Hello summer - well sort of...

In the US at least Memorial Day seems to be regarded as the start of the summer season.
In the UK June 1st is the start of the Meteorological Summer and as the Festival Season starts so does the 'European Monsoon', which is not generally drastic but can, and often does, play havoc with festivals and particularly those that take place in June.
There is nothing we can do about it - this is simply the result of living on the windward edge of an ocean that has a vast continent to the east of it.
That said the UK hosts an astonishing number of festivals of all shapes, sizes and influences; the most famous is, of course, Glastonbury. I am not going to that, although it is just over a dozen miles away as the crow flies, and indeed I never even applied for a ticket. On the other hand I completed my festival bookings yesterday by adding one that, although now well established, I have never attended before.
Each year I aim to choose one that is new to me and last year that was Sunrise Festival, which was all of five miles away from home. There is a real frisson to attending a particular festival for the first time and that comes from not knowing the dynamic, be it the layout of the site, the audience or the presentation.
It is most pronounced whilst travelling there or that is how it seems to me. When I was driving to Latitude 2007 I was half-convinced that I would look at it and simply turn round and drive back home again. I guess that the price of the ticket and the length of the drive conspired against that. Once there it seemed exciting. Once I had pitched my tent, and I'm no stranger to camping, it started to seem more like a slightly strange version of normality.

In the meanwhile listen to this - the album streaming in toto - that I mentioned here, whilst you can.

It is available to download, in almost any file format you might wish for from Bandcamp, for £3.50, here.  That might lead you to suspect that this is just an EP or mini-album but, at twelve tracks not including Intro, this is almost 55 minutes long. There is also a very limited CD digipack available.

With the framework of my summer festivals booked I'm now starting to think about the acts at them that are my priorities, especially those that I am well aware of but have never seen live; Stornoway and Blood Red Shoes are two that both come to mind here.
The next task is to try and find out something about all the artists about which I know (next to) nothing. I always try to do this and as sure as hell I will change my plans once at the festival most often by word of mouth recommendations. This does not in itself render the endeavour invalid as it has great value when deciding what to do in the unenviable situation of not being able to be in two places at the same time. Other times I just decide to see something completely on a whim and that has led to some great discoveries too.

Before all that comes the first Behind The Castle Music Festival, a one-day festival that takes place on 14 June at Sherborne Castle, Dorset. Many of the artists on the programme I have seen live before and of those that I haven't I was well aware of. One that fell into neither category, but whom I have been listening to since, was Australian Lizzyspit. Her own songs are really strong but, more than that, she has the confidence to cover a song that is so well known in its original as to be a minefield:

Runaway's Diary - revisited!

To revisit an album on its day of release might seem a rather strange thing to do. Here is why I am doing it. I mentioned Runaway's Diary only a couple of months back. It was released only this week but Amazon has been bombarding me with the suggestion that I should buy it...
This was more correct than Amazon could know. I have had it for much of the last week, it cost slightly less but probably more of that went to the artist. Here it is (the digipack CD version).

It is signed too, but musically it is everything hoped for and that matters much more.

LaVere has over the course of her four solo LPs not been the most prolific of songwriters but when she does it tends to work well. Cupid's Arrow from the 2007 LP 'Anchors and Anvils' is a good case in point, but so is the title track. Rarely are they cheerful songs but that is of little consequence.
There are five on this disc and two co-writes with Tim Regan and they don't suffer by comparison with the four covers, one of which is Townes Van Zant's 'Where I Lead Me'. This also makes a point that I wish to raise, which is that like several other Americans of her generation, she is a fine interpreter of the songs of others. My first impression is that I like 'Runaway's Diary' more than the LP 'Stranger Me' (2011) that was released between these. I think however that I must now revisit that.
I never did get to the end of the lyric of the song Anchors and Anvils although I promised to. That's not a problem with Runaway's Diary as the CD comes with a lyric booklet.
Finally, you need to read a review written by somebody far more knowledgeable. The one that I proffer is this.

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.

New Music 2014 - Part 15 - Candy Says - Not Kings

Candy Says is the band that opened proceedings at Truck Festival 2013. Regular readers will already know the importance that I attach to seeing support acts and, in particular, festival openers. Here is Candy Says at Truck Festival last July:

Ten months down the line the début album 'Not Kings' is ready for release and, for lovers of pop-chic, here is a selection from it:

'Not Kings' is released on 28 May 2014 and is available in almost any format you could desire, including both vinyl and limited edition cassette tape. 

