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Chris Flegg is a singer, guitarist and song writer based in St Albans. Originally from Eastleigh in Hampshire, he moved to London to graduate in physics from Imperial College, becoming involved first with Imperial College Folk Club and later the Troubadour Folk Club, where he became co resident with Redd Sullivan and Martin Winsor.
This started his song writing and solo work and at the same time he took an interest in jazz, notably through a chance meeting with guitarist Diz Disley, and went on to be involved in bands covering a wide range of styles including gypsy jazz, mainstream and Dixieland jazz, as well as playing pop covers in a number of dance bands and groups. Moving to St Albans in 2000 he discovered the local folk scene through meeting singer/guitarist John Breeze and became resident at John's Windward Folk Club alongside songwriter George Papavgeris and this rekindled his urge for song writing.
Currently he plays local gigs with his jazz trio or as a solo act, occasionally including folk clubs, and raises money by busking for British Heart Foundation in memory of his wife Shirley who died from heart disease in 2002.
The Album
This is Chris Flegg’s eighth album in all, and the fourth album of original songs written with the folk scene in mind. As with previous folk albums, the sound is entirely acoustic, no electric guitar or electronic keyboards, but having a more adventurous range in instrumentation and backing musicians. For good measure, one track, T-Rex Would Still Be Here, is given a jazz band treatment and the closing track, Mean Old Daddy, is a stomping blues.
Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer who are rising stars of the UK folk scene make a major contribution to the overall sound, Vicki providing double bass on most tracks and using the bow to great effect on the slower numbers, while Jonny adds accordion backing. Steve Lockwood adds his virtuoso harmonica playing on Across The Wasteland and Mean Old Daddy. Rod Brown on percussion and Terry Ede, clarinet and saxes, have recorded with Chris on previous albums and are here joined by fellow jazz musicians John Bridge on trombone and Harvey Weston on double bass.
If you are into Martin acoustic guitars, you will appreciate the rich sound of Chris’s Martin D41 used behind the vocals and smooth sound of his Martin OMC-41 Richie Sambora signature guitar used for lead guitar work. The album also features for the first time Chris’s Anglo concertina playing on one of the tracks, There’s No Escape The Daily Grind.
FLEGGCD 006 My Green Guitar 2010
FLEGGCD 007 Her Favourite Flower 2009
FLEGGCD 005 The Sound Of Life 2008
FLEGGCD 004 Through The Window 2006
FLEGGCD 003 My Sweet Lady 2005
FLEGGCD 002 Solo 2004
MTCFFCD 001 Moving On 2000
Distributor: Chris Flegg www.chrisflegg.com
It was twenty years ago that Andy Leek and George Martin recorded the album ‘Say Something’ at Air Studios in London, accompanied by some of the finest musicians in the world.
At that time the incoming fashion was for Britpop. As a result the album ‘Say Something’ - from which the single ‘What’s the Problem’ is taken - was largely ignored and consigned to lay dormant in a publishers loft for over two decades.
Now finally re-released on Andy’s own Undiscovered Classics label the song ‘What’s the Problem’ recorded live with George Martin conducting a sixteen string section is to be released as a single. The result is a magical performance full of humanity of a heart rending modern love song about middle class values, impotence, and true love’s war on greed.
The single also carries a bonus version of ‘What’s the Problem’ introduced by Sir George Martin against a backdrop of his own string arrangement reminiscent of Eleanor Rigby; this stand out track rightly deserves its place in pop history as an undiscovered classic.
“Having left Dexy’s Midnight Runners I spent years in London knocking on various record company doors. I finally secured deals with Hit & Run Music and Atlantic Records in New York . My manager asked me who I would like to produce my first album. Being an avid Beatles fan I said George Martin! - So we sent George a tape of my songs.
To my amazement and utter delight George called back saying he was ‘knocked out by the material and would love to produce the album’. I was on cloud ten! A few months later after various meetings - and twenty one years ago at the time of writing this press release – we started recording “Say Something” with the great man behind the recording desk at Air Studios in London.
It is I believe the only debut album of original material that George Martin produced since the Beatles.
2008: One day Carol Impney of Hit & Run Music phoned me asking if I would like to own the master tapes to my original album ‘Say Something’ which had sat in their loft for twenty years or so. I was surprised and delighted to receive the master tapes and the many photos of my time in the studio with George Martin. The tapes had deteriorated somewhat so they had to be cleaned by hand and baked for several days in order to transfer them to CD. I then added one new song ‘All Around The World’ to complete what is now ‘Say Something Revisited’ which will be released shortly after the single What’s the Problem?
Label Undiscovered Classics - Catalogue Number WP1612AL
Musicians Include
Gerry O’Beirne ● Trevor Hutchinson ● Marie Breatnach ● Rosie Shipley ● Liam Bradley
Tracks: ♪The Chickens They Are Crowing ♪ West Virginia Boys ♪ Shady Grove/Cluck Old Hen ♪ Ode To Billy Joe ♪ Uncloudy Day ♪ Wondrous Love ♪ Only An Emotion ♪ In The Pines ♪ East Virginia ♪ The Wagoner’s Lad ♪ Last Song
“I Wont Go Home Til Morning is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Jane Addams Allen Guthrie (1935-2004) My mother never performed professionally, but she had a lovely natural style of singing and playing guitar. She grew up in Chicago, and as a teenager she spent her summers volunteering at Quaker work camps run by the American Friends Service Committee in Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia. I believe that’s where she first became acquainted with the music of Jean Ritchie,
Peggy Seeger and other folk singers and song collectors.
My mother died in January of 2004, and it’s only since then that I’ve developed the urge to revisit the songs she and I used to sing together when I was a child. When I discovered traditional Irish music at the age of eighteen, it had such a powerful impact on me that for many years I had no interest in singing or playing anything else.
My first album, When Two Lovers Meet, consisted entirely of traditional Irish material, bar one song that I wrote myself.
I still love Irish music, but in recent years I’ve been turning more and more to the Southern Appalachian songs and tunes that I grew up with. I can’t help feeling that this is part of a cathartic process that has to do with my mother’s death, the births of my son the year before she died and my daughter the year after, and the fact that I’m now living, with my husband and children, in what was once my mother’s house.
All the songs on this recording have powerful emotional resonances for me, and all are connected one way or another to my mother, so it’s appropriate that I dedicate this album to her. I miss her more than I could ever express in words, and it will always be a source of great sorrow and regret to me that she and her grandchildren never had the opportunity to get to know one another”. Sarah McQuaid
Catherine Howe & Vo Fletcher started working together in 2007, just after the reissue of Howe’s legendary album ‘What A Beautiful Place’ produced by the late Bobby Scott. Catherine knew Vo as a musician and songwriter and admired his work and from the very outset there was a musical rapport and understanding between them.
It naturally followed that as a duo they should perform some local concerts together and start recording. Catherine says, “We decided to record as ‘live’ an album as possible so the basic performances of guitar and voice were recorded together and without separation.
We chose to record this way, “knee-to-knee” as it were, because we wanted to retain all spontaneity for these songs. The recordings have been enhanced wonderfully by Ric Sander’s fiddle playing, and we later laid down some harmonies too.
We’re called the album English Tale because, in essence that’s exactly what it is, a collection of songs inspired by people either Vo or I have known and loved, others we wish we’d known, and others we’ve welcomed to England. There are no co-written songs here, each comes from the pen of either Vo or me. The guitar pieces, which punctuate the set nicely I think, are, of course, Vo’s compositions. Nevertheless, you can hear how much of a collaborative piece of work English Tale is in the performance and choice of song.”
About Catherine Howe: Catherine Howe has been a virtual recluse for the last twenty five years having walked away from a successful acting and music career. She reappeared two years ago with her critically acclaimed album Princelet Street which in turn generated huge interest in her back catalogue and in particular her first album What A Beautiful Place (1971) produced by the late Bobby Scott. (Available now on Numero Records)
A Halifax lass Catherine was sent to London at the age of twelve to be a pupil and later graduate of the original Corona Stage School. In the late sixties she appeared in many classic TV shows such as Dr Who, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green before deciding in 1970 to follow a career in music. She recorded four now classic albums winning an Ivor Novello award along the way for her song ‘Harry.’
About Vo Fletcher:
In a long and varied career Vo has played, recorded and toured with: Nigel Kennedy, Fairport Convention, the Ric Sanders Group, Rik Mayall, Touch & Go, The Albion Morris Band and Brent Ford & The Nylons to name but a few.
In The Blue is about a public school boy I once knew who was archetypically positive in temperament and yet hopelessly disconnected from his emotions. I am trying to paint a picture of him here and the blue suits his airiness.
Thoughts On Thomas Hardy speaks for itself. Thomas Hardy is my favourite poet and, like other literary and artistic male figures, he was willingly drawn to clever and good-looking women. His were, in all likeliness, physically innocent, romantic attachments during years when his marriage was a sad affair. Again, this reflects what is still perceived as a distinctly English male characteristic of that era.
Lucy Snowe. Lucy Snowe first appeared on the ‘Silent Mother Nature’ album in 1976. I think it is one of the best songs I’ve written and it’s a song I’ve never stopped singing, which is why it appears again here and this is the best version of any. Lucy Snowe is a character taken from Charlotte Bronte’s novel Villette, and is a thinly-veiled autobiographical creation inspired by Charlotte’s experience of first and unrequited love. She transforms her real-life love into a fictional story of mutual love while finally managing to leave the reader in a suspense of ambiguity when the hero doesn’t return from a trip abroad to claim his bride to be. We are left wondering whether he is simply delayed or, in fact, drowned. Charlotte was balancing her own emotions in this unresolved ending. It’s a long time since I read Villette yet the song still stands as my youthful impression of the character Charlotte Bronte created in 1853.
Slip Away is a Vo Fletcher song of lonliness and despair and is almost the polar opposite of another song Vo contributed to English Tale entitled 'Going Home.'
Nothing Love Does Surprises Me. Well, this is simply a generic English folk song describing, in story form, how agape love pervades everything if you can see it that way. I like to think Thomas Hardy might have seen it this way.
All The Love You Need - Vo says, “The song started life as a fond nod towards the simple beauty of Irish Airs before it took a left turn harmonically. This tune also features Catherine's haunting wordless vocal.
