The french have somehow always managed to produce some of the most enduring and original pop albums that I can remember. I don't know how they do it. Guess they have it in their blood. And when on top of this, they channel their longstanding love of all things Americana, we have something like the album I have here for you today: Emily Loizeau's Pays Sauvage.

Sung both in french and in english, it's almost like hearing the songs a young french female pioneer composed when she first entered american shores and got in touch with "God's Country" very own soul and musical wavelengths. The feeling of the whole album is therefore very "live" and it sometimes feel like you've crashed a barn party and somehow instantly fell in love with it. The songs have a rhythm and a groove that completely permeates any room or space that you listen to. Yes, it's a winner on all fronts and I'm hooked.

Here's one of its more mellow moments: Songes [Dreams]. Take care.

Today, as I was rewatching for the umpteenth time the wonderful animated movie by Nina Paley, I knew I had to write something about one of its main characters - Annette Hanshaw.

Hanshaw was one of the most famous singers of the 1920's and 30's in America and practically idolized by all the flappers of the time. She had a distinctive voice register that managed to both convey sensual laziness and naughty demeanour. She made quite a name for her but is now largely forgotten. Special thanks then to Ms. Paley for using her lovely songs as a musical counterpart to the break-up story she tells in SITA SINGS THE BLUES, an animated movie written, produced, edited, animated and directed by Paley using only the Flash tool. A remarkable achievement from any which angle you see it. And that's how I came to know Annette's Hanshaw music.

I leave you then with Wouldn't You Like To Take a Walk. Enjoy and I see you soon.

This small incursion that I'm making into some seriously vintage music would not be complete without a mention to perhaps the maddest, quirkiest, most whimsical british band of all time: the Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band, a.k.a. the Bonzo Dog Band.

Led by eccentric extraordinaire Vivian Stanshall, a major force in the post-modern whimsical world (if such thing even exists), they are to the music world what the Monty Python are to the movie world. This obviously means that they possess that rare gift of making people laugh whilst creating great art at the same time. This compilation is essential to understanding and comprehending just what made them tick and exactly why they are revered in Britain as belonging to a sort of music nobility, such was their legacy.

Part of their charm are the reinventions they made around old vintage classics of the popular sort and how they somehow successfully achieved grand notoriety with such material in a time when everyone was looking into the future for inspiration. Perhaps anachronism was the key, after all. If you've never heard them before and are curious to know how they sounded like, here's your chance now. I leave you with one of their all time classics: Hunting Tigers Out In India. Toodle-oo.

If you lived in the 20's, this is the kind of music you'd be dancing: the Charleston. All flappers and It girls danced their little feet away to the infectious rhythm of these lively numbers. To be honest, they still possess a kind of timeless charm to them and that's one of the main reasons why I'm recommending this compilation.

As I said before, compilations are mostly hit and miss affairs and this one in particular is not the exception but when it hits the mark, it's a bull's eye. Besides, there's always one or two songs by an artist you've never heard of or paid any attention to that stands out from the rest like a sore thumb and makes you want to know more from those particular artists. And that's always a good thing in my book.

In this one, you get Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Sophie Tucker and Al Jolson, as well as some entirely lovable instrumentals courtesy of the more high-profile big bands of the time, so it's all good as you can see. And it also serves as a kind of testimony of the high-speed times they were living in, with new dance crazes and new stars popping up almost every week. It's no wonder this decade was named The Roaring Twenties! Take a listen to Al Jolson belting out Swanee.

Make way for the brightest star of them all, Mr. Noel Coward. I like to view him as a sort of Oscar Wilde of the music world, going about his way regardless of everyone and marking his passage with sometimes hilariously ingenious sayings, sometimes scathingly ironic words but always with a panaché that only the best english breed possess.

Mixing vaudeville with british whimsy at its best, his knack for a catchy melody is always on display on every song he composed. But songs were not the only thing he did. Add to his CV the jobs of playwright, director, actor and singer and you have before you a sort of Renaissance Man of sorts for the 20th Century. His influence is still far reaching and numerous compilations and tribute albums have been produced so this one I'm recommending is just one of many, so just take a pick.

