Uncut

“And if you feel that you can’t go

Tangled up in Tulsa

THIS MONTH’S REVELATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF WITH... The Banshees | Middle Earth | Mick Jones | Lemon Twigs

Banshee’s back

After decades in the wilderness, banished Banshee John McKay has returned with a new band and an album of lost recordings

A kind of love-in

Remembering the sights, sounds s and smells of ’60s psychedelic sanctuary, Middle Earth

Clash in the attic!

Mick Jones reopens his Rock & Roll Public Library

“It’s such a magic connection”

Brian D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs makes friends with beat poet and Beach Boys lyricist Stephen Kalinich

Silver Synthetic

Dig Neil Young, Teenage Fanclub and Rose City Band? Then step this way…

Time To Fly

THIS MONTH’S FREE CD

AN AUDIENCE WITH... MADDY PRIOR

The Steeleye Span singer on Bowie, Quo, King Arthur and who was really inside those Wombles costumes

THE WATERBOYS Life, Death And Dennis Hopper

SUN

CITY HOPPER

RECOMMENDED

EIKO ISHIBASHI

Greek myths inspire dystopian soundtracks to the 21st century.

AtoZ

This month…

BOB MOULD

Here We Go Crazy GRANARY MUSIC/BMG 8/10

MOHAMMAD MOSTAFA HEYDARIAN

Heydarian: tanbur magic I’M NEW HERE

AMERICANA

Album of the month

REVELATIONS

Jerry Douglas (left) with Alison Krauss & Union

BROWN HORSE

All The Right WeaknessesLOOSE 8/10

BEIRUT

A Study Of Losses POMPEII

SONGS OF GREEN PHEASANT

Sings The Passing RUSTED RAIL 9/10

SOULED AMERICAN

Rise Above It: A Souled American Anthology OMNIVORE

DEEP WEIRD AMERICA

More out-there Americana to file alongside Souled American

SEX PISTOLS

Live In The USA 1978 WARNER BROS 8/10

AtoZ

This month…

REVELATIONS

BELLY

REDISCOVERED

Uncovering the underrated and overlooked

HIROSHI YOSHIMURA

Flora (reissue, 1987) PREM PROMOTION/TEMPORAL DRIFT 9/10

NATURE BOY

Further travels in Yoshimura’s serene environment

THE SPECIALIST

Key three: (l-r) Braufman, Hooker, Ware WILLIAM

COMING NEXT MONTH...

NEXT time around we’ll be taking a listen

SO LONG, MARIANNE

On January 30, we lost a true English icon: a key instigator of the ’60s pop culture revolution who was cruelly cast out of the inner circle, only to return, bloodied but gloriously unbowed, as a guiding light for future generations of lost souls. “You hardly ever encounter a singer who will pour their heart out in front of you, no affectation,” marvels one of MARIANNE FAITHFULL ’ s many collaborators. “She gave everything and you got everything.”

“SHE MOVED THE GAME FORWARD”

DOREEN SPOONER/DAILY MIRROR/MIRRORPIX VIA GETTY IMAGES; L. BUSACCA/WIREIMAGE

“SHE WAS IMPOSSIBLE, SHE WAS BRILLIANT”

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES; DOVE/EXPRESS/GETTY IMAGES; EXPRESS/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; SUNSET

“SHE CUT THROUGH TO THE RAW EMOTION”

DONALD COOPER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; JACK KAY/DAILY

SLIDING THROUGH LIFE

10 essential Marianne Faithfull songs

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

Twenty years into his redoubtable solo career, JASON ISBELL is about to release his first acoustic album, partly inspired by the great confessional singer-songwriters of the 1970s. Just don’t expect its creator to admit he’s divulging autobiographical truths. “There’s a whole bunch of real personal stuff,” he confides to Stephen Deusner. “But it’s not always coming from a trustworthy narrator’s perspective.”

ALABAMA SONGS

Jason Isbell without The 400 Unit

“A HELL OF A LOT OF HYPNOTISING”

Isbell on his acoustic guitar heroes

SISTER OF THE MOON

Combining an enthusiastic study of blues and folk traditions with a wide-ranging spiritual quest and a doctrine of radical positivity, Tennessee’s VALERIE JUNE is a voice of cosmic inspiration within American roots music. Over peanut cookies in Manhattan, Laura Barton hears her manifesto of music as medicine: “I want to see what the world looks like when we’re focused on radiance and joy. Beauty is powerful.”

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR DREAMERS

A BUYER’S GUIDE TO VALERIE JUNE

“I LOVE THE STORY OF UNDERDOGS”

Valerie June on her biggest cultural inspirations

Sound And Vision”

Don’t you wonder sometimes? Fleeing the madness of LA, Bowie and the ‘DAM Trio’ gorge on rabbit, French lager and Fawlty Towers to create a deceptively breezy Top 5 hit

ROOTS MANOEUVRE

Fighting back against prejudice and social injustice, STEEL PULSE shared a message of empowerment that extended beyond their local community in the West Midlands. Championed by John Peel, John Lydon and Bob Marley, they became one of the first bands to break through when reggae and punk went head to head in the UK. Celebrating their 50th anniversary, they look back at the events that inspired their urgent, early masterpiece, Handsworth Revolution . “It was second nature to write about what we were going through,” discovers Peter Watts. “These were our experiences.”

BOX SOUND SYSTEMS

W HEN it came to entertaining the youth

SOUND CHECK

How to buy Steel Pulse

Destroyer

A picaresque romp through the greatest works of loquacious rock’n’roll prophet Dan Bejar and pals

ART IS THE DRUG

If BRYAN FERRY has occasionally given the impression that he’d be more at home in the 1920s than the 2020s, a remarkable new collaboration with painter and spoken-word artist Amelia Barratt returns him, elegantly, to the vanguard of the avant-garde. “It’s like playing tennis with somebody who’s really good,” he tells Stephen Troussé. “You raise your game.”

FERRY CROSSING

The journey to Loose Talk

“IT WAS SO MUCH FUN”

Amelia Barratt on the process of making Loose Talk with Bryan Ferry

“WE WERE ON FIRE!”

50 T H ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

NIGHT FLIGHTS

Track by track through Physical Graffiti

“WE DECIMATED ANYTHING IN OUR WAY”

Jimmy Page on Becoming Led Zeppelin and the continual evolution of the band

“I WANTED TO SEE HOW FAR I COULD PUSH MYSELF”

For Jimmy Page, 1975 was all about the drone – both on “In The Light” and the soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s film, Lucifer Rising

LLOYD COLE

Barbican, London, January 25

UNCLASSIFIED LIVE

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, January 23

Animals unite in sublime Latvian animation; death and mushrooms in Burgundy; a clichéd boxing movie; and more…

Flow : feline groovy F LOW

ALSO OUT...

Woody Harrelson in Last Breath LAST

SLY LIVES! (AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS) DISNEY+

Sly Stone: taking us higher, then spiralling down

BOOKS

All their loving: McCartney and Lennon in Detroit,

Revolution on the head

The best of the latest wireless ’phones

Not Fade Away

Fondly remembered this month...

Feedback

Send your brickbats, bouquets, reminiscences, textual critiques, billets-doux and all forms of printable correspondence to letters@uncut.co.uk

Tunde Adebimpe

The TV On The Radio frontman on his formative transmissions: “It’s great when a show feels a little bit dangerous”

Uncut

Kelsey Media, The Granary Downs Court, Yalding Hill,