Where The White Rose Meets The Red. I was born in Yorkshire and have often travelled the old road across the Pennines from Halifax to Rochdale, Yorkshire to Lancashire, the white rose and the red. It can be wild and deserted up there, and there are even the remains of the road the Romans laid still, clear to see, going straight up the hillside. In my imagination I went back a hundred or so years and thought about a young woman, maybe living in Halifax or in one of the outlying villages, and how she might meet a traveller, fall for him and think of him as a once-in-a-life time chance of escape from a fruitless life. He promises to take her away and she arranges to meet him, secretly, on the highest point of the road crossing the Pennines, but will he come to her?
An English Tale is about a woman, a friend of my Aunt Margaret Howe whom I knew when I was quite a young girl and who was always something of an enigma to me because I wasn’t sure of her history. All I knew was that she had been born in Vienna, had a Viennese accent and air, was astute and was interested in my progress. She had no family but, my Aunt told me, once had had a husband. I never knew the details of her earlier life but imagined she had left Austria because of the War. This song came to me in my sleep.
Keeping The Faith Near. My Aunt Margaret was the daughter of a religious man, and was religious herself. She worked all her life in the service of children, first as a teacher then as a social worker. She had a wonderful way with children although she never had one of her own. She was strong, bright and optimistic and, at about seventy-five years old, was diagnosed with vascular dementia. It took three or four more years before the condition turned her into a confused and delusional old lady, but it never took away her spirituality.
In Return For What I Bring This is the only song on the album which doesn’t fit into the story mould and, unlike the majority of the songs on ‘English Tale’, was written many years ago. It’s a song I have always intend to record and this was the time to do it. It does relate to a time in my life when I was very sad because of someone I loved, so it has a tale behind it in that sense.
The Sands Of Time by Vo was recorded as he improvised it on double-tracked guitar. The only addition after the event was Catherine's haunting wordless vocals at the end of the tune.
Trees is the story of my love of trees in the English landscape and the living things that they provide for – birds, insects, children, clean air; and the things they give – shade, beautiful shapes to see and sounds to hear, green, and continuity beyond the human span. Trees is another very early song, in fact it is a 60s song, written so long ago that I only remembered the first eight bars of melody and lyric and had to write the rest anew. It was first written long before there was any concern about global warming and it takes on that extra meaning now.
The Ways Of Miss Jayne Vo says,”The massed choir of Catherine Howes has turned 'The Ways Of Miss Jayne' into a tune which is biding it's time before it becomes a movie theme
Harry is here simply because Vo and I perform it together these days, and we thought it would be nice to include a new version of it – for old times’ sake.
Krista Detor’s latest CD ‘Chocolate Paper Suites’ is a beautiful album presented via a series of music suites. Each suite is connected by theme and imagery inspired by the works of Federico Garcia Lorca, Dylan Thomas & Charles Darwin among other thinkers, artists and experiences.
The Suites: 1. Oranges Fall Like Rain, 2. Night Light, 3. Madness of Love, 4. By Any Other Name 5. Darwin Songhouse Suite
Guest artists contributing to ‘Chocolate Paper Suites’ include Colin Linden, Moira Smiley,
Mark Erelli, Malcolm Dalglish, Jason Wilbur, David Weber, Dena Al-Safaar, Karine Polwart,
Chris Wood, and a host of other talented players.
With her highly acclaimed album, Mudshow described as “A Small Miracle” by Rolling Stone Krista Detor has established herself as a gifted singer songwriter. Musical styles and influences abound in her writing and she displays a versatility that is hard to categorise. A poetic and sought-after lyricist, Krista’s songs are vignettes, telling stories of time and experience.
In a blossoming career Krista Detor has seen her music reach the Cannes Film Festival, National Public Radio & Public Broadcasting Service (TV) in the USA and also the BBC in the UK, as well as countless U.S. and European national, regional & local radio shows.
Her follow up to Mudshow was the 2007 critically acclaimed ‘Cover Their Eyes’ produced with her partner the much lauded engineer and record producer David Weber (Airtime Studios).
‘Cover Their Eyes’ spans an era and style, incorporating the musical influence of some of the places in which Krista has lived and travelled – South America, the Midwest and Europe.
In 2007, she completed the collaborative CD and stage show ‘Wilderness Plots’ with Grammy-winning songwriter Carrie Newcomer, as well as Tim Grimm and a small group of talented Indiana based songwriters. Wilderness Plots has received rave reviews and continues to tour throughout the U.S. as a stage show. The work itself is based upon the book by noted author Scott Russell Sanders.
In March 2009 Krista was chosen to be a part of the Darwin Songhouse a group of writers challenged with creating new songs that had a ‘resonance and relevance to Darwin’.
For seven days in a farmhouse in Darwin’s hometown of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, Krista, with songwriters Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Jez Lowe, Mark Erelli, Emily Smith, Rachael McShane and Stu Hanna worked intensely to create songs to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin
Discography Solo
Chocolate Paper Suites Tightrope 255102 March 15, 2010
Cover Their Eyes Corazong 255102 October 12, 2007
The Silver Wood Tightrope TR1107 November 1, 2007
Mudshow Corazong 255087 May 5, 2006
A Dream In A Cornfield Tightrope KD0130 March 14, 2003
Discography Compilations
The Darwin Project - Shrewsbury Folk Festival SFFCD 001 August 31 2008
Wilderness Plots Rosehill RH111 March 2, 2007
In the early 70's, two musicians arrived in London from different parts of Ireland. Singer Joe Giltrap from Co. Kildare and fiddler Malcolm Rogers from Co. Down met by chance and Irish Mist was born.
These were troubled times in Ireland but the fact that one was a Catholic from the South and the other a Protestant from the North was never an issue. Irish Mist went on to delight the London Irish folk scene playing for audiences made up of Irish, English, French and Germans as well as Australians, South Africans and other nationals all living in London at the time. Continuing to record and tour Britain and Europe extensively, they were seen by and influenced many of the Irish bands to follow, such as Shane MacGowan and the Pogues.
In the early 80’s Irish Mist performed the classic emigration song, Percy French’s ‘The Mountains of Mourne' on the platinum chart-topping Green Velvet album produced by Michael McDonagh. A video of this song produced by Windmill Lane was later released on the highly successful 'Song for Ireland' TV special and video.
Irish Mist shared the concert stages with The Fureys, The Dubliners, Christy Moore, De Danann and all the top names from the Irish Folk world. They recorded five albums plus various singles and a video before the band eventually split. Joe and Malcolm remained firm friends and joined forces over the years for selective recordings and live shows.
Joe went on to run a seminal music venue in London (The Weavers) and to develop his song -writing and solo performing career. His composition 'Met You In Mullingar' featured on the massive ‘Celtic Chillout’ album. He received a lifetime achievement award from The Irish World newspaper in London, in recognition of his services to Irish folk music, and he is one of the few people to have recorded with American folk legend Tom Paxton. Malcolm went on to become an award winning travel journalist crossing the world and writing for London's Irish Post, amongst other publications. By coincidence Joe now also writes a weekly column for The Irish Post.
A poem written by Cork poet Mary Buckley-Clarke as a celebration of racing at the Curragh in Co. Kildare, entitled 'Curragh Mist', was the catalyst for an Irish Mist reunion. With the support of the management of the world famous racecourse who liked the original poem and suggested that it be set to music, the song was recorded in the spring of 2008. Joe Giltrap composed the music and Michael McDonagh and Andy Reynolds produced the record, which was released as a single to coincide with the highlight event at the famous racecourse. On June 29th 2008. Irish Mist performed the song at the Race Course on Derby Day and also on the same evening in the town of Kildare at the Kildare Derby Festival. At each race day the song is now played over the P.A. as the crowds embrace a new horse racing anthem.
With a single, a post Celtic tiger interpretation of Elvis Presley’s ‘In the Ghetto’ released together with a moving promo video to accompany this special selection, from tracks recorded over a period of 30 years, Irish Mist are off on their travels once again performing at concerts, Festivals, Irish Cultural Centres and at special events.
The Group Irish Mist
Irish Mist have a wealth of experience performing at all sizes of venues from small intimate folk clubs to big festival stages. Working either as a duo or as a full band they always delight their audiences with an entertaining show, featuring a range of instruments and repertoire drawn from the acoustic Celtic canon. Their concerts feature a great mixture of old favourites and new original songs in their unique style. Recent shows have included the Derby Day Celebrations at the Curragh Race course in Ireland, Centre stage in Trafalgar Square London for the St Patrick’s Day Parade Event and a special concert to debut the new album at the Irish Cultural Centre in London.
Irish Mist are: Joe Giltrap Lead Vocals, guitar, 5 string banjo, bodhran, harmonica Malcolm Rogers Harmony Vocals, fiddle, Uilleann pipes
Additional musicians: Barry Wickens Fiddle, mandolin, vocals and guitar Brian Aldwinckle Acoustic bass guitar, whistles and flute and vocals
Michael Rafferty, the Minnows’ lead singer is from Tyrone. Kevin Carson the bass player is from Derry. Paul Maynes plays lead guitar and hails from Wicklow. Stephen O’Sullivan the Minnows’ drummer, is from Tyrone.
Michael Rafferty
In 2007 the band changed their name from Tiberius’ Minnows to ‘The Minnows’ to reflect, as lead singer Michael Rafferty explained, ‘a new maturity and diversity of influence in our music.’ Our live following were already calling us ‘The Minnows’ so it all made sense to make the change and move forward.
With their live work well established the band recorded and released their debut album "Holyland." It featured many of their well known songs honed on the live circuit including the very popular "Time Flies".
Paul Maynes
‘Leonard Cohen's Happy Compared To Me’ the band's new album was originally released in N. Ireland in the autumn of 2008. It has not been readily available outside of N.Ireland until now. As we exit 2009 and enter a new year the Minnows have made a conscious decision to take their music from their homeland out to the wider world
Minnows front man Michael Rafferty believes that the time spent recording and mixing the new album has been time well spent. “The great thing about being in The Minnows at the moment is that we’re doing what we want, the way we want it, without a care for what’s fashionable or what’s likely to please the masses.
