Comments to Nancy

I'm glad you found at least some things to like in here. I'm also particularly gratified to read your appreciation for a couple of little-known acts for whom I like to proselytise! And if some tracks missed the mark, well, I try to give a broad spread of the kind of things I like (and that covers a lot of ground, as you see, although you probably guess a bias towards the bluesy). And if you liked everything, well, I wouldn't be trying hard enough.

1. Feelin' Good - Nina Simone This is a great start to the mix - I missed Ms. Simone the first time around when I was getting to know this style of music, and this is the second time she's appeared on a mix. She has a wonderful voice with just the right kind of edge to it. Love this song, too.

Yes, starting with this can't do anything but put you in the right mood, can it?

2. Say You Don't Mind - Colin Blunstone This one was a nice surprise! I'd never heard of the singer before, although he was the lead singer of The Zombies. This is a lovely, melodic song with an all-string instrumentation, which is interesting and unusual. I really like this one. 3 1/2 decades old, but I wouldn't have known it.

It is a little bit startling, isn't it? I love Colin Blunstone's smoky, rather wistful, voice and it works a treat with the string quartet. The history of popular music hasn't been as kind to the Zombies as it should have been.

3. For Your Love - The Yardbirds This one is very familiar - nice to hear it again.

Yes, an old favourite and one that, when it first appeared, made me aware that I had odd tastes compared with my more pop-oriented 10-year-olds!

4. Walking on Broken Glass - Annie Lennox. I like Annie Lennox a lot - this is nicely representative of her style, or how I think of it. It showcases her massive vocal range, too.

I love Annie Lennox. Hard to pick one track out of many excellent ones but this is about as representative as any.

5. Good Morning Heartache - Billie Holliday This is the quintessential Billie Holliday song, a longtime favorite.

If I had just one song on a desert island, it would be this one.

6. You Stepped Out of a Dream - Sarah Vaughan I don't think I've ever heard this one before - very pretty love song.

There are three singers that tower above all others. Ella has amazing technique (but can be just a bit too clinical in execution). Billie oozes emotion (her technique is sometimes wanting, though who cares). The Divine Sarah is the best of the lot. She can do anything and everything, and makes it all so sexy.

7. Don't Talk to Me About Love - Altered Images I missed it the first time around - this is an 80s dance tune with just that sound reminiscent of high school dances and shoulder pads. Nice, but forgettable.

More evocative of a period than anything else. Altered Images had been true post-punk originals but fans accused them of selling out with this more commercially poppy effort. But Clare Grogan has such a lovely voice I always thought it a shame to hear her wasted on little-girl shrieking.

8. Summer Soft - Stevie Wonder Absolutely gorgeous. Classic Stevie Wonder.

The sort of stuff that never fails to send shivers down my spine.

9. The Way You Look Tonight - Peter Skellern I really like this song, and had never heard this singer. It's a full-on show tune version with a big orchestra and chorus, very dramatic. I think I would have liked it better with less drama - the singer's lovely voice and piano would have been enough for me.

Peter Skellern is my great guilty pleasure. He's a no more than adequate as a singer, but he's a fine pianist and, most importantly, a consummate showman. Rather camp and lays on his Lancashire-ness with a trowel. He's a good and witty songwriter as well as an interpreter of standards, and he can do straight voice-and-piano perfectly well, but his quirky Tin Pan Alley arrangements with brass band are, to me, irresistable.

10. Cantonese Boy - Japan New Wave dance tune. I'd probably like it more if I were dancing to it. And a little bit drunk.

I prefer to leave out the dancing and accentuate the drunk a bit more but yes, that's how I feel. Also, I always thought I was a natural New Romantic at the time if I hadn't already been too old and a parent.

11. Siyawe - Sweet Soul Sisters This one is a stand-out. Something really different - an a capella song in a language I don't recognize, with thick layers of harmony. It has a somber feeling - it isn't carried away on a hook, but it's easy to listen to. Who are the Sweet Soul Sisters?

I'm so glad you liked this! I was living in Bristol in the 1990s when the Bristol Trip Hop scene was going on. Bands like Massive Attack and Portishead didn't deign to appear in their home city because they felt it beneath them, but then there were a couple of acts that could sell out any space they cared to play in and didn't charge the earth for the privilege, although they were little-known outside Bristol. The Sweet Soul Sisters worked best in the intimate atmosphere of the back room of a pub, so getting into a gig was never easy, but always memorable. They did witty as well as sombre. More where this came from, if you are interested. The song is traditional African, as I'm sure you guessed, and appears in the film Out of Africa.

