Monday 29 October 2018
in the spare hour between the summer and the winter (horsemouth to play south of the river)
horsemouth has just been out for pizzas with howard. he delivered to him the microphones, cables and two mic stands to permit more recording round howard’s new gaff. howard (in the classic pattern) was ill with a cold all the half-term he had off.
sunday was bright and sunshine-y in the morning but the weather has gone cold. horsemouth awoke in the morning with a headache, he feels a bit run down and put upon.
such are the lives of fifty somethings in the metropolis.
brexit continues to be a debacle - horsemouth suggests only accepting payment in euros.
horsemouth is playing a solo gig (as musicians of bremen mind you) saturday 10th november in sunny south london - who wants it? he should hurry up and tell people about it... here goes.
It's Saturday, 10 November 2018 from 19:00-22:00
at waterintobeer 209-211 Mantle Road, SE4 2EW
London, United Kingdom
horsemouth/ musicians of bremen is on about 8.40 but please try to get there early for the other acts. he won't be playing anything fiddly - just his usual acoustic set - he will take some CDs to sell.
Monday 22 October 2018
can a self-taught style be taught?
horsemouth is very much enjoying david mitchell’s cloud atlas - in particular he likes the second story about a ne’er-do-well rake who basically takes the eric fenby amanuensis role to a frederick delius type composer - knows elgar and beecham check, lives in a house in france check, nietzsche fan check, incapacitated with syphillis check. delius, indeed, gets a mention at one point.
(the next story is loosely lifted from the china crisis or silkwood - or any of a raft of post three mile island nuclear powerplant goes bang/ whistleblowers murdered by evil capitalists stories).
eric fenby was not a rake but a well brought up christian young man from scarborough who found his mentor’s nietzsche fixation a bit gruelling - there’s a ken russell film largely based on fenby’s delius as I knew him.
kate bush is clearly familiar with it.
horsemouth has some time to doss about in the library (now that he has abandoned his colleagues to burn) living at the top of his very own maslow pyramid. he’s been asked to participate in a ten great movies thing (or ten movies that influenced him) - he probably will (but not in any sort of order). there are a number of threads - the music thing, the french thing, the russian/ east european thing, it feels strange not to be writing about them (the thing horsemouth does with most material that presents itself to him).
so there’s no telling you why they are so great - first up perry henzel’s the harder they come, for horsemouth one of the four key reggae movies - it’s no surprise that babylon makes the list, rockers also (countryman horsemouth is less keen on - so it doesn’t appear in his lists).
over on the american primitive guitarists page there’s debate about whether you can learn a self-taught style, one dude studied with robbie basho (wow). horsemouth is a bodger and faker... now he just has to work out a set that will hide his deficiencies.
(the next story is loosely lifted from the china crisis or silkwood - or any of a raft of post three mile island nuclear powerplant goes bang/ whistleblowers murdered by evil capitalists stories).
eric fenby was not a rake but a well brought up christian young man from scarborough who found his mentor’s nietzsche fixation a bit gruelling - there’s a ken russell film largely based on fenby’s delius as I knew him.
kate bush is clearly familiar with it.
horsemouth has some time to doss about in the library (now that he has abandoned his colleagues to burn) living at the top of his very own maslow pyramid. he’s been asked to participate in a ten great movies thing (or ten movies that influenced him) - he probably will (but not in any sort of order). there are a number of threads - the music thing, the french thing, the russian/ east european thing, it feels strange not to be writing about them (the thing horsemouth does with most material that presents itself to him).
so there’s no telling you why they are so great - first up perry henzel’s the harder they come, for horsemouth one of the four key reggae movies - it’s no surprise that babylon makes the list, rockers also (countryman horsemouth is less keen on - so it doesn’t appear in his lists).
over on the american primitive guitarists page there’s debate about whether you can learn a self-taught style, one dude studied with robbie basho (wow). horsemouth is a bodger and faker... now he just has to work out a set that will hide his deficiencies.
