Did you ever get tired of the Cool Britannia hype and the Britpop poseurs? Oasis, Blur and Pulp to name a few. Then I strongly recommend The Auteurs. Great songwriting with intelligent and witty lyrics. Not to mention: a cerebral cortex sticking beat. A close friend introduced me to them in 2012. I liked them instantly and still listens to them. The Auteurs is a band, but in practice the band is synonymous with songwriter Luke Haines (guitar, piano and vocals). The band name is very fitting. An auteur is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, thus manifesting the director's unique style or thematic focus. Making it your own, so to speak. However, Luke Haines never liked the Britpop label. On the contrary, he frequently made derogatory remarks about his peers. In 2009 Haines released a book "Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall". I haven't read the book, but it's reviewed as funny, honest and ridiculously entertaining. The Auteurs made four albums: "New Wave" (1993), "Now I'm a Cowboy" (1994), "After Murder Park" (1996) and "How I Learned to Love the Bootboys" (1999). No nonsense. No posing. Just brilliant.  
 

Below is a suggestion for a CD compilation (processed and ready-made).  

I'm not a psychic, but I do have some predictions for the upcoming year. A disclaimer statement is in order. The predictions are limited to the data and knowledge available to me, and may not be entirely accurate or comprehensive. Sibyls also made predictions. The word sibyl comes from the Greek term sibylla, meaning prophetess. The sibyls were oracles in Ancient Greece. At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century before Christ there appear to have been at least three more. By the first century before Christ, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. While the sibyls have increased in numbers the gothic country genre is going in the opposite direction. Fewer and fewer acts remain for every year. The best days in the genre have come and gone. It's obvious. Some people doesn't agree and claim that there are numerous acts out there. Yes, the copiers, fakers, imitators, impersonaters and imposters are numerous and out there. There isn't much I can do, except to show my disinterest, contempt and disgust (in that order). I will not be swayed.    

This year turned out to be a modest year when it comes to number of releases. I count to seven releases: Murder by Death (Egg & Dart), Woodbox Gang (Brown Cane Toad), Salter Cane (Deep Black Water), Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks (Sad Witch Cult), Sons of Perdition (Ars Moriendi), Slackeye Slim (Perpetual Tunes) and Uncle Sinner (Everybody Wants to Know How I Die). In terms of quality, 2025 was a good year. 

What about next year? I have three wishes for 2026. The first wish: a new gothic country album by Christian Williams. The second wish: to acquire one of the remaining three of the hard-to-find four missing albums, read more here (opens in a new window). The third wish: to get my Devil's Ruin Records collection complete. At the moment, I got 36 out of 40 registered albums on Discogs. The remaining four albums were probably never manufactured and distributed, read more here (opens in a new window). Well, then my third wish is a complete collection of Foddershock albums (this dream seems very far away).

What about new album releases in 2026? This is what I know: The Builders and the Butchers (No Tomorrow), Swarme of Beese (Orchards of Dreams), Mr Plow (untitled) and David Eugene Edwards (untitled). That's all. It looks like it's going to be a meager year, but you never know. Sons of Perdition will maybe or maybe not release their new album (Caul-Birth King and Other Abruptions). Those Poor Bastards release a new album now and then. So maybe it's time again. Antic Clay (Broom of Fire) has been scheduled for eight years in a row. Maybe the upcoming year is the year when it will finally happen? We will see what the future brings. 

Twenty years ago my wife persuaded me to go on a family holiday to Morocco, namely Essaouira on the Antlantic Coast. This was a great achievement, nicely planned and perfectly excuted since I don't like to leave my comfort zone (at home). Anyway, she knew which button to push. "What would you say if you could stay at the same hotel as Jimi Hendrix did", she said. This master stroke settled the matter. The flight from Stockholm (ARN) to Agadir (AGA) was very long, over 5 hours. The kids were patient and expectant. Almost all passengers went to the nearby hotels. There was supposed to be a transfer waiting for us on the airport to take us to Essaouira (distance 176 km or 110 miles). But, no transfer came. My wife called the travel agency in Sweden. "Sorry about that, take a taxi", they said. We got a taxi, driven by an elderly man in his worn-out Mercedes. The taxi ride went northwards along the Atlantic Coast. After an hour or so the scenery changed. We drove on serpentine roads along mountains, ravines and valleys. The taxi driver seemed very tired and squinted with his eyes. We thought that he would fall asleep any second. About four hours later we arrived at the one of the city gates of Essaouira (no car traffic was allowed in the inner city). A transport trolley took our luggage and we arrived five minutes later at the hotel, Riad Al Madina. We were dead beat, checked in and went directly to bed. In the very same hotel as Jimi Hendrix stayed in.

In the morning we ate breakfast in the hotel yard. It was December and the mornings were cold and crisp. Then the temperature rose and it got warm like a normal Swedish summer day. The hotel was very nice and friendly. To emphasize Hendrix stay at the hotel, a large portrait of him hang on one of the hotel walls (see image). Essaouira is a fortified town with walls and towers. It got its modern design in 1760 adapted to the needs of foreign merchants. Once built, it continued to grow and experienced a golden age and exceptional development, becoming the country's most important commercial port but also its diplomatic capital between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The Medina of Essaouira was designated by the UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 2001. It was off-season and there were plenty of things to see: blue and white medina, the Souks, the 18th-century ramparts, the port and, last but not least, the beach. We got used to the minaret prayer call, adjusted to new flavours and explored the wind-battered town. I understood why my wife had chosen this destination for family vacation. Essaouira is a quiet little town. 
 

