Tag: The Long Shorts

Following on from the single of the same name as part of the Radio 2 21st Century Folk Project a song telling of the rescue of Marc and Vicky Murphy from a flooding cave by the RNLI, MARTYN JOSEPH follows up with the Chapel Porth Beach EP (Pipe). As well as the single there’s an acoustic version plus two new numbers, the wrenching piano-backed ‘Will You Come and Get Me?’ in memory of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces during the invasion of the Gaza Strip along with six of her family members and two paramedics coming to her rescue, and the Neil Young-like slow walk harmonica and guitar strum ‘Getting Older’ about the legacy we’re leaving ten next generation. He also reworks to old numbers, the fingerpicked acoustic ‘Wake Me Up’ from 2003 and 2005’s ‘This Fragile World’ which is given anew vocal and guitar part to reflect how it speaks to him now.
www.martynjoseph.net

We’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here as Long Story Short, the debut EP from THE LONG SHORTS, won’t be released until early December but we thought it best to beat the Christmas rush. Chris and Dan are from Winchester and their music is derived from the rock and pop of their youth and their experience as musicians. The opener, ‘In A Band’ will tell a story familiar to any gigging musician – long drives, barely anybody in the audience etc but when you get up there on stage it’s all worth the hard work.

Although The Long Shorts are essentially an acoustic duo and their songs are literate this isn’t folk music – folk-rock, maybe – but strip what they do back to its basics and their songs would survive a folk club floor spot. The opener is attention-grabbing and there is an electric guitar in with the gravelly vocals but then ‘Louder Than Words’ takes the volume down a bit with tasty hand percussion and the sweet ‘Wonderful Things’ performed on finger-picked acoustic guitar brings us firmly into singer-songwriter territory but they can’t stay away from a big finish even though they try very hard.

Insistent hand percussion is back on ‘Together Every Day’ and the foot is on the gas again and the pedal really hits the metal on the clever, sinister ‘Facebook Stalker’ to close the set. The Long Shorts launch their EP at gigs in Penge and Winchester with a copy of the disc included in the ticket price.
https://thelongshorts.bandcamp.com/track/in-a-band

Hailing from Folkestone, NICK LAWRENCE offers up Songs Of Ash & Oak, a 5-track EP with an historical leaning to a couple of the songs. A touch Billy Bragg, ‘1381’ starts with Richard II and runs through the poll tax and the doomed protest at exploitation of the working man by Wat Tyler, Jack Straw and John Bull. It’s bookended by ‘The Day The Heathens Came’ which goes back to 911AD when Winchester was attacked and sacked by the forces of Dyflin Viking lord Sihtric Caec in a bloody bout of rape and pillage. The song doesn’t mention it, but the Anglo-Saxon armies of Wessex and Mercia, led by King Edward the Elder and his sister Lady Aethelflaed, eventually lay siege bringing about a lengthy peace between Saxons and Danes. The other numbers are in more a seasonal frame of mind with the bodhran driven stomp of ‘At Lughnasa We’ll Dance’, the Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season, the unaccompanied ‘Kentish Wassail’ (his own contribution to the genre) and, lastly, again raising glass in good cheer, the jauntily strummed ‘Return Of The Oak King’ looking ahead a few months as is recounts the ancient British folklore and neopagan traditions that mark the winter solstice, the Oak King ruling from the Spring Equinox to the Autumn Equinox and the Holly King until the Spring Equinox. www.facebook.com/NickLawrenceMusicOfficial

MARINA FLORANCE continues the Christmas theme with a three-track EP, Old Christmas Day. Dynamic acoustic guitar drives ‘Cherry Tree Carol’ with mandolin giving an American feel and although it dates back to the 15^th century there is a link to the Ritchie family of Kentucky. Marina’s straightforward telling of the story reminds us that at the heart of the carol is a domestic dispute and it is a really nice version. ‘On Christmas Day It Happened So’ is one of the least Christmasy carols and with Tom Hardy’s shruti box providing a mournful drone, Marina delivers a solemn version. Remember – don’t go ploughing on Christmas Day. ‘Sweet Chiming Bells’ is, perhaps, the nicest version of ‘While Shepherds Watched’, one that has been the highlight of many a post-mumming sing. In contrast to old Christmas, Marina gives us an original song as a bonus track. ‘Stop For A Moment’ was written by Marina and Richard Pierce and she’s joined by Mark Jolley who supports her on three of the four tracks. It’s a thoughtful reflection on the festive season.
https://www.marinaflorance.com/

Still Or Sparkling (Reveal) is the new 4-track EP from JOHN DOUGLAS of Trashcan Sinatras fame finding him moving away from his usual acoustic approach with contributions from his other half, Eddi Reader, on harmonies, Alan Kelly on accordion, Kevin McGuire on double bass and Boo Hewerdine on acoustic guitar. The title track’s a lazing blues with an arrangement nodding to Roger Miller’s laid back fingerclicking style and the lyrics, evoking the early days of a relationship, namecheck Shirley Collins, Annie Briggs and…er…Michelangelo. Also included is a dreamy band version of ‘Lost’ from his debut and covers of Van Morrison’s ‘Across The Bridge Where Angels Dwell’ and Tom Waits’s ‘Johnsburg, Illinois’.
www.johndouglas.bandcamp.com/album/still-or-sparkling-ep-2024

Liverpool-based singer-songwriter JESSICA DIVES releases her deeply personal debut EP, Halfway Lost, opening with her debut single, ‘No One (Ever Saw Me This Way)’, an upbeat song featuring accordion and guitar while hinting at Jessica’s taste for jazz. ‘One Hand To The Wall’ began as advice on navigating a maze and it’s a small step from there to a life lesson. Support comes from Amy Chalmers on almost ethereal violin but it’s Jessica’s guitar that drives the song.

‘Little Boat Hold Steady’ combines an insistent acoustic guitar with a traditional sounding accordion and whatever she has in the background evoking the sound of the waves. It’s a prayer for times of trouble and danger. The record’s production number is ‘Where Are You?’, a powerful song exploring a relationship that seems to be off course while the closing ‘Last Dance’ has echoes of an old swing number – a nice way to end.
https://www.facebook.com/jessicadivesmusic

Seasonal double album Winter arriving at the end of November, THE UNTHANKS lay the frosty ground with ‘Dear Companions’ (RabbleRouser), a violin and piano-accompanied parting song that borrows the old American folk tune of Nettleton and speaks of how music carries lives and voices across the years (“See your sister build a lantern/Hear your brother’s violin For this time we have together/We’ll live on in songs we sing”), and, to underline the point, at its crescendo it features the voices of 60 participants in their weekend singing residentials.
www.the-unthanks.com

CHRIS CLEVERLEY has a Christmas EP, In The Shadow Of John The Divine, set for release in early December and we will consider it fully next month. In the interim, a single, ‘Snowfall, My Evergreen’, is about to be released. Typical of Chris, the song uses the image of a snowman to point up the ambiguities of love – Chris’ view of Christmas may not match yours.
https://chriscleverley.com/

DARIA KULESH revisits her past with ‘Sea To Skye’ (Self-released), a song which, featuring co-producers Jason Emberton on piano and percussion and Stu Hanna on fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and bass, links to when she first visited the Isle of Skye as a teenage interpreter for the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. She was befriended by elderly resident Una MacLeod who was still there when she went back some fifteen years later, gifting her with a song once sung by her mother. Now with new words, a chorus by Angus Robertson and Duncan Morrison’s tune, taken at a slow walking pace with the air of a Scottish ballad it recounts her own coming of age (“How haunted I was; now I have a voice/I was longing; now I belong”) and how it came into being to find its voice once more (“A song is a ghost that longs for a voice/I give it my breath; I sing/Your mother’s old song through me is reborn”), the title a nod to the line from ‘The Skye Boat Song’.
www.daria-kulesh.co.uk

 From their forthcoming album, Bloom, ‘Mockingbird’ is the new single from LARKIN POE, with surprisingly heavy guitar supporting powerful vocals. It’s hard to decide whether the duo play blues, folk or rock but whatever you call it this is a mighty track.
https://www.larkinpoe.com/

This lovely collaboration between father and son – JOHN AND DUNCAN REED FEATURING JO BETH YOUNG is the first track off a planned album called Heritage of important traditional songs that were sung by John and John’s wife Moira to son Duncan and his sister Jen. Now they can be sung to their grandchildren carrying on the tradition. This new album in the making has no time to be delivered, but they are releasing ‘She Moved Through The Fair’ as a taster. John first heard this song in 1973, although it was attributed to Irishman Padraic Colum in 1909.

With medieval tones together with a gypsy flair it has an Eastern influence and has exquisite, haunting background vocals with the voice of Jo Beth Young setting the scene. Jo Beth has collaborated with John in the past on his Nightsong album so was an obvious choice for this new beautiful track. John, Duncan and Jo Beth have created a superb track to announce this forthcoming project of Heritage, and I believe whoever hears it will be suitably pleased and wanting for more.
https://johnduncanreed.bandcamp.com

‘Step Back Baby’, the new single by MARY GANTLEY is more pop than folk but it bounces along very nicely. Forceful with a big arrangement thanks to producer Rob MacLeod, who plays all the instruments, it could be a breakout hit with the right exposure.
https://www.facebook.com/mary.gantley/

COLIN MANSON from Scotland’s west coast has a new single, ‘These Words’. His philosophical words are supported by a rich, haunting arrangement with piano and percussion by produce Chris Bond and cello by Ben Roberts. The message – think before you speak.
https://www.colin-manson.com/

A compelling taster for his forthcoming album Fire & Dust,  a song cycle about Woody Guthrie co-produced by Pete Townshend, REG MEUROSS releases ‘The Gypsy Singer’ (Hatsongs HAT026)  which, with  Geraint Watkins on keys, Phil Beer and Marion Fleetwood on  fiddle, drummer Roy Dodds and bassist Simon Edwards, speaks of the passing of the baton from Guthrie to Dylan (“Across his prison eyes there passed the memory of a tune/His fingers danced as if to pass the melody to me …so I wore the gypsy’s suit when my turn came around”), sung in the latter’s voice talking of  visiting him in hospital in his final days.   www.regmeuross.com

‘Plain Of Esdraelon’ is an instrument single by CALMING RIVER, who lives up to his nom-de-plume with this track. Finger-picked acoustic guitar rides on experimental atmospheric sounds and is taken from the forthcoming album, Macdui. It’s about a real place and the curious may look up the location later.https://www.facebook.com/Calmingriver/