This blog is intended to do "exactly what it says on the tin" so below are some of my 'Thoughts on Music'. They predominantly concern recent matters but will not always do so. I'll also happily turn to matters of the music industry more generally if and when I feel so inclined. So there!
If you don't agree with something please feel free to add a comment. They are moderated by me (so I'll get to read it) and I might even reply. Above all however just enjoy whatever music you like!
Richard
What awaits here is no less than forty-something minutes of acoustic-string-band music virtuosity, courtesy of Brittany Haas (fiddle), Paul Kowert (upright bass), Dominick Leslie (octave mandolin) and Jordan Tice (guitar). Some of it is actually recorded live with an audience and these pieces are intercut with the studio recordings.
Even in this somewhat enlightened age all-female professional bluegrass bands are something of a rarity. In so as far as I am aware the very first was New York based five-piece 'Buffalo Gals'. In 1974 it released an album 'First Born(e)' - the actual spelling depends on whether you are looking at the front or reverse of the album sleeve(!) - on Revonah Records as 12" vinyl RS-913 and that I have. It cost more to transport and import than its purchase price but I knew that would be the case. It was well worth it. Fast-forward forty-four years and become acquainted with Midnight Skyracer. Five young women none of whom call the USA home; four are from England and the other from Ireland. Bluegrass has blossomed far and wide these last few years.
Charlotte Carrivick - guitars Eleanor Wilkie - upright bass Laura Carrivick - fiddle Leanne Thorose - mandolin Tabitha Agnew - banjo All of them contribute vocals on the album.
Midnight Skyracer - Fire (SKY001, 2 February 2018).
Midnight Skyracer - Fire:
Fuel to My Fire
Susan Anna Gal
Working Girl Blues
Virginia Rose
So Long, Goodbye, We're Through
They Want to Go
Spinous Shark
A Little Luck
Sitting Alone in the Moonlight
High and Dry
The covers are handled beautifully; Hazel Dickens' composition Working Girl Blues being a splendid case in point, but the original songs and their tunes certainly live up to the company in which they find themselves.
To give you an idea of what to expect should you see them live here is a song that isn't actually on the album at all.
It is a cover of 'I'm Just Here to Ride The Train' by Mountain Heart from that band's 2006 album 'Wide Open'.
Other acts that feature these artists (an incomplete list): Cardboard Fox
Based in Boulder, Colo. The Railsplitters is a quintet and a string band that displays not only its independence of traditional constrictions within the genre - traditional bluegrass did not involve women; lead vocal here in the charge of Lauren Stovall, originally from Jackson, Miss. - but also its own ethos as to where it should head musically and therefore the sort of topics that the songs relate to follow likewise. The band members are as follows:
Lauren Stovall - lead vocals
Dusty Ryder - banjo
Peter Sharpe - mandolin
Joe D'Esposito - fiddle
Jean-Luc Davis - upright bass
This is the band's third LP. Like the two that came before it, self-titled 'The Railsplitters' (2013) and 'The Faster It Goes' (2015), it has been entirely cloud-funded and self released.
Jump In - The Railsplitters (self-released, 10 November 2017).
