What Rocked Our World In 2009

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:56:41 +0000

What Rocked Our World In 2009
and what really pissed us off!

Special Feature: Lee Edwards
Huge Thanks to All The Photographers who made this feature a visual treat.

What Really Matters
Let me make one thing very clear from the start. Anyone musician, artist, band or whoever who is featured in ElectricGhost is special. The Journal is limited to six pages. Of course we have access to our blogsite, where this is being published. But this is for items that are too lengthy, like interviews and features, that just wouldn’t fit in the journal. We aren’t just going to fill the blogsite, which has unlimited potential space, with anything that half takes our fancy. I was very clear when launching ElectricGhost, after the experience with the downloadable music magazine MercuryMoon that this time it was personal. We focus on a set of niche genres and within that we are very choosy about what is included. This may result in rejecting material that in many people’s eyes, or ears is excellent. But so be it. Our rapidly, its only been two years, increasing circulation is testament to the reality of us tapping into something that works for people who really love music. Our strap line Real Music Really Independent is our guide and we intend to stick with it. You really seem to like the fact that we deliver small bite sized chunks of music reviews, interviews and features. You love the interactivity coupled with the sophisticated ‘print like‘ quality that is PDF publishing. Whilst we need to develop our publication and make it financial viable we are not going to do this in any way that will affect our core values. Plans are afoot for Friends of ElectricGhost, which will will give all our readers a chance to help makes us financially sustainable. An announcement will be made in early 2010. Ok so on with the show...

Daisy Chapman

The Year begins...
January and Issue 13 is certainly not unlucky for us. We discover the new psychedelic sound squall of A Place To Bury Strangers whose sound, frontman, Oliver Ackerman describes as “like a chainsaw caught in a whirlwind getting hit by a bus”. Two Gallants Adam Stephens is exploring new solo material. Another solo shot is by The Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach which shows off not only his abilities as a musician, but also his accomplished songwriting talents. January also introduces us to Bristol based singer and songwriter Daisy Chapman whose cover of the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah on her mini album And There Shall Be None we describe as one of the best we’ve heard. Her astonishing talent makes itself very apparent as the year progresses.

Arbouretum

Sadness and Joy
February and Issue 14. We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of the hugely influential musician John Martyn, a man full of grace and danger. The mood is lightened by the mighty Bellowhead whose live performances are legend and who take Bath, on their tour, by storm. We make first contact with Baltimore 4 piece Arbouretum whose Album Song Of The Pearl is clearly a contender for Album Of The Year. A long time favourite Finlay Morton has his Back To Basics album remixed by John Ryan (Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve gains).

PJ Harvey and John Parish

A Spring In Our Step
March and Issue 15 and Spring seem just around the corner. One of our main sources of live streamed concerts, Fab Channel, ceases to function because they found it difficult to make it financially sustainable. Financial problems on a much bigger scale would soon hit us all and credit crunch become a widely used term. In the aftermath of Bellowhead’s successes co-founder Jon Boden releases a solo album, Songs From The Floodplain, with its timely post apocalyptic theme. Polly Harvey and John Parish release their second special collaboration, A Woman A Man Walked By, 12 years on from Dance Hall At Louse Point. Our local Chapel Arts Centre in Bath seems to be beginning to make its mark on the music scene. The Handsome Family deliver their 8th album to celebrate their 20th year of marriage, Honey Moon. It features their own unique and inimitable take on love. Finally we fall for the charms of Fleet Foxes, and Show OF Hand’s Steve Knightley, releases Track Of Words/Retraced, a re-worked version of his first solo album which we describe as “an emotionally literate astonishing masterpiece”.

The Duke And The King

Change Is In The Air
April and Issue 16 and Spring has sprung. Simone Felice departs from Felice Brothers and hooks up with Robert ‘Chicken’ Burke to form The Duke And The King. They release a very promising EP with Album and Tour to follow. At the same time The Felice Brothers depart from Loose Music and release 4th album Yonder Is The Clock. Neil Young gives us a “glorious slab of garage blues”, A Fork In The Road, that focuses on economic circumstances and environmental woes. We get early warning of a new Willard Grant Conspiracy album set for autumn release. Navigator Records superior releases continue with exceptional albums from Lau and Mawkin:Causley.

The Low Anthem

The Heat Is On
May and Issue 17. We plan a summer of interviews/live reviews, ‘On The Road With ElectricGhost’, to kick off at end of the month with The Duke And The King in London at Shepherds Bush. They amaze us with their debut album, and another Album Of The Year contender, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Live they are wonderful and our first interview goes really well. We are introduced to the, soon to be famous, Low Anthem, a trio from Rhode island with a penchant for a mass of antique and intriguing instruments and a style that ranges between haunting falsetto and hollering blues on their second album Oh My God Charlie Darwin. Inspiration for our Journal title and absolute legend Bob Dylan gives a “a treasure from a stone cold genius” with Together Through Life.

Wilco

Summer Is A Coming In, Maybe
June and Issue 18. Despite the English summer not really happening at least we have musical sunshine. Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood treat us to a dazzling display of live musical genius at Madison Square Gardens when they draw on classic music by Traffic and Blind Faith. Wilco deliver what many publications will later describe as an album of the year, nearly but not quite. A hilarious spoof video on YouTube featuring ‘Adolf Hitler‘ and Show Of Hands versus Bellowhead is an instant hit with us and many others (yes you will find it in our Special Bonus Video Issue). The ‘voice’ of The Band, Levon Helm, delights us with, Electric Dirt, his excellent follow up to his previous grammy award winner Dirt Farmer. Our second ‘On The Road With ElectricGhost‘ takes us to London and The Union Chapel for an fun interview and exceptional music treat with The Low Anthem.

Richmond Fontaine

On The Road Again
July and Issue 19. Our Interview/Reviews with The Low Anthem and The Duke And The King appear whilst we make our third visit to London to see Baltimore’s finest Arbouretum strut their stuff. We are rewarded with an evening of musical magic from what we describe as “possibly the best live band on the planet at the moment”. Our album highlight is the superb new album, We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River, by firm ElectricGhost favourites Richmond Fontaine. They have never sounded better with classic storytelling and superb musicianship from Willy Vlautin and the guys. We look forward to seeing them live in September.

Willard Grant Conspiracy

On The Turn Of The Season
August and Issue 20. We hear of a Keruoac Movie with Jay Farrar contributing to the soundtrack as his band Son Volt deliver a classic americana album, American Central Dust, that is “Full of grace and raw beauty”. Jackie Oates moves to a new label and releases and album, Hyperboreans, “of immense maturity and musical power”. At last, earlier than anticipated, we receive the new album from long time ElectricGhost favourites Willard Grant Conspiracy. Paper Covers Stone follows the ambitious Pilgrim Road with a startling and utterly compelling minimalist mood. The pairing of Dave Curry with Robert Fisher and others, not seen since early albums, exploring old songs revisited and some new songs is true genius. Yet another contender for Album Of The Year!

Chuck Prophet

The Highway of Desire
September and Issue 21. Chuck Prophets’s new album iLet Freedom Ring! finds the songwriter and Telecaster guitar-slinger on top form. A good omen for his live date in Bristol at the end of the month. Another band new to us Downpilot offer “truly sublime american roots music” with They Kind Of Shine. The title says it all. September turns into a busy, hard traveling month. A longer visit to London takes in the 4th and 5th of our On The Road series, on the 17th Its Richmond Fontaine who are brilliant and Willy Vlautin is a total joy to interview. Then next day back to the same Venue, The Garage, to see Willard Grant Conspiracy with Dog House Roses and The Duke and the King also on the bill. Its great to see Robert Fisher again and the interview with him is as illuminating as ever. All the artists on the bill are excellent but I am not happy at with the the dumb ass portions of the audience who insist on talking through all the Willard Grant set. This definitely pissed me off, big time. Little did I know that a another venue would be the source of my displeasure before the year was out. Near the end of the month it's a magical evening at the Chapel Arts Centre, Bath with the legend that is Howe Gelb. This quickly followed on the 30th by a shorter trip to Bristol to see Chuck Prophet with the Mission Express. Our Christmas Issue will have details of that.

Show Of Hands

A Flash Of Brilliance
October and Issue 22. A really hot month for albums. First we finally have our supreme Album Of The Year! Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed by Devon’s finest Show Of Hands. It has some of the best songs that Steve Knightley has every written, and inspirational production job by Stu Hanna and some outstanding musicianship from both Knightley and Phil Beer and the lovely Miranda Sykes. We said “a stellar album of shattering magnificence. Daisy Chapman is back with her eagerly awaited album The Green Eyed. She has dazzled us live this year and the album is well worth the wait. A revitalised Pearl Jam delight us with Backspacer and new to us Californian based tripped out duo Golden Animals raise the ghost of Jim Morrison and show great promise for the future. Finally a trip to local rock club Moles for an evening of fun and fabulous music from the wonderous Hey Negrita. Thanks to the Martin Tompkins for the great live shots

Hey Negrita

Martin is also on hand for our first attempt at music promotion. The venue is The Chapel Arts Centre Bath and the headliners are, long-time personal favourites, London based gothic folk rock band Viarosa supported by local favourites The Blood Choir

The Bllod Choir and Viarosa

The audience mainly from Bath are obviously Blood Choir fans and give their new 5 piece band a great reception. Rightly so as they are on fine form. Whilst some of the audience loose interest after this many of the audience members welcome our headliners Viarosa. Its been awhile since I've seen them so this forms the highlight of my evening.

