Wilco - Star Wars

Without any advance warning 'Star Wars' the new album by Wilco suddenly appeared last week, available as a free MP3 download from their website.

It is less than a year since Jeff Tweedy and son Spencer issued the album 'Sukierae' under the name Tweedy. A double length album, I refrained from comment at the time as I found some of the material to be strong but felt that it was a little overblown and contained too much what I regard as "filler". The last Wilco album, 'The Whole Love' was almost a return to their more experimental material after the rather fluffy pop of 'Sky Blue Sky' and 'Wilco (The Album)'. However the content did not quite warrant in my opinion, an album of just under an hour in length, the final track alone being over 12 minutes long.

'Star Wars' despite what I regard as a pretty awful cover, is to my mind a startling return to the kind of form they were in with 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' (2002) and 'A Ghost is Born' (2004). It is an album that is full of surprises and great songs and it's very welcome that they appear to be taking risks with their music again. Also, the eleven tracks clock in at just under 34 minutes, so it can hardly be described as overblown.

I have no doubt that this album will be receiving more attention than 'Sukierae' did and I suspect it may even feature among my favourites of 2015.




Should you be interested in purchasing a conventional version of the album, the CD will be available from 21 August and the vinyl LP from 27 November.

Back to the Black (Vinyl that is)

Some people have called me a nostalgic old fool while others have asked "What took you so long?"

So what event has provoked such comments? Well, after much deliberation and years of proclaiming that it would never happen, I have returned to the world of vinyl records. A brand new turntable deck found its way mysteriously into the White Room prompting me to browse around a local market at the weekend and return with four decent looking albums for around £12. They are all albums I have owned in the past of course, but ones that I no longer own in any format.

If you should be interested and happen to have read this far then I can reveal that the said records are:-

• Hoy-Hoy by Little Feat (a double album complete with full sized insert booklet)
• You Can All Join In a 1969 Island label sampler
• Songs to Remember by Scritti Politti
• Big World by Joe Jackson (a 3-sided album - I believe the first ever produced in this format) complete with insert.

I must confess to a certain degree of nostalgic satisfaction as I browsed for the records, carefully removed them from their sleeves to check the condition and finally carried them home under my arm. It was just like the old days and I'm so much looking forward to more record hunting expeditions.

This is Little Feat playing as I write.

As the records spun, I wondered what had brought on these seemingly irrational acquisitions. I'm sure that part of it is pure nostalgia. But browsing and collecting records has been a part of my life for as far back as I can remember; from playing 78 RPM discs belonging to an older cousin, and making my own first purchases with my meagre pocket money allowance. For example when I was about 13 or 14 I recall finding an LP in what I assume was the bargain bin at a local Woolworth's store. It was called 'There's a Hoot Tonight' and was by Rod McKuen. At the time I had never heard of him but the song titles were emblazoned across the front cover and at the top was 'Blowin' in the Wind'. I couldn't afford Dylan albums so parted with a few pennies and carried Rod McKuen home. 

Thereafter, I spent the remainder of my teens and twenties browsing through LP's and building up my collection. Of course all that came to an end as CD's became more popular and record stores even stopped selling records. Now, as vinyl has once again become popular, the two major music stores in this area are stocking more and more LP's and for months I have been drawn to rifling through them - even though I didn't even own a record player. Just old habits dying hard again I guess.

Anyway, I have rectified that one little problem and now I can rifle through those LP's to my heart's content. At least my browsing now has some point to it.

Bede's Way

Like me, the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel is 64 years old. Thankfully I can truthfully say that unlike the tunnel, I have not had millions of pounds spent on my renovation. Making matters worse, is the fact that work on the tunnel has been suspended owing to the building company going into administration. It has already been closed for a year and is likely to remain that way for at least another 12 months. Consequently my plans for getting to St. Paul's church in Jarrow had to be altered. Instead of a nostalgic walk through the tunnel, I took the ferry across the Tyne to South Shields and then a metro to Bede. From there it was but a short walk to St. Paul's.

The purpose of the journey was to tackle the 12 mile walk known as Bede's Way which links the twin churches of St. Paul's in Jarrow to St. Peter's in Monkwearmouth on the outskirts of Sunderland. The Venerable Bede was in fact a native of these parts as I am sure you will be aware. Obviously you will of course have read his 'Historia ecclesiastica gentus Anglorum' (The Ecclesiastical history of the English people). 

My participation in a walk near Ullswater in the English Lake District earlier in the week, was called off owing to inclement weather. So I was pleased of the opportunity to get a decent walk in when the weather improved a couple of days later. Having slapped on the sun protection, I set off from St. Paul's following initially the course of the River Don, which in Anglo-Saxon times was quite a substantial river that surrounded Jarrow on three sides. Now, it is little more than a stream.

As Mikhail Sholokhov wrote..... 'And Quiet Flows the Don.













