The news that John Martyn is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards on February 4th was announced recently and of course everybody agrees that it is about time. Even better news is that John is recovering from his recent bout of illness and is determined to get down to London to play at the Awards, the band is playing too so we wish John well and hope that his fitness continues to improve so that he can take his rightful place on the night.
The news on the long awaited new record - "Willing to Work" is that there is a big debate going on as to whether the keyboard layered takes of the songs should be finished for the album, or whether to go back and re-record with acoustic guitar and piano. The inevitable result is that the record is going to be a little longer in the making, but from what I've heard, it will be worth the wait. The dilemma facing the production team is a complex one - there are many voices who want to hear John Martyn playing acoustic music, yet John has been recording with the band, and they have already put down some pretty pleasing music with strong inputs from Spencer Cozens' keyboards - indeed Spencer is often in there at the outset, playing along with John as he sings the new songs for the first time, and I suspect that John likes these takes.
Personally, I would declare on the the side of the keyboard versions - although I haven't heard the acoustic tracks as such, it is the power of the music - the big sound that Spencer (or indeed Foster Patterson) and the band get in the live environment that most appeals to me about John's music, and John's electric guitar can bring me to tears. Gilly suggested putting out 2 versions of some of the songs on the same album, which would be fascinating, but the thought of having to finish 2 versions of everything might be a step too far at this stage!
Perhaps going back to pure acoustic music would be too much like a step back in time for John Martyn, who has after all been innovative throughout his career, and has never shied away from doing what he wants to do, I don't know where his heart lies, maybe he wants to return to his folk roots.
So thats my tuppence worth - I'm hoping to spark a debate because I know that the folks "Doon the Cellar" are listening and maybe John is too - any offers?
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
One More Thing .... Pandora Radio
"We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative."
This is a disgrace!
The fact that some money grabbing executives in the "music industry" think that streaming music across the globe is bad for "their" business is depriving U.K. based music lovers from using this most excellent technology.
Pandora lets you start from a given point - say a song or an artist, and will play you tracks that relate in some way to the starting point. You can add and subtract artists, change the bias towards certain styles - it is brilliant - and if I was allowed to use it, then I would most likely have spent yet more money on CDs or downloads. Now that I can't - well the "music business" will lose out because I shall continue to cut them out and wherever possible buy direct from the artists.
The "Music Business" is trying to kill Music.
Long Live Pandora!
This is a disgrace!
The fact that some money grabbing executives in the "music industry" think that streaming music across the globe is bad for "their" business is depriving U.K. based music lovers from using this most excellent technology.
Pandora lets you start from a given point - say a song or an artist, and will play you tracks that relate in some way to the starting point. You can add and subtract artists, change the bias towards certain styles - it is brilliant - and if I was allowed to use it, then I would most likely have spent yet more money on CDs or downloads. Now that I can't - well the "music business" will lose out because I shall continue to cut them out and wherever possible buy direct from the artists.
The "Music Business" is trying to kill Music.
Long Live Pandora!
METROCOUSTIC - 16th January 2008
Back to Liverpool again for our first visit to the Metrocoustic night. Held in Metro, Victoria Street, this is a regular event, run by one of Liverpool's adopted daughters - Kaya. The Metro bar is in the basement of Fowlers Building - a fine example of a brick built vaulted cellar and as a result it has a big open area with no pillars and a low ceiling - result - excellent sound and a cosy atmosphere.
It's a late-ish start - 9.30 pm - and as the start time neared, the place began to fill up - Kaya started running around getting the p.a. set up and gathering people to add to the line-up, and before long she was ready to open the proceedings with a J.D. Loudermilk's good old blues - "Turn me on" which even Kaya admitted was a little rusty! No problems after that though, and her take on "These Boots Were Made For Walking" was very well received. "Follow that Kev!" went up the cry as Kev and Mally took to the stage for a short set of Kev's self-penned songs with Mally providing some very nice indeed guitar backing with Kaya's bassy Ovation(?). Kev's songs turned out to be rather good, sensitive and lyrical - sung in his restrained - possibly overly so - high register voice - very smooth. His lyrics are often dark, but his songs are well worth a listen to and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Next up was Stuart Anthony who played a mixture of of his own songs and a couple of Nick Drake covers, then Kaya came back on with her own "Fairy Tale Blues" - a big blues song delivered in a BIG blues voice which hardly seems viable from her small frame!
