Folk music from Great Britain, not all of which is particularly Celtic; this pigeonhole has largely disappeared in the US with the rise of the Celtic Music marketing concept but it still exists across the pond, and it still exerts a powerful fascination on some of us. We'll start with the news which was long expected but only recently confirmed, at least to me: Battlefield Band fiddler John McCusker is indeed marrying English singer Kate Rusby. McCusker is leaving the Battlefield Band; he's been in the group for about 10-12 years, since he was 16 or so. One assumes that he and Kate will spend all their time touring together; he was with her on Kate's Ark appearance. Kate's new album LITTLE LIGHTS came out in June, and Mickey and I will crack open our copies and write reviews promptly.157 responses total.
On the new Battlefield Band album (which I finally got), there was a mention in the liner notes that John and Kate own a house together, so I was kind of expecting this news.
What exactly is the pigeonhole that has disappeared? English (i.e. non- Celtic)? I always thought the Battlefield Bank was some sort of Celtic outfit: Scottish, IIRC.
Kate Rusby, on the other hand, is pretty English, from Yorkshire. So is the work Kate and John will do together Celtic or not? (*ahem*)
"Celtic" and "English" (or even "from the U.K.") aren't quite synonymous. At one point, there were Celts all over Europe -- the Gauls that Caesar fought were a Celtic tribe -- and there are still pockets of Celtic culture in northern Spain and France. On the other hand, there's plenty of straight-up English music with very little Celtic influence. (You were talking about "To Anacreon in Heaven" a few items back -- there's an example. Also sea shanties, ballads, English country dance tunes, and so on.) So the "British" and "Celtic" pigeonholes aren't quite the same, and one has replaced the other; a few artists have been left out who used to be included, and a few have been included who used to be left out.
(...and I was hoping that some of us would actually get reviews written of the Kate Rusby album, for starters, and not argue over the pigeonholes.)
resp:4 orinoco - were you addressing me? I know that "Celtic" and "English" aren't the same! That was my point!! So let me repeat my question: what's the pigeonhole that's disappeared? If "British" (which presumably means English + Celtic) has been replaced by "Celtic", then is English (i.e. non-Celtic British) folk music disappearing? Or what's the story here?
I agree that, as a pigeonhole, English(non-Celtic) music is being absorbed into Celtic. (I believe that's what was asserted in #0) That certainly doesn't mean that English music is disappearing, only that the marketing category has expanded to include it. In my experience, it's proven useful having a more general place to look --- I've discovered several wonderful bands and singers because of this. Take Fernhill, for example: where does Welsh music fit in a narrow category? What about a Welsh band with an English singer? I don't think I would have realised how deeply I enjoy traditional Welsh music, if I first didn't identify that I like Celtic music. As for the Kate Rusby, LITTLE LIGHTS is her newest, and I consider it *very* English, despite being produced by John McCusker. (as an aside, isn't John from the Border country of Scotland? That could explain why he and Kate mix so easily.) It's a wonderful collection of songs, a mixture of traditional folk songs arranged by Kate and John and originals that sound like folk songs. Oh, and she's kept with her tradition of including a cover of a modern song, on this CD it's Richard Thompson's "Withered and Died." As you might be able to tell, I love this CD --- though it's still rather new in my collection, and thus getting played a lot. All evening, I've been replaying Rusby's earlier discs, in order to compare. The past couple of times through LITTLE LIGHTS had left me wondering if there were such *sad* undertones in the rest of her work. I still can't formulate a definite opinion. Many of the old folk songs have morose subject matter, so that might play a part in this. It would be a question better answered by Ms. Rusby herself --- to what degree the death of Davy Steele influenced the final mood of this CD. She dedicates the song, "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies" to him in the liner notes, with the line: "For Davy Steele --- the first man to break my heart, he was an inspiration to us all." I find it a deeply affecting song, and I loved it from the first listen. (I am notoriously fond of sad, but sincere, music) I'd like to comment more, but I'm not sure my thoughts are coming out clear enough, yet. I need more listens. :-)
Ah. Misunderstood your question, David. As far as the question you were _really_ asking goes, I have no idea. :)
I've been advancing a theory that the world is divided into Kate Rusby fans and Eliza Carthy fans. (*ahem*) I've bought literally every album Eliza has released, but the only ones getting any repeat plays are the Waterson:Carthy albums, where Eliza sings with her parents, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. Eliza has been getting plenty of buildup, for a folkie, in mainstream media: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY gave a best-of-year page to her previous album, RED RICE. And she jumped from Topic to Warner, and put out a new album, ANGELS AND CIGARETTES. Reviews were, to say the least, controversial and mixed. I finally had a chance to listen to some of the album -- an $8 used copy at the Elderly shop, open for previewing. And I couldn't bring myself to buy it. I didn't want it in the house. It just struck me as a drab pop album dressed up in folk instrumentation.
what is *celtic*?
It's a bin in a record store, to paraphrase Ian Anderson, the Folk Roots magazine editor.
Indeed, but that begs the question. What gets put in that bin, and why?
I've noticed the basic Irish and Irish-style music ends up there...things that tend to go more twords the traditional songs and chording.
resp:11, resp:12 :: it doesn't beg the question, it expresses an opinion on its lack of importance.
If that's what Ian Anderson meant, Ken, then the only possible response to him is an adaptation of a famous line of Tom Lehrer's: "When people have nothing to say, the very least they can do is to shut up." What gets put in various bins is of great importance, because - I can't believe I have to explain this - bins are where customers look for things. That's not to say that the bins are necessarily accurate representations of the variety of the music - indeed, it's the conflict between the bin-map and the reality-map that makes the question a matter of concern.
I don't buy much music. But when I do, I find any particular store's bin arrangement to be largely irrelevant. Mike Oldfield *may* be in any of New Age, Pop, Rock, or maybe "Instrumental." Roger Whitaker may be in Pop, Folk, or "vocal". Ignore the bins and labels, wander around looking.
"Wander around looking." Joe, looking for what? How do you know what to look for? Most people look in bins, either physical or virtual. If- you-like-X,-try-Y, for instance, is a bin. And are you implying that, having found Mike Oldfield in one bin or other, you've never even considered buying something else you leafed through in the same bin? Bins are important.
I don't do a lot of impulse buying. If I go into a store, it's to get something specific. But yeah, I'll look at the other things filed with the thing I was looking for. Sometimes, I've seen things that look interesting. Can't say I've gone back for them, though.
A note for Mickey: Fledg'ling Records of Britain has reissued yet another Shirley Collins album. This one dates from 1959 and the publicity notes say the Smithsonian let them use the original master tapes from the Folkways Records archives. Title is "False True Lovers" and the record company's web page is at: http://www.thebeesknees.com/bk-fr-ct.html They also have a new accordion album from John Kirkpatrick, yum.
and a shopping note for myself: There is a new Swan Arcade CD compiling the old albums TOGETHER FOREVER and DIVING FOR PEARLS -- the latter one is the one Swan Arcade album we never got. This was an old acapella trio, similar in sound to The Young Tradition. Old, old favorites in our house. Eeek, and more Peter Bellamy reissues....
Ah, those good old acquired tastes ...