Built To Spill

Supernatural Blues
November and Issue 23. My birthday month, and lots to celebrate. Tom Ovans is an exceptional songwriter with a hint of Dylan and Woody Guthrie. Deer Tick, twenty somethings with an authenticity and gravitas that belies their years. Born On Flag Day is a country rock gem, can’t wait to see them live. Longtime favourites Built to Spill’s There Is No Enemy is “packed with guitars, melody and melancholy”. Toronto’s folk rock band Great Lake Swimmers give a us hauntingly and powerful music to relish with Lost Channels.

The Irrepressibles

And Here We Are Near Christmas
December sees two issues 24a/24b. The first our Christmas issue plus a Bonus Video Issue. Here we are at the end of our second year of publishing with lots of plans for 2010. Our Christmas Issue contains music by artists we’re sure to hear a lot more of in 2010. They include Moriarty, Chris Wood, White Hills John Smith and the astonishing Irrepressibles. I’m sure I have missed out something, its been an action packed year and these were just the highlights. As I begin to write this I have heard that artistic director Charley Dunlap has quit The Chapel Arts Centre, Bath and I am really pissed off. Not with Charley but the circumstances that led to his departure. The musical future of the venue looks to be in question. Damn.

But right now I’m looking forward to the two week Festive break. I hope you all have a great Festive time. See you all in 2010.

If you have discovered this feature via the internet or through Vox, welcome to ElectricGhost. Our Free Monthly Music e-Journal is available via email. To sign up click here. Also for regulars if this feature has left you wanting a back issue that you missed get in touch directly with Lee.

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Find The Cost Of Freedom - An Evening with Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:39:32 +0000

Chuck Prophet Interview

Chuck Prophet Interview

Fiddlers, Bristol September 30th 2009

Interview: Lee Edwards

I’d like to start where I discovered you first, with Green On Red. Was that the first band you played in?
No. I’d been playing in bands since I was 11 or 12. When I was 14 I caught the tail end of the glam scene. I grew up in Southern California, then I moved up to San Francisco and I was in a few bands who played the Berkeley scene. Lot of frat parties in Berkley. Saw a lot of classic gigs. When I saw Green on Red. It’s hard to put in context but what they were doing that seemed so different from any else out there I guess. Danny [Dan Stuart] had this narrative writing style that seemed so out of time you know. They were characters and I eventually joined that band. It was just going to be a two week tour of Sweden I think. That’s what I was hired out for. And it turned in so much more. We had some great times in the early days. The first time we played London we had just come back from Sweden, we were flying through and somebody made the arrangements for us to play a gig in Piccadilly at a club called Gossips which was like a Goth club. It turned out that the opening band that night was the Jesus and Mary Chain. It was the first gig they had played outside of Scotland. They got thrown off the stage after 3 songs. There was only about 20 people there. The bartender came out from behind the bar and just turned their amps off. Unplugged their guitars and said ‘OK boys that’s enough of that’. [laughter] After twenty minutes of feedback.

When you went solo did that in any way change or affect your music?
I don’t know really...well Green on Red never really broke up. We were on extended leave after the Phonogram deal. The we re-invented ourselves by recording Here Come The Snakes. That was just me and Dan Stuart and some guys that were just around Memphis, just session guys. At the same time I started playing acoustic gigs with some friends of mine. That lead to a different kind of thing. We started exploring music like The Band, folk rock and for me the first three or four Richard Thompson records. We were really a group of songwriters with a healthy sense of competition. There was me and the guys, and Stephie [StephieFinch] would sing harmony, and we held court at this bar that wasn’t really part of anything called The Albion. From there I collected a bunch of songs and recorded my first solo record with just Stephie over a three day weekend. So there is some overlap between Green On Red and the rest. Danny and I would continue to tour and get together and write songs and make records, so there some overlap. I’m not really clear when it was.

From my perspective you had gone solo.
Yeah well maybe Green on Red had totally disintegrated, but it just seemed silly to start another band. The singer songwriter ghetto is a pretty lonely place. But hey its worked out OK. I’ve worked with some really good people.

You seem to have had and interesting band that you took down to Mexico for this new album. Also sounds like a lot of stuff went wrong as well.
Well I have a history of substance abuse problems, a lot of addictions. Music has been one of the healthiest ones. You know that buzz when you write a song and then take it and make a demo and hear it through the big speakers that’s kind of a thrill. I think the adventure or process of making a record is almost as important to me as the record itself. For some reason it just seemed that Mexico City was the place to do it. There’s a whole thing about how I got the meet the guys who play on the album. I had some songs and chord progressions for American Man that sounded like Born To Run and It triggered something in my mind, and my mind’s like a steel trap.

[the soundcheck was getting noisy at this stage so we retired back to the relative peace of the dressing room]

Ok we were talking about the new album and how you got to work with the musicians on it and you mentioned that your mind’s like a steel trap. And you thought of this drumming on Born To Run...
Well yeah well the buzz you get when you write a song can be... Dan told me once that he would have never written the first song if it hadn’t been for the big speakers. The opportunity to make a demo was what kept him going. I had a batch of songs and I thought maybe I could call some people to come and help me to demo the songs. Then it just popped into my mind that I had run into a friend who had played with Ernest [Ernest ‘Boom’ Carter who played on Born To Run]. He said he’s here he’d love to hear from you I’m sure. So I called and told him I was going to be down at the studio and I was kicking some songs around and it was nothing formal. If he wanted to come down and see where it goes and if not that’s cool to. So he said that sounded cool and came down to the studio and saw how crappy it was and everybody was late. The just as we were getting to gather around theses microphones he said “well I hope that the engineer’s got his act together because I was hoping to get out of here by one”...and it was noon. So I just sat down and opened up my notebook and we just ended cutting 8 things that day. With no preamble I just started racing through a bunch of song ideas and we cut 8 things. We on the handclaps, the tambourine and the odd harmony here and there. Did a rough mix and I just put it up on the shelf and never thought about it. I continued to write, but there was something about that session, the spontaneous combustion where Ernest... the way that he played and reacted to my body language was really cool. A friend of mine whose a songwriter was playing bass and another friend of mine was playing guitar. It was really informal and was who happened to be around. But there was something in those sessions that made me stand back and squint. Sounds like somewhere I’ve never been before, lets go here. Then little by little I began to finish what would become the ‘screenplay’ and I had the character and all that was left was the location that was missing and that was when I got it into my head that I wanted to record it in Mexico City. A friend of mine contacted me out of the blue and said that he was down in Mexico City. I asked him what he was was doing down there and he told me it was fuckin‘ great and that it was like the sixties down there. What he meant was prior to the Internet the only music that the 27 million people in Mexico listened to was the music that was filtered through MTV or whatever. So these kids might have heard Rage Against The Machine or some such band and they had some bands that were real angry. It wasn’t until the last few years that it’s really exploded. I went down there and saw these kids walking toward me and it looked like a gang but they just wanted to know about Death Cab For Cutie [laughter]. They have all theses choices now. So I went and spent a couple days down there, we got a driver, and checked out all the studios. There was one studio, and as soon as we walked into it we were just totally blown away. It was completely state of the art for 1958. It had been well maintained by the guy who’s owned it all these years. So I looked at it and stood in the middle of the rooms, clapped my hands and said OK and then went back to the the States and told everybody here me out this is where we’re gonna do it. [laughs] So I managed to talk everybody into it managed to convince them to go down there with me. It was every bit the adventure I had hoped.

This subject of analog studios has come up a lot this year from musicians I’ve talked with. There does seem to be a mood of working in that way again. What does that kind of studio hold for you?
I’m nor really a purist in that sense. I’ve worked in digital studios. I’m not a purist I’m just comfortable working in analog studios as well. It sounds closer to what I would have expected. For me its never been about the formats like Vinyl or CD. The only version of the music that matters to me is the one that I hear when I sign off on the mix. It’s never going to sound that way again the duplication is a facsimile whether its Vinyl or whatever. But analog is just a en environment where I feel more comfortable. A lot of these studios are closing, especially in California. A lot of these rooms are closing, I mean people get hung up on the technology but it’s what you put in front of the mikes, its the dope not the needle.

