Tag: Acoustic

Categories
Folk Music Protest Folk Uncategorised

Support Merrymaker’s charity single “Nobody here wants a war”

Merrymaker at Village Folk

Nobody Here Wants A War- Charity Single Launch – 26/09/16

 

Pushing their best foot forward with all the sensibilities of protest folk, the band Merrymaker come at us with a new single “Nobody here wants a war”.

Merrymaker is happily made out of Dan Sealey (from Merrymouth), Adam Barry (The Misers) and Nikki Petherick (singer songwriter), a trio of artists come together in a melodic, thumping protest package; first in the studio earlier in the year to record this number, and soon to be touring with a bagful of new material that for now has been kept under wraps. Their experiences as support for John McCusker, their own projects, and attendance at a large number of folk festivals within the music scene over the years promises to bring a well-tuned, politically sharp live experience to the stage for all. Like all the best folk it feels like they are setting out on a journey of articulating people’s fears of the times they are living in and it does this by going to the populace and crafting a protest out of their collective voice.
As mentioned, all proceeds from this song go to the charity, Action Aid.

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“Nobody here wants a war” is a single that sees the burning fire of our Government’s involvement with Syria and blows away the smoke that lingers. Syria is pretty far from the minds of a lot of people in our country despite it having been a catastrophic war-zone for quite a long time. This could be due to the recent referendum of EU membership and other political debacles, but Merrymaker rightly brings our attention to this House of Commons decision where the country joined a coalition of other countries bombing Syria. By bringing back a memory of this decision they are wanting to give a voice to a nation of discontentment, and explore this pivotal decision that quite possibly opened a floodgate for many undemocratic actions that followed by individuals seated in power. Do they succeed?

They do, and make quite a confident stride at raising their profile. Merrymaker have done this through listening to the people through social media and working the concepts into song in a meaningful way. The collective heave of discontentment and unhappiness is expressed within their music video where several of the responses are quoted and worked into the feeling:

“I don’t think that we can actually accept that we live in a democracy at the moment, you have to question everything you hear”

“I feel saddened, frustrated, angry, and scared of the decision of the British Government”

“A country has no right to complain about refugees when they are the ones causing the refugees to flee”

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The sentiments connect deeply and the latent hypocrisy of some attitudes is challenged, as the lyrics sing, “”it’s a cycle of madness.. and it’s done in our name”. Uplifting and rousing with some lovely harmonies, a likeable pace and a stirring piano it shows a passion to challenge oppression. The layers of aerophone and free-moving fiddle also catch the ear quite nicely and the main singer’s voice is sad yet hopeful. All together a good listen and a worthwhile cause indeed. Living in times of a challenging political identity and growing right-wing ideologies, it is welcome to hear a band focusing on this year and communicating not just a differing viewpoint, but a highly maintained one from society itself. As they say themselves:

“the idea of writing songs about subjects that matter to us as a band, came from a sheer frustration from modern bands and songwriters not wanting
to air their views through music anymore.”

With people’s unwillingness to openly challenge power in society, Merrymaker are lending a hand and at the same time creating a commentary on the times we are living in.

I look forward to hearing them at Derby Folk Festival this very weekend (30th September so get your tickets now), and their future music releases each month that are to culminate in their EP launch in early 2017. If you are in Derby and have a ticket, they are playing at the Guildhall Clubrooms at 5.30pm on Saturday 1st), website here.

Check out the video below, and then go to their website here. The single is available for £0.99 there, with proceeds going to ActionAid who support women and children through a number of initiatives, click on their image below for a link!

 

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All proceeds from this song go to the charity, Action Aid.
Categories
British Folk Music Gigs

South Yorkshire FRW Music Festival – Sep 2016: Lucy Marshall

Later in the day I was able to catch Lucy Marshall, a Hull-based acoustic artist with three EPs and experience of touring across festivals such as Cambridge Rock and Blues, and Cornucopia, her website is very nice indeed I am totally jealous http://www.lucymarshallsings.com/.

