Methuselah, Amazing Blondel, Tom Yates

My latest article for Seen and Unseen is entitled 'Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion'. The article explores how popular music conjures sacred space through a survey of inter-connections between faith and music.

The article includes a link to my Spotify playlist 'Closer to the light' which includes a wide selection of the music I mention in this article. 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' is a review of Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death in which I explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My co-authored book The Secret Chord explores aspects of a similar interplay between faith and music (and the Arts, more broadly). Posts related to the themes of The Secret Chord can be found here.

Check out the following too to explore further:

• David Ackles, Chris Bell, Bryan Maclean
• God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You
• Jesus Music - 1 & 2
• The Jesus Rock Revolution and the Jesus Movement
• When Jesus Met Hippies
• A Rough Guide to Christian Art
• Looking down the wrong end of a telescope
• Pop's holy rollers
• Perhaps the most underrated band ever
• Rock gets Religion
• Ed Kowalczyk and Scott Stapp: Angels on a razor
• Hidden Gems - Bill Fay & Michael Morley
• Electric Eden and the New Folk Revival
• Salt and Sweetners
• The mystery at the heart of music - 1 and 2
• Inspiration from the Psalms
• 'Tryin' to throw your arms around the world' click here - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Carrying the theme of my Seen and Unseen article plus my post on Jesus Music, here is some information on three more performers engaging with the sacred:

Methuselah was the band that John Gladwin and Terry Wincott formed before finding success with Amazing Blondel and after Gospel Garden. Methuselah were signed to the U.S. Elektra label and recorded one album, 1969's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Joe Marchese writes: "As the band's moniker might indicate, the first four tracks - named after the writers of the gospels - all had religious-themed lyrics, in essence forming a song suite. The lyrical themes continued on "My Poor Mary" ("My poor Mary, what's the matter/Born Jerusalem in the morning") and the heavy title track. "High in the Tower of Coombe," with its medieval flavor, augured for Amazing Blondel. "Fairy Tale" and "Fireball Woman" both emphasized their hard rock sound, with the latter in a particularly driving vein. The closing jam on the French nursery rhyme "Freres Jacques" (or "Brother John," first published around 1780) veered into jazz-rock territory."

Elektra failed to give the LP a UK release, and the US issue was delayed until October 1969 – by which time the band had split, with John Gladwin and Terry Wincott turning their backs on electricity to work as Amazing Blondel. Now highly regarded by collectors, the Methuselah album combined the group's West Coast-influenced harmony vocals with a late 60s psychedelic-into-progressive hard rock feel, largely down to the one-louder leads of Les Nicol, who'd been Mick Ronson's main rival for guitar hero status in the Hull group wars a couple of years earlier.

Terry Wincott wrote that "Amazing Blondel was formed by John Gladwin and myself after the break-up of too-loud rock band Methusalah. We were soon joined by a talent guitarist Eddie Baird and after a disastrous "showbiz" record signing, Amazing Blondel were recommend by the members of the band Free to Island boss Chris Blackwell. After signing to Island Records and Artists, Amazing Blondel quickly produced three albums with the above line-up and undertook a series of intensive international and national tours to promote them."

John Gladwin wrote that "Blondel was an attempt to re-create a past era and fashion a completely English music":

"Amazing Blondel reflected a further idiosyncratic appendage in the ever-more bewildering animal that was folk rock. The range of ideas and styles being introduced into the realms of folk music by the mid-'70s was so diverse that it even entered the hitherto semi-mythical realms of medieval music with its own peculiar instrumentation, complete with bassoons and crumhorns. While Gryphon catered the more studious, progressive rock end of that style, and City Waits concentrated on more authentic reconstructions, Amazing Blondel successfully bridged the popular gap in the middle. They always seemed slightly eccentric - sweet and a little out of place; Pseudo-Elizabethan/classical acoustic music, sung with British accents to the contemporary transatlantic audience of the day. From this unlikely combination they carved their niche and won a devoted cult following ... It wasn't folk music per se. It was all original period music, derived from Elizabethan and Renaissance inspiration, but palatable to 20th century audiences."

Religious-themed songs continued to feature among their "pseudo-Elizabethan/Classical acoustic music sung with "British" accents" including 'Canaan' (The Amazing Blondel), 'Evensong' (Evensong), 'Celestial Light (For Lincoln Cathedral)' and 'Safety in God Alone' (Fantasia Lindum), 'Cantus Firmus to Counterpoint' (England), and 'Benedictus Es Domine' (Restoration).

