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Baker's Dozen

Happy Songs? Stuart Braithwaite Of Mogwai's Favourite Albums
Luke Turner , August 28th, 2012 04:28

Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite takes us through his favourite albums, and explains why it's Margaret Thatcher's fault that everyone in Scotland is a goth and how John Peel funded the Scottish music scene

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Washington Phillips - Key To The Kingdom
All of his albums are just collections of songs because this was in the pre-album era, but I guess there was one in Mississippi called Key To The Kingdom. He was a spiritual blues singer who played an instrument, a fretless zither. Even though it's the blues era, he can't bend the notes like a guitar player would. He's sometimes known as George Washington Phillips. His music is really serene and otherworldly and pure. It's all very religious but it has its own atmosphere that I've not really heard anywhere else. I think when I really got into Washington Philips was when Sonic Boom put a song of his onto a compilation album called Space Lines. My sister painted a picture of him for Christmas. My sister the painting goth.