Old Music. New Music. - Photos. Fires. Fables.

I know that, as Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo embark on their tour and it is likely to be the last for a little while as the various members pursue their many other projects, Photos. Fires. Fables (2005) is soon to be re-released on CD and this news will please many people. It is in no way a curiosity simply because it was her first release as a solo artist. It still stands as an incredible record.
I am one of the lucky ones: I snapped up the very last copy at the Rough Trade pop-up shop at End Of The Road Festival back in 2009 - and I knew absolutely nothing at all about the artist until this point - about ten minutes after I heard her play live. When music does that to me then it really matters; it is history in the making.

Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo headlined North Dorset Folk Festival in 2013.

New Music 2014 - Part 16 - Ethan Johns - The Reckoning

I first saw Ethan Johns live as a solo artist at End Of The Road Festival (EOTR) 2013, shortly after the release of his first solo album 'If Not Now Then When?' Here he is on the Saturday afternoon, playing the Garden Stage.

As I mentioned then I was already much acquainted with him as a producer of other people's music. I was amazed that he had found much time for his own work, good though it indubitably is.
It would seem that he has made time for more, and in a time scale that is astonishing.

It is released, on vinyl, CD and d/l by Three Crows Music on June 2, 2014.
   

What he certainly has done is to walk away from producing it. It was a deliberate volte-face. Ryan Adams, with whom he has long worked as producer, takes on the desk duties here. This article, about the reasons and the reckoning, is well worth sharing I think.

2013 in Music - My favourite list so far...

I have read many lists of 2013 music and shall read many more I expect, in part as a reference to compiling my own humble additions to the canon. Of all of them this is the most interesting so far by a country mile...

I shall return to this list and what I think it means for 2014, perhaps beyond, in the coming weeks.

Shameless Winter

Do you remember those mirage summers?
Tousled hair and golden skin
Writing lyrics on the heath and smoking Luckys
It didn't matter what month we were in.

It is that time of year again, the one that invites the writing of lists. Take my word for it, this year the compiling of them has probably occupied my mind more than all the ones that have come before combined, and yet I like that very much.
I simply couldn't resist the lyric from a song from one album and that is why it appears above.
Live music thoughts - well don't even get me started...

North Dorset Folk Festival 2013 - Part 2

So there. That (as in Part 1) was the lower half of the running order and how good was that, I thought to myself a week ago yesterday, sometime mid-afternoon. My only concern, though I dismissed it, was whether it was possible to maintain this momentum.
The next to play was again a duo - Jack McNeill and Charlie Heys. This is the point at which folk, or folk inspired music, actually becomes quite challenging both in subject and treatment. They played a number of new tracks from their forthcoming LP (due early 2014) too.

One to watch, for sure, and so NDFF 2013 powered forward with Boat To Row as the next act to take to the somewhat small stage. I had heard a short section of a Boat To Row set at an outdoor festival earlier this year and I wanted more. This was my chance to put it right.

All five of Midlands-based Boat To Row. North Dorset Folk Festival 2013.

Deriving from a university solo project this has developed quite some momentum.  Hannah (far left above) is the latest addition and, just a few weeks in, she is a fully integrated band member - which is as well as they have a distinct tendency to swap instruments, some of them rather unusual.

Faye Haddon on table-harmonium.

The first support needed no introduction in so far as I was concerned. Emily Baker is the the only artist to play both editions of North Dorset Folk Festival as a named artist and this was also the fifth time that I have seen her play live.
This time she did so live and unplugged - never fear - you could hear it all perfectly from the back of the hall. The highlights, some of which she previewed at NDFF last year, are songs from her 2013 album All At Sea.

Emily Baker, playing as first support, at North Dorset Folk Festival 2013.

Headlining was Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo and this was the first time that I had seen them live since End Of The Road Festival 2009. They amazed me then and proved more than equal to the task of doing so again last Saturday night. The same four as back then but recently with Matt on drums too. The 2013 album Dear River was just a part of this.

'Nostalgia' live. This set actually deserves a post all its own. It will happen sooner than later.

