And what did 2021 have to offer?

At the start of Lockdown version one, I pointed you at some good music to help make the days pass smoothly. Now we are up to version 3, (does that by the way make the next one lockdown 95) so, here's some more...

I've talked about Continental Record Services and reviewed their albums here and at Americana UK. In fact Emma Swift's 'Blonde on the Tracks' was my album of the year over at AUK. The review of that and a couple of other star releases from them it was posted back in September. 

One that slipped the net was 'Country Darkness', an album of Elvis Costello covers from duo My Darling Clementine and featuring Steve Nieve. Described as an album " that throws a spotlight on 12 hidden gems from the Elvis Costello repertoire and vividly reimagines them in the duet’s definitive country-soul styling". As a casual Costello fan, I didn't know many of these songs so have no points of comparison. And as I was only vaguely aware of the band, they clearly need further investigation. Some similarities in style to Over the Rhine, and praise doesn't get much higher than that. 

Looking at their Bandcamp page I've found that they were also responsible for Hannah Rose Platt's ‘Letters Under Floorboards’, and album I've returned to recently and which I'm pleased to find is still a good one.

I'm listening to a few of their other 2020 releases that I missed. Lynn Miles' ‘We’ll Look for Stars’ is sounding like why I didn’t hear this before moment. I'll report back in a week or so. 

CRS are big on Bandcamp and the good news is that Bandcamp Friday is continuing until at least May 2021. Don't let it put you off buying at other times as their revenue share is quite reasonable, but if you are planning some big buying save your Christmas pennies for February 5th. 

And the even better news. Those nice people at CRS have sent us some thank you's for supporting their artists in 2020. Two free compilations, one based around their Roots/Americana artists which you can grab by clicking here, and one that I'm going to post at my music business page My Musix over on the Facebook. Give me a like while you are there and share anything interesting you find there. The cottage industry that makes up most of the music business needs your support and Continental Record Services, and 160gigblog thank you for sticking with us.