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PLAYING OUT LOUD!
ARTICLES
Johnny Winter - The Brook, Southampton
- Sunday April 29.
 One
of a pair of blues-rock legends from the USA makes an appearance at The Brook
later this month on Sunday April 29. Johnny Winter’s contribution to the blues
genre was recognised with his induction into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame
in 1988.
Johnny Winter was born John Dawson Winter III on February 1944 in Beaumont
Texas. Like his brother Edgar he was born an albino. He began performing with
Edgar in a band called Johnny and The Jammers, releasing a single “School Day
Blues.” During this period he was able to see performances by classic blues
artists like Muddy Waters, BB King and Bobby Bland. He developed a raw and
savage style of blues guitar playing.
In 1968 Johnny began playing in a trio with bassist Tommy Shannonr and drummer
Uncle John Turner. The trio built up a big reputation, leading to their
appearance in Woodstock in 1969. By this time, Johnny had met stars like Jimi
Hendrix and Jim Morrison of The Doors; in fact Johnny can be heard on the
infamous Hendrix bootleg, “Woke Up This Morning and Found Myself Dead.”!
By the early 1970s Johnny had made a couple of well received albums and became a
record producer, producing two Muddy Waters albums.
He achieved a sales peak in 1971 with the gold-selling “Live/Johnny Winter” and
returned in 1973 with 2Still Alive and Well” his highest-charting album. In the
'80s he switched to the blues label Alligator for three albums, and has since
recorded for the labels MCA and Pointblank/Virgin.
The early-2000s were quiet as far as new Winter recordings were concerned, but
there were a number of significant reissues. Alligator issued the best of their
years with the artist as Deluxe Edition in 2001, Columbia/Legacy covered his
1969-1971 period with their 2002 release Best of Johny Winter, and Fuel 2000
came up with Winter's earliest recordings and compiled them on 2003's Winter
Essentials 1960 - 1967. Sony reissued Winter's 1969 self-titled album with five
bonus tracks in 2004, the same year the man returned with his first new album in
nearly eight years, “I’m a Bluesman.”
The archival reissues continued with Fuel's Introduction to Johnny Winter in
2006, which collected sides Winter recorded in his pre-Columbia years between
1960 and 1967 for the Dart, KCRO, Frolic, Todd, Hall-Way, and Pacemaker
imprints. All have served to put Johnny in the higher echelons of blues-guitar
fame.
Support for the Johnny Winter gig at The Brook, comes from another world class
blues guitarist, Larry Miller. Tickets are available via 02380 555366.
Stevie Winwood - Wedgewood Rooms,
Portsmouth - Wednesday April 25.
 A
musician who’s been around since the 1960s and is still as good as ever comes to
Portsmouth’s Wedgewood Rooms later this month. Stevie Winwood, one-time member
of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic plays a gig there on Wednesday April 25.
A massive talent even as a teenager, Stevie started in the music business while
still a teenager as part of the Birmingham rhythm and blues scene, playing the
Hammond organ and guitar and backing blues singers like Muddy Waters, John Lee
Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf on British tours.
At 15 Stevie became a member of the Spencer Davis Group with his older brother
Muff, co-writing and singing on a string of hits like ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ and
‘I’m A Man’ before leaving to form Traffic with Chris Wood, Jim Capaldi and Dave
Mason. Stevie also played on Jimi Hendrix’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and
‘Voodoo Chile.’ He also gave a powerful organ performance on Joe Cocker’s
massive hit ‘With A Little Help From My Friends.’
In 1969 Stevie formed Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech,
a short-lived band that morphed into Ginger Baker’s Air Force. The latter band
also had a short career before Stevie turned solo. Another spell with Traffic
followed before Stevie produced his first solo album in 1977, following it up
with the albums ‘Arc of a Diver’ and ‘Talking Back To The Night in 1980 and 1982
respectively. Both were hit albums as was ‘Back In The High Life’ and ‘Higher
Love.’
At the peak of his commercial success, Stevie moved to Virgin Records and
released ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Refugees Of The Heart.’ Both the album ‘Roll With
It’ and the title track hit No 1 on both the album and singles chart in the
summer of 1988. He recorded another album with Jim Capaldi released under the
Traffic name, ‘Far From Home,’ then resumed his solo career with his final
Virgin album ‘Junction Seven.’
In the present millennnium Stevie has released another studio album ‘About Time’
and a DVD in 2005.
Curtis Stigers - The Anvil, Basingstoke
- Thursday April 26.
 Curtis
Stigers, who appears at The Anvil in Basingstoke on Thursday April 26 is at the
forefront of a new generation of American singers. With one of the most
distinctive voices in music, the singer/saxophonist/songwriter pushes the
boundaries of conventional jazz performers and expands the repertory creating
modern standards. His latest album ‘Real Emotional’ sees Curtis return with some
of his strongest work to date.