Celestial Light. A History of Amazing Blondel is the first book to trace the history of the band and contains interviews with all three members of the band as well as Adrian Hopkins (responsible for orchestration), Paul Empson (guitarist), Erik Bergman (model on the cover of the first LP), Phill Brown (sound engineer), Jerry Boys (sound engineer), John Glover (manager), John Donaghy (roadie), Sue Glover (backing vocalist and ex Brotherhood of Man), Steve Rowland (producer of first LP on Bell), Paul Fischer (luthier) and others.

Tom Yates was a regular on the Cheshire and North West folk scene back in the 1960s/70s before he left for Antwerp where he sang and wrote his songs up to his untimely death in 1993. Tom’s first album was on the CBS label in 1967 and later he released two more LPs in the 1970s. He colllaborated with Duncan Brown on some songs. Tom will also be remembered for the gigs he did in the clubs and for the folk club he ran at The White Horse in Disley where he lived up to his move to Belgium.

David Kidman writes that: "Rochdale-born Tom was just one of the large crop of singer-songwriters who came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He got to know Paul Simon on moving to London in the late 1960s, and his first LP (Second City Spiritual) was recorded for CBS in 1967. It was in 1973, around a year after moving to Disley, a village near Stockport (Cheshire), that Tom released his second LP, Love Comes Well Armed." Love Comes Well Armed has been described as "a spiritual journey into the soul of purity and the essence of love".

Song of the Shimmering Way was Tom’s third and final studio recording. Originally released in 1977, it shows Tom’s fascination with the Celts in his songwriting and has a much more lavish sound with orchestra arrangements on some songs. The album reflected the interest in Celtic culture, stories, traditions and mythology that he had begun to embrace in the years since Love Comes Well Armed.

Tom was in the process of preparing his fourth LP when he sadly took died of leukaemia in Antwerp in 1994. His widow provided tapes of Tom’s songs that were recorded in studios in Antwerp, enabling Epona to release his fourth album Love is Losing Ground posthumously. Epona has also released a fifth and final album to complete a quintet of Tom’s musical legacy. A Walk in Other Shoes features songs that he wrote in Antwerp after he connected with the Christian faith and most of the songs reflect his faith. Many of these songs were on a cassette that Tom sold in the local clubs and bars of Antwerp but the album also includes three songs from his unfinished “A Dream of John Ball” plus, as a bonus track, the first recording Tom ever made, the 1965 Pye Records single "Rattle Of A Toy".

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Methuselah - Matthew.

Seen and Unseen: Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs

My latest article for Seen & Unseen is entitled 'Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs'. In the article I highlight folk musicians capturing both the barbaric and the beautiful in the hymn Amazing Grace and Christianity's entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade more generally:

'The Sorrow Songs, Stolen From God and Grace Will Lead Me Home are three deeply moving and challenging albums, with [Angeline] Morrison and [Cohen] Braithwaite-Kilcoyne as the exceptional musicians linking all three, that tackle the history of the transatlantic slave trade, unearthing both incredible tales and uncomfortable truths. The Church is among the institutions that need most to hear and receive the truths and tales these albums share.'

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

My 19th article was entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Angeline, Cohen and Jon - Grace will lead me home.

International Times: Gospel Hopes

My latest review for International Times is on T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone:

'This sense of emerging from the troubles of life into a space and place where love is both the road and destination is a perception and goal that Case shares with Burnett, as both draw deeply on roots traditions that tap Gospel hopes of coming home and being found on the other side.'

For more on T Bone Burnett, see here, here, here, here and here. For more on Peter Case see here, here, and here.

My earlier pieces for IT are an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, plus reviews of Helaine Blumenfeld's Together exhibition, 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album - 'Zany in parts, moving in others, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more unusual, inspired & profound album this year. ‘Pissabed Prophet’ will thrill, intrigue, amuse & inspire' - and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford last Autumn. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'.

My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter Case - Have You Ever Been In Trouble?

One Beautiful World Arts Festival

 

One Beautiful World is an Arts Festival exploring aspects of our one beautiful world from the creativity of human beings to the beauty of the natural world, while remembering the challenges that human activity poses to the planet. The Festival is a mix of art, dance, music, photography, poetry and spoken word. Churches are providing venues for the Festival events and the Festival has received funding from Essex County Council’s Locality Fund. For more information about the Festival see https://onebeautifulworldfestival.blogspot.com/:

