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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 19th January 2026

The Magpie Arc – The Mantle

I wrote about this band on these pages for my Ely Folk Festival review last year, an event in which I was dazzled by their brilliant re-ignition of the electric folk rock style pioneered in the late sixties by bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. At the time they were blessed with the guitar wizardry of Martin Simpson who has since left the ranks, but the evidence heard in their new material here proves that they remain a band plugging an essential shot of voltage enhanced energy into the folk scene. They also have a couple of big names on board too with Steeleye Span’s Maddy Prior helping out on vocals and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson on flute. With or without the folk glitterati though, the Magpie Arc remain a band worthy of your attention. This is a preview single from their forthcoming album.

Muck And The Mires – Tripping Out On Love

This slice of frantic guitar pop, infused with a real garage rock sensibility, is released as a new seven inch single on the Rogue Records label. They have been around for twenty-five years now, releasing music that has caught the attention of anyone possessing a love of that sixties British Invasion guitar band sound and building a favourable reputation thanks to the raw power of their live shows. They were even named the number one Garage Band by the E Street Bands Steven Van Zandt once, a man who knows a thing or two about that primitive sound. So, you know what to do, get out and enjoy the visceral delight of buying a hot new 45 and get this one sailing up the charts.

Amy LaVere & Will Sexton – Time Warp

It has been six years now since Amy LaVere released her superb last album, ‘Painting Blue’. In that time new music has been scarce although she has continued to play live in the US alongside her partner Will Sexton. I am always keeping my ear out for new Amy music simply because every album since her 2005 debut has been a high end example of the best that modern country and bluegrass inflected songwriting has to offer. She is a musician with a fine ear and an easy to connect with writing style, not to mention a sublime voice and deft double bass touch. The end of the concert clip suggests a live album is forthcoming at least and, as heard with this new song, a couple of fresh numbers have crept out with little fanfare. I am certain there are many other than me still waiting eagerly for a new album of Amy LaVere songs, this excerpt hints that the wait might not be in vain.

Peter Gabriel – Been Undone

On the subject of artists who keep their audience waiting a long time between LP releases, well Amy LaVere could take another fifteen years to make a new record and she would still be no slower than Peter Gabriel between the release of 2023’s ‘i/o’ and the preceding ‘Up’ album. So the fact that this month has seen him begin another series of monthly, new moon adjacent, track drops that will, sometime later this year, form the content of another new album is a huge, very welcome, surprise. He hasn’t released a new studio album within three years of the previous one since the 1980s. My position remains unapologetically pro-Peter, my justification for the snails pace between albums always being that at least, when new music did finally arrive, it was always something worth hearing. Despite the relative speed, that is still the case with ‘Been Undone’, a dream state hymn that proves the mans soulful voice still pulls some emotive punches. When it gets its proper full length release, the new album will be called ‘o/i’.

Hen Ogledd – Scales Will Fall

We move from a man who used to make his bandmates stare awkwardly at their instruments when he took to the stage dressed as Britannia to a group where no such problems exist, it looks like everyone is raiding the dressing up box with uninhibited enthusiasm. They have been around for a few years now, building a reputation as an unpredictable shape-shifting unit wherein ancient Celtic themes and prog aesthetics are married to avant-folk electronics and experimentation. Hen Ogledd are a perfect outlet for the national folk music treasure Richard Dawson to fly his freak flag but his bandmates Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington all offer crucial ingredients to the far-out mix. This rousing tune is taken from the album ‘DISCOMBOBULATED’, out on 20th February 2026 on Weird World.

Nevaris – Ninth Sun

The key personnel in this live studio session, part of the Nevaris Project, are DJ Logic, Peter Apfelbaum, Jojo Kuo, Will Bernard, Lockatron, Angel Rodriguez, Jonathan Maron, and Matt Dickey. The newly released ‘SoundSession’ EP was recorded in a single day at Orange Sound studio in New Jersey. Playing and interpreting music written by percussionist Agustin Nevaris (who also led the nine piece ensemble) and Bill Laswell, the session was originally planned as a live stream but the sound of the live ensemble was so deep and inviting that the decision was, correctly I believe, taken to capture the sound on disc and release it to the world. The combination of dub, funk, Afro-Latin rhythms, turntablism and improvisation is an intoxicating one for sure.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 16th January 2026

David Bowie – Boys Keep Swinging

For the first edition of Old Fruit of the new year I have turned to the artist whose music has been receiving a very pleasing amount of attention around the tenth anniversary of his death. Bowie’s catalogue is an immersive maze once you get into it and I sense that the deep diving of his audio creations has only just begun. I did not see any credibility in a Guardian article claiming his influence is on the decline, you cannot measure the value of an artist like this on Spotify streams alone. Besides, skim away the pop hits of his 1983-86 period and you have to accept he was mostly an act outside of the mainstream, spearheading trends rather than following them. But, Bowie was also a master at infiltrating the popular arena even when the sound was edgy or abrasive. A rare trick aided by his willingness to appear in comedic TV skits such as this one, on the Kenny Everett Television Show.

