Life after BHS

f-l-e-u-r-d-e-l-y-s:

FRANCO RUBARTELLI

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS – ‘THE CROSSING’

When the opportunity to preview the new Sophie B. Hawkins album presented itself I jumped at it. Thinking on, I wondered just why should I be so keen to hear her first album release in around eight years – after all she doesn’t exactly have a track record of many big hits here in the UK. Despite her relatively limited commercial success here, I immediately recalled a couple of absolutely excellent earlier songs.

Coincidentally I had just been about to start a new ‘Saturday Breakfast’ show and had decided to include tracks from the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’, and had decided to start with those listed from the year that I first started secondary school – 1967, the same year that Sophie was born! In addition to being a musician she is also credited as a painter, so I was eager to find out just why I was so drawn to listen to this offering from somebody who I had heard so little about.

The opening track certainly ticked all the right boxes for me, one chord then straight into the lyrics “we all need somebody, we all have a soul to save” - a great layered rocking number that reminded me of one of the attractions of Sophie, her wonderful husky voice. After a few listens I have to admit that I am still unsure about the second track, an interpretation of a traditional spiritual ‘The Sinner’, the rhythmic backing and “heave ho” chanting seem a bit disjointed. Any slight doubts rapidly disappear with track three, ‘The Land, The Sea And The Sky’, a track that was written and released as a single in 2010 when she was moved by the developing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, all proceeds being given to the Waterkeeper Alliance.

As the rest of the album unfolds, a pleasing dynamic selection of songs are revealed showcasing Sophie’s distinctive vocal range. An acoustic version of her signature hit ‘Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover’ is included, sadly not the customised version that was made for Hilary Clinton’s US Presidential campaign, ‘Damn, We Wish You Were President’, but pragmatically it would probably not have been the best of ideas to include that. The song deserves to be appreciated as much more than a ‘novelty’ promotional support for a failed historical occurrence.

Interestingly Sophie notes that she met with musicians one at a time, recording with them at her house before engineering the album herself. All told I believe that this is an great testament to her writing, musicianship and engineering skills, something that I will listen to and include again; I also plan to include tracks in future show playlists. Watch out for it when it is released on June 19^th.

Full track listing:

1/ Betchya Got a Cure For Me

2/ Sinner Man

3/ The Land, The Sea And The Sky

4/ Georgia

5/ Missing

6/ Heart And Soul Of A Woman

7/ Life Is A River

8/ Miles Away

9/ I Don’t Need You

10/ Gone Baby

11/ A Child

12/ Dream St. And Chance

13/ Betchya Got A Cure For Me (Long)

14/ Damn, I Wish I was Your Lover (Acoustic)

15/ Missing (Demo)

16/ As I Lay Me Down (Acoustic)

AUBURN – ‘INDIAN SUMMER’

A CD arrived in the post recently with a request that I write a review; although I have previously received a variety of on-line queries, to actually be sent a physical copy was a first for me. I had absolutely no prior knowledge of the artist and consequently had no preconceptions; amongst the first things that I noticed on receipt of this CD:

• a very striking portrait painting on the cover by Teresa Witz;

• Eliza Carthy’s name amongst the contributing musicians;

• the very memorable “Wow! What a Ride!” quote from Hunter S Thompson;

• a ‘Gonzo’ production.

Although interesting, the combination of these things did little to help me; I sensed something slightly gothic about the painting and other graphics, I primarily associate Eliza Carthy with excellent folk music, and my main recollections of Hunter S Thompson are the two books ‘Hells’ Angels’ and ‘Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas’, and ‘gonzo’ journalism. No further forward there regarding what to expect, so I loaded the CD into the player and waited to hear what came out of the speakers.

Having listened to it a number of times now I still find it hard to categorise, and in my mind that is a very good thing indeed! I definitely liked what I heard and in many ways felt that I had been transported back to my youth as I found many of the tracks to be reminiscent of some of the music that I had enjoyed so much back in the mid 1970s. Yet this is no 70s ‘tribute act’, Auburn have succeeded in producing an album that deserves to be appreciated as an idiosyncratic delivery of a range of pleasing songs with thoughtful lyrics accompanied by sympathetic instrumentals.

