The Art Of Life.

It is Thursday morning, the back door is open, the birds are singing, and the sun is shining. I am listening to an album called Each Little Thing by Sharon Shannon. I bought it in the Oxfam shop in Bath yesterday afternoon. Sharon is a wizard on the accordion. I heard someone say once that she is to the accordion what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar. I wouldn’t go that far, but she is great. I have seen her play quite a few times at Glastonbury and she is the perfect music for festivals when the sun is shining. Sharon is playing in Frome soon, so I must try and get a ticket. Incidentally, the late great Kirsty McColl sings on one track on this album.

I had a topping time in Bath yesterday, everyone was out and about enjoying the Spring weather. After I left Oxfam, I had a look in Topping & Company which must be the best bookshop in the west of England and it is obviously run by people who love books. They have literary events on all the time, where authors read and discuss their work and sign books. Consequently, they have hundreds of beautiful signed books for sale. It is the kind of place that makes me wish I lived in Bath.  I was in there for at least an hour just browsing and looking at books that I didn’t know even existed. I could easily have bought a dozen books but in the end, I was sensible and just bought a signed book by Paul Durcan called The Art Of Life. I have liked Paul Durcan ever since he worked with Van Morrison on The Days Before Rock & Roll.

He has always spoken very highly of Van and I read once somewhere that he said the two greatest Irish poets were Patrick Kavanagh and Van Morrison. If I ever went to a Paul Durcan reading, I would ask him who Justin was. I bet he is sick of people asking him about that though. Another reason I bought this particular book was that several of the poems mentioned County Mayo which is where my family originated from. Anyway, if you love books and you are ever in Bath check out Topping & Company. It’s just around the corner at the top of Milsom Street.

 After that I had a bit of a sit down near the Abbey and listened to the buskers and then caught the 4.35 back to Westbury.

Mad As The Mist And Snow by Kenny Craddock.

It is Sunday morning and I have been listening to an album called Mad As The Mist And Snow by Kenny Craddock. A friend of mine sent me it a couple of years ago. I think he thought I would find it interesting because of the Van Morrison connection. Kenny played keyboards and piano with Van in the early 80’s and replaced Pee Wee Ellis as Van’s band-leader. Kenny’s Van connection is best known for him writing the music for Before The World Was Made based on a W.B Yeats poem which Van recorded for his Too Long In Exile album of 1983. I was just reading a 1997 interview with Kenny and he spoke very highly of his time working with Van. The title of this album also comes from a Yeats poem. After 30 years in the music business and working with the likes of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Lindisfarne, Paul Brady, Van and many others it was Kenny’s first solo album. Sadly, shortly after recording it he was killed in a car crash in Portugal in 2002 at the age of 52.

Kenny was a multi-instrumentalist. On the album he plays Acoustic & electric guitars, accordion, mandolin, piano, Hammond organ, bouzouki, and ukelele. On the opening track One Way Traffic the accordion is very much to the fore. Man Like Me features the saxophone and the backing vocal refrain of You’re driving me crazy reminds me a little of The Temperance Seven. Van as you know recently also made an album of that title. The third song Watcher On The Hill features very nice vocals by Lliane Carroll. Battle Song is quite an epic song which begins with some great guitar play. The lyrics written by Laurence Bristow-Smith are very profound and atmospheric as well. The title track is next and divided into Parts 1 & 2. The first part is quite a big jazzy arrangement and quite short. Mad As The Mist And Snow, Part 2 is the highlight of the album in my opinion. The percussion playing of Nana Tsiboe gives it an eerie Celtic sound which is enhanced by the saxophone of Tony Rico and Lliane's vocals. Coupled with the words by Yeats interpreted by Kenny this is seven minutes of brilliance. There was a great compilation album released many years ago in the 90’s of Yeats poems set to music called Now And In Time To Be and I think this track would have deserved to have been on it if it had been recorded earlier.

Stealing Time is another great Bluesy track which again features accordion and harmonica playing by Jem Turpin. Folded is a slow Blues ballad of betrayal featuring great guitar playing. Tiger Lilies At Pearl Lake has some esoteric lyrics by Pound/Gardner who wrote the words to most of the songs. I googled Pearl Lake to find out where it is and there is a lake in Herefordshire by that name although there may be others I suppose. The final track is Shore Bride and Kenny’s wife Julia Robinson is credited on vocals. This track really shows Kenny’s prowess on the keyboards and piano. I have enjoyed spending a very pleasant hour listening to this album today, especially Part 2 of the title track.