Billy Bragg

Unrepentant socialist, unabashed romantic, unflinching observer of the human condition, Billy Bragg is England's principled-busker made good. Part Woody Guthrie, part ordinary chap from Essex, he's tender-hearted . . . but never unwilling to put the boot in where it's needed. Begin your visit to Bragg-world with his classic song of ordinary love, "A New England" (featuring the memorable line "I put you on a pedestal/They put you on the pill"), before exploring some of the Guthrie lyrics he set to music in collaboration with Wilco, released as the two volumes of Mermaid Avenue (1998 & 2000): check out the pretty, world-weary fantasy, "California Stars." Discover more of William Bloke's lyrical hammer 'n' tickle, in Next Steps.

Bragg's political views have always loomed large within his output: here's an artist who backed the 1984 miner's strike in the U.K., and formed the left-wing activist group Red Wedge in collaboration with the Jam's Paul Weller and Communards lead singer Jimmy Somerville, but he has always fought the notion that he's a one trick pony and has expressed concern at being "dismissed" as a political songwriter. On "It Says Here" he confronts the press, which he asserts is telling only the story that the ruling class care to have told, and with "Upfield" he addresses "poverty and misery" and admits to having a "socialism of the heart." There's more from Mermaid Avenue, and a broadside is fired at consumerism, in Deep Cuts.

From the first syllable out of his mouth, you'll know: Billy Bragg ain't no posh boy. If Roger Daltrey could once sing that he was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth, Bragg could just as easily retort that he was born with a rusted fork stuck into his lower lip, and the collectivist side of Comrade Bragg comes through loud and clear on "North Sea Bubble," in which he launches a lyrical volley at consumerism. As we further explore the two volumes of Woody Guthrie material, Mermaid Avenue, recorded with Wilco, we discover "My Flying Saucer" (who knew Guthrie had riffed on UFOs?) and "Bird and Ships," featuring a guest appearance from Natalie Merchant.

"How can you lie there and think of England/When you don't even know who's in the team?" Billy Bragg has so many great lines, we'd be negligent not to include some of them. He has a keen sense for narrative: he doesn't merely describe love lost, he goes to that secret place where your heart's scar hasn't quite healed over and pries it open with a crowbar. His sense of moral outrage over politics-as-usual is never far from the surface, but it's tempered by a genuine fondness for genuine humans. It's hard to be as smart, funny, angry and insightful as Bragg has, for as long as he has. "Some sing about love, some sing about war, some sing about a better world to come — well, I sing about all three," he has said. Lend him your ears.