David Bowie – White Light White Heat

Ask any serious David Bowie fan what they thought of the 1987 Glass Spider tour and chances are the feedback will not be that positive. Perhaps, more than any other time in his career, this was the moment when he was creatively drinking from an empty cup, with that years ‘Never Let Me Down’ album offering little to inspire. So, he presented a show high on scenery, props and choreography with a slick band at a time when appetite for eighties excess and tinny synths had all but dried up, especially in the underground and alternative scenes close to Bowie’s heart. Certainly, concert recordings from that year do have a little of the Spinal Tap doing ‘Stonehenge’ about them, especially the spoken dialogue that introduces ‘Glass Spider’ itself. That said, with a guitar line up on some dates that included the double kick of Peter Frampton and future Bob Dylan mainstay Charlie Sexton, the shows had their moments, like this energised scrub down of a Velvet Underground classic.

David Bowie – 5.15 The Angels Have Gone

The late careers of many a 20th century music icon have much in the way of undiscovered treasure, it seems that the bigger the impact of the early years the more likely it is that quality later work will be overlooked or underappreciated. I include Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen in this list but it does absolutely apply to David Bowie. If you look at the final twenty years of his life, bearing in mind he took eight of those away from music, then the final seven albums in the catalogue present some of the best produced, most engaged, switched on and ultimately exciting music of his career. Starting with ‘Earthling’ all the way up to ‘Blackstar’, and I am including, unreleased at the time, ‘Toy’ in this because it is so good, and these alone represent a body of timeless work to match the best of all but the upper echelons of music artists in our time.

David Bowie & Cher – Young Americans Medley

The prime time TV studio medley of hits type performance might be the domain of far smoother operators than Bowie, it is the kind of thing you would expect from Neil Diamond or Tom Jones rather than the man who made music with Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Trent Reznor. But he wasn’t labelled a chameleon for nothing and the brilliant thing about this performance, rather than the medley itself which has so many rough joins it should be sent back to carpentry school, is the way David plays it totally straight without a hint of irony or detached cool. Just like Cher, he throws himself into it and in doing so delivers an improbable moment of music TV gold dust.

Tin Machine – Heaven’s In Here

Whilst the new documentary about Bowie’s later years, ‘The Final Act,’ has a lot to recommend it, I did feel it miscast the Tin Machine era of 1989-91 somewhat. It is very true that the UK music press especially ripped them apart and mocked Bowie’s attempts at fading into the background as a band member. It was like they felt he was being dishonest, just wanting him to be who he is rather than dictate that writers had to accept this new framework. It is a mystery that the more clued up journalists did not see that he was just feeling the times in an era when baggy and grunge alternative culture were rebelling against the pop star trappings and trying to reprioritise music. I feel that the documentary should have reflected more how Tin Machine were a fairly well executed idea, and a vital shake down for the fringes of Bowie’s audience that he probably rightly feared would hold him back creatively. And as this clip proves, the band did indeed have some very good moments wherein Tin Machine’s David adopted the front man role with real engaged commitment.

David Bowie – Let Me Sleep Beside You

We close this edition with a little sixties London pop gem from the future space cadets early years. This is exactly what I mean about the appreciation of his life’s work still being in its early days. Before he first troubled the charts in 1969 with ‘Space Oddity’ David made a lot of great records, of their time but without ageing badly, including a Deram album, that did not register commercially at all. Today, time has levelled things out to the extent that tracks like this sound like a whimsical, British psych era, colourful pop nugget. It matters little that hardly anyone heard it in 1967, it has risen over the years, just as several others from this period have, to a place of belonging in the vast, varied and vital David Bowie catalogue.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 12th January 2026

Carson McHone – Idiom

Welcome back and happy new year to all. I am starting the Fresh Juice feature for 2026 with half a dozen selections that I did not squeeze in during the 2025 editions. Kicking the year off, it is Carson McHone whose ‘Pentimento’ album was released in the autumn on Merge Records. Now based in Ontario, Canada, this was McHone’s fourth solo album in ten years of releasing records created in collaboration with Daniel Romano. It is a real audacious treat of a folk-rock album, ram-packed with the kind of structurally strong songwriting that stands shoulder to shoulder with the giants of the genre, but also infused with a mysterious alien spirit that lends the record an air of the unknown, like a broadcast from another star. This is superb.

