My Favourite Albums Of 2020

13. Tanya Donelly & The Parkington Sisters

12. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

11. Courtney Marie Andrews - Old Flowers

10. Isobel Campbell - There Is No Other...

9. Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter

8. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud

7. Ren Harvieu - Revel In The Drama

6. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

5. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

4. Greg Dulli - Random Desire

3. Margo Price - That's How Rumors Get Started

2. Neil Young - Homegrown

1. Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom

My Favourite Albums Of 2012

I had a really difficult time this year whittling down my favourite albums of the year to just 10, there were so many I really loved: so I decided to make it 11. There are others I really loved too like Ryan Bingham's brilliant hard rock meets traditional country Tomorrowland, The Mars Volta's underrated Noctourniquet and Kathleen Edwards' lovely follow-up to Asking For Flowers, Voyageur, but these are the records that ultimately made the cut.

Best gigs of 2012

This year I seem to have been revisiting my youth as I saw more reunited bands than ever and my summer was like a big flashback to the early 90s. But it wasn't all nostalgia as I got to experience some great new bands too as well as a few legends I had never experienced before, like Mike Nesmith, who was back on these shores for a solo show for the first time in 38 years! I feel pretty lucky to have seen him, as different and quirky as his show was.  I also spent two days standing in the rain and mud in order to see Soundgarden and Bruce Springsteen, both of which were worth it but I don't know if I have it in me to do again. Still there's part of me that is sad that the Hard Rock Calling concerts will longer be taking place in Hyde Park, I definitely had some good times at those events over the years. Also sad was Cat Power cancelling her December show at the Roundhouse due to illness. I was really looking forward to that one but hopefully she'll be back next year to make up the dates. So anyway, with all that said, here's my list of my favourite shows this year:

10. Eddie Vedder at Hammersmith Apollo

9. Bat For Lashes at The Forum

8. Anaïs Mitchell at Camden Dingwalls

7. Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park

6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Royal Albert Hall

5. First Aid Kit at Shepherd's Bush Empire

4. Sharon Van Etten at the Scala

3. Wild Flag at the Electric Ballroom

2. Soundgarden at Hyde Park

1. Afghan Whigs at Koko

Anaïs Mitchell at Camden Dingwalls

Anaïs Mitchell & The Young Man Band
Rachel Ries

Camden Dingwalls, 12 June 2012

Looking like she's just stepped out of a 1950s picture book wearing a full-skirted blue and white gingham dress, Rachel Ries (who is also a member of Anaïs Mitchell's band) immediately ruins the illusion by strapping on a bright red electric guitar. Her music though isn't far removed from that first impression: lonesome country-tinged folk songs with a nice line in storytelling.

Anaïs Mitchell interview

I interviewed the wonderful Anaïs Mitchell about her new album, Young Man In America, for Hive Magazine. You can read the results there or below!

Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell has been compared to everyone from Joanna Newsom to Ani DiFranco (whose Righteous Babe record label used to be her home) but really there is no one else like her right now as her last album, the masterful Hadestown (which boasted such guests as Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and DiFranco herself) clearly testifies. An ambitious and musically diverse concept album, it drew rave reviews and found itself on many end of year best-of lists in 2010. Her latest release, Young Man In America, is a more traditional affair but is equally arresting. We asked Mitchell all about the new album, her up upcoming UK tour and more.

Your last album, Hadestown, was an opera based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and although you’ve said that this one, Young Man In America, isn’t a concept album, do you think they share any themes? 

People have pointed out that they DO share themes, but I totally didn’t notice that when I was writing the songs. Hadestown is the Orpheus myth as you said, but it’s set in a post-apocalyptic depression era that takes a lot of inspiration from 1930s America, the poverty and exploitation of those times. Young Man In America takes inspiration from the current recession and the first two songs on the album are set in a wild America, an every-man-for-himself version of America. So I guess I have some kinda bone to pick huh?