MUSIC MONDAY III

This is Erika Nakagawa, an extraordinarily talented musician & singer. And she has the longest hair imaginable! This song is one of my favourites. Hope you'll enjoy it too!

What a version! Visuals are a bit jumpy but the sound is decent and the performance majestic. "Ahh-ahh, ahhhh!"

I want to put this up in memory of a very close friend who recently passed away. He rocked this in a school festival. So many good memories and this is one.

A great example of what excellent music + awesome visuals can produce. Sean Gothman, of The Dandy Warhols I believe, puts one of their tracks to this classic 80s animation. It works, it just does.

This is a great cover, making fantastic use of a variety of instruments. I love the cool style as well, shades and all in black. Smooth!

Inspired by a friend passing on a cinema souvenir brochure, I revisited this score. This particular piece is so utterly heroic and full of wonder. Love the piccolos (flutes?) that sing after the pulsating brass delivers around the 30 second mark.

A friend from NZ introduced me to these awesome lads. And I'd been thinking they were a Kiwi band until the other day! Not the best version for sound quality but nice to see them up on stage giving it their all.

One of the many wonderful indie artists you can find on YouTube. Gingertail does a mean Wellerman shanty here, and be sure to check out her Mandalorian cover. Oh, and Edge of Night! She uses a whole host of instruments in creative ways, and has some rather groovy tattoos.

This is one talented and charismatic lady. This piece is the theme song to Dragonball, I believe. She also does a mean "Back in Black" cover. One thing I love about her videos is the simple set-up leading to a great sound. I'm sure people will either love or be distracted by the percussionist with his big hair and frantic head-bobbing!

Not much to say here, except that this is a sublime song. My whole family are Fleetwood Mac fans. We used to listen to a cassette recording of Rumours pretty much every car journey we took (along with Boney M's Night Flight to Venus). Wish my Dad, brother and I could listen to Songbird with Mum again.

I am about to utter words of heresy! This version of John Barleycorn is better than Steeleye Span's. There, I said it. May Maddy have mercy on my soul... When I first heard the Span version, I was a young lad and didn't really focus on the lyrics. I just picked up on the violent parts. I honestly thought it was some ditty about a guy who gets beaten to a pulp, has his limbs severed and head crushed, but then (through pagan powers of resurrection, perhaps) rises from his bloody grave. Then my Dad told it was a song about beer. "Oh... I see."

Never fails to put me in a wistful mood, this one. I helped out at a summer play-scheme for kids in Galway one summer, and this tune makes me want to go back.