Delphinidin. Theo Sieben

De Nederlandse muzikant Theo Sieben oogstte in 2012 veel lof met zijn plaat Invite To Dance, maar het dit jaar verschenen Delphinidin is mijn eerste kennismaking met zijn muziek. Het is een kennismaking die naar veel meer smaakt.
 
Theo Sieben maakt op Delphinidin muziek die vooral is beïnvloed door de Amerikaanse blues, maar de van oorsprong uit de Peel afkomstige muzikant geeft hier wel een eigen draai aan.
 
Na een kort akoestisch intro verrast Delphinidin direct met de bijzondere titeltrack, waarin invloeden uit de blues worden gecombineerd met bijzondere blazers (waaronder een Franse hoorn) en dromerig aandoende koortjes.
 
Waar veel Nederlandse muzikanten er helaas niet in slagen om hun afkomst te verbergen, is de wijze waarop Theo Sieben zijn teksten voordraagt van internationale allure. Hetzelfde geldt voor zijn muziek.
 
Het is knap hoe een aantal songs op Delphinidin redelijk traditioneel opent, maar langzaam maar zeker wordt voorzien van ingrediënten die de muziek van Theo Sieben een eigen geluid geven. Het is even knap hoe Theo Sieben op Delphinidin met pure en doorleefde tracks kan aansluiten bij de bluesmuziek uit een heel ver verleden.
 
Bij beluistering van de plaat waan je jezelf meer dan eens op een veranda aan de oevers van de Mississippi, in een broeierige plattelandskerk, of in een club in één van de belangrijke straten van New Orleans (zeker wanner de trombone van Joost Belinfante aanschuift) en eigenlijk maar zelden in Amsterdam (de huidige woonplaats van Theo Sieben en ook de plek waar de plaat werd opgenomen).
 
De basis van de muziek van Theo Sieben wordt gevormd door zijn fraaie gitaarspel (op vintage bluesgitaren) en zijn doorleefde maar ook veelzijdige stem, maar ook de bijdragen van onder andere blazers, andere snareninstrumenten, orgel, percussie en een incidentele vrouwenstem dragen nadrukkelijk bij aan de bijzondere sfeer op Delphinidin.
 
Theo Sieben heeft een plaat gemaakt die ver is verwijderd van onze jachtige samenleving. Wanneer je je open stelt voor de mooie klanken en indringende songs op de plaat staat de tijd even stil en is er alle aandacht voor de schoonheid van het moment. Dat kunnen we in deze dagen vol heftig nieuws wel even gebruiken, maar Delphinidin van Theo Sieben is wat mij betreft ook een blijvertje.

Erwin Zijleman

Je kunt hier luisteren naar 'She Loves 13s':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6qYHFSIHro

Blaudzun live. Patronaat Haarlem, Thursday 15 December 2016

Photo: Wo.

Blaudzun, Johannes Sigmund plus a six piece band, must have had a mixed experience on stage. That had little to do with the skills and interplay of the band. It had to do with the audience. In a not sold out Patronaat, the audience was willing, but not easily won over. That had everything to do with the new songs on 'Jupiter - Part 1'. Anyone who's read my review, knows that I like the album and the direct quality it has. It seemed that most people present did not agree with me or perhaps simply did not know the new songs (sufficiently).

Where I'm concerned it went a little differently. Having seen Blauzun on the tour following 'Heavy Flowers' and 'Promises Of No Man's Land', I was bothered by the uniformity of the new songs in a live setting. The music is what I call "hoekig" and I'm really struggling to find a word that corresponds to what I mean in English. Online translations present several words, but they just do not apply to music. So, let me point you to the title song of the new album and find out for yourself. It's about rhythm, with a lot of instruments all in that same rhythm, making the music uniform. On record there's more variation due to the mix allowing instruments to escape that uniformity. Live the mix was less favourable in Patronaat. The lush arrangements that were on stage especially on the 'Heavy Flowers' tour, when Blaudzun simply blew me away, were all gone.

Photo: Wo.

