The Rockingbirds

Out of step with labelmates like Flowered Up and Manic Street Preachers, and indeed most of the then current UK music scene, The Rockingbirds instead mined a rich seam of country rock. Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, the band’s self-titled 1992 debut was a commercial flop at the time, but the intervening years have proved it to be something of a lost classic. All deft banjo-picking and weeping pedal steel, “Further Down The Line” is a masterful collision of bluegrass, 50s rock and roll and Nashville country worthy of The Flying Burrito Brothers, while second single “Jonathan Jonathan” was a pounding tribute to Velvet Underground-loving songwriter Jonathan Richman, proving their musical vista was wider than many initially thought.