Strangely it was at a recent gig by Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda Thompson) that got me interested in this one as he saw a poster advising a forthcoming Richard Hawley gig and declared, “he’s great, I really like his stuff and urge you to go and see him”. Hawley’s track included here, ‘Hotel Room’ unfortunately wouldn’t encourage me to do so (see links below to hear his albumColes Corner) but there are lots of others of interest.

Great to hear Robert Wyatt again doing very much his own thing with a Wyatt slant. It’s good to hear that he knows of the “myspace craze” (see links below) and someone was listening to his album Shleep from which his track was picked. That album had loads of guests on it including Paul Weller on guitar on ‘Blues In Bob Minor’.

When is comes to singer songwriters, Antony (and The Johnsons) was the find of last couple of years and much acclaimed. However, it is some of the other old hands and upstarts that caught my ear.

Bright Eyes is a yond man called Conor Oberst and he is the next [insert who you like but often hacks tend to pick Bob Dylan]. You might have thought Leonard (who got the Royal seal of approval from Prince Charles this week!) Cohen by the title of the track. ‘The Calendar Hung Itself ’ was recorded in 1999 when Conor was impressively young and is only 26 now. Bright Eyes has a large emo youth following and are very good live. I’d recommend the country rock album of last year I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning on which he managed to get Emmylou Harris to sing on three tracks.

Not heard of either Micah P. Hinson or Adrian Crowley but these two tracks are also impressive. In fact, The Eighteenth Day Of May would do a wonderful cover version of ‘The Girl From The Estuary’ as it’s folky guitar, cello and big drum.

Plush’s contribution includes some overly loud brass that seems very out of place with the ladies Diane Cluck (acoustic folk), Cat Power (aka Charlyn Marie Marshall) and Mary Margaret O’Hara (country).

Previous Editions of Rough Trade Shops.. have covered Country, Post Punk, Counter Culture, Rock’n’Roll, Indie Pop and Electronic. Singer Songwriter is great wide-ranging cross genre addition to the set.

Hectic Mix nomination: Adrian Crowley - The Girl From The Estuary

Reviewed: Various - Rough Trade Shops - Singer Songwriter 01 (Sampler) (Mute Records) Cat. No. CD STUMM 273 Release date: 26th June 2006
Styles: Folk Rock, Country Rock, Emo, Indie Rock
Tracklisting:
TRACK LISTING.
CD1
Micah P. Hinson - Beneath The Rose
Bright Eyes - The Calendar Hung Itself
Plush - I’ve Changed My Number
Franklin Bruno - The Irony Engine
Adrian Crowley - The Girl From The Estuary
Cat Power - Metal Heart
James William Hindle - Come Down Slowly
Mark Eitzel - Take Courage
Tracey Thorn - Plain Sailing
The Bevis Frond - Waving
Richard Thompson - Vincent Black Lightning 1952
PJ Harvey - Dress (demo)
Elvis Costello - I Want You
Tom Waits - Little Boy Blue
Barbara Manning - Scissors
Elliott Smith - Needle In The Hay
Simon Joyner - Alabaster
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere
James Yorkston - Someplace Simple
Julie Doiron - When The Snow Falls This November

CD2
Victoria Williams - Summer Of Drugs
Richard Hawley - Hotel Room
Diane Cluck - Easy To Be Around
Vic Chesnutt - Danny Carlisle
Mark Mulcahy - The Way That She Really Is
Matthew Hattie Hein - Number One
Jane Weaver - Is Everybody Happy?
Lou Barlow and His Sentridoh - Forever Instant
Robert Wyatt - Blues In Bob Minor
Jeffrey Lewis - Don’t Let The Record Label Take You Out To Lunch
Kristin Hersh - Sundrops
King Creosote - Just After 11 She Left
Charlie Parr - To A Scrapyard Bustop
Mary Margaret O’Hara - Dear Darling
Antony and the Johnsons - Cripple and the Starfish
The Mountain Goats - Masher
Nick Lowe - Endless Sleep
Daniel Johnston - Speeding Motorcycle
Tom Russell - Woodrow

Links
Bright Eyes
www.myspace.com/catpower
www.leonardcohen.com
www.adriancrowley.com
www.RichardHawley.co.uk
www.myspace.com/robertwyatt
www.antonyandthejohnsons.com