Sail Away by Randy Newman is fifty years old this year<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n but Norman Warwick missed the boat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time when the \u201cPeace and Love\u201d sloganeering of the hippie dream started to reek of good intentions baking underneath the sun in the gutters of Haight-Ashbury, the young composer and songwriter Randy Newman was ready for a heel turn. On his third album Sail Away<\/em> (left)<\/em><\/strong> \u2014which celebrated its 50th birthday on May 23rd<\/sup> \u2014he delivered a timeless opus full of masterfully deceptive songs that play out like a collection of standards for the ugly moments in human history that pop music wasn\u2019t willing to touch in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like any good saboteur, Newman took some time to learn the blueprint of the machine before he set about dismantling it. At the outset of his career, with two quietly acclaimed albums under his belt, Newman\u2019s approach was not so dissimilar to in-demand pop writers of his era like Jimmy Webb or even Burt Bacharach. That workman-like approach to writing and composing was ingrained somewhere deep in his bones, as he was born into a deep lineage of Hollywood film composers. His uncles Alfred Newman, Emil Newman and Lionel Newman were all in the business\u2014with the latter winning an Oscar for his work on the Barbra Streisand-starring film adaptation of Hello Dolly<\/em> in 1969. He has spoken often about his admiration of alumni of the Tin Pan Alley song-writing machine, like George Gershwin. He could have made an admirable career out of writing made-to-order clones of string-laden piano ballads like \u201cI Think It\u2019s Going to Rain Today\u201d and \u201cLiving Without You,\u201d which occupied his 1968 self-titled debut album, for swingin\u2019 crooners to stuff onto their albums. But Newman realized that was a dead end for him in a creative sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve often wondered if I\u2019d have kept going in that direction, accompanying myself with an orchestra and taking things apart, what I\u2019d have been,\u201d he told Vanity Fair<\/em><\/a> in 2016. \u201cI think I\u2019d have been interesting, right? But I don\u2019t know whether anyone would have subsidized me, or found me as interesting as I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n photo 3 Newman shook that expectation off his collar with his more rock-oriented 1970 follow-up, 12 Songs<\/em>. It was a move that was applauded by critics, including Robert Christgau of the Village Voice<\/em>, who gave the album an A+ rating. In his review<\/a>, Christgau hailed the album as Newman\u2019s arrival as a master of toeing the line, both musically and lyrically. \u201cNewman\u2019s music counterposes his indolent drawl\u2014the voice of a Jewish kid from L.A. who grew up on Fats Domino (left)<\/em><\/strong> \u2014against an array of instrumental settings that on this record range from rock to bottleneck to various shades of jazz,\u201d he wrote in 1970, \u201cand because his lyrics abjure metaphor and his music recalls commonplaces without repeating them, he can get away with the kind of calculated effects that destroy more straightforward meaning-mongers. A perfect album.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as many now know him best for his hired-gun work on film scores and original music for Pixar films, Newman never fully rebuked that avenue. The longing to be tapped for the gig hasn\u2019t left his work ethic in the past five decades. Much like Tin Pan Alley writer-turned-shit-stirrer Cole Porter, Newman wanted to meld his mastery of melodic and lyrical economics into a Trojan horse that could send a shiver down the spines of the squares of the old guard, as well as the self-policing radicals of the Woodstock generation who were up the creek without a paddle at the start of a new decade. When he was compiling the material for Sail Away<\/em>, he even wrote a song intended for Frank Sinatra titled \u201cLonely At The Top.\u201d The song\u2019s lyrics were intended for only someone as ubiquitous in pop culture as Franky Blue Eyes to sing, as it takes aim at the woes of a listless icon who has reached a level of boredom and loneliness that only he could understand. \u201cI\u2019ve been around the world \/ Had my pick of any girl \/ You\u2019d think I\u2019d be happy \/ But I\u2019m not,\u201d the song goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sinatra passed on the song. Maybe he could see the vitriol that Newman had for celebrity, or maybe he just didn\u2019t like the tune. It\u2019s a question that Newman grappled with in discussion with Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>\u2019s David Fricke in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was a massive drive at Warner Bros. Records to get Frank a hit,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought\u2014maybe stupidly\u2014that he would be ready to make fun of that leaning-against-the-lamp-post shit: \u2018Oh, I\u2019m so lonely and miserable and the biggest singer in the world.\u2019 I never bought that part of him. I thought he\u2019d appreciate that. I played it for him, at his office on the Warner Bros. lot. His reaction? Nothing. He said, \u2018Next.\u2019 I also played \u2018I Think It\u2019s Going to Rain Today.\u2019 He said, \u2018I like that one.