The Railsplitters - Jump In:
Everyone She Meets
Jump In
Lessons I've Learned
Durango River
To Do
Somethin' Sweet
Citronella
Lemon Lime
Bay of Five
Baxes
This is a true touring band. As I write this their schedule shows that the next gigs are at the Woodside Folk Festival in Queensland, Australia between Christmas and New Year. An extensive tour of the UK follows early in 2018 and I am intending to see the band live. The dates for this tour are as follows:
Jan 25 Thu --- The Old Fire Station, Carlisle
Jan 26 Fri --- The Hippodrome, Eyemouth
Jan 27 Sat --- Letham Nights, Letham
Jan 28 Sun --- Birnam Arts, Dunkeld
Jan 30 Tue --- Celtic Connections, Glasgow
Feb 1 Thu --- Eastgate Theatre, Peebles
Feb 2 Fri --- Sage Gateshead, Gateshead
Feb 3 Sat --- The Greystones, Sheffield
Feb 4 Sun --- Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea
Feb 6 Tue --- Helsby Bluegrass Club, Frodsham
Feb 7 Wed --- Musically Monstrous at The Three Horseshoes, Towersey
Feb 8 Thu --- South Holland Centre, Spalding
Feb 9 Fri --- Selby Town Hall, Selby
Feb 10 Sat --- Sands Sessions, Farnham
Feb 11 Sun --- Whitstable Sessions at St Mary's Hall, Whitstable
Feb 13 Tue --- The Canteen, Bristol
Feb 14 Wed --- Biddulph Up In Arms, Stoke-On-Trent
Feb 15 Thu --- Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal
Feb 16 Fri --- The Live Room, Saltaire
Feb 17 Sat --- The Lights, Andover
'Jump In', live from Albino Skunk Music Festival, Greer, SC, October 2017.
These posts are the hardest kind to write but, perhaps because of that, also some of the most interesting and rewarding to attempt. I was never one for writing fiction when at school and I doubt that I could do it convincingly now.
We start this trip, the title of which is inspired by the title of his 2015 EP, with Colter Wall, a native of Saskatchewan, Canada. His first LP 'Colter Wall' is coming soon.
This is a live version of 'Kate McCannon' from that LP, recorded in 2015. He supports Margo Price on her US spring tour.
This next artist isn't from Appalachia either and is not so well known in her own right as perhaps the songs and certainly the artists for whom she has written or co-written. This collection is about the place, quintessential rural America, which she remembers as the home of her grandfather in Puxico, Missouri. It is all her own but the supporting musicians and the production (by her husband Mike Wrucke) are absolutely top class.
In this next record we are finally approaching Appalachian territory; Rayna Gellert, a co-founder of Uncle Earl, is a traditional fiddle player with roots deep in mountain and string band territory.
Rayna Gellert - Workin's Too Hard (SoundStory Records, 20 January 2017).
She is also a fine songwriter and this, following 'Old Light: Songs From My Childhood and Other Gone Worlds' (2013), is the second release in her pursuit of that space. Her desire in this is that innovation need not be, and indeed should not be, stifled by the desire to preserve tradition. Both outcomes can co-exist to the benefit of all. Of the seven tracks here five are written or co-written by Rayna Gellert. The other two are interpretations of the traditional songs 'Oh Lovin' Babe' and 'I'm Bound For The Promised Land'. This next record is a paean to the value of the journey itself rather than the knowledge of its ultimate destination.
If you like finger-picked acoustic guitar and contemplative lyrics, as I do, this might be right up your street. Originally from Buffalo NY she has travelled and lived across much of the continental USA in places as far removed from each other as New Orleans and Seattle. Sometimes she briefly heads to Europe too. If all goes as planned then our paths will cross in August as Julie Byrne plays Green Man Festival 2017. The journey's end is this album, likely the best known artist/album of the five as a result of her work with Carolina Chocolate Drops and then her 2015 LP 'Tomorrow Is My Turn', which was all covers and now this that is not. Whilst the record was quite certainly planned, conceived and recorded before the denouement was known, the title and subject matter could hardly have been more prescient.
Rhiannon Giddens - Freedom Highway (Nonesuch Records, 24 February 2017).
Rhiannon Giddens playing fretless banjo, Stage 1, Cambridge Folk Festival - 1 August 2015.
Well that's it for this post. Five albums, one soon to be released and four already released in 2017 and we're only just approaching the Ides of March! There is certainly no shortage or variety of new music that a little exploring can't uncover. The only problem with trips like this is that as soon as one is over the bug bites again. It is time to start planning the next. The question is should it be Antipodean or Scandinavian?
I can't tell you how many bands I have mentioned in recent years that include the participation of siblings but it is considerable. It's a theme of kinds and I see no reason to discontinue it. Here is another - three siblings in this case - that were you not to know otherwise might be imagined to hail from the far side of the Atlantic. That isn't the case at all and this is their first EP.
