We have been spending a lot of time in the car lately, which is always good for two things- conversation, and listening to lots of music.

Michaela has this thing with music- it takes her about two three years to find her way into something new, and then something will grab her and she will play it over and over. It says something about our disparate personalities that I like something on the first time of listening, or probably will never like it at all (with a few notable exceptions, revisited as musical taste evolves.)

The soundtrack to our recent journeys has often been a band called Phantom Limb. Will and I discovered them a few years ago at Greenbelt Festival- we stood in a more or less empty field during the mid afternoon graveyard slot and were stunned by the sounds hitting us from the stage. Waves of complex harmonies, and a fusion of country, gospel and soul that did something to my innards.

Phantom limb are (or where- I think they are sadly no more?) made up of session musicians who escaped the slavery of playing ‘down’ to other peoples requirements into the freedom of playing what they wanted to play.

The lead singer in particular has a voice that comes along once in a blue moon. She sounds like an overdriven guitar solo at times.

Here are some acoustic versions of some of their songs;