May 2012 sees a @MOJOmagazine cover feature honoring the late Steve Marriott and his band the Small Faces. The group was active from '65 to '69 and famously morphed into the Rod Stewart-led Faces in 1970. The bands, though sharing three members, were quite different. I have never been much of a SMALL Faces fan; perhaps this is why the covermount of their influences and associations doesn't really resonate for me, despite my liking plenty of the artists and it including no duds. It ranges from psych-pop to country blues to the likes of Harry Belafonte; favorites of mine here include shaggy proto-punks the Nashville Teens doing "Widdicombe Fair" and Faces veteran, Small and not, Ian McLagan doing the aching ballad "Never Say Never" from 2008. The Teens number's a bit tough to handle, and the McLagan tune isn't available in satisfactory form; so, I'm going with king of skiffle Lonnie Donegan's most famous number, written by John Lomax in 1934 and first recorded by Donegan in 1954.

covermount 11 Jun 2015