'Baseball' by Dusted

From time to time a record comes along that just strikes you as absolutely sublime. A song you can't get enough of, that you'll play at every opportunity? That's the case with Baseball by Dusted. It's been on repeat on my Spotify and on YouTube since I first heard it. 

This is a record of beauty perfectly balanced between ache and a pop sensibility that shares its beauty on repeated listens. That's my take. 

Check out the 'official video' for the song too. Seemingly made in secret as a back up by Brian Borcherdt's wife Anna when she thought the original video concept was going south. It too is a thing of beauty with a few unexpected turns - no spoilers, give it a watch. https://youtu.be/iFOMQ0rIBjs

Baseball is taken from the third Dusted album the appropriately titled III. I'm diving into the album now - it may be some time before I come up for air.

 https://totallydusted.bandcamp.com/

Shadow Kingdom - Bob Dylan's live stream of sorts

 Bob Dylan's Shadow Kingdom 'livestream' adds like everything he does to his legend and his myth. Was it really a livestream, did the band play the songs live, did Bob mime the words hidden behind a vintage microphone, why the all new band, does the Bon Bon Club in Marseille really exist? 

Whatever the answers to those questions and the attendant conspiracy theories are is immaterial as the legend and the myth has been added to and then some.

Billed as the songs of a young Bob Dylan the selection of songs was definitely a choice of songs from a younger Bob Dylan - nothing from the recent 'Rough & Rowdy Ways' album. The 80 year old Bob reading his back pages was in my view a wonderous thing. The interpretations musically followed a format that that we've grown accustomed to recently a precise and simple blues with a smattering of rockabilly on the more up tempo tunes. Not a note wasted and not a note more. His voice is richer with age, and seems like the most important instrument. Songs of his younger days even his middle age take on a poignancy and truth that sure he was aiming at back then but age has given the wisdom to deliver them effortlessly. He is like an old bluesman knowing instinctively how to deliver these songs and catch that balance between recognition and freshness. He delivered that whatever the myths wrapped up and spun out of this livestream are or become.

In 2017 Dylan released  'Triplicate' a three disc set of covers taken from the great American songbook and watching Shadow Kingdom I came to the conclusion that Dylan has no real need for the great American songbook. It's pretty obvious really, his canon of work is its own great American song book with its own memories, myths and legends.  

Waxahatchee 1 year Anniversary St Cloud livestream - 'live' in Kansas

To mark the 1 year anniversary of the release of St Cloud Waxahatchee performed the album 'live' from La Villa, Kansas City.

 

I've been listening to Waxahatchee for some time now and it was the album St Cloud that really caught my attention. For me Katie Crutchfield has hit her stride. By that I mean that her vision and its realisation, the reason I've been an on and off listener for a few years now, has with St Cloud hit that sweet spot where I fully get and appreciate what she is doing.

The album was released a year ago and has been a favourite of mine since even naming a Spotify playlist after one of its stand out tracks 'Can't Do Much'. Released around the time that the world as we know it went into the rolling Covid lockdowns that have defined our existence since. The album was never toured. This aniversary gig was to present a band performance to a worldwide audience to say thank you for your support. It was worth the wait.

Filmed inside La Villa, Kansas City the airy white space with arched windows and a mix of dried and fresh flowers provided an open and bright, hopeful space to explore these songs.

This was a track by track run through of the album. That statement downplays the presentation - this was a band playing live with heart and sublety allowing the space for these songs to flow and connect with the audience.The band filled the space with a nod to the venue's bright and airy tones all washed out denims and flowers. It seems in these troubled times we need to keep hope, life and beauty to the fore. The band made it seem effortless and what they created was truly beautiful.

 

Those yearning melodic tunes with evocative lyrics -  we leave love behind /without a tear or a long goodbye or Swallow my pride/it's mine to quell/ I'll put you through hell/illput you through hell/ I - release a ramble of a sigh.

 

The mix of venue, band, lyrics and the sheer quality of this set of songs creates a mood at once light and hopeful but with a biting undercurrent that suggests an indie intelligence informing a natural and true americana heartbeat. This is a music that dwells in that cosmic american terrain explored by Gram Parsons where country, folk and rock cross paths. If this was the 1990s Micheal Stipe would be popping up on harmony vocals. He doesn't and those aching harmonies are left to the band members and hit the mark every time.

There are glimpses of the joy of this live set from the band - from Katie herself as the the main focus of the camera, but catch the sheer unbridled joy of the bass player as she delivers her harmonies and delivers her bass lines. This must have been a release for band members on ice for a year and now able to do what they do and do it so well.

