Haunted By Music

New Music and New-to-me music: Chris Wood

2012-02-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

I put Hollow Point up on a pedestal as one of my haunted-by-music songs. Its impact on me was severe, profound, disturbing.
I was not a fan of English folk music - I thought it lacked guts, was boring, exhibited no warmth nor personality. And I don't suppose I thought Mr Wood was "an English folksinger" - in my mind he is a protest singer, and that sounds, and feels, a lot better.

However [how heavy that words weighs!], his songs are resounding and sounding around my head and I find myself stopping the iPod and listening again, and again, and again. To the music and the lyrics, to the intent.
At the moment, One in a million and The Cottager's Reply are filling my head, being perfect examples of story songs; they have a compelling narrative and a perfect marriage of voice and simple instrumentation.
One in a million kidnapped me as I was taking a long wintry walk through the Renfrewshire countryside. It is a romance, highly improbable and parochial and completely wonderful. I walked hypnotised, awaiting the conclusion and outcome of a domestic love affair dodged by misunderstanding and shyness.
The Cottager's Reply is based on a poem by Frank Mansell and is a gem, a polite rebuttal of urban land-grabbers. It is gentle and strong, sweet and stern. It is happy and challenging, a rare mixture.
His version of English life is, for the first time to me, intriguing and interesting; he has a foot in the past and in the future and both need alteration and comment. He is not British the same way I'm not British. Our identity is built up from rich roots in family and a strong sense of place and belonging. We don't deal with amalgamations - Britain, UK, Europe. I live in Neilston [full stop].

So, I will work my way through the albums, immerse myself in his songs and tales. I've missed a chance to see and hear him live at Celtic Connections - maybe next time.

Lipstick Sunset by John Hiatt

2011-12-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Lipstick Sunset is the fourth track on the Bring the Family album, released in 1987. The album was Hiatt's first real commercial success and featured the best "house-band" ever; John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner [later known as Little Village after recording their first, and only, album in 1992 - the band was not a great success]. The cover is wierd - a surreal family shot - and I think it was changed to the one below.

Lipstick Sunset is the perfect combination of Hiatt's voice and Cooder's slide guitar. It is a simple song, a reflection on love, perhaps lost-love, perhaps a song of regret.
There are four verses - three with words and one the guitar solo.
The lyrics are mournful, pointed and succinct; the slide guitar is soaring and, I think, more emotive than the words.
I'm not copying the words here - this song is one, complete package, one ride, one great emotional moment.

Seek it out. Listen to this music.

I've heard this song live; by Little Village, by Hiatt himself. It's good - but not as good as this.

Time for a wee break - when I get more ideas, more inspiration, I will post here again.

Passenger Seat by Death Cab for Cutie

2011-12-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Passenger Seat features on the Death Cab for Cutie album Transatlanticism, their fourth album, released in October 2003. It was written by the band's leader and singer Ben Gibbard.

To me, the song is a meditation. Musically, it is based on a looping and haunting piano figure which cradles the vocal melody but never matches it.

The narrative is stated by either a lover, a loved one, or maybe a child, being driven home in the car and looking at the night stars.

I roll the window down
And then begin to breathe in
The darkest country road
And the strong scent of evergreen
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

Then looking upwards
I strain my eyes
And try to tell the difference
Between shooting stars and satellites
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

"Do they collide?"
I ask and you smile
With my feet on the dash
The world doesn't matter

When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride
When you need directions then I'll be the guide
For all time
For all time

The song is about eternity and an eternal committment - "for all time" - between two people.
Musically it is simple and stunning. I think it sounds unique [although my wife thinks it sounds like "Bridge over troubled waters";maybe not in melody but in mood and atmosphere].

It might be profound - but it doesn't try too hard.

Hollow Point by Chris Wood

2011-11-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hollow Point is a track on the handmade life album by Chris Wood and it accounts the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22nd July 2005 by armed police or special forces on high alert following the London bombings of July 7th 2005 and some failed bombing attempts on July 21st.

The song is essentially in the ballad form, taking this traditional form and using it to tell a comtemporary story. The accompaniment is mainly Wood's finger-style guitar, with percussive and tonal additions and flourishes as the song proceeds, at a slow and careful pace.

