Saturday, January 28, 2012

WOODY SEZ at the TRON




Legendary inspiration for such greats as Bob Dylan , Bruce Springsteen , John Cougar Mellencamp and Steve Earle was born a century ago.It was fitting Glasgow hosted a illuminating and poignant musical showcasing of the life and times of the premier chronicler of the great cultural music and social heritage during the birth pangs and craven injustices of the worlds first global superpower.A story so censored , we can only really get to know it from great novels of the likes of Steinbeck ( there were more than one occasion when there were formal book-burning of his novel "Grapes of Wrath" in California alone) and the songs of the generation of Guthrie ( blacks , of which Leadbelly was a supreme inspiration to Woody himself , were more or less off the radar) whose fellow musicians , such as Pete Seeger , were more or less blacklisted for recording and performing under the blanket ban on suspected communists or people with even a mild suspicion of communistic leanings.You could rightly say , Guthrie spoke for a buried , suppressed and forgotten generation in the 20s and 30s in the US as Europe was deprived by the physical decapitation of a whole generation in the first World War.The common denominator was Capitalism going through the first steps of globalisation , treating the mass of humanity as either excess waste matter or expendable machine fodder.

The show is a precious and balanced mix of music and narrative , capturing the times and contexts of the have-nots plight in our modern age.Star David Lutken describes the background story to one of Woody Guthries most famous and profound songs , inspired by John Steinbecks character Tom Joad in the Book "Grapes of Wrath".Woody Guthrie had performed in Fundraiser for The John Steinbeck Committee to Aid Farm Workers , the Ballad perfectly captures the book , prompting John Steinbeck to say about the song " Woody has written my novel in 17 verses"




Though aligned with it , Woody was never a formal member of the Communist Party ( even though in the US it was perpetually in hiding , or had so many plants and infiltrators on behalf of the authorities they out-numbered bona fide members ) which allowed him to escape the absurd period during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact when the Party could not overly criticise fascism.

Once the pact spectacularly collapsed with the nazi invasion of the Soviet Union , Woody could finally vent his contempt for all forms of fascism , he took to wearing a label of his guitar "This Machine Kills Fascists" and wrote a whole host of hard hitting songs , including this one titled " All You Fascists Bound To Lose" , what is odd about this and other songs he recorded at this time is the musical brotherhood contained in the recording line-up , Harmonica is played by Sonny Terry , this is at a time when the US had full segregation in the military ( with separate regiments for blacks) and the US Air Force failed to honour in any way the most successful flight squadron in the Second World war because it was composed of Black pilots , they were only given medals in the 1990s after a long campaign of publicity and recognition.





And last of all here is a full rendition of The ballad Of Tom Joad.

3 THE MAGIC NUMBER



I hope shes old enough to know it is the cake and not your fingers you are supposed to cut.




The knife has been removed ,nothing a pink balloon and some pressies cant cure.

Monday, January 23, 2012

RUSSIAN RED at CELTIC CONNECTIONS GLASGOW



Lourdes Hernández is her real name , and she comes from Mad-reed ( as our Spanish cousins say).

She goes by the name of Russian Red, named after her favourite shade of lipstick.The celtic Connections programme hailed her as a "Spanish Indie sensation" , now what self-respecting music lover is not going to buy a ticket for that.

Add to that her second album was produced and recorded right here in Glasgow by the legendary producer Tony Doogan , famed for his work with Belle and Sebastian and Mogwai amongst others.Her band was also to be joined by two members of Belle and Sebastian.

I asked a Good Friend of mine living in Spain if she had ever heard of her and if the hype was correct.My Friend mostly likes to communicate via telepathy , to add spice she sometimes does a Lord Lucan and disappears for long periods of time.I never have the heart to tell her , us men arent as skilled at mind-reading as the fair sex , the best we can do is ever inaccurate second-guesses which yield "interesting" and occasionally "very interesting" results.To her credit she got back to me and was kind enough to use formal channels.She had not seen Red Russian herself , but a Friend of hers did and found her not play for long and to deal only in medleys , all in all they were not impressed.

Well Russian Reds ears must have been burning , because she seemed to take all that on board and gave full renditions , and what renditions , of her best songs and a long set to boot.

My take on this is her Friend may have seen her as part of an outdoor festival type format , rather than a full indoor show ,Or , more importantly , having two members of Belle and Sebastian on stage may have lifted the professional standards and brought tautness to the set.Whatever the reason , we were treated to a superb show and i hope Lourdes will continue to maintain these exceptionally high standards for the rest of her career.

Lourdes best quality was the strength of her voice ( you get the impression listening to her videos that it could pack up at any time, but not a bit of it).She is also a fine guitar player of great merit.

Nature and the heart are never far away from her songs:

Here is a song of hers dedicated the the great Spanish all class-embracing passion:



Here is my favourite song with a wonderful calypso laced with rock feel: ( be sure to skip the add):



Like Steve Earle a while back , Lourdes also stated Glasgow is always on the lips of Spanish musicians when they get together to talk shop and discuss music scenes and audiences, and a full house for her first gig in the city is ample evidence she will be most welcome back.

And last , and not least, a fine song on a favourite theme.



One last piece of advice to Lourdes i can give is,,,,never,never,never , ever cancel a concert in MALAGA again...its not worth it!.

RACHEL SERMANNI at CELTIC CONNECTIONS



Rachel Sermanni is a wonderful voice for the Scottish Folk Music scene , combining all the good points of the past heritage with modern touches which will give it a dynamic universal appeal ushering a great present and an even better future.

Her music is a rich mixture of true celtic mythical love odes to ultra-surreal transcendent experiments in voice and instruments.

Here is a beautiful example called Breath Easy:



Another sweet delightful song in her set was Waltz:



She finished proceedings with a racy paced song from her new EP called Fog:



You can her what will be a rewarding and productive career in her new website.