\u2019 But he couldn\u2019t hide his bitterness at young people\u2019s music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song made it onto the tracklist of Sail Away<\/em> instead, and has since become one of Newman\u2019s better-known songs for its ability to seem like a song that predated the vapidness of celebrity culture while also being distinctly of its time. You could see its commentary play out both in the decades that preceded it and up to today, as there has been no shortage of tragically disillusioned stars whose fame catapulted them away from ever being able to relate to normal people\u2019s problems. This astute sense of social commentary found its footing within Newman\u2019s writing on Sail Away<\/em>. From then on, the world was in his crosshairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album\u2019s opening title track could be pinpointed as the moment where Newman found his true artistic voice as a songwriter. Though his writing on 12 Songs<\/em> had elements of the twisted perspective for which he is now known, he had never thrown his professional life on the line in pursuit of a gut-punch quite like this. The song\u2019s narrator is an American invader giving his best sales pitch for how much better the lives of his African prisoners will be after he loads them onto his boat and sails back to the port of Charleston Bay in South Carolina. He offers his own experiences back home to dismiss any of their fears by promising they\u2019d get to \u201csing about Jesus and drink wine all day,\u201d with no threat of jungle cats or mamba snakes jumping out of the bushes to get them. There\u2019s no way in hell that these people were not violently forced into bondage against their will, but Newman\u2019s character appears to be acting as a harbinger of good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The kicker is that he\u2019s burying the lede. The man never comes out and says that these people will be sold into slavery upon their arrival, and that\u2019s part of Newman\u2019s genius. He wants us to finish the equation that the song presents, to picture the evil that is in store once they make it back to shore. Even the line where Newman\u2019s character says that \u201ceverybody is as happy as a man can be\u201d may seem like a tossed-off lyric, but his choice to use \u201cman\u201d instead of choosing a more inclusive pronoun only signifies that things back at home might not be great for women, either. But how would that character know that what he was doing wasn\u2019t some sort of preordained right at that given point in history? He was just following orders from God and country. In fact, the only actual evidence of force within the captor\u2019s spiel comes in the song\u2019s final verse, where he leaves no room for argument or choice. \u201cYou\u2019re all gonna be an American,\u201d he sings. \u201cSail Away\u201d introduces a perspective that many of Newman\u2019s peers may have been too scared to present. He doesn\u2019t obscure the message with poetry. Instead, he speaks plainly while tracing the white savior complex back to its original evil marketing strategy. Wouldn\u2019t you be better off imprisoned in America than free in the third world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere on the album\u2019s first side, he introduces a fawning prayer to a hidden God watching over us with \u201cHe Gives Us All His Love\u201d (more on that later) and the genuinely pure-of-heart \u201cSimon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear\u201d that became a hit in the UK for The Alan Price Set. Given how biting his tongue had been earlier, it\u2019s almost alarming how the jaunty piano jingle about a boy and a bear dancing for wealthy folks at a local fair never really stretches outside of a G rating. That the song had been a hit for English singer Alan Price in 1967 might explains its relatively tame commentary on the class divide in America. Sandwiched in between is the rocker \u201cLast Night I Had a Dream.\u201d Newman\u2019s recollection of a hyper-specific nightmare he had is aided by a funky rhythm section that included legendary drummer Jim Keltner and slide guitar from Ry Cooder, who first played on 12 Songs<\/em> and would remain a frequent collaborator of Newman\u2019s throughout his career. Even though Newman runs into both a ghost and a vampire while floating through his dreams, what causes him to panic is that the love of his life can\u2019t even remember his name. Even worse, a small crowd around them is there to point and laugh. It\u2019s a mortifying miscommunication, and offers a glimpse into Newman\u2019s fragile sense of self-worth. In just a few paranoid lines, Newman was presenting the antithesis of Mick Jagger\u2019s horned-up prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song \u201cOld Man\u201d is the most surface-level tearjerker that Newman pens on the album, and one of its most criminally under-rated moments of brilliance. The story depicts a boy at the bedside of his dying father. He offers to quell his father\u2019s confusion as he drifts in and out of consciousness, telling him that even though \u201ceveryone has gone away,\u201d he\u2019ll make sure to stay by his side as he nears the end. With its grand, sweeping orchestral arrangement and gentle piano chords, it seems like a song destined to be played to alleviate moments of profound sorrow. But underneath the lush strings and the boy\u2019s initial loving moments with his father, we begin to feel something is rotten at the centre of this family dynamic. We learn, as his son tries to get his father to focus in his weary state\u2014\u201dCan you hear me?