sidetracks & detours present PASS IT ON 62 weekly supplement Sunday 11 8 2024

sidetracks & detours

present

PASS IT ON 62

weekly supplement Sunday 11 8 2024

CONTENTS

1 All Hear The Call; Come Follow Your Art  by Akela

2 Alchemy; Fact, Fable and Fiction by Norman Warwick

3 I Love Manchester; Doctor Hucknall news by newsletter

4 Live Jazz; Brian Grant preview by Jazz In Reading  Newsletter

5 Jazz On Air; Hot Biscuits shared by Steve Bewick

6 Live Folk Music; Forthcoming Events previewed by Manchester Folk

7 Live Folk Music And Charts; news by Sound Roots

8 A Reader´s Perspective; All Points Forward, Mark Germino by Peter Pearson

9 Island Insights; Life On Lanzarote by Norman Warwick

What´s nexty?

1 All Hear The Call

COME FOLLOW YOUR ART

by Akela

Hello, it’s a Sunday Morning Coming Down, so thank you for selecting PASS IT ON 62  for your reading in your favourite library area. Today we report that Manchester UK is Simply Red and of course we share all the news from our listing agency friends about live jazz performances, recorded jazz and jazz on air at Steve Bewick´s mixcloud programme, Hot Biscuits. We also preview some live folk music festivals and events and even offer you a rundown of the current folk music UK chart. Our Americana correspondent has recalled some great singer writers and today focuses on Mark Germino, one of my all time favourites, in his usual comprehensive and thoughtful manner. We close this issue with a new art form to Pass It On, in our Island Insights column we report on a Lanzarote athlete who competed in The Olympic Games last week in the sport / art form that is floor gymnastics.

That athlete didn´t win a medal but that did not dilute his success in delivering a routine he loved and to the very best of his ability.

2 Alchemy.

FACT, FABLE AND FICTION

by Norman Warwick

In  Peter Pearson´s column I was reminded of my own satisfaction and pride in the eighties in writing a novel based on characters who lived only in song and on the writers of those songs. Called Still Chasing That Rhyme the book I now look back on as my proudest achievement and my biggest failure. Still Chasing That Rhyme was based on Caroline, daughter of a miner who wrote the suicide (?) note referred to by Townes Van Zandt in his song Tecumseh Valley. Two parallel narratives were at the core of the book with an emerging female song-writer called Molly. Some thirty years after Townes´ death this fictitious artist made her radio debut on a show presented by the equally fictitious but fabled radio broadcaster Rex Bob Lowenstein.

In the course of a two hour programme she sings a few tracks by Townes, including Tecumseh Valley and speaks ´knowingly´of the death of Caroline, suggesting that she was murdered.

She also speaks of attending Townes´ funeral and speaks disparagingly of UK a journalist who interviewed Townes several times, and who, after Townes death, wrote a poem called Still Chasing That Rhyme who then used that as an educational piece to introduce the late, great Townes Van Zandt to a newer, younger audience.

Molly spent the entire interview with Rex Bob Lowentstein berating this English journalist, Norman Warwick, for exaggerating his friendship with Townes, whilst he was at the same time speaking in public of Townes mental health and drug issues.

The book was written in an attempt at stream of consciousness style addressing literary theorist, Roland Barthes Death Of Author approach, leaving clues and bodies spra´wled across the history of Americana music, the book was one I cherished; liked by a few friends, cursed by my family, and disdained completely by the rest of the world.

That the sole copy of Still Chasing That Rhyem that remained after its mass pulping was swept out into the ocean by the swollen River Roch in the 2015 Boxing Day Flood disaster seemed to be a damning judgement.

Anyways, here is your Pass It On, so please read and enjoy and then   !

3 DOCTOR HUCKNALL report by newsletter

Manchester Met has presented an honorary degree to internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall,(left) in recognition of his rich contribution to music, both in the UK and beyond.

Hucknall, the lead singer of soul band Simply Red, received the award at a graduation ceremony at the Bridgewater Hall, telling the audience he was ‘really honoured’, and congratulating students for their hard work during their studies.