The album is a vehicle for the songs sung by Liz Lenten and written by her in conjunction with Max Gilkes. It opens with ‘Shame On You’, a fairly upbeat tribute to ‘girls’ nights out’ and I immediately anticipated that more pleasing content would follow, I wasn’t disappointed.

In true retro style I can picture some of the songs going down very well in smoky basement clubs, particularly ‘All Come Back To You’, definitely a thing of the past with the advent of widespread public smoking bans. There are no hard rocking numbers here that rely on lots of electric instrumentation, there is a definite bias towards acoustic based tracks. The title track, Indian Summer’, is absolutely sublime and incorporates Latin hints with soothing lyrics; although in many ways it is completely different, I found myself recalling ‘Midnight At The Oasis’ when it was playing. It just seemed to be so right as I listened to it as I drove about in the sun. ‘Day Dreamin”, is a wonderful reggae orientated song, and an alternative dub interpretation of it is also included in the release.

There is a very delicate country treatment to the ‘Too Far From Home’ features Eliza Carthy’s violin playing alongside Rob Lewis’ cello, expertly complemented by the other excellent musicians. Max Gilkes contributes on piano and keyboards, on bass there is Jevon Beaumont with percussion provided by Willy Molleson and Wan Hewitt. Horseman adds drums on the dub version of ‘Day Dreamin” and Maddy Leather, Joe Leather, Joanne Louise Parker and Laura Vane join Liz, Max and Eliza to provide backing vocals.

One of the pervading joys is Liz Lenten’s voice; at times ethereal and wispy, at other times emotive and powerful, but always a joy; it is just so perfect in ‘This Is The Life’, one of the most laid back, yet inspirational anthems that I have come across in a long time. This album came to me completely out of the blue, I have a strong feeling that I probably wouldn’t have been drawn to it otherwise, but I am so grateful to have been introduced to it. It provides a wonderful opportunity to step back from the hustle and bustle of daily life and spend some magical moments.

1/ Shame On You

2/ Strong

3/ Indian Summer

4/ Free Spirit

5/ Day Dreamin’

6/ Stop The Clock

7/ Too Far From Home

8/ All Comes Back To You

9/ This Is The Life

10/ Day Dreamin’ (Dub Mix)

(Source: black-and-type-prints)

JILL JACKSON – ‘GETAWAY DRIVER’

Perhaps there is ‘something’ in the west coast water, listening to the opening bars of this album’s titular opening song, I found myself thinking about another singer/songwriter from west central Scotland; Amy MacDonald may be Jill Jackson’s junior but I found certain pleasing similarities. I do not mention this as a criticism, simply an observation as it soon becomes evident that the pair have their own distinct characters. Jill cites a number of wonderful American country artists as major influences; and having elected to work in Nashville following her departure from Speedway, she clearly has an affinity for country music / Americana. I did, however, wonder about the promotional blurb for her forthcoming gig in Melrose that I will be attending soon, ‘as a solo artist her acoustic Americana is far removed from the music she made as the front-woman of rock band Speedway, with whom she scored two top ten hits in 2004’. I feel that this might be slightly misleading as I believe that she manages to retain a healthy, rock sensibility in some of the tracks on this album. I find that I have to return to my ongoing concerns about the use of genre labels as there is always a danger that such designations can be rather blinkering. She has produced an almost perfect selection of edgy, up-beat songs blended with other exquisit slower numbers, that encompass a wide range of nuances and incorporate echoes of many of her influences, yet it most definitely stands on its own merit.

With exception of the title track, which is about a bank robbery, ‘Getaway Driver’ is billed as a biographical album and as such it is a wonderful individual addition to my musical library. This, perhaps, helps to explain the deeply moving and engaging selection of songs included. With a production that highlights Jill’s vocals over tight instrumentals, that are sometimes relatively understated but never under-rated. Her expressive voice adds character and colour to the intelligent lyrics and as with other great opuses, repeat listening brings additional appreciation.

I certainly look forward to the June 9^th for the opportunity to appreciate the ‘Getwaway Driver’ tour when it arrives locally in Melrose. A gig review will definitely follow in due course.

Full track listing:

1/ Getaway Driver

2/ Song For John

3/ The Letter

4/ End Of The Line

5/ Remedy

6/ Halfway Home

7/ I’ll Never Know

8/ Over And Done

9/ Aisha’s Car

10/ Runaway

11/ Middle Of The Night

12/ Leaving

13/ Mockingbird