Jill Jackson - Lullaby - lyric

Thank you to whosoever asked about this just a few minutes ago.
 
I'm on the case already because I've been intending to post the lyrics from the rest of the songs from this album for absolutely ages. I hope to have those for 'Lullaby' by the end of tomorrow evening.

Lullaby
There was a boy and girl
Living in a shadowed world
The girl has gotten sick
Nothing they can do for it
She slowly passed away
On a cold November day

Held on to her hand
Felt like half a man
He sang her a lullaby
I'll meet you on the other side
 
This is not our last goodbye
'Cause you are my life
For him it was too much
To try pick the pieces up
Found it hard to beat
They found him down on his knees
 

His house was not a home
He could not live alone
Life was just too hard
He died of a broken heart
 
And he sang her a lullaby
When they met on the other side
Said we'll never say another goodbye
'Cause love has no time
For we are inseparable
What we have is beautiful
 
And nothing else mattered before
Just you and I - promise you
Promise me If I go before you
You would know I'd sing you a lullaby
 
I'd meet you on the other side
We'd never say another goodbye
'Cause you are my life
We are inseparable
What we have is beautiful
Nothing else matters at all.

Just you and I.


I hope that I haven't made too many mistakes. This is one album I suspect that I will never tire of. I still listen to it frequently, although I would baulk at paying the Amazon.co.uk price of £44.99 for a CD version. The d/l price is more reasonable; then again so is a CD from the lovely folks at www.cdbaby.com and if you like this then they could point you in the direction of plenty more artists that might be of interest.
 
Other Jill Jackson lyrics:
Fragile Heart
Rain On My Window
 
Now that I have done the last three of the ten album tracks, of which Lullaby has proven the most taxing, I'm inspired to do the other seven. When I have I shall perhaps reward myself by buying the 2010 Painted Faces EP.  She is on tour in the UK in the next few weeks but many of the gigs in Scotland are already sold out...

Jill Jackson live in 2010.

 A new album in 2011 too; that deserves a blog-post all of its own as soon as I know more.  On the Painted Faces EP (CD only) she swaps her acoustic guitar (above) for ukelele. Three are new tracks while the other two are stripped back versions of older ones and I'm not going to tell you which. Painted Faces is available from CDbaby for $10 plus the shipping charges for the appropriate location.

Britpop revived: Live with little comment.

• Blur reunited - check.
• Suede reunited - check.

Today Pulp announced their return...  at least for one day in Hyde Park in July 2011.

Jarvis Cocker, comedian and musician, live at Latitude 2007 and quite unforgettable.

Note added November 18, 2010:

We now have confirmation the the above mentioned reunion of all six original members of Pulp is not a one-off: the band is confirmed for Isle of Wight Festival 2011 the tickets for which have now gone on sale.

New Music 2011 - Part 2 - (eponymously) Yuck

As I suggested a while back the début album by UK/US/Japanese band Yuck is to be titled exactly that. It is such a good name for both band and, by extension, not using it for the album would seem contrary.
It is due for release on January 10, 2011 and is a worthy topic of my second post concerning new music to which I am looking forward in 2011, which is not to say that I have lost hope for more worthy of comment in 2010.


I have seen Yuck live twice this year, so I feel able to comment, and on both occasions found them impressive which provides a link between this year and next.
This had many hallmarks of music that in all probability I would like.  I was truly impressed, to the point that what might have been an anticlimax exceeded any expectation that I had. More telling, perhaps, is the tenor of the comments that I overheard, or have received since then, by those who heard them with no preconceptions whatsoever, in some cases not even having any prior knowledge of their existence. 
There have been a couple of tantalizing releases to date:

This one, which was a limited cassette-only physical release (!) is, hence the parentheses, a stripped back, acoustic incarnation of Yu(c)k. I don't have this, nor currently any viable equipment on which to play cassettes, but it may still be available to download from the band's blog [I'll look in to that and report back].
There is also a three-track a 12" vinyl EP 'Rubber' that was released in October, 2010.