She was playing in the 1st floor room of the The Leopard pub, Doncaster, a fairly dark, industrial venue space above the pub. It was a tight room and probably better in design towards rock rather than folk, but this did not matter so much for the artist. After all, Lucy did bring a variety of tracks though such as Beck’s “The Golden Age” and Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” which would be more at home here; she also furnished the audience’s attention with the traditional “Three Fishers”, and her own song “Fragile.” In respect to singing and acoustic guitar playing she all these genres in her acoustic style, which takes some effort. Her version of “Three Fishers” eschewed the dulcet, pronounced or mildly operatic sound of John Baez instead going for an equally emotive, more rugged sound that more than hearkened to her own family’s time at the coast. Lucy does appear to carry a large number of musical elements with her, the breadth of influences is a refreshing one, and an indicator of someone who loves music without being chained by recent fads.. Her whole performance was sustained with good singing and a sense of honesty and friendliness in her stage manner. She undoubtedly has a lot of singing talent and a potential hook for success, especially as she is early in her career it feels like her progression lies twofold.

Her performance itself was confident. She is but a few steps from treading in the shoes of other young singer-songwriters, I can see the similar attitude and niche of Lily Allen, Kate Nash and folk’s Lucy Ward (who she has supported on tour). On stage there were times where she was excessively modest, and maybe it was not intended, but there was a feeling of uncertainty in her discussions about her musical direction (she references about the old band at one point). We have all been there in different parts of our lives; it sounds cliche but she just needs more belief in herself because really sounds good. I think the key to this lies in a second point of development. Her music choice suggests a reverence for the past while reconciling her own music together in a show. If she has a tighter-knit themed ensemble of music, it will allow an audience to connect even more. Her rock catalogue fits the rock and blues scene, her own material is more aimed at her generation, and the folk tracks are a different audience again. Credit is due, the audience really liked her and that is the hard part, the rest can be arranged around as seen fit.

An interesting and unique mix of songs, I think she could capitalise on it through consideration of her character, manner and stage identity. She has a pretty powerful voice and you can see there is something there, something more. I hope to hear more of her in the future and see where this path takes her.

Check out her music from her website http://www.lucymarshallsings.com/music!

Check out the sample video below of “Fields of Gold”, she is there doing a great job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4wq0hu0ARs

 

 

 

Categories
Album/EP Reviews Americana Folk Music Indie Folk

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles – Making Mountains (Vol 1)

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles: Making Mountains (Vol 1)




An artist with old school authenticity and a collection of songs aptly wrapped in the phenomenology of experience drenched in Americana which takes the best aspects of modern music

Album: Making Mountains (Vol 1.)

Label: Paper Label Records

Website: http://www.edddonovan.co.uk/

Release Date: 3rd June 2016

I don’t often venture into Americana I regret to inform. 


There are some of the old tracks that get the mind going and capture a time and place though, so now and then I will pop my head in and see what is happening when Twitter shows me an interesting video or an artist has does something else with the genre to get my attention; and those are the times I wish I listened to a bit more. Edd Donovan goes a long way to prove this notion to myself as he takes indie-folk and Americana and makes it his own. I had not heard of the artist so I was intrigued to find out about him.



Edd Donovan is a singer-songwriter and this is Edd’s second album. His first album “Something to Take the Edge off” did make a splash, at least enough to allow him to tour quite a lot with the band and individually, and to be recognised by the The Guardian newspaper. A distinctive point in which he has been recognised and identified is by a fact that he shares with myself: we are both social workers. This piques my interest as in his day-to-day work I am presuming he sees and hears a lot of interesting things (like I do myself) and this throws down the gauntlet to Edd to see how these things are worked into his album, and whether he has found a clever way to use these unique and often precious observations of people; it is these things after all that will set him and his band apart from other stuff that is out there. “Making Mountains” does actually paint a wide-range of experiences into it’s construction which can be owed to Edd inhabiting the mindspace of people in love, people in search of meaning and people grieving. As a collection of songs there is a feeling of a first-hand account of these details that has helped to layer the album with a kind of spirituality that is rooted in it’s acoustic warmth.


