The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Four

If getting in to the top 20 is the kind of thing that bothers you, well, then these are the albums that missed out by one place.

Pranam Mavahalli

Grinderman – Grinderman 2 (Mute)

Track - When My Baby Comes



Ah, more high-kicking, finger-pointing, no-pussy, apocalypse-preaching blues from Cave and co. Noisy, funny and occasionally appalling – I found it a well-needed blast of high-octane fun. This is my fourth favourite track off the album – other panel members beat me to me ideal choices – but it’s great nevertheless, particularly for its unexpected mutation into a rifftastic behemoth half-way through.

John Skilbeck

Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be (Sub Pop)

Track - Bhang Bhang I'm A Burnout



Even the band name was sweet, whether it was borrowed from Talk Talk’s Dum Dum Girl, Iggy Pop’s Dum Dum Boys, or The Vaselines’ Dum Dum album. Drenched in distortion, the guitar sound of Dum Dum Girls was a popular one this year. While most trends are given one shot, the female vocal over fuzzpop combination results in great things with ever-accelerating frequency (for further study, check out peak-era Primitives, Raveonettes, Black Tambourine), and this year it was most weeks that a new, thrilling girls-on-guitars band surfaced. I Will Be was noir-ish, often menacing, and its 11 tracks rolled by in under a half-hour, just two breaking the three-minute mark. Live they were a brief thrill, a leather-jacketed four-piece girl gang; on record their sound bore the hallmarks of all the great girl groups, and the production, inevitably, that of the ultimate girl-group producer Phil Spector.

Steve Pill

Walls - Walls (Kompakt)

Track - Soft Cover People



With tracks named after paint pigments and an album cover featuring a bleached photo of blossom trees, it is little surprise that this debut from London duo Sam Willis and Alessio Natalizia is an impressionistic piece. There's shades of Brian Eno, Boards of Canada and Pink Floyd's Meddle here, yet their particular mix of droning guitars, analogue fuzz and backward loops somehow manages to sound entirely fresh.

Matt Collins

Lone Wolf - The Devil and I (Bella Union)

Track - 15 Letters



South London’s Lone Wolf is all furiously picked acoustic guitars and epic vocal delivery, giving this album the other / olde worldy feel of a 70s folk singer with access to a 96-track Pro Tools driven digital studio. Frantic drumclicks and guitars picked Buried Beneath the tiles sounds like an acoustic Muse at their passionate best, and album closer-but-one Dead River wouldn’t have been out of place on Fleet Foxes classic debut.

Andy Welch

First Aid Kit – The Big Black And Blue (Wichita)

Track - Heavy Storm



I saw Swedish duo First Aid Kit play at London’s Union Chapel earlier this year without having really heard their music beforehand. It was one of those beautiful experiences where you’re unexpectedly bowled over, and I’ve been hooked since. The arrangements on some of the songs are at times a little simplistic, bland even, but then with voices so huge and emotive, it scarcely matters.

Guy Atkinson

The Errors - Come Down With Me (Rock Action)

Track - A Rumour In Africa



This second album from Glasgow 'post-electro-rock-whatever' foursome contains a couple of tracks that pill'eads would describe as absolute 'bangers'. I'm not one of them, so 'awesome songs' will have to suffice. POP FACT: They released a remix album of this in November called 'Celebrity Come Down With Me'. YES!

Dom Farrell

Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation (Island)

Track - Find The Torch, Burn The Plans



Wake Up The Nation sees Paul Weller jettison the occasional dinner jazz of 2009's 22 Dreams in favour of all-round brevity. Trees is the only song over four minutes, and that has three separate parts. Opener Moonshine bustles and burns out almost before you've noticed the initial flash, while No Tears To Cry is a snappy soul ballad that outstrips much of Weller's Style Council work. As the title suggests, Wake Up The Nation is in large parts a reacquaintence with the angry young man of the late seventies. Lyrical references to Facebook in the title track are more embarrassing uncle than class warrior, but when pitched correctly, as on Find The Torch, Burn The Plans, the results are a triumph.

Ian Parker

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (Merok)

Track - A More Perfect Union



Titus Andronicus first came to my attention thanks to the endless comparisons to Bruce, which occur because of their Jersey roots, their self-confessed adoration, and their playful theft of his lyrical themes. But this is no Gaslight Anthem-esque Ode to The Boss. This is an angry Okkervil River. A ragged Hold Steady. In short, a riot.

