Memoir

If it were her memoir, a subjunctive

inventory of girlie excursions into

upstanding tons of sex, it would not be

exculpatory but inward looking,

this siren invariably rehearsing the

subject of her memoir,

a patentee of fuck -

and mercy me to read how she detonates

on a candlestick.

Q/A

The Answer - Revival

Question: What is straight-up, unadorned rock? The Answer.

Not actual symmetry, but then that probably reflects some of the caveats [very mild] I'll be attaching to the sentiment. The Answer's third studio album Revival is more of the same from their preceding two as well as the familial lineage of blues/hard rock from which these superb Northern Irish practitioners were born. Having supported AC/DC and Whitesnake on recent tours you get a clear sense of that fertile rock family gene.

Seeing them live last night at the Cavern club in Exeter was an ideal venue for experiencing their 'grassroots' rock, as lead singer Cormac Neeson put it to the capacity 200 audience where he seemed to genuinely enjoy the intimate and enthusiastic ambiance. The rock osmosis of sweat, alcohol, generic guitar shreds, thumping bass, thundering drums and Plantesque vocal was accelerated and fully absorbed through this compact share.

Here is symmetry: Can they rock? Yes they can. That is without question and I want to make this clear before any other observations come across, wrongly, as criticism. The musicianship is excellent, especially axeman Paul Mahon who shreds, wow wows and slides with aplomb, and singer Cormac who possesses a classic rock vocal as well as performer's exuberance. It's a dated sound, sure, but if you were brought up aurally on that rock foundation and/or still/now love its straightforward musical mainline to your body's adrenaline catalyst, then these guys push all the requisite buttons.

By stating 'generic' and 'Plantesque' in my description I know that could sound critical of their being derivative, but I see this as both honest and complimentary. The Answer are not original, but they re-present the sound with expertise and passion. Their mission is to continue the birth line of rock; to revive it where the birth rate has declined. As Cormac himself puts it about current album and tour, THE ANSWER are back, and our mission is to revive rock 'n' roll from the grassroots up! We had two great years playing in some of the biggest venues in the world, but this time around, on the first leg of our 'Revival' tour, we're going back to the sweaty, intimate venues where it all began. We've missed the intensity of being able to look our fans straight in the eye, and to have a beer with them after the show. We've got an entire album's worth of new material, and we're excited… bring it on!

I've listened to and enjoyed The Answer since the release of their first album Rise in 2006 when their emergence struck me exactly as I have described above: a retro-rock band recreating to perfection that sound. I still don't know any of their songs that well and find it difficult to differentiate partly because of that ignornace but also, as I've stated, because of their generic nature. Again, that sounds critical, but it's just an observation. That said, I don't think they will ever have a massive fan base [*] because they haven't managed to carve out even a few distinctive songs in the genre, unlike, for example, Black Country Communion. One of their most rousing and memorable numbers last night was Rock and Roll Outlaw, which I observed with some enthusiasm today only to be reminded that this was a Rose Tattoo original, and that really makes my point.

But, to finish on the positive note I do intend, if what you want is to capture some of that Cavern basement sweat and sweet rock'n'roll, put on latest Revival extremely loud and headbang until the beads roll off the matted hair and into whatever you are drinking and trying not to spill at the time. It'll be a stonkin' experience.

[*] Though 100,000 copies of Rise sold worldwide - 10,000 on the first day of sale in Japan - counters that somewhat: it's about perspective and relativity. I may be out of my arithmetical depth here in record sales statistics and context.

Bodhisattva

Just a tablespoon of dissonance -

sweet as civet, soft as carrageen,

sepulchral as a cleric - the bodhisattva

noticeably teethed,

gnarled in a mosque,

wilful as an eagle,

raw as a ferret.

Run eagle run

coy as a chambermaid.

One And Only

John Martyn - Live in Bologne Italy, 18th May, 1977

I'm never far away from listening to John Martyn. He is my one definitive musical touchstone. I'm listening to a bootleg copy of this excellent concert, broadcast at the time on FM radio and easy to find and download. There's all the excellent guitar work, the singing of brilliant songs, and the gruff hilarious banter.

