Folktronica

Has Bjork’s recent albums sent you around the junkshops looking for those nifty musical boxes.

Listening to Nurse with Wound has cornered me into an Anthony & Johnson & Baby Dee kick.

Incidently the latter is playing Glasgow’s Arches around birthday time. It is slightly tempting.

However sifting through a heap of folktronic is throwing up lots of stunning sounds too.

Hydrabad Snow World

Although I am by no means a Paul Merton fan, his series on India has been a treat.

It brought back all those memories of anarchy, madness & mayhem that exist in that unforgettable land.

The doctor breaking 3 crazy world records within an hour encapsulates so much that is India.

The scientific approach to something that is so far off the radar appeals to my sense of the surreal. I just love it you get lost in the crazy rules of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ existence where anything can & does happen.

Other examples of this in the series included flights on a stationary airplane for poor people, snake handling for volunteers & Snow World in the middle of hot Hydrabad. Sad that it is finished.

Merry Go, Merry Go, Merry Go Round, Boo Boo Boo


At least during my break, I did meet my mate Larry, who used to work with me in the Singer Sewing Machine factory back in the day.

He is 75, widowed & still walks on the hills twice a week. He thinks he has not seen me since our wedding day (33 years ago) & he still has the letter from India signed 'the Intrepid Traveller'. Was I always that pretentious?.

It has been a long time, but to see how active he still is was just so good..

If 6 Was 9



Its been a strange week so far. A broken car, a postcard from Whitby & a text informing me that Mitch Mitchell had died.

All this during a holiday that is not a holiday. Out of the 5 days, I have been at work during 4 of those.

The Hesitant Snakehandler

I got caught out again this year, as I waited in vain, for those couple of weeks of steady sunshine, that never arrived, over what was a forgettable summer.

Last year I ended up taking holidays in January or I would have lost them. This year it is in November. Both of them dead winter months of short days & long nights, mostly spent indoors. I mean what is the point in taking holidays at that time of year if you are not going abroad?

I have to do what my ancestors have always done: go within.

Listening to Sakir Oner Gunhan’s ‘Kara Kasli Yar’ seems to capture the mood of sadness that accompanies the dark winter months.

This Balkan mixture of ecstatic joy & deep sorrow has much in common with our own Celtic music tradition.

Perhaps it is just that we love to celebrate joy following sadness, as spring follows winter.

Northern Diversions

As I drop the second raw egg into the car radiator to nurse it over another harsh winter, I grasp the opportunity to take stock of my life.

Another birthday fast approaches & I still have lots I wish to accomplish.

I found God at an early age, I am content, I could die tomorrow & I would be fine.

Travel: dint everyone go to India in their teens?

Family: One son married off & in a far away place. How I wish the other one would get sorted.

I’m in Heaven When You Smile

Sunday early hail chapping at the window & Jackie Leven singing Burt Bacharach. Does it ever get better than this?

Actually the arrangements on ‘Jackie Leven Said’ give fleeting glimpses of how immensity of this talent.

The brass sections echo Jackie’s voice so well I am reminded of Marvin @ his peak.

Is 1 touch football finding a home in Paradise?

I have caught glimpses of magic during recent Celtic games. Maybe I am just being over optimistic. Perhaps I am seeing something that is not there?

I saw slick passing movements & running off the ball. For 5 minutes it was like watching brazil in the 70s or the ghost of Henrik Larsson & Lobo Moravcik.

As the big target men are all crocked, it is the time of the little men: McGeady, Brown, Maloney, Mcdonald & when it works it is so exciting, the way football should be played. If only they could do this every game.

5 Leaves of Solid Air Left

Did this really happen to me recently? Was I playing a Gene Clark cd & then rabbiting on & on about how refreshing & timeless it sounded?

I will have to check this blog’s archives to back-engineer my scorched memory.

Anyway ‘White Light’ by Gene Clark sends me right back to Colin & Phyllis’s place, sometime back on the cusp of the 70s. A venue that was steeped in that country rock vibe of Gram Parsons, Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers……..etc…………..

Albums & places & time are all grouped there in the memory somewhere.

Before he became a Highlander, I was often found at my friend’s place, forever the home of Van Morrison’s ‘Astral Weeks’ for me.

