It was a nice surprise to hear Leonard Cohen mentioned at the end of this clip of
Advaita Vedanta/non-dual teacher Rupert Spira, talking here about love and the resolution of longing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAdaqLy ... e=youtu.be

.. Beannacht: A Blessing for the New Year , by John O'Donohue On the day when The weight deadens On your shoulders And you stumble, May the clay dance To balance you. And when your eyes Freeze behind The grey window And the ghost of loss Gets in to you, May a flock of colours, Indigo, red, green, A...

Jean, really nice to bump into you again. Lizzy, the coffee spoons thing was just a TS Eliot quote. Mat, happy travels... Diane...it sounds like a load of bull to me...:) That's pretty much what Ramesh Balsekar said to Leonard! And now I can't help wondering what nonsense I have wasted pixels on, fo...

Hi Lizzy! Long time no see, hope you are well. Merry Christmas to you x.

Regretfully, I finished this memoir by Eric Lerner today. The depth, honesty, caring and sheer pricelessness of the friendship between Eric and Leonard - until the very last minutes of Leonard's life - is so very beautifully revealed by Mr Lerner. I don't usually care for lots of biographical inform...

Tony, Bev, Karren, Kush and all other 'other music' visitors, thank you and Merry Christmas!

Another Tom Russell, a live clip of The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence (which narrowly defeats The Last Time I saw Hank as my most played from Folk Hotel):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tedh6QVinY

Any plans to take this performance beyond the shores of Ireland, Mr Poppy?

Thank you Jarkko and Eija. May you, and Everyone in Cohen land have a happy and peaceful holiday period X

strangely enough it is nearly Christmas again...time flies, as they say. Always nice to see you Mat. 'I have measured out my life with coffee spoons', and Christmases, and shall do I imagine, until the eternal Footman snickers. Yes, lovely female-singer versions! I think it was Laurie, who used to ...

Hello Mat - That's a very fine tribute to your friend and thanks for bringing his story here. Sorry to hear about the loss of him. Love may be like the smoke, but it has survived him in your remembrance. I tip my hat to the cowboy in you both. Yes, and the cowboy in Leonard, Travelin' Light. That li...

Joan Baez's beautiful cover of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjxNZH0qIe0

Thanks for sending me on a little youtube tour, Karren. Rosanne Cash does have a beautiful voice. I just heard her Pancho and Lefty (by TVZ)...and that led me to another live version of same by Willie Nelson, with Bob Dylan - nice to see him respecting the boot-prints on his coffee table: https://ww...

Bev, I always admire you for your impressive collection and dispersion of LC-related information. That GAI was touched deeply by LC's death and that he wrote several songs on the new album in response is fascinating to know. I am slow (it's not because I'm old ;-)), and even The Flame is smouldering...

Thank you, Bev, for the head's up on the new album! Also for the quotes you copied.

I like songs that take you someplace. Make you drunk for a second.

Checking for the original of a song covered by the Bollywood Brass Band with Rafaqat Ali Khan, I came across Chaiyya Chaiyya, a song/scene from the 1998 movie Dil Se. Written by Gulzar, sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi. Interestingly it is adapted from a Sufi poem. You've got to love the j...