We had planned to make a day trip to Marrakech. I knew beforehand that Marrakech was crowded and intense. We started early. The bus ride was comfortable and took 3 hours, and included a tea break. We arrived and went to legendary Jemaa el-Fnaa, a square and market place in the medina quarter. The commerce hadn't started yet. It was about to change. We went further into the Souks. The tempo ratched up. It soon became crowded. People were selling rugs, pots and pans and souvenirs, offering tea and guiding or just begging. There was a cultural clash. In Sweden, no thank you means no thank you. In Morrocco, a no thank you is the beginning of a yes, thank you. The best advice is to keep on walking. Which we did until we got lost in the maze-like narrow streets. We thought that we could manage on our own with a map. It was a mistake. After no end of bother, we managed to find our way to Madrasa Ben Youssef and Almoravid Qubba. At this point the whole family were totally stressed out. We found refuge in the Majorelle Garden, one-hectare (two-acre) botanical garden and landscape garden. The garden was created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years, starting in 1923. We stayed there for a while to regain our strength and energy. Marrakech is a very beautiful place, but too crowded and intense. Then we went to the bus station to go back to Essaouira.  


On more than one occasion we were approached by "guides" who asked: "Do you want to go to Castles Made of Sand". What they meant was an old watchtower (known as the Borj Al Baroud), half buried in the sand and part submerged at high tide, near the village Diabat. You can walk there from the beach in Essaouira. My wife and kids tried a camel ride on the last stretch. It resulted in rash. You might think, from all the fuzz, that Jimi Hendrix was a frequent guest in Morocco. In fact, Jimi Hendrix visited Morocco just once. The trip, which also included time in Casablanca and Marrakech lasted about 11 days. The visit in Essaouira is surrounded by erroneous information and fictitious stories. Repeating something enough doesn't make it factually true, but it does create the illusory truth effect. What do we actually know for a fact? In July 1969, Hendrix flew to Casablanca from Paris. He hired a limousine and asked the driver to take him to Essaouira, where he stayed in Hotel des Iles (and not in my hotel known as "Hotel du Pacha" in 1969). This false claim has been made several times by the management of the hotel, also in numerous travel programs produced for TV over the years. Seems easy to falsify, but hard to kill. Jimi Hendrix dined in "Restaurant du Port/Chez Sam" while in Essaouira. In fact, the restaurant did not exist back in 1969. Allegedly, Jimi Hendrix jammed with many local musicians while in Morocco. In fact, he didn't even bring a guitar with him. Despite this, he was often seen with a guitar placed on his back. And it goes on and on. Allegedly, Hendrix wanted to buy the village of Diabat. In fact, he never even visited Diabat. While local people claim that "Borj Al Baroud" inspired him to write "Castles Made of Sand", the track was released on "Axis: Bold As Love" in 1967, two years before he visited Morrocco. When you scratch the surface the stories and tales fall apart. "Castles made of sand are not made to last" is a telling line from the song.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post called "Reunion is rare". It contained the, to say the least, sensational news that 16 Horsepower was going to reunite (one time only at a festival in Montana, US). I would follow the event from a distance. However, frontfigure David Eugene Edwards declared in a newsletter on December 10: "16 Horsepower have reunited for a 2026 European tour and US festival. For the first time in over 20 years, the original 3 members David Eugene Edwards, Jean-Yves Tola, and Pascal Humbert will be playing together. Rounding out the lineup will be Chuck French, the guitarist from Wovenhand." The tour schedule is crammed. They will tour in France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and Switzerland from May 14 to June 7. My first and fatal encounter with 16 Horsepower came when I bought a compilation album (Woodyfaction Guaranteed vol.1). The opening song was "Wayfarin’ Stranger". The rest is history. Unfortunately, 16 Horsepower had already disbanded when I discovered the gothic country genre. I have seen Wovenhand once in 2014, when they were promoting their new album "Refractory Obdurate". 16 Horsepower will play in Stockholm on May 20 in a hipster-controlled area. I think the tickets will be sold out (the venue accommodates 2 000 guests). I'm not an avid concert goer anymore, but I will not miss this for the world. Tickets are purchased and secured. All I have to do is to wait. I can do that.

 

T.K. Bollinger has resurrected. Five years ago he commited himself to release an EP with four songs every month during a whole year, in total 48 songs, a.k.a. the "Ordinary" project. Said and done. He pulled this project through. Some songs were great. Other songs were good, while some songs were not so good. In summary, a typical Bollinger normal distribution when it comes to releasing music. After this monumental project, it's been quiet. Maybe he exhausted himself in the process. But much to my surprise, I received a Bandcamp notification of a new song called "Beyond Bomb". No doom and gloom this time. According the consumer guidance on Bandcamp "it plays on my love of the piano led rock of the 70's and beyond". By the Bollinger yardstick it's life-affirming and uplifting. I sent him an email asking if this was part of something bigger. He replied: "Currently it is a one off for t.k bollinger. I have a huge backlog of songs but more time constraints these days. I have a great bunch of musos I’m jamming with called the Cold Hard Ground. We are releasing 3 singles in the new year. I think you might like it. There are dark country overtones in the mix as we started by playing my old songs. Things are a little more complex in the music now as there are 3 songwriters." I had the opportunity to listen to the masters (not final versions). In my opinion, good songwriting and nice arrangements but only one of the three songs can be characterized as leaning towards dark country. However, we will see what the future brings.