I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Chad Sutton for his podcast, Aural Mess. We talked about how I got into music writing, some of our mutual musical favourites, and my book Mixtape. You can watch it on YouTube here or listen to the audio here.
As some of this blog’s followers will know – especially those that follow my other blog – I have two careers: one in academia, and one in music writing. The two don’t often intersect, and that’s partly because I try to keep them separate. Having a Ph.D. and being a university professor doesn’t mean a lot in the music writing world, and being a music writer doesn’t mean a lot in the academic world. There might be some overlap if my degree was in a subject related to music, but although my area of study is very useful in helping me to understand how the music industry works, it’s not explicitly music-related.
This week marks the anniversary of the day I defended my doctoral dissertation – March 17, 1995. The defense comes after you’ve written your dissertation, which is an original piece of research, and your academic supervisor (supervisors, in my case) have signed off on it. You verbally present your research and your findings to a panel of professors, including an external assessor from another university. The panel members ask you questions about what you’ve done, and then you wait outside the room while the panel decides whether you’ve passed.
The defense is extremely nerve-wracking – you’re defending several years’ worth of work to a panel that has the power to say “no, not good enough, go back and try again”. However, I was exceptionally nervous about my defense. At an earlier step in my doctoral program, the progress of my dissertation was suddenly derailed because Continue reading
Dr. David Dobson, my former colleague at the University of the Fraser Valley, hosts a show named “Conversations” on his YouTube channel, where he interviews researchers and writers about their work. I was honoured to be on the show to discuss my book Mixtape. You can watch the interview here.
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets were on the CBS Saturday Morning TV show today, playing three songs from Nick’s classic holiday album Quality Street (here’s their performance of ‘Christmas at the Airport’). Quality Street is now 10 years old, and it will forever remind me of the Nick Lowe show I saw at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre on December 19, 2015.
This was a memorable show for many reasons, not least of which was the excellent and exuberant music. It was also memorable because of the audience. This was my first time seeing Nick as a solo act – I had seen him in Vancouver in 1980, as part of Rockpile – but everyone I knew who had seen him on his own assured me that he was terrific. When my husband and I got to the venue and found our seats, it turned out Continue reading
Over the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to two special issues published by Record Collector magazine.
For the Elton John special, I wrote an article about Elton’s 1975 album Rock Of The Westies. This was a particularly interesting assignment, since I still have the vinyl copy of the album that I bought when it came out! You can buy the issue here, and it’s also available on newsstands in the UK.
For the Paul McCartney special, I wrote about Wings’ 1971 debut album Wild Life, and also took a look at McCartney’s books, music, and films for kids. You can buy the issue here, and it will be on UK newsstands as of December 7.
During the first part of my music writing career, which lasted from the late ‘70s to the mid-‘80s, I worked at two different daily newspapers, and wrote a lot of concert reviews on deadline. This usually meant writing the review the same night as the show, sometimes while I was still at the concert venue, and getting the review to the newspaper’s editorial offices so it could go into the next day’s newspaper.
At that time, there were no cellphones and no portable computers, which meant that filing a concert review from outside the office was always an adventure. To illustrate what this was like, I would like to share with you a story of one such adventure: the night I didn’t meet David Bowie.
To set the scene for this story, Continue reading
[originally appeared in Shindig! issue #129)
When Linda Hoover entered New York’s Advantage Sound Studios in 1970, she was an excited 19-year-old who had never been in a studio before. Little did she know the album she made, I Mean To Shine, would never be released. But the album became legendary as the first album to feature songs by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who were soon to become the linchpins of Steely Dan – songs that never appeared anywhere else. Not only that, but Becker and Fagen also played on the album, along with guitarists Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter and Denny Dias who also became part of the Dan. Now, after 52 years, I Mean To Shine is finally seeing the light of day.
The catalyst for the album Continue reading
[originally appeared in Shindig! issue #139]
ROBYN HITCHCOCK, KELLEY STOLTZ
Neptune Theatre, Seattle
Friday 16th March
Robyn Hitchcock’s career has outlasted many other acts from the North American “college radio” indie music scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s. This longevity is attributable not only to his brilliant songwriting, mixing whimsical wordplay with moments of genuine poignancy and a keen psych-pop sensibility, but also to his frequent collaborations with other artists.
The value that Hitchcock places on collaboration was demonstrated by his choice of bandmates for Continue reading
Issue #62 (summer 2023) of Ugly Things magazine includes a very positive review of my book Mixtape. Thanks to editor Mike Stax for supporting independent authors & publishers! 
Earlier this month I was a guest presenter for an episode of Charity Shop Classics, a radio show on Manchester station (allFM). The show is hosted by a group of music lovers who trawl the music sections of charity shops (what we would call “second-hand stores” or “thrift stores” in North America) and then play selections from their haul every week. It’s a very entertaining show, and I was thrilled to get to join in the fun. You can listen to the episode here.
Writing on Music 