Diary
July 2008
Wednesday 16 July Crazy Summer
Have been home from N. America for around ten days now but will return on Friday for the Calgary Folk festival and ‘Woodsong’ in Washington State, USA. Stanfest in Nova Scotia was a great time. Played the mainstage on the Saturday night and a bunch of workshop stages through the weekend including one with Buffy St Marie. It was also great to hook up with Martin Sexton again who was also playing and has just became a Dad again! So no sooner have I unpacked, than its time to get that big hockey bag out again and find some clean shirts and go again. I just didn’t want to be away for a two-month stretch besides there are festivals I’m playing in the UK as well. Crazy summer.
Nova Scotia was the one provence In Canada I had not been to before. It is really beautiful, though in a more rugged and desolate way to the West coast. Wonderful folk with big hearts and smiles to match. I look forward to returning.
Tuesday 1 July A Dream Rushing By
Well a while has passed. Sorry about that, but with 13 flight in ten days and 8 rental cars there has not been a lot of time to sit down and jot diary entries. Let me give a brief summary of events.
After Salt Lake City I flew to Phoenix then drove up to Arizona. Beautiful venue, an outdoor amphitheatre enabling us to play under Arizona stars and obviously Arizona Dreams was sung. The next day Las Vegas was the venue and one I had very much been looking forward to. The show was at the Hard Rock Casino and I think it’s probably safe to say I’m only the second Welshman to play solo at a big Las Vegas Casino venue after Tom Jones! I have covered Vegas as a City amply in an entry back in April 07 but the great part of this visit was being able to track down the eighty year old taxi driver that inspired the song ‘Vegas”. I retraced my steps of the previous visit and discovered that Bob Shears was my man. I was able to give him the album and get him to come out to the show. It was a wonderful example of how music connects people and I think we were both emotional about it. I love the place but two days is enough.
Next day I flew to San Diego and the show was beside a harbour with little yachts and fishing boats alongside the stage. Then back to Phoenix connecting to Tucson for more Arizona Dreams. All these shows were great with Ani’s audience really responding and connecting with what I was doing. There was one funny moment at Tucson when after I had sung a couple of songs and had most folk won over as it were, some wise guy shouted out ‘play ‘Freebird’’. My instant two-word reaction back to him was something I have never done before from a stage and I spent the next two songs thinking did I really say that? Anyhow, it seemed to endear me even more to the crowd and at the end I dedicated the last song to ‘my friend’ and said ‘this song is called ‘Freebird’ part two!’
The last show was in Anaheim near LA. I played at the House Of Blues opening for Martin Sexton last year so it good to be back. These shows have been great fun. Big, enthusiastic audiences, with many new folk on board. Ani DiFranco and her team were a delight and Ani and I had some cool talks about life and music. It has been great to connect with this artist who I have admired for so long and I think we will do more together in the future. It made me feel like all the hastle and cost of renewing my 01 visa was worthwhile.
I’m now in Nova Scotia. Played a small house show here last night and will wait now to play the Stan Rogers Folk festival at Canso this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting home but I have heard great things about this festival and it will be good to play there. Today is Canada day, a holiday here and I’m trying to stop and slow down. It’s been a frenetic two weeks and sometimes it all feels like a dream rushing by.
June 2008
Saturday 21 June USA with Ani
So, armed with a renewed and stupidly expensive working visa, I’m back in the USA. I usually only suffer from jet lag flying East but its got me this time. Keep waking up at 5am even when I’m not shutting it down till 2am..not good. Colorado is beautiful and the opening show of this tour with Ani DiFranco is in picturesque Aspen. The drive up from Denver was spectacular through the Rocky Mountains and canyons with pounding rivers. I had a little trouble finding the venue (it was a relatively small show for Ani as it’s the first of a run), but the huge tour bus is not too hard to find and that’s what I will be looking for in the next ten days. That didn’t stop me getting a parking ticket though! I’m travelling on my own this tour, which is a challenge but liberating too.
Most of the shows on this tour are before crowds of around 2000 but this is a warm up show with around 500 folk cramming themselves in to the Belly Up. Ani’s team are all very friendly and welcoming, which is an extension of all she is about. I don’t get to meet her as she is busy with interviews etc but when I’m playing she comes and sits on the side of the stage and listens to my set. Later in her show she thanks me from the stage for ‘bringing those songs all this way, I like those songs”. Not that means a lot. The very fact that I’m on this tour is humbling because Ani does not suffer fools gladly and is selective about who opens her shows. Even so one is never sure how things are going to go and her words strangely move me. Her show is impassioned, musically inventive and connecting. She is world class, simply one of the best. I’m looking forward to meeting her properly today in Salt Lake City. Flew in here last night after a day off in Snowmass, just outside of Aspen. It’s an up and coming ski resort sort of place with lots of, err, ski shops. I can’t quite get a handle on Salt Lake though the Mormons did a while back. I shall go Osmond spotting later.
May 2008
Sunday 25 May Utah Phillips
Utah Phillips has died in Nevada City from heart failure. He was a giant of the folk movement in N. America. I say ‘folk’ in its purest sense in that he believed music was meant to accompany change for good and that it could stand against the injustice so many in the world have come to know. He was a wonderful human being who was profound and humble and made everyone feel valued.
I met him for the first time in July 2004. I knew we were doing a workshop together at the Winnipeg Folk festival and I was very much looking forward to meeting him, though I was (without any need to be) a little nervous about meeting this great man. He was an absolute delight to encounter and said that he had heard good things about me. As host of the workshop he was meticulous with well-written notes on the performers on stage who were made up of myself, Eric Bibb and Dick Goughan. I was first up and got up and sang Dic Penderyn. After I had finished and as the large crowd applauded he turned to me and said ‘You’re a fine boy”. It was a moment captured in the picture here and it is a treasured memory for me.
Back in March, when I heard he had had to retire from public performance due to his heart condition, I wrote to Utah expressing how hard that must be for him but also thanking him for all he had done over many years. Many wont know who he was, and that is a great shame, but take it from me that this was a true soldier for humanity, someone who walked the walk, lived it and wrote songs about it. There are as so few of these guys left. Rest up Utah, and thanks for so much.
For more info on Utah’s life and work
www.utahphillips.org
Utah wrote these words back in 95
I'm leaving a trade which I love very much. When I left Utah over 45 years ago, I had only a slim hold on what folk music was, $75 in my pocket, a head full of songs and stories, and no prospects. When I landed at Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York, I found gradually that I had stumbled into a family that was in fact transcontinental. I found great numbers of people who, as part of their pattern of social responsibility, were committed to the task of making sure that folk music existed in their communities. I found singer-circles, camp-outs, picnics, concert programs, festivals great and small, celebrating a common heritage of song. And I found my community, singers and makers of songs, plying the axis from San Diego Folk Heritage to the Denver Folklore Center to the Ark in Ann Arbor to Lena's and beyond, eking out a bare living sharing what we had together, but, most of all, in each other's company. A family behaving like a family -- good, bad, every shade in between. But mostly of all a community of sentiment in which people substantially cared for each other. Listen. For 25 years now I have been part of a family which has given me a living -- not a killing, but a living -- a trade without bosses where I felt partners with those working in organized folk music, a trade in which I could own what I do, make all of the creative decisions, be free to say and sing whatever I chose to, courting criticism from peers and loving friends. Front porch, kitchen, back yard, drunk and sober, young and old, coast-to-coast folk music, a world in which I discovered that I don't need power, wealth, or fame. I need friends. And that's what I found and still find. You folkies out there! Comrades! We've created together a whole small world of song, story, travel, love and food, face to face, in every corner of the land, mutually supportive and happening at a sub-industrial level, below the level of media notice. Hooray for us! Who needs the "entertainment" industry? Who needs mass media? Small is beautiful! To hell with the mainstream. It's polluted. What purifies the mainstream? The little tributaries up in the wilderness where the pure water flows. Better to be lost in the tributaries known to a few than mired in the mainstream, consumed with self-love and the absurdity of greed. Please. Don't give our world up. It needs to grow, yes -- but subtly, out, through, under, quietly, like water eroding stone, subversive, alive, happy.
Thursday 15 May I'm Still Here
Yikes it’s been a while, sorry folks. The spring tour has finally wound down and it was a lot of fun. The Q&A sessions were great and I enjoyed the experience of trying to deal with all your enquiries! All the ‘ordinary’ shows in between were a blast as well and you are sure coming out in force to support the music right now..thank you. The tour ended last week in Edinburgh and Belfast, two great cities. Extra curriculum activities based around those shows happened thanks to George Lowden and Dick Gaughan. On the drive up to Scotland I mentioned that I hadn’t seen Dick since we shared a stage in Canada at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and reminded myself that I must try and get in touch. Two hours later he comes bounding in to my sound check having found out I was playing an hour or so before! So we hung out and shared stuff the way only two miserable Celtic warriors can. In Belfast I went down to George Lowden’s guitar factory and George gave us the royal tour..very impressive and a lot of beautiful instruments to fall in love with. Caught the ferry over to Belfast from Stranraer. Much prefer catching boats than planes. Though cars have taken me through most of the miles and predominantly in the right direction except for after the Hereford show, late night, when Tom Tom decided to take me on a path that had me travelling the wrong way up a dual carriageway! I contacted them to complain and was asked if I had updated my maps recently. I pointed out that the dual carriage way had been there for at least 30 years and therefore they might have got it right in the first place. The case continues.
Right now we are trying to get my work visa renewed in the USA to tour with Ani DiFranco in June. It’s a ridiculous and expensive process but has to be done in order to play there. I’m so looking forward to those dates. Of all the artists I have opened for in the last 25 years, none impress me quite like Ani does. On many levels she is special and it will be some trip I’m sure. And I will get to sing ‘Vegas’ in Vegas! I’m spending a reasonable amount of time in the studio right now recording old stuff again. Some songs have changed so much and I want to try and get them down as they are now and see what we get. I have also been writing some new material and catching up with a lot of stuff that has to wait when I’m on the road.
Life bundles along. Things are going well I know and one has so much to be grateful for. I watched the late news just now and the images from Burma and China are completely devastating. I’m raging at these co called generals in Burma who won’t let foreign aid workers in to help whilst the people they are supposed to govern are stranded and dying. How dare they claim authority over a land and show such disdain for those who suffer on it. Who the hell (and that’s not the word I want to use but I’m aware that younger folk sometimes read these pages) do these people think they are? And whilst I’m at, it if there is a light from heaven that can explain earthquakes and thousands of Chinese kids in rubble then I’m all ears. I'm very hard pressed to put that under the heading of mystery.
April 2008
Friday 4 April Martin Luther King
Last week I sat in a Bedouin tent on the edge of the Sinai Desert and read a book about Elvis. Across the Red Sea in front of me I could see Saudi Arabia and Jordan and was a short ride away from Israel. It was beautiful and I have rarely felt such peace resting with me.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the killing of Martin Luther King. Istood below the spot where he was shot in Memphis a few weeks ago. No peace in my heart at that moment.
March 2008
Tuesday 18 March Check out...