I'm posting this because I have just listened to the most beautiful performance of One World. Sublime. And as I write John is performing a stonking echoplexed Outside In with stunning vocal. This is glorious. Spencer the Rover is next....

Artwork

Intolerance in artwork: like a lawyer’s posy,

the attrition of a lockout, the iniquity of a

buzzword. Like a pyrex arpeggio - not like a Schumann arpeggio

or even shrilly Schumann – but like pickle to crabmeat

(crabmeat qua crabmeat qua crabmeat); or a pyrex posy.

It is god’s lockout.

Aristotlean logic.

Zoom to the intolerance in artwork: ornate retail

or god’s crabmeat.

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

Risen

Ashes and fire have a mutual relationship, indeed a necessary one, and the inversion here of their normal sequence is possibly of interest. Is it for the cadence only? The stressed plural supports this, but also suggests remains of the burnt body – and I think we’re getting there – as well as the rising from this, and as my dictionary puts it, ‘to come into existence or popularity again’.

Married in 2009 and taking a two year break from music largely because of a chronic ear-infection [poles of feelings one hopes], Adams returns with this album of thoughtful and tender reflections on love and life, not igniting the listener, but with enough fire in its honesty and lyrical poetry to suggest a musical rebirth and reiteration of his popularity as a brilliant singer and songwriter.

The opening line to opening track Dirty Rain perhaps posits that hopeful sense of re-emergence, ‘Last time I was here it was raining/But it ain't raining anymore’ and the acoustic guitar strum and background organ certainly resurrect the signature Adams’ sound. It has a rising chorus which is positively uplifting. Title track Ashes & Fire is the most upbeat on an otherwise slow set, with a Dylanesque tinge in the singing, bar-room piano and snatch of electric guitar. Tracks 3 and 4, Come Home and Rocks, slow the pace down to the album’s overall norm. The former is a softly sweet homage to the safety and security of home, and more metaphorically the shelter of inherent love there, ‘Nobody has to cry to make it seem real/Nobody has to hide the way that they feel’: Adams’ frail vocal, the gentle female harmony and background pedal steel adding to the comforting serenity. The latter is just as tender with Adams’ vocal strained to falsetto and strings completing its wistful musing, ‘I am not rocks in the river/I am birds singing’.

6^th Chains of Love picks up the pace a little and is another positive reflection on the power of love, even when it faces storms or comes to an end. 8^th Save Me keeps things as real with a Neil Youngish lament touching on doubt in the midst of the album songs’ considerable certainty, ‘Like a breaking bell/Ringing like a sigh/What am I doing here?/What am I?’. All these tracks, and the remaining three, are definite growers, their subtleties and depths guaranteed to reveal themselves with each subsequent listening. Kindness is the 9^th track and continues with this theme of affection conquering all, ‘Kindness don't ask for much /But an open mind/Kindness can cure a broken heart’. Acoustic guitar and organ again provide Adams' familiar musical foundation here.

The album ends ironically with I Love You But Don’t Know What To Say because of course its narratives have spoken so simply and with certainty, as here with the chorus sung in Adams’ yet again fragile vocal, ‘I promise you that I will keep you safe from harm /Love you the rest of my days /When the night is silent and we seem so far away /Oh I love you when I don't know what to say’. Piano and strings provide a dusting of accompaniment, and it is a beautiful ballad to draw this calm and candid album to a close.

Ameslan

A synonym for ameslan:

paintbrushing pinkies -

essentially inequitable,

but as intersected as herringbone?

Attach a thespian’s

pinkie to a teakettle

and the bone bestirs

air, an aliquot protrusion

equating to ameslan.

