Into the Distance Music 55

Denys Baptiste - The Late Trane

Trane of Beautiful and Funky Thoughts

And this is on as I take a break from marking, catching up here and there, new to British saxophonist Baptiste and no aficionado on John Coltrane's latter work, so a good thing that DB is. It's all superb, but two tracks I've just listened to distill the breadth to excellent exemplification: Ascent that is quite funky, especially in its echoing electrification; and Peace on Earth which is beautifully drawn across Nikki Yeoh's sweet piano. Steve Williamson adds further tenor sax.

Allen Ginsberg - The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience

With Reverence

Continuing in my 'exam-mode' reviewing, so little actual reviewing, and I am catching moments to work through these in snatches of joyful listening - earnest musical workings of Blake's poems, performed with brisk yet empathetic melodies and due reverence, one visionary poet to another across time, and a few mantras to cross over that temporal divide but spiritual side by side.

Disc 1:
Songs Of Innocence:
1. (a) INTRODUCTION   (b) THE SHEPHERD
2. THE ECHOING GREEN
3. THE LAMB
4. THE LITTLE BLACK BOY
5. THE BLOSSOM
6. THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
7. (a) THE LITTLE BOY LOST   (b) THE LITTLE BOY FOUND
8. LAUGHING SONG
9. HOLY THURSDAY
10. NIGHT
 
Songs Of Experience:
11. INTRODUCTION
12. NURSES SONG
13. THE SICK ROSE
14. AH! SUN-FLOWER
15. THE GARDEN OF LOVE
16. LONDON
17. THE HUMAN ABSTRACT
18. TO TIRZAH
19. THE GREY MONK
 
      Bonus Tracks:
20. THE GREY MONK (Alternate Take) *
21. BROTHELS OF PARIS *
 
Disc 2:
Blake Songs:
1. A CRADLE SONG
2. THE DIVINE IMAGE *
3. SPRING *
4. NURSES SONG *
5. INFANT JOY
6. A DREAM
7. ON ANOTHER SORROW
8. HOLY THURSDAY *
9. THE FLY
10. THE SCHOOL BOY
11. THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENT BARD
 
      Mantras:
12. PADMASAMBHAVA *
13. OM NAMAH SHIVAYE *
14. ROGHUPATI RAGHAVA *

Eye Music 13

Examining and Not Examining - Three Albums

Trio Unexamined Because of Examining

I am currently GCSE examining [and any searches on this site around this time over the past years will find similar announcements] and thus I have little time to review music, though I do listen when I can.

There are three, however, I simply want to recommend:

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

His third brilliant solo, and stand-out tracks are White Man's World and Anxiety

Steve Earle & The Dukes - So You Wannabe an Outlaw

The usual mix of fine, signature spit and polish - a wonderful tribute to his great friend Guy Clark, Goodbye Michelangelo

Justin Townes Earle - Kids In The Street

Americana but a number of fine Country tracks

White Man's World lyrics:

I'm a white man living in a white man's world
Under our roof is a baby girl
I thought this world could be her's one day
But her momma knew better

I'm a white man living in a white man's town
Want to take a shot of cocaine and burn it down
Momma wants to change that Nashville sound
But they're never gonna let her

There's no such thing as someone else's war
Your creature comforts aren't the only things worth fighting for
If you're still breathing, it's not too late
We're all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

I'm a white man living on a white man's street
I've got the bones of the red man under my feet
The highway runs through their burial grounds
Past the oceans of cotton

I'm a white man looking in a black man's eyes
Wishing I'd never been one of the guys
We pretended not to hear another white man's joke
Oh, the times ain't forgotten

There's no such thing as someone else's war
Your creature comforts aren't the only things worth fighting for
You're still breathing, it's not too late
We're all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

I'm a white man living in a white man's nation
I think the man upstairs must'a took a vacation
I still have faith, but I don't know why
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes

Hands Music 23

Glen Campbell - Adiós, album review

Welcome Familiarity

Recorded in 2011 and 2012, during and after, I think, his final tour after the announcement of his diagnosis of Alzheimers, these covers of favourite songs are stamped with the authority of Campbell's distinctive vocal honey. The ubiquitous support of Willie Nelson provides country divergence on Funny How Time Slips Away, but by and large these are popular ballads that foreground Campbell at his nostalgic best, these recordings showing him in the sweetest of singing zones. It is comfortable and soothing in the nothing-new of their welcome familiarity. With further help from family and friends, including Vince Gill, there are some pretty harmonies adding to the emotive overall tone when recognising the reality of this adios.

Into the Distance 55

Michael Chapman - The Globe, Topsham, 3rd June, 2017

Still a Breath of Fresh Air

Michael Chapman delivered a superb guitar and songwriting masterclass at The Globe in Topsham last night.

I have enjoyed his latest album 50, and have over the years dipped in and out of his others [though never as attentively as I now want to return to and do], the occasional listens prompted by my introduction to him and his song Postcards of Scarborough on the 1970 Harvest sampler lp Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air.

He didn’t play this last night – a shame for my nostalgia needs – but he entertained with some sustained guitar brilliance, a well-rehearsed line in Yorkshire semi-redneck repartee, and two songs in particular that were simply beautiful, The Mallard and Caddo Lake, this latter a most gorgeous finger-plucked melody.

Thanks to Chapman for coming to Topsham, and for Julian Piper who organised.

Hands Music 22

Sgt Peppers Review - International Times, 12th June, 1967

[click on image to enlarge for reading]

© International Times