England Half English - Billy Bragg

Mermaid Avenue Vol.1 - Billy Bragg

This album is excellent, and Billy Bragg would be the last person to take all the credit for it. The lyrics are those of Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. And the songs are performed by the band Wilco, with Bragg and Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett from the band Wilco (whose "Summerteeth" album I strongly recommend) on vocals, almost alternating song by song. There are also guest vocals from Natalie Merchant. So, it's not exactly a Billy Bragg solo album, then. It is quite different, in many ways, although on some songs the style is close to that of Bragg's solo album ("Way over yonder in the minor key" and "The unwelcome guest"), ...

Don't Try This At Home - Billy Bragg

Many years ago when I was at university I would happily spend my days with other likeminded people marching the street holding up banner shouting "Thatcher out!, Thatcher out!". Alternatively we were standing on street corners holding a bucket collecting money for the striking miners. To unwind after a hard day trying to change the world we might well go to see some live music at some local student venue and more often than not there would be Billy Bragg doing another miner's strike benefit gig. With songs such as 'The Milkman Of Human Kindness', A New England', and 'To Have and ...

Don't Try This At Home - Billy Bragg

makes an appearance on "You woke up my neighbourhood", which is almost a country song, with its fiddle. My very favourite song (and I think my favourite Bragg song ever) is "Cindy of a thousand lives", it's just perfect - Johnny Marr's guitar and Kirsty McColl's wonderfully haunting backing vocals play their part, but Bragg's vocals are equally persuasive. Although Bragg seems to be thought of as a political songwriter, a minority of the songs on his albums are in fact 'political'. Here, you've got the uptempo "North Sea Bubble" (closing line "War! What is it good for? It's good for ...