I like to talk a bit about the songs on the new album. I’m aware that there is a political edge to some of the songs that probably reflects the tumultuous nature of recent events in the States. But I’m also interested in the other songs like You And Me Baby (Holding On) and a personal favourite the closer Leave The Window Open. That song what a perfect finish to an album. Tell me more.
The thing about that guy in the song is that it doesn’t take long with people if you treat them a certain way and put them up on a pedestal you know... or for me I have a really nice car right now, a Mercedes. You start to think to believe in it, there’s a certain elegance and real easy to buy into it. Every once in a while, because of what we do for a living, Stephie [Finch] my wife and I will end up on the 30th floor of a 5 star hotel [laughs] and it doesn’t take long for you to get accustomed to it. So that what that song’s about, the world’s crashing down around you, people’s retirement accounts have been gutted, and the suns going down and your going to have to check out of the room at noon. Your staying in a room that could never afford. There’s something about that that reminds me of the two characters in a move called Object Of Beauty with Andie MacDowell. There’s a lot of stuff going on in that song. People like to know that they’re doing better than everybody else. It’s nice to be 30 floors above your problems but it never lasts [laughs]. That’s what was happening to the American dream everybody felt they were 30 floors above other people problems.

So You And Me Baby, is that personal for you?
Yeah a lot of my friends are going through a thing right now and its hard on the marriages you know. When I stand back and squint and look at that song that’s what I think about. And you know politically with this record I just stood back and thought these are all relationship songs, some of these characters... I mean while I was writing it there was a rare heat wave and a left the window open and the world just came into the songs. I’m not a political person, I’m not really for this or against that. I am like a photographer in that if i see something absurd I try to use it for my own devices. I try to give voice to characters who are not obvious characters. Or maybe people haven’t heard from in songs before. Sonny Liston [Sonny Liston Blues] is very much a person who is part myth and part reality. He never knew where he was born and no one is sure when he died. He’s a myth, and for me that’s the American Dream always a bit of a myth. People really thought they had it licked until they waked up one morning to find that their retirement accounts had been gutted. It’s always just out of reach. And people are rebelling, they’re just not happy. Hey it looks like I’m need for the soundcheck...

Sure thanks for that Chuck.
My pleasure man.

With that he heads off and we await the concert.

Chuck Prophet And The Mission Express Live

Chuck Prophet and The Mission Express Live at Fiddlers, Bristol, UK

Fiddlers is a medium size venue in a weird location in the middle of a trading estate. Its does however mean that parking is no problem.

When he finally hits the stage with his band Chuck delights us with a long set with a very short break halfway through. He gets to play a whole range of his music to an audience that are real fans and who’ve seen him in Bristol before. This perfect evening ends with a final encore of Bowie’s Rebel Rebel. Truly a song for our troubled times.

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A Glorious Intimacy - An Evening with Willard Grant Conspiracy

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:05:01 +0000

RobertFisherInterview02

Robert Fisher Interview

Interview: Lee Edwards

Photography: Keith Wheeler

The Garage, London UK September 18th 2009

Keith [Photographer] and I are led out the mayhem that is band load-in to a peaceful nearby local park by WGC helmsman, Robert Fisher. He seem on good form and as always is warm and friendly. Nursing a large takeout coffee he’s ready to talk.

Paper Covers Stone, the new album. Back to basics?
Yeah I guess kind of. I would argue that the last couple of years us touring as solo, duo, quartet kind of stuff. I been doing all that and mixing it with all kinds of stuff so I don’t think we’ve ever gotten that far away from it. But recording wise is quite interesting because it feels more like 3am [3am Sunday @ Fortune Otto's] than any other record. Part of that is the people on it. It’s the original guitarist Sean O’ Brian, the original viola player Dave Curry and myself and Pete Weiss was the engineer for this thing all the early stuff. It was done in Vermont in the woods. The first one was done in the woods in Massachusetts. As geography plays a fairly significant role in your surroundings, in the way you play and the way you relate to things, I guess that sorta leaks into the recording.

So whose the band for tonight?
Two members of the band are Iona and Paul from Doghouse Roses, plus Dave Curry and myself, just the four of us. Steve [Wynn] is off doing the Baseball Project with Minus 5 [with REM’s Peter Buck] in America at the moment. There was was no way he was going to pass on playing with Peter Buck. [laughter]

I’m pleased because its my chance to see Doghouse Roses live for the first time.
Oh Good.

This new album has a kind of intimacy that reminds me of seeing you and Erik Van Loo at the Thekla a few years back was that intentional?
Yeah Tom Bridgewater of Loose kept onto me about doing this type of record. He said I want you to do a show like the show you do with Erik. At first I kinda resisted the notion thinking that there’s probably all kinds of good reasons for not doing this. However the more I though about it the more it sorta made sense because its always been about there never been one perfect version of any song or one perfect version of the band, anything like that. Also The solo duo sets have this kind of lived in feel to them that I like a lot. We don’t need thesecurity blanket of 7 or 8 musicians. I can make the set’s up as a I go and whose playing may just inform the choices I make. There’s kind of like an immediacy to that, sort of like that lived in fell that I just mentioned. I wanted to capture that in the studio. Its not that easy to do. A lot of bands talk about it. But I always strive to do it, and I think we got close on a number of occassions, but I wanted to see how chemical kinetic connective we could make it feel. Still make it feel like it was a proper recording though and not just a live thing you know.So that’s what we did I went into the studio and just started playing without anything in mind as to what I was going to play. Try to keep a set in mind more that anything else. And in two days I think we did 18 songs, and that was it.

You have a substantial back catalogue. How did you make the choice of what went on the album? I believe there 3 new songs and the rest are not. How easy was it making the choice?
It was just kind of instinctual. Kind of like how I would play a set. I don’t sit down and make a set list I just decide what to play after I’ve played the previous song. Some times I decide to play with my fingers and sometimes with a pick and sometimes with the back of my thumbnail. Different things, you just decide it in the moment depending on how you feel, and I like that. Risk taking, that feel that it may not work. Sometimes it doesn’t work you know. I think we’ve talked about this before. I like...the reason I make music is because when I was young and seeing music I love the notion that you were in the room with something that was temporal, that wouldn’t exist after that, it was gone. You were witness to something that was impermanent, that no longer exists afterwards. It only exists in your memory, and you shared it with however many people were there with you, and that’s it. I love that and I think that’s partially why this record works for me. This record has that feeling. You couldn’t sit down and reproduce that record again in front of microphones if you tried to because it was about the time, the day, people who were there, the studio, the woods, the coffee, the cheese, the cigars, the whatever. [laughter] It was about that stuff. It was also about where I was at at that particular moment. The songs. Something like Soft Hand on this record is totally different from the better know recording. I think that’s fun... and that’s in keeping with Willard Grant. Just a remix or re-work of our stuff didn’t make any sense to me. But to do it this way like it has the immediacy of a live set... decision making on the fly made sense because that’s very much about what the band is about. It also gave a me a really good excuse to work with Sean and Dave again.

They do seem really right for this project. I remember going away after talking to Dave when he was on tour with Thalia Zedek and saying you and Robert Fisher wouldn’t that be fantastic. He said that you already had and I replied yes I know but do it again. Listening to him live it struck me how his style was so well suited to your songs.
He’s kind of a wild card you let him do what he does. He’s unlike anybody else and its brilliant and amazing.

But that wild card suits you doesn’t it.
Oh absolutely. I love the notion of... a couple of sets of this tour he said to ‘I didn’t think you were going to be that noisy‘ and he adds ‘well it was kind of an acoustic thing right‘. And I’m going umm yeah. And keeps saying it was noisy. And I’m like yeah. I mean this idea of us as this kind of folk alt country thing is wrong, were far closer to Wire and The Velvets than we are to Hank Williams. I like Hank Williams but we share more in common with bands like Black Flag. So it shouldn’t surprise people to much.

I also notice, on the album, that you did The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me, a Tom Waits song.
It’s a really great Tom Waits song. I started doing it about a year or two ago with Erik, and it’s really fun with him because he gets really insane on his double bass. He’s like bowing against what I’m doing and I’m basically holding down two notes and the bass on the guitar. he’s just going crazy up against it and it’s great fun to do it’s really thing. I sort of change it to a swinging kind of thing. Tom’s version is spoken word and great and insane and dark and all that stuff, but I just try to add a little bit of me into it and see what happens, and hopefully it was reverential at the same time.

It seemed that it was the perfect closer for the album.
I agree. But its hard you know because CDs are not made for that sort of thing. Its much nicer if you’ve got a piece of vinyl that you’re sequencing. Its good it worked.

When I last saw you you were on the road with 11 other people. This must be easier to manage.
Well none of them needed baby sitting but there was a an element of crowd control. It also include my 16 year old niece who I was responsible for so...

