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Michael Chapman - still going strong with a flawless technique and a no-nonsense tenderness
Song of the Day: A pair of songs that bookend the remarkable and prolific career of the great, influential folk guitarist-singer from Leeds, from his debut album of 1969, Rainmaker, to his latest in 2019, True North
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Davey Graham, originally spelled Davy
Song of the Day: After the ‘fuss and fight’ of the Paragons and later Massive Attack on Man Next Door, and reverse of perspective from the neighbour making the noise, in a powerful version by the great and underrated English folk guitarist and singer
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Hen Oggled, featuring Richard Dawson, second from right
Song of the Day: It’s impossible to categorise this brilliant, heady mixture of folk and electronica with thudding bass, and oddball vocals, except it has an echo of late-70s Peter Gabriel about it
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New Year’s Eve fireworks with Tom Waits
Song of the Day: An annual theme from a perennial Song Bar favourite - Tom Waits’ and Kathleen Brennan’s gentle song captures some of the chaos, fireworks, fights, arguments and emotional turmoil as the year unstoppably turns
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Tracy Chapman
Song of the Day: The next song in min-series of brain theme is this prophetic number by the Cleveland, Ohio singer from her 2002 album Let It Rain, highlighting the effect technology has on our most precious and complex organ
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PJ Harvey and autoharp
Song of the Day: Continuing on the First World War Armistice Day centenary, a trio of some of the finest songs about war from the British singer and composer from her acclaimed 2011 album Let England Shake
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Lest we forget …
Song of the Day: Simply a song, a piece of music and a poem to mark 100 years since Armistice Day 11 November 1918, the end of the First World War, in which there were 40 million casualties
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Robert Redford and Paul Newman making their last stand in the 1969 film
Song of the Day: Today’s date, 7 November, is significant in all sorts of ways - elections, revolutions, births, deaths, but it’s the day in 1908 when two of America’s most famous outlaws were reportedly killed on the run in Bolivia
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Harry Chapin
Song of the Day: Next in the taxi line is this wistfully beautiful 1972 song from the American singer-songwriter’s debut album, Heads & Tales, about a driver who picks up a glamorous woman who turns out to be an old flame
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Jens Lekman
Song of the Day: From Tim Buckley’s driver perspective to one from the customer, this time in the dry humour of the Swedish singer-songwriter who finds it a haven after missing the last tram home
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Lead Belly
Song of the Day: Also known as In The Pines, and Black Girl, today we move onto another traditional song variously interpreted, dark and brooding, haunting in its melody, and simmering with suspicion and jealousy
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The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
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Some of the many musicians collaborating on the Playing For Change project
Song of the Day: Yesterday's pick was Cuban played by Africans, today's is an even richer blend with artists from Morocco, Hungary, Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Egypt, India, USA, France and Serbia
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Cesária Evora
Song of the Day: Moving now to and artist from Cape Verde and one of the most beautiful songs, from the singer's her 1992 album Miss Perfumado
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Sona Jarbarteh
Song of the Day: Moving from Ivory Coast and Mali to The Gambia, and the singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer who hails from a long line of Griot kora players with a song to mark her country's 50th independence anniversary in 2015
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Go home, you fuckwit
Song of the Day: To mark the unwelcome visit of the current US president to the UK, two ironic versions of the famous Bob Dylan song that capture the falsehood, narcissism, hypocrisy and divisive racism of the Donald
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From the cover of Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan's fourth album (1965)
Song of the Day: Some songs for Independence Day are patriotic, others heavily critical, but this American dream number sees the then great young lyricist capture his country with surreal, vivid, humorous irony
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Nico. Teutonic stony sadness.
Song of the Day: After Sibylle Baier yesterday, a better known, but in her own way, equally mysterious German singer, best recognised in the Velvet Underground, but here from her own 1967 solo album, Chelsea Girl
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Judy Collins with Leonard Cohen
Song of the Day: After a couple of nun-related songs, let's turn two ethereal songs written by Leonard Cohen, but performed by the singer better known for covering Stephen Sondheim's Send In The Clowns
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Jake Thackray
Song of the Day: From yesterday's Ye Nuns, a gem from the Yorkshire chansonnier from his about a nun who wasn't really one, filled with playful, suggestive images and written in a mock-innocent style
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