Tim Martin

Classic Americana Albums: Lou Ann Barton “Old Enough”

February 28, 2024 Tim Martin 1

In 1982 Linda Ronstatdt’s ‘Get Closer’ failed to go platinum and it looked like her career might have peaked. Jerry Wexler of Elektra/Asylum Records had found Lou Ann Barton working with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, […]

The Gordon Sharpe Americana Book Award 2023

February 28, 2024 Tim Martin 4

In May 2022 we lost one of our own. Gordon Sharpe’s pieces for AUK were always a pleasure to read. Having met at our get together in Clitheroe in 2020, we exchanged messages about the music, […]

The future of live music is in our hands

January 31, 2024 Tim Martin 0

The BBC ran an item on their website last week: “Grassroots live music venues suffer ‘most challenging year’, report says.” The BBC loves a negative news story, and there’s no getting away from the fact that venues […]

Taxing times for music…

January 30, 2024 Tim Martin 2

Taxation of music is inevitable; it is a business after all and Government will always want their share of the pie, however small that pie is. But when taxation in one form or another impacts a […]

Paperback Riders – Will Birch “No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution”

January 29, 2024 Tim Martin 3

Pub Rock sat in that middle ground between the more excessive bits of 70s rock, and the nuclear year zero of Punk. What it also did was open the door to music based on early R&B […]

Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music

September 21, 2026 2

If a music writer opens ten press releases this month, they’ll spot something odd. They all sound like the same person wrote them. Not because the artists share a publicist, or because there’s a house style […]

Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”

September 21, 2026 0

A cycle of Appalachian folk songs from writer and activist Si Kahn, subtitled Songs for Strong Kentucky Women The subtitle for this album is “Si Kahn’s Songs for Strong Kentucky Women”. Si Kahn is one of […]

Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970

For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”