North Dorset Folk Festival 2013 - Part 1

Let me make this clear right from the start. While last year's inaugural NDFF was excellent (see here) this was better on any and all objective measures that I can think of. It was indeed only matched by one or two other days in music that I have experienced in the preceding year. Now I need to try and explain why. It is likely to involve more than one post.
This year, at Marnhull Village Hall, North Dorset Folk Festival commenced with Bob Burke. He was to be seen at North Dorset Folk Festival last year too, if you remember, appearing with Tinderbox. This time he was solo and while his blend of acoustic singer-song writing is ample, it is better show-cased live by his in inter-song banter about the road-trips shared with his teenage son and suchlike. It seemed infectious too, and that it is a very important aspect of folk music of all kinds.
He did, however, suffer from a perennial problem of mine - that being that right at the start of any event I have an inability to take worthwhile photographs. I don't know why this is so, but it is true. I've tried several suggested remedies but none has proven to be in any sense reliable. It is not unfamiliarity with the venue, because it happens at ones I know very well, and at least as it seems to me not nervousness as it doesn't feel that way to me at the time. 

Bob Burke - North Dorset Folk Festival 2013.

The next on stage was James Findlay - winner of the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. This set was for the most part composed of traditional material and always performed to the highest calibre. Sometimes he accompanied himself on any one of a variety of instruments, other songs he sung unaccompanied.

The next to play was duo Ninebarrow, who are local and hail from Swanage, Dorset. Ninebarrow is a hill topped with ancient burial barrows in that locality and to which many legends and superstitions are attached. Their song writing is mostly about places and times but that which sets them apart is their vocal harmonies. 

I had never seen or heard Ninebarrow live before and it was a pleasure to do so. You can stream some of their songs here - but I wholeheartedly recommend seeing them live. They are currently recording a new album too.
As regards the next act I have an admission to make - I had never even heard of it before it was announced to be playing. ODi is another duo - who both sing and play stringed instruments and sometimes a small piano accordion. This is ODi live last Saturday afternoon.

They were mighty impressive, and Dave Readfearn's contribution is absolutely vital, but the secret weapon is Claire Odlum's song writing and astonishing voice. A native of Co. Wexford, where not much of interest happens apparently, she has certainly made good use of her time there. ODi may yet not be that widely known but I suggest that this is just a matter of time. Listen to some songs here. The craic, and the all-round stage presence, is already there too.

Gwobr Gerddoriaeth Gymreig 2013 Welsh Music Prize

From the Brits and Mercury to the Grammys, AMA and CMA, via any number of others, many of them interesting, the world seems awash with music awards. Canada has the Juno Awards and Australia the ARIAs and the UK has the British Blues Awards that at least in part mirror the Blues Music Awards in the US.
New on the scene is the one mentioned in the title and it is, in some ways, just as interesting as any of the aforementioned. Last week it was only the third time the Welsh Music Prize had been awarded. OK, you might simply think "what is all the fuss about?"
Well, whilst Wales is not quite like Iceland as a musical volcano (yet), it seems to be simmering with musical talent. The above award was whittled down by those that do such things to a short-list of twelve albums. Of those I already had three, so I was clearly aware of what was cooking, and was surprised that several others that I have were not amongst them. Release dates for consideration, too-old or too-recent, may well have a lot to do with some of them.
The winner, announced in Cardiff on Wednesday, October 16, was one of the artists whose album I do already have and have already mentioned in passing... Week Of Pines - Georgia Ruth from Aberystwyth. Take it as read that this was already a certainty for my list of albums of 2013. I was already smitten as I have the 'In Luna EP' on 12" vinyl.

To be honest the title track of that EP is actually one of the weakest on Week Of Pines.

Thinking ahead...

Last weekend it occurred to me that, with so much live music to see in the last week of October and much of November, it would be wise to start considering all the new music that I have acquired during 2013 so far as it relates to those inevitable end-of-year lists. I made a start then and then during the week made a long-list that actually turned out to be rather scary even well before Hallowe'en!
I'm not listening to it all over a few days, which would be like an alternative Glastonbury but without the crowds. Nevertheless my neighbours, if not actually Mendip District Council, might have something to say about that.
If all that were not enough then suddenly my in-box seems to have become filled with enticing new prospects for the months ahead.
Another slight problem is that in order to keep a sense of perspective about all the new music it is necessary also to revisit some that was in that place in previous years. That must include things that I still listen to regularly and also consideration of that which, however enamoured I was at the time, now languishes in the racks of LPs and CDs and is rarely listened to.
   
This is an impossible ideal.
[And a 'Black Box Recorder' lyric - you need to imagine it with Sarah Nixey's crystal diction.]
  
It is however the continuation of a very improbable journey. Seven years ago I could never have foreseen what that first post would lead to and, looking back, I wouldn't change it for anything.
The next issue is all those 2013 albums and EPs that I haven't heard but intended to do so and all those that are still to be released in the next six weeks or so. Arrows - Polly Scattergood, released October 21, being a case in point but as it happens it arrived here today. 
This is not only unfinished business but actually impossible to finish. Back then I would never have imagined that albums such as this, which is another I need to hear, would even be under consideration but one thing leads to another. 