The next short set was from Guitar Mal (Mally) - declaration of interest alert - we're almost related! I spent a couple of songs with my right ear next to the speaker taking pictures for him, but when I retreated to switch to video, I was better able to hear(!) and enjoyed a nice rendition of "Me about You" which Mally picked rather than strummed and came out well. "Happy Now" is another of Mally's "cheerful" songs. He's probably fed up of us saying this by now, but when Mally holds back a bit vocally, it seems to work rather well, but you see how much he is enjoying performing and that is after all what it's all about.
What happened next was a big, big performance from Kaya - calling in her friend Laura for some backing vocals, Kaya gave it everything and so good was it that I failed to write down the song! But it was bursting with colour and passion, with Laura looking a little overwhelmed by it all but she hung in there well. The next song - maybe it was called "Perfect" was equally good, but slower and less frantic. Kaya was clearly excited that the mixes had just come back for her album and they are already beginning to appear on her MySpace. If they are anything like as good as this performance tonight, the album will be a real treat.
Letters In Red are a young four piece band who where quite impressive too. With 2 acoustic guitars playing intermingled with each other, violin and female vocal, they played a competent set which produced a couple of neat musical twists - they are particularly good at endings! They use the violin as lead guitar in places and it was a nice change to hear a band without drums or keyboards. They clearly need a little practice at stagecraft - seemly a little shy of the microphone at times, but they showed lots of promise and again I look forward to hearing more from them.
That was it for us - the night rolled on and they play until about 1 a.m. but we had to leave early - it was a good night and I think we'll be paying Metrocoustic a few more visits in the near future.
It's a late-ish start - 9.30 pm - and as the start time neared, the place began to fill up - Kaya started running around getting the p.a. set up and gathering people to add to the line-up, and before long she was ready to open the proceedings with a J.D. Loudermilk's good old blues - "Turn me on" which even Kaya admitted was a little rusty! No problems after that though, and her take on "These Boots Were Made For Walking" was very well received. "Follow that Kev!" went up the cry as Kev and Mally took to the stage for a short set of Kev's self-penned songs with Mally providing some very nice indeed guitar backing with Kaya's bassy Ovation(?). Kev's songs turned out to be rather good, sensitive and lyrical - sung in his restrained - possibly overly so - high register voice - very smooth. His lyrics are often dark, but his songs are well worth a listen to and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Next up was Stuart Anthony who played a mixture of of his own songs and a couple of Nick Drake covers, then Kaya came back on with her own "Fairy Tale Blues" - a big blues song delivered in a BIG blues voice which hardly seems viable from her small frame!
The next short set was from Guitar Mal (Mally) - declaration of interest alert - we're almost related! I spent a couple of songs with my right ear next to the speaker taking pictures for him, but when I retreated to switch to video, I was better able to hear(!) and enjoyed a nice rendition of "Me about You" which Mally picked rather than strummed and came out well. "Happy Now" is another of Mally's "cheerful" songs. He's probably fed up of us saying this by now, but when Mally holds back a bit vocally, it seems to work rather well, but you see how much he is enjoying performing and that is after all what it's all about.
What happened next was a big, big performance from Kaya - calling in her friend Laura for some backing vocals, Kaya gave it everything and so good was it that I failed to write down the song! But it was bursting with colour and passion, with Laura looking a little overwhelmed by it all but she hung in there well. The next song - maybe it was called "Perfect" was equally good, but slower and less frantic. Kaya was clearly excited that the mixes had just come back for her album and they are already beginning to appear on her MySpace. If they are anything like as good as this performance tonight, the album will be a real treat.
Letters In Red are a young four piece band who where quite impressive too. With 2 acoustic guitars playing intermingled with each other, violin and female vocal, they played a competent set which produced a couple of neat musical twists - they are particularly good at endings! They use the violin as lead guitar in places and it was a nice change to hear a band without drums or keyboards. They clearly need a little practice at stagecraft - seemly a little shy of the microphone at times, but they showed lots of promise and again I look forward to hearing more from them.
