James Geraghty

The Essential 10: Crowded House I am going to add a little preface to my usual opening blurb for this feature...I promised myself that 2026 was going to be full of positivity and goodness, and yet I find myself sitting here surround...

In need of comforting, excellent tunes in troubled times?

Then look no further than this #Essential10 with 10 great tracks from across the hugely impressive catalogue of #CrowdedHouse - expect a few rarer, deeper cuts too.

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Playlist: Greenland (& Denmark) I don't generally stray far into the world of politics here, but it is time to show some solidarity with the people of Greenland. It would be wrong to ignore that there are, of course, existing issues...

This playlist shows some solidarity with Greenland as it awaits the next move of the orange manbaby.

We delve into the world of Greenlandic and Danish music. There is a varied music scene in Nuuk and beyond - expect a few hidden gems and #Aqua of course!

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Throwing Muses This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features Throwing Muses; an act that has managed 11 studio albums and a bunch of EPs and compilati...

Time for an #Essential10 - a cross-section of ten tracks by one artist that I love.

This edition features Rhode Island's #ThrowingMuses - a great and well respected indie band who have never had the success they deserve.

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Andy Gill It’s been a while since we did one of our Six Degrees of Kevin Shields episodes, so to honour the new year, we are looking at musicians born on New Year’s Day to start proceedings.There are a few pote...

First #sixdegreesofkevinshields of 2026 - it starts with celebrating a musician who had a new year's birthday.

From there it meanders through the musical fields towards Kevin Shields - this time via west coast punk and hard rock.
#andygill #minutemen #mbv

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Playlist: 10 Songs That Bring Me Joy (welcome to 2026) Now, I tend to avoid doing Top 10 lists of anything musical, as orders of preference constantly change with moods, time and the like. But as 2025 concludes and 2026 hopefully dawns with some fresh hop...

A #playlist to kickstart 2026 - no real theme, just 10 songs that give me a positive vibe for the year ahead.

I hope the next 364 & a bit days bring you much to be grateful for - and the odd ray of sunshine.
#idles #simpleminds #bigcountry #splitenz

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Playlist: Winter 3 Here is my annual effort to do a broadly holiday based playlist without getting involved with any overtly Christmas music - a genre I generally don't like all that much. As ever, I get around this tho...

Time for a #winter #playlist for you.

This time, despite my general dislike of them, a few actual Christmas tunes have snuck there way in...

Anyway, a nice and mellow set of songs for you!
#thepretenders #HMHB #RHCP #muddywaters #azteccamera #swift

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Interesting Stories V: Christmas Edition I know have a reputation for not bringing much of the festive joy to the table at this time of year, but here is my vague effort at overcoming that. This latest in our collection of interesting storie...

Here are some more 'interesting' music stories - this time with a festive slant.

We look at a few facts you maybe didn't know about some popular Christmas songs, and a few other related things too...
#FrankSinatra #NatKingCole #BingCrosby #Metallica

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The Essential 10: 10,000 Maniacs This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features 10,000 Maniacs; an act that managed 5 albums over a career that spanned 1981 to 1993 (thi...

This #essential10 features ten of my favourite tracks by #10000Maniacs

I got into them just as #NatalieMerchant announced her departure, but I still spent most of the 90s listening to them.

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The godfather of Alt Country: Joe Ely dies aged 78 I have often spoken about how Uncle Tupelo and Steve Earle pretty much invented the genre of Alt-Country in the late 1980s, blending together outlaw country with hints of punk.But that, of course, is ...

After yet another crappy weekend of news - the last thing we needed was to find that Joe Ely had died!

One of the great unsung Texas troubadours, an Alt Country legend before such a phrase existed - his fingerprints are all across those bands.
#JoeEly

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Playlist: Steve Cropper Last week the world lost one of its most celebrated and important musicians, when Steve Cropper died aged 84 on 3 December.The 1960s was the era of the session band; the US was stacked full of them, p...

A playlist to celebrate the late and very great #SteveCropper who we lost last week.

A core part of the #Stax sound - a legendary guitarist with #BookerT&TheMGs and beyond.

#OtisRedding #Sam&Dave #EddieFloyd #MavisStaples

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He's About A Mover: Doug Sahm - a Texan Tornado There are myriad Texas musicians who have become household names over the last six or seven decades; Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top, Janis Joplin, Waylon Jennings, Stevie Ray Vaughan, not to menti...

Today we look back at a Texan musician who was something of a musical chameleon, mixing his genres up - but Doug Sahm is long overdue some credit.

#dougsahm #sirdouglasquintet #texastornados

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The Essential 10: The Replacements This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The Replacements; an act that managed seven studio albums over a tumultuous career that s...

It's time for The Essential 10 - a quickfire tour of the back catalogue of one of my favourite musical artists.

This time - the shambolic wonder that was #thereplacements - one of the most important US post-punk bands of them all.

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Crossing the River: Jimmy Cliff dies aged 81 The sad news came out this morning, via his Facebook site, that reggae legend Jimmy Cliff had died, "due to a seizure followed by pneumonia." The post, written by his wife Latifa Chambers, went on to ...

RIP to reggae trailblazer and all around legend #jimmycliff

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Playlist: Covers #7 Well, it's been a few months, but it was high time to roll out another bunch of top cover versions for you. They might not be originals, but that shouldn't detract from the quality.So, for our seventh...

Another #playlist another chance to cram in ten top cover versions - just about every genre imaginable, and a little tribute to #toddsnider in there as well.

#thebunnymen #rhodadakar #jimmyeatworld #franzferdinand

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Andre, Louis, an old hotel and a Military Medal A post that cropped up on one of my social media feeds, gives us the idea for today's story... and it's not entirely music based, but an interesting one nonetheless.Rhoda Dakar was at the heart of the...

