Anne Briggs - The Time Has Come.

Dentures Out by The Proclaimers.

A few days ago, a friend of mine kindly gifted me the new CD by The Proclaimers. I was pleased about that because the previous album Angry Cyclist was excellent, especially the ballad Streets of Edinburgh and they played a terrific set at Glastonbury in 2019. The new album is called Dentures Out which is a title I don’t particularly like, or the cover art which is a photo of someone’s teeth in a glass of water by a bed covered in a Union Jack. The old lady who has lost her teeth is a metaphor for Great Britain, which seems very apt after recent political events. It is quite gruesome, but displays their humour, of which there is plenty on this album, although it is often dark humour. Like many people I used to associate The Proclaimers with just two songs Letter from America, and I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles). Those songs made Craig & Charlie Reid famous, but as I have come to realise there is a lot more to them than that. The other misconception I had was thinking of them as an acoustic folk duo. That might have been partly true early in their career, but I would describe the music on recent albums as that of a rock group, especially on this latest album with James Dean Bradfield of The Manic Street Preachers helping out on guitar. One thing that has remained constant during their long career is the unapologetic insistence on singing in their strong Scots accent. They are very proud of their Scottish roots. 

There are thirteen songs on this latest album, but they are all less than three minutes long. It is a very political album as demonstrated in the opening title track Dentures Out which rails against nostalgia for a past that never existed, and the influence of the media, ’Blame the Jocks and blame the Paddies. Blame the scourge of absent daddies, Proof there is if proof were needed. That the right-wing press succeeded’. This theme is further developed in the second track The World That Was with such dark ironic lines as, ‘There's been no death of satire. There's more, not less, when "thank you NHS" is painted on a spitfire’. Feast Your Eyes by contrast is a ballad with enigmatic lyrics and an epic sound. Praise returns to the guitar sound of the opening tracks with Craig and Charlie saying they don’t want praise from ‘over there’ which might mean England. The Proclaimers are very pro-Scottish independence, and after being dragged into Brexit which they didn’t vote for who can blame them. News To Neitzsche has very witty lyrics which show how well read they are. In the lyrics they question Superman’s sexuality. As you probably know Neitzsche put forward the idea of Übermensch which was translated, probably wrongly into English as Superman. The songs lyrics also contain the expression Chips With Everything which was the title of a play by Arnold Wesker one of the angry young men of English literature in the 1950s. 'The Bossa Nova starts to trend, It's how the world will end' could be a reference to Strictly Come Dancing on the TV which is the modern opium of the people. Things As They Are is scathing of the right-wing press. The newspapers are all losing money, but their billionaire tax dodging owners still print them because people still see the lies of the headlines on the newsstands. Signs of Love is a folky romantic song by way of contrast before Drop Dead Destiny which has an almost punk rock feel to it. The Recent Past is a reflection of the speed of change in the modern world. They mention bands of the 1980s who were once all the rage and are now appearing at Butlins. That hasn’t happened to The Proclaimers thankfully, who have built a loyal and devoted following over the years. I have noticed that on the current tour all the venues are sold out.

Sundays By John Calvin reminisces on childhood memories of Presbyterian Scotland where on Sundays they even tied up the swings in playgrounds because you couldn’t enjoy yourself on the sabbath day, everything was closed. The song ruefully reflects that these days even though the shops are open Sunday has still retained its melancholy atmosphere. I see Draw Another Line as a warning to some politicians that they haven’t got the power that they used to have to force their will on people. Play The Man has a nice country flavoured sound with steel guitar to the fore. Its message seems to be that you should use all means available to achieve your goals. What The Audience Knew brings this excellent album to a fitting finale. It is a song about a Scottish venue where all the greats performed, although sometimes the audience left perplexed because the band didn’t leave second gear as the London show was next. I have enjoyed hearing this album for the past few days. It is difficult to choose a favourite track, but I have shared a video of The World That Was below if you would like to hear it.

The Proclaimers - The World That Was

Seth Lakeman: The Cheese & Grain Frome 22/9/ 2022

I went to my first concert since Glastonbury on Thursday night. It was to see Seth Lakeman at the Cheese & Grain in Frome. It came about because I bought a CD by Seth about three weeks ago, and the very same week I saw that he was playing in Frome, so it seemed fated that I should go. The album I bought is called Kitty Jay and was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize in 2005. All the songs were inspired by the myths and legends of Dartmoor where Seth lives. It is just the kind of folk-rock sound that I like. Seth is one of three brothers Seth, Sam & Sean Lakeman who have all had successful careers in folk music. His brother Sam is married to a great Irish singer called Cara Dillon who I have written about previously and they actually live in Frome. I thought they might take part in Seth’s gig on Thursday, which is another reason I went along, but there was no sign of them. I should add that I have seen Seth play before when he was a member of Robert Plant’s band. Van Morrison fans might be interested to know that Seth played fiddle on Dangerous the opening track on Van’s most recent album.

