My hero Bert Jansch would have been 80 this week, I would like to post my tribute song to him. I hope fans will be joining the celebration of his life and work at the South Bank tomorrow!
Tribute To Bert Jansch
Woman without beard steals show at Beardy Folk Festival
Somehow, my Katie Spencer – sensationally talented but a notable non-beard-wearer – was involved in a follicular misunderstanding that led to her being booked at the Beardy Folk Festival. In heated eleventh-hour negotiations with organisers, she got away with it by agreeing to perform only material written by beardy people, including this one.
Keeping the Folk Flame Alive
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aka Ten nights in Sidmouth and Five nights in Shrewsbury.
Well, this is all a bit late, but the end of the festival season brings other priorities, like ensuring the gazebo is bone dry before winter storage, and scrubbing from windbreaks the red mud of Devon, Shropshire and Herefordshire.
The first return to festivalling came with Ely Folk Festival in mid July. Cannily, the organisers had planned for the eventuality of lockdown not easing quite at the pace hoped, so when it came to pass that full easing was delayed, while others fell by the wayside, Ely was able to go ahead with remaining restrictions. All stages were open air. There were yellow rectangles suitably spaced, in which bubbles could sit; a bird’s eye view must have looked rather like a Zoom conference with everyone talking at the same time. No question, for most, this was their first live music in 16 months and that was joyous, though more so was just meeting people, unplanned, unexpectedly, spontaneously. But dancing was still off the menu, and despite best efforts, little transpired of informal singing sessions.
Sidmouth did not pitch itself as the actual festival, instead dubbing a collection of events as » Continue Reading.
Murkey’s Marvellous Mixtape 2019
Hello Afterworders,
Here’s my 2019 Spotify mix. Tunes, old and new, that I discovered in the last year. Listen at the link below:
It’s a rather parochial list this time – only seven countries covered (the most being from England, the USA and – reflecting 2019’s travels – India)! But it’s a goodun.
1. Kirsty McGee and the Hobopop Collective – Madness and the Moon
It’s standard practice for me to begin with my favourite song of the year. This is the umpteenth time I’ve featured Kirsty McGee on one of my mixes. I’ve told you before what a astute songwriter she is, how she creates compelling melodies, plays neat guitar and is a masterful self-producer. Her latest is a career highlight, even by her standards. This is a grounded, cosmic love song. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/vyhIVPKOpgs
From The Deafening Sound of Stars (Hobopop Recordings, 2019). Available to buy directly at https://kirstymcgee.bandcamp.com/album/the-deafening-sound-of-stars.
2. Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hall
An upbeat, nearly trance-y song from Vampire Weekend with a typically nifty guitar, but it seems to explore rather darker lyrical matter.
From Father » Continue Reading.
Unintended consequences in song
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“A solitary life / A life of small horizons / Dull as the pewter skies over NW11”
For the 0.3% of the blog who don’t own all of Richard Thompson’s albums, this is the chorus to a Solitary Life off Front Parlour Ballads. It’s a bitter lay; some might say typically so. The song finishes on an upbeat note with the subject matter dying of cancer. (Having a bodycount in song qualifies Thommo to play at folk festivals.)
But as I pedalled up the Denbighshire moors on a gloriously sunny Easter, I found myself merrily singing one of the couplets, as I oft have before: “Holidays in the Yorkshire Dales / Cycling tours of the North of Wales” He may sing it with a sneer, but it all sounds lovely to me, as indeed does the solitary life, says someone who has relished living on his own for the last 18 years. So I sing that song with a spring in my step and joy in my heart.
Do you ever find yourself enjoying a song for emotions that are quite clearly the opposite to that which the artist intended?
Encounters with Civilians #2
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A few years back in this place, in our time-honoured way, we shared our tales of what happens at the Venn diagram intersection of our own musical world and the normal lives of the rest of our world – family, non-music friends, colleagues. I was reminded of this on this day last year. One of my union muckers, aware that I was unlikely to be doing something straightforward like going to see the Alex, had driven the local train to take me to Crewe and once there, I was greeted with a
“Eh up, lad, where you off to?” “Audlem Bagpipe and Hurdy Gurdy Day.” “Do you know? I regretted asking that question even before I’d finished asking it.”
So how are the experiences with civilians going?
Further, while I know from blogs passim that this musical combination sounds like a real horror show to many of you, and the accompanying link probably won’t convert you. But surely you’ve got to love that, for one day a year, an obscure village on the Cheshire/Shropshire border becomes the focus for drone-driven dance music. There will be Northumbrian pipes, uilleann pipes, border pipes, English bagpipes and so much more than » Continue Reading.
