A Lark Ascending

Vaughan Williams song based on a 19thC poem. Extremely well known and generally performed in a plummy, parlour room style. Fay Hield's singing of it here always gets the waterworks going for me. Martin Simpson's guitar accompaniment is precisely judged. A perfect ending to a wonderful album.

The autumn leaves are at perfection and there's no sun to swoon over them to. No let up in sight - the wind will have blown them all away if we are not lucky.

Finished this early in the week... As good a military history book as I've read. Balances narrative and analysis perfectly. What make it is the use of eyewitness accounts that gives you a real sense of what it must have been like to be there. Never realised how gruesome it was - I always associate mass horror with the American Civil War and World War I. But the accounts gere of the squares just standing there to repel cavalry whilst the artillery pound into them chill the blood. And the complete lack of logistical organisation after the battle to deal with casualties with people lying out there five days later. Then you turn on the news and see Syria. No, not the lot. 'King Lear' - first Shakespeare I've read for many a year. Extraordinary play. Not an easy volume to handle whilst lying on the couch but it was cheap! Hope to read a lot of these in the coming years. Reading too many books at once at present - the John Peel book, a thriller, the Shakespeare bio mentioned further up and this: Really don't know what to make of this. The first 50 or so pages are really quite dull - a sort of history of LSD, the pre-60s American avant-garde, the Beats etc. Gets interesting once he gets round to the music. But suffers from that thing with so many books written by enthusiasts who haven't really based their writing on objective research. Projects his own prejudices onto the music and presents this as objective truth. So he decides that the reaction against psychedelia in the late 60s (The Band and all that) has been overrated and was as much game playing as the hippy era itself. Which I suspect is the case, but... Can't work out his point - seems to want to see that popular culture from the 60s onwards owes everything to LSD. But I'm not sure if he is saying that. Reminds me of another 'fan' book about British jazz from a few years back where a bunch of personal prejudices were stitched together as a history...though this one is more entertaining and isn't cursed by pseudo-sociology. This sort of thing might be fine as an internet blog, bulletin board exchange or pub debate. But putting it in printed form requires rather more discipline. Some atrocious factual errors too - can't believe he made these mistakes as he seems so knowledgeable about the music of the era. Get the impression it was the sort of thing we all do typing at speed but the errors were never picked up later - The Band as the backing group of 'Screaming Jay Hawkins?; a couple of other glaring ones I can't recall. I was too young to have been aware of the 60s when they happened; imagine anyone who was there would be driven nuts by this book. I'm preparing to go nuts when I get to the 70s. But I will read on.

Fay Hield and the Hurricane Party at the Sheffield Crucible (only three of the above on duty) Dr. Fay Hield, no less...she'd been doing a lecture at Sheffield Uni where she works in the morning! First half - familiar songs from her first two records with two of the above on concertina and fiddle/nyckelharpa and a bit later a guitar/fiddle player. Highlight was a wonderful song accompanied by just three fiddles - scratchy and droney as I like my folk music. Second half - previewed some of the songs from her new record coming out in February. Two extra musicians - double bass and drums. A marvellous mixture of the unfamiliar (she seems to like pillaging collections of children's songs, sticking bits together and then writing a new tune), Tom Waits and familiar ballads with different tunes and fresh arrangements - Seven Gypsies, Jack Orian etc. We live in a golden age for English folk music with a flood wave of outstanding performers. Hield is at the head of that flood. ***************************** If you need a nasty lullaby to scare your kids, try this: Ropey video but you get the gist. Do as you are told or Bonaparte will tear you limb from limb and eat you.

Bruckner 5 is my favourite Bruckner piece. The double fugue in the last movement is extraordinary. And there's a little falling flute melody in the first movement part way through that always turns me to mush. I got so obsessed with Bruckner that I even visited his grave many years back! It's in St. Florian near Linz. Check your local bus schedules. I came to him on the back of Mahler - they were often grouped together in the 'Idiots Guide to Classical Music' equivalent I was using to find ny way in the 70s (I think I started with the Pears Encyclopaedia. Well they share a lot (huge pieces [which suited a listener to 4 side prog rock opuses], extending out of Wagner and Romanticism) but in other ways are quite different. All of Bruckner's symphonies, whatever their individual differences, seem to come from a similar sound world; whereas with Mahler he seems to invite in a different cast of characters every time. Must see a live Bruckner myself soon. The last one was an 8th in Innsbruck by a stunningly good Austrian youth orchestra on the same trip as the grave visit [I also made a detour to see Mahler's house in Klagenfurt and inadvertently ended up on a nudist camp site...but that's another tale...].

When you download on the UK site via the download manager you get a file in the bottom left of your computer. You have to click it to open it. It goes straight into iTunes or whatever programme you use for playback. You seem to have checked this but if it hasn't been synched to iTunes (or other) it might be sat in 'Downloads' on your main drive. On UK e-music if you open 'My Account' in 'Profile' at the top of the page the last option on the left is 'contact customer support'. I've had to do this on occasion when I've downloaded faulty tracks and have found them very good. They are usually back to you within a day and are quick to refund the duff tracks. Though it sounds like e-music might work differently in the States. You can't buy individual albums here but need an account.

Watched it last night - superb. I normally steer clear of anything involving ghosts and the paranormal (I know they were just representations of the main character's mental anguish here) but this was compelling and very unusually plotted. Excellent camera work giving a strong impression of London. Also watched: The Great British Year: Spring. Which just had me awestruck. The scenes with the young guillemots taking their first flight were amazing. Had me pining for spring!

Nothing wrong with spending your money on posh chairs, expensive formats or anything else for that matter if it gives you pleasure. Just as long as it doesn't claim to be anything more than a lifestyle choice.

