Affichage des articles dont le libellé est greg brown. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est greg brown. Afficher tous les articles

samedi 4 octobre 2008

Chanson du jour : Let's Get Some Beers, Pete Nelson

I don't call what I do 'folk music'. The best term I've come up with is 'foreground music', meaning it's not meant to be background music, but has to be more closely listened to, as opposed to the hook-oriented pop music that shoots straight into your brain. 'Foreground music' might for example, tell a story where, if you miss the beginning, you don't get the end. ...Pete Nelson



La chanson du jour est tirée de l'album The Restless Boys Club publié en 1996 par le romancier Pete Nelson sur le jeune label Signature Sounds. C'est un bon album d'où ressort cette fabuleuse chanson, "Let's Get Some Beers" où l'on entend successivement Bill Morrissey, John Gorka, Cliff Eberhart, Greg Brown et Pete Nelson, qui composent le Restless Boys' Choir, avec Cormac -not the writer- McCarthy à l'harmonica.

Chacun explique à sa façon que la cinquantaine arrivée, tout ce que l'on fait de mieux, c'est de parler de ses échecs sentimentaux, professionnels ou simplement personnels autour d'une bibine (ou d'un café)!

MP3 : Let's Get Some Beers (Pete Nelson, 1996)

On le trouve chez Signature Sounds ou chez CDbaby


Voici le compte-rendu de All Music Guide. Je n'ai pas trouvé trace de Peter Mulvey sur le disque, mais à part ça, c'est intéressant.

Pete Nelson is certainly not the only storytelling folk singer in the business. It has, in fact, become something of a folk reviewer's cliché to compare a singer/songwriter to a novelist, short story writer, or playwright. But such descriptions are unavoidable in discussions of Nelson's work, and they are even more apt when applied to him than they are to better-known storytellers like Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, and Darryl Purpose. That's because story seems primary to Nelson and music only secondary. On his debut album, The Restless Boys' Club, fundamental conventions of popular music are regularly tossed aside if they don't suit the narrative. In the liner notes, his lyrics are printed in prose format with complete sentences, paragraphs, and quotation marks. Nelson's choruses, usually the heart and soul of a song, tend to be brief and unmemorable, almost thrown away; enlisted in service of the verses rather than the other way round. Meter and rhyme are all but vanquished from the tragicomic opener, "Norman," and on "Let's Get Some Beer," the purported solo artist steps aside to let an all-star cast (John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Cliff Eberhardt, and Greg Brown) voice his characters. Nelson's own voice -- soft, thin, and sometimes unsteady -- seems a liability on the first listen, but he uses its gentle, unaffected simplicity to great effect. Of course, none of this would work if the stories weren't well told. But Nelson has a great gift for quietly underscoring the poignant depth of ordinary events in ordinary lives. And though he isn't nearly as good a singer or composer as most of the celebrity guests that play on his albums (Paul Williams, Chistine Lavin, and Peter Mulvey, to name a few), he finds plenty of luminous musical moments to shed light on those well-crafted narratives. ~ Evan Cater, All Music Guide

jeudi 17 avril 2008

Greg + Bo = 2 Pomme d'Eve sold out!


Ca a mis un peu de temps, mais ça a fini par se remplir les deux soirs, soit 110 personnes à chaque fois. C'est peut-être un détail pour vous mais pour moi ça veut dire beaucoup, surtout par rapport à des soirées à 20 billets vendus...

Anyway, Greg Brown et Bo Ramsey, c'est deux concerts inoubliables pour clore l'aventure Acoustic in Paris, Part 1 (on ne sait jamais, des fois que Dave Alvin passe par ici...), différents l'un de l'autre, tantôt blues, tantôt folk, avec des moments de grâce, "The Poet Game" ou "Late Night Radio", "Billy from the Hills" ou "Folsom Prison Blues" pour terminer la deuxième soirée.

Le compte rendu de Paco sur Docteur Blues et les photos de Jérôme, toujours chez Docteur Blues. Ces deux-là font la paire!