• Friday 12 – Friday 26 May, St Catherine’s Church: The Art of the Diorama exhibition by Tim Harrold and Way to the Coronation display by Wickford & Runwell Mothers Union - Tim Harrold is an artist who works with bric à brac, flotsam and jetsam, the discarded or misplaced along the journey of life. He finds lost objects and gives them new meaning through his three-dimensional assemblage style which brings together found and sourced elements into visual parables. The Mothers Union for Wickford and Runwell will show a display on the Way to the Coronation.
• Friday 12 – Sunday 14 May, St Andrew’s Church: New Town, New Collection: Tales from George Morl’s private art collection - This exhibition brings together works acquired by artist and curator George Morl. Through founding a collection which reflects on the communal legacies of New Towns, Plotlands, and the possibility of human connections across the virtual world, it visions a future art collection centring support. 'New Town, New Collection' features works by contemporary artists such as Grayson Perry, Michael Landy, Elsa James, Madge Gill, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Uma Breakdown, as well as work by Morl.
• Friday 12 May, 2.00 – 4.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Six Hands Together - An afternoon tea with entertainment from Six Hands Together at St Andrew’s Church and Centre. A retiring collection will be taken.
• Friday 12 May 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church - Talk: New Town, New Collection - Join British artist and curator George Morl for a talk about their collection as displayed in the exhibition New Town, New Collection. Reflecting on experiences as an artist and through their role as Programme Assistant at Firstsite in Colchester, Morl shares their joy of acquiring art, and motivations for building a collection to share for others.
• Saturday 13 May, 4.00 pm, Miracle House: One Beautiful World performance by Steven Turner (Next Step Creative) - Steven Turner has trained in a variety of dance styles, including contemporary, street, mime and moving with props. He has founded Next Step Creative to promote collaboration between dance and other creative arts. Choreographing and teaching for Dance 21 (a dance company for children and young adults with Down’s syndrome), he has taught in Rotterdam and performed across the UK and Europe including at Project Dance Paris.
• Sunday 14 May, 3.00–5.00 pm, St Mary’s Runwell: In the Shadow of Your Wings - A unique event combining performances of new sacred music with discussion. Performed by acclaimed violinist Emma-Marie Kabanova, this interactive event features new psalm-inspired works written by an international collection of Jewish and Christian composers. Curated and produced by Deus Ex Musica.
• Tuesday 16 - Friday 26 May, St Andrew’s Church - One Beautiful World Exhibition - An exhibition of Space Art by Jackie E. Burns, Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, fostering the inquisitive joy of art and astronomy and inspiring people to the awe and beauty of space and astronomy.
• Friday 19 and Saturday 20 May, Salvation Army: One Beautiful World photographic exhibition by Compass Photography - Photographs by Mike Fogg and Terry Joyce of the Essex based Compass Photography Group whose approach is summed up as: “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing beauty is what separates a snapshot from a photograph.” Mike will give a free talk on ‘Composition in Photography’ on Saturday at 11.00 am.
• Friday 19 May, 7.30 pm, Christ Church: One Beautiful World concert with Yardarm Folk Orchestra - The Yardarm Folk Orchestra plays British and international folk music throughout the region and celebrates Folk from around the world through its lively and spirited appearances appealing to audiences both young and old. They have played at over 650 community, charity and fundraising events including the Leigh Folk Festival and Tenterden Folk Festival. They have also performed at well-known venues including the London Palladium and Cliffs Pavilion.
• Saturday 20 May: 9.30 am – 4.00 pm, Wickford and Runwell Art Trail - See artworks by Val Anthony, William Butterfield, Enid Chadwick, Antony Corbin, Christine Daniels, David Folley, David Garrard and Julia Glover at St Andrew’s, St Catherine’s and St Mary’s churches, plus the photographic exhibition at the Salvation Army, Jackie Burns’ Space Art at St Andrew’s, Tim Harrold’s assemblages at St Catherine’s and paintings by Pam Jones at St Mary’s. Art talks/tours at St Andrew’s (10.00 am), St Catherine’s (11.30 am), and St Mary’s (2.00 pm).
• Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May, St Mary’s Runwell: One Beautiful World exhibition by Pam Jones - An exhibition of paintings by Pam Jones at St Mary’s Runwell – 9.30 am – 4.00 pm Saturday 20 May and 9.00 – 10.30 am Sunday 21 May.
• Saturday 20 May: 4.00 pm, St Catherine’s Church: One Beautiful World poetry reading with Tim Harrold and Jonathan Evens - Tim Harrold is a poet who creates images of profound challenge and change, of pause and process, of chrysalis and catalyst. His most recent publication is ‘Verses versus Viruses’. Jonathan Evens is a creative writer whose poems and stories have been published by Amethyst Review, InternationalTimes and Stride Magazine.
• Sunday 21 May, 3.00 – 5.00 pm, RCCG Spring of Hope Church at the Nevendon Centre, Nevendon Rd, Wickford SS12 0QG: One Beautiful World music event - A music event featuring local musicians and RCCG Spring of Hope Church choir.
• Thursday 25 and Friday 26 May, 11.00 am – 3.00 pm, Wickford Christian Centre: Art exhibition - A selection of art works by various artists within our church community. Feel free to pop by to take a look and enjoy complimentary refreshments during your visit.
• Friday 26 May, 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church: Simon Law in concert - Singer-songwriter Simon Law has fronted the rock bands Fresh Claim, Sea Stone and Intransit. He is a founder of Plankton Records and an Anglican Vicar.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Simon Law - The Haven.

