1978 film about Bradford On Avon.

R.I.P Burt Bacharach - That's What Friends Are For (Glastonbury 2015)

Van Morrison, Enlightenment

Postcards From Ursa Minor by Will Varley.

Last summer when I was going to Glastonbury my brother told me to try and see Will Varley who was playing on the Leftfield Stage. He knows Will because they live in the same small seaside town in Kent. It is impossible to see everything at Glasto, and I missed Will’s set. I regretted not seeing him because I wanted to tell my brother all about it. Anyway, when I was in Frome last week, I saw that Will was playing there in February at a small venue called The Tree House, So I bought myself a ticket for that gig and I’ll tell you all about it afterwards. I thought I ought to acquaint myself with his music so I would have an idea of what to expect on the night. I looked on the internet and didn’t want to pay full price for his latest CD, but I found a previously owned CD on Music Magpie for only about £4.00. It is Will’s third album from 2015 called Postcards From Ursa Minor, and that is what arrived here on Friday. 

I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a little booklet of sleeve notes or lyrics to give me an idea of the inspiration for the songs, but on the cover, it says that the album was produced by Tristan Ivemy who also plays electric guitar. Will wrote all the songs and plays guitar, piano and percussion. There is also accordion and fiddle. Frank Turner and Beans on Toast who you may have heard of help out on vocals on some songs, notably the first track. I am very impressed with what I have been hearing.

The opening track is As For My Soul. It is a fun song which sounds to me like a Cossack drinking song. The tune reminds me a bit of Those Were The Days by Mary Hopkin. The message is that the world is going down the drain, so we might as well carry on drinking. For me one of the most heartfelt and powerful songs on the album is the second track The Man Who Fell To Earth. Don’t be like me and presume that the song is about the David Bowie film of the same name. This song was inspired by the tragic story of Jose Matada who was a refugee from Mozambique who in 2012 stowed away in the wheel-well of a jumbo jet flying from Angola to London. He fell to his death as the aircraft was on the approach to Heathrow Airport. The lyrics are pure poetry of a very high standard. 

Seize The Night (see video below) is the kind of song that Bob Dylan might have written in the 60s if he was English. I can tell that Bob is a big inspiration to Will. I know the Latin quote carpe diem (seize the day) This song tells us to seize the night. The lyrics of this song and others sound quite autobiographical to me. Outside Over There is another song with poetical lyrics and displays a great story-telling ability. It is like a dark medieval fairy tale with a sad ending. It tells the story of Ida whose sister is stolen from her crib, and Ida sets out to find her. The acoustic start of This House reminded me of Johnny Flynn and the theme song of The Detectorists. It is a plaintive song of lost love. Talking Cat Blues is hilarious and a homage to Talkin’ World War 3 Blues by Dylan. A cat video on YouTube makes the cat a celebrity. From Halcyon is a wistful nostalgic paean to a lost friend who used to sing ‘Lowlands Away’. Dark Days Away is a romantic song to a woman who can be anything, and could take these dark days away. I like the backing vocals towards the end of the song by Nicola Vella.

Send My Love To The System is a protest song of somebody who wants out. Will plays some nice piano on this song. The Endlessness and The Space Between is another great song which moves forward relentlessly with dramatic doom laden guitar. Concept Of Freedom casts a very cynical eye on the world today. It says that ‘Freedom is just a PR exercise’ and there is no such thing as a free man now. The lyrics mention John Harris who was a prominent figure in the ‘Freeman Of The Land’ movement in recent years, but I don’t know anything about that. Is Anyone Out There? is one of my favourite songs on the album after two listens. It is a plea to aliens to come and help the human race because we have destroyed the planet. They could at least send us a postcard from Ursa Minor, hence the album title. That song ponders on space and the final track The Question Of Passing Time looks at how time passes so quickly. It is just Will and his guitar. I can imagine that Will must sit on the beach near his house at night and study the stars, space, time, and the meaning of it all. I wonder if he has a telescope.

I am very pleased to have discovered the music of Will Varley. He is brilliant and knocks spots off the likes of Ed Sheeran in my opinion. His music deserves a bigger audience. I like every track on this album. When I see him on February 24^th, I’ll certainly buy his latest CD at the merchandise stall and find out where his journey has taken him since Postcards From Ursa Minor.