A couple of notes on new CD reissues from The Old Dinosaurs: Steeleye Span's "Gone to Australia" live CD, mostly from the early 1980s, should be out. It's listed for just $15 at amazon.com; it's on the Australian Raven label, which is usually carried by Borders. http://www.peterknight.net, which is probably the main official source for Steeleye Span news these days, is down at the moment. However, a Usenet posting reported that the web site carried a note from Peter Knight about his decision to put together yet another version of the band. I'll let you know when I get a chance to read it myself. Two Fairport issues are coming out: supposedly remastered, with bonus tracks. These are the FULL HOUSE and HOUSE FULL albums. FULL HOUSE was Richard Thompson's final studio album with the group, from 1970; HOUSE FULL (revised) will be the third go-round for the live tapes recorded in Los Angeles in 1970, again with Thompson.
The note at Peter Knight's web site says simply, "It is with great pleasure that I can now announce that Steeleye Span will be touring in 2002." In the website's Q&A section, Knight says the new Steeleye lineup is set, but the details will be kept under wraps until a promotional push in early 2002. He says there will be a female singer. There's also a mention of a planned Steeleye Span convention in Philadelphia sometime in 2002.
Well, good luck, but it won't be the same ... A convention. Hmm. Philadelphia. Double hmmm.
This is mostly a note for Twila and myself. The band Little Johnny England is playing Mickey Finn's Pub in Toledo on November 9. Hmm. Anyplace called a "pub" might be too smoky for Twila to tolerate. The band's website is http://www.littlejohnnyengland.co.uk
Musikfolk's email announcement of new releases includes yet another Maddy Prior Christmas album, for release November 26: >Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band - Gold Frankincense & Myrhh - CD - Stg 13.50 I'm starting to question my need for an annual Maddy Prior holiday CD...
Why? Are you getting tired of her Christmas carols?
I'm just not sure how many I need. This will be the fourth or fifth Christmas album from Maddy, depending on how you count BALLADS AND CANDLES. Christmas albums have only a six-week window of exposure in our house, and it is already impossible for us to play our favorites every year, because we have too many. Of course Maddy did a non-Christmas album this year too, and I'm sure the Christmas stuff wouldn't pour out so generously if it didn't sell well, so I should stop carping.
Alert: Christmas carols (not by Maddy) in the bookstore today.
/drift
I complained about Christmas carols in the store
between Nov 1 and Xgiving. Enough people did an the muzak
was changed. Just too soon.
/still more drift
I hate shopping in this time between Halloween and
Thanksgiving. Just too much early push.
/end more drift
/end drift
Assorted items... Amazon.co.uk offers a track list for the new Maddy Prior Christmas album mentioned above, and it's odd enough that I might have to order it. I don't think I've heard of any of these songs. > Track Listings > 1. Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh > 2. The Carnal and the Crane > 3. The Oxen > 4. Hark! Hark! What News > 5. Bethlehem Down > 6. Entre Le Bouef et L'Ane Gris > 7. Rorate Coeli de Super I feel a little bad about ordering it from giant Amazon instead of the small folk supplier I had been using. But the small folk supplier wants 14 pounds for it, plus shipping. Amazon wants 12 pounds; they gave me a coupon for three pounds; and Amazon refunds the VAT, which is usually another pound or so. Once we start talking a price differential of 4-6 US dollars per album it's hard to stay with the small company. ------- Here's another item. The US alt-country(?) semi-supergroup(?) the Continental Drifters has put out an EP of Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny covers. So far this seems to be a UK only issue, titled "Listen Listen": > Track Listings > 1. Listen listen > 2. I want to see the bright lights tonight > 3. Poor ditching boy > 4. You're going to need somebody > 5. I'm a dreamer > 6. Matty Groves > 7. Meet on the ledge ------- There's a closet folkie laboring under cover at the mass-market Time Warner magazine "Entertainment Weekly." This week there is a highly favorable short review of the new June Tabor album mixed in among the pop and rap reviews.
"Listen Listen" sounds interesting.. Let us know how it sounds, please..
resp:26 and subsequent: OK, I now take back every rude thing I said about the prospect of Yet Another Maddy Prior Christmas Album. Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band, "Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh." As the title suggests, the opening 8-song suite is a Christmas pageant, just like the one I saw my little niece perform in at her church, but with much better music. These songs were all newly written for the album by Maddy and the Band. It first struck me as corny, but I've been playing it a lot and loving it. The first three tracks introduce the three kings -- the first two with middle eastern motifs, the third with an African motif which sounds like "Maddy Sings The Lion King." These are my favorite tracks on the album. Then there is the journey across the desert, and a song for the animals in the stable, and a lullaby for baby Jesus, and then a song for the angels. The balance of the album is old Christmas songs which the performers dug up from heaven knows where. I have never heard of a single one of them. "The Oxen" is by Hardy, and "Bethlehem Down" is by Blunt and Warlock, and I'm guessing they are old English poets. (Thomas Hardy?) The Carnival Band takes a much bigger role this time, with lots of singing; instead of Maddy and a backup band, it's more Maddy as a part of the band. Maddy is completely absent from several of the tracks. It's going to be odd putting a Christmas album on the Year's Favorite List. But this is unreservedly recommended to Maddy Prior fans. I think I'm going to grab a copy of the Carnival Band's one Maddy-less album, just because I enjoy their instrumental work here so much.
("Blunt and Warlock" would be a good name for a psychedelic band.)
What year is this? Still 2001? So I'm not as crazy as I feel. ;/ While at Borders today, I looked for that Maddy Prior disk. The clerk expressed surprise that she had a new one out. The only Christmas disk in the online catalog was from 1991. Is it likely to be available in the US, Ken?
It's really a cool disc.
Park Records (the label for Maddy Prior and Steeleye Span) has been pretty good about getting copies into the US stores. However, I have an unconfirmed report that their US distributor just went bankrupt. So I don't know how likely it is that this disc will turn up in Ann Arbor any time soon. The disc was only released at the end of November; I got mine from amazon.co.uk.
I third the recommedation of GOLD FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH, and I really hope to see it in local CD stores sometime. Many many thanks to Ken for the minidisc. It's been a big hit in my house, this Season. Highlights for me: Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) THE OXEN, which sounds brilliant set to music, MELIMA, and the ballad THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE. Oh, and I can't forget to mention the SONG OF THE ANIMALS, which starts off so hokey (I always begin laughing when I hear "Moooo!" being sung) but then ends up in a creative little round of ox, ass, sheep and camel. The last song, BETHLEHEM DOWN by Blunt & Warlock has an interesting history. It seems that Peter Warlock was a "Satanic sobriquet" for Philip Heseltine, who composed a group of songs and choral works using texts by his friend/drinking companion Bruce Blunt. Blunt alleged that BETHLEHEM DOWN was rattled off at high speed to raise Christmas beer money.
Free Reed has published the track list for the 35th anniversary Fairport Convention box set they hope to release later in the spring.(?) Details will be later at http://www.free-reed.co.uk, and I'll mail them to people who I think might be interested; it's a 4CD set and the tracklist will only be of interest to about five readers here, so I'm not going to pipe it in. Fairport's new album "XXXV" is also hitting the UK shops. No word yet on a US release.
Well, this one is a startling bit of news: According to a bit of publicity for the new Boys of the Lough CD, "this is the first album from The Boys since the departure of Aly Bain." Wow. Aly was with them from the beginning, back around 1970; he has a new duo album with Sweden's Ale Moller (of Frifot and many other bands) now being flogged in the shops.