Saturday 20 October 2018
horsemouth scaled down (would that work?.. I mean he’s pretty small already...)
so horsemouth went off to watch the 143rd scaledown above a pub (the king and queen off oxford street) - the idea being that acts do a scaled-down version of what they normally do (to suit the more intimate surroundings). he had the map provided by the rantipoles (this is partially why he went to make up for missing their canal cruise).
the acts played, horsemouth chatted to a dude from the isle of lewis in the outer hebrides (ten miles down from the lighthouse if you’re visiting). horsemouth thought he’d seen him at the leigh folk festival (but it must have been a look alike).
intro - two of the usual three hosts apparently
carl chamberlain - poems about (sometimes toxic) masculinity, the weddings of grandparents, delivered fast and unamplified, involving and with the right balance of grit and sentimentality. a break for the set up,
then thom driver and a bassist - good songs sabotaged by the sound and timing problems (noticeably better with a drum machine) but surviving nonetheless.
a break for the set up - two vocal mikes - two positions on stage - and we are back in swansea at an after show party with little and large (and with roshi nasehi of pars radio - horsemouth has seen her before at one of those sun at night things).
there’s a little tale of how roshi ended up in swansea from iran (and a loop stationed iranian song about the hand - about reading palms? - most excellent) and then the story itself working the two positions onstage, the two microphones the two different audio treatments of the voice as interior and exterior state - nice. the setting swansea - far away and long ago (but homely) gives it a necessary distance. on its way to being a theatre piece.
then, the rantipoles, the further adventures of 3/4ths of gertrude in (indeed) a scaled down and more portable form working that hinge and bracket comedy of sillyness, sneaking the songs, the sudden harmonies, the word-play, the dance -routines, all of it, all into 15 minutes, all with a map - upcycled from the canal trip horsemouth was pleased to see (waste not want not). dawn had lost her voice, nick doyne-ditmas was supposed to double for her on kazoo from offstage (he remembered the first time).
living standards (see it took horsemouth a while to get the pun) vocal and guitar duo doing jazz standards - or originals - not entirely horsemouth’s cup of tea - there was a good etoufe passage on one song.
finally joe wilkes - now the vocals were bob dylan (ok horsemouth is a little unfair here) but the guitar playing was very good indeed (horsemouth hates it when people make this sort of thing look effortless) more in the jansch/ renbourn contrapuntal fingerpicking with bluesy bends (how strong must people’s fingers be to achieve this?) mode. as to the songs themselves horsemouth would make his usual appeal for people not to stop at the first thing but to wait until they’re got a part two to the song also - for horsemouth the evening’s discovery.
he played (if horsemouth remembers correctly) a version of frankie learnt from the mississippi john hurt version (but with a different guitar part), she kills her faithless husband, in contradistinction to the way it usually goes down in blues songs (he said) where the men kill the women. but horsemouth doesn’t think this is so - surely it’s the folk songs pretty polly, hey joe, where the wild roses grow where the women get killed?
also met - good to see nick doyne-ditmas (gigging solo a lot - and tonight with charles hayward - is that right? yes - actually with his trio crackle at lewisham art house tonight - ah a fiver bring your own bottle), and ayesha (of gertrude still on a holiday from music e15’ing it).
the acts played, horsemouth chatted to a dude from the isle of lewis in the outer hebrides (ten miles down from the lighthouse if you’re visiting). horsemouth thought he’d seen him at the leigh folk festival (but it must have been a look alike).
intro - two of the usual three hosts apparently
carl chamberlain - poems about (sometimes toxic) masculinity, the weddings of grandparents, delivered fast and unamplified, involving and with the right balance of grit and sentimentality. a break for the set up,
then thom driver and a bassist - good songs sabotaged by the sound and timing problems (noticeably better with a drum machine) but surviving nonetheless.
a break for the set up - two vocal mikes - two positions on stage - and we are back in swansea at an after show party with little and large (and with roshi nasehi of pars radio - horsemouth has seen her before at one of those sun at night things).
