Brit Folk

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Bert Jansch: Just A Simple Soul 

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I would like to say that I like Just A Simple Soul, a new reflection on the work of Bert Jansch. Well, I do like it, really like it, but the word ‘like’ doesn’t have the sort feel that I wish to convey. 

Perhaps it will be easier to tell you about the album and you might see what I am trying to say. I first thought that this collection was worth looking at in detail because I like Bert Jansch, but also because Bernard Butler listened to Bert’s albums after he died and wished that he had asked Bert some questions. He rather wished that he had asked Bert about the tunes, about the playing.  About the songs that passed Bernard by until a later hearing. We all do that. Something doesn’t register for a long time and then it gets in, under the skin and it’s there a lot longer than those that grab us straight away.

The reason this is important is that Bernard Butler is a musician, a guitarist, and was once a member of Suede. Having someone, a professional musician, having a view on another musician adds an extra something, an ability to judge and an ability to pick, perhaps, based on different criteria. Therefore, I thought that this compilation of Bert’s work must have something going for it. Most of his original albums are available and then there has been the recent releases by Earth Recordings that covers almost all of his catalogue. But these are fine if you want the full set or just a particular period.

What makes Just A Simple Soul worthwhile is that it spans all his work. Across two CDs there are 39 tracks that take us from the start to as near to the end as dammit. And I will say how much I like that fact that the first track is Strolling Down The Highway, thus explicitly avoiding that cliché of every Bert Jansch homage gig of finishing with it [ . . . ]

Continue at FRUK: Bert Jansch: Just A Simple Soul (Album Review) | Folk Radio UK

New outdoor music festival to be staged in Inverness city centre

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A new annual outdoor music festival is to be staged in the capital of the Highlands.

A new annual outdoor music festival is to be staged in the capital of the Highlands. The Northern Meeting Park in Inverness will play host to The Gathering, which organisers say will showcase the best music, food and drink from across the Highlands.

It will be launched as a one-day festival in June but is already intended to expand into a two-day event the following year if there is enough public demand.

The “family friendly” event, which will be held in an 8000-capacity arena near the River Ness, is being masterminded by the same organisers behind the long-running Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, near Beauly.

Trad music festival favourites Tide Lines, The Vatersay Boys, Elephant Sessions. Torridon, Hò-rò and Siobhan Miller are already lined up for next year’s event [ . . . ]

Read more at: New outdoor music festival to be staged in Inverness city centre – The Scotsman

Chas Hodges, an appreciation: one of the most significant English folk musicians

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The Chas and Dave singer, who has died at the age of 74, gave voice to working-class London

Chas Hodges – in company with Dave Peacock – was one of the most original British musicians to have come out of the rock’n’roll era. Chas and Dave did something that had never occurred to anyone else: combining rock, blues, country and music hall with the sound of a London that was already disappearing by the time they released their first album, One Fing ’n’ Anuvver, in 1975.

You might, justifiably, compare the best of their writing to Ronnie Lane, or to Ray Davies, the difference being that Chas and Dave sounded less like a Kinks song than the music one of Davies’ characters might have made.

The best of their songs were the memories of the yellowed wallpaper of the public bar – never the saloon bar – given voice: overheard arguments, declarations of love and shady deals, conducted over two pints of mild and a pack of fags.

Hodges, of course, had a long pedigree before Chas and Dave: he had recorded with Joe Meek, been in the Outlaws with Ritchie Blackmore (which later led to him playing bass for Deep Purple at one show). He played with Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. Most famously, the hook he and Peacock recorded for Labi Siffre’s I Got The … became the chassis of Eminem’s first hit, My Name Is [ . . . ]

Continue reading at: Chas Hodges, an appreciation: one of the most significant English folk musicians | Music | The Guardian