But I was watching that show with great interest because there were a lot of players who I really like. But I was struck that maybe this might hamper what you can do with a smaller unit.
The more musicians you have the more you have to plan the chaos, the improvisational elements, but you can still do it. Look at Sun Ra. We did 12 of those shows. I think if we’d done 40 it would i think it would have been a remarkable ensemble. We had things going on between the strings and the horns and piano stuff. Every night was different. That’s why it was great to have Howe [Howe Gelb] along because its different every time he sit down at the piano. With different audiences he has a different relationship. So that was another really wild card I really loved on that tour. An orchestra thing can seem a little arranged I guess.

Like Howe you seem to like living vicariously on the edge.
Well I thanked him for it. A few years ago in Boston we sat down together and had dinner together. I thanked him for providing me with a model and a bunch of other country and jazz players etc. A model that said you can do it this way. He said to me ‘you might want to hold on your thanks because its hard to describe what this is and sometimes it can confuse people’. I understand what he means by that but it doesn’t mean I’d change it for half a minute. The important thing to know is what he does is brilliant. We all share this thread. We’re all trying to live in the moment that we are in, musically and as writers and artists. We’re all trying to be the best crafts people we can be at that particular moment. We’re also trying to be the most present we can be. The most amount of directness and honesty. The most connectedness to why we are doing this. It doesn’t matter whether we are performing on stage or in the studio, sitting and talking with somebody or whatever. That’s something that the people I work with all share. That’s not common in music. A lot of music is about sustaining image and suchlike. Things that have very little to do with inspiration and clarity and in the present.

A new Willard Grant album is like what’s going to happen here.
Yeah like you don’t know. Hopefully people who follow the band will know that it will be good. But I like that they will say ‘I wonder what he’s done now’. That’s our objective to be the wild card. I’m also accept responsibility for the notion that not everybody’s going to like everything. Pilgrim Road is an example of that. From what I gather, in this country at any rate, the record polarised fans of the band. Some people don’t like it at all. It’s a risky little record so that’s OK. I remember having a discussion with someone in New Zealand after a show and he was suggest that I had outreached my ability, but how he was such a big fan and all that. He had 5 of our records which is fine. The I asked him how many times he had listened to it and he confessed just the once. I suggested to him that maybe he should give more of a chance if he was such a big fan [laughter]. I remember when I first listened to Tonight’s The Night I thought mmm I don’t know this is uncomfortable but the more I listened to the more I discovered how stunningly brilliant that record was and how there is no more pure example of Neil Young on vinyl or recorded anywhere. It’s such a great instinctive record.

A new song on the album Preparing For The Fall has a real Armageddon feel to it. Do not listen to this in the dark [laughter]. For me it is really the centre piece of the album. It rose up and became my favourite track.
It’s in the middle because it’s like a sneaky punch. I knew there were only 3 really new recordings, new songs on here and I. I mean the rest is new but familiarish territory for people. I was trying to balance it but by putting that in the centre I was giving people something serious meat and potatoes in the centre to deal with. It’s an interesting song because I wrote on drive down from my Dad’s house. My Dad lives in Carson City in Nevada, and I was driving very early in the morning down the Eastern Sierra Nevada's through the mists and all the stuff going on in the early morning. The Elk herds and all sorts of things. I wrote the song during the drive, it was about an eight hour drive. I just kept writing it while I was driving. I had it don e about the 5th hour and then it was just trying to keep all my memories as I kept driving. It was one of those songs that was almost an hallucination. One of those things that you’re just driving and it happens to you. I like it, it’s not an easy song to do or to sing and even to listen to. We were just talking about Neil Young and I like to think it’s a minor Neil Young song in a way [laughs]. It could have shown up On The Beach or something. It has that fuzzy, slightly out of focus, feel to it that I like a lot.

A bit like drugs.
Our music's not like drugs it is drugs. [laughter]

Its now time for Robert to get back to the venue, which is just across the road. As we are about to set off we are suddenly joined by viola player Dave Curry who has been in the park all the time. Later Keith shows me a photo which has Robert blurred out to bring the background in focus and there, identity unknown to Keith at the time of shoot the pic, is Dave Curry sitting in the middle distance reading a book. The inset on the pic at the head of this interview shows that shot. So wishing Robert and Dave well for the evening, which will also include an opening set from Doghouse Roses plus a support set from The Duke and The King, we head off for some food.

Rob Fisher-Dave Curry Live

Willard Grant Conspiracy Live

with The Duke & The King and Doghouse Roses

Review: Lee Edwards

Photography: Keith Wheeler

The Garage, London UK September 18th 2009

DoghouseRosesLive

When we first arrived we came in through the load-in area for bands. This time we enter through the front. For some reason, unlike last night (Richmond Fontaine) security has been stepped up and everyone is searched. Keith's bottled water is taken from him. The staff are polite but pedantic and Tom from Loose has to be called down when they appear not to have any record of a photographer being included in our passes. Eventually we are allowed in but informed that there are photography restrictions that limit the number of photos that can be taken. This doesn't look promising.

It is a typical Friday evening in at the recently re-furbished venue in Islington, North London. The mood seems pretty much like last night which was friendly enough.

First up are acoustic folk duo Doghouse Roses, who will also be playing with Robert Fisher later. They are Paul Tasker on guitar with the the formidably powerful vocals of Iona MacDonald. They are treated pretty much like most acoustic support acts and ignored. There is a groundswell of Willard Grant fans there who appreciate their set, myself included. My first chance to see them both live.

After a break The Duke And The King hit the stage. We reviewed and interviewed them on their first British visit back in May of this year at Bush Hall. Since then they have sorted out what look to be a permanent 4 piece band led by Simone Felice (The Duke). Robert Burke (The King) now plays bass, Nowell Haskins (The Deacon) is on drums. They are joined by the vivacious Sime Stone on violin. All four sing and they have a great four part harmony thing going from the start. Sime's sensuous violin playing reminds me of Scarlet Riviera's playing with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Tour. They seem to have worked on their live set which is simpler and more dynamic. Whilst they concentrate on recent album Nothing Gold Can Stay they also include a fine Neil Young cover, Helpless. Its good to see them again and they acquit themselves well.

After a break Willard Grant take to the stage. From the start this is a subdued set with material drawn from their fabulous recent album Paper Covers Stone. They are all seated except for Dave Curry. Excellent versions of Ghost Of The Girl In A Well, Soft Hand and a stately Fare Thee Well do nothing to engage parts of the audience hell bent on being rowdy. Even a slow burning Velvet Underground like Preparing For The Fall, with Curry's demented John Cale viola fills seems to help. The continued rudeness of parts of the audience is totally fucking annoying. Even protests from those enjoying the set seems to fall on deaf ears. Eventually Robert and co have had enough and cutting the set short leave the stage.

Post Gig Note

Since then I have emailed Robert and he confessed that "I suspect it was one of the worst ones we've ever done in London. the crowd there was certainly more into themselves than us...a singularly bad pairing."

In a recent review from Uncut (It was a Club Uncut gig) Alan Jones, who seems to focus on The Duke And The King's part of the evening, gives short shrift to the protests whilst admitting that whilst he found "the racket" as "irritating as fuck" he doesn't seem willing to stand up for a band that they have previously championed. He protest that "But if these people are indeed prepared to pay that kind of money, what can you do?" Well Alan there was a significant part of the audience that also paid serious money to see Willard Grant. Don't they count?

If you were to go out to the theatre or cinema or an increasing number of respected music venues you would be thrown out if you made the kind of thoughtless racket that these morons seemed happy to indulge in. The venue whilst eager to have security checks didn't seem to care once the punters had parted with their cash. This is a venue that ElectricGhost will avoid in the future, if possible unless like other venues it gets its act together.

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Stories from Portland Oregon - An Evening With Richmond Fontaine

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:42:26 +0000

WillyVlautinInterview

Willy Vlautin Interview

Interview: Lee Edwards

Photography: Richard Neuberg

The Garage, London, UK September 17th 2009

I head for the gig ahead of time to catch some time post sound check with Richmond Fontaine frontman Willy Vlautin for an interview. This will be the first time I have met him and seen the band live. I am also due to meet musician Richard Neuberg, with whom I am staying for this extended London visit and who is doing the photography honours for the evening. I hook up with Chris Metzler who runs Richmond Fontaine's UK label Decor Records. He has arranged for us to use the upstairs area at the venue for the venue. I collect Willy and we head upstairs. He seems friendly and happy to talk.

I’m always interested in where bands got there names.
Ah... Richmond Fontaine was a guy that Dave Harding (bass) met when he lived down in South America for awhile, in Brazil. He met this ex-patriot guy name Rich Fontaine who was kinda an angry backwoods guys who ended up down there. He befriended him and got in a lot of trouble with this guy Richmond Fontaine. We thought it was really funny, the stories he told, so we named the band after him. You never think a band’s going to last more that six months and we’ve been going for fifteen years [laughter].