With the benefit of hindsight and reflection on my part, and in the light of this wider observation, they should be well worth watching and listening to in 2011.


Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 1  --- Esben and The Witch
Part 3  --- Duke Spirit
Part 4  --- Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team
Part 6  ---  Rhosyn
Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo

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

Apologies...

Loads to write but ISP issues currently make that almost impossible.  I hope to fill the gaps very soon...


Note added November 9, 2010:
Well at least the ISP seems to be back behaving once again. Watch this space.

New Music 2010 #22 - Trash Kit - mayhem matters.

This may be one of the stranger posts of the year.  I've said before that I'm quite happy to buy new music without having previously heard any of it.  This falls in to that category. A few months ago I mentioned, and even posted about, Brighton's 'Help She Can't Swim' (HSCS) from a few years back. Further investigations lead me to the conclusion that it/they are no more - lost at sea, presumably? What is more, and perhaps even worse, is that fellow (former) Brightonians Electrelane seem to have disbanded too.  If you know something different about any of this then please just let me know!


Anyway, and for some reason, it came to my attention that Trash Kit's eponymous 2010 album might fix a gap and that amazon.co.uk were almost giving it away (£2.99 - with free delivery - but no longer it would seem). It arrived here this morning and it is destined to mess with Halloween quite gloriously!

I've got tomorrow's play list pretty much done but it is a bit heavy on long, brooding, and often largely instrumental, songs.  Rather like HSCS, Trash Kit doesn't do long drawn out songs but on the other hand is not quite so shouty (well just maybe). Be that as it may this takes some feat of précis - the album is composed of seventeen tracks but runs to just 27:48 in total.  Only five tracks exceed two minutes while track 9, the positively languid Natascha, exceeds three but not by much. Brevity can be a virtue and in this case, as with HSCS, it is.
Ros Murray (of Electrelane) plays bass throughout here whilst Verity Susman, also of Electrelane, plays saxophone on three tracks. Rachel Horwood sings and also plays drums throughout, while Rachel Aggs sings and plays either guitar or violin.
This is certainly no case of brevity for the sake of getting it over with. I like this album; in fact I like it a great deal.
It is Upset! The Rhythm UTR036.  They blog too: http://trashkitrules.blogspot.com/


The links below feature comment on Electrelane or members thereof:

• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2008/03/listening-today-not-new-and-without.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2007/04/one-shout-very-good-call.html
• http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/07/music-i-want-in-2009-part-9-new.html

I'm now reminded of another Brighton-based, at least in part, band that I feared may be no more. It is one that I have seen live and I now know that this is not true. Their third album is due in early 2011.

New Music 2011 - Part 1 - Violet Cries

Hot off the press is the début album by Esben and The Witch: Violet Cries will be released in the UK/EU on January 31, 2011 and in the US/rest of the world on February 8, 2011.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Argyria
2. Marching Song
3. Marine Fields Glow
4. Light Streams
5. Hexagons iv
6. Chorea
7. Warpath
8. Battlecry/Mimicry
9. Eumenides
10. Swan

The most recent update is this (November, 18): Matador Records have now confirmed that the album will be released on vinyl (as well as CD and d/l) and just imagine how good will that look.

On the evening of the day of the UK release they are already confirmed as playing The Louisiana, Bristol. This is the first of eight dates around the UK which are then followed by eight in western parts of Europe, winding up at Point Ephemere, Paris on 21, February.

Sign up to the mailing list at http://www.esbenandthewitch.co.uk/ and you can download the mp3 of 'Warpath' for nothing. It is Halloween this coming weekend and things are getting better already...
In that regard I think that I failed to mention that the sole track on the second side of recent 12" EP 'Marching Song' is spooky and also rather appropriate in these parts of Somerset bordering 'Hardy Country': it doesn't let you get away quickly either for 'Done Because We Are Too Menny' runs to well over eleven minutes of smouldering menace.  Never mind just scaring the kids...

