When Bob Dylan dances onstage - and he does seem to dance, after a fashion - at 9.15, it is easier than usual to draw battlelines in the crowd. Mostly, they have been at this Feis festival in Finsbury Park (very much a pack-em-in and get-em-pissed throwback to the pre-boutique era) all day, have had a selection of rain, mud, corporate beverages and Cranberries thrown at them, and in some cases are probably expecting The Saw Doctors to headline the main stage.

Revisiting Farmer Neil’s hard-hollerin’ country collective, as the Archives rummage reaches that difficult decade, the 1980s...

Harsh words, softly spoken: the gospel according to Paul...

Country legend's 'Ghost On The Canvas' is released in August

Singer remembers former friend on 26th studio album

In 1995, Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson released a mostly-forgotten album together called "Orange Crate Art", and I found myself in LA interviewing the pair. It was a pretty unusual trip, ending in Wilson’s front room, where he claimed that his secret was “abstaining from orgasm”,performed “Satisfaction” and an updated version of “Surfer Girl” for me on his grand piano, then offered me $100 to get my ropey dictaphone recordings played on the radio.

Brilliant documentary of the life – and death – of the Formula One legend...

Kentuckians’ collective sense of identity reinvigorated on sixth LP...

Beth Orton, Phil Collins and The Cure’s Robert Smith also honour late folk artist

It occurred to me yesterday that I’m pretty bad at covering singles here, having neglected one of my favourite tracks of the year – Radiohead’s “Supercollider” – as a consequence, and also having passed over a bunch of rather good Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy one-offs (the latest in that sequence, “There Is No God”, arrived at the end of last week).