Off the road now for a few weeks break. Much to do to catch up on stuff, but it is strange not to have a show to focus on for a while. It can become such a big part of ones mental makeup. I'm enjoying the shows and the Q&A evenings are going down very well.
Please check out this link for a very moving picture and news from the MST of Brazil.
http://tinyurl.com/yoa2qo
Thursday 6 March And on we go..
Still in a bit of a fog since returning home but the UK gigs seem to be going well. The Q &A format shows are actually more tiring than a normal show as you have to be thinking on your feet. Singing a song is intense, but there is an element of autopilot going on. There is very little in answering questions you haven’t seen from a big bucket!
It’s a shame the Democrats haven’t found their main contender yet. They will have to run at each other for sometime yet before they can turn around and tackle the real foe.
February 2008
Tuesday 26 February Larry Norman
Larry Norman died on Sunday in America after a long struggle with ill health. He was a unique artist who's influence across a wide spectrum cannot be measured. In my early years as a songwriter he was a constant inspiration. I have sung his songs many times and, of course, released his wonderful song 'The Great American Novel' as an anthem against the war in Iraq a few years ago. His songs were littered with references to a heaven and a better world. Peace and esteem to him there. x.
youtube.com/watch?v=zTlr-73DQq8&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkbSanu__w8
Monday 25 February Done
We just made it to the airport in Chicago this morning. The rental car has a fuel leak and the fuel level fell swiftly. Wish we had known that last night. Am now in Toronto airport waiting for flight home. Thanks to Lynda who made a five hour drive from Wisconsin to see the show last night. Tour done.
Sunday 24 February A footnote:) and thanks to Illinois Police Dept and 911
Forgot to mention that Elvis’s chiropodist (though it has another name in the USA) came to the Memphis show. He still has his office next door to ‘Graceland’ and told me how he spoke to Elvis just days before died. Thanks Joel for a remarkable conversation.
Tonight I played my last show of the tour in Macomb, Il for Tri State Radio, and then Paul and I drove halfway back to Chicago to catch the flight home tomorrow. Only we kind of had a problem on the way. The fuel gauge on the rental car decided to lie (it did honest) and we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere in very cold conditions. After a call to 911 and then a visit from a very nice sheriff from the Police department and then a service truck we finally made it to a gas station. Without mobile phones and sat navigation to pin point our position it would have been a very different story.
It’s been a good, but long tour and I’m ready to come home. Strange to think this time next week we will be two dates into the UK tour. But first I get to see those I love the most and to catch up on all the news from Harriet who has been filming as an extra on the new Happy Potter film. Imagine that, I have a daughter at Hogwarts!
Wednesday 20 February Blur
If I don’t do regular diary entries on a tour this frantic then it all becomes a bit of a blur. Ok, lets try and cast the mind back. We left Ridgefield a week ago and flew from New York to Memphis. A bizarre cock up on the terminal monitor so us having to go through security three times in fifteen minutes as they kept changing the gate. Memphis was grand. After a great show we strode out to show Paul around a little and stood cold but moved at midnight outside the motel and balcony where Martin Luther King lost his life. We made it to Beal St and Sun recording studios, which was eerie in its legend on a cold Memphis night. The next day on the way to the airport we stopped of at Graceland’s to pay our respects to the King. I hadn’t visited since the eighties and it was as sad now as it was then. The voice that moved me and caused me to shed a tear as a ten year old when I heard it sing the ‘Wonder Of You’ was everywhere, and yet it’s all memory with nothing to touch. What would he be doing music wise now if the inevitable hadn’t happened? Dueting with Bono and Bruce no doubt, and still touching millions. The original pub singer and the only voice allowed as far as my ears are concerned to play it that way.
From Memphis we flew to Houston via Denver and played a show in a great place called Mo Jo Rising. The warmth of Houston was bizarre given the weather we have been through in the last month. It was a great feeling to walk down the street in a t-shirt and the sun on our back. Next day we flew via Denver to San Francisco. Played a house show in Santa Rosa the next day drove up to Lake Tahoe, Nevada to play a huge casino. Pictures of past performers like Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson and of course Tom Jones were on the walls. Elvis played here too apparently. Bryan Adams was playing next door. I was opening for an R&B act called Jackie Greene. He is only 27 years old but is a gifted musician having just been given the gig of becoming the Grateful Dead’s new front man. The surroundings inspired and it was a blinder of a show and very ‘Las Vegas’. A different audience for me but it didn’t seem to be a problem. We drove the four hours back to Berkeley that night under a huge sky, through Californian mountains illuminated by moon, snow and stars.
Last night I played the Freight and Selvedge in Berkeley. I found my name four times on the dressing room wall along with all the other performers who have scribbled through they years. Another great show and the last for me at the venue as it will soon move to a new location. We taped the show and it sounded good in the car just now. I’m not at San Fran airport waiting to fly to Portland for a show tonight. We have been on the road here a month now and it feels like three. By the time we fly home on Sunday evening it will have been fifteen flights. Three days later the UK tour starts so not much time to recover but that’s ok. It will just be good to be home. Change is in the air here, but I’m holding my breath, not quite believing it will happen.
Since writing the above our flight got delayed by three hours so we got to the show at 7.45 with an audience waiting! It went fine and Paul and I are just heading for the airport to fly to Chicago via..you guessed it, Denver.
Monday 11 February Obama Land
Am now in Ridgefield, Cn waiting to play this evening. Since I last wrote I have played in Winnipeg, Manitoba followed by a lovely gig in a place called Brandon where I got to taste..see last entry Bison! I have to say it was delicious. A short night saw us on our way to Toronto airport and then a drive to a hockey stadium in Guelph to play the Hillside Inside festival. News reached me from many sources that Wales had got the better of England at Twickenham (that’s going to make the gig there in a few weeks all the more sweeter!) and as I came off stage I was greeted by a man called Paul from Swansea with ‘Cymru’ tattooed on his arm! He is tour manager of a band called The Tokyo Police club who are from Canada and they were playing the festival too. A very cool moment and not what I was expecting.
This last week I have played shows in Guelph, Grafton and Toronto as well as playing some songs at the headquarters of World Vision who I work with here, and played a session with a talk for students at Toronto University. That was a very rewarding experience with some great questions thrown at me. Grafton was an amazing experience with some very severe weather ending in Paul and I walking to the door of our host for the night in snow that came well over our knees! It was really a little intimidating to see the weather creep in and become threatening. Yet still a good crowd turned up for the show. After playing in Toronto we caught an early flight to New York and drove up to Connecticut. Good to see Wales won again against Scotland yesterday. They always do well when I’m away.
So I'm back in the USA. Yesterday David Manners, who is the son of the promoter Barbara in Ridgefield, gave me a tour of Yale University. He is a second year student there with a terrific mind and it was a fascinating tour of the famous campus and its buildings. It really is a fantastic place to come and study. I never made it to University and walking around made me feel like I had missed out on something. Obama won another primary today and is now neck and neck with Hilary Clinton. David was telling me how the young people across America are turning out to vote for Obama and how he feels if he doesn’t get the nomination it would be huge disappointment to the youth of America.
Friday 1 February Kanata again
So back in Kanata. This was the word used by the Iroquois Indians to describe a collection of wooden huts or lodges. It somehow became Canada. This four and a half week tour has started well with spectacular weather and landscape. Took this shot near Malinge Lake near Jasper. Flying into Vancouver a week ago we stayed up that night, as tickets were kindly offered to go see the Vancouver Cannock’s play St Louis Blues. Next night I played Vancouver, next across on the ferry to play Victoria, next an early start at 5am (all over the place with jet lag anyhow) to catch boat back to mainland then fly to Prince George where we were met by a balmy minus thirty temperature. Love that town so much and played their ‘Coldsnap’ (aptly named) festival. Since then we have driven down through the Rockies to Jasper, stayed there a few nights and I’m currently at Edmonton airport waiting for a flight to Winnipeg for tonight’s show there. Tour manager and soundman Paul Smith has just passed on a question from the promoter of a show in Brandon tomorrow asking if I would like Elk or Bison to eat before the show! Your average show biz question. A lot of coverage of the race to decide the Presidential candidates here, especially with ‘Super Tuesday’ coming up. Right now I’m a little more interested in Super Saturday back home when Wales (or should I say The Ospreys!) take on England.
My good buddy Simon Curle joined us for the first part of the tour, which has been great fun. It was tough to drop him off at the airport yesterday knowing I had to turn around and be out for another 3.5 weeks. It’s a great job I have but I miss my home.
Canada remains as beautiful as ever and once you get used to some severe temperatures has many visual delights to offer. The wise understanding of ones insignificance and vulnerability in the vast open spaces is a lesson I never get tired of, and this place continues to paint great perspective and provide a certain peace for my heart.
January 2008
Tuesday 22 January Time to leave again
Late night packing. Will be leaving for Heathrow at 5am. Flying to Vancouver to start four and a half weeks of touring in Canada and USA. Just said goodnight and goodbye to young Harriet. It never gets easier.
In the last week or so have finished mixing the new Rachel Taylor Beal’s album ‘Red Tree’. I think it’s a great album and will surely win her new friends. I also put together the freebie CD for PQ members and that’s got some really nice stuff on it with a bunch of surprises, including a cut from Rachels album. And Sunday was Radio 2 session on the Good Morning Sunday programme with Aled Jones. I thought that went well though it was a whirlwind trip to Manchester late Saturday night and straight back after the show in the morning. It’s weird singing live at that time of the day.
So here we go. The year begins in earnest and I look forward to playing one of my favourite Cities on the planet on Thursday night. There are rumours of tickets to go and see the Vancouver Cannucks play when we get there tomorrow evening too! Just need to stay awake.
Friday 4 January Early morning thoughts 08
A new year is always a time for many of us to reflect a little on where we are on the road and how we want to continue. We usually start with good thoughts of change and renewed purpose but it doesn’t take long for the reality of true time to take over and sink us back into the same old ways. My personal thoughts right now are of a sense of ‘here we go again’ and yet I only just finished.
In the last few days I have given a lot of thought to what I have become to see as the unnecessary weight of anxiety and expectation that being involved in this ‘business’ brings, and I’m going to try and let go of some of that for as long as I can. There will always be the pressure of another show where I’m supposed to impress some so called important player in my life, but I have become weary of the reliance on folk I barely know for a sense of fulfilment and purpose. Of course I’m grateful for all those people who love music and write about it, promote it and help people to make and play it. Musicians at all levels would not get far without them. But after all these years of travel and playing and building an audience who want to listen and remain interested in the narrative in the music, I think I should be in a place where I can see a little further and wise up. So much energy goes into, and is wasted, in the worry of what’s next and how are we going to move things on from here? There is already so much in place and I’m tired of chasing more. That’s not to doubt good ambition with decent expectation levels or my readiness to walk new roads when they rise up,. But I don’t want my head full of worry about this stuff. It gets in the way of creating the very essence of what I do. It also seems to be the case that, more often than not, a lot of things happen when you stop trying so hard. So that’s my stab at a new years resolution. I can see it falling into dust as soon as I’m a newsagents looking through the music press for a review but I’m going to try. I really am.