New Music 2014 - Part 14 - Bridie Jackson and The Arbour

Something else to listen to...  is a feature I have decided to add to the side-bar of my blog. It will be just a picture and a link. Yours to explore or not...
It is about music that is new, but not necessarily new in time or place. It might be something old that is new to me and perchance others too.
It will be at the top of the side-bar, except when some other event is featured there, and I'm intending to update it approximately weekly. I might, as I am now doing, expand my comments on it into a post. 

The first to appear here was a four-piece from Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Bridie Jackson and The Arbour. I had heard some songs on Amazing Radio but this official video was bought to my attention only very recently.

It is taken from their second self-released album, 'New Skin'. I want to hear and see them live.

Whilst on the subject of gritty Tyneside artistes, I get the impression that Beth Jeans Houghton and her co-conspirators are cooking up some new music too... and that can't come too soon.
#TBT  Go listen to 'Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose' (2012) and see her live with her band. Here is an example of that.  Now that I think about it I may possibly add a little gallery of the various performances that I have had the pleasure to witness over the last few years.

Just five weeks today Glastonbury Festival 2014 will be revving up and therefore I might mention that Bridie and The Arbour was the winner of the 'Glastonbury 2013 New Emerging Talent' competition.  Here's how the resulting visit to Worthy Farm panned out. 


Something else to listen to... has now moved on to pastures new - the rule is that you cannot be in both places at the same time - and back across the Atlantic, therefore more transatlanticism I suppose. Never fear, it shall return to these shores sooner than you know.

Live Music 2014 - Martin and Eliza Carthy

These are my thoughts on Saturday evening just gone, spent at The Cheese & Grain in Frome. I have long liked traditional folk music. Although that is no secret it was often one not mentioned in public, more kept to a circle of like-minded friends and family.
The support act was Amelia Orgill and The Teazle Folk Ensemble and my attempts at photography got off to a curious start.

I had no prior knowledge. I suspect they may not have seen themselves in a psychedelic light.

This was entirely down to a lack of forethought on my part although, looking on the bright side, less of a disaster than a flat battery. I had forgotten to reset my camera after using it outside in brilliant sunshine earlier in the day. It was nothing that, with a little thought and a pint of Milk Street Brewery '15' (it's just had a birthday!) on hand, I couldn't quickly overcome. Here is Amelia Orgill and The Teazle Folk Ensemble in the real world and indeed an unusual case of two bands that include father and daughter on the same bill.

I can't even start to imagine how terrifying this must have been. To open for one of the heroes of the first folk revival would be hard enough; add a heroine of the second and it is uncharted territory. I could hide, largely unseen, behind my camera whilst they could not and I was very aware of that. 
There is little that I can say about the Carthys other to say that it was a object lesson in traditional folk. The stories about the songs and where, by and from whom, they were collected might prove tedious to some --- too many tales of violent bailiffs, starvation and mining disasters.  

A certain northern sense of humour might help. They have it, and it is humbling.

Martin Carthy was born in St. Albans, which is not notably northern, in 1941.

 Eliza spent many years in Scotland. I think she said fourteen and it matters, as it so happens.

She sat out the occasional song, leaving her Dad alone on guitar and vocals.

The LP that much, but certainly not all by any means, of this set came from is 'The Moral of The Elephant'. That song is a warning that judging anything, based on just a part of the whole, is likely to be flawed.

This is another album, released 2 June 2014, that I feel is likely to make the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards list in 2015 and neither Martin or Eliza Carthy would be strangers to that.

This is a very interesting, yet concise, guide to the thinking behind the album.

New Music 2014 - Part 13 - The Best of British

The principal feature that these four acts have in common is that I have seen all of them live at least twice and therefore, although only one of the albums has already been released, I reckon I have a pretty solid grounding in what to expect.

The first is the début LP from Dorset-based acoustic duo Ninebarrow.

