Tuesday evening. Not quite at the midway point of the week, but far enough away from Monday to flick the proverbial V sign and yell "get stuffed" to the post weekend blues.
Today is another Blast From The Past post. thegeneral was quite heartily blown away by a documentary that was on BBC4 on Friday night just gone (27th September). It featured a musician and singer by the name of Nic Jones. Someone who was and is much beloved on the folk scene since the 1960s and a founding member of folk band The Halliard.
He went on to perform with some of folk's greatest acts, people like Richard Thompson, June Tabor and Shirley Collins. In 1980 he released what was to become his most loved and strongest enduring album "Penguin Eggs". From the album, comes this beautiful song "Canadee-I-O"
There isn't a bad track on the whole record. At all. That's really all there is to say. It's a delight for folk fans (and hopefully anyone who just enjoys real, proper music).
Much has been spoken of the car accident that effectively halted his career in 1982, so that doesn't need to be gone over again. Suffice to say, the comeback concert he played in 2012 with his son Joe was probably one of the most moving gigs that's ever been committed to film. Joe is the image of his father in both style and sound. Seeing the two of them together really is a delight.
Jones' style pitches him neatly in the same bracket as Messrs Martin Carthy and Bert Jansch. His guitar playing is adept, it's chippy and lilting. His voice is true, clear and strong. Like Carthy, he tuned his guitar slightly differently to the norm to give it a much more resonant and richer sound - and consequently make it harder for people who are trying to recreate their style to blatantly copy (you try looking for Martin Carthy guitar chords online. You won't find many...) if thegeneral remembers correctly, think the top and bottom strings should be tuned to D rather than E (though don't take my word as gospel, there's a reason why I only pick up and play intermittently and people like Nic Jones made a career out of it...)
Anyway. thegeneral recommends you all take a step back, find yourself a copy of "Penguin Eggs" - and visit http://www.nicjones.net/home to find out more about this wonderful man and his musical legacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment