As we reach the and of the month it seems a suitable time to remind you of what you have enjoyed (endured?) here on the blog during August. Counting this one, that makes thirteen posts in the month, so here’s what you may have seen or missed in the previous twelve.

I began with the monthly review for July, to which I gave the snappy title of So Long, July. It was the usual set of links, together with a song by Dire Straits that I hadn’t included in one of that month’s offerings.

There were, of course, all of the regular music offerings. Starting with Tuesday Tunes, the month began with the second of my two posts for the Live 8 events of 2005, in Tuesday Tunes 211: Live 8 – Not UK. This one featured music from some of the various concerts around the world. I played Kaiser Chiefs, Keith Urban, David Hallyday, Roxy Music, Great Big Sea, Neil and Pegi Young, and Stevie Wonder, and I also played one of the ‘Clicking’ videos that were made for the events.

I then returned to a regular themed post – again, the first of two – with Tuesday Tunes 212: Games And Sports, in which I played music by Joe South, John Fogerty and his kids, Warren Devon, 10cc, and Neil Diamond, with a bonus video of a football crowd singing THAT song. This one seemed to strike a chord, as it was the most viewed and liked post of the month.

Then came part two of that theme, with another snappy title: Tuesday Tunes 213: More Games And Sports. Sometimes, I just don’t know where I get them from! This one saw tunes by Queen, Del Amitri, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Chris Rea, and Simon & Garfunkel.

The final Tuesday of the month, ie this week, saw Tuesday Tunes 214: Gardens And Gardening, for which I was prompted by a comments chat with a fellow blogger – if you want to know who you’ll have to check out the post! The music was by R.E.M, Ricky Nelson, Maura O’Connell and Karen Matheson in the Transatlantic Sessions TV show, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles, with a little bonus offering from Rowlf and Fozzie of The Muppets.

There were of course also my contributions to the Song Lyric Sunday series, of which there were also four. The month began with an invitation to play a song whose title began with the initial letter of our first name, for which I shared Song Lyric Sunday: Just Put Your Hand In Mine, and two absolute beauties from two of my favourite singer-songwriters, Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Usual suspects time!

Next came the theme of a song to which we know all of the words. As I grow ever older there are fewer for which I can claim that, but there is one, and it was the subject of Song Lyric Sunday: Gonna See All My Friends. The song in question was by Fairport Convention, and I played both the original album version and one made in 2020 during lockdown, when all their friends ‘joined together’ from wherever they were.

For the following week the idea was to play you something by our favourite band, but as I’ve been listening to music for more than sixty years where could I begin? I went down the route of playing something by a band I’ve loved since I first heard them, whose records are all in my collection, and who I have seen in concert a couple of times, in Song Lyric Sunday: Open Road And A Hungry Heart. The band was Oysterband – yup, folk music two weeks running! I played three of their songs, from the fairly recent going back to an early one, and they seem to have been well received. The most commonly used word in comments was ‘fun,’ which I think summed them up very well.

Last Sunday, the final one in the month, gave us a chance to play something from the first album we ever bought. This was another real memory tester for me, but I’m pretty sure that I chose the right one! This resulted in my giving you Song Lyric Sunday: Sounds Of Silence, which gave a second outing of the month for Simon & Garfunkel. Sounds Of Silence is, like everything they did, a superb album, and I played what I think are probably the three best known tracks from it. Another one that seems to have gone down well with readers.

That just leaves the three midweek posts, which for once were all music ones too. For the first of these I gave a second airing to what is now a new occasional series, in A Classic Album 2. This time the album in question was the debut by Steely Dan, Can’t Buy A Thrill, which I still think is the best debut album by anyone, ever. I played seven of its tracks and provided links to the other three, but to be honest I could have played them all: there isn’t a dud among them. If you don’t know it, dip into this post and see what you have been missing.

I seem to have been on a kind of folk music crusade this month, as my next midweek piece was Telling A Story. This was prompted by what I thought was an ignorant and idiotic comment that someone I don’t know had made on a friend’s blog, in which they dissed the genre. I took to my keyboard to point out that without folk music there probably wouldn’t be much else around today, as it has been with us for centuries and has helped other genres develop in their own way. I used as my theme the way that folk music has down the ages told the stories of real life events, and was before the days of mass media the common way that these were retold as ‘news.’ I used two examples, one by Gordon Lightfoot and the other by Ralph McTell, and I also played Fairport Convention’s cover of Ralph’s song. Worth checking out if you missed it or if you want to know why I am a big folk music fan.

The final midweek offering was one of my occasional dips into what I had found on YouTube, in New Music Time. I have done this several times before: there is no common theme to what I play in these, they are just songs and videos I like which are relatively recent. This set featured Dawes, Al Stewart & Empty Pockets, the wonderful Elles Bailey, a chance to play a song by a fellow blogger – Paul Ariss with Chloe Pownall, Steve Earle, and Dolly Parton – a fabulous cover of one of Tom Petty’s finest songs.

So, that was my August, blogging wise. In real life it was, as ever, fairly uneventful, apart from my almost going deaf. Nothing serious, just an earwax build up issue, but it made me realise how much I would miss if there was no music in my life. And watching football with subtitles was a real pain in the arse! Thankfully all is now clear, at the cost of a dent to my bank balance, but it was worth it! Oh, and one of my daughters was on BBC tv – not that I’m boasting, but it was a real ‘Proud Dad’ moment, albeit it a fairly brief one.

I usually close these pieces with a tune, sometimes related to the month but sometimes not. For this one, as I seem to have played a fair bit of folk music, how about another from that favourite band of mine that I couldn’t squeeze into my Song Lyric Sunday post for them. This is Oysterband with another little gem of theirs that I don’t think I have played here before:

As the clip shows, Steal Away is a track on the band’s 2014 album Diamonds On The Water. I think it is my favourite of theirs, but there are so many other candidates for that title! The lead track in my SLS post, Spirit Of Dust, also comes from that album: a mark of how good it is.

That’s all for now, and I hope I have reminded you of anything you might have missed or would like to see again. I’ll be back for my regular Sunday date. Till then, have fun 🤩