Here's a story about the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The most interesting news to me is that Cerys Matthews, the former singer with the Welsh rock band Catatonia, did a set of traditional songs with Eliza Carthy. Winners: E. Carthy, M. Carthy, Martin Simpson, Cara Dillon, Fairport, the Chieftains, blah blah. Fans should read the article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_1814000/1814927 .stm
Peter Knight puts the long awaited report on his website at http://www.peterknight.net. "There are plans to reform a classic Steeleye Span lineup" with discussions involving Maddy Prior, Bob Johnson, Rick Kemp and Liam Genockey, and of course Knight. "We were hoping to tour later this year but due to unforseen circumstances this is now looking unlikely." Maybe in 2003. No tour probably means no album this year, either.
Now that's a line-up I'd go see in an instant if they came my way, and perhaps more important (and more likely to be possible, actually), I'd buy their albums. But I'm puzzled by this "reform a classic lineup" phrasing. Makes it sound as if they're emerging from long retirement, which is semi-true in Kemp's case, but the other three (besides Knight, who never quit) were in the band just a short period ago, and they all left. So why are they returning so soon if they left? And why did they leave if they were willing to return so soon? There'll probably never be an answer to that besides "whim", but I wonder. Anyway, if it happens it's good news.
It's been almost five years since Maddy quit the band; she announced her departure within weeks of Steeleye's June 1997 appearance in Ann Arbor. Liam Genockey quit at about the same time, though I don't have a specific date. Five years *used* to be a long time in the music business... :) Steeleye only recorded two albums without Maddy and Liam in that five year interval. I subscribe to the gossip theory that friction between Gay Woods and Maddy led to Maddy's departure; bringing Gay Woods back was a brilliant idea artistically but apparently it was not such a good one in terms of social dynamics within the group. I can't explain Bob Johnson's recent departure and new willingness to return except, again, in terms of (speculative) interaction with Gay. All we really know is that Gay had some sort of personal breakdown leading to her quitting the band, followed rapidly by the resignation of everyone else except Peter Knight, as soon as contractual commitments could be wound up.
(That third paragraph isn't quite right. I reviewed the chronology which I recorded in the music2 conference. Bob Johnson quit in August 2000; Gay in January 2001; Tim Harries in spring 2001. The chronology would certainly support the gossiperous suggestion that Johnson quit due to personal conflicts with Gay, although at the time it was said he was leaving to pursue a career with his new psychology degree; under this argument, with Gay out of the band, Johnson becomes amenable to a return. This is all total speculation, of course.)
Five years isn't a long time in the era of part-time bands.
So last night I attended a Martin Carthy solo concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. Just him and his guitar. Good turnout, but not sold out, unlike the last Waterson/Carthy concert, which was on Valentine's Day, yet. I'm that (perhaps) rare person who prefers Carthy solo. I'm also that (perhaps not so) rare English folkie who tends to consider anyone who hasn't been performing since the early 70s as too wet behind the ears for me. So I had a wonderful time.
Thursday (April 11) was the Kate Rusby concert at the Ark. Rusby's probably my favorite of the younger wave of British women folk singers, though at this point some people are starting to consider her older and established. She's touring with her husband John McCusker on fiddle, cittern and whistles, and Andy Cutting on melodeon, so the ensemble has a nice rounded sound. The guys got to play a set of instrumental tunes in each half of the show. Songs were pretty much all traditional, and Kate did a lot of humorous bits between them; maybe more so than is typical for the British singers. John McCusker was sporting the most awful thin-looking mohawk haircut. No new CDs from Kate or John, but Andy Cutting brought a few things along to sell, so I grabbed his recent album with The Two Duos Quartet, which also includes Karen Tweed from the Poozies in a pick-up group with two accordions. Grexers in attendance: aruba, Carol, steve, dewshine, krj. Ann Arbor gets Waterson:Carthy in a couple weeks; check the Ark schedule if you need the exact date.
Oh yeah: Martin had copies of the brand-new Waterson/Carthy CD with him in Berkeley, so keep an eye out for that.
Kate Rusby appeared on Prairie Home Companion on April 20. One might still be able to hear this on the website.
On BBC Radio 2's Mike Harding show yesterday, we heard a track from Maddy Prior's new album. On the Park Records web site, this is billed as Maddy Prior's Girls, with Maddy's daughter Rose Kemp, and Abbie Lathe on additional vocals and instruments. The song was "A Stitch in Time," which Martin Carthy has been doing a lot for the last few years. It sounded a lot like the Silly Sisters material by Maddy Prior and June Tabor. http://www.parkrecords.com/tourmpg.htm if you want to read a bit about the act. I didn't find any mention of the album on the web site.
Listeners to that BBC Radio 2 folk show participated in a poll to name the "Top 50 Folk Albums." This actually happened a while ago but the Beeb has dusted it off and reposted it, probably because the top-rated album has just been reissued. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/folk/features/top_50_10.shtml Fairport's LIEGE AND LIEF was voted the #1 album, no surprise. 2. Nic Jones, Penguin Eggs 3. Ashley Hutchings, Morris On 4. Kate Rusby, Sleepless 5. Albion Band, Rise Up Like The Sun 6. Pentangle, Basket of Light 7. Dick Gaughan, Handful of Earth 8. Shirley Collins and the Albion Band, No Roses 9. Steeleye Span, Please to See The King 10. Planxty, Planxty and visit the web site if you are enough of a fan to want to see the next 40 titles. Some ancient Americans also make the list: Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Tom Paxton, Paul Simon. The list is centered on the 1970s recordings; Kate Rusby is the only performer whose current work is well rated. Clearly we British folk fans are a backward looking group. (I have 35 of the listed albums, heh.)
Of course we folkies are a backward-looking group. We were backward- looking in the 70s, too. (Why d'ye want t'listen to all them old folk songs, eh?) Electrifying folk was seen by some as a desperate attempt to seem relevant. I am not such a careful collector. I only have about 12, I think, of the listed albums - some I can't remember if I have or not - including only 3 of the top ten. But I have at least some record of 8 of the performers on the top ten list, all except Nic Jones, whom I don't much like, and Kate Rusby, a name unfamiliar to me. Interesting that "Please" should be the top-rated Steeleye album. I'd definitely consider it the best of their three early-period albums, but my heart in Steeleye, as with the Beatles, is with their mid-period work (in Steeleye's case, "Below the Salt" through "Commoners Crown" and trailing off a little from there).
In party, gelinas asked if he should buy LIEGE AND LIEF, since he's been enjoying some Steeleye Span compilations I loaned him. I said that musically he would probably enjoy that Fairport album, but I wanted to play my copy of the new reissue to see if the sound quality problems which plagued all previous issues had been fixed. Yup, Island did the reissue right. Where has this master tape been for the last 15 years or so? This album is never going to win any audiophile awards, but it now matches the other Fairport albums from the 1968-1970 period in quality, with no extra hiss or fuzz. I think it sounds pretty darn good. So: order the "Island Remasters" issue from amazon.co.uk for about $12. Do NOT buy the USA issue on the A&M label which is common at Borders, it does not sound very good. <krj cranks the volume up some more>
Not folk except by association, but I don't know where else to put
this:
Richard Thompson now has an official web page at
http://www.richardthompson-music.com
According to the tour schedule, Thompson is in Austin next Friday
June 21. (Note for Mickey.) He's also at the Philadelphia Folk
Festival, which we are skipping this year, and I see no Michigan
stops on the current schedule.
There is now an online order system for those Official RT Bootlegs,
so maybe now I can get off my tail and order "Celtschmerz," the
1998 release; there is also a new one for 2002, "Semi Detached
Mock Tudor."
