El Carretero

The great thing about music is every month you discover something new. My interest in the ‘Cuba Libre’ series on Netflix has led me to listen to more Cuban music than normal and to the discovery of Guillermo Portables. He seems to have been painted out of Cuban history as many who opposed the revolution …

Cuba Libre

The Netflix series ‘Cuba Libre’ is a timely reminder of how a small group of dedicated extremists can take over a country. I’m guessing you probably didn’t know that the ‘army’ took Havana in 1959 led by Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara, comprised of just 300 men. Even though the army of the military dictator, …

Shelter

Thomas Barlett has played piano on records for everyone from The National to Sufjan Stevens. He is classically trained and for some reason felt a little embarrassed by it. When his girlfriend returned to England and left him alone in lockdown, he felt moved to write a series of classic piano pieces, which he has …

Words of Love

There’s surprisingly little buzz around Nick Broomfield’s documentary ‘Words of Love’ but it’s one of the best things I’ve seen this year. It’s about the love affair between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian lover, Marianne Ihlen. It turns out that Broomfield had been Marianne’s lover at one point and this gives the whole enterprise a …