I have been writing this early morning as I couldn’t sleep and the result of the Iowa caucus in America has just been announced with Barack Obama winning the Democrat vote there. I believe this is good as I like this man and think much could change with him in the Whitehouse.
Most of this entry is obviously personal, heart on sleeve stuff and when you view the huge and desperate picture of the world around us, then the ‘personal’ seems too pathetic to contemplate. But if you can get that bit right and maintain decent perspective then much good can happen. So here we go again..08.
December 2007
Thursday 13 December MST/ Springsteen and me
Mr Springsteen and I both chose this evening to play concerts in Belgium. I had a great show in Leuven, I trust his went well in Antwerp.
It has been a few years now since I was in Brazil and worked alongside the MST. Their struggle continues. .
MST NEWS Police Evict 250 Families in Attack on Elizabeth Teixeira Encampment
On Nov. 29, shock troops from the Military Police of Sao Paulo state in Brazil invaded the Elizabeth Teixeira encampment of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) in the Tatu Forest Plot in Limeira municipality near Campinas. The police agents destroyed makeshift homes and violently evicted the 250 families living on the encampment, which has been occupied by the MST since April 21, 2007. The police operation left some 30 people injured, some of them hit by police rubber bullets. MST leader Gilmar Mauro and Jose de Arimateia, coordinator of the encampment, were among those injured. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) had promised the MST that there would be negotiations to prevent an eviction. The MST blames the state government and the local authorities of Limeira for the police operation. (Adital, Nov. 29 from Prensa MST; Agencia Brasil, Nov. 29).
Read more: http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=node/555
Tuesday 11 December Belgium
So on we go. Belgium is as sweet as I remember. Played Brussels on Saturday and my first solo show in Holland for at least seven years on Sunday (not counting opening for Suzanne Vega in Amsterdam). Broke two strings in the same song that night. Last night was back in Belgium in Gent. A smoky (still allowed here) café and bar, but in fairness when asked not to smoke during the show they didn’t and I was grateful. Bit of a storming show, very hot and sweaty. Venues are full and something is beginning to open up for us here. Maybe my pop start mate having a hit with Dolphins will actually do me some good! Set a little looser than the UK Vegas shows, have even been playing a full version Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling In Love a few nights. Gorgeous melody. Don't know what's come over me! Nearly ran out of fuel leaving Gent last night. Unmanned Petrol station would only take debit card, only had credit cards and cash. Eventually Diethard stopped someone and we gave them money and they filled up my car using there card! Kindness is better…and we gave them a five euro tip!
Much needed day off today. Walk in the woods and think a lot. Its been quite a year and Saturdays show will be number 100 of the year.
Friday 7 December Final Push of 07
Am crossing the channel between Dover and Dunkerque to start dates in Belgium and Holland tomorrow. I normally fly out but thought it would be good to take the scenic route for a change. The UK shows ended in Worcester last week and was one of the most enjoyable tours I have undertaken. It’s just been a lot of fun mixing up the nights with different line-ups and the music is very up as have been the crowds. There are too many highlights to mention but standout shows for me were Leicester, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Basingstoke, Windermere and Cardiff.
I think the Cardiff show at The Point was the best ever in my hometown, which is always a night I approach riddled with self-doubt. I guess there are so many folk I know at the show and you just want it to go as well as all the other hundreds of nights you play during the year. This time it all felt right and we got to the place where I can let go pretty quickly. By that I mean being in a zone where you are capable of creating something unique without restriction or thought to anything other than the passing on of the music. I think have at last found the right venue to play in Cardiff. Yeh, it’s been a great tour and now for the last push of 07 in the land of beer and chocolate.
Have been in touch regularly with Steve K. Troubled days for him and the family but many hearts and good thoughts are travelling far. This too shall pass my friend. He laughed on the phone today, which was good to hear.
November 2007
Monday 12 November The Fading Of Light
Quite a bit to catch up on really. Touring is a strange mixture of ups and downs, especially in a sense of what it takes out of you, and on days off you have good intentions of doing diary entries but it just doesn’t happen. I usually drive home after shows if there is no gig the next day and that means getting into bed as the birds start singing. Has also been doing a lot of radio and press promotion in between which leaves little time for much else. On one day last week I did ten radio interviews in an afternoon from the same room! Anyhow, tour is going great with each night different. The different combination of musicians is working well as well as the usual solo gigs. It seems that there are lot more ‘younger’ folk coming to the shows which is wonderful, not that the more mature members of my audience are not greatly appreciated!
Just finished a mad dash to Belfast, Birkenhead and Bristol. All were great gigs and very poignant. My Lowden guitar met her maker on Thursday in Belfast. It was a lovely surprise to find George Lowden at the show and to place the guitar he made over twenty years ago into his hands. Bristol last night was a great sing along crowd (standing gig see) and singing ‘The Fading Of Light’ on Remembrance Day was a struggle. Stewart's lyric so powerful that you need a degree in controlling your emotions to get through.
Weird to find out that a German Pop star called Nevio has recorded ‘Dolphins Make Me Cry’ on his hit album. I’m told he sang it as part of his campaign to become the winner of Germany’s Pop Idol competition. Bizarre really after 15 years to think it’s back in the charts. Back in the now Vegas continues to pick up great reviews which is helpful, assuring and puts a spring in my step that makes me look forward to Birmingham on Wednesday.
Thursday 1 November Ray Gravell
Despite a great show in Manchester tonight (it really was a cracker), I’m very sad tonight. Just learnt of the passing of Welsh Rugby legend Ray Gravell. He was a wonderful man who I had met on many occasions and he always had something good to say about a song or related issues. I had his name on a list of things to do in the sense that I was very moved by a recent interview on TV with him about his recent health issues, and I was going to send him the new album and say how much I was struck by his humility and demeanour. Can’t do it now. Really shocked by his passing, what a great gentlemen he was.
October 2007
Wednesday 31 October Magic
Late night Glasgow. Played in the city tonight (St Andrews in the Square where I played at Celtic Connections Fest in January) and make our way down to Manchester tomorrow. An old friend passed on a photo tonight of me playing here in 89, the days of the mullet! I’m enjoying the Vegas tour. The solo shows feel good with the new material finding a home alongside older stuff. Have also played one gig (Colchester) with Miranda Sykes on bass and Mike Haughton on sax. Yeh, it’s good to be out here again.
You just never know till you step out there. It is a journey and we always get there in the end. But the best moments are when you are free from anything to do with performing. You just go there, leap off the cliff, get out of the boat and walk and the magic happens. You do have to make sure you reach out for the ledge or climb back aboard at the right moment, before you sink, before you fall. Get it right and it’s the best job in the world, and that’s when I feel I have done something worthwhile and valid. This is what I do and it’s a nice feeling to think I can try and let it happen again tomorrow.
Monday 15 October Down through California
Have really enjoyed the tour with Martin Sexton. We are coming towards the end now and it will be hard to say goodbye. Last night we played The House Of Blues in Anaheim, right in the middle of Disney town! Tonight we are playing in San Diego, tomorrow Phoenix. I then to fly to Houston for my own show then home. It has been a little different coming here to play these shows, as Martins shows are primarily large standing venues with audiences far more vocal and interactive. It means I have had to be on top of my game but in many ways able to play in a style I prefer. I’m always appreciative of the fact that you can hear a pin drop at my shows at home and people are so respectful in terms of both listening and appreciation. But the mid song interaction of ‘whooping and applauding and whatever’ at these shows is a great boost and makes for an edgy and tougher performance.
I think the highlight for me will to have played the Fillmore in San Francisco. It was great to be on that stage with so much history running through it. The posters and pictures on the wall of artists who have played there are a musical history tour. Because Martin has played there a few times they make up a special poster and it goes on the wall. My name slid on their too so it’s kind of nice to leave your name along with your music DNA in such places. The tour has been a lot of fun, in fact I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Thanks Martin, Georganne, Jo, Chris, Kevin and Cookie for making me feel part of the family. It’s also quite amazing how well you can sleep on a shelf :)
Friday 12 October The Streets Of San Francisco
His name was Bob. Though it took me a long time to find that out, way past the time that I first spotted him. Our bus pulled in to its parking space outside the infamous Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, and I thought I would go walkabout. It all looks a little run down though I’m sure residents of the area would take me to task. Seemed like a lot of folk with needs were on the street, which for some was their home. A long way removed from the beautiful homes that make up this wonderful city by the water. So the Starbucks tea revives me and I wander. Outside the senior citizens refuge centre a gentleman sits in a wheel chair just staring into nothing. He has a blanket but is only half dressed with half of his body exposed to a rather cool wind. I observe for a while. Some guy is talking to him about conspiracy theories, how the world is going to end or something. Bob doesn’t seem to acknowledge the conversation. I wander by and on up the road. Half-hour later I’m coming back up the other way and he is still there though alone this time. I walk past but a bunch of messages fill my mind, go talk to him, just say something. Then I counter them by thinking I’m just trying to ease my conscious and that it’s not a genuine act. The mind is a complex place sometimes. I walk down, cross the road and turn towards him. Somehow our faces find each other and I smile. He looks away. So I walk up and say hello and he responds. We talk. He is from Philadelphia; he came here a while ago as the climate is better for his health. He talks in a whisper and I have to bend close to listen. I tell him where I’m from but he never got to the UK. He served in the US Navy for 25 years. His breathe his faint. I ask him if they look after him hear and he says they do, the ladies knitted him the blanket and it keeps him warm. I ask him if he needs a little money but he says, and without anger, that he is not begging but thanks me. I say that I didn’t mean to offend and he says that none is taken. We then exchange names and shake hands. His are small and frail. I wish him well and he says ‘God bless you’.
I walk away but a short while later turn back. Bob is staring into the road again. I walk on and a black gentleman shuffles at my side. ‘How you doin boss?” he says. ‘I’m fine thank you sir’ I reply. He shuffles on and, maybe it’s because I’m six thousand miles from home or that I’m just a little tired, but I well up. I think it’s probably because once again my soul is shaken and saddened by a world that is simply not fair.
Sunday 7 October Rolling On
Rolling on through Vancouver, great sweaty show at Richards on Richards and last night in Portland, USA..what a crowd. Made me feel like the ‘Boss’ for a while. Much hollering and whooping and my 45 minutes seemed like 5. The other Martin took the roof off. Few artists make me want to go and practice guitar but he manages it with a few notes. Wonderful control and pace, a very gifted man. Plus we get to hang out and have fun. Sleep on the bus comes eventually but I make sure I’m very tired before I hit the bunk.The bus has wireless internet..how cool is that! So I sit on board typing this before we load in for tonights show in Eugene.
Friday 5 October On the road with Martin Sexton
First night of opening for Martin Sexton was in Calgary. Was a good show and the first time I have actually seem Martin play a full set. He was superb. We drove for ten hours next day to Vancouver, through sun, rain sleet and snow and the magnificent Rockies, they never fail to move me, and I’m here awaiting tonight’s show. The tour bus is fine and it’s good of them to let me ride along. However, claustrophobic me is going to take a while to get used to the small coffin like shelf where I am to sleep :) Last nights hotel bed was heaven.
