Sam Carter - How the City Sings, album review

An Important Album

Quite simply a fresh but also traditional folk album, this is Sam Carter’s third and my first to know of his. The Guardian makes a comparison with Richard Thompson which baffles me, unless it is the fact Carter plays both acoustic and electric - his vocal is a near polar opposite, a higher register with a natural warble, and guitar playing that is fine. That acoustic/electric dichotomy is evidenced by the opening two tracks: the gentle and sweet acoustic opener From the South Bank to Soho that narrates wonderfully, Sam Sweeney’s viola beautifully woven within; and second electric Dark Days seems a Balkan waltz of menace. I prefer the former.

Third Counting the Cost merges the two styles, electric guitar and a beautiful rising melody sung sweetly, with smoothing viola again; King for a Day is piano and gorgeous vocal; Drop the Bomb, as with others, reminds of Rufus Wainwright, this having requisite drama as the title would suggest, then there is The Grieved Soul, electric guitar chords sharp in the background behind the contrasting folk harmonies that are tightly multi-layered, brief guitar reverb seeing the track out. There is more of this excellence right to the twelfth song and end, and it is an important album.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II, remastered vinyl

Not Hot Pants

Surprised to see a vinyl rack at Sainsbury's today, but that is cool, and I bought the Zeppelin because I don't have a vinyl copy and it was there and it is playing now very loud and it is awesome. Always was and always will be. Are there detractors? Isn't this precisely what this kind of rock is supposed to be? I remember then and it is the same now. Fucking awesome.

Even the elderly and jolly checkout lady who commented on the surprising re-emergence of vinyl couldn't detract when she also mentioned how she hoped hot pants would not be returning as well.

Two Faces Music Seven

Dust on the Nettles – A Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene 1967–72

That's Dust with a D and a T

Precise pronunciation is one of the more glaring differences of the female vocals on much in this collection when compared with the slurred affectations of contemporary female singing, a generational battle between sibilance and sassiness. Barbara Gaskin seems to click the consonants into place on her delivery of Love is a Funny Thing by Spirogyro, the fourth track on cd1.  Its first track, the well-known and still startlingly fresh Let No Man Steal Your Tyme by The Pentangle, is no less articulate, Jacqui McShee exacting in her enunciations.

It’s not until Vashti Bunyan appears on eighth track Winter is Blue that the sonic spell is broken, her whispered idiosyncrasy as vocalist diverting from the seemingly rarefied singing mode.  Next, Comus further detour from what is actually an Englishness as much as gender defined sound with their more gregarious playing on Winter is a Coloured Bird, and we realise what a genuinely rich musical tapestry British folk was at the time of this compilation’s coverage. And in between these poles mentioned, there is also a sampling of what I’d call naïve folk: a little discordant and even naff but nonetheless appealing for its honest, unadorned presentations from the likes of Magnet and Wight.

Indeed, on this cd and across the other two there are further dichotomies of precision, whether singing, instrumental and/or songwriting. There are stalwarts like Bridget St. John, Fairport Convention, Dando Shaft, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Steeleye Span and more – and then there is Clive Palmer. That’s not a criticism of the latter: there is a full spectrum of polished to raw folk, because that is what there was. And it is an excellent selection of that.

Best track on all three? The Garden of Jane Delawney by The Trees. Closely followed by There Are No Greater Heroes by Tony, Caro and John [1972 album reviewed here].

Shoe Music 2

Merle Haggard - Working Man Blues

And here's that 'real' sound of Country, its roots in tradition, both musically and in chronicling ordinary lives.

Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard - Django and Jimmie, album review

Somewhere Between Then and Now

Though not a solo album, this last by Merle with Willy Nelson is a fine swan song. It is worth noting that some of the finest songs [the title track, Unfair Weather Friend and Live This Long – that last we would have hoped was entirely self-referencing] are not self-penned by either ol’ outlaw, but two of my other favourites are by Haggard, the sweet Somewhere Between and The Only Man Wilder Than Me. But reflections on old age and regret as well as fond reminiscences, whether completely personal or applied by hired hands, do make for a memorable reminder of how good Country and its old-timers can be. Here’s Merle in more poetic rather than cheeky Muskogee mode:

Somewhere between your heart and mine
There's a window that I can't see through
There's a wall so high it reaches the sky
Somewhere between me and you

I love you so much I can't let you go
And sometimes I believe you love me
But somewhere between your heart and mine
There's a door without any key

Somewhere between your heart and mine
There's a window that I can't see through
There's a wall so high it reaches the sky
Somewhere between me and you

Somewhere between your heart and mine
There's a love I can't understand
It's there for a while then it fades like a smile
And I'm left in the middle again