Hucknall was presented with the honorary Doctorate of Arts (DArt) from Professor Martyn Evans, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Manchester Met, for his services to music during his impressive career.

On receiving the award, Hucknall told the ceremony: “I’m really honoured to receive this and it means a great deal to me and my family who are here today.

“Growing up in East Manchester, I didn’t know anybody who went to university. I studied Fine Art, but music was always bubbling away. It doesn’t mean to say that what you are now is what you will be in ten years time.

“You may end up taking a different path, a different subject but what you learn will always be there inside you, this experience that you had and it’s something to really treasure. I wish you all the best for your future and every success in every endeavour you take.”

Professor Evans, who presented the honorary degree, said: “As Pro-Vice-Chancellor, I usually provide the welcome address for graduation ceremonies for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Today my role is different, and it’s a great pleasure to introduce Mick Hucknall with an honorary award.

“Mick remains a proud Mancunian and credits the city with the amazing start it gave him. The synergies between music and art are the norm for art school students and this was very much the case for Mick. His passion for art and music fed each other, but ultimately there would be only one winner.”

“In 1984, Simply Red emerged out of the streets and clubs of Manchester in a post punk era and within 12 months they were riding high in the British charts. Simply Red’s career are what dreams are made of.”

Manchester-born Hucknall, who graduated from Manchester Met’s Manchester School of Art, then known as Manchester Polytechnic, with a BA in Fine Art in 1981, is the internationally acclaimed lead singer and songwriter of Simply Red.

The band have been performing internationally for almost 40 years, selling more than 50 million albums, and achieving an impressive 30 top 40 UK hits. Hucknall also has a successful solo career, and is one of the founders of the reggae label Blood and Fire.

He received an Ivor Novello Award in 1992 and was named as songwriter of the year, before winning an Outstanding Achievement award from MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin) in 1997.

Alongside his musical success, Hucknall has supported several philanthropic causes and has helped numerous charities including Amnesty International, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, St Mungo’s, and Teenage Cancer Trust.

4 Live Jazz

BRIAN GREENE TRIO 

(Old Post Office, Wallingford) Sun. 28^th July

review by jazz In Reading

The first live dinner and jazz session was on Sunday 28 July 2024, between 6pm and 10pm.

For this extra special event Brian Greene created a Trio of himself on drums, Dave Clement-Smith on piano and Mike Pratt on bass. Dave, Mike and Brian play regularly together and you already know Mike, from his sterling performance with Simon Bates at Pangbourne back in April.

 
We played jazz standards and a mix of chilled cool funk.

Jazz On Air

5 HOT BISCUITS

prepared by Steve Bewick

Lendanear To some great tunes with a live set from Tom Thorp, the saxophonist / composer with artists like Patrick Hurley, Grant Russell and Luke Flowers also on this week´s edition of HOT BISCUITS.

The show will also feature for Joe We Music, with his Tiger Rag. The Joe Bristow Quintet will reminds us that, whatever happens its just a case of So It Goes. We will also play Jaelee Small with Halo, a piano and vocals ensemble. Paul Booth rolls a Hoop, Polly Gibbons takes us Towards The Sun.

Clssing the show with My Rose, played by Luis Martelo on trumpet.

If this seclectic mix sounds interesting to you, and why would it not, then follow the link, enjoy what you hear and then share the link withreaders of Sidetracks & Detours and other like-minded, jazz loving friends,

The Link is www.mixcloud.com/stevebewick/. 24/07

6 Folk Music

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

preview by Manchester Folk

Arts lovers and music fans will be enjoying themselves today, Sunday 11^th August, in my old home town of Rochdale, UK. 

The Feel Good Folk free event at Rochdale Feel Good Festival is taking place in the Town Square. The afternoon of folk music is programmed by Sound Roots.

Rioghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet will provide the high-energy, floor-thumping dance rhythms for which they are known, alongside international party band Marvara and the Seamus Og Trio who both appear after greatly impressing us and winning over audiences at Manchester Folk Festival 2023.

