The outlaw loved by the in-law, Willie Nelson can draw 4,000 people outside Dublin virtually by word of mouth. But it ain't all middle of the road: as befits a veteran of the honky-tonks who had done battle with the IRS and the law, the country music legend can still get in touch with the dark side of Hank
What is it with people making reggae cover albums? A month before Sinéad O'Connor unleashes her Jah-tastic Throw Down Your Arms collection, Willie Nelson gets in on the act with this frankly rather bizarre album.
One of the true icons of country music, Willie Nelson has seen more of life than most of the rest of us combined – including well publicised bouts with alcohol and drugs and a particularly intimate knowledge of the workings of the IRS.
After countless albums Willie Nelson is still as prolific as ever, and has recently produced some of his best work, including Spirit and the Daniel Lanois-produced Teatro.
Huge cheers erupted when he started into the familiar chorus of ‘On The Road Again’ and another classic, ‘Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys’.
For the painfully shy and private Ray LaMontagne, life in the spotlight is one of almost unremitting discomfort, and yet he hopes to last as long as Willie Nelson.
Just what we needed to round off our summer of car-boot delights – Scooby Doo on wheels from the chap who unleashed Starship Troopers on an unsuspecting planet.
Pioneering ambient artist, film-scorer, and producer of choice for everyone from Willie Nelson to U2, Daniel Lanois has assembled one of the most impressive CVs in modern rock. And with his new album, Shine, having just hit the racks, he’s far from done yet, as he tells Peter Murphy
U2 are set to feature prominently in Here Is What Is, a new fly-on-the-studio-wall documentary that’s been put together by their long-time confidante Daniel Lanois.
When the offer came to produce the new Rolling Stones album in Dublin what answer could Don Was give but a resounding ‘Yes’. Mick, Keef & Co. are the latest in a long and impressive list of the man’s studio credits which includes Bob Dylan, The B-52’s, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Paula Abdu. But throw in the small matter of the career of Was (Not Was) and the musical rehabilitation of errant Beach Boys’ genius Brian Wilson and we’re talking major industry player here. Bill Graham takes up the story . . .
Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Ryan Adams, Jeff Beck, Bunny Wailer, Shaggy, Bootsy Collins – Toots Hibbert may be supported by a stellar cast on his latest album but it’s tribute to his unique vocal presence that the Otis Redding of reggae still outshines them all.The best news of all is that Toots And The Maytals are in Vicar Street on June 29. Don’t miss it.
Having shifted from playing drums in “loud, noisy rock bands” to becoming a Hot Press contributor in 1996, Peter Murphy has fast gained a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading journalists.
Having recovered from the knee operation that forced him to pull out of last month’s Garden Party festival, Toots Hyberd are set to make up for it with another show in Ireland.
In the first part of a two part special on the vital areas of songwriting, publishing and copyright, Jackie Hayden talks to Irish singer-songwriter Kieran Goss about his craft, on the eve of the release of the Northerner's new album Red Letter Day, his follow-up to the multi-platinum Worse Than Pride.
Follow-up to the superb Filth & Fire album sees the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter (pronounced go-shay- y’all) once gain explore the underbelly of life. With sparse production and atmospheric backing, her half sung, half spoken lyrics conjure up a world of sinners, losers and doomed lovers - Southern Gothic at its very best in other words.
Fresh from playing last week with Howling Bells, My Latest Novel and Beach in London’s Royal Festival Hall – get him! – Fionn Regan has lined up a North American bar tour in support of his The End Of History album.
Though Beth Nielsen Chapman's latest album deeper still was created when she was mourning the death of her husband and battling breast cancer, the result is an uplifting collection of life-affirming songs
With her superb new album Kelly’s Heroes, SANDY KELLY has established herself as Ireland’s undisputed Queen of Country Music. She has also consolidated her status as an international star of the highest calibre. Report: COLM O’HARE
An influential and respected figure in evolutionary terms, though never stratospherically successful, the good Doctor (still) specialises in a heady, ebullient, high-spirited brew of jazz, soul and piano-based Southern boogie-woogie.
The indelible images of September 11th tragedy will be for many, the key memory of these past 12 months. Music may seem lightweight in comparison, yet its healing powers were probably more needed than ever
rob thomas is cautiously optimistic that his multi-million selling outfit, matchbox 20, will not succumb to the Hootie syndrome. Interview: colm o'hare.
This May, Conway Savage will take to the stage for his new Irish tour. Best known for his role the keyboard/piano player with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Savage is flying solo this time around.
Paul Simon's son Harper and his band Menlo Park - whose live show features bare-knuckle boxing and roasting pigs on spits - to play the Smithwicks Source Festival in late July
Peter Murphy takes a train to the wild west (Galway that is) with the original Texas Jewboy, crime writer and legendary stardust cowboy Kinky Friedman. Peter Matthews has the negatives.
Liquor, women, drugs and killing. This is how the Supersuckers sum up the subject matter of their songs. Comprising a singer called Eddie Spaghetti, guitarist Dan 'Thunder' Bolton and a personage known as The Dancing Eagle on drums, expect a band who don't take themselves all that seriously.
BECK is one of the most eclectically talented musicians of his generation. STUART CLARK sees the man play a stormer at Witnness and hears him talk about fame, musical obsession, heroes like Bowie and Black Sabbath and 'Britney fascism'
There’s no argument. The Rolling Stones new record Voodoo Lounge finds the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world of yore back in fighting trim, stomping out that distinctive blend of musical mayhem we know and love in positively swaggering style – good enough, some would say, to see off any contenders to their coveted throne. At the centre of this triumphant return to form is one Michael Philip Jagger, who sounds lean, mean, hungry and ready for the fray. Here he raps with Don Was – producer of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Was Not Was, Bonnie Raitt and of course The Rolling Stones – about the primeval power of music and how to keep on doing it even at the grand old age of twenty (Sorry! I’ll read that again) . . .
“All men are bastards” Country star trisha yearwood firmly believed – until she met the one who would become her husband. Here, she talks to Joe Jackson about how her marriage to Robert Reynolds of The Mavericks has changed the way she looks at the opposite sex. She also discusses her rivalry with LeAnn Rimes, and the darker side of the Nashville country ’n’ western scene.
Pix: Cathal Dawson
The taciturn reputation of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has often had journalists thinking in terms of ‘blood’ and ‘stone’, but Stuart Clark finds Peter Hayes in downright garrulous form on the subjects of their new album, Johnny Cash, mermaids and Arnie.
His decision to take care of business may have been a turning point but, at heart, Kieran Goss remains primarily preoccupied with his guitar and his pen.
An icy welcome is swiftly thawed by laughter and vodka as the legendary Townes Van Zandt briefly retreats from the endless tyranny of road and stage to discuss his life and times in a darkened Dublin hotel room with Patrick Brennan.
Womack has a powerful, expressive voice, whether she’s singing roots or pop, but this is one listener who would prefer if she’d followed up the promise held out by the more traditional sound of her debut album
At 53, EMMYLOU HARRIS has finally taken up the pen and the result is one of her finest albums yet. SIOBHAN LONG journeys to New York to meet the reluctant songwriter.
Now that he's discovered the joys of the Dobro, are Frankie Lane's madcap, balcony-scaling days over for good? Not a bit of it. *It's all really just about finding a new way of being nasty.* He tells Siobhan Long.
When blues legend B.B. King came to town for his recent bash at College Green, as part of the Guinness Blues Festival, BILL GRAHAM caught up with the man whose extraordinary career has spanned many decades and which shows no sign of abating.
Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
Niall Toner has been flying the flag for bluegrass and country music in Ireland for over thirty years now both as a broadcaster/journalist and a tireless live performer. This superbly recorded album features a collection of songs he has written over the years, many in collaboration with top American writers.
They ve been gigging for 27 years and they were doing Words when Boyzone were still in the balls zone. They are Big Chief Flaming Star, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Thunder, Wild Hawk and Dull Knife (not their real names). They are
THE INDIANS
and they hope to still be on the warpath in the next millennium.
LIAM FAY
pow-wows with an authentic showband phenomenon.
While the entity that is U2 continues to be the dominant focus in the creative lives of its four members, away from the band, Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry have all indulged in extra-curricular activities, bringing them – and their music - into contact with such legends as Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Keith Richards, and Roy Orbison, By Dermot Stokes
Journalist NEIL McCORMICK was a schoolmate of BONO when U2 were taking baby steps. Over the past 25 years their paths have frequently crossed, inevitably in rather more exotic circumstances than a classroom. As another year draws to a close, they meet up again: the result is an unusually intimate portrait of a man who came not to save the world but to serenade it. Plus: a close-up look at some of the most striking songs on All That You Can t Leave Behind
PAUL BRADY has had an embattled career. In the course of it, he has made great music, won new fans and lost old friends. He has written powerful songs, locked horns with his record company, even contemplated quitting the business entirely. Now finally, he has come to new realisations about himself and about the enduring power of love. Interview: JOE JACKSON.
