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A truly captivating performer, Ian Siegal has mapped a riveting path through the modern blues scene since his debut album in 2002.

For anyone so far denied the privilege of witnessing him in person, this album, originally broadcast on Paul Jones’s Radio 2 show, is a must.

Cue up any track and Siegal’s raw, impassioned and livid presence takes hold. An undersung facility on lap steel and National resonator guitars fuels a seamless set taking in searing originals (Falling On Down Again) which complement inspired reconfigurations of tunes by Charley Patton, Kris Kristofferson and the final, heart-swelling rejuvenation for Stephen Foster’s Hard Times (Come Again No More).

Siegal’s deadpan between-song banter adds to the flow, with the spartan setting allowing his voluminous talent to hold sway.

Via Nugene

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.