Mclusky – People Person

Returning in 2025 with their fourth LP record and their first album in twenty years were late 1990’s, early 2000’s noise-punkers Mclusky. The record ‘The World Is Still Here And So Are We’ was released via Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings and locked straight back into the abrasive style they were always known for. Front man Andrew “Falco” Falkous continues to bring the noise but not without some regrettable toll on his hearing. Of the above track he said it’s “the song that gave me tinnitus, so asking me about it is really cruel. it’s probably about being overwhelmed by the world because that’s what all of our songs are about.”

Jon Cleary – Zulu Coconuts

This may not be the music to suit the weather on this snowy January morning but then again, perhaps this is exactly what we need. I defy you to listen without tapping your foot at the very least, but a hip swaying frug across the floor would be far more appropriate. Maybe if Jools Holland’s ‘Hootenanny’ had booked Jon Cleary instead of the friggin Kooks I might have seen the new in with a smile rather than a grimace. This song had actually been doing the rounds for a couple of years but finally got an LP release in 2025 on Cleary’s ‘The Bywater Sessions’ album. At the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Zulu Parade takes place on Fat Tuesday and this innuendo laced song is a nod to the prized hand-painted coconuts thrown to crowds during the parade.

Sam Shackleton – O Death

As featured on his independently released 2025 album ‘Scottish Cowboy Ballads And Early American Folk Songs’, this brief home recording offers a tantalising taste of the authenticity in Shackleton’s music. He says of this that it is “on the banjo by the fireplace at my mother’s house on the lovely Isle of Harris, Scotland. This is a great American folk ballad and is commonly sung in the Appalachian region, where it descends from much older Scottish and English folk ballads carried there by the many thousands of emigrants that made the long voyage. I really hope you enjoy.”

Ben l’Oncle Soul – I Got Home

This was a wonderous, funky single taken from l’Oncle Soul’s seventh album released in 2025 called ‘Sad Generation’. It was a real-deal slice of retro soul that wore its classicist’s style with pride safe in the knowledge that the track is a killer that would grace any dancefloor. Ben is a French soul singer from Tours who is nothing new to attention grabbing cuts; he previously turned heads in 2010 with a cover of The White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ and has built a deserved acclaimed reputation as a live performer who can deliver the Motown and Stax goods with a modern day cut and thrust.

Snarky Puppy & The Metropole Orkest – Chimera

Recorded live in January 2025, at KABUL à GoGo in Utrecht, The Netherlands, this is an addictive rendition of a piece from the album ‘Somni’ released on GroundUP Music. This was the second collaborative release between the award winning jazz collective and the Metropole Orchestra following the 2015 Grammy winning project ‘Sylva’. Bandleader Michael League had composed a deep, progressive even, piece that certainly warranted the grand cinematic treatment a full band and orchestra arrangement offers. ‘Somni’ could perhaps be called a concept album, exploring as it does the various dream stages of sleep in a sequential order that runs from falling to sleep to waking up. But, to be clear, this brilliant music will not make you nod off, quite the opposite.

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Monthly Playlists

January 2026 Playlist

As has now become the tradition for the January Fruit Tree Records Monthly Playlist, this selection is made up entirely of tracks that were released across the previous twelve months, and all have not been previously playlisted on this site. The journey across the seventy-five tracks in all the playlists begins with more accessible sounds, not necessarily mainstream or pop but certainly leaning in that direction as part of a Fruit Tree Records world where the pop charts matter and are populated by artists crafting exciting pop songs. The playlists then branch out to ride the surf across many of our favourite genres, namely folk, soul, R&B, singer-songwriter, Americana, country, rock ‘n’ roll, psych and prog before concluding (I like to think rewarding the listeners who have chosen to go the whole 4-5 hours in) with deep jazz and classical styles that demand time and attention. The only difference with other months is the choices are open to all ages and eras.

This time though it is strictly 2025 music and I have to say, listening through it all as I write this it is striking how little I hear a trace of a sound identifying the year we are listening to. That could be partly down to the taste of the curator (me), but I think there is a lot more to it than simply my preferences being ‘new music that sounds like old music.’ If that was the case, I would be operating in too much of a niche and putting together a track list of this size and length would be near enough impossible, especially with my self-imposed ‘one track per artist’ rule. But I spend the duration of every year listening to new and old music to satisfy all corners of my musical interest and there is never, nor any sign of, a shortage in new releases that excite the senses. Yes, there are certain modern day production tropes that I cannot stand but I do not really think these could be described as innovative these days either. That hideous auto-tuned vocal sound that ruins too much current pop has been around since the last century, I am sure I can recall Cher doing it to death back in 1998 and she can actually sing!

