A mini roundup of happy distractions from CBTR HQ

Coming Home: Earthlines founders Sharon Blackie & David Knowles return to Connemara. ‘And so here I am, back in Connemara. Back home — there’s no doubt in my mind about that. And this beautiful, tranquil little lochside village nestled into the stone-clad hills does indeed feel like heaven on earth. Look: let me share with you our new morning walk…’ (continued on The Art of Enchantment)

Listen…it’s the sound of hippos laughing: One of Chris Watson‘s greatest hits features in this fantastic feelgood Radio 4 programme The River Crossing.

Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) talks lyrics, poets, Brautigan and Berman in the LARB.

On the Rough Trade Radio podcast, Alynda Segarra — AKA Hurray for the Riff Raff — plays some of her favourite tracks, and talks punk, politics, and her new album The Navigator.

Learn a River’s Name Before It’s Gone. Whoa! That’s a pretty depressing title for what is actually a thoughtful and enjoyable essay by Akiko Busch, in a recent edition of the New York Times — brought to our attention by @RobGMacfarlane on Twitter. ‘Once, on a road trip with friends from New York to California, I kept a list of every river and stream we crossed, starting with the Hudson…Though I probably dozed off and missed a few, and many remained unidentified by signs, by the end of the trip there were 113 on my list. If we couldn’t hear the sound of the water itself, the syllables of the names became a new way for me to chart this country…’ (continued here)

The Global Jukebox. Pretty amazing.

David Holmes presents God’s Waiting Room (11 April). An inspired two hours of great music.

Zaffar Kunial shares new poems and family history with Paul Farley on BBC Radio 4’s The Echo Chamber. Catch him on our Port Eliot and Good Life Experience stages this summer.