Tag: John Paul Mason

GREENSHANKS is the nom-de-plume of Will Boyd-Wallis who works for The National Trust for Scotland in Strathspey. Stormbird is his debut EP; five songs with links to the sea but perhaps not in the way you might expect. Will is direct, robust singer and his writing is the same. The first track, ‘Fistful Of Sand’ is a heartfelt song concerning the clearances from the Isle of Rum and in particular his great-great-grandfather who was one of the men shipped off to Nova Scotia in 1836. Ross Ainslie features on low whistle.

‘The Ballad Of Billy And Eilidh’ is a fanciful song ending in tragedy, written during bad weather on the Isle of Barra. Iain Forrest’s slide guitar gives it a particular feel although you think it shouldn’t work. It just does. ‘Sandstone’ is described as a modern day Selkie song that in its spoken section is somehow reminiscent of Andy White while ‘Into The Open’ is the inevitable lockdown song underpinned by James Lindsey’s bass with a sort of country vibe. The title track, the most poetic song on the album, was inspired by a storm petrel chick on St Kilda, one of Scotland’s World Heritage Sites which is presumably what took Will there.

Stormbird is a cracking debut from a singer/songwriter we should hear much more of.
www.greenshanks.com

Some singers protest, others look to nature for solace. NICK LAWRENCE from Folkestone is of the latter persuasion as his EP, Of Oak And Ash, demonstrates. The opener, ‘The Return Of The Oak King’, looks forward to the return of spring and summer heralded by the appearance of the oak in leaf. ‘At Lughnasa We Will Dance’ is set at harvest time and, unlike the first track which is built on acoustic guitar, this is sung accompanied only on bodhran, appropriately since Lughnasa is a Gaelic harvest celebration.

‘1381’ relates the buildup to the murder of Wat Tyler for which Nick holds John of Gaunt partly responsible although the beheading of the Archbishop of Canterbury probably didn’t help the peasants’ cause. The song is rather more in-yer-face than the Ralph McTell/Simon Nicol telling of the same story. ‘The Day The Heathens Came’ goes even further back in history recounting the Viking invasion although it comes over a bit like Anglo-Saxon propaganda. Finally, the unaccompanied ‘Kentish Wassail’ brings us to the end of year. Like the other track this is a Lawrence original while drawing on traditional lines.

This an entertaining set of songs pulling together bits of history, folklore and customs. Nick is something of a veteran although he’s been away for a while. He is making a welcome return.
nicklawrencemusic.co.uk/

For her second single after a resumption of her musical life following treatment for a rare tissue cancer, MINNIE BIRCH self-releases the breathily sung bittersweet ‘Hook’, another personal song born of the experience and about learning to live with the things you couldn’t have, no matter how much you wanted them. As the title intimates, played out on guitar and piano, it draws on the figure of Captain Hook in ‘Peter Pan’, the lost boy who had to grow up, the swaying metronomic rhythm mirroring the ticking clock inside the crocodile pursuing him which becomes a symbol of time running out for a woman’s body clock, fertility and the societal pressures to have children. Gorgeous and sad.
www.minniebirch.co.uk

AMY HOPWOOD borrows an American tune which they pinched from the Irish for her new single, ‘Fire And Fury’. You won’t be surprised to learn that it isn’t the only protest song to grace our pages at the moment. Amy insists that she isn’t only singing about the USA but you know what is at the heart of the song. The accompaniment of whistles and military side drum gives the track a primitive feel which reinforces the message.
www.AmyHopwood.co.uk

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of when Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins lost his life after he became trapped 55 feet underground in Sand Cave, dying before a two week rescue mission, broadcast on national radio, could reach him (“The rescue party labored, they worked both night and day/To move the mighty barrier that stood within their way”). His story inspired ‘The Death Of Floyd Collins’ (Palette Records), a traditional American folk song written by Rev. Andrew Jenkins and Mrs Irene Spain which, released in 1925 by Vernon Dalhart, sold over 300,000 copies, one of the best-selling records of its time, spelling out the sermon that “Young people, all take warning from Floyd Collin’s fate/And get right with your maker before it is too late/It may not be a Sand Cave in which we find our tomb/But on that day of judgment, we too must meet our doom”. His story has been told in numerous books and has even inspired a Broadway musical, and now, opening with hymnal pipe organ before becoming a chugging swaggery Southern country blues with wailing harmonica, banjo, and dobro, the song is resurrected by Nashville star DEBRA LYN, herself a caves devotee who works with the American Cave Conservation Association to protect sensitive cave environments.
www.debralyn.com