\u201d\u2014that no one else actually came to visit him. Even the sun and the birds have disappeared somewhere beyond the clouds. The son pleads for his father to open his eyes and acknowledge his presence, and to get it through his head that his time as the patriarch is over. The future of the family legacy will live on after he is forgotten, because why would they need him around if his son is \u201cjust like\u201d him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things get a little more fucked from there, as the song takes on a last-minute reveal worthy of an A24 psychological thriller. When the son mentions the fact that his father raised him to be a cynical atheist, he tells him that even if he has second thoughts about the whole religion thing, in his last breaths there will only be pain and then simply \u2026 nothing. \u201cThere won\u2019t be no God to comfort you,\u201d he says bluntly, \u201cyou told me not to believe that lie.\u201d You can practically feel his frail father contorting in his hospital bed, finally giving himself over to fear in his final hour. But his son has been raised right, and by \u201cright\u201d I mean a stubborn, \u201cfree-thinking\u201d contrarian in his father\u2019s image. Some may call him an \u201casshole.\u201d In his own way, he tries to calm his father down by explaining that there are no obligations anymore\u2014\u201dYou don\u2019t need anybody \/ Nobody needs you \/ Don\u2019t cry old man, don\u2019t cry.\u201d As the strings fade, he tells his father to toughen up and stop crying because, honestly, this isn\u2019t a special or unique moment. \u201cEverybody dies,\u201d he shrugs. The music stops as abruptly as a heart monitor no longer reading a pulse. The boy is left alone now to confront his father\u2019s lifeless body. What was once a song about respecting elders and cherishing passed-on wisdom, Newman finds a twisted way to turn into a critique of cynicism and nihilism. There was nothing stopping the boy from comforting his father at the end of his life, but the urge to dismantle the idea of an afterlife was too strong for him to deny. Newman doesn\u2019t tell us if the son will have visitors by his deathbed years down the line, but one can only assume his thick shell will never allow anyone to ever get that close. Most songwriters would find a way to right the ship and steer towards compassion. But Newman has never been afraid to amplify the darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we flip over to side B, (remember the days of black, circular two sided records?)<\/em> it should be noted that the production and engineering team assembled by producers Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman on Sail Away<\/em> is simply immaculate. The personnel that Newman assembled fulfills his orchestral pop vision with a sense of naturalistic beauty without overcrowding the songs. In that regard, the album achieves a sonic high-water mark that could have easily stumbled into schlocky Engelbert Humperdinck territory in the wrong hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To open the next side, Newman fast-forwards his historical scope of American injustices to present-day foreign policy on the satirical masterwork \u201cPolitical Science.\u201d Over a vaudevillian can-can instrumental, Newman plays the part of a man in the upper echelons of command in our government with a foolproof plan to get our superpower of a nation out of its obligations and messy entanglements around the globe. Our \u201callies\u201d make fun of us behind our backs, and those in need of a handout give us nothing but spite and hate in return. His solution: \u201cLet\u2019s drop the big one \/ and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song then goes into a list of trivial reasons why we should nuke different cultures off the face of the Earth. What is so terrifying about the swift and barbaric armageddon in the name of a red, white and blue globe this character is proposing is that even though it sounds<\/em> ridiculous, America has always been closer to going off the deep end than we care to admit. For chrissakes, we had a president who considered nuking hurricanes. Deep down, we\u2019ve always been an easily chantable slogan away from becoming the villains in this story. Knowing the many nefarious things that happen due to our constant military presence around the world, maybe we already are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On \u201cBurn On,\u201d Newman sings about the ecological disaster that is Cleveland, Ohio\u2019s Cuyahoga River (left)<\/em><\/strong> over a playful horn arrangement. Since 1868, the river has caught on fire\u00a0over a dozen times<\/a>\u00a0as a result of the city routinely dumping industrial sludge into it. Newman juxtaposes the city\u2019s gorgeous lights with the flames rising off the water, egging it to \u201cburn on\u201d in a way that makes it seem like these occurrences are a point of pride for the people who live there. In a sarcastic bit of marketing, he explains that the lord has the ability to change the current of the river, but can he make it burn? Back off, God! That\u2019s a power only bestowed upon Clevelanders!