Kevin Carson
“This album is the culmination of a lot of hard work but it’s been well worth it,” said Rafferty. “We actually completed the album at Homestead Studios in Randalstown but we thought there was still room for improvement so we set about remixing almost all the tracks; in some cases starting again from scratch in our own home studio.
That decision was the best we’ve ever made, and once we'd made it, we worked really hard to get it sounding exactly as we wanted. If anything we became obsessed with getting it right, down to the tiniest detail, but it was definitely worth it in the end.”
Stephen O'Sullivan
“This is a really original and brilliant album,” says Simon Heyworth who was responsible for mastering the album. Praise indeed from the man who co-produced Tubular Bells and mastered albums by artists including George Harrison, Scott Walker, Depeche Mode, Nick Drake, Simple Minds, Brian Eno, Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Simon added, “I know the band initially had some misgivings due to the fact that a lot of the recording and mixing was carried out in their own home studio, but they have managed to produce one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard in years,”
It may be a rock cliché but Leonard Cohen’s Happy Compared To Me is without doubt the best thing ‘The Minnows’ have ever done and they are very excited at the prospect of taking their music from Ireland to a global audience.
Kevin Healy + Steve McManus + Shan Chana + Sean Kingsley
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Geordie Skuffle + Bass Skuffle + Skuffle Box Skuffle + Scouse Skuffle
Legendary Rock Songs Played Totally Unplugged aka Skuffle
There are NO electric instruments involved, NO synthesizers, NO Drum Kit.
Tracks: Paranoid + Since You Been Gone + Back In Black + You Really Got Me + Eye Of The Tiger + Black Night + Crazy Little Thing Called Love + Black Dog + Jumpin Jack Flash + Feel Like Makin’ Love + Come Together + Sunshine of Your Life + Pinball Wizard + Manic Depression + All Right Now + Sweet Child of Mine
A long time ago Geordie Skuffle aka Kevin Healy was playing his guitar in the pit of the enormously successful West End show "Cats" when soaring above the chorus he heard the astonishing voice of young Sean Kingsley. They knew they were destined to make records together but both continued to make a living whilst time rolled mercilessly by.
Pic. Sean Kingsley
Around the same time Geordie Skuffle visited the orchestra of the iconic seventies show "Fame" where he encountered the future Skuffle Box Skuffle. Their early relationship almost floundered when Shan, as he was then known, attacked Kevin, as he was then known, with a rubber chicken during his moment of guitar hero glory. (Fortunately hilarity prevailed).
A few years later Kevin on holiday with his family in Barcelona was walking through the old town when he heard groovy drumming emanating from a shop doorway. Inside he discovered his Skuffle Box being played by the local drum-shop assistant.
Now the Skuffle Box is an old cheap Peruvian instrument of rustic manufacture which found it's way to Spain and the Flamenco fraternity during the nineteen nineties. They call it Flamenco Cajon (not to be confused with Cojon, most often seen in plural form Cojones). Cajon translated means box therefore Flamenco Box but Cajones can also be used to mean Chest of Drawers. (You can make up your own jokes). Kevin brought one home via Easy Jet who kindly allowed it a seat, causing a near riot with an American woman who seemed desperate to sit next to him. You can hear the freshly named Skuffle Box on most tracks of the CD.
More time passed and Kevin again sitting in a West End pit now accompanying the late Patrick Swayze in "Guys & Dolls" amused himself in the interval playing rock tunes on his acoustic guitar. When the incumbent Double Bass player joined in (for a laugh) something finally clicked in Kevin's brain.
Pic. Steve McManus
That weekend at a barbecue hosted by Lise Taylor-Vebel, Web designer, Artist, Photographer, and Graphic Designer for all things Skuffle related, (just a few of her many talents), Kevin broached his idea for Skuffle with Bass player Steve McManus who was instantly hooked on the sheer genius of the concept. Legendary rock songs played totally unplugged. Within minutes Bass McSkuffle was born and a course of action set into motion that could change the way Rock music was perceived and performed.
Here are sixteen of rocks greatest iconic guitar based songs performed by Skuffle in their own unique style. We hope you are inspired to revisit the originals, buy or build your own Skuffle box and get rockin’ with your mates. Now is the time to Skuffle, Geordie Skuffle.
Pic. Kevin Healy Sean Kingsley Shan Chana & Skuffle Box Steve McManus
Skuffle are:
Sean Kingsley (Scouse Skuffle) Lead Vocals and Backing Vocals.
Shan Chana (Skuffle Box Skuffle) Skuffle Box, Congas, Dhol, Udu, and Percussion.
Steve McManus (Bass McSkuffle) Double Bass.
Kevin Healy (Geordie Skuffle) Acoustic Guitar, Spanish Guitar, 12 String Guitar, Mandolin, Mandola, and Kettle.
Musicians: Judd Lander (Hell Raising Harmonica) + Jeff Adams (Blazing Blues Harp) + Andy Findon (Formidable Flute & Alto Flute) Kuljit Bhamra (Tremendous Tabla) + Dave Bishop (Towering Tenor & Baritone Sax) Julia Graham - Celestial Cello
+ Vocals - Anne Skates, Hazel Fernandes, Alison Jiear and Helen York.
Joey’s Jukebox - The Label
We are an independent record company dedicated to producing top quality recordings.
Our first release "Skuffle" is out now - Great Rock Music Unplugged. There are NO electric instruments involved, NO synthesizers, No Drum Kit. The results are staggering and you will have to hear it to believe it. The CD 'Skuffle' was arranged & produced by Kevin Healy at GraceNotes Studio, Pinner England
The Album
Why make an album called “My Green Guitar”? It started out with a trip to ‘Hanks Guitar Shop’ in Denmark St, London to buy strings and there it was, in the back room with all the posh guitars - you can’t just try without asking, a second hand dark green Gibson L4A guitar. Half an hour later it was bought and on its way back to the office making it quite an expensive lunch hour. It made its debut busking in French Row, St Albans, played through a battery amp and soon became a favourite instrument because of its easy action and the sweet sound you get from a Gibson that sets it apart from typical dreadnaught style flat top guitars. I understand that this model has been discontinued by Gibson, which makes it all the more special for me.
The album was conceived after noting comments received while busking about how nice it was hearing just instrumentals played simply on solo guitar, things like Cavatina and The Entertainer as well as my own tunes like Chasing Cuckoos. Not all of the tracks on this album are played on the green guitar, a couple of the jazzier numbers such as Round Midnight are played on my Gibson L5 Custom, the classic style of jazz guitar of the type favoured by Wes Montgomery, and which is a very nice guitar but sadly not green. So here it is, a set of tunes recorded with invaluable help, patience and coffee from sound engineer Wes Maebe and Cream Recording Studios in Wembley on the morning of 10th November 2008.
See Chris and John Breeze busking at Padstow This video shows two buskers enjoying the holiday mood on the harbour wall as a never ending stream of holidaymakers pass by with children, dogs, & cars - getting between the singer and the song. Here Chris Flegg sings one of his own songs, 'There's A Sound' from the album 'The Sound Of Life' with John Breeze adding guitar backing.
Cavatina (Theme From The Deer Hunter) by Stanley Myers is a gentle and relaxing tune that I often begin with when playing solo guitar. My version is simplified compared to the original but has a few jazz chords thrown in for variation.
Classical Gas by Mason Williams is a tune I learned from Bill Thacker, a fellow guitarist from my student days and with whom I formed a duo for a while. I have never really paid attention to the original. I like to play this fairly fast as it sounds exciting.
Teddy Bears’ Picnic by John W. Bratton is one of those tunes that always seems to make people smile, perhaps because it instantly recalls childhood days. When busking, this is a favourite with children, and it must be one of the most musically interesting pieces that children learn.
Staircase is one of my compositions with a progression of jazz chords that has descending and ascending patterns, hence the name, and a contrasting bluesy middle section.
Chasing Cuckoos is another of my compositions that has a first part with a ragtime feel and features harmonics that sound like the call of the cuckoo. There is also a middle section that has some tricky runs. This tune reminds me of Porthtowan (Truro, Cornwall) where I stayed in a chalet where cuckoos could often be seen and heard.
Moonlight Serenade makes an unusual solo guitar piece, far removed from Glen Miller’s original conception for his big band, and in my arrangement the chords in the middle section make a good finger stretching exercise.
Round Midnight is another tune that rarely gets played as a guitar solo, but always sounds moody and evocative, possibly because of the slow descending bass line and minor chords; it conjures a vision of a smoky jazz club after hours, though come to think of it, clubs are smoke free these days – and a good thing too!
Her Favourite Flower is another of my compositions from the 1970s which gets an occasional airing in my folk club set and was previously issued on my “Solo” CD.
Danny boy is probably the most unlikely choice for an album of guitar solos, but why not I ask myself, it’s a tune you can whistle all day.
Old Soldiers is my own composition, previously recorded on my “Solo” album and also as a song titled “Poor Old Soldier” on my “Through the Window” album. It suits the green guitar very well.
The Entertainer is Scott Joplin’s famous rag, a tune far better suited to the piano, but which still sounds good on guitar. This track was recorded in one take at the start of the session (I like to get the tricky stuff out of the way first) and, I hope you will agree, brings the album to an end in style.
One Way Ticket is the third album to be released from Welsh songstress Lowri Evans and it follows on seamlessly from ‘Kick the Sand’ and her first release ‘Clyw Sibrydion.’
Her first album ‘Clyw Sibrydion’ (Hear Whispers) was recorded in the Welsh language whilst for ‘Kick the Sand’ Lowri decided to record mainly in English. However two of the most popular tracks on ‘Clyw Sibrydion’ turned out to be the bilingual version of U2’s “With Or Without You” and one of her own compositions ‘Merch Y Myny’ sung in the Welsh language.
It was during 2006 when Lowri was performing some Welsh language television shows that she first realised that she was missing out on performing to a significant section of her own people and culture. It was then that Lowri decided to translate her own compositions into Welsh and start singing in both the English and Welsh language.
