My morning routine is to put on a pot of coffee, do my morning rituals SSS, and with coffee in hand, I sit down to skim over the news. I am very selective in what information I choose to spend time with because I don’t want to start my day with depressing news about the latest bad news event.
While perusing the entertainment section this morning, an article from the BBC caught my eye. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210609-the-sounds-that-make-us-calmer I often use music and nature as balms to calm and compose myself. This article reinforced what I already knew. What was news to me were some artists composing music that features nature scapes as the lead singer/instrument. I plugged them into Apple Music to give a listen at a later time or date because there is an artist I am familiar with whose new album fits in nicely with the premise of this BBC article.
The artist that I allude to is Robin Guthrie, and the album is Pearldiving. I had listened to this lovely recording several times before reading the “sounds that make us calm” article, and as I read the news, a connection was made between the words on the page and the sound in the speakers. Voila, I had the premise of a blog about this new recording.
Robin Guthrie is not a stranger to WeatheredMusic; I posted a brief overview of his recently released EP, Mockingbird Love, on October 22. https://weatheredmusic.ca/2021/10/22/mockingbird-love/ He is also well known as a founding member of the Cocteau Twins group, some 40 odd years ago.
Over the years, Robin Guthrie has offered us a cornucopia of beautiful music to calm and center us. This album is a return to the instrumental genre, which is a favourite medium of his. He is a master craftsman, layering sounds that evoke connections and emotions through his skill as both a musician and a producer.
So there we have it, a song and a story about music that calms our souls in the troubling times that we find ourselves in the midst of. I hope you enjoy this album as much as I have. Take a walk through lush meadows and stroll through majestic woodlands as you listen to Pearldiving by Robin Guthrie. You can put on your walking shoes and plug in your earbuds/headphones for a truly immersive experience. Or you could sit back in your favourite chair, close your eyes and be transported to a calm place without leaving home. Either way, this album is a winner that you can’t go wrong with, enjoy.
I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for February 11, 2022, when Jacknife Lee and Cathal Coughlan release the 13 track album ‘a hAon’. I have sampled teasers from this much-anticipated release, Mister Imperator and We Need.
Mister Imperator, track two on the album a hAon, comes to us as an EP that includes the latest ‘Mister Imperator (Dub Mix)’, two more remixes and the original version of their recently-released ‘Mister Imperator’ single. If you have a pulse, this EP will raise it. The Maurice and Charles Remix, logging in at 8 1/2 minutes, is a standout for me; good stuff, eh.
Track three from a hAon is We Need, pre-released as a four-track EP that includes the Album Version plus three bonusremixed versions, Dub, TheFetch Remix and the Jape Remix. Hypnotic music with a beat will be great stuff to do my exercise along with; it will raise my pulse and entertain at the same time.
Anyhoo, I present these two EP’s for your listening pleasure and stay tuned for the February 11 release of the full-length album ‘a hAon’. I have provided links for you to listen to and find more information on the artists responsible for this blog post, Jacknife Lee and Cathal Coughlan.
There is an album that I have been listening to that I would like to share with you. The album is Endless From The Start, the band that made it is Union of Knives. No matter how compelling I desire to inform you, the reader, I find myself thwarted in my attempts to do so. Allow me to elaborate.
I have been listening to music for what seems like forever, and I have been writing about music in one form or another for donkey years. Within that framework, I have had dry spells where the creative juices ran dry, and no matter how often I put pen to paper, nothing issued forth.
This is not that. I feel connected to this music. It inspires me. I want to write, and I know that on some level, I can write, as you can see for yourselves since I assume you are reading this. The problem is this. I find it very difficult to describe to you what I am hearing.
This is not sugary pop music. It is so much more than that. This album is a veritable cornucopia of taste; it would launch your tastebuds into orbit if sampled on a spoon.
Well, my goodness, that passage was honest to goodness review material; let’s keep this going.
Dark industrial music elements churn and grind away, providing a template for other textures and vocals. There are layers of music on top of layers of music, and this music gets complicated, which only adds to its listenability. Listen after listen to this album offers new insights and hidden gems tucked away in recessed corners of Endless From The Start. That album title is very apt; the musical discoveries are indeed endless from the start.
