The Year Between

Given he has been earning a solid living as a session musician and producer since 1973, Seasick Steve’s ornery-old-hobo shtick can be a little hard to take, but by God it has worked. This 75-year-old is about to fill Wembley Arena with nothing more than his three-stringed guitar and throaty tales of hopping freight trains. Keepin’ The Horse Between Me And The Ground is the eighth album by Seasick Steve aka Stephen Wold and it strays out of his usual raw blues patch while maintaining the unadorned simplicity that is at the heart of his appeal.

On New Year's Eve 2001, with her husband by her side, Phillipa McGuinness buried her son. They stood with a young priest in Chua Chu Kang Cemetery and watched a small coffin go into the ground. Later that night, shattered, they sat looking out at the hundreds of ships waiting to come into port in Singapore's harbor. Or trying to leave, who could tell? Each of them thinking about the next year, starting within hours. Phillipa wanted time to push on, for 2001 to be over, but she was also scared. What might be next?