Kings of folk return to bellow song
ALAN NICHOL HAS THE LATEST NEWS ON THE ROOTS MUSIC SCENE IN THE REGION
THE man who fronted the hugely-successful Bellowhead for 12 years, Jon Boden, is back on Tyneside tonight in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 with his reformed band The Remnant Kings.
There are several familiar names in the Remnant Kings line-up, as one might expect but more on that later.
Boden is the winner of 11 BBC Folk Awards for a range of endeavours as a musician/writer and solo performer – in the Spiers and Boden duo, with Eliza Carthy’s Ratcatchers and alongside his wife Fay Hield’s Hurricane Party.
Boden was born in Chicago but brought up in Hampshire and is a graduate of Durham University. He has been at the heart of the UK folk scene for decades and a large slice of that time was with the mighty Bellowhead, undoubtedly one of the biggest draws to emerge from the folk genre.
Boden formed the Remnant Kings in 2009 but the project was largely parked due to the success of Bellowhead.
He reformed the unit for his Afterglow album (released last month), which is an urban dystopia-themed follow-up to the more rural Songs From The Floodplain.
The Remnant Kings include former Bellowhead bandmates Sam Sweney and Paul Sartin. Leveret’s Rob Harbron is joined by the ever indemand bassist Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman, Cara Dillon) and Nicholls’s pal Richard Warren (from their band Kings of The South Seas).
They are joined by a string and brass section which includes members of the award winning Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band. Boden says: “Like my previous album Songs From The Floodplain, Afterglow imagines a near-future world where the luxuries and comfort of 21st-century life have become scarce and a harder, simpler existence now prevails.
“Afterglow is the story of a couple who are trying to find each other in the middle of a Bonfire Night street carnival in a crumbling, derelict city. I had a wonderful time recording it in Sheffield with the help of my band the Remnant Kings and Andy Bell in the producer’s chair.”
A single from the album, All The Stars Are Coming Out Tonight, made the BBC Radio 2 playlist.
Boden has composed music for theatre – including two RSC productions of A Winter’s Tale and Merchant of Venice – and composed the theme music for the successful BBC2 TV series Count Arthur Strong.
There is a special cross-cultural event in the same Hall 2 next Tuesday night when the internationally renowned Senegalese koraplayer Seckou Keita and the prolific Cuban pianist (and seven-times Grammy nominee), Omar Sosa, are the guests.
The virtuoso pairing is made even more attractive with the addition of Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles.
London-based Keita has won numerous accolades for a variety of albums which included a joint effort with Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch. Sosa has more than 20 albums to his name, moving in an ever-inquisitive exploration of jazz, Latin and world music. With three top-notch practitioners of their respective instruments, it should be quite a night.
On the Americana front, there is plenty of choice this week. Tonight sees a return to Cluny 2 of the Nashville-based Canadian Daniel Romano and his band.
He played drums as an eight year-old in the family band before eventually progressing to front of stage as guitarist/vocalist.
Romano has been something of a musical chameleon in recent years with his countryleaning output absorbing elements of folk, indie rock and punk. He has issued four albums in the last three years alone, the last of which is this year’s Modern Pressure.
Saturday night brings the idiosyncratic Californian Jim White to the Live Theatre. I hesitate to describe White as a singer/ musician/ recording artist (he is all of these things) because there is much more besides! Educated in New York and one-time Florida resident, he is a fine art photographer, author, record producer and film-maker.
He has also been a professional surfer, cab driver and catwalk model, too, in what must be a very busy life. His new album (his seventh in around 20 years) has the enigmatic title of Waffles, Triangles and Jesus.
He has his three-piece band Cicada Rhythm with him for this UK/European tour.
The last of the three country-influenced Americana acts is the Texan Kevin Montgomery, and he returns to the Cluny on Thursday night. The much-travelled Montgomery has been a New York subway busker, Nashville, songwriter and David Crosby opening act.
He has played here many times and built a strong fan base but he was last here in the summer with the E Street Band’s Garry Tallent and his band.
Gosforth Civic Hall next Thursday has a visit from the multi-talented young bluesman (although his range extends beyond that descriptor) Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton.
The Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist/ singer belies his 28 years with a depth of knowledge of, and proficiency at, all manner of blues themes - but with a particular penchant for the sounds of the 1920s/30s.
His live sets range across ragtime, country blues and Cajun music (his parents were originally from Louisiana).
Born in LA’s Watts district surely placed him at some remove from the original sources of much of that material but he has mastered the various forms on half a dozen instruments.
Without question he is the real McCoy and his mastery of the various forms suggests countless hours of listening to records from the era. Many good judges place him alongside much older exponents such as Taj Mahal, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Keb Mo’ and if these eyes/ears are any judge, that comparison is entirely justified.
He is a huge talent whether he plays piano, guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica or any other instrument he has with him.