I’m a bit later than usual with this review of my previous month, but I think other posts got in the way: I posted fifteen times in October, which is the biggest month so far this year. That means there is a lot for us to catch up on. Ready? Here we go…

It wasn’t the first post of the month but I did my usual review last time too. The post was My September and, as ever, it gave a full recap and ended with a tune: in that case it was one of my favourites from those I had played during the month, by the excellent Frank Turner.

As always there was a large element of music in the month’s posts: ten of the fifteen, in fact. The two regular series were a large part of that, and are the obvious place to begin. Starting with Tuesday Tunes, then, there were five of these, beginning with Tuesday Tunes 219: Animals, which as its title suggests gave you five songs with animals in their title. They came from Peter Gabriel, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Squeeze, and The Byrds.

That seemed to go down well, as this was the second most ‘liked’ piece of the month, so I did another selection the following week, with one of my imaginative titles: Tuesday Tunes 220: More Animals – no expense spared on the consultancy fees to think that one up. It began with one which several had mentioned in comments the previous week, but which I had planned on including in a second post anyway: that was by America, and it was accompanied by Rilo Kiley, Mumford & Sons, Jefferson Airplane, and Caravan. As a bonus I also threw in a clip from the excellent – and much missed – TV comedy show Father Ted.

The rest of the month was taken up by another mini-series, beginning with Tuesday Tunes 221: You. I had realised that ‘you’ is an obvious word to be included in a. song title, and in a very short time had compiled a long list of possibles. The first set came from AC/DC, Carolina Story, Lewis Capaldi, Bonnie Raitt, and Bryan Adams. Spot the personal favourite I dropped in amongst the big names! It’s a lovely song, though, with an amazing voice.

Then came Tuesday Tunes 222: You Two, another for which I dispensed with the services of the expensive brand consultants. This time the tunes were provided by Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Reckless (who had given me the idea for this theme), Jim Croce, and an absolute banger to close with by Billy Joel.

I closed the Tuesdays with Tuesday Tunes 223: You Three, the final one in that series: the tunes were by Jimmy Cliff, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Beatles, and Taylor Swift. An element of playing my favourites there, I think!

The other regular series was, of course, my involvement in Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday linkup. Four of these last month, beginning with REMember,  the piece I posted for the theme of playing something by a band we wished were still together. Fairly obviously from the title I went with REM and played three of my favourites of theirs: it was a hard task choosing just three to keep the post within manageable limits!

Next week Jim invited us to play a song with a person’s name in the title, for which I gave you  You’re The Only Girl For Me featuring a tune by my favourite live band, Bellowhead. The song was Gosport Nancy, and I played two versions along with a BBC local news report from the town in the name, which had given the band a local #1!

Then came a week of playing songs which mention drinks or cocktails. My offering was Guide You Up To Heaven, which led with a song by my favourite German Irish-folk-punk band, The O’Reillys and the Paddyhats, after which I added in a second of theirs and closed with one by Thin Lizzy. No prizes for guessing the last one!

The final October Sunday saw us asked to play a song about parenting, or a child and parent relationship. I gave this a fair amount of thought before going back to my initial idea – of giving a partial reprise of the tribute I wrote for my Dad after he passed away last year. The post was With My Old Man Behind The Wheel, for which I played two beautiful songs, by Marc Cohn and Cat Stevens. That one brought back quite a few memories for me.

There was one other music post last month: this was Tunes For Halloween, in which I played a set of songs I like about an occasion which means nothing to me! It’s a good excuse to enjoy some favourite music, though! I started this, as I usually do, with the late, great Warren Zevon and followed up with Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett and the Cryptkicker Five. Then came more tunes by Bette Midler, from the Hocus Pocus movie, Blue Oyster Cult, Jethro Tull, and I closed with a real beauty from Faun, my German pagan folk band of choice.

The remaining four posts were a bit of a mixture. The first one was for one of my occasional series: this was Friday Funnies 9: World Smile Day, which was prompted by my reading that this was one of those days that are so beloved by the Americans. I played a series of clips from UK sitcom and sketch shows, featuring Blackadder, Yes Prime Minister, Jasper Carrott, Smack The Pony, Hale And Pace, and closing with the inimitable Billy Connolly from one of his live shows. I hope I gave people a smile or two with that, which is probably needed now more than ever in the US.

I also took part in John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop linkup. This was in TBR – Or ISRM? which covered two of John’s suggested topics for that week, namely getting back into the habit of reading and whether we were planning on taking part in National Novel Writing Month in November. Spoiler alert – I wasn’t! I also managed to find an appropriate song to play, from a singer-songwriter who was new to me: Patty Larkin. The piece is my most ‘liked’ of last month, apart from in one place…

And that place prompted a post the following week: Farcebook Strikes. You may not know that I have a Facebook page to which I link my posts, and for some reason their bots took exception to that previous piece and removed it, telling me it contravened their rules about spam and misrepresentation. I challenged this and asked for a review, but as I hadn’t heard anything from them after a week I wrote about the episode. And guess what – they took this one down too, within ten minutes of my posting it. I asked readers to comment if they had similar experiences and there were quite a few! But apparently Facebook’s assessment of my page is that it is in ‘excellent’ shape. A further two weeks on and I’ve still heard nothing from them, so it’s just as well I haven’t been holding my breath. I wonder if this one will receive the same treatment – I’ll let you know!

That just leaves one post of which I need to remind you. You probably know that I originally began blogging to share my experience of mental health issues – I’ve rattled on about it often enough! – so I always post for the important events each year, in May and October. This time it was World Mental Health Day 2024, a day which I always feel is well worth writing about. Happily, these posts always get a good response, for which I am very grateful, and continue to gather views and likes well after I post them.

So, that was my October. As I said, it was a busy one by my standards, so how about a tune to lighten things up as a parting gift? This time I decided to see what I could find in Apple Music and they gave me a song I’d never heard before, by someone I didn’t know. It is really gorgeous, so I’m playing it for you today:

Isn’t that lovely? As female singer-songwriters are right up my street I went in search of information about Rosie Thomas before adding her to my collection. She is American, from Michigan, was born in 1978, and October was a track on her debut album When We Were Small, which came out in January 2002. Wikipedia doesn’t give any chart details for her, but on the strength of this song I’m going to be listening to more of her work. She made seven albums up to 2012 and three EPs, the most recent of which was released in 2022 after a ten year hiatus. She has had health issues which have got in her way a bit, and also has another career as a stand up comedian with an alter ego of ‘Sheila Saputo.’ She sounds interesting!

That’s a wrap for my October, though I’ll see you again in a couple of days for another of my annual topics. Take care 😊