships between faith, art and justice. Its roots lie in the Christian tradition, ecumenically understood, and it seeks to be actively hospitable to a range of faith traditions.
Our dream is that this all-age weekend will light up the Scottish festival landscape with a vivid mix of music, debate, theatre, comedy, film and visual art and will quickly establish itself as a unique location to celebrate and question our commitments to art, faith and justice within Scotland’s cultural life. Come with us on the journey.”

so get involved please help us make this happen.

come along to the weekend, that’s right, buy a ticket there is a heavy discount until the end of February
http://www.solasfestival.co.uk/tickets.php
volunteer, come and help us actually make the weekend happen.
http://www.solasfestival.co.uk/volunteer.php
become a saint and help fund this vision either regularly or in a one off basis
http://www.solasfestival.co.uk/give.php

As for me I will be the one running about hoping everything will run well.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2009 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2009 the year that Jonathon Ross returned to his Radio two show and Sir Terry Wogan left his, also the year we got a new baby. Talitha. (nice) .
the contenders in alphabetical order;

Using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
a modern progressive rock opera, with 4 lead singing parts, 2 female, 2 male, sung by two females and 1 male. staged as a touring show played in order, it shouldn’t have worked, on first listen it didn’t work, but Shara Wooten for My Brightest Diamond pushes this album into the realms of greatness. It is literate, deep, compelling, strange and weird all at the same time with some wonderful melodies and great tunes backing it up.
seek out – as it is a progressive rock opera, it has to be the whole album, one song just doesn’t give enough without the full fabric around it.

number 2
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
Dirty Projectors, never quite got the previous album, “twin cinema”, but “Bitte Orca” is magnificent, it just sound right. It does just sound right. It is indie greatness.
seek out – sorry the whole album, it is wonderful and only slightly pipped by Sunset for the top spot.

number 1
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
This is a wonderful album which starts as grandly as it can and continues in it’s opulence and rock opera melodics for the whole album. considerably shorted that the Decemberists attempt at doing the same thing and this album does rock, you have probably never heard it but this sounds wonderful, like a band who are having fun creating something they will be proud of for the rest of their lives. truly a great album.seek out – The whole album. You just should.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2008 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2008 the year that Barack Obama (“yes we can”) was elected 44th US president, and Bill Gates stepped down from day to day control at Microsoft in order to give away money.
the contenders in alphabetical order;

Using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever ago
atmospheric, folky, rough yet gentle, this album had some wonderful things in it, an album of emotive depth which takes root in your head and keep s floatinground and round. a ultimately joyful listen
seek out – “Flume”, “Skinny Love”, & “For Emma”

number 2
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Loved this album. Especially shouting out (Blake’s got a new face loudly at really inappropriate times. dunno what else to say. it wears its influences on its seleves and is very enjoyable as a listen.
seek out – “Oxford Comma”, “A-Punk”, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” & “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)”

number 1
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Great Album, similar to Beirut’s album the year before, but simply and wonderful album of harmony, melody and song. I really like this album alot
seek out – The whole album. It lovelyness in musical form.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2007 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2007 the year that was “European Year of Equal Opportunities for All”, the year Gordon brown became UK prime Minister, and the year of minority government at the Scottish Parliament.
the contenders in alphabetical order;

Using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child
This is Over the Rhine’s third appearance in albums i liked from the 2000′s. and this one is again full of consistently great tunes and wonderful lyrics. another quietly wonderful album.
seek out – “Desperate for Love”, “Trouble”, “If A Song Could Be President” & “Don’t Wait For Tom”

number 2
Steve Earle – Washington Square Blues
A great album from Mr Earle, Recorded in New York where he had moved and influenced by the sounds of new york this album mixes up folk and country with hip hop beats and urban production. But it does this without messing with the songwriting, or the key folkiness of the album. It is a good album to listen too, but every so often some of lyrics will catch you provoke and challenge, i like that.
seek out – “Satellite Radio”, “City of Immigrants”, “Sparkle and Shine” & “Oxycontin Blues”

number 1
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead, narrowly edge out The National’s “Boxer”, with “In Rainbows”. What a great album. First thing to notice is that it is only ten songs, ten great songs, everyone is individually noticeable and integral to the album. secondly, it rocks. It really does. “15 step” is great, “Bodysnatchers” sounds wonderful, “weird fishes/arpeggi” is as clean a rock song as Radiohead have ever done.and on it goes. one song highlights this for me “House of Cards”, so simple, deep, emotional, yet simple. it doesn’t seem the longest song on the album yet it is. Lovely album. and in all the coverage about the pay what you want thing, i think the lovelyness of this album got lost somehow.
seek out – The whole album. It lovelyness in musical form.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2006 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2006 the year that richard hammond crashed in that crash, and the year norman kember was on a peacemaking trip,m was kidnapped and then resc=ued by the SAS.
the contenders in alphabetical order;

