R2OK!

Cherskiy

Stephanie Dosen provided the live music tonight: Bob had featured one of her tracks a few weeks back and whilst I wasn’t bowled over by it, there was enough to make me want to hear more. I got my wish tonight – in spades. See below as to whether or not I changed my mind about her.

South London-based Turin Brakes got us off to a good start with their new single “Stalker”, which only sought to re-affirm what they’re renowned for – breezy yet smooth pop, tinged with a dash of folk and mixed up to give a rather uplifting sound. Whilst it’s not necessarily a track that will be regarded as immediately memorable, chances are that it’ll hit the mainstream playlist shortly.
Stephen Fretwell was up next with his new single, “Scar”, taken from his forthcoming album “Man on the Roof”, which is due for release in September. Jaunty would be a good way to describe what was going on here, especially when the backing kicks in mid-song. This too is folk-influenced guitar music, but don’t let that put you off – if the rest of the new album is anywhere near this good, it’ll be worth splashing out for.
Much hyped, have been Merseyside’s The Coral – some of it was richly deserved (“In the Morning”) whilst the rest may have been a little premature given the stopgap album that was called “Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker”. Happily, though, with “Pass It On” from their new album “Magic and Medicine”, the spark has been re-ignited. Great harmonies laid down over bouncy, happy-slappy guitar backing works every time.
Joe Bonamassa is a Bob Harris Saturday Show staple, “One of Those Days” showing just why this blues guitarist features so often in the weekend show line-up. Taken from his shortly-to-be-released album “Sloe Gin”, it demonstrates his dedication, passion and experience with the genre. Slow paced, but with a thumping bass line that eats away at your soul, this is absolutely brilliant. As Bob said, “how good was that?”
Bob featured a track by [b[Sam Baker[/b] the other week, one which I couldn’t really get away with listening to. “Pretty World” from his album of the same name was played this week, which gave me a chance to change my mind. I wish I could have liked it – I really do, but his vocals just don’t do anything for me.
The same can’t be said for Mary Gauthier, thankfully, who I’ve been a fan of since first hearing her on this very show several years ago. “Same Road” comes from her album “Between Daylight and Dark” which is due for release in two months’ time. Both the arrangement and the backing are quite simple here, which let her strong and distinctive vocals take centre-stage, with all the edginess and raw energy easily heard.
Bob suddenly thought of Sonny Landreth’s version of “Louisiana 1927” when watching the flood waters rise around his house on Friday – this song was taken from the tribute album “Sail Away – the Songs of Randy Newman”, and very good it is too, especially as I can’t remember hearing anything by this artist before. An able guitarist judging by this track – more, please in future weeks.
Never heard of Ride before, either – so “From Time to Time” from their 2006 album “Carnival of Light” was all new too. It certainly started off well, with plenty of promise in the cheerful, eager-to-please guitar riffs – when Mark Gardner’s vocals and the other harmonies joined in on the act, I started to wonder why I hadn’t heard anything from this lot before, especially since they’ve apparently been around since 1990 or so. From all accounts, it is however ‘an album of two halves’, so I’ll need to hear some more before committing further.
Ah, the magic of Hawkwind – you’ve got to feel something for a band who manage to combine ‘space’ sounds with hard rock, have some kind of weird fascination for the writings of SF author Michael Moorcock and managed to get a song about making home-made bombs, banned by the BBC. “Silver Machine” was probably their best known song – whilst it come from the charts of July 1972, it also features on their 2006 “Sonic Boom Killers” compilation album which might be the best way of getting into their stuff. Or not.
Bob lifted Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction” from the compilation box set “Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970” – no less than 84 tracks featured on this collection, including this rather wonderful song which I can’t remember ever hearing before. The song almost re-invents itself mid-stream to my utter amazement, but that seems to work as well – it’s almost the musical equivalent of eating something you don’t like, and then eating some more of the same thing to make sure you still don’t like it….
The Thrills were another of those frequently-hyped bands that surfaced in recent years, this Dublin outfit trying somewhat successfully to pretend that they were actually products of the California coast rather than a suburb of the Irish capital. Songs like “One Horse Town” and “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim” didn’t harm them one little bit, especially given the amount of airplay they got on R2, and with their newly-released third album “Teenager”, they’re clearly striking the same notes – and chords – that they used to great effect beforehand. “I Came All This Way” features all the winning elements – Conor Deasy’s creaking vocals, blistering guitars and the sense that they don’t take themselves entirely seriously.
Less hyped (at least in the UK) but equally deserving of praise are The Shins, “Turn on Me” coming from their wonderful album “Wincing the Night Away” that was released back in January. Anything they did that followed their impressive debut “Chutes Too Narrow” was going to be under the microscope, so it is pleasing to report that this track soars like most on the new album – rich vocals laid over a riff taken from The Crystals.

