Bit of a nothing thread this, just thought I'd announce that I'm going to see him play next Friday and Saturday night in Lisbon. He's playing with his full band at a stupidly small venue that holds just over 100 people. This being Portugal, tickets still aren't sold out and probably won't until the day before, then on the night there'll be a mile long queue full of people who thought they'd be able to pay on the night.

I'm quite excited about it, I've seen him play 4 times in London, his gigs have ranged from the terrible to the sublime. This was why I thought I'd attend both nights, just to be safe. In the past, he's played on other occasions in London when I lived there but the tickets sold out before I even knew about the gig.

It seems like the problem I have with him these days is knowing that he's got new albums out. I still thought his last album was "The Letting Go", I've just checked his website and it says he's released 4 albums since then. Any advice on which are essential or not?

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steveee! I thought you were disillusioned with live music!?

If they're queuing round the block on the second night, you'll be quids in touting your ticket ...

(um abraço, me ol' china!)


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Lucky bugger. I love The Letting Go and would be absolutely stoked if he came to Oz.

Sorry, I wont be able to offer you any advice on which albums after TLG are good, as I also thought that was his latest album!

There's a covers mini-album/EP which is non-essential but nice in a BPB way. Contains his versions of Danzig and Merle Haggard among others. Then there's his new album 'Lie Down in the Light' which is a BPB album proper and was released in this newfangled no-promotion manner labels are increasingly fond of (like the last Raconteurs album). I've not heard it, but the press have done their usual thing of saying "this is the first essential album by x in a decade" despite the very same magazine saying exactly the same thing about the previous album...

I have no idea what the other couple of albums are!

Anyway B!S; I saw him with full band 18 months ago and it was lovely in a rip-roaring Last Waltz kinda way. Great fun, but not life-changing like it could've been.

What you also want to do is watch his film Old Joy.

He started out as an actor when he was a teenager. The only films I've seen him in from this period are John Sayles' Matewan (where he plays a boy preacher) and a based-on-a-true-story tv movie called Everybody's Baby: The Rescue Of Jessica McClure. He's pretty good in both.

The covers album mentioned is called Ask Forgiveness. The other two are Wai Notes (credited to Dawn McCarthy & Bonny Billy) which is sort of out-takes from The Letting Go sessions and Wilding In The West, a live album. No doubt he's released a few more E.Ps on obscure labels since I've started typing this.

The new album is not bad, although his stuff is on the verge of so cosy that it's cloying. His EP from last year, Ask Forgiveness, was really rather nauseating.