THE NEW BILLY BRAGG ALBUM SHINE A LIGHT IS A COLLECTION OF RAILROAD SONGS WITH A DIFFERENCE. IT WAS MADE IN DUET WITH JOE HENRY AND RECORDED ON PLATFORMS, IN WAITING ROOMS AND IN THE CARRIAGES OF THE GREAT AMERICAN RAILROAD.
It’s an immersive experience, Bragg and Henry (also a producer of great note) taking the listener deep into the environment and creating a poignant tribute to what has been an important element of the development of the USA yet seems to be a declining mode of passenger transport. Sociological documentary SHINE A LIGHT may be but it is also, of course, a political statement. With songs about ‘moving on’ and ‘hobo life’, it seems to discuss the recent economic migrancy which has interrupted the notion that capitalism works for all in the 21st-century. In this new edition of The Mouthcast Bragg discusses the album which, as you have every cause to expect from one of the leading political-pop figures of the last thirty years, leads onto a wider discussion about the current political and social climate. Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn, cynicism and socialism all come up in conversation. Riveting stuff…

Buy SHINE A LIGHT here
Billy and Joe play LINCOLN Engine Shed on Saturday 19th November. Tickets here
and YORK Grand Opera House on Tuesday 24th January. Tickets here