"July is dressed up, and playing her tune..."

Well, over the half way mark in a year that has seen some fabulous music released already; a fantastic return to form from PJ Harvey with her impeccable "Let England Shake", sophomore efforts from 'Boat faves Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes; superb new efforts from Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Robbie Robertson; fine local releases from the likes of Ruban Neilson's post Mint Chicks group Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Liam Finn's curiously lovely "Fomo", Beastwars monster metal stomp, and Grand Rapids' nouveau pop classicism; as well as a whole Boatload of glorious reissues from the likes of Suede (magnificent job, 2CD's plus DVD!), and rejigged versions of Paul McCartney's long out of print first two wholly solo albums (superb!), and, latterly The Horrors magnificent goth/ baggy/ shoegaze- influenced "Skying" (don't buy effexor online worry, it's much better than that sounds...!) See? Already a great year for music, and only half way through! Couple of other things - Brother Simon Sweetman gave yours truly the chance to take over Blog On The Tracks last week for a bit of a gush over The Blue Nile - read it and weep here. We have a new Slow Boat Inquisition with the marvellous David Kilgour here. And we also have copies of new album “Silverfox” by local songwriter/ musician Alan Galbraith, as heard on Jim Mora‘s National Radio afternoon show. And - stop press, etc - we are also expecting vinyl copies (at last!) of 'Boat pal Connan Mockasin's epic debut album, now rechristened "Forever Dolphin Love" - give us a shout if you want us to hold you a copy.