 

In a blur of georgeous melodies and subtle playing we're onto the last song and the realisation that the show is nearing its end. What a blessing it is that once the album is complete the show continues with a cover of Dolly Parton's 'Light of a Clear Blue Morning' which starts tender and reflective before gradually building in intensity to a driving cathartic end everthing is going to be alright/it's gonna be ok.

With a bow to the audience and a nod to the band Katie vacates the stage as the band bring the show to an end.

Thank you Katie Crutchfield and Waxahatchee for your time, your beauty and your hope. It's gonna be ok.

Esther Rose 'How Many Times' IGTV pre-album release taster

 

 

Esther Rose - just Esther and a guitar, her voice, her songs...well there was a Hank Williams cover.

This was one of those short lo-fi IGTV to camera performances that Covid has gotten us all used to. Esther's new album has been eagerly anticipated and on the pre-released tracks such as the title track seems set to be a career highlight and one that will hopefully see her find a wider audience.

The IGTV performance was low key, honest and above all, and what these should be, intimate. The honesty of those songs, their worlds and the delivery via voice and guitar makes the point that Esther Rose is a talent and one we're going to enjoy hearing more from. Three songs from new LP How Many Times - 'real Good Time', 'Coyote Creek' and the title track plus a reading of Hank Williams 'I Can't Help It (if I'm still in love with you) and it was over. Leave 'em wanting more Esther!

I always like to reflect on how I found an artist, what platform, what link brought them to me. In this case it was a suggestion on Bandcamp and I clicked a few links and liked what I heard. I found I kept returning and listening some more. Then the songs for the new album started to appear and I was hooked.

So as I found her via Bandcamp here's the link so you can too - How Many Times | Esther Rose (bandcamp.com) 

photo credit : Galin Foley 

Patti Smith and her band perform Horses, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Tuesday 9 June 2015

 From the Archive

I remember the instant buying of tickets when I heard about this gig - no questions I was going. I remember the journey through to Glasgow - waiting for the train at Waverley Station and noticing a certain cohort of people waiting to board the train - too many leather jackets and boots for the commuter crowd. This is an impression of her that night.

Patti Smith and her band - Horses

Patti Smith performs 'Horses' her first album 40 years on, track by track a & b side. That first album that hit and redefined everything in rock'n'roll. 

This is rock'n'roll and everything that rock'n'roll should be - electric, enviserating, alive, real, poetic and authentic.

Her voice distictive, aged, lived in, strong, revisits songs of love and death, hope and fear, power, passion and revelation. Her voice, hers, a womans voice, raw, tender, clear, sharp, yearning, resigned, rasping, distinctly hers.

Her music tonight is rock'n'roll as it should be, as it must be - a distillation of everything in popular music. Patti is rock, she is soul, she is the blues, she is the Chiffons, she is the Crystals, the Ronettes, the Rolling Stones, she is Little Richard, she is punk, she is a poet, she is a street troubadour, she is human, she is a girl, she is a woman, she is the real deal. 

Patti is my generation. Patti is a 69 year old woman singing rock'n'roll. Singing the perfect rock'n'roll album. Break it up.

'Jesus died for somebody's sins/but not mine'

originally written longhand without an Imperial or Olivetti typewriter an Apple Mac or PC.

The weekend gigs - enjoying music during the time of Covid

In this time of Covid-19 music is what i miss and what gets me through the restrictions and disruptions to the life that we once knew. The fact that musicians and venues are hit by the virus is something that to me makes keeping connected to music important.

Music is a shared, mutual experience where a musician shares their work with an audience through some means of communication - live, product, radio, streaming. There is something about live music that is special. Sharing that room whatever its size with an audience, pleasing fans, winning new converts building a rapport, a feeling a shared experience. Bringing recorded music to life and the reaction of the crowd large or small. That reaction can be enthusiastic, ecstatic, polite, joyous by degrees and creates a mood in the room which can't be found through other channels.

The abrupt stopping of live music last year left me with tickets that would never be used. Most have been refunded or held against rescheduled gigs that I expect will be rescheduled again. such is gig life (or life itself) during the time of Covid.

I've made my peace to some extent with the closedown and have sought to use what's left to connect with music. Livestreaming of gigs has to some extent filled the gap. At first, I tried to join as much as I could and to be honest found it too much. I realised after a bit that there was always choice in the old gig world - will I go to that gig? How much are the tickets? What else have I got on that night? I simply had to apply that measure and be aware that trying to join livestreams in other time-zones was unsustainable - I did have a life after all. I’ll write again about specific livestreams I've joined over the past year in a future post but to close off this one I want to use my musical journey of this particular weekend as an example of this new world.