The people known as Union of Knives are a Scottish trio consisting of producer and musician Chris Gordon (also known from the band Baby Chaos), programmer Dave McClean and singer Craig Grant. Perhaps it would be helpful if they told us a bit about the music rather than dithering on about what I heard.
union of knives by simon murphy
Speaking about the new offering, the band’s Anthony Thomaz said, “There’s a River is a song about going forward with clarity and pushing through the surrounding noise by simplifying the complex. A conversation to self.”
While songwriter Chris Gordon added, “If you like your dystopian soundscapes with a sprinkling of hope and a dream-like narrative, then There’s a River is the track for you.” And, I will add, Endless From The Start is an album for you.
It certainly was an album for me. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Endless From The Start, from start to finish, a strong player all the way through.
I bought my first records in 1969. The first 45 was “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells. The first LP that I purchased was The Bee Gees Greatest Hits. Over the ensuing years, I have listened to these repeatedly and still enjoy them. Some recordings have that magical magnetism. There are also some albums that I fell in love with after only hearing the first couple of notes of music or lyrics. Dark Side of the Moon did that number on me in 1973. Those recordings don’t happen all that often, but when it does happen, it is golden.
It happened again this week. I was sent an email that asked me if I would consider writing a blog posting about the album Animals by Cat Dowling. I dropped the imaginary needle on the opening track. Boom! It happened. I felt the magic. I felt the music. I felt the voice of Cat Dowling telling me that this love would make my skin burn, and it nearly did. It certainly made my ears perk up. It sent a cascade of energy pulses racing through my brain cells which excited a bucket full of neurons. Yeah, this album has that power.
I have since listened to it four times, and the charm didn’t wear off; that’s a good sign. I am listening to it again as I tap away at my keyboard, and I can only marvel at how sound this recording is. Stuttering guitar chords build power in the songs. I am listening to the track Trouble at the moment. Powerful stuff. Higher and higher it goes with blistering guitar solos layered on top of some psychedelic stuff featuring manic drums, lots of cymbals and, as always, Cat Dowling’s voice. That magical, enchanting voice.
I was not familiar with Cat Dowling, so I had to do some research. She is from Dublin, Ireland and released her debut album, The Believer, in 2013. She seems to have flown under the radar because I can find precious little about her or her music. That is odd because her music should be played from the rooftops; she is that good, in my opinion.
Before she started her solo career, she was a member of two other bands, Babelfish and Alphastates. Two bands that I can’t find much information about. Regardless of where she came from, I have a good feeling about where she could very well be heading, that is, to the top of the charts.
I’ll let Cat Dowling tell us a bit about this album. “I wrote Animals during a busy period of my life when to find those rare moments to write music meant I had to be a thief elsewhere. But it was these stolen moments that gave me oxygen and a beautiful, almost supernatural energy. ‘Animals’ was written when everyone was sleeping. It started with the driving, repetitive rhythm, which had to be restrained so as not to wake a soul. It thus became hypnotic. It starts as minor and ends up major. It’s about the major and minor of life and of love and the constant pull in everything between major and minor and the light and the dark. It’s a song ultimately of passion, wildness, sensuality and love,”
Irish artist, illustrator, and animator, Marc Corrigan, created a stunning video for Animals. I’m not big on videos, but this one is a beauty. “Animals’ is a wild song. It never stops moving. When I first heard it, I could picture the ending straight away – a constant flow of wild animals morphing and twisting into each other. Once I knew that I just had to build up to it, set up a surreal morphing world. The imagery had to move constantly to keep pace with the music. It had to suggest animal instincts in a beautiful way. It had to be a constant high-energy piece that never let up and built to a crescendo. So I just kept drawing,” says Marc Corrigan.
The ‘Animals’ single is now available everywhere, includingSpotify, Apple Music andBandcamp. As of November 12, the full ‘Animals‘ LP will be released on CD, limited-edition cassette and digitally on Bandcamp, where it is available for pre-order. via Forever In Financial Arrears Records (FIFA Records).
