R2OK!

Cherskiy

Tonight’s musician in session was Pete Molinari, who had also been featured last week. Looking down the running order for this show, it was a classic Bob Harris Saturday Programme.

A new Paul Weller single is always of interest, and “Have You Made Up Your Mind Yet” was no exception. Released next month, this is classic Weller – his distinctive, rich and slightly throaty voice layered over multi-channelled percussion and those quintessential backing vocals. Anyone who manages to have three successful incarnations is worth listening to – after The Jam and The Style Council, his solo career seems to know no bounds too. There’s a tour shortly and a forthcoming new album.
Don’t remember hearing The Loose Salute before, since I think I would have remembered “Turn Your Radio Up” – this is taken from their 2007 album “Tuned To Love”. A flouncy, bouncy pop record if there ever was one, Lisa Billson’s dreamy, breathy vocals are the attraction here. Some of their other material is classed as ‘surf’ in The Beach Boys style – this is more restrained but still very enjoyable – a definite ‘radio-friendly’ song if ever there was one.
Malcolm Holcombe is another new name to me – his album “Gamblin’ House” yielded the opening track “My Ol’ Radio”, a bluegrass guitar-tinged song laden with his world-weary yet surprisingly likeable vocals. Aided by Siobhan Maher Kennedy on backing vocals – these are excellent, by the way, this is already climbing the US Americana charts.
Speaking of the Americana charts, “Cheney’s Toy” is presently No.1 – performed by James McMurtry in his typical laconic style, with a sympathetic arrangement throughout. It’s a indictment of US soldiers going off to war, naturally, but it still works as a song perfectly fine if you don’t listen to the lyrics too closely. Can’t see this breaking out of the States too much and I’ll bet it doesn’t evoke such ire as Natalie Maines did a few years back, since it’ll go right over the heads of many people.
Andy Fairweather-Low is one of those names you hear bandied about from time to time but might not recall where you know him from. Apart from being a founder of Amen Corner, he also had a fairly successful career as a sessionist on various 1970s and 1980s albums by the likes of Leo Sayer, Roy Wood and Gerry Rafferty – but he also had a solo career, reaching No.6 at Christmas 1975 with “Wide-Eyed And Legless”, which Bob took from his album “Low Rider, The Best Of”. A future guest on the Saturday Show (early June), Bob called him a “musician’s musician”. I haven’t heard this particular track in ages….
Someone who’s appeared live on the show in the past is Anais Mitchell, and her 2004 album “Hymns For The Exiled” is being re-released this year, which provided a good excuse for Bob to play “1984” from it. This is a song critical of “The Man” too, yet it’s hard to accept it as such since it’s dressed up in Anais Mitchell’s child-like, waif-sounding vocals, which I couldn’t get to grips with on first hearing them back then, but now quite like. The old-time arrangement surrounding them probably has a lot to do with that, too.
Martha Scanlan’s music has also appeared on the show too, but she’s not been in the studio yet, which is a shame since if the title track from her 2007 CD “The West Was Burning” is anything to go by, it’s right up the audience’s street. Firmly rooted in traditional Americana roots music, this song is virtually stripped down to the – well, the roots – with just a quietly-strummed guitar, banjo, fiddle and drums (the latter by Levon Helm) for company. Lovely.
Bob couldn’t believe he’d never played anything by Joe Tex before – and was surprised to find out that he hadn’t. That was quickly remedied by the inclusion of “Hold Onto What You’ve Got”, taken from the “Atlantic Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974” collection. Whilst I’m not an advocate of artists speaking rather than singing lyrics, this does almost seem appropriate in the context of the song. Still doesn’t sit too well with me though.
John Hiatt tracks make an occasional appearance on the programme, so “Old Days” from his forthcoming album “Same Old Man” wasn’t entirely unexpected. He’s got one of those extremely distinctive, not-quite-musical-yet-strangely-interesting voices, and the arrangement really lures you into the song without you realising. It also includes the words “cat pee” which I can’t remember ever hearing in a track before! Not surprisingly, Bob has invited him into the studio whilst he’s appearing at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
I hadn’t heard “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills And Nash for a long, long time – taken from their eponymously-titled 1969 debut album, this still holds up as an excellent song nearly forty years on.
Sounding a little like the previous track in terms of the harmonies was the Fleet Foxes’ “Bob Valaas”, taken from their soon-to-be released eponymously-titled album (the tracks Bob has been playing recently came from their EP “Sun Giant”). Maybe the similarity isn’t intentional but it’s pretty damned close in the intro. I was a little sceptical of “Mykonos” on the EP but this is rather good in a slow-burning way, one of those songs I can see growing on me. They’re doing gigs in the UK in May and June and Bob hopes to get them in the studio too.
“The Wind Cries Mary” from his 1967 album “Are You Experienced?” was simply classic Jimi Hendrix – the artist seemed to still be in his ‘eager to please’ stage and this helped producer Chas Chandler promote his evident talents whilst managing to rein in some of his more exuberant and self-indulgent tendencies.
Continuing the 1967 theme, Cream’s “Dance The Night Away” was taken from the band’s “Disraeli Gears” release from the same year. The album that truly turned the trio of Baker, Bruce and Clapton into something of a ‘super-group’, Bob decided to feature this particular track instead of the better known songs from the album…. Good for him!
Sarabeth Tucek is an artist who has just been flying beneath my radar for some time now, so I was rather happy to hear her new CD single “Ambulance”, which comes from the eponymously-titled album that was released last October. Sounding a little like Sarah Harmer, she’s got a particularly gritty sounding voice that is also capable of surprising sweetness on occasions – like another Sarah, McLachlan in this case. The slight ‘catch’ in her throat is quite noticeable but still pleasant – I’ve seen her compared to Aimee Mann in reviews but quite frankly I can’t really hear the resemblance. After hearing this song, I want to catch more – and Bob says he’s going to oblige!