Someone was kind enough to send me another recent live Thompson release, a copy of "Two Letter Words" that they'd picked up at a show and had autographed for me. Pretty good performances, and much appreciated for the live versions of stuff from the "Mirror Blue" album. I despised the Froom-produced studio versions so much that it's nice to see my opinion confirmed that the album had some good songs underneath all of the execrable production.
That's some new definition of the term "recent..." The Richard Thompson website says that "Two Letter Words" dates from 1994. :) There have now been four of the official bootlegs.
Looks like the shows where it was recorded took place in 1994 but I don't recall seeing it for sale at the last RT show I went to (Seattle, 2000..) so I was assuming the CD was compiled and released after that. I'm probably wrong.. Anyway, they're good performances..
In this sort of music, 1994 is ultra-recent.
Re: RT official bootlegs selling at concerts: I think a couple of things have happened. First, RT is no longer under a contract with a major label in the USA. Major labels don't generally want their artists selling CDs at gigs because it makes the CD retailers unhappy about the competition, assuming that the artists' CDs have anything resembling decent distribution. Second, with the opening of an official web-site, I think RT has brought the authorized bootlegs "in-house," so to speak. The first three such discs were done on the Flypaper imprint by Frank Kornelussen for the very-loosely-organized RT fan club. But the 2002 release is on Beeswing Records, which would appear to be RT's own, new, label.
Isn't this a hopeful sign of things working out the way that technology optimists say they should: technology empowering the skilled but marginalized musician to bypass the major labels and distributors to make a go of it by selling directly to the listeners? RT definitely isn't the first to go this way, but I sure hope it works out for him..
The new Maddy Prior CD is due out on July 8 or so in the UK. It's billed as Maddy Prior & The Girls, the title is BIB AND TUCK, and the track list on amazon.co.uk looks promising. I don't know what the state of Park Records distribution is in the USA; it'll probably be just as cheap to order it from amazon.co.uk, since after the VAT refund it should be about 10.5 UKP.
More dinosaur news: Linda Thompson, ex-wife of Richard, has a new album out on Rounder, her first releast in 17 years, titled FASHIONABLY LATE. Lots of press coverage: the BBC has an interview with her on their web site, and Carson mentioned that NPR's weekend morning edition had a feature on her today. Peter Knight's website reports that there will be a Steeleye Span tour (UK only) and album late this year. The lineup, if I remember correctly, will be: Maddy Prior, Peter Knight, Bob Johnson, Rick Kemp, Liam Gennocky on drums. Essentially this is the classic, and also late 1980s, lineup, with a few changes: Tim Hart's never coming back, apparently old drummer Nigel Pegrum isn't either, and longtime bassist Kemp (Mr. Maddy Prior) replaces Tim Harries, who held the bass slot for the late 1980s and 1990s. The album will be re-recorded "greatest hits," selected by fans who voted at the Park Records web site. Other than that, I'll just mention that we love the new Coope Boyes & Simpson album.
I've just been handed a note listing a Linda Thompson appearance at the Ark for October 21.
(the NPR piece on Linda Thompson can be heard in RealAudio at http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesun/20020804.wesun.18.ram. it's a twelve minute piece that includes snippets from the album.)
(CNN.com has an article on Linda Thompson this weekend.) http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/31/arts.us.linda.thompson.ap/i ndex.html (note that the URL wraps.)
Thanks carson! I didn't expect to see such a nice story about Linda in the mainstream, since her commercial presence is almost nonexistent.
Linda and Teddy Thompson are coming to the Ark in October or November.
Linda Thompson is listed for Oct. 21.
NP: MacAlias, HIGHWIRED. A duo of two Scottish women, Gill Bowman & Karine Polwart. Karine is better known as the singer for Malinky, a hot new Scottish traditional band; in this act, they are doing mostly singer-songwriter originals with a faint tinge of country, with a couple of songs by Trad or Robert Burns mixed in. I didn't like this at all on first listen many months ago, but it sounds better today.
Very nice Linda Thompson article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10562-2002Oct24.html
I didn't even know about her longstanding voice problems.
Geezer news: the new Steeleye Span album should be out. http://www.parkrecords.com/ss7.htm The title is "Present: The Very Best of Steeleye Span" and it's new recordings of their favorite tracks as selected by a website poll. It's a 2-cd set with 17 tracks. I forget all the details of the lineup, but Maddy Prior is back in the band as the only female voice, and Bob Johnson is back on electric guitar. There is a somewhat alarming report that Johnson dropped out of the December tour due to "a minor heart condition," being replaced for the tour by a recent Albion Band guitarist, Ken Nicol. There's also a report that the Albion Band has broken up, after about 15-20 years of more-or-less continuous existence and with a career going back to about 1972. The various Albion Bands were Ashley Hutchings' third great folk rock band, after he'd been involved in the founding of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. The Albion work from the 1970s is some of the greatest British folk-rock; the band was wildly uneven in the early 1980s (Twila likes this period, but I gave up on them for a few years) and then rallied at the end of the 1980s before the wheels fell off in the 1990s. The last few Albion CDs I bought were pretty dire; I don't even try to buy them all any more.
I do like early 1980s Albion, but I also like earlier Albion. I agree that 1990s Albion is not so good. :-) I'm looking forward to the new Steeleye. (Will have to see if it's available Stateside.) Nice lineup of songs and folks.
I wouldn't expect US distribution until after Christmas; the album was only released at the end of December. Park Records may still be having US distribution problems: I don't recall having seen Maddy's last two albums (GOLD FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH and BIB & TUCK) in American bins. (Park's previous US distributor, if I remember correctly, went out of business maybe a year ago?)
Well, I hope PRESENT is a good album. The return of Prior is a good sign, because I didn't like the sans-Prior albums at all. I very much liked the Harries-Genocky rhythm section period, and I wonder what a Kemp-Genocky one will sound like. (The web page says "a classic and much-loved line-up", but these two guys never played together in a regular Steeleye lineup.) As for the selection of tracks, there's not a one I dislike, though there are certainly a few I'd be happy to dump in favor of others omitted which I like much better. Of course "Gaudete" and "Long Lankin" are there, the two songs without which no Best of pre-reunion Steeleye could be complete, and it's amusing to see "King Henry" (which I've always considered a rough draft for "Long Lankin") there as well. Interesting that there's only one post-reunion song, though: "Let Her Go Down", which I suppose is one of the better non-Prior numbers from SAILS OF SILVER.
Mike Harding (BBC Radio 2 folk show host) played "Blackleg Miner" from the new Steeleye album on today's show. It's the opening track, so if you can find the show on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2 you can go right to it. It's always great to hear Maddy's voice, and I'm sure I'll buy this eventually, but the instrumentals were kind of blah, and I'm in no rush. David: I've never had any patience for the song "Let Her Go Down," it always triggers a bit of a gag reflex. The English Country Blues Band has a *much* better shipwreck song, "Wreck of the Northfleet;" of course, they didn't write that one, it comes from an old broadsheet.
Ken, I wouldn't mind if you gagged at the entirety of SAILS OF SILVER, but I don't see where "Let Her Go Down" is worthy of being singled out. For me, the most gaggy moment on the entire album is one line in "Gone to America": "I asked if I could see him, and they said no." Hm, it seems stupider in context. Anyway, the whole album is inferior examples of songs done better when they were adapted from folk sources. I'm sure that "Wreck of the Northfleet" is a better shipwreck song than "Let Her Go Down". Heck, even "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a better shipwreck song than "Let Her Go Down" (despite its own famously gaggy line, "As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most"). But "Let Her Go Down" hardly stands out on SAILS in respect of better examples. How about "Longbone" as the poorest ever Bob Johnson monster song, eh?
