Dreaming Of Birds That Are Blue

News emerged yesterday that Fred Smith died on Thursday at the age of 77, having fought an unspecified illness for some time. Fred Smith (not to be confused with legend of the Detroit scene Fred 'Sonic' Smith) was born in New York City in 1948, and played with many notable New York bands of the 1970s and 80s. He got his start in the early 70s in Angel and the Snake , with Debbie Harry , Chris Stein and Billy O'Connor. They played two gigs in August 1974 under that name, bu

I have often spoken about how Uncle Tupelo and Steve Earle pretty much invented the genre of Alt-Country in the late 1980s, blending together outlaw country with hints of punk. But that, of course, is not really the full story – like claiming the Pistols and The Clash invented punk and omitting The Stooges and The Ramones from the narrative. And that is the case here; Joe Ely , who sadly died yesterday aged 78, was doing all of that a decade before the rest. Don’t believe me?

The sad news came out this morning, via his Facebook site, that reggae legend Jimmy Cliff had died, "due to a seizure followed by pneumonia." The post, written by his wife Latifa Chambers, went on to say; "To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career. He really appreciated each and every fan for their love." Photo: Getty Images Jimmy Cliff was a transitional musician, one of the key people to bring reggae wider g