Of course. But I'd imagine some vinyl addicts would consider listening to a streamed album as the equivalent of trying out a chair in IKEA prior to purchasing the coveted Chippendale.

Glad I videoed it (or Digiboxed it!) - have read a few very enthusiastic reviews. Just hope my brain can keep the plots of these current thrillers separate!

Indeed! ******************************* Some aerial views of Australia: The Diamantina river, which stretches through South Australia and south-west Queensland. An eroded desert landscape. If I was the sort of chap who relayed tiles in the bathroom... Other lovely shots here: http://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2015/oct/13/australia-from-space-beautiful-and-bizarre-images-iss-astronaut-scott-kelly

This week's Guardian vinyl story: UK vinyl boom sends prices spinning into 'premium' territory

Gorgeously misty morning in Leatherhead, Surrey on 9 October, captured by Andrew Jones. Stag at sunrise, Petworth, West Sussex - photographed by Mark Rutley http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34507102

The Great British Year: Winter 2013 series that completely passed me by. Stunning photography of Britain in winter - great aerial shots, excellent use of time lapse but, most impressive, the use use of thermal image cameras to capture nocturnal activity. The arrival of a badger and a fox in a field where leverets were hiding was as tense as any movie thriller. Suffers from a 'isn't Britain special?' narrative that would warm a Ukippers heart. But riveting, nonetheless.

Isn't this a type of underground Australian jazz?

Godalming: The sun rises over the River Wey in Surrey: Photograph: Alex Glen/REX Shutterstock http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/oct/11/the-weekend-in-pictures#img-7 Mù Cang Chai, Vietnam: A woman from the Hmong ethnic group carries a grass basket on a terraced paddy field during the rice harvest season in north-east Vietnam Photograph: Kham/Reuters http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/oct/04/the-weekend-in-pictures#img-5

Who's best? Who's best? I vote for Schnabel.

The Huddersfield Canal is clearly involved in art forgery. I'll go for Seurat on my next trip!

That high has you definitely labelled as Waitrose Man. My 16 gets me Sainsbury's Man. Not sure how low you have to go for Aldi Man.

Monet didn't work in little squares. More on the way to a Cézanne, I'd say! I thought you'd know the right painter! Though I can't imagine either in Yorkshire! [This board seems fond of random little squares (or rectangles !!!!]

Of course, when Osborne transforms the trans-Pennine route I'll be able to be in Marsden 3 mins before setting off! Very good!

Up in't Pennines again: Haven't checked this but I'd imagine the mills here would have started in the late 18thC when water power required fast flowing streams - I think I saw 1906 on one mill in Marsden but would imagine industrialisation wouldn't have been far behind Arkwright's mills further south. My attempt at a Monet! When I set out on Friday the skies were blue and the trees were an absolute riot of autumn colour. Unfortunately a thin layer of high cloud descended at Huddersfield and stayed there over two days. Pity as the trees need the sun to bring out their colours.

I wondered if it was in your orbit - train services seem very good both to the west and east. Good for a car too - free parking!!!! I think the Crosland sold out (it was on at the same time as the Evan Christopher concert) - though given the small size of the venues in Marsden selling out is likely to happen very quickly. Never been before but was very impressed. None of the glossy, corporate sheen you get in the big festivals. Bizarre moment in the early afternoon yesterday - I went for a walk up into the hills and as I descended you could hear the street music from right on top..."River Deep, Mountain High"!!!!!

Peak box set: how Dylan inspired barrel-scraping of the most cynical kind

Three concerts at: Lovely, small festival - loads to hear from everybody-join-in free events round the village to ticket events in small venues. Incredibly enthusiastic audiences in everything I saw. Django a la Creole - Evan Christopher (New Orleans (via California)): clarinet; Don Vappie (New Orleans): guitar; Dave Kelbie (UK): guitar; Sébastien Girardot (France (via Australia)): double bass. One of the best concerts I've been to all year (up there with Mara! in August). I knew what to expect from Evan Christopher but was quite unprepared for the guitar and banjo of Don Vappie (who I believe is new to the group) - absolutely thrilling. Great bass as well. Normally in a concert audience enthusiasm rises and hits a peak around 2/3rds of the way through the first set. This band had the audience hopping after the second song. Christopher did an interesting pre-concert talk about New Orleans, Django and his own experiences learning music. Very engaging personality. Arun Ghosh Indo-Jazz Sextet - A South Asian Suite - Arun Ghosh: clarinet; Chris Williams: alto saxophone; Liran Donin: double bass; John Ellis: piano; Nilesh Gulhane: tabla; Dave Walsh: drums. Another electrifying performance from, a very different clarinet player. Bolton lad from an Asian background. Very much in the style pioneered by John Mayer - ranging from the hard driving to more reflective moments. Ghosh is a wonderful front man, really engaging with the audience between songs. After telling us which parts of South Asia each section were from over the concert he admitted that he'd never been to any of them but he did like the hills of the Lake District and Pennines! After playing the full suite he launched into a solo version of 'You've Got a Friend' which had all the baby boomers singing a-long. That's his chance of a commission from the 'Art' crowd blown. Lauren Kinsella Ensemble - Lauren Kinsella (voice), Tom Challenger (sax), Dan Nicholls (keys and electronics), Conor Chaplin (bass) and Simon Roth (drums). One of the most impressive of the younger vocalists I've heard of late. Came across her singing on Laura Jurd's last album and the Blue-Eyed Hawk record done with Jurd. New compositions that have an impressionistic song basis but quickly fly off into more free-style vocal gymnastics - think Norma Winstone in the late-60s/70s (although her voice is not like Norma's). A voice of enormous range that never betrays any dodgy intonation, despite veering all over the place harmonically. I think this was a new commission and was clearly in the process of coming together - not as fully realised as the first two concerts but impressive nonetheless.