Craig F
15th March 2004, 06:41 AM
I went up to the Blue Mountains yesterday to catch the last day of the Blue Mountains festival of Folk, Blues and Roots music and thought I may as well write a little bit on what I heard.
The first act was an Australian, Judy Small who's been at the forefront of Australian folk for over twenty years. I tell you what, she could have given lessons to everybody that followed on diction and clarity. She writes all her own stuff and there's a wonderful open spirit running through her songs, even the protest songs. Her voice is beautifully smooth and rich, especially in the bottom registers. To give an indication of the way she had the crowd eating out of her hand, at 11.30am on a Sunday morning she managed to get everybody singing the chorus to one of her songs which was "lesbian chic has passed me by". (Apparently when in Victoria recently she was told by a number of people that an eight year old boy left the concert proudly singing that lesbian sheep had passed him by!) She attacked Australia's leaders, MacDonalds and and a few other entities, but also sang of hope and Australian life in a way that dragged me in with her wonderfully direct writing style. What a great start to the day.
http://www.judysmall.net/
Next up with Chris Smither with his trademark blue guitar. I've seen him in concert before and once he managed to get a mic stand that didn't vibrate too much when his feet started tapping he turned out another polished performance. He delivered a good range of songs and had a very smooth line of patter going through the thing. It was interesting to see his progression from starting the set with a "redemptive" number due to it being a Sunday, but finishing with Mississippi John Hurts "Candyman", a song about a certain gentleman's stick of candy. The lady I was sitting with who hadn't seen him before asked me it was just him playing after the first track as she couldn't believe all that music was coming from two hands and one guitar. His finger picking was spectacular, as expected, and the voice was in good form.
http://www.chrissmither.com/
Eric Bogle, an ex-pat Scot, started by thanking the organisers for putting him on between Chris Smither and Bruce Cockburn, but in all honestly he wasn't overshadowed by either. Reminding me a lot of Christy Moore, he fluctuated between irreverent humour and passionate storytelling. The highlights were possibly his anti-cricket song which was very funny, then his most famous track, the powerful anti war statement of No Mans Land (or if you're familier with The Furys you'd know it as The Green Fields Of France). The track that hit the hardest though was Elizabeth, a song about a young child who died of sids and the awkwardness it brought to the friends of the family. All in all though you his humour and irreverence left everybody with huge smiles on their faces.
http://www.windbourne.com/ebogle/
Then we reached Bruce Cockburn. I'd been really looking forward to this which only made the performance more frustrating. His guitar work was excellent, the voice sounded fine, but I think I understood about seven words through the whole set. The volume seemed to be well up on the previous acts and the guitar was certainly set too loud compared to the voice but the main problem was simply that his lyrics were unintelligible. To be honest there were a lot of empty seats by the end which was a shame as his two song encore was the highlight of his performance. Still obviously it was good to see him live and with the songs that I knew I could superimpose the lyrics. His passion couldn't be doubted if only we could have really heard him.
http://www.brucecockburn.com/
Second to last on stage was Eliza Carthy, the daughter of English folk legends Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. Boy oh boy has this young lass got a voice. Accompanied by a concertina, and either two violins or a violin and guitar she had the crown eating out of her hand. The content was traditional English folk (plus one or two others, including a Billy Bragg) but her vocal style was anything but staid, blending in jazz and pop elements while not totally removing the traditional feel. Her own violin work was excellent and she's certainly a name to look out for. The same criticism could be leveled at Eliza as I have at Bruce though with the clarity of the lyrics sadly lacking. To finish the set they did a number called "Willow Tree" which was presented in a manor that wouldn't have been out of place on the streets of Paris in the 20's. Wonderfully jazzy it was the possibly the single best song of the day. Couple her strong, warm voice with the energy and verve of the players and it was a stand out hour.
http://www.elizanet.org.uk/
To wrap up the day was Harry Manx, a Canadian blues singer and stringed instrument player who totally blew me away. Playing either a lap steel, a Mohan Veena (V M Bhatt's 20 string guitar as used on "A Meeting By The River" with Ry Cooder) or, believe it or not, a banjo to accompany his slightly husky, yet honey smooth vocals he had everybody's attention from the first song to the last. Now I've always been of the opinion that Banjo's made good firewood but mate, they can make music. (He ever covered Hendrix on the Banjo!!) His voice is of a similar style to Kelly Joe Phelps but his lyrics are much better. Having spent many years in India he blends the tonality and chordal structure from asia with the blues to present a unique style of music. Apparently it was dubbed "mystic-sippi blues" by one reviewer and that's actually a pretty good summation. He strikes me as a very gentle man who sings from the heart. Go check out his website and try some samples as he's very, very, very good.
http://www.harrymanx.com/
All in all it was a great day's music and it just served to confirm to me that live music and home audio have virtually nothing to do with each other but that both are very enjoyable on their own terms.
