This week Gordon Sharpe provides the twentieth contribution to AUK’s continuing quest to find the top ten americana albums ever. As always it is a fascinating and educative experience as Gordon delves into the back catalogue of this thing we call americana. We are now turning into the home straight with this, but there are still many writers waiting to share their wisdom and suffering with you. Once they have finally all contributed we will have our shortlist from which the final collective AUK writers’ top ten will be chosen. Take it away Gordon…. Continue reading “AUK’s top 10 americana albums ever: Gordon Sharpe”
Tag: James McMurtry
AUK’s top 10 americana albums ever: Alasdair Fotheringham
After a week off to catch our breath, AUK’s quest to find the ’10 best americana albums ever’ returns this week with the selections of Alasdair Fotheringham. Each week a different AUK writer offers his or herself up to scrutiny by presenting their personal selections of the top 10. When all have had their say (and you try shutting them up), the most frequently chosen albums will be compiled into a shortlist on which we will all vote to produce the ultimate AUK writers top 10 albums ever. But you knew all that didn’t you? – and if you didn’t, where the hell have you been? Take it away Alasdair! Continue reading “AUK’s top 10 americana albums ever: Alasdair Fotheringham”
How I Write a Song: James McMurtry
In this new series for Americana UK, artists from across the genre discuss their approach to song-writing. It’s been more than 30 years now since a youthful, up-and-coming James McMurtry first crossed paths with another, already renowned fellow Texan singer-songwriter, the late Guy Clark, at an open-mike session in Kerrville near San Antonio. Rather than proving a massively inspirational encounter, McMurtry once recalled in an interview in lonestarmusicmagazine that his overriding memory of Clark that particular day was the “awfully gracious manner for a man who’d been forced to stand under a tree in Kerr County on a hot afternoon listening to a bunch of us young’uns try to impress him with our songs.” Continue reading “How I Write a Song: James McMurtry”
10 songs for lovers of great writing
Mark Underwood continues his irregular feature on music by great songwriters with great lyrics, this time taking you through classics from the likes of Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams. Continue reading “10 songs for lovers of great writing”
AUK’s Chain Gang: James McMurtry “Childish Things”
The most obvious connection between last week’s ‘The Town That Killed Kennedy‘ by Otis Gibbs and this week’s link in the chain is the view of the world that one gets through the window of a bus. But the title track from James McMurtry’s 2005 release – which received the AMA’s Album of the Year award in 2006 – connects to the Gibbs track on multiple levels. Both tracks address the complicated exchanges that spur a coming of age. The innocence, optimism, and energy of youth eventually sees too much and gives way to guarded wisdom and reluctant acceptance. From different perspectives and on different levels, both tracks force us to acknowledge that even while we are pursuing life, life is pursuing each of us.