there’s a little tale of how roshi ended up in swansea from iran (and a loop stationed iranian song about the hand - about reading palms? - most excellent) and then the story itself working the two positions onstage, the two microphones the two different audio treatments of the voice as interior and exterior state - nice. the setting swansea - far away and long ago (but homely) gives it a necessary distance. on its way to being a theatre piece.
then, the rantipoles, the further adventures of 3/4ths of gertrude in (indeed) a scaled down and more portable form working that hinge and bracket comedy of sillyness, sneaking the songs, the sudden harmonies, the word-play, the dance -routines, all of it, all into 15 minutes, all with a map - upcycled from the canal trip horsemouth was pleased to see (waste not want not). dawn had lost her voice, nick doyne-ditmas was supposed to double for her on kazoo from offstage (he remembered the first time).
living standards (see it took horsemouth a while to get the pun) vocal and guitar duo doing jazz standards - or originals - not entirely horsemouth’s cup of tea - there was a good etoufe passage on one song.
finally joe wilkes - now the vocals were bob dylan (ok horsemouth is a little unfair here) but the guitar playing was very good indeed (horsemouth hates it when people make this sort of thing look effortless) more in the jansch/ renbourn contrapuntal fingerpicking with bluesy bends (how strong must people’s fingers be to achieve this?) mode. as to the songs themselves horsemouth would make his usual appeal for people not to stop at the first thing but to wait until they’re got a part two to the song also - for horsemouth the evening’s discovery.
he played (if horsemouth remembers correctly) a version of frankie learnt from the mississippi john hurt version (but with a different guitar part), she kills her faithless husband, in contradistinction to the way it usually goes down in blues songs (he said) where the men kill the women. but horsemouth doesn’t think this is so - surely it’s the folk songs pretty polly, hey joe, where the wild roses grow where the women get killed?
also met - good to see nick doyne-ditmas (gigging solo a lot - and tonight with charles hayward - is that right? yes - actually with his trio crackle at lewisham art house tonight - ah a fiver bring your own bottle), and ayesha (of gertrude still on a holiday from music e15’ing it).
Saturday 13 October 2018
‘and the man on the radio won’t leave me alone...'
the lyrics to the return of the grievous angel turn out not to have been written by gram parsons after all but by boston poet thomas stanley brown. he wrote them in about twenty minutes and then gave them to michael martin to give to gram in a bar called oliver’s in boston when gram and emmylou harris were performing during the summer of 1973.
they’re classic road trip lyrics. there are a few gram modifications from the original poem, brown said parsons changed the word “roughnecks” to “kickers,” in the line,‘ out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels’ which is smart because it has better rhythm.
parsons also added the two bridge lines. ‘and the man on the radio won’t leave me alone, he wants to take my money for somethin’ that I’ve never been shown.’
these lines were in a notebook that gram grabbed as he fled from his home, which burned down shortly before the second solo album sessions were scheduled to begin. gram was short on songs for the second album - return of the grievous angel was one of two he wrote in the studio. it was not originally supposed to be the title track for the album - that was to be boudleaux bryant’s sleepless nights.
Thursday 11 October 2018
winnicott and the grey monk
horsemouth has been posting over at american primitive guitar group on facebook.
he posted a link to bandcamp’s round up of the scene.
anyone missing? asked horsemouth
- glenn jones and daniel bachman replied the massive, mark fosson also.
label wise a nod to dying for bad music and not just tompkins square and takoma park would be good.
the british guitarists - bert jansch, john renbourn, davy graham, wiz jones, etc. are excluded on principle. they don’t have the rhythm says fahey in a german tv interview. but look at what davy graham gets up to with modal guitar, look at renbourn and jansch’s goodbye pork pie hat and alike.
in horsemouth's humble opinion the best appreciation of fahey is to be found on blog the hum's blogspot here (and written by an avowed guitar hater too), and in part three of the article a guide to loads of american primitive guitarists even horsemouth has never heard of.
he posted a link to bandcamp’s round up of the scene.
anyone missing? asked horsemouth
- glenn jones and daniel bachman replied the massive, mark fosson also.
label wise a nod to dying for bad music and not just tompkins square and takoma park would be good.
the british guitarists - bert jansch, john renbourn, davy graham, wiz jones, etc. are excluded on principle. they don’t have the rhythm says fahey in a german tv interview. but look at what davy graham gets up to with modal guitar, look at renbourn and jansch’s goodbye pork pie hat and alike.
in horsemouth's humble opinion the best appreciation of fahey is to be found on blog the hum's blogspot here (and written by an avowed guitar hater too), and in part three of the article a guide to loads of american primitive guitarists even horsemouth has never heard of.