Rory Dollard

Black Keys – Brothers (V2)

Track - Next Girl



Album number six from the Ohio duo and no obvious sign that their retrofitted blues-rock is growing any less appealing with age. Dan Auerbach is a consistently engaging performer, his riffs and licks always firmly on the right side of homage to the greats of the genre. Vocally, his sunny falsetto is now as effective as his traditional gutterslumped drawl and Next Girl even showcases some of the swagger from their Blakroc rap project.

Ali Mason

Dangermouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul (Parlaphone)

Track - Little Girl (ft. Julian Casablancas)



Having bought one album of unremarkable indie tracks with Dangermouse going ‘beep’ in the background (yes Broken Bells, I mean you) this year I was fairly reluctant to add another to my collection. Dark Night Of The Soul is, thankfully, a better album but, as is perhaps inevitable in collection of collaborations, some tracks work and some don’t. Highlights include Little Girl with Julian Casablancas and The Man Who Played God with Suzanne Vega. Lowlights include lots of guff in between.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Three

It's day three, and Ali's bid to be thrown off the panel shows no signs of slowing as he nominates an album designed to attract maximum ridicule, and one he himself admits "makes me want to kill myself"...

Pranam Mavahalli

Ali and Toumani – Ali and Toumani (World Circuit)

Track - Be Mankan


Manchester Piccadilly can make the world look an oppressive place. Particularly on a dark morning when you’ve just stepped off the bus into a puddle, and you are greeted by the sight of a pigeon pecking at the remnants of a discarded chicken kebab. Thanks are due to Jali then, a busker who brings happiness to me and the many other drones who live and work in Manchester with his wonderful kora playing. Here’s footage of him busking in Liverpool. The council should give this guy a job. Which brings me to today’s choice. The kora is one of my favourite instruments, and with all due respect to Jali, Toumani is its undisputed master. This album recorded with the late Ali Farka Toure is wonderful – and though it doesn’t quite match Toure’s Savane, or Toumani’s Mande Variations For, it’s still a beautiful listen.

John Skilbeck

Rose Elinor Dougall - Without Why (Scarlet Music)

Track - Find Me Out


While The Pipettes ailed without her, a sorry imitation of their peak-period incarnation, the artiste formerly known as Rosay went from strength to strength in 2010. Although Without Why took an age to arrive – she was playing these tracks at festivals 12 months before the album arrived – Dougall really hit the spot with her debut album. Her brand of electro-folk carried with it a warmth - the rich voice which was rarely used to its best potential in a polka-dot dress now struck out for centre stage. At times it reminded me of Swedish songbird Frida Hyvonen, whose Silence Is Wild hit the top spot in my 2009 chart; elsewhere there was a little imperfection. Its failure to dent the charts meant it was less a breakthrough album than a break-free release, but Dougall caught the eye of many and achieved tangible success in league with Mark Ronson before the year’s end.

Steve Pill

The Walkmen - Lisbon (Bella Union)

Track - Angela Surf City


So many of these early entries are going to come with provisos because, if we're all being honest, there were approximately six truly great records this year and plenty of just pretty good ones. Despite the hype, Walkmen have yet to top 2004's The Rat, the most skittish, urgent and life affirming four minutes and 28 seconds of guitar abuse released this century. In comparison, Lisbon can only pale, being as it is crisper, lighter and more considered. Luckily, surf rock, country and Latino diversions all add greater depth to this consistent set.

Matt Collins

Band of Horses - Infinite Arms (Columbia)

Track - Blue Beard


Seattle-born Band of Horses are riding the wave of soulful three chord Americana rock, but they’re surfing admirably high. The formula is well worn enough - harmonies blending into classic rock guitar beds, but it’s the quality of songwriting here and delicacy of the riffs that lifts Band of Horses above their peers.

Andy Welch

Beach House – Teen Dream (Bella Union)

Track - Lover of Mine


I remember people asking what the new Beach House album sounded like before it came out, to which the only reply was ‘It just sounds like their other two, you know, just like Mazzy Star…’ Their debut and follow-up Devotion are equally strong, at-times breathtakingly pretty records and there’s nothing new here, so it’s a little puzzling why Teen Dream put the Baltimore duo on the map to the extent it did. Perhaps the key lies in Norway, easily one of the best songs of 2010. Whatever the reason, Teen Dream is a magical album.