This is wonderful storytelling - the progress of de Menezes from his flat, through the streets and into the Tube - in modern language and archaic form. Its start and end acts as a traditional shell or bookends:

Awake arise you drowsy sleeper
Awake arise it’s almost day.
No time to lie, no time to slumber,
No time to dream your life away.

It was a gorgeous summer's morning
It was a gorgeous summer's day.
His cotton jacket was all he carried
As he walked out to face the day.

Tension builds as his journey continues; the mundane is misinterpreted. He is caught in a situation of mistaken identity and he and the police are both on track to an inevitable conclusion:

Now he’s on their cameras, he’s on their radar,
He’s on their crackling radios,
His Oyster Card is in his pocket,
At 10am through the gates he goes.

And down and down dropped the moving staircase,
Deeper down go the others too.
And through the hour glass the sand is falling -
There is nothing they can do ….

Chris Wood's performance is wonderful, understated and honest, his vocal flurries copying his guitar playing, his plain English accent recounting the fateful tale. The killing is not reported, just the conclusion of the official investigation:

If he’d have stopped, if he’d have listened …
Commissioner said that it was no good -
He said they gave him no instructions
That an innocent man could have understood.

Just a Brazilian electrician -
Christ only knows what he came here for.
The hollow point was the ammunition.
Now it’s our turn now for some shock and awe….

Chris Wood takes his time to tell his tale, the songs is over seven and a half minutes long, but no second is wasted. This is the best modern / traditional / protest song I have heard. It gets to the heart of the misunderstanding in the incident, the assumptions made, the rush or pressure to do something.

I think it's going to work out fine by Ry Cooder

2011-11-14T04:20:00.000-08:00

I think it's going to work out fine is the last track on side one of the Bop Till You Drop album, released by Ry Cooder in 1979.

It's an instrumental track, a version of a song written by Rose Marie McCoy and Sylvia McKinney and it has been covered by a variety of artists, including Ike and Tina Turner and James Taylor and Linda Rondstadt. The song is a real "couple" song, an interchange of comments, a conversation.
Here's the first verse of the Turner's version

Darling (yes Tine) it's time to get next to me
(honey that was my plan from the very beginning)
Darling (un huh) I never thought that this could be
(What you mean) Oh yeah
Your lips set my soul on fire
You fulfill my one desire
Oh darling (yes yes) I think it's gonna work out fine
(It's gonna work out fine)

Ry Cooder's version is smooth and haunting - the emotions of the song are carried and conveyed solely by his slide guitar playing. The playing of the session men is entirely sympathetic - he uses his regular players of the time - Jim Keltner on drums, Milt Holland on percussion, Tim Drummond on bass and David Lindley on guitar.

This was the Ry Cooder album which moved away from his acoustic playing and began his weird and eclectic journey through a pandemonium of musical styles and genres. This album is a mixture of R&B cover versions, all soulful and quirky, with great singing and wonderful playing.

And, this album was the first digital "pop" record - a small step away from analogue to "an exact copy of the master tape" as it says on the album cover. And what a cover; after the "Purple Valley" we now have a pink and blue portrait of the guitarist as a young man, more a pop image than a serious musical one - the guitarist as an icon, an image, a cypher.

Looking back at the original recording I am confused. I was sure this track was the perfect closer of a wonder sequence of tracks but instead it closes side one of the record; it isn't the album's final track. Back then, order was important - I hear older albums in a strict order, the flow of the music is deliberate and vital. In my mind this should be the last track - maybe I moved to the turntable and put on another LP rather than turn it over? Maybe.

Also, I don't think the emotions conveyed by this track match the song. I think this is a sad tune, a melody about a bad situation which is going to be resolved, it's all going to be alright, don't worry. The song is simpler, it's about commitment and love realised, it is a hymn of bravado, a braying cock-crow of a lyric.

Why is a wordless song more profound?

Michaelswood by Catriona McKay and Chris Stout

2011-11-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Michaelswood is the closing track on Catriona McKay and Chris Stout's 2010 album white nights. Catriona and Chris's music is Scottish music of the highest calibre; it is traditional but it is new; it is built up from a Scottish tradition but is a full and equal part of a wider, even global, heritage.

