Tag: Cormac O Caoimh

Despite co-writing Nitty Gritty Dirt Band hit ‘Buy For Me The Rain’ and releasing critically acclaimed albums Revenge Will Come, Diana And James and The Tango Bar, GREG COPELAND has always been somewhat in the shadow of schoolfriend Jackson Browne who produced his debut. Of course, gaps of 26 and 12 years between albums, respectively, didn’t help sustain his profile. Still, a mere four years on, now 78, he returns with Empire State, a new EP that, featuring Greg Leisz on pedal steel, drummer Jay Bellarose, Val McCallum on electric guitar, Tyler Chester on keys and bassist Jennifer Condos, deserves to enjoy a public reception to match the critical praise.

Again steeped in pertinent political observations, it opens with the organ-pinned bluesy gospel groove of ‘Boon Time’ which, speaking of economic collapse and reminiscent of a Steve Earle, has him singing “Had a wife had a plan had a job I could stand somewhere in dreamland, honey what do we do now?” The six-minute plus ‘We The Gathered’ with its smouldering ominous bluesy feel and tribal drum beat paints a picture of political turmoil (“From the cardboard tents to the city on the hill/they say you better surrender/like hell I will/nation in pieces/people in pain/systematic bullshit thick as sugarcane”) where, peace and brotherhood gone missing, with a call to arms (“You’re going to want that machete … There will be razors in the reeds/choppers overhead/Maseratis spinning in the riverbed/somebody’s suitcase scattered in the vines with the snakes and the gators and the valentines”).

Sara Watkins on violin and Copeland fingerpicking, the Prine-like ‘4:59:59’ has its protagonist digging ditches as a way out of addiction (“Oxycotton candy, owned me flesh and bone, I burned other people’s bridges, so I could be alone/It took a worn out pick and shovel, for me to find a stepping stone… me and Vincent Brady in a van of sketchy men digging holes for County Power in that fucking Utah wind”). Coyotes is just that, a field recording of them in his backyard, leading to the six-minute title track about a songwriter who leaves her boyfriend, New York, and the American Empire behind (“Fire in the firehouse/fire at the pearly gates/city girl signing off from the Empire State”), taking baby steps and setting out to find herself and get what she needs, captured in the brilliant line “Everybody’s got their own little jukebox, this is mine”.  You definitely need his empire state of mind.
www.gregcopeland.me

Weary is the new EP from former Persuader JOHN JENKINS. It opens with the richly arranged title track with ‘Do You Ever Think About Me’ following in the same vein – major support comes from Jon Lawton plus strings, brass and a veritable choir of backing vocalists. The same ensemble cast appears in various forms throughout the set.

‘Bury Myself In Sand’ is a jazzy number with expansive keyboards by Chris Howard. The up-tempo melody seems a little at odds with the song’s sentiments: “I want to stay home and do nothing/But nothing feels too much right now”. We all feel like that some days. ‘The Reason’ leans a bit more towards Americana, built on solid drums and guitars from Lawton while the soul-searching ‘I Don’t Want To Be That Guy Anymore’ tends towards indie and another fine solo from Lawton. Finally, ‘Dressing Up The Truth’ explores childhood memories with the realisation that nothing ever stays the same.
https://www.facebook.com/johnjenkinsmusicliverpool/

The first of a series of EPs leading up to a new album, Cork’s CORMAC O CAIOMH self-releases My Harbour, My Girl, My Pearl, My War, My World, the shortened melodically circling title track, ‘My Harbour’, a song of love and loss (“I should visit your grave side/Say a prayer you’d mock me for/You kept a lot inside/But not afraid to speak your mind”). Reviving his B-sides crusade, it comes with two further tracks, the jaunty, jazzy piano ‘Visions In Bloom’ originally by his old band The Citadels and the previously unrecorded slower strummed and softly gathering ‘12 Days in Brazil’.
cormaco.bandcamp.com

ONE ADAM ONE are an alt-country duo from St. Louis. Their second EP, Monday Morning begins with the title track, heralded by solid drums, which carries hints of so many other songs and bands. The second track, ‘Girl You Gotta Know’, is a slow, reflective song opening with rich acoustic guitar. There is nice, but all too short, guitar solo but the track builds up until there is almost too much going on.

‘Beating My Wings’ is another powerful song but the mood changes slightly with ‘I Don’t Feel Like Myself’ and its jokey opening, possibly the record’s top track. From ‘Monday Morning’ we end with ‘Sideways Sunday’, a rather downbeat closer. This is quality music but One Adam One might consider the maxim that less is more.
www.oneadamone.com