Tuesday 2 October All Aboard.
Sitting at Heathrow waiting to fly out to Calgary. Start dates with Martin Sexton tomorrow night. After this plane takes me to Canada's fair land a tour bus and many miles beckon at the start of the road to Vegas and beyond. It ends in Worcester in December. All aboard.
September 2007
Thursday 6 September Never dull but often sad
The last few weeks have been spent getting album artwork completed and off to manufacturers, playing a couple of festivals and building a new studio. I’m really pleased with the way ‘Vegas’ looks. Michael Wrycraft did a fantastic job and I think it’ the best album cover we have ever put out. It will hit the shops next Monday. This Saturday is the launch gig in Cardiff so I’m desperately cramming the lyrics into my head. Played ‘Beautiful Days’ festival a few weeks ago, which was great, though the mud was something else. Greenbelt festival was hot and dry and good fun. Hosted the ‘Rising’ song writing sessions and did a bunch of other stuff. Guests on the Rising included Duke Special, Billy Bragg, Sarah Masen, Robert from Willard Grant Conspiracy and Rebecca Worthley. I don’t fancy myself as an interviewer, much preferring the questions to come at me, but it’s an interesting exercise to come from the other angle.
Have been moving my studio set up to a new location as I have had to leave the premises I have been in for some time now. Have actually had something built and were now painting with a ton of gear, wires and instruments waiting in storage to see their new home. Never a dull day.
Today will see the funeral of little Rhys Jones shot dead in Liverpool. His Dad’s simple but moving poem brought me to tears this morning. This is a crazy world messed up world, made even more so by the many thousands of other children who will die today from an absence of daily provision that we simply take for granted. The great voice that was Luciano Pavarotti is also taken away today. Many a sad day.
August 2007
Tuesday 7 August Time To Let Go
Well it’s finished, that is to say it will be released. Albums are never finished. When I got back from Canada I spent 7 straight days, apart from escaping to London for the Bob Harris show session, in the same room with the occasional cornflake being slipped under the door. Well, that’s what it felt like. There wasn’t a lot of sleep as the deadline was there and it just had to get done. Five in the morning is a strange time to leave a room and go home. After a few nights you begin to feel like you are on another planet. It fell into place in the end, though there were moments when Vegas didn’t want to be built. I would like to work on it for another few years but who is to say it would be any better than it currently stands. I think it’s good work, we shall see. It needs folk to walk her streets now.The artwork is chosen and will be sent off tomorrow and that’s it. Tour dates are in place. There are moments when you listen and you really think everything is wrong. But that’s self-doubt, it can be a healthy thing and it’s much better (I think) than the alternative. Time to let go.
July 2007
Tuesday 17 July Vancouver
The album is finished, that is to say its recorded. I will mix it when I get back from Canada, but right now a hall full of musical parts have auditioned and wait to see if they have made the production. I listened last night outside the studio for the first time and I like it..can’t say more than that. Normally I hate it by now but ‘Vegas’ is different, and it had to be with a name like that. I don’t think it’s folk music. My kids like it. I’m in Canada having just played the Vancouver folk festival. Had a wonderful weekend with great shows and response. Highlight was playing on the mainstage last night with the sun going down, a standing ovation (they sit down to start at folk festivals!) and then a birthday cake delivered on stage. Apart from being home with the family I can’t think of a nicer way of spending a birthday. I have now had 4 of my last 7 birthdays here in Vancouver. Have also had a small film crew following me around and I think we have enough for an interesting film.
June 2007
Friday 22 June Songs Do What They Want
Really enjoyed the three recent shows in Brecon, Stroud and Hitchin. In between tour/album gigs are probably where one is most relaxed and able to raid the back catalogue a little more. It was also good to see a good reaction to new material and that bodes well as I continue to bury myself in studio land. The album I think will be called ‘Vegas’ and it’s interesting to see how that theme runs through things. I’m avoiding the temptation to put on a white jump suite and get a chest wig. Intriguing also is the way some songs make there way to tape without fuss, whilst others put up a struggle that finds you playing them for the 55th time at 3am. I also know that they will grow in character way beyond their first birth and that frustrates me. I wish I could play them for two years and then record them for the first time. They just do what they want I guess.
Just heard my old mate from California Dave Batstone being interviewed on BBC Radio 5 about slave trafficking. Extraordinary that this still goes on whilst we live blithely on. So much sadness in this world..
May 2007
Thursday 31 May Studio Land
Buried deep in album project. It’s not something I like to do much in the daytime, all the best stuff happens at night. The phone is reasonably silent and the world is lot more distant from my mind. I can get lost in there. It’s going well, not so much down on tape yet, just working it all up and getting ready for those dawn moments when you stare out the window and know your onto something.
Went to see Dave Mathews and band at Wembley last night. Amazing musicianship, along with genuine community and kindness on stage. Could have done with a little less jamming and a few more songs but that’s a small gripe on a superb performance. Strange he isn’t so well known here, though a packed Wembley arena would suggest different. (I have that strange problem everywhere!) A lot of Americans present I think and I still can’t see his albums in record stores.
Wednesday 9 May Eleven Years On
It's been five years now since I travelled to Brazil and discovered the work of the MST. The trip is well covered in the archive pages on the web site, but many of you will know how the song 'Till The End' is centred around the murder of 19 MST members in 1996 and in particular, 17 year old Ozil. The bulletin below was sent out last week by the MST. It still amazes me that the Brazilian government sent officers to the UK because they were keen to see justice was done when Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by the security services here(and so they should have because it was wrong), but then turn a blind eye to the immoral and disgusting behaviour of there own security services, and that’s before we start talking about the kids who disappear of the streets never to be seen again. I can't imagine what resolve it takes by those who loose loved ones to live with such injustice.
[04/26/07] Brazil: 11 Years After Police Massacre of 19 Landless Nobody Has Been Punished
Written by Nina Fideles
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Brazilians just commemorated the 11th anniversary of the Massacre at Eldorado dos Carajás on April 17, 2006. On this day, 19 rural workers were assassinated in the state of Pará, in nothern Brazil. Under the order of then governor Almir Gabriel and under the command of Major José Maria Pereira and Colonel Collares Pantoja, 155 military police circled a group of landless workers who were marching for agrarian reform and opened fire.
Of the 144 who were incriminated, only the two commanding officers were found guilty, and they are roaming freely as they await their appeal. Both of their cases are paralyzed in superior courts.
According to Marco Aurélio Nascimento, the public prosecutor for the case, it is just another instance of impunity: "We lament this mentality on the part of Brazilian court officials, who think that a person can eternally appeal a case and never go to jail.
"This does not happen in other countries. Only in Brazil, unfortunately. The mentality is that persons have this right to appeal, which is called presumed innocence, but is translated as what? Total and absolute impunity."
In 2002, through a decree of then president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, April 17th became the National Day of Struggle for Agrarian Reform. Along with the Massacre at Carandiru (1992) and the Shooting at Candelária (1993), the Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás is considered one of the most brutal police actions in recent Brazilian history.
What Happened
The autopsy at the time showed that many of the dead had been beaten up and killed in cold blood by the police. Members of the Movement of the Rural Landless families (MST), to which the assassinated belonged, denounced that the police hid the bodies of women and children killed in the attack on the landless group.
Around mid-day on April 17 approximately 1200 landless people blocked highway PA 150. The highway links the state capital, Belém, with the south of the state. The group was one of several groups of landless families which has occupied unused land to put pressure on the government to carry out an agrarian reform.
The MST had arranged a meeting for that day with the head of INCRA (the federal government land agency) in Pará, Valter Cardoso, in Marabá. The state government as part of the agreement had undertaken to send 50 buses to transport the landless people to the meeting. The buses were not sent.
Two days previously (April 15) the Governor of Pará, Almir Gabriel, his secretary for security, Paulo Sette Camara and the general commander of the military police in the state, Fabiano Lopes, had a meeting to discuss the proposed blockage of the highway by the landless.
At the meeting it was decided that no concessions would be given to the landless. The local commander of the military police, Mário Colares Pantoja, was ordered personally by Governor Gabriel to free the highway.
Military police surrounded the landless from the front and from behind. At approximately 5 pm the police attacked with tear-gas. The landless responded by hurdling stones and work implements at the police who opened fire with machine guns. Many of the landless took refuge in nearby wooded areas but were sought out by the police.
In all, the police operation lasted approximately an hour. Official figures claimed that 19 landless had been assassinated by the police and there a further 45 - 41 landless and 4 military police were injured.
Initially the autopsies were carried out by two forensic doctors from Belém and by a team of the local police experts. Human rights groups insisted that they should be redone by Dr. Nelson Massini from São Paulo. After initial resistance to the idea at local level, officials from the federal government intervened and Dr. Massini carried out another autopsy.
His findings were devastating. In the case of at least 7 of the victims he found clear indications that they were executed in cold blood. "It is too much. There are cases which clearly show that the victims were dominated and killed with their own work implements such as knives and sickles. There are two cases of bullets from behind, one in the neck which indicates that they were executed" commented Dr. Massini.
According to Massini, the majority of the bullets were lodged in the thorax and heads of the victims and claimed that "this shows that the shots fired were not meant to intimidate but to kill people".
An example is that of assassinated MST leader Oziel Lima. Many witnesses testify that 17 year old Oziel was alive after the police operation on the highway. TV reporter Marina Romão guarantees that he and approximately 50 other people took refuge in a hut where she also had hidden when the police opened fire.
"I saw them (the police) dragging Oziel out onto the highway. They beat him, they called him a 'good for nothing' and made him shout 'long live the landless movement'". Yet the autopsy results show that Oziel who was alive after the police operation was shot in the head at close range - in other words he was assassinated in cold blood by the military police.
The initial official response was of condemnation of the violence and of the police. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso declared that what happened was "unjustifiable" and went on to state that he was convinced that those responsible would be punished. The President's remarks were in large part a response to international protest which began to pour into Brazil hours after the landless were assassinated - CNN carried news reports of the massacre soon after it took place.
President Cardoso promised agility on the part of the government to pass law projects already in parliament to speed up agrarian reform. On Monday April 22 he held a meeting with the presidents of the Congress, the Senate and of the Supreme Court to speed up the passing into law of these projects. Initially there seemed to be sufficient political support amongst parliamentarians to pass the laws quickly.
However, by mid week it was obvious that conservative interests in both houses of parliament, would block the passing of laws favoring agrarian reform. In a move which seems not to be linked to the massacre, Agriculture Minister Andrade Vieira resigned on April 19.
His ministry had been responsible for the agrarian reform question. Indications at the moment are that a special ministry for agrarian reform will be established. The names of the likely candidates to head the ministry leaked to the press so far have not the support of groups who defend the urgent necessity of an agrarian reform in the country.
In Brazil, religious funeral services for the dead usually take place on the seventh day after the death. Such services were schedules for April 24 and turned into an act of protest throughout the country.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) at its annual meeting during the week decided that a mass would be celebrated in all the Catholic churches in the country on this date as a way not only to remember the assassinated but to protest the violence.