We’ll come to your music in a minute but I’d like talk a bit about your work as a novelist. I reviewed your first two novels (The Motel Life and Northline). Which comes first for you the writing or the music influencing the writing.
I started writing songs when I was fourteen pretty intensive. I’d also written some short stories as a kid. I was never very good at school, but I was always a fan of the novel. But I always thought that you had to be like Hemingway and have fantastic life or you had to be really smart. Go to Cambridge, go to Yale. Be rich. I barely got through school. When I was 20 I found this songwriter called Kelly, Australian songwriter and he wrote a song based on a Raymond Carver short story called So Much Water so Close To Home. The song based on that was called Everything’s Turning White. It changed my life. I went down to the bookstore and bought a Raymond Carver book of short stories and when I was twenty on man I wrote all the time. I wrote story after story and my songs kinda reflected that. I used to write country punk short tunes and then when I started to write stories my songs got all story oriented. It freed me up. I wrote my first novel when I was 22/23. It was horrific and everything. I’ve always written I just never showed them to anybody. The band would beat me up enough. My hobby was writing stories. I liked keeping it to myself. But I eventually met an agent because the band was doing better and I figured that was a gift from God that I should show her one of my novels. She was smart enough to know how to sell it.

Well I really enjoyed both of them and I’m really looking forward to the new one (Lean On Pete). I kinda hear Raymond Carver in there but there other American writers too. One that comes to mind is Cormac McCarthy.
Yeah I came to Cormac McCarthy later on. I’m a huge fan. I love his sense of the West. But Carver is the reason I started writing. Carver is like telling me my life story. Now I live 10 miles from where Carver was born. So Carver’s always been an inspiration. Another big inspiration for me is William Kennedy, the Albany New York Writer. He’s writer that I aspire to be although I don’t that I’m smart enough. Other guys I admire are John Steinbeck, Barry Gifford, Flannery O’Connor stuff like that. Writers like Jim Thompson, the great crime novelist. I love that stuff. My greatest love has always been those writers.

I have a favorite writer. An Irish guy who writes noirish American crime novels with a twist of the supernatural, John Connolly.
Yeah I met him before he’s a really cool guy.

I love people who mix music art and literature up.
You know the movie Paris Texas. I hadn’t watched that movie in 10 or 15 years but I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I kept that story, Harry Dean’s character [Harry Dean Stanton] alive for years. That’s what I wanted to do with Northline by putting the soundtrack with it. I figured that if you read a novel and like it and also you like the music. Then when you listen to the music maybe you’ll think a little bit about the story.

Moving onto the music I notice that you are play as a five piece, your fifth member is usually Paul Brainard. Is that the case tonight?
Tonight we’re playing with Ralph Huntley. He’s the piano player on the new record[We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River]. He’s played on a lot of our other records. He’s like out favourite piano player. We just took a chance to see if he would tour with us, we didn’t think he would because he doesn’t tour very often. But he said yes, and we’re very happy to have him with us. Its been an honour to play with him.

I first got onto you musically with the album Post To Wire. It reminded me of the use of the word ‘The Wire’ in the movie The Sting. Do you stoll songs from your older albums.
Yes we always try to play songs from various albums. Somebody always like one record better than another. As a fan you always have your favourite one. So we got to play songs off all of them. Post To Wire was the first record we did with JD Foster. He’s a great producer and has been a really good friend to the band.

Taking a big leap to your current album like your two previous albums it has a rather long title, We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River.
Yes [laughs] I like really long titles.

When you started out a lot of publications like Uncut labelled you Americana, is that a label your still comfortable? You seem to have gone through a lot of changes. This new album sounds a lot rockier.
Yes there’s not a lot of country in it. But we have a lot of pedal steel on our records. I can see why people see us as an alt-country band. I just don’t worry about stuff like that. We are who we are and we try to change as we want to. I always want to remain true to my heart and that works for us.

You mentioned JD Foster earlier he seem to be almost another member of the band.
When we met JD it was a stroke of luck. He took a chance on us. He didn’t have to. He’s a good personal friend of mine as well as being an amazing producer. For Thirteen Cities he said “man don’t you get tired of the weather in the north west” and said yes ’cause it does rain a lot and quite miserable. He lives in New York City and said “man it drives me crazy living in New York City in the winter who wants to do a record in Tuscon”. I’m like alright we thought we could afford it and thats the whole reason we went there, because he wanted to. Then I thought now I can write desert songs and maybe I can have Calexico playing on it. So I got obsessed with writing songs about the West. I’m in love with Calexico and I think they’re a great band, one of my favourites. I really like Howe Gelb, Neko Case and all that stuff. So going down there was really fun. When Jacob Valenzuela plays on a song and Joey Burns takes a couple days out of his life to help you on your little record, it mean a lot to me. So yeah JD is the reason for all that.

It seems to me that there are several bands out there now whose vocalist is also a writer.
Well I’ve always been a writer as long as I’ve been a musician. I’m in the band for the camaraderie and the social aspects, but I love the novel more that I love anything else. My heart and soul lies with the novel. But at the same time my heart and soul lies with Richmond Fontaine. I don’t see myself being a solo guy, my focus and my heart is with then now. 16:00

So this cellomobo instrument that debuts on this album [laughter] tell us about that.
Our drummer Sean [Oldham] and his brother Collin, these are two guys who can fix anything. Car breaks down and they fix it. Electrical problems, they fix them. I’m really nice to them [laughter]. So they also invent things. Collin is a professional cellist and he invented this instrument called a cellomobo which is like a wooden box with a bunch of wires and a strip of metal and he plays it. It goes through a computer program. Sounds really cool too.

So even with this new stuff you’ve still kept the essential Richmond Fontaine sound.
Yeah but I worry sometimes because I can write depressing or story orientated songs all day long but I worry about the band. This record especially sounds like what I believe Portland Oregon sounds like to me. I also wanted to write songs that the band would have fun playing on. They’ve been really nice playing some of my weirder folk stuff and long story songs. So I’ve been really wanting to write a bunch of songs that seem pretty fun to play.

There are a lot of song-writers who write about their inner pain but you’re more concerned with narrative.
I always felt...I was always ashamed of myself for complaining. So when I wrote songs complaining about my life I always felt guilty. My mother worked really hard, she worked the same job for 30 years. Really tried her best, so I started writing story songs. I could say the exact same thing, the things that were haunting me or troubling me. So instead of beating up my poor Mom, or my friends, a girlfriend or whatever I would write a story about it. I would change the person to be someone totally different, I would turn them into a 50 year old man instead of an 18 year old girl say. I could still say the same thing. Also as a fan I’ve always admired songs that drop me into a world and told me a story. That created a world I could disappear into...so as a young fan I lived for movies. Live for novels and records that could make me disappear. Because it save my life. When I was a kid, 13/14, Springsteen killed me because he had this dark but very romantic world. As a kid I just lived in it. It was a great comfort to me. In my own stuff I’ve wanted to the same. Sadly I’ve never got to the romantic part as much as Springsteen. I’ve been trying really hard. I want to write on the edge of disillusionment and hope. When I was younger and surlier and drunker would get really dark and now I’m beggin‘ ’em to get a little lighter [laughter], so this record really...I was really into a guy called Richard Holly when I wrote these songs. I was listening to a song called Coals Corner at least once or twice a day. I really wanted to write a song like that. Then I wrote We Used to Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River and to me that sounds like a love song. In my own way...as close as I can get I guess.

What you write about is what you know, primarily the North West of the USA. How much does where you live influence what you write?
Like I said you you could transplant me anywhere I just want the listener to feel they’re there. When you listen to a Drive By Truckers record you’re in the South. Sometimes the succeed magically like Decoration Day, a great Southern rock masterpiece in my opinion. When they do good at that they tell you these stories and you believe ’em. Suddenly by putting a record on you’re in the South living with these guys and these relationships what have you. That what I tried to do with Thirteen Cities and thew SouthWest and the desert and with The Fitzgerald it was a casino town where I grew up, Reno Nevada. Just to create this world. In We Used to Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River I was struggling to find a home you know. When I was writing these songs my mother died...I have a brother but I don’t really have a hometown or anything like that. So I was trying to answer some of that with the record too. But yeah sense of place has always been important to me. Sometimes I over do it and sometimes I fail at it but when it works I think it makes the listener believe they’re really there. Like I said earlier Calexico does that great. They create a world for it. If you want to go to where they live all you gotta do is put a record on and you’re in Tuscon. The desert and great Mexican music.

I think they’re absolutely magical...
...yeah me too.

So you’ve got the new novel Lean On Pete coming out at the end of the year.
Actually it comes out February 2010. Its on Faber again. You can’t say enough great things about Faber. They’re really nice people. You go there and I think they’re all really proud to work at Faber. Its a badge of pride that they work there. Everyone there has been really good to me.

So what are your future plans then.
We’re touring then we go home and pay a few shows. The we come back and play Ireland and Spain, and then we take a break and me and and one of the other guys is going to go in the US. Just a lot of touring. I’ve just finished the draft of another novel. Then next year we’re probably touring till the summer and then I’ll probably take a year off and hide out. What I do best [laughs].