Top Fifty - Bert Jansch

Bert Jansch - The Bert Jansch Sampler

Like many, I'm genuinely saddened to hear of Bert Jansch's death yesterday, aged 67. I've seen him play once with John Renbourne - a local gig, supported to encourage artists to play in the wider, small-venue community - and have listened to and followed his career with enjoyment, though I couldn't claim to have been a massive and consistent fan. No reason for not being; just the amount of music out there. But his influence as guitarist and songwriter on the folk and wider music scene is enormous.

Being honest, I doubt I would have initially picked this album as a top fifty, but I have no problem doing so now having been prompted by this news. A top fifty was always going to be a movable feast anyway; never ever a finite thing. There is no question, however, that this album was hugely influential in my fledgling listening experience. As I have recounted before, the sampler albums of the late 60s/early 70s had a massive impact because of the quality of music presented but also, and obviously, their cost. As a teenager I didn't have much cash for records. Bert's sampler album came out in 1969.

Favourite tracks are Rabbit Run, Go Your Way My Love, Needle of Death [and what a powerful impression this made on a young mind yet to experience the drug culture], Blackwater Side, and David Graham's brilliant Angie made popular by Jansch [and which I heard last night played on Planet Rock and thought it odd for that station, not having heard then of his death]. Every single song resonates because being one of the few albums I had at the time it was one I always played. So each - in addition to the inherent excellence - conjures images and remembered feelings of growing up at that time, and this fuels the emotion I feel today in hearing he has gone.

Unlike some of my friends at the time who were more skilled and diligent as budding guitarists, I never learned to play Angie as well as I should. I can still turn out a near approximation, but it's pretty basic stuff. Bert Jansch will have encouraged so many young guitarists at the time to emulate his style and hone their skills. What a legacy that is in addition to the recorded music and live performances.

In reading other tributes today I came across this quote from Neil Young and it sums up with huge affection the high regard fellow artists had for Jansch:  With deep regret Pegi and I acknowledge the passing of Bert Jansch. Pegi and I were lucky to play with him on all of our shows for the last couple of years. He is a hero of mine, one of my greatest influences. Bert was one of the all-time great acoustic guitarists and singer songwriters. Our sincerest sympathies to his soul mate Loren. We love you Bert.

Kasey Chambers - Storybook

Covers Are Juxtapositions

As song juxtapositions go, placing Gillian Welch's Orphan Girl against Cyndi Lauper's True Colors is intriguing. Kasey Chambers' latest covers album is pretty damn sound throughout, and the duet on Orphan Girl with Shane Nicholson is one of the stand-out versions throwing into interesting relief the slightly child-like vocal on the Lauper track: perhaps too much inspiration transferred to mimicry? The songs on the album are Chambers' 'fave songs from my fave artists that have inspired me over the years'. Speaking of favourites, others of mine from the album are: the excellent Townes Van Zandt's If I Needed You [with Jimmy Barnes], Steve Earle's Nothing But A Child [with the Lost Dogs], a lively version of John Prine's Leave The Lights On, Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry [with Paul Kelly], and a funky rendition of James McMurty's Too Long In The Wasteland. Of course, the initial songwriting of these is paramount, and Chambers' vocal at times has a twang-whine that could grate, but overall she sings with such enthusiasm and passion that it works into a strong whole.

 

Chrysta Bell - This Train

Mood Music

This album has had a 13 year gestation – and that seems a dangerous term to use in the context of David Lynch as producer: as if he has slowly nurtured a monstrous musical creation to now unleash upon us. Whilst it has Lynch’s trademark swaths of moody ambient chords and noise, it is, with singer Chrystal Bell, a lush and immediately accessible sound. Bell has a fulsome voice, augmented by echo on tracks like Swing With Me which is a slow brooding blues, and opener This Train is choo-chooed in strongly to set the scene for the album’s panoramic vocal and instrumental layering.  All the songs are written by Lynch and sung by long-time collaborator Bell who first met up with the Hollywood maverick in 1998, aged 20.  For me, it is more mood music than an exploration of songcraft, and that brooding methodical beat of most to make its whole will require a similar listening inclination, whatever you hear in the moods being hammered home in the repetitions and layerings.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town

Party Pooper Perhaps, But....