For more about 'Esben and The Witch' see here:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/10/warpaint-marching-songs-new-music-2010.html
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-4-esben-and.html


Further posts on New Music 2011:
Part 2  --- Yuck
Part 3  --- Duke Spirit
Part 4  --- Low Anthem
Part 5  ---  Go!Team
Part 6  ---  Rhosyn
Part 7  ---  Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo
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

Why music really matters (Part 3) - just because it does.

I've seen and heard a great deal of new music in 2010 and for that I am extremely thankful.  When it comes to taking stock, for the season of those end-of-year lists is fast approaching, it makes life challenging but also great fun.
What I find hardest to understand let alone to explain to others is why I like the music I do (and not that I don't) and why it changes.  On a day-by-day-basis I'm fine with it - just fits the mood or some other largely random trigger, such as hearing something played on the radio that brings back a particular time or memory.
It is the longer term trends, particularly the way I feel about music and the associated changes that I'm less certain about.  That is a shame because, in a deeper sense, I think this is the more fascinating aspect for it also begs the implicit question: "What is it about music, taken in all its forms, that makes it have such universal importance to human-kind?"  If it were simply an ephemeral pleasure I doubt it could invoke such passion and sometimes vehement disagreement.
The earlier posts are here:
Why Music Really Matters (Part 2)
Why Music Really Matters


I seem to have gone all philosophical on you, dear readers, but I am not going to apologise.  It also shows just how little, even now, we understand the detailed processes of the human brain that underlie culture in the broadest sense.
If this just sends you running for a copy of 'Steps - Gold' then it only serves to my illustrate my point but, equally, I must never judge you on your choices...


To lighten proceedings I'll add a few more pictures and thoughts from the last couple of years.  They will, of couse, be subject to my own bias in such matters...


This first artist, who I saw at EOTR 2010 (by the way the remainder of the tickets for EOTR 2011 are now on sale) has already been mentioned here.

Just testing: Jessica Lea Mayfield had to put her guitar back in tune and, as she was playing solo, bantered with the audience to fill the void in the performance.
I have found myself listening to the album 'With Blasphemy So Heartfelt' more and more in the last couple of months.  Her second album, slated for release in spring 2011, will be interesting indeed and she played a couple of tracks from it in this set.


One of the first artists I saw at Latitude 2007, on the Lake Stage on the Friday, was Cate Le Bon (no relation to Duran Duran's Simon, by the way).  It was her first festival performance and, to all intents and purposes, my first as a member of the crowd.  I have pictures that I took then and the crowd was numbered in dozens.  We crossed paths again at EOTR 2010 and it made me realise that I should have included (the much delayed) album 'Me Oh My' in my 2009 ' best-of' list.

Cate Le Bon played the (main) Garden Stage at EOTR 2010 on Friday afternoon.
Her first attempt at an album, 'Pet Deaths' was abandoned. In the meantime she released a 7" single, 'Can't Drag Me Down' and Welsh language 10" EP ' Edrych Yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg'.

No complaints from the crowd of, I estimate, well the right side of a thousand.

If we can't work out the science it does not detract from the experience. Music matters because it does and why should we feel the need to justify that?

My day has just been made...

Listening to BBC Radio 1 just now, on a Sunday afternoon after a bit of gardening, Jo Whiley played 'Be My Animal', by Newbury's  The Good Natured and deserves recognition for that:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-5-good-natured.htm

Not gone away; just taking stock of 2010.

Well I intend to write more this weekend but I haven't been idle in the meantime.  I've been trawling through all those mostly useless photos that I have taken during 2010 and also some of those from earlier festivals if and when they are still of relevance.  Sometimes I miss worthwhile ones by mistake and others become more (or less) relevant with the passage of time.
This is a recent one, taken at Latitude 2010, of a band that is of ever increasing prominence and one that is coming towards the end of a month touring the US.  This is Esben and The Witch.  The EP, available now, is Marching Song.