Guy Atkinson

Sky Larkin - Kaleide (Polydor)

Track - Still Windmills


Slightly more focused offering from Leeds' foremost Seattle acolytes (they've
got plenty of competition for this title). Last year's 'The Golden Spike' was a thrilling affair, but did suffer from being slightly one-paced. No such problems here, however, as the band display a more mature touch, best showcased on 'Anjelica Houston' and 'ATM'. The drummer absolutely 'slays' live as well, which is always nice.

Dom Farrell

Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love (Rough Trade)

Track - Read The Blessed Pages


After a four-and-a-half year absence, Stuart Murdoch and his band of merry men return with their best album for a decade. Gone are the overly twee songs about animals, casting Write About Love as a follow-up of sorts to 1998's career high-watermark The Boy With The Arab Strap. What makes the record so endearing is the fact that Murdoch's inquisitive awkwardness with the love and the human condition do not appear to have eased with age. As usual the command of melody is imperious, meaning I Didn't See It Coming and Come On Sister lend a touch of euphoria where they have no right to. The highlight comes towards the end, when Ghost of Rockschool and Read the Blessed Pages shimmer brightest.


Ian Parker

Chief - Modern Rituals (Domino)

Track - The Minute I Saw It


Chief got the big build up. The really big build up. Hype about the Californians started about a year before Modern Rituals ever arrived. When the record finally got here, it was easy to be underwhelmed. Comparisons to the likes of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Love and the Band hugely overstated the end result. But take a step back and judge the record on its own merit, and it is a highly enjoyable way to pass the time.


Rory Dollard

Meursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry (Song, By Toad)

Track - Crank Resolutions


Probably my most rewarding ‘blind’ buy of the year, picked up in Edinburgh’s wonderful Avalanche Records as I somehow still had a tenner left after a monster purchasing session. This is a deliberately underproduced, rough around the edges release which revels in the cracked, thick accent of Nick Pennycook. On this tracks, and several others, his Scottish brogue wanders dense, sandblasted soundscapes to great effect but there are one or two softer moments.

Ali Mason

Eliza Doolittle – Eliza Doolittle (Parlaphone)

Track - Rollerblades


With her mockney voice and cheerful songs, it would be easy to lump Eliza Doolittle in with Lily Allen and Kate Nash. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Luckily I quite like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. Yes the lyrics are embarrassingly literal at times, the CD has been packaged to look EXACTLY like Alright, Still and something about her relentless cheerfulness makes me want to kill myself just a little bit, but there are four or five songs on here that I actually really like. Which is more than can be said for many albums I’ve bought this year. *Sits back, waits for abuse from Dollard...*

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Two

Hello, and welcome to day two, in which Skillers nominates something vaguely mainstream, Dollard weighs in with some big time hip hop, and Ali chooses an actual record.

Pranam Mavahalli

Konono No.1 – Assume Crash Position (Crammed)

Track - Guyiome


I first came across Konono here and was immediately hooked. They make the combination of thumb pianos and instruments made out of scrap metal sound like an electrified-samba-jungle-boogie. I succeed in making my thumb piano sound an arrhythmic mess, which is why I’ll leave it to the masters to show how it should be done.

John Skilbeck

She & Him - Volume Two (Double Six)

Track - In The Sun


Wowie Zooey. The spring brought another quite magical album from Deschanel and M. Ward. Two years on from their sparkling debut, Volume Two discredited the argument that She & Him was a vanity project for the ‘rom-com actress’ and the ‘hired-hand guitarist’. Deschanel’s beautifully fragile songs and her lullaby voice were enriched by Ward’s arrangements, and the band’s busy touring schedule underscored how both have been absorbed by the project. Like yesterday’s pick Shonen Knife, they played Matt Groening’s ATP. And Hollywood starlets don’t visit Minehead on a wet and windy weekend without taking something very seriously.

Steve Pill

Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon (Polydor)

Track - Communion (Feat. Karen O)


It’s sexy time. Fresh from his work with Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On The Radio, Dave Sitek has decided he'd rather ditch being a hipster gun for hire and instead become Brooklyn's answer to Justin Trousersnake. Thankfully, rather than coming off like a Flight of the Conchords-style spoof, the only excess shown on this album is the number of guest vocalists. Instead we are treated to ten perfect slices of electro pop that Prince would be proud of.

Matt Collins

Allo Darlin' - Allo Darlin' (Fortuna Pop)

Track - My Heart Is A Drummer



Not my usual cup of tea, I must say, but there’s something irresistable about this album. Mining the same vein as The Pippettes, who I retain a lot of affection for. Jangly sixties guitars and cute girl singer vocals all run together into an eminently dance-able, high octane pop fest that will be gracing indie clubs up and down the country.