It is a concept related in some ways to "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"!

The EP category was traditionally where I used to start as back in 2007 it seemed a format doomed to extinction and I had few to choose from. I got that idea well and truly wrong, I'm delighted to say!
Fast forward six years and nothing could be further from the truth for - whether digital or physical - it has become the calling card for new artists and existing ones wishing to explore another side to their music. I could spend the whole of the rest of the weekend listening to nothing but EPs released in 2013 that I have come upon during my travels both virtual and to festivals and some of these rank amongst my most listened-to and prized recordings of 2013.

Just to recap, all of this, including the wonderful people I have met along the way and the 1000 or so live acts I have seen, happened simply because I was bored one weekday evening and wished to comment on a blog post. At that time to do so I had to create my own account and, once that activation barrier had been overcome it seemed a waste of effort to not then put it to further use.

New Music 2013 - Part 31 - Mahoney and The Moment

I wrote a preamble yesterday and I'm sticking with it. It was, indeed, probably indicative of a more fundamental truth than I realized at the time I wrote it.
After seven years of blogging about music some things are still difficult; starting new posts is often one of them and yet any resulting criticism is not so, strangely.  This, however, is the hardest thing of all...
Mahoney and The Moment is an act that chose to introduce themselves to my attention and I'm not sure that I really deserve that.
It has therefore taken me about a week to get my head around this. The title of their second and again self-released LP 'Don't Say No!' rather sets the tone to one of expectation rather than denial. That is when it gets really tough for me... so the only thing to do was listen to it. Once, twice... lots.
Very early on in the writing of this little blog I set down a policy of not writing about things that I don't like and I've been pretty good at sticking to it.

Don't Say No! - Mahoney and The Moment (2013)

    

As it happens I didn't have to worry about that, so here it is. They describe the music (Steve is from London and Emily from Boston, MA.) as transatlantic folk or Anglo-American folk rock. Those labels, whilst accurate, seriously under-sell this album - although perhaps better describe their self-titled début album.
The deal is that this is very good and it is quite distinctive too. Given the current situation concerning the cross-over between UK and US folk/roots/alt-country-rock, and every conceivable hybrid thereof (that is all to the good) this is one phenomenal achievement.

Track-by-track reviews are something I rarely do but, since I rate this album highly as a whole, I might just make an exception in due time... not least because the opening track 'Who Is Archie Lane?' begins with the lyric "I don't like you...", before some seconds later the brass section comes to the fore. What's not to like?
So good it is, indeed, that I shall share it with you.

EOTR 2013 - more from the Garden Stage - Part 1

The Garden Stage was, until 2011, the main stage at End of The Road Festival, by when its audience capacity was becoming a serious issue and therefore the larger and more open Woods Stage was added too. The Garden Stage however remains the most beautifully atmospheric stage, surrounded as it is by Victorian follies, one of the most remarkable of which is in fact almost invisible behind it.
This is a picture across the Garden Stage audience on Saturday evening.

   
On Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of watching Serafina Steer, who I had never seen live before, perform on the same stage.

The majority of this set was devoted to songs from her recent album The Moths Are Real.
Not before I saw Joanna Newsom live did I really consider the concert harp and its place in modern music but rather in the context of a sepia tinted throwback - more fool me!  As this was my first day using a new camera for music photography the fact that harpists can't move very far or fast was much appreciated! This evening I have been listing to the album Week of Pines by Georgia Ruth, and that is often led by her harp and vocals too.
   
Back then I never suspected how my liking of, and interest in, Americana and roots music would develop to parallel my long-standing liking of UK and Celtic folk music.
Earlier still, Friday lunch time, Diana Jones had performed solo and took the sun-drenched Garden Stage audience for a trip courtesy of much of her very recent LP Museum of Appalachia Recordings.

I was already aware that it is garnering excellent reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and here it was quite obvious to see why - you could have heard a pin drop during the quiet moments of her set.
   
This is indeed Part 1 - I shall return to the Garden Stage soon with amongst others, Ethan Johns and The Barr Brothers. In the meantime here is another from Daughter's set just after dark on Saturday evening.

Why wasn't If You Leave nominated for the Mercury Music Prize?

