Category: Off the Beaten Tracks

HOW did Joni Mitchell follow the towering achievement that was Hejira? Answer: With difficulty. As I wrote in a previous column, the album released in late 1976 was in my opinion the … Continue readingJoni Mitchell Part 4: The best of the rest

IT WAS in the spring of 1968 that Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson stopped his car for two attractive girl hitch-hikers in Malibu, Los Angeles. He invited them back to … Continue readingThe Beach Boy and the Evil Wizard

AMONG the many things I admire about Laura Veirs is that she is the polar opposite of a rock chick. A Mandarin Chinese-speaking geology graduate, she considered working as a … Continue readingTell Laura we love her

BACK in September we grimaced our way through Kenny Everett’s World’s Worst Record Show, a collection of 20 truly terrible tunes from the vaults, and I invited readers to provide their own … Continue readingA Christmas cringefest

BACK in March, which seems a very long time ago now, we left Jackson Browne grieving after the suicide of his wife Phyllis but experiencing unprecedented chart success with his 1976 album The … Continue readingA Jackson Browne study: Part 3

THE last time I visited Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, I intended to show our son Jim what a lovely place it is. Unfortunately the fog was so thick that you … Continue readingLindisfarne through the fog

WITH the release of her fourth album Voyageur in 2012, Kathleen Edwards was on a career high. It made the US top 40 and the Canadian singer-songwriter toured incessantly to capitalise on … Continue readingQuitters sometimes win

LAST week I wrote in glowing terms about the band 10,000 Maniacs and their album In My Tribe. A few hours after publication I was surprised and delighted when an email pinged into … Continue readingCooder’s Story: Part 3

I OFTEN wonder how many listeners were put off the music of the band 10,000 Maniacs by their name. Borrowed from a low-budget 1964 horror movie, Two Thousand Maniacs!, it conjures up … Continue readingManiacs on the loose

A FEW weeks ago I wrote a curfew-themed column on songs about house and home, and invited readers to supply their own selections. Thanks for the response. Here, as lockdown resumes, are … Continue readingYour Lockdown Songbook