Another amigo from that period (now gone) will forever be associated with those classic Steve Wonder albums (when Tonto’s Headband were backing him).

Same time, another address in Maryhill & it is non-stop Grateful Dead. Just around the corner in Belmont St & it was Joni, Beach Boys, Dylan & let’s not forget Harry Nilsson.

Moving further south to Muswell Hill, London & we are swaying to Joe Walsh’s ‘The Smoker You Drink’ & Steely Dan.

Take a few paces East & South & we are on Colva Beach, Goa & it is George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’. How apt.

Moving on a few years & I find myself at Les’s in Manchester & his flatmates sound choice of solid soul & reggae & dub.

What do I remember of my own listening at home over any of that period? Naturally there would be ‘Solid Air’ & ‘5 Leaves Left’ & a strong dose of what used to be termed ‘Progressive Music’ by the media, although it was not the pap now referred to, by that term.

From Freak Folk to Free Jazz

I seem to be leaping from one extreme to another with gay abandon.

Oops that latter phrase is charged with so many sexual connotations, perhaps I should leave it out?

It has never been so easy to obtain all those rare free jazz albums that you used to dream of as a teenager. Thus you have to try & be selective.

Many of the ‘bright young things’….e.g. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore are helping to get this material out there instead of it lying dormant in some vault. Thanks to them my own knowledge has improved e.g. Ronnie Boykins has been a revelation.

I know what I like, but I am prepared to open my ears to new stuff. (this country is blessed with some of the best jazz happening now!) The Isla jazz festival seems to be where it’s at every year.

I have a soft spot for American jazz of 50s & 60s plus the jazz rock, electric miles stuff from later periods.

Much of the stunning British jazz of the 60s & 70s is still hard if not impossible to find on cd. Maybe I just have such warm memories of catching great jazz on radio during that time.

I also enjoy all the branches of jazz fusions……e.g. jazz rock (Chicago Transit Authority, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mahavishnu Orchestra), jazz funk (Herbie Hancock, AWB, Weather Report), 3^rd stream (john Mayer/Joe Harriot’s Indojazz fusions).

I came late to the Blue Note albums, but I am catching up.

Off the Grid

My neighbour let me borrow the 3^rd part in the series of Jason Bourne’s films.

The message was crystal clear i.e. it is well nigh impossible to live ‘off the grid’ for even a few minutes these days.

As soon as you carry a mobile phone or send an email, withdraw money from a machine……etc….you are tracked.

As the new series of ‘Spooks’ hits the small screen this message is reinforced.

Writing as someone who’s moby has just been wiped clean, I would suggest a healthy dose of paranoia might be a healthy asset to modern living.

The Return of Harold Bratback

I am trying in vain to arrange a few days holiday in York, a city I have never seen.

I wish to pay a visit to the birthplace of Harald Bluetooth, the first Viking to use Bluetooth technology to keep in touch with the other rapists & pillagers back in Denmark.

Did you know that symbol was a combined pair of Nordic runes (not ruins) the latter being the Viking gift to these shores.

Flags of the Sacred Harp

I was shocked to read the report of a charity ‘friendly’ football match between Scottish politicians Vs journalists.

Poor Chick Young (aged 57) was badly injured by a seething tackle. I know he does upset many readers & listeners, but he is ‘real’ & states his opinions he does not hide. The match had to be abandoned.

I managed to escape from my Literacies class on Wednesday night in time to catch the 2^nd half of the Celtic Vs Killie in the Co-Op cup & what I witnessed reminded me of the good old Larsson days & why I am such a hoops fan. It was the passing move up to the 3^rd goal, the sweetest piece of football I have seen in a long time. I know, why can’t they do this every time?

I often find myself driving between supermarkets on a Saturday afternoon at kick off time & later & I do hear a lot of football talk on & off the ball.

Radio Scotland has this game all sewn up, the reports, phone-ins, discussions, debates, verbal assaults……..etc ….could not happen anywhere else in the world. This is radio at it’s finest.

How can this be compared to the tv version. Tame announcers dribble on in such a soporific manner & most of them have had personality bypasses at some stage. Radio is where it’s at.

Back to the music, I am sure that you know the title above is Jackie O Motherfucker’s best psychedelic purple haze of orange sunshine.