SAILING TO PHILADELPHIA by MARK KNOPFLER. Essay by Ann Banham.
I am intrigued with the lyrics sung by the distinctive gravelly vocals of Knopfler. Who is this Jeremiah Dixon?
SIMPLY THE BEST by NOAH REID. Poem by Michael Leach.
Soon each groom/ walks down a natural aisle/ with his sister & his canine/ to sounds of sincerest acoustic music.
MY OLD GIRL by WADE WARD. Story and song by Shane Pillay
In the middle of the noughties, the songwriter moved. The continent - Europe. He brought his sheet music, but abandoned his creative desires.
INIS OÍRR Story by Paul Bateman
Now here I am, in a country town, in a pub of good spirit, in a song without end, in the company of people content to play their role, with the ghost of Walt Whitman hovering at my side.
DETECTORISTS by JOHNNY FLYNN. Story by Vin M
Every morning I ride a few minutes to my school crossing and park my bicycle under my Detectorists tree.
LET’S DISAPPEAR by JOSH KRAJCIK. Fiction by Alice Richardson
I asked where she was going and she giggled. Said she didn’t know, didn’t care.
NOTHING REALLY MATTERS by THE PIGRAM BROTHERS Story by Stephen Andrew
This is big sky music, languid yet powerful, like a wedge tail cruising on an updraft. The spirit of the sound echoes the spirit of the land.
GOTTA GET IT by THE RESONANT ROGUES Story by Vin Maskell
My friend Gina sends an email with the subject line ‘Resident Rogues’, inviting me to see a swing/country/gypsy music band from the US in a little bar called the Merri Creek Tavern. She tells me a story as we wait to see the band.
RATTLIN’ BONES by KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON Story by Stephen Andrew
The lyrics of Rattlin’ Bones were apocalyptic and disorienting but somehow strangely comforting after our deeply personal experiences of the Black Saturday fires.
YOU WILL SURELY LOVE AGAIN by CHRIS WILSON Tribute by John Butler
We mourn the dead, but if they touched us in some way they never really die.