Having navigated my way past and underneath the busy A19 road, I then found that much of the early part of my walk was through pleasant fields and pastures teeming with wild flowers and the noise of traffic was thankfully soon replaced by the more pleasant sound of birdsong. This was more like it.



The walk is conveniently divided into six sections which can be tackled separately thanks to the close proximity to public transport systems such as buses or metros. I was determined to finish the whole route in one day but it was reassuring to know that I could abort the walk at any time if the weather turned or another emergency arose.

Thankfully the weather remained fine and dry and eventually I began to head towards the coast on what is known as the Linnet Way.













To be honest I never spotted any linnets. They may have been frightened off by this fellow.


Having taken lunch at the end of the third stage I found the remaining parts of the walk to be by far the most pleasant and interesting. 

One path brought me up to the former water pumping station at Cleadon. The site is dominated by a grade 2 listed tower which is actually a chimney and which can be seen from miles around. As you will immediately see from this photo, the tower is built to resemble an Italian campanile bell tower.



Leaving that structure behind I climbed a short distance, bringing me to the highest point of the Cleadon Hills, dominated by an old windmill which dates from the 1820's. It was damaged in a storm in the 1870's and was then used during the First World War for artillery target practice. I have visited this spot before on previous walks and I have to say that the view is quite breathtaking as one can see down the coast towards Sunderland, across County Durham towards Chester-le-Street and Penshaw Monument and then in another direction right across to Tyneside. 

As I began my descent towards the coast, I was able to look back at the two dominating landmarks I had passed earlier.

The path eventually brought me into the attractive village of Whitburn where, being ahead of schedule, I paused to take in some of the views.



Like the village pond which at one time used to flood in very wet weather. Such were the extent of these that the adjacent infant school was often flooded forcing pupils to sit on their desks to avoid the water.








The village also featured a number of other attractive buildings.

After resting in the sunshine with a cool drink, I pressed on through the attractive park and out onto the sea front where I turned south to tackle the final part of my journey to Monkwearmouth.

Or should I head to Germany instead?












I decided that Germany could wait for another day, so I stuck to my original plan and it wasn't long before I reached my destination, the recently restored church and grounds of St. Peter. As I sat gazing at the church I thought of Bede and his fellow monks who probably walked those same footpaths 1400 years ago and I wondered just how much the landscape will have changed in those years.

It was only as I sped through that landscape on my metro journey back to South Shields and I was able to pick out some of the landmarks I had passed on my earlier walk, that I fully appreciated just how much ground I had covered. I have walked that distance and further on many previous occasions but somehow I felt a greater sense of achievement on this occasion.  Perhaps it was the spiritual nature of the walk that made me grateful that I was healthy enough to complete such a challenge. 

The History of Rock 1965

I noticed last week that newsagents had a new magazine on display. From the makers of UNCUT, the History of Rock is a new monthly which uses archive material from Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME) to document the story of the evolution of rock music. At one penny under £10 the magazine may be expensive but it runs to 144 pages of smallish font type, so I guess there is as much reading inside as in a paperback book of similar price.

Temptation overcame me and I handed over my cash. Since then I have been regularly delving into the pages which for this first issue cover the year 1965. Consequently we get a heavy dose of Beatles related material but as expected there are many features about the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Who and the Kinks. What came as a pleasant surprise is that the articles also cover other genres such as folk (Donovan, Bert Jansch), blues (the Yardbirds) and most surprisingly, jazz, with good pieces on Bill Evans and John Coltrane. There are of course many photographs and a few contemporary adverts to give the reader a flavour of those times.

I am particularly struck by the rather quaint style of some of the reporting in those far off days. One can almost hear the plummy BBC-like tones of some of the reporters. Where nowadays would one read the following about the Rolling Stones "They've done mighty well though, for a group upon whom so much controversy always seems to be centred"?

So far, other bits and pieces that have amused me have included a quip from John Lennon while reviewing the Joan Baez single 'Farewell Angelina'. "It's Granny Baez. If you meet her, she sings you everything she knows anyway."

Also in an article on the pirate radio stations, I read that people in Newcastle were rarely able to pick up Radio Caroline broadcasts (true) but that some youngsters attached their radios to water or gas pipes to improve reception. Apparently it worked!

Finally and regrettably I must bring shame upon the late Melody Maker writer, Bob Dawbarn. In a review of Dylan's single 'Like a Rolling Stone' he describes the "horrific backing dominated by syrupy strings (?), amplified guitar and organ." He goes on to describe the "monotonous melody line and Dylan's expressionless dirge". Best of all perhaps is the the following:
"My copy of the disc bears the legend 'Prod. by Tom Wilson'. Somebody should have prodded Mr.Wilson until he agreed to lock the backing group in the cellar until the session was over".

Priceless!

