Review Corner

Tag: Beans On Toast

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    Beans On Toast: Knee Deep In Nostalgia / The Unforeseeable Future

    Beans (aka Jay McAllister) normally drops one album a year but clearly lockdown has left him with little else on his plate and we get two. They’re both self-explanatory in their titles. Knee Deep In Nostalgia sees man-of-the-people poet and guitarist Beans looking back fondly at his past and his likes, from memories of favourite…

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    Beans On Toast: A Bird In The Hand

    Beans On Toast (aka Jay McAllister) sings the same song over and over; the words might change but his musical accompaniment has a small range, and exists to make words melodic. He’s a mate of, and like, Frank Turner, just less grand. Early on, he explains his modus operandi to listeners, saying he’s “at it…

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    Beans on Toast: A Spanner in the Works

    Beans On Toast is the stage name of folk singer Jay McAllister from Essex. He’s a mate of Frank Turner, and thus gets to play Wembley supporting Frank and then considerably smaller venues on his own account. (He just played Manchester Gorilla). A Spanner in the Works opens with an angry rant about 2016. If…

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    Beans On Toast: Running Up The Hill

    Last week we reviewed EJ Moeran’s Folksong Arrangements (Naxos 8571359), a collection of old songs collected by Ernie Moeran. We made the point that they were songs from an age before mass entertainment, when farmers or sailors would gather and be entertained by songs that told stories to which they could relate. The words were…