A message of condemnation of the assassination arrived from the Pope for the occasion. All over the country the religious act became a protest. For example, thousands participated in an ecumenical religious celebration in Sao Paulo after a march through the city center.
Here the leadership of the MST blamed President Cardoso, Governor Gabriel and Minister for Justice, Nelson Jobim for the bloodshed. Calls were made for the resignation of the Minister Jobim.
Brasil de Fato
April 2007
Friday 27 April Viva Las Vegas
Am always telling folk who are interested in song writing to write those thoughts and melodies down straight away or you forget them. I’m doing this a lot lately, that is, coming up with good phrases in my head as I drive or sit but not getting them down on paper for some arrogant reason thinking I will remember them. And I don’t. A few have slipped away just like that. Trying to nail my thoughts on Las Vegas to the mast while they are fresh in the gut. Yesterday I stared into the Grand Canyon for the second time in my life. Amazing of course, vast and the humbling effect of feeling like a tadpole in an ocean. This takes us away from ourselves..so good. Then, some hours later we hit Elvisville in the desert where the message becomes you, at least you and your money and we would like it please. Yet, I like this place too, I think. Find myself wandering for hours along mile of strip. Neon, music mingles with the sound of slot machines and you can catch snatches of Springsteen amongst the throng of whirring digits and fortunes. I’m thinking what is Bruce doing in the middle of that, but he’s singing ‘I’m going down, down,’ and I just might be. Very easy to fall here. The cab driver lived in Nebraska till his wife died and then he moved here in his late seventies and says he will die here. And my friend who loves the night says he doesn’t gamble and he wont pay for the other, so its all a little tense and confusing. Cattle pens of poker players remind me of the scene in Star Wars where they walk into some galactic bar and there are species for everywhere eyeing each other up. They were all in there. My old friend Celine is playing Caesars Palace but I wont even ask for the backstage pass. Walking on and all is on offer, my eye is like a roving notebook, sucking all this in for there are a thousand songs out on these streets. The tattoo parlour, the piano bar, the funk club and I’m being told to ‘jump, jump’. How do we ever feed so many people and all those sheets to wash? Who cleans up the mud after the wrestling? It's like Bladerunner without the rain. I’m charmed and alarmed and when I come up for air the light is arriving again on another day in the desert. My eyes know they have missed rest for a whole night and so we walk home to the Sahara, but of course that’s wrong, that doesn’t belong and most of me doesn’t either. I would rather be in the Canyon but I can’t deny the pull of sin city..
Sunday 22 April Innocent When You Dream
I’m in Arizona for 8 days with 12 guys. We hit a white ball onto green bits of desert and occasionally stray outside the fairways and have to bang clubs on the ground to let rattle snakes know we are coming as we look for the errant ball. Before I left I recorded a song for a children’s album that is being released for charity. I chose ‘There was an old woman who swallowed a fly’ and had a lot of fun working out an arrangement. I played it on a tenor guitar I have recently acquired and it sounds, well, good. Woody Guthrie wrote hundreds of kid’s songs. I liked this one because it’s ridiculous and she dies in the end. My version might scare kinds but they would probably like that. Anyhow, a starting time in the desert beckons and a ton of angst awaits as I try to do something I used to do very well but now I’m falling away. I think this rather eclectic diary entry is due to reading interviews with Tom Waits in a book on the flight over. It’s called ‘Innocent When You Dream’.
Wednesday 11 April From Banff to Martletwy
Its been a while, sorry. Played two cool shows in wild Wales. Caernarfon was a great night and so good to be playing in the Northern bit of Wales. The drive up there and back down to Pembrokeshire, for the second show in Martletwy, was a vivid reminder of how beautiful a land Wales is. That can be forgotten by City dwellers that think that big buildings and stadiums are our trophies. There are greater prizes available to the eyes out on lonesome hillsides and in mountain streams. I was touched by it all and felt shameful that I had forgotten Her face as I bypass it all on motorways. Martletwy was a riot and a great way to end a long run of dates. An old chapel, built in 1813, and restored by a local community. When I first walked in I wasn’t sure but those folks sure know how to have a good time. I did nearly have a heart attack though when I went into my, ahem, dressing room..kind of a shed add on at the back to find a life-size doll of woman dressed as a Nun. Definitely on my rider from now on! Pre gig tea across the road in the farm house was the best. in January we started this run of dates in Banff Alberta, Canada at the Magaret Greenham Theatre, and so we finish in April, in a chapel in Pembrokeshire Wales..very cool and quite right. Sunday was the big Show Of Hands bash at the Albert Hall, London. I have played there in different guises about a dozen times now but this was my favourite. Was very proud of Steve and Phil and pleased for them that it was such a great occasion. It was good to re-unite with Tom for a bit of FFA too. I think the three of us had forgotten how good that project was. Getting geared up to start recording now and my head is down and writing. I was hopping to be playing a lot more festivals in the UK this summer, especially as we turned down a lot in Canada/USA in order to free up the time. It’s quite hard to break into that (folk fest) scene here, but maybe I need to make an album that opens those doors. Some days though, and after 27 years, I get tired of pushing them.
March 2007
Tuesday 27 March Coming down..
Just coming down after the tour has finished, though I have two small shows in Wales this week that I’m looking forward to. The dates we have just completed in the UK have been the most memorable for me for some time. It was great to have Miranda adding that low end with great sensitivity each night and I thought Martin Sexton did a wonderful job of starting the show each night and playing to a UK audience for the first time. Leeds on Saturday night was a riot, and we recorded the show so I’m looking forward to listening back. Thanks for the great feedback on the new stuff too. There is always a little emptiness after a long run of dates. If I include the Show Of Hands tour, which started back in October, I have played around 85 shows up till Sunday. There was also a bit of surgery in between! I find myself a little restless around 8.00pm and it actually feels weird not to be travelling to somewhere. After this week I will get into studio mode for a while and see what can be captured.
Tuesday 13 March Stuck between trucks
Rehearsed all day for tour with Miranda in Exeter yesterday then drove home. Stopped on the way back to do a radio interview on the mobile. Strange to be wedged between two trucks in a lay-by, in the dark, talking live to radio land. Have done a lot of that this week though. Mostly promotion for the tour but also the ‘Pat Robertson’ thing, which I’m so tired of now. Have even noticed the reaction amongst some of ‘my folk’ has been one of not understanding why I did it. I can debate this forever but my experience is that very few are up for changing minds on it anyhow. I’m not going to enter lengthy debates that are ultimately not going to get anywhere because I just end up being stuck between those trucks again.. I’m now very much looking forward to the UK tour. The Brook Southampton tonight..yum.
Sunday 4 March Houston, Memphis, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, home
Stories indeed. Managed to leave my laptop at the security checkpoint at Boston’s Logan airport. Only realised when I got to Charlotte on the way to Houston. It took another 36 hours before it was located and that was rather a worrying time. With my head a little stressed I played the first of two concerts in the Houston area. I was so relieved when the computer was finally found and forwarded to Memphis. Houston was a lovely time, staying with Sean and Rebecca who are good friends and wonderful people. Sean is the minister of Mercy Street: probably the most socially engaged Church set up I have ever come across. They seem to gather together every social demographic at their Saturday night service and the whole set up and atmosphere was very impressive to this tired sceptic. I played a show after and it really was a great night. Early Monday we flew to Memphis and I got to see my first NBA basketball game. Nancy Chase, the promoter got us some great seats and we watched the Memphis Grizzlies narrowly loose to the Denver Nuggets! The Americans do all that razzmatazz better than anyone and it was quite the experience. The next day I did morning TV and then toured the Civil Rights Museum. This was incredibly moving and told the story of the Civil Rights movement in the USA with the climax being that you stand on the balcony of the motel where Martin Luther King was shot. I had to blink back the tears at almost every exhibit and there is a lot there. Highly recommended. Had a great gig in Memphis that included an Elvis song! I first went to Graceland in 83 and this time I stood by the gates at midnight and peered through. I remember playing in the British Boys Golf Championships at Downfield GC Dundee the week he died. I had reached the last 16 but lost the next day. I blame Elvis. I loved the Las Vegas period, amazing band and that rich melancholy voice contained so much sadness. It still moves me. Two hours sleep then flew to Winnipeg via Chicago. Your head really does get messed up with this schedule. I came in off a balcony at Memphis because it was too hot and the next say I’m in Winnipeg where the cold takes your face off. Superb crowd at Winnipeg show, we had a great night together and after I hung with friends including Russ Romaniuk who played hockey in Cardiff. It’s so good to have all these connections worldwide. One-hour sleep then flew to Edmonton!! Hope your keeping up with all this. Played Athabasca, a small community 2 hours drive north of Edmonton and then Edmonton on Friday night. This show was a big highlight for me, big crowd, so up for it and good timing towards the end of a tour when I’m a little jaded. Finally we drove to Calgary where I played last night and I’m now sitting at Calgary airport waiting to catch the big bird home. It’s been quite a tour. Lost stuff and found it, laptops and pedal boards. A big figure of eight around the continent of N.America. Twenty-five shows with press and radio commitments, 11 flights and too many rental cars to remember. More great memories but it is definitely time to go home though there is not a lot of respite there with the UK tour starting a week Tuesday and a ton of radio to do this week to publicise things and rehearse with Miranda. I talked to Martin Sexton on the phone today and I’m very much looking forward to hearing him open each night and to Miranda adding double bass. Have been playing some new material here as well as covering a Dave Mathews song ‘Where are you going?’. Have written sketches for around 8 others so it’s been a productive time too. I may just nod off on the flight home.
February 2007
Friday 23 February New York and Boston
Typing late at night here in Boston hotel room. Snow falling outside on a cold night. New York was fine, small crowd which I expected not having played there since 93, but up for it. Hooked up with Doug Yowall and Billy Masters from Suzanne Vega’s band and had a hilarious dinner somewhere on the East Side at a new restaurant with a very enthusiastic French owner. You would have had to have been there but it was memorable! Boston tonight was great. Club Passim, full of folk history; Dylan, Phil Ochs, Odetta, some of the names who have played there. I really enjoyed the show, played two new songs. Lots of cool stories from the audience about there connection to the music but none to top a young guy called Shane. He was at the Tower Records signing session and show I did in Boston after opening for Rossane Cash in 93..he was two years old. His Dad got me to sign an album for him that day and now he plays and said some nice things about how the music has inspired him etc. That felt good. Snow still falling. We fly to Houston for tomorrow’s nights show in the morning. No snow there but more stories, always stories. I
Tuesday 20 February Ontario and Pat Robertson is at it again
Ontario has been good to me. Cold as you would ever want anyplace to be but very warm in its response to the music of this stubborn troubadour. After a day off in Toronto I had a great night playing there at ‘Hugh’s Room’ followed by equally exciting shows in Guelph, Peterborough and Perth. They have left me very uplifted. It’s so good to link up with so many people I know here now. Most of course are original Canadians but some are ex-pats from the UK who come up and say the kindest things about following the music for so long. Last night in Perth there was even a Welsh gentleman wearing a Cardiff Blues Rugby top! I also get to watch a lot of Ice Hockey on TV. This is a long tour though and I confess to being a little more than homesick. Not so much for anything that’s back there in terms of bricks and mortar, but of course for those I love and miss. I’m not a moaner or someone who chooses to decry much of the country I live in (apart from the wider issues) for we are blessed and fortunate beyond compare with the majority of the world. But, there are days when I walk along the street here and imagine how easily I could live in Canada and not miss much of the culture that is prevalent in the UK. We crossed back into the USA today and I’m playing New York City tomorrow night. The last time I played there was on Broadway in 93, at the Beacon Theatre opening for Clannad. I have no idea what to expect. Reading an issue of Time magazine today there is a quote that Pat Robertson made in recent weeks. He states that God has told him that there will be another terrorist attack on the USA in late 2007. He is not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear (God didn’t elaborate) but that he (Mr Robertson) believes it will be something like that. In a few weeks time we will release the live Greenbelt album. I have been debating whether or not I should have included that ‘moment’ from the Greenbelt show on the CD. I’m now so pleased I did and I hope Mr Robertson gets to hear it, then try’s to sue me and we can have a huge debate about who is slandering who. My lawyer will be the Big Man.