The story of a man from Jamaica, WWI bravery, a London jazz club and a daughter who became famous on the Ska scene...

#TheBodysnatchers

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Playlist: NFL It's mid autumn, getting chillier and damper, and that can only mean that over the pond, the NFL is getting towards the business end of its season. So, I wondered if we could make a playlist out of it...

It's #playlist time again: with autumn in full swing and its season getting to the business end - its 11 songs that tenuously link to NFL teams!

Many genres covered - country, punk, R&B, indie - something for everyone.

#thewho #destinyschild #shedseven

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Gilson Lavis: 1951-2025 So, we say goodbye to one of the more distinctive British drummers of the last 50 years, with the news that Gilson Lavis has died today, aged 74.He is perhaps best known for his work through the late ...

Today we say RIP to Gilson Lavis, drummer with iconic pop band #squeeze through the 70s and 80s, before joining #joolsholland and his R&B orchestra until his retirement just a month or so ago.
#RIPGilsonLavis

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Courtney Love: More than just a Dirty Blonde? At times it felt like Courtney Love’s infamous relationship with Kurt Cobain was more of a circus sideshow than a marriage built on love. The pair were seemingly drowning in their drug habit, yet some...

This took a very long time to research & write - for a subject that might not interest many...

In the 90s, Courtney Love was musical marmite - either talentless diva who ruined Kurt, or writer of raw punk songs (with some bad habits).
#CourtneyLove #Hole

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The Essential 10: The B-52s This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The B-52s; an act that has managed 7 albums over a career that begun in 1976 and still co...

Have a cold? Feeling cold? Then you need this week's Essential 10 from everyone's favourite Athens party band - the B52s!

Ten top tracks of fun to cheer you up on a chilly, damp autumnal evening...
#TheB52s

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Once Upon A Time: 40 years on It was an interesting, and potentially pivotal time, for the rising stars of Scottish rock music.The four years leading up to the release of Once Upon A Time, Simple Minds eighth studio album, had see...

40 years ago, Once Upon A Time came out - by no means the greatest #SimpleMinds album, but the one that opened their fantastic world up to young me!

Without it, I wouldn't have New Gold Dream as my all time favourite, and my world would be much worse.

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Playlist: Autumn 2 In the UK (and the northern hemisphere more generally), we have truly entered that autumnal time of year (a.k.a. fall) - the temperature has finally chilled a bit, the air seems damper and most of all...

It's playlist time - and we re-visiting the autumnal theme, as the UK slips into cold, damp weather with rapidly shortening days.

We cover all the bases, from R&B and pop, to folk and indie...
#nickdrake #weezer #taylorswift #girlinred #justinhayward

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Ricky Wilson Last weekend (12 October) saw the fortieth anniversary of the passing of one of the founding members of just about the funnest band to ever walk this planet.And, as a mark of respect, we are using tha...

Today's #SixDegreesOfKevinShields - we remember Ricky Wilson (B52s) who died 40 years ago.

Then we trace a typically weird, meandering musical journey towards Kevin Shields. Expect interesting stuff along the way...

#b52s #worldparty #teardropexplodes

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The Longest Story in Music If you are thinking about music companies that have been around a while, you might well settle on something like Stradivarius, who certainly date back a long way. They made stringed instruments like v...

Today we look at the incredible journey of a musical instrument manufacturer that has been plying their trade for over 400 years!

And their wares have been used by many of the all time greats in that field...

#cymbals #zildjian

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Here's The Essential 10 - a quick skip through the back catalogue of my favourite musical artists, with a selection of singles and some deeper cuts.

This time we feature one of the greats of British punk - #TheClash

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Whatever Happened To... Connie Converse? This is nothing rhetorical or a pun, but a genuine question.Connie Converse was born, had a brief career on the music scene in New York City, moved, did lots of work around human rights publications, ...

We look at the intriguing and sad story of a woman whose brief spell of renown on the NYC folk scene of the 1950s was largely forgotten, until decades after her mysterious disappearance. Was she really the first ever singer-songwriter?

#connieconverse

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Seems hard to believe - but here is blog post #300!

Thanks to everyone who has engaged with my musical waffle over 299 posts. This is an epic playlist derived from spontaneous answers to random categories.

As ever, hopefully something for everyone here.
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On The Skids: Interesting Stories IV We have another in our occasional series of stories from around the musical world - some amusing, some strange, some a little sad, but hopefully all of them a little interesting. I love these stories,...

It's time for some more #interestingstories from around the world of music - some amusing, some weird and some slightly sad, but hopefully all at least a little interesting...
#jellobiafra #bigcountry #andreatrue #thegits #jamesbrown #lynyrdskynyrd

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Feuding Siblings Feuding siblings in music seems to be a trope as old as the hills, well certainly back to the start of the rock n roll era anyway. But why is it that the argumentative families that come to mind are a...

This time we look at siblings in music and the feuds they have - why does that (sometimes) lead to great music? We don't really answer the question, but any excuse to play stuff by #thekinks #blackcrowes #kingsofleon and more....

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The Essential 10: The Icicle Works This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features one of Liverpool's finest, The Icicle Works; an act that managed 5 albums over a career t...

Today's 'The Essential 10' features ten tracks from the catalogue of one of my favourite Liverpool bands of all time - #TheIcicleWorks

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The Lemonheads The Electric Ballroom, Camden, London - Wednesday 27 August 2025Doing the same thing over and over yet hoping for a different outcome (or something like that) is a well-worn phrase that I was wary of ...

The Lemonheads second time around - the first time, a few years back, was erratic and awful!

But a great songwriter deserves a second chance - so how would Evan and his crew fare this time?

#TheLemonheads #EvanDando

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