I have been deeply entrenched in a new album by an artist that is also new, new to me, that is. The artist is Jonny Woolnough, and the album is his solo effort, ‘Mayurqa,’ released November 19th via Mönch Records
The vast majority of albums that I blog about are of a type that allows me to write about them as I listen to the songs. There are a few lovely exceptions to this pattern, such as the blog previous to this one, “Travelling With Alexander Hulme.” You ought to listen to that one as well as this album from Jonny Woolnough.
Jonny took an indefinite break from making music after forming the critically acclaimed bands Tomartyrs and The Bazaars and touring guitarist for Finley Quaye. He and his girlfriend had quit their jobs and moved to Mallorca for family reasons, and it had been a few years since he’d left the world of music. In Mallorca, all he had was his Martin 000-18 acoustic guitar, a mac laptop, and a couple of mics.
Jonny tells us, “I would look after my son for most of the day, and in the evenings, when I had put him to sleep, I would sit and craft the songs, recording demos as I went. Lyrics would drip through from long walks along the Paseo Maritimo overlooking the choppy Winter Balearic seas or climbing the Tramontana mountains high above the island. At times, I became so close to its nature and heartbeat that I almost saw it as a living, breathing being. My imaginary friend, Mallorca.”
I feel that this album captures a great deal of that magical inspiration and translates it through his trusty guitar, voice and various inspired musical elements.
Jonny Woolnough sings in a smooth, controlled manner that exudes confidence and passion. The time he spent away from the hustle and bustle of the primal big music environment gave him a fresh approach to how he created and delivered the words and music that tell us about the people and places that inspired him.
Is that not the nature of songs and music? They convey to others what we have seen, heard and felt. Jonny Woolnough has taken that inspiration, and he has created a beautiful piece of art. We do not hang this piece of art on a wall in our homes or set it on an end table for others to view unless you are particularly enamoured with the album artwork. It is pretty lovely.
The art that I speak of is to be played and heard. It should be allowed to soak into our brains and savour like a fine wine; this is not fast food or elevator music. Mayurqa is an album that needs the time and space to unfurl and display the inner beauty at its heart.
Listen to the words of Mayurqa with intent. Try to hear what Jonny Woolnough is telling us through the lyrics of his songs. These musical pieces of art will hang on the walls of a room created in our souls. There will be a sign on the door that says, “Welcome to Mayurqa, my friends, come in and sit a spell.” We shall have an enjoyable time together, Jonny Woolnough and I, with perhaps a person of significance that we can share a bottle of wine and our journey to Mayurqa.
I Am A Rocketship. My oh my, you most certainly are. You are a rocketship and so much more. You are Eric Weissinger and L E Kippner, a pair of musicians working out of Atlanta, Georgia.
Eric Weissinger used to back up various artists, all the while watching and learning. Learning skills that he put to good use as a rocketship co-pilot. Or, to be precise, one-half of I Am A Rocketship. Eric is a player of guitars and a programmer of electronics.
The other half of I Am A Rocketship is L E Kippner, co-pilot of everything Eric Weissinger isn’t doing.She is a cellist, scientist, radio DJ and previously a singer for the Swedish synth-pop duo Neobox.
Together they are a formidable duo who recorded this album on a notebook computer in the opening months of 2021, a productive year cumulating with the release of their album Lie and Legends on November 11, a day to remember.
Late 2020 closed with their ‘oRAnGE’ EP, a release laced with frustration, sadness and rage over the rise of authoritarianism and accelerating environmental collapse.
Earlier, I Am a Rocketship released their ‘Ghost Stories’ LP (April 2020), ‘Mind Grafitti’ (2019) and debut offering ‘Mission Control’ (2016).
The new ‘Lies and Legends‘ album is their most ambitious collection to date. These ten songs are about the appeal, in trying times, of lies and legends over reason and love. They give people hope, a feeling of belonging, and frequently, a license to do terrible things in the name of their belief.