<\/p>\n\n\n\n On one of the album\u2019s most simplistic arrangements, \u201cMemo To My Son,\u201d Newman grapples with the self-centered disposition of his newborn child. Over a brisk folk-rock composition consisting of piano, drums, bass, acoustic guitar and accordion, Newman is at odds with a child unable to follow his instructions. \u201cWait\u2019ll you learn how to talk, baby \/ I\u2019ll show you how smart I am,\u201d he says before rattling off a couple of cliched nuggets of wisdom. \u201cA quitter never wins \/ A winner never quits \/ When the going gets tough \/ The tough get going,\u201d he sings with nothing better to offer. Don\u2019t worry Randy, you\u2019ll have time to turn it around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next is \u201cDayton, Ohio \u2013 1903,\u201d one of Newman\u2019s most recognizable studies in Rockwellian Americana. The sweet piano ditty paints a picture of a happy couple in the famously blue-collar town, welcoming a visitor over for tea and to spend a day back in an era where people were courteous and kind. Much like \u201cSimon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear,\u201d it\u2019s a rare gentle moment on the record that doesn\u2019t contain an ulterior motive. It was also recorded by Billy J. Kramer (right)<\/em><\/strong> \u2014another British pop star\u2014one year before the release of\u00a0Sail Away<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With American society, family and religion all on the table, Newman also finds the time to explore sexual power dynamics in the downright thirsty \u201cYou Can Leave Your Hat On.\u201d Newman takes on the role of the dom in this scenario, commanding his sub to undress to his liking and move in when he tells her to. While Joe Cocker (left)<\/em><\/strong> would later turn the song into a hit with a muscular reworking in the mid-80s, the drunkenly woozy pace on Newman\u2019s original helps to emphasize the desperation in his character. While others may deride the way his characters show affection for each other, Newman wants you to believe that this kink is just as sacred as Sunday mass. \u201cYou give me reason to live,\u201d he sweetly repeats just after he tells her to strip down to nothing, raise her arms up to the sky and \u201cshake em.\u201d It\u2019s safe to say that he doesn\u2019t mean her hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album closes with \u201cGod\u2019s Song (That\u2019s Why I Love Mankind),\u201d one of the harshest damnations of blind faith and the squabbling and sycophantic tendencies of the human race ever put to tape. In the minor-key solo piano number, Newman takes on the role of the all-powerful creator who, after years of fielding dire requests from his most devout disciples on Earth, has decided to finally level with them. After written agreements etched in tablets and in the pages of biblical texts giving his word he would intervene in times of trouble for those who honor him, the people need to know why he contradicts himself time and time again. A man named Seth raises his hand, wondering why \u201cCain slew Abel\u201d and why, if the state of Israel was intended to grow in numbers, that he would allow any children to die. To that, God tells him it\u2019s because humans are no different to him than any of the other insignificant forms of life on the planet. \u201cMan means nothing, he means less to me \/ than the lowliest cactus flower \/ or the humblest yucca tree,\u201d he says. But still, after all the pain humans endure, they chase every clue that leaves them stranded out in the desert and assign meaning where there isn\u2019t any, all to justify their misfortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of the leaders of different religions who have contorted themselves to carry out his commands to fit their needs eventually meet for a televised conference where they call on God to stop the plagues that ravage the Earth. They feel that the time has come for him to make good on his word. It\u2019s the least he can do after years of continued faith. But what we don\u2019t understand is that God\u2019s way of returning the order of the world back to stasis is ripping it all up and starting again\u2014just like how he casts the ugly temples we have erected in his honor back into the sea. What separates us from the unimportant vegetation he equated us to is that we can\u2019t seem to find a way to be grateful for getting the opportunity to exist at all. He recoils in horror at the mess we\u2019ve all made of the home he has given us, and laughs it up with his buddies in heaven when we have the gall to pray for salvation. Details can be missed even with round-the-clock surveillance, and it\u2019s not his fuckin\u2019 problem that we can\u2019t tend our gardens or get along with each other. But even after mounting casualties and devastation, we keep coming back time after time, hoping for an answer. The lord can\u2019t help but feel like the most popular girl at the dance after all of that attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI burn down your cities, how blind you must be \/ I take from you your children and you say, \u2018how blessed are we?\u2019\u201d he says, with a satisfied grin. \u201cYou all must be crazy to put your faith in me \/ That\u2019s why I love mankind \/ You really need me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way that Newman delivers those last two lines is as sobering as a shot of adrenaline to the heart. His main point here is that, from the beginning, we have used religion as a way to explain our continued obsolescence amidst a universe that keeps expanding and revealing new possibilities for existence. If there is a creator, do you think he would really take the time out of his busy schedule to tinker with an outdated model? Apple stopped making the iPod, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newman would build off of this ground-breaking showcase of his talents on later masterpieces like 1973\u2019s Good Old Boys<\/em> and his underrated 1999 album Bad Love<\/em>. But with all of this talk about his abilities as a satirist, what makes Newman such an influential