Thea Gilmore Rediscovers Christmas

Songwriter ruminates on writing Christmas songs and the internet era

As Bob Dylan has reminded us recently, The Christmas Album is one of those music industry traditions more likely to deserve an ignominious burial rather than praise. Fortunately, Thea Gilmore has galloped to the rescue with Strange Communion, an artfully shaped collection of songs that shines flickering light into the mystical roots of the Yuletide season.

Sara Tavares, Jazz Cafe

The fine art of understatement from this Cape Verdean star

Portuguese singer-songwriter Sara Tavares trades in understatement. She strokes rather than strums guitar chords, her two percussionists are more likely to brush a drum than whack it hard, and her soft close-to-the-mike voice specialises in gentle yearning rather than soul-girl histrionics. So the intimate space of the Jazz Café seems much better suited to her than, say, the Barbican where she had the unenviable task earlier this year of being a viable support act to the larger-than-life Malian diva, Oumou Sangare. As it turned out, Sara did a perfectly good job of warming up Oumou’s crowd, but she was definitely much more at home last night in front of an audience who were there only for her.

Tom Russell's Juarez Journal

Exclusive: the songwriter files his report on this month's trip

To mark the release of Tom Russell's superb new album Blood and Candle Smoke this week,  the cowboy singer-songwriter reports on his trip earlier this month to the Mexican city of Juarez, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, just over the border from where he lives in El Paso, Texas.

"Down below El Paso lies Juarez, / Mexico is different, like the travel poster says…"
Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard, "Mexican Divorce"

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