Stephanie Dosen, launched straight into “Somerset” without preamble, and very good it was too. Whilst I still have one or two reservations about her vocals, partly due to the way she held some of the notes at times, based on the performance of this (albeit) short song, her debut recording “A Lily For the Spectre” will be worth buying. Bob called it ‘accomplished’, and I’m inclined to agree having heard four tracks from it now. Raised in Wisconsin, but living in Nashville (almost a pre-requisite now for budding singer-songwriters!), the cover photo on this album probably sums her up – a little girl in a party dress, and that almost describes her speaking voice as well as her singing voice on “Somerset”. “Daydreamers” from the album was next, her vocals taking on a much stronger – and for me more likeable – edge to them. Minimal backing came from an acoustic guitar and to be honest, the song didn’t need anything more. Signed to the Bella Union label due to a producer liking what he heard on her Myspace site, she has sung since a very early age, encouraged by her family (“sing Rhinestone Cowboy!”) and spurred on with the discovery of an old battered guitar and tape machine (which she called ‘Jean-Pierre’ – it ‘died’ recently), she started recording her own tunes. The third and final of her live songs was the title track of the album, her vocals here making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The verses started to pile up on top of one another, her voice changing pitch and making the whole experience rather interesting, if not totally enjoyable. It’s the last song on the album, which may explain why she ‘goes off on one’ here – although if I was being entirely charitable, I’d suggest she was giving free rein to expression. She’s presently doing gigs with Nanci Griffiths – next one is at the Sage in Gateshead on Friday (I wonder if they have tickets left?). Bob played the first track off the album to end the session, this being “This Joy”. There’s clearly some accomplished guitar work at play here from the get-go, whilst after some repeated exposure, her vocals are beginning to grow on me – and “This Joy” is really pretty damned good. She certainly demonstrated a great sense of humour during conversation with Bob. I’ll freely admit I was being a little harsh a few weeks ago – whilst I still think she looks like Gwen Stefani on the album cover photo, I’ll go so far as to suggest that her debut album “A Lily For the Spectre” may just wind up on my Amazon wish list by the end of the month – and that is usually praise indeed!

