day 1 All Things LS Lowry Festival: BOOTS LIKE EMMYLOU´S  + bits & pieces

day 1 All Things LS Lowry Festival  + bits & pieces

BOOTS LIKE EMMYLOU’S

by Norman Warwick

Standing on Boot Hill soul caked in mud remembering the girl of his dreams riding the highway knitting her hand-me-down pattern never dropping a stitch all around her smoke curling upwards toward a heaven in her imagination beginning on a base line backed by rhythm guitar counting out lost found time on the road to Nashville Tennessee dawn meeting edge of night surfing a California dream before falling helpless into The Great Divide

a she-wolf haunting his mind and his voice leaning against a prairie wind howling for a painted pony to ride in search of Michelangelo waiting for her the girl of his dreams slowly walking away towards the swinging doors of The Last Chance Saloon now a spent and empty shell dangerous dice no longer rolling carrying away hope upon his pony upon his boat catching the yellow eye of a stalking she-wolf hooves in the click and the clack of knit one purl one knit one purl one knit one purl one – this the pattern of his healing process

an evening sun laying on water of river smiling on windowed sides of her home for the night a building seeming to rear up to her approach at first fearsome as a lion then peacock-proud of shifting magical colours holding a futuristic air sitting ill at ease alongside a waterscape carrying reminders still of the flour and timber and coal and cotton that had shaped it and that it had helped shape

interior of sweeping panoplies and open airy bars May-blossom purples and dusky greys on walls offering an almost vertical view down hundreds of feet on to people appearing so small they resemble match-stalk figures created by the town’s most celebrated artist in a heart-lifting design of gentle strength and of tradition supported by visions of futures unpainted still screws and bolts all too visible woodwork still un-smoothed

How the artisan fails the artist and how commerce fails the creator

carrying her instrument before her a gun held menacingly or a hand extended in greeting curtains drawn against setting sun becoming wings to a darkened stage beneath bare ceiling-bulb a spotlight over an invisible microphone picking cool guitar runs exploding into a sinister vocal of the title track of some imagined album

“Welcome To Acousticville”

employing guitar gadgetry redolent of John Stewart riffs sometimes firing like staccato machine-gun bursts around the arena and at other times sliding like a rainbow into sun-fired waters below a little girl who back in another generation gave in to less than naturally blessed features when attacked by teenage acne and heartbreak raging still against the unfairness of it all

those who have shall get those who don’t shall not

those who have not can dream that those who hvae cannot

who among us enjoys the greater wealth?

Insert photo 1 she who once invented lovers on the phone dreaming of owning Boots Like Emmylou’s dreaming of wearing her hair like Loretta’s with a voice all of her own creation now frizzy-haired with lop-sided grin and body so tiny it could slide across and down the fade away diamond time into the hole in the middle of a vinyl record not adding up to much counting time in her stillness teaching distant history keenly felt so rendering an immediacy hindering as much as helping progress; a past drawing nearer a more peaceful future with a Welcome To Acousticville

iinviting back Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscombe, The Reverend Gary Davis and even Jimi Hendrix, speaking in prayer of Willie Nelson and of Memphis The Belle Of The Blues in another killer line to die for.

Feeling entrusted with dreams of others and asked to articulate them embracing darkness and myriad lights from unidentifiable buildings along the river throwing colours over all those purples and greys

night less blemished now less apologetic more corporeal vision substantiated she is reassured in the present ensuring past survives the future finding now the courage to dare to believe in dreams and ghosts and laughing at former intensities

smoke curling upwards towards her imagination beginning on a base line he is counting out lost found time on a road between Nashville and Tennessee where edge of night meets dawn California dreaming of the dirty old town……….

Don’t miss the rest of our LS Lowry series, starting tomorrow we take a look inside the theatre named after him and continue on Wednesday, when we will be Going To The Match and talking about Damien Hirst on the way. On Thursday we shall watch the film Mrs. Lowry And Son before closing our Festival on Friday by celebrating the arts´s life.

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Meanwhile, in other news

GALLERIES: WORKSHOP AND EXHIBITIONS

a compare and contrast from Norman Warwick

Before we take a much more comprehensive view of artist LS Lowry and the theatre and gallery named after him, there are on or two events occurring in a couple of our other art galleriesr that we should notify you about. Here in our daily blog office we are happy to learn of any aspirant artists we don´t yet know by visiting, virtually or in reality, either the beautiful and tranquil arts venue that is the Adsubian Gallery on mainland Spain, or the Lanzarote Art Gallery here on the island. Of course they could perhaps by some of the techniques they might identify on the exhibits but perhaps just as importantly how to think and live and behave like an artist and take tips on how to work in harmony with the arts industry. Both these galleries are businesses who look after their clients, whether those clients be art-creators or art-purchasers. For example The Adsubian Gallery often engage established artists to deliver workshops or courses to aspirants, and the Lanzarote Art Gallery shows its artists work in a virtual gallery and highlights a couple of its artists on a regular newsletter to gallery friends and members. So, follow your art a little further as we turn down sidetracks & detours to where art resides beyond the UK.

Sabine Beisert lives and works in Rellingen near Hamburg.

The fascination with painting has always accompanied the artist throughout her whole life since early childhood.
After many years of continuous training, development and exploration, painting has been the focus of her artistic journey since 2005.

The interactions between different materials, techniques and tools play an essential part in her work, and allow for the great variety
and freedom from which she draws her inspiration for new paintings.
In these works, the artist presents her own view of life in an abstract and intuitive manner, always leaving room for her feelings and mood to influence her work.

The paintings are complex, at times colourful and expressive, but also gentle and minimized. Creative intuition and applied technology intertwine and let herpictures emerge step by step. The dialogue with the canvas captures the released energies and leaves the viewer with plenty of scope for their own imagination and interpretation.