Sunday 7 October 2018
sunday: no more water
horsemouth does so hope not. he’s a little hung over (he blames the post-gig pint in the wetherspoons).
stick in the wheel upstairs at the garage - on second thoughts that is more the right size - downstairs might have been a little empty. (that didn’t stop horsemouth and myk and the congregation from queuing at the wrong door for ages though).
first on gwenifer raymond banjo and guitar (some retuning) - myk got the last of her CDs - once again excellent (‘john fahey has returned - and this time she’s welsh’). almost polysyllabic this time - we’re probably into double figures for words in the stage patter (but only just).
young waters - excellent harmonies, not horsemouth’s thing though, guitar, two violins, double bass. singer-songwriterly - probably a little more variation would be good (horsemouth always says this) but conversely the straight ahead folk at the end is probably too crowd pleasing to be necessary. they sang an acapella - that was good (which one was it? they caimed it was irish? horsemouth’s memory fails him).
pleasantly minimal - a little too much good taste (for horsemouth’s taste) of which, to paraphrase oscar wilde, ‘too much can be fatal’.
chris wood - myk was keen to see. again singer-songwritery (but more in an observational, social commentary kind of way). two songs - a good arrangement of blake’s jerusalem, and a social commentary song about modern life. here the bar is set high - can you rage against modern life more effectively that elvis costello or graham parker (or dylan for that matter)? still - well played and interesting.
stick in the wheel - a great set, great opening, particularly the new material from follow them true which is properly cinematic - the abbots bromley horn dance in particular, welcome returns for the london riots song and champion at keeping’em rolling, ending out with a sing along on poor old horse. nicola seemingly grumpy about going of on tour ‘it’s a bother’.
if horsemouth has a criticism it’s that the set is a bit bitty (being made up of too many short songs that don’t outstay their welcome), there’s little development, there’s little extension, there’s little experiment. there is variation (instrumentals, acapellas, sea-shanties) but there’s not quite enough variation. still it’s early days yet. they're off on tour so you can judge for yourselves.
stick in the wheel upstairs at the garage - on second thoughts that is more the right size - downstairs might have been a little empty. (that didn’t stop horsemouth and myk and the congregation from queuing at the wrong door for ages though).
first on gwenifer raymond banjo and guitar (some retuning) - myk got the last of her CDs - once again excellent (‘john fahey has returned - and this time she’s welsh’). almost polysyllabic this time - we’re probably into double figures for words in the stage patter (but only just).
young waters - excellent harmonies, not horsemouth’s thing though, guitar, two violins, double bass. singer-songwriterly - probably a little more variation would be good (horsemouth always says this) but conversely the straight ahead folk at the end is probably too crowd pleasing to be necessary. they sang an acapella - that was good (which one was it? they caimed it was irish? horsemouth’s memory fails him).
pleasantly minimal - a little too much good taste (for horsemouth’s taste) of which, to paraphrase oscar wilde, ‘too much can be fatal’.
chris wood - myk was keen to see. again singer-songwritery (but more in an observational, social commentary kind of way). two songs - a good arrangement of blake’s jerusalem, and a social commentary song about modern life. here the bar is set high - can you rage against modern life more effectively that elvis costello or graham parker (or dylan for that matter)? still - well played and interesting.
stick in the wheel - a great set, great opening, particularly the new material from follow them true which is properly cinematic - the abbots bromley horn dance in particular, welcome returns for the london riots song and champion at keeping’em rolling, ending out with a sing along on poor old horse. nicola seemingly grumpy about going of on tour ‘it’s a bother’.
if horsemouth has a criticism it’s that the set is a bit bitty (being made up of too many short songs that don’t outstay their welcome), there’s little development, there’s little extension, there’s little experiment. there is variation (instrumentals, acapellas, sea-shanties) but there’s not quite enough variation. still it’s early days yet. they're off on tour so you can judge for yourselves.