Bob Dylan: Springtime in New York

Bob Dylan's Springtime in New York provides an object lesson in the emotive and in the moment nature of much music criticism which nevertheless then shapes responses to the music for decades to come.

Responses to Dylan's Shot of Love were along this lines of Greil Marcus' 'what is this shit?' review of Self Portrait. Shot of Love was seen primarily as a continuation of Dylan's two Gospel albums when in retrospect it is clear that the album is a transition to his next album Infidels. Infidels itself was received as a return to form and as a secular album in contrast to the three earlier Gospel albums. The fact that Infidels is drenched in biblical imagery and allusion means that, while different from Dylan's two Gospel albums, it is lazy, inaccurate and misleading to describe Infidels as a secular album.

There are two main changes to Dylan's work as documented on #16 in the Bootleg Series. One to do with recording techniques, the other to do with the way in which he wrote about faith. 

Dylan has regularly refreshed his work and inspiration by returning to the roots of the music he loves. His first album mapped those roots by including blues, country, folk, and gospel. The Basement Tapes, Self Portrait, the two 1990s acoustic albums, and the series drawing on the Great American Songbook all represent moments of returning to his roots music. While not predominantly covers albums, Dylan's Gospel albums also involve a similar return to a genre which is part of his roots. Gospel is entwined through the blues, country & western and folk music, as well as forming its own genre. Rock and roll emerges out of blues, country and gospel in particular which is why when the Million Dollar Quartet of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash were recorded in an impromptu jam session what they sang was primarily Gospel.

Dylan's Gospel period represents a period of focus on both the genre of Gospel music and the fundamentalist Dispensationalism of many US Evangelicals but biblical imagery and themes are not limited to this period. Instead, the Bible informs much of Dylan's work throughout his career both before and after his Gospel period. In particular, the focus on apocalypse which characterises much of what he writes during the Gospel period and which is, in this period, connected to Dispensationalism similarly extends throughout his career and is generally explored through biblical imagery but without being aligned to Dispensationalism in the same way.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 prompted a critical re-evaluation of the Gospel period with the recognition that the reaction to his Gospel concerts was on a par to his going electric, his band in this period was one of the best with which he played, and his songwriting, although simpler and more direct than in some other periods, was often exceptional. 

By ending with music from the Shot of Love period Trouble No More leads into Springtime in New York. Tracks left off Shot of Love and Infidels were among the highlights of Biograph and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, so Springtime in New York returns us to a period when Dylan began to embrace the reality that his best work was often missing from the albums he released following his Gospel period. It is as though the extreme reaction to his Gospel records and concerts unsettled Dylan to the extent that he was trying to judge what would play well with his audience as opposed to simply following his own path regardless.

This showed itself in two ways. First, following Shot of Love, he abandoned his practice of playing live in the recording studio by adopting the practice of recording by working with contemporary producers and then current production techniques and sounds. This approach worked well on Infidels but led to Empire Burlesque being both over-produced and mired in the sounds of the 80's. 

Second, Dylan left classic songs such as Caribbean Wind, The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar, Angelina, Blind Willie McTell, Foot of Pride, and New Danville Girl off these albums. While each album included other classics such as Every Grain of Sand, Jokerman, I and I, and Dark Eyes, had the songs left off these albums been included the reaction to the albums as a whole would have been enhanced. In addition, these dense, wordy yet illuminating songs would have made it clearer that, in this period, Dylan was moving away from the simplistic and direct expression of faith that characterised the Gospel albums to songs where his exploration of faith was both more allusive and open. 

A song like ‘Sweetheart Like You’ from Infidels illustrates this well, as we see here a wonderfully contemporary depiction of Christ's incarnation in a song that was consistently viewed by reviewers as an example of Dylan's misogyny. The song actually expresses the exact reverse of misogyny being written from the perspective of a misogynist male employee in an all-male workplace that is literally a hell of a place in which to work. To be in there requires the doing of some evil deed, having your own harem, playing till your lips bleed. There's only one step down from there and that's the ironically named 'land of permanent bliss.'

Into this perverted and prejudiced environment comes a woman, the sweetheart of the song's title. She is a Christ figure; a sinless figure entering into a world of sin and experiencing abuse and betrayal (is 'that first kiss' a Judas kiss?) from those she encounters and to whom she holds out the possibility of a different kind of existence. Dylan makes his equation of the woman with Christ explicit by quoting directly from Jesus: 'They say in your father's house, there's many mansions' (John 14: 2).

