Last month saw the launch of my podcast, “Joe Boyd’s A-Z”. Each weekly 10-minute episode starts with a track from my collection, which serves as a doorway to talk about memorable recording sessions I’ve been involved in, or to my favourite albums, or to curious histories and remarkable personalities. I’ve spent the last year and […]

  I have been hiding my head in shame for the past month after committing an apostrophe-crime in the editor’s letter I shared with you, right after the other rant about bad grammar!  Thank you to all the sticklers who pointed this out. A somewhat shorter version of the following account of my Albanian adventures […]

My career as village crank, banging out letters to the editor, is on the upswing! Two letters published in the past three weeks! One in the Guardian, one in the International New York Times. They trimmed them a bit, so I’ll let you read them as nature, well me anyway, intended: To the Guardian: Sirs, […]

My somewhat cranky appearance on Radio 4’s “A Good Read” is available now in BBC iPlayer: (The article I mention about the great Lesley Blanch can be read here.) Despite the scowls directed towards anyone who asks when my book on ‘world music’ will be finished, some evidence is emerging of what I’ve been up […]

John “Hoppy” Hopkins died at the end of January. Some of you may have read the obituary I wrote for the Guardian or heard my contribution to “Last Word” on BBC Radio 4. The Guardian stayed reasonably true to my original text, but added more facts and removed some of the quirkier passages. Originally, (and within their word-count restraints) it read like […]

Dear Mailing List, “I was going to send out a newsletter about “Inside Llewen Davis” and Dave Van Ronk but I’m pleased to say that “The Believer”, that most excellent magazine run by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida and the great McSweeney’s team have put it up on their “Logger” website/blog. So you can read […]

Dear Mailing List, This coming Monday evening (Nov 24), I am taking part in an interesting event at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). My music publishing company, Carthage Music (in which I am a partner with long-time colleagues Guy Morris and Catherine Steinmann) is collaborating with SOAS in a study of the […]

Greetings, Mailing List It’s been a while, I admit. I have been trying to keep my head down, working on ‘The Book’ (about the World Music phenomenon, as yet untitled…) But I do have a few things to show you: a film of my visit to the John Peel Archive, where I was honoured to […]

Dear Mailing List, Tuesday Feb 4 at 1130 am GMT*, BBC Radio 4 will air a radio documentary presented by Yours Truly on the late great New Orleans pianist James Booker. It’s called “The Black Liberace” and is 30 minutes long. (a copy of this can be found here).  I was asked to do it […]

I had a most enjoyable evening last at London’s Kings Place Hall. During a Christmas Concert by the Albion Band, I presented its leader, Ashley Hutchings, with the EFDSS Gold Badge Award for Lifetime Achievement. For the uninitiated, EFDSS stands for “English Folk Dance and Song Society”. Don’t laugh! Folk music is hip again in […]