More live pictures to follow soon and, hopefully, also plenty more thoughts on new and/or upcoming music too.  Returning UK artists include several that I have mentioned before, including The Duke Spirit.
If there is one grain of comfort in today's 'Spending Review' it is that the London Crossrail project goes ahead: it has already resulted in the demise of the 'Astoria'.  It was a venue of Great British character - all sticky floors and heritage facilities.  You can decide which was to be found where but to be honest you'll almost certainly be right regardless, and the essence of long-faded grandeur pervaded all parts of it. The last band I saw play there was 'The Duke Spirit' and that was back in May 2005.

New Music 2010 #21 - Youth is the future of music

The reason I started this post is more 'Thoughts On Music' than you might suspect.

At the end of the week just gone Rob Dickins, former head of Warner music UK, suggested one possible solution to the complex problems that have resulted in rampant illegal downloading.  It is a very divisive suggestion, but I don't think that it makes it any less worthy of consideration.  That he presided over the rip-off years, when new CDs were £13+, is a fair criticism indeed: on the other hand the converted can become the most evangelical and also the most successfully so.
The fact of the matter is that, whatever I think in the week that Sir Cliff Richard turned 70, we are not the ones that dictate the future direction of music.  To be quite honest I'm fine about that: I am happy listening and doing some inconsequential reportage. The future is more like this and it belongs to the young.

Amplified Silence - Acoustic+, Frome, 15 October 2010.

Nancy Black, Acoustic+, Frome, 17 September 2010

Everyone is just going to have to become used to it but that is not to say that it will come as a nasty shock.  They may never sign to a major label - for there may no longer even be such things - but there will still be music; of that I'm pretty sure.

Warpaint & Marching Songs - New Music 2010 #20

If the title appears a little bellicose then fear not; all they have in mind is to take your heart and soul by virtue of their music alone. In these shortening days and colder nights, how could you not want that?
This is music for dark nights, warm sustenance and, perchance, much of what follows might well be amongst my listening suggestion for Halloween. I saw Esben and The Witch live on a sunny summer's afternoon in Suffolk and even then the laid-back festival vibe could not detract from the fact that this is essentially slightly menacing music. The band name is taken from a rather dark Danish folk tale... They have been signed to Matador Records since then and the Marching Song EP is their first true label release.

The band is currently mid-way through a month-long tour of the US , including and a quick trip north of the 49th to Vancouver with Cassandra (that is their trusty tour van - 6000 miles and counting), in support of Foals.  The EP is readily available on legal d/l from the usual sources.  There are also 300 12" vinyl copies out there, available from independent stores; if you want one try Rough Trade.


There is a certain irony in that while Esben and The Witch is doing this Warpaint, that hail from Los Angeles, is in the UK doing pretty much the same kind of thing. The distances are far smaller, of course, but the idea behind it is much the same.  This, I think, just goes to show the remarkable synergy that now exists between UK and North American music and long may it continue.
This is the vinyl EP 'Exquite Corpse', although you can also have it in other formats too.

Warpaint is a psych-rock four-piece that has been flicking tantalizing sparks into the wind for a long time now  - any number of line up changes and very few gigs - but it is starting to become clear that this long apprenticeship is about to reap a just reward.
The release of their début album 'The Fool' is imminent - it is expected to be 25 October in the UK - and this too is available on vinyl, CD and d/l.

     If you want an alternative take on Halloween 2010 then please do consider all these as contenders.

Warpaint are in fact signed to Rough Trade Records (in the UK at least) so I expect that there might well be a bonus disc if you buy from Rough Trade (their stores or on-line) once it is released. I can't make any promises but they do however have a solid history in this regard: support independent artists, labels and stores - your music needs you just as much as you need it!

Ain't Nobody - Clare Maguire

It is time to tackle lyrics again and this is one that has proven to be harder than most.  It is also one that I have wanted to do more than most; ever since I saw it performed live in front of a public audience for the very first time almost three months ago.  The usual caveats apply but here goes regardless.


Ain't Nobody
Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

Open up your torment
And bury me inside
I can see us changing
Like the seasons over time
The silver old river
Reflections of your love
Tell me in the silence
You'll never come undone.

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)

The shadows are falling
Tomorrow's closing in
Stay with me till morning
And open up your wings
I can hear your whispers
Calling out my name
Will you promise me that
We'll steal the night again?