These players are proud of their roots - Catriona plays scottish harp, Chris plays shetland fiddle. They write of their homeland - , the Fair Isle, Shetland, Dundee, Glasgow - and race to work with other players from other countries and traditions - scandanavia, south america, eastern europe, africa, [neilston?]. In a live setting they play with and off each other, sitting face-to-face, a dynamic and stormy rush of sound one minute, a sparce, precise air the next; madness and stillness.

Michaelswood is a thing of beauty. A slow air, written by Chris Stout, it is sombre and stately and tugs at the heart strings. It is yearning, sad, touching. The fiddle takes the lead, the tune plainly stated at first, later elaborated and embroidered, always supported by the harp [although the solo harp at about 4 minutes in is delightful]. It is not complicated - the sheet music is easy to follow, the form and the harmonies are traditional, the chords in the key of D major are straightforward. The beauty is in the writing, in the playing.

This is music that resonates on both musical and emotional levels. It is sincere, it is authentic, it is effective. It has been made a musician remembering a loved individual and that shows. We don't necessary know the person but we "hear" the love, the respect, the loss from the players.

Michaelswood is named after a forest of remembrance planted in Shetland by the family of Michael Ferrie, a founder member of Fiddler's Bid. The tune is also a memorial, a remembrance of a musician, a recognition of the support of his family. When Chris and Catriona play the tune in concert this context is explained. However, for me, the tune tells the story without explanation, without limit.

Via Chicago by Wilco

2011-10-31T03:53:00.000-07:00

Via Chicago is a track on the Summerteeth album, released in 1999.

This was the first Wilco album I ever heard and I was really interested in the variety of the material, the different shades, the range of styles, from country to power pop to something a wee bit avant garde. What really hit home were Jeff Tweedy's lyrics and Via Chicago's is the most stunning of all.

The track is essentially an simple acoustic track with quite sombre and muted electronic sounds grafted onto it. It is ordinary until the singing starts: Over strummed guitar chords, bass and snare Tweedy sings:

I dreamed about killing you again last night
And it felt alright to me
Dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies
I sat and watched you bleed
Buried you alive in a fireworks dispaly
Raining down on me
Your cold, hot blood ran away from me
To the sea.

There is tension, mystery, fear. The narrative is both surreal and routine, delivered in a downbeat drawl. As the song progresses it is fleshed out with synthesizer tones and whistles and arhythmic drumming. But the whole performance is restrained, reined in, maybe a bit polite.

The last lines of the verse before the final chorus summarise this feeling:

Rest my head on a pilllowy strat
and a cracked door moon
Says I haven't gone too far.

The version of the song on the Kicking Televison album, recorded live in May 2005 showcases the changes in approach. Via Chicago starts as a country ballad, with pedal steel touches by Nels Cline, before diving into a white-noise-wig-out led by Glenn Kotche's clashing drum solo in the middle of the later verses. It is a music of contrasts; the band turns on a dime, loud / silent, plain / complex, soft / hard, supportibve / destructive. In live shows these contrasts are emphasised by volume and the band's often brutal light shows, as witnessed in the Ashes of American Flags DVD in 2009.

Sunmerteeth seems to me to be the start of the end of the initial stage in the band's development. By Yankee Hotel Foxtrot the band would change totally, becoming Jeff Tweedy's vehicle in essence and actuality. The film, I am trying to break your heart by Sam Jones shows the shift graphically as drummer Ken Coomer is immediately absent and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennet is shown the door. The current band revolves around Jeff Tweedy with John Stirratt on bass the sole survivor of the original band, supported by great players - Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Pat Sansone and Nels Cline.

There is no definite version of Via Chicago - it is changing and adapting through time, in every performance. The initial idea is still at the centre of the song but it is evolving, growing different limbs, experiencing different moods, expanding to fill a space in a concert hall, contracting to spread through my headphones. Whatever it is, when you hear it you will know it.