What I believe the playlist does suggest is that the present-day music scene still has a lot of wonderful things happening. All the genres I listed above, with the exception of classical possibly, enjoyed their golden age over the past seventy five years, which is not really that long when you think about it, so it is entirely appropriate for all these sounds to be alive and kicking right now with talented artists applying their own ideas and continuing to do interesting things within them. The idea that the only moment that counts is back when the sound was originated is simply not true and taking that approach to your listening will, I believe, lead to you missing out on a lot of great music. Take the flowery psych-pop sound that flourished in England between 1966 and 1968. It is almost a design classic in eccentric pop perfection so naturally, there are bands who tap right into that freakbeat energy to this day. Take a listen to the Len Price 3 in this playlist for a fitting example of that. The problems emerge when an act is just playing at dressing up, using the style and sound in a straight copycat style but not injecting any new ideas or inspiration to the song writing. That is akin to presenting the filled in page of a colouring in book as a new work of art. But I do not need to name and shame, I simply do not include anything that comes across that way to me in these posts. As a music critic it is sometimes tempting to savagely deconstruct the baffling popularity of Sam Fender, but it is far better for the soul to champion the things you love. Do not listen to that (whatever is being pumped on the front page of Spotify), listen to this!

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Monthly Playlists

December 2025 Playlist

This past month has delivered the sad news about the passing of Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass legend Mani. I have to admit, at a time when barely a week will go by without the passing of someone whose records I bought or who played on tracks I loved or simply was involved in music of the last 75 years in some way, the news that Mani is gone felt like a significant light had gone out. This has something to do with his personality, he was a life force and an uplifting presence wherever he roamed who possessed a highly unusual facility, for a non-singing bass player, in that he was always a focal point on stage. A front man without actually being the front man. He was the source of the funk in the Stone Roses when they changed the UK musical landscape with that legendary 1989 debut album. Throughout the 1990’s that self-titled classic was routinely voted or acclaimed as one of, if not ‘the’ on occasion, greatest albums of all time and whilst that status has levelled out in modern times, it remains a brilliant LP that was responsible for a lot of welcome changes. No longer were indie bands restricted to the outsider, floppy fringe sporting diffident introspection so atypical in a British scene where The Smiths were the benchmark; suddenly these acts could proudly wear their Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel influences out loud as well as ambitiously storm the pop charts and, as Mani proved whenever the Stone Roses took to the stage, they could dance.

The other thing that Mani helped revolutionize as the eighties were escorted from the stage was the return of the working class English youth to the top table. There would not have been an Oasis without The Stone Roses knocking down the doors first, stealing the mantle of credibility away from the up-hair poseurs and placing it firmly back in the hands of the natural mod hair renegades found in every pub and club up and down the country. Mani always came across like someone you knew, a lad who was well into his music that you might have bumped into giving it large smoking with his mates at the bus shelter. That was the exact same thing that Americans said in 1964 about The Beatles, that they saw them on the TV for the first time and John Lennon had a cynical, mocking look in his eye just like any number of their teenage tearaway friends. It saddens me that the pathway, based on a kind of monetary meritocracy, has been lost to the under privileged classes today. Back when The Stone Roses broke through, they could hit the mainstream and take advantage of the major label business model to realize a very lucrative career break. Nowadays, a few thousand streams means diddly-squat in financial terms compared to the earnings a few thousand record sales would have yielded. This is why the working class young bands breaking through feel like a dying breed, leading to a situation where too many of the newest acts are those fortunate enough to have inherited or family financial backing, who do not seem to have the same hunger because they can afford to help themselves to a self-appointed music career. Obviously, as I try to prove every week, there is still plenty of exciting new music being created for the right reasons, but I do hate how the cards are stacked these days compared to the past.

