Emilíana Torrini- Crazy love

Listening To Emiliana Torrini

It has been a nice sunny day for a change. I had to go up town this morning to get some provisions, and also bought a couple of plants on my way back home which I put in a bowl of water for a good soak before potting them out this evening. Then I sat in my chair outside the back door and basked in the April sunshine watching the birds flying to and fro at the neighbour’s bird table. The sound of music floated from my CD player in the kitchen. It was an album from 2005 called Fisherman’s Woman by an Icelandic singer called Emiliana Torrini. If you are wondering how someone from Iceland has a surname like Torrini, it is because her father came from Naples. I bought this album a couple of years ago and I think I have only played it once previously. I don’t think I was very impressed on first listen, but today it clicked with me. 

The gentle acoustic guitar and her wistful voice just seemed perfect for the mood I was in, or maybe it was the music that created the mood. All the songs apart from two were written by Emiliana and Dan Carey who also produced the album. He has produced many hit albums over the last twenty years or so for artists such as Kylie Minogue, Wet Leg, Fontaines D.C. Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip and many others. He is also a very talented multi-instrumentalist and achieves a perfect balance between the under-stated playing and the vocals. Emiliana’s voice reminds me of Bjork which isn’t surprising, but I don’t think she is deliberately copying Bjork, maybe all women from Iceland sound like this when they sing in English.

I won’t go through every song because I’m not sure what they are all about. The lyrics seem very subjective and personal to the singer, often like a stream of consciousness. They create a very warm emotion in the listener though. I noticed that Honeymoon Child is written by Bill Callahan whose work I have admired for a few years now. His quirky lyrics are spotted immediately with such lines as ‘Gathering like ravens on a rusty scythe’. A song I particularly enjoyed is Next Time Around because I know this song. It was written by the wonderful Sandy Denny who I have often mentioned before on this blog page. I have Sandy’s version on a double album called I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn. Reading the lyrics today it suddenly dawned on me that the song is about Sandy’s tragic boyfriend from the mid-1960s Jackson C. Frank. That is because of references to the city of Buffalo where he came from and allusions to lyrics from songs of Jackson’s. It shows that Sandy was still remembering Jackson years after they split up. Emiliana’s own songs also seem to be about lost loves and waiting for someone. This is especially true of the title song Fisherman’s Woman where she waits for someone, just like Anna Ingunn’s mom. I haven’t got a clue who Anna Ingunn is though. I think my favourite song of all is Today Has Been OK, so I have shared a video of Emiliana singing that song live below to give you an idea of her.

After Emiliana’s music finished I enjoyed an album by Devendra Banhart which I might tell you about another day. I also heard In Gardens Where We Feel Secure by Virginia Astley, an album I never get tired of hearing. Even the birds in the trees seemed to enjoy that one. Eventually clouds floated across the sky, it got a bit chilly, and I came indoors, but it had been a nice afternoon.

Today Has Been Ok. Emilíana Torrini

Till April Is Dead by Lisa Knapp.

Sorry I haven’t written anything on my blog page for a while. The weather has been a lot better for the last week or so, and I have been busy sorting out my little garden, generally tidying up, staining the fence, putting in a few plants, and that sort of thing. I have enjoyed being outside and getting active. I need to get a bit lively and fitter because Glastonbury is only two months away now. Anyway, the sky is dull, rainy  and overcast today, and it is a bit chillier, so I thought I’d tell you about an album I have been listening to recently. It was released in 2017 and called Till April Is Dead by Lisa Knapp. I first heard of Lisa about two years ago on BBC 6 Music and liked her immediately. Then when I heard her version of The Rowan Tree on the soundtrack of the film Living I decided to buy one of her albums, which I finally got around to this month. 

I wasn’t sure which one to buy, so opted for Till April Is Dead because that’s the month we are in. Also, it contains a song called May Garland which is the first song I ever heard by her. When the CD popped through my letter box and I read the sleeve notes I realised that all the songs are about the merrie month of May. Therefore, I wasn’t going to tell you about this album until April was out, but I won’t be here on May Day, so I might as well tell you about it now, and it passes the time on a rainy day. It is perfect music for listening to on a Spring morning. The opening track The Night Before May Day features the voice of a folklorist called Steve Roud talking about bringing in the May. This is a reference to the May flower which was made into garlands to wear. (American readers note Mayflower!) The sound of lambs bleating adds to the Springtime magic of the song. 

