Your Custom Text Here
Mardi Gras in New Orleans has a Zulu tradition
Belfast to New Orleans, Romania to India, this week’s musical procession, inspired by a tremendous train from last week’s topic is led by the twirling baton of guest guru ParaMhor, who takes on a perfect parade of two playlists
Read more
Onwards!
They express the joys, hopes, triumphs and tragedies of the human race coming together, – mixed emotions, war to civil rights, weddings to funerals, religious and sports to military might to floral festivals. But where do they come up in song?
Read more
Who will get a pickup this week?
Breakdowns to what’s around the bend, picking up from last week’s topic’s many passengers, our guest driver takeitawayGuru takes us on a fabulous rockin’ rollin’ journey with his pick of songs that really catch a musical ride
Read more
Where to?
It’s time to give us all a lift, not only emotionally, but as Song Bar bus sets off on a road trip, picking up all sorts of musicians and other artists, in a quest to find for stories about hitching experiences – good, bad, scary or heartwarming
Read more
Any leads?
Possessions, pets, family members, or even personal identity, this week the musical mission is all about the missing, but also hopefully, with a story arc that also leads to rediscovery, finding more than what you were searching for
Read more
Fiddling for arachnophobes
How do songwriters face their arachnophobia? Spotting behavioural trends expressed through musical and lyrics, and weaving a beautiful and witty web, this week’s guest swawilg creates playlists from last week’s thread of song suggestions
Read more
What orange-ments are playing out this week?
Fresh, funky, bright and effervescent, spreading from Jamaica to India, France and America and all the way to Japan, this week’s guest playlister Hoshino Sakura captures the essence of this colour in all forms, sky to fruit to street
Read more
Orangutan. Of course
From animals to objects, plants to birds, and all of its cultural associations, the meeting of red and yellow, symbol of change, joy, entertainment and also warning, this week let’s explore songs are about anything clearly of this colour
Read more
Biscuit time? Deer think so, in Nara Park, Japan
Foxes, deer, ducks, ospreys, to blossoms and orchids, leaping up into life from last week’s topic, guest writer barbryn picks a magical musical menagerie and floral fanfare in playlists about the wildlife that inhabit our towns and cities
Read more
Concrete evidence …
Cats, rats or bats, peregrine falcons to parakeets, foxes and rabbits, bears or boars, and a whole host of other creatures, as well as plants and urban sunsets, this week let’s explore how nature exists in the city as shown in song
Read more
They might well appear in a playlist near you … The Stranglers
Warnings about false friends, to advice about keeping things secret, one appearance doesn’t deceive - this week’s playlists are skilfully strung together by this week’s guest Suzi, covering everything from love to personal life, politics to parties
Read more
Skimpy Slade: fans of a beauty spot on Pouk Hill
Bromwichham to Brummagem, Wednesfield, Walsall and Wolverhampton, this week’s guest playlister philipphilip99 blows an entertaining trumpet for the city and area that shaped him, his lists filled with fabulous music and facts
Read more
Roy would …
This week’s topic takes a particular accent towards music inspired by the great British West Midlands city and its surrounding area, a rich cultural mix of ethnicities and styles, industrial history, upheaval and humour
Read more
Over the moon with Smashing Pumpkins
What a production! Cartoons to big-screen movie references, emotional stories, quirky comedies and extraordinary dancing, from a massive choice, this week’s guest Marco den Ouden chooses two perfectly eye-popping playlists
Read more
Genres? What are they?
This week let’s push the envelope and dig out often lesser known artists and works that wriggle away from definition, those who or mix sub-genres and styles with such originality it’s hard to place them. But can you still define them?
Read more
Sorceress Siouxsie Sioux
Good, bad, beautiful or ugly, purveyors of black or white magic, and the effect they have on others, from witch-finders to fans, this week we explore the culture of witchery, but which way, and what magic will this conjure up in songs?
Read more
Do your wurst: What could go horribly right? The Producers (1967) starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel
The brilliantly bad to the awesomely atrocious, whether in sound or lyrics, this week it's time to stretch the realms of musical and lyrical taste into the outer regions, and boldly go where we've never been before
Read more
Timeless melodies: a page from the Antikamnia Chemical Company’s Skeleton Calendar for 1901
When does The Fall come, is it in autumn or spring? And what and when might Brian Eno or Vashti Bunyan bring? All this and more as this week’s playlister Rachel Courtney aka uneasy listening gets creative with musical calendars
Read more
Rokia Traoré … dancing with a constant companion Mélancolie
The Bar is delighted. Places, emotions, elements, the weather and even music itself take human traits as this week’s guru Uncleben is excellence personified, guiding through two exhaustive and illuminating playlists on this topic
Read more
Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison, 1981-2018
Following hundreds of superb songs suggested by readers from last week’s topic, from the tragic and departed to those who survived, guest playlister George Boyland distils them into two lists of beauty, pain and perspective
Read more