Last week the world lost one of its most celebrated and important musicians, when Steve Cropper died aged 84 on 3 December. The 1960s was the era of the session band; the US was stacked full of them, pretty much every major label had them - there was the Muscle Shoals crew, the Memphis Horns, the Wrecking Crew and of course, Booker T. and The MG's at Stax. Photo: Don Paulsen / Michael Ochs Archive / Getty Images Cropper was a core member of that last lot, through much of the

There are myriad Texas musicians who have become household names over the last six or seven decades; Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top, Janis Joplin, Waylon Jennings, Stevie Ray Vaughan, not to mention Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce. But for all those, there are many more who probably deserve much more acknowledgement and credit for their part in music history; there was the much troubled Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators), the taken far too soon Selena, and the subject of tod

Well, it's been a few months, but it was high time to roll out another bunch of top cover versions for you. They might not be originals, but that shouldn't detract from the quality. So, for our seventh selection of covers, we have ten great alternate takes on older tunes - and this time, we cover a wealth of genres, from classic pop, indie and alt-rock, through country and garage punk. As ever, there should be something in here for everyone.... 1. Echo & The Bunnymen: People

A post that cropped up on one of my social media feeds, gives us the idea for today's story... and it's not entirely music based, but an interesting one nonetheless. Rhoda Dakar was at the heart of the 2 Tone ska scene of the late 1970s and 80s. She had hits with the all-girl ska band, The Bodysnatchers , who toured with The Selector - and then teamed up with Jerry Dammers in his post The Specials band, handily named The Special AKA . Later on, she released solo work, worke

It's mid autumn, getting chillier and damper, and that can only mean that over the pond, the NFL is getting towards the business end of its season. So, I wondered if we could make a playlist out of it? The two teams I mostly follow (49ers and Chiefs) are both having something of an up and down season, but our official family team - the Denver Broncos - are having a stormer so far and are well on track for the play-offs. So, just in case it all goes wrong, we are running with

At times it felt like Courtney Love’s infamous relationship with Kurt Cobain was more of a circus sideshow than a marriage built on love. The pair were seemingly drowning in their drug habit, yet somehow trying to raise a small child at the same time. For many fans of Nirvana, it seems that Love has always been very much a persona non grata; a bad influence and possibly the ultimate ruination of Cobain. So, was it as simple as that - is Courtney Love really a manipulative, ta

It was an interesting, and potentially pivotal time, for the rising stars of Scottish rock music. The four years leading up to the release of Once Upon A Time, Simple Minds eighth studio album, had seen a massive commercial boom for them, but also witnessed a few seismic changes to the band. You could go all the way back to 1981, when founding drummer Brian McGee broke up the original dynamic when he quit the group after recording what would become the fourth and fifth recor

In the UK (and the northern hemisphere more generally), we have truly entered that autumnal time of year (a.k.a. fall) - the temperature has finally chilled a bit, the air seems damper and most of all, the nights are becoming way too long. So, to help with that, we have gathered ten more songs broadly (and occasionally tenuously) about this season. It's not everyone's favourite time of year, so these songs will help ease that pain..... possibly. 1. Weezer: Undone (The Sweater

If you are thinking about music companies that have been around a while, you might well settle on something like Stradivarius, who...

This is nothing rhetorical or a pun, but a genuine question. Connie Converse was born, had a brief career on the music scene in New York...

I recently realised that after more than three years of listening, watching and writing (and of course, waffling) about music - I was...

We have another in our occasional series of stories from around the musical world - some amusing, some strange, some a little sad, but...

Feuding siblings in music seems to be a trope as old as the hills, well certainly back to the start of the rock n roll era anyway. But...

Last week saw us embark on operation 'distract our daughter from exam results day'* - with a trip to the cinema. I hadn't set foot in a...

Stephen Marriott born in Essex in 1947, became one of the icons of the late 60’s mod scene - but has sadly (and wrongly) been somewhat...

I realised something a few years back. While as you might suspect, a decent proportion of my music collection comes from the UK and USA,...

We recently had a very pleasant afternoon out at a large country estate we had never been to before. The added incentive was that they...

Okay, so it's a little strange to write about someone on the 26th anniversary of their passing, rather than a rounder number, like 25 or...

I'd never done a music pilgrimage before - well, I suppose I had never done any kind of pilgrimage come to that... But, while on holiday,...

I may have gone too early with the ' Scorchio ' playlist last week, as temperatures have topped 31 °C (88°F) round these parts (probably...