Martin Simpson - Louisiana 1927

New Moon by Elliott Smith.

The sky was grey and threatening to rain this morning, so I decided I wouldn’t venture out today. I was quite content to stay indoors, listen to music and write something to pass the time. I have been listening to a 2CD album that I bought recently called New Moon by Elliott Smith. I bought the album because to my shame I didn’t know anything about him, but I kept hearing his name mentioned by other people who have spoken very highly of Elliott Smith. It is a posthumous collection of 24 songs recorded between 1995-1997 and released in 2007, four years after his tragic death at the age of only 34. Apart from three tracks all the songs were previously unreleased. Often when an artist dies, and albums are released of their work they can be a mishmash of inferior songs and half-finished demo tapes. That cannot be said about this collection which are all well produced quality songs which would have been worthy additions to any Elliott Smith album. The reason for that I think is because Elliott didn’t record for any album in particular. He recorded his songs constantly when he had completed writing them. Neil Young works in the same way. I expect Neil has a vast collection of songs yet to see the light of day. 

Elliott has a connection with Laura Veirs whom I wrote about a few days ago because from the age of fourteen he lived in Portland Oregon where Laura is also based. Portland seems to have had quite a vibrant music scene because The Decemberists who I have been listening to recently also come from Portland. I might tell you about them in the near future. When I first heard of Elliott Smith, I imagined that his music would be kind of grungy like Kurt Cobain, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find this album is in the main very folkie, acoustic and melodic. The vocals are quiet, almost whispered on some tracks. I was hooked from the very first track Angel In The Snow. The feeling that you get from his voice is of an underlying sadness. 

With the excellent guitar playing and the melancholy atmosphere I immediately thought of Nick Drake. I don’t know if Elliott was influenced by Nick, but the comparisons are obvious and the reasons for both their deaths are officially inconclusive. They both had a troubled mind that is for sure. The guitar picking on many tracks is very Bob Dylanesque. The guitar sound also is sometimes reminiscent of The Beatles from the Rubber Soul/ Revolver period. When I was listening to the second CD the Velvet Underground song Pale Blue Eyes came into my head. Elliott Smith believed in Lo-Fi which meant working quickly and not over embellishing the songs. I like that because it gives the sound a very intimate feel. If I was still young and impressionable I think the lyrics of some songs might have put me in a dark place, but now I just feel sorry for Elliott Smith that he didn’t get the help he needed to sort out his mental health problems because he was undoubtedly a great talent. 

Songs like Looking Over My Shoulder are a plea to be left alone as other people irritated him. Miss Misery (early version) is the first version of a song which was in the soundtrack of the film Good Will Hunting and was nominated for an Oscar in 1997. He would have found the experience of performing at the Oscars quite excruciating I would imagine. (See Oscar performance below) The only song not written by Elliott is an angst-ridden cover of Thirteen by Big Star. It is hard to pick a favourite song, but one I really like is Whatever (Folk Song In C) because of the great guitar picking and the chorus, ‘What are you doing, hanging around with me?’. In conclusion, I am glad I closed this gap in my music knowledge. I think this is an excellent album because of the musicianship and vocal delivery. The subject matter however is like existential dread. I think he might have written most of the songs late at night. There are no lyrics in the accompanying booklet, but I think there are scant references to nature, spirituality, love, optimism or other things that make life worth living, which I think is a shame, but on the other hand it is an honest expression of how he felt. I just think it is a pity that Elliott Smith died so young. We will never know what he might have achieved. 

Elliott Smith, Miss Misery (at the Oscars)

Warp And Weft by Laura Veirs.

Today I thought I would tell you about a CD that I bought last week. It is called Warp and Weft by Laura Veirs. Laura is a singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon USA and this is her ninth album released in 2013. One of the reasons I bought the album is because I saw Laura perform at Glastonbury in June, but I wasn’t paying attention. Her set only lasted forty minutes and I was either talking to people or going to the bar. However, I did like what I did hear and took a couple of photos, so hopefully this review will make up for my inattention. I read that this was her most successful album when it was released and was given very favourable reviews. 

The album title comes from the names of the two components of turning thread into fabric, which might be symbolic of weaving the music into her songs. The album is produced by her then husband Tucker Martine and features the likes of Neko Case, K.D.Lang and members of The Decemberists. Laura was expecting her second child while writing and recording this work, so I think a lot of songs reflected her fears of what sort of a world children would be growing up in. The opening track Sun Song displays her talent as a guitar player and singer. Neko Case sings harmony vocals. I believe this catchy song was released as a single. (I have shared an excellent video below). 

Laura Veirs, Glastonbury.

America is a much darker song, concerned with the obsession with guns. Finster is a great song about the Baptist minister and folk artist Howard Finster who created the sculpture park known as Paradise Garden. He even designed album sleeves for REM and Talking Heads. I’m not sure who inspired Dorothy Of The Island, but it has some quite dark lyrics and a chorus about motherless children. Shape Shifter reminds me of the starlings that I can see right now as I look through the kitchen window. There is a great instrumental passage in this song featuring violins, viola and cello. There are two short and sweet instrumentals on the album Ghosts of Louisville, and Ikaria, which I assume was inspired by a visit to the Aegean Sea. 