Using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
we were driving back fro Ruaha National Park to our digs at the Deaf school near Iringa, the night had been fun and long with good chat and cold frosty beverages, around 2am the hippos had started shouting seemingly outside our waterside lodges, lions had been calling to each other, and our lodges had no glass in the windows! We had had a long day animal spotting, and the drive home was long. as we drove Alice asked if we could listen to one of her tapes, It wa athe new muse album. The sun was going down as the landrover drove, the stereo played this amazing soundtrack as we powered to our home. This album sums up our time in Africa in a wonderful and great way.
seek out – “Take A bow”, “Super Massive Black Hole”, “Knights of Cydonia” & “Assassin”

number 2
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
Kinda “Progrock” in places, pop rock in others. it is a fantastic album with a depth of music and way with words which get in your head as much as colin’s voice is Unique. frankly a very, very good album, which was odds on for number 1 if the number one album hadn’t made an appearance to my ear buds!
seek out – “The Crane Wife 3”, “O Valencia”, “Summersong” & “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)”

number 1
Hem – Funnel Cloud
Hem’s funnel cloud is a beautiful album of gentle folky indie music. It a delight of an album.
seek out – The whole album. It is simply beautiful.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2004 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2005 the year Ellen MacArthur sailed very fast, Live 8 saw Pink Floyd on stage together again, and Coldplay made my the walls of our flat shake.
the contenders in alphabetical order;

using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
Jointly My Morning Jacket – Z & The National – Alligator
I couldn’t split them. Both American rock bands, both with awesome albums which I loved. Both are great live, both are albums i keep on returning to often. I don’t know how I could separate them to be honest.
Seek out – both albums. they are very good.

number 2
Martyn Joseph – Deep Blue
What an album. really what an album. Practically prefect songs in every aspect. turn me tender is possibly my favourite song form this decade. it constantly leaves me desiring its company and wisdom as I work out what this thing called life is all about.
seek out – the album, it is quite wonderful

number 1
Sufjan Stevens – (Come on feel the) Illinoise!
I love the songs on this album, the way some tracks last 40 seconds or so, and how some last 5minutes. the way the sparing use of orchestration, the grooves on some songs, the fact it is about one of my top 52 American states, the fact the production seems sparing to give each piece of music its on space. it is quite, quite brilliant.
seek out – the whole album. it should get your attention.

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 2004 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2004 the year Jeffery John and Christiano Ronaldo’s wink as Portugal put England out of European football championships both became infamous.
the contenders in alphabetical order;

using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are

number 3
Ron Sexsmith – Retriever.
I was standing with my wife and Sarah at a concert, and the Sound Guy played this album over the PA. I was commented I loved this record, Sarah asked who it was, and I told her about it. she commented she wished she had my record collection. This album is a wonderfully great pop record, fantastic songs, quietly catchy, with strong melodies, lyrics to die for, this album is wonderful and why he is not stratispherically famous is shocking
seek out – “Not About to Lose”, “Happiness” & “Tomorrow In Her Eyes”

number 2
William Shatner – Has Been
His follow up to his last album in 1968 was great. Shatner doesn’t sing, he kinda reads poetry over the top of musical arrangements. Perhaps it was watching too much Star trek but I didn’t expect the emotional intensity of reality, brokenness of this album. Added to that Ben Folds, wrote the music, played, produced and co-wrote most of the songs this is really an unexpected, special, album. which deserves much love.
seek out – “Real”, “I Can’t Get Behind That”, “You’ll Have Time”, “Common People”

number 1
Five For Fighting – The Battle for Everything
I bought this album on the basis of hearing a song on a sampler CD. I thought I was getting country rock, instead i got a gorgeous wonderful collection of beauty. It really is wonderful album with songs of love and loss which have stayed. a depth of melody and meaning give rise to occasionally just singing part of the song as you are driving around. it is a great album.
seek out – “The Devil In The Wishing Well”, “If God Made You”, “100 years”, “Maybe I”

As part of thinking back and remembering things on the cusp of moving into 2010, I am trying to work out what to put on my iPod and what not. so what follows is a brief look through the best albums I got in the year 200 and a top 3 with some witterings on why i like things you will probably not like!

From 2003 the year London introduced its congestion charge, and the end of Channel 4′s Brookside and Supersonic aircraft Concorde.
the contenders are in alphabetical order;

Barenaked Ladies – Everything to Everyone
Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress
British Sea Power – The Decline of British Sea Power
Bruce Cockburn – You’ve Never Seen Everything
Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
Eddi Reader – Sings The Songs of Robert Burns
Martyn Joseph – Whoever it was that brought me here will have to take me home
OutKast – Speakerboxx / The Love Below
Over the Rhine – Ohio
Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
Rufus Wainwright – Want One
The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
The Violet Burning – This Is The Moment
Zwan – Mary Star of The Seas

using a completely biased methodology of what did I listen to most then, what do I listen to now and think is pretty good and just what rocks my world, the top three are
please note this year was extremely good for music and a real tough decision!

number 3
Barenaked Ladies – Everything to Everyone.
in my humble opinion probably the best record Barenaked Ladies have made. off kilter, gorgeous pop with a rock underbelly. lyrics to die for and a pop sensibility which belies the seeming simplicity of the album, it took me a while to click with, but now the album is welded in my subconscious, with twists and turns which are as familiar as old friends and sometimes as surprising as friends are.
seek out – “Another Postcard”, “Shopping” & “War on Drugs”

number 2
Rufus Wainwright – Want One
I remember buying this CD then giving a lift to someone in my car, and saying “You must listen to this album. it is wonderful, it mixes classical pop, beauty and wonder. it is as operatic as it is pop, it is just wonderful”. then I turned it up loud and sang along completely convinced it’s beauty would work wonders.
what an album. If it wasn’t for number 1 it would easily have been album of the year.
seek out – the whole album. it is easily one of the top ten albums of this decade.

number 1
Over the Rhine – Ohio
I don’t know how 2 albums into a 4 album deal Over the Rhine persuaded Virgin records to allow them to release a double album, but frankly it is a move of backing artists vision which was rewarded by one of the best albums i have ever heard.
It is moving, frank, honest, emotional, wonderful, dreamy, yet real, bitter sweet, an album of supreme skill craft, songwriting and beauty, just wonderful. absolutely wonderful.
seek out – ensure you have this album. If you don’t have it ask I will buy it for you. (really this is a real offer)