The song's narrator is confused and challenged by her appearance. He wants to dismiss her out of hand and back to his stereotypical role for her - 'You know, a woman like you should be at home / That's where you belong / Watching out for someone who loves you true / Who would never do you wrong' - but he can't simply dismiss her as she is really there in front of him and so he begins to wonder, 'What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?' All the time he asks that question there is the possibility that he may respond to her presence without abuse or dismissal.

So, as was the case with Trouble No More, with Springtime in New York, The Bootleg Series represents a significant re-evaluation of a period of Dylan's work which had largely been written off (Shot of Love and Empire Burlesque) or thoroughly misinterpreted (Infidels) by those who wanted back the Dylan that they thought they had possessed rather than the Dylan who was actually evolving in front of them. Springtime reveals the inadequate nature of much initial response to a complex changing artist like Dylan while also showing that such initial misunderstandings of his work by becoming the standard response actively prevented understanding of the work until challenged by unreleased songs the quality and spirituality of which could not be denied.    

Read my posts of Dylan and apocalypse here, Trouble No More here, Dylan as Pilgrim here, and all my posts featuring Dylan here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Lord, Protect My Child.

Les Colombes Opening Night

For the opening night of Les Colombes: The White Doves, an Art for Peace Project by Michael Pendry at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Israeli-Swiss duo, Yonatan Maimon and Knaan Shabtay, presented an evening of Hebrew and English folk songs.

Their music combined delicate virtuoso guitar playing with catchy melodies and brought a fresh approach to traditional folk music. The concert was followed by a light and sound showing of Les Colombes: The White Doves.

Yonatan Maimon is an Israeli folk artist who started playing classical guitar at the age of 11. In 2011 he toured Israel with songs he wrote during his military conscription service. In 2014 he released his first demo album, Yonatan Maimon, selling all the copies of the first edition. In spring 2015 he recorded his debut album Beit Shearim produced at the UNESCO site Beit She’arim National Park. This special album was recorded live; inspired by the countryside and influenced by Nick Drake, Jose Gonzalez and Israeli-Latin singer David Broza and poet Meir Ariel. Kol Davar Katan was the first single from the album and was played on several radio stations across Israel and France and performed live in local indie festivals. Yonatan’s second album is soon to be released

Knaan Shabtay is a singer-songwriter and guitar player. His musical genre is often related to indie or folk and is inspired by such artists as Paul Simon and James Taylor. After spending some time in different bands, as frontman or guitar player, in November 2014 he independently released his debut EP Lost In Time which includes four songs. Stay A Little Longer is the first single from the EP and after being featured on different radio stations in Israel and Switzerland in early 2015, Knaan toured Israel including a show at Haifa 100 Live Festival. Sunrise is the first song from his new EP to be released later this year. Its live music video was released a few months ago to critical acclaim from national and international music bloggers.

Les Colombes is a multimedia installation by German artist Michael Pendry. Following successful installations with over 300,000 visitors in Jerusalem and Munich, Les Colombes will descend on St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square from 31 May – 3 July 2017.

Coming straight from Jerusalem, the 2,000 white paper doves, a symbol of the spirit, but also of peace, float through the nave of the church forming an almost 15 metre long sculpture. Light moves around the space and over the sculpture simulating the doves in flight. Quietly and playfully they integrate their movement into the atmosphere, exuding a magical sense of tranquillity and strength.

A sound cloud especially composed and produced for the installation by digital music producers Digital Haze infuses the space with the sound of cooing and fluttering wings. While a gentle rustling of the wind and mystical chords hover in space, alternating between a strong intensity and an ebbing away.

Les Colombes is free to visit during regular opening hours with special late night openings on Thursdays and Fridays from 9.30-11.00pm.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knaan Shabtay - Something Is Missing.

New (and old) music

Bill Fay's 'beautifully hymnal fourth studio album' Who is the Sender? 'contains sublime, heartfelt ruminations on nature and the world.' With less light and shade than Life is People but with a more consistently meditative tone, With profound simplicity, like that of Chance in Being There, Fay mourns the inhumanity of our warlike impulses while prayerfully calling for a new world to be manifest.

Carrie and Lowell is a meditation on grief observed that channels the emotional honesty of C. S. Lewis' reflection on his time in the shadowlands. 'I saw intimacy pass by while going about it's business, like something sung and felt by Sufjan Stevens on his new beautiful solitary and rich record filled with faith and disbelief and the resurrection of trust and dreams.'