Andy Welch

Toro Y Moi – Causers Of This (Carpark)

Track - Thanks Vision


I hear the word chillwave mentioned about an album and immediately approach it with caution – what a terrible term – but there was something about Causers Of This I found really intriguing. It could be the effects that sound like they’re straight off a Sega Mega Drive game, or it could be the sheer amount of time Chaz Bundick spent making the album. Either way, there’s something very special about Causers Of This, and sometimes that’s enough.

Guy Atkinson

Interpol - Interpol (Soft Limit)

Track - Lights


It's almost unthinkable really that one of my favourite bands of the 2000s are only 23rd in this year's poll, but that's what happens when you neglect the most important feature of any song - a friggin' tune. There's a few highlights on here, but the vast majority is of a quality so far removed from their finest moments on Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics that makes Carlos D's decision to flee look like a wise one.

Dom Farrell

Best Coast - Crazy For You (Wichita)

Track - Crazy For You


American garage bands mining the seam of eighties British indie is certainly an enjoyable trend. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart were a big Ragged Glories hit last year, and Best Coast's debut Crazy For You can also be expected to curry favour. With the nursery rhyme lyrics of social media junkie Bethany Cosentino to the fore, elements of surf and sixties girl group chic are also thrown into the mix to produce a honey-sweet debut effort.


Ian Parker

Pete Molinari - A Train Bound For Glory (Clarksville)

Track - Streetcar Named Desire


Pete Molinari's second album is right up my street. The Kent-born singer-songwriter has delved even deeper into the rockabilly sound he dabbled with first time around and come up with a record firmly stuck in the past, but very much part of my present.



Rory Dollard

Big Boi – Sir Lucious Leftfoot Son of Chico Dusty (Def Jam)

Track - Shutterbugg



Outkast are undoubtedly one of the most fascinating hip hop acts of their generation but there have been suggestions of late that Andre 3000 is becoming too pantomime for his own good. Here his partner in crime goes it alone and creates something a little less florid but more sonically interesting than what has come before. The clichés of rap music are mostly absent or subverted and standout track Shutterbugg – with its Wu-Tang and Soul II Soul references – is pure fun.

Ali Mason

Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love (Rough Trade)

Track - Write About Love


Painful as it is for me to admit, I really, really dislike this album. Only a disappointing year and a probably misplaced sense of loyalty and sentimentality can find it a spot in my top 24. Belle & Sebastian haven’t, in my opinion, been the same since Isobel Campbell left. I suspect Stuart Murdoch agrees, and that’s why he’s invited guest female vocalists to try and jazz things up a bit. They can’t hide the fact, though, that the tunes are insipid and the lyrics lack zip. And yes, Stuart, you love God. We get it.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number One

Behind the first door of the Advent Calendar are the albums that are essentially our final picks, the last ones on the list. But these are no throwaway picks (at least not the most of them, you know, Ali aside), making up the numbers at the end of the day.

All of us (again, Ali aside) were struggling to whittle it down to a final 24, so the last one to make the cut needed to do something to stand out. Read on to find out what it was.

Pranam Mavahalli

John Adams - I Am Love Soundtrack (Nonesuch)

Track - Lollapalooza


Confessions pt.1: I haven’t seen I Am Love nor do I own its soundtrack. And moreover, I haven’t even heard the tracks sequenced as they are in this order. Yet it’s my 24th favourite album of 2010 because Adams needs to be represented in any compilation of my listening habits this year. I’ve spent most of this autumn/winter being thrilled, confused and inspired by his music in equal measure. This soundtrack picks pieces from across his career, with Lollapalooza present here in its entirety. Mr Adams talks introduces the piece here. Enjoy.

John Skilbeck

Shonen Knife – Super Group (Damnably)

Track - Jet


Formed in 1981, all-girl Japanese three-piece Shonen Knife supported Nirvana on the Nevermind UK tour and were championed by John Peel as well as putting out music on K Records and Sub Pop in the 1980s. So their credentials aren’t half bad. Only one member of the original line-up remains - lead vocalist Naoko Yamano. An explosion of colour on stage, and a riot of fun with a heavy Ramones influence, their set at ATP’s Groening weekend in May was a treat. Super Group was superior punk-pop, and by track 10 they’d grown Wings.

