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Bob Harris Saturday Show 23/06/07 - a review by Cherskiy

 
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Cherskiy



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 3701
Location: near Amble, Northumberland

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:55 pm    Post subject: Bob Harris Saturday Show 23/06/07 - a review by Cherskiy Reply with quote

This week’s live session was performed by Scots musician Jackie Leven – more on him later in the review.

A rousing start to the show came courtesy of The Beatles’ “Back in the USSR”, complete with jet noise and a homage to the Beach Boys.
Farrah’s “Fear of Flying” got another airing this weekend, taken from their album “Cut Out and Keep” which is released this week. This track is definitely growing on me, the elements that make Fountains of Wayne so appealing being present in almost equal measure here – soaring harmonies, clever arrangements plus a rather gorgeous set of backing vocals in the mid-section.
“Dream Harder” was the last album produced by the Waterboys, this 1993 release yielding the track “Glastonbury Song”. On this release, Mike Scott seemed to eschew the band’s more traditional leanings for a more contemporary sound, although the gentleness associated with much of their output was still present here. This was, of course, the hit single from the album.
Eilen Jewell definitely made something of an impact with her debut album “Boundary County” although she is virtually unrecognised across here. Her follow-up album is “Letter From Sinners and Strangers”, from which Bob played “Rich Man’s World”. Traditional old-time country and Americana roots music is obviously the inspiration here, complete with fiddle breaks and real character – and the tracks have such a ‘lived-in’ feel that you’re sure you’ve heard them before. I have heard “Rich Man’s World” before but I felt this the first time I heard it – a wonderful piece of music.
“Milk Cow Calf Blues” was lifted from the tribute album “Hellhound on My Trail: The Songs of Robert Johnson”, and was performed by the late Robert Palmer and Carl Carlton. During his pre-“Addicted to Love” career, Robert Palmer seemed to be better known as an exponent of the blues and this is a pretty good example of what he did back then.
Seasick Steve and the Level Devils was the first of the new names for me tonight, “Love Thang” being taken from their album “Cheap”. Described as ‘hobo music’, this blues track has the knack of grabbing your attention without you really realising it – the artist has ‘bummed’ around America for years performing at a huge number of venues, but only recently being ‘discovered’ and hailed as ‘new and emerging talent’.
The second new name was the Finnish band Pepe Deluxe, whose album “Spare Time Machine” included the track “Mischief of Cloud Six”. The word ‘quirky’ actually seems too mild a description to hang around the neck of this song – there’s surf, electronica, a Swing Out Sister-type backing track and the main vocals might as well belong to Mike Flowers. If this doesn’t a) put a smile on your face or b) make you screw your face up and go “WTF?” then there’s clearly something wrong with you. It’s definitely one to polarise opinion, though in a better way than Mika achieved. Actually, as weird song titles go, I’d have loved to have heard Track 7 on this album: “Lucky the Blind versus Vacuum Cleaning Monster”!
California-based Seventeen Evergreen’s “Burn the Fruit” was new too, a soothing and charming intro leading into some equally relaxing vocals. This comes from the EP “Lunar One” which is released next month, and I’ll be damned if I can remember what it reminds me of.
The Kings of Leon have never really inspired me much – and “Arizona” from “Because of the Times” is probably as good a reason as to why this is. Rambling country-rock that doesn’t seem to know where it is going could be one description – whilst I’m clearly a fan of some of their contemporaries judging by the sort of thing I’ve posted here in the past, the Kings don’t impress me at all.
REM’s cover of “#9 Dream” sounded a little off-kilter at times but that was probably due to Michael Stipe not being able to reach the same notes that John Lennon could. Still interesting to hear, though. This track is of course listed on the current John Lennon tribute album “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur”. If I don my anorak for a second, A-ha also recorded a cover of the same song last year for Amnesty.
One of my mates seems to be really into The Editors at the moment, so I wanted to hear “Spiders” from “An End Has a Start” to see whether they could keep up the quality he reckons they demonstrated on “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors”, which was the only thing I’ve heard to date. Okay, the maudlin start wasn’t too enticing but it did get better, although I’m still not 100% convinced by Tom Smith’s vocals since he seems to hold one note so tightly he doesn’t want to let go of it. Sorry, Andy, I can’t really see what all the fuss is about!
Andrew Bird’s “Imitosis”, taken from his newly-released album “Armchair Apocrypha”, features his own violin playing among many other instruments. Again this is something of a quirky piece, staying more towards the safe side of the street though it has to be said. The choruses and the breaks lean heavily on strings but the end product isn’t too bad.
I’ve already got one album by Jonatha Brooke (“Back in the Circus”) but “I’ll Leave the Light On” from her recently-released album “Careful What You Wish For” is far better than the material I’ve heard already. Granted, the album I have suffers from being a UK version, stripped of several tracks on the US copy which therefore interrupts its flow. This is slightly more commercial than the alt-country tracks she has produced already although there’s still more than a faint hint of Americana in the production here. I’ll be interested enough to probably end up buying this new album anyway.