That was it for us - the night rolled on and they play until about 1 a.m. but we had to leave early - it was a good night and I think we'll be paying Metrocoustic a few more visits in the near future.
LIVERPOOL 08 - The Peoples' Opening
It has been an awful long time coming, but 2008 arrived with - a delay. I was amazed to find that Liverpool was not launching into 2008 - the year when the grand old city becomes European Capital of Culture - with a great firework display. So we had to make do with the myriad domestic displays that were visible from the top of Thurstaston Hill. We were also treated to a countdown, a piper, and some singing. The fireworks were great, and there were some really good ones over in Anfield, but one rather felt that Liverpool had missed a golden opportunity in ignoring the date, especially following on from the spectacular display they put on for the City's 800th birthday a few months back.
A fortnight later then, the official start of the Capital of Culture year began with the People's Opening - a small matter of 45-50 thousand of us gathered on St George's Plateau, and spilled over into the surrounding streets in a pleasing if rather cramped turnout for the big event. Billed as the day when Liverpool's "Big Dig" - a controversial attempt to rebuild the City in one fell swoop - turns into the "Big Gig", there were all manner of music and arts promised for this glittering launch event, and sure enough, there were indeed all sorts:
A great phalanx of rock guitarists, impressively arranged in lines atop many of the buildings around the Plateau, backlit and smoked, poured out what was probably somebody's idea of a rock anthem, but the sound didn't match the image, maybe the p.a. wasn't up to it where we were, but what looked like a great oceanic wave turned out to be more like the Mersey on a choppy day - a bit rough and very muddy.
Much more atmospheric musically was the choir which put out a rather ethereal wash of sound, and with the great visuals of local school children bringing their caskets of treasured things, each one containing a light, things improved tremendously. Even more delightful was the harp which often danced around over and above the other music. There was much play on Liverpool's links with shipping, containers flying through the air, acrobats up ropes and on frames suspended from cranes, all flagging semaphore messages in unison. We saw some film, a few celebrities came out and waved - though none were introduced and we couldn't tell who most of them were, and local popsters The Wombats came out and did a song, or maybe 2.
By now the crowd was getting the better of some of our party and we had to try and find somewhere less cramped - not easy as it turned out, so the remainder of the event was experienced in less than ideal circumstances as we tried to squeeze through layer after layer of crowd! Ringo too came on and did his Liverpool 8 song from in a box on top of St George's Hall and then that was it! I was surprised it was over so soon - but everybody seemed to have enjoyed it and it looked fab on the telly the next night. The official web site has loads of great images too if you want to see for yourself.
The next night they got the new stadium - The Echo Arena - open for "Liverpool - The Musical" which seemed to go down well too. The Arena is one of the first of a great many new buildings to open in Liverpool - a city which is in the process of taking a giant step to one side, moving the shopping centre towards the waterfront and adding The Arena to the already impressive Tate Liverpool and so on at the Albert Dock. It's a huge undertaking, and much of it remains under construction, so it may be that culture, rather than shopping, does take first place in 2008!
Stay tuned for more Culture!
A fortnight later then, the official start of the Capital of Culture year began with the People's Opening - a small matter of 45-50 thousand of us gathered on St George's Plateau, and spilled over into the surrounding streets in a pleasing if rather cramped turnout for the big event. Billed as the day when Liverpool's "Big Dig" - a controversial attempt to rebuild the City in one fell swoop - turns into the "Big Gig", there were all manner of music and arts promised for this glittering launch event, and sure enough, there were indeed all sorts:
A great phalanx of rock guitarists, impressively arranged in lines atop many of the buildings around the Plateau, backlit and smoked, poured out what was probably somebody's idea of a rock anthem, but the sound didn't match the image, maybe the p.a. wasn't up to it where we were, but what looked like a great oceanic wave turned out to be more like the Mersey on a choppy day - a bit rough and very muddy.
Much more atmospheric musically was the choir which put out a rather ethereal wash of sound, and with the great visuals of local school children bringing their caskets of treasured things, each one containing a light, things improved tremendously. Even more delightful was the harp which often danced around over and above the other music. There was much play on Liverpool's links with shipping, containers flying through the air, acrobats up ropes and on frames suspended from cranes, all flagging semaphore messages in unison. We saw some film, a few celebrities came out and waved - though none were introduced and we couldn't tell who most of them were, and local popsters The Wombats came out and did a song, or maybe 2.