What makes Lowri Evans unique is her beautiful Welsh voice, distinctive and powerful delivering a highly original blend of blues, contemporary folk and pop. She has this wonderful ability to blend the two languages in both her live and recorded performances
Lowri Evans (Loow-ree) was born in the Welsh market town of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. These days she lives in Newport also situated in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
Although she is well known in her homeland through her concerts, television and radio appearances Lowri and her musical partner Lee Evans have now started to play venues outside of Wales with regular excursions across the border. The most recent being an invitation to appear at the legendary Troubadour club in London.
One of the recent highlights of Lowri’s career was to appear as support to Richie Havens at the Queens Hall in Narberth where she received a standing ovation. And the man himself was very gracious and humble and gave an amazing performance.
Back Catalogue (RSVP)
OSMOCD 048 One Way Ticket (Osmosys Records)
FFLACH CD297H Kick the Sand (Fflach Records)
FFLACH (RASP) CD038N Clyw Sibrydion (Fflach Records)
Lowri's website www.lowrievansmusic.co.uk
Osmosys Records www.terranovamusic.com
‘Many of the songs on my new CD, ‘House of Cards’ would not be there but for the fact that Joella Foulds of the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton brought together an amazing group of writers Karine Polwart, Dave Gunning, Rose Cousins, Lori Watson, and David Francey put us in a house, fed us and told us to write.’ James Keelaghan.
Safe Home (David Francey & James Keelaghan) Next To You (Rose Cousins & James Keelaghan) Since You Asked (James Keelaghan) House of Cards (James Keelaghan, Lori Watson, Dave Gunning, Rose Cousins, David Francey & Karine Polwart) McConnville’s (James Keelaghan) What’s For You (David Francey, James Keelaghan, Karine Polwart) Medusa (Karine Polwart & James Keelaghan) Twister (James Keelaghan) Leave Town (James Keelaghan) Circle of Stone (James Keelaghan)
It was Dave Marsh, the award-winning American music critic and historian who not so long ago stated that James Keelaghan is “Canada’s finest songwriter.” Those few but powerful words of praise say it all about an artist who continues to set the bar at a lofty height.
James Keelaghan is an artist who has proven to be a man for all seasons. As the calendar pages have turned, for almost a quarter of a century now, this poet of the folk and roots music world has gone about his work with a combination of passion, curiosity intent and intensity.
His masterful story telling has, over the course of nine recordings, been part of the bedrock of his success, earning Keelaghan nominations and awards - including a Juno (Canada's Grammy) - and acclaim from Australia to Scandinavia.
Possessed of an insatiable appetite for finding the next unique story line, Keelaghan forges his pieces with brilliant craftsmanship and monogrammed artistic vision, making him one of the most distinctive and readily identifiable voices on both the Canadian and international singer-songwriter scenes.
His journey has attracted fans of literate and layered songwriting to join him on his artistic expeditions, some of which weave their way through marvellously etched historical stories with underlying universal themes, others of which mine the depths of the soul and the emotional trails of human relations.
His songbook has enlightened, enthralled, and been embraced, by audiences around the world. "I’ve always had the urge to write," says the Calgary native who has been calling Winnipeg home for the past few years. "Some things weren’t being said in the way I wanted to say them, some thing were not being written about at all. That's why I started to write the historical material. That led me to writing my own personal narratives as well.” .
Keelaghan is a disciplined visionary with several aces up his sleeve. He loves language and history, a subject in which he earned a degree; he is a skilled thespian, which explains his ability to make an immediate connection with a live audience; and he has an ear for memorable melodies and harmonies that make those melodies glisten.
Says Keelaghan, “I’m good for 80 or so books a year, mostly history and non-fiction, but inspiration can come in many forms. I’m always on the lookout for a good story or idea. My sister told me the story that became Kiri’s Piano, a song that visits a dark chapter in Canadian history: Japanese interment camps in the Second World War. The image of someone sacrificing their prized possession in order to maintain their dignity was too powerful to ignore."
Not only does Keelaghan lay claim to a deep catalogue of timeless originals like Kiri's Piano, Fires of Calais, Cold Missouri Waters, Jenny Bryce, and Hillcrest Mine, he is also a possessive interpreter of outside material, a fine example being his gripping take on Gordon Lightfoot’s epic Canadian Railroad Trilogy from the Lighfoot tribute disc Beautiful. There are also a number of illustrations of his interpretive skills on his 2006 recording A Few Simple Verses, an homage to his roots in traditional music. The closing tune on that spellbinding set, My Blood, written with Jez Lowe, is one of many examples from Keelaghan’s career of his inviting collaboration into his creative process.
“I was at the Celtic Colours Festival in 2008," says Keelaghan, "and the producers locked six of us in a house for a week, and the company included Dave Gunning, David Francey, and Rose Cousins, it was an amazing experience. At the end of it, we had enough material for a complete show.“
Keelaghan has never shied away from collaboration in his live and recorded performances, touring and tracking with master musicians like Oliver Schroer, Oscar Lopez and Hugh McMillan. "If you work with people who are better than you, you become better," he observes.
The sparks of collaboration and the batting of melodies back and forth have produced some wonderful results, says Keelaghan, who is always finding a balance between examining the lighter and heavier sides of life. He ties it all together with a powerful vocal delivery and a commanding stage presence.
Admiration and respect for his work amongst his peers is reflected in the words of David Francey who recently stated that “James Keelaghan is a voice in contemporary Canadian songwriting that has helped us define who we are as a people. He writes with great humanity and honesty, with an eye to the past and a vision of the future. He has chronicled his times with powerful and abiding songs, with heart and eyes wide open.”
Terry Wickham, the producer of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, is one of many long time admirers of Keelaghan’s music, and he sums up the artists appeal by saying, “James has become the complete artist. A brilliant tunesmith who has become one of the most engaging performers of our time. You always know the journey with James is going to be great, you just never know what all the destinations are. That is why the curve on his career continues to rise.”
Label Borealis Records www.borealisrecords.com
Distributor Proper Music www.properdistribution.com
Nik Kershaw + The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams + John Benns with Fairport Convention feat. Wurzel + Mikey Hughes + The Mrs. Ackroyd Band + Roger Lloyd Pack + Keith Donnelly + Bob Harris + The Austin Lounge Lizards + James Naughtie + Nonny James + Norma Dixit + Simon Mayor and Hilary James + Garry O’Donoghue + Sniff Patrol + Barry Farrimond + Jez Lowe + Shirley Henderson + Edward de Souza + Richard Briers + Jill Grant & Alan Berry + Bernard Wrigley + Ken Galipeau + Jeremy Taylor + George Hamilton IV + Chumbawamba + Alan Titchmarsh + Reg Webb + Les Barker + Dave Cash + Bernard Cribbins + The King’s Singers + The Haley Sisters featuring Ric Sanders + Shep Woolley + Isla St Clair + Charles Collingwood + Norma Waterson + Susan Jameson + Louis de Berniere with Tom Bliss + Sian Phillips + Wheeler Street Featuring Roy Bailey + Dan and Gene.
Les Barker www.mrsackroyd.com
A Short Biography From The Age Of Three Until Nearly Teatime:
Les Barker writes strange poems and comes originally from Manchester, but he's now Welsh. He was an accountant before he became a professional idiot.
A well known style icon Les always cuts a dash in the world of fashion where he is much respected as the leading exponent of the cardigan in all its splendour.
On the poetry front and in spite of the poetry police his most famous works include The Shipping Forecast, Jason and the Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower, Captain Indecisive, Spot of the Antarctic, An Infinite Number of Occasional Tables, ' Cardi and Bloke, Up the Creek Without a Poodle, Have You Any News of the Iceberg, The Lemmings Reunion, The Missing Persian’s File and The Lost Elephants of Denbigh.
Les began his career as assistant to Mrs Ackroyd, a small hairy mongrel who lay around in folk clubs, bit people and became famous. Mrs Ackroyd was the only dog ever to own her own record label. Since her sad demise, Les is mainly a solo performer, though he has taken to working with humans from time to time.
What Is The British Computer Association Of The Blind?
BCAB is an UK organisation of visually impaired people who use information and communications technology. Their membership ranges from experienced computer professionals, to people who are beginning to explore the use of information and communications technology for leisure, study or employment. BCAB aims to promote the use of computers and technology amongst blind and partially sighted people. We actively encourage people to explore the use of computers at work, in education and at home. BCAB stays up to date with recent developments in computing and technology, identifying relevant information and resources for blind and partially sighted people.
You are invited to visit the BCAB web site www.bcab.org.uk for further information.
How You Can Help.
The BCAB will benefit from any media exposure you can offer via press, radio play or word of mouth. Benefits will come to the BCAB and its members in two ways. The first benefit will be financial as all proceeds other than the manufacturing and the very minimum administration costs will see the bulk of all earnings going to the BCAB. The association will also be able to sell the CD direct to the public through their many fund raising activities.
The British Computer Association of the Blind wishes to thank all the artists and everybody involved for your total support of this project in your own time and at no cost. We would like to thank all those performers who contributed to the previous albums which have now raised in excess of £45,000.
Catalogue: Distributed by Osmosy’s Records, BCAB & Proper Music
Vol. 1 OSMOCD 020/021 - Guide Cats For The Blind
Vol. 2 OSMOCD 032 - The Missing Persians Files
Vol. 3 OSMOCD 041 - Top Cat White Tie And Tails
Vol. 4 OSMOCD 050/051 - Cat Nav (Release Date - September 14, 2009)
Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine of Dala (the duo’s name was formed from combining the last two letters of each artists’ name) have come a long way in a short time.
Best friends, the duo met in their high school music class and wrote their first song together in 2002; they have since performed at Toronto’s legendary Massey Hall a total of six times. Darlings of the Canadian music scene, Dala are now poised to bring their fresh brand of acoustic pop music to the world.
Drawing upon influences like The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, Dala write songs that are both catchy and insightful. Amanda’s ethereal soprano voice blends seamlessly with Sheila’s velvety alto, creating the lush harmonies that have become their trademark.
