The Acoustic Sessions Tour

I am very pleased to announce more dates from my forthcoming 'The Acoustic Sessions Tour' in Amsterdam at Amstelkerk on 23rd September and Milan at La Salumeria Della Musica on 24th September, in addition to the previously announced London date on 4th October. Tickets are available from : Milan: [link] / Amsterdam: [link] / London: [link] or from my facebook page : [link] lotsoflove tt

Irma Thomas & Soul Rebels Brass band

Saw a wonderful gig at the Barbican on Sunday. First on were the truly infectious grooves of the New Orleans brass combo 'Soul rebels Brass Band' [link], I've never heard a funky tuba before !! It was impossible not to move to their playing & by the end of their set the whole room was on their feet. Then the legendary singer Irma Thomas, a contemporary of Aretha Franklin & Etta James she is known as the Queen of New Orleans Soul. It was so exciting, she has no set list ! She invites the audience to shout out requests from a career that spans over 50 years & if she can't remember the words she looks them up in a huge tome of all her songs & if the band don't know the requested songs she sings them a cappella ! And what a voice, even though she is 70, it's still thrilling and in fine health. In fact, it actually sounds richer live than than on some of her recordings. I mean this in the best sense, because her band is a little raggedy & not over polished & because I'm not that familiar with her material watching her performance that night was like stumbling upon a great bar, where you discover the most soulful singer with a raucous band & feel more alive for it, lotsoflove tt

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse's death rounded off a grim weekend for news. She was one artist who everyone, whatever their age or taste, agreed was very special and I believe she was as great as her musical heroes. This is the original demo of the classic 'Love is a losing Game' and a fitting tribute to her extraordinary abilities as a writer and singer. Lotsoflove tt

Munich

I've just returned from a short trip to Munich. I went to the opera & saw a production of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'. The modern staging, consisting of stacked metal warehouse containers & modern dress, including Donna Elvira in a pink office suit & hiking boots left me scratching my head but the music was wonderful. I closed my eyes or looked up at the theatre's chandelier & let the orchestra and voices transport me. I also cycled through the city's parks, explored the great outdoor market 'Viktualienmarkt' and ate the most honest and hearty food I've tasted in a long time. How can a simple potato salad be so heavenly ?! I found Munich to be a truly convivial city & it is well worth a visit, love tt

Album Teaser # 2

The new album teaser # 2 is on line on the new home page http://www.tanita-tikaram.com/ !! love tt

Bonnie Guitar- Candy Apple Red

This week's wake up song 'Candy Apple Red' is from an artist I've recently discovered with the coolest name Bonnie Guitar (born Bonnie Buckingham she also played session guitar hence the name change) & an amazing voice. She's a contemporary of Patsy Cline and her music has a similar early pop-country cross over sound but because it is less familiar to me than Cline's it takes me to this strange twilight place & a not unpleasant sense of yearning & loss. I wonder if it's the diction & clarity in her voice against the mellow background that helps to create this feeling? Bonnie Guitar is well into her into her 80s now and still going strong, follow the link to hear a great 2007 music session [link] lotsoflove tt

Potiche

I saw the French film 'Potiche' ( Trophy Wife ) last night. It was silly & charming & idealistic & features a deliciously cheesy soundtrack. My favourite moment was the last scene, when for some unknown reason Catherine Deneuve bursts into song. 'C'est beau la Vie' ! love tt

Joan Miró

Yesterday evening I went with some friends to the Tate Modern exhibition [link] of the Spanish Surrealist painter Joan Miro. We were all very moved by this retrospective. I was particularly affected by one room in which there were six larger single colour paintings. I had a very strong feeling of positivity & a great energy for life. In fact this is probably the most optimistic I've ever felt leaving a gallery ! This exhibition runs until September hope you can catch it, love tt

Album Teaser !!

The new album teaser is on line on the new home page http://www.tanita-tikaram.com/ !! love tt