Bluebirds EP - Cup O'Joe (self-released, 2016).
Cup O'Joe is Benjamin (upright bass), Reuben (guitar, mandolin) and Tabitha (banjo, fiddle) Agnew and they actually call Armagh, Northern Ireland's smallest city, home. The EP has six tracks:
Bluebirds
Pretty Fair Maiden
Blackwaterfoot
Homesick
Tell Me Darling
Black Coffee
They play predominantly self-written material that crosses the range from bluegrass and gypsy to old-time, western and jazz and all three contribute vocals. Definitely another band that I want to see live in 2017. If you have a little while to spare for listening then there is this.
Cup O'Joe, Coastline Bluegrass Festival, Llangollen, North Wales, June 2016.
Good things, like troubles and London buses, come in threes. Here is the last in a trio of acts from America that are little known in the UK. The current excitement stateside is that they have fairly recently recorded and released a bluegrass version of the main theme to 'Game of Thrones'. That's interesting, I suppose, but this is not really about that at all. It is about Flatt Lonesome, the band, and their latest album on which the aforementioned track is not included. It is however quite splendid in its own right and, as bluegrass is in part derived from Celtic tradition, here it is:
Looking and listening beyond that introduction, Flatt Lonesome is an acoustic six-piece composed of extended family and it is based in Tennessee.
I have been listening to a great deal of modern bluegrass in the last year or so and a sizeable proportion of that is not of US origin. This however is and, while US reviews suggest it is very well received - it is their third LP - it appears to be little known over here. There are no long songs on this - the twelve tracks run for a total of just 37 minutes. The final, and title track, does however illustrate my assertion that American roots and folk artists have a predilection for writing railroad-related songs, if only used as a metaphor and, despite some claims to that effect, it is not a cover of the Soul Asylum track of the same name! This is the play list:
Flatt Lonesome - Runaway Train
You'll Pay
Still Feeling Blue
You're the One
In the Heat of the Fire
Don't Come Running
In the Morning
Road to Nottingham
New Lease on Life
Casting All Your Care on Him
Mixed Up Mess of a Heart
Letting Go
Runaway Train
What I did not expect yesterday, UK-time, was this announcement in which Flatt Lonesome features prominently. The nominations for the IBMA 2016 Awards.
I could have chosen almost anything here. Not a single song showcases the diversity that is sampled from the original sources. In the end I chose 'Star Girl' as it displays more of the instruments on offer here than some other tracks.
The next that I shall mention is the one recommended to me this morning and therefore the seed from which this conceptual road trip grew. Originally hailing from a slew of places across the US the five members, none were known one to another before they found themselves in Portland, OR in 2014. In a matter of months they became Crow and The Canyon. From that point on they toured solidly, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, writing what would become their first LP 'Leaving Soon'.
To a great extent this is their own material and it covers, indeed fuses a wide variety of styles across the folk, country and bluegrass spectrum. As Crow and the Canyon had been recommended to me this was actually where I started this 'road trip' but in terms of story-telling it seems to fit best in the midst of the three. It is invidious to attempt to choose just one track to illustrate this, but I'm going to try anyway.
The final piece in this trilogy is The Lil Smokies from Montana. This is very much led by modern bluegrass.
After weeks of listmania it is time for a change. All the time spent thinking about my own lists and more recently reading those by others and listening to things thereupon that have piqued my curiosity have, when combined with the infinitely grey and gloomy weather of late, persuaded me to look for things away from the mainstream both new and old (sometimes both at the same time). What transpired has several catalysts, one being my liking for bluegrass and things derived at least in part from it. If it includes some Appalachian old-time fiddle and banjo, or gypsy influences then that is not bad thing either. Neither is a foundation in the UK and Irish folk sound for that matter.
