Joanne Hogg rarities

Just wanted to state my appreciation for Joanne Hogg, the singer and keyboardist with Iona. In the winmx days I found 3 or 4 quite obscure songs with her taking the vocals (in my defence in this instance anyway I don't think they are generally available in this country). Yasunori Mitsuda is a composer who uses various influences including Celtic. He does lots of things including video game music. I doubt there are many Iona fans who have been tipped off to the songs he had Joanne on vocals in the songs Pain, Kokora and Small Two of Pieces that were connected to Xenosaga project, a video game that became a tv series.
As a general question, I wonder how much of a song is the singer and how much the basic writing material? These songs show that Joanne Hogg is a lot more than Iona. I'd love to see her do a solo album of her own original compositions away from the confines of a theme or the Iona sound.
She also does a fantastic version of The Lord Is My Shepherd with Charlie Hall. She just shines with whatever she does. She has a calmness and quality to her voice and a presence that is as second to none. All your Cara Dillons and Suzanne Vegas are fantastic but I hear something more with Joanne. As I say mostly this is through Iona but to hear her singing outwith this brings home her genuine independent quality.

The straits

Dire Straits, not the coolest band ever. I remember taping Brothers in Arms off the radio from a special show to introduce it. I was never all that impressed with it but I never got round to buying a proper copy of it, even to this day I don't think I have sat and listened to it in full. However their albums up to that point had on the whole been pretty good, though the tribute to gay German scene was a bit of a cul de sac from the rest of Makin' Movies. The remasters sound tremendous on my Naim. There is something down to earth about the lyrics, they are from the sights and sounds of Mark Knoflers life in London, strangely gritty and polished at the same time.
The Matrix soundstrack sounded great this am, and in FOPP today they were selling one of the other ones for a quid - worth a go. First track sounds exactly like you'd expect a Matrix soundtrack to sound, or a sound effects one anyway.
Also got Deep Purple Live in 93 from Birmingham for £3 - 2 sided - more for curiosity than anything - not the fullest sound, I think its Gillan on vocals but not 100% sure just yet. Again just played the first track.
So watch this space for more on what is getting me excited music wise.