Mary Gauthier / Singer-Songwriter

This week's TT Test is taken by the great American singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier [link]. Her songs have been covered by many artists including Tim McGraw & Candi Staton & her albums have all been highly praised culminating in the masterpiece 'The Foundling' which tells her own story of being abandoned as a child,the struggle for her own identity & birth mother & ultimately the triumph of love. What is your wake up song at the moment ? 'Lorraine', by my dear friend Lori McKenna. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession? I got sober from drugs and alcohol in 1999, and songwriting followed. I would never have become a songwriter without recovery from from my addictions. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why ? I'd go back 40-50 years in Nashville, to the time when the songs coming out of this town were great, and I'd hang out with the my songwriting hero's when they were in their prime... Harlan Howard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Marijohn Wilkin, johnny Cash, Tom T Hall et al. I'd find my way into their scenes, and they'd make me a better writer just from being around them. I love eating out & discovering new restaurants,can you please recommend one to me ? Margot's Cafe [link], in Nashville,TN. My favorite restaurant of all time, The chef is the owner, and she is in the kitchen every night cooking fresh local ingredients with passion and love. No one can cook fish like Margot, and she changes the menu every day to reflect what's fresh in the market. I am a huge fan. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional /creative life ? Unless they are giving you a big check, don't sign anything. BONUS QUESTION: I am intrigued that you also teach songwriting - what sort of guidance are students looking for ? And what is it that you try to bring out of them? I teach songwriters to look for their own voice, and look inside themselves for the truth of what they are trying to say. I can teach the craft (song structure, chord progressions, rhyming patterns) but I can't teach the art, the art being the subjects which the writer is called to write about. I try to teach the students to listen to the voices in their heads and hearts, and reveal what's being said in there. I try to teach them to allow themselves to be vulnerable, and expose their hearts. I try to teach them that songwriting is more about re-writing than anything. and most of all, I try to teach them to connect with themselves and their listeners. I let them know that if they are not connecting, it's not the listeners fault. Basically, I give them a ladder, show them the rungs... and it's up to them to do the climbing.

Psapp - Sad Song

This week's wake up song is Psapp's 'Sad Song '. The song sounds so crunchy it always makes me smile & even if the refrain is 'I don't want to live no more' it's not sad at all ! Listen out for the great line 'Peter, just called to say, he saw a slug eating a chip...' That has to be some kind of genius :) The video I'm posting is a fan video, I don't think a band video is available for this song, anyways, hope you enjoy, lotsoflove tt

A Monster Calls

Just finished reading 'A Monster Calls'. The book's own history is worth telling. Siobhan Dowd was a children's writer who died in 2007 from cancer. At the time of her death she had left some details of the story, the characters, a detailed premise and a beginning but sadly did not have the time to write it. Her publishers commissioned author Patrick Ness to complete the book & Jim Kay to illustrate it. The young boy's struggle to accept a terrible loss is a universal one & the illustrations are so powerful that it's worth buying the book for them alone. It already feels like a classic to me, love tt

Marie Knight & Mary Gauthier

I have developed a bad habit of not setting time aside to really listen to albums in their entirety. I tend to hear a new song I like & add it to an ever expanding playlist of favourites & if I do listen to any albums they are probably familiar & trustworthy & at least 20 years old! However, I recently discovered two great records - if not exactly new releases Marie Kinght's 'Let Us Get Together' [link] was released in 2007 and Mary Gauthier's 'The Foundling' in 2010- they are new to me & just as thrilling as any of my older beloved record collection The recommendation from Madeleine Peyroux 'This record has gotten into my soul,spirit... & I cannot stop... music that infects one with joy...' on the cover of Marie Knight's 'Let Us Get Together' made me curious. I'm not religious & it's a gospel record but Knight's voice, at over 80 years old, still so powerful & authoritative & perfectly partnered with multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell moved me deeply. Sadly, Knight passed away in 2009 but along with her earlier recordings including her work with Sister Rosetta Tharpe from the 40s leaves us with a great musical legacy. The other record, Mary Gauthier's 'The Foundling' [link] is astounding. I can only urge you to find the time to discover it's rare & haunting beauty.You can hear acoustic versions of the songs from 'The Foundling' on this channel [link]. Hope you enjoy, lotsoflove tanita

Alberta Hunter/ Darktown Strutters' Ball

This week's wake up song is performed by the legendary Alberta Hunter. The beautiful 'Darktown Strutters' Ball' was written in 1917 by Shelton Brooks & inspired by a ball at the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition in San Francisco. It is one of the earliest traditional jazz songs to become a standard. Alberta Hunter's version recorded when she was actually in her 80s (how is it possible to be so vocally fit at that age ?!) makes you want put on your most glamorous clothes & dance the night away ! Hope you enjoy :) love tt

Jammy Dodgers !!

London is so beautiful & sunny at the moment, I am spending a lot of time outside, discovering new places especially the markets which come into their own at this time of year. One of the most charming I visited during a quieter week day is Brixton Village Market with it's beautiful covered Arcade & very good coffee ! Broadway Market [link] is also worth visiting, I found a stall with the best home made Jammy Dodgers I've ever tasted !! love tt