and often-imitated songwriting archetype is that he is funny as fuck. It\u2019s not a grand leap to see the influence that this style of writing has had on someone like Father John Misty. His approach in talking about the rotten core of humanity in the emergence of the singularity on his opus Pure Comedy<\/em> echoed Newman\u2019s subtle wit and ability to don the mask of the unreliable narrator to prove an uncomfortable point. You could also trace Newman\u2019s trapped-between-two-eras musicality as an influence on The Walkmen, as well as the solo work of both Hamilton Leithauser and Walter Martin. A song like the early Walkmen single \u201cWe\u2019ve Been Had\u201d could not have existed without Newman\u2019s weary and realistic skepticism. In a recent episode of Tim Heidecker\u2019s call-in show Office Hours<\/em><\/a>, Newman (right)<\/em><\/strong> joined as a special guest, and both Heidecker and the show\u2019s other guest, Kurt Vile, proceeded to praise him for his genius and for influencing their own musical works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another quality that makes Newman\u2019s songwriting so fascinating to so many\u2014outside of the compositional characteristics\u2014is how easily he is able to toe the line between offensive and profound. If a song like \u201cSail Away\u201d were to come out today, it\u2019s sad to think that the commentary itself might play second fiddle to a trending tweet missing the point he was trying to make entirely. He eventually ended up running into some controversy<\/a> with his satirical hit \u201cShort People\u201d from the 1976 album Little Criminals<\/em>, as many listeners couldn\u2019t see past his ludicrous demonizations of height-challenged people to the larger point he was trying make about the silliness of bigotry based on physical attributes. If they thought that<\/em> was bad, they should have heard his scathing and uncomfortable takedown of systemic racism, \u201c<\/strong>Rednecks<\/strong><\/a>\u201d\u2014 <\/strong>the opening cut from Good Old Boys<\/em>\u2014just two years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was some smoke that almost derailed his entire career. \u201cIt became pretty obvious to me that\u2014no matter how lofty my aims\u2014what I had was a novelty,\u201d he told Medium<\/em><\/a> in 2011. \u201cIt was one of those hit records that actually makes you less popular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 50 years since Sail Away<\/em>\u2019s release, the reputation that Newman established on the album has in many ways been overshadowed by that particular song and, more justly, his award-winning career in film. But in revisiting the album now, you\u2019ll hear his willingness and determination to drag the influence of the great American songbook through the muddy lens of pop and rock radio in a way that is almost as subversive as his deceptively acidic lyrics. It\u2019s a ground-breaking achievement, as it\u2019s hard to think of another artist of his generation who could be as easily mentioned in the same conversation as both Bob Dylan and Irving Berlin. Newman has soundtracked pivotal moments for generations that have come of age with his grand and emotional scores to family-friendly touchstones in cinema. But if you dig back to 1970, you\u2019ll find a man ready to call bullshit on the very thought of a fairy tale ending. His sly wit had always been the concealed dagger by his side on his earlier albums, but it wasn\u2019t until Sail Away<\/em> that Newman became one of music\u2019s most astute breakers of bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it is interesting, and I think I have always been vaguely aware of it from the outset, that Newman was employing what the Woke Folk now call guilty narrators as the mouthpiece for his songs. It has become a talking point among academics over the last year or so, and we have addressed the issue on these pages in an article filed on 21st<\/sup> May 2021, called Guilty Or Not Guilty. Basically the argument centres around writers who express unacceptable views through the voice of narrator in a song. Of course all this opens further debate on who monitors the monitors, but it seems to me from reading the above piece by Pat King that Randy Newman regularly employs the technique in a way that somehow does not lead listeners to assume he is expressing his own views.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to hold up my hands, though, to proclaim mea culpa. I have not listened long or hard enough to Randy Newman, but Mr. King\u00b4s incisive and forensic explanation of Newman\u00b4s work will now send me trying to cram fifty years of listening and learning into what time is left.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the deluge of material we provide for our readers we are well aware that there are countless pieces that don\u00b4t fior comfrtably into our publication dates and storylines. We trialled Birs And Pieces last week, and it felt to us as if it might work as an occasional fottnote to our main stroy of the day to add details of a live event or whateverm. in another art form in a another part of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u00b4t miss the chance to hear a poet making quite a name for herself at the moment. Sidetracks And Detours have noticed her name all.over social media recently and so are delighted to point you in her direction., so if you are around the Porthcawl area on Friday (24th June) why not follow what sounds like an interesting diversion to The Green Room above Sussed on James Street.. We cannot be there I\u00b4m