My Top 25 of 2025 (4)

Welcome back to my favourite 25 records of the year. And please remember, I'm an English teacher, not a Maths teacher...

13 and a half. Otis Gibbs – The Trust of Crows

OK, confession time. I made a list. I narrowed it down to 25 albums, because this is 2025. I started putting them in order and writing the posts.

Otis Gibbs - Ditchweed

And then I realised I’d left someone out. Don’t tell Ernie, you know what a stickler he is for numerical accuracy. Fortunately the Maths teacher doesn’t seem to care. Maybe he’s used to English teachers who can’t count.

Otis Gibbs - Raze

Anyway, Otis Gibbs released a new album this year, and a fine collection of tunes it is too – as expected from Americana wordsmith and youtube rock ‘n’ roll folklore collector, Mr. Gibbs. I wasn’t able to buy the CD this time round because it’s only available from his website, and the cost of postage from the US is now more expensive than the CD itself. I blame Trump, and I’m sure Otis does too.

13. Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires - Sounds Made By Humans

I’d expected this might end up in a higher position on my year end chart, because when I first heard the collaboration between “The Banksy of Poetry” and the artists formerly known as Talulah Gosh (among other things), I couldn’t stop listening to it. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most immediate record of the year, for its winning combination of Bilston’s witty, vaguely misanthropic middle-aged carping and the warm indie magpiery (yes, I said magpiery, I made that word up myself – figure it out) of Rob and Emilia.

Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires – My Heart Is A Lump Of Rock

Why it didn’t end up Top 10 is perhaps because after a while it started to wear on me, and I began to realise it didn’t have the longevity of comparable discs – say the new album by Half Man Half Biscuit or anything by Simon Armitage’s bands Lyr or the Scaremongers. (Plus, the BB poem/song To Do List… well, it’s a direct steal from our sainted Poet Laureate, and that began to niggle me a bit.)

Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires - Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulting

Still lots to enjoy here then, but without the longevity I’d expected when I was lauding it earlier in the year.

12. Eric Church - Evangeline vs. The Machine

The latest record from Eric Church continues his move away from his Waylon-esque outlaw roots into far more soulful territory. And I’ve always been a sucker for Country Got Soul. Evangeline vs. The Machine is a concept album, apparently, meaning that the songs all merge into one another and there’s some kind of link going on behind the scenes, but much as I love a good overriding narrative, I’ve yet to grasp the one at work here.

Eric Church – Hands Of Time

Despite that, this is a rollicking good record, one that takes great pleasure in stealing lines and, indeed, whole concepts from the classic country and rock songbook. There are gleeful references to the work of Bob Seger, Tom Petty, ACDC, Johnny Cash and  Paradise By The Dashboard Light (not Eric’s first dalliance with Steinman)… plus a glorious reimagining of The Devil Went Down To Georgia for the 21^st Century, which might well be a subtle dig at the Orange Oligarch,

Self-Loathing Friday #5: A Plumber's Handkerchief

I look like ten miles of bad road

And I smell like a plumber's handkerchief 

This is Otis Gibbs, an Americana singer who might well have a serious inferiority complex...

I got a stiff leg and a slow walk

I'm as graceful as a tank of shit

Well, I know how you feel, Otis.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his self-image problems, Otis has a lot going for him. He's made some great records and hosts his own thoughtful and entertaining podcast about rock history and songwriting. His songs tell some amazing and often heartbreaking stories, like the one about the vagrant murdered for $3.65, the one about the legendary black boxer who fought against segregation,  and the one about the man who builds his own Harley Davidson out of spare parts. But is that enough to make a living for a jobbing musician these days? 

I was hanging with fans and shaking hands

At the merch table after the show

Trying to raise enough cash to buy a tank of gas

So I could make it through to Buffalo

It's hard to sell a CD when they can stream it for free

I might need a new line of work

You might think it's a blast, but you know you wouldn't last

Ten minutes on this tour

After I heard that one, I went straight to Otis's website and ordered a couple of his CDs. He posted them himself, from the States, with a thank you note.

Record Collection Recollections #6: The Personal Touch

Back when I worked in the radio station, I collected quite a few autographed CDs. Hardly the big names, and nothing that would be worth any money, though I still prize my copy of What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? signed by Ian McCulloch. I never actually met Mac though, so it's not like he signed it for me personally; it was just something the record company sent through. (They probably intended us to give it away as a competition prize, but, frankly, it would have been wasted on our listeners.)

These days, I buy a fair few CDs from Bandcamp, or direct from the artist's website, and it's nice when you get a little signed note to show they've posted it themselves. I recently ordered a couple of Otis Gibbs CDs direct from the States and got a nice "Thank you, Rol," on note-paper decorated with musical staves. In the streaming era, independent artists really do appreciate those of us who still shell out for the physical media.

I'm similarly impressed by artists who work their own merch stands at gigs. I'm much more likely to buy something if they're selling their own stuff. I had a good chat with David Gedge when he was working the Cinerama merch stand at The Leadmill back in the 90s, and this cemented my impression of him being a very down-to-earth rock star. 

Just last week, I met Kirby Brown at the American Aquarium gig. Kirby was manning his own merch stand after playing a cool support set. BJ Barham from AmAq promised to meet everyone at his own merch stand after the gig; sadly we had to leave before getting the chance to take him up on that offer, but Kirby was there straight after his set. I was unfamiliar with work 'til that night. He does a good line in acoustic Americana, though he hails from Brooklyn rather than anywhere near Nashville. He'd travelled up from London that afternoon via National Express, so I figured he deserved to make a sale. Plus, I was rather taken with his songs, particularly Spiders. He didn't have any change and I only had a twenty pound note, so he had to get it changed at the bar... but this is the kind of memory that will keep him on my radar in future.

Spiders make homes in old guitars

People feel young in classic cars

The ocean makes room for fallen stars

Some things just don’t change

  

Monday Morning Blues #4: Post Father's Day Blues

I had a lovely Father's Day - the selection of gifts above from Sam (via Louise) was well received. I saw my own dad on Saturday, but he's hard to have a lengthy conversation with these days. Struggling with his health, finding it particularly hard to walk great distances, he clearly misses his former independence, and as a result has closed in on himself. I like to see him, but it also makes me sad because I can tell he's unhappy, yet it's beyond anything I can do to help him. I guess he appreciated the John Grisham and the chocolate truffle fudge (he started reading and tucking into it almost immediately on receipt), but I wish I could do more.

Otis Gibbs has the Back In My Day Blues. I reckon my dad knows how they feel... then again, so do I.

 

Grumpy Old Men Songs #17: Otis Is Driving Me Crazy

Don't get stuck on the road behind Otis Gibbs. He's a great Americana singer, but a lousy driver.

I've driven every back-road and highway and byway that's ever been paved

I'm so slow that farmers in tractors want me out of their way

I've seen old lady drivers cussing me through my rear-view mirror

And lock their doors and hope that I don't decide to come near

Still, at least he's Wide Awake... though you might not think so if he's clogging up the road and you're in a hurry.