Photo (c) Sylvie Bardet

Sarah Waters / Writer

This week's TT Test is taken by Sarah Waters [link] one of Britain's best loved novelists. Her first novel 'Tipping the Velvet' marked the arrival of a writer who has the rare gift of creating popular & critically acclaimed fiction - much of her work has been adapted for television & film and 'Fingersmith', 'The Night watch' and 'The Little Stranger' have all been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for fiction. With so many accolades her modesty is refreshing. Her answers are great too :) What is your wake up song at the moment ? The last CD I bought was The Resistance, by Muse, and the track I keep playing from it is Uprising.I listen to music mainly when I'm walking through London, and Uprising is a great track to go striding across the city to; it's got revolutionary lyrics, a thumping beat, and makes you feel like Rosa Luxemburg. I do love Muse. Their music is camp and epic at the same time - quite an achievement. I'm longing to go to a Muse concert, but I'm too embarrassed: it would be me and ten thousand teenage boys. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession ? There are a few authors whose work really inspired me to start writing - most notably Angela Carter, Philippa Gregory and Jeannette Winterson. In very different ways their books have taken on history, tradition, the canon; they've teased new stories out of the past, or invented new, fantasy histories if they didn't like the ones already on offer - I suppose that's what I've tried to do, too. But the single biggest influence on me probably came from a novel called Street Lavender, by Chris Hunt. It's the adventures of a rent boy in late Victorian London - a shamelessly rompy, sexy, romantic story, but a really intelligent one, too. It was published by Gay Men's Press in the mid 1990s: I read it and thought, 'Wow! This is brilliant!' Tipping the Velvet was really my attempt to do something similar, for lesbians. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why? I've written so much about the Victorians that I guess I'd have to choose the nineteenth century. I'd love just to be able to eavesdrop on a few ordinary conversations, on the street and in people's homes. As a researcher, ordinary domestic and emotional life is the hardest thing to get hold of, because it tends not to find its way into the history books. But it's what fascinates me most about the past: the mundane details of people's lives; how they thought about their bodies; what they dreamt about; what satisfied and disappointed and frustrated them. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me ? To be honest, I'm not at a big restaurant goer. I find food and eating and all that a bit tiresome. My ideal restaurant is one that's cheap and quick, but with a bit of personality - somewhere like the India Club [link], on the second floor of the Strand Continental Hotel, London. It's a wonderfully quirky place where the food's all right, service is sometimes huffy, but you can slope off afterwards to a cinema, a theatre or the South Bank. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional/ creative life ? When I was struggling with an early draft of Tipping the Velvet, my friend Sally, to console me, said, 'But Sarah, you were never going to get it right first time. It would be a miracle if you got it right first time!' I've always remembered that - and I think of it, particularly, when my writing feels stuck, or the words on the screen before me look more than usually awful. Yes, it would be a miracle if you sat down at your desk and wrote, straight off, a perfectly finished novel. But by plugging patiently away at it, by being ready to edit and re-draft, you can make it better. BONUS QUESTION : Is there any truth to the rumour that 'Tipping The Velvet' is being adapted into a stage musical? Can you tell us any more details about this ?! There is indeed some truth to it... But I'm afraid I can't say any more right now, because the project is still in its very earliest days. It's a great idea, though, isn't it? Tipping is such a theatrical book. I'd love to see it bounce into life on the stage.

Congratulations !!

London is super loved up today !! This morning there was not a sound in the park or on the roads, everyone was watching the wedding. It's a good excuse to post this Shirley brown classic ' Long As You Love Me'. Lotsoflove !! tt

17 Hippies - Frau von Ungefahr

This week's wake up song is from the German band 17 Hippies (actually, there are only 13 of them !). I've recently discovered this band & it's hard to choose one song because their music is so diverse & vibrant , however, I've settled upon 'Frau Von Ungefahr'. 2.27 minutes into this live performance there's a lovely moment that only really makes sense in front of a live audience & you can feel the audience's excitement as the band builds the crescendo. Hope you enjoy ! lots of love, tt

17 HIPPIES Frau von Ungefähr par schlowarzel

George Shaw

I caught the exhibition 'Last Days of the Comet' at the Hayward Gallery last week. This is number 7 of the British Art Show Series, which also visits other UK cities over the next few months [link]. I was really touched by three paintings by the artist George Shaw featuring the Coventry council estate he grew up on. The Art show's website mentions that Shaw started these paintings 'as a kind of mourning' for the person that he used to be, and are 'as much about what has been forgotten, lost, swept away, as about what is remembered'. Maybe, that's why I had such a surprising feeling of nostalgia when I saw them. It's a different town,but they reminded me of the housing estate of the first house my parents owned in Basingstoke. I never expected to walk into a gallery & have that memory rendered so powerfully ! Until the 15th of May there is also a solo exhibition of his work at the Baltic Centre in Gateshead [link] love tt

In a forest, Dark & Deep / Clybourne Park

I saw the Neil Labute play 'In a Forest, dark and deep' last night, basically because a friend of mine has a crush on the actor Mathew Fox who was starring in it (as did most of the young audience!). Perhaps, this is not the best reason to go to theatre - the general critical reaction that the play is neither dark nor penetrating is fair, and I was disappointed by how psychologically lazy the writing was i.e dodgy stereo-types that were difficult to believe in. The weaknesses of this production reminded me of how great the current London production of another contemporary American play Bruce Norris 'Clybourne Park' is. It's possible to make an audience uncomfortable (not exasperated), deal with incendiary topics but still be engaging & entertaining. 'Clybourne Park' does this brilliantly. It runs until early May, love tt