I got a letter this morning...

What do you reckon it read? That's right, it read that Eclectic Hermit was posting three different versions of Death Letter in the vain hope of a triple-threat type situation whereby countless visitors are wowed by my knowledge of said song. Well instead of that we have The Original Blues, 70s style garage-rock Blues and Dad Blues (Mellencamp = BomChicka slide guitar), pick your favourite and imagine a world where wars are fought over whose version of the song is the bestestest.

Son House - Death Letter (Peel Session)

The White Stripes - Death Letter

John Mellencamp - Death Letter

The next step in this covers type malarkey is another triple-threat (phrase of the week) meets degrees of separation type situation where three artists are featured, linked to the previous artist by a cover of their song, for example: The Whites Stripes - Jolene (Dolly Parton), Dolly Parton - something by someone else, etc.

In case you were wondering, my favourite version is The White Stripes's's. If you don't own De Stijl, do yerself a favour and cop it on the cheap thanks to this Icky Thump furore.

The Monday Chiller #13 - Nick Drake...

I'm in Edinburgh at the moment for a few days at The Fringe, but I did go record shopping today for the first time in yonks and have got 6 new albums and a couple of vinyls to pick tunes from, so expect a steady trickle of these from Thursday onwards, which is when I have to get back to Yorkshire and reality.

I got the Nick Drake Family Tree album last week and pretty much every track is worthy of being a Monday Chiller but Leaving Me Behind fits the bill perfectly.

Nick Drake - Leaving Me Behind

Maybe this feature should be renamed the Monday Melancholy Moment, most of the songs I post are quite depressing! Not to worry, upbeat electro next week.

Oh aye and if you are in Edinburgh this week then go see Hostage on Friday night @ Studio 24.

The Liz Green preservation society...

Liz Green - Bad Medicine
Liz Green - Midnight Blues
Liz Green - Blue Note

There's a musical revolution going on in Manchester, and Liz Green is a big part of it. She brings style reminiscent of Nina Simone and Moby (I hear it) to her lo-fi finger-picking blues ramblings and from the first 10 seconds of Bad Medicine I was hooked. With influences ranging from Captain Morgan's dark rum to Anticon and Dolly Parton, homegirl has my vote.

She won the chance to perform on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury today, made even more remarkable by the fact that she hasn't even released a single yet.

Get into this before everyone else starts taking notice and Ms. Green's all over the Hype Machine. After Glasto Liz will be performing a few dates around Manchester before going on tour with George Thomas in the UK.

Check the myspace for more or hit up Humble Soul records.

The Monday Chiller #5...

While the rest of the world is talking hard about The White Stripes, i'm gonna post a little tune by The Black Keys, another American blues-rock band that started to recieve recognition only a few months after people took interest in the Stripes. It's fair to say that so far they have been overshadowed by their colour-coded counterparts in terms of a mainstream audience, but to those fans who know the truth, they are one of the hottests bands out there. This track is taken from their 2006 album Magic Potion and if you like it then maybe you should invest in their back catalogue instead of Icky Thump. Just a thought.

The Black Keys - The Flame