At times the music is dirgecountry - Will Oldham's trademark cagey and occasional dissonant vocal crawling through painfully slow and barren songs - but I still love it! It is at the very least distinctive and interesting, but it's obviously more than this: that very sedentary singing drawing you close to the lyrics and confronting the raw emotion. Yet this album is much more varied than this, and his touring band of Ben Boye, Van Campbell, Shahzad Ismaily, Emmett Kelly, Danny Kiely, and Angel Olsen provide excellent instrumental accompaniment as well as soaring harmonies and other attendant vocal embellishments. Don't put it on to get the party going, but play in those quiet moments where thoughtful introspection and gentle pleasures are desired.

Feist - Let It Die

Second Solo Start

The title track of this second solo album is a perfect example of Feist's pure vocal skill - though horns eventually serenade the song, it is driven by the strong solo voice over opening organ chords humming in the underground. First two openers Gatekeeper and Mushaboom provide Feist's playful preoccupations which will feature throughout her work. Fourth One Evening is a funky pop gem. Fifth Leisure Suite is another 'clever' song in its vocal and instrumental arrangements. Sixth L'amour ne dure pas toujours is again playful in its accordion and vibes beat/rhythms, and just slightly sexy because it's French, obviously. I'm easily influenced here. Seventh Lonely Lonely pares it right down to acoustic guitar and vocal dueting lines leading into a jazzy and atmospheric middle rise, before closing out on signature clapping. Ninth is a sweet cover of fellow Canadian Ron Sexsmith's excellent Secret Heart, popped up a little with plucky strings and cheeky background synth. Tenth is another great cover, this time of the Bee Gees' Inside and Out - an upbeat penultimate slice of popfunk and fun. The album closes on Now At Last, a piano-tinkled jazz ballad, the vocal light and endearing. It's just brilliant to go back and re-discover these significant solo starts.

Feist - Monarch (Lay Your Jeweled Head Down)

Royal Start

This is Feist's first solo album and it is outstanding. The voice is so strong here, perhaps more so than on her latest release where other musical elements are working with a 'maturing' style. The songcraft and clever instrumentation/vocal harmonies and accompaniments are beautifully established, but it is always the crisp and melodious voice that controls. Tracks The Onliest [superb], La Sirena [superb again in vocal arrangements and guitar/other effects], Monarch [violin rich] and The Mast are lyrically evocative in their storytelling as well as musically memorable.

Feist - Metals

Precious Metals

Feist is one of my two favourite contemporary female singers – Joan Wasser [Joan As Policewoman] being the other – and the Canadian songstress’ first release since 2007’s superb and acclaimed The Reminder provides more of that same excellence. The tracks vary from the cleverly orchestrated by - to name only a few - horns, violin, broken-fuzzed guitar, various percussion, handclaps, multi-tracked harmonies, and ambient noises, to those that focus on Feist’s at times vulnerable but always beautifully toned voice: from whispers to repeated expulsions of breath to perfectly pitched melodies. It is overall a gentle and sweet set of tracks with pop and newfolk sensibilities to the fore, but always her distinctive vocal anchoring the whole.

Hair

To psychoanalyse a wigmaker

beneath his candelabra:

a mutineer under this much light,

vainglorious as he embarks on

another’s defect with a

serpentine blur of hands,

regurgitating russet to peroxide,

conferring his rebuilding, and

justiciable by a blurry law of hair.

Leslie West - Unusual Suspects

And Again

It chugs and thumps and stomps and struts and climbs and falls and growls and moans and howls and rocks and romps and rolls - and it ain’t new but it ain’t broken and it’s what you would reasonably and rightly expect from Leslie West who has done the same for so many years and here he is at nearly 66 with those same strong guitar licks and rough roar of a voice knocking out twelve confident tracks of rock, ballad and blues.  The album is also a buddy-up with fellow axmen Slash and Joe Bonamassa and Zakk Wylde and Billy Gibbons and Steve Lukather. And that’s all you need and all you need to know