'While the Blackthorn Burns' is the only one that has had a full release (26 April 2014, on the band's own Ninebarrow label) and the only one that is acoustic folk, both original and traditional songs. In the few weeks since release it has garnered much attention and praise; I have it on good authority that a track from it will feature on Mike Harding's Folk Show this coming Sunday (18 May, but also available on-line 24/7/365). I would not be surprised to see it nominated for BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015 in due course.
Bold Sir Rylas is one of the traditional songs, seen performed at Purbeck Folk Festival 2013. This version is from the sold-out album launch at The Lighthouse, Poole.
  Bold Sir Rylas has much in common with the song Matty Groves, although the details as to how the the working man is betrayed and the names of the Noble Gentleman are many and various. Alela Diane has recorded a stunning version of Matty Groves and I commented on it here, having seen her perform it live with Alina Hardin at EOTR 2009. It was also released on a six-track 33 rpm 10" vinyl EP, 'Alela & Alina' (Family/Names Records, FAM001, 2009) that I have. While it certainly is good, Bold Sir Rylas is not what is going to make the reputation of 'While the Blackthorn Burns'. The new and original songs will do that.
The second LP on this list is also a début.

'The Midnight Novel' is the work of singer-songwriter Chl0ë Warren from Somerset and is released to the world on 2 June 2014. It is not folk. Bits and pieces can be found on-line, including Chloë with her previous band South Divide. I saw South Divide play in Frome late last year and was impressed enough to mention that here. For that matter I took some pictures too.

Voice aside, her instrument of choice is keyboards and 'The Midnight Novel' will be no exception.

The next two, although not released yet, are not début albums and so it becomes easier to judge them by previous releases. This is not always a good plan, because things can change for better or for worse, but in both these cases I feel that the omens are very promising indeed.
This next is a very good example of just why festivals matter so much to me. I was heading from one "must see" act to another one on a different stage and arrived just in time to see the last five minutes of a set by a band that was simply not on my radar. My thought, within seconds, is that something special is going on here. I was right, as it happens; it turned out to be The Moulettes.

My opportunity to make amends for this came at North Dorset Folk Festival 2012 - the first of its kind.

'Constellations' is their third LP and it is released by Navigator Records on 2 June 2014.

Completing this musical journey is an album for which I currently have no cover image available but, and please believe me here,  the music will not disappoint.

This will give a taste of the theme, however, of the forthcoming album by Jennifer Crook Trio.

Westbury Station, Wiltshire, 2013.

It does not have the iconic clock, nor the 'Brief Encounter' association.

The album 'Carnforth Station' will be released in the early autumn of 2014. 

Thoughts On Music - plans for 2014 and beyond.

I have taken a fortnight-long break from posting, something I just need to do from time to time. In the meantime I have still been listening and reading, no doubt about that, but also doing a little plotting and planning. It is now a few years since 'Thoughts on Music' has had anything other than organic changes, some of which simply reflect my interests in that time. Well, while there is nothing wrong with that I think it might not be all that is worth changing.

The first change is actually a reversion to something I did for a long time until the feature became frustratingly unstable.
As of about five minutes ago you should see the return of the "link list" to the top of the side bar. It has been a "simple list" for a year or more and, while I'm quite sure you can use well known search engines every bit as well as I can, this reinstates my ability to link to the particular reason I am listening and therefore a quick route to the stuff of the moment that is catching my attention.  If I haven't provided a link to an item in this list you will see <about: Blank> and should hit the 'Back' button. I'm currently unconvinced that running two lists, one for items with links and separate one for those without, would be any more helpful. If I can find a way of combining the two, along the logical line of 'if no link given then don't try to go there' then I will and all hints and suggestions to that end are welcome!

Beyond that all feedback, positive and negative equally, is very welcome and so are suggestions. I have some other changes in mind but they will take more expertise in the way of implementation than I currently have, and so may take more time. There is nothing wrong with planning or dreaming and I'm quite sure that there are plenty of ideas that have never even occurred to me at all.
The only constant remains, as I said at the start, that I shall only review music that I like. I will not wallow in destructive criticism: I shall use negativity very sparingly, so as to make a comparative - there is too much to like for me to spend resources of whatever kind in doing otherwise. You might very well persuade me to try new music, and I hope you do just that, but you will almost certainly fail to dissuade me from that which I already do, even if it is done differently...

For some reason I have recently given much thought to the subject of cover versions and what I think they might add to the canon. My view on this has evolved very much over time and not least because I am now far more aware of songs that are actually cover versions but that I didn't realize previously!
This is one, that I did know from the original, and that I had the good fortune to see live, in 2010 when it was one of the first times they played it. Somewhat later, with Jack White and Third Man Records, it was recorded live.

