Tag: Brinsley Schwarz

Brinsley Schwarz – the band and the man – are one of the legendary names for my generation, opening for Wings, playing on the Old Grey Whistle Test and yet remaining slightly ‘out there’. When superstardom didn’t arrive and they disbanded in 1975, Schwarz became a member of Graham Parker and The Rumour and, as a result, the Rumour’s own work and their support for the likes of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds.

That’s all a long time ago, but it does mean that when Shouting At The Moon arrived in Folking Towers, I leapt at the chance to hear the album. It is described as the third album of a trilogy that (the man not the band – and the last time I’ll make the distinction) Brinsley Shwarz began with a debut solo release in 2016, followed by a second solo album in 2021. Shwarz has written eight of the nine tracks; the ninth ‘Watch The Moon Come Down’ is a Graham Parker song from the late 1970’s.

The album bounces open with ’Every Day’ lively rhythm, cheery sax, Schwarz’s vocal warm to suit the apparent warmth of a lyric “Every morning, before I wake up / Feel you beside me, yeah, you feel so good”. It’s a feel-good opener … until you get to the end of the verse and find this is a song about loss and aloneness, “I stumble awake / Find that empty place where you used to be”. Canny songwriting, canny playing and arrangement to juxtapose those feelings rather nicely. ‘What In The World’ is moodier, late-night guitar and a steady rhythm. ‘Falling Over Backwards’ builds on the late-night feel, another failed relationship song, a feel further developed with two of my best-loved sounds in Hammond organ and sax.

‘Nothing Is What It Seems’ continues the disjointed theme “You’re just a liar and your friend’s a thief / You got a two-timing nature underneath” and has a belting refrain/chorus that I want to hear live with an audience joining in, “There’s a big storm coming / Nothing is what it seems”. The Graham Parker re-vamp has Schwarz’ vocal very much to the fore, his voice grabbing the attention, a reminder of how well he can carry a song.

‘Maybe One Day’ moves us on from relationship breakdown in progress to reflecting alone at home, Schwarz on both vocal and vocal harmony, to enhance an already catchy melody. ‘The Chance’ takes the story on (it feels like the tracks are arranged as a story, though there are no notes to suggest this), an upbeat track about hesitating before getting together “And that’s the way between a woman and a man / You have to take the chance whenever you can”, with Hammond organ that drives and lead guitar that simultaneously smooches and pops.

‘Hard To Change’ widens the scope from the personal as it funks along to a lyric which uses individuals-as-representatives to suggest how we might start to make a better world. The album closes with ‘It’s Been A Hard Year’, slower, anthemic, another song of juxtapositions, probably written about climate change but equally capable of building on the thoughts of complex human relationships elsewhere on the album “It’s been a long year / it’s been a hard year / And can we do enough / If only we can rescue us”.

Brinsley Schwarz Shouting At The Moon isn’t folk, but if the songs, the playing and the arrangements are as good as this, I can’t help being delighted that the album found its way into the Folking Towers letterbox.

Mike Wistow

Artist’s website: https://www.facebook.com/BrinsleySchwarzMusic

‘Nothing Is What It Seems’: