379 to 50: #3 “Everything Flows” by Teenage Fanclub

The bronze medal slot in my favourite songs rundown goes to Glasgow’s finest, Teenage Fanclub, with the ramshackle charm of “Everything Flows”, their tuneful opening statement of intent from 1990.

379 to 50: #6 “Strength Of Strings” by Gene Clark

A second Gene Clark composition in the top 20 of my favourite songs rundown – after The Byrds at #20, it’s “Strength Of Strings” from his solo 1974 masterpiece “No Other”.

379 to 50: #20 “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by The Byrds

Moving into the top 20 of my favourite songs list now, courtesy of The Byrds’ joyful, jangle pop pioneering “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” from 1965.

USA 2011 Chapter 2 – Austin: Bikers, bats and Back In Black

As originally posted on my Tumblr site while travelling around the USA in 2011…

So, I’m currently sat in my hotel bar and it’s the last night of my stay in Austin, taking it easy before heading out on a road trip to New Orleans tomorrow. I’m also going to try to go into less detail than I did about Dallas or I could be here all night; suffice to say that it has been great here in Austin, a brilliant city.

I arrived here on Friday with a five hour Amtrak journey through the oilfields, deserts and small towns of Texas. As I said in my last post, it’s so much more pleasurable an experience than any train I’ve ever caught in England, especially with the right tunes to soundtrack the sights. I was certainly listening to a lot of Glen, Gram and Gene amongst lots of other country/southern rock.

The Amtrak to Austin