I don't actually buy many 7" singles these days but this is the latest addition to my collection.

I'm not saying that this a blueprint for a new direction, radical or otherwise. The many shades of transatlanticism has possibly already told you that.

This evening, whilst thinking some more, the theme continues, about how much traditional music Europe  exported to the US, then Canada and elsewhere directly or otherwise, over the last four centuries. It is important - we would have lost much had that not happened and that is why Cecil Sharp (1916-18, in particular) and others headed west across the Atlantic in the early 20th century. On the other hand it would be astonishingly vain not to admit that what we have received in return is every bit as generous, and quite as remarkable...

Then there are the influences that came from the east and particularly from Asia Minor via south-eastern Europe. That all started with the Celts themselves a couple of thousand years ago because it is thought that they expanded west and north; only subsequently to be marginalised in the far west of Europe.
Much more recently the bouzouki took a similar trajectory: it had certainly reached Greece, again probably from Asia Minor, and was common there by the start of the 20th century. Sixty years later and it was widely used in modern Celtic folk music in the UK and, particularly so, in Ireland.
Of course all these things intermingled over time, and in vicarious ways, before some of it was than taken, in a many-stranded form and over a long period, to the Americas by people of diverse origins. What we tend to forget is that the interesting muddle that is English folk music has age-old influences but it too incorporates influences that more recent immigrants bought with them and once again from eastern Europe: Romani and Klezmer are just two that come to mind.

New Music 2014 - Part 12 - The many shades of transatlanticism

It has just occurred to me that amongst the various 2014 albums that I consider may feature in my year-end 'Best of 2014' list, the majority actually happen to come from the USA. It is in part a result of my liking for roots and Americana but, more generally, it is part of a trend towards transatlanticism (if that is a made-up word then I blame Ben Gibbard!) in such things.
This first is an example of what I'm thinking. If I were to ask many in the UK what came to mind when the words "music" and "Nashville" were combined, the answer would still represent the apparent status quo that existed from the late 1950s until less than a decade ago and that represents two generations... So what has changed?

The answer is not simple I think. There is no cultural take-over involved. It is indeed quite the opposite - UK music has changed and in the process become far less insular in both influence and ambition. Nashville has changed too, and in many of the same ways as it happens, in the sense that it realized that it could have a wider reach; therefore my adoption of the term 'transatlanticism' for all these changes of emphasis. The artificial distinction, imposed by both sides for so long, has simply melted away...

I chose Torres' début album for two reasons. One is that it was actually released in 2013 and as such does not impinge on my comments or thoughts on the albums of 2014. The other is that unless you knew otherwise I could probably convince you that Mackenzie Scott is a UK artist, from any town you care to think of.
That would be a total fabrication: she is from Macon City, GA and moved to Nashville, TN to attend Belmont University.
This album is certainly no Music City stitch-up. For one thing it is self-released, so it took a bit of finding on CD, but in no way is it amateur in any sense - from writing through to recording and production. It isn't standard Nashville fare either, but neither does it ape any of the recent UK acoustic singer-songwriter tropes to any extent. Some of the tracks could hold a candle to almost anything...  One thing it generally is not is cheerful, that is not to say that it does not lack optimism.

July 2014 is the 45th anniversary of Woodstock, arguably the festival that defined the course of modern festivals - and not least because it rained. This summer is the 50th anniversary edition of Cambridge Folk Festival (31 July - 3 August 2014) and it is now completely sold out.

This next suggestion is the fourth LP by UK band Redlands Palomino Company, which was recorded almost live in a chapel in Gloucestershire, England, and released by Clubhouse Records on April 14, 2014. I saw the band live at Truck Festival 2013 and was mighty impressed. Several portions of the video below were actually shot live at Truck Festival.

Opportunities await those that remember.
  

I was rather surprised to see Paul Simon and Edie Brickell both in the news this week and for all the wrong reasons. The best the UK press seemed to be able to do, as regards the latter, is to remind us that 'All I Am' was covered by Emma Bunton on her first post-Spice Girls album.
This is a case of damning with faint praise both-ways round: it assumes we can't even remember the original version, written by Edie Brickell and Kenny Withrow, from the 1988 album 'Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars'. While the aforementioned cover version is worthy of a footnote there is, at least in my opinion, a far better one and that comes from someone who is almost unknown in the UK. This is the 2008 album 'Deranged' by Stacee Lawson from Huntington, WV and, I should mention, the rest of the album is well worth a listen too.