On Thursday night a taxi called for me at 7.30. When we got to Frome, I discovered that the annual funfair was on, right in front of the venue where there is usually a huge car-park. As I was a bit early, I had a quick look around the fair. I didn’t go on any of the rides though, they made me feel queasy just looking at them, especially one ride called The Energizer. It was quite amusing watching them though. The Cheese & Grain is the venue where Paul McCartney played a surprise pre-Glastonbury gig at the end of June. I have seen lots of great acts here over the years. 

Seth and his band came on stage at 8.30. He is a virtuoso fiddle player, probably the best folk-rock fiddle player I have seen since Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention. He also played a variety of guitars during the evening. There was another excellent guitar player called Benji Kirkpatrick who also played banjo, harmonica, bouzouki, and maybe other instruments. On drums and percussion was Dave Smith.  Ben Nicholls played upright bass, concertina, and banjo. There was an excellent backing singer called Alex Hart who played harmonium and helped out on guitar as well on some songs. She sang a very enjoyable duet with Seth during the first half of the show. The musicianship was first class, I can’t fault it. My problem was that I’m not familiar with the songs, so I couldn’t make out the vocals. I didn’t know what he was singing about. I think some of the songs were inspired by landscapes and seascapes, some were protest songs, and others were storytelling songs about historical events, but I couldn’t understand the lyrics. That isn’t the fault of the band. I noticed some people in the audience were singing along towards the end of the concert which meant they were a lot more familiar with Seth’s repertoire than me.

It was a stand-up gig. I would have preferred a sit-down event because my feet were aching by the end. I am nearly 71 after all. I did have a sit down outside during the interval and had a chat with a couple of people who said they couldn’t make out the words either. I had brought my notebook along to write down a setlist but gave up on that. The only two songs that I’m pretty confident I knew were called Bury Nights and Setting Of The Sun. I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t enjoy the concert. I did, the music was great and got very lively towards the end. I filmed one song and shared it below which might give you an idea of what the atmosphere and music was like. I’m glad I went; it made a nice change to get out and about and hear some live music. I’m going to another gig next week, so I’ll tell you all about that soon. Cheers.

Seth Lakeman in Frome 22/09/2022

Sense of Wonder, by Bart Hendriks.

On this dark and rainy afternoon I have been re-reading a book published in 2020 called Sense of Wonder, Encountering Van Morrison by Bart Hendriks. The book came to be written because of Bart having a chance meeting with Van Morrison in a Belfast coffee shop in 2014. They discussed life, philosophy, and their work, which led to Van inviting Bart to lunch when he was in Rotterdam in 2017. I think Bart must have impressed Van because he didn’t talk as a ‘fan’ speaking to a ‘music star’, but as a person speaking to an equal on subjects of mutual interest. Van gave his permission and encouragement to Bart to publish an essay of his ideas if it wasn’t sold for financial gain. Subsequently, only production, packaging and shipping costs were charged for this very attractive hardback book. The picture on the front cover is from a painting by Lisbeth Sorensen. To my knowledge it is only the second book published about the work of Van Morrison that had his co-operation and approval. The previous book was Into the Music by Ritchie Yorke in 1975.

I think a possible reason Bart and Van got on so well is because of their mutual interest in the healing power of music. Bart is a psychotherapist /contextual therapist and is influenced by the work of Martin Buber (1878-1965) who was an Austrian, Jewish, and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centred on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. To me that means two people having a dialogue not as subject and object, but as two equals. Another person who has influenced Bart in his work is Ivan Boszormewyi-Nagy (1920-2007) a Hungarian American psychiatrist and one of the founders of the field of family therapy. I had to learn some new words and phrases reading Bart’s book, such as phenomenological stance and hermeneutical encounter, but I think I managed to understand it, just about. 

Although I hadn’t heard of some of the people he quotes in the book, I found that lots of the ideas expressed were in line with other people I have read in recent years such as Jiddu Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Bart discusses songs by Van which he has found helpful in the therapy of his clients, such as Sense of Wonder, Enlightenment, Take Me Back, The Healing Game, That’s Entrainment, On Hyndford Street, and many others. One theme that re-occurs in Van’s music is the idea of the eternal now. It’s always being now, as Van has often said. I have learned that by reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I think that Van understands that Now is the only time that exists, and by living in the present moment without the burden of the past or future is a very healing thing. There is a quote in the book by Socrates, ‘Wonder is the beginning of wisdom’ which ties in nicely with A Sense of Wonder as Van knows. He sang, ‘You may call my love Sophia, but I call my love philosophy, Didn't I come to bring you a sense of wonder, Didn't I come to lift your fiery vision, Didn't I come to bring you a sense of wonder in the flame’.  Sophia was the Greek goddess of wisdom, which is where the word philosophy comes from.