Saturday 6 October 2018
zbigniew herbert 'besieged city' week
monday: empty storehouses
(the rat became the unit of currency)
monday and the start of zbigniew herbert besieged city week (which should run until sunday).
has herbert got anything to say to us - looks like a no, horsemouth doubts it, he looks incredulous ‘empty storehouses' - how could that happen? pffft.’ strangely (if horsemouth remembers correctly this line (slightly modified) featured in the david cronenburg’s film version of dan delilio’s cosmopolis - insane hedge fund billionaire type drives around a gridlocked manhattan in his insane limo, meeting and greeting and visiting the proctologist - a very 2008 type film. ok more tomorrow.
tuesday: the mayor murdered
by unknown assailants
horsemouth took advantage of the unscheduled pause to buy a compilation of algernon blackwood’s ghost stories - one squid bookmarks. he found a copy of the torygraph on the way home - he failed to raid the bins and pick up some biscuit tins (ah well another time).
wednesday: negotiations for a ceasefire
the enemy has imprisoned our messengers
horsemouth made progress with algernon blackwood’s the willows while on the bus - he will return to it today. today he works a very little - and then he’s free (it’s effectively his day off). algernon blackwood writes the introduction to a compilation of his stories - but he is not the same man who wrote them (he tells us) not even at the cellular level.
thursday: after a stormy meeting
a majority of voices rejected the motion of the spice merchants for unconditional surrender
the week told through the lines of zbigniew herbert’s poem report from the besieged city continues.
friday: the beginning of the plague
all in all things flow on smoothly and horsemouth pronounces himself reasonably happy.
saturday: our invincible defender N.N. committed suicide
it’s a grey and slightly chilly morning (but hey... it is october).
horsemouth and sten have had coffee and discussed the state of brexit.
the road to brexit considered as a downhill motor race
‘arlene foster fired the starting pistol. theresa may got off to a bad start. the wound was not in itself so severe, but her team scented blood and could no longer control themselves...’.
zbigniew herbert week continues (it will conclude sunday with sunday: no more water).
horsemouth has finished reading algernon blackwood’s the willows (strange things happen on the danube/ the donau in fact). he has many other books he should be getting on with.
yesterday horsemouth walked in the region of 15 kilometers (and then he cracked and got the tube back). horsemouth’s home town (one of the seaside towns) is descending into gridlock - a gridlock which, to be fair, it is always on the verge of (having a triangle). in the next town over there is gridlock too (the shortage triangle).
next week south east at the start, the center for the center, out west to end. strangely other roads are near empty.
sunday: no more water
(the rat became the unit of currency)
monday and the start of zbigniew herbert besieged city week (which should run until sunday).
has herbert got anything to say to us - looks like a no, horsemouth doubts it, he looks incredulous ‘empty storehouses' - how could that happen? pffft.’ strangely (if horsemouth remembers correctly this line (slightly modified) featured in the david cronenburg’s film version of dan delilio’s cosmopolis - insane hedge fund billionaire type drives around a gridlocked manhattan in his insane limo, meeting and greeting and visiting the proctologist - a very 2008 type film. ok more tomorrow.
tuesday: the mayor murdered
by unknown assailants
horsemouth took advantage of the unscheduled pause to buy a compilation of algernon blackwood’s ghost stories - one squid bookmarks. he found a copy of the torygraph on the way home - he failed to raid the bins and pick up some biscuit tins (ah well another time).
wednesday: negotiations for a ceasefire
the enemy has imprisoned our messengers
horsemouth made progress with algernon blackwood’s the willows while on the bus - he will return to it today. today he works a very little - and then he’s free (it’s effectively his day off). algernon blackwood writes the introduction to a compilation of his stories - but he is not the same man who wrote them (he tells us) not even at the cellular level.
