In our ‘Off the Shelf’ series, artists photograph and present objects from around their home and talk about them.
Off the Shelf
Carson McHone is our latest “Off the Shelf” guest, picking ten objects from home ahead of her UK and European tour. From a Langston Hughes poetry book held together by duct tape to a Robin Williamson painting and a Swedish flea-market tambourine that sounds terrible — stories of travel, family and creative life.
Rowena Wise picks ten objects from her home ahead of her second album, “Bad Things Feel Good*”. A monocular she whips out like a cowboy to watch birds. A wizard lamp that glows red while she records. Stones from a Portuguese beach. Her first guitar, nylon-strung, made by her father. Revealing and surprising from the start.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Clàrsach player Anna McLuckie, whose latest release, “The Little Winters”, was one of our recent Featured Albums of the Month. She introduces us to the book she was named after, a pair of aggressively Scottish stools from her Grandad, a map lamp cut from an old Glasgow street map, invaluable notebooks (for the boring and emotional, for songs, poems, and dreams), and more.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Johnny Bell, whose album “Mountain States” expands mountain music beyond Appalachia to the Rocky Mountains of the American West. From a vintage western revolver lamp to a family heirloom lap steel and banjo finger picks, his ten objects sit close to the music — and the high desert home — that shaped them.
The Hanging Stars frontman Richard Olson pulls out all the stops for his Off the Shelf, gathering ten cherished objects — a Swedish utopian poster, his father’s signed Alan Lomax book, a Toronto-bought Martin 12-string, The Byrds on 7″. Revealing, moving and humorous, it ranks among the series’ very best, laying bare an intense passion for music.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is MorganEve Swain of The Huntress and Holder of Hands. Ahead of “Babylon,” out June 5th, she talks us through ten objects from LadyBird Cottage: a growing collection of hands, a javelina skull, moon phase prints, anvil rings, and a recording box, each carrying a story, and often touching on love and loss.
Abigail Lapell, whose new album “Shadow Child” is out now, selects ten meaningful objects from her home for KLOF’s Off the Shelf series. Her picks span a wooden dala horse picked up in Stockholm while touring with baby Charlie, sand timers that help with focus, marionettes from a favourite music video, and the hood ornament of a beloved camper van.
The Dublin-based duo Lemoncello, Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella, open up their homes and pick ten objects — a borrowed fiddle, a hand-painted notebook from Mexico, a wood-carved swan, a Simpsons fridge sticker — that tell small stories of places returned to, gifts received, and the things that sustain a creative life between records.
Natalie Wildgoose is our latest Off the Shelf guest, selecting ten objects from the two homes she splits her life between — London and North Yorkshire. From a childhood pillow to her grandad’s reel-to-reel tape machine, each item opens a window into the world behind her forthcoming EP Rural Hours, due April 15th via state51.
Spencer Cullum opens the door to his Nashville garden shed for the latest Off the Shelf — the makeshift studio where Coin Collection 3 came to life. The final chapter of his trilogy finds the British pedal steel player turning to English folklore for solace amid the noise of the modern world. His ten objects tell the story.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Sam Amidon. In this series, we ask an artist to select ten items from their home, photograph and talk about them; a form of storytelling through objects. Sam, along with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, will launch their new album Willows at Kings Place on 24th February–an 80-minute concert of remembrance and renewal.