No 6

2016 release, the sixth and best album from The Coal Porters, the acoustic band formed by ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin some ten years ago. Featuring nine originals and a cover of the Only Ones' punk era classic, 'Another Girl Another Planet', this is the high-water mark of The Coal Porters' career. Recorded in Shoreditch, London, the Ground Zero of today's hipster scene, No. 6 was produced by British folk-rock legend John Wood (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Beth Orton, Squeeze) and is the second album he's done for Sid Griffin's merry musicians. Several of the songs, such as 'Salad Days' and 'Chopping The Garlic', are shorter musical fare which showoff The Coal Porters chops (their fiddler, Kerenza Peacock, is currently out on tour in Adele's band) but two of Sid's compositions are longer, cinematic, almost epic. They are 'The Blind Bartender' and 'Train No. 10-0-5', and they will be talked about when the Album Of The Year awards are handed out.