Wild man of rock Jeb Loy Nichols puts out a new album May 14. Called Easy now (what a giveaway), Rykodisc promise more of "Nichols’ unique blend of blue-eyed soul, rootsy country, R&B, and a dash of Caribbean lilt". The last one, Just what time it is had 2 or 3 strong tracks - think Bill Withers in the hands of Sly & Robbie, maybe. His own site lists a couple of London dates, Borderline May 28+June 10...

Something a bit more chewy and flavoursome has just been served up (aptly enough on Lunch Records) by Mr Jedediah Parish. Too fresh for any reviews yet; the label distills it as "one part Hank Williams, one part Tom Waits and two parts Brian Wilson". His own straight-faced testimony concludes, "I am good at my job." On the available evidence, reallyrather is inclined to agree. The order's in...

Rooting around further at Lunch, the name Al Weatherhead rang vague bells. Sure enough, he's the guy who produced the Champale album of last year which continues to rack up the rotations chez reallyrather, and also the most recent from Clem Snide. He also recently toured Europe as guitarist in Sparklehorse. Now, in company with a few others, he's part of Maki whose debut Tears on the blastshield apparently "blends the sounds of Nick Drake and Wilco"...

Nick Hornby talks about his Top10 essential tracks over at Rocksbackpages. At 3 is my favourite track from the last Marah album, at 4 my least favourite track from the Fanclub's Northern songs...

Nudeasthenews chats to Caitlin Cary about:
--the new album ("Oh my God, the Whiskeytown fans are going to think I've sold out and become a shimmery pop girl")
--the most influential artist of our generation ("Prince")
--and His Ryanness ("I haven't seen him with the Gold band but I have a feeling I know what that sounds like - probably like what he often wanted to do with Whiskeytown, which was wank off in a heavy metal way.")