Josh Rouse’s new album “Country House City Mouse” yielded the track “Hollywood Bass Player”, and this was rather good, the upfront yet jaunty backing providing a perfect foil for his equally boisterous vocals. Despite these epithets, the overall product is pretty mellow. Can’t say I’ve come across this artist before, another one to look out for based on this effort. Mind you, going by his discography, he seems to have been around for ever.
The “This is the Song We Sing” collection mentioned earlier got another name check courtesy of “Get Together” from The Youngbloods – this wasn’t bad either with an unobtrusive guitar purring away in the background.
Kelly Willis featured on the show again tonight courtesy of “Nobody Wants to Go to the Moon Anymore” which can be found on her newly-released album “Translated From Love”. Last week’s offering was really good whilst this is equally enjoyable. The opening track from the album, it starts off strongly with her vocals taking on a hard edge. Whilst she’s labelled as country, this particular song transcends the genre, a sure fire way of guaranteeing wider airplay. This would sit nicely on any of the daytime R2 shows….
Chuck Prophet produced Kelly’s album, and Bob played one of his own songs, “Freckle”, taken from his newly-released “Soap and Water” album. This is pretty good too, his rough-edged vocals contrasting with the more polished production values heard in the arrangement and backing.
“Boy With a Coin” is the newly-released CD single from Iron and Wine. It starts off sounding like alt-folk with a Latin or maybe African beat, then the grungy vocals kick in. The end product is almost mesmerising in its limited scope, simple in its execution and enjoyable in the extreme. I can’t really describe what I like about this song – listen to it for yourself and decide.
Candidate also received another airing tonight, “The Sky” coming from their “Oxengate” album. I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed by their last appearance on the show, although this wasn’t too bad, simple backing allowing Joel Morris’s vocals to shine. I was a little disconcerted by the long second of silence mid-song: I thought the Listen Again feature had broken! Overall, though, the song didn’t seem to really go anywhere.
An old favourite of this show is the late Sandy Denny, and tonight’s offering came from the “Live at the BBC” CD – “It Suits Me Well” being something she recorded for Bob’s “Sounds of the Seventies” show back on 25th October 1972. Her voice is timeless – she’s been labelled as the English Janis Joplin. If you’re even just slightly interested in acoustic or folk music, at least one of her albums should be a required purchase.
“Girls, Girls, Girls Vol.1” is Elvis Costello’s first selection of cuts from his output between 1977 and 1986. “Alison” is – believe it or not – now 30 years old, and it sounds as good today as when I first heard it (although I reckon Tracey Thorn’s version with Everything But The Girl is almost as good!).
Bob finally got around to playing something by The Storys tonight – and it was the song his trailer is based on, “Be By Your Side”, from their eponymously-titled album that was released in 2005. I find it rather difficult nowadays to hear those lyrics without substituting the words “Bob Harris Show on Radio 2” instead! It is a shame this band doesn’t receive more airplay though, gentle harmonies overlapping with understated though very effective backing.
Tia McGraff was responsible for a cracking live session on this very programme last week, and Bob returned the favour by playing “Second Chance” again from her new album “Day in My Shoes”. This is lovely, her husband Tommy Parham also providing vocals on what is effectively a duet. Go back to my review from last week for more information – I don’t believe in cutting and pasting for these reviews….
Another boxed set featured next, “Texas Thunderbolt” charting the music of legendary blues guitarist Lightnin’ Hopkins. This four-CD set includes the track played tonight, “Have to Let You Go” – absolutely brilliant stuff. Whilst I’m not a huge blues fan, I do appreciate a track with plenty of emotion and technique displayed in it, and this has both in spades.
From one blues legend to another, Rory Gallagher[b] followed immediately afterwards, “Heaven’s Gate coming from his 1998 album “Fresh Evidence”. Okay, so it’s blues-rock, but it’s good blues-rock. His gravel-fused vocals sit well on top of the sublime guitar, then the latter gets ramped up to great effect mid-stream. Granted, not something you can dance or sing along to, but that’s not necessarily the point, is it? I even got my air guitar out for the second half!
Last in the blues line-up tonight was another new name for me, [b]Robben Ford[b] coming along with “Lateral Climb” from his shortly-to-be-released album “Truth”. Unknown to me, yes, but he has quite a discography, at least ten albums to his credit. With the sound demonstrated on this album, it’s not really surprising, although it could well be described as blues-lite, a slightly scaled down version of Aynsley Lister who has featured on this show before. Still quite enjoyable though, and the old air guitar kept on going throughout!
Last up tonight was the [b]Band[b] with “Rag Mama Rag” from the 1992 “Collection” album…. A brilliant way to end a great show....

I'm not entirely sure how I'll manage to write up this weekend's show before next weekend - I've got to write up accounts of both the Sunderland and Windermere Airshows taking place this weekend for a local aviation magazine!
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Author: “To the Ends of the Earth: A Snapshot of Aviation in North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992”
(Free to read via Kindle Unlimited)