The Night Gate
Sixty years on, queen of country Loretta Lynn still sounds every bit as good as she did in her prime Fionashepherd
Welcome to our regular feature showcasing the talents of the nation’s best writers.
Emile Narcisse is pleased by his appearance. Vanity has always been a weakness. Where, perhaps, others see him as just another old man, he still perceives himself as the young Emile whose smile won hearts, whose blue-eyed looks turned heads. And after all, sixty-five is not so old. Vintage. Like a good wine, some men just get better with age. Were he not so focused on his reflection in the mirror as he adjusts his tie and straightens his collar, he might have been able to look beyond it and see the certainty of death that lies in wait. But pride and greed blind him to his fate.
He has chosen a room at the back of the hotel with a view of the river. Or, rather, its black slowmoving backwater broken only by the reflection of trees on the sliver of island beyond. On the far side of the island the River Dordogne, swollen by recent rains, makes a stately but more rapid progress towards the Atlantic two hundred and fifty kilometres to the west. But it is dark now, and he can see nothing beyond the glass.
He glances at his watch. Time to go. He feels a tiny, excited frisson of anticipation. But also doubt. Is it really possible that fate could have sent such good fortune his way? It is hard to believe. And, yet, here he is.
Floorboards creak softly beneath his shoes as he descends lightly to reception. The hotel is quiet, the tourist season a distant memory. A notice on the counter reminds customers that the hotel will be closed in just a few weeks for a full month. The annual congés. It will reopen in December in time for Christmas and la nouvelle année, if indeed Covid will allow for a celebration of either.
Narcisse glances through double French windows that open into the restaurant. Empty tables beneath cold yellow light, the chill October night pressing darkly against windows all along the far side. Not yet seven-thirty. Too early for the French to dine. But on his return he expects to eat, and crack open a celebratory bottle of Bordeaux. A car passes in the street outside. He drops his key on the counter, pleased that there is no one around requiring him to wear his mask. He fingers it in his pocket, glad to keep it there. He detests the damn thing, stuffy and claustrophobic. Yet, he knows, it is a significant barrier against the virus. And at his age he cannot afford to take any risks.
He does not see the man sitting in the bar, face obscured by a local newspaper, a half-drunk beer on the table in front of him. But as Narcisse steps out into the frosted air, the solitary drinker lowers his paper, rising to cross quickly to a door that leads to the terrace. From here he watches the art dealer make his way towards the palisade, breath billowing in the street lights. Anger burgeons in this man’s breast, a seething rage close to boiling point. The duplicitous peacock has no idea that Bauer is even here.
About the author
Peter May is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist and crime writer, whose books have sold more than two million copies in the UK and several million internationally. The Night Gate is published by riverrun on 16 March, price £20. For details of virtual events at Scottish bookshops, see www.petermay.co.uk
POP
Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough
Legacy ✪✪✪✪
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: All the Good Times
Acony Records ✪✪✪✪
Sananda Maitreya: Pandora’s Playhouse
Treehouse Publishing ✪✪✪
Mason Hill: Against the Wall 7Hz Recordings
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The queen of country sits regally on her throne on the cover of her 50th album. In a career which stretches back over 60 years, what more is there for Loretta Lynn to do or say? Perhaps nothing new but Lynn, one of the greatest country singers and songwriters of all time, can reiterate her evergreen riffs on domestic reality with her customary character.
Still Woman Enough, titled after her 2002 autobiography, is the fourth of a five album set for Legacy produced by John Carter Cash and her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell, and is billed as a celebration of the women of country. In practise, it is a celebration of Lynn and her influence, with the occasional superstar guest – such as Carrie Underwood and Reba Mcintyre on the opening title track – queuing up to defer to Lynn’s fire.
Still Woman Enough, co-written with Lynn Russell, is the only new number in a collection which revisits key songs from Lynn’s back catalogue, stretching as far back as her first single Honky Tonk Girl from 1960.
Lynn sounds completely at home in her natural territory of glorious twang, shuffling rhythm and true country tone. She recites the lyrics of her signature song Coal Miner’s Daughter over sonorous banjo backing and sounds half her age delivering the earthy bluegrass optimism of Carter family classic Keep on the Sunny Side.
Along the way, she testifies nobly on the country gospel of Where No One Stands Alone, indulges in the lush, freewheeling Nashville sound of I Wanna Be Free and throws some Tex Mex flavours into kitchen sink melodrama I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight.
Her musical descendant Margo Price relishes her part in the droll social commentary of One’s on the Way and Lynn finds a great match in Tanya Tucker for the pure attitude of You Ain’t Woman Enough. Still a badass.
In a good week for trusted Americana oracles, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings release a CD version of their first co-credited album – though the couple are so symbiotically entwined that it hardly matters what you call it.
The Grammy-nominated All The Good Times first popped up last year as an online lockdown treat, its selection of covers recorded at home on reel-to-reel tape with their customary mix of care and subtlety. Each takes a share of lead vocals, with Rawlings displaying a particular affinity for Bob Dylan on a bare bones rendition of Señor, its narrator’s uncertainty chiming with the times. Among other astute choices, the resonant requiem of traditional tune All The Good Times Are Past and Gone is countered by the warm positivity of gathering song Y’all Come, inviting a visit “when you can.”