Tonight’s live musician was Pete Molinari, whose song “I Don’t Like The Man I Am” from his latest album “A Virtual Landslide” was played last weekend. Bob set the scene by playing Hank Williams’ “Let’s Turn Back The Years” beforehand – leading into Pete’s introduction. Bob reckoned that Hank’s music had ‘soaked into his veins’ over the years, to which the artist agreed – “Elvis before there was an Elvis”. Molinari has a rather deep speaking voice, but this seems to be replaced by quite a melodious sound when he starts singing – witnessed on his cover of Hank’s “God Damn Lonesome Blues”, the beginning of his live set, all of the live songs coming from the “A Virtual Landslide” album. Eschewing the full band back-up, he played it “as it was written” – with a surprisingly higher-pitched voice than you’d expect. There was a Bob Dylan moment with the addition of a harmonica too. Not a particular fan of this type of sound, I was pleasantly surprised how good his delivery was. Bob wondered how an eighteen year old lad from the Medway could be playing stuff influenced by 50s American music. Pete Molinari had literally soaked up this type of sound, and had gone across to San Francisco, Austin and New York to listen to and play gigs. He was struck on the emotional side of the performances by the likes of Patsy Cline – and tried to include this in his own material. “Adelaine” was something he’d never performed before without his backing band, so wasn’t sure how it would work out – very well, as it happened. Pete has already featured on Mark Lamarr’s programme – and the latter has a similar outlook regarding soaking up the American music experience. The title track “A Virtual Landslide” followed – it was released last year as a limited-edition single. If anything, his voice was pitched even higher here but still managed to make sense. Bob closed the session by playing the recorded version of “It Came Out Of The Wilderness” – and mentioning that Pete Molinari is touring shortly.

Love Spit Love wasn’t a name I’d heard before, so their 1998 album “Trysome Eatsome” came as a bit of a surprise. Bob played “Seven Years” from this, Psychedelic Furs’ front-man Richard Butler’s next band after the Furs called it a day in the early 1990s. Butler’s hard-edged delivery and sharp-witted lyrics are prominent throughout – Bob played this ten years ago and thought it deserved a revival. Immediately “Pretty In Pink” started flooding back - the vocal style hadn’t changed much in the interim.
Bob has been featuring the Afternoons’ new album “Sweet Action” for a few weeks now, this week it being the turn of the track “The Sun’s Coming Out In Your Heart”. This is fairly pleasant without being too demanding, and whilst it seems to meander a bit I can easily see this getting mainstream airplay if it’s not too careful.
Another song to receive a repeat play was Johnny Cooper and Sheila Chandra’s “’Ouses, ‘Ouses, ‘Ouses” from the “Imagined Village” album – Cooper’s heartfelt monologue about his dad’s wishes to have his ashes sprinkled over the South Downs laid over Chandra’s sympathetic yet folksy backing. I’m not sure how this works so well, especially since I’m not a fan of spoken lyrics – but as soon as I heard the intro I knew I’d heard it before. Once the words fade, a more traditional folk arrangement kicks in, although it’s laced with contemporary references – police sirens, helicopters and the noise of a city.
A further repeat play was Chris Wood’s “Summerfield Avenue” from his recently-released album “Trespasser” – a traditional English folk arrangement but with a decidedly contemporary and almost ‘kitchen-sink’ feel to the subject matter. Ultimately, it’s a haunting song despite its domestic setting and that is in no small part due to his halting guitar and the ever-present violin accompaniment.
Kate Rusby also got another look-in this weekend, her cover of Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” being played once more. Bob is hopeful that it will be picked up on the mainstream R2 playlist, in an attempt to herald some sort of Sandy Denny revival. Whilst I’ll agree that Kate Rusby’s voice isn’t quite on the same level as Sandy’s (BB – take note!), it’s still rather charming – although I’ll admit this could be due to my repeated exposure to her albums whilst being a captive audience in my mate’s car on the way up to Pitlochry earlier this week!
One returnee that I was particularly happy to hear was Heidi Talbot, whose album “In Love And Light” is definitely on my ‘buy soon’ list. “Time” was tonight’s song – a lovely few minutes in which her gorgeous vocals are displayed – slightly breathy with the smallest hint of her Irish accent. Heidi is in session on the middle hour of next week’s show – in company with the next featured artist and John McCusker.
Boo Hewerdine has been around the English folk and acoustic scene for some time now. “Sunset” is the last track on his new EP “Toy Box No.1” – a rather relaxed track that is stripped down to just the artist and his guitar which works for me. He claims in the sleeve notes that “coming from bands that got more and more complicated, I keep trying to get more and more simple”. With this, he’s definitely succeeded. The EP has been released in advance of a full-blown album in September – worth grabbing if this is anything to go by.
The Martin Harley Band were something of a revelation – “One For The Road” came from their new album “Grow Your Own” and was a good old-fashioned touring song albeit with some bluesy influences, whilst possessing real emotional depths. This was a band that listeners had suggested to Bob – he was pleasantly surprised. I can’t quite help thinking I’ve heard this before, though – I’m sure I’ll place it eventually but not at the time of typing this….

I’ll be listening to Bob’s show live this weekend whilst driving back from seeing Gemma Hayes in concert up in Glasgow that evening – the gig finishes around eleven so I’ll spend the next three hours driving home in good company! As mentioned earlier, Heidi Talbot provides the live music – can’t wait, although I’ll probably still have the songs from Gemma’s new album still ringing in my head!
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Author: “To the Ends of the Earth: A Snapshot of Aviation in North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992”
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