A musical genre forever outside the lines
With a claim on artists from Jimmie Rodgers to Jason Isbell, Americana can be hard to define, but you know it when you hear it. John Milward’s Americanaland is filled with the enduring performers and vivid stories that are at the heart of Americana. At base a hybrid of rock and country, Americana is also infused with folk, blues, R&B, bluegrass, and other types of roots music. Performers like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and Gram Parsons used these ingredients to create influential music that took well-established genres down exciting new roads. The name Americana was coined in the 1990s to describe similarly inclined artists like Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and Wilco. Today, Brandi Carlile and I’m With Her are among the musicians carrying the genre into the twenty-first century.
Essential and engaging, Americanaland chronicles the evolution and resonance of this ever-changing amalgam of American music.
I love beauty products. I can’t help it. I have a Birchbox subscription and excitedly wait each month to see what samples I’m being sent to change my life, to turn me into the soft, wrinkle-free and glowing beauty I know I am inside. They never work but it doesn’t stop me trying.
Non-fiction books are a wonderful way to learn more about the world and the people who live in it. In The Feather Thief, I learnt more than I thought was possible about the world of fly-fishing, or more specifically fly-tiers who have a passion for Victorian fly tying designs and a commitment to recreating them.
Margaret Tudor was the oldest sister of Henry VIII and the wife of James IV of Scotland. For someone who is more than a bit fascinated by the Tudors, I realised on seeing this book up for review, I knew nothing about her – something I immediately felt the need to rectify.
For a history buff, I know very little about Georgian Britain. I have seen a few TV shows and films but that’s about it. So, in a effort to stretch my brain cells a bit, and increase my knowledge, I picked up a copy of Queens of Georgian Britain by Catherine Curzon, which had the added bonus of being about women embroiled in politics and fighting to gain meaningful power – another favourite subject of mine.
This is officially my favourite time of year. First, you have Halloween. Then, it’s Bonfire Night. As a child, living in a small village, we would have a real community bonfire, with potatoes baking in the embers and a small – but perfectly formed – fireworks display. I don’t know how many of these type of events exist anymore. Our local bonfire is a huge affair, run by the local council and so many fireworks it makes your head spin. There is no more baking potatoes – or kids wandering the streets asking for a “penny for the guy” (and how much does a penny get you nowadays?).
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