As the calendar moves remorselessly on its way, it brings round yet another of my monthly recaps. But at least it keeps me grounded! And for once I’ve managed to find a song whose title fits the bill – if you’re good I’ll play it for you at the end, as long as you promise not to skip all the dross in between. Deal? But I’ll impose tariffs if you break it. And then remove them. Probably.

During June I hit your inbox and/or the Reader thirteen times. All bar one of these were music posts – a month when I didn’t deviate from my norm! The odd one out was, of course, last month’s recap: it wasn’t the first post of the month, though, as the regular ones got in the way for a few days. It was Rounding Up May, and as well as the usual reminders of what I had posted I gave you a reprise of one of the songs I had played that month, an absolute beauty by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Well worth another look just to hear that, I think.

There were four Tuesdays in June, each of which received the usual treatment. They began with Tuesday Tunes 254: Still Working, which was the second in a three part mini series on the theme of work. It featured music from  Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, Nathan Evans, Midnight Oil, and Tom Petty.

I then closed out that series with Tuesday Tunes 255: Even More Work, in which you heard from Bachman Turner Overdrive, Robert Plant, The MonaLisa Twins (a very good Beatles cover), John Mellencamp, and Canned Heat.

Following that I then began another three week mini series with Tuesday Tunes 256: Protest. This seemed a good fit for No Kings Day in the US and for some protests here, and I quickly realised how spoilt for choice I was with the protest theme! I didn’t venture far from the obvious for this first one, with music by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Country Joe and The Fish, Green Day, and a joint performance by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.

The second protest selection came in Tuesday Tunes 257: More Protest. For this week I played Buffalo Springfield, The Moody Blues, John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band, another visit from Midnight Oil, and I closed with the first record I ever bought, by Barry McGuire. This mini series concluded this week but as that was 1 July it will be in the next review.

I also offered something for Song Lyric Sunday – five of these in June, beginning with Song Lyric Sunday: Saw It Written which was written for the prompt to play a song from a final album. My choice was Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, and  played couple of its tracks.

For the next week we were invited to share a final song (live or recorded) played by a band or artist. My choice, in Song Lyric Sunday: From The Hip, was Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. From The Hip was the final release – as an EP – by the band, of whom I was – and still am – a big fan. It was also on their final album, Mainstream, so for good measure I played a couple more tracks from it – if you like what is described as ‘jangle pop/rock’ you’ll love these!

Next up was a prompt to play a song from a live album. For me there could only be one choice for this, an album I bought when it came out in 1978 and have loved ever since. You could see it in Song Lyric Sunday: Bursting Out, which was the title of a double album by Jethro Tull. I played three of its tracks but could in all honesty have played several more: it’s that good!

We then went into concept album territory, for which I gave you SLS: Travelling In Panic. My title came from the opening line of the song Gypsy, from the Moody Blues’ album To Our Children’s Children’s Children. As I said in that post I was huge fan of the band and had all of their albums, which I played to bits!

We closed June’s Sundays by playing something which was an acoustic version of something originally released in an electronic form. I went with SLS: Don’t You Want Me, in which I gave you an amazing live performance of the old Human League song by one of my favourite folk bands, Show Of Hands,  accompanied by The Spooky Men’s Chorale. If you missed it, do take a look, you won’t regret it! I also added in another of Show Of Hands’ cover songs, just for fun.

That just leaves the three one off posts – my midweek offerings. The first of these was a sad one for me, as it was a tribute to someone whose music I have loved ever since I first knew what music was. The post was Sad Vibrations, which was written to mark the passing of the genius that was Brian Wilson. As I usually do with my tributes I gave you more songs than my regular posts. In this case, it was eight, but that still left me feeling that I had barely scratched the surface of what he achieved.

I then went right up to the present day, with A Little Quirky Music. This was a feature about Little Quirks, a band I had recently found from a YouTube recommendation, though they have actually been going for more than ten years. I first heard their great cover of a favourite Cure song, Friday I’m In Love, and played that and several more of the covers they have done. I also added in a couple of their own tunes, which they have released in four EPs and one full length album. They are a family band from Australia: two sisters, two of their cousins and a friend, and they are excellent. What I like most about them is the sense of fun they bring to their music, both in their playing and their videos. Recommended if you missed this.

The final post about which to remind you is last Thursday’s. I have taken to doing an end of the month selection of new music that I have enjoyed in recent weeks, and this one came in the form of June’s New Music. All six of the songs I played were released last month, and they came from Merry Hell, Noah Cyrus with Blake Shelton, Little Quirks (again – they released it the day after I posted about them!), Patty Gurdy, Molly Tuttle, and Van Morrison. I think that counts as an eclectic mix!

That’s it for my June, and hopefully there was something here that you enjoyed. At the start of this post I promised you the tune which gave me my title for today, and here it is. Guess who:

Little Quirks, of course, with Caught In June, a track from their eponymous full length album, which was released in September 2024: I hope that showed you why I like them so much. As I said in my post about them, they are playing gigs across Australia and into Tasmania through August and September, so if you live Down Under why not treat yourself to a show?

That’s a wrap for June. See you again on Sunday? 👍