So to tonight’s guest in the middle hour, Jackie Leven, who Bob remembers bumping into on several occasions and also playing his records back in the mid-1990s when he worked at GLR. Jackie Leven is fairly prolific – an album every year or so since 1994. He reckoned he ‘stopped worrying about writing about fifteen years ago and just wrote’! He came up with a classic quote said of record companies: “the act was so good we decided to change it” – he mentioned that artists often listen to other opinions and therefore can try to alter what they are good at in the first place, sometimes spoiling the life and soul of a track. He admitted that he often listens to a new song maybe only twice – the second to confirm that he’ll never listen to it again, since he knows that most of it has been ‘moved around’ digitally and it’s not a ‘performance’ anymore. All of his own recordings are done via analogue, not digital. “Kings of Infinite Space” was Jackie’s first live track, taken from his latest album “Oh What a Blow That Phantom Dealt Me”, released in February this year. Armed only with an acoustic guitar, his rather distinctive and extremely strong vocals took centre stage. In fact, there was almost no need for the minimal backing, so powerful was his voice – it was as though it was an instrument itself at times, whilst he can definitely hold a note and then twist it for effect. “Blues Run the Game” was a cover of a Jackson C Frank song from the latter’s 1965 album of the same name – an obscure American singer-songwriter who Jackie felt deserved better. Rather than deliver a third live track, Jackie wanted Bob to play “One Man One Guitar” from his new album, which was a collaboration with Johnny Dowd forged in a hotel bar over a bottle of Czech absinthe! This was a mixture of Jackie’s sung lyrics and Johnny’s spoken vocals – again something that shouldn’t have worked but did interestingly enough. As Bob said, they bounced off one another in this track.

“Runaway” is another track lifted from the new Travelling Wilburys “Collection” – absolutely brilliant! Del Shannon’s song never sounded so good.
Del Shannon was assumed by many people as being the natural successor to Roy Orbison in the Wilburys when the latter passed away – Bob played “Walk Away” from Del’s 1991 album “Rock On” (produced by Jeff Lynne) and it’s easy to see why this assumption was made. He would have easily found a niche of his own in the Wilburys.
Spoon was yet another new name for me – “Don’t You Evah” was taken from their forthcoming album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” (I kid you not!). Half-expecting some rap-type song based on the title spelling, I was pleasantly surprised with what followed – some good layered backing vocals in the mid-section helped this track climb out of mediocrity.
54-40 was new as well, their 1992 album “Dear Dear” yielding “Nice to Luv You” – an engaging guitar riff led into some equally likeable lyrics from Neil Osborne. This Canadian outfit seem to be almost unknown outside of North America but have managed here to produce some rather good guitar-led material. I’d be interested in hearing more so will no doubt explore their back catalogue shortly.
The opening and eponymously-titled track of Dolorean’s new album “You Can’t Win” provided a slightly more mature sound from their previous releases “Violence in the Snowy Fields” and “Not Exotic”. Fair enough, the intro does somewhat outstay its welcome whilst builds up gently into Al James’ equally laid-back vocals, the band’s alt-country/roots background receiving a little more polish. In the end, however, the intro becomes the main portion of the song – the same lyric repeating ad nauseam, although there’s still enough here to ensure that whoever buys the new album won’t take the CD out of the player in disgust.
I’d never heard The Beach Boys’ “All This is That” before (from their “Carl and the Passions: So Tough” album, which hit the UK charts this weekend in 1972) – so clearly part of my musical education is lacking! The even-more-mellow-than-usual side of the band is on display here – why haven’t I heard this track before?
Chris and Kellie While were more new names, mother and daughter producing the lovely track “Don’t Let Me Come Home” which is listed on their album “Too Few Songs”. An example of how a song can be so much better with so little, Chris While’s voice shines here with simple backing from her daughter and only a guitar for accompaniment. We’re in Karine Polwart territory here – acoustic roots land, so that’ll no doubt upset the anti-folk establishment, but what the hell. If you can’t appreciate this sort of craft, you may want to consider having your ears syringed!
I’ve heard of Kate Walsh and her latest album “Tim’s House” is already on my Amazon ‘wish list’ sight unseen based on a recommendation, so I was interested to see the track “Don’t Break My Heart” listed on Bob’s play list. I’m clearly a sucker for a wonderful set of female vocals, and she has them in spades. Slightly breathy, a little dreamy, this song pushes all of my buttons without being anything really exceptional. Nothing here to suggest I’m wasting my time in splashing out for the album.
Another new set of artists were Harry Manx and Kevin Breit, Bob playing “I’m On Fire” from their recently-released album “In Good We Trust”. Of course this is a cover of one of The Boss’s tunes, but this pair of accomplished guitarists seem to have nailed a much gentler version down well here, so much so that at times it sounds like a completely different song. Where it does score points is in the delivery of the well-known verses, simply sung with little ‘attitude’.
Jake Shimabukuro’s version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (from his album “Gently Weeps”) was rather good – Bob has played it before on his Saturday show and although it’s an acoustic version, it really gets ramped up at the end. Great stuff.
Gary Fletcher was the last of many new artists tonight, “Payback” coming from his “Human Spirit” album which was released earlier this month. This is Mark Knopfler guitar blues with a tinge of country, the end result rocking along quite nicely with some neat little quirks in the accompaniment.
Rounding off the night, would you believe that Bob and his first wife originally sang backing(!) on the last chorus of David Bowie’s “Memory of a Free Festival”, which features on his “Space Oddity” album? It’s true, and it played us out tonight!

Ryan Adams is in session on Thursday evening – no idea who, if anyone, is on Saturday’s show.
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Barkingbiker



Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 2313
Location: Lincolnshire

PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Cherskiy, I have only heard the first hour or so from Saturdays show, I must try and listen to the rest before the weekend. There are several names there that I have not knowingly heard before, which is good.

BB Twisted Evil
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