In 1998, Billy Bragg & Wilco released Mermaid Avenue, an iconic album built around previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. They did a wonderful job breathing music into these words and bringing them into the light…
Blog Archives
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (1998) – Billy Bragg & Wilco (Woody Guthrie)
Tagged with: Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue, Natalie Merchant, Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key, Woody Guthrie
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Me Vas a Extrañar (1999) – Jean Carlos Centeno
A couple of weeks ago I was in a local fruit and vegetable store here in Bogotá, Colombia, when I heard this vallenato song come over the shop’s speakers. The young cashier was singing it quite animatedly, and I found…
Tagged with: Jean Carlos Centeno, Más cerca de tí, Me vas a extrañar, You're Gonna Miss Me
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Once Upon a Time…Storybook Love (1987) – The Princess Bride (Mark Knopfler)
Once Upon a Time…Storybook Love is one of my favourite pieces from Mark Knopfler’s film soundtracks. I featured another favourite soundtrack piece back in 2022 from the movie Local Hero called Going Home, but today we shift our gaze to…
Tagged with: mark knopfler, Once Upon a Time...Storybook Love, rob reiner, the princess bride
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Persuasion (1817) – Part 1 – The Navy (Jane Austen)
Welcome again to my Wednesday literature segment. Today I feature various short excerpts from English writer Jane Austen’s book Persuasion, a novel I just finished this morning and, with some regret, I must admit, since the protagonist Anne Elliot was…
Dancing in the Dark (1984) – Bruce Springsteen
Today we look at Bruce Springsteen’s most popular song according to Spotify streams, with 1.2 billion plays (at the time of writing), well surpassing his next most streamed song, I’m On Fire, at 778 million. It’s easy to see why…
Great Sporting Moments 8 – Australia’s Win over Turkey at the 2026 World Cup
They call my home country Australia ‘the lucky country’, and one not so discerning could have applied that label to Australia’s fantastic win against Turkey two days ago. Turkey had a whopping 72% possession and 30 shots on goal, but…
Tagged with: Australia, Football, Frank Arok, Patrick Beach, soccer, Soceroos, Tony Popovic, world cup
Posted in Sport and Adventure
Posted in Sport and Adventure
Kathy’s Song (2000) – Eva Cassidy
While researching my previous article on Eva Cassidy, I came across her beautiful cover of Paul Simon’s Kathy’s Song and was enamoured with it. It showcases her signature acoustic guitar fingerpicking and pure, emotive vocals. When I hear her voice,…
Skeleton Tree (2016) – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most influential indie music exports, and he is back again with the title track, Skeleton Tree, from his 2016 album of the same name. I covered a lot of music from…
Watermark (1988) – Enya
Watermark is my joint favourite Enya song alongside A Day Without Rain. These two soft piano pieces are nearly indistinguishable, so much so that I often confuse one for the other. When I listened to Watermark this morning, I was…
Waterloo (1974) – ABBA
Despite all the offshoots, including musicals and movies, that the Swedish pop group ABBA has produced, that spectacular harmony created by the two ladies, namely Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, has never been matched. ABBA remains something of an enigma…