On Friday night I had a paid for gig - a livestream from Lafayette in London by the Staves to launch their new album 'Good Woman'. I long been a fan of them and their harmonies, but it had been a long time since I'd seen them live - almost 5 years to the day since they played Edinburgh's Queen's Hall. They played with a full band and it was wonderful to see them 'live' again. Due to the lack of audience in the venue they used the whole space by leaving the stage and performing in the snug and bar for some quieter acoustic numbers. Unlike some of the other livestreams I've 'attended' for new albums this was not a run through of the album. The Staves played key tracks from the new album interspersed with songs from across their back catalogue. They even indulged in a bit of chat between the songs. It was a great start to weekend. I put the lights down as the stage lights came on popped open a beer and enjoyed people making music.

I’d been aware that there was a clash with the Staves gig – Edinburgh based Pianodrome had a session with rising singer songwriter Magpie Blue on the same night. It was a free gig so I was able to catch up with her music the next morning via Pianodrome on YouTube. The music worked well in the quietness of Saturday morning creating a reflective mood for the start of the day.

In the evening I had marked on my calendar the tv premiere of King Rocker a film about Robert Lloyd and the Nightingales by Michael Cumming and Stewart Lee. Not a live gig or a livestream gig I’ll give you but the live tie in is as follows! I have a journalist friend Neil Cooper who a few years back was posting about them on social media and the name vaguely rang a bell. The Nightingales are a band I continually feel I should have been more aware of back in the day. They were championed by John Peel and were contemporaries of bands I love like the Fall and Vic Godard & the Subway Sect but somehow, I had missed them. Neil’s enthusiasm was infectious however and got a ticket was purchased to see them at local venue Leith Depot. What a gig! Packed, loud, incedible band, crazy dancing. I was hooked – why had I not discovered them before? Never mind though I had found them at last. The film followed the path of Robert Lloyd’s creative trajectory from its origins in the band the Prefects through to the present day which has seen regular albums and a committed band. There was a lot of humour and I found even more evidence that I should have been a fan a long time ago. I’ll give you no spoilers just urge you to see it and discover the route though music of a singular creative talent. The parallel story of the King Kong statue by British Pop Artist Nicholas Monro which was originally sited in the Birmingham hometown of Lloyd and Lee and at one point bizarrely found a home for a time at the Ingilston Market in Edinburgh before stories of its demise were confounded and it now stands proud near Penrith. A metaphor.

After I’d finished watching King Rocker I discovered that I’d missed a live stream from Bryde broadcast by the Queens Hall Narberth. A big fan of Sarah Howells since she was in Paper Aeroplanes, I’d seen Bryde three times before actually live in Sneaky Pete’s and Henry’s Cellar Bar. Again, I caught up via YouTube in the morning. It was good to watch her play solo with electric guitar and hear those taut dynamic songs yearning for a live audience. I was there belatedly but thanks to the Queens Hall Narberth and YouTube I was able to connect virtually and hope for the real live experience...soon.

How long will this go on? Vaccine and Covid suppression will answer that but despite the ability to drop in on these gigs and this music I yearn for the excitement of the live gig. The feeling I remember when after a few years of no live gigs I found myself at a Martha Wainwright gig in a small venue and thought I like this; I really like this.

#staysafe #livemusic #keeponrocking

 

As the Storm Broke: the gigs of early 2020 before Covid-19 shut down live music

Reflections on the live music that brought in 2020. Before the music stopped. These gigs took place between January 15th and March 1st 2020.

 

As 2020 started my gig going was mapped out through to the summer. Tickets were booked for a series of gigs by artists I hadn't seen before. Some thought was being given to going to a festival with costs being weighed up against the roster of artists performing. Then it all stopped, quite abruptly. Coronavirus was known and its potential to shut things down was known and being trailed. 

These are the performers I saw live before the lockdown and the end of live music as we knew it.

Native Harrow

A welcome return from Native Harrow the collective name of Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms whose music causes me to use the word mesmerising to describe it because it simply is. I'd seen them before in a badly suited venue where they'd soldiered on while the audience dwindled and the casual drinkers wondered why the football was not on the screens. I'd stayed to the end of that gig out of solidarity but was too embarrassed for them to stay and chat afterwards. I did pen a review and hoped they'd be back soon.