This CD was self-released; mine (above) has no code at all. Stacee Lawson is out there still, playing live.

Live & local in central-south England

Well here things are; after RSD (of which more later) and an inconvenient computer failure what better is there than the thought that unlike RSD live music is a year-round occurrence in these parts?
None of it gets better than Acoustic+ in Frome. Yesterday was the 98th edition and probably one of the finest that I have had the delight to attend. The first artist to play has been around since the start of Acoustic+ about a decade ago and is currently on a 'World Tour' - indeed he was in Trowbridge last week and will be in Bristol this coming one! He is also an active promoter of live music hereabouts as well as a fine singer-songwriter. In the past he has often played accompanied...

Yesterday he played solo and with plenty of the usual patter between songs...  Leander Morales.

The act I was most looking forward to seeing was Gloucestershire duo The Black Feathers. Due to Play at Acoustic+ in late 2013 they had to pull out at the last minute as Sian Chandler had lost her voice. A month or two after that they played Nunney Acoustic Café, but I was elsewhere that day. I was determined to see The Black Feathers this time and not least because, in the intervening months, their star has very much been in the ascendant including, if I remember correctly, a mention on Mike Harding's independent folk and roots show. Having finally seen them play live I can certainly see why that is. I bought the 2013 CD EP 'Strangers We Meet'.

On it they have discreet and subtle backing, including Anna Jenkins (of 'The Red Clay Halo') on violin and viola, but yesterday they were just performing as a duo.

They mentioned that this was probably the amongst the largest venues that they have played. Once their début album arrives I doubt that this will remain true for long. A certain kind of festival awaits The Black Feathers with breath bated and, believe me, it is the kind of festival at which I may be in attendance.

The last act to play was another that is a stalwart of the arts scene hereabouts - Ben Waller and the Tell Tale Signs. Usually a five-piece they were joined, for the purposed of looped sounds, by a Toshiba laptop that proved wholly uncooperative! They got on fine without it and then, as if one trouble was not enough, one of Ben's guitar strings broke. The result of this was that he borrowed Leander's acoustic guitar, when he needed one, for the rest of the set. I never quite managed a picture with all five band members in it as this one lacks the drummer.

Towards the end one of the rarer instruments seen at Acoutic+ made an appearance...

Autoharp. There is a whole festival dedicated to this instrument.

That leaves just one of the four acts to mention. It was the only one about which I had no prior knowledge at all and, if you know me, you will already know that such things are one of my favourite festival pastimes and why I like the smallest of stages and opening acts in general. In this case, however, they were first support and the band was Budada.

The four-piece based in Bristol/Bath are an interesting find indeed and difficult to categorize. You might therefore best check it out for yourself!

A weekend unconnected.

This is just a quick note:
A computer failure; a local one as it was a malfunction of my main home computer, has seen me off-line since the Easter weekend. I'm back now.
The interesting thing is, however, the amount of time I spent delving into my physical music collection in those few evenings...
Not only did I rediscover much music that I had (at least almost) forgotten I had by listening to it, I made a simultaneous virtue of reordering the shelves that contain it. It is certainly not perfect, and you would most likely not understand the system as it is now. It was a huge game of pelmanism (played with approximately 880 CDs) and it was far more complicated than simply matching identical pairs, although there are four of those as so far discovered.
I'll tell you this; it is now a far better situation than it was last Saturday! What I decide to do next, in the sense of ordering them, is still a mystery and not least to me. The point is that playing music was actually the original aim - the re-organisation just came out of that and finding things that I wanted to play. While that process has yet to visit my collection of vinyl, a great amount of that got played too!
The effect on me, of losing my connection to new music, was salutary. My New Year Resolution 2014 was to listen to at least eight hours of new (to me, at least) music each week and until now I was well up with that. I'll catch up in the next few days but now I have another, which is to rediscover all the recorded music I already have.