And then it happened. Just when I started thinking it's time something happens here, the band went into a 100% rhythm outing, jolting the audience from its relative stupor and inducing a kind of African trance, that was cheered on loudly when it was over.

With more and more older numbers being let into the set, the enthusiasm grew as well. Something all acts run into when they progress in their careers, the legacy recordings everyone wants to hear over the new songs. Even I was struck by that feeling.

'Heavy Flowers' featured very prominently later in the set, which got the room wild. Sing-a-longs started happening. Smiles and dancing all around. Despite the much more elementary set up of the band, despite seven people on stage, yes, the music definitely came alive. The band seemed to relax more as well. Perhaps we were too early in the touring scheme? Who will tell? With three encores we were spoiled but paid back in kind: 100% surrender to the band.

Back to 'Jupiter - Part 1', part 2 was announced as being in the making and to be released soon, Blaudzun does what was totally normal in the 60s, recording, touring, releasing all in one. Things will come alright with the songs. Playing the album once again while writing, I'm again enjoying the album without a doubt. When the now new and the older songs are blended more in future gigs, Blaudzun fans will enjoy them all. The songs have power, rhythm and style. It just takes time to familiarise and let's not forget the extremely powerful legacy to contend with. At the close of 2016 Blaudzun remains one of the more interesting acts of NL. Foreign readers, you should try it sometime.

Wo.

I'll Carry For You / Little Brothers. Chip Taylor

De Amerikaanse singer-songwriter Chip Taylor maakt al sinds het begin van de jaren 70 platen en heeft inmiddels een aardige stapel platen op zijn naam staan.
 
Het is een stapel waarvan ik er hooguit een handvol in de kast heb staan, waaronder de platen die Chip Taylor maakte met Carrie Rodriguez (van wie ik wel bijna alle platen in huis heb), maar de platen die ik van hem heb zijn erg goed.
 
Chip Taylor werd 76 jaar geleden als James Wesley Voight geboren in New York. Zijn vader was een professioneel golfer en de Voight familie telt verder flink wat acteurs. In beide disciplines kon James Wesley zich niet meten met de besten, waarna hij zijn heil zocht in het schrijven van songs.
 
Dat doet hij als Chip Taylor sinds het eind van de jaren 50 en niet zonder succes. Chip Taylor schreef in eerste instantie vooral songs voor anderen en heeft met Wild Thing en Angel Of The Morning in ieder geval twee klassiekers op zijn naam staan.
 
De afgelopen jaren is Chip Taylor behoorlijk productief en onlangs bracht hij zelfs twee platen tegelijk uit. I’ll Carry For You en Little Brothers blijken verrassend sterke platen en het zijn wat mij betreft platen die behoren tot het beste dat de afgelopen tijd in het genre is verschenen.

Chip Taylor maakt op zijn twee nieuwe platen vooral fluisterzachte songs. Het zijn songs die het moeten doen met een bijzonder ingetogen instrumentatie en de vaak wat breekbare stem van Chip Taylor, die soms gezelschap krijgt van mooie vrouwenstemmen (waaronder de prachtstem van Shaye Zadravec; een van de vele jonge protegees van Chip Taylor).
 
Zowel I’ll Carry For You en Little Brothers doen qua sfeer en songs wel wat denken aan de platen die Johnny Cash in zijn laatste levensjaren maakte, al zijn alle songs op de platen van Chip Taylor gloednieuw en zelf geschreven.

Chip Taylor is de afgelopen jaren niet alleen productief in de studio, maar staat ook veel op het podium, wat een inspiratiebron is geweest voor veel mooie of indringende verhalen. I’ll Carry For You en Little Brothers zijn zoals gezegd geen platen vol muzikale hoogstandjes, maar de uiterst sobere instrumentatie op de platen is wel bijzonder smaakvol en uiterst trefzeker en blijft ook overeind wanneer Chip Taylor de vocalen in een aantal tracks achterwege laat. De sobere instrumentatie past prachtig bij de stem van Chip Taylor, die flink weet te ontroeren met zijn mooie verhalen en zijn emotievolle stem.
 