To mark the 50th anniversary of the freedom marches as well as the Staple Singers’ performance at the New Nazareth Church on Chicago’s South Side, their concert has been remastered and restored to its original setlist and runtime. Pops Staples, patriarch, bandleader and musical visionary, had written a song about the freedom marchers called ‘Freedom Highway’ which was debuted at this concert and which became the family’s biggest hit to that date, a pivotal record, connecting gospel music with the struggle for civil rights, that inched them toward the pop mainstream without sacrificing their gospel message for a secular audience.

'The Staple Singers have left an imprint of soulful voices, social activism, religious conviction and danceable “message music.”' 'Pops and the family were rooted in gospel, blues, and "message music" traditions. He sang about darkness, and he sang about light. He's done it again [on 'Somebody Was Watching' from Don't Lose This], and while the song's arrival might be belated by over 15 years, it's a total gift to hear one of the greats completely owning his lane.'

I'm also currently discovering the music of Krzysztof Penderecki: 'naturally vibrant, sensual and with a very personal sense of architecture': 'If you simplified the last 100 years of music as a war between the forces of the atonal and the lyrical, Penderecki would be on the front lines of battle. He found fame, around 1960, as a forward-thinking avant-gardist, but later defected to the other side, looking back at the Romantics and even Bach for inspiration ... Much of his music is not for the faint of heart. With its viscerally intense drama (even in his non-stage works), this music occupies a sound world that can often be described as terrifying.' 

'The St. Luke Passion, completed in 1966, was a breakthrough piece for Penderecki, proving he was much more than a trendy avant-gardist ... It was also a major religious statement at a time when, under Soviet rule, the church was officially frowned upon.' 'In his music, Penderecki has approached politics, religion, social injustice and the plight of the common man, both in general terms and by considering specific individuals and events.' 

Arun Rath writes: 'Penderecki is not Jewish — he's not a survivor — but he is Polish. Auschwitz is basically in his backyard. A devout Christian writing authentically liturgical music, Penderecki seems to be wrestling directly with the question of how you can make peace with God after such horrors.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Staple Singers - Freedom Highway.

Bob Dylan: Voices are measured by whether they're telling the truth

Following a recent interview in which Bob Dylan spoke extensively about his inspiration, yesterday he also made a revealing speech in accepting the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year:

'Dylan traced the roots of some of his better-known songs to numerous traditional folk songs, noting that his work blossomed from his spending so much time playing the traditional works. "John Henry" begat "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" led to "Highway 61 Revisited." "Roll the Cotton Down" birthed "Maggie's Farm." "The Times They Are A Changin'" is an extension of what Dylan referred as the "come all ye" songs such as "Floyd Collins." From "Deep Elm Blues," a traditional song recorded by blues artists in the 1930s, sprang "Tangled Up in Blue."

"There's nothing secret about it," Dylan said.

Dylan made a singular point about music and great songwriting, whether he was referencing the work of gospel legends the Blackwood Brothers, folk legend Roscoe Holcomb or bluesman Charley Patton. "Voices are not to measured by how pretty they are," Dylan said, quoting Sam Cooke. "They're to be measured by whether they're telling the truth."

"The Staple Singers were one of my favorite groups of all time," he said. "They were the type of artists I wanted to record my songs."'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - High Water (For Charley Patton).

Clive Palmer RIP

The Guardian's obituary notes that, 'Clive Palmer, who has died aged 71, was a founding member of the mid-60s avant-garde folk group the Incredible String Band, and later brought his songwriting and instrumental talents to Clive’s Original Band. He was an accomplished banjo player, initially specialising in the English finger-picking “classic”style that emerged in the late 19th century ...'

Biblical references abound in Mcstiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart by C.O.B.: "It's Middle Eastern, it's contemplative and it's about quite serious subjects." It has a "sad, faintly religious atmosphere" supplemented by C.O.B.'s innovative use of drones created through their invention of the dulcitar. C.O.B.'s Mick Bennett is a poet with an "amazingly powerful voice" who "contributed a huge amount to the atmosphere and spirituality of C.O.B.'s music."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.O.B. - Martha and Mary.

The 10 albums that I enjoyed most in 2013

Here are the 10 albums (in no particular order) that I've got hold of and enjoyed the most in 2013:

The Invisible Way - Low: Alan Sparhawk has said that "Music in general has been the fiber of my faith from the beginning.  Everything I know about God was taught to me in songs & the spiritual milestones of my life have almost always been musical experiences. I think the process of writing songs has helped me learn to listen to the spirit, which then testifies of Christ & His Father." 'Holy Ghost' returns the favour, along with the rest of this inspirational album.

