Winston Watusi Music Plus

We continue this currently weekly glance at things appearing on the radar at the Watusi Country Club. Things that have sparked little fires of joy in young Winston. This week it's all music. New music, newish music, old music, all sorts of music. We're still in lockdown so perhaps some of these sweet sounds will brighten your bubble. Any suggestions? We suggest you suggest them in the comments section...

224) Music – Fiona Apple. Fiona Apple has always been a unique often unclassifiable music force. She was a woman prepared to open up about terrible childhood experiences and mental health issues years before Lady Gaga and others put such biographical details front and centre. She was duly punished at the time by an 'unwoke” media. This was, after all, well before the Me Too movement in times when women artists were expected to generally look cute and keep quiet.

Now she is back with her first new album in eight years, Pass The Bolt Cutters, and it is an extraordinary piece of work, powerful, fiercely intelligent, openly confrontational and emotional, and musically groundbreaking.

The sound is very percussion-based, though that hardly means a bunch of drums. The rhythm bed on the title track seems constructed from the sounds of kitchen implements (with the odd dog and cat noise thrown in) while For Her features a chorus of female voices over some sort of weird beat that I can't quite figure.

It's an album unlike anything you've heard before, a pure breath of fresh air musically and a bracing personal statement. Check it out if you dare!

225) Music - Gerry Cinnamon. You might not have heard of Gerry Cinnamon unless you happen to be Scottish or, more specifically, from Glasgow. Gerry Cinnamon, who has released a new album, The Bonny, is a Scottish phenomenon, a man who can now sell out a 50,000 person stadium in hours, largely by word of mouth.

In a peculiar move the young singer, with his loop pedal and strong irreverent catchy songs, has largely avoided newspapers and television and gone straight to the people who won't judge him by current standard of fashion. His songs are easy to listen to, fun, honest and working class without being particularly political. On the song Sun Queen he sings: 'Fakes in bands only wanna get wasted / They wear nice clothes but they'll never even taste it.” Good unpretentious sentiments.

The first single is Canter and it's a delightful little singalong, running on an acoustic guitar figure, with simple but effective percussion backing and a slightly rude sing-a-long chorus. That's what Gerry Cinnamon is best at. More power to him.

226) Music – Opry Livestream. These are called 'Circle Session”, which no doubt means something to Americans. Specifically, the latest livestream from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry features a magnificent Ricky Skaggs, backed by the guitar/bass team of Dailey and Vincent (along with a killer fiddler and a keyboard player) playing some of the best bluegrass music you could hope to hear.

They're all socially distanced on the huge stage with a completely empty auditorium – aside from the rather annoying announcer – making for a slightly weird experience, but the boys joke it up on stage and are simply about as good as you get at this music. Breathtaking mandolin, guitar and that high lonesome bluegrass harmony singing that will rip yer heart out. Yum!

227) Music – John Prine. Sadly we lost the great American songwriter John Prine to Covid-19 a fortnight ago. But the music is still here. Try this intimate concert, with John backed by upright bass and guitar in the front room of a Canadian thing called the Strombo Show. It means little to me but apparently the host is a well-known Canadian music expert called George Stroumboulopoulos.

Anyway, the concert is close, intimate, and a joy from start to finish, featuring songs from John's magnificent final album Tree Of Forgiveness and a selection of greatest hits.