Attendees will also have the chance to see an exclusive preview of Sean Cooney´s (The Young´uns) new Rochdale-made musical Peter´s Field, which tells a story of struggle, tyranny, liberty and hope against the backdrop of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.  Cooney will be joined by twice Mercury-nominated artist Eliza Carthy MBE and critically acclaimed singer/songwriter Sam Carter.

(photo right ) Sean Cooney speaks to Stephanie Besford West, a member of the Touchstones Rochdale museum team, about a truncheon used by one of the yeomanry in the Peterloo massacre.

7 Folk Music

SOUNDS IN THE CHARTS

reviewed by Sound Roots

New at No. 2 is Beauty In Your Wake by long-established alt-folk trio Fink. Fin Greenall’s eighth studio album under the genre-hopping moniker sees him working with Grammy Award-winning engineer and mixer Sam Okell and reuniting with the reformed, classic Fink line-up who featured on the band’s first breakthrough album.

No. 7 is Live From Dublin by rising Irish indie-folk band Kingfishr. Speaking of the album that was recorded earlier this year at 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, the trio said, “The 3Olympia Theatre was the venue we targeted from day one. Whether it took us 2 years or 20, we wanted to headline it and when that opportunity arose in little over a year it was hard to believe.”

Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds’ fourth collaborative album Strange News Has Come To Town (right)  is No. 16. On this record personal issues are to the fore, as Louder Than War echoed in their review: “the importance of roots music of the type on display here, cannot be overestimated. This is a definitively human album.”

This month’s Official Folk Albums Chart Show from Folk on Foot features music from Rachel Sermanni, Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds, Sam Lee, Kingfishr, Linda and Kami Thompson and Fink. Lucy Shields has the latest gig and album news and host Matthew Bannister announces a new episode of Folk on Foot featuring Ranagri.
Watch on the Folk on Foot via  You Tube  and look out for the Sound Roots podcast.

8 A Reader´s Perspective: All Points  Forward

MARK GERMINO-Midnight Carnival

by Peter Pearson

I used to enjoy listening to BBC1 radio DJ Roger Scott in the late eighties and early nineties. In those days he, Johnny Walker and Bob Harris were playing the songs of the singer songwriters. Roger Scott was also a great fan of John Stewart and played his music on a regular basis. One of the songs that became a regular on their shows was a song about a fabled but fictitious DJ, Rex Bob Lowenstein. It was written by a US singer songwriter, Mark Germino (right) and was from his album, Caught In The Act of Being Ourselves, released in 1988.

The song was a BBC Radio 1 pick of the week and in 2016, when Bob Harris appeared on Desert Island Discs, his first choice was this song.

I had long since forgotten about the song and Mark Germino until recently, when I read an obituary of his death at the age of 73.

The obituary made reference in glowing terms to his 2021 album, Midnight Carnival, his first album since 1996.I had missed the album and the four others that he had released during his music career. I had also not registered his song writing credits on the albums of favourites of mine like Emmylou Harris and Buddy Mondlock, (left) himself championed in his early days by Guy Clark) not to mention a host of others in the Americana genre.

Having now listened to Midnight Carnival it has jumped to number one on my playlist. It is a masterful Americana album with no fillers and 14 original compositions. Recorded in Nashville with a stellar cast of instrumental musicians, the lyrics throughout are stunning, the tunes melodious and instrumentals superb.

The album kicks off with the upbeat Traveling Man, a glorious romp, featuring driving accordion and electric guitar. The harmony laden Lightning Don’t Always Strike the Tallest Tree is magnificent, Peace Train is witty with an infectious melody in the chorus while Blessed are the Ones is tender and reflective. Amongst a record full of stand outs, personal favourites for me are the achingly beautiful Finest American Waltz and Carolina in The Morning, featuring Rusty Young, of the band Poco, on pedal steel. The track-The Greatest Song Ever Written, has shades of Guy Clark in it. I guess no surprise, given that they were kindred spirits. Indeed, in the course of this research, I discovered that the pair recorded a duet of the song, On Top Of Old Smokey, for a Nashville Children’s Songbook Project. Bet you didn’t know that Norm!