“When facts are scary, people turn to belief. I guess these are songs about faith, how it can be comforting but blinding,” says Eric Weissinger.
Lies and Legends is full of guitar hooks covering an impressive distortion range from clean acoustic to dirty dregs. Eric Weissinger works his axes to good effect. I am guessing that is why they are called guitar chops. He also weaves synth sounds and drum programs that move the songs from pop to power ballads. Check out the track On Poppy Hill for an excellent example of this. A perfect bit of music to listen to on November 11 when this album officially gets released.
L E Kippner has a mesmerizing voice that she uses to good effect, all the while showcasing her versatility as a songstress and cellist. She delivers some great lines, such as “don’t give me all the answers when I haven’t asked the questions.” That profound line is off the song Ignorance, a clever bit of writing on that one.
Lies and Legends has a pop-rock feel with dark overtones that it has picked up living through the confusion and fear of the Covid pandemic.
Despite all that, Lies and Legends is an immensely enjoyable listen.
Simon Bromide has launched an album of music that shot me over the moon. The album is Following the Moon, and I enjoyed following the story songs that Simon Bromide crafts ever so well. I’m an avid reader of short stories, which Following the Moon has in abundance for my listening pleasure. These three or four-minute narratives showcase situations and puzzles that I could listen to over and over again, which I did.
‘The Waiting Room’ is the lead track from Simon Bromide’s solo album ‘Following The Moon,’ which will be released on November 19 on vinyl and digitally via Scratchy Records with distribution by Cargo Records. There is a bonus in the form of an animated video, cleverly crafted using plasticine figures and model train sets. I found the representations of humans somewhat disconcerting, which could be the intent of Ben Pollard, who created the models, animated them, shot the film and then edited the whole thing. I am sure it was a lot of work, but an excellent animated story is a result, and I applaud Ben Pollard for a job well done.
“The song is about the things that didn’t happen for one reason or another—simple twists of fate or just stepping back from the edge. In particular, the lyrics refer to a letter proposing marriage sent to my mother many years ago. The letter never arrived, and the sender presumed the lack of a reply was his answer. Things were different back then, as it says in the song ‘The Postal Service Saved My Life,'” says Simon Bromide.
I get lost in the music that Simon Bromidewraps around his stories. I often found myself nodding along unconsciously and swinging to the ebbs and flows that move from the opening notes of acoustic folk-rock on The Waiting Room to a mariachi band on The Argument.
As is expected due to the Covid world that we live in, this is essentially a solo album. Simon is a master of acoustic guitar and a damn fine vocalist, and he has surrounded himself with a myriad of talent who contributed to this album. It was recorded at Bark Studios in Walthamstow by Brian O’Shaughnessy (Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Beth Orton), who had worked with Berridge on the last two Bromide albums. The album features drummer Fells Guilherme (Children of The Pope), bassist Ed ‘Cosmo’ Wright, multi-instrumentalists Dave Hale, Dimitri Ntontis and Stephen Elwell, and as folk-pop chanteuse Katy Carr on piano and Terry Edwards (Nick Cave, Tom Waits, P.J.Harvey) on trumpet. Scottish singer Julie Anne McCambridge joins Simon on the closing track; the William Blake penned ‘Earth’s Answer.’
This is insanity. I am listening to this record repeatedly and expecting a bolt of lightning to strike me and provoke my fingers to type out a wise and insightful blog about this outstanding recording. But that hasn’t happened. Since the first paragraph started, I have listened to this album two more times. Two more above and beyond the ten previous times I listened to it. And all I do is sit and get lost in the music and stories. Dang it all, just go and listen to this for your selves. You will get more enjoyment from listening to it than you will get from me typing about it. That’s a guarantee.
Let’s get the introductions out of the way before we go any further, shall we? Astral Swans is Matthew Swann.
Now that we have the formalities over and done with, we can get to the impetus for this bit of idiosyncratic musical journalism. Astral Swans have released their self-titled album, Astral Swans. I listened to this recording a couple of times while I puttered about, and then I sat myself down today and engaged with the album. I read the lyrics as I listened with intent. I was intent upon writing what my ears and eyes beheld.