Having trailed it with ‘The Rope’, her setting of a Colin Macduff poem, Scot late bloomer SHIRLEY BARR now releases her debut EP, Begin Began Begun, which adds a further five numbers. Inspired by a line in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s Pied Beauty, ‘Run Free’ captures the feeling of her younger self at the beginning of school summer holidays (“A fountain of joy that’s springing forth from the child/As she skips and hops and jumps/Skips and hops and jumps and runs”). Beth Porter on cello and Maria Quinn on piano, the melancholically lovely ‘Hermione’ is a song about regret inspired by ‘The Winter’s Tale’ while the piano-based, heartbeat pulsing ‘Little Thief’ takes its title from the Latin ‘furittus’, the track an unlikely love song from a farmer to a ferret, used to control rabbits who devour the grass on which sheep graze. Porter again on cello, inspired by a definition of the tarot card and set in an imaginary restaurant with a gossipy Maître d’, ‘Queen of Cups’ looks at the givers and takers of the world (“When nothing’s left to give away/You are doomed to starve and fade”). Finally, featuring  kalimba and harmonium, ‘Papadil’ has its origin in a book of poetry by Les Bates called ‘Light Down The Loch’, its fictional tale of unrequited love (“My first love, as a maiden of fifteen/Brightness in his wake/I’ve loved him two score years and five/But my love he did forsake”) emerging from his writings about Beccán mac Luigdech, a 7th-century Irish composer of Christian poetry and monk of Iona who may or may not have spent last 45 years of his life as a hermit on Rum.
www.shirleybarrmusic.com

There are some tracks that defy description and ‘Used Up Useless Useful Idiot’ by OTHERISH is one such. The band are from Belfast and might be considered punk-folk. The subject matter – well if you remember the film Logan’s Run you’re right on the money. If you’re over thirty you can forget it: “you’re a non-playing character”, “You don’t get to get in the bunker”. The music is almost discordant in a rather pleasant way with assorted strangeness going on all around.
https://otherish1.bandcamp.com/track/used-up-useless-useful-idiot

Named for a location on the Deben River in Suffolk, KYSON POINT are a new husband and wife duo comprising Kelly Bayfield and David Booth, who, having worked on each other’s solo albums, now make their joint debut with ‘Michael’ (The Recording Booth), a steady handclap chug coloured by cello, flugelhorn, cornet and viola. The inspiration for the song was a photograph of a man peering through the curtains of a bar covered window, prompting a questioning of our predisposition to judge each other with no actual basis (“there’s a jury queueing for the bus a judge serving up the news/Michael your face don’t fit around here and we don’t want to face the truth”), becoming a story of content in a solitude in spite of a world that doesn’t accept him (“Lock me in my sanctuary/This lonesome world is the prison that you kindly built for me”).
www.kysonpoint.com

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of RNLI, SETH LAKEMAN teams up with FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS for ‘Brave Volunteers’. The shanty-style song, with Lakeman’s musical decorations, tells the story of Al Kassim who was rescued from sea in 2015 and then volunteered to join the Tower lifeboat on the Thames. It’s a rousing track, perhaps a bit gung-ho but you can’t blame them for that.
www.thefishermansfriends.com   www.sethlakeman.co.uk

A new London-based folk trio comprising Alex from Billericay, Hong Kongese multi-instrumentalist Jon and Jenni from Hamburg on strings, THE GRAND OLD ECHO make their debut with ‘Time On The Stage’ (Eternal Echoes), an upbeat swayalong about life playing in a band, journeying from a young Alex crying on a park bench to his older happy self following a passion for music.
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564220365572

“I’m older and wiser now” declares ANNA ANISE at the beginning of her single, ‘Awakening’, a gently powerful song (if that makes sense) built on acoustic guitar and fiddle by boci with lots of harmony voices. It’s inspired by the traditional tune ‘Inisheer’ which Anna incorporates into the composition and is the first track on her summer EP.
https://annaanise.bandcamp.com/album/awakening

‘Sunk’, the new single from TARREN, opens with a keening single note followed by a gentle sombre chord rhythm. Then a solo voice begins the song before the full harmony section joins in. The whole thing builds gradually until Alex Garden’s fiddle drives it on its climax. It’s a very fine piece of work. The track is taken from Tarren’s second album, Outside Time.
https://tarrenmusic.com/home

There’s a rather strange opening to ‘He’, the new single by HAYDEN THORPE from his forthcoming album, Ness. It would be nice to say that the track settles down but it remains just on the side of oddness perfectly suited to the subject matter. The ness in question is Orford Ness (more than worth a visit) and the words are by nature and travel writer Robert McFarlane. A fascinating piece which bodes well for the album.
https://www.haydenthorpe.com/

‘Minstrel Of The Wasteland’ is the title track and lead single from the new album by Liverpudlian Stephen Lawson, aka BLUENOSE B. Based on a short story by Steven set in a dystopian future in which music is illegal, it’s a fine song with musical support from John and Virginia Kettle, Simon Swarbrick and Steven’s sister Lauren. There is also a striking video produced by Neil McCartney. It should be part of a concept album along the lines of Songs From The Floodplain but it hasn’t quite turned out like that.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064802229024

JOANNA STERNBERG is a musician/artist from New York. Their new single is ‘A Country Dance’ from the movie Between The Temples, a happy country tune which conceals some thoughtful lyrics that touch on the difference between reality and fantasy in our minds. Is the singer genuinely happy or secretly lonely? You have to decide.
https://www.joannasternberg.com/

‘No One (Ever Saw Me This Way), the debut single by singer/songwriter JESSICA DIVES, is an upbeat song about cherishing the good times. It’s built around Jessica’s accordion and acoustic guitar and could equally be a love song in which the word love never appears.
https://www.facebook.com/jessicadivesmusic