Ain't nobody, hey,
can love me like you do (x4)


Meet me in the red sky
And dance with me
Let the valley change you
And the night set you free
It's dusk in the desert
It's heaven at the gates
You are my desire
You are my escape.


For what I have gotten wrong I am sorry.  On the up-side, I hope at least something is better than nothing!  These lyrics are the best that I can divine from her live performance of it, as recorded in the BBC Maida Vale studios today. It is released as a single on 18 October in the UK.

For more pictures of Clare Maguire, live at Latitude 2010, see here:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-least-latitude-part-3-clare-maguire.html

The album 'Light After Dark' is released (UK) on February 28, 2011.

Whither next? New Music 2010 - Part 19

After a week away from posting, but certainly not listening or reading, this will likely be a rather hybrid post.  It is in some ways driven by my ongoing infatuation with the music that has made 2010 worthwhile for me. I can and will mention much more of that but, while thinking about it, I have started to think a bit more about what the next twelve months might bring.  These are just very first thoughts and they may quite likely change, and possibly more than once, before I feel that I am willing to comment decisively as the year-end approaches. That said, and however it develops between now and then, the prospect does not depress me at all...
It will, I think, continue to be a very interesting ride and here are a couple of tracks, making the rounds now, that hint at just some of what might be in store.

• James Blake  - 'Limit To Your Love'.   This is in fact a cover version - of a song by Canadian artist Feist who I really rate in any case.  The spare beauty of this interpretation is quite astounding --- not least for the haunting silences.  It is another that I must add to my list of astonishing cover versions, and dangerously risky ones at that, but again it is one that works beautifully.
• Sleigh Bells - continuing the Brooklyn electro-whatever theme of the last few years  - will make an impact with their album 'Treats' (already released) and I expect to see them on the bill at Latitude 2011. Where you get into this really depends on your current perspective, which will also be a theme in 2011 I believe. If you want the rock-influenced, and it is little more than that, then Infinity Guitars, the current single, would be no bad place to start. On the other hand you would never have imagined that they would ever become Sleigh Bells, given the members' utterly disparate previous band history.  On careful listening, and even then perhaps only if you already know, it is just possibly less difficult to comprehend!
• Rock music - well surely, in some or all of its variety, it is due something of a come-back? It might not be on my terms, or yours, but sooner or later it will return.  I'm fascinated by two apparently different bands, both of which however share something derived from Seattle grunge even if it is used in different ways.  In other ways they could hardly appear to have less in common - Dinosaur Pile-up is four lads from Leeds and Los Angeles' Warpaint is an all-female four-piece - but you should never pay much attention to detail such as that...

I suspect that this is not even going to be a fraction of one half-of-it!

The Low Anthem - EOTR 2010 - Part 5

As it was at the End Of The Road 2009, so it was at the End Of The Road 2010.
While they hail from Providence RI, the band seems to have adopted Larmer Tree Gardens as their second home and they are seemingly busier, and certainly better, than ever. They appeared, often in part and/or with others, in many places and many guises.

These pictures are simply The Low Anthem using instruments as is their voluble wont.

A particularly notable other was former Low Anthem band-member Daniel Lefkowitz, who also performed his own live material in a separate set: there is clearly no hard feeling on either side and that is amply attested by the production credits on his forthcoming début solo album.

In addition to such obvious favourites as 'Charlie Darwin', 'Ticket Taker' and 'To The Ghosts Who Write History Books', they performed a rousing version of  'This God Damn House', a song that he wrote when he was a member of the band.
Equally interesting were the songs-as-yet-unreleased. In part at least, and this is no secret it would seem, destined for the forthcoming third album. I thought that they sounded good.
Far be it from me to even try and second-guess what the album might sound like - The Low Anthem is far too talented and unpredictable for that - but on the other hand I'd wager that whatever it turns out to be I'll like it nonetheless.