So what about locking yourselves in a cabin, like Fleet Foxes and The Duke and the King and working on something.
I think all we’d if we did that would be to drink [laughter]. When we drink we don’t like playing music we just like hanging out...and we like to listen to music. As a band we don’t work well when we drink because all we want to do is to listen to other people’s music and drink more. We’re kind of a professional drinking band when we drink, we drink. So when we work together it’s always best that everyone goes home to their wives and girlfriends to yell at them if they get too crazy, then we work a lot harder that way.

So last question. You write these amazing stories and songs. How much are the band a part of this. I take it that its not just here’s some songs now lets write some music around it.
What happens usually is that I’ll write the basic song, and I’ll have it as a folk song say. Then I bring to the guys and then we just try different things with it. At this point I check my ego at the door. Some songs I’ll fight for to the end, but those are usually songs the guys like anyway. But if I play a song and the guys don’t like it or get bored then I just chuck it. I might keep the lyrics but I move the melody. We work well that way and we’re getting better at that. They’re really nice to me about my lyrics and my songs. I’m pretty fortunate to be with a bunch of guys like that.

On that note, thanks Willy it’s been a pleasure to meet you.
Yeah man its been really good for me too.

At this point we are joined by Richard. He and Willy spend a bit of time talking and then with Willy off to prepare for the gig Richard and I head off to eat. He's not seen Richmond Fontaine before but is a fan of English singer songwriter Peter Bruntnell who is playing support tonight with his band.

RichmondFontaineLive

Richmond Fontaine Live

Review: Lee Edwards

Photography: Richard Neuberg

The Garage, London, UK September 17th 2009

PeterBruntnellLive

Returning to the venue after our meal Richard and I get ready for the evening's music. Guitarist Dan Eccles comes up and hands me a set list for Richmond Fontaine's set. Willy had promised this but I'm really touch that they took out time to actually do it. I am still buzzing from the the interview with Willy. He had been warm, friendly with not a trace of rock star bullshit. The natural storyteller in him had made the interview really interesting.

Peter Bruntnell and band take to the stage. I have mostly seen videos of him in an acoustic setting. Playing with a band seems to work well for him and it's a good introduction to his music. I'll have to explore his recorded work more as up until now he's kinda passed me by as quite interesting but not someone I'm hugely taken with. The electric set also seems to enhance the Neil Young influences that affect his work. The crowd here tonight are obviously fans and they give him a suitably enthusiastic welcome.

After the break Richmond Fontaine amble on stage. Tonight the core band of Dave Harding, electric and upright bass; Sean Oldham, drums, percussion, backing vocals; Willy Vlautin, guitars, vocals and Dan Eccles, guitar are joined by their favourite piano player Ralph Stanley who has played on several of the albums including the new one We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River.

First up is White Line Fever and early song which is closely followed by We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River title song from the new album. What is obvious is that this is a band at the height of their powers. I've always been told that they they are fantastic live and hell they are amazing and on fire tonight. Between songs Willy talks about the songs in the same friendly easygoing way that he was in the interview. On occasions he is difficult to hear because sections of the crowd are obviously not interested in anything but themselves. Wankers!! As I will discover tomorrow at the Willard Grant gig this can only get worse, much worse!!

The band take us on a musical journey through their albums and all the usual favourites are there, Post To Wire, El Tiradito, The Gits and Lost In The World. The encores include Ruby and Lou, Barely Losing and 4 Walls.

The new album has some of the strongest work to date and this is reflected in a new confidence in their live work. They could have played all night as far as I was concerned. Utterly magnificent!!

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Dylan Has Christmas In His Heart

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:54:08 +0000

Vox-DylanXmasReviewPic

Christmas In The Heart/Bob Dylan

Well, the new Bob Dylan album arrived in the post today so I downloaded it on to my iPod and took a listen as I walked the dog around the local cemetery. Blue sky above and not a hint of snow on the ground, but though it might have been early autumn in the air, soon enough it was -- as the album title proclaims – Christmas in the Heart.

What immediately struck me – well, not immediately, but what started to dawn on me by the second or third song and was clear by the fourth – was that this is not just a little dashed off side project. Like it or not, the

emotional commitment that Dylan has given to these songs makes Christmas In The Heart very much the new Bob Dylan album.

For many of Bob's fans, certain albums – Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot of Love – were too associated with something they hated (rock & roll, country, schmaltz, Christianity) for them to want or be able to appreciate the albums for themselves.

You can add Christmas In The Heart to that list.

Those who cannot accept the fact that Bob might want to have such an album in his catalogue – as Bing Crosby, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington and many other of his favourite singers have done -- will find the album a closed door. But for anyone else, it could be a small delight.

A Twitter review of the album might be "Bing beyond the grave" – 13 of the 15 songs on the album have been recorded by Bing Crosby, and Bob's weather-beaten croon is at times not unlike the Old Groaner.

To those who have not dismissed the album out of hand but sill find it hard to take seriously, all I would say is listen to the musicians (Bob's road crew plus David Hidalgo and a few others); the really very fine melodies of

these carols and popular tunes; the instrumental and vocal harmony arrangements that both recapture the slick 1940s/50s studio sounds that Bob grew up with and breathe life into them, humanizing them; the battered and tattered voice sometimes flaring and phlegming up but still hitting all the notes -- and singing with the same intense intimacy that he invested in A Simple Twist of Fate. (Much is made of Bob's ruin of a voice nowadays but it should be noted that he sings with a range of more than one and a half octaves on this album, significantly more than the likes of Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young would be able to manage.)

And then there's Must Be Santa. Bob has often talked about his love for polka... and with this manic – yet always controlled – performance you can see why. I wonder what the world would have done if back in 1965 Bob had mixed his folk lyrics and surreal verse with a polka outfit like the one backing him here instead of a rock & roll band. Would we have booed? And a couple of years later would we then have had psychedelic polka (polka dot?), hard polka, and back-to-the-old-country rootsy polka in Woodstock?

Who knows? What we do have is a rollicking old-time Christmas album that should thaw the Scrooge in anyone's heart, with all of Bob's royalties going to feeding the hungry, through the World Food Programme and Crisis UK. It's available in three formats: CD, deluxe CD (in a slipcase with five Christmas cards) and (released in November) vinyl.

Matthew Zuckerman

Matthew used to write for the Bath Chronicle. A true Dylan fan and an authority on all matters Dylan. We are hoping that he will be become a regular guest contributor.

ElectricGhost – The Free Monthly Music Journal

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Arbouretum Live – Like A Hurricane

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:27:06 +0100

Vox-ArbouretumLive

On The Road With ElectricGhost
Like A Hurricane
Arbouretum Live at The Lexington, London July 27th

All Photography: Marzena Ostromecka

Dave Heumann (guitar vocals); Steve Strohmeier (guitar);
Corey Allender (bass); Daniel Franz (drums)

Review: Lee Edwards

The Lexington, is a London music venue and lounge bar with a dash of burlesque elegance and speakeasy Americana. I have just finished interviewing Dave Heumann in a local park. It gives us the peace and quiet that we need for the interview. Now it’s back to the mayhem of the venue. People are gathering and it’s filling up. As I go to order food I discover that the growing crowd is for a pub quiz, which is also happening tonight. The gig will kick of at about 8pm upstairs. Marzena has headed off to a friend for a break and some food.

Refreshed I head upstairs and meet up with Marzena who is of finding good angles to the shoot the band. The supports Kurran & The Wolftones and The Goldheart Assembly. Both of whom are OK but I’m impatient for the main attraction.

Dave Heuman, Steve Strohmeier, Corey Allender and Daniel Franz troop onstage with an unassuming grace giving us no clue that all hell is about to break loose.

From the kick of with the majestic Another Hiding Place they fire up the otherwise laidback London audience who like me can barely believe my ears. The stellar guitar interplay between Heumann and Strohmeier is at the core of their sonic attack. We are in the midst of an electric maelstrom with raging sheets of sound and crystalline melodic psychedelic wooziness that brings to brings to mind an unholy alliance between Crazy Horse and The Grateful Dead. The rhythm section of Allender and Franz are an integral part of their cohesive sound.

Arbouretum Guitar Repair

Towards the end Heumann’s guitar strings give up the ghost and guitarist Strohmeier gives us an impromptu rendition of the classic song Cocaine whilst Heumann does onstage repairs. Magical.

Arbouretum are quite possible the best live band on the planet at the moment. The leave me, and the audience, totally shell-shocked. You have to catch them if you can.