I never got to interview Mani and the closest I came to meeting him was at Glastonbury in 1994 when I was wandering around the site and looked up to see him right in front of me heading in the opposite direction. I gave a polite nod and he smiled back because he saw I had recognized him where maybe most had not. He was attending the festival as a punter and a music fan I guess, this being the period before The Stone Roses had released their second album, which actually landed at the end of 1994. In fact, at that time the band were acquiring a legendary status partially for the wrong reasons because it looked like they had disappeared those past four years with a shed load of major label money causing people to speculate if they had any real intention of ever releasing that second album. Obviously when they finally did it had no hope of living up to the expectations foisted upon it but, listened to away from the Britpop and grunge sounds of the period, ‘The Second Coming’ is clearly a record with a lot going for it. They then spent another 18 months slowly disintegrating as a functioning unit before calling it quits after a lukewarm Reading Festival appearance in 1996. By then Mani and Ian Brown were the only original members left but the positive gained from the split was its opening up the opportunity for Mani to join, and enjoy a brilliant long term stint in another legendary band, Primal Scream. He always remained loyal to his mates though and, interviewed by the NME after the Roses called it a day in 1996, he said “we wanna leave two classic LP’s untainted. We wouldn’t wanna do anything which would detract from them” before adding about his impending recruitment by Primal Scream, “I’ll have to get me leather keks and winkos out, won’t I?”

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 1st December 2025

Lucy Kitchen – The Boatman

The personal circumstances surrounding folk artist Lucy Kitchen’s creation of her forthcoming album were devastating. The loss of her husband to cancer three years ago hangs heavy over brand new ‘In The Low Light’ record, set for a February release and including this heartfelt ode to the departed; it is an impossibly moving song that beautifully evokes the heartache and dark desire to cross over to the other side and reunite with those passed on. But this is also a piece that, amidst the silent sorrow, also connects with the human spirit and survivors instinct to carry life on with dignity and hope. The structure of the music here sounds more like a spiritual folk hymn, especially with that gorgeous underlay of church organ sound rising at the songs end. We have all been knocked about by life’s unfair hand at some point, but while there are artists like Lucy Kitchen creating music to help us through the struggle, there will always be a ray of light breaking through eventually.

Tiwayo – I’ve Got To Travel Alone

There is plenty to like about this one, a killer tune with some seriously sharp edged playing and a rough, lived in soul voice taking it all out for delivery. There are, it seems, already a good number of reasons to anticipate 2026 with enthusiasm. This one is from Tiwayo’s latest album called ‘Outsider’ which is set for release early next year on the Record Kicks label. It is produced by the Black Pumas Adrian Quesada and promises to push this Paris born singer firmly into the spotlight. That the video presented here has a shot in it showing a picture of Prince on the wall is an accurate enough indicator of the kind of talent we are witnessing here. And I come back to that voice again, even some of the all time greats in soul, blues and gospel did not come as close as this to a sound so authentically aged and fresh, no wonder Tiwayo was once bestowed with the nickname “The Young Old”.

Amelia Coburn – Something Wild

Amelia sounds like she has really refined her individualistic gothic fairy tale niche with the release of this latest song. Not only does it carry forward the very promising sounds heard on her Bill Ryder-Jones produced 2024 debut album ‘Between The Moon And The Milkman’ but also, with such an earworm worthy chorus line, she is proving to be a tidy songwriter as well. Endorsements by the likes of Paul Weller will not have done her confidence any harm either, in fact she duets with him on a track from his latest ‘Find El Dorado’ record, but this one is all about Amelia’s own sound and vision. And it is a pretty sympathetic video as well, in which her search for the wildness inside is illustrated with some graphic destruction of civilised engagement. I mean, everyone has, at some point, just wanted to shove their fist into a garishly decorated cake and then smash up some ceramics haven’t they?

Fuzzy Lights – Greenteeth

Moving ever deeper into the quagmire of folk-horror and fuzz drenched freakout friendly sounds, we find Fuzzy Lights getting their ankles wet exploring the mysteries of ‘Fen Creatures’ on their latest psych fuelled album. They are a Cambridge based group of space cadets who have been building a rich back catalogue since 2008 and have, whilst tackling themes of folklore and humanities fractured relationship with the environment, nurtured a love of acid-folk textures into explorative, progressive even, music that does not respect boundaries of genre, tone or tempo. Fuzzy Lights tackle music as an expression and they intentionally deploy a razor sharp edge to their sound that can cause injury to those not paying attention; this is music that demands and rewards immersion.

Anna von Hausswolff (ft. Iggy Pop) – The Whole Woman

I have unashamedly steered us down a very heavy set gothic folk-noir avenue this week and may just have hit the motherlode with this stop on the detour. It is a track from Anna’s new album ‘Iconoclasts’ and as if her pure, caressing vocal were not a winning enough ingredient atop the sweeping cinematic grandeur of the song, when that bottomless Iggy croon joins in the game is well and truly up. It is the sixth album release from the acclaimed organist who has been plotting an increasingly eccentric and deliberate pathway through choppy prog waters for a number of years now, making music that is simultaneously foreboding and enchanting. This new collection though, is being tipped with good reason by many to be her best thus far.

The Melancholy Kings – Bitcoin Elegy

And so we bring things to a close with the jingle-jangle crash and bang of The Melancholy Kings, proudly nailing their vintage college-rock colours to the mast. Of all the song writing forms in the pop world, this is the one that still retains the look of a design classic; key scaling electric guitars, meaty drums, deep bass, intros, verses, choruses, a middle eight and then a mighty thud to end it on a high. Simple but still oh so effective. Just right too for a song bemoaning the state of personal relationships in the digital age. The bands first album in six years, ‘Her Favourite Disguise’, is out now on The Magic Door Record Label.

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Live Reviews

Tanita Tikaram – Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, 16th November 2025

It is a lush concert hall location that tonight presents the Southeast of England instalment of Tanita Tikaram’s tour in support of her new album ‘LIAR (Love Isn’t A Right).’ This is a theatre setting that combines the grandeur of a concert hall recital, wherein the sublime acoustics are especially delightful, yet with a capacity of 740 seats retains an ability to encourage some intimacy between audience and artist. Whilst the overall impression of the venue is one of traditional design and construction there is an enveloping modern sheen too which, rather aptly, is also something that can be said of Tanita Tikaram’s music in 2025. These days she is some 37 years advanced from the diffidently bopping folksy songwriter that really did storm the UK pop charts all those years ago. Today Tanita is a wonderfully matured individualistic songwriter and singer whose sound demands the kind of attention and presentation this type of venue invites.

Tonight’s concert is a masterclass in baroque chamber pop, a fine grain of distinctly English music that can be heard in the most acclaimed art pop ever made (think ‘Eleanor Rigby’) and is also a key element in the celebrated high water marks of the 20th century singer-songwriter boom (think Nick Drake). That Tanita is tuned in to her musical vital ingredients extends to some fine song choices by other artists placing her in the realms of a connoisseur. In fact, it is a song by Nick Drake’s mother Molly that supplies the new albums title track and a sufficiently weighty melancholy as to appear handwritten for her latest set of songs. That same motivation to put the music first extends to this evenings live performance during which the star attraction is happy to occasionally disappear as a quarter component in a four-piece ensemble. Her first encore number is an exquisite cover of John Martyn’s ‘May You Never’ during which Tanita hands a substantial portion of the lead vocal over to cellist Zosia Jagodzinska. She is also proud to highlight her longtime violinist Helen O’Hara on a poised duo rendition of oldie ‘Valentine Heart’ (a song which the writer confesses was written about romantic love before she had any personal experience of such a thing). She also gives compositional kudos to drummer Marc Pell on the new ‘Sweet Feather And The Storm’, describing it as being born out of a jam between herself and the percussion maestro.

For me, one major positive take away from tonight’s concert was that the vast majority of those in attendance wanted to hear the music from the new album as much as the oldies. In fact, a spontaneous cheer erupted when the singer announced that this latest album would be the main focus. I highlight this because I have long been of the opinion that Tanita’s work has developed and grown into something quite wonderful over the years. I would particularly emphasise that her most recent albums are her best, so the necessity she feels to include a lot of material from that 1988 debut ‘Ancient Heart’ feels a little less essential to me. A curious thing seemed to happen back then, we saw a whole crop of talented female folk leaning singers emerge and enjoy significant chart success; this included people like Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked and Eddi Reader’s Fairground Attraction who all had their biggest mainstream success that year, despite carrying on to enjoy lengthy careers making increasingly wonderful music. Tanita has arguably suffered the most from an association with one specific era, but quite why this should be the case for any of the above is hard to pinpoint. Maybe the giant musical sea changes that swept aside the 1980s, the arrivals of dance, grunge, Britpop and the like, caused an avalanche of fresh excitement relegating the class of ’88 to the margins? If so, we are fortunate today that Tanita Tikaram still found a pathway to nurturing her writing and evolving to the sweet spot we find her in today.

