An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary.
Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out !
Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

On our recent holiday in Guernsey we ran into (not literally) a competition taking place at the harbour in St. Peter Port to find Guernsey's Strongest !

As sizable men and women lifted and ran with 40 and 50 kilo sandbags, back and forth over a short course, that still left you exhausted just watching their efforts, loud and appropriate music blared encouragement over the PA to motivate them. 

Among the various tracks we heard the wonderfully named Dropkick Murphys with 'Blood' (You want blood, we'll give you some) caught my attention. 

The track is from the American Celtic punk band's 2017 album '11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory'. Appropriate enough I think.  

   

Jim Croce recorded his final album in the Summer of 1973.   

The title track 'I Got a Name' released as a single on the day after he sadly died in a plane crash in September of that year. The album was released posthumously in December. 

The final song on the album is ‘The Hard Way Every Time', so it's likely this was the last recording he made, though he clearly wouldn't have known it. As he sings "Wouldn'ta done it any other way", it's quite a moving parting statement that's hard to beat. All the lyrics are in today's video.

The story is I recently bought this album on vinyl for a £5, roughly double what it would have cost when it first came out. I confess I didn't really know of Jim Croce until American friends spoke of him so highly in 1978. So this is for all of them. Wherever they are... 

As this week marks a year since the start of these Thursday night sessions at our local, a review therefore seems in order. So this is my 'Folk, Blues & Beyond' JUKEBOX.

Jason McNiff would open the show, the guests would follow and then he'd finish the evening. My Jukebox mirrors that with a selection of guests who I especially enjoyed. 

Click on the video windows to listen OR play the Jukebox in a more traditional way by clicking on the numbered buttons 1 to 10 at the end. 

 J 1   JASON McNIFF with 'Song of Everything' - almost solo

From his 2024 'Everything's a Song' album

 J 2   TREVOR MOSS & HANNAH LOU: 'A Proud Surrender' 

They've been on BBC Radio 2 'Bob Harris Sunday' show

 J 3   PEPE BELMONTE - ‘No Word of a Lie’

(BJ Cole adds some great pedal steel guitar to this track)

 J 4   BENITA JOHNSON: ‘5 Miles Wide’

There's a live version of this track on YouTube

 J 5   SAM SENIOR - ‘You Look Different’

(Young singer from Hailsham)

 J 6   ZOE FITZGERALD CARTER: 'Better Things To Do'

(From California, USA) Our first 'special' in the garden gig

 J 7   DAN RAZA - ‘Home Again’

(With his 'travelling' fold up guitar, track has BJ Cole: Pedal Steel and Fiddle: Barbara Bartz)

 J 8   HOUSE ABOVE THE SUN - 'Time I Got Goin'

(Title track from an EP by London band, lead by singer/songwriter/guitarist Jim Moreton)

 J 9   TONI MONSERRAT INC. - 'Collision Course'

(Toni and his band over from Majorca, Spain) on a road trip

 J 10   JASON and BAND - 'My Mississippi'

From a live show in Hastings 

(Matt Armstrong: bass: Richard Moore: violin; Lyle Zimmerman: mandola)

Play the Jukebox: by pressing (clicking) on the appropriate numbered buttons 1 to 10. 

 J   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10

  

"Rock Me, Mama" was originally penned by Bob Dylan during the 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' sessions in 1973. 25 years later Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show added verses (some of which are geographically inaccurate, as the hitchhiking Southbound journey unfolds) and he called the song 'Wagon Wheel'. Then in 2013 Darius Rucker, ex lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish recorded his version and it became huge. 

It's a great singalong track, you'll soon pick it up... 

  

I've had this song lined up for a while, waiting patiently to be played. Last Monday's Dylan show at our local provided the perfect cue.

I know Bob Dylan features a lot in these blogs, directly or as inspiration to others. I make no excuses for this as I would argue he is the greatest songwriter of our age. 

'Changing of the Guards' was the opening track on the 'Street Legal' album, released in 1978 just before I saw him in London on 20th June. This was the tour that saw him rework many of his best known songs so that when they were played you didn't recognise them until the lyrics came in.

It seems todays track wasn't part of that night's set (according to setlist.fm). Later shows on the tour list it as an encore. But what I can say for certain is our tribute band (of Jason McNiff and Richard Moore) played it last Monday.

Critics have praised 'Changing of the Guards' for its originality and the haunting effect of the backup singers (Carolyn Dennis, JoAnn Harris, Helena Springs) echoing Dylan's words throughout the verses. Lyrical references and disguised personal content, it's one of his typical no chorus compositions - hit it