Sananda Maitreya may not be a household name but the artist formerly known as Terence Trent D’arby is enjoying his commercial liberty – not least in creating this lengthy double album which covers cosmic jazz, an ode to his gonads and a game of rhyming bingo with Rod Steiger in its first 15 minutes.
His raspy soul pipes remain in good shape, as heard on the mild vocal gymnastics of Her Kiss, as well as his ear for a pop hook on a handful of tracks which jump out from an otherwise overstuffed pack.
Glasgow rock quintet Mason Hill deliver the streamlined goods on their accomplished debut album. No prizes for innovation here – Against the Wall features catchy, commercial, foot-on-the-monitor, fist-in-the-air fare, like Biffy Clyro never happened. Out of Reach is frontman Scott Taylor’s chance to show off some soul grit, while the old school shredding of Find My Way is a rare indulgence in a trim collection.
CLASSICAL HK Gruber: Percussion Concertos
Colin Currie Records ✪✪✪✪✪
Not so long ago, percussion concerts were few and far between. But with the explosion of virtuoso solo performers in recent decades, namely such Scots as Colin Currie and Evelyn Glennie, the repertoire has mushroomed. Here are two hugely engaging examples from the pen of anarchic Viennese composer HK Gruber, played by Currie. Rough Music dates back to the early 1980s, and is a menagerie of conflicting styles sculpted cinematically as one bracing, exhilarating rollercoaster ride. Currie’s partnership with the BBC Philharmonic (under Juanjo Mena) is edge-of-the-seat brilliant, but memorable mostly for its riotous flamboyance and infectious whimsy. He joins the same orchestra, under John Storgårds, for “into the open….”, written for Currie in 2010. As a tribute to Gruber’s late friend and mentor David Drew it elicits deeper, challenging thoughts, yet is anything but sombre.
Against the Wall features catchy, footon-the-monitor, fist-in-the-air fare, like Biffy Clyro never happened
Scheduled for what now feel like the notorious dates of 18 to 22 March 2020, last year’s outing of Bo’ness’s Hippodrome Silent Film Festival – or Hippfest, as it’s affectionately known – was one of the first artistic casualties of Covid-19. “Every day we were listening to news, and it was creeping closer and closer,” remembers Hippfest director Alison Strauss. “Our opening night ended up coinciding with the day that cinemas had to shut. It was heartbreaking.”
All the more heartbreaking, in fact, because 2020 would have been the festival’s tenth anniversary. Inspired by its home venue – Bo’ness’s elegant 1912 Hippodrome cinema – Hippfest has been bringing together littleknown silent movies with some of the world’s top live accompanists – as well as commissioning new scores from others fresh to the genre – to increasingly large and enthusiastic audiences.
And the central role of the Hippodrome cinema itself is something that Strauss is keen to continue in the 2021 festival – Hippfest’s tenth anniversary reborn, and now entirely online. “It really needs to bring in as much of the original concept as possible,” she explains, “so we’ve recorded some introductions inside the venue, and we’re also having a virtual behindthe-scenes tour.” Also planned are live Q&AS with the musicians taking part, plus a virtual festival hub where watchers can mingle.
But it’s the films and their related music that matter most, and it’s a particularly rich programme for 2021. Two Hippfest regulars – multi-instrumentalist Stephen Horne and pianist John Sweeney – accompany (respectively) Louise Brooks feature Prix de beauté and Russian comedy Chess Fever. And going online has allowed Strauss to invite larger ensembles who simply wouldn’t have fitted into the rather bijou Hippodrome. “Our opening night is Body and Soul with music from Wycliffe Gordon and his jazz orchestra, and for our closing night
we have Neil Brand’s orchestral score for Underground, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.”
Performances won’t be live – “it’s just too risky beaming people in from their living room in South London, for example,” Strauss admits – but she’s keen, where possible, to incorporate the musicians into the online feed. “They’ll be somewhere on the screen as well,” she says, “but it’ll vary from musician to musician.”
One particular highlight is the 1929 German film The Woman Men Yearn For, an early Marlene Dietrich feature (made a year before The Blue Angel). It’s accompanied by the quartet of musicians from the Frame Ensemble, led by pianist and silent movie expert Jonny Best, and is a collaboration with the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, which Best runs. Though pre-recorded, it’s an entirely improvised score, he explains. “When you collaborate with other musicians, you’ve got – in this case – four separate responses to the film.
You have to listen hard to each other to pick up clues as to where someone might be going next.”
He admits, however, that here’s a certain amount of pre-planning involved. “We want to be mentally prepared for the shape of the story, so we know where things are going, and how we want the audience to feel at the end. And it’s important to establish a musical style – there needs to be a musical logic underneath it that we can all understand.” In this case, their sound world is Kurt Weillstyle Weimar-era cabaret. “We like working in that 1920s style – you get a slightly distorted sense of harmony,” Best continues.
Both Best and Strauss point out that the musicians play an integral role in the silent movie experience. Rather than simply an accompaniment, Strauss says, “it’s an interpretation.” Best agrees: “You take a subjective position to what’s on the screen. What we do is more of a commentary, even more so because the music is continuous. We try to create a musical world that the audience can live in for the whole film – one with enough light and shade, enough loudness, quiet and space.”
“We like working in that 1920s style – you get a slightly distorted sense of harmony"
Hippodrome Silent Film Festival, 17-21 March 2021, online, www. hippodromecinema.co.uk