So, in Saffron Walden we are treated to primarily music from 1988’s ‘Ancient Heart’ album and 2025’s ‘LIAR’. That acoustic guitar strumming nearly-dancer of yore is still in there, pleasing the one person rising to their feet to groove along with ‘Good Tradition’ every bit as much as I was spellbound by the cold punch and empty ache of ‘Lover Don’t Come Around.’ Some of her youthful offerings have aged extremely well, ‘World Outside Your Window’ nowadays has the elegance of a folk-pop standard while ‘Twist In My Sobriety’, with a trembly faster tempo, remains a darkly enigmatic song of which the singer herself admits “I have no idea what it’s about, and I wrote it”. To my eyes and ears though, she appears far more at home when seated at the piano facing her bandmates, wearing an inviting expression to get lost in this music. It is met with interest too, as Tanita picks the beautiful piano melody on ‘This Perfect Friend,’ the strings and percussion first smoulder then erupt into a whirlwind of bittersweet elegance. Equally a cover of ‘Wild Is The Wind’ (also performed on the album), which she acknowledges is inspired by the Nina Simone version, is absolutely mesmerising. Tanita closes the night at the piano too, lifting ‘I See A Morning’ from ‘LIAR’ and re-contextualising it as a soulful, gospel adjacent hymn to the hope ushered in at the dawning of a new day. It brings an end to a thoroughly immersive evening of music and underlines the point that, even if Tanita Tikaram hit a commercial peak four decades back, this has not impeded her pathway to an artistic peak in the present day. I believe she has realised just that and if you have not done so already, urge you to rediscover her work.

Words Danny Neill  Photos Sophie Reichert

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 24th November 2025

Muireann Bradley – No Name Blues

Muireann has been bedazzling audiences both live and through our TV sets for the past couple of years thanks to her mastery of that early acoustic, ragtime infused, rhythm and blues style. Hers has been an act based on the authentic re-interpretation of this vintage folk material, breathing fresh life and lustre into songs that may have previously felt like the belongings of another age. With the youthful Bradley touch, they once again found a home in the modern day musical firmament but where would she take her act after establishing such firm roots in retro soil? Well, it looks like she might just be in for the long haul because, as heard on this new recording, Muireann has added songwriting in the style of her closest inspirations to her arsenal and it sounds pretty damn fine as well; the name of the release is the ‘Rose Dogs EP’ so go and dig it out.

The Hanging Stars – Sister Of The Sun

There are some classic echoes vibrating from the speakers with this track too, this time however it is the Beatle-esque harmonic guitar pop favoured by the likes of The Byrds, Teenage Fanclub (whose Gerry Love collaborates with the band on this very tune) or other such psych-flavoured sonic visionaries that we recall. It is all very well making these comparisons of course but they are of little value if the band playing does not live up to such top drawer likenesses. Fortunately, The Hanging Stars have learned from the best and have both the hooks, the imagination and the execution to turn out music that is easy to love and hard to shake off. They have been busy working on their sixth album which, on the evidence of this track, promises to build on the shimmering cosmic folk-rock of their previous releases, and it is due to appear in the first half of 2026

Sabine McCalla – Two Of Hearts

This sumptuous track is taken from Sabine’s brand new album ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’ released on Gar Hole Records. Sabine has been quietly building a music career whilst her sister Leyla McCalla (who features on the new record supplying some guest vocals) has received the vast majority of the attention, especially for her sublime 2024 album ‘Sun Without The Heat’. However, just like Leyla, Sabine has a winning way with a lilting melody and an authentic Americana sound that fuses folk, gospel and soulful influences. The impressions burned into her writing by New Orleans is clear to hear also and there is an inviting element of performance and charm to her delivery, maybe something that comes naturally when you are offering the world songs that are this immediately enjoyable, singable and repeatable. There is something about this McCalla family that I really like.

Billy Bragg – Hundred Year Hunger

On the strongly recommended compilation retrospective album ‘The Roaring Forty (1983-2023)’ Billy Bragg’s career in protest music and personal songwriting is presented with forty killer tunes over a forty year period. It is a pretty damn fine statement of the mans body of work and humanitarian writing which might well have stood as a full stop if not for the fact that Billy is ploughing on, ever relevant, ever opinionated and compassionate, always articulate and worth listening to in a debate. This new song is proof positive of this, a piece that has been written under the shadow of the famine in Gaza that clearly puts across the key message of “existence is resistance”. In doing so Billy is focusing in on how hunger and displacement have been used as political weapons and cleverly places the tale in an historical context of Israeli policies and long running resilience against the abandonment of ancestral land. Billy Bragg is a musician who can not only do this, but also present it as a work of art that moves the soul as only the best compositions can.

Courtney Marie Andrews – Cons And Clowns

Courtney Marie Andrews has been a reliably consistent purveyor of yearning country music for a good fifteen years now. This heartfelt ode to outsiders has been issued as a leader track from a new album set to be released in January of next year. The record will be called ‘Valentine’ and has been co-produced by Jerry Bernhardt, who has worked with at least two other Fruit Tree Records favourites, namely Ron Gallo and Yola. Courtney has certainly been pouring a lot of herself into her music over the years, resulting in material that does not have even a hint of fakery to it, This singer is the real deal alright and with some of the sneak preview songs from albums due next year that Fresh Juice has featured this week and last, 2026 is already shaping up to be a year with great new music in plentiful supply.