Track one, the ice breaker song, is Spiral. This song gets the album off on a good start. Spiral is a radio-friendly song with lyrics that are open to some interpretation but what jumped out at me was the coda, as we read it below.
“Oh, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned after a while
Sometimes at the bottom of a spiral
It’s just one more spiral.”
Is this all there is? A spirals all the way down? Or, as Sturgill Simpson put it, turtles all the way down. There is a humorous anecdote about this that Genius gives in an expanded treatise. I also really like the line, “Quieter than silent night.” That is magical. Quieter than silent night. Except when my band played the song Silent Night, it got a little bit louder. I digress, back to Astral Swans.
These brilliant lyrics come delivered to us wrapped in silk and crushed velvet. Matthew Swann has a gentle voice by and large that is perfect for the delicate weaving of his songs. Many guest artists contributed to this recording, and each piece has a slightly different flavour than its predecessors.
I won’t expand on every song; you can open them to your interpretation and see where it takes you. I will add a few comments, though, as I relisten to Astral Swans. Track two is Flood which features Julie Doiron. My ears thought they heard a catchy lyric on my early listens to this song. When I read through the lyrics while I listened to it again, I discovered a line that I misheard. I thought I heard them sing, “maybe you and I, candy lovers.” A sweet sentiment to a person that you love. Candy lovers. Maybe you and I are sweet on each other, and we are candy lovers. I had a good laugh when I read that the lyric is actually, “Maybe you and I can be lovers.” It still brings a smile to my face and I have to work hard to hear the actual words. I enjoyed the rest of this song as well as the sweet lyrics.
Blackhole Town appeals to the universal agreement that winning the lottery would be nice, so we can move out of whatever town we are currently living in. I like where I live, but a lottery win would be nice to fix up the house as it slowly gets old around us. This yearning for something better than what we have is a thread that runs through a good chunk of Astra Swans. It is also a state that most humans exist in, wanting more than what we have. Instead of being content with what we have.
I love the title of track five, “Sympathy For The Stupid.” ‘Nuff said.
Self-deprecation shows up in track six, Bird Songs.
“I didn’t deserve you anyway.”
and
“You’re better without me anyway.”
March 28/20, featuring Silvering, is a bitter pill about a failed relationship.
“Loved my neighbour as myself
So I hate both of us, I guess.”
The track Beautiful Things Happen injects a ray of hope into what could otherwise be a doleful bit of music. “Beautiful things will happen.” I hear an affirmation that things “will” get better. And then the album closes out with misery of “More Nothing Than Something” and “I Was Awake For Awhile.” These are not bad songs. It’s just that they have some sombre lyrical content amid music that is mellow while still engaging the listener. I’ll close with a blurb from the album’s bio flyer.
This self-titled record is Swann’s most upbeat, catchy & immediate album to date. Each song operates as an absurdist short story filled with Swann’s wry observations of the sad beauty of mundane moments. The songs range from affirmations of joy amidst dread, composed in the streets of Shimokitazawa Tokyo and featuring Shibuya Jpop artist Minami Taga (Wind in a Mindless Universe), to ballads of disoriented musings on uncertainty and addiction (Spiral). Songs about birds heckling the anxious and heartbroken in Vondel Park Amsterdam (Bird Songs), to a cover of the Cat Power classic, Cross Bones Style sung as a duet with Julie Doiron (Eric’s Trip, Mt. Eerie). The album closer Awake For a While is a mysterious police interview gone gospel and features the gorgeous vocals of Swann’s childhood friend Carol Sweet.