With the new publication in book form of a collection of his newspaper columns, the Sinn Féin president addresses matters both personal and political. Here he offers further thoughts on Omagh, death threats and the peace process as well as on music, his late mother, his own family and his vision of a private life beyond politics.
He may indeed be from Limerick but if you think you’re going to get a subheadline that mentions bringing home the bacon, acting the ham or even being on the pig’s back, then you’re sadly mistaken. Instead we’re going to keep things simple. Mick Hanly has just released a new album entitled Happy Like This. What better occasion for Jackie Hayden to visit him in his Kilkenny home and look back over his career to date, and to remember the days when he hadn’t a sausage (would you cut the crap, please? – Ed)? Pix.: Brendan Fitzpatrick.
So this is Christmas and what have we done... As U2 prepare to enter the final yearof the decade, Bono devotes a long night at his home in Dublin to reflecting on his life, his music and U2's extraordinary career to date. Interview: Liam Mackey
Falling in love not only altered David Kitt’s heart but helped reshape his musical vision. Olaf Tyaransen visits his home cum studio and hears about the family affair that is his new album and how meeting Poppy reawakened his love of pop. all this and why the son of a Minister opposes the smoking ban! Photography Roger Woolman.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
At the end of an exciting, painful and earthshaking year, Bono reflects on the political and the personal – from drop the debt, September 11, Afghanistan and Genoa to the death of his father Bob, the birth of his son John and the enduring friendship which underpins U2’s music and career. Interview: Niall Stokes
[this interview originally appeared in the spectacular Hot Press Annual 2002 - used in the pictures below - a very limited number of this unique collectors item will shortly be on sale - email u2@hotpress.ie to reserve a copy]
Nirvana - Ten years after. Peter Murphy talks to producer Butch Vig, musician Mark Lanegan and critic Greil Marcus, and gets the inside story of the making of Nevermind, the classic album that changed the face of music, unveiled the anthem 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and brought the world face to face with a screaming soul called Kurt Cobain.
A special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
Two things shine through here: the affection and respect Toner has for the music, and the corresponding affection and respect in which he’s held by his fellow musicians.
A memorable year, for so many reasons, ’87 promised much but ultimately failed to deliver the musical goods we’ve been waiting for since the beginning of the decade.
'Bring on the models, baby, let the magic begin!' intones the immortal Austin as his triumphant, shagadelic sequel begins to rev up - and who are we to argue?
If someone unfamiliar with the current crop of Irish musicians were to cock an ear to Other Voices 2, they could be forgiven for thinking that Ireland’s rock ‘n’ rollers were mellowing out.
Annual article: With Compass Records taking over the Green Linnet catalogue, the Nashville label has now become one of the biggest traditional imprints in the business.
Born on 26th February 1932 in Arkansas, the guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnny Cash is one of the true legends of country music, a performer whose popularity transcends the boundaries of that art-form.
Jackie Hayden travelled to Nashville, Tennessee for a once-off invitation-only gig starring Frank Black, Guy Garvey of Elbow and Richard Hawley at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery as part of the celebration for Mr Daniel’s birthday.
Though often overlooked, some of U2’s most exciting and challenging music through the years is to be found hidden away on the flip side of their singles. From U23 to Melon bill graham rides the wild horses of the U2 back catalogue and finds that there’s quite a few thoroughbreds among their many cover versions and experimental remixes.
Olaf Tyaransen reports from the Birthday JD set in Lynchburg, Tennesse, which featured performances from such acts as Hugh Cornwell, Roisin Murphy and Ash's Tim Wheeler.
It may not seem as glamorous as appearing on Top of the Pops but it can be a hell of a lot more lucrative. That’s right, publishing is one of the most widely misunderstood and underestimated aspects of the music industry. The message for Irish songwriters: get weaving! There’s classics that need writing . . .
Having reported in Hot Press ten years ago on a riotous week at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, the time seemed ripe for Olaf Tyaransen to make a return trip.