Steve Pill

I Am Kloot – Sky At Night (Shepherd Moon)

Track - Fingerprints


So this year saw Manchester's grizzliest barflies take a break from drinking to oblivion and actually find time to slink into a recording studio. Sky At Night retains that slightly surly, bitter edge that made Kloot's early records stand out from the nu-folk masses but the lush production from their bezzie mates Elbow has expanded their sound and it is all the better for it. Still a God awful band name, mind.

Matt Collins

Mystery Jets - Serotonin (Rough Trade)

Track - Serotonin



The Mystery Jets have grown up in the production stakes. They’ve retained the wide eyed romanticism that makes them such an engaging band, but built on this with some dazzling electropop soundscapes. The woo ooh oohs are ever present and keep the joie de vivre going strong, making this an album very easy to love.

Andy Welch

Tracey Thorn – Love And Its Opposite (Strange Feeling)

Tracks - Oh! The Divorces


I always liked Everything But The Girl’s more electronic tracks, but to my mind Tracey Thorn’s distinctive voice sounded best against acoustic guitars and live instruments, like on the duo’s fantastic version of I Don’t Want To Talk About It. Here, on Thorn’s third album, we have a whole collection of ballads which touch on deep emotional themes – divorce, desolation, ageing, the perils of dating – but thanks to her wondrous vocals and gorgeous arrangements, all manage to steer clear of the gooey sentimentality that’d ruin things in less skilled hands.

Guy Atkinson

Jonsi - GO (Parlaphone)

Track - Go Do


In stark contrast to last year's 24th placed effort from me, this is a far more gentle affair. Where Converge's thunderingly heavy hardcore punk was like a sledgehammer to the face, this album from the Sigur Ros frontman is more akin to being tickled on the balls with a feather. Far more accessible than Sigur Ros' glacial post-rock, this contains a couple of real 'pop gems'.

Dom Farrell

I Am Kloot - Sky At Night (Shepherd Moon)

Track - Northern Skies


Sky At Night was supposed to "do an Elbow" for fellow Manchester good-guys and survivors I Am Kloot. Guy Garvey and Craig Potter manned the controls to produce the record, which was partially recorded at Elbow's own Blueprint Studios. They even followed it up with a Mercury Prize nomination. Alas, Kloot fell short and the cross-over never quite happened. That shouldn't take away from a record woven with some truly lovely moments, none more so than Northern Skies, which plays out as hymn to the hometown which still holds them so dearly.

Ian Parker

Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards - Shakes (Editions)

Track - If Not For You


I'll confess to having been ignorant of Dan Michaelson's work until just a few weeks ago, when I walked into Rough Trade East and they were playing his new record. No wonder they were keen to promote it, having got their hands on a small number of the specially printed sleeves. But this is not a record that needs packaging gimmicks to sell it. Michaelson comes across a sort of British Lambchop, with plenty for fans of both them and the likes of Richard Hawley to enjoy in his well-crafted ruminations.

Rory Dollard

Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang – The Wonder Show of the World (Domino)

Track - The Sounds Are Always Begging


Will Oldham is never bonnie and only intermittently princely. Having become frustrated by his wilfully hit and miss output in recent years I decided to avoid his latest for several months. Then a burst of this song on 6 Music grabbed me and changed my mind in four enchanting minutes. Wonder Show is a rootsy folk album without any bells or whistles and on its best moments showcases Oldham at his most instinctive and worldly.

Ali Mason

Curl up with a cup of cocoa and a good book

Let’s get this out of the way. I haven’t found a whole lot of music I’ve loved in 2010. My list is not jam packed-full of classics. There are even some in there I actively dislike. So before we plunge into this music business, let me ask – do you really need another album? Have you considered a book? Or playing video games? There are lots of podcasts out there worthy of your attention. Just sayin’.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Here We Go Again

Folks

The time is here.

Well, almost. Starting tomorrow, it begins once more.

Ragged Glories, after a year largely defined by inactivity, will crank into life to bring you the second edition of the Musical Advent Calendar.

Our original panel of 10 has returned to guide you through their favourite albums of 2010.

It hasn't been an easy task, with a split between some who regard this as a vintage year, and those who consider it largely a waste of time. For my own part, I'll say its a year with plenty of good albums, but short on great ones.

The results are a varied selection, though I'll admit I was surprised to see that the overall number of albums nominated - 158 - was hardly any more than the 156 from last year. When actually going through everyone's lists, it certainly feels like there's a lot less consensus.

That is what you will see over the next 24 days as we wheel out the calendar, with the promise of an overall top 10 to follow on Christmas Day itself. Beats a daily chocolate, no?

