THIS morning, Peggy Seeger has been out in her garden in Oxfordshire to inspect the bird tables. These, she explains, have now been squirrel-proofed and she was keen to see how successfully they were working. “Connecting with nature is something you

NOTHING stirs Graham Nash into action quite like politics. Ahead of last November’s presidential election, the campaigning CSNY legend released a new song, “Vote”, urging the US public to throw their weight behind Joe Biden. “I just thought it was re

ONE of the many satisfying aspects of my job is finding new tales to bring you each month. This issue alone, we have first-time features on Fugazi, Peggy Seeger, Scritti Politti and Israel Nash, while Jackie DeShannon and Toyah pop up in two of our k

“I THINK I called him Serge Bourguignon,” says Jane Birkin, recalling her first meeting with Gainsbourg on the set of the film Slogan in 1968. “He was quite vexed that I didn’t know who he was, so not long after that he gave me a book called Chansons

Thrilling jazz date, finally surfaced IT’S hard to accurately parse where Hasaan Ibn Ali sits within the firmament of jazz pianists. A legend to some, with friend Odean Pope convinced he was the “most advanced player to ever develop” in Philadelphi

Offcuts with added George ON his return from the Isle Of Wight festival in September 1969, Bob Dylan moved himself, his wife and their three children – Sara was heavily pregnant with a fourth – from Woodstock to Greenwich Village. Settling into a t

Nash’s debut, an album that sounds like it was made by someone who grew up in the singer-songwriter section of his local record shop. 7/10 Recorded in a Catskills shed, Barn Doors… mixed Stones-inspired, driving country rock, hard-luck Springsteen

“I’VE always followed my soul,” says Jackie DeShannon. “I grew up singing all kinds of music from many genres, and a lot of people didn’t understand that. It’s not a great way to plan a career, for sure!” The first artist to record classics “Needles

I AN MACKAYE: “Dave Grohl grew up in Washington, and he was in this band Mission Impossible. I remember people telling me, ‘You gotta see Mission Impossible, the drummer is incredible.’ I saw their second or third show and it was mind-blowing, what h

How did the box come together? HUGO BURNHAM: We started talking vaguely back and forward in early spring of 2019. It came about, largely, because a couple years before that, we managed to extricate ourselves and our catalogue from Warner Brothers R

THE seeds for Blondie’s Cuban trip were planted way back in 1976 on their very first album, with the song “Man Overboard” and its endearing attempts to punk up a Fania-style groove. “Latin music has always been part of the feel of New York, so it’s a

IN late Autumn, the Tennessee-born songwriter Valerie June took to YouTube, live from her home in Brooklyn, NY. Seated fireside, and cross-legged, with an acoustic guitar, June wore two pink carnations in her dreadlocked hair and played “Stay”, the f

APART from the odd dash of Las Vegas, a little hammed-up stage behaviour, and a constant projection of distracting holiday snaps of our hero on a screen behind him, Marvin Gaye, Thursday night, was a pure revelation.  Bearing in mind the, er, eccentr

WE used to rehearse in this old bicycle rental store near Central Park. In the wintertime, when there was no bicycle rental going on, the owner Rusty would set up a couple of broken-down amps and some drums so he could rent it out as a rehearsal spac

Sia makes her directing debut, with Maddie Ziegler – the dance phenomenon from her videos – starring as a young autistic woman named, yes, Music. Expect fanciful hoofing and unashamed emotion. Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stansfield star in this fre

“I WAS starting to work on quite ambitious stuff by this time and had a really good little studio, where I’d begun doing tape phasing to get that swirling sound. ‘Jaguar’ was originally just meant to be one of the jingles for The Who Sell Out, but it

GREEN is kind of blue. Talking to Uncut in the week before Christmas, the inquisitive mind behind Scritti Politti has spent the previous nine months almost completely housebound. Because Gartside’s wife has underlying health conditions, he made the d

New Orleans-based singer-songwriter offers rich, reconciliatory third ESTHER ROSE has been quietly building a reputation these past few years. Her assured 2017 debut, the self-released This Time Last Night, found its way to Jack White, who was so t

DRIVE west out of Austin on US-290 W and the highway delivers you to Dripping Springs, “Gateway To The Texas Hill Country”, population 3,000. Not exactly a fading dot on a map of nowhere, a ghost town with creaking doors, Morricone harmonicas on a ha

FOR over half a century, Trinidad-born drum maestro Fimber Bravo has been on a mission to prove the steel pan is every bit as versatile and expressive as any European classical instrument. Working with a huge range of collaborators, from pianist Wini

NOT for the first time in its history, Great Britain finds itself at a crossroads, pulled one way and another by opposing cultural and political forces. On one side stands an establishment dedicated to the consolidation of existing power; on the othe