Cheers,
Craig.
The first act was an Australian, Judy Small who's been at the forefront of Australian folk for over twenty years. I tell you what, she could have given lessons to everybody that followed on diction and clarity. She writes all her own stuff and there's a wonderful open spirit running through her songs, even the protest songs. Her voice is beautifully smooth and rich, especially in the bottom registers. To give an indication of the way she had the crowd eating out of her hand, at 11.30am on a Sunday morning she managed to get everybody singing the chorus to one of her songs which was "lesbian chic has passed me by". (Apparently when in Victoria recently she was told by a number of people that an eight year old boy left the concert proudly singing that lesbian sheep had passed him by!) She attacked Australia's leaders, MacDonalds and and a few other entities, but also sang of hope and Australian life in a way that dragged me in with her wonderfully direct writing style. What a great start to the day.
http://www.judysmall.net/
Next up with Chris Smither with his trademark blue guitar. I've seen him in concert before and once he managed to get a mic stand that didn't vibrate too much when his feet started tapping he turned out another polished performance. He delivered a good range of songs and had a very smooth line of patter going through the thing. It was interesting to see his progression from starting the set with a "redemptive" number due to it being a Sunday, but finishing with Mississippi John Hurts "Candyman", a song about a certain gentleman's stick of candy. The lady I was sitting with who hadn't seen him before asked me it was just him playing after the first track as she couldn't believe all that music was coming from two hands and one guitar. His finger picking was spectacular, as expected, and the voice was in good form.
http://www.chrissmither.com/
Eric Bogle, an ex-pat Scot, started by thanking the organisers for putting him on between Chris Smither and Bruce Cockburn, but in all honestly he wasn't overshadowed by either. Reminding me a lot of Christy Moore, he fluctuated between irreverent humour and passionate storytelling. The highlights were possibly his anti-cricket song which was very funny, then his most famous track, the powerful anti war statement of No Mans Land (or if you're familier with The Furys you'd know it as The Green Fields Of France). The track that hit the hardest though was Elizabeth, a song about a young child who died of sids and the awkwardness it brought to the friends of the family. All in all though you his humour and irreverence left everybody with huge smiles on their faces.
http://www.windbourne.com/ebogle/
Then we reached Bruce Cockburn. I'd been really looking forward to this which only made the performance more frustrating. His guitar work was excellent, the voice sounded fine, but I think I understood about seven words through the whole set. The volume seemed to be well up on the previous acts and the guitar was certainly set too loud compared to the voice but the main problem was simply that his lyrics were unintelligible. To be honest there were a lot of empty seats by the end which was a shame as his two song encore was the highlight of his performance. Still obviously it was good to see him live and with the songs that I knew I could superimpose the lyrics. His passion couldn't be doubted if only we could have really heard him.
http://www.brucecockburn.com/
Second to last on stage was Eliza Carthy, the daughter of English folk legends Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. Boy oh boy has this young lass got a voice. Accompanied by a concertina, and either two violins or a violin and guitar she had the crown eating out of her hand. The content was traditional English folk (plus one or two others, including a Billy Bragg) but her vocal style was anything but staid, blending in jazz and pop elements while not totally removing the traditional feel. Her own violin work was excellent and she's certainly a name to look out for. The same criticism could be leveled at Eliza as I have at Bruce though with the clarity of the lyrics sadly lacking. To finish the set they did a number called "Willow Tree" which was presented in a manor that wouldn't have been out of place on the streets of Paris in the 20's. Wonderfully jazzy it was the possibly the single best song of the day. Couple her strong, warm voice with the energy and verve of the players and it was a stand out hour.
http://www.elizanet.org.uk/
To wrap up the day was Harry Manx, a Canadian blues singer and stringed instrument player who totally blew me away. Playing either a lap steel, a Mohan Veena (V M Bhatt's 20 string guitar as used on "A Meeting By The River" with Ry Cooder) or, believe it or not, a banjo to accompany his slightly husky, yet honey smooth vocals he had everybody's attention from the first song to the last. Now I've always been of the opinion that Banjo's made good firewood but mate, they can make music. (He ever covered Hendrix on the Banjo!!) His voice is of a similar style to Kelly Joe Phelps but his lyrics are much better. Having spent many years in India he blends the tonality and chordal structure from asia with the blues to present a unique style of music. Apparently it was dubbed "mystic-sippi blues" by one reviewer and that's actually a pretty good summation. He strikes me as a very gentle man who sings from the heart. Go check out his website and try some samples as he's very, very, very good.
http://www.harrymanx.com/
All in all it was a great day's music and it just served to confirm to me that live music and home audio have virtually nothing to do with each other but that both are very enjoyable on their own terms.
Cheers,
Craig.