Dear Mailing List,

It’s been a while. There’s been a lot going on and those pesky podcasts take up quite a bit of time! But I keep getting great feedback and numbers keep climbing, so there’s no stopping them. Besides, I enjoy doing them…

The coming week sees a few public manifestations of the “Podcast Spirit”, if not the actual thing itself. Tuesday night (July 12), I will be a guest on BBC Radio 3’s “Late Junction” with Verity Sharpe (from about 1130pm). They’ve asked me to bring a couple of favourite tracks, and I’ve decided to focus on my two favourite vocal harmony groups. A-Z Podcast fans will know who these are (hint, listen to Episodes F and H), but the rest of you can tune in to find out.

Then on Wednesday evening (July 13), I’ll join Resonance Radio’s Live To Air event at the East Tower of the late lamented Television Centre in White City. It seems this storied studio is about to be turned into flats! Of course! Welcome to Tory World! There may be some (free) tickets left at:  Resonance Live to Air tickets

My brief there is to do a “West London” edition of the Joe Boyd’s A-Z, so I’ll be focusing on my adventures with Syd Barrett and Toots and the Maytals. I am scheduled to hit the stage – and the airwaves – about 8:30.

Then on Friday (July 15), it’s off to the Rhythm Tree Festival on the Isle of Wight, where Robyn Hitchcock and I will revisit our collaboration from years past, generally known as “Chinese White Bicycles” or “Live and Direct from the 1960s”, wherein I read from the book and Robyn sings an appropriate song. I’ve never been to the fabled Isle of Wight, so I’m looking forward to that, as well as a reunion with the legend that is RH.

If there are any German speakers among you, you might be interested in this link to a three-hour (!) special on Yours Truly which aired last week, and is still up on the German version of BBC i-Player.  Deutschlandfunk

Looking a bit further ahead, I’m working with my old friends Charlotte Horton and Alexander Greene at Castello di Potentino in the Val d’Orcia in Southern Tuscany on a day of stunning a capella singing, August 20. There will be groups from Sardinia, Genoa, Albania and the local host group, “I Cardellini de la Fontanina”. They don’t seem to have the event listed yet at www.potentino.com but should do soon. In any case, the event is definitely happening, I’ve heard all the groups close up and can vouch for how wonderful they are. There may still be a few rooms in the castle, but if not, vino@potentino.com can connect you to local hostelries. We hope to bring this idea of European harmony to a wider audience in the future and have been talking to some presenters about replicating the notion at a festival or concert hall.

I am particularly excited by hearing the Cardellini and the Albanian “Grupi i Pilurit” next to each other. The Cardellini have a falsetto ‘yodeling’ part that blends in with the Tuscan melodies and local legend has it that this ingredient arrived in the 19^th century with Tyrolean foresters brought South by the Hapsburg Duke who owned most of the land around Monte Amiata. But when I heard the Albanian group, with their male falsetto ‘yodel’ part, I was so struck by the comparison that my talk with Charlotte resulted in our decision to bring these groups together and try to find out if this wonderful sound comes from across the Adriatic, or north of the mountains… or both!