Wednesday 14 February Giraffes on Skateboards
And Denver was mild and sunny! Go figure. Two good shows in Colorado. A great night at Fort Collins care of Steve, Bill and Donna, then the next day down to the city to play in one of the best concert rooms I have ever played in.. The Soiled Dove (not sure about the name though). I would be lying if I said it was full but I played as though it was. It’s still strange to come so far and find someone wearing an MJ t-shirt! Flew into Toronto this evening in the middle of a snowstorm. I know we have had some snow at home, which has caused some problems, but this would shut the country down. We would be like Giraffes on skateboards! It’s very cold outside and snow is really pilling up outside my downtown hotel. They say there is going to be around 70cm of snow by tomorrow. Got a day off here before the show on Thursday which is great because the voice is thin, fingers are bruised and nails short!
Sunday 11 February It Rains in California
Am typing in Phoenix airport waiting to connect to Denver. Early start this morning from San Francisco. I played three shows there..Berkley, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa. It rained the whole time we were there so California was not the great weather contrast I thought it was going to be. Called in at Santa Cruz Guitar company whilst in town there, good to see Richard again and the beautiful guitars he makes. All the shows were great but I’m a little tired right now. Have a show tonight in Denver and another tomorrow then a day off! The first time I Played in Berkley was around 93 when I was opening for Clannad, feels like a lifetime ago. A lovely lady called Barbara flew all the way from Alaska for last nights show in Santa Rosa. That’s devotion beyond the call and that sort of effort leaves me feeling guilty! Did some radio before the gig. Randy always makes me feel so welcome at the show and the audience are always generous and appreciative. How disjointed is this diary blog! Guess I am tired. We are here in Phoenix for an hour where the temp is 45 degrees..nice. Snow awaits in Denver..nice.
Wednesday 7 February Love from Seattle
I’m writing from Seattle. Played a show here last night at a place called ‘The Tractor’ and very fine it was too. Tonight we play Portland (I always say we as if I’m a band..hmm) and then fly down to California. The tour has had a great start with a week primarily in the snow. Beautiful Banff, a night in Penticton that I would rate in my top 20 gigs of all time, Vancouver memorable too and a wonderful visit to Prince George which felt like a coming home show. I’m making the shows a little more concise, a little more focussed and it’s intriguing to me, and I don’t want to sound conceited, but it actually feels like a whole new MJ thing is happening. New songs ploughing through and I don’t think I have ever been more on top of things live. I have had a lot of practise though! As we head south now it will get a lot warmer before we head off to snow again in Denver. It’s hard to pack for tours like this. My buddy Simon flew home yesterday and I will miss him. It’s great though to be able to share these experiences with others close to me. I miss home more than ever these days. A sort of panic like fear that time and moments are passing without my presence. I have amazing support from that tribe of mine.
Thursday 1 February Scotland, home then to Canada
Celtic Connections was great. Played the festival Club around midnight on Saturday night then my show on Sunday. Really enjoyed it all and we seem to have made a decent impact. Flew back to Cardiff on Monday and then yesterday to Calgary, Alberta. We then drove to beautiful Banff. Walked around today with my good friend Simon Curle who is travelling with us for the first week of the tour. It was – 10 temp at one point along the trail we chose beneath the Banff Springs hotel. We also flew to the top of mountains on a Gondola..breathtaking. Opening show has just finished here at the Banff Centre and was a great start to a long tour. Hip/leg standing up (ha ha) well though aching a bit after all the walking in the snow today rather than the gig methinks. This place is just a dream. The mountains are so commanding and humbling. They whisper many lessons.
January 2007
Thursday 25 January Here we go..
It’s all about to go nuts again. Time seems to have flown by since I finished the Show Of Hands Tour and went in for the hip surgery. My recovery I’m told is very good and I’m on track, though I need to make sure I don’t overdo things..hmm. Depends what they mean by overdoing. I have been in the studio the past few weeks. The album I was producing for Bill Taylor Beales is finished and it sounds, well, pretty damn fine! I’m not sure what the plan is in terms of releasing it, but will let you know when Bill gets it out there. It really is worth a listen with some fine songs in a Leonard Cohn style. I also finished mixing a live album. We are going to release last years Greenbelt gig as a full album. It will be ready for the tour in March and snappily titled MJGB06. It will in fact be the first live concert release as a full album on Pipe Records. All the live stuff released on CD has been on the compilation `Dont talk About Love`. It really does capture things well and there is a grit and edge to it all that I`m happy with. Those of you who were there will wonder if that song is there..you will have to wait to find out! Tomorrow I fly to Scotland to play at Celtic Connections which is a festival I have heard so much about but have never played. From there we fly to Calgary to begin five weeks of touring across Canada and the USA. Time has just flown by. George Bush asked for another chance on Iraq this week…er, no. At least, not if the majority of human on the planet could have their way, but he wont be listening to them.
December 2006
Sunday 31 December Happy New Year x
Happy New Year everybody, and I mean everybody. I hope, that whoever you are reading this, the next twelve months will be sweeter than the last, even if 06 has been a great time for you. My diary entries have been a little sparse this year and its not because I don’t think most days about writing something. I’m anxious to get a balance between thinking anyone might be interested in my day to day coming and going (there are some very ego centric bloggers out there), and wanting to comment on current events and issues. Having said that I become weary of trying to articulate thoughts on mind numbing events that seem to happen now on a daily basis. Maybe they always have and I’m just tired of voicing my opinion or maybe these are indeed some pretty dark times. For example, yesterday and the execution of Saddam Hussein. I have had, like most people, thoughts about the whole thing but find myself veering between different viewpoints. It’s easy to reach for the pen or computer keyboard and start going off on one, but it takes time sometimes to stop and listen to the small voices (and gather plenty of information) before true wisdom arrives. Someone once said it’s easy to know what your against but harder to know what you are for. Maybe to hold peace and wait for the right moment is what I’m trying to do. Maybe I have said too much in the past and sounded a little too loud. Or maybe I’m just getting lazy and a little tired of scrapping with folk. Whatever! For those who wish to know my new hip and I are healing well but find the progress very slow and a little frustrating though at least it is giving me the chance to be creative and write some songs. I’m looking forward to this New Year, it’s going to be very busy with a lot of great opportunities and I will be very interested to see where things are this time next year. Thanks to all of you who stay close. Stay safe too and I do wish you and your loved ones a very happy new year. M xx
Thursday 14 December Pinochet
"At least Pinochet was able to die a natural death, surrounded by his family, attended to by the best surgeons. We weren`t even able to bring a drink of water to our loved ones as they were tortured and disappeared. But we know the truth: History has cast its judgment on Pinochet." - Vibiana Diaz Caro, whose father was a Chilean union leader who disappeared under the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who died on Sunday of a heart attack at age 91.
Wednesday 13 December Angels
Back home from hospital. A little battered and bruised but very well looked after and impressed by the skill and care given. What a good thing it is to do something in life that helps people so much. I have always been so impressed by those who work in caring professions. Ever since I spent some time in hospital with one of our children when they were small, I have always thought I could work in such a place if I had the skills needed. It takes a certain soul though and those who looked after me were true angels. As for surgeons..Gods i guess. So I’m a tad sore and have been ordered to rest! Hmm.
Tuesday 5 December End of SOH Tour and now to get fixed..
The tour with SOH is done. Think it was around 35 gigs in total and each one a pleasure. The last night in Exeter was a great night, with a few special guests including Tom Palmer and Seth Lakemen. It was good to catch up with Seth again and swap notes; it’s interesting to hear how his current experience is so similar to mine in the first part of the nineties. He has a good head on his shoulders and will be fine. The best part of the tour for me has been hanging with everyone involved. It was good to get know Phil a little better (what a musician he is) and to spend time with Steve and resume the subtle banter and underlining respect and care we have for each other. Miranda was a joy and I would be proud to work with Chris, James and Will anytime. Thanks everyone and to all the SOH fans who welcomed me so warmly and said such kind things. I will be disappearing for the next few weeks. Later today I have to go to hospital for some surgery. Its nothing to serious, just need to get something sorted and then get back to fitness for the 07 schedule that starts at the end of January. I will be mixing Bill Taylor Beales’s album till then as well as writing and recording myself.
November 2006
Tuesday 28 November Last week of SOH tour
The tour with Show Of Hands is rumbling on and all going well. Steve and Phil are a class act and I think they really give their fans value for money. Playing Cardiff Bay with them every night is always an adventure especially when I turn to Phil for solo spots. We always come up with something a little different each time. He is a tremendous musician and I watch him warming up on the fret board and feel like retiring! We also have good chats about folk music and it’s history and I have learnt quite a bit from him. Steve and I have known each other a while now, and it’s a cool thing to be on the road with such a close friend and the understanding that brings. He is also writing a lot of new songs right now and its been good to hear them being worked out live. This week is the last and will bring the tour total up to around 35 shows. Last night I managed to dislocate my thumb..ouch! Its in a sling right now and im hoping its not going to hinder playing the guitar tonight. I might have to play a little more tenderly!
Monday 13 November Hug Your Kids
Still on tour with Show Of Hands. Just finnished six shows in a row so have two days off. Catching up with email today and came across this. A lot of these things get passed around and I don’t know why I followed the lead on this one. However, this is an amazing story. I don’t particularly like the music on the video but the whole thing is very moving. Hug your kids. http://cjcphoto.com/can/
Tuesday 7 November On Tour with SOH
Well the tour with Show Of Hands is well under way and it’s great fun. It is good to be disciplined about playing right now and though that 35 mins goes by in a flash it does mean I get to take it a little easier than normal at this time of year. I tend to go back to the dressing room and try and write a little before joining the lads on stage for Cardiff Bay. It’s also nice to have that wider community on the move and feel part of a bigger team. Hope America does the right thing today and speaks out. It would be good to have a shift in the balance of power over there, and some constitutional checks on the current gate keepers. I have an eighteen year old son. That makes little sense to me. I missed the Margate gig to be with him on the special day. He already has attributes that it took me a lot longer to grasp. He has a proud Father.
