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plungermusic · 11 months

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“It's nearly September, the nights are drawing in …

and the back to school ads are everywhere. Who’d like to hear my ‘Summer album’!”

Conventional logic might look awry at releasing your ‘soundtrack to summer’ just as Autumn is doing up its bootlaces, but then Phil Jackson (and the British weather) laugh in the face of conventional logic.

Sun Up was written in its entirety during the summer of 2022 - the hottest, driest and sunniest summer since 76… and opener Sunny Side Up epitomises that too-hot-to-hurry feel: breezy acoustic bathed in warm bass and piano, and the bare minimum of drums, amble relaxedly along with plenty of stop-and-smell-the-flowers (chew-the-grass-stalk, make-the-daisy-chains) pauses, topped with an ear-soothing Dundas/Gold vox.

After that meander in the sun (probably without a hat), sun up begins to take on a somewhat heatstroke-induced, shimmering heat haze, bleached-out, surreal vibe as Phil’s magpie-with-ADHD’s eye for genre and styles kicks in… from the piano-led slightly psychedelic rock’n’roll stroll of On The Line with its reverb guitar quirks, to Aberavon’s McGuinness-flint-do-Here-Comes-The-Sun where mandolin, cajon and acoustic slide are topped with velvety mulit-vox harmonies; and from Turn Back Time’s Tex-Mex-spiced country (slow, spare, hypnotic guitar and a highly Kris/Kenny treacly low drawl) to the very Stanshall-like cameo Ice Cold Cooler (think Floyd’s San Tropez jazzy strumming on a loop, with a splash of Hawaiian guitar) all about, well, wanting an ice cold cooler! More country comes in the cantering El Paso rhythm and twangsome baritone (or at least very bottom-end) electric guitar of Beach Hut Groove (with a splash of accordion for added Borderland flavour).

Coming even more out of left field, Surfin’ Daddy evokes (surprise!) the Beach Boys… having a panic attack: polished multi-vox harmonies and cheesy 60s organ accents career along on a driving heading-for-a-cardiac bass heartbeat with no let up or alteration, to create an anxious sense of tense urgency; and there’s a further touch of the Californian crooners in the fine smooth harmonies (with an impressive bass to falsetto range) on Cruise Control, this time mixed with trippy hints of Grantchester Meadows, a Lieutenant Pigeon-on-acid piano-led chorus and some very glam fuzz guitar.

The Eddie Cochran-via-The-Velvets muted chugging riff and acidic ‘solo’ lines as well as a splash of jangly Cali-psychedelia and more multi-voice harmonies add a Psychedelic Furriness to Take You There, and the Byrdsy jangle returns in the sunny Haight Ashburiana of Petal with its Farfisa organ, high stoner vox and one word mantra dissolving close; while Lost And Found, despite its folky mando-and-acoustic spangled opening, turns out to be minor key disco/soul-ish fare à la Angie/Miss You - smoky vocal, piano (and synth-sax?) underpinned by a rich bass line and drums with sophisticated rhythms and a closing bout of slide-generated space-time distortion for good measure! Synth-brass appears again in the only instrumental, Newest Boogie: with piano, cocktail drums and some rather Djangoesque guitar straight out of a 1940s Tom & Jerry chase sequence.

Coming back down to earth a little, the album closes with the mellow Donovan-ish troubadourisms of In The Deep, with trilling piano ornamentation and a dextrous melodic acoustic guitar solo, and the upbeat bounce (with darker undertones) of Sunshine Song, Phil’s wiry Lonnie-Don-McLean vox backed with light acoustic strumming topped off with a closing cowboy yodel.

As per usual, everything you hear on the album is Phil (other than the tight drums on Cruise Control, added by John Halsey) in a feat of majestic multi-musicianship! Evoking (to Plunger’s ears) the days of lying in sun-baked meadows flicking through the stations on your trusty tranny (can you still say that? Ed), Phil himself describes Sun Up as “pure summer vibes” and that’s what it has, albeit refracted through the multi-faceted prism of his kaleidoscopic musical mind.

