Emeli Sande Clyde Auditorium Glasgow 6th November 2012

As her Our Version of Events has gone double platinum and the top selling album of the year in 2012, Emeli (once known as Adele) took to the Auditorium stage as if wrapped in a golden glow from her massive debut year and as if she cant’ quite believe it!  In July she sang the haunting Welsh song Abide With Me at the Olympic ceremonies London which must have been a truly daunting experience for a new singer.. as she walked out to that solo mic.  

Sande has a big smile and golden hairstyle to match her big voice and songs. Exuberant and effortless, Emeli sang of Hope, My kind of Love and Next To Me – her positive feel good messages. Emeli now has a bigger band (with three guitarists, two drummers, and backing vocalists) and started with a very good arrangement of her quality song Daddy. She sang a Nina Simone song of her biggest musical influences, How It feels to be Free

During her set she spoke of her support here in Glasgow and of those who first saw her perform at the Oran Mor, five years ago. And yes I was lucky enough to have been there!  It has been wonderful to follow her success story and to see how she has developed as an artist.  

Her Set – Daddy, Tiger, This is Where I Sleep, Breaking the Law, two new songs, My Kind of Love, Nina Simone’s How It feels to be Free, Read all About It, Wonder, Climb Mountains, Heaven, Next to Me,

Sande says ‘I love the buzz performing in front of a live audience. There really isn’t anything quite like it.’

Emeli has responded to my requests with personal messages and she comes across as genuine. She also has depth of character and integrity which comes over in her music.

Proceeds of the concert went to Nordoff Robbins music therapy.

Photography Inspirations

I first got inspired by photography through the amazing images in Life magazine, Vogue and later in Vanity Fair. I can’t remember exactly when, but I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t drawing either fashion, ballet or portraits - http://musicfootnote.blogspot.co.uk/2012/photographyinspirations

Fyfe Dangerfield

Admiral Fallow Photos King Tuts

I took photos of this up and coming Scottish band Admiral Fallow at King Tuts Glasgow - and I noticed how much fun they were having on stage. Oddly.  I was checking through my images of new Scottish musicians and posted this blog last night  - and low and behold they are releasing their second album "Tree Bursts In Snow" Monday 21st and getting good reviews. I'm getting psychic now!?  
Admiral Fallow formed in 2007 and is led by singer song-writer Louis Abbott and based in Glasgow. They write and perform folk/ pop. Their first album “Boots Met My Face” was released in the UK and worldwide in 2011. Their song "Squealing Pigs" was  used on NBC's Chuck, featured in a commercial and was performed live on BBC television's Hogmanay Live 2011.In July 2009 the band headlined the Sunday night T Break stage at T in the Park. They have also played at the Wee Chill, Rockness, Loopallu Festival and Insider festivals. The band has supported many artists - including Guillemots, King Creosote, the Futureheads, Paolo Nutini, Frightened Rabbit, Belle and Sebastian, The Low Anthem. In 2011 the band played a UK headline tour and also attended Austin, Texas for SxSW 2011. Shows followed in New York. UK summer 2011 festivals included Glastonbury, Latitude, Cambridge Folk Festival, Green Man, End of The Road. They co-headlined the HMV Next Big Thing Festival 2012 and are touring for their next album release 21 May 2012 of Tree Bursts In Snow. The band members are -. Louis Abbott, Kevin Brolly, Philip Hauge, Sarah Hayes, Joe Rattray. www.admiralfallow.com. 

*Where are the Troubadours?

Singer songwriter legend John Martyn, famous for 'May You Never'

'The highlight of my career? That's easy, Elvis recording one of my songs.' Bob Dylan. 

Our most loved singer song writers become like our best friends. 

In ages past there were Troubadours who toured their songs. It used to be (not so long ago too) that young artists would get out and perform on the circuit of live folk clubs, uni refectories and local bars in the UK and Europe and elsewhere. It used to be not so long ago that creativity was alive and well in the world of music. Back then it was all more organic rather than a production line. Musicians then played 'residencies' where they might hone their song craftsmanship through the varied experience of playing to a live audience. In the 50s singers toured with the Big bands and money was made through the Publishers Sheet music.