Astral Swans (ST) was produced and engineered by Paul Chirka (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra) and Brock Geiger (Reuben and the Dark), with Swann functioning as a third producer. It is rich and spacious, with a diverse array of sounds ranging from delicate string arrangements, atmospheric synth freakouts, deconstructive guitar solos, and pristine harmonies. All the while, seated atop all the instrumental beauty and chaos floats Swann’s haunting voice, which warbles and swoons. Astral Swans ST brings with it an arts commune of fantastic collaborators. Guest performers include: Julie Doiron (Eric’s Trip, Mt. eerie), Cassia Hardy (Wares), L.T. Leif, Scott Munro (Preoccupations, Chad VanGaalen), Shalom Toy (SilverRing), Laura Hickli (36?) Minami Taga (Mako Puri, MakoMinaming), Swann’s childhood friend Carol Sweet, Jim Bryson (Kathleen Edwards, Weakerthans) and more. Each guest adds their own unique addition to the sound, bringing their own bit of the world back into Swann’s solipsistic compositions. The album was released on October 8th worldwide.
OK, I’m back after that short pause. I give this album 7.5 out of 10. It’s a good bit of music but it has a few detractions that hold it back and I suppose it’s just not where my head space is existing today. Not a bad album all in all though.
I want to introduce you to an artist who has had his music swirling in my brain for the last two days. His name is Ward White, and he is a storyteller and a damn fine one at that. Ward is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist. On top of that, Ward has a fine singing voice that is used to significant effect, climbing from baritone to tenor as he accompanies himself on songs. Ward White has a personal recording studio, and It takes talent to use all that electronica. Ward White is a well-spoken young man. Take, for example, his talk with Mark Mothersbaugh (yes, the Devo guy) on the LaunchLeft podcast hosted by Rain and Summer Phoenix (yes, they’re from that Phoenix family). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y4X-eJRhSc
See, Ward White is an excellent conversationalist. Finally, well, finally, for this list. I am sure Ward has other attributes that are not listed here. Finally, Ward White has released a new album, The Tender Age, that today hits all your favourite streaming platforms. Physical copies are also available from Bandcamp.
Dang, that is one hell of a preamble. I almost hit the word count of some whole blogs that I’ve done. Never mind, let’s have another listen to The Tender Age, and I’ll let my mind wander over the keyboard as we do so.
The album opener is Dirty Clouds. It comes busting out with some mighty fine guitar chops from Ward and some nice Wurlitzer, courtesy of Grammy-nominee Tyler Chester. I fell in love with this song the first twenty times I heard it. Every one of the twenty times was a revelation of just how good this is. There is a fantastic groove going on here, and then the lyrics land on top—the storyteller kicks in now. Ward White spins a 4:00 minute vignette of dirty deeds done under cover of Dirty Clouds. This song is a short story in four parts, three of those refrains lamenting how difficult it is to accomplish various tasks “with all these dirty clouds obscuring Venus and Mars.” Hearing the refrain makes me wonder if Ward White dabbles in astronomy in the evening hours. I do, and this past summer was a perfect time to see Venus and Mars. They would have been challenging to navigate due to their closeness to each other and their low position in the evening sky, but I empathize with the dirty cloud refrain. Dirty Clouds are the bane of astronomy and the frequent companion of dirty deeds.
Drummer Mark Stepro (Wallflowers, Butch Walker) lays down some chops for the narrator of Easy Meat. It seems to be a narrative about battling against the urge to sin, with the narrator promising, “It was just a thought I had, I would never really act on it.” Ward White tells us that, “It’s not what I would consider a particularly sympathetic character, but his equivocations fascinate me. It brings to mind one of my all-time favorites, Randy Newman’s In Germany Before the War.” I didn’t remember the song, so I dug out the album and listened to that song and enjoyed becoming reacquainted with an old friend from the past.
Let’s Don’t Die At the Stoplight came out of a harrowing experience with the songwriter caught in the crossfire of an attempted murder while waiting for the light to change. “It was in Atlanta in the middle of the afternoon; I looked right in his eyes while he emptied the gun. When it was over, we just drove back to the hotel and ordered Indian food. The lyrics question the motive, but also my reaction, which ran the gamut from abject fear to ambivalence.” That would have scared the crap out of me. Driving through Mississippi in 2009, we witnessed two people trying to kill each other with their cars. That harrowing experience didn’t have any gunfire, so I can only imagine the emotions of being caught in the middle of a gunfight.