I leave you with his most iconic song ever - Mad Dogs and Englishmen - an hilarious and extremely assertive song about what it means to be british among other things. Praise be due to the original master of the ironic song.

Of course, a crash course on american popular music from the 30's would not be complete without a mention to the girl that still steals all our hearts when she goes 'Boop-Boop-A-Doop'. I speak of the gal that inspired the most famous Fleischer creation of all time, Betty Boop: Miss Helen Kane.

Her quirky voice and child-like pitch are still able to hold us into a sort of trance, as if caught unaware by something otherworldly or at least, very far away from the sounds of everyday life. As I write this, I hear myself asking: "aren't you going a little too far?", but the answer in my heart and mind is a firm "no", because if you play the track below (her classic I Wanna Be Loved By You), you might find yourself slipping away to a faraway world of your own private imagination in a matter of seconds. And there aren't a lot of voices, let alone things, that can do that nowadays, are there?

Compilations like these are rare to find. The end results are so precious and eye-opening that they might even change your whole view of how music can and should be made. This one comes highly recommended and it's a treat from beginning to end. But first things first.

If Monty Python ever were a music group perhaps they'd be something like The Bonzo Dog Band, a sort of avant-garde musical combo that made quite the furore back in the late 60's and early 70's by presenting themselves as a merry bunch of retro hipsters with more than a little dose of british whimsy as their main ingredient but always in keeping with a highly sophisticated approach to their music. They borrowed a lot of influences, mainly from music from the first decades of the 20th century and they wore them proudly on their sleeves. This is why this compilation is called Songs The Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us, as it is primarily aimed to the Bonzo fans who'll treasure this album as mannah from heaven. The best thing about it is that everyone with a discerning taste in music will also find plenty to enjoy in it too.

So here they are, the original songs that would later be part of some of the Bonzo records and add to their particular mystique. Charming, enchanting and enduring, they still prove their worth notwithstanding their almost centenary status. I leave you with By A Waterfall, a song you can also find on the Lullaby of Broadway compilation I wrote in the below post, curiously enough. Enjoy.

My love for american music from the 1920's and 30's was further cultivated when I started to watch movie musicals from those particular eras. Specifically those by or with contribution from the master of the kaleidoscopic song and dance routine, Mr. Busby Berkeley, choreographer and filmmaker extraordinaire.

This compilation I'm heartily recommending in today's post was compiled from the amazing run of hits he managed to succeed when he entered Warner Bros. as a dance choreographer. The thing is, he not only choreographed the whole thing, he also directed the whole shebang, giving specific details to his cameramen to where the camera should be placed and how dancers should move, look and even smile. The results are astonishing to watch even to today's eyes. If you think you've seen everything, think again. Add to this a truly fantastic array of songs, further embelished by divine orchestrations and frequent heavenly choruses and you got in your hands some real pieces of gold. They don't make them like these anymore, that's for sure!

I leave you with Shadow Waltz, a wonderful number sung by the suave Dick Powell and the cute Ruby Keeler, at that time also known as Mrs. Al Jolson. It's one of those things I never get tired of listening to.

The great thing about having an open mind in what music is concerned is that you never know what's coming round the corner. My particular encounter with the voice and many talents of Josephine Baker happened many years ago in a shop when I decided it would be fun to get a CD of hers just to see how she sounded like (I already knew what she looked like!). As it happened, it was a real bargain (2CD compilation for just 2.50€!) and when I got home, I just couldn't believe my ears: how come music this fresh and melodic was being relegated to the bargain bin was anyone's guess but mine.

This fantastic discovery set me on quite a journey and today I consider myself an aficionado of everything 1920's and 30's Americana related. They were quite the busy times, with a lot of things going on at the same time: Economic Depression, great advances in filmmaking, industrial revolutions happening everywhere, cultural taboos and social mores being broken, you name it. Forget the 60's: these two decades were where it was at!

This particular CD (or any other Baker compilation, for that matter) is a great way of getting to know her music, as it features both her songs sung in french and in english (she was born american but made her name in France). The song you can listen to below is called De Temps En Temps and is a sweet little number, sung in her trademark mock-french accent. I dare you not to fall in love instantly with her.