I have heard of artists (and other Eds) who circle the chart scene while it has it’s on-off relationship with acoustic music, and some can make an excellent living from it but I get turned off by some pop-acoustic music that is separated from history, social justice or personal feeling that is anything different to the search for teenage identity. For me this could be the quality of writing or it could just be that I’m getting old and not requiring young men to describe my feelings of angst and love anymore. “Making Mountains” isn’t this kind of disc making this kind of advice. It is youthful, but youthful in a wise way, capturing a young mindset within an older body, perhaps one which is more succinct at describing it’s feelings from the passage of time while not missing it’s initial, budding charm. It’s energetic in a ginger ale drink way, the vocals are light like bubbles crackling and moving through a sharper liquid of emotive constructed lyrics. There are a number of tracks on the album that illustrate this quite well, but the joy in Donovan and band is that when you become comfortable with some of their sounds, they will turn the whole thing on it’s head and graciously surprise.


Tracks


“Dog’s don’t bite” is a spring-stepped start to the album. It has some persistent and solid drumming and a lightly haunting violin which adds a bittersweet companion to Edd’s affective, gliding vocals, “I want to go where the dogs don’t bite”. It builds up nicely and manages to wind a thread of joy and desperation into a track that takes the listener to the late Summer of a relationship. The subject seems to want to be with their significant other while the shadow of rejection creeps over the sun, “I’ve got nothing better to do than wait for you.” Later on, “Who will Show Us” likewise muses on the moment, wondering what is in it and what is just around the corner. It is the most galloping of tracks with a person who is waiting, possibly on the cusp of something great but unsure what this current time is about, “I’m waiting for something to happen.. I spend all my time smiling and laughing.” It is almost existential as the singer searches for meanings in the gestures and the possibilities in free choice, and is a highly melodic addition to the album.


“Talking Jesus” has a fresh, chiming vocal harmony backed by a poetic, soulful set of lyrics that sear in their originality, “my engine’s burning hotter than a heart attack.” It also quite visceral in it’s descriptions of “razor” blades and “cocaine” as it feels like it is describing a hedonism at it’s height like Jordan Belfort transplanted into the Americana of the Wild West. There is a mood of the singer seeking God and meaning within miles of dusty brutality, it is stirringly shocking and evocative. Much of the earlier tracks on the album are cited the most by media, but “Talking Jesus” for myself is the indicator of a tipping point towards the more interesting tracks on the album.



“Pink Belly” is a greatly rebellious track. I have up to this point characterised Edd Donovan as a mostly cheerful character, but with this track’s double bass, skulking guitar and almost prophesying voice we move to a more deconstructing and discontenting song,”the human race is failing and their systems don’t work.” The track has the character and feel of “One Step Beyond” and Madness, it is very two-tone and it’s appearance on the album is revealed suddenly and gleefully like the identity of Scooby Doo’s villain of the week. It is a major surprise on the album which speaks volumes of the artist’s versatility, and a firm favourite with myself.


In Review


Edd’s pellucid singing voice shines throughout bringing a deceptively idiosyncratic album into the mix which rather than sitting in it’s wicker chair of Americana prefers to perch on the edge, comfortable where it is but with it’s focus all around for inspiration. It is a characterful album which is quite distinctive in it’s phenomenological lyrics, song and instrumentation that blend into discrete experiences that reward re-listening. It is for this reason it has taken me a little while since release to begin to think about it’s intricacies and messages and in a good way, I think I’ll be at it a little while longer.


It is a nicely diverse album with some good composition, thoughtful songs, and accomplished musicianship that brings a lot to the table and leaves you sitting there fulfilled but wanting to know what all the ingredients are. 


It is certainly worth a look before Edd Donovan looks to the second volume and brings his lightness of touch and sincerity to a further work.


Check out a sample below:

 

Edd Donovan and the Wandering Moles are currently on their “Making Mountains” tour and has just been at Wychwood Festival. Details of upcoming festival appearances can be seen here, where you can also sign up for their newsletter. 


If you want to get their album, go straight to the bandcamp page here and support them directly.