Here we go again: the usual mix of old and new and black and white and funk and soul and reggae and jazz and country and disco. And tributes to  to the dead in a busy month for the grim reaper: Country Joe, Chip Taylor, Mike Vernon, Terry Cox, Wayne Perkins and Wes McGhee. There’s even some Peruvian punk, which is a first for me (and surely you). 

Flea turns jazz trumpeter on his first solo album at the age of 63, and brings in his old Atoms For Peace bandmate Thom Yorke.

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R.E.M. joined a long list of artists when they began covering Wichita Lineman on tour in 1994 and finally released it as a B-side two years later.

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Courtney Barnett introduced herself, and her quirky individual sound, with the song Avant Gardener back in 2013.

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If he had never written another song, Chip Taylor would have earned a place in the pantheon of rock history as the writer of Wild Thing.

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Terry Cox was the drummer with British folk-rock pioneers Pentangle, who also played on landmark albums by David Bowie and Elton John.

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I just stumbled across this great performance by a band called Tappi Tíkarrass, featuring an all-too-familar face and voice from Iceland.

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Tiwayo is a wealth of contradictions: a young Frenchman singing classic soul tunes in the world-weary voice of an old bluesman.

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Maisy Owen is a young singer-songwriter from Nashville, who plays finger picked guitar and has earned comparisons to some of the folk greats.

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Mike Vernon was a key figure in the British blues boom of the mid-Sixties, and produced a swathe of influential debut albums.

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