With Blasphemy So Heartfelt - EOTR 2010 - Part 4

When, some six months ago, I was reading the growing list of confirmed artists for End Of The Road 2010 (EOTR 2010) this was yet another from the US that made me wonder, and then realize, just how music of this genre is experiencing a surge in popularity here in the UK.  I had intended to get the album 'With Blasphemy So Heartfelt' but for one reason or another it slipped my mind.
Once I saw the full running order of acts, just a few weeks ago, it leapt back into my consciousness but rather than buy the album I determined to see her perform live first.  This was in direct contrast to Caitlin Rose, for example, as I had bought 'Own Side Now' a few weeks before EOTR.  In retrospect I don't think it makes much difference - I enjoyed both artists live and also like both the albums - though the perspective, and perhaps expectation, is subtly different if one hears an artist live before hearing anything that they have recorded.
One thing to mention: this is not remotely uplifting song writing. She actually said her own music makes her sad and that she wasn't born to write cheerful songs.  
That it not to say that one should only listen to them at times of euphoria; indeed they might then seem a little out of place. They could, however, find a welcome in the heart of anyone feeling down-on-their-luck for whatever reason.

The slogan on her cap very succinctly carries the theme.

The sense of loss, and sometimes loneliness, was enhanced by the fact that what you see above is the whole set-up.  The drum kit is a merely a reminder of that which had come before - the atmospheric and warm folk-electronica of the aptly-named five-piece Fuzzy Lights that I had also seen. The contrast was a good example of just how an artist can set the tone for the performance and hence the audience.

She performed the whole set accompanying herself on acoustic guitar.  It was some experience and one that is difficult to describe - often brittle and confessional but never something irretrievably depressive. I can only imagine that it is a fine line to tread.  You might say that this is something calculated, even manufactured, but my inclination is to think that it is nothing of the kind.  If I'm wrong then so be it; an even more remarkable achievement would be to feign it so convincingly.

She also revealed that she had just completed the recording of her second record 'Tell Me' due sometime in early spring 2011 if all goes according to plan, and that has to be worth the anticipation. I have seen a fair number of live performances in 2010 and I'm fortunate in that many of them have been very good indeed.  When, in a couple of months time, I try making choices about the most impressive of those that I have seen this is one that will certainly still be in my mind.

Smoke Fairies - EOTR 2010 - Part 3

Note added November 10. 2010:

UK tour dates in January & early February 2010 now on sale.

Now call me obsessive if you like - I know that I can deal with it - and as regular readers might well have noticed 'Smoke Fairies' have appeared in my posts on several occasions over the last few years.  I had seen them live two or three times before, most recently in the Film & Music tent at Latitude 2009, but this was their first time at EOTR. They were on The Garden Stage at 14:15 on a glorious, sunny Sunday afternoon.  The day's proceedings had been commenced by Rough Trade artist Dylan LeBlanc, who was also excellent.

Me, watching you, watching Dylan LeBlanc...

Surreal it is --- probably only EOTR lends itself to this.

Jessica Davies and Katharine Blamire met on their first day at secondary school in Eastbourne and soon discovered a shared love of music. Since then it has taken them to places as far afield as New Orleans for extended periods - Jessica now frequently plays slide guitar as a result I suspect (as she is doing in the image below) - which adds much to their sound and Vancouver and it all shows on the album Through Low Light and Trees.

On this occasion they also had pedal-steel guitar, bass and drums to accompany them.  Some that I talked to afterwards were of the opinion that it distracted from their fundamental sound; I appreciate where they are coming from but my own opinion is that it worked out quite well on a larger stage.

     Through Low Light and Trees, the album, is simply fantastic: a perfect foil for fall.

North-eastern folk - EOTR - Part 2

I saw a trio of acts that fall in to this general category last weekend and of them I have already mentioned 'Lanterns On The Lake' briefly.  The other two were arguably more traditional even if much of the material was new or at least recent.
I saw a very small part of 'The Unthanks' set at Latitude 2010 and was banking on seeing the full set at EOTR 2010.  This avoided clashes between artists I wanted to catch at Latitude and also it struck me that the Garden Stage at EOTR would be a more suitable setting than the Obelisk Stage at Latitude.  I was lucky - the weather was glorious last Saturday afternoon - in that I made exactly the right decision back in July.