And they were. This time they were in the more appropriate surroundings of the Voodoo Rooms and played a wonderful set of songs drawn from their breakthrough album 'Happier Now' and the at that point unreleased follow-up 'Closeness'. I stayed and spoke to them thanking them for coming back so soon and sharing a joke about the previous gig. It was a great start to the gig year and I left full of hope for a great year of live gigs.

https://www.nativeharrow.com/

https://nativeharrow.bandcamp.com/album/closeness 

KT Tunstell

What a night! Part of the 'Burns and Beyond' festival where attendees ticket allows them access to various venues across Edinburgh for a night of music and poetry celebrating Robert Burns. I decided to stay at the assembly Rooms for the evening and catch 4 sets from KT Tunstell and band. It was worth it. Yes I heard some songs several times though thanks to some skillful rearrangements I was well entertained and got the jokes.

KT's all woman band played at full pelt throughout never lacking for energy. KT herself respendent in tartan encouraged the ever-changing crowd to join in. This was a party and eveyone was invited. As I said at the start what a night! 

Postscipt: I came down with a flu-like illness following the gig hich saw me take most of the week off and I slept mostly. A precurser for the Covid-19 pandemic to come? 

Ginger Cowgirl

I'd spotted the name Ginger Cowgirl on the listings of upcoming gigs at local bar the Leith Depot and was intrigued. Quick research revealed that Ginger Cowgirl was the stage persona of Stacy Antonel a young appropriately flame haired American singer/songwriter with a liking for honky-tonk music. I was in!

Touring alone she was backed on some songs by members of the support acts for the night and performed a set centred on the country honky-tonk styles of her eponymous e.p. On the song '6 weeks in Nashville' you could almost smell the bourbon (it possible did help that she was performing in a bar in Leith). There was an infectiousness about the performance as she drew the audience into the songs. The songs had swing to them that showed that she'd absorbed the various styles that make up country music - swing, country blues, honk-tonk vis Bakersfield and more besides. This is a talented songwriter with surely more to come.

https://gingercowgirl.com/epk

https://gingercowgirl.bandcamp.com/album/ginger-cowgirl 

Ira Wolf/Izaac Opatz  

This was a first for me - an actual house concert. One of my newfound gig buddies Kendall had invited me and so a weekday journey to Stirling was undertaken. Ira Wolf is a singer/songwriter I'd found online and loved but didn't think I'd get the chance to see but here she was along with Izaac Opatz who again I'd found online (thanks to the random choices of Spotify).  

By its very nature this was an intimate gig audience and performers mixing beforehand like any house party, getting to know one another, laughing, exchanging anecdotes. 

To hear Ira and Izaac's songs so stripped back just voice and guitar was an experience I'll not forget quickly. Ira has a lonesome sound all of her own that no doubt comes from her solo touring round the states like a restless troubadour - another town, another audience, another set of songs, new acquaintances, thank you and goodbye see you later. 

Izaac Opatz songs are a mix of wry observations of life and the things that happen that induce a smile and the occasional nod of recognition of some insight.

The two worked well together and the night was a good one with some other gig buddies there to chat to before the drive home. 

Badge news: Ira wore an enamel badge that bore the legend 'Listen to Townes Van Zandt'. Good advice. She also had her own badges that say 'Ira Wolf made me cry'. True.

http://irawolfmusic.com/ 

https://irawolf.bandcamp.com/ 

https://www.izaakopatz.com/

https://izaakopatz.bandcamp.com/merch 

My Glass World

This gig was the surprise in my early year gig schedule. In fact it wasn't scheduled at all. I got a text from a neighbour as I was returning home from a day in Fife saying he had a spare ticket and was I interested. To be honest I had to look up the band and was intrigued. The leader had played with various bands and other members had been in a variety of groups. It was Sunday night and it as the Voodoo Rooms (a certain symmetry there) so why not.

As we travelled to venue we talked about Covid 19 restrictions and the possible threat to gigs not really knowing that this gig was likely to be our last of the year.

My Glass World are lead by Jamie Telford (who my neighbour knew from University days). Jamie is a musician who has had a varied musical career that includes playing on hits by the Jam among others which would explain the quality of a band that also includes Sean Read who's worked with Beth Orton, Edwyn Collins and Dexy's Midnight Runners.

This was sophisticated music that showed flashes of influence from across the decades but was and is its own sound and song writing. It said to me this is what live music should and can be - something you've not heard before played well with life and exuberance matched with lyrics that both amuse and make you think, played by a band steeped in music playing their tunes their way.

As my last live music event of 2020 this was an unexpected delight. 

https://www.facebook.com/MyGlassWorlds/ 

Spotify 

Where now? After the lockdown I joined the livestreams online at times finding it difficult to keep up with the various Facebook, YouTube and Instagram 'live' gigs. I started watching the pay to view gigs increasingly put on by many musicians but became choosy - I craved the event, entering a space with a group of musicians and sharing that space with them, the best of these gigs give you that albiet a strange distanced intimacy.