The title song Till April Is Dead / Hal-An-Tow is spoken by Lisa who noticed how in other countries such as Spain, France, Germany and Ireland they have similar colloquial expressions about Springtime as in Britain where we say things like “Never cast a clout until May is out”. Hal-An-Tow is a song performed on Flora Day in Helston, Cornwall. Places in Cornwall such as Padstow seem to have preserved these ancient folk pagan traditions more than other places in Britain. However, the third track Searching for Lambs is from Somerset. Lisa learned it from Shirley Collins. It features the guitar and vocals of Graham Coxon who you will know from the band Blur. The words of Staines Morris were first printed as The Maypole Song in 1656 and put to music in 1859. It features the voice of David Tibet and percussion by Pete Flood. I should mention that this album is produced and mixed by Lisa’s husband Gerry Diver. You may recall I reviewed Gerry’s album Speech Project a few months ago. He does an equally great job here. The production and sound effects are first class. 

This is especially true on May Garland with the winding of music boxes, bees buzzing, and birds singing. Lisa learned Lily White Hand from a musical Romany family called Brazil. It is a simple song with just viola and dulcimer accompaniment but tells of someone coming to an unfortunate end. Lisa’s daughter Bonnie is featured on Lark In The Morning in which wooden spoons are played like castanets. Lisa is joined by Mary Hampton on Bedfordshire May Day Carol and Gerry plays banjo while Dave East joins in on concertina. 

One of my favourite songs is Don’t You Go A Rushing. The great collector of folk songs Cecil Sharp was given this song by Mrs Eliza Ware from Over Stowey, Somerset in 1907. It is simple but effective with just Lisa plucking a viola and singing. (See video below) Where’s Troy? Is a little epigram from 1800 which only lasts 37 seconds. The penultimate song is a bucolic frolic called Pleasant Month Of May which Lisa learned from the famous Copper family of Rottingdean, Sussex. Padstow Obby Oss May Song brings this excellent seasonal charming album to a close. It features live recording of the May Day parade in Padstow, Cornwall in which Lisa took part. I have enjoyed listening to this album again today and will certainly play it during May. Lisa is a great singer. I can see why some people have described her as a British Bjork, she is quite quirky, but I see her as being part of a heritage that is helping to keep traditional music and customs alive in the crazy modern world. I would love to see her play live, preferably at a festival when the weather is nice. We shall see.

Don't You Go A Rushing - Lisa Knapp

Listening To Little Willie John.

‘Take a picture of this. The fields are empty, abandoned '59 Chevy. Laying in the back seat listening to Little Willie John. Yeah, that's when time stood still’. 

I first heard those words on a 1987 song by Robbie Robertson called Somewhere Down That Crazy River. I had never heard of Little Willie John before, probably because he didn’t have hit records or air-play in the UK, and also I was so young at the time. However, that song was so atmospheric, intriguing, and mysterious I had to find out about him, but it was only when I started listening to Youtube about 18 years that I heard a song called Talk To Me, Talk To Me which I really enjoyed. Wikipedia also provided me with all the info I needed about Little Willie John.

He was born in 1937 and lived in Detroit from the age of four and had his first hit record in 1955 at the age of eighteen with All Around the World which was later covered by other singers as Grits Ain’t Groceries. This was followed up the same year with Need Your Love So Bad, a song I got to know when Fleetwood Mac had a UK hit with it in 1968. Fever was another huge hit in the USA, but again I only knew the song from the equally successful version by Peggy Lee. Even The Beatles covered a Little Willie John song when they recorded Leave My Kitten Alone in 1964, although their version wasn’t released until 1995. Little Willie John had fifteen US top 100 hits in total. Sadly, he had a very short career. Known for his short temper and alcohol abuse he was arrested multiple times for charges that include narcotics, swindling, and grand larceny and was dropped by his record label. 

In 1965, he was convicted of manslaughter for the 1964 stabbing of Kendall Roundtree in Seattle and was sent to Washington State Penitentiary. John appealed the conviction and was released on probation while the case was reconsidered. During which time he recorded what was intended to be his comeback album, but due to contractual disputes it was not released until 2008. He died at Washington State Penitentiary on May 26, 1968. The cause of death stated on his death certificate was a heart attack. He was only 30 years of age.

I finally got around to ordering a Little Willie John album about a week ago. This morning I was doing some gardening when it started raining, so I had to abandon that idea. I had just come into the kitchen when there was a knock on the front door. It was the post lady who handed me a package which contained a CD called Little Willie John, All 15 of his Chart Hits, 1953- 1962. After that I didn’t care about the gardening. I sat in the kitchen and enjoyed listening to one of the greatest R&B singers. I enjoyed every track, although Talk To Me, Talk To Me is still my favourite. Like another great singer Sam Cooke, it just seems to be a shame that his great talent didn’t reach its full potential. We will never know what he might have achieved, but we are left with some great music, so I’m grateful that Robbie Robertson mentioned him in that song and led to me discovering the great Little Willie John.

Need Your Love So Bad - Little Willie John