THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and for many years Graham Reid has been going there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review columns and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an ever-expanding on-line magazine for people curious about new music, different travel, interesting arts and much more. This site is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It is an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
THE CORNERSTONE VINYL COLLECTION (2020): 101, and more, records in any serious collection
16 Jan 2021 | 4 min read
It was almost a decade ago when I wrote The Cornerstone Collection, a booklet like this which picked out 101 albums on CD which could be used as the building blocks for a serious and diverse music collection. Even today I get e-mails from people who tell me they are still working their way through it, making discoveries and... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . JO ANN CAMPBELL: Another case of the singer not the song
15 Jan 2021 | 3 min read
If you were to believe standard histories of Fifties rock'n'roll, women were marginal figures at best and, in some books, non-existent. The great Wanda Jackson often gets a mention (her career as a rockabilly singer was short, she got religion) but beyond that the river runs dry. There were, of course, quite a number of young women – black and... > Read more
PREACHER JACK: 3000 BARROOMS LATER, CONSIDERED (1984): Pass the bottle and praise the Lord
11 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
When Elsewhere pulls albums off the shelf to consider for this on-going column it is a random process. Sometimes they can be a forgotten classic, at other times pretty rubbish and then there are those where the question we ask ourselves, “How did I get this?” Our Album Considered pages have more than a few like the latter: albums that we didn't even know we... > Read more
RECOMMENDED RECORD: The Chills: Submarine Bells (Fire/Flying Nun)
11 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release or reissue we recommend on vinyl, like this one . . . . There is a reason why many Chills' loyalists speak of Martin Phillipps' timeless songwriting for his Chills (by-any-other-name) outlet: It is that because he crafts pop songs which resonate long after their first blush. Nowhere is... > Read more
Richard Nunns: Mahi (Rattle/digital outlets)
11 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
When the histories of the Maori cultural renaissance of the 20thand 21stcentury are written, two musicians will stand proudly alongside the great orators, leaders, artists and writers. They are the late Hirini Melbourne (who died in 2003) and Richard Nunns who, with the guidance of kaumatua, freed traditional Maori instruments (taonga puoro) from the museum cases and... > Read more
The Flaming Mudcats: Forever and a Day (Mudcat Music)
11 Jan 2021 | <1 min read
As with their previous album Cut Loose of '18, Auckland's four-piece Flaming Mudcats here neatly mix things up using the blues as a springboard in soul-blues, funk, horn-punctuated r'n'b (sax, trumpet and trombone from guests Andrew Hall, Mike Booth and Jono Tan) as well as bringing in piano (Mike Walker), percussion (Steve Cornane) and Hammond organ (Ron Stevens). That... > Read more
Ane Brun: After the Great Storm/How Beauty Holds the Hand of Sorrow (Balloon Ranger/digital outlets)
8 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
Born in Denmark but living in Stockholm, singer-songwriter Ane Brun was one the discoveries at the 2014 Taranaki Womad and a fascinating, candid interview subject. A writer who draws inspiration from diverse sources and located herself in a place of quiet when creating, Brun wasn't in any lockdown in the past year – the writing had begun earlier and Sweden... > Read more
GENE PITNEY: GENE PITNEY'S BIG SIXTEEN, CONSIDERED (1964): Teardrops topping the charts to dead alone in Cardiff
4 Jan 2021 | 4 min read | 1
Although the British Invasion in 1964-65 severely damaged the careers of many US artists – pretty-boy male singers most notably – a few survived the incursions. And in the case of Gene Pitney, paths sometimes crossed. Before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in February '64, Pitney from Connecticut had scored major hits with... > Read more
Sabir Mateen: Creation (577 Records/digital outlets)
4 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
Saxophonist Sabir Mateen is 69 and can reflect on a life in improvised music playing alongside greats such as Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Sunny Murray, Henry Grimes and many others who advanced the project of jazz into free jazz. He's also a member of the TEST collective alongside fellow saxophonist Daniel Carter. If free jazz rose in the late Fifties and Sixties,... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . JACKSON C. FRANK: A folked up life
4 Jan 2021 | 3 min read
