#nick garrie

2/4/25.

I don't pretend to be a Vashti Bunyan fan from years past. I came to her music through a television show, Patriot. The opening credits use the "Train Song". Hooked, I needed more and bought "Just Another Diamond Day" and “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind”. I also made a post using "Fragments du Monde Flottant", a compilation curated by Devandra Banhart. I knew about "Lookaftering" at the time, but didn't buy it.

Now, Pias Recordings has reissued the album on 2 LP vinyl (along with demos) and Monorail has a few signed copies (Bunyan lives in Edinburgh).

1. “Don’t wanna let the dark night cover my soul.” - The War on Drugs, “Red Eyes”

2. “Can’t have the cream when the crop and the cream are the same.” -Andrew Bird, “Measuring Cups”

3. “Idle kids with idle hearts; some of them went too far and some are still waiting there.” -Secret Machines, “Alone, Jealous & Stoned”

4. “And I’ll stop writing songs, stop scratching out lines. I won’t have to think and it won’t have to rhyme.” -Low, “When I Go Deaf”

5. “Although she may be cute, she’s just a substitute, cos you’re the permanent one.” -Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “The Tracks of My Tears”

6. “Monuments put from pen to paper turns me into a gutless wonder.” -Manic Street Preachers, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”

7. “I used to act like I was in a movie: so mysterious and misunderstood.” -Dr Dog, “Shame, Shame”

8. “So we carry every sadness with us, every hour our hearts were broken, every night the fear and darkness lay down with us.” -Hem, “Half Acre”

9. “We were winding up the road to the site with the windows down and the cigarettes alight, singing some rubbish about ‘my soul’s alright.’ I didn’t know what I could do.” -Augie March, “Just Passing Through”

10. “Where were you when I was in so much trouble with myself? And do you still believe in me like I believe?” -Descendents, “Good Good Things”

11. “Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots.” -The Byrds, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”

12. “I was lying in a burned out basement with the full moon in my eyes.” -Neil Young, “After the Gold Rush”

13. “I keep the hurt I’d rather feel and watch the shadow from my knees.” -DYAN, “Absence”

14. “Soft as a pillow, touch her there where she won’t dare. Somewhere.” -My Bloody Valentine, “Only Shallow”

15. “Just hold my hand while I come to a decision on it.” -The English Beat, “Save It for Later”

16. “She says ‘America’s a spoiled child that’s ignorant of grief,’ but then she gives out full size candy bars on Halloween.” -Wednesday, “Quarry”

17. “She holds the hand that holds her down. She will rise above.” -Pearl Jam, “Daughter”

18. “Loving you is easy, watching you is nice, but everything I seem to do is wrong.” -Nick Garrie, “Can I Stay With You”

19. “I don’t know what it is that makes me run, that makes me want to shatter everything I’ve done.” -First Aid Kit, “Rebel Heart”

and...

Nick Garrie - Can I Stay With You

3/9/19.

If you want your music to look like Bill Clinton and sound like Bob Dylan, then thankfully Nick Garrie (UK) is here.  I’d heard of him and listened to him, but came back to his music today and was just floored.

Combine the aforementioned Dylan with Townes Van Zandt, Vashti Bunyan, and an acoustic version of The Monkees and you’ll have a good idea of the sound of Nick Garrie.

His 1969 album “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” is his best known work. Reviews compare this record to Billy Nichols (one of Micah’s favorities) and early Badfinger.