The Tiger Lillies – Stupid Life

We delighted in the dark depths of a night of live Tiger Lillies entertainment at the start of this month (our live review is here https://fruit-tree-records.com/2025/11/12/tiger-lillies-wiltons-music-hall-london-1st-november-2025/) and this is a new song from the album they were launching that evening, ‘Serenade From The Sewer’. Performed in their trademark scorched cabaret style, this is one of a vast catalogue of Martyn Jacques songs that exaggerates the absurdities of life itself and societal routines with a refreshing air of futility and a finely tuned sense of theatrical colour. They may well penetrate the atmosphere like ancient spirits re-awakened but they are simultaneously wholly unique and exhale a certain timelessness. They also, in a far more practical sense, write some startlingly good, melodically bouncy and memorable songs.

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Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 17th November 2025

The Wave Pictures – Alice

As ever the news of a forthcoming Wave Pictures album is gladly received here at Fruit Tree Records. This newly available song is teasing us ahead of a Bella Union album due for release in late February 2026 called ‘Gained / Lost’. It is a classic sounding rocker with that sixties garage energy that almost feels like the bands default setting at this point, shot with the melodious hooks and riffing that David Tattersall can effortlessly deliver in a heartbeat. The music world is surely a better place with a band like The Wave Pictures still putting out exciting new records.

Lael Neale – Some Bright Morning

And talking of sixties flavoured sounds, this new song recently released by Lael Neale is a very welcome burst of vintage pop loveliness shot through with a laid back Velvets like cool. It is full of retro thrills and hazy instrumentation, especially with that omnichord drone, the primitive simplicity of the drums and an occasional burst of backwards guitar soloing, but is also a grooving little banger of a song. As such, it is understandable why the decision was taken not to include it on this years ‘Altogether Stranger’ album, despite being recorded around the same time, but rather hold it back for this pumping stand alone single (another sixties music releasing trend). Check out her tour dates for she is playing live in Europe and the UK at the end of November then early December.

Anna Tivel – Animal Poem

Here is another songwriter on top of her game, this time more in the acoustic troubadour mode but equally injected with the qualities, standards and human touch that lights this style of music up bright. This is the title track from Anna’s latest album released on Fluff And Gravy Records and of the tune she says it is “a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves and each other”. This is her seventh studio LP in a catalogue that is gradually building to showcase Tivel as one of the leading expressionists on the folk, singer-songwriter scene today. Her tunes are just so welcoming in their tone and patterns but stand up to deep engagement thanks to their carefully crafted lyrics and ideas. Anna Tivel is one of the best around today with a guitar and a song.

The Lemonheads – In The Margin

Evan Dando might only return to his Lemonheads music vehicle when he feels like it but at least when they do return it is with songs and a committed approach that makes the wait worthwhile. This remains the rough, warm sound of grunge that took the genre into the charts over thirty years ago but in the hands of a dude proving it is still a style worth revisiting; especially in comparison to some of the reductive metallic tangents rock has taken over the same period, the sound of The Lemonheads retains some soul. The new album is called ‘Love Chant’ and is their first album of original songs since 2006. The grunge essence is undoubtedly enhanced by collaborative legends credited on the LP, such as J Mascis, Juliana Hatfield, Adam Green and Nick Saloman.

Fitzsimon & Brogan – Flowers At Her Door

Every bit as crunching and melodically tasty are this London based power-pop duo, who have released this single through French label Booster Music. Neil Fitzsimon and vocalist Bee Brogan were once a part of the band Pretty Blue Gun but have since gone into partnership with their composing and producing. This is a track that has one foot pounding a glam rock stomp and another wearing laced up DMs kicking out with new wave energy and attitude. It is no surprise therefore to learn that their latest album ‘This Wicked Pantomime’ features contributions from Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello’s Attractions) and Woody Woodmansey (David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars). If you like a bit of grit and thrust with your infectious rock/pop hooks then look no further.

The Wood – Cold Fire

This is one heck of an essential soulful sound, fused with gospel depth, emerging from what feels like a vibrant music scene in Liverpool these days. The Wood are Alex Evans and Steve Powell (who also runs Ark Recording Studios on the city) and the lead vocal well and truly taking you there on this number is performed by guest vocalist Brooke Combe. The song is from a newly issued EP of the same name released on Riverdream Records. Fast becoming highly rated for their stylish blending of soul, jazz and folk influences, this sounds like one of those EPs that, should it not break big like it deserves to, will be a sought after nugget for record (or in this case CD) crate diggers and collectors of the future.

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