Say Darlin’ Say is adapted from a traditional lullaby which was first recorded by The Sweet Brothers in 1928. That Alice is a tribute to Alice Coltrane who as you know was the wife of John Coltrane who later became a swamini and founded her own ashram. The sound isn’t what you would expect though. It is more rock than jazz with swirling electric guitars. The most moving song on the album for me is Sadako Folding Cranes which tells the story of Sadako Sasaki who lived near the Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima. She was two years old when she was blown through a window when the atom bomb exploded. She died of radiation poisoning at the age of twelve. Before she died, she reached her target of folding 1,000 paper cranes from origami.

Sadako Sasaki.

The CD actually contains a colourful sheet of paper which you can fold into a paper crane by following Laura’s tutorial on her website. Sadako is remembered every year on the anniversary of Hiroshima. Watching the news these days with the war in Ukraine is a reminder of the danger the world still faces. Ten Bridges is another song concerned with the worry of the future. I think the ten bridges referred to must be the number of bridges over the Columbia river in Portland. The album ends on an optimistic note with White Cherry which has an almost Avant-Garde jazz sound which I really like. I’m glad I bought this album and got acquainted with the music of Laura Veirs. I don’t know if her long time fans rate it as one of her best albums, but I enjoyed it very much indeed and I’ll certainly listen to more of her music in the future.

Laura Veirs - "Sun Song"

Song of Granite.

I watched a wonderful Irish film yesterday called Song of Granite. It is a film that I have been meaning to see ever since it was released in 2017, but it was only yesterday after a Facebook friend reminded me of it that I looked online and found you could rent it on the BFI website for £3.50, which is a bargain. The film is directed by Pat Collins and tells the story of Joe Heaney who was a singer from Connemara in the West of Ireland who sang in the Sean-Nos tradition. Sean-Nos simply means ‘in the old way’ and is unaccompanied and usually sung in Irish. The film is in monochrome which I think perfectly suits the melancholy atmosphere of the story. Joe Heaney was born in Carna, County Galway in 1919 and began learning songs from the age of five, but he was so shy that he didn’t sing in public until the age of twenty. He is portrayed at different stages of his life by three actors, Colm Seoighe, Mícheál Ó Confhaola, and Macdara Ó Fátharta.

Colm Seoighe who plays Joe as a child is a very promising young actor, and  a talented musician, singer, and songwriter. In the past whenever I wrote a review on this blog page of a Christy Moore album or concert Colm would correct any mistakes I made. He seems to be an expert on Christy’s music. I think we will hear a lot more about him in the future. The opening scenes of the film show the young barefoot Joe looking for birds’ nests in the long grass, sitting around a turf fire listening to folk stories being told, fishing for lobsters, and planting potatoes with his dad. At school after learning the catechism he is made to sing for the class. In one memorable scene a musicologist visits the village and records Joe’s father singing into a primitive recording machine while Joe watches intently, although he is too shy to sing himself. The cinematography of this film is very artistic, particularly of the landscape scenes. The sight of empty wild birds egg shells and a car in the distance tells us that Joe is intending to fly from the nest.

Joe Heaney.

As well as Colm, Mícheál Ó Confhaola is also an excellent singer. Joe moves to Glasgow and then London, working on building sites. He was a restless spirit, always with his eye on the horizon. He gains a reputation singing in pubs and folk clubs. One of the highlights of the film is a pub scene where Lisa O’Neill sings The Galway Shawl. I wonder if she was meant to represent Margaret Barry. For me it was also great to see two people I recognised from performances at Glastonbury, Damian Dempsey singing The Rocky Road To Dublin, and also Radie Peat from Lankum. I also spotted Cathal Hayden who I have seen playing with Christy Moore. Joe sings a long Sean-nos song which I’m pleased the director didn’t edit, but I wish sub-titles had been provided so that I could understand the song. Also, it is never explained why he walked out on his wife and children. You get the feeling that it was something he lived to regret. 

In the mid-1960s Joe is invited to perform at the famous Newport Folk Festival and he decides to move to New York where he works as a hotel doorman for twenty years. He is befriended by the likes of the Clancy Brothers who help him become known on the folk music scene. Although the story is dramatized, it also contains interesting archive newsreel footage and the real Joe Heaney singing. Towards the end of the film there is a scene where Joe touches the stone facing of a building in New York. It is very poignant because you know he is homesick for the dry stone walls of home and wants to return. This is common with Irish people who emigrate. They may leave Ireland physically, but they never leave spiritually. As Van Morrison once said, ‘The world is so cold, don't care nothing 'bout your soul, you share with your own ones’. 

There is one very moving imaginary scene where the old Joe meets the young Joe, and they talk about life and poetry. Joe died in Seattle USA in 1984 aged 62. He had become an artist in residence at Washington University where there is an ethno-musicology archive in his memory. This film struck a chord with me because my family came from the west of Ireland, but I think if you like music, beautiful scenery, and a great story then I highly recommend that you watch Song of Granite. I have shared a trailer below if you want to see it.

Song of Granite Official Trailer 2017