Arbouretum-Live02

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Pearls In The Trees – Interview with Dave Heumann (Arbouretum)

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:08:47 +0100

David Heumann Interview

On The Road With ElectricGhost
Pearls In The Trees
Arbouretum at The Lexington, London
Interview July 27th

All Photography: Marzena Ostromecka

Dave Heumann / Arbouretum

Interview: Lee Edwards

The Lexington, is a London music venue and lounge bar with a dash of burlesque elegance and speakeasy Americana. It’s here that I meet Anthea who runs the London office of Arbouretum’s record label Thrill Jockey. She helpful and friendly and easily helps us set up an interview with Dave Heumann (vocals/guitar), who seems to be the spokesperson for the band. We are going to record the interview and when I suggest we need a quiet space for this Dave, who’s interests outside music include photography and botany, suggests a local nearby park. So on a lovely early summer evening in a sun-dappled enclosure of trees we talk.

What led you to choose Arbouretum as your band’s name?
Well it was kinda a long time ago. I guess I just liked the sound of the word and the connection to trees. I’ve always like to spend a fair amount of time outdoors. So it was a natural choice really, and I hadn’t heard of a band that had used it. But even so we put an extra ‘u’ in there to make sure that nobody was going to use it. It also symbolised making the music organic sounding – it was over structured. So it was like a reaction against music that I thought was over structured.

What literary or musical influences inspired you to write songs?
It changes all the time and is kinda whatever I’m interested in. There’s more literary influences going on with Rites of Uncovering [their previous album] than Song Of The Pearl [current album]. It’s just what I’m drawing from at the moment. Song Of The Pearl was more songs that had to do with people that I knew. I put myself in their situations and writing a song about that, or just imagining fictional narratives from scratch. Then creating a story from that. Then there is Loose Spring, which is very loosely based on a swimmer. Burt Lancaster played the guy in the movie.

You are often described as being very English sounding. Is it intentional or did it just come out that way?
Yeah it was intentional. I think both of those records have a fair amount of English influence, mostly from the sixties and seventies folk stuff.

Any particular stuff?
Yeah Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson and Bert Jansch to a certain extent.

You hail from Baltimore. I recently saw a TV documentary about the troubles in Baltimore, also Baltimore become well know here for a programme call The Wire. Have you ever had a song played on the programme?
We’ve never had any music in the programme. I gave one of the production assistants a CD. Maybe that will happen.

It’s been said that Arbouretum is a resource for you and your song writing, but I get the feeling that you come across as a band.
Yeah that’s true. All the arrangements are collectively organised. It’s not just me call all the shots. We all work out at band practice and come with ways to play the stuff. So it changes a lot from my original idea how it ends up.

You’re over here doing the tour that was postponed from earlier this year presumably promoting Songs From The Pearl.
Yeah but I like to look at touring as more than just supporting a record. Every night we try to do the best set we can do. We’re not really thinking that we got to play all the songs from a certain record. The most important thing is to make good music.

It feels like the four of you are going to be around as Arbouretum for the foreseeable future.
Yeah who knows really but I’ve definitely been enjoying it. I’d like to see it continue but it’s not up to me…well not entirely up to me.

You don’t bring in loads of guest musicians and fancy arrangements does that feed into what you said earlier about wanting to be more organic?
We have brought in some guest musicians but I think it has to do with if the song doesn’t call for it then we’re not going to do it. The next record coming out has loads of guest musicians but only because the songs seem to require it.

You seem to capture a very live feel on your albums.
Well that was intentional and we were all in the same room at the recording. We were all able to make eye contact, which I think was really important for the music that came out it.

So over the period of the albums what is your take on how the band has developed or changed?
I think there’s more a feeling of identity. The band has crystallised more and more. Especially with this line-up where everyone understands where the music is coming from. It’s not like a musician contributing, but they might as well be doing anything. This is like a musician in Arbouretum, this is how we do things. There’s that common understanding.

What were you doing prior to Arbouretum?
I was running a lot of bands that, for one reason or another, never stayed together long enough to put a record out. I was always in bands and writing songs for those bands. Lyrics have always been important and over time I have got better at. I do some collaborations as well, there’s a guy, a really good friend of mine Rob Wilson, that I sometimes work with.

On your current record you close with a Dylan cover [Tomorrow Is A Long Time] I wondered what he think of it.
I’m not sure if he’s heard it.

Actually whilst I know Dylans work very well I couldn’t guess with out checking the track information which was the Dylan cover. It sounded like you could have written it.
That’s really nice to hear.

Is doing the occasional cover something you might feature again?
Yeah sure I like cover songs. It can be a real challenge to cover a song well. It has to be someone who means a lot to me or it doesn’t work.

Have you had any thoughts about the follow up to Song Of The Pearl.
Vague thoughts. I’m going to work on it over the next couple of months. Take some time off from the band. We could have something ready for next Spring maybe.

How do you fell about being labelled doom folk?
Oh it’s fine. At first I was like were not doom folk, but now I don’t care. The only problem is that it’s limiting. It doesn’t capture all the aspects of what we do. It just a tag to hang onto something. I guess it’s OK if it helps people to identify us with something rather than nothing at all. But were not exactly that. We’re more than that.

I'd say you remind me of Arbouretum actually.
Oh that's a good way of putting it. [laughter]

Songs Of The Pearl seems like a more visceral album
Yeah and that has to do with the people in the band. What works for us in a live situation and then wanting to capture it on record.

So it’s really a collaborative effort.
Yeah even if it’s me writing stuff I hope these guys will like. That's part of it too.

I’m always intrigued when musicians do something other than music as well. For example Captain Beefheart was also painter. Your photography is very natural and organic. Is this something that you do regularly, a passion?
Fairly regularly yeah. I like to back and forth between photography and musical ideas, it helps stimulate my creativity.

The Pearl album has a photo with a weird pyramid-like house on it. Where did that come from?
Well that was kind of an accident. I was taking a picture of the house and I’d forgotten to rewind this picture of the moon I’d the night before in the attic window. [laughter] Then I thought Oh that’s neat. The I showed it to Cory [Allender, bass player] and he thought it was perfect so we used it. I find o lot of similarities between working with photography and making music. The one thing I like about photography is that there are no presuppositions attached to it. I’m not supposed to be good at it, so it frees me up to experiment a little bit more. Like with Arbouretum I’ve been playing guitar for twenty-three years so I have to be a good guitar player. [laughter] But I’ve only been taking photos for a couple of years so all bets are off.

Then something about going to eat and the gig.

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The Low Anthem – Live at The Union Chapel

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:26:05 +0100

LowAnthemLiveReview

On The Road With ElectricGhost
The Low Anthem
Union Chapel, Islington, London June 23rd

Ben Miller

vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, drum kit, pump organ, trumpet, E flat horn, and rack harp.

Jeffrey Prystowsky

bass, drum kit, vocals, pump organ, and acoustic guitar.

Jocie Adams

clarinet, vocals, pump organ, drum kit, electric guitar, and bass.

All Photography: Marzena Ostromecka
Review: Lee Edwards

After the interview was concluded we made our way back to the main hall. In our absence the pews had filled up and there was a hushed expectation. The stage was filled with an exotic array of instruments including a WW1 pump organ. This is the UK launch of the band's new album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

The kick of with a track from their first album What The Crow Brings, The Ballad of the Broken Bones; “Tell me who was it told you 'bout the broken bones, The broken bones in the sky, 'Cause I've been all over the whole goddamn world, And over the world am I”. The haunting sound of the pump organ introduces the sublime Cage The Songbird. The 500 person audience is enraptured.

I am please that they include one of my personal favourites Ticket Takers. This seems to be about what Miller refers to as the coming darkness, “…I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse, I keep a stock of amo…” The inclusion of To Ohio, a ballad of bereavement, makes me think of the innocence and hope of Simone Felice’s song One More American Song. Classics both of them.

During the songs there is much swapping around instruments. Also during many of the up tempo hollering songs Jocie’s vocals are particularly strong. They finish up with a majestic version of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and new song.

Thus ends an utterly delightful evening of magical songs from some of the nicest musicians I have met in long time. The Low Anthem are utterly unique, long may they run.

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The Duke And The King Live – Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:35:48 +0100

DukeAndKingLiveReview

On The Road With ElectricGhost
The Duke and the King Live
Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London May 26th

The band with Simone and Robert are Nowell Haskins (son of Fuzzy Haskins - Parliament/Funkadelic) on percussion and vocals, Jason Darling (guitar), Brian Goss (guitar/keys) and Leon (bass)

All Photography: Keith Wheeler
Review: Lee Edwards

After the interview Keith and I went of to get some food. On our return we eagerly awaited The Duke And King. We were not sure what to expect. The album has a very mellow relaxed flavour. Simone in his time with The Felice Brothers has a wildman reputation – hanging above the stage, wild-eyed and shirtless, from a monitor in the ceiling of the 100 Club.

When the band appears and Simone straps on a black Stratocaster it seems that mellow and relaxed is the last thing on his mind. They kick off with a Felice Brothers song Don’t Wake The Scarecrow with Simone coming on like a cross between Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop. So here we have Simone mountaineering on the drum kit, which Robert is hitting with some ferocity and the rest of the band weighing with an electric storm and some amazing gospel vocals.

