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Our latest posts
  • [ December 5, 2025 ] Sam Shackleton “Scottish Cowboy Ballads and Early American Folk Songs” Album Reviews
  • [ December 5, 2025 ] Classic Clips: Warren Zevon “Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner” – The Late Show With David Letterman – 30th October 2002 Classic Clips
  • [ December 5, 2025 ] Live Review: Natalie Wildgoose + Elanor Moss, St. Pancras Old Church, London – 17th November 2025 Live Reviews
  • [ December 5, 2025 ] It’s the 2025 AUK Readers Poll! Vote for your favourite americana from the last year News
  • [ December 5, 2025 ] The Twang Factor 4 Presents: Jon Harmon Features
HomeColumnsPolitical Pops

Political Pops

AUK’s Paul Villers has a weekly look at the news with an accompanying Americana song

Political Pops

Pick of the Political Pops: The Grateful Dead “Ripple”

February 16, 2018 Paul Villers 1

Given the inclement weather and the fact that we forgot to buy Our Glorious Leader (The Editor) a Valentine’s Day card we have chosen to repair to The Bunker for a few days to drown our […]

Political Pops

Pick of the Political Pops: Fairport Convention “Who Knows Where The Time Goes”

February 9, 2018 Paul Villers 1

This week we have been mostly ruminating on things horological. It is, in the UK at least, one hundred years since (some) men and (some) women got the right to vote. Also we are minded that […]

Political Pops

Pick of the Political Pops: Joe Purdy “Children of Privilege”

February 5, 2018 Paul Villers 0

Here at Americana-UK Towers we like to think ourselves as being at a certain level of elite without, of course, being elitist. We’ll entertain any old Tom, Dick or Harriet particularly if they are handy with […]

Political Pops

Pick of the Political Pops: Bill Munroe and His Bluegrass Boys “I’m Working On A Building”

January 19, 2018 Paul Villers 1

It’s a helluva time to be working on any kind of building if you happen to be employed by a corporate construction behemoth either directly or subcontractually, we’d have thought. The sprawling pile that is Americana-UK […]

Political Pops

Pick of the Political Pops: Billy Bragg and Joe Henry “Railroad Bill”

January 12, 2018 Paul Villers 1

We like a good railway journey. In fact we like it so much that we had a funicular railway installed at Americana-UK Towers so that we could ascend from The Bunker to The Towers in proper […]

Posts pagination

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our latest posts

Sam Shackleton “Scottish Cowboy Ballads and Early American Folk Songs”

Album Reviews
December 5, 2025 0

Classic Clips: Warren Zevon “Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner” – The Late Show With David Letterman – 30th October 2002

Classic Clips
December 5, 2025 0

Live Review: Natalie Wildgoose + Elanor Moss, St. Pancras Old Church, London – 17th November 2025

Live Reviews
December 5, 2025 0

It’s the 2025 AUK Readers Poll! Vote for your favourite americana from the last year

News
December 5, 2025 0

The Twang Factor 4 Presents: Jon Harmon

Features
December 5, 2025 0

  • Sam Shackleton “Scottish Cowboy Ballads and Early American Folk Songs”
  • Classic Clips: Warren Zevon “Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner” – The Late Show With David Letterman – 30th October 2002
  • Live Review: Natalie Wildgoose + Elanor Moss, St. Pancras Old Church, London – 17th November 2025
  • It’s the 2025 AUK Readers Poll! Vote for your favourite americana from the last year
  • The Twang Factor 4 Presents: Jon Harmon
  • Podcast number 10 now featuring South Korean band Wednesdayoff is now live!
  • Our new supporters playlist comes out today – win tickets to see Lucy Mellenfield live
  • Midlake “Eyes Full Of Animal” – is that a mirror?
  • Video: Serious Child “Veneer”
  • Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time: Andy Raw
Billy Bragg Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen Chuck Prophet Courtney Marie Andrews Dean Owens Drive By Truckers Emmylou Harris Jason Isbell Johnny Cash John Prine Lucinda Williams Margo Price Neil Young Peter Bruntnell Robert Vincent Ryan Adams Steve Earle Sturgill Simpson The Band The Byrds The Delines Tom Petty Wilco Willie Nelson
  • Andrew Raw: Thanks, Rick. My Darling Clementine are well worth a listen.
  • Rick Bayles: Great set of songs, including a couple I'd never heard before. I shall be paying a bit more attention to…
  • Andrew Raw: Thanks very much, Andy. Wise words!

Latest interviews

Interviews

Interview: Dan Bern has still got his fastball, and a change-up

December 2, 2025 1

In the smart and lively songs of Dan Bern, nuances are at work like honeybees in a hive. A busy swarm of subtleties generates a nucleus of narrative honeycomb that has more layers than an archaeologist’s […]

Behind the Songs

Behind the Songs: Dillon Warnek “As the Neighbors Tried to Sleep”

December 2, 2025 0

Dillon Warnek’s “As the Neighbors Tried to Sleep” is a sharp and dizzying collection of songs about everything and anything. “Rolling Stone” raved that his debut album “Now That It’s All Over”, was full of “wry character […]

Interviews

Caught Light: Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers on time, trust and the art of letting go

November 24, 2025 1

As we meet, Tony Dekker is sitting outside a café in Vancouver, Canada. It’s a fitting setting for a conversation with the Great Lake Swimmers’ frontman – calm, thoughtful and quietly attuned to the world around […]

You may have missed…

Features

The Top 10 Greatest Ever Americana Artists: Keith Hargreaves

July 13, 2023 48

As always in these prescriptive articles there must be a drawing of boundaries and Clint’s first article in the series seemed to have dealt with the idea that you should define americana in a narrow sense […]

Essentials

Essentials: The top 10 Steve Earle albums

July 8, 2021 37

Steve Earle announced his arrival in our lives with his debut album in 1986. Since then, he has racked up almost thirty studio and live albums under his own name or in collaboration with others. I […]

Obituaries

The Song Remains: Eric Taylor 1949-2020

March 12, 2020 4

I heard from a colleague,  who has contact with associates of Eric Taylor, that he had died on March 9th 2020 following a period of illness. I immediately checked the web for confirmation but there was […]

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