Trust - the mark of a true Festival

It is, more or less, the end of the outdoor festival season in northern Europe.
Here's a thought: such festivals are more about trust, in the organizers and their ability to select and book acts, than about the headline acts. 
This is why I already have a ticket for EOTR 2014 and why I'm going to mention anything other than the three headline acts.
You know me, maybe. I'll be heading off to see the first acts to perform at any opportunity and End of The Road provided five such on the Tipi Stage on Thursday afternoon and evening.
Annie Eve was one of those...  and I wonder how many of us were aware of her then because I certainly wasn't, but this only serves to underline my point, and I am now so here she is.

That scrap of paper, just beyond the bottles of water at the far right of the picture, is her set list. If you are wondering now, then a week ago so was I.
Here is that very same piece of paper.

You can just about see the imprint of her boot on it too!

Truck Festival 2013 - The Saloon

Until last weekend I had only been to Truck Festival once before, in 2011. I had a good time there then but this time I fell in love with it. This is one of the reasons why.
  
Most festivals lack a venue quite as fit-for-purpose as the 'Great Western Whisky Saloon and Soul Blues Kitchen', otherwise known as 'The Saloon', and I know I am not the only one to feel this way. I know that I will not finish this post this evening... It will have to await my return to blogging sometime on Saturday afternoon after venturing to see one of the acts, which I saw there last Saturday, tomorrow evening!
It was always intimate, sometimes it was packed to bursting point, but it was always worth the effort to be there and it was underwritten by independent label Clubhouse Records. Here are a few pictures that might explain why that is so:

Pete Greenwood (early on Saturday evening).

  

Troubadour Rose, late Saturday afternoon.

Don't even dare bet against the forthcoming album - Find An Arrow (2 September).

Swindlestock, live in 'The Saloon' @ Truck Festival 2013. You need 'Pilgrim Blues'. Really.
Probably these too.

Stevie Ray Latham, same stage but on Friday afternoon.

  

This one, however, pretty much sums it all up...

Redlands Palomino Company and ad hoc guests performing on Saturday evening.

New Music - Part 19 - Sunrise Festival 2013 - Part 1

No. I haven't vanished; I have just been busy and, in part, that has involved working through the photographs, memories and musings of that which was Sunrise Festival 2013 last weekend.
I didn't think that I had taken photos prolifically. The reality proved to be slightly different - exactly four-hundred of them as it transpired! It is therefore time to dive in - to define what it was that made an impression and why.
I am, indeed still unsure of the subject of this one that I took on Saturday afternoon. Neville Staple, the other photographers, or merely just the fact that I could? I really can't say because I didn't think about it in that way at the time. 

More likely, I didn't really think about it at all and often that is the best way.

It probably hardly needs to be said that much of my time was focussed on the artists and acts less well known, though perhaps that is less obvious at a smaller festival such as Sunrise but I shall start with one that I have seen live and mentioned here before and one of several who stick resolutely to playing their own material.

Frome's Molly Ross - Spit & Sawdust stage - Friday.

This next is of an artist I first heard of, live, on the small Sunrise Stage at Latitude Festival 2009. To see that she was on the roster for Sunrise Festival 2013 was one of the things that made me get a ticket forthwith.

Tallulah Rendall, Main Stage Sunset 2013, Saturday afternoon.

The first time I saw her she was playing with a band - this time she was solo but that bass guitar is a clue. She played several songs from her forthcoming album 'The Banshee and The Moon', which involved live sampling of both guitars and vocals as loops that she then played and sang over. The multi-layered result was very special and the aforementioned album is on my wants-list already. It will be good any-which-way, I'm sure of that, but how about 180gm vinyl...

A band gloriously unpredictable and liable to appear in almost any situation was Calico Jack. They played live several times and also danced with the little kids at others...

Calico Jack live on the Spit and Sawdust stage, late Saturday evening. Here is a taste of that.
  
'Blue Shoes' is a track from the band's début CD Holdfast (2012).

While most pirates and privateers are usually assumed to hunt the oceans far and wide this bunch, although boat-dwelling, are pirates of the inland waterways and have the Kennet & Avon Canal as their home patch.

Free Music Player for Myspace at ReverbNation.com

Folk Weekend Oxford 2013 - The Pub Sessions

I caught part of several of these and they provided some of the highlights of my weekend. The first was that in James Street Tavern on Friday evening and, before I go further, this is exactly the kind of pub that we must all treasure and support: see here. I had never been there before - and first impressions count more than most - so I shall start somewhat after midnight or, in other words, very early Saturday morning...

A little time and some more ale later but still going strong.

This next is from the session in the café-bar in the Old Fire Station on Saturday afternoon, which was a monster in terms of both duration and participation.  This is just a snapshot of the centre of the musical melée at this time.