This performance was indubitably one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

 It wasn't a weekend short of highlights, that is for certain.

In some ways they are iconic as regards the popularity of music that is folk and folk-influenced; something which currently commands currency on both sides of the Atlantic.  It is all part of a fascinating dichotomy in music today.

Here is a thought: I doubt that few of the crowd watching this were anything other than quite conversant with music from the likes of Eminem, Lady GaGa and Scissor Sisters -  yet they could also sing 'Here's The Tender Coming' back to The Unthanks when invited to do so.
Last, but certainly not least, Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell performed in the Tipi Tent earlier the same afternoon and I was very glad that I caught that set too.  This set was very well attended, as indeed were all those that I attended in the two smaller venues.  This explains why both the Tipi and Local stages have been significantly enhanced in capacity since EOTR 2009.

Lucy Farrell & Jonny Kearney, Tipi Stage, EOTR 2010, on Saturday afternoon.

EOTR is the kind of place where, should you wish, you can chat (with hitherto complete strangers) about musical influences, chord progressions and signature time changes and no-one will think it strange at all.  Equally improbably, can you imagine GaGa performing in muddy wellies that look as though they might be in daily and not just festival-only use?  It must have been a fashion statement as waterproof footwear was happily quite unnecessary at EOTR 2010.

Acoustic+ 17 September 2010

Time to stand back from EOTR and the festival scene for at least this one post.  Frome has a very active music environment of its own and one of the planks of that is an (approximately) monthly event called Acoustic+.  The event takes place in the Cheese & Grain, a converted former market building in the centre of town, and typically consists of four artists (not always acoustic, it has to be said) each playing for 35 - 40 minutes.  Entry is £4; the venue has a café (until 9pm) and a bar serving Milk Street Brewery's splendid beer (all evening).  For those of you lucky enough to be at End Of The Road 2010 (EOTR) last weekend you might already have discovered that as 'Funky Monkey' and 'Cobble Wobble', both Milk Street brews, featured in The Black Crow's (rather successful) first beer festival!
Anyway, the music at Acoustic+ is pretty varied and yesterday evening was launched by a set from Mpe-asem.

The band members are local but the music, and the instruments, most certainly are not.  This music, presumably originally intended for dancing, was entirely acoustic, instrumental and percussive. Some of it was original, some unashamedly derivative, but all of it based on the traditional music and instruments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.  If you thought xylophones were simple instruments, for use at elementary school, these require a major re-examination of that concept!  The microphones are not close to them and it does not matter - they are loud in their own, un-amplified, being, which is important as in their traditional environment there would be no external amplification.  Beneath the bars are dried gourds, with holes cut in them, that act as sound boxes.  If I had a little more foresight then I would have asked to take a picture or two of the underside of these instruments when they were being carried off stage. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!?


Next, and this shows how Acoustic+ functions in a telling way, was Bristolian singer-songwriter Daisy Chapman.  She did her set solo - just singing accompanied by herself on electric keyboard - but she also used a trick.

The trick in question - and she did it very subtly - is to record oneself live and then loop it as backing. In a wider sphere, and notable as she is just about to release her third album, KT Tunstall is particularly good at this, often using multiple loops at the same time.
In a way something I wrote is coming back to haunt me: luckily only in a good way. I said that some songs are almost too dangerous/sacred for a cover version.  I am absolutely delighted to have been wrong - and twice in just five days - and this time it was Daisy Chapman's cover of Rihanna's 'Umbrella', with judicious use of the above-mentioned effects!


To be fair, and I'm not really being so here, Y?4 didn't really do very much for me. I feel a bit like Simon Cowell - minus the pay but at least he is older than me - saying that.  Quite listenable-to? Yes, very much so, just not particularly special. Perhaps that is merely the inevitable result of having seen so much, often rather special, live music in the last ten days?

Nancy Black @ Acoustic+  17 September 2010.

