"The cords of all link back...strandentwining cable...
"Hello...put me on to Edenville... aleph, alpha: nought, nought, one"
Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 8:18AM 
What very sad news. An extraordinary presence and an iconic sound.
There'll be changes made upstairs now the big man has joined the band - forget harps, it'll be tenor saxes all round from here on in...
Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 4:28PM I really like his record - and quite a lot of his others - but he's not a man who gives the impression of being entirely secure...
First there was the recent interview where he whinged about Bob Dylan getting more attention than him. Then he gets Elvis Costello to write an adulatory piece about him ('...these wonderful songs refuse to despair...' etc, etc) and prints it in the sleeve-notes for the new album. Then he even gets self-congratulatory in the same sleeve-notes' 'Special Thanks' to other people - name-dropping 'my friend, Philip Glass, who seems to know how to untangle the harmonic knots that I occasionally miscreate in my songs' ('But of course, Paul,' we fans rush to reassure him as we read, 'it is only very occasionally that your impressive chum's assistance is required...'); then name-checking BB King and casually mentioning that they were chatting 'backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert', when one presumes his advice would have been just as helpful if offered in a queue at a chip shop.
How much success and admiration would be sufficient for him? As I ponder what his problem might be, it is suggested to me that it is perhaps one that Randy Newman famously sang about...
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 10:15PM A lovely gig from Martin Simpson at The Greys yesterday, reviewed here.
Meanwhile, on record, if you haven't caught up with Paul Simon's So Beautiful Or So What, it's not to be missed: classicly clever, bitter-sweet lyrics, beautifully sung against some gloriously eclectic music - African guitar, Indian percussion, a sampled gospel preacher, kora, etc, etc.
And an unexpected pleasure: Thurston Moore's Demolished Thoughts. I've never really got Sonic Youth - appreciated the ideas more than enjoyed the music, I guess - but this subtle, largely acoustic, string-heavy, Beck-produced, collection is now on heavy rotation here.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 9:35PM 
Another fine musical evening at The Greys on 6 June. I hadn't heard Viper Central before but the combination of a Canadian bluegrass band, the venue and landlord Chris's dependable taste made it seem worth grabbing some tickets - and so it proved. A warm feel; strong, mutually supportive, ensemble playing; and a generally likeable bunch. Nothing particularly ground-breaking and without the jaw-dropping technique a bluegrass label sometimes signals, but that's not always what you need.
They're currently a five piece - fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, stand-up bass - grouped round a shared mike and featuring a lot of vocal harmonies. They mixed traditional and classic material (eg 'I Am The Man, Thomas', Johnny Cash's 'Get Rhythm', a Louvin Brothers number) with their own stuff to good and varied effect, ranging into folkier and gospel areas.
Their own songs were good enough without being knock-out - occasionally a bit generic: 'Down In West Virginia', featuring generalised heartland references to North Carolina, East Kentucky, etc, followed by a rueful admission that most of the band hadn't been to most of the places they were singing about...
Some nice humour, particularly from Winnipeg banjo man Tyler Rudolph (after fiddler Kathleen Nisbet had introduced a singalong number as being in C he added 'Which is not the key of Canada - that is A'. Eh?... )
I'd definitely go and see them again, but probably won't rush to buy their records.
Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 9:29PM 
I know I'm going on a bit about this lot... but they've had the good taste to release their splendid debut album Bliss Release on vinyl and it's got a gatefold sleeve and it comes with a free MP3 download.
That's the way to do it - what are you waiting for?
OK, you're waiting for a YouTube acoustic version of a song from their debut EP which isn't on the album... Here it is.
