As I remarked yesterday in my post for May Day, it is time for the usual review of my previous month’s posts, to give you a chance to delight in them all again or catch up on anything you might have missed. And here it is, as promised. By my standards April was a busy month, with a total of 14 posts, all but one of which were music-related. Some things never change!

The odd one out was actually the previous monthly review, Farewell March: just the usual mix of links and a closing song from the Suffolk connection of The Darkness with Ed Sheeran (acting out his schoolboy dream of being a rock star).

As always, I marked every Tuesday with a Tuesday Tunes post: five of them, in fact. I began with a celebration of sorts, in Tuesday Tunes 245: April Fools. This was an amalgam of songs for this theme which I had mostly played before, but thought they were worthy of another spin. The music came from Whitesnake, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, John Mellencamp, World Party, and a bonus sixth tune from Chris Rea.

I then began what became a mini-series of three posts, in Tuesday Tunes 246: Dream. I had a lot of options for this, and began with Eurythmics, Blondie, The Mamas & The Papas, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and Supertramp.

Next came Tuesday Tunes 247: Still Dreaming, which featured songs by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Great Lake Swimmers, Billy Joel, The Cranberries, and Heart.

Just when you thought you knew what was coming next I took a brief detour to mark an important day, which I did with Tuesday Tunes 248: Earth Day. In this one I gave you some background to the day, how it began and is continuing, and why I believe it to be so important. Some good tunes to complement the theme came from Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne with David Lindley, I’m With Her, and I closed on a note of hope from Louis Armstrong.

The final one for April completed the mini-series, with Tuesday Tunes 249: Dreaming Again, which had music by The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, Passenger, Jim Croce, and The Everly Brothers. I deliberately went for a gentle, laid back set, and am pleased that you seemed to enjoy it.

That takes us on to my other regular music posts: my contributions for Song Lyric Sunday. There were four of these, beginning with SLS: A Beautiful Sight. The theme was to play a song with black in the title, and I led with a favourite of mine from the Seventies by Greyhound, and accompanied it with two of my usual suspects, in Frank Turner and Cowboy Junkies. Not the most well-known set of songs I’ve ever played!

We were then invited to play a song about tax or money, to coincide with the day for this in the US. I went with the latter, in SLS: That’s What I Want, with three songs again: this time from the fabulous Flying Lizards and their unique take on an old song, and then I sneaked in a rarity from Gerry Rafferty, together with one from Warren Zevon, who is about to be recognised by the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame a matter of a mere 22 years after he died. But they still aren’t properly inducting him: cretins.

For the next week our task was to play a song from the List of the 200 Definitive albums in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As I remarked, this took a little research, but I found a couple of albums in the list from a long time favourite band, which resulted in SLS: Triple Def. The clue is in my title: the band was Def Leppard, and I played two tracks from Hysteria and one from Pyromania, managing not to duplicate the other participant who chose the same band!

The final April Sunday we were invited to play a song from Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, from any of the four versions they have done, in 2003, 2012, 2020, or 2023. Again, I found an album that I have loved ever since it first came out, and which has been included in all four iterations of the list. This became Song Lyric Sunday: Bright Lights. The album in question was I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, by Richard and Linda Thompson, and I indulged myself by playing the title track and three more. In all honesty, I could have played the entire album!

That leaves us with the four other midweek posts. The first of these saw me trying something new  in A Chart View. I have often said that I don’t really follow the charts these days, so I thought it would be fun to dip into them to see what I could find. I struck lucky, as the top two albums in that week’s UK Albums Chart were new entries from The Darkness, and Mumford and Sons, and I duly played a track by each. Lady Gaga’s latest album, with the recent single taken from it, also got a look in, as did a couple of older favourites from compilations which have been in the charts for ages: one each from Oasis and Dire Straits. I closed the piece by playing something by someone completely new to me: Chappell Roan. I loved her song Pink Pony Club and the video – one of many – that went with it, and have become a fan. I’m still down with the kids – at 71!

I then went for a seasonal offering, as I have done in previous years, with Vaguely Easter Songs. Most of these had been played before, though not in the same years, and I also found room for a lovely song by Ralph McTell, the superb English singer-songwriter. The returners were The Byrds, Norman Greenbaum, Joan Osborne, Cat Stevens, Murray Head, and Yvonne Elliman, and I closed with the ending to the Easter Parade movie, with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. And then I watched the movie all over again!

Last week I gave you two midweek posts. The first was to mark St George’s Day, our national day here in England, as it is in many other countries. By my standards this was a fairly brief offering: a little bit of information on the history of St George, accompanied by a wonderful song by a favourite band – Merry Hell – which depicts everything which is good and bad about our country. It would be my choice for a new national anthem!

That just leaves one more. This was one of my occasional forays into New Music, in which I share some of what has caught my eye on YouTube in recent weeks. This time, I played songs by Sam Fender (a first for me), Mary Chapin Carpenter (a usual suspect), Watchhouse (another new find), Otava Yo (another usual suspect!), a new one by fellow blogger Paul Ariss (excellent, and I recommend it), and I closed with another by my new crush, Chappell Roan. She has style!

That was April, then. This is the point at which I usually play a tune, either one which I have ‘borrowed’ as the title of my post or a repeat of a song I played in the month. Today I’m doing something a little different, as I couldn’t resist this little bit of gentle trolling:

Just a thought, but does playing that mean I’m going to get ICE beating down my door? Hopefully not, as he probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.

See you again for Song Lyric Sunday, I trust. Take care 😊