Unless you are into the small print about British folk music in the Sixties, you will be forgiven for not having heard anything by the lost folk legend Jackson C Frank, and excused for never having heard of him at all. After all, he did just the one album. Jackson C. Frank died in '99 -- he'd been a diagnosed paranoid-schizophrenic and had been homeless on the... > Read more
My Name is Carnival
Massiel: La La La (1968)
4 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
In 1968 middle-class, middle-aged (and some kids) Britain held a collective breath. That year the Eurovision Song Contest was being hosted at the Royal Albert Hall, after a bare-footed Sandie Shaw had won it the previous year with Puppet on a String. This time success was assured because the committee had put up Britain's favourite pop star Cliff Richard . . . and the... > Read more
LEGAL REINS: PLEASE THE PLEASURE, CONSIDERED (1988): It's humpage Jim, but not as we know it
28 Dec 2020 | 1 min read
If there is any consensus about this American trio from LA – and believe me you search in vain for even just a few references to them – it was that they were ahead of their time. But that's actually the opinion of their drummer Tim Freund. He also said he couldn't understand why the band didn't make it adding “just goes to show even Clive Davis... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . MARNI NIXON: The voice of the famous faces
27 Dec 2020 | 4 min read
When the American singer Marni Nixon died in July 2016, her passing was barely noted in the music press. Major newspapers like the New York Times weighed in with obituaries, but the silence from the music press was deafening. Maybe contemporary music writers didn't know who she was, and that would be the irony of her life . . . Even though her music was enjoyed... > Read more
I Could Have Danced All Night (from My Fair Lady)
TREES: FROM ARCHIVES INTO A BOX (2021): Seventies Brit-prog-folk onna psyche-American trip
26 Dec 2020 | 4 min read
To be honest, the British folk-rock band Trees never meant anything to me during their brief heyday of just a few years -- and one further album -- after their 1970 debut The Garden of Jane Delawney. In fact, the only time they passed my sight (and not even hearing at the time) was with the cover of that second album On the Shore on which a young girl is freeze-framed... > Read more
Fool
Dread Zeppelin: All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (1990)
23 Dec 2020 | <1 min read
Christmas is upon us. And in the spirit of the day here is one of the funniest bands ever. Whoever thought pulling together reggae rhythms and Led Zeppelin riffery was an odd fish . . . but then they went one step beyond and fronted the band with an Elvis impersonator. This was classic rock-comedy . . . and their shows were hilarious. For this B-side however... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2020: THE READERS' CHOICES
21 Dec 2020 | 11 min read | 1
Well, we did ask . . . and are delighted that people have responded. Last week it was The Editor's Choices (40 of the best albums that we wrote about in 2020) and now it was your turn. Delighted of course that many of you said that Reb Fountain, Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple and others we chose would also have been in your hit list . . . but by... > Read more
DAVID LINDLEY AND EL RAYO-X; VERY GREASY, CONSIDERED (1988): A Caribbean cruise in your own backyard
21 Dec 2020 | 1 min read
Without going the whole Buble/Christmas album route, there is some music which is seasonal. And the Caribbean/Chicano/Louisiana warmth coming off this album by multi-instrumentalist and Ry Cooder-pal David Lindley is certainly one for summer listening. The album was produced by Linda Ronstadt who, along with Jackson Browne, adds backing vocals on one track: the... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . FANNY CROSBY: Safe in the arms of Jesus
21 Dec 2020 | 3 min read | 1
When Bob Dylan sold his song catalogue to Universal Music in late 2020 for the princely sum of a reported US$300 million, there was another figure worth considering. Dylan had the copyright on more than 600 original songs (not all of which he had recorded, of course). In their 10 years together in the Beatles, the authorial credit Lennon-McCartney was attached to more... > Read more
THE BEATLES' CHRISTMAS RECORDS: They wanna wish you a merry crimble and a gear new year
21 Dec 2020 | 6 min read
Among the many remarkable things about the Beatles' short but crowded career in the global eye was that despite touring, recording, making films, doing interviews, filming clips of songs for broadcast (the precursors of video clips) and so much more, they managed to keep going in to the BBC studios to record radio shows. They first recorded for the Beeb before they had a... > Read more
Keith's Christmas Tequila Cookies
21 Dec 2020 | 1 min read
Keith offers this marvellous recipe which I can unequivocally recommend. His injunction that you should use only the best tequila is very important however -- as you will see if you read on. If, for some strange reason, this doesn't work out you might want to have someone make the whisky-infused Wicked Chicken just in case. INGREDIENTS 1 cup dark brown... > Read more