I should add also that while I was, and continue to be, tremendously impressed by the instrumentals of Steeleye's Genocky period in the new songs, I haven't been so impressed by most of their remake songs. A couple of exceptions: "Padstow" on TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT worked a bit better than the original, and "Twa Corbies" on TIME is just amazing.
From a UK mail order firm I have an announcement of an upcoming Richard Thompson album: "The Old Kit Bag," due early February in the UK. No further info yet.
http://www.richardthompson-music.com/ Reports that the UK release will be on Cooking Vinyl in Feb; USA release scheduled for April, no label given. There are some nice FAQ answers about upcoming/possible live recordings.
If you were thinking of getting the new Steeleye Span release PRESENT: I suggest not getting it from Amazon.com, who want US $35 for it. The UK Amazon store lists it for only 12 UK pounds. My vague recollection is that UK sources are pricing it as a "standard" release, even though it is a 2-CD set. Another tidbit: there is a very nice Linda Thompson feature in the new issue of DIRTY LINEN magazine.
Thanks for the word, Ken. UK Amazon was listing a CD of "The King of Elfland's Daughter" in print, but when I tried to order it, they had to give up, running me through the usual series of 6 apologia e-mails.
On folk stuff, the key words to look for on amazon.co.uk are "ships in 24 hours," meaning they have it in stock. For anything they don't have in stock, it gets to be a dice roll -- one has to balance the hope of a low price against the fear that the item will never show up, and usually at that point I switch over to one of the folk specialists such as Musikfolk, MusicScotland or ADA, who are more reliable about stocking the small folk labels and who will tell me promply in email if they do or do not have an item on hand. FRoots magazine (formerly Folk Roots) says they are working with Amazon on stocking and promotion issues for folk/world/roots music. Rockin' World claims THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER is out of print and the proprietor offers a last few copies for $25. My guess is that David will have to pay a small collectible premium for a used CD, or else wait until the next time someone thinks the album is worth issuing. For those who came in late: ELFLAND is a concept album produced by Steeleye Span guitarist Bob Johnson and fiddler Peter Knight after they left the band around 1977.
Presumably based on the novel by Lord Dunsany?
Yes.
What got me was Amazon's claim that Elfland was in print. I figured there was half a chance they could still get me a copy: such things have happened on occasion. If not, no harm was done.
If what he's said elsewhere about the slowdown in his music habits is true, he probably hasn't bothered, but I've been wondering whether Ken's Richard Thompson fandom is still strong enough to prompt him to order RT's newest release "The Old Kit Bag" from England (where it was released about a week ago. Apparently it won't reach the US until at least May.)
No, I haven't ordered the Thompson yet. That's how I know this is serious. Also haven't ordered the new Steeleye Span, another band who I've been devoted to for over 25 years. I did want to mention a couple of things about Thompson. On the drive home from our Christmas trip we heard RT's appearance on NPR's "Fresh Air" show, where he played a cover of Britney Spears' "Ooops! I did it again." This is going to appear on RT's next fan club release, which is drawn from his live show "1000 Years of Popular Music." Also, there are three outtake MP3s on RT's official web site, http://www.richardthompson-music.com. I haven't grabbed them yet myself.
Yes, I downloaded those earlier. I doubt I'll want to listen to "I Agree With Pat Metheny" very often, but it was amusing in concert.
It was, that. I also thought that R. Thompson's version of "Banks of the Nile" available at the URL above was nice, in a haunting way that fits the context of the song very well.
I haven't ordered the new Steeleye yet either. That's at least partly because I like to let items add up before I order from the UK.
I'd order the new Steeleye in a second, but I can't. (I hate money.)
The owner of Schoolkids' today tipped me to an upcoming Richard Thompson performance at the Michigan Theater. Confirmed at RT's official web site: Monday, April 28. Hmm, should I now go ahead and order the CD from the UK, or should I hear the new songs live for the first time? Schoolkids also got in a bunch of new Fairport and Albion Band stuff. The owner made a point to wave them all under my nose. Sigh. Neither group is working to a quality sufficient for me to buy their new CDs any more, alas. Possibly of slightly more interest is an all-Gaelic album by former Runrig lead singer Donnie Munro, but Munro's first solo album left me cold and I have not been willing to pursue him further.
Tickets are on sale for that concert fro $25, according to the Ark calendar email I got yesterday.
So on passing through Berkeley yesterday by myself, which meant I wasn't beholden to anybody else's idea of how to spend time, I decided to drop in on Down Home Records to see if they had the new Steeleye album, "Present". They didn't, nor did they have "The Journey" which I've also never gotten around to buying (though I was at the concert it records). They did, however, have no fewer than 3 Steeleye live albums I'd never seen before. One was "Gone to Australia", which Ken mentioned a while ago when it came out; a second was called "Live at Nottingham", which I didn't get because there was a DVD (not with that title) apparently covering the same material but more of it; the third was called "Sunken Meadows" from Pontiac Records, which says that half of it is a concert in Roslyn NY in 1973, and the other half is "Christmas Special 1976". This ought to scream "bootleg" at anyone looking at it. I bought it anyway. Oh boy, is it ever a bootleg. Probably recorded by somebody with a battery-operated condenser mike in his pocket. I also bought the Prior/Carnival album "Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh," which I'm listening to right now. Hmm, this one is really going to take some getting used to.
A review: After a couple months' worth of Ken and me sitting around talking about how we haven't gotten around to ordering Steeleye Span's "Present" yet, I now get to report that I not only have ordered it (directly from Park, the label), but it's arrived, I've listened to it, and I am very pleased with it. Remakes of classics and old favorites can give either a boost to an album or leave it diminished, depending on how the remakes react in one's mind with one's memory of the originals. This one mostly gives a boost, ranking rather above the remakes on "The Collection" in that regard. Where the band's last two studio albums, without Prior, struck me as lifeless, and the live album "The Journey" was utterly soggy, due to lack of rehearsal, here is the return of what I like to think of as the silver age Steeleye that so thrilled me on "Tonight's the Night" and "Time". And while perhaps "Present" doesn't _quite_ rise to the heights of overflowing energy of those albums' highlights, it doesn't have their low points either. In fact, I'd say the songs here work not so much by bowling me over with their energy, than by a kind of slow inexorability. "Hard Times of Old England" for instance is in a considerably slower tempo than the original, the vocals are pure Prior (no backing vocals), and there's nothing particularly interesting going on in the instrumentals (except for an interesting semi-Spanish break from Bob Johnson on an acoustic guitar), yet it has great power and presence: I like it better than the earlier version. I can say that for several other songs. "Two Magicians" (what the heck is that doing on a best-of album?), "The Weaver & the Factory Maid", and a few other second-rank songs get really heartfelt performances that completely overcome the weaknesses of the earlier versions. Some of the masterpieces don't quite measure up to the first versions, especially "Cam Ye O'er Frae France", but even that is better than the earlier remake; while the new versions of "Long Lankin" and "King Henry" don't have anything new to say, they re-say the old things pretty well; and "All Around My Hat" (with a prominent squeezebox not mentioned in the instrumental credits) bounces its dotted rhythm along very nicely. I was also quite pleased with "One Misty Moisty Morning", which struck a nice balance between slavishly copying the earlier version and doing something different. The general heaviness of silver-age Steeleye can be heard most clearly on the two remakes of songs from their early period, "Blackleg Miner" (which takes the style of the earlier "Back in Line" remake and turns it up a few notches, not entirely successfully), and "When I Was on Horseback" (a rather paler reflection of what they did to "Twa Corbies" on "Time"). The recording style is mostly close and raw, particularly on the vocals. This gives much power to Prior's vocals, especially on the more instrumentally complex songs like "Weaver". But it's most obvious on the group vocals, which sound more like the early 1980s Australian tour recordings than anything else. This raw, rough sort of mix makes a splendid effect on "The Lyke Wake Dirge" (on which Peter Knight takes lead), and creates a "Gaudete" totally unlike any other performance by the band I've ever heard. Besides the difference in recording style, I note that the men are all singing harmony only, leaving the melody line solely to Prior, giving a weird effect to the all-male runs of the chorus. Prior is in good voice, though not perhaps at her most dazzling. Bob Johnson sings lead on "Sir James the Rose" and "King Henry", on which he's good enough but not outstanding - neither is a highlight of the album, sounding too much like mere echoes of the earlier versions. (The same could be said of "Thomas the Rhymer".) Peter Knight, besides "Lyke Wake", sings lead on "Go Down", the only non-folk song on the album, which I'm pleased to say does not stick out like a sore thumb in context. And Rick Kemp takes over Tim Hart's old part on "John Barleycorn". Listening to Kemp sing lead is like listening to President Bush give a speech - you're just hoping he'll get through it without screwing up - and while he has to bash the tune down a bit to fit his voice, he gives it fair gusto, and again I have to say it has more vigor and interest than the earlier version. This is one happy Steeleye fan, signing off.