By now the crowd was getting the better of some of our party and we had to try and find somewhere less cramped - not easy as it turned out, so the remainder of the event was experienced in less than ideal circumstances as we tried to squeeze through layer after layer of crowd! Ringo too came on and did his Liverpool 8 song from in a box on top of St George's Hall and then that was it! I was surprised it was over so soon - but everybody seemed to have enjoyed it and it looked fab on the telly the next night. The official web site has loads of great images too if you want to see for yourself.
The next night they got the new stadium - The Echo Arena - open for "Liverpool - The Musical" which seemed to go down well too. The Arena is one of the first of a great many new buildings to open in Liverpool - a city which is in the process of taking a giant step to one side, moving the shopping centre towards the waterfront and adding The Arena to the already impressive Tate Liverpool and so on at the Albert Dock. It's a huge undertaking, and much of it remains under construction, so it may be that culture, rather than shopping, does take first place in 2008!
Stay tuned for more Culture!
Happy New Year?
Firstly - all the best for 2008 from FolkingAbout - lets hope for lots of great music and maybe some peace and goodwill too!
It has already been a momentous year with news reaching us of Denny Bartley's decision to quit the fantastic Last Night's Fun - typically enough their website claims it is because he cannot face sitting next to Chris any longer, before alluding more seriously to Denny's young family and we would wish every happiness to Denny, Karen and the children. (Maybe Denny will have a few spare minutes to finish his own album now....?)
More shockingly, news is breaking of Belinda O'Hooley's parting from Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. This is, on the face of it, terrible news. Belinda speaks of relief in her blog, coupled with disappointment that all fans of The Winterset must share because Belinda was an integral part of the group - her music first, her humour, her presence and for, me the care she put into the live performances, her accompaniment of Becky's singing - captured here at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2006 - is so sensitive and intense. Belinda will be hard, probably impossible to replace - certainly The Winterset will never be the same again. I hope they have the courage and strength to move on and find new facets rather than try to emulate Belinda's unique contributions.
Talking of which - The Winterset have been receiving many plaudits and end of year honours, and are rightfully nominated for 4 awards in the 2008 BBC Folk Awards to be announced on February 4th - I hope Belinda receives her fair share of the honours here, because she has been a major force in this act and she will be much missed.
FolkingAbout wish Belinda well in her new career, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Rachel, Becky and The Winterset somewhere on the upcoming tour.
It's not all sad news though! Liverpool has just launched into 2008 as European Capital of Culture - FolkingAbout was there to witness the "People's Launch" - more on that and some interesting new acts coming up next.
It has already been a momentous year with news reaching us of Denny Bartley's decision to quit the fantastic Last Night's Fun - typically enough their website claims it is because he cannot face sitting next to Chris any longer, before alluding more seriously to Denny's young family and we would wish every happiness to Denny, Karen and the children. (Maybe Denny will have a few spare minutes to finish his own album now....?)
More shockingly, news is breaking of Belinda O'Hooley's parting from Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. This is, on the face of it, terrible news. Belinda speaks of relief in her blog, coupled with disappointment that all fans of The Winterset must share because Belinda was an integral part of the group - her music first, her humour, her presence and for, me the care she put into the live performances, her accompaniment of Becky's singing - captured here at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2006 - is so sensitive and intense. Belinda will be hard, probably impossible to replace - certainly The Winterset will never be the same again. I hope they have the courage and strength to move on and find new facets rather than try to emulate Belinda's unique contributions.Talking of which - The Winterset have been receiving many plaudits and end of year honours, and are rightfully nominated for 4 awards in the 2008 BBC Folk Awards to be announced on February 4th - I hope Belinda receives her fair share of the honours here, because she has been a major force in this act and she will be much missed.
FolkingAbout wish Belinda well in her new career, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Rachel, Becky and The Winterset somewhere on the upcoming tour.
It's not all sad news though! Liverpool has just launched into 2008 as European Capital of Culture - FolkingAbout was there to witness the "People's Launch" - more on that and some interesting new acts coming up next.
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