It has been a long wait for a new album from Keith Christmas
since Live At The Pump in 2012 so I
was very pleased when Crazy Dancing Days popped
through my letter box yesterday. The twelve songs on the album are all written
by Keith and I think this is the first album of completely new material that he
has produced in decades.
On opening the package which incidentally arrived only three
days after I had ordered it, (I wish everyone I bought stuff from online was
this prompt) I discovered a most attractively designed CD featuring a Mud Dance
drip painting by Frank Marino Baker. There is also a photo by Tony Lock and
Keith had also taken the time to sign my copy.
The opening track Crazy
Dancing Days demonstrates what a virtuoso guitarist Keith is, as does every
track on the album. In the lyrics, he mentions playing at Les Cousins. This was
a folk club in Greek Street in Soho where everybody who was anybody in the folk
music world of the 60’s played. It was famous for its all-night sessions. The
song is a nostalgic look back to those heady days. There is quite a political
message to this album as shown by the second song Cross The Water which is an impassioned plea for us to be more
sympathetic to refugees. Sadly, a message that I fear is falling on deaf ears
these days, especially in Brexit Britain. Flow
Through Me is a great song which as I interpret the lyrics is about Keith
getting the muse again during a trip to France and after years of writers block
suddenly starts channeling songs. I often think that with artistic people that
the inspiration doesn’t come from them, it flows through them and often even
they don’t understand where it comes from. I suppose in the old days the next
song Welcome To The End Of The World (One
More Time) would be called a ‘Protest’ song. I think we could do with a few
more protest songs these days.
I am glad that the
next two songs, Haul It Up and Sail With The Sun sit next to each other
on the album because they seem to complement each other very nicely indeed.
Both are awash with nautical references. I think you can tell that Keith lives
by the coast. Talking To The Dead (Again)
is a wonderful poignant song with Keith reflecting on the life of an old
friend.
The political themes return in the next three songs. When The New Man Comes To Power seems
very topical to me with the unspeakable one about to be installed as USA
President. After watching the news about what is happening in Aleppo at the moment
I think that King Of The Ruined Castle could
easily refer to Assad but that’s just my interpretation. I have seen Keith
perform If The Young Don’t March at
the Village Pump fest and thinking what a great song it is. I’m not sure if I exactly
agree though. It wasn’t the young who voted for Brexit, also I think there are
a lot of marches and demos going on but it doesn’t get the coverage in the biased
media. Jeremy Corbyn certainly got huge crowds of youngsters at his rallies
during his leadership campaign.
Cover It Up features
some frenetic guitar playing and sounds like quite an angry song. By complete
contrast the last song Small Brass Box is
a beautiful mellow ballad inspired by mementos of his parents. I loved this
song on first listen. If a retrospective best of Keith Christmas album is ever
issued in the future then I think this song would certainly deserve to be
included on it.
I have really enjoyed listening to this album the last two
days and Keith should be really proud of his achievement. If you would like to
find out more about Keith Christmas then go to his website here-