One True Vine by Mavis Staples: "From album opener 'Holy Ghost' (Alan Sparhawk), to the new [Jeff] Tweedy composition 'Jesus Wept,' the gravity in Staples' voice is transfixing, heavy with burdens but blessed with the promise of true redemption that shines through on the deft and driving 'Far Celestial Shore' (Nick Lowe), Can You Get To That' (Funkadelic), and Pops Staples' uplifting 'I Like The Things About Me.'"

Moyshe Mcstiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart by C.O.B.: "It's Middle Eastern, it's contemplative and it's about quite serious subjects." It has a "sad, faintly religious atmosphere" supplemented by C.O.B.'s innovative use of drones created through their invention of the dulcitar. Mick Bennett is a poet with an "amazingly powerful voice" who "contributed a huge amount to the atmosphere and spirituality of C.O.B.'s music."

Jericho Road by Eric Bibb: “The title refers to the road between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Good Samaritan, a traveler of a despised race, stopped to help a stranger in need after better-off religious leaders had passed by and done nothing. On April 3, 1968, the night before his death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King urged us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, saying:  ‘Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.’  If this record has a theme, that’s it in a nutshell: have a heart.”

Trouble Came Looking by Ricky Ross is a modern Celtic folk album written as the wheels started to fall off the economy. On the album Ricky captures the sense of helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.

Meet Me At The Edge Of The World - Over The Rhine: Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist say: "... we try to write music that in little ways helps to heal the wounds that life has dealt us or the wounds we’ve dealt ourselves. We try to write songs that can hum joyfully at the stars when something good goes down. We try to write tunes capable of whispering to a sleeping child that in spite of everything, somehow, all is well. We try to write words that help us learn to tell the truth to ourselves and others."

Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time by Steve Mason, with a title referring to the Buddhist term for an easily distracted brain, " is air punching, proletariat mobilizing, insurrection-pop of the highest calibre." "Lonely soars with melancholic-gospel-ennui, Oh My Lord is Sweet Home Alabama on a Bontempi keyboard, and Fight Them Back – arguably Mason’s finest piece of song-smithery since Dry the Rain." (BBC Review)

The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word.

The Memory Of Grace by The Children is a volume of unconventional spiritual songs dedicated to the Most High; a poetry and music rooted in English lyrical ballads; in Bob Dylan, and the sons and daughters of Bob; in Ezekiel, Matthew and the Psalms; in cultural reggae and the gospel blues.

Bill Fay's classic Time Of The Last Persecution displays empathy in the face of apocalypse. Fay's songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights (both whimsical and surreal bearing comparison with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake) delivered with gravity and grace.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.O.B. - Solomon's Song.

Electric Eden and the New Folk Revival

Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music is an acclaimed history of the evolution of British folk music. Author Rob Young has a fascination with the roots of English folk music and its ties to the British countryside. For the most part the book "is a surefooted guide to the various tangled paths the English folk song has since been taken down by classicists, collectors, revivalists, iconoclasts, pagans, psychedelic visionaries, punks and purists."

The book is in some ways a search for the national psyche which Young notes has been shaped by a "wrestling for possession between competing religious doctrines, heathen, pagan and Christian." Young finds more of interest in folk-rock which is heathen or pagan but, interestingly, he does value the work of Bill Fay, the Biblical references which abound in C.O.B's Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart, and also includes a brief survey of '70's Jesus Music noting that "there were a few groups - After the Fire, Caedmon, Canaan, Cloud, Bryn Haworth, Meet Jesus Music, Narnia, Nutshell, Parchment, Presence, Reynard, Trinity Folk, Water into Wine Band and 11.59 - which managed to make a music that has lasting value, a kind of Eucharistic-progressive sound that sits comfortably with the better acid folk of the period." He highlights, as being of particular interest, Caedmon's self-titled 1978 album, the Water into Wine band's Hill Climbing for Beginners, Bob and Carole Pegg's And Now It Is So Early with Sydney Carter, Carter's A Folk Passion, and the Reflection Records compilation Sounds of Salvation. 

Young acknowledges that set against "the Dada venom of punk, the angular edges of post-punk and new wave and the plastic seductions of New Romanticism," the "irrelevant, parlous state of folk music in the late 1970s" was revealed. From this point on the book loses focus as Young indulges his liking for Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Talk Talk and Julian Cope without (except in the case of Cope) demonstrating their links to what has gone before. In doing so, Young overlooks the links between punk's political attack and folk's role as the voice of the common people; a connection that Billy Bragg clearly recognised and utilised.   