Van’s lyrics are littered with childhood memories, that is because children live in the eternal present and have a sense of wonder about all they encounter, as seen in such songs as Song of Being a Child. Adults tend to lose that as they grow up. They can be childish which isn’t good, but can re-capture the joy of being child-like with the proper attitude. By listening to Van’s songs, you learn about him, but you also learn about yourself. His descriptions of child-like visions can also trigger memories and emotions in the mind of the listener. That is why Van is reluctant to discuss the meanings of his songs because he knows that the listeners will interpret them in many different ways, which is fine by him. I have enjoyed reading this book again today. A lot of books about Van Morrison that I have read have been very disappointing, but this book by Bart Hendriks isn’t another biography. It written by somebody who understands the healing power of Van’s music. That is what is important, and is what he wanted to write about.  Well done.

Prodigal Son by Martin Simpson.

I haven’t written anything for a week, sorry about that. I thought today I would tell you about an album which I have been enjoying recently called Prodigal Son by Martin Simpson. In Britain we have had some fabulous acoustic guitar players on the folk music scene, and I rate Martin Simpson up there with the best of them. He is a great banjo player, singer, and songwriter as well. I first heard of him in the early 90s when I heard a song called Handsome Molly on a compilation CD called Folk Heritage 2. Then many years later a song called Never Any Good on an album called That’s Proper Folk. Finally, I got around to actually buying a Martin Simpson album. I chose this one because it received rave reviews on release and won the album of the year award at the BBC Folk Awards in 2008. 

I see on the sleeve that it was engineered by Joe Rusby who is the brother of Kate Rusby and was recorded at their Pure Records studio in South Yorkshire. Kate sings some backing vocals on the album. Other names that you might know here include Jackson Browne, Danny Thompson, Andy Cutting, and Kellie While. Martin’s exquisite guitar playing sets the tone for the album on the opening song Batchelors Hall which was written by Dick Cornette and based on a traditional song called Pretty Saro. Then Martin displays his banjo picking skills on Pretty Crowing Chicken. One of my favourite songs here is Lakes Of Champlain which is an American version of an Irish song called Lakes Of Coolfin. I have heard the song previously on a Nic Jones album where it was called Lakes Of Shillin. 

The next track She Slips Away is a touching instrumental guitar piece composed by Martin in tribute to his mother who passed away shortly before this album was recorded. The Granemoor Hare is another traditional song which Martin discovered via Dick Gaughan. Mother Love is a wonderful instrumental written by Martin and inspired by his wife Kit and daughter Molly. Over the years I have heard many versions of Little Musgrave by the likes of Nic Jones, Christy Moore, Paul Brady and Fairport Convention who called it Matty Groves. Martin’s version is as good as any of them. A Love Letter is exactly what it says. Written by Martin with splendid lyrics and I love the cello playing of Barry Philips on this track and others. Duncan & Brady is an American song that was first recorded by Leadbelly. It displays the skilful bluesy side to Martin’s playing. As I mentioned, Never Any Good is one of the songs that introduced me to Martin Simpson. The song is about his father who was never any good with money and couldn’t hold down a job. He was happiest singing or going fishing. The album is dedicated to both his parents. Kate Rusby adds some nice background vocals.

 Martin lived in America for many years and there are several American songs here, including Good Morning Mr Railroad Man which he first heard sung by Ry Cooder. It is a song about the hobos who travelled on freight trains during the great depression. Louisiana 1927 is a Randy Newman song about the great flood in New Orleans in 1927. It is included on this album because of its relevance to Hurricane Katrina and the poor response to that disaster. (I have shared a video of Martin singing this song below if you want to hear it). La Rivolte is a lively instrumental based on an Irish tune, but you might detect a French flavour to it as well. Andrew Lammie is a long traditional Scottish ballad, sometimes called Mill O Tifty’s Annie and based on a true event, the death of Agnes Smith in 1673. It features the accordion playing of Andy Cutting. 

The final track is Kit’s Tune/ When A Knight Won His Spurs. Martin wrote Kit’s Tune while waiting for the kettle to boil, and When A Knight Won His Spurs is a hymn that he first learned in junior school. It brings this excellent album to a close. I rate this album as among the best English Folk albums I have ever heard, so I am very pleased to have finally acquired an album by the great Martin Simpson. If I ever hear that he is playing a gig in my neck of the woods then I would definitely go and see him.