Since the advent of recorded music the Studio (and therefore Radio too) has taken precedence in music. Recorded music has led to a break down of boundaries of place and time and has also brought about vast changes to our tastes. The drums of Africa have mixed with the European folk tunes, the sitar with pop, the jazz clarinet with the violin solo, the rock of The Who with modern electronica.The advent of the iPod broadened our taste yet again with thousands of instant tracks. Of course 'quantity is the opposite of 'quality.'

There are problems now over who should define or select the great from the average. Who are the 'experts' in music anymore? There are the taste makers the Labels, the music reviewers and music websites. It used to be that the Royal Court would decide which artists to commission - who decides today?       

I read about writers and producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

They wrote - HoundDog, Stand By Me and many other great rock and roll hits. Yet how many have heard of these incredibly gifted artists? I don't understand the system at all and I am not an Elvis fan for a start - give me the singer songwriter any time. Apparently Elvis added the line to HoundDog 'Aint' nothing but a rabbit and he ain't no friend of mine.'

For me the voice of the writer of the song simply has more to say to me.

Quote from Mike Stoller, 'Beyond the brilliance of his mind and the mastery of his story telling, Jerry had in abundance two beautiful qualities that guaranteed his immortality. Jerry had spirit and Jerry had soul. '

'He could sing - and man, he sang as midnight. By the way he interpreted lyrics, we were sure he'd grown up in the same ghetto as us,' Quote vocalist Carl Gardener. 

It is only through knowing the 'knowledge' of the 'old' that the young can build something great. There are still some great Troubadours here in Scotland, who have great individual strength of character and something that matters to say in their voice, music and songs - Dick Gaughan, Michael Marra, Rab Noakes.... I'm just not sure where the young Troubadours are though?   

Folk Songs and Pop Tunes, ballads are ?

Folk songs may not grab you first time- but they get under your skin in a more subtle way and you never tire of them - unlike the simple pop tune. 

I'm always rather puzzled by the loosely defined definitions regarding songs or tunes between the genres. A song sung by a folk balladeer is a 'folk song' wheras a song sung by a pop star is a 'pop ballad.'

Folk singers and Dylan wrote and sang highly memorable 'folk ballads'. Some pop singers sing formulaic and forgettable 'ballads'. What is the difference though, after all I hear some dull folk songs as well as dull pop songs?  

The dictionary defines the Ballad as -  a narrative song with a recurrent refrain; a slow sentimental song, especially a pop song.

The folk song as - a song that has been handed down the generations; a modern song that reflects the folk idiom.

I was sitting at Prestwick airport and heard this truly awful whiny song. I asked my son who it was, he said that ridiculous Justin Beiber. I said that he reminded me of 'Donny Osmond' in the 70s and his soppy ballad 'They Call this Puppy Love'!   

Well that's the difference to me between the folk ballad and the 'soppy pop ballad'? That song by Beiber is a soppy shallow empty pop Ballad. By comparison Someone Like You by Adele is heart wrenching with it's honesty of emotion.    

Awful ballads? An example might be James Blunt's cheesy ballad song 'You Are Beautiful.'  It is so hackneyed and has those over-used tired old clichés and song formulas. My ears would feel ill on hearing this song and need to listen to some Dylan to feel better! 

Westlife ballads use those predictable key changes when the boys manage to rise up off their tall stools..... oh dear...

The soppy pop ballad is written to a formula and lacks emotional realness or any credibility. To me the difference is 'substance' and having something to say. Those unforgettable folk ballads offer new insights with imaginative and creative melodies and words. It is also in the music production.  

And sometimes 'cheesy' can be good too! 

The Best Songs

Occasionally a song comes along that transcend the personal as it has a universal emotion we can all recognise an share in. 