October 2006
Wednesday 18 October Seth..
Forgot to mention last week that I went to see Seth Lakemen play in Cardiff. His special guest was ‘Carus’ from Australia, who Chris (May) also manages. Really enjoyed the show from both artists. Had a nice natter with Seth. Things are going well for him and its great to see him retain the honesty and integrity of where he has come from. There was simply no hype, just honest music, and it was very refreshing.
Tuesday 17 October Aches..
About to start a night of recording with Mr Beales. Cello and Trumpet no less. Have had bad toothache now for over a week, two teeth in fact. Hip op up coming too, I’m falling apart and its only Tuesday. Tour with Show Of Hands starts tomorrow. Old men together!
Wednesday 11 October Belgium
Returned from a weeks touring in Belgium on the weekend. Had a a very busy but great time there playing six shows and also singing at a lecture by a guy called Willy who climbed Everest in 2003. My good friend Diethard looked after me and we had some great nights. I think my favourite show was at the Café DeFagot in Ingelmunster. I thought the crowd were going to pick me up and carry me on their shoulders at one point! There were local elections there on the weekend and I must try to find out the results as there was great concern about the rise of fascism there especially in Antwerp. I met nothing but kindness there and of course great choclate.
September 2006
Wednesday 27 September Brecon Beacons
Have been putting together the next free PQ CD today and getting ready to go to Belgium on Friday. Yesterday my friend Tom Hutton and his lovely partner Stef took me hiking in the Brecon Beacons. It was fantastic and such a beautiful day. It’s amazing what beauty lies within reach and yet we rarely visit. During the walk there were waterfalls, dense forest, enchanting silence and inquisitive wildlife. Also, a memorial to a Canadian aircrew from the Second World War. Their plane crashed in bad weather on a training exercise, and in fact the wreckage is still on the hillside. Though it can become a cliché, the usual thoughts of perspective flood ones senses in such places. Just wonderful and perfect for tortured, middle aged, fustrated, angry, content yet restless, sad but happy songwriters.This is all just 24 miles away from Cardiff. I shall return and soon.
Monday 25 September Ryder Cup thoughts..
Proud I was yesterday. Proud of the sport I have most played and loved since I was ten years old. In this current sporting age of the winner takes it all, huge money, individuality and ego, yesterday’s events at the K club in Ireland were a stunning ray of sunshine and hope. True, it was still about winning and losing, but there were bigger themes at work. At the centre of much of this was Darren Clarke, who, despite the loss of his wife Heather a few weeks ago to cancer, was literally playing his heart out. The camaraderie, compassion and overall understanding of ‘this is just a game and we know what really matters’ were huge. How fitting today that Arsen Venger has made a statement about how much football could learn form the spirit that was upheld between the European and USA Ryder cup teams. Good for him. And Darren. All that weight coming down off those big shoulders at the end of his singles game and massive contribution, through tears and the realization that a nation, a huge crowd and his mates on both sides would make the world a different place for him if only they could. That is what gets us through, some of us anyhow, and I think Darren will be ok. For me this was a moment that transcended a sporting occasion, though it was wonderful that it was brought about by such an event. It was like the most beautiful cello solo, a great poem, the height of a U2 or Springsteen show, that moment when it becomes, well, yeh, spiritual. Some might be skeptic and that’s fine, but for me this is the very essence of it all. It is why we rage against darkness and fumble our way on the path. Most of all, it gives me huge hope, it really does. It fuels the fire in the belly that keeps me going. Thanks guys.
Wednesday 20 September Paul Robeson Tribute
Follow this link for a great write up about Paul Robeson sent to me today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5345904.stm link broke so here is what it said.. Remembering dissident superstar Paul Robeson, by Tony Benn Vijay Singh Wed, 20 Sep 2006 06:38:48 -0700 Soul man By Sean Coughlan BBC News Magazine Paul Robeson went from international stardom to obscurity A memorial is being unveiled in London to singer Paul Robeson, blacklisted as "un-American" in the 1950s. Tony Benn, one of the surviving links with a support group in the UK, recalls meeting his hero. Paul Robeson was one of the world`s first musical superstars, his rich, bass voice booming out of wireless sets from Detroit to Dover. In the late 1930s, UK radio listeners, more used to warblers in dinner jackets, voted this black American their favourite singer. And performances on Broadway and in Hollywood movies made the son of an escaped slave one of the biggest-selling names in entertainment. But within a decade, Robeson`s left-wing politics had almost erased him from public view in his own country - driven off the airwaves, blocked from performing and barred by record companies. Such hostility did not face the singer in the UK. In commemoration of his years spent living here, a memorial is being unveiled on Wednesday at the University of London`s School of Oriental and African Studies, where he studied. Last link Making the speech in honour of Robeson will be one of the last surviving links with the British campaign that supported the blacklisted singer - the veteran politician, Tony Benn. ROBESON`S LIFE 1898: Born New Jersey, son of an escaped slave Professional football player, paid his way through law school Starred in Othello on stage and movies including Showboat, singing Old Man River Performed for left-wing causes in US, USSR and UK 1946: Faced Un-American Activities Committee. Concerts cancelled, barred from TV, recordings banned, passport revoked 1976: After prolonged ill-health, dies in Philadelphia "He was one of the greatest figures of the past century. He stood for everything I believed in," says Benn. Robeson had a remarkably eclectic career. In the face of raw racial prejudice, he became a famous athlete, lawyer, Shakespearean actor, movie star and singer - and with success at every turn, he could have basked in well-heeled celebrity status. But instead Robeson became deeply involved in left-wing politics - a path that led him into a grinding battle with the authorities suspicious of his sympathies for the Soviet Union. This confrontation escalated to the extent that Robeson was blocked from leaving the US. Which is how he met Benn. "You could take away his passport, but you couldn`t take away his voice," says Benn. In 1957, infuriated by the travel ban on Robeson, Benn helped to organise a protest meeting in Camden. Unable to be there in person, Robeson sang down a phone line to 1,000 supporters crammed into a hall in north London. "It was only elementary technology, but it was Paul Robeson," says Benn. The whole tea room went silent, it was the most extraordinary experience Benn on hearing Robeson sing And when Robeson`s passport was returned, he came to visit Benn and his family at the Houses of Parliament - an encounter that still stands out for the 81-year-old political veteran. "Robeson was like an electro-magnet going through a pile of iron filings. It wasn`t just admiring fans, it was deep admiration... he radiated personality, a man of great commitment and strength... totally immune to the persecution he suffered." Prompted by Benn`s elderly aunt, Robeson sang Old Man River. "The whole tea room went silent, it was the most extraordinary experience." Treasured memory Speaking in his west London home, surrounded by shelves spilling over with decades of his diaries, Benn is now a great repository of political memories. He recalls canvassing as a child in the 1935 election, meeting figures such as Oswald Mosley and Mahatma Gandhi, watching London burn during the Blitz, losing his brother in World War II. "Experience is the only teacher," he says. Appearing on BBC TV in 1949 But the memory of Robeson still stirs him deeply. When he puts on a video of a scene from Proud Valley, a 1940s Robeson movie set in Wales, he is in tears at the story about overcoming discrimination. "I was brought up on the Bible like Paul, right and wrong is what it`s about. If people are badly treated, you support them. It`s easy to make speeches, but the crucial question is whose side are you on when the going gets rough." He sees Robeson as an example of sticking to beliefs. Whether it was campaigning against lynching in the US or supporting Welsh miners, he backed the underdog. "What really influenced him was the way his people were treated - it was what gave him his motivation, and his enormous talent gave him an opportunity to get that into the public arena." "The establishment still distrust him, because he was a socialist and an internationalist, even in death he`s still regarded in the United States as a suspect figure," says Benn. After a five-year stay in the UK, Robeson returned home to relative obscurity and prolonged ill-health, with his reputation only gradually being rehabilitated after his death in 1976. In terms of Robeson`s relevance, Benn says it`s the way that the singer connected his own experiences with his beliefs. Challenged by the Un-American Activities Committee with the blunt question: "Why do you not stay in Russia?" Robeson answered: "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.