This post is going to mention some things that I have discovered so far during this ongoing quest. Though it has deep roots in my listening it is only really during this year that I have really taken note of how this adsorption (rather than absorption, though it may happen subsequently) of influences takes place. I define the turning point, for the sake of this post, as taking place on the evening of Thursday 30 July at Cambridge Folk Festival when I saw this band liveand failed to take a single usable photo of it. WTF, Richard? The answer is that I was totally distracted. That band was Dublin four-piece Lynched. They played between Orcadian five-piece Fara and Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker and despite that there was something special and memorable about the set. Some of it came from their most recent recorded offering that contains some traditional, some dance-hall and some new material. Salonika may be familiar to many, not least from the version recorded by The Dubliners.
Lynched - Cold Old Fire (self released, 2015).
This is music for the coming, press-entitled, "Panic Saturday". It will surely rain again and all retail outlets and travel options are to be avoided at any cost - this is a day that is therefore destined to be spent with good, simple food and maybe a pre-season tipple whilst sat in front of the fire in the company of good music. Not a Christmas pop ditty to be heard; that said, possibly an exception might be made for 'Fairytale of New York'. Other appealing options are available and I suggest this one from No Depression.com Go on, treat yourself!
Irish music more generally is another thing that has returned to my attention in the second half of this year and here is an act that I haven't seen live yet, but now I really want to. This five-piece is also from Dublin.
While this is the Dublin band's latest album I highly recommend its predecessor Redhills (2011) too. In both the American bluegrass/country influence is more apparent than it is on the above-mentioned work by Lynched.
This is 'Goldmine' from the LP Redhills.
Crossing the Atlantic I have already commented on my liking for The Newpart, which is the latest album from April Verch. As well as singing and playing fiddle she often provides clog-dancing accompaniment too. This Ottawa valley bluegrass is a distinct and seemingly thriving scene and I want to hear more of it. Next is the Seattle based duo, Charlie Beck and Charmaine Slaven, that is Squirrel Butter. The latest full length offering is this and it is heading deep into traditional and old-time territory.
A suitable place to end this long ramble is in the rolling Piedmont landscape of North Carolina with the music of acoustic string four-piece Mipso and this little gem of an LP.
The Oxford music scene is vibrant and nowhere more so than in the inter-related genres of folk, roots, bluegrass, and thus also the behemoth that is Americana. It is not so long since I mentioned Great Western Tears in that regard. This is another and the two are commonly found as part of the pop-up live performances known as Oxford Roots Rambles. Francis Pugh and The Whiskey Singers is a six-piece and the latest Roots Ramblin' event that took place yesterday evening also served to launch their EP 'A Place Back West'.
In the original tradition of EPs it has just three tracks - two originals and a cover in this case. These are they:
A Place Back West
I Saw The Light (Hank Williams)
You Can't Fix A Heart That's Been Broken
For all the downbeat lyricism of the first and last tracks the theme and the joyous music, including the combination of banjo and brass playing together, results in an effect that is entirely one of positivity in quest for the fabled 'sunlit uplands'. The other vital component is not only do these songs and the stories fully hold their places they are actually enhanced by the choice of the song that separates them. The inclusion of Hank Williams 1947-composed 'I Saw The Light' is interesting not only for its range of interpretation and the virtuosity of the playing displayed within it by the band, but also for its history.
It became, mostly through covers rather than Williams' own performance, a gospel-country standard and probably his best-recognised creation. In actual fact it was written about a comment that his mother made while driving the band back from a gig. 'The Light' in question was that emanating from Dannelly Field airport and it signalled that they were approaching their home town of Montgomery, AL.
I mentioned this forthcoming release here back in April and on Monday, following my return from Green Man Festival, it was waiting for me in my mailbox.
I was making preparations for my trip to Green Man Festival 2015 whilst idly listening to this-and- that and just simply trying to keep up with music. I didn't have plans to post anything between now and the start of next week. It only takes one track to totally derail a train and it doesn't matter which one.
It ranges from a Chinese song, Abigail speaks mandarin, to a cover of Europe's 'The Final Countdown' as a purely instrumental tune. What more could you ask? Except that possibly that you could stream it all, free and legally?
Well, courtesy of The Bluegrass Situation you can do exactly that and there is plenty more goodness to be found there, across all sorts of genres, to be discovered.
