Carlene merits her disciples
ALAN NICHOL HAS THE LATEST NEWS ON THE ROOTS MUSIC SCENE IN THE REGION
MIDSUMMER is certainly a hot time musically, with another cracking and varied lineup of roots artists.
There are some top-class acts on Tyneside next Thursday night.
The Houston born soul/R&B/jazz singer Carlene Anderson plays a show in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 with a first-rate band behind her.
Anderson relocated to the UK almost 30 years ago when she came here to front the Young Disciples – probably best known for the hit-song Apparently Nothin’ (later covered by the Brand New Heavies and Beverley Knight), and simply stayed here.
If ever anyone was born with soul in her DNA then Anderson was. The daughter of Bobby Byrd (renowned soul artist and James Brown collaborator) and singer Vicki Anderson, there was never going to be any question of what career path the young Carlene would follow. To top it off, James Brown – the indisputable godfather of soul/funk – was actually her godfather!
Brown once said of Carlene: “She’s not just good. She’s phenomenal. Carleen Anderson is one of a kind.” That opinion was further endorsed years later when Amy Winehouse said: “You have to see Carleen Anderson at least three times in your life. I’d hang around all day just to listen to her sound check.”
Anderson’s latest album, Cage Street Memorial – The Pilgrimage – was given the thumbs-up by Worldwide FM DJ Gilles Peterson, when he bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award as well as it making it one of the station’s top 10 albums of the year.
Anderson’s band for this very special trip north includes the legendary Orphy Robinson on vibraphone, Rudimental’s Renell Shaw on bass, Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai plus Galliano’s Crispin Robinson on percussion. Quite a line-up.
On the same night, Newcastle’s Cluny has two special gigs, quite different in style but featuring internationally renowned acts.
Upstairs in the main room there is an inspired pairing of two highly distinctive and charismatic roots music bands. The hotwired Kentucky quartet The Legendary Shack Shakers bring their raucous rockabilly and pedal-to-the-floor Southern Gothic, which is powered by the fire-breathing harmonica man JD Wilkes.
Wilkes may be part Iggy Pop with the irreverent attitude of Jerry Lee Lewis. Their sound is a collision of blues, punk and country and this fiery foursome is a modern-day pressgang, recruiting fans with their uncompromising approach at every gig.
It is a testament to their appeal that they have been chosen as opening act for the likes of stadium acts like the Black Keys, Robert Plant and Hank Williams III.
The Shack Shakers are a big draw on their own but for an added bonus they are joined on the night by Alabama’s Pine Hill Haints, who blend folk, bluegrass, gospel, country and rock.
They use the term “Alabama ghost music” – a haint is a spectre/ghost – to describe what the instrument-swapping members produce, delving into some lost traditions to excavate old songs which are begging for revitalisation. You can bet the Cluny will be a vibrant place with these two bands on the bill.
With a deft change of pace (and volume), downstairs in Cluny 2 has the brilliant young bluegrass musician, Sierra Hull (accompanied by bassist Ethan Jodziewicz), also on Thursday.
Hull plays mandolin and guitar and sings her own material, something she has been doing for most of her life, and she is only in her mid-twenties. A former mandolin prodigy, Hull was introduced to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry by Alison Krauss – who knows all
there is to know about being a child prodigy – at the age of 11.
Within two years she was signed to premier roots music label Rounder Records. Krauss, who has won more Grammys than any other female artist since her teenage fiddle-playing years, said of Hull: “I think she’s endless. I don’t see any boundaries. Talent like hers is so rare, and I don’t think it stops. It’s round.”
The acknowledged US banjo-maestro, Bela Fleck, was also suitably impressed and he performs on (and produced) Hull’s last album, Weighted Mind, as does his wife Abigail Washburn, Krauss and Rhiannon Giddens. Sierra was last here in a duo format with Union Station’s Ron Block as part of last year’s SummerTyne Americana festival but this is her headline debut tour.
Sam Baker, Texas songwriting alchemist, fashions lyrical gold from the mundane and he will prove as much at Gateshead’s Caedmon Hall tomorrow. Baker, who has just released his fifth album, Land Of Doubt, is a true poet, with every word weighed and burnished for increased potency. Each of his albums demonstrates a lyrical economy which may even transcend minimalism. It is hardly surprising that each release he has been accompanied by some quite remarkable praise from the critics. Baker is a grounded, approachable musician (he is a painter, too, with his first major exhibition due in the autumn) with a gift for ferreting among the seemingly ordinary and coming-up with gems of a rare quality. Those gems may have an understated country/folk setting but they sparkle all the brighter given their author’s unfussy delivery. He also has a pretty sharp wit, which punctuates his performances. This is one of only a handful of UK shows.