Oooooh. I want s it. I wants it. Preciousssssss. :-)
Inspired by David's review, I went to order a copy of the new Steeleye collection today from amazon.co.uk, and I found that Maddy Prior has yet another album out. The new one is called LIONHART (I hope I remember that correctly) and it's another release in her series of theme albums, following on YEAR and ARTHUR THE KING. (Counting the new Steeleye album, I think this is three major releases for Maddy in 12 months, four in 16-18 months. She's keeping very busy!) Then I find at Richard Thompson's website that he has a 5-song, limited edition EP being released to "select independent stores and chains" starting around now. And, the next "fan club" live RT recording is for sale at the current tour, and on the web site soon. It's titled "More Guitar" and it's from the 1988 tour, with a band lineup of: RT, John Kirkpatrick, Clive Gregson, Christine Collister, Pat Donaldson bass (ex-Fotheringay) and Kenny Aronoff drums. Wow, we only had to wait 15 years for it! The Thompson/Kirkpatrick/Gregson/Collister lineups which Thompson toured with in the mid-late 1980s remain my favorite of all his post-Linda bands. Unfortunately I missed Monday's RT show at the Michigan Theater, as we were driving back from the east coast.
re #99:
> Then I find at Richard Thompson's website that he has a 5-song, limited
> edition EP being released to "select independent stores and chains"
> starting around now.
I picked up a copy of "Tracks" at Easy Street Records in West Seattle
yesterday for $4.99 (less 10%). They had stacks of them, so I don't
think that availability will be a problem with this "limited edition"
but if the record retailing situation in Ann Arbor has grown so bad
that they can't be found there, I can pick up a few to send to Ken and
other interested parties.
The tracks are:
"I'll Tag Along" (from the new album)
"Bathsheba Smiles (live)" (live version of a song from the last album)
"Hard on Me (live)" (live version of a song from the last album)
"Worldes Blis Ne Last" (from "1000 Years of Popular Music")
"Don't Stop the Music" (from "1000 Years of Popular Music")
anyone know more about this "1000 Years of Popular Music" project?
My understanding is that "1000 Years" was a one-man show which Thompson toured for a while; I don't think he brought it to Michigan. It includes his cover of Britney Spears' "Ooops! I Did It Again," which he played on the "Fresh Air" program around New Year's. The Q&A section on the official RT website led me to think that "1000 Years" would be the next "fan-club" cd issue, so I was suprised to see the "More Guitar" set from 1988 turn up as the next release. I'm hopeful we'll see "1000 Years" before long. Borders didn't have the RT EP when last I checked. Schoolkids-in-the- Basement seemed to think it would be for sale with the new album starting this week; if that's not the case, I'll probably have to take Mike up on his offer.
More information on the RT web site. They list the retailers where the CD EP is for sale, and yup, no place in Ann Arbor qualifies. However, the other news is that "1000 Years of Popular Music" is going on sale soon at the website, so I won't need the "Tracks" CD if I get "1000 Years," "Semi-Detached Mock Tudor," and "Old Kit Bag". The "Tracks" EP is for sale at stores in Brighton and Dearborn.
Well, if anyone else should want one, let me know within a week or so. I'll be gone from Seattle after that..
I may. How much?
When I bought one over the weekend they were $4.99 - 10% discount for a
sale that was going on. Unfortunately I believe the sale will be ended
by the time I make another trip over to West Seattle so you'll have to
pay that extra $0.50.. :-P
I can probably scare up a padded envelope to ship it in, and estimate
probably about $1.25 for postage, so probably total cost would be:
$4.99 purchase price
$0.44 WA sales tax
$1.25 shipping
-----
$6.68 (or thereabouts..)
Okay. Let me know and I'll send a check. Or how would you like to deal with this?
(OK, if Twila's going to get one, send one for me too, in her package.)
Check will be fine, and I'll let you know the total after I ship, plus where to send it.. (I'm not even sure of that last part myself -- it depends how soon I get over to the record store, as my departure from Seattle is imminent..) Meanwhile, e-mail me the address you want it sent to.
Thanks, Mike, for handling the EP purchase. I procrastinated on ordering "1000 Years" and "More Guitar" from Richard Thompson's website last week, and today they are temporarily out of stock. Sigh. And amazon.co.uk is still out of stock on Steeleye's "Present." I just can't win.
Try again, Ken. I ordered "1000 Years" through the RT website last Wednesday, and it came on Monday. Fast service! As for "Present", I got that from Park Records a month or two ago. I have to say I have kind of mixed feelings about "1000 Years". I enjoyed the medieval and folk songs very much, and also got a thorough kick out of the gusto with which RT sings the music-hall songs, especially "Waiting at the Church", and G&S's "There is beauty in the bellow of the blast." But the jazz and most of the rock numbers left me entirely cold. Oh well.
Little Johnny England, The Ark, Ann Arbor: Tuesday June 24 2003
I mentioned this concert over on Utne Cafe's music conference, and
someone asked if the band were Celtic? *Sigh.*
Nope, they are English, and very retro. The electric guitar sound
similar to Bob Johnson's Steeleye Span work is a signature part
of their ensemble, though in their reliance
on melodeon they are more reminiscent of the various Albion bands.
(Looking at their web page, I see that their melodeon player used to
be in in the Albions! And, the rhythm section used to be in another
English folk band called Clarion which Twila adored.)
The basic lineup is electric guitar, bass, drum kit, fiddle and
melodeon. They described part of their sound as "rumpty-tumpty;" I
think of it more as "rhythmically chunky."
This is a band I enjoy mostly for the nostalgia of their sound; they
really nail that 1970s folk-rock thing. Most of the songs are
originals, and honestly they are not the best songwriters. Some of
the better songs come from a friend of theirs, Pete Scrowther, who
lives in Switzerland and is not a part of the group.
