Some Awe's Top Ten, 2019

The Delines – The Imperial

Signature songs both melodically/as soundscape and, most importantly, lyrically: the storytelling of our everydays and their ongoing defeats.

Sarah Jane Morris - Sweet Little Mystery [The Songs Of John Martyn]

Superbly realised homage to the greatest ever, and done so with such a strong independent take.

Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars

Wasn’t sure initially with its orchestral lavishes, but the songs are bedrock, as ever.

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen

Haunting personal catharsis

Allison Moorer – Blood

A different kind of haunted, from more distance, but finely wrought

Lana Del Rey - NFR! Norman Fucking Rockwell

Beautiful soothing attacks

Rhiannon Giddens - There Is No Other

Probably the most perfect vocal, clarity and tone as sharp as a paper-edge

Black Oak Arkansas - Underdog Heroes

Tinged with nostalgia because of my liking for their ’72 Keep the Faith, this with echoes and original heaviness and plenty of playfulness

Santana - Africa Speaks

Such dynamite playing

Dead Feathers - All is Lost

Retro-rock of genuine class, not least in the glorious lead vocal

Wishbone Ash and The Groundhogs, Phoenix, Exeter, 27th October, 2019

Guitar Duos and Difference

Enjoyed especially seeing the latest incarnation of The Groundhogs [having not before] with original member Ken Pustelnik on drums, and newbies Chris D’Avoine on vocal and guitar, Sol Latif on guitar and Latch Manghat on bass.

It’s not complicated: they play Groundhog music from the band’s heyday, loud and raw and vibrant, encoring on, no surprise here, Cherry Red. There were extended guitar jams between D’Avoine and Latif – the later more shredding and the former more psychedelic – and both were gloriously indulgent [I listened to two guys call it ‘guitar wank’ and wondered why the fuck they went to a Groundhog gig – I’d happily refer to it as guitar spunk, caring less for those indulging their umbrage at the puerile, like this guitar duo could care less for such haughty dismissal]. Pustelnik on drums was such a pulsing core, and Manghat added his own sustained thunder to the riffs and rhythms. Far out, as I shouted at one post-jam moment. 

[Listening to Hogwash album as I wrote the above. Wonderful]

I had to leave the gig early but saw Wishbone Ash play their first number The King Will Come, as polished as ever [that’s what 50 years of playing will do, even with new members] and while the guitar playing was a more refined rock – when compared with The Groundhogs – I wouldn’t knock it [I mean, why would you when it is so good] but just stress its difference.

Byron Wallen at the Blue Vanguard Jazz Club, Gipsy Hill Hotel, 22nd August, 2019

Pic by Nick

Survival and Surrender

In my recent review of Byron Wallen’s excellent album Meeting Ground here, I concluded with the observation: Imagine my happy anticipation of seeing Wallen play at Exeter next week.

That gig last night fully lived up to the expectation, wonderfully so as I will explain shortly. As ever, The Blue Vanguard Trio excelled in their support and individual solos, these accompanying the warm personality and hot playing of Wallen. A set of standards began the evening, opening with Nat Adderley’s Sack O’ Woe, which included a glorious elongated trill on the horn; a John Coltrane number, and others I have [as usual] failed to remember by name.

I had to leave at the interval, but the song played just before this is what made the evening for me, truncated as it was. Wallen introduced his self-penned song as ‘something outside the box’ and it was to be Freedom Struggle from his album Meeting Ground. He explained a little about his travels to North Africa and meeting and playing with musicians there, expanding to also briefly talk about Morrocan Gnawa music and all these links to the song which was in many respects about personal survival and surrender. The playing was sublime, the start a soaring flight over Milverton’s piano layers, with horn-squeals at its peak, to eventually break into the rhythmic percussion of Al Swainger on bass and Coach York on drums, this sustained palpably to its end [especially in the sense that one couldn’t sit still to its playing and instead had to move with it - for me anyway], Coach, in particular, keeping the fire alive.

I was reliably informed this morning that the post-interval set was also superb, but I was so pleased to have heard my final number. It was memorable.

Joan as Police Woman - Exeter Phoenix, 1st July, 2019

Enduring

It was wonderful to see and hear Joan Wasser – Joan as Police Woman – perform a solo, intimate gig at the Exeter Phoenix on the 1^st July.

I became a fan like so many others in 2006 with the release of her debut album Real Life. It is a collection swelled by beautiful songs and singing, unquestionably pretty in their sweet melodies and the resonance of Wasser’s vocal. In her performance at the Phoenix [excusing the inclination to make namechecks, but always as compliment/reference point] I ‘recognised’ for the first time she had the same kind of vocal presence as Laura Nyro – this made more of a link when playing the piano rather than guitar, for obvious reasons. It is in the depth of her voice that carries even in its softest moments.

Early on in her performance Wasser shared a brief anecdote about her good friend Elliott Smith playing at a rock gig and only offering ‘delicate’ songs – and this became another touchstone for the night as she played her own tender ones, though these had other depths in the honesty of their lyrics.