Als ik moet kiezen voor een van de twee platen kies ik op dit moment voor I’ll Carry For You, maar kiezen is gelukkig niet nodig en bovendien ontlopen de platen elkaar qua niveau niet. Chip Taylor maakt indruk met zijn enorme productiviteit, maar de twee platen die hij onlangs heeft uitgebracht zijn ook nog eens wonderschoon. Een must voor iedere liefhebber van Amerikaanse rootsmuziek.

Erwin Zijleman

I'll carry for you en Little Brothers zijn hier verkrijgbaar:

http://trainwreckrecords.com/store/

Hair. Original Broadway Cast

Wo. takes us back again to his early youth and the music he encountered while listening to Radio Veronica and its Top 40, Morse bleeps from fishing boats and all. This time it is the "The American Tribal  Love-Rock Musical Hair" that is the centrepiece of his attention.

"Darling", that is how the hardrock version of 'Hair' by Amsterdam based rock band Zen started, a song I heard for the first time in the late fall of 1968. It entered on spot 40, the cheating spot to push a Dutch record, but soon after landed on the #1 spot of the Top 40 in January 1969. 'Hair' was one of at least five hits that stem from the musical that made it to the charts, making it perhaps the most successful musical, chartwise, in The Netherlands.

I'll admit upfront that I'm cheating again from my original rules. I know the album for decades, as my late uncle Ben had the album at the time, although I did not start to appreciate it until the late 70s. I just did not have the stamina for albums at the time. So many unknown songs (and in different versions than the songs I knew) was more than my 9 year old patience could handle. Singles and the radio were just perfect, thank you.

In this century I have seen the musical twice and both times was moved to tears by the music. For unknown reasons to me, except that I notice that music I know from that age, seems to do that to me in specific circumstances. It touches on a special place in my brain, something gone for ever, with people that are no longer here and the music that is. Whether that explains it, I really do not know.

Hair. It stands for hippies, full frontal nudity, peace, love, happiness and anti-Vietnam rallies. A world without worries or so it seems until major world issues impend doom for youth. In that it caught the sign of the times in several ways. In 2016 we know that the hippie era only lasted for two years and was killed in Altamont. The ideas that were more practical or fair are all around us, though they are, sometimes to my sincere astonishment, still being fought by Christians (peace and love?, remember?) and conservatives alike. Sometimes in most violent ways. The two never even met somewhere in the middle.

Hair stands for fantastic songs and melodies. The music that Galt MacDermot composed is so special, so vibrant, so alive that it is almost beyond comprehension. There is so much emotion, optimism and youthfulness oozing out of it all, that it is impossible not to become infected by the joy of it all. Not to want to grow your hair and just take to the streets and see what happens. Boy, did I want to grow my hair when I was 9 years old. That was another three years away, before my mother gave up the struggle. And dreamt about being a hippie (whatever that was). "As long as I could grow my hair" and wear a flowered shirt.

The storyline, thin as it may be, was totally past me, then. I just knew those singles from the radio and putting all the dimes and cents aside, was able to buy 'Hair', the single, in its last charted week of over five months in total. Just in time and have it to this day. That fantastic, raucous, rock version with that wild lead guitar. It had nothing much to do with the original version, which I heard for the first time in the cover version of a band called The Cowsills; and hated it. The story is still thin, but aligns with 1968. Like "Jupiter with Mars" in Aquarius'. It is that simple. We all know now what was about to happen. How many people died, the protests, the war, everything. Claude, the guy in the musical, dies in Vietnam to.. That this musical touches on racial issues? On being high and have inner and outer body experiences? On free love and to have children out of wedlock? What did I know!? Perhaps a little more than I think now, but certainly not all.

That all changed. Foremost though, I simply love all the songs now. From the beautiful 'Aquarius' to the naive 'Frank Mills', the biting 'Ain't Got No' and the explosive ending in the melancholy, sad, yet so vibrant 'Let The Sun Shine In'. There is such richness in the melodies, in the singing, the harmonies. I simply do not know a better musical, o.k. 'Jesus Christ Superstar' perhaps. (That I'm to see as a musical for the first time coming January.) The range of emotions that is touched upon is phenomenal.