SIMON AND THE ASTRONAUTS, the band featuring Simon Wella and Boo Hewerdine, release a double-A single. The first A-side is ‘Hammond Song’, originally released by The Roches in 1979. This version has nice jangly guitars and features lead vocals by Rachel Haden and Terre Roche and arranged by Gustaf Ljunggren. It was recorded in three studios from St John to Copenhagen. The other A-side is ‘Lover’s Moon’, written by Wells and Hewerdine featuring Chris Pepper and Ljunggren. Somewhere in the song’s ancestry is Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl And The Pussycat’ but essentially it tells the story of what happened next. Spoiler alert: you’ll be pleased to know that they are still together.
https://www.facebook.com/simonandtheastronauts/?locale=en_GB

Channelling Woody Guthrie, Indiana’s JOEL DAVID WEIR self-releases ‘Good Good Trouble’, a classic protest folk number in response to the Trump election and those who gave him the mandate, and a celebration of those who stand up for the people most picked on and kicked out as he sings: “The sign on the interstate by exit nine/Says shut down the border, stop all the crime/But Carlos my nieghbor is a friend of mine/And I’ll stand between you and him/The sign on the church quotes Leviticus 18/Says save our nation from the LGBT/But Alex my neighbor just wants to be free/And I’ll stand between you and them …Jesus come quickly and take back your name/From the ones who abuse it and take it in vain”. As he notes “Peace isn’t passive and love is a hard working engine”, quoting Guthrie’s “all you fascists are bound to lose” as he declares “god help us if we go backwards”.
www.joeldavidweir.bandcamp.com/track/good-good-trouble

JOHNNY CAMPBELL is about to embark on a unique tour along the backbone of England to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of Britain’s first long-distance path, the Pennine Way. To mark the event, Johnny releases a digital single, ‘Roving I Will Go’, an original song which seems to evoke the pleasures of “the hard moorland way”. Kurt Wood plays bass and drums but the principal instruments are Liz Hanks’ cello and the fiddle and viola played by Mikey Kenny – and, of course, Johnny’s guitar. It’s a lovely song you would happily play on a loop.
https://johnnycampbell.co.uk/

BEYOND ARAM is both a floating collective and Aram Gregory who, born in Hong Kong represented the country in the Asian Games in equestrian dressage on numerous occasions but now resides in South Cornwall to be near the family of his late wife, two-time Great British Olympian dressage rider Jane Bredin. These days he’s also a singer-songwriter working in collaboration with a variety of musicians, his latest single (though bizarrely he himself doesn’t play on it) being ‘Echoes Of Sally’ (Beyond Aram) with guitar from Luke Ashby, drums by Julian Chambers, lead vocals by Conor McQuaid and accompaniment from the Budapest Art Orchestra, is a tumblingly melodic number about how we leaves echoes as we go through life as it builds to a multi-voiced handclaps finale.
www.beyondaram.com

KAY IRIS is a new name for us. She is based in Hastings and works in partnership with Matt Patmore although there must be more players on her new single, ‘Stories We Tell’. Her sound is country-rock paired with clever lyrics and she has a big enough voice to work against a big arrangement. The song is about how we can delude ourselves, and others, with our own narrative which may be at odds with reality.
https://www.facebook.com/Kayleighannmusician/?locale=en_GB

Fronted by Luke Owen and accordionist Angie Rance, alt-folk five-piece PATCH & THE GIANT release their first music in eight years with the moody, cell-swathed ‘Bones’ (Folkroom Records) from the forthcoming Fragments album with its eclectic take on folk, fusing traditional, roots and indie sounds. The single, with its taut, reined in energy speaks to the sadness and depression that seeps into your very bones and every fibre, Owen’s quivering vocal tapping into that overpowering melancholy.
https://linktr.ee/patchandthegiant

‘Hourglass’ is a new digital single by ODETTE MICHELL featuring Calum Gilligan. It’s an upbeat composition with a country feel and an accompaniment topped by what might be a marimba but is probably a synth. The track is taken from Odette’s upcoming album, Queen Of The Lowlands, and explores a familiar theme of cherishing what we have in a time of trial.
www.odettemichell.com