She played a superb selection across the range of her many and varied albums [and they aren’t all in the ‘pretty/delicate’ category that I particularly like – see a couple of my other reviews here], and the following are favourites I remember especially from the night - song and album:

To Be Lonely – To Survive

Forever and a Year – The Deep Field

We Don’t Own It – Real Life

Real Life – Real Life

Tell Me – Damned Devotion

Kiss – JOANTHOLOGY

The Ride – Real Life

It was great to hear her version of Kiss live, and to join in the singalong, and extra special to hear the extra special The Ride as the first of her two encore songs. A genuine privilege to see her and at such a venue, as well as an enduring memory.

Christian Brewer at the Blue Vanguard Jazz Club, Gipsy Hill Hotel, Exeter, 23rd May, 2019

Velvet Red Bop and Baby Blue Ballads

The GH Hotel lounge walls have been transformed in baby blue, as have a variety of new cushions and chairs, and I wanted to think of American ‘57 Chevy Cool, but others corrupted that image with allusions of their own. However, in the playing room the curtains over side doors and at the performance end were their familiar velvet crimson-red, like rows of smoking jackets hung to coalesce with the smokin’ set that would be underscored, as ever, by the Blue Vanguard Trio. I can only repeat: the various soloing was exemplary, as were the accompaniments to all songs intuited by jazz knowing rather than lengthy rehearsal.

Last night’s guest was Christian Brewer, a saxophonist who played with blistering pace and gusto on a number of interpreted standards, as well as beautiful touch and feel on a couple of ballads. Never good at remembering titles, I am good at remembering the class of what I hear, and he treated us to many classy moments. It is always good to see the guest artists being so appreciative of the house band, as Brewer so obviously was, and of course it is the amalgam of such fine musicianship that makes these evenings so superb to attend.

Chris Smither with support The Suitcase Junket: The Phoenix, Exeter, 23rd January, 2019

Ruminative and Quirky Mix

Last night at the Phoenix, Exeter, was top-class as musical entertainment: headline act the great Chris Smither in ruminative form and playing a large slice of songs from his latest outstanding album Call Me Lucky [reviewed here]; and as is so often the case with a support act, the wonderful discovery of new-to-me talent, this time The Suitcase Junket, Matt Lorenz as a one man band igniting the evening with singing into the amped hole of his guitar – reverberating vocal yet never twirling his twirlable moustache though still indicating a set of evil delights. Well, evil if expressing love for a chicken called Jackie.

Starting with Lorenz, a clearly talented musician/performer who played on Smither’s latest album, his one-man instrumental set-up packed a punch, mainly percussive, with beats on his seat-suitcase, a high-hat, a pot and a circular-saw blade. 

With plenty of volume on the guitar and some effects, we were treated to cool slide and pulsing riff-rock as well as gentler acoustic songcraft. Lorenz is also a fine vocalist and has lines in setting his background and personal proclivities that engage as much as the music. The blues informed plenty of his playing, and a distinctive element of his act is throat-singing, inspired by a South Indian cooking class. He also gave us a sax solo via pursed lips. As I typed the above I have been listening to his latest album Pile Driver which is superb in capturing the live element of his playing with over-dubs and extras. What a treat and pleasure to be introduced to this musical artist – you can get Pile Driver here [Why So Brief? is a glorious, sweet blues]. 

The third time I have had the privilege of seeing Smither play live, this evening’s set was, as I have said, ruminative and illustrative, one narrative most insightful and honest about his songwriting process, leading into a gorgeous performance of Down to the Sound, that background story informing the lyric perfectly for its moment. Indeed, the live performance accentuates Smither’s lyrical talents, whether political – he did refer to ‘agent orange’ but also lamented, on our behalf, the current British political scene – or songs about love, those performed being quite affecting. On writing songs Smither refers to their transition through [or not] incoherence, but that seems an exaggeration when following the often poetic flows or even more social-commentary lines, though in Down to the Sound he sings ‘There’s no notion of order, it’s hard to arrange’ and that’s a writer’s/lyricist’s perspective on struggle and crafting.

Matt Lorenz accompanied Smither on a few numbers, with Chris asking him ‘you’re not going to do any of that weird shit, are you?’ It was a fond joke. They started off with a lovely play of By the Numbers, one of my favourites from Smither’s latest Call Me Lucky, a duet with a Lorenz whistle on Everything on Top, and also combined on another fav from that latest, She Said She Said. This was personally so pleasing.

Other songs Smither played from CML was the album’s opener The Blame’s on Me, the satirical Nobody Home, and a minor key cover of Chuck Berry’s hit Maybellene which Smither had explained as a typical approach to performing another’s song. It is a transforming take on a hot-rod song with a plaintive foregrounding of the lament in the lyric’s questioning.

A wonderful night, and if you can, do go to one of the following gigs, details here.