Given the start to ‘summer’ we’ve had this year, maybe Phil’s timing is more trustworthy than a Met Office forecast?

Sun Up will be coming out as a self release CD in August on Phil’s Bandcamp [here: https://philjackson.bandcamp.com/music ] and at gigs, and then a little later as a ‘digital thing’!

#phil jackson #sun up #suffolksfinest #kaleidoscope

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tjlambuilihotshots · 4 years

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Mon. 2/17/2020 8:15pm Rocky Point NY: 2 inj, 1 serious, in wreck on Rocky Point Yaphank Rd, north of Whiskey Rd #RockyPointFireDept #SCPD7thPrecinct @thefirenews #LiNews #LongIslandNews @Newsday @News12Li #FireNews #Newsday #News12Li @SuffolkCoFRES #firefighters #SuffolksBravest #SuffolksFinest #motorvehicleaccident #carcrash #rollover #overturn #police #cops (at Rocky Point Fire Department) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8uOW7Qna6K/?igshid=17p26weucaume

#rockypointfiredept #scpd7thprecinct #linews #longislandnews #firenews #newsday #news12li #firefighters #suffolksbravest #suffolksfinest #motorvehicleaccident #carcrash #rollover #overturn #police #cops

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plungermusic · 11 months

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Gourmet rural fare in the land of beans on toast …

Plunger associate Kelly Bayfield, David Edward Booth and (now, after this year’s belated first viewing) Honey & The Bear with the wide-open, big sky, sun-kissed (at least when we’ve been there) rural expanse of distant Suffolk. So it was a welcome surprise chancing across Honey & The Bear’s forthcoming appearance (with Kelly & Dave) at Barking Folk Festival just a tube ride away from us.

Bounded by the North Circular, the A13 and the C2C line to Southend, Barking Abbey Grounds seemingly couldn’t be more different to Easton Farm Park but the organisers and crew had done a good job of creating a friendly atmosphere (even the security guy on the gate complimented us on our ‘bag search’ etiquette) and with the main stage flanked by trees and backed by St Margaret’s Church tower it was a pretty rustic setting for East London (if you kept your back to the tower blocks).

Sadly the weather couldn’t have been less dry-and-dusty Suffolk: leaden skies and alternating rain and drizzle dogged us on the walk from the train through the Abbey ruins and churchyard to the festival (leaving the slushy sellers and ‘water point’ bowsers looking a bit forlorn and surplus to requirements, this year at least!) The wet weather didn’t stop a few hardy souls from standing (or even sitting on the corporation deck chairs) in front of the main stage as Jack Valero came on, although most had parked themselves on straw bales under the partial cover of some awnings.

Jack and his band took a little while to warm up and hit their groove, but were on song by Heaven Help Me Now (“Every songwriter must have a lockdown song, this is mine…”) with fine harmonies, and the breezy bustling Coming Home. There were hints of 50s poppy rock’n’roll in a Buddy holly vein in the upbeat Something You Can Do and also (combined with a splash of Buzzcocksy punk) in the surprisingly positive optimistic This Is A Nightmare with tub-thumping toms, brisk acoustic strumming, and some twangsome electric guitar. After noting his familial connections to the area (and his father’s in particular) Jack’s last song, played at the request of his dad, was a solo rendition of Billy Bragg’s New England… at which point pretty much all of us went, “Oh, so THAT’s who his dad is!”

Plunger’s faith in miracles was bolstered by the simultaneous discovery of where the bar was, and the rain stopping, just as Honey & The Bear (Jon and Lucy Hart on guitar and upright bass - most of the time at least, with Kelly on harmony vocals and David on drums) did their soundcheck, the latter event drawing a few more folks out from under cover.