thursday: after a stormy meeting
a majority of voices rejected the motion of the spice merchants for unconditional surrender
the week told through the lines of zbigniew herbert’s poem report from the besieged city continues.
friday: the beginning of the plague
all in all things flow on smoothly and horsemouth pronounces himself reasonably happy.
saturday: our invincible defender N.N. committed suicide
it’s a grey and slightly chilly morning (but hey... it is october).
horsemouth and sten have had coffee and discussed the state of brexit.
the road to brexit considered as a downhill motor race
‘arlene foster fired the starting pistol. theresa may got off to a bad start. the wound was not in itself so severe, but her team scented blood and could no longer control themselves...’.
zbigniew herbert week continues (it will conclude sunday with sunday: no more water).
horsemouth has finished reading algernon blackwood’s the willows (strange things happen on the danube/ the donau in fact). he has many other books he should be getting on with.
yesterday horsemouth walked in the region of 15 kilometers (and then he cracked and got the tube back). horsemouth’s home town (one of the seaside towns) is descending into gridlock - a gridlock which, to be fair, it is always on the verge of (having a triangle). in the next town over there is gridlock too (the shortage triangle).
next week south east at the start, the center for the center, out west to end. strangely other roads are near empty.
sunday: no more water
Wednesday 3 October 2018
happy birthday swami satchidananda
sunday 22nd december 1974 there was a gig to celebrate the 60th birthday of swami satchidananda (the poster has surfaced on dust-to-digital).
two musicians horsemouth had heard of before played at it - alice coltrane (whom you might expect as a follower of the swami) and john fahey (who you might not expect as a notorious curmudgeon). so two of horsemouth's musical heroes crossed paths (he wonders what they made of each other).
also playing that night was michael jarrett - singer-songwriter and co-writer of late elvis hit I’m leaving (not the guy of the same name from NY dancehall scene and bobby konders' massive sounds - er. mack daddy - was the hit horsemouth believes). this - the imperfect first take of elvis trying to record it is great - very love-like.
also playing was his (michael jarrett I’m leaving that is) then wife, the actress sally kirkland, and the bhajan singer sant keshavadas (who is still singing and teaching horsemouth believes - no he's wrong, sadguru sant keshavadas's wife has taken on running the temple of cosmic religion, but his singing is still available on youtube and soundcloud)
.
fahey said he hung around the spiritual community because he was in love with the swami's secretary (shanti norris), which is as good a cop out clause as you could ever hope for. this would be round about the time of fare forward voyagers (soldier’s choice) (1973) possibly fahey's best long form fusion of east and west and originally dedicated to swami satchidananda.
alice coltrane established her vedantic centre up in woodland hills near LA the year after (1975).
two musicians horsemouth had heard of before played at it - alice coltrane (whom you might expect as a follower of the swami) and john fahey (who you might not expect as a notorious curmudgeon). so two of horsemouth's musical heroes crossed paths (he wonders what they made of each other).
also playing that night was michael jarrett - singer-songwriter and co-writer of late elvis hit I’m leaving (not the guy of the same name from NY dancehall scene and bobby konders' massive sounds - er. mack daddy - was the hit horsemouth believes). this - the imperfect first take of elvis trying to record it is great - very love-like.
also playing was his (michael jarrett I’m leaving that is) then wife, the actress sally kirkland, and the bhajan singer sant keshavadas (who is still singing and teaching horsemouth believes - no he's wrong, sadguru sant keshavadas's wife has taken on running the temple of cosmic religion, but his singing is still available on youtube and soundcloud)
.
fahey said he hung around the spiritual community because he was in love with the swami's secretary (shanti norris), which is as good a cop out clause as you could ever hope for. this would be round about the time of fare forward voyagers (soldier’s choice) (1973) possibly fahey's best long form fusion of east and west and originally dedicated to swami satchidananda.
alice coltrane established her vedantic centre up in woodland hills near LA the year after (1975).
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