Touchstone by Brigid O'Neill.

Thursday morning, and the sound of Touchstone by Brigid O’Neill is filling my kitchen. It is my new CD which arrived yesterday. I am on my third listen now and I must say it is a most enjoyable album indeed. I did not know anything about Brigid or her music until a few nights ago when I saw on Facebook ‘Brigid O’Neill is live now’. I thought I would watch for a few minutes and ended up watching until the end of her set. I thought she was great. Irish, (which is always a good start!), a nice personality, and a beautiful mellifluous voice. I loved her own songs, and it was her version of an Emmylou Harris song which finally did it for me. I decided to order an album because I think musicians should be rewarded for their efforts. They have really suffered during this pandemic. We would not expect a plumber to work for nothing just because we are in lockdown, so why should musicians. In the absence of live gigs, watching live sessions on the internet by the likes of Christy Moore, Richard Thompson, Cara Dillon, Ger Wolfe, Brigid and many others has helped enormously in getting through the last year. That is why we should support them if we can.

This CD is very attractively packaged with all the lyrics and information you might need. There is quite an ensemble of musicians on this album. Gareth Dunlop gets special thanks for his important input into the album. I love the opening song little Birds. When I heard the words birds sitting on a wire it reminded me of a famous song by Leonard Cohen, but this is nothing like Leonard, it is just Brigid’s crystal-clear voice accompanied by uillean pipes. I think the birds might be a metaphor for children. Turn And Face The Sun is an optimistic, cheerful, catchy song.The line 'The Best Is Yet To Come' reminded me of   Someone Like You by Van Morrison. Refugees is a much more serious song, and I think might be inspired by the war in Syria. Iron In Your Fire has a more jazzy bluesy feel to it, written with Gareth Dunlop and Dean Stevens and recorded in Nashville. Brigid was inspired to write Rumours after reading Hello magazine at the hairdressers. Breathe Slow is possibly my favourite track, dreamy and atmospheric. Running Back To You is co-written with Matt McGinn and inspired by the musical TV series Nashville. I love the background harmonies on Misunderstanding. They All Said has very clever lyrics which seem to be inspired by the sky at night, with mention of a lunar eclipse, meteorites, shooting stars, and the Milky Way. The title song Touchstone brings the album to a close in fine style. It was written in Nashville but seems to suggest someone missing home.

I have enjoyed hearing this wonderful album the last two days, although I think I have arrived late on the scene as the album came out in 2017.  I have shared a video Turn And Face The Sun to this blog site for you to enjoy..

Brigid has her own website if you want to find out more.

https://www.brigidoneill.com/

And Facebook page. Brigid O'Neill Music.

Brigid O'Neill Turn and Face the Sun

"Sweet Sixteen” Jackie DeShannon & Van Morrison

R.I.P. Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Jack Kerouac & Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am very sorry to hear that Lawrence Ferlinghetti , poet & publisher has passed away aged 101. I think it is quite touching that he has died on the 200th anniversary of John Keats. As a tribute to him I thought I would repeat this little piece I wrote about him for his 100th birthday in 2019.........

The thing I want to say today is to wish a belated happy 100^th birthday to Lawrence Ferlinghetti who reached that remarkable milestone yesterday. He was born on March 24^th, 1919 in New York. He was a poet first and foremost. You may recall him reciting one of his poems in the film of The Last Waltz. I have always liked his poems because they are very easy to understand, not high-brow stuff at all. With some so-called great poets you need a master’s degree in English literature to even begin to understand what they are talking about. Lawrence believes that poetry should be for the people and accessible. There is also a lot of humour in his work which I like.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Allen Ginsberg.

He also has a reputation as a painter, but I don’t feel qualified to talk about that aspect of his career. One of the main things I like about him is his friendship with the Beat Generation writers, especially Jack Kerouac. Lawrence was instrumental in the creation of Jack Kerouac Alley in San Francisco. Jack referred to him as Lorenzo Monsanto in his book Big Sur.  He created City Lights Bookshop which is one of the worlds most famous bookshops. City Lights also published many authors that nobody else would touch. He was even arrested for publishing Howl by Allen Ginsberg.

Lawrence at Jack Kerouac's grave.

My Van Morrison fan buddies will know there are links between Lawrence and Van. Lawrence is mentioned in a recent song by Van called In Tiburon and City Lights Books also were the American publishers for Van’s book of lyrics called Lit Up Inside.

Van Morrison at City Lights Bookshop.

On Keats.

The sun is shining here this morning, if somewhat windy. I am going to try and get outside and achieve something today. I will let you know what progress I make, if any, tomorrow. I just thought I ought to mention John Keats because it is the 200^th anniversary of his death today. He died in Rome of tuberculosis aged only 25. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am an expert on Keats, far from it, but like many people I do know his most famous works, such as Ode To Autumn, Ode To A Nightingale, Bright Star, Endymion and one or two others.

I have also read a bit about his tragic life and his doomed love affair with Fanny Brawne. This is what Wikipedia says about him. ‘John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats' work was a great experience that he felt all his life. The poetry of Keats is characterised by a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of the Romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through an emphasis on natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. Some of his most acclaimed works are "Ode to a Nightingale", "Sleep and Poetry" and the famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".

Keats died in Rome and was buried in the English cemetery there. He requested that his name should not be on the headstone, but it should say, 'His name is writ in water'. That is because he thought his name would be forgotten and washed away. The opposite is true of course. I like to interpret the meaning as seeing Keats words as throwing a pebble into water and the ripples of his genius have spread out across 200 years and have touched people all over the world.. 

Listening To Cara Dillon On Monday Afternoon.

This afternoon I was listening to After The Morning which is an album by Cara Dillon from 2006. I have not played it for ages and had forgotten how good it is. Cara comes from Dungiven in Northern Ireland, but these days she lives just down the road from here in Frome, Somerset. We went to see Cara at the Cheese & Grain in Frome a few years ago. I got the poster from the door afterwards and Cara signed it for me. I had it framed and it looks great on my wall. There is a quote from Q magazine on it which says, ‘What may well be the worlds most beautiful female voice’. I will not argue with that.

I will not go through every song because it takes too long. Five of the songs are written by Cara and her husband Sam Lakeman and the other seven songs are either traditional or written by others. Cara gathered some wonderful musicians together for this project, such as the great fiddle player Cathal Hayden who I have seen playing with Christy Moore in recent years, Martin O’Connor on accordion, the master guitar player Martin Simpson, the legend who is Paul Brady and others who I am not so familiar with.

My Poster Of Cara.

You might know the opening song Never In A Million Years because it was released as a single and got lots of airplay on Radio 2 at the time. If I had to choose a favourite song it might be The Streets Of Derry which features Paul Brady on vocals. I also love The Snows They Melt The Soonest which is a traditional ballad that I first heard by Anne Briggs. When I say that I like Cara’s version just as much as Anne’s, that is saying something because Anne Briggs is Britain’s greatest ever folk singer in my opinion. Walls is a nice cover version of an American country song which Cara and Sam put their own arrangement to. Cathal Hayden’s fiddle playing is of the highest standard on this song. Garden Valley is a wonderful song written by the great Scottish singer Dougie MacLean. In fact, all the songs on this album are excellent. Well done Cara & Sam.

If you are not familiar with Cara Dillon’s work. I have shared her version of  Memory Lane to this blog site. I thought some of my Van Morrison fan friends might like it.

  

Cara Dillon & Sam Lakeman - Memory Lane (Van Morrison)