Their set opened with The Miller, combining loping bass, rustic acoustic guitar (including a dextrous solo) and a Featy drum shuffle with sublime three part harmonies for a TTB-ish vibe. An appropriately mellower feel came in the Laurel-Canyon-Ronstadt-meets-English-folk air of Sweet Honey with its traditional-sounding melody. Back to back covers saw an entrancing (if abridged) rendition of Helplessly Hoping, where (it seemed to Plunger) Jon took on the Stills role, Lucy Crosby and Kelly Nash in the stunning harmonies. Jon switched to an electric guitar for a punchy 70s west coast run at Gillian Welch’s Look At Miss Ohio.

Returning to their own accomplished originals, the hypnotic Riverman featured aptly fluid, restless picking on acoustic, rafter-shaking bass punctuation and tom-led drums for an almost Native American feel: piquant harmonies in the verse alternated with gentler, C&N tones in the chorus. One of Lucy’s older songs took us to a whole other sonic landscape - having swapped bass and guitar roles for this one number - the Waitsesque, Hot Club De Paris, 30s-cabaret bounce of Why Am I Always Saying Sorry also featured some manic whistling from Lucy.

After one of the crew popped his head round the back of the stage to advise “This’ll have to be your last one” (which Plunger for one thought was rather premature) the set closed with Wristburner: clever changes and less-obvious harmonies, tricksy timings, and a frenetic Gordon Giltrap-doing-Gerdundula urgency, topped with more fabulous harmonies.

Although we were naturally disappointed we couldn’t hear more, and a little suspicious when the MC announced shortly after, “Since we’re running ahead of schedule...” there were to be an extra 10 minutes of the (to Plunger’s ears, but de gustibus etc.) execrable-but-unaccountably-popular next artist, this brief but very tasty performance more than justified the slightly nervy tube ride and the rain-dodging, and gave us an appetite for more!

Honey & The Bear have a new album due out in November, with a short tour to promote it, details, dates ad merch here: https://honeyandthebear.co.uk

#honey & the bear #kelly bayfield #david booth #suffolksfinest #suffolkiana #americana #amerifolkana #barking folk festival #barking and dagenham

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plungermusic · 4 years

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It may be small but it’s perfectly formed, missus

With only the five tracks, Kev Walford & Friends’ EP 89% Eskimo is a perfect crystallisation of the Walford mix of West/Northwest Coast sounds, epitomised in opener Blue Shoes’ Nash/Harrison upbeat acoustic jangle where fine harmony vocals, handclaps and a Beatlesy slide hook add to the Merseykesh Express feel.

There’s rather more rainy East Lancs Road bittersweet nostalgia in the staccato Loaded, where Graeme Tunnock’s melancholy rising and falling bass line, ©George Martin strings courtesy of Jonathan Edwards and haunting horns from David Booth (who also drums throughout as well as additional guitar and keys) are offset by a cheerier chorus plus a closing fade-in of the Eskimo Choir* doing a nice Kop chant à la Floyd’s Fearless.

Reb Capper’s yearning velvety voice leads the easy-breezy Californiana of No Rice, No Pay, aided by more fine strings, a chiming guitar filigree break and more rich harmonies to close, and the eastern thread is picked up by the string-and-cymbal opening to the easygoing stroll of Dragonfly Wings, as light and intricate as its title would suggest. The EP closes with the brisk Petty/Eaglesy Toad, with spangles of bright electric guitar, more trademark slick harmonies and the return of the Eskimo Choir for the shouts of “kissed that girl!”

A bijou polished poppy pearl, 89% Eskimo is an excellent accessory to the weightier Americanarama.

[* comprising Suffolk’s finest, Kelly & Mat Bayfield, Rhiannon Berry, Dan Cozens, Anna & Keith Sadler, Fern Teather and Kev himself!]

89% Eskimo is available here: https://kevwalford.bandcamp.com/album/89-eskimo, you lucky people!

#kev walford #89%eskimo #suffolksfinest

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