 

Will Varley - Seize The Night - (official video)

Vince Gill, David Crosby, Jimmy Web - Surf's Up

The Last Time I Saw Dave Crosby

After hearing the sad news that Dave Crosby has passed away, I thought I would repeat a story that I wrote in 2014 after seeing Crosby, Stills, & Nash in Bristol. Two of the photos are from Glastonbury 2009 which I also saw.

Glastonbury 2009

Me and Smithy took our seats in Row E right near the stage and on walked the three legends. It was great to see them this close up. Crosby looks remarkably well with his mane of long silver hair and Nash is in very good shape as well. I'm not so sure about Stills. I think he is the youngest of the three, but he doesn't seem to walk that well and his speaking voice is quite croaky, but boy can he play the guitar. I think his guitar playing was the highlight of the evening for me. The first song they did was Carry On from the Deja Vu album, and you realise immediately that their singing voices are intact. They can still sing as well as ever. A lot of other singers of their generation are shot away vocally but CSN are perfect. They followed that with Marrakesh Express their big hit single from the debut album. Then a favourite of mine Long Time Gone, this song always reminds me of the opening scenes from the film Woodstock. Crosby excelled himself on this song. 

Then it was Steve Stills turn to show what he could do with Southern Cross his brilliant song from the 1982 album Daylight Again. He wrote it after getting divorced and it is about how music is his consolation.  Then they introduced Crosby's son James Raymond the keyboard player on a song called Lay Me Down. James Raymond wrote this song, and it is the opening track of Crosby & Nash's double album of 2004. Very nice it is too. Then it was back to Crosby for a song called Radio, I think it was called that anyway. I didn't recognise the next one either. It was a bluesy song sung by Steve Stills. I knew the next one though when Graham Nash sat at the keyboards for Cathedral from the 1977 album CSN. The song is about an LSD experience he had in Winchester Cathedral. 

Then it was one of the highlights of the whole evening for me when Steve Stills performed the Buffalo Springfield song Bluebird. The song evolved into an incredible guitar solo that Jimi Hendrix would have been proud of. It proves that Steve Stills was and is one of the great guitarists of all time. He was rewarded with a standing ovation by large sections of the audience. Then it was back to Crosby who said his job was to write the weird shit for the band and performed Deja Vu. This was brilliant and gave all the band a chance to show their skills. After the song Nash introduced the other five members of the band. I can't remember all their names but there was Tom from Lubbock Texas. Stevie D on drums, I think it was Kev McCormack on bass, Shane Fontaine on guitar and James Raymond on keyboards. 

Glasto 2009.

The next song was Love The One you're With which the whole audience sang along with. Then Nash announced that they were taking a twenty-minute break. They had been playing for ninety minutes. If this was a Van Morrison show it would be over now! We went outside for a drink and got chatting to a kid from Liverpool who is a huge CSN fan and had seen them at the Albert Hall a few nights earlier, but he said tonight was better. I think it’s great that they have some young fans. Then it was back inside for the second half which began with the song of alliteration Helplessly Hoping from their debut album. Then Nash said "We're here. we're alive. So, let’s kick ass". He sang a song that I think might be called Golden Days. It was very pleasant anyway. It was back to the genius of Stills then for Treetop Flyer from his 1991 solo album. This was received warmly by his devotees at the front, and he shook hands with some of them. Then Crosby & Nash sang the unaccompanied political song What Are Their Names?. This was followed by one of my favourites Guinnevere and then another great song Just A Song Before I Go. Nash wrote both those songs I believe. This was followed by another powerful political song called Burning For The Buddha which is about monks burning themselves in protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet which gets hardly any exposure in the press. I think the tragedy of CSN is that they are still coming up with great songs, but the audience just want to hear the old material. The next song was Triad which I think Crosby originally wrote for the Byrds. It’s all about the joys of having two girlfriends. Then it was Our House which Nash wrote for Joni Mitchell when they were living in Laurel Canyon. The whole audience sang along with this. I did do a little bit of filming during the evening but during this song a security man told me to put my camera away. Another of Nash's most famous songs followed Teach Your Children which again got warm applause. One of my favourite Crosby songs followed which was Almost Cut My Hair.

Sadly, that proved to be the last song for us because i was getting worried that we would miss the last train. I really wanted to hear Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, because that's my favourite but alas it wasn't to be. Thank you very much Crosby Stills & Nash for a wonderful evening.