Festivals 2014

This is no long discussion of the many and varied music festivals this summer. I'm simply thinking that this coming long weekend is the time when I really ought to finalize what I intend to do and when so that, as well as getting tickets, there can be a working timetable of sorts. I have some ideas, not all of which are mutually compatible, and I have already ruled several things out due to those to which I have already committed. While pondering I have, of course, been listening to music and also perusing some of the many photos that I have taken at festivals past, and not exclusively last year.

This one is prompted by the release of the recent collaboration between London three-piece Daughter and musicians from The Northern School of Music, Manchester around songs from the 2013 LP 'If You Leave'.

Daughter - The Garden Stage - End of The Road Festival - 31 August 2013.

   

This was memorable especially for its sense of fragility -  that something might just shatter for no apparent reason. Reworked, with an orchestral backing, the songs are every bit as remarkable. This is 'Amsterdam'. The five-song EP is currently available to purchase on download from the usual places; a limited version on 12" vinyl is released on 26 May.

As for the second album from Daughter - if and when it happens - the band has certainly made their first a tough act to follow!

   

You might think I have become distracted from my purpose here, but that is not actually the case. I have to chose just one or possibly two festivals to go to - from amongst of a fistful that I might like to go to - so aspects of what make a festival special to me are very much on my mind. End of The Road (EOTR) has many of those features, and I'm going in 2014, so it is a benchmark in kind.
One possibility is to travel the road of Roots and Americana to its home festival in the UK (I am ruling out foreign sorties in 2014). This is another picture I took at EOTR 2013, also on the Garden Stage, the previous evening.

Diana Jones - The Garden Stage - End of The Road Festival - 30 August 2013.

She was touring her 2013 LP 'Museum of Appalachia Recordings' that, despite its title, consists entirely of new songs.

It is not just about the music; it is about the ambience - that combination of facilities, catering, clientèle, and then the almost indefinable other factors. The weather is something that remains completely unpredictable.
I have narrowed my choice of additional festivals to just two. Which should I choose or, as that is just possible, both?
Not only do the dates not clash with each other, or anything else I to which I am committed, the artist-overlap between the two is probably non-existent.  Further to that I have never been to either before, so I have only reviews and my hunches to go on.
Should you have been watching 'Later With Jools Holland' (BBC2, just now) then you will have seen Rae Morris providing vocals for Clean Bandit. Here she is when I saw her live at Deer Shed Festival 2012.

This is another 2014 festival I can't go to as both it, and Latitude Festival, share the weekend with Truck Festival!

New Music 2014 - Part 11 - The Cadbury Sisters

I wasn't really planning on a new post so late tonight but then these things just demand attention - now.
It is becoming clear that Bristol sibling trio The Cadbury Sisters is garnering much attention for their acoustic harmonies but not just because of them. Much inspired by Laura Marling they say, but also by artists that are much older than either her or them. The first place I heard their music played, although I was already faintly aware of them, was on Amazing Radio, where Kathryn Tickell has been on the case for some time now, hence the session below. So have others, including the likes of BBC6 Music.

It is three-part harmony but quite unlike The Staves and certainly not like Haim either. Their latest EP 'Close' is released by Bristol-based label and live event promoters Fear of Fiction in June. The Cadbury Sisters are appearing at many festivals and suchlike during the summer and it would be a mistake to miss the opportunity to see them live on a small stage.

Cyclical thoughts on music

This post started with a comment I wrote on Facebook yesterday. That was itself born out of a question somebody asked me the day before and, therefore, put me in mind of something that I had half-remembered a few months ago. In some ways it has to do with the forthcoming Record Store Day 2014 (19 April) [RSD] too:

I've just been exploring the dark (often only metaphorically but sometimes also musically), dusty depths of my music collection. I have found plenty of dead woodlice and even more albums that I had forgotten that I owned. This is good - the albums that is, not so much the moribund crustaceans.
To tell the truth a few of the albums would have better remained forgotten in the sense that ignorance (or merely forgetfulness) is bliss and I shall not dwell on them. Libraries should not work on that principle. 
Some of the LPs I was truly glad to discover again; 'Songs About People I Know', Stricken City's 2009 début album, was just one. The small dead spider stuck to the playing face of the CD was easily removed. It really shouldn't have gone there anyway. It did make me wonder, when listening to the CD after its removal, what has happened since the band split in 2010...
That is also how new things are found.