If you still want more clawhammer banjo from these two artists then here it is...
On the other hand this is exactly why I'm doing this. It is why I'm going to Green Man and then a couple of weeks later to End of The Road. It is why I'll try and stay out for fourteen hours a day, for three days in a row, listening to live music and trying to take photos of it. I want to do that.
You never know where the next thing will come from... This time it was a tip from a locally based band that have something of a bluegrass thing going on. Della Mae is an all female four-piece from Nashville, TN and while not entirely bluegrass there's plenty of that in the mix. The rest is traditional country and roots. This is actually their third LP and the band is on tour in the UK and mainland Europe at the moment too.
It was released by Rounder Records (distributed by Decca Records in some countries) on 10 July 2015.
The original compositions are quite on point but as it so happens it also includes a cover of 'To Ohio', which is one of my favourite tracks by The Low Anthem and from the 2008 LP 'Oh My God, Charlie Darwin'. It is pure speculation but I do wonder if this is something inspired by how Jocie Adams might have liked it to sound. Just thought that I'd mention that. Overall things can't get much better, except to say that now I need to see Della Mae live!
I'm going to stick with the American theme - it is 4th July after all - and The Honeycutters come from the Appalachian tradition that dates back to the earliest years.
The five-piece is fronted by songwriter, lead vocalist and sometime guitarist Amanda Platt and hails from Asheville, NC. This leads one to suspect a Blue Ridge influence and, to an extent, that is what you get here. One thing you most certainly do not get is manufactured Nashville country - it's homespun but with nice flourishes where they make a real difference. I suspect that they are not at all well known in the UK at the moment even though Me Oh My is their third album. On the other hand with the fast changing relationship between the US and UK in terms of folk/roots/Americana the timing is nothing if not propitious.
The Honeycutters - Me Oh My (UK release - April 2015)
It is nothing ground breaking in style but that was not its mission. If it makes your corner of the world seem a little bit better or even just more understandable, then it has succeeded it the minds of it creators. If you like it then the 2012 LP 'When Bitter Met Sweet' might be worth a listen too. It is also worth mentioning that, as someone who regards lyrics as important, I like this for that reason too. I can imagine them sung in a English, Scottish or Welsh accent and (without the pedal steel, possibly a fiddle might come in handy) they would seem every bit as plausible.
This became a topic, off-line, yesterday evening. How are 'folk', 'roots' 'bluegrass' and others actually defined? Indeed are there any clear boundaries at all, when it comes to what may, or may not be included? This is a topic that I just know could run forever. It came back to mind just now as I am thinking about, and listening to, the 2014 recorded music I have acquired. Here's a picture of the first tranche (and yes, that is an Island 'pink label' on a 2014 vinyl release)...
It has also made me consider that which I wish to listen to or more problematically regret having missed live, which is a matter of self-questioning. Above all this, however, it throws up a wider metaphysical question. Why do we tend to favour the process of 'classification' and why is such comfort gained by associating the very diversity (which we also tend to like) of things with a rather small number of 'boxes' in which we aim to 'put' them? Digital devices are all very good for making and storing lists, assuming we are organised enough to store the stuff on them. Digital devices don't argue about the lists we chose to inflict on them and as an example I can find no reliable report of a digital device that has unilaterally declared that it can't abide U2. Amazon's algorithm is quite good at suggesting things that I might like but not because it knows me and how I think. It simply knows about other people and what they have purchased or browsed and therefore, indirectly, how they think. What digital networks are not yet any good at is what humans are innately good at. That is spotting apparently curious connections or comparisons that are not within any logically associated domain but which very often our fellow humans can relate to. We humans do so endlessly, much to our mutual delight and annoyance. This is where we get to the arguing part of it. Folk/roots music does not work by rules - it evolves and it does so unpredictably. That is important because if that were not so then it would be a dinosaur. There would be nothing new, original and incisive about it. When Bob Dylan was pilloried for going electric others such as Fairport Convention took the idea and ran with it. It was ever thus. One other important point is that until quite recently folk/roots music was seen at best to be a minor genre managing decline as best it could. In a few years, and due to changing technology as much as changing taste, that concept has altered quite remarkably. It is now possible to record and release music without the expenditure, in equipment, facilities or even travel and other sundries such as it recently was. It is true that many fine labels - Topic Records and Fellside Recordings being just two that spring to mind - had continued to release such music and while it is most certainly still not easy to make even a modest living from it, the balance of power has shifted and also in another very important way - the traffic in folk/roots/Americana has also become fully fledged two-way traffic as the often perceived insularity has broken down.