To read an excellent review in English, please check out Leaky Sparrow's website

A écouter :

Greg Brown, Late Night Radio (Bath Tub Blues)

All across Kansas, all across Kansas in the night-
We'll reach Missouri in the dawn's early light.
My sister and I in the back seat don't care how far we got to go.
We want to keep rolling, listening to that late night radio.

Mama took the suitcases and blankets made us a little nest.
Every time we peek up she says "You kids try to get a little rest."
We can hear her and daddy singing, warm as the dashlight glow,
In the back seat, rain for the drumbeat, listening to that late night radio.
We're almost sleeping, tucking in our legs and arms.
We're almost dreaming, looking through the rain at the little lights of the farms.
If we get stuck in the mud, my daddy he will carry us I know.
The music's coming all the way from Texas on the late night radio.

Now my own children are back in that nest where I used to be.
Every time they peek up, I say "You kids now try to get a little sleep,"
And the older girl says, "Daddy I wish we could drive all night, Just go and go-
Oh I love it when it's raining can we listen to the radio?
Listen to that late night radio.

Can we drive all night and Daddy listen to can we drive all night now
Daddy and listen to that late night radio?
In the back seat, rain for the drum beat, listen to that late night radio?
In the back seat, rain for the drum beat, listen to that late night radio.
Coming all the way from Texas, Oh that late night radio.
In the back seat, rain for the drum beat, listen to that late night radio.
Oh I love it, I love it , I love it, Love it when it's raining
Can we go and go and go and go and go and go and go and ....
Listen to that late night radio.
Can we go and go and go and go and go and?"

jeudi 10 avril 2008

Greg Brown & Bo Ramsey, la Pomme d'Eve (15 et 16 avril 2008)

Greg Brown à la Pomme d'Eve, c'est peut-être le plus gros concert organisé par l'asso depuis quatre ans, avec les premiers pas à Paris d'Eric Andersen en 2005, le retour de Iain Matthews en 2007 et le premier concert en France de Tom Paxton depuis plus de 15 ans, en janvier 2008.

Dix ans que Greg et Bo n'étaient pas venus chez nous. A l'époque, ils ont musardé entre Bordeaux, le printemps de Bourges, Villeurbanne, Toulouse et Nantes, pour finir au New Morning, avec le jeune Kelly Joe Phelps en première partie. A ce sujet, on relira l'article de Bernard Loupias paru le 16 avril 1998 dans le Nouvel Observateur. Pas de KJP cette année, juste l'homme aux multiples et imprévisibles couvre-chefs et son partenaire au chapeau de paille. C'est déjà quasiment plein les deux soirs, et je sens que ces deux soirées magiques refermeront le livre de la plus belle façon.

Better Days, Benefit pour la Yellow Dog River in Ishpeming, Michigan:




Folsom Prison Blues :


Bo Ramsey, Living in a cornfield, music video by Sandra Louise Dyas -

dimanche 24 février 2008

Jeffrey Foucault, the blue-eyed son of hurricane, Paris, la Pomme d'Eve, 21/02/08

I need a woman with a chin like Joe Frazier
To stand inside when I am swinging at the wind
Let's you and me take the gloves off darlin
I'll tell you exactly where I've been

Because I'm the blue eyed son of hurricane...

Secretariat (Miles from the Lightning, Marrowbone Music 2001)

Encore un superbe concert, dont je suis assez mal placé pour parler;-) Par contre, Quiet Man en dit le plus grand bien sur son blog. Leaky Sparrow raconte aussi, mais en anglais!

Pour le set de Joseph Parsons, en première partie, je vous invite à visiter le site de Leaky Sparrow, ou à écouter Dume Room et Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison).

Il y a plein de photos et la setlist de Jeffrey ici.

Mon petit bonus, ce sera donc la vidéo de Stripping Cane réalisée par Lionel, et deux morceaux en mp3 à écouter ci-dessous, grâce à Joël. Ces trois morceaux sont extraits du second album de Jeffrey, "Stripping Cane"

4 + 20 Blues & Northbound 35 (unplugged)

Et deux belles reprises, en plus : Albuquerque (Neil Young) et Downtown (Greg Brown)