“Dala can sing! What beautiful flights of melody and harmony, reminiscent of the Everly Brothers, the Louvin Brothers, Emmylou Harris and associates; though Dala can trade a melody line and leave one wondering who is taking the lead and simply leave one behind when the harmonies kick in.” - Peterborough Examiner (Ontario)
The sheer joy with which they perform is infectious, turning first-time listeners into instant fans. Dala have toured across Canada six times, opening for artists such as Jann Arden, Tom Cochrane, Matthew Good and most recently Stuart McLean of the CBC’s Vinyl Café. No strangers to the festival scene, they have also performed at The Edmonton Folk Festival, Mariposa and The Ottawa Folk Festival, among others.
Dala's last two albums, 2006's Angels and Thieves and 2007's Who Do You Think You Are earned them a total of four Canadian Folk Music Award nominations. Their videos have been in rotation on Bravo, CMT, Much More Music and MTV, and their songs have been featured in shows like CTV’s “Flashpoint” and The Movie Network’s “Regenesis”.
Dala’s new album Everyone Is Someone is slated for release on June 9th. The album is a wonderful journey for the listener, bringing together all the elements that set this talented duo apart. The first single, “Levi Blues” is a delightful throwback to the songs of the 50's and early 60's. From the very first line, "I've been waiting for a guy like you; you've been waiting to be my guy too", fans will be hooked.
After signing to US agency The Roots Agency in February of 2009, Dala were honored by being the only Canadian act invited to play at the 50th anniversary of the famed Newport Folk Festival. Amanda and Sheila are now looking forward to taking their music to new audiences across North America and Europe.
Weblinks: www.dalagirls.com or www.myspace.com/dalagirls
Levi Blue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byVpihpSR5o
Catalogue
Everyone Is Someone (2009)
Who Do You Think You Are (2007)
Angels & Thieves (2006)
This Moment Is A Flash (2005)
Chloe Halls new album “Outside“, reveals the fulfilment and development into the serious recording artist she has always been threatening to become.
Accompanied by long standing producer Greg Arnold (Things of Stone and Wood, Carus, Skipping Girl Vinegar), she journeyed to Nashville where they met up to mix with alt-country star producer Brad Jones (Josh Rouse, Bob Evans).
Taking the 60s-70s singer-songwriter aesthetic of Chloe’s third recording, the acclaimed album ‘White Street’, and marrying it to a new-millennium acoustica, she has delivered a stunning melodic and harmonic wonderland.
Chloe is now launching her new album via a series of tours taking in Canada, Europe and Australia.
“It is Chloe’s maturity and experience that ultimately sets her folk/pop apart”
Georgie Bryant, mediasearch.com.au
Signed to Shock Publishing, Chloe sharpened her songwriting skills writing to brief for various film and television projects, including contributions to 5 albums (3 gold) from the ABC’s hit show The Saddle Club, a spin-off album from Nine Network Australia’s Holly’s Heroes and several Foxtel documentaries.
From her third album, White Street, “I’ll Be Gone” was featured on Australia’s Big Brother 2008, “Fallen Angel Boy” was placed on the album from the telemovie Little Oberon, and “All or Nothing” featured in the acclaimed Australian film The Caterpillar Wish starring Susie Porter and Wendy Hughes.
Chloe recently appeared on Sunday Arts on ABC1 (July 08). In Canada, she has played live and been interviewed on CTV’s ‘BT’ (national breakfast show) and on CFJC TV’s Midday Show (BC).
Her last album, White Street, received airplay on Radio National, local ABC stations and community radio (in Australia) and Canada’s CBC (national broadcaster) and community stations.
She has played live on Late Night Live with Phillip Adams and many regional ABC and community stations.
“Chloe has talent by the bucketload… you’d do well to catch this star on the rise, while you can.” Ian Dearden, Trad & Now
This summer, the Chloe Hall Trio are mortgaging our bicycles, leaving the Australian winter and hitting the road across Canada and Europe.
Covering thousands of miles in an old van, with our voices, instruments and our own brand of alternative folk, we’re on a mission – to get 10,000 people to listen to the brand new album – Outside – before the tour is done.
It’s been a long road so far, with disillusioned record executives and promoters reluctant to get behind us because we’re not mainstream, we’re too mainstream, we’re too folk, we’re not folk enough, we don’t have an ‘angle’, or we don’t fit neatly into a box. They seem to think that great music and storytelling have nothing to do with it.
But you know what? The music has everything to do with it.
“I could celebrate… I could jump up and down… but the best I could do is to say, go and hear her, buy her CD’s and fall under the magic of Chloe Hall”
John Warner, Trad & Now Magazine, Australia
“Nothing prepared me for [Chloe’s] stellar live performance. Hall has a free range voice, full of expression and her unique song stylings are truly little gems. She’s also a gifted songwriter. I listened to every word of her original lyrics which are playfully witty, wonderfully wise or painfully true.”
Teresa Mallam, Prince George Free Press, Canada
There are a lot of singer-songwriters.
There are a lot of singers who can write a song or two.
There are a lot of songwriters who can hold a tune.
Chloe Hall is a rare thing indeed:
an exceptional singer and an exceptional songwriter.
“Chloe Hall is a fine new talent on a well-deserved fast track to success… Her songs are beautifully crafted, her vocals strong and assured and delivered with sophistication and sensitivity” Anne Infante, The Folk Rag
Chloe Hall is an engaging, intriguing and charismatic performer, but it’s the simple, undeniable quality of her songs that leave the listener with such an overwhelming emotion. Tragedy is met with grace, loneliness is met with a wry humour – the sun never entirely leaves Chloe’s moody autumnal sky.
From her early days as a teenage-troubadour on Australia’s folk-circuit, through years of touring both in Australia and, more recently, North America, Chloe has blossomed into an exciting international artist.
“Chloe Hall has great potential for commercial success… a refreshing change of pace from ordinary folk music” Julian Bynoe, Outreach Connection (Canada)
NEW – Outside (album)
2006 – White Street (album)
2001 – Chloe Hall (EP)
2000 – White Sky (debut mini-album)
Eamon Friel’s new CD ‘Smarter’ is yet another landmark in this songwriter’s career.
Those who have observed the work of Eamon Friel have seen this likeable Derryman blossom as a performer and songwriter through a canon of six albums, Logrhythms (1985), Stepping Stones (1993), Word of Spring (2000), the critically acclaimed Waltz Of The Years (2003) ‘Here Is The River’(2006). And now in 2009, ‘Smarter.’
“Listening now to Eamon Friel’s “Smarter” He's a gentle effective songwriter. Sensitive arrangements. Just lovely." (Fiona Ritchie Thistle & Shamrock - American Public Radio) http://www.thistleradio.com
Musicians performing with Eamon Friel on the album ‘Smarter’ are as follows,
Mary Dillon is guest singer on ‘In For A Day’ + Eddie O’Donnell (Guitar, Banjo & Piano)
Eilidh Patterson (Backing vocals) + Ciaran O’Donnell (Bass) + Marie Clarke (Accordion)
Liam Bradley (Drums & Percussion) + Patsy Durin (Clarinet) + George Hasson (Trumpet)
Donal McGuinness (Trombone) + Rolf Krogstad (Viola) + Tracey McRory (Fiddle)
Feargal Murray (Hammond & Flugelhorn) + Seamus O’Kane (Bodhran)
Aaron Hagan (Uillean Pipes) + Rory Donaghy (Bass, Whistles & Percussion)
Eamon Friel is the son of a Mayo mother and Derry father. He writes about his life, experiences and his observations of the ever changing world that he sees around him.
Friel’s writing is mystical painting pictures with his word play which could be compared with that of the landscape artist; each word carefully chosen and lovingly placed upon the page.
Mountains and hills become people in a place where animals talk and the soul and being are more important than time itself. The landscape of Ireland its churches, rivers and towns entwined with the effect it has had on a troubled people; it’s all there in the songs.
Born in London’s Stockwell with childhood summers spent in Ireland, the family left Stockwell and returned to his father’s troubled hometown of Derry, Londonderry, Stroke City call it what you will.
It was the youthful experience of cultural change and upheaval that left a lasting impression on the mind of a young man that would later emerge in songs penned in W.B Yeats like mystical imagery from a place in time and a time in place.
If proof of his ability as a songwriter were ever needed we need look no further than recent song covers by Sean Donnelly, The Fureys, Pete & Jan, Bill Jones, Sean Tyrell and the Japanese band Brahman.
Picture by kind permission of BBC N. Ireland Press Office
Friel is one of the few artists around that can say he was actually paid by radio to write topical, comic and satirical songs to order. He was at one time commissioned to write songs for BBC Radio Ulster’s “Talkback” the lunch time inter-active news programme. A task he often had to carry out at the drop of a hat to meet the changing political and social demands of the day.
Catalogue (Thran Records www.eamonfriel.com)
Logrhythms (1985) Spring Records
Stepping Stones(1993) Spring Records SCD 1028
Word Of Spring (2000) Thran Records THRCD 1001
Waltz Of The Years (2003) Thran THRCD 1003
Here Is The River (2006) Thran THRCD 1004
Smarter (June 2009) Thran THRCD 1006
For more detailed information about Eamon Friel's career go to Artist Roster
Born in the North of Ireland, an area bitterly divided by opposing religious and political issues, singer-songwriter- activist Tommy Sands has spent his life using music to spread hope, healing and inspiration, as well as entertainment. Since the ’60s with his brothers and sisters in The Sands Family, as a solo performer, and most recently with his daughter and son, Tommy has been bringing traditional Irish songs and original, socially relevant material to audiences all around the world.
“Tommy Sands has achieved that difficult but wonderful balance between knowing and loving the traditions of his home and being concerned with the future of the whole world .” Pete Seeger
On his new CD ‘Let the Circle be Wide,’ Tommy Sands continues to write and perform wise, moving, sometimes rollicking songs infused with his deep but clear-eyed love of his imperfect homeland. The CD reflects some of the changes resulting from the historic 1998 power-sharing Belfast Agreement; Sands’ spontaneous performance of his songs with a group of Catholic and Protestant school children outside those agreement negotiations was called “a defining moment in the peace process.”
Unlike the early Gaelic bards who wrote songs, stories and poems in praise of their own clans alone, well-known Irish musician and folklorist Professor Mick Moloney has dubbed Sands an “enlightened bard,” who “says and writes words that are more likely to bring people of diverse backgrounds together than to keep them apart.” The fifteen songs on Let the Circle be Wide ring with Tommy’s warm brogue, the poignant Irish lilt of uillean pipes, fiddles, and whistles, but also carry the influence of different cultures, such as the unearthly vocal buzzes and drones of Mongolian throat-singing on “Rovers of Wonder.”