Strangely, a new exhibition opened Friday 14^th October, at The Lanzarorote Art Gallery that is, similarly described as  being the dialogue of two artists, This time telling the emotions of their encounter with the island. Moments of introspection, of feeling the volcanic energy that crosses, the silent desert, the depth and shadows of the rock, nature as the protagonist, a magnet, a language without time. Where the sun falls, it collapses, the wind and the sea dance and the night with its starry mantle covers us. The exhibition will remain open until December 9, 2022.

When informing Sidetracks And Detours of this exhibition (see poster right) The Lanzarote Art Gallery also recommended the work of another of their artists.

Argentine artist, Ale Feijó, has made a bold move to emerge in her passion for painting, after nearly three decades of working as a graphic designer.

She says of her work that Women’s Bodies… Women and their bodies… My women are one woman… It is me, leading all the others in the artistic representation of my interiority.´ 

The Lanzarote Art Gallery say that ´With a feverish and passionate brushstroke with her pencil, she skilfully takes her viewers into the feminine world using light and shadow, layered textures of rich and daring dyes, or glazes combined with sketches, writings and passionate strokes.

Lanzarote Art Gallery is an international art gallery representing more than 35 established and emerging contemporary artists. Arts lovers can register for priority access to leading artists, exhibitions and events. In Their permanent collection The Lanzarote Art Gallery  have a large collection of work, painting, sculpture, and photography, national and international. If you cannot attend the gallery then there is a wonderful arts space facility on their web site, which is well worth checking out at https://lanzaroteartgallery.com/en/

The direction Añe Feijo is taking might even be parallel to that followed by photographer Adriyana Hodge, a photographer with a collection currently showing not far from the Lanzarote Art Gallery, at Julio´s Tap Room Bar in Costa Teguise on Lanzarote. We have covered her Secret Places of Lanzarote that has enjoyed a huge footfall since opening in September, and that will continue to run until the end of November.

Both the above galleries offer very informative on line sites and typing the gallery name should find them for you. We are confident that a visit to either gallery, in reality or in virtuality, would prove rewarding to any art-lover. If you manage to visit both galleries and see them in something even better than in 3D, then I will be very envious, and if you would like to share your comments we would be delighted to publish and attribute them.

Just drop your thoughts to normanwarwick55@gmail.com

If you live within the hinterland of the Lowry Theatre, where we began this journey, and you love audio art as much as visual art, then you will be delighted to know that the Americana group, Between The Vines, based in your region and frequently championed by our friends at the all across the arts (aata)  pages in The Rochdale Observer, have been nominated in the British Country Music Awards. We have borrowed a number of times from Steve Cooke´s reports at aata about the group´s progress over the past decade, and now herfe they are, along with the likes of the long established and highly successful Shire, for a prestigious award. We wish them all the best when the winners are announced, and of course will announce the results so watch this space.

Of course, even conversation can be turned into an art form by a skilled artist, as AJ The DJ Hendry reminds us on her weekly magazine programme The Perfect Storm on Monster Radio 99.9 fm. Having been a guest on her show a couple of times now, I know first-hand how skilled she is in following all the rituals of news, weather forecasts, and advertising jingles that have to be crammed in to the two hour programme. Somehow she never lets them affect the flow of the conversation who, no matter how nervous they might be initially, soon warm to her easily conversation style. one of her recent guest padi testimony to that in a facebook post this week, when Vic Locke wrote

formula 1 I was invited to be a guest on Monster radio, by their fabulous presenter AJ Hendry. She was keen to interview me about my years working in Formula 1, and was interested to know how I got involved and ended up working for several of the biggest teams in the hugely popular sport…

Well I really love my job, but rarely even talk about it outside work, so the thought of doing a 2 hour radio interview was daunting and a big step outside my comfort zone…

I took a bit of convincing, but I decided to go for it… and to be honest, much to my surprise, I am pretty happy with how it went! So if you are bored, at a loose end or just want to lose 2 hours of your life, then feel free to listen. AJ also took the opportunity to ask me about my recent health issue, and how I am recovering.. which I was also happy to discuss, as it gave me an opportunity to pass on info that might be of help to someone else PS.

There’s a musical intro… So if you want to listen, but don’t have 2 hours, press play and then open box that appears at bottom, then click on and drag bar to move forwards… 09-45 is where the main interview starts, or you can move to any other point in the interview/music choices….

 Of course, music is an art form too, and some of you may also enjoy the jazz sounds played on the weekly Hot Biscuits mix-cloud presentations. Radio broadcaster and jazz mix-cloud presenter Steve Bewick are good friends and he I both enjoy the music of Karla Harris. Her husband John  e-mailed this morning to confirm that Karla has a CD coming out in October, and it has already been pressed and is now available although on-line downloads are not yet available.  John has offered us MP3 formats for Steve and to listen to.  He also offered to help us set up a zoom o r e mail interview with her.  It was Steve who introduced me to Karla´s work. It was Steve, in fact, who first introduced me to Karla´s work, and now it sounds like our readers hear at Sidetracks And Detours will be able to read our review of her new album and Steve´s listeners might even get to hear some of the music. We´ll keep yuou informed of developments.

Steve messaged us this morning  to say ´My next broadcast includes as its central piece a session from the Steven Pimlott Quartet at the Creative Space. Jazz from the American songbook. Also featured is music from Lara Eidi. Gypsy jazz from the Mike Piggott Hot Club Quartet. Roland Kirk with a classic. Gaz Hughes also from a set at the Creative Space. If this sounds good tell your friends, or follow me 24/07 at

Steve Bewick’s Shows | Mixcloud