April, Gone She Has

As the months do, April has now come and gone, which must mean that it is time for me to be self-indulgent and remind you of what you have ‘enjoyed’ in the past month. It wasn’t my most prolific month – just the nine posts – six and a half of which were music pieces. At least you can’t complain that you don’t know what you’re getting from me! As there were eleven posts in March I’m now feeling guilty that I short changed you in April. And I don’t even have the argument of ‘quality over quantity’ on my side either! Oh well, I’ll just KBO anyway. (Brownie points for anyone who knows what that means).

The first post was, perhaps appropriately, launched upon you on April Fools Day, and was my review of my March offerings. It came with another snappy (and borrowed) title: Marchin On.

Next up was the piece I wrote to mark the demise of the Time To Change (TTC) organisation, which has taken the lead on efforts to reduce the stigmatisation of mental health issues. I gave this a positive title – We Carry On  – to reflect the fact that TTC’s work will continue under the lead of its two main support agencies, Rethink Mental Illness and Mind. TTC’s own website, with all of its helpful resources, is being converted into a legacy version, so you will be able to refer to it if you need to: you’ll find it here.

As I have often said, mental health issues are why I started this blog, and I will never lose sight of that, despite appearances to the contrary with the amount of music I share. Speaking of which, there having been four Tuesdays in April there were, naturally, four Tuesday Tunes posts. The first was Tuesday Tunes 51: Cheating which was a kind of homage to our Prime Minister. A month or so on and the news agenda around him doesn’t seem to have changed much! The tunes in this one came from Marvin Gaye, Ace, Del Amitri, Kenny Rogers And The First Edition, The Eagles, The Highwomen, and Jackson Browne.

For the next week, I took another trip back to the Sixties, as it gave us such a lot of good music. The post was Tuesday Tunes 52: Revisiting The Sixties and there was music from The Tremeloes, Amen Corner, Thunderclap Newman, Barry McGuire, Buffalo Springfield, and Marmalade. A fairly eclectic mix, I think.

My next post in the series reflected the effects of the latest step in the gradual relaxation of lockdown restrictions in England: Tuesday Tunes 53: Crowds. For this one, I was particularly keen to share videos that exemplified the joy that music can bring us as we get together: this seemed appropriate in the circumstances. The music was provided by Coldplay, Frank Turner, Blink-182, Kaiser Chiefs, Big Country, and The Lumineers.

The final Tuesday in April saw another trip back down memory lane, with Tuesday Tunes 54: Sixties Encore. I thought I might be in danger of running out of titles for these Sixties posts, but seem to have managed so far. The tunes for this one were by The Beach Boys, The Moody Blues, Delaney And Bonnie (And Friends), The Troggs, Eclection, and Billy Preston. Spot the deliberately included ‘obscure’ one!

There were two other full-on music posts last month, one each for my two new series. The first of these was Under The Covers Old And New in which there were some great cover versions of well known tunes, as the series’ title suggests. This set gave you tunes covered by Kate Rusby, John Fogerty and family, Cowboy Junkies, Molly Tuttle, Thunder And Rain, The Petersens, and Walk Off The Earth (who may well be getting a season ticket to future posts in this series!).

The other ‘new series’ post was for Listen To The Band. Having started with The Beatles I thought it only fair to feature the band whose song had given me the title for this series, and duly gave you Listen To The Band: The Monkees. It was a ‘value for money’ post, with eight songs from the band’s back catalogue. As I said in the piece, they werent of great artistic merit, but they gave us fun and entertained us – aspects of music which I always appreciate.

The remaining post last month was the one which I count as a half-music post. It was a resharing and updating of a piece I originally wrote in 2016 for the series I ran then: #SaturdaySongs. I count it as being half about music as it is, to me, much more than just that: it reflects a memory of a meaningful time in my life, which is perfectly illustrated for me every time I hear the song featured in it. The post was A #SaturdaySong Reprise and it means a lot to me.

So, those were last month’s posts. If you missed any, or would like to revisit them, please do feel free. As always with these reviews, I’ll give you the song which provided the basis for this month’s title: it wasn’t a difficult decision! You may well know this one, and this is an especially beautiful live performance:

A final word for this month: I’ve now done eight of these reviews, and it struck me as about time that I created a space for them in my main menu. So, if you take a look at the top of the page you’ll now find ‘Monthly Reviews’ there. While I was at it I also created an ‘Annual Reviews’ heading too, in case you are ever at a total loss for something to do, or need a cure for insomnia.

I’ll hope to see you again for the next monthly update – but do keep reading in the meantime, especially now that I’ve made it easier for you to access the old rubbish as well as the current stuff! Take care.

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