Again, that then almost 40 year old (now 88 year old), father of four children and house dad all around, Galt MacDermot, was able to tap into something that he had no knowledge of at all, astonishes me most. He wrote the music that will be remembered forever as the epitome of hippiedom. Rado and Ragno, who wrote the lyrics, were (old) hippies. Hair is their concept, let's not forget that, but the real strength of the musical lies in the songs. They will live forever.

Wo

For those not familiar with that single that opened the musical for me in 1968, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO8cMRbDkfE

We're All Gonna Die. Dawes

It's a truth as a cow, as we say in NL. There is only one certainty in life. On the moment a living creature is born it's a certainty that he or she will die. Some sooner some later. "That's a nice song", somewhat sardonically, my girlfriend commented when the title phrase came by in one of the songs. With my answer we're back where I just started this review with.

Dawes has playing in my cd player since a couple of weeks. Not for the first time. Its album 'Nothing Is Wrong' found itself there also in 2012 and into one of the very first posts on this blog. After that I lost track of the band, until this fall.

Don't expect an extremely enthusiastic review though. Don't run off either. Dawes gives me the same musical feeling like a band as The Eagles does. Like Crosby & Nash do. Californian music from the 70s. Near perfection but something is missing for me. Excepting the very, very best songs like 'Hotel California' of course. Dawes has that same inclination towards perfection that can take the life out of a song.

Having that off my chest I can take a listen to all behind that perfection. Like the title song. Dark, brooding in a sort of jazzy setting with the vocal delivered in a high voice. The song is empty, more mood then instruments. A lot happens in that silence, with all sorts of accents that fly in and out of my ears when listening on the headset. And all that from just a, rather robotic sounding, snare drum, in the centre of the mix. "It's not that big a deal. We are all gonna die". Yes, but this song will live forever.

We're All Gonna Die has a starlist of guests. Blake Mills, Erwin Zijleman's favourite record of 2014, and bandmember of the pre-Dawes band, Simon Sawes, produces and plays or sings on most of the tracks. Jim James, Brittany Howard, Will Oldham and the ladies of Lucius are all present here in a song. It says something on the status of Dawes, although the band is not that big. It is known and appreciated.

Singer Taylor Goldsmith has a voice that just fits west-coast rock. He could have played in any of the big bands of that era and would have fitted perfectly. His voice is sort of a giveaway. The music is just as thought out as the music then, but that doesn't mean that it's uninspired. 'Picture Of A Man', has a soulful organ, played by Lee Pardini and a hint at funk and calypso. The vocals by Lucius and Mandy Moore add to the relaxed atmosphere with a hint at tension hovering in the background.

Expect more of these surprises that take care of putting me at ease with We're All Gonna Die. It has all these well thought out elements that make the album interesting to listen to. 'Less Than Five Miles Away' is one of the best songs on this album. The build-up is flawless. The great bass part, played by Mills, drives this song, the acoustic guitar builds from it and then all these accents join and the tempo seems to go up, because of the instrumentation that is added, before it all goes down in volume again. This song is so smooth yet so surefire good in its execution that I am truly enthusiastic each time I'm hearing it.

'When The Tequila Runs Out' is a great title of course. And that just before I travel to Mexico for the first time soon*. (Don't like the stuff, so I don't care.) The rhythm spells the concern, although they're drinking champagne in the meantime it seems. Another song that testifies to the fact that Dawes is far from a one trick pony. The band has a few voices to tap into, without having to force itself. The Eagles look around the corner again strongly in this song.

So overlooking it all. We're All Gonna Die is a perfectly produced album. At times a bit too perfect to my taste, but with enough left to enjoy. It may be a good thing for the band to find a few percent more of an own voice. That may be the final step it needs to become more special. In the meantime I'm going to put the Dawes albums on again sometime soon.

Wo.

You can listen to 'We're All Gonna Die' here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3_PMOwK3Zo

* Having returned, I can state that the running out part isn't likely any time soon. The staggering numbers of production in and around the village of Tequila will prevent it.