Finest American Waltz represents the glowing memory of attending the early Union Grove Music Festivals in Western North Carolina when Doc and Merle Watson were virtually unknown but reigned mightily. Carolina in The Morning is about Germino’s home state. The Greatest Song Ever Written is a spoken word narrative that chronicles a songwriter’s journey to Nashville. Somewhat autobiographical there is a twist in the tale and recounts a story of a woman from North East Britain, presumably because it rhymes very well with written! This trio of songs feature as tracks 9,10 and 11 on the album and they take the album to an even higher plane. 

In spite of his releasing only a few albums with long breaks between, he was a prolific writer with a huge stock of unreleased songs, widely respected in songwriter circles and with a loyal but tiny fan base craving the next album. The story of Midnight Carnival is that when a group of pals – Nashville session men multi-instrumentalist Michael Webb (Poco, Bobby Keys), guitarist Kenny Vaughn (Lucinda Williams, Marty Stewart), bassist Tom Comet (Webb Wilder, Kevin Gordan), and drummer Rick Lonow, (Burrito Brothers, Ryan Bingham) – came knocking for him to make his way over to a studio on Nashville’s music row and cut a record, Germino, profoundly appreciative, at first had to chuckle at the utter improbability of their proposal. “You guys are nothing short of crazy for coming up with an idea like this.” was his immediate response. Then he realised they were deadly serious.

It is a crying shame that the album seems to have flown right under the radar. Perhaps it got lost in the plethora of material issued shortly after Covid lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Born in Carolina in 1950, Germino worked as a poet before moving into folk rock songwriting. In 1974 he moved to Nashville. Initially, he did not plan to become a singer, although he eventually bought a guitar and took up singing as well, as he decided that singing was easier than reciting poetry. Following his arrival in Nashville he worked as a truck driver and courier and played at nights in clubs whilst trying to get a record deal. The deal came in 1981. Two years later Loretta Lyn hit the country charts with his song Breakin’It. In 1986, Kathy Mattea and Johnny Cash both recorded his song, God Ain’t No Stained Glass Window.

RCA then sent him to London, UK, to record, which resulted in his debut album – London Moon and Barnyard Remedies. In spite of it receiving critical acclaim in the music press and doing well in Europe, it did not take off in the States. It did however achieve some notoriety due to him becoming the first Nashville artist to have an album issued on the new medium of compact disc, as well as on vinyl and cassette.

He tried again in 1988 with Caught In The Act of Being Ourselves but RCA only issued the album outside America. However, many major artists had latched on to his songs and were putting them on their albums. In 1989 he toured the UK on the Everly Brothers bill and played solo at a few small venues.

His next album, in 1991, several years after his last, was RadarTown and in 1996 came Rank and File, a critically acclaimed acoustic folk album, which reached the top of the, then new, Americana charts. He then put music to one side to write three novels.

Emmylou Harris recorded his song Broken Man’s Lament for her 2008 album, All I Intended To Be (left) , a personal favourite of mine. Songwriter Buddy Mondlock recorded Sarah Kills the Day on his fine 1998 album, Poetic Justice. His songs have also been recorded by Johnny Cash,Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Hugh Moffatt and Kenny Chesney, the list goes on, whilst Steve Earle often includes his songs in his live sets.

His albums are on the streaming sites and there is an interesting fans page on Facebook on which, amongst other things, you can see him playing a few solo acoustic songs.

Midnight Carnival was a long wait in coming for his diehard fans but it was sure worth the wait and a brilliant epitaph to a great, if neglected singer songwriter.

9 Island Insights

SPORT AND ART; just outside the medals

by Crusoe

Three years after his Olympic silver in Tokyo, Ray Zapata (right) failed to repeat the achievement at the current Paris 2024 Games.

The Canarian gymnast, of Dominican origin, finished in seventh position in the floor final with a score of 14.333, far from the fight for the medals. Despite a technically solid routine, the judges did not value his performance as expected, and a penalty of -0.1 for stepping outside on one of the diagonals aggravated the situation.

