Sunday night I saw Warren Haynes at the Paramount Theater. He played solo, without a band, for two hours. He mixed Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule tunes with solo compositions and a smattering of well-chosen covers, including a magnificent rendition of "He Ain't Give You None" (sounding very much like Van Morrison). Because of the format, we didn't get a lot of guitar solos. This was clearly his intention, though maybe a few shredders in the audience would have been disappointed. Some of the shows from this tour are streaming on nugs.net, so I recommend a listen.

Monday night we saw Emmylou Harris at the same venue. Although it was billed as an evening with EH, it was in reality a guitar circle with Emmylou, Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp, performing the music of Guy Clark. I was unfamiliar with Verlon and Shawn, both of whom are skilled players and singers with long-standing connections to Guy. Their stories and choices of material were clearly honed over years of performance. Emmylou was kind of tacked on. She added high harmony to a number of songs, told stories of her own, and contributed verses to some tunes (aided by lyric sheets). Altogether, it was a loving and musically rewarding tribute to a mercurial songwriter.

It seems to be part of a trend among the younger generation to look for alternatives to everything being digital. The latest thing I read about was how people are starting to write letters again. Or in the case of kids, for the first time.

With vinyl I think it's being sold as something you can have alongside your streaming app or mp3 download. I've heard that the likes of Taylor Swift shift large quantities of vinyl as part of the whole merchandise pack. So it's not about sound quality as far as I can tell.

And yes, before HMV closed its shop in Lancaster there was probably as much floorspace given to vinyl and there was to CDs. We now only have a small independent record shop selling LPs and an Oxfam book and record shop selling CDs and vinyl.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but whenever I visit record shops these days, here in The Netherlands, the absolute bulk on offer is vinyl. But I got rid of all my vinyl in, ooo, 1997 or so, and am definitely not returning to it however hip vinyl may be(come). I have zero understanding of how on earth vinyl became big again. CD to me wins in every aspect except in size as far as I am concerned. And I am kind of past the age where I care about size, haha.
I find CD an ideal medium (whilst retaining the art of the album format which you can't do streaming).

I did get questions about releasing these albums on vinyl. I looked into it. Very costy and you can only put so much on an LP (my releases would at a minimum have been double LP's). And since I have zero affinity with the medium anyway, I didn't venture into that. I partly did this CD label for fun, after all. Am still proud of the fact that they are out there.

yes its all or nothing. No music only tickets. It sold out in a couple of days anyway. We're looking at it as more than just a festival.

I had to look this up as it's only just down the road from Chester and hadn't heard of it before.  It's just for people who pay for the accommodation in the castle - is that right?

Tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm : Scattering The Roots with Dan Ogus...two hours of the finest folk, roots, blues, etc...plenty of etc...

I've been sifting through my cavernous vaults to bring you some excellent music both new and vintage every Wednesday evening from 9pm 'til 11pm.

The next show goes out tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm (after Express FM Country), featuring the following artists :

Sheryl Crow, Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa, Amba Tremain, Frank Turner, Robert Vincent, Julian Dawson (feat. Gene Parsons), Carrie Tree, Peter Mulvey, Laura Veirs, Katie Spencer, Jack & Daisy, Cara Dillon, Dick Gaughan, Sean Taylor, Chris While & Julie Matthews, Joni Mitchell, Civil Wars, Jeff Buckley, Parthenon Huxley, Hollie Rogers, The Holmes Brothers, John Hiatt...

Listen tonight, 9pm 'til 11pm on Portsmouth's Express FM, on DAB and online here :

https://www.expressfm.com/programmes/scattering-the-roots/

This is, I believe, a myth put out by the vinyl industry to make us buy their overpriced, badly produced product.  CDs are (and have been in every year bar one since the 90s) the biggest selling physical music format in the UK.

Sorry to hear this, Koen.

We\ve been in touch about that (an a while ago I have chatted to Peggy on the phone about the gorgeous Vlissingen NL 1998 recording, but it remains to be seen how viable it is for TE to tackle this stuff … sure he's got a bigger chance than me (locked away in The Netherlands) but still we're talking niche stuff in a world where most seem to prefer the easy option of streaming.

We are between camper vans at the moment so sadly cant commit £500 to Cropredy until we are sure , although we want to go this time. We've got plenty booked up for the next few months.

Clive Gregsons New Band The Guilty Men
Lindisfarne
Albert Lee
Blockheads
Fairport
Madula
Bodelwyddan Festival

And looking to book for Love and Jason Isbell.

Understood. I know you had some contact with Talking Elephant Records as UK distributors.  Would they be interested in doing something like that?  Again just a thought, and maybe you've been too badly burned to even want to think about that.