Water Spider from the new album takes the volume down a bit. Then it’s onto the drums for Simone for the soulful Suzanne with Robert on lead vocals. At one point He shouts “take it” at one of the guitarists who unleashes a spine tingling solo.

The Devil Is Real has Simone back on vocals, coming on like a hellfire preacher. Union Street and Lose Myself, album favourites are as achingly beautiful live as they are on record.

Then its back to the Felice Brothers canon for a fiery T For Texas. Back to Nothing Gold Can Stay for The Morning I Got To Hell. After two more Felice Brothers songs it’s one of my personal favourites from NGCS One More American Song. This song already feels like a classic and highlights Simone’s genius as a poet and songwriter.

Rounding the evening off we have a rousing, Felice Brothers favourite, Radio Song and a heartfelt version of the Beatles Don’t Let Me Down.

A great evening in front of an appreciative audience. Can’t wait to see them again

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The Duke And The King – The Road Less Travelled

nobody@vox.com(ElectricGhost Blogsite) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:11:47 +0100

Duke&KingInterview

On The Road With ElectricGhost
The Road Less Travelled
The Duke and The King at Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush
Interview May 26^th

All Photography: Keith Wheeler
Review: Lee Edwards

Simone Felice [The Duke], Robert Burke [The King]

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost

They were just finishing their soundcheck, and then we departed upstairs to an open balcony above Bush Hall to the intoxicating street sounds and tantalising food smells. As I set up we got talking about the poet Robert Frost who inspires the album title Nothing Gold Can Stay and some of the lyrical content in the album.

Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost OK?
Simone: You’re the first cat to pick upon that. That’s amazing man.

Tom [Loose Music] sent me an early cut of the album
Robert: You’ve already heard the album?

Yeah, but lets start where I came across you first [Simone] with the Felice Brothers, and that was through Loose as well. Really loved those albums. This new stuff is really different.
Simone: Really different, we’re pretty different.

Indeed [laughter] so how would you define that difference?
Simone: I didn’t really think much about it but the thing that is the tie between The Felices and The Duke And The King is the religious dedication to poetry. The storytelling. When I first started the band that was the crux of the thing before we could even play an instrument. I just cared about the poetry. So that’s the tie the difference it’s hard for me to say maybe the King [Robert Burke] can help with that.
Robert: What I would say about this project is that it’s a little bit more psychedelic a little more tender. There’s more of an easy danger to it as opposed to an overt danger to it. But there are moments on the Duke and King record when we could go there. It’s more of an internalised sensitive thing.
Simone: We wanted to write a record that was really self exploratory and self-revealing and honest. Really this is how we feel and be honest with ourselves and very therapeutic to say [sings] Woowo I’ve been Bad” like he means that when he sings it. If You Ever Get Famous that was me sittin’ and playing one morning and thinking about the girl I love and I just started to cry on my guitar. And we’re playing all these venues like Bonaroo and getting famous you know. So from playing Sex Pistol’s cover in my grandmother’s garage when I was thirteen and then playing the CBGBs, and skipping school in New York, you know what I mean. All the things we’ve done individually and together to now. It was like maybe six or seven or eight months ago I sat down and wrote If You Ever Get Famous and that was the thing that started the whole poetry of the album. It was like fuck man this world is spinning fast, all our days are so many waves in the wind and we can’t get them back again so let’s do what our heart tells us and not what anybody else tells us. So it’s kinda following the voice in out hearts and that’s what’s brought us to this balcony.

The other thing that really struck me was that I was really touched, on going to your MySpace page and you had put out this beautiful open letter about why you hadn’t been playing with the Felice Brothers and what happened on that winter. It really touched me that someone could be that open and honest. I already like your music but that made you really shoot up even more in my estimation. This guy’s has got real grit and real honesty and I can trust what I’m hearing him say.
Simone: Thanks man.

…And that’s what I hear in The Duke And The King.
Simone: The King was there the day I had to go to the hospital and my partner and I had to deliver our baby and she was dead. Eight months into the pregnancy. We had to hold our first baby, a daughter I really love, and I saw my face in the baby’s face. I saw my own eyes and my features, and it changed my life. I was in the middle of recording the record and a lot of the spirit and energy went into the album. It shook me to the core. This new project is spawned out of our loves for each other all our loves our love for music soul music, poetry and rock n roll; and sort of this rebirth. When I had the voice in my head four years ago saying “come on boys let’s go play in the subway and learn how to be a rock n roll band” and now it’s the same voice pointing me in another direction man. You know this is what you gotta do. I’ve never been one, as the King can attest, not to listen to that inner voice. I’ve never had a proper job. I was a hustler, a drug dealer when I was 25 years old. I did that so I could play music and write poetry. It’s like whatever we had to do to stay out of that man’s world you know and not wear a suit and tie. We could just be free.

When I was listening to the album one of the songs that struck me was the song Suzanne and I could the voice of Marvin Gaye in there. I love Marvin Gaye.
Simone and Robert: So do we he’s one of our guys.

Then when I came across the Robert Frost connection I thought yeah these guys are on the same fuckin’ page you know. Tom had sent us the album was really nervous because he knew we were really into the Felice Brothers and what might we make of this. But it was the honesty in that open letter that came across and when Tom asked me if I liked it I said, “Are you fuckin’ kidding I fuckin love that album.”
Simone: We are honoured and moved by that.
Robert: We spent a lot of time crying together in the cabin [the snow-bound cabin where the album was conceived and recorded] and those tears permeate the album.
Simone: We used and antique tape machine and we know you get that you really know music. You ain’t no hipster blogger from Wiliamsburg Brooklyn and that’s what I love about you man. You get us. [Laughter]. The Pitchfork review, man they don’t get us. [Laughter]

Your’re here with a band tonight.
Simone: We have a six/seven piece band.
Robert: They’re all really close friends of ours from New York.
Simone: All soul brothers no hired guns. Everyone’s here because they believe in the music.

But was the album just you and Robert?
Simone: 95 per cent was us with some guests. We were holed up in the cabin all winter with the big Catskills snows coming. Three feet sometimes. We were happy to be locked away from the world and have the money not to give a fuck what’s going on outside that cabin. [laughter]. ‘Cos if you don’t have the support to just let go completely its really hard to just let go totally.
Robert: We really appreciate we had that kind of support.

But it’s almost something they could have made a movie about. Two guys snowbound in a cabin and what happens.
Simone: Now that would be one hell of a movie. [laughter]

I was just saying this afternoon to someone that music has got me through stuff like nothing else has.
Simone: That’s a really beautiful thing to say.

Dylan’s If You See Her Say Hello
Simone: sings “She might be in Tangiers”

Music to me is as important as oxygen.
Simone: “I know I can find you in somebody’s room, You’ll make it through because you’re a big girl now.” That one fucks me up. I’m in love now, but any time that I‘ve been in love with a girl… Yeah music is a drug and so is poetry. Without them I’d be dead.

I came to your music via The Felice Brothers. You are apparently on extended leave from them. How do you see that panning out.
Simone: I try to live in the moment you know what I mean. We had a beautiful joining together my brothers and I sitting by the creek and playing songs that had people throwing dimes and dollars in the accordion box. That was a beautiful journey and my brothers have a certain vision about what to do with Felice Brothers for the future. See like for a long time I was like the manager of The Felice Brothers right, but before that I was a poet. So it was like a blessing and a curse that I had this aptitude to be a manager. So my poetry took a back seat to all that management stuff. So when things started really happening we got a real manager in Nashville and a booking agent. Then I didn’t have to do that anymore and my heart and mind and soul was open again to be a poet. Then there I am with my dead baby in my hands thinking that I’ve just got to do what I’ve got to do. Following that voice. So whilst my brothers and I absolutely love each other we’ve each got to do what we need to do. But we’ll all get together in the future and rock n roll together. But what I’m doing now is what I’ve got to do.

I always got the feeling that brotherhood was really important to you.
Simone: Yeah well when the King and I put together the new band we agreed it had to be brothers. I was coming from a place where there was three brothers in a family.
Robert: We go back maybe ten to twelve years and from the first day we met we were brothers. Started doing creative things together, just working together. This way this came together was that Nowell [son of Fuzzy Haskins – Parliament/Funkadelic] and I used to work together in Parliament/Funkadelic camp like we’ve had other projects we’ve done and we had formed a real connection in singing and playing together. It’s often hard to find someone you want to make music with but when you do its special. And I met my man here Leon [bass] with another band and he was playing with another band. And I really liked his playing and said I got this other bunch of musicians and I know your gonna dig ‘em. So I told Simone about him. The he came along just an hour before a radio show it’s like wow. The Duke and the King is just as much brothers as the Felice Brothers.

I really like that its hard to pin you down, you defy definition.
Simone: Yeah we hope so. We believe in magic man. Any ideas about what we are we’ll blow it away on stage tonight.

It’s been a real pleasure to spend some time talking with you guys
Simone and Robert: Yeah we really enjoyed meeting you too.

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