12. The Crystal Ship - The Doors. This song has an awesome first line: "Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss." I'm not a huge Doors fan, but really, that line makes it worthwhile.

I'm a big Doors fan and always have been. I like to think of this as the most perfectly-formed two-and-a-half minutes in the history of rock music.

13. Secretly - Skunk Anansie I liked this one a lot more than I expected to, and now I'm revising my opinion of Skunk Anansie altogether. The singer's voice is really expressive, and this song is so intense with hurt and anger, but tamped down and channeled into the melody, rather than let loose screaming over distorted guitars. Nice strings, too.

I don't like Skunk Anansie all that much but I do like this track a lot. The singer makes no compromises with her Sarf Lannan accent and it all helps to add to the grittiness.

14. Harmonica Blues - Memphis Slim Yep, classic blues. With a harmica. The song delivers.

I can be really boring about my great musical awakening, and it happened like this. Round about the time of my sixteenth birthday I was staying in Provence with my French Exchange family. The mother of the family was a big blues fan and as a birthday treat I was taken to Chateauvallon, the open-air theatre near Toulon, to see somebody I'd never heard of (and who didn't sound all that appealing, to be honest) called Memphis Slim. The summer air was heavy and perfumed, as if it might have been around the lower Mississippi, and I was entranced. Memphis Slim has ever since held a special place in my affection. I don't have as many recordings as I would like, however.

15. Snowbound - Donald Fagen Love this one - I'm a huge Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan, and this is so nicely typical of his style. This is a reminder to buy Kamakiriad.

I'm absolutely in agreement. Picking one Dan/Fagen track out of all that wonderful stuff is near impossible. I'd rate The Nightfly as, if not the best album ever, at least up there with the very best, but I chose one from the somewhat less well-known Kamakiriad for its mystical quality.

16. Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Fairport Convention Blah. I just don't care much for this one. Pretty, but not interesting to me. Too sweet, maybe.

I'm sorry you don't like this one. What I love is the interplay between the voice and the guitar. Sandy Denny had a gorgeous voice and was taken away from us far too young. The guitarist was... well, we'll come to that in a moment.

17. Life On The Plains - K-passa This one picks up the pace nicely! I can't help singing along with this one in the car. The fiddle in the background adds a lot and makes it more interesting than a simple guitar/bass/drums rock tune.

Another great Bristol institution little-known anywhere else. One of the great mysteries is why they never had a major recording contract, only a couple of very agreeable independent albums that are hard to get hold of. But then they are a live band first and foremost and their rollicking gigs are legendary. Once again, more where that came from if you are interested.

18. Crawl Back (Under My Stone) - Richard Thompson This one went right by me the first couple of times but on the third repetition it totally grabbed me. Now it's one of my favorite tracks. Reminds me of old Elvis Costello or something, with a reggae beat and clever lyrics. New to me, and definitely someone I want to hear more from.

I've heard Richard Thompson described as the best guitarist nobody's ever heard of, which is unfair because he has a substantial and devoted following. His voice isn't technically great but it is quirky and powerful, and he is a wonderful, intelligent and witty songwriter. A Thompson album is always an eclectic experience. Oh, and he is also the guitarist on track 16, if you hadn't already guessed.

19. The Sickbed of Cuchulainn - The Pogues Another Guinness over here, please? This is a good drinking song, though probably not one I'll go back to over and over.

Terrific, irreverent, fun. No more and no less.

20. As The Sun Still Burns Away - Ten Years After This song is built on one, monotonous bass line embellished with distorted guitars and sounds of water and storms. And some words. Very trippy, makes me wonder what it would be like to take LSD.

I liked Ten Years After a lot, round about the time I saw Memphis Slim. Then, like everybody else just about, I forgot about them. Until four years ago when I saw Alvin Lee on tour with Edgar Winter. He was in his sixties with a beer gut by then, but he could still make that guitar sing and I've seldom seen a performer so obviously enjoying himself!

Thanks a lot, Rosalind!

You are very welcome. I enjoyed putting it together.