Zapata was the first to compete and repeated the exercise from the qualifying round, which did not contain the most distinctive elements of his routine. Despite an execution that he himself considered satisfactory and an impeccable presentation, the final score was slow to come out and was disappointing for the Spaniard, who anxiously awaited the result on the electronic board.

As the rest of the field took shape, it was becoming clear that the medals were no longer within Zapata’s reach. Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat, who had deprived Zapata of the gold in Tokyo, put in an outstanding performance with 14.966 points. However, Filipino Carlos Yulo, with a difficulty of 6.600, took the gold with a score of 15.000, marking a milestone for Philippine gymnastics. An emotional Yulo could not hold back his tears as he received his first Olympic gold.

Bronze went to Jake Jarman, of the UK, who repeated his most difficult routine and scored 14.933. World and double European champion on vault, Jarman claimed his first Olympic medal and consolidated his status as a promising youngster in British gymnastics.

I also noted that a Canarian woman, by birth won a Gold Medal in the tackwondo 67 k division.

The flag of the Canary Islands shone on the taekwondo mat at Paris 2024 thanks to Viviana Marton (Tenerife, 2006), who was crowned Olympic champion in the -67 kg category after beating Serbian Aleksandra Perisic in two rounds (7-1 and 4-2). However, this gold will not count for the Spanish medal table, but for that of Hungary, the country of origin of her parents, since the Hungarian Federation offered them all the facilities from the beginning.

Viviana, born and raised in Tenerife, moved to Madrid at the age of 12 with her twin sister Luana, also a taekwondo athlete and world champion in the -57 kg category in 2023. Luana has been a key support on her sister’s road to gold in Paris, acting as a luxury sparring partner during Olympic preparation.

Both sisters, Adriana Cerezo’s training partners at the Hankuk International School in San Sebastián de los Reyes, compete for Hungary, despite feeling deeply Canarian and Spanish. This decision is due to the constant help and opportunities that the Hungarian Federation has given them since the beginning of their sporting careers.

By the way. I have reported this news in this non-sporting magazine because I associate The Olympic Games as a sporting event that includes art forms, artistic flair and synchronisation not only its athletics programme but also in some of the water based events, which are also aesthetically enhanced by the blues of the swimming pools and another blue of the sea. Because several of the national teams including Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, France Italy and Switzerland, among others of the world´s sailing crews, spent several weeks over here at the turn of the 2023 / 24, we witnessed great spectacle.

Just down the road from our favourite local restaurant on Lanzarote, we could appreciate at close quarters the speed and the strength of the crews. Through the open shutters of our window we could simply look out to sea to watch colourful sails of all hues and heights racing with, and against the wind and negotiating buoys that compelled a full turn.

We also witnessed two other phenomena as well. When the crews of boys and girls were at rest they displayed not only a fantastic camaraderie that belied the competitiveness of their sport, but they also showed a great respect for this small town of Playa Blanca that had accommodated and welcomed them.

I´m not sure that research had made anyone aware, at that stage, that wind speed in Lanzarote can be as quick as anywhere in the world, and is certainly faster than Marseille offered during the regatta at the Games.

What´s Next?  We´ll be following the sidetracks and detours all across the arts again next week. We will share whatever we find with our readers in a daily post from Monday to Friday.  We´ll be finding out more about the career of Jesse Colin Young and his great voice. We´ll visit Jazz Junction again, where the world revolves and the music evolves and Rosa Marie Staves will be thumbing through the archives of Rochdale Music Society to create a concord of sweet music. As one of our occasional contributors to this magazine is a former driving instructor, we mourn the  recent death of the aw-shucks, funny guy that was Bob Newhart and will bring his biography back home for our bigger bookshelf. We will treat Saturday, 17^th August as a day of rest, because the football season starts again for the big clubs in England. We will return on Sunday, 18^th August, though, by posting our next issue of PASS IT ON. See you somewhere round the corner.