More recently, Young was one of those interviewed along with Bragg, for Get Folked: The Great Folk Revival which takes up the story Young told and explores the current resurgence in folk's popularity:

"Something incredible has been happening in the music scene over the last few years. Folk - a musical tradition with roots in the pre-electric world - is now becoming the new 21st-century pop phenomenon. Is it the antidote to manufactured music, the new punk, or simply evidence of the enduring appeal of this age-old musical form? This programme features first-hand testimony and intimate, specially shot musical performances from a cross-generational cast of legends, new and old. Richard Thompson, The Lumineers, Jake Bugg, Frank Turner, Akala, Donovan, Martin Carthy, The Unthanks, Alt-J, Newton Faulkner, Seth Lakeman, Bob Geldof and Ade Edmondson are among the contributors."

In introducing the new Folk Revival, the programme references visually the influence of Communion artists including Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling. Although not included in the documentary per se, some of these artists, such as Mumford and Sons and Michael Kiwanuka, continue to tap the Christian influence which, as Young notes in Electric Eden, can be found as a strand within English folk music.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C.O.B. - Martha And Mary.

Music update

The first single from the album ... “Now” ... shows that Paramore is back in full force. "It just feels like the perfect way to start this new journey we are embarking on not only as a band but as a movement," the band wrote. "To show people that you can lose battles but come back and win full-on wars. You can rise from ashes. You can make something out of even less than nothing. The only thing you have to do is keep moving forward."

"My grappling with spirituality is … I’m not a church going person. Any first year divinity student could debate circles around me with religion. But I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about spirituality. It’s important to me to try and understand what my perspective is on a higher power, and to understand what role that sort of belief might play in my life. It’s critical to me to think about this stuff – a lot." (M. C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger)

The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word, which was recorded and produced by Jim Eno of Spoon.

Ricky Ross will be releasing a new solo album ‘Trouble Came Looking’ in April and touring Scotland, Wales and England in April – May to support it. Ricky began writing ‘Trouble Came Looking’ as the wheels started to fall off the economy. It’s a modern Celtic folk album about the helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hiss Golden Messenger - I've Got A Name For The Newborn Child.

Real hope in the face of genuine despair

On Wrecking Ball Bruce Springsteen combines the classic sound of the E Street Band with that of the Seeger Sessions Band. He combines hard times stories of recession hit working people with the language of hope and aspiration in the midst of hard times found in gospel music and spirituals. He even manages to combine folk, gospel and rap within one song ('Rocky Ground') without sounding a false note. He repeats the trick he pulled off with 'Born in the USA' of writing a patriotic sounding song which questions the unthinking patriotism of those who don't appreciate the irony ('We Take Care Of Our Own'). The album is propelled forward by the anger of its storytelling songs before seguing through 'Wrecking Ball' into songs of hopeful fortitude for which Springsteen appropriates the language of faith and the imagery of the Bible. Wrecking Ball is a masterful summation of Springsteen's strengths and an inspirational call to real hope in the face of genuine despair.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Springsteen - Rocky Ground.

Together Through Life

The period since Time Out Of Mind has been particularly fertile for Bob Dylan's songwriting particularly when compared to the period between Infidels and Oh Mercy. In that period, as he wrote in Chronicles, he "felt done for, an empty burned-out wreck." His own songs had become strangers to him, there was a hollow singing in his heart and he couldn't wait to retire and fold the tent.

What changed him was a moment of revelation that came during a concert in Locarno, Switzerland as he stepped up to the mic, panicked and felt unable to sing. He has said that "it was almost like I heard a voice ... I'm determined to stand, whether God will deliver me or not." That's when he knew, as Larry Sloman writes in the Tell Tale Signs booklet, that he had to "go out and keep playing those songs."

Those songs are the old, traditional songs of Americana: songs that he sang on his first album; songs that he sang on the two solo acoustic cover records that he recorded in 1992 and 1993; songs that he plays thematically on his successful radio show. With the publication of his memoirs and his radio show, there has been a renewed reflection on his own past and his own influences; one that seems to have released a stream of inspiration that is continued on his new album Together Through Life.

In many ways, this stream of inspiration has involved reworking and rearticulating the classic Dylan song, 'Blind Willie McTell', that was left off Infidels. Predominantly blues-based and extending the blues/folk metaphor of the drifter, Together Through Life finds Dylan's characters rambling through apocalyptic landscapes, experiencing life's hardness, grasping and eulogising love with a wry and sardonic irony wherever they can find it before the change that death will bring.

Dylan has said that:

"Those old songs are my lexicon and my prayer book. You can find all my philosophy in those old songs. Hank Williams singing 'I Saw The Light' or all the Luke The Drifter songs. That would be pretty close to my religion. The rabbis, priests, and ministers all do very well. But my belief system is more rugged and comes more from out of the old spiritual songs than from any of the established religious attempts at overcoming the devil."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Beyond Here Lies Nothin'.