I like to learn something new every day. I learned today that Chet Baker had dentures. On the track Dentures, Tyler Chester lays down some sweet grand piano and Hammond, but the track left me wondering where the horn section was. The main character, after all, is a trumpet player who struggles to play, first with dentures and then in heaven. No trumpet on a song about Chet Baker, another one of life’s mysteries.
An LAPD cop with dubious connections rankles his partner with a surprise spiritual conversion in the title track, The Tender Age. “I haven’t decided if it’s supposed to be taken literally,” says White, “In fact, it might all be a dream. Metaphor, or otherwise, it’s about the transient nature of identity… or something.” In one of my previous identities, I was a preacher, and The Tender Age brought a smile to my day hearing Saul and Paul referenced in this manner. Well played, Ward, well played.
Biblical characters and narratives pop up several times in The Tender Age. There are numerous references to both the old and new testaments in the song, Wasn’t It Here. I am curious if the baritone deficiencies are self-deprecating.
We venture into the oral orifice a bit later in the song Karate Dentist. Karate Dentist is preceded by Heavy Lifting and followed by the album closer Monrovia. I sense, and I could be wrong, but I think Ward White references himself and the struggle that music can often be. There is the beautiful snippet, “Can’t you wrangle poetry from something more substantial than phonetics? Mangle some old greeting card, or plagiarize a rival’s perfect line?” That is from the closer Monrovia, a lovely song with shimmering guitar reverb and a plaintive refrain on the struggle to be authentic while telling stories.
The Tender Age was written and produced by White, who also provided all vocals, guitars, and bass. I told you he was talented. The Tender Age reunites Ward White with three long-time musical collaborators; drummer Mark Stepro, keyboardist Tyler Chester, and engineer/mixer John Spiker. “I’m always thrilled to reconvene with these guys, especially given their schedules; Tyler, who is as gifted a bassist as he is a keyboardist, produced and co-wrote Madison Cunningham’s Grammy-nominated debut album Who Are You Now. I was able to grab Mark just as he wrapped up tracking drums on The Wallflowers’ Exit Wounds, and John is always busy as bassist, engineer, and producer for Tenacious D” (as seen and heard in The D’s viral YouTube cover of Time Warp for Rock The Vote.)
Recorded in various Los Angeles locations, including White’s home studio, The Tender Age was mixed by Grammy-winner John Spiker (Tenacious D, Beck, Steve Earle) and mastered by Grammy-nominee, Joe Lambert.
There is a video for the lead song, Dirty Clouds, but I’m not much of a video watcher for starters, and I just wasn’t impressed with this one.
I see this video as a missed opportunity to visualize the story. Picture a dark train yard, a person trying to balance on the rails crossing between cars with lots of fog to give a punctuation mark to Dirty Clouds. Then I imagine a scene from a Humphrey Bogart movie, a vintage radio and a shady character reading a tabloid with the headline “Dirty Clouds” or “The Tender Age.” Cut to a cop in a smoke-filled police station calling someone as they try to make it through the bars and pan up to a dirty cloud obscuring Venus and Mars.
Alas, Ward White didn’t ask for my input before making the video, and for a good reason. He did not consult me because I am not a video producer. However, I am an observationist. I watch that which others make. I listen to the music that others have crafted. I observe and then write those observations down. Thank you for reading my comments on the album, The Tender Age, by Ward White. I think this is a well-made recording that deserves every one of the ten stars I am giving it.
I have the privilege of having a forward copy of the new album from Jonny Woolnough, Mayurqa. I, fortunately, was asked if I would like the opportunity to write a post about the new single from the title track Mayurqa. I immediately dived into the whole album and subsequently got it way over my head.
The request was for the title track, only, not for the whole album. The album will be available on November 19th 2021. That gives me over a month to properly listen to this eloquent and enchanting musical missive.
So, back to Mayurqa and what I think about it as a single. It’s good. Have a listen below and come back on November 19th to check out the entire musical journey of the album Mayurqa by Jonny Woolnough. Here’s a teaser; it is racing to the top of the WeatheredMusic charts well ahead of its debut.
Weathered Music 