Find out, starting tomorrow.

Keep Your Powder Dry: The American Civil War

Y'all forgot this blog existed, right? Certainly it seems like I did for a long time. Let's see if we can fix that and get things rolling again.

The relaunch comes with a blog idea I had when the thing was first started - I just had to wait for today to do it.

It was on this day, a mere 149 years ago, that troops acting under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, the first shots in what would be a four-year American civil war.

There were many causes behind the war - slavery is the one most people think of, but it was never quite so simple as that. The battle was over the rights of individual states versus increasing federal power. Slavery, and Washington's desire to end it, brought matters to a head, and came to symbolise the fight - but its precise influence is unclear. Heck, even Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens seems confused: his Cornerstone Speech just before the war cited slavery as the chief cause, but then after the war was over, Stephens would insist it was only a contributing factor.

Either way, the battle would tear at the union and create scars some of which have never truly healed. The 'Lost Cause' is a battle some would love to fight even today, and there is a fascinating living history of the American Civil War which continues now. Let me recommend this book, 'Confederates in the Attic' by Tony Horowitz, as an outstanding trip across the southern states and a study on some very bizarre characters who don't seem to realise the war is over.

It was a terrible battle, killing over 600,000 combined, and wounding many more. Despite what some might tell you, there is little to celebrate here.

But the fascinating history has, inevitably, caught the attention of songwriters over the years.

So let us mark this day with five songs that speak to the ongoing influence of events 150 years ago.

The Felice Brothers - The Greatest Show On Earth (The Felice Brothers, 2008)


Yep, it's those Felice Brothers again. They keep finding their way on here, huh? That's because they are such great storytellers as songwriters, and they are so steeped in American history. I'll be honest, I've not figured out quite what this song is on about, referencing everyone from Doris Day to Henry Kissinger, but it all winds up with them heading out to Gettysburg, "the stand of the Greatest Show on Earth". That probably refers to the circus, because the 'show' put on in this Pennsylvania town during the civil war was great, but only in a terrible sense. The bloodiest battle of the war claimed the lives of 3,200 union soldiers and 4,700 confederate soldiers, all in the space of three days. It proved a decisive turning point, and was later made famous by President Lincoln's poignant tribute to the fallen, the Gettysburg Address.

The Drive-By Truckers - Rebels (The Fine Print, 2009)


Continuing their battle with the Felice Brothers for the most appearances on here, the Drive-By Truckers - those grizzled chroniclers of all things Southern - of course have plenty of Civil War references in their music. It's constantly in the background on their epic Southern Rock Opera, but this one is taken from their B-sides collection of last year, The Fine Print.

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band, 1969)


Okay, so if the first two songs put the legacy of civil war into more recent history, this one is explicitly about events at the time. Telling the story of a Confederate soldier in the final days of battle, working on the Daville Train - the main supply route for General Lee's army as they desperately clung on to their capital in Richmond. It would eventually fall after a 10 month siege, with Union forces claiming it in April 1865 to ultimately end the war, three days shy of four years after it began. A sad and poignant song, it speaks of the horrors of war through the eyes of a weary soldier who has lost his brother in battle. "Ya take what you need and you leave the rest/But they never should have taken the very best."

Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere - Sunrise Over Fort Sanders (Knoxville Tells, 2002)


I got my first education on the civil war when studying at the University of Tennessee, which lies just across the street from Fort Sanders, where the decisive battle of the Knoxville Campaign was fought in 1863. The Union stronghold was attacked by Confederate General James Longstreet's troops, but they failed to breakthrough, suffering heavy losses. East Tennessee, unlike most of the south, remained largely loyal to the Union throughout. The Confederates desperately needed to capture their stronghold in Knoxville, but Longstreet's campaign was a disaster as he lost 813 men while the Union lost only 13. The area is now dotted with some fine old houses, and was once home to famed author James Agee. Today, students have taken over large areas of the fort, and it is they who are celebrated in this track. Poet and blues musician RB Morris lends his talents as the contrasts are drawn between the morning after battle, and the morning after a heavy night.

Scott Miller - The Rain (Are You With Me? 2000)


Another track with Knoxville roots - Scott Miller is originally from Virginia but now calls East Tennessee home. His first solo LP, Thus Always To Tyrants, was dominated by Civil War songs, but sadly (in my view) this one never made the cut, and has only appeared as a live track. It's still the best thing he's ever written.