Sands, who plays guitar, whistle, banjo, and dotara, a stringed Indian instrument, as well as singing the lead vocals, shares his music’s power to heal (the high-spirited “Send for Maguire” and ethereal “A Stór Mo Chroí”), to rally (“Make Those Dreams Come True,” “Time for Asking Why”), to pay tribute to the departed (“The Song Sings On: Ballad of Tommy Makem,” “You Will Never Grow Old,” a gentle farewell to Sands’ late brother Dino), to fight prejudice (“Keep On Singing”), to unite people (the title song), and to celebrate Ireland’s natural beauty amid ongoing social change (“Fields of Daisies,” “Carlingford Bay”). The CD’s misty, welcoming opener, “Young Man’s Dream,” is Tommy’s “translation/part transcreation” of an ancient Gaelic song which would much later become Ireland’s most famous ballad, “Danny Boy.” This dream song, so apt for today, dates back more than 500 years, drawing us to “an island dreaming where the heart is free,” where “the dream of love, it belongs to all.”
Sands’ musical inclusiveness extends to enlisting his daughter Moya (fiddle, bodhran, whistle, vocals), son Fionán (banjo, mandolin, backing vocals), his Sands Family siblings and additional musicians including guitarist Arty McGlynn (Van Morrison, Patrick Street, Christy Moore), guitarist/bassist Steve Cooney (Sinead O’Connor, The Chieftains, Chuck Berry, Dolly Parton), and co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Tom Newman (who worked on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells), among others, to perform on Let the Circle be Wide.
With a new CD, a busy international performance schedule with Moya and Fionán, a weekly show on Irish radio, periodic tours with The Sands Family, and his involvement in social justice projects including peace concerts and educational programs in schools and prisons, Tommy Sands exemplifies the idealistic musician as a strong but gentle agent of tradition and change, a carrier of hope and solace, and a man of dreams and reality in the spirit of America’s Pete Seeger, Scotland’s Dick Gaughan and other giants of musical activism.
2009 Let The Circle Be Wide (Appleseed Recordings) Available Now
2006 To Shorten A Winter (Green Linnet)
1999 Sarajevo To Belfast with Vedran Smailovic (Appleseed Recordings)
1995 The Hearts A Wonder (Green Linnet)
1990 Beyond The Shadows (Spring Records)
1988 The Hedges Of County Down (Spring Records Cassette Only)
1987 Down By Bendy’s Lane, Irish Songs & Stories For Children (Green Linnet)
1985 Singing of The Times (Spring Records)
Books:
The Songman - A Journey in Irish Music (2005)
Chris Flegg is based in St Albans, Herts and not only plays jazz guitar but is a singer songwriter on the acoustic and folk scene with three albums of original songs to date, the latest being The Sound Of Life. Previous jazz recordings include Moving On, an album of original pieces for jazz quartet, in which John Rees-Jones also features on bass. Chris mainly performs locally in St Albans with sax and bass in a jazz context or solo as a singer guitarist. He runs a monthly jazz jam session and enjoys charity busking in support of the British Heart Foundation.
John Rees-Jones trained classically as a cellist and toured and recorded with Keith Tippett’s CENTIPEDE which included many of the top jazz and rock musicians of the time. He subsequently appeared with numerous classical musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin before moving over to the double bass and bass guitar in the late 1970’s. John has since worked extensively in the theatre, cabaret, studio and jazz fields with a breathtaking list of artists of which a small sample includes Elkie Brooks, Georgie Fame, the Inkspots, Ted Heath Big Band, Glenn Miller Orchestra UK, and George Melly, as well as guitarists Barney Kessell, Martin Taylor, Al Casey, Herb Ellis, Slim Gaillard and Charlie Byrd. He was a member of Humphrey Lyttelton’s band until Humph’s sad demise in 2008. John is visiting teacher of jazz double bass and bass guitar at Eton College and has tutored several hundred jazz workshops nationwide.
This album is taken from a single recording session at Cream Studios, Wembley, 10 November 2008, a day which produced no fewer than 23 recorded titles. The album features guitar and double bass with just Her Favourite flower and Round Midnight as solo guitar pieces. The aim in creating this (my sixth) CD was to put together some of my arrangements of standards and a few original tunes with a jazz flavour but with the accent mainly on melody rather than extended improvisation.
The guitar is a Gibson L5 Custom electric guitar played mainly finger style and sometimes with a pick during solos. The L5 has been the preferred instrument of many jazz players since Gibson first started making the L5 in 1922, this Custom model being the single pickup version designed for Wes Montgomery and branded with his name. But don’t expect to hear on this album anything like that famous Wes Montgomery sound, Wes got an individual tone by playing heavy flat wound strings with his thumb and cutting back the treble using the tone control. I prefer using light gauge round wound strings plucked with finger nails for a bright clean sound. The double bass of John Rees-Jones richly complements this guitar sound, never more so when John resorts to bowing as for example in the last notes of Stardust. So here are some notes on the tracks:
The Songs
Night and Day, by Cole Porter, I first heard on a Django Reinhardt recording that was an early jazz influence for me, though my finger picking / chordal style version bears little resemblance to Django’s, not withstanding my quote in my improvisation from his composition “Nuages”.
I’m Going Home and Cat House are my own compositions, both written some years ago but never previously available on CD. I occasionally sing a vocal version of “I’m Going Home,” but the instrumental version here is I believe just as strong and has a relaxed bossa feel. Cat House has a main theme that swings along with an almost country lilt and in places suggests the influence of Chet Atkins or maybe Les Paul. The long chordal intro and bridging riff are repeated after the theme and help make this a quite unusual number.
Stardust as a guitar piece will for me always be associated with Frank Vignola who I saw playing this tune in a bar in New York with the “Frank and Joe Show”. His CD recordings are hard to find but they are out there. My version begins with the verse played out of tempo, and the ending closes with John bowing a magnificent bottom C.
Our Love Is Here To Stay is a tune which is so interesting it hardly needs extemporisation to make it jazz. This is said to be the last composition of George Gershwin so I guess you could say by then he knew what he was doing.
Her Favourite Flower is a guitar solo I wrote in the 1970’s and was inspired by listening to one of Django’s solo guitar recordings titled “Improvisation”, though the only real similarity is the idea of three note chord voicing to carry the melody against a bass line on the lower strings. The title comes from memories of a girl waiting for me holding a single flower, a tulip.
A Day In The Life Of A Fool is a melancholy tune with a Brazilian flavour. This version includes an excellent bass solo from John.
The Girl From Ipanema must be the best known bossa nova of all time, not only a pop hit in its day but memorable for the playing of Stan Getz in the original. John gets to play the intro and ending on this track and the overall feeling is bright and rhythmically interesting.
Body And Soul is a classic jazz ballad with some fun chord changes (giving us a chance to play in D flat) and a middle section that ends like no other; I guess I just like playing it.
Perhaps less well known is Stella By Starlight, a number which I first heard played in a record by Stan Getz in a version I have never heard equalled, in fact his recording of this tune was on of the reasons I took up playing tenor sax, but that is another story. This is a great tune for playing melody against guitar chord in a single voicing and shows off the tone of the guitar to its best.
Round Midnight is played here as a bluesy solo guitar arrangement which tries in places to capture some of the staccato piano style of the original almost percussive piano playing of the composer, Thelonious Monk. I think sounds unusual and in fact have so far not heard any other solo guitar arrangement of this tune.
My version of When Sonny Gets Blue starts with an introduction based on the Miles Davis tune ‘Blue ‘n Green’ and then simply states the melody. Chris Flegg, 2009
Catalogue:
FLEGGCD 007 Her Favourite Flower 2009
FLEGGCD 005 The Sound Of Life 2008
FLEGGCD 004 Through The Window 2006
FLEGGCD 003 My Sweet Lady 2005
FLEGGCD 002 Solo 2004
MTCFFCD 001 Moving On 2000
Distributor: www.chris-flegg.demon.co.uk
Susan Werner’s new release ‘Classics’ uses all of her many talents, and adds “arranger” to a long list of musical accomplishments.
‘Classics’ features ten songs composed by Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon and others from a classic era of songwriting (1960’s – 1970’s).
All new arrangements for string quartet and classical instruments, with melodic quotations from well known classical compositions ~ With vocals by Susan Werner.
World class performances by Boston Symphony Orchestra & Boston Pops instrumentalists.
Over the course of her colourful career, singer songwriter Susan Werner has cultivated a reputation as a daring and innovative songwriter with a killer live show. She boldly weaves old with new to create new genres of music when existing ones do not suit her muse, and she regularly keeps audiences guessing and laughing simultaneously.
Most of her work infuses traditional music styles and methods with her unmistakable contemporary world view, constantly challenging listeners to experience music from a fresh and unexpected perspective.
Susan Werner’s new release ‘Classics’ asks no less of her distinguished audience or herself.
With the album ‘Classics’ Susan Werner delivers entirely new string arrangements of mainstream popular songs by top songwriters from a “classical” pop era – the sixties and seventies. Drawing on her unique training as a classical vocalist (she has a master’s degree in music history and voice performance), and the diverse talents of esteemed Boston Symphony and Pops players, ‘Classics’ sets a mood that highlights elegance and sophistication previously overlooked in the first lives of songs like Paul Simon’s ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ (The Ecology), Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ and America’s ‘Lonely People’.
Produced by Crit Harmon (Martin Sexton, Mary Gauthier, Lori McKenna among others, and 2007 Boston Music Awards Producer of the Year), and co-arranged by Werner with renowned Boston Pops arranger and pianist Brad Hatfield, ‘Classics’ features ten songs chosen because they met three deeply considered criteria: the renewed relevancy of their messages for modern times, their correlation with her own worldview as a folk pop singer/songwriter, and their potential to blossom when performed with chamber music instruments.
States Werner: “It seemed to me a chamber music approach to pop songs could reveal the poetry and impact of some of these lyrics in ways that groove driven arrangements completely overlook.”