Whilst I am thinking about the direction this theme is heading, be aware that the direction of music was never very predictable when observed in retrospect. With RSD fast approaching, consider this article - 1o UK independent record shops to visit before you die. Of course I was going to mention this; one of the ten, Raves From The Grave, has its original store in my home town of Frome. It has more recently opened stores in Warminster and Bath too.
To be quite honest I got bogged down with this post for a couple of days but, just now that problem evaporated when I remembered about this. It also reminded me about just why the small stages at festivals, as well as support bands in general, are always at the top of my list of things to see. This is Oklahoma City based band Horse Thief playing End of The Road Festival 2012; Cameron Neal on guitar and vocals.

The début album, Fear In Bliss, is released today by Bella Union and Horse Thief is booked to play at End of The Road Festival 2014.
   

It is, of course, available on vinyl.

New Music 2014 - Part 10 - Roots and Americana

I have been listening to all kinds of music lately and as you might have guessed that has included much that goes under the heading Roots and Americana. I'll start with three forthcoming albums that have come to my attention but perhaps I should add that I already have all the previous albums by these artists; to some extent I am therefore a convert already.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - 'Make My Head Sing', released on 2 June 2014 in the UK.

   

This is the third album by the Ohio native who first came to my attention at End Of The Road Festival 2010, playing the Tipi stage and previously quite unknown to me. Her albums thus far are 'With Blasphemy, So Heartfelt' (2008) and 'Tell Me' (2011), both released by Nonesuch Records, and were produced by Dan Auerbach. I'm not sure about the details of this one yet, as I have only recently found about it, except to say that it is released by ATO Records. This label is snapping up many artists in this broad music space including Caitlin Rose and Hurray For The Riff Raff who have peppered this blog over the last few years.
It is certainly a dramatic and very deliberate departure from the aforementioned albums. An interview in which she explains how it came about, and the history behind it, is here:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/jessica-lea-mayfield-i-want-to-love-you-video-premiere

The appearance here is true of this next artist Amy LaVere too, but she is the only one of the three that I have never seen play live.

'Runaway's Dream' is released by Archer Records on 26 May 2014 in the UK.

    

It is a concept album but, before you click elsewhere in fear and loathing, be aware that this has been done before to some acclaim: In my book Anaïs Mitchell's 'Hadestown' (2010) is a case in point.
This one is however loosely based on the story of Seasick Steve, with whom she toured extensively as support, and also her own few days as a teenage runaway. To that list I shall add another bridge - Alynda Lee Segarra of Hurray For The Riff Raff and in particular the song Ramblin' Gal from the album 'Watch Out Mama' (2012). Their new LP 'Small Town Heroes' was released in the UK, again on ATO Records, on 31 March 2014. It isn't one of the three included in this post because I have mentioned it already.
    
The last of the three is this and the only one by non-American artists but like its predecessor, The Lion's Roar (2012), it was made with Mike Mogis at his studio in Omaha, NE. It is all a far cry from the time I first saw First Aid Kit live in the old-style Tipi stage at End Of The Road Festival. That is no bad thing because the potential was clear for all to hear.
   

'Stay Gold' is released by Columbia on 9 June in the UK.

It remains to be seen if First Aid Kit can sustain the momentum that was generated by 'The Lion's Roar'. One thing that I can say with certainty, having seen them play again on the Garden Stage at EOTR 2012, is that First Aid Kit certainly does not disappoint live.
Maybe I need to buy a ticket to Green Man Festival in August - I've never been before, so that would tick another box.

A thought from St. Patrick's Day.

McALPINE'S FUSILIERS  (Dominic Behan)

As down the glen came McAlpine's men with their shovels slung behind them.
It was in the pub that they drank their sub or out on the spike you'll
find them.
We sweated blood and we washed down mud with quarts and pints of beer.
But now we're on the road again with McAlpine's Fusiliers.

I stripped to the skin with Darky Finn down upon the Isle of Grain,
With Horseface O'Toole I learned the rule, no money if you stop for rain.
For McAlpine's god is a well filled hod with shoulders cut to
bits and seared.
And woe to he who looks for tea with McAlpine's Fusiliers.

I remember the day that the Bear O'Shea fell into a concrete stair.
What Horseface said, when he saw him dead, well it wasn't what the rich
call prayers.
"I'm a navvy short," was his one retort that reached unto my ears,
When the going is rough, well you must be tough, with McAlpine's Fusiliers.