Good Examples - Let It Be, Imagine, Stand By Me, Here Comes The Sun, Case of You, Something, Islands in the Stream, Reason to Believe, Sound of Silence,

The Ballad of Hollis Brown 
 

Best Folk Songs

Westlin Winds

Outlaws and Dreamers

Both Sides the Tweed

Girl From the North Country

Vision of Joanna,

Who knows Where the Time Goes

The Blacksmith

Are you Going To Scarborough Fair 

Dylan

In Dylan I hear the train tracks

In his imagination he did ride those boxcars.

As his songs and words that take us to other countries

As vivid landscapes, new horizons fly past,

Strange countries peopled with characters we don't forget,

And visions that make it all sustainable... 

His Highway Blues -

'The one with the moustache says please.

The countess who pretends to care for him,

We see the empty cage not the road,

My conscience explodes! ' 

*Head and Heart

Head and Heart were fun to shoot at the beautiful Oran Mor auditorium. They were supporting The Low Anthem last year.

*Dick Gaughan Interview with Phil Cunningham

This photo of Gaughan was taken at Milngavie Folk Club in 2011

Dick Gaughan Interview with Phil Cunningham Radio Scotland March 2012

Dick chose five songs that have influenced him –

(1) Big Bill Broonzy – Glory of Love

(2) The Shadows – Apache

(3) The Beatles – Love Me Do

(4)  Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues

(5)  Davy Graham – 67

Gaughan talked about his musical influences. His chat is often profound, sometimes humorous and always entertaining.

He said that The Shadows were the first eclectic guitar group and that back then we were discovering all these new sounds for the first time. Before that nearly every American singer  seemed to be called ‘Frankie’ and sang songs about what it was like ‘to be a young lad at summer camp!’   

Gaughan said that ‘Love Me Do’ from the Beatles was another defining song.

He became obsessed with songs - he was like a magpie and studied songs at the National Library. In 1979 the Thatcher government made him first think about ‘why’ he was singing the songs and he became a political artist then. He said that Traditional music is about fair play, the totality of life and about the community.

Nowadays the barrage of media attempts to put forwards ‘one’ message he claimed and he likes to be part of what he calls the ‘awkward squad’ who are the grain of sand in the ointment and have other ways of looking at reality - and try to at least think about it!

He spoke about Dylan’s beautifully crafted songs that punched out images such as ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Gaughan played with Aly Bain’s Boys of the Lough and a punk band called Five Hand Reel. Like many others on the folkscene back then he developed a drink problem and then he had a breakdown. He had to clean up and dry up.

Lastly he talked about Davy Graham’s guitar which was tuned differently. His musical ideas were unbelievably creative - he was predictably unpredictable!  Hearing Graham's guitar it becomes clear where Gaughan had learned his distinctive playing style from. His list of favourite song choices is interesting too and shows the breadth of his roots in both traditions and more contemporary musical styles. 

Gaughan is best known for singing the songs Both Sides the Tweed and Westlin’ Winds. 

Some very few artists have the ability to transport and transcend the moment, and Dick does so with forceful guitar playing and classic traditional songs with a strong message and a deep expressive, growling voice.  He draws from both Irish and Scottish folk traditions. I first heard Gaughan play in the 70s in Edinburgh when I was dating a folk guitarist who raved about how incredible and very distinctive his playing was. Many years later (after being in America for nearly ten years and having three children) I heard Dick again at Milngavie Folk club in 2007, and this was an intimate gig where his chat between songs was worth going for alone. In his own so distinctive style, Gaughan hammers and speaks with his acoustic guitar. He performs traditional folk tunes, Robert Burns, favourite cover songs and his own songs.

He doesn't play the predictable smoothed-over sugar box 'tartan shortbread' songs - and he may not be to everyone's taste. Gaughan is plain spoken and holds firmly held beliefs on the rights of everyman and at one time he took past folk stories and songs from the library archives and put new melodies to them. You come away from his gigs questioning but ultimately renewed in the faith of our shared humanity. Dick Gaughan is a Scottish living legend, and he usually performs every January at 'Celtic Connections' Glasgow.   

 

Keyboard player Michael Abubakar

PHOTOS OF musician Michael Abubakar playing keys with Katie Sutherland’s band at the Oran Mor Glasgow.