Carol M. pointed out that the drummer was pretty
inventive; I was getting fond of the fiddler. While the fiddler was
never super flashy, he was always spot-on, just right where he should
have been, and he was a pretty good harmony singer too.
LJE played a free show in Ann Arbor, part of the monthly series of
free shows here. They said they spend a few weeks every year
touring the States, so they must be making *some* market penetration
here.
(revised from Utne Cafe)
Retro is good. Little Johnny England sounds like a band that would be more enjoyable to hear live than to collect their records (if any).
There's a decent article in on-line magazine "Slate" this week about Richard Thompson and his "1000 Years of Popular Music" project. http://slate.msn.com/id/2089459/
The clips are pretty cool.
Thanks, Mike! I need to get to the slate piece. I've finally started digging into "1000 Years." Meanwhile, Richard T. has his *third* self- released album of the year out; "Ducknapped" is a live tour album from spring 2003.
I loved the article's description of RT's singing voice as "a phlegmatic bellow that often sounds at once both jumpy and arthritic."
I always liked and remembered the review that described his voice as "goatlike", perhaps even "goatlike bleating."
You realize that anybody reading this who's never heard RT is certainly not going to be encouraged to give him a try on the basis of this conversation. However, I recently played parts of "1000 Years of Popular Music" to a friend to whom RT was hardly more than a name, and he immediately bookmarked RT's website so that he could order it for himself.
I've made my occasional stop-in at the site of Peter Knight, Steeleye Span's fiddler, where he graciously answers questions from fans. Two news items of note. He says that it is most likely that Bob Johnson, Steeleye's longtime electric guitarist, is permanently retired from music. Bob came back to the band for the "Present" 2-CD set which appeared at the end of 2002, but then he developed health problems which forced him to step down from the subsequent tour. His spot was taken by Ken Nicol, who is going to continue as a member of the band. Steeleye Span plans a US tour in fall 2004. Current plans are for the East Coast only. I don't know if Ann Arbor counts as "East Coast" from the British perspective. http://www.peterknight.net
Thanks, Ken. Your summaries are a lot more coherent than the way Peter updates his site, that's for sure. I'll certainly miss Bob Johnson, but new people can be good too. I'm relieved to see that Maddy Prior is staying with the band this time: it was NOT the same without her. I'm just glad that it doesn't seem to be returning to that gruesome point of a few years ago when everybody quit at once and Steeleye consisted of nothing but Peter Knight answering the phone.
Martin Carthy, the Ark, October 20: A solo show for this tour. Martin is getting older, as is the audience, but he still puts on a heck of an enthusiastic show, with marvelously intricate guitar finger picking. I'd forgotten how important his guitar playing was, and how much his guitar and singing sound is woven into parts of my personal history. He played about three or four instrumentals, including the morris dance tune "Cuckoo's Nest," and some of the great ballads he sang were "Sir Patrick Spens" (a different version than the darkly humorous one Fairport uses); "The Wanton Brown," about a bit of horse thievery; "John Barleycorn;" and two big epics, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" and "Prince Heathen." The latter he did on request as an encore; he said he rarely would do both of those lengthy ballads in one evening, and I think he was tiring a bit at the end of "Heathen." (Anybody want to spell out "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" for me? I lost the thread of the story about midway through.) To add to the nostalgia factor my wife & I were sitting with one of my old college housemates, who drives from Battle Creek for the best British folk concerts.
Fair Elinor's mother hates her, so sends her "men" to kill her knight and her baby. Fair Elinor buries the dead, all alone, cuts her hair, and changes her name to "Sweet William" and goes off to serve the king. Becomes his chamberlain and is left at the court one day while the king goes hunting. The king sees this marvellous deer, follows it through the woods to the grave and watches as it turns into a dove which tells him about the killing and that his chamberlain is really a girl. (The implication is that the dove is her husband's ghost, as was the white deer he followed.) The king rides pell-mell back to the court, where he swoops down on his chamberlain and kisses him, actually her, and the whole court is agog until they find out it's a girl. Then it switches to the taking and death of Fair Elinor's mother by burning at the stake. In some of the stories it's very clear that the king married Fair Elinor after that, but not in the song as Martin sings it. And, yes, it IS one of my favorite ballads. Why do you ask?
oh, bonnie sang the morning thrush where he sat in yonder bush, But louder did her mother cry In the bonfire where she burned close-by
<smiley, since I can't actually give you one>
Geez, there's so much violence in song lyrics these days..
My all-time favorite folk music concert was a Martin Carthy solo concert about 20 years ago, highlighted by a riveting performance of the long ballad "King Willy." Which has certain thematic resemblances to "Famous Flower."
The "Celtic Heartbeat" show on BBC Radio Wales just mentioned the Steeleye Span 35th Anniversary Tour, with an accompanying new CD. Park Records' website confirms this bare-bones information and lists some UK dates in the spring. Supposedly there will be USA dates later in the year. The lineup is to be Maddy Prior, Rick Kemp, Peter Knight, Liam Gennocky and Ken Nicol (guitar). I guess Bob Johnson is really retired from the band this time. Steeleye fiddler Peter Knight says that he's going to close the Q&A section of his web site for a while, because Steeleye is taking up more time.
Sounds like fun, Ken. :)
For those who seem to be Richard Thompson fans, he was Emmy Lou Harris' "backup band" at the Folk Fest a couple of weeks ago. Was kind of cool :)
D'oh! An Emmylou Harris / Richard Thompson team-up? I'd've really have loved to have seen that. I wonder what the resulting work would sound like if Thompson started recording with Emmylou's recent producers, Danile Lanois and/or Malcolm Burn. In my opinion Thompson's only recently starting to recover from the appalling influence of Mitchell Froom..
Damn -- that I missed.
Yeah, if only the Emmylou / Thompson thing hadn't been one of those Folk Festival Surprises... Thompson wasn't on the bill at all, to the best of my recollection. What did you think of the last Thompson studio album, Mike? (THE OLD KIT BAG)
No, he wasn't. We were pretty surprised. Happy, though. :)
Well, here's a disappointing bombshell. Dave Pegg and his wife Chris are splitting. Dave Pegg has been the bass player for Fairport Convention since 1969, and Dave and Chris together have been the business team behind Fairport's label and studio Woodworm Records, and the annual Cropredy folk music festival which is one of the largest in Europe. Woodworm Studio is being sold; as part of the divorce settlement Dave's instrument collection is also being liquidated. It looks like the 2004 Cropredy Festival will be the final one. Chris' quote from the Telegraph article: "I have been running Cropredy for 23 years. We do not have a big organization behind it and it is a huge task. I think Dave will be going to live abroad with his new partner and I do not think I can continue." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F02%2F12%2Fn fairp12.xml "Marriage Split Costs Fairport Star His Guitars"
Well, I am glad I saw them at the Ark last year, then. I was kind of hoping to try Cropredy some year, but .... Wow.
Fairport the band is expected to continue.
It might be a small part of the misfortune of the divorce, but how sad to have to break up the instrument collection.
Here's Dave Pegg's statement on the instrument sale, from the official Jethro Tull website. (Pegg spent several years playing with Jethro Tull.) http://www.j-tull.com/news/davepeggsale.cfm
Pegg says he's selling the instruments voluntarily, so that he can give his wife 50% of the proceeds. It wasn't forced on him in the settlement. Sad that this may be the end of Cropredy, but all things have to. I went to one festival, the 25th in 1992, and had such a good time that I never went back. The combination of the great music (for they had a lineup particularly to my tastes that year) and the novelty of it kept me happy, and kept me from noticing things like the discomfort of living in a wet cow pasture for three days. I feared that if I went back, the wet and the cow pies would become my chief memory, and I didn't want that to happen.
