This edition of The Essential 10 , our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features Uncle Tupelo ; an act that managed four albums over a career that spanned 1987 to 1994. I have trawled the entire catalogue to come up with ten of my favourite tracks by them, including a few surprises (although, if you don’t know much about them, they may all be surprises). Uncle Tupelo came into my life in the late 1990s; a friend included a couple of tracks on a

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

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

Depending on whether you were on the inside or outside of the band, Uncle Tupelo may have been one of the key architect's of what would...

An occasional collection of songs suggested for you using a given theme. For this playlist, I tried to think of some artists and tunes...