The lyrics incorporating references to anti-war songs by Pete Seeger and Donovan, ‘Without Goodbyes’ (self-released) is a part sung/part spoken protest collaboration between MARINA FLORANCE and poet RICHARD PIERCE, they providing the spoken words with the chorus vocals by Florance and folk duo Anna Bass and Ray Taylor, the latter also on guitar. Like all good protest songs, its strength lies in its simplicity, both musically and lyrically in the lines “don’t blame the universal soldiers/they marched away without goodbyes/don’t blame them for your lies”
https://marinaflorance.com/single/131376/without-goodbyes

Gibraltar-based THRIFTY MALONE return to the fray with a stomping new single, ‘Fill Up Me Barrow Boys’. As the cover suggests it’s about the Irish at work, in this case eventually arriving in California with the 49ers. Despite the upbeat nature of the song it wasn’t always plain sailing as men died on the journey west and the prospectors never found the riches they sought.
www.thriftymalone.com

While a tad misleading to say it’s his debut single given the number of tracks as well as an acoustic EP on Soundcloud,  a rising name  on the acoustic indie-folk troubadour scene,  North London-based TOBY CHARLESWORTH releases a different version of the 2020 EP track  ‘Roses’, a watery rhythm fingerpicked love song  about not judging by appearances (“Baby I’m not made of roses/Well ain’t nobody clean/They judge a book by its cover/And miss the story underneath”) and the pain of a relationship possibly falling away (“When I feel you drifting away from me/I feel lost/I swear I never knew/Your heart was split in two/I can’t stop loving you”). Think a softer, more acoustic Sam Fender and you’ll get an idea of what to expect.
www.soundcloud.com/toby-charlesworth

In advance of their upcoming debut duo album, Hinterland, LISA KNAPP and GERRY DIVER release a new single, ‘Train Song’. Piano and percussion underpin the track but the sound is not Americana or blues. It’s actually very English, describing a journey through the countryside and the suburbs on what would appear to be a slow train. Oddly, it’s very relaxing.
www.gerrydiver.com

Following last year’s ‘bring back the b-side’ social media campaign, CORMAC O CAOIMH is now running ‘bring back the 12 inch’, meaning that every single he posts on Bandcamp will have two extra tracks. First up is ‘The Little Things That Mend And Break A Heart’, the title track a folksy ballad about two people who have a secret crush on each other, but never mention it, happy to savour the small chance moments they connect. Eventually they die but, a happy ending of sorts, their ghosts hook up in death. The bonus numbers are both new recordings of country songs written years back for a country album he never released, the bittersweet slow keys-backed ‘Sweet Sake’ and the near hymnal swaying drinking song ‘Does God Only Hear Sober Prayers’.
www.cormaco.bandcamp.com/album/the-little-things-that-mend-and-break-a-heart

‘Forest’ is the first single by Perthshire singer/songwriter JOHN PAUL MASON, a prelude to his debut album, Overstory. It’s fine stomping song in praise of forests: “Take a walk in the wild wood” is its opening salvo but the key line comes in the chorus, “You gave us a warning”. This is a subject dear to John Paul’s heart but the sadness is that we haven’t taken notice. He uses guitar, violin and cello by Pete Harvey and everything else by producer Chris Pepper to create a big, rich sound that gives the song an underlying sense of urgency. We should take heed.
www.johnpaulmason.com

There aren’t many songs about chocolate biscuit manufacturers  but KENNETH IAN MACKENZIE adds to the list with ‘Tunnock’s The Legend’ which, as you may surmise is a fun, upbeat celebration of the company’s humble 1890 origins  “in the old Scottish village of Uddingston” and its decidedly sweet confectionary “with wrappers of gold, red silver and blue” such as the iconic  “five layers of wafer and caramel too”, teacakes (“Marshmallow on a biscuit is a wonderful treat/Add a smooth chocolate coating and it’s sure hard to beat”) and the snowballs, topped off with the encouragement to “give the caramel log and all the others a try”.  A chewn of the day, I suspect.
www.caberfeidhmusic.bandcamp.com/track/tunnocks-the-legend