Wednesday 13 September Theology
I wouldn’t normally put so much ‘God speak’ on the web site, but this is typical of the sort of stuff I have tried to fight and disassociate myself with for a long time. The only reason it’s here is because my response wouldn’t fit on the space provided at the relevant web site. Therefore I have put a link there to this diary entry. I have withheld the names of those who have written to me to protect their privacy. I will not be wasting any more time on this as quite frankly there are far more important issues to be dealing with..so here goes I was sent a link to the review of my gig at Greenbelt. I`m not sure who to address this letter to, as it`s not clear to me who wrote the `rider` at the end. I will therefore address this generally. For what its worth I have never seen this happen in a review before. Someone is asked to review a show, does so, and then someone else adds on something totally different at the end. Maybe it would have been better to call it an editorial comment separate from the main review? Anyhow, I want to respond. At the end of this message I have included some other correspondence I have had about the gig so that I don`t need to repeat some of the main points I would make in response to the issue. However, I do have some other things to raise. I was at Greenbelt for the full four days and was available for interviews etc. Why didn’t you contact me to ask me about the issues? Why not try and find out what I was trying to communicate or say? This was not about the gap between Greenbelt and the `theology/practice of many evangelical/charismatic churches`. This was about a charlatan who calls for the most dreadful of things to be done because God is telling him so. I`m not interested in building a bridge to Pat Robertson. I wish him no ill, but he needs to sort himself out. As do we all, but `we` are not calling for assassination of leaders of countries who happen not to fall in line with American foreign policy. I can only hope that pages in your publications have been given over to denouncing the outrageous language, posturing and claims that have been part of Robertson`s output in recent times. The line about punching TV evangelists was in the original version recorded on `Far From Silent` in 99. Why is it that the press or critique, within the Christian realm, is so unable to handle or recognise irony, even if it thinks its a bit harsh? I was not able to see the `bunch of youth clutching Tennants cans and clearly the worse for wear`. I do know that the vast majority of the thousands there were not. This is also typical of the almost spiritual `snobbery` that Greenbelt has had to put up with over the years. The `this sort of thing would never happen at Spring Harvest` slight. Out of the estimated 6-7000 gathered there that night I have had only one complaint (see below) so unless some other social ill had befallen everyone present the vast majority seemed to get what I was trying to say. If someone wants to carry on this debate then I`m happy to do so. It would, however, have been better to have done so in a more controlled and amicable way than the shooting from the hip editorial of the review, ironically the very thing I’m being accused of. Yours sincerely, Martyn www.martynjoseph.com Hello there Martyn, I was deeply disturbed at the Friday night concert at Greenbelt. I know it is not for me to discuss your relationship with God, but I was highly offended by your actions in the concert. You may have been trying to shock for effect or try to get a response from the crowd but was it necessary to be so offensive and use the word fuck? To suggest that God would say so to a believer, is in my opinion, offensive and blasphemous. Further, to encourage the audience to take part in your offensive utterance was disgraceful. it is not the fact that you swore, but the suggestion that God would reject someone is the problem. The Christian teaching is clear God is a God of grace who does love all men and has sent his son to die for each individual to win their salvation. It is clear to me that God would never turn his back on those who have trusted in him as personal Saviour, what ever their political/left/right/radical/denomination etc. or stance. To suggest otherwise, is in my opinion a complete denigration of the faith that genuine Christians have in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may think that it is a `hip Christian` thing to do and you can say fuck on stage. I, personally do not want to be represented as a Christian in this way. In my experience non-Christians know how they expect Christians to behave and they are not conned by those who are trying to be something they are not. I know of your work, and in fact, have been involved with your tours in the past when you were less well known. Unfortunately, you have now lost my respect. Don`t think I am being self righteous. I grew up in one of the roughest communities in the world and am used to swearing and all sorts but I am offended for God. By the way do Larry Norman a big favour please be humble enough to give him the credit when you sing his great songs. Hope to hear from you, Thanks ******* Dear *** Thanks for your message, I appreciate you taking the time to write and tell me how you felt. I presume from the line ‘hope to hear from you’ meant that you wanted me to reply, so for what it’s worth here are some thoughts. The words of the chorus I sang actually don’t put the featured words in God’s mouth. I said ‘what if God said?’ Its meant to raise the point that people who claim to speak for God (that’s if anyone can) and take the most unbelievable of positions on issues, should expect God to be very angry if they miss-represent Him. It’s not unprecedented for God to be angry of course and Jesus showed utter distain and contempt (turned a few tables over as well) for those who acted in stark contrast to what they claimed to be. These were nearly always moral/justice complaints, not those of language or dress codes etc. I’m not the least bit interested in being ‘hip’ and I think my journey, as a musician would back that up. I want to communicate stuff and occasionally you upset folk doing that. I’m curious to know if you have also written to Pat Robertson to complain about the way he has miss represented the truths we hold onto. I would be thrilled to know you had but I have my doubts. In the end it is about the word ‘fuck’ and not the miss representation of Christ. You say your offended for God and my friend so am I. I’m offended enough to go around and consistently and publicly voicing my opinion on those in positions of political power who claim to act for God. To me this is the biggest obscenity. I honestly believe God would have some very harsh words for the likes of Robertson and that’s what I’m trying to say. When you perpetuate and support policies that leave millions disenfranchised or dead, claim that following God will make you financially rich and that the heads of countries should be assassinated because they stand up to the might of the USA (and actually put policies in place to provide great care for the poor of their own countries) then the phrase ‘fuck you’ comes to my mind. I am of course very grateful that God’s grace would not reject anyone; my daft little chorus wasn’t about that. I have to say that out of the six thousand people gathered at the mainstage that night, you are the only one who has drawn that conclusion and felt it was important enough to write. I’m not without sympathy for your position ***, but frankly for me there are more pressing issues to get stuck into. As for the Larry Norman comment that’s a cheap shot and I can only presume that it was fuelled by a little irritation on your part at the end of writing your email. I have often given Larry credit for the songs of his I sing (let alone a decent amount in record royalties). I have turned a lot of folk onto his music through the years, especially in the folk community in the USA where many sadly had never heard of him, and I personally know that he is grateful for that. Many artists sing songs by other people but don’t say who the song is written by. It doesn’t always lend itself to everyone’s persona on stage. Again Rob my thanks for taking the time to write. I’m sorry I have lost your respect but in the balance of the correspondence we have had I’m not sure exactly what you respected me for in the first place. Yours sincerely, Martyn www.martynjoseph.com
Tuesday 5 September Greenbelt, Max Boyce and new chapters
Played Greenbelt in a bit of a haze after the weekend in Colorado but it was great. Enjoyed the new main stage on Friday night though have had a few letters about my language! As long as they write to complain Pat Robertson about his asking certain leaders to be ‘taken out’ 9which was my point) then that’s fair enough. Tried out a new tune on the weekend too. Great to play with Stewart again, that was fun. Thought Michael Franti was exceptional and enjoyed, to my surprise, much back slapping banter with Daniel Beadingfield. It’s been good to be writing a few songs. Sometimes the schedule gets so nuts that picking up the guitar and writing something is the last thing I get to do. Chris is over from Canada for at least a year now to help with that so I’m looking forward to a little more ‘creative’ time. Have also been in the studio carrying on the production of Bill Taylor Beales’s album. On Sunday I played at the CIA in Cardiff for the Welsh Blood service. It was a celebration of the 500th bone marrow donor success and it was a pleasure to be there. Some of the speeches were very moving and a reminder of the fragility of our lives. Great to catch up with Max Boyce who recited me a lyric he has just written that had me close to tears. He then went on stage and made the whole place laugh hysterically, but beneath all that is a very sensitive and articulate poet. Wonderful stuff. Anyhow. I’m looking forward now to the journey ahead. Its kind of a ‘new chapter’ time, with many good things on the horizon and in place. That is of course tempered by the despair on our screens and the feeling of impotence in the face of it all. So I hug the kids and pick up the guitar to say something…tis all I can do.
August 2006
Wednesday 23 August Crazy Weekend in USA
Now that was one hell of a weekend. Left Cardiff to fly to Amsterdam on Saturday morning, connected to Minneapolis, luggage didn’t make it but they wont let you report it until you arrive at your final destination, which happens to be Denver. Flight to Denver is delayed 3 hours. Arrive there at 2am. Report luggage not there along with all electronic stuff for stage but I have the guitar! Armed with that 5 hours later I head off to the Lyons Rocky Mountain Folk Festival. Take oxygen before show due to the altitude, though I think I was being fussed over and wasn’t sure I needed it. The air was thin though as I played to a packed field of people basking in the sun of the Rockies. Show went great despite lack of tricks at my feet and we sold out of merchandise. Watched Ani De Franco and Martin Sexton play under the stars. Back to hotel, bag has arrived. Sleep for five hours get up and go to airport. Fly to Detroit, Amsterdam and then Cardiff get in at 1.00 pm on Tuesday. A loopy, but great time. I could have stayed out in the States after the Newport festival but there would have been a ten-day wait till Colorado and I wanted to come home and see the family hence the mad schedule. Off to Greenbelt Friday. By the way Martin Sexton was great and Ani De Franco amazing. She truly is in a class of her own and her recent album live at the Carnegie Hall is breathtaking.
Thursday 17 August Home briefly
Back home. Newport Folk Fest, Rhode Island was brief but great. We had to leave as soon as I had finished for Boston airport to fly home. Was cool to be the second Welshboy playing there that weekend..David Grey being the other! Great line up actually with the Indigo Girls, Chris Smither and others. Have been spending time with the family but will leave for the US again on Saturday, returning on Tuesday morning. It’s a long way to play one show but I’m told the Rocky Mountain Folk fest in Colorado will be worth it. Three flights to get there, three home. That should be great fun right now!
Saturday 5 August More thoughts on America and New York
The concert in Ridgefield the other night was a very hot night as I mentioned in my previous entry. Temperatures had hit 104 at one point in the day and there was little cover from that as I hit the stage at 7 15pm. It was a great gig, about 700 people with a good sound system though some of it blew up with the heat as the evening progressed. However, there was one tangible moment of tension for me and I’m sure for the audience felt it too. I was advised before the gig that certain songs might not go down too well. Ridgefield, Connecticut is a beautiful place and you have to be fairly, well, comfortable on the money side of things to live here. Most of the houses are huge by UK standards and many of the folk who live in them vote for Mr Bush. I played ‘How did we end up here’ about five songs into the set and with some points to make one way or another. I guess its one thing to say ‘stuff’ when you know the choir Is primarily in front of you, but a little different when the ground is more neutral. In those situations I don’t think you get anywhere by yelling out your views at the world, so I tend to appeal to a humanitarian view before stating the obvious. When the obvious was stated I noticed Chris inching towards the side of the stage in case someone decided to take acceptation to my views in a robust way. I do think that this tension at this sort of event is kind of unique to the USA where these things are taken very personally. Anyhow, I was able to stand my ground, as it would have been cowardly to back down when one really suspected that you might be ruffling feathers. At the end of the concert half of the field stood to clap whilst the other sat but still heartily approving. So, who knows? Next day we went down to New York. Love this city and have so many great memories here especially of recording here with Sony for a few months in 91. Hit the ususal sights and met up with the concierge at the hotel I used to stay in. Maria had been very kind to myself and the family back then, and she is still there after 15 years (actually working there 18). I only called by on the off chance but there she was. Also hooked up for dinner with Ben Wisch who produced ‘Being There’ all those years ago, and is still making great records, along with Eugene Ruffolo, a fine singer songwriter I met in Canada few weeks ago. As I said, great memories in this great city. It kind of brings a mood of melancholy to me as I look back on very exciting times. It seems, in some ways, like I haven’t got that far since then but that’s a lie. I’m still here doing it I guess and that’s something in it’s self. The heat in the city was brutal, but like an enormous ‘blade runner’ set this place lives and breathes with everything you might want and don’t need. Central Park remains beautiful amidst it’s protective metal surround, and the palatable sense of community in one of the busiest cities in the world is testimony enough to the good and great that can be America. I play the Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island tomorrow afternoon and will then fly home in the evening.
Wednesday 2 August East Coast Heat
Played an open air show in Ridgefield, Connecticut USA last night. It was a shared bill with Mary Gauthier who is great. Its 104 degree heat though and the hottest show I have ever know in that sense. I was soaked in sweat and two amps blew up. Today we are going down into New York for a few days where it’s even hotter. I just dive through doors into air conditioning units!
July 2006
Monday 31 July USA back to Canada..guitar or gun
Played the ‘Ark’ in Michigan on Tuesday evening. I really enjoyed the show and the crossing at the border into the USA was equally as enjoyable. It took us around an hour and a half to get through the interview, but there was this guy there who was trying to get in who had to be connected to the mob or something. He was trying to get back into the USA but they were finding all sorts of stuff, like fake guns and severe looking baseball bats and a bunch of clothing in his car. He said he had been camping, though he no longer had the tent and he was wearing a pin stripe suite. It was fantastic entertainment and this guy just didn’t seem to care. We drove back to Canada after the show and were waived through in the car after a short passport check. It took less than a minute. Have just finished playing the Hillside festival near Guelph, Ont. Had a wonderful time and great reception. Played my main set on the main stage today and had a blast. Played in others sessions and sweated it out all day. Just got back to the lovely haven of an air conditioned hotel room to face the same horrifying images of children under rubble and in body bags. It’s a nightmare, its absolutely crazy. Sure, I have a go at the leaders today on stage, talk of these things, ask the questions we all do, but get to thread them through chords and melody. It’s easy to stand there and do that. Kind people even applaud, stand up and applaud, they cry, smile and say the kindest things to me. It’s another thing to pull your kids out of broken concrete and raise your fists to the sky and scream at God or your oppressors. Today we sang in the sun, celebrating the talents of many fantastic musicians who walk in a tradition of ‘telling the story’. I imagine the folk in the village of Qana are struggling to find any words; they must struggle to breathe, take another step. If someo