we\u00b4re afraid but if any of your reading this do attend please fele free to drop usd a n e mail with a breif review. You can find details of how to do so below, next to our e-mail logo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We will try to find out more about Zoe and bring an article later ion the year, but a review would be a neat little intro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason we can\u00b4t be there is partly because on the same evening of Friday 24th June we will be attending a fund raising for UIkraine event. This will actually be the inauguration of an arts exhibition which will then run for some time. There will a brief choral performance too, which we area also immensely looking forward to, for several reasons-<\/p>\n\n\n\n The In Dulce Jubilo Choir grew out a German Church in Peurto Del Carmen here on Lanzarote. These days, however, having become an independednt choir, it isd now under the direction of Marianne Whelpdale, a lady we have featured on these pages in the past. Marianne had been a member of a number of choirs..before accepting the request to direct In Dulce Jubilo in works that are mostly classical in genre. The choir has a playing sqwuad of about twenty members but there are occasions, of course when members are away from the island perhaps visiting the homelands of Ukranian, Austrian, Spanish, British, Swiss, Polish and German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marianne recently explained her directing style to Gazette Life Lanzarote, a monthly, glossy magazine published monthly. Apparently she thinks of the role of musical direction of a chour is more of a diuctatorship than a democracy, before laughing and saying she likes to think she \u00f3rders them around in a loving way ! She often directs from her position at the piano with the choir, and when not in performance or n rehearsal she is planning ion advance new playlists and is even now creating a programme for Christams performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to covid, the choir, of course, sings in Lanzarote Churches, and even on other Canary Islands, over over religious periods such as Easter and Christmas but the chjoir was unable to rehearse and marainne didn\u00b4t feel able to direct properly via Zoom. The rehearsals they were able to conduct outside as restrictions eased must have felt like a lifeline to a choir that is now looking for male singers and promises to make welcome anyone who would like to join them to sing, … especially bass and baritones ! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Marianne would also like to hear from anyone who has ideas for special performances of any kind, and we\u00b4re guessing that this event at The Camel House on Friday 24th June is just such an occasion..<\/p>\n\n\n\n One member in particuular will has a special affinity for this concert. Natalia Tunik arrived on lanzarote over ten years ago . Since the Russian invasion of her country she has been campaigning and fundraising to aid Ukraine, whilst constantly worrying about her family back there.. She she will be sad no doubt, but very proud, that the choir will be wearing blue sashes and the brilliant yellow sunflowers that symbolise Ukraine.. She is originally from the country\u00b4s Poltova region but was living in the city of Kyiv when she met her Spanish husband before he got a job here in Lanzarote, and the couple moved over here. That city they left behind is now horribly damaged, as we have seen on our tv reports.Natalia spoke in some depth about her thoughts on Putin and the invasion to Gazette Life Lanzarote but it would be invidious for us to extrapolate here from what was an exclusive interview. It is a sad and damning piece and we would urge you to read it in full in the June edition of Lanzarote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The artist, Olena Kosenka shown here on our poster has readily adopted the local built and natural landscapes into her creative work whilst bringing a European flavour to her painting. Olena says of her methodology:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00b4I am like an architect in my creative space\u00b4, she says. \u00b4I like to build the painting in my mind. I need the vision locked in, it has to be defined, I then decide on the media I want to use, then the size of the work and finally the layout\u00b4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We look forward to bring you a report on what we hope is going to be a very successful event, especially that success could see a return of live performances at what is one of the most beautiful concert venues on .an island that is full of beatiful concert venues !<\/p>\n\n\n\n .Meanwhile, our friend, Steve Bewick, radio presenter of Hot Biscuits jazz programme this week broadcasts a show featuring Blazin’ Quartet<\/a>. Gary Heywood-Everett<\/a> explores their blend of different musical worlds in `Sleeping Beauty.` Also included in our eclectic mix is the Mike Vax<\/a> Big Band, Durham University Big Band<\/a> and Claire Martin<\/a>. If this looks interesting pass to your friends and tune in 24\/7 at www.mixcloud.com\/stevebewick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary source for theis piece was a podcast at Ears To Feed by Pat King who is a Philadelphia-based journalist and host of the In Conversation podcast at Ears to Feed. He releases his own music with his project Labrador and is a tireless show-goer and rock doc fanatic. He recently took up long-distance running, which he will not shut up about. You can follow him at @MrPatKing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our occasional re-postings Sidetracks And Detours are confident that we are not only sharing with our readers excellent articles written by experts but are also pointing to informed and informative sites readers will re-visit time and again. Of course, we feel sure our readers will also return to our daily not-for-profit blog knowing that we seek to provide core original material whilst sometimes spotlighting the best pieces from elsewhere, as we engage with genres and practitioners along all the sidetracks & detours we take.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article was collated by Norman Warwick, a weekly columnist with Lanzarote Information and owner and editor of this daily blog at Sidetracks And Detours.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Norman has also been a long serving broadcaster, co-presenting the weekly all across the arts programme on Crescent Community Radio for many years with Steve Bewick, and his own show on Sherwood Community Radio. He has been a regular guest on BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Four.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a published author and poet Norman was a founder member of Lendanear Music, with Colin Lever and Just Poets with Pam McKee, Touchstones Creative Writing Group (for which he was creative writing facilitator for a number of years) with Val Chadwick and all across the arts with Robin Parker.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From Monday to Friday,<\/strong> you will find a daily post here at Sidetracks And Detours and, should you be looking for good reading, over the weekend you can visit our massive but easy to navigate archives of over 500 articles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of this daily not-for-profit blog is to deliver news, previews, interviews and reviews from all across the arts to die-hard fans and non- traditional audiences around the world. We are therefore always delighted to receive your own articles here at Sidetracks And Detours. So if you have a favourite artist, event, or venue that you would like to tell us more about just drop a Word document attachment to me at <\/strong>normanwarwick55@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a> with a couple of appropriate photographs in a zip folder if you wish. Being a not-for-profit organisation we unfortunately cannot pay you but we will always fully attribute any pieces we publish. You therefore might also. like to include a brief autobiography and photograph of yourself<\/strong> in your submission. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We look forward to hearing from you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sidetracks And Detours is seeking to join the synergy of organisations that support the arts of whatever genre. We are therefore grateful to all those share information to reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n correspondents Michael Higgins<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steve Bewick<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary Heywood Everett<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steve Cooke<\/p>\n\n\n\n Susana Fondon<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graham Marshall<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter Pearson<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hot Biscuits Jazz Radio www.fc-radio.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n AllMusic <\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>https:\/\/www.allmusic.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n feedspot https:\/\/www.feedspot.com\/?_src=folder<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jazz In Reading https:\/\/www.jazzinreading.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jazziz https:\/\/www.jazziz.com Rob Adams Music That\u00b4s Going Places<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lanzarote Information https:\/\/lanzaroteinformation.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n all across the arts www.allacrossthearts.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rochdale Music Society rochdalemusicsociety.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lendanear www.lendanearmusic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Agenda Cultura Lanzarote<\/p>\n\n\n\n Larry Yaskiel \u2013 writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lanzarote Art Gallery https:\/\/lanzaroteartgallery.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodreads https:\/\/www.goodreads<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n groundup music HOME | GroundUP Music<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aata.dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/1-11.jpg\")
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Born in the east of Ukraine in 1977, Olena studied at the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Art and was awarded the 1st place in the Art Student Diploma Competition.
She then went on to complete her masters degree in fine arts and ran a successful interior design company with an emphasis on graphic design. At the same time she continued to pursue an artistic career.
Based in Spain, Olena works with all the drawing and painting media. She uses the full palette and has a number of distinct styles ranging from surreal through neo industrial to real life.
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<\/a>Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues https:\/\/rvjazzandblues.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n