and THE SARGASSO TRIO
Yet another fantastic line up for all those folk lovers out there. If you enjoy some blues with your beer or a bit of country with your cookin', or spotting singers from The Young Cannibals even, then you surely missed out if you weren't at the Roots and Shoots gig last Friday. (Apologies for the late reaction to this fine event by the way- the bank holiday seems to have blown a wondrous wind through my diary and it's a week gone by already! I can't believe it.) Anyway, on Friday we were spoilt for choice with the lovely Sandy Dillon up first.
Now I could tell you all about this lady's background, it's fascinating stuff, and of course, deeply relevant to her music;she sings from the heart and from experience after all. However, this is not a biography of different artists I meet, it's a blog with an opinion, and frankly you really just need to hear her stuff to understand. Everything you need to know about Sandy is in her music. She doesn't hold anything back, hitting the audience with such an intensely raw personal sound that most of us wouldn't dream of conveying publicly for fear of feeling naked amongst strangers.
Sandi herself has quoted in the past that her music is 'raw, not cooked like several of the artists out there'. This decision not to sugar coat her sound has taken her outside of mainstream music, but enabled her to be true to her music, herself and her life.
Sandi sang while accompanying herself on one of her many 'cheap organs'.
I'd have to agree there are hints of Joplin in her voice, (Sandy interestingly played Joplin in a musical theatre production in NY in her youth). But take the absolute wail of Joplins 'Cry Baby' and stick in some content and experience to really make you wail and you're approaching a Sandi sound. For more information about Sandi, her latest album, Pulling Strings (featuring production and performances from multi-instrumentalist David Coulter) and all her future gigs, choose from any of these very informative websites...
http://www.indian.co.uk/sandydillon/
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~dannym/sandy.html
http://www.onelittleindian-us.com/sandydillon.html
http://www.sandydillon.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sandydillonsnightgallery
Her myspace page is Sandi at her most strange and twisted, she even describes herself as 'disintegrating into the night', but somehow I feel she'll be around a good while longer...
But no fear for the people who like things on the lighter side of life. We then had CW Stoneking, 'the legendary king of hokum blues' take to the stage, and the crowd settled further into their evening.
Now it was time for folk to close their eyes, sit back in their chairs like they was sittin' in an old rocking chair on a porch somewhere in Louisiana, where mama's inside cookin' up eggs and your brother's workin' the corn. Ok, well you get where I'm going with this...
CW is Australian, not that you would no that AT ALL, and of course the first thing I asked is 'does he really talk like that??'. On stage it's all Southern American drawl, 20's style Southern Blues and I was imagining some piece of hay running through his teeth and some tobacco in his mouth. It doesn't get much more hillbilly than this. He captured the crowds with his quality musicianship and generally let everyone dream away into a time lost - or maybe not so lost as it seems all the artists on Friday agree that their is a universality to this music of yester year, making sounds that still resonate clearly today. CW obviously sees little need to develop and adapt the ol' country and blues music too much in the 21st century. A true advocate for the Southern sights and sounds of the 20's he is, but no-one is denying his own personal touch in his varied lyrics and ability to collate new songs from a diverse collection of stylistic genres. I had to take off my hat (as he did)
to this gentlemen and full marks for the steel bodied dobro,
the best looking guitar I've seen for a while - running neck and neck with Money Mark's mini electric actually. His banjo wasn't half bad to watch handled so eloquently either.
C.W. Stoneking has just released a brand new album 'King Hokum'. Recorded and produced in 2005 with J. Walker (Machine Translations). For more information on that and all that other CW news.. You can see all live reports from his rather cool, 20's style myspace page. It all looks like an old silent film bobbing about the page; very clever. http://www.myspace.com/cwstoneking
Up next, Ned Collette,
another young Australian and also of an old-school folk and blues throwback style.
And the third artist of the three, (yes that's all of them) to have a photograph somewhere online which is all browned out to look like a Victorian picture. However, Ned, while obviously investing much interest in the sounds of the past in such tracks as 'Heavens the key', also envelops modern technology in his use of electronic sounds that create a more folk-pop like style.
On Friday he used various pre-recorded rhythms and melodies that he aptly started and stopped with his feet so that, with the additional sounds of his vocals and guitar, one could look away from him and imagine a small band behind. The acoustic one-man-band ship cruised off with CW. Ned confesses to influences as varied as John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, and Serge Gainsbourg. I would agree their are hints of such artists as these in his music and I could definately hear little electronic sounding didgeredoo sounds in the strings where I think Australia's musical and natural heritage is rubbing off on him.. (Listen to Boulder on his myspace). I could also hear, he might not like me saying this so much, a little of a young folky Rolf Harris in his voice - it's true!
Ned's a good guy, big smiles here..
I'm sure he won't mind my comparison. Obviously, he whoops Rolf's music in this day and age, (he's playing at Cargo tomorrow and the rest of that line up is great). Aah, but can he draw bug bunny at 100 miles an hour...?
Procrastinating! For all information on Ned Collette and all releases with his label Dot Dash, check out, http://www.myspace.com/nedcollette
http://www.nedcollette.com/
Here's Ned outside with Pete Murdoch of The Sargasso Trio feeding that naughty cigaretto habit outside where it's still just about legal...
But for all its hindrances, I'm happy, as I might not get wonderful pictures like these otherwise!
Finally the Sargasso Trio. Well, they were excellent. These guys met in 2002 playing samba and there is definately a wicked calypso style beat that runs through a few of their tracks. People could not resist but to stand for much of their gig,
it is music you want to move to.
After a few technical trick ups due to so many different instruments being used differently each song (saucepans and shoes included), 
the audience enjoyed a lovely set. The connection to Roots and Shoots is their 'synth-folk' style, a love of country laments, 'local myths rewritten' and their 'odes to the road and ballads of the sea. Just reading that you can see that their music is largely rooted in folk music. However, it is these roots combined with their passion for Latin rhythms, and their individual musical interests that gives the Sargasso Trio an interesting edge. Pete has an interest in 'dark', 'unusual' and 'independent' sounds,
Emily Siddall's puts a lot of her own individual personality and experience into the vocals, 
(Such a photogenic lady too is she not?) and Ben Winn is interested in 'synthesised soul' and 'jaded fragile or uncompromising and unusual' sounds. 
These interests take the music out of any one musical bracket and happily into its own beat.
For more information on the band please check out..
http://www.myspace.com/sargassotrio
If you are reading this and thinking 'Help! I missed it, and this all sounds right up my alley?' Are you desperately worried that you didn't make it to such a night as this? Well fear not, Roots and Shoots is an organisation created created by Nick Luscombe to 'showcase the best new artists emerging from folk roots. 'This was not a one off (well this particular beauty of a line up was, but the idea behind it was not.) There will be other chances to check out the 'blending of a traditional folk heritage with a new breed of musical exploration'; to take in 'electronica, Americana, country, jazz, blues and psychedelic influences' and to 'explore what folk music means in the 21st century'. So you see, phew, you can breathe with the knowledge that Roots and Shoots may well be back at the ICA in the not so distant future with another excellent line up.. Check out their myspace http://www.myspace.com/rootsandshootsdjs where all listings about future gigs are announced...
For all pictures of this night please go to www.speyerdesign.com where you shall find an array of fantastic folky imagery from what was a superb night in the folk saddle. Yeehaa x
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