Thoughts on music: Despite The Snow

Showing posts with label Despite The Snow. Show all posts

Monday, November 04, 2013

North Dorset Folk Festival 2013 - Part 3

I was sold on North Dorset Folk Festival 2012 pretty much from the get-go and was quite happy to buy a ticket for 2013 without knowing any artists - just as I do for End of The Road Festival (EOTR) - I simply trust that it will be excellent and I have never been let down yet. On the other hand, when I discovered that Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo was to headline NDFF 2013 I could hardly believe what I was reading - and I checked that it wasn't 1 April. It certainly wasn't, and I wasn't dreaming about it either. I first saw them, previously quite unknown to me at EOTR 2009 and was totally taken. Here is that occasion:

No drummer back then. The kit was there for other bands on the stage to use as required.

Other than that the line up remains the same. Here is how it turned out at Marnhull Village Hall on 26 October.

L - R (in both pictures): Anna Jenkins, Jo Silverston, Emily Barker and Gill Sandell.

Emily Barker and Gill Sandell in an acoustic guitar and piano accordion duel.
It is easy to forget in the seamless sound the individual contributions of each member.

Anna Jenkins on fiddle.

Nostalgia really doesn't get much better than this.

If percussionist Nat Butler thought that he was not going to be mentioned on account of his very recent inclusion in the Red Clay Halo then that is not so.

Percussion and bass underpin much of Dear River. Jo Silverston on electric bass.

That two of the artists have also recently released music as side-projects is very worthy of note. Gill Sandell's second solo album, Light The Boats, in September 2013 and the second after Tarry Awhile (2010 and which is also excellent). Emily Barker also participates in London-based collective Arctic Circle that released its first five-track EP 'Lantern Waste' today. Here, taken from it, is 'Hushabye Mountain' to stream and the EP to buy. I have to say that I have a particular fondness for track 4 ' Unreasonable Dreams'.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Just a thought... North Dorset Folk Festival

This is what you are missing as I write and, indeed, so am I.

O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire is an all-seated venue of approximately 2000 capacity. It is now too late to go to this concert anyway. On the other hand the very same are headlining North Dorset Folk Festival on 26 October. The venue, Marnhull Village Hall, is much more intimate and as of an hour ago there were about twenty tickets still available. See you there?

Saturday, January 08, 2011

New Music 2011 - Part 7 - Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo

OK, I was planning on doing more on new music this weekend. It would certainly have been tomorrow, rather than just now, were it not for this. In all probability you have already heard at least a snippet or two of the work of this artist even if you were quite unaware of it...

It is released (in the UK) on February 7, 2011 and Almanac is their third album.

This is the track list for Almanac:

Billowing Sea
Reckless
Ropes (which was in the live set at EOTR 2009)
Little Deaths (also in the live set at EOTR 2009)
Dancers
Pause
Openings
Calendar
Light
Witch of Pittenween
Bones

Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1 --- Esben and The Witch

Part 2 --- Yuck

Part 3 --- Duke Spirit

Part 4 --- Low Anthem
Part 5 --- Go!Team

Part 6 --- Rhosyn
Part 8 --- Those Dancing Days
Part 9 --- Some things I am looking forward to.
Part 10 --- More things I am looking forward to.
Part 11 --- New Heads On Old Shoulders?
Part 12 --- Snowglobe - Jesca Hoop
Part 13 --- Queen of the Minor Key

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

This Is How It's Meant To Be - lyrics

Thanks once again to whosoever asked and here are the lyrics to the first track on this album.

This Is How It's Meant To Be

He only sees shadows behind shadows and he's been like this a while

for he keeps forgetting every shadow needs light to survive.

He has been lost and I followed like any good friend

and I carried him as far as I could but when I let go he just turned back.

Chorus:
This is how it's meant to be, apparently this is for a reason
This is how it's meant to be, but we can't seem to find a reason.

He is the victim and culprit of his own crime
And I tried to be a mirror so that he may realise
I've been breathing for the two of us and now I am so tired
my patience has fallen hard for he's not even trying.

This is how it's meant to be, apparently this is for a reason
This is how it's meant to be, but we can't seem to find a reason.

This is how it's meant to be, apparently this is for a reason
This is how it's meant to be, but we can't seem to find a reason.

It is a cracking album, just as worthy of you attention as 'Despite The Snow', and she played the second track on it 'Blackbird' in her set at 'End Of The Road 2009'. One of my personal favourites is the call - response duet 'Fields of June' (track 6). How easy it now is to come by is another matter: I got my CD from Rough Trade, London in September 2009 and although they do not seem to have it in stock as of today they may well be able to provide a helpful suggestion.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Nostalgia - Emily Barker

To whoever asked, I like lyrics and so thank you for asking. This is the best I can do.

Nostalgia

Tram wires cross Melbourne skies
Cut my red heart in two
My knuckles bleed down Johnston Street
On a door that shouldn't be in front of me.

Twelve thousand miles away from your smile
I'm twelve thousand miles away from me.
Standing on the corner of Brunswick
Got the rain coming down and mascara on my cheek.

Oh whisper me words in the shape of a bay
Shelter my love from the wind and the rain.

Crow fly, be my alibi
And return this fable on your wing.
Take it far away to where gypsies play
Beneath metal stars by the bridge.

Oh write me a beacon so I know the way
Guide my love through night and through day.

Only the sunset knows my blind desire for the fleeting
Only the moon understands the beauty of love
When held by a hand like the aura of nostalgia.

Link to earlier posts on this artist:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-is-new-what-is-not.html

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What is new, what is not?

This is an interesting question right now... I'm thinking about all the new music I have heard - live, recorded and in some cases both - in 2009. That has also made me think more about the music, regardless of release date, that I have listened to most frequently in the last two months.

Much of it falls into both categories and a yet a considerable proportion does not. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that even when it does I have never explicitly mentioned it. 'The Local', at EOTR 2009, might not be the most prepossessing tented venue in festival land but, for everything it lacks in that regard is more than made up in other ways. It is not particularly well appointed...

...and, if you are playing, you need to fix it for yourselves. It was also home to many artists that you simply don't yet know, but needed to see and hear, and this is is one of them.

Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo, live at EOTR 2009 and...

...this is the set-list for it.

These tracks come from two albums: Photos, Fires, Fables (2007) and Despite The Snow (2009), both of which I bought after seeing this live performance, and have played countless times since. An act that employs piano accordion always stands a good chance of getting my attention and, as my luck would have it, this was just one of several that I have seen this year. Yesterday someone ended up here searching for "unusual musical instruments", a category that is in some ways in the ear of the beholder. I have seen a few played live this year, including bassoon, auto-harp, stylophone, several xylophones and also a few toy instuments too...