There are some instruments that have evolved to belong, even though until quite recently they did not. Bouzouki is an instrument from Asia Minor. By the early 20th century it had migrated and evolved and was found in music of the Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. One of the first, and the best known to introduce it to Celtic folk music was Dónal Lunny of Planxty. The band spent time behind the Iron Curtain in the early 1970s and this is reflected in several tracks on the 1974 album 'Cold Blow and The Rainy Night', to which I am listening as I write. Also on the album are several other songs that do not come directly from the UK or Irish folk canon - The Lakes of Pontchartrain and The Green Fields of Canada being two of them. There are several others that are not native to UK folk but I'd find to argue that they are no longer assimilated, to all intents and purposes. Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are at the top of their game, winning best duo at the BBC Folk Awards 2014, and they headline North Dorset Folk Festival this coming Saturday. They extensively play two instruments that do not feature in the traditional folk canon. Hannah, as well as playing awesome fiddle, is a mean banjo player. Quite when it arrived in UK folk I don't know but it is an essential of bluegrass and also Appalachian 'old time' music, especially when played clawhammer (that is with the back of the fingernails rather than traditionally plucked) in the latter case. Phillip is an amazing resonator guitar player and this instrument although probably of Hawaiian origin entered popular music in the early 1920s via Jazz as it was loud enough to compete (unamplified) with the brass section. Often simply known as dobro this is a brand - it is exactly like calling all generic vacuum cleaners hoovers. Any which way the instrument quickly became a feature of both blues and bluegrass too, as they spread north up the Mississippi. Another Hawaiian instrument to gain traction, because of its general versatility is the ukulele. In all cases these instruments were readily adopted because they were very usable within the existing structure but also bought with them new possibilities. Not everyone welcomed these developments, that much is certain, but this is what a living tradition needs to do to flourish. The fast changing USA absorbed and developed all these influences, including those that came from Africa, whether via the Carribean, south and central America or simply directly and new dimensions took shape. Inevitably the result was exported once again. There would have been no British blues, in the mould of Free and early Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, had that not happened. An interesting corollary to this is 'Black Magic Woman' - the Carlos Santana version (1970) is so well known that it is often forgotten that it is a cover of a 1968 Peter Green original (but only a single and then only released in the UK). It appeared on the Santana album 'Abraxas' by which time it had acquired new parts influenced by traditional eastern European Roma music and also Latin american rhythm. Plenty of the eastern European tradition had also made its way west across the Atlantic and that is evident in much bluegrass and Appalachian fiddle music. So where does this find us? In a whirlpool that none of us had imagined, I rather think! I shall continue in a new post if only because Blogger tells me that I can't add any more 'labels' to this one! What is more, come this weekend I will also have a whole lot of live music to write about and, if I have my way, plenty of photos to go with that. I can't wait.
Yesterday evening I thought it might be time to start October as I mean to go on, with live music. I have been intending to see a full set from Bath-based Carrivick Sisters for far too long and The Lights, a small council run arts venue in Andover, is barely an hour down the road. With its adjacent free parking and easy access from home it is less trouble than attending an event in Bath and, even more so, Bristol. Yesterday the sisters; Charlotte (guitar, banjo and mandolin) and Laura (fiddle, dobro and guitar) were joined by John Breeze on bass. They started the set without John singing 'You'll Miss Her When You're Gone' a capella.
