Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, i am niamh & Tiga star in Free Music Friday

It’s a Bank Holiday Weekend and to celebrate not being in the office for three whole days – yaaaaaay!!!! - we’ve a veritable feast of downloads, streams, vids and trailers that are yours for the digital taking.

The musical tributes to His Royal Purpleness continue with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band treating fans in New York to an emotionally charged ‘Purple Rain’, which is available for free [link]live.brucespringsteen.net/live-music/0,13914/Bruce-Springsteen---The-E-Street-Band-mp3-flac-download-4-23-2016-Barclays-Center-Brooklyn-NY.html[/link] download.
Also doing him proud are Adam Levine, D’Angelo, Jennifer Hudson, Mumford & Sons and Elton John.

The quality control leaves a bit to be desired, but there’s lots to enjoy on Punk Sexy: A Las Vegas Punk Rock Tribute To Prince.

FMF is also loving John Prine: Live In Asheville ’86, a stunning 24-track collection from the songwriting legend. Just starting her career is Shannon Labrie whose smoldering War & Peace/Songs From The Smokestack will be lapped up by Jenny Lewis fans.

To the streams now and we’ve sneak previews of the new albums from jazz man of the moment Gregory Porter, Julianna Barwick who’s as impossible to categorise as ever, Americana veteran Mary Chapin Carpenter and Kacy & Clayton, young performers indulging in the most time-honoured of folk traditions.

Bag yourself ‘3 Rules’, a frolicsome taster from Tiga’s No Fantasy Required album at [link]radiomilwaukee.org/discover-music/download-tigas-new-song-3-rules[/link]

If you missed it last week, there’s another chance to cop a pre-release earful of Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop’s wondrous Love Letter For Hire collaboration.

Veteran rocker Peter Frampton rolled back the years when he swung by the American NPR offices. It’s hard to believe that the evergreen ‘All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)’ and ‘Baby, I Love Your Way’ date back to the early ‘70s. There was also Tiny Desk Concert magic from Julia Holter who is Vicar St.-bound in November and not, repeat not, to be missed.

There's more radio station goodness from KEXP Seattle who managed to cajole José González and Gogol Bordello into their studio for intimate gigs.

Dublin avant popster i am niamh is gifting us ‘Wait Until The Morning Comes’, the first single to be lifted from her Wonderland album.

Free Music Friday’s old pal Auxiliary Phoenix has conjured up this awesome remix of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Too Many Rappers’ featuring Nas.

Julian Temple directs the video for ‘Viva Love’, the comeback single from Martin Fry and the latest incarnation of ABC. The biggest compliment we can pay it is that it wouldn’t sound out of place on The Lexicon Of Love.

Soon to be featured in Hot Press, actor and singer-songwriter Dylan Tighe plugs his 'On My Knees' single with this warm, fuzzy video that reminds us of a pre-cable telly on the blink.

A crowd-funding campaign has been launched to bankroll Rock vs. Cancer, a documentary account of how drummer John Grabski III spent his last days recording an album with Nirvana producer Steve Albini.

Blink-182 have premiered ‘Bored To Death’, their first single since the departure of Tom DeLonge. With Alkaline Trio man Matt Skiba assuming vocal duties, it’s very much SoCal punk business as usual.

And with that, we close our computer down, jump into the car and head for Carlingford where oysters and hill walks await. Have a fab weekend and keep those links coming to @stuartclark66