Family Life by The Blue Nile

2011-10-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

Everything about The Blue Nile tales a bit of time.
In the early 1980s I worked in an office in Glasgow city centre and a work mate gave me a taped copy of the band's first album, A Walk Across the Rooftops. It was strange and wonderful; slabs of electronic sounds, graced with heart-rending vocals, accurately describing my city in both abstract and real emotional terms that I hadn't considered ; a new novel combination of elements that touched me, resonated inside, made me look at the city in a new, refreshing light. The Blue Nile are a Glasgow band and I took them into my heart. They are Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell, and Paul Joseph Moore.

I remember going to see them in their first tour, at the Royal Concert Hall and I don't know who was more nervous, the band or the audience. But when they started to play there was a shared feeliing of joy and relief - they could play, he could sing, it really was that good!

Family Life from the Peace at Last album. It is the band's third album, released in 1996, a mere thirteen years from the first one, seven years after Hats. Peace at Last, to me, turns the Blue Nile soundscape upside down, featuring realistic, natural sounds rather than their signature synths. The step back to tradition makes a leap forward possible. It sounds simpler, more conventional, more powerful.

Family Life is anchored by piano, acting as both chordal backing and melodic lead, with strings and a solo trumpet adding colour and mood. Paul Buchanan's vocal is melancholic, sad, pathetic and strident all at the same time. This is stately music, it describes a human condition. It is delicate, fragile, precise. It is praise, a prayer, a plea for forgiveness. It progresses so slowly; sometimes it seems to freeze, to stop. It can't get slower... then it does.

To me the song is about isolation, loneliness, love, loss.
It is Christmas Eve; snow is falling; a man watches the city skyline. He is alone. His family is elsewhere, his wife is with another husband, his children with a new father.
It starts with a piano chord and then:
Starlight, do you know me?
Please, don't look at me now
I'm falling apart
Silver on the window
Like the bike I once had
At home in the yard
Jesus, love let me down
And I know where You are

Tears form when I hear:
Tomorrow will be Christmas
We'll be singing old songs
And light up the tree
God and all the mercy
And say all your prayers
For little old me

After the musical climax, we arrive at the intimate and ultimate conclusion:
Jesus, I go to sleep and I pray
For my kids, for my wife, family life.

The final notes in the piano promise hope and happiness. Maybe

On God's Rocky Shore by Cahalen West & Eli West

2011-10-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

Cahalen West & Eli West are a couple of young guys from Seattle in the USA and they made a great album called The Holy Coming of the Storm. On God's Rocky Shore is the second track on the album and, as it contains the words of the title in the chorus, I suppose it is the title track. The whole album is exceptional, a quiet and considered collection of quality tunes and songs, but I think On God's Rocky Shore is excellent.

The song is under 3 minutes but is a sublime mix of soulful vocal harmonies and old-timey instrumentation [including banjo clicks]. The resulting combination of a sparce and skilled musical setting and biblical and folky lyrics easily exceeds the components. The song bounces along on waves of "proper" musicianship and playing, each part both balanced and complimented by all the others.

It's old fashioned music, it's rural music, it's important music. It is a recent favourite but one due to last.
It is beauty and truth.

The boys will be here soon - they play at the Crofthead Concerts on 19th November - catch them if you can.

Here's their website: http://cahalenandeli.com/

Here's our website at Crofthead Concerts: http://www.croftheadconcerts.co.uk/

HbM

How it starts.

2011-10-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

How it starts

I was talking to a friend about a favourite group [which happens to be Cahalen Morrison and Eli West] and he said that he had recommended the band's music to a colleague. After a while the colleague contacted him and when asked how he liked the band he replied - their music is haunting me.

I knew the feeling.
I play music and there are some tunes which I hear I have to learn how to play, to hear it my way, to alter it, live it, feel it.
I hear music and I have to track it down and acquire it - I need to be able to play it as required.

This isn't a new thing and the music covers a massive range of artists, genres and styles; the range of emotions the music triggers is as wide but always immediate and deep.

This blog, this thing, is an attempt to explain what I mean. I know it's supposed to be difficult to describe music in words but words are all I have.

HbM

Music that haunts me.
On God's Rocky Shore by Cahalen Morrison and Eli West
Family Life by Blue Nile
Hollow Point by Chris Wood
Michaelswood by Catriona McKay & Chris Stout
I think everything's going to turn out fine by Ry Cooder