Note for future investigation: I'm listening to a replay of the Celtic Heartbeat show on BBC Radio Wales and they've just played something very nice by the Duncan McFarlane Band, very much in the geezer folk-rock style. Here's the link I found. Looks like the album may only be available from the band: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/duncan.mcfarlane/cds/cdsintro.htm
Something new which finally straggled in: I'd been thinking about ordering it since late November, finally ordered it in late January and then Amazon.co.uk took over a month to deliver it. The album is by Skilda, title is "13 Dreams." Scottish folk-sortof with a heavy flavoring of dance pop percussion and electric guitars. Four songs are traditional, the rest are original but in a consistent enough style that I can't tell which are the traditional ones. I'm a sucker for electric guitars in a folk context. The band is a protege' of Capercaille, their album is released through Capercaillie's label Survival Records, and Skilda are promoted somewhat on the Capercaillie web site last I looked. The Scots certainly seem to be the market leaders in folk-techno. Needless to say, I first heard this on BBC Radio Scotland, probably on the Celtic Connections show. Now I have to make some time for the Anna Massie album, also from Scotland.
I've had the 2004 Steeleye Span album, THEY CALLED HER BABYLON, on hand for almost a week now, and I've played it a couple of times. My initial reaction is that it's like a friendly, comfy pair of slippers. Maddy sounds great, even though it's clear she's getting older along with the rest of us. So far there's only one song, the title track, which makes me wanna hit the "next track" button. Mostly I like Maddy's lead vocals the best, but I'm even getting to appreciate the version of "Dives and Lazarus" on which one of the guys sings lead. (Sorry, the CD case is in the car...) (I still like the June Tabor & Oyster Band version of "Dives" better though!) So: not as good as classic 1970s Steeleye Span; probably not the best of the reunion-era albums, but in the top half of that group. I think fans will find it worthwhile. (You can compare this with my reactions to the most recent Fairport Convention studio albums, which I haven't wanted to play through once; I've now scratched new Fairport recordings off my shopping list.)
Steeleye's "They Called Her Babylon" has made its way here. The band sounds good: Maddy Prior is in fine voice, Rick Kemp's vocal croaking is managable despite there being way too much of it, and new guitarist Ken Nicol fits in well to a still-cracking instrumental sound. But the songs are another matter. Except for "Heir of Linne", there's not a one I didn't like better on first listening than on second. That is a very, very bad sign.
The most recent EP release from one of my favorite bands, Yo La Tengo, has a cover of a song called "Needle of Death" by Bert Jansch. It's a pretty bleak song, but the cover interests me enough that I'd be interested in hearing more about Jansch's solo career as well as his years in Pentangle. Where would be a good place to start checking out his work?
That's probably my cue, and I don't have much to offer; I've picked up a number of Jansch's albums from his 40?-year career but nothing leaps out, he's very consistent. Bert Jansch first comes to light as part of the British folk/acoustic blues scene in the 1960s; a cover of Davy Graham's instrumental tune "Angi" made his initial reputation. He's still active; today I heard a new song on BBC Radio Scotland. The only band he was in was Pentangle; the classic lineup from 1966?-1971?, and then he was in the reunion band for a few years in the 1980s. I'll have to google the name of that cover and see if I can find out where Jansch originally recorded it.
Apparently it's on his eponymous debut album from 1965. Unrelated: I tried to look that up last night while I was upstairs in our house's living room, browsing on my Mac laptop. Unfortunately they've screwed up the HTML for my formerly-beloved All Music Guide's home page so badly it wouldn't render on IE under MacOS 9 well enough for me to even find the search box to type in Jansch's name. <sigh>
I can't recall if I have that CD or not. amazon.co.uk has samples from the first 4 or 5 tracks.
I presume the track "Anji" that you mentioned Jansch covering is the same one that Simon & Garfunkel covered on "The Sounds of Silence"? It's also on this first eponymous solo album, apparently, if that jogs your memory.
Likely it is; Paul Simon was hanging out with the British folkies in that mid-60s period; it's long been known that he borrowed Martin Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair." Chumbawamba borrowed "Anji" and wove it into a song on their "Readymades" CD, which makes extensive use of British folk samples, riffs and guest vocals.
I suspect "Scarborough Fair" constitutes many people's sole knowledge of folk music. Probably been responsible for turning off thousands of potential devotees.
I don't imagine it would be easy to find thousands of people who strongly dislike Simon & Garfunkel's recording of "Scarborough Fair / Canticle"
OK, then. Maybe I'm just picky.
Well poot. The Ark says that Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music" show is sold out, nearly one month in advance. Grrr. I suppose I should check Ticketmaster, but I don't even know where there is a ticketmaster outlet any more. On the positive side, I just saved $70 on the two tickets. :/
I think it was sold out even earlier than this, since I got a "no are you kidding" response when I wistfully mentioned I'd like to attend. :-)
Having realized that I'd completely forgotten Steeley Span's "They Called Her Babylon" in the year since it arrived (and the year since I'd listened to it), I got out all four Steeleye albums I have from the last 7 years and gave them all a good listen. Verdict: The two albums without Maddy Prior are utterly hopeless. Gay Woods is a good singer but not outstanding. Bob Johnson tries to sing material completely unsuited for him. Tim Harries' songwriting is unattractive. However good Dave Mattacks was as a drummer for Fairport, he's not suited for Steeleye: overbearing without the tightness of Liam Genocky. The two more recent albums are much better. "Present" is the one that sounds like an old pair of shoes: just pleasant. "They Call Her Babylon" improves on further relistening, although with only one outstanding track, "Heir of Linne", it's not a great Steeleye album. But at least it has the sound and spirit of the early-mid 1990s albums. If I ever write another history of Steeleye, I think I have the names for the periods: The Early Years (1970-72) The Golden Age (1973-76) The Interval (1977-78) The Fallow Period (1980-89) The Silver Age (1990-96) The Black Years (1998-2000) The Third Revival (2002- )
I agree with your assessment, though I kind of like some of the other songs on "They Call Her Babylon". It's just not as good as the older albums.
A track from the new Ashley Hutchings project just became this week's ear-worm. The lyrics have some problems, but the tune is pretty good and the arrangement is first rate. Hutchings' new project is a band called The Rainbow Chasers, which is Hutchings, two young women and one young guy; everybody sings, and the women play violin and viola so there is sort of a poppy string-quartet thing going on. Hutchings was the guest on this week's Mike Harding show (which I just missed, sigh, but I have the replay available) so most likely more tracks from the new album are on that show. Ashley Hutchings, for those who don't know, is *the* most important figure from the 1960's & 1970's British folk-rock scene -- as an intellectual influence and organizer, rather than as a pure musician. Hutchings was a founding member of Fairport Convention and he was the one who pushed the band into working more extensively with traditional music. He quit Fairport and organized Steeleye Span to focus even more on traditional music, and then he quit Steeleye Span and started The Albion Band to focus even more on English music (meaning less of the Irish and Scottish songs). Probably half or more of the classic British folk-rock albums from that period either have Ashley playing on them, or are by bands that Ashley started. (And his output since 1990 has been mostly turgid, MOR pop crap -- I have bought hardly any of his voluminous output in the last decade.)
You have several choices: