A friend and I once had a debate that ended in the agreement that solo singer songwriters have to have either one of two things to keep us interested: Good lyrics or balls. These raw emotional qualities we find most clearly in pop history from Bob Dylan. The balls department is effectively covered by Johnny Cash.
Bruce Nathan aka everyBOY‘s sophomore album ‘Parachute Mind‘ combines some very classic Southern Californian folk with some neat electronic and analog instrumentation to fill out his uplifting stories on darkness into light.
Like the debate, he has managed strong open hearted lyrics with a little more balls than your average solo man; “I’ve been crawling through a cloudy haze“, He croaks into a wall of strings and minor note guitar picking.
Musically it felt like a cross between latter day Lindsey Buckingham (with a whiskey hangover) being backed by The Weepies. Tunes like ‘Life Is 4 Living‘ are sweet and enchanting yet have an undertone of sadness and of a sensitive and thoughtful soul that’s very much lost in a modern world.
The title track reminded me of the energy and imagination of “Down To Earth” by Peter Gabriel, a soulful yet playful effort that put forward the pop elements of folk.
A studier of Japanese arts and philosophy, everyBOY‘s words are what bring forth his strength. He brings messages of hope and love like George Harrison with the melancholy of Neil Young.
Singer songwriters will always be around, but they tend to be few and far between when it comes down to it. EveryBOY has not only future proofed his songs with very cool electronics and instrumentation but has made them sound timeless too.
This weekend I sat down to plan my gig calendar for the next few months. I can’t believe its already February and already there are some classic events coming up. Before we even notice it will be festival season again.
Still, this year will have to deliver very highly considering the quality of shows I witnessed in 2009. My highlights were as follows:
There is something primordial about watching a crowd of 19’000 go mental watching The Prodigy on the outskirts of Paris. The fact that the festival also offered up classic performances from Birdy Nam Nam, MGMT, Metric, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was an added bonus.
As far as rock legends go you could do much worse than seeing either Shakey and The Boss live. The fact that I saw them play back to back at Hyde Park this summer was Epic. Both lived up to their legendary status and my I concluded my weekend as a very happy man.
I have already said several times on these pages that Tim Kusher is a songwriting hero of mine. Back in July I finally saw him live fronting Cursive at the intimate Camden venue. The fact that they picked and mixed discography and the relative closeness to the stage made this a night to remember and led Kenny to drunkenly label it “a religious experience for the atheist“.
Good luck with living up to that 2010
TRACKS:
The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die ? Liam H Re-amped Version
Singer/songwriter Jason Ward has kept himself extremely busy having written and recorded well over 200 songs in the past few years. his latest album, ‘Almighty Row‘, was released independently a few months ago and has seen the American artist take an unmistakeably desolate twist.
Lets put it this way, this is not the kind of CD (remember those?) you will be giving your grandmother for Christmas. But life is not only about the sunshine and chirping birds so if you occasionally enjoy some slight misery and introspective melodies this may well be the release you have been waiting for since last winter.
Like Neil Young, Jeff Buckley and the Silver Jews…. on downers!
For a limited time you can get ‘Almighty Row‘ for free here
Whilst the whole world focussed on Glastonbury a few weekends ago I attended what I jokingly called Glasto-lite, Hard Rock Calling. Having featured The Police, The Who and Aerosmith in past years this relatively new festival delivers a valid alternative to those who are unable (or unwilling) to disappear for 4 days camping in a muddy field in South West England. This year the appeal of the Hyde Park shows was particularly evident with two of the Glasto headliners also featuring in London on the same weekend, and not just any rockstars either.
Saturday featured the ‘godfather of grunge‘ (a nickname that doesn’t begin to pay homage to the man) Neil Young. Having recently read the fascinating biography Shakey by Jimmy McDonough I think its safe to say that I am slightly obsessed with the Canadian living legend right now, but I’m also painfully aware of how unpredictable his live shows and track selection can be. Fortunately my worst fears never materialised as Young took to the stage looking fresh and reinvigorated and offered what was effectively a greatest hit set. Opening with ‘Hey Hey, Now Now (into The Black)‘ it was clear that tonight was going to be a special as he and his accomplished band stormed through 40 years of material.
It could be argued that Shakey was a little self-indulgent dragging his intro and outros on forever (particularly on the never ending ‘Rockin’ In The Free World‘) but when you offer crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser a little excess can be forgiven. Besides, Young‘s guitar playing was majestic and vocally he didn’t miss a note leaving me in awe, particular during a hair rousing rendition of ‘Heart Of Gold‘ in the acoustic section. As the clouds above grew darker I was starting to worry that this spectacular evening might be ruined by a storm but miraculously highlights like ‘Fuckin Up‘ ‘Comes A Time‘, ‘Cinnamon Girl‘, and ‘Old Man‘ kept coming but the rain never showed.
Neil Young had one more surprise that would take this incredible night to supernova levels launching into The Beatles classic ‘A Day In The Life‘. This has been the choice for encore throughout this long tour but few could have been prepared for the appearance of Paul McCartney himself to sing the upbeat middle section. If I am not mistaken McCartney had never played the track live so to see 2 heroes play one of my favourite Beatles tracks was priceless.
“so you are there at the Neil Young concert having a great time and he starts playing “A Day in the Life” and you think ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool’ THEN Paul Fucking McCartney comes out on stage and your man nipples start producing milk. They should have made everybody pay and extra $100 on the way out for the privilege.
I felt that for a while nothing would top, let alone match, the performance I had seen the previous night but one man begged to differ. Flanked by The E Street Band, that man was Bruce Springsteen. Opening the set with The Clash‘s ‘London Calling‘ would have seen any lesser act fall flat on their face yet The Boss performed it with gusto instantly getting the audience eating from his hands.
This would be the third time I would witness this seasoned entertainment machine in action and each time I find myself astonished by Springsteen‘s sheer energy. It has been said a million times before but at 59 the man is old enough to be my dad yet has 59 times as much energy as men half his age. Over a three hour set the crowd was treated to 27 hand picked anthems spanning his entire discography.
Material from his recent albums may have received a slightly subdued reception but when Bruce and the gang broke into the classics such as ‘Thunder Road‘, ‘Born To Run‘ and ‘Badlands‘ the crowd literally erupted. By the end of the night the crowds where dancing in a dark Hyde Park as the sweat drenched band reluctantly bowed out.
Once again they proved there is only one ‘heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, Viagra-taking, love-making – Le-gen-dary E – Street – Band!
In this historic moment in our lives I look to the next four years with a big smile on my face. 2Pac was wrong after all when he said ‘We ain’t ready, to see a black President‘. Thank you America!
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A friend and I once had a debate that ended in the agreement that solo singer songwriters have to have either one of two things to keep us interested: Good lyrics or balls. These raw emotional qualities we find most clearly in pop history from Bob Dylan. The balls department is effectively covered by Johnny Cash.
