response 1 of 68:

Oct 16 05:10 UTC 1991

Malicorne dates back to the early 1970's; they are often referred to as
"the French Steeleye Span."  Leader Gabriel Yacoub and his wife Marie
first came to attention as sidepeople with Alan Stivell.  Their own band
contained lots of those yummy European instrumental textures, and a 
bit of an early music influence.  Their best work was probably on their 
early albums for the French label Hexagone; three of those albums were titled
MALICORNE, which makes it hard for the collector.  Later work on French WEA
was somewhat weaker but is still worthwhile; this is most of the material
collected on the new US compilation LEGENDE.  
 
Malicorne disbanded in 1978.  A brilliant reunion album appeared in 1986,
on Celluloid of all labels, titled LES CATHEDRALES DE L'INDUSTRIE.  Yacoub
told us this material was originally intended to be a solo album, but the 
company thought a Malicorne reunion would sell better.  However, Celluloid
seems to have had no idea how to sell this album; it seems to be their rarest
release.
 
Yacoub says that Malicorne is now quite thoroughly dead.  He is no longer
married to Marie; his new wife is Nikki Matheson, an American who if I 
remember correctly has a background in performance art and who appears on 
his two most recent solo albums.
 
I haven't been too thrilled with Yacoub's recent solo work, but his live
performances still get my highest recommendation, as do the early Malicorne
albums.

response 3 of 68:

Oct 16 15:45 UTC 1991

Gabriel Yacoub and Jean-Pierre Rasle (According to the blurb in the Ark
schedule he's a "bagpipe wizard" who's played with Cock and Bull and the
Albion Band) are going to be at the Ark next Tuesday, the 22nd of October
at 8pm.  Sounds quite interesting, but I've already got tickets to hear/see
Hydrogen Jukebox at the Michigan Theater that night.  (How can you be in
two places at once, when you're not anywhere at allllllll?)

response 5 of 68:

Oct 16 23:41 UTC 1991

The one and the same.  It's on the Michigan Theater's "Drama" series...

response 7 of 68:

Oct 17 22:10 UTC 1991

Aaargh!  I want to see them both!

response 9 of 68:

Oct 19 07:03 UTC 1991

Thanks to Mary Ellen for her detailed review of the Michelle Shocked
concert, over in the concert calendar item.  I am resigning myself to *never*
seeing her live; I've missed three or four area performances now.  
I guess I should break down and buy her videotape.  I *hate* prerecorded
music videotapes.
 
Cruising this week's partylog, I found morel and polygon discussing
Ms. Shocked.  Polygon!  You haven't heard her!  The most significant
new American folksinger in years?!  I shall remedy this the next time
we drive to Lansing together.
 
Morel has the story of Ms. Shocked's discovery mostly right; she was
strumming around the campfire at the Kerrville Folk Festival when a 
guy with a Walkman Pro came up and asked to record her.  The guy 
with the Walkman was no bigwig executive; he was Pete Lawrence of 
England, and he was just *about* to start a record company, Cooking Vinyl.
THE TEXAS CAMPFIRE TAPES was the second Cooking Vinyl release, complete
with crickets and trucks, and it was a smash success in the UK indie
market and helped assure the future of the company for several years, 
which was great because Pete Lawrence has a great set of ears and went
on to release about 35 more albums, about half of which I have, before
the label ran into financial trouble last year.  (I had a whole item on
Cooking Vinyl Records over on M-net, so I won't repeat it all here.)
 
I'm not sure what happened.  Shocked's next albums came out on Polygram/
Mercury, with Cooking Vinyl logos affixed, and next I heard Cooking Vinyl
and Shocked were "engaged in litigation."
 
Shocked's best album, for my taste, is SHORT SHARP SHOCKED, a wonderful
blend of folk, blues, jazz and rock, with some delightful wordplay in
the lyrics.   I didn't like the brass stylings on CAPTAIN SWING too 
much; for me, the best thing about that album was a track released only
as a B-side on a UK single.  It was a pure acoustic rendition of 
"The Titanic" by Leadbelly, done by Shocked and her father; it gave me
hope that she hadn't abandoned her folky roots.

response 11 of 68:

Oct 24 16:00 UTC 1991

So far I have liked all her albums.  They sure are different in feel though!
Seeing the band live for Captain swing was fun.  They were TIGHT!  ooh.
Ken, you are more than welcome to BORROW my Captain swing video.
I think it is the only one out of her.  I like it but of course it is of
the Captain Swing tour.
The next album will be much more over all folkie in feel I think.
As I mentioned she has recorded songs with people all over.
From (I forget which chicago blues guy) to The Red Clay Ramblers to
ALison Krauss, to Doc Watson!  This should be fun.

response 13 of 68:

Oct 25 05:53 UTC 1991

Maybe, but there's also an Alison Krauss who has a reputation as a stellar
bluegrass fiddler, starting from when she was about 17.  I haven't heard
her.

response 15 of 68:

Oct 30 07:38 UTC 1991

It was Laurie Lewis we saw at the Festival; on Sunday night she had her
own set and then she played behind David Bromberg for the final set.
I've got a great new album featuring Lewis, review soon.

response 17 of 68:

Oct 31 20:09 UTC 1991

Sorry, can't really help you.  I was reacting to the fact that I recognized
the name,  and that I very much liked the song Martin was referring to,
"Oh, the Wind and the Rain."  I've probably even heard Steicher do the song
on the radio, but couldn't swear to it.  I found it interesting when Martin
said something like "I can't get my English tonsils around" Oh, the Wind
and the Rain, just a few weeks earlier I heard June Tabor sing it during
her concert at the Ark.  I must admit, I've prefered the american versions
I've heard of that song.

response 19 of 68:

Nov 5 18:51 UTC 1991

What a great name for a band!  Weddings parties anything!  heh

I'd like to hear that song (Oh the wind and the rain).
I certainly loved the Carthy Swarbrick concert!
Wowza.  It was a treat listening to swarbrick since I must confess to
not having heard him before. :-( <shame on me>

I bought the new cd at the concert and am enjoying it lots.
Aren''t the similarities between Byker Hill and the old Brubeck tune
"Blue Rondo A la Turk" amusing?  The melodic line of the first few
measures seem to be inversions fo each other.
The rythym wasn't 1 2, 1 2, 1 2, 1 2 3  all the way through... 
there were 3 measures of that followed by a measure of
1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3,.  Just like Blue Rondo.
interesting.

response 21 of 68:

Nov 6 05:23 UTC 1991

I keep wanting to stuff "Byker Hill" into the much simpler rhythmic 
structure that the band The Barely Works used, sigh.

response 23 of 68:

Nov 19 02:37 UTC 1991

The Battlefield Band concert was fun!
I worked at the ark for the first time and did you know that highland pipes
can be heard very well through the wall of the women's bathroom? :-)

They were very good.  It was also fun seeing lots of old friends there like
Tom and Tara Barber and Chris and Becky Clayton.

I had only heard them once before (at Philly) so I can't comment on the
performance compared to others really.  They were very high energy.
They performed a version of Auchindoon that I liked, but not as well as the
one on Silly Sisters.  I enjoyed the interplay between the members...
at one point the fiddler (who is 18?) and the keyboard player (old member in
his um... 30? 40ish) did a duet and the fiddler said "He's going to accompany
me on this one cause I like to let the young ones play a bit." cute.
As I mentioned elsewhere they closed with a bluegrass number complete with
bluegrass highland pipes! very silly.  some really knock out fiddling though.