I have cheered myself up on this dull rainy afternoon by listening to an album by Willow Springs.
It is called Urban Ghosts and I must say that I have enjoyed listening
to it just as much as their other album Night-Time Radio which I wrote about a couple of
months ago. Basically, Mark Crockard is Willow Springs. He writes all
the songs, sings, and plays a plethora of instruments, acoustic and electric
guitars, upright and electric bass, keyboards, mandolin, and harmonica. He is
ably assisted by other musicians including Mandy Bingham and Lisa
Brady on vocals, Marcus McCauley on acoustic guitar and mandolin, Keith
Ward on piano and keyboards, Rik Gay on drums and percussion and Chris
Haigh on fiddle. The album is produced by Mark and Vic Bronzini Fulton. Mark duets with Mandy on the haunting opening track I’m
All Over You which features excellent acoustic guitar by Marcus. There is a
strong country flavour to A Room For Two. I particularly like the dobro
playing of Colin Henry on this song. The likes of Johnny Cash or
Waylon Jennings would have enjoyed The End Of The Pier Show with its
driving beat, great harmonica playing and acoustic guitar by Rueben Agnew. By
contrast It Still Hurts is a much sadder song with a nice piano
introduction. I love the fiddle playing of Chris Haigh on Gone
Southbound. Tender Lovin’ Feelin’ is a great ballad sung by Mark and shows
the talents of Keith Ward to full effect. Heart And Soul has Rik
Gay’s percussion to the fore and the guitar playing is wonderful.
It will be Valentine’s Day soon, so you could do worse than
buy this album for a loved one because there is a nice ballad called On
Valentine’s Night on this album. A New Blue Horizon is another nice
slow ballad, and Autumn Blues has Lisa helping out on vocals. The fiddle
playing gives the song an eerie ghost like quality. Maybe that’s why the album
is called Urban Ghosts, it’s a great title anyway. You Saved A
Drowning Man is one of my favourite tracks. It gets quite funky in places
and where they sing ‘whoo whoo, whoo whoo’ reminds me slightly of
Sympathy For The Devil by The Stones. The album ends with Together We’ll
Walk In Beauty another great number which makes you click your fingers and
clap your hands.
I have really enjoyed listening to this album today.
Musicians have been hit really hard during this pandemic and lock down, so they
need our support. Let’s hope it isn’t too long until the likes of Mark Crockard
and all the other musicians around the world can start playing live again and
bringing the music to the people.
I finished reading Where The Crawdads Sing last
night. I must say that it is one of the most enjoyable books I have read for
ages. I can see why it is a best seller and I am sure when it is filmed it will
be a huge box office success as well. I am grateful to the Facebook friend who
recommended it. It is an addictive read. You must keep going to see what
happens next, right up to the sad conclusion and when you think the story is
over, there is one final discovery, when the truth is revealed. Having said all
that, I do have one or two reservations about this book. I had never heard of the author Delia Owens before,
so I looked her up on Wikipedia. She is an American zoologist who worked in the
African countries of Botswana and Zambia with her former husband Mark Owens on
conservation projects. Their time there was very controversial, and they were criticised
for their methods of dealing with poachers and their archaic view of Africans,
which she denies. This is her first novel, published at the age of seventy,
although she previously published memoirs of their time in Africa.
The plot of the story is very clever because it is a murder
mystery story as well as a romantic coming of age tale and an observation on
the beauty of nature, so it will appeal to followers of many genres of writing.
It begins in 1969 with the discovery of the body of a local football hero Chase
Andrews. Then it goes back to 1952 when the protagonist Kya aged six
is abandoned by her mother, then her brothers and sisters, and finally by her
drunken abusive father. The story travels forward in time as the feral Kya grows
up alone in a shack in the swamplands on the coast of North Carolina. She is
shunned by the people of nearby Barkley Cove who refer to her as The
marsh girl. The book shows the snobbery and hypocrisy of a small town which
has lots of churches, but no real Christianity. Kya’s only friends are a
black couple Jumpin’ and Mabel. Although you can’t help liking
these characters, I think their portrayal is quite patronising, like racial
stereotypes. especially big fat Mabel with her ample bosom. Black people are always being portrayed like this. It is almost as if the author is trying too hard to show that she is
not racist. ‘Methinks she doth protest too much’, as Shakespeare once said.
Kya has two love affairs, firstly
with Tate Walker who teaches her to read. He goes off to college and
doesn’t return as promised. Secondly, with Chase Andrews who proves to
be a complete scoundrel. Kya gives up on romance and finds inspiration
in the flora and fauna of the coastline. She studies the mating habits of such creatures as the damselfly and the Praying Mantis and how the female treats the male. To reach
conclusions about human behaviour from insects seems a bit far fetched to me. I
think we are a bit more complicated than that. I found this book quite
educational though. As well as learning a bit about nature, for instance I
found out what palmettos are. It is a type of swamp cabbage, also grits,
and I learned about writers such as Galway Kinnell and Aldo Leopold and
singers like Miliza Korjus.