The balance of their extensive set, which in the absence of a support act was divided in to two parts, featured songs from their most recent LP 'Over The Edge' 2013 with a couple of traditional songs (most LP songs are self-penned) and a couple from 2011 LP 'From The Fields' including sing-a-long encore 'Today Is A Good Day'.
The sisters sing harmony vocals as well as share lead vocal duties.
They finished the set with a tune, 'Pig In The Middle'.
Much as I like my music in a physical format, sometimes vinyl, I have to say that (legal) download and the internet has the huge bonus of immediacy sometimes. This EP is a great example of that. There is probably no physical release and its digital release was only yesterday.
My attention was bought to it by Folk Radio UK and it is one of the most stunning pieces of Americana that I have heard all year. That isn't for a lack of such things. If you like Carrivick Sisters or their more expansive outlet Cardboard Fox then likely you will covet this and, at seven tracks it is more of a mini-album. It is available to download here (in almost any format) and I chose MP3 320. It costs from $4 but that seems so mean when a pint of beer costs more than that and I know I will, indeed probably already have, got more enjoyment from it.
The three young women hail not from the perceived home-ground of Americana or bluegrass rather from Gunnison in the high mountains of Western Colorado but don't let that put you off, and not least for the other sounds that they bring to bear.
This is 'Iridology', the third track on the EP and one that has touches of gypsy fiddle on it. Given the status that folk, roots and Americana is currently enjoying in Europe don't be at all surprised to see them touring over here in the coming year.
One thing that really appeals to me about End of The Road Festival is the chances it offers to see new music. I mean that - new - in a variety of senses; some of it simply entirely new to me, some new to me live and some about which I am aware (or was aware of) but have subsequently forgotten to follow up. I really haven't any preconceptions about how this post will unfold, hence this preamble! I'm not even sure how or where to start. Indeed I have only written this in order to commit myself to actually writing it... I'm going to have my dinner first and then, somehow or other, get going on this. One thing that is quite certain is that it simply won't work in any festival time-line way. This is what I decided to start with and for a rather strange reason - listening to a 2010 UK modern-folk album 'One Light Is Gone' by Josienne Clarke. The reason being that when I heard Hurray For The Riff Raff (live, it so happened) for the first time it had the same impact that hearing the aforementioned album did: that is the admonition-to-self - "WTF? Why didn't I already know about this?"
Hurray For The Riff Raff, Woods Stage, EOTR 2012 at 12:00, Sunday.
Suffice to say it was 'one of those moments' and that this is another band that I saw twice at EOTR 2012. I promptly purchased the 2012 album 'Look Out Mama', to which I am listening while writing. On reflection there are not many times that I have consciously found myself trying to work out lyrics to songs that I'm listening to live and hearing for the first time. When it happens three times, pertaining to totally different acts in the space of three days, it is becoming something of an addiction! It is likely to define the rest of this post. It became no secret that Alynda Lee Segarra and her band much prefer playing small venues in the early hours but the pictures above were both taken on the outdoor main stage just after mid-day...
OK folks. Fourteen hours later, on the Tipi Stage, 2am Monday!
If you think the story of the evolution of Hurray For The Riff Raff is convoluted than it is easily exceeded by that of the next...
Kai Welch and Abigail Washburn opening The Garden Stage on Saturday.
Bluegrass tunes, but sometimes ones with Mandarin Chinese lyrics.
This one was a case in point.
Whilst she explained the bones of how this apparently odd but actually extremely likeable combination, at least to my ears, came about there is a fuller history to be found here.
The article finishes like this...
" [She played] a recently written murder ballad, her delicate frame dwarfed by the surreal dimensions of the cello banjo.
"It's a cut that didn't make the album [City of Refuge] because the producer thought it was too morbid," she explains. "But all the old-time tunes have a female victim. I thought 'How about writing a song which gives the girl a gun for a change?' "
She did not have the 'cello banjo at EOTR but she played the song nevertheless, with Kai Welch on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and the whole set was a highlight of the weekend - if only one amongst many. That only goes to show just how strong and yet diverse End Of The Road Festival actually is.
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