To be fair to Bob Dawbarn however it should be pointed out that he was much more into jazz than pop or rock (he was in fact also a jazz trombonist). Nevertheless some of his reporting has caused me a few wry chuckles while browsing through this magazine.

So far so good and I'm already looking forward to the second issue which you may be surprised to learn covers the year 1966.

Big Road Blues - A Musical Journey Through The Years

Fans of Lucinda Williams may recognise the title 'Down the Big Road Blues' which featured as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition of her breakthrough Grammy Award winning album 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'. The song is rightly credited to Mattie Delaney who unfortunately only had two known recordings released under her name. One was the aforementioned 'Down the Big Road Blues' while on the other side of the disc was 'Tallahatchie River Blues' a song about the flood of the river that occurred on 23 January 1930.

Both tracks were recorded in Memphis on 21 February 1930 and were released on the Vocalion record label. On both cuts Delaney sang and accompanied herself on guitar. Beyond the fact that she was still alive in 1930, nothing else is known about Delaney. She simply disappeared from public view..

Although she wrote 'Down the Big Road Blues' the song was a variation on 'Big Road Blues' which had been written by Tommy Johnson and was recorded by him also in Memphis on 3 February 1928. It was released on Victor Records coupled with 'Cool Drink of Water Blues' on a 10" 78 RPM record bearing the Victor label. On both tracks, Johnson sang and played guitar accompanied by second guitarist, Charlie McCoy.

Canned Heat who were to take their name from another Tommy Johnson song, 'Canned Heat Blues' included Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' on their self titled 1967 debut album. The following year they released the track 'On The Road Again' which paid homage to a 1953 song of the same name by Floyd Jones who had simply reworked his own haunting 1952 recording 'Dark Road Blues'. Listening to the latter, it should be obvious to anyone that it is very heavily influenced by Johnson's 'Big Road Blues'.

Then in 2003, Corey Harris who was not born until two years after Canned Heat's debut, released the album 'Mississippi to Mali' on which he fused his own blues with the music of Ali Farka Toure. One of the tracks included on the album was none other than Tommy Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' (though it was credited on the album as 'traditional').

Thus the thread that connects these diverse performances can clearly be seen stretching from Tommy Johnson in 1928 through Mattie Delaney (1930), Floyd Jones (1952), Canned Heat (1967), Lucinda Williams (1998) and eventually to Corey Harris in 2003. A total of 75 years. 

I hope that these examples provide one small glimpse into how the works of blues artists from the early part of the 20th century continue to influence contemporary artists today. It makes me wonder however, whether those contemporary acts will exert the same influence in another 75 years. One thing is for sure; I won't be here to find out.

Click the links below to listen to each of these fine tracks. I hope you enjoy them.

Tommy Johnson - Big Road Blues (1928)

Mattie Delaney - Down the Big Road Blues (1930)

Floyd Jones - Dark Road Blues (1952)

Canned Heat - Big Road Blues (1967)

Lucinda Williams - Down the Big Road Blues (1998) [live version]

Corey Harris - Big Road Blues (2003)

Fifteen Minutes of "Fame"

After months of hard work and rehearsals, the little folk band I play with each week, justified the effort on Thursday night with a fifteen minute set on the stage of Hall 2 at Sage Gateshead. It was all part of an 'acoustic roots' evening.

I have seen many of my musical heroes performing on that very stage over the past 10 years, so it was a particular treat for me to be able to have a nose around back stage and then to actually perform before an audience in that wonderful venue.

After a bit of a shambolic sound check, I'm pleased to say that we pulled it together backstage and the performance went well. And to think that 18 months ago the thought of performing in public would have filled me with dread. I'm therefore grateful to my tutor and bandmates for helping me to step outside my comfort zone.

Thanks guys. I wouldn't have missed that for the world.

Box Sets #17 - Face The Music by Nils Lofgren

Nils Lofgren is an artist I have admired for many years. After all, who could fail to admire a musician good enough to feature as part of Crazy Horse, the E-Street Band and Ringo Starr's All Starr Band?

Having bought the first two Grin albums on vinyl followed in due course by the solo album 'Cry Tough', I then somehow lost touch with his recorded output.

So, this box set is an ideal addition to my collection featuring as it does, seven discs of tracks covering the full career of Nils Lofgren to date. Additionally, and this may be of more interest to those who already own all of his recordings, there are two discs of rare and unreleased tracks and a DVD of various live performances.

To round the whole thing off there is also a fine hard backed book which has been written by Nils himself. This combines biographical information and details about all of the tracks featured in the set as well as a number of very nice photographs.

If listening to this set does not convince you of the obvious vocal and musical talents of Nils Lofgren, then nothing will.


Finally, having missed seeing Nils live at Sage, Gateshead earlier in the year, I now have a ticket to see him even closer to home at Whitley Bay Playhouse in November.