I did some counting ... this included nine fiddles, four melodions, three flutes, two clarinets (and a fair few other instruments too) all playing together. It worked beautifully.  The next picture is another view of the same, focussing on reed instruments including two piano accordions, and taken just seconds later.

Next to mention is the 'Scandinavian Sessions' in the 'Far From The Madding Crowd' pub on Saturday. It was fascinating not just for the music played but also for the instruments used to play it. Here are two of them...

In the foreground is a fiddle with nine strings, only four of which you can bow while the remaining five are sympathetic. The other even more complicated instrument, which is being played, is a nyckelharpa and it has sixteen strings, of which twelve are sympathetic, and both instruments are now largely confined to Scandinavian music - the nyckelharpa to Sweden in particular. The long, dark, winter nights must make the development of such complicated creations appealing but, I have to say, the effort was well worth it; they both sound absolutely wonderful.

Folk Weekend Oxford 2013

I booked my ticket for Folk Weekend Oxford, the second edition of this festival, the very same evening that I heard the first rumours that the second edition of Frome Folk Festival (February 2013) would not be taking place as planned. That said, I would very happily have attended both and I very much hope that it will be possible to do exactly that in 2014.
  

Before I start on more detailed commentary concerning who and what I saw I have to mention my respect for the organizing committee and all the volunteer stewards and technical staff. From the printed programme to the nitty-gritty of keeping everything on-track and running-to-time across multiple venues, which is no mean feat in itself, they also arranged for near perfect weather too. That is a big ask, especially in light of the last year or so!
On offer were performances by large ensembles in almost incredibly intimate venues, such as Oxford Fiddle Group in the Studio at The Old Fire Station.
  

Slightly more than half the OFG seen here in the accompaniment of Appalachian tap dancing. I would have needed a fish-eye lens to get the whole picture in a venue that seats about fifty. I might try stitching two pictures together in due course. The audience outnumbered the performers by only a ratio of 3:1!

To this, for the taking of which I had to turn my back on the gaze of Apollo.
  

Emily & The Tunesmiths, playing under the watch of the Greek Gods,

in the atrium of the Ashmolean Museum.

I shall head to The Old Fire Station Theatre for just two of the acts that I saw there. For now these are focussed on just one artist from each, although both acts and their sets were sublime.

On Saturday, Tyde... with Andrew Waite playing piano accordion.

  

On Sunday The Melrose Quartet.

Richard Arrowsmith playing melodion.

    

That, I'm delighted to say, was not even the half of it and that is to say nothing about the sessions.

New Music - Part 14 - Kelly Richey - Sweet Spirit

Kelly Richey has returned, after 2008 release 'Carry The Light', with a new band and a new studio album 'Sweet Spirit' and again it is released on her own label 'Sweet Lucy Records'. It has not had a UK release as yet but no matter. This is the track list:

• 1. Feelin' Under
• 2. I Went Down Easy
• 3. Leavin' It All Behind
• 4. Something's Going On
• 5. Everybody Needs a Change
• 6. Fast Drivin' Mama
• 7. One Way Ticket
• 8. Risin' Sun
• 9. Dyin'
• 10. Workin' Hard Woman

It is on its way to me from the US and, while we are about it, here is the album artwork. Blues rock of the highest order awaits if the samples I have heard are in any way representative of the whole. I'm pretty confident that this is so.

Casual Conversations With A Woodpigeon

It is about to appear, I have mentioned this artist and band before, and yet this début EP also remains unknown to most.
Here it is... 'Casual Conversations With A Woodpigeon'.

As album titles go it is, I think, on a par with 'Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose'. It's not a short name, but an unforgettable one, and that matters. It is also a self-released EP, funded using Kickstarter. It is officially launched on March 26...

I'd heard bits and pieces before this point but then saw Cloudi and her band live at the first North Dorset Folk Festival last autumn and was very impressed. Still wondering? Well here they are live at Urban Outfitters, in Southampton, this very afternoon.
  

The second edition of North Dorset Folk Festival has a new venue, Marnhull Village Hall, and will take place on Saturday October 26, 2013.
Tickets go on sale soon. See you there.

First Thoughts on Record Store Day 2013

Record Store Day 2013 is looking to exceed all previous events and all expectations. It takes place, all around the globe, on Saturday April 20, 2013. More special releases than even before, more locations and stores than ever before, and that's just the start.

Here's someone who has done quite well these last couple of years...

Who, or what, is going to be the next big breakout?

There is certainly no shortage of new music out there that is well worth listening to.