A Ferry stylish SHOW
Roxy Music star still suits the grand stage, serving up a heady cocktail of live tracks
BRYAN FERRY: Royal Albert Hall 2020
Verdict: Polished live souvenir
VALERIE JUNE: The Moon And Stars: Prescription For Dreamers (Fantasy)
Verdict: Perfect remedy
WHEN Bryan Ferry and his band played the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020, none of those present could have foreseen that the triumphant climax to his UK tour would signal the end of normal live music for the next year.
The famous old London venue turned 150 on Monday, but the second of Ferry’s two nights was the last full-capacity show at the hall before lockdown. Those gigs have now been commemorated on an excellent live album, with proceeds going to the singer’s inactive touring musicians and road crew.
Available from Ferry’s website ( bryanferry. com) on CD (£15), double vinyl (£35) and digitally, it’s a perfect companion to last year’s Live At The Royal Albert Hall 1974, which captured his first solo tour.
That album concentrated on 1960s pop covers, with Bryan putting his own spin on hits by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and Smokey Robinson. This one leans more heavily on his Roxy Music material (12 of the 18 tracks), and it is to Ferry’s credit that no songs crop up on both albums.
He dives into Roxy’s game-changing early 1970s albums with relish. The interior designer Nicky Haslam once said that the stylish singer, unlike most rock stars, was more likely to redecorate a hotel room than trash it. And Ferry curates his Roxy legacy — a heady cocktail of Hollywood glamour, Fifties revivalism and art-rock — with respect and a fine ear for detail.
The Thrill Of It All, one of three songs here from 1974’s Country Life, is greeted with a ripple of applause before its driving grooves drown out any crowd noise. The Bogus Man, from 1973’s For Your Pleasure, is a futuristic jazz-rock number that retains its power to surprise almost five decades after it was first recorded. Roxy’s smoother later hits — Dance Away, Avalon and Same Old Scene — also stand up well, although the excitement levels dip a little on lesser-known solo efforts such as Hiroshima and a sluggish Your Painted Smile.
THE mood picks up on two Dylan covers, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Make You Feel My Love, both accompanied by Ferry’s tuneful harmonica. Like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who covered Dylan on the Grammywinning lockdown album All The Good Times, he sings these songs as well as the man himself.
He finishes by returning to Roxy’s golden age. Street Life is remarkably faithful to the studio original. Much the same goes for Virginia Plain, albeit with more elaborate backing vocals than on the original 1972 single. Editions Of You adds a rocking finale.
Time hasn’t dimmed Ferry’s panache. And, with many of this year’s big concerts being rescheduled for 2022, it’s a reminder of the nights out we’re still missing. n GETTING the seal of approval from Bob Dylan is the ultimate accolade for any budding songwriter. For Valerie June the thumbs-up arrived four years ago, when Dylan, in an interview on his website, said she was a performer he really admired.
That endorsement came on the back of the Tennessee-raised singer’s second major album, 2017’s The Order Of Time. If Bob enjoyed that one, it’s a fair bet he’s going to be bowled over by its sequel.
Despite its cumbersome title, The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers is spellbinding — an LP infused with a sense of wonder that may come to define June’s career. The 39-year-old has been viewed as a down-home folk artist, country singer and new-age hippy. Her foundations are in gospel (she sang in church) and soul (her dad was a promoter who put on gigs by Bobby Womack and Prince). She once made a record with blues-rocker Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys) and has described her sound as ‘organic moonshine roots music’.
The Moon And Stars, out on Fantasy Records, takes her somewhere else entirely. Almost symphonic in its scope, it’s a concept album about bruised romance and high hopes.
Sung in a distinctive Southern twang, it combines old-school soul, cosmic pop and R&B. Producer Jack Splash, who has worked with Alicia Keys in the past, adds polish without toning down the album’s freewheeling spirit.
It’s a perfect easing-of-lockdown record. There are mellow interludes and a field recording of mockingbirds singing by a window during quarantine. But the occasional meander is offset by rasping soul numbers that convey the sense life will get better once we allow ourselves to dream again.
The LP begins with a rhapsodic, three-song suite.
Stay opens with bluesy, bar- room piano before building into something grander thanks to Tennessee stalwart Lester Snell’s elegant string and flute arrangement.
That segues into a brief instrumental ‘meditation’ before June toasts a failed love affair that turned into a lasting friendship on the jazzy You And I.
The centrepiece is Call Me A Fool, an emotional duet with Carla Thomas. Memphis soul queen Carla sang the classic Tramp with Otis Redding aged 24 in 1967. Her presence here links American music’s past and its vibrant present: her soft backing vocals dovetail superbly with June’s raw and powerful voice. Acoustic love song Fallin’ brings another bout of yearning introspection — ‘dancing on the devil’s door, back again and wanting more’ — before the album goes into overdrive on a string of songs that accentuate the power of positive thought. Among them are pulsating Motown pastiche Smile and the other-worldly Within You, built around the glitchy drum loops of contemporary R&B. ‘I wanted to bring modern elements into the band-in-the-room approach I’ve taken in the past,’ says Valerie, who is now based in New York City. ‘I don’t make music to be awarded, or to win anybody’s love . . . it’s because dreaming keeps me inquisitive.’ She certainly captures the imagination here.