At the age of 57 one is not supposed to develop sudden passions for pop singers but I have to confess to having become obsessed over the last few months with a French singer called Sanseverino.
For the last twenty odd years I have remained fairly aloof from modern trends and movements in music, preferring to leave these to my three daughters while I revisited the favourites of my teens and twenties.
Occasionally I succumbed to an artist because I had fond memories of their Father/Mother, as in Tim Buckley’s son Jeff, Joao Gilberto’s daughter Bebel and in the case of the Wainwright/Mc Garrigle alliance, both children, Rufus and Martha.

Last Christmas, at a third world sale I bought an album which I intended to give to one of my daughters in a stocking, this was called French Café Music, and was a compilation of some modern and some not so modern examples of this genre.
As a last minute thought, that it might help my French language skills, I copied the album before putting it in the stocking.
The inevitable happened and I found myself playing it obsessively.
It is full of little gems, some admittedly have only curiosity value.
There is a recording of Brigitte Bardot singing “C’est an jour comme un autre” which amply explains why she never became a star of musical comedies, a similar effort by Jane (Je t’aime) Birkin, but also a song from that lady’s erstwhile lover, Serge Gainsbourg, which displays a great musical talent. This track has the unpresupposing title of “Marielou Sous la Neige” (this was the moment when I realised that my excuse of using the album to improve my French was wearing a little thin, I mean how many times was the sentence “ Mary Lou is resting under the snow” going to come in useful?)
Also on the good side were a few tracks by the Paris Combo, a superb George Brassens;”Je M’Suis Fait Tout Petit” but the song which really got to me was called “Mal o Mains” and sung by Sanseverino.
This is a brilliantly catchy, instantly likeable but still extremely clever song.
Sanseverino combines elements of gypsy music with some modern rap elements and lots of different modern jazz influences to come up with something all his own.
I immediately ordered the album from which the track came, from Amazon.
As it was an import, coming from that distant planet France, it took Amazon nearly six weeks to get it in.
It finally got to the Dwyer mansion last week.
I haven’t stopped playing it since.
Just to give you an idea the very first track was called Frida.
This was not just about any Frida but
“La fille du Nord des chansons Brel”
Anyone who has read any of my earlier blogs will know that I still carry a lighted candle for the songs of Jacques Brel.
This man Sanseverino was certainly singing my song!

My major problem at the moment is deciding which song is my favourite.
The “Frida” is terrific but then so is “Les Films de Guere” (C’est ce que je prefere).
The final track “La Mer” is laden with references to my favourite Brel poem; Le Plat Pays but then I also find myself singing along endlessly to the chorus of the polyglot “Swing du Nul” with its mindless chorus of ;
“Swing du Nul, Swing du Nul, Mellow, Mellow ,Mellow.”
This said I have finally managed to be able to sing along, in time to the syncopated rhythms of my first favourite “ Mal o Mains”
Best advice is to buy it for yourselves, the album is called:
Le Tango des Gens and is, eventually, available from Amazon here.