On the other hand this was amazing;  I could pigeon-hole her music influences if I really wanted to do so but, as it happens, I don't feel that it is necessary or helpful.

Misfortunes and Minor Victories - EOTR - Part 1

As I mentioned before I had not intended to comment on End of The Road 2010 until today at the earliest.  That the best laid plans founder is no surprise and, in this case, I'm thrilled by the way it has taken wings.  I wish I could mention everything that made it special for me in just one post but the truth is that I simply can't.  I haven't even looked at more than a third of the pictures that I took yet, but I'll get there!  What I will say is that I will mention the less well known acts as often as the better known ones.
Several people have searched for this one already and the band were particularly unlucky...


Lanterns On The Lake:
Their set, which as they stated at the time was for the largest audience to whom they had ever played, was tragically curtailed part way through the final song when the Tipi Tent (and adjacent facilities) suffered a total power failure.  That said, for as long as it lasted, they were a real stand-out act for me - one of those that made me realise that there is so much more to be heard.  I took pictures and, come the premature end of the set, I bought all three EPs that were available (not the sort of impulse purchase that I succumb to very often)...   Buying music after the first time of hearing can often be something of a mistake; when that hearing is live then it is even more dangerous but I did it anyhow.

This is just the first photo from that set I have got around to dealing with, in terms of  re-sizing etc.

I could however listen to those EPs all day, and all night too.

This is one reason why festivals matter so much, particularly if you are interested in live music: the artists that you know might very well be awesome but some of the ones you don't always are.  It is, all things considered, a lottery: one with a far higher yield than most.

Nine hours and gone...

This is what happened when EOTR 2011 'early bird' tickets went on sale this morning. There are some more, at 2010 prices, on offer now but limited again, but does this tell you something about how good EOTR 2010 actually was.  I have a 2011 ticket but I'm still just coming to terms with EOTR 2010 and the acts that I saw. This is just one little piece of the jigsaw.

Saturday: Caitlin Rose live on the Local stage @ EOTR 2010.

On Sunday, co-opted to the Big Top to replace the unavailable Steve Mason, she finished with two songs accompanied only by herself.  The first was her own song 'Shotgun Wedding', from the Dead Flowers EP, and the second was a headlong cover of 'Tomorrow is a Long Time'.  I've mentioned the dangers of cover versions before; played and heard live this Dylan song was a quite remarkable example of how it can be done.


Note added March 8, 2011 (and later):
Caitlin Rose is now confirmed to appear at EOTR 2011, Truck Festival 2011 and Latitude 2011. 

EOTR and The Pirates of Providence...

I wasn't planning to put a finger to the keyboard about EOTR 2010 until Wednesday at the earliest but you, whoever you are,  just got the better of me by asking the right question.
Low Anthem and friends in the Tipi Tent -  and so what's not to like!  My pictures aren't much good but since you asked here is one of them taken early on in the proceedings. 

This is just one of the many things that makes EOTR unique...

Drown Your Heart Again - New Music 2010 - Part 18

This really follows on from my post yesterday.  It is a discovery I made just days ago and somehow it seems a very appropriate one given the topics, as they pertain to my return to festival-going in 2007.

The Strange Death of Liberal England was one of the first bands that, until the moment they walked on stage, I was completely unaware of.

Here they are on the then 'Uncut Stage' at Latitude 2007 on Saturday. Starting in 2010 this is now sponsored by 'Word Magazine' but la plus ça change... 
They were the band that did not speak however - they just sung and played - hence the placards!  I thought over the last year or two that, for all their relevance in 2010 and not least as a rock band, they might have gone the same way as Liberal England.  I'm very glad to report that the Southsea band, it is actually a five-piece then and now, is still going strong.

Forward March! (2007) was a solid production even if it was slightly at odds with the prevailing trends at that time. I'm just thrilled to see that they are back and firing on all guns and I would like to see the band live once again.

The follow up could well prove to be an important step: bad times and good music are often contradictory in the sense that they are complementary.  The album is released (Republic of Music) on CD and d/l on 13 September 2010.