Murkey’s Marvellous Mixtape 2017
It’s taken me four months to write up, but as usual, I’ve made a Spotify mixtape of my favourite music (and, this year, spoken word), both new and old, that I discovered last year.
If you like something you hear, please follow the artist on social media, buy their music and/or go and see they live, because Spotify pays diddly squat.
1. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
A hero. Cohen wrote this song (with Patrick Leonard) for his final album, speaking pretty directly about his own mortality and embracing his Jewishness. His son Adam Cohen was the producer and the Shaar Hashomayim Choir from the synagogue of that name in Montreal feature. Of the choir he wrote, ‘ Even as a boy I loved their singing. It is what made compulsory synagogue attendance enjoyable. I’ve wanted to work with the cantor and the choir for a long time. The touring years interrupted this intention. On a secondary but still urgent note, there are times when you want to show the flag, when you want to indicate that there is nourishment to be had from this culture, that it is not entirely irrelevant to the present situation, that it » Continue Reading.
Murkey’s Marvellous Mixtape 2016
It gets a bit later every yerar, but, as ever, a carefully sequenced Spotify compilation of my favourite musical finds (both old and new) of the last year:
I remind you, dear reader, that most of these artists here are small scale, playing non-commercial music out of passion and commitment. To be able to make their art into a career they need patrons. Spotify is great for lots of things, but if you listen to this playlist ten times with a premium subscription the most you are going to be paying the rights holders is less than 2p (and I think Spotify exaggerates these payments anyhow). It’s for intents and purposes free music. If one of the artists features piques your attention, do check them out further, buy their albums and gig tickets so that they can keep making music.
If you’d like to keep up with my musical adventures, please do head over to www.facebook.com/christopherconderwriter and give me a ‘like’!
1. Jarlath Henderson – Courting is a pleasure
I marvelled when I watched Jarlath Henderson, a piper from Northern Ireland, win » Continue Reading.
House Music – in the folk tradition
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House Music – in the folk tradition
The folk world has quickly established a new tradition. The deal is this. A houseful of songwriters are packed off to some remote location and told to be creative in each other’s company for the next week, and come back in time for a set concert debut. If this sounds to you like a folkie Big Brother, know that plenty of musicians have already made that observation. We never get to hear how Kathryn Roberts likes her toast, or whether Martin Simpson pulls his weight in the kitchen, but what we do know is that the musical output is often remarkable. It is typically festivals or various arts bodies that commission these and to prompt the creativity, there is usually a kernel of an idea – a concept if you like – to guide the subject matter of the songs. I have sufficient numbers of them to have a dedicated section in my CD racking and they get played more than most.
Last summer, ten women set sail for Eigg in the Inner Hebrides, in the wake of the Scottish referendum, to contemplate ‘separation’ in whatever manifestation they chose. The resulting Songs of » Continue Reading.
Better late than never…
Hello, an annual contribution from a long-time lurker:
As is now convention, here’s my Spotify mixtape of my favourite musical discoveries, new and old, from 2015.
If you like this sort of thing, feel free to follow my ‘blog’ at www.facebook.com/christopherconderwriter.
As ever, I remind you humble listener that Spotify pays a mind-bendingly miniscule royalty to artists, so if you enjoy something on here do think about buying the album or going to a live show.
1. Bush Gothic – Female Transport
It’s funny how things work out. I’ve been in e-mail correspondence with Jenny M. Thomas of Bush Gothic for several years. This year she finally made it back to the UK for some shows with the Spooky Men’s Chorale. I invited Jenny and her partner/bassist Dan Whitton round for dinner. I also invited fellow music journal Ken Hunt and his wife Santosh, who is turn bought Indian violinist Kala Ramnath, who happened to be staying with them. Next I knew, I had two world class violinists jamming in our front room. Bush Gothic released their near album at the end » Continue Reading.
So who’s in your gig diary?
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An unusual flurry of activity in the Night’s Out section, including a post from me, reminds us that the warmer weather often brings more gigs, both indoor and outdoor, so who have you got lined up?
It’s looking like a folkie year for us, with Fairport, the one day Folk by the Oak festival and Carthy and Swarbrick in the next few months. To that list you can add David Sedaris, Carmen at the ENO, and, way off in December, a second Unthanks gig to follow up their Folk by the Oak appearance (Come on – it’s The Unthanks, Union Chapel, and Christmas – you have to make an effort to see that combination, don’t you?)
Sadly Richard Thompson has elected to play his London trio gig on the weekend that the Light and I are likely to be taking her daughter to the other end of England to start university, otherwise he’d be at the top of my list.
And you … ?
