The Orange Spotlight

K.M Dersley & Adrian Manning Next Exit: Six (Kendra Steiner Editions #80)

"Walking through the mist/of centuries of curing,/it clings to the clothes/and invades the lungs/ coughing with the effort of it all" from Craster, Northumberland

If it weren't for Morrissey, Faulty Towers, and that English Lit class in college I would know nothing about England, and I still know nothing about England. Reading through Next Exit: Six, the pictures Dersley and Manning paint are so vivid, fulfilling the childhood whims and fantasy of what English life might be like. Images of herons, tea, century old churches, and harbours filled with fishermen. Images of Suffolk, Yorkshire, and Essex, there is no need to have a starting point, the details are supplied and the history implied. Overall this is a collection about change in a country that seemingly hasn't changed in centuries.

The beauty of the Next Exit series is that the poems stand alone without the ownership of the poet. Each poem speaks to its given town and not its creator. The point is not to decipher who wrote what, but to experience a small slice of where these two writers come from.

Next Exit: Six is the 80th release from Kendra Steiner Editions. It was printed in a run of 59 copies, and I am holding copy #20. There are a very limited number of copies remaining so contact Bill Shute today.

Cotton Jones Basket Ride The Archery EP (May 13th, 2008)

"This EP is basically an off-topic brainstorm, written/recorded during a needed break from recording the full length. Whitney and I recorded it in the home studio, using one microphone running into an old 8 track tape machine for each individual track pass." ~ Michael Nau on The Archery Ep

With summer approaching the kids begin to fantasize about pools, water balloons, and vacation, but the adults dream of something different. Summer nights just beyond dusk, the grill still smoldering, the beer still cold, the stars just beginning to appear, and streets reaching a calmness and quite. Sitting in lawn chairs on the patio and the speakers are blowing a hazy soundtrack through the chilled relief from the heat of the sun. The sounds that should be coming through your speakers in the upcoming summer nights are those of Cotton Jones Basket Ride.

The latest project for two members of the indie-folk band Page France, Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw, Cotton Jones is a plotting drift through vast pages of psychedelia. The dusty rhythms and contemplative lyrics bend and reach through nostalgia and into a whole new level of relaxed rock. Recalling The Doors, Dylan, and more, this is a culmination of influence and inspiration. The Archery Ep will be followed by a full-length release hopefully in fall called Paranoid Cocoon.

Chewing Gum/Silver Piano Man/Blues From a Nest/Lords of Columbia St./Midnight Monday and a telescope (mp3)/I Don't Suppose