I've worked till the sweat near had me beat with Russian, Czech and Pole,
At shuttering jams up in the hydro-dams, or underneath the Thames in a hole,
I grafted hard and I got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears.

If you pride your life, don't join, by Christ, with McAlpine's Fusiliers.

I quite like the idea of learning this song, of which this is only a part. It commonly includes a narrative element at the start that sets the scene.



In so far as I am currently aware this first appeared recorded on the LP 'Finnegan Wakes' (sic) in 1966 as Transatlantic Records (TRA 139).

The song went on to become a staple of The Dubliners' live performances and therefore it appears on many live and compilation albums since, which is how I came to know of it, as well as many cover versions. Here is a live version by The Dubliners, sung by the late Ronnie Drew.

Much later, on the 1983 studio album 'Prodigal Sons' (Chyme Records, CHLP 1030), The Dubliners recorded another Dominic Behan song on the subject of the trials and tribulations of itinerant construction workers - Building Up And Tearing England Down.

New Music 2014 - Part 9 - Denmark and New Zealand

This post on new music changes tack slightly. While both artists are primarily female singer-songwriters any direct connection with Americana is absent. In neither case is the album the first. I have already seen one of the two live and would much very like to see the other live too.

This is the new album (although it was actually released in 2013), Aventine, by Agnes Obel. Whilst she has been resident in Berlin for some years now she is from Denmark and her 2010 début album 'Philharmonics' is five-times 'platinum' in her home country but still, with worldwide sales approaching one million, she remains surprisingly unknown. Her début LP was a far cry from Scandinavian pop and this is even more so.

It is spacious, minimal, and sometimes very dark but not in any way depressing.

If one were to mention female artists from New Zealand, at the moment the most likely to come to mind would be Lorde (Ella Yellich O'Connor) and her album 'Pure Heroine'. That incidentally, in my opinion, is also one of the most inspired album titles and it is a fine album too, but not the one I intend to feature here. 

 'Brightly Painted One' is released (in the UK) by Bella Union on 31 March 2014.
   

This is acoustic, almost lighter-than-air, music but I know that it works because I have seen Tiny Ruins live at No Direction Home 2012, until which point I had no knowledge whatsoever. Suffice it to say that I hadn't forgotten about that.

Hollie Fullbrook, Electric Dustbowl stage, No Direction Home 2012.

Tiny Ruins is confirmed for End Of The Road 2014.

New Music 2014 - Part 8

While my recent posts about live music have a very obvious UK (indeed English) folk bias, and the next live act that I'm going to see is Spiers and Boden, that is not the case with the ongoing posts on new music which, even if the artists are UK based, draws heavily on US traditions and that is certainly true of both the artists featured in this post.
Both are 2014 releases by US-based independent record labels and both are by female artists. These are not country, alt-or-otherwise, but neither are they country rock either. They are not an incomprehensible change but, ultimately, they are what they are. I like them, which matters more than anything, and that is why they are here.

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness - Jagjaguwar Records, 2014.

   

Slightly more challenging is this next, released by Bloodshot Records and an album perhaps inadequately described as 'country punk'. It is a demanding listen, no doubt about that, but it is well worth any effort that this involves.

Somewhere Else - Lydia Loveless - Bloodshot Records, 2014.
   

If you are left stranded, wondering what that might sound like...

  LYDIA LOVELESS - Learn to Say No from Kitchen Sessions on Vimeo.

Live, local and multifarious folk

If one were to spend the start and also the end of a weekend with live music, as I did this weekend just gone, I really think that I could not have chosen better. This was Friday evening and a fifteen minute walk from home.

Olde Boston Tea Party, a bluegrass tinged quintet from the borders of Devon, Dorset and Somerset, played as support for Oysterband. The music was excellent.

My photography, unfortunately, certainly wasn't.

    

The best thing I can say is that, come Sunday evening, I could drive just twenty miles, albeit in the pouring rain, and start all over again as if nothing had happened. This should have been a more frightening prospect but, even though the village hall was turned about-face, it wasn't.

As well as being one of the best modern folk songwriters, Steve Knightley is one of the best narrators about, and between, songs. This applies just as much to those of often mysterious tradition as it does to his own.
   

 I didn't realise, or indeed even think about that, until I was driving home afterwards.