In addition to re-fashioning each song for the accompaniment of string quartet, woodwinds, brass, classical guitar or piano, Werner invites listeners to enjoy the surprising connections between pop and classical music by incorporating the occasional quotation from the world of classical music into these arrangements.
Werner’s thoughtful piano-strings approach to Bob Marley’s ‘Waiting In Vain’, with quotations from Erik Satie’s Suite: Trois Gymnopédies, was the impetus for the entire project. But she didn’t stop there… “The Bach cello suite excerpt sounds like a great gust of wind somehow, which set up Cat Steven’s
‘The Wind’ perfectly,” states Susan. “The Rodrigo quote filled out the Spanish classical guitar arrangement on ‘Misunderstood’ and the quotes from Vivaldi’s Winter match the cold and frosty regrets in ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ in a way that makes such sense that I really can’t believe nobody did it before.”
Werner relishes the challenge of being a creative free spirit and says she’s in an exciting new phase of doing themed projects. In her 2004 release ‘I Can’t Be New’, she delivered her modern contribution to the Great American Songbook by writing originals in the style of Gershwin and Cole Porter, but from a present-day woman’s point of view. It was for her work on this album that The Chicago Tribune called her “the most innovative songwriter working today.” The album went to #1 on Amazon.com, the song ‘I Can’t Be New’ was included in iTunes Cabaret Essentials and Werner appeared on Marian McPartland’s
Piano Jazz and A&E’s Breakfast With The Arts.
In 2007, she blended faith and doubt in her “agnostic gospel” record ‘The Gospel Truth’ - a collection of original songs drawing on gospel music traditions from Folk/Bluegrass to Americana to R&B/Soul/Spiritual, and presenting lyrics that have been praised by religious believers and non-believers alike across the country. NPR Weekend Edition’s Susan Stamberg may have put it best when she called The Gospel Truth “a musical, lyrical examination of personal, social, and political faith in America... [from] a hip, wry, gifted performer.” The Gospel Truth was named 2007 Top Folk Album of the Year by NPR/Folk Alley and WUMB, and Susan Werner was named Best Contemporary Artist at the 2008 International Folk Alliance music conference.
It was with ‘I Can’t Be New’ and ‘The Gospel Truth’, that Werner firmly established her reputation as one of the boldest creative forces on the acoustic scene today. While the concepts are never simple, she has proven time and time again, her unwavering ability to deliver on the truly original promises of her inventive, visionary way of making music. “With ‘Classics’ I hope to make classical music a little less scary for people,” she says. “Some people treat it like fine glassware, up in the cabinet somewhere, too fragile for everyday use. But classical music is more sturdy and practical than most people imagine and it reveals so much about the composition underneath - in this case, some undeniably great songs by great songwriters.” I hope ‘Classics’ will be like that moment when we find ourselves, tickets in hand, walking up the steps at Symphony Hall or the Opera House, ready and hoping to be moved by something grown up and surpassingly lovely.”
As for the singer/songwriter moniker, and its meaning to her, songwriter Werner says: “There comes a time when a singer/songwriter has to earn the ‘singer’ part of that title. Hopefully, I did that with this project!”
Susan Werner Discography
Classics (2009)
Live At Passim (2008)
The Gospel Truth (2007)
I Can’t Be New (2004)
New Non-Fiction (2001)
Time Between Trains (1998)
Last of the Good Straight Girls (1995)
Live At Tin Angel (1993)
Midwestern Saturday Night (1992)
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“I’d like to get stoned,” sings Alice Peacock over a shambling electric guitar at the beginning of her fourth album, Love Remains. It’s a startling, if tongue-in-cheek, way to kick off a set of country-tinged pop-rock tunes recorded in the heart of Nashville.
The Chicago based singer songwriter found inspiration with her collaborator and co-producer/ co-writer Danny Myrick, “It was about the vibe,” she elaborates. “Who could we put in the room?
When Danny and I were writing together, just the two of us with guitars, cracking up and having a blast, the music had this Tom Petty/early Linda Ronstadt/John Mellencamp/Sheryl Crow-made-a-country-record feel to it,” Peacock reveals. “I said, ‘Pedal steel? I want it on every damn song!’ I love that ’70s, California-country sound, and I’m totally unapologetic about trying to recapture it.”
The players who helped sculpt the aural landscape of Love Remains include pedal-steel player Dan Dugmore (Linda Ronstadt); multi-instrumentalist Phil Madeira (Emmylou Harris); guitarists Kenny Greenberg (Willie Nelson, Brooks & Dunn, Gretchen Wilson),
Rob McNelley (Delbert McClinton) and Scott Dente (Out Of The Grey);
drummer Will Denton (Steven Curtis Chapman, LeAnn Rimes); and mandolin and banjo whiz Ilya Toshinsky (Bering Strait), and Danny Myrick, living up to Peacock’s description of him as “the groovemeister,” played bass.
Love Remains is a both a timely and timeless collection of novellas that brings to mind the joy simple things and the prospect of a better world. Along with several songs she wrote on her own and a few she penned with other songwriters (such as John Paul White, with whom she crafted “All About Me”), this latest batch of tunes finds Peacock in a new place, both thematically and geographically.
Alice’s abiding belief in the power of music is a constant. “Can music change the world?/Yeah, I think it can,” she sings in “Forgiveness,” and she has a story to back it up.
Look out for Alice on tour in the USA throughout 2009 and in the UK in the Autumn and look for Love Remains in stores and on line March 30, 2009.
All songs Alice Peacock – Publisher Peacock Music © 2009
Catalogue
Alice Peacock - Love Remains (Peacock Music Inc 2009)
Alice Peacock - Who I Am (Peacock Music distributed by Universal 2006)
Alice Peacock - Alice Peacock CK 86404 (Aware Columbia 2002)
Alice Peacock - Real Day PMI 1001 (Peacock Music Inc 1999)
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The Society for the Promotion of New Music (spnm) creates new music to move the head, heart and hips with Bhangra Latina. www.spnm.org.uk
Bhangra Latina is a new musical phenomenon combining elements of Bhangra and Latin music, developed as part of Kuljit Bhamra’s groundbreaking Artistic Director Series at spnm. The project, featuring a band led by Bhangra producer and percussionist Kuljit Bhamra and Latin pianist Alex Wilson in collaboration with emerging British composers and multi-award winning singer Sangeeta. This melding of talent has explored how composers and musicians from different traditions can work together to create new music from these two musical forms.
The six-month devising process culminated in the production of the CD Bhangra Latina
featuring one of the most popular and successful figures of the British Asian scene, legendary singer Sangeeta who returns to the scene after a break of several years.
The idea for Bhangra Latina was born when Kuljit Bhamra and Alex Wilson met for the first time in 2004 at the opening of The Sage, Gateshead, as they experimented with Punjabi rhythms and Latin piano riffs and discovered that a new style of music was possible. Alex subsequently released a track ‘Oh Kuri’ on his album Inglaterra which was hailed as "a very appealing mix that doesn't sell either ingredient short." (John L Waters, The Guardian). However it was Kuljit’s appointment as Artistic Director at spnm in 2007 which enabled the musicians to work intensively over a period of several months with some of the best emerging composers in the UK, under the guidance of Alwynne Pritchard from Trinity College of Music, to create Bhangra Latina.
Click on You Tube To See Kuljit Videos
Kuljit Bhamra says:
"I once heard it said that 'music should move the head, heart and hips'. Many of the great classics move our heads and hearts but I have been to concerts where only people's heads have been moved. Bhangra Latina has the potential to attract audiences from many worlds, whilst at the same time presenting composers with the challenge of writing new music for this unique group of instruments. It’s particularly exciting to see the range of venues for the tour." www.kuljitbhamra.com
Alex Wilson says: “Many of the musicians in the band have spent years refining their ability to ‘groove’. For this project we had to shift our musical priorities to play in this more fragmented style convincingly. We were also regularly asked to do things we had never before tried on our instruments…most educational! It was great to see the pieces grow and develop during the workshop and recording process.” www.alexwilson.net
Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, composer, says: “My score was a skeleton to be clothed by the musicians’ own individual interpretations. It was a real challenge to cater for each individual’s needs and skills using a mixture of the Western classical system, percussion charts and verbal instructions and lyrics. On top of this we all spoke different languages, but it was liberating, and the musicians had excellent ears and picked up new material rapidly.”
www.cevanne.com
Composer, producer, tabla player and pioneer of the Bhangra phenomenon, Kuljit Bhamra has recorded over 2000 songs to date and worked on award-winning film scores such as Bend it like Beckham and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He was an on-stage percussionist in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Bombay Dreams and wrote music for the musical adaptation of The Far Pavilions. He was made Artistic Director of spnm in 2007.
Alex Wilson has an established track record in his career as a composer/arranger/director of cross-cultural collaborations. As a pianist Alex has performed with a whole host of artists in nearly 50 countries, including Courtney Pine, Adalberto Santiago and Hugh Masakela and is recipient of a BBC Jazz Award in the Rising Star category. Alex also composes for commercial outlets, having written a theme tune for a Channel 4 series last year and also having his compositions placed in programmes such as '24', 'DIYSOS' and 'My Family.'
Alwynne Pritchard, who mentored the composers working on the project, teaches composition at Trinity College of Music in London and regularly presents programmes for BBC Radio 3. Over the last decade and a half Alwynne's music has been performed by leading players and ensembles throughout Europe and America. She also sings with Bergen/London-based improvisation quintet Fat Battery. www.alwynnepritchard.co.uk
Nico Bentley is a composer/performer based in London who began his musical life playing in rock bands. Nico takes his influences from Jazz and Classical to Electro and Drum ‘n’ Bass, and has collaborated with dance artists.
Paul Buckley has a long association with experimental and improvised music. As well as composing and arranging music, he plays trumpet and guitar and teaches. He is actively engaged in community music activities, with Chat's Arkestra at Chat's Palace, London and the Suffolk School of Samba.
Chris Gander is a composer and performer who takes particular inspiration from the music of India, Persia, Spain and Latin America. Chris studied sitar, tabla, yoga and Indian philosophy in India and continued his studies at SOAS. He has studied with Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy and the Indian composer John Mayer.
Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian is the grandchild of Armenian refugees and Lancashire coal and cotton workers who grew up on Britain’s doorstep among close family friends including a Paris-based jazz and salsa trumpeter, Scottish fiddlers, Indian, Venezuelan and Cuban doctors.
She studied at Cambridge researching the use of Indian music in Rap and was invited to Jordan by the British Council and Trinity College of Music to work with Arabic music students.
The full line-up of the Bhangra Latina band includes Shahid Abbas Khan (vocals); Dudley Phillips (acoustic/electric bass/EVI); Davide Mantovani (acoustic/electric bass/EVI); Davide Giovannini (drum kit, timbale, vocals); Shanti Paul Jayasinha (trumpet/flugelhorn/hand percussion) and Emeris Solis (congas).
Bhangra Latina is available from Keda Records & RSK Entertainment
Rainbow George’s new single production ‘Scoring Goals’ is also the title of a film documentary about the views he expresses and the visions he experiences as a part time mystic and apprentice prophet.
Scoring Goals is a fact and fantasy film designed to play a pivotal role in changing the world. The film is targeted to premiere on 10.10.10. The opening scenes were shot on London's Hampstead Heath on 08.08.08 and the closing scene will imagine London on 12.12.12.
George believes that the people of London will begin to shine a light to the rest of the world by embarking on an eight year project to transform London.
With a projected release date of 10-10-10 the Scoring Goals film chronicles actual and imagined events leading up to 12-12-12 when the people of London embark on becoming citizens of a self governing tax free leisure orientated wonder city." Rainbow George
As part of the film production George is assembling a twelve piece band which will support the star of the film ‘The Wizard of Wonders.’ The Revolutionary Souls Army Band will play and sing what the Wizard says and speaks. - "He's going to wash your brains, and blow your minds. He's going to lead you to discover the find of finds." Already in place are the first three members of the group, Ben Reel, Jud Charlton & John Otway.
With regard to the single ‘Scoring Goals’ George says, “It is impossible to overestimate the potential life enhancing effects of tuning in to the good vibrations that emanate from this truly wonderful song.
Ben Reel - Pictorial bio and music Artist Roster + www.benreel.com
Ben Reel is a native of Silverbridge, South Armagh, Ireland. He started his musical career performing & songwriting with “Trim the Velvet”’ before going solo in the late nineties. Ben Reel is recognised by his musical peers as one of the best acts working on the live music scene in Europe today.
Jud Charlton www.myspace.com/83656366
Jud is an actor & performer who also runs his own theatre company called the Acme Construction Company. His acting credits include appearances in Chemical Wedding, Victor The Man Who Would Be Queen, The Bill, Every Time You Look At Me, Palindrome r.s.s.r, Neanderthal, Gulliver's Travels, Love Potion & Hit Me
Most recently Jud has been appearing in ‘Hit Me’ – ‘The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury'
which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival.
John Otway http://www.johnotway.com
John Otway singer, songwriter, playwright, and author “Cor Baby That’s Really Him” stealing those words from one of his most famous songs. He is famous for being unsuccessful as much as successful never quiet making it but always being there on the fringes of major success. His surreal humour and magical live performances have built for him one of the most loyal audiences in the music business.
Label: Message Parlour Records
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Accompaniment by Simon Mayor in a specially commissioned arrangement for the
mandolin family of instruments (mandolin, mandola, mandocello)
After spending thirty years and almost one thousand miles apart in England and the South of France two sisters from Staffordshire, Hilary James and Janet Giraudo, discovered a talent for singing together. This track, recorded in England in August 2008 is a taste of a first album scheduled for release in 2009. The sisters sing in a wide range of styles from classical to folk and swing, including some French and English traditional songs.
To Hear 'Laudamus te' Go To Artist Roster
Spiritually rooted in folk song she may be, but her superb voice easily crosses the great musical divides and is equally impressive singing blues, torch songs and classical pieces by Fauré and Handel.
Hilary James is an accomplished double bassist, guitarist and mando-bassist. Her giant bass mandolin is now her trademark. She appears in concert regularly with long-time partner, mandolin virtuoso and multi- instrumentalist, Simon Mayor. You’ll usually find them as a duo, but they’re also half of Britain’s first modern mandolin quartet with Richard Collins and Gerald Garcia collectively known as The Mandolinquents.
As a teenager Janet headed for the South of France where she met and married Robert Giraudo, a local man from a village twenty miles inland from St Tropez. She only discovered her singing voice last year and at the same time discovered she shared the family talent for painting. She has two sons, teaches English and runs gym classes in what must be the fittest village in the Var!
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Release Date: 08-08-08 Label: High Noon Records
Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, New York's favourite psychedelic roots rock band are set to release their latest studio album, 'The Great Unravel' on August 8, 2008.
Produced by ‘Circus' guitarist Sharkey McEwen with help from the band, the new C.D. is the follow up to the internationally acclaimed 'Flapjacks from The Sky'.
The band's third studio album has their trademark 'punk-classical hillbilly-Floyd' brand of folk-rock garnished with a hefty dose of sixties psychedelia aptly displayed by the sound and feel of tracks such as ‘The Great Unravel’, ‘Pushin' Up Daisies’, ‘Clear Channel’ and ‘Summer's Day’
Not wanting to neglect their Celtic roots, the band called on renowned uilleann pipemaker Seth Gallagher, who recently joined The Chieftains for a few tunes at Carnegie Hall. Seth builds pipes for the luminaries of Celtic music. His playing adds a supernatural dimension to the album's hauntingly beautiful love song, Tink
Formed n Sleepy Hollow, New York in the late nineties, Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams are one of the best known and loved bands in their home state. They were voted Hudson Valley Magazine's "Band of the Year" for the past three years.
Formed in Sleepy Hollow, New York in the late nineties, Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams are one of the best known and loved bands in their home state. They were voted Hudson Valley Magazine's "Band of the Year" for the past three years.
Coast to coast they are becoming one of the most talked about bands at festivals, receiving standing ovations at legendary venues like the Philadelphia Folk Festival as well as the California festivals Strawberry Music Festival & Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Appearances this summer include the Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival, High Sierra, and Falcon Ridge Folk Festivals. The Circus ends the summer with their UK debut at the Rhythm Festival, Twinwood Arena, Clapham in Bedfordshire.
The Circus' live shows are where the real magic comes down, earning them critical acclaim as well as a fiercely loyal following. On stage they create an enchanting atmosphere, using traditional folk instruments, electric guitars, the occasional theremin and the distinctive singing and songwriting of Joziah Longo. Citing influences as diverse as Hank Williams, Dylan, Bowie, Incredible String Band and early Pink Floyd; the band's music is a mental roller coaster of whimsical and thought-provoking songs.
Their last studio release, 'Flapjacks From The Sky' continues to make a buzz internationally and the new album is poised to follow in its footsteps. USA’s Paste Magazine has chosen 'The Great Unravel' as a 'Pick of the Month' for the August issue and Sirius Satellite Radio - ‘Sirius Disorder’ has already started previewing tracks with an interview in the works to be aired closer to the release date.
Made on a Mac
Known as the ultimate D.I.Y. band, The Circus recorded, produced, mastered and designed 'The Great Unravel' using Apple computers and software. They will be performing Friday, August 8th (08/08/08) at their local Apple Store for a "Made on a Mac" event to coincide with the international release of 'The Great Unravel' on iTunes.
The band has also received an endorsement by Hear Technologies for 'The Great Unravel' tour, providing the band with the revolutionary 'Hear Back' Personal Monitor Mixer System and will be working with Circus sound man Kristopher Truzzi on new product development.
The Circus includes founding members Joziah Longo (lead vocals, guitars, harmonica), Tink Lloyd (accordion, cello, flute, theremin), Sharkey McEwen (guitars, mandolin, backing vocals), Tony Zuzulo (percussion), and touring members Chen Longo (bass) and Orien Longo (keyboards, backing vocals).
The Band
Joziah Longo (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica) grew up in a working class neighbourhood in Philadelphia, where his grandfather and father, both factory workers, played music on the weekends in a local music scene that was heavily influenced by immigrant musicians, Mummers and string bands.
His father hung a guitar over Joziah's cot to ensure he would carry on the musical legacy. As soon as he was big enough to hold a guitar, they taught him country, folk and Mummers music and the latest pop music of the time. Performing professionally from the age of thirteen in cover bands, he cut his musical teeth playing the Irish Social Clubs and local Two-Dollar Nights. He also performed in area coffeehouses doing Dylan covers.
In his late teens Joziah moved to New York City where he found the inspiration to begin writing his own music. Within a short time he was doing shows as a headliner in venues ranging from CBGB's to Carnegie Hall. In the early 90's Joziah was the first American artist invited to perform in mainland China, ending a decade-long ban on Western music. As bandleader of The Circus, Joziah's desire to maintain artistic independence has always made him shy away from any major record label interest.
Tink Lloyd Multi-instrumentalist (accordion, cello, flute, etc.) comes from a long line of feisty Irish musicians. Her grandmother's family emigrated from County Cork, Ireland to the United States and settled in Northern Virginia where Tink grew up. A compulsive texturalist, Lloyd is constantly adding new instruments to the Circus's musical arsenal. Most recently theremin and bagpipes have come under her loving domain. She has worked with Joziah and Sharkey on many projects.
Sharkey McEwen (guitar, mandolin, and backing vocals) long time musical partner of Joziah is a legendary guitar player in the New York music scene. His Louisiana roots are evident in his lyrical, straight from the heart playing. As a teenager, Sharkey played the L.A. club circuit before coming to New York in the early 90's. His intuitive, evocative playing is a key ingredient of the band's magic. He is in constant demand as a producer and guitarist for other artists.
Tony Zuzulo (percussion) a native New Yorker sold his drums after years of playing in metal bands in New Jersey bars and became a Professor of Multimedia and Graphic Design at the local college - which is where he met student Joziah Longo. When Joziah heard rumours of Tony's percussive past he invited him to an impromptu jam in his attic studio. The chemistry between them was so obvious that Joziah convinced him to pack up his computer and become the Professor of Drumology in the Circus of Dreams.
"Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams are simply one of the finest
American bands out there on the road." ~ Thom Jurek, ALL MUSIC GUIDE