'Real Emotional' showcases Curtis Stigers's talent as a writer of original
material and as an interpreter of modern standards by Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris,
Tom Waits, Mose Allison, Paul Simon, Randy Newman and Hoagy Carmichael. The
album was released in the UK last month and songs from it will be featured in a
25 date concert hall tour of the UK and a special live broadcast by BBC Radio 2.
"This is my niche, my specialty," says Curtis. "I have a great love and an
eclectic knowledge of a wide array of songwriters and musical genres, and I know
how to bring them all together into one cohesive sound. I want to follow in the
footsteps of my heroes. This is what Ella and Billie Holiday did. This is what
Sinatra and Nat Cole did. This is even what Miles and Coltrane and nearly all of
the great jazz artists have done. They've taken the popular songs of their
generation and created something new from them. I know a lot about Rock music
and Alt Country and Urban Blues and Folk music and Punk Rock. So I use that
knowledge. And that's what I'm steadily becoming known for."
Throughout his career, Curtis has been celebrated for a surprisingly wide
variety of impressive accomplishments - from his early pop chart success with
several self-penned, top-ten singles and hit albums and an appearance on the
soundtrack for "The Bodyguard" (one of the biggest selling albums of all time),
to Downbeat Magazine naming him as one of the jazz genre's "Rising Male Stars"
and the London Times selecting his last jazz recording, ‘You Inspire Me’ as the
number one album of 2003. He's toured the world in concert with such renowned
pop artists as Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and Prince, while also
sharing the bill with such jazz greats as Nancy Wilson, Randy Brecker, and Toots
Thielmans.
What distinguishes Stigers from many singers today is his ability to craft and
create beautiful music of his own. "What I'm after is a complex and
ever-changing thing, which makes it difficult to define who I am,” says Curtis.
“I sing beautiful love songs, but I'm not really a crooner. I write, but I'm not
just a singer-songwriter. I'm certainly a jazz singer but so much more, too. I
grew up on Stevie Wonder and Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Cash and Led Zeppelin, Joni
Mitchell and Coleman Hawkins, B.B. King and Elton John, Joe Williams and The
Clash, Elvis Costello and Sonny Rollins, Tom Waits and Steely Dan, Louis
Armstrong and Ray Charles, and on and on. That's who I am and there's nobody
else like me. That's how I want my music to sound. Like me."
Electric Soft Parade - The Joiners,
Southampton - Sunday April 29.
 Brighton
band The Electric Soft Parade, who play at The Joiners in Southampton on Sunday
April 29, are masters of reinvention. They push their own abilities as
performers and writers, whilst still somehow never losing their own inimitable
traits.
Brothers Tom and Alex White, who lead the group, are tireless musicians, intent
on breaking musical systems, formulas and public perceptions. Their 2002 debut
album, ‘Holes In The Wall’ picked up Q best new band award and a Mercury Music
Prize nomination. In 2003 the White Brothers released their second album ‘The
American Adventure’ which was a further slice of futuristic rock, but this time
recorded in analogue. It replaced the synthetic pop of its predecessor with the
analogue growl of rawer recording techniques. It received further acclaim and
again saw them tour extensively in the interim.
The tail end of 2005 saw the release of the 6-track ‘Human Body’ EP and the
critics loved it, but it was just a taster. Their third album ‘No Need To Be
Downhearted’ has just been released and has been very well received.
As Tom White explains: “What has made the whole experience different for us is
that it wasn’t recorded in a professional studio: there was no budget. I don’t
know if people will hear that in the album, but obviously we do and it’s great –
we’ve succeeded in appropriating all of the sounds and techniques you’d find in
places like Abbey Road, but with an absolute minimum of money and resources.”
With their knowledge of recording equipment, this was the brothers’ first real
solo endeavour; every instrument, all the engineering and production was done by
the brothers themselves, it’s a DIY release in a very pure sense, though
sonically and structurally it’s anything but primitive.
From the soft opening tones of ‘No Need To Be Down Hearted (Part 1)’ through the
fairy-tale narrative of ‘Woken By A Kiss’ to the piano rock of ‘Cold World’,
there’s a universe of sound here, all underpinned by the White Brothers endless
harmonies and that feeling that their records somehow come from the future, even
when they’re paying homage to Americana or French Cinema, as in ‘Come Back
Inside.’
The unceasing energy of these boys shines through in all their endeavours: both
continue to play with Eamon Hamilton and Marc Beatty in funktry-punk-disco
supergroup Brakes whilst contributing to a number of other Brighton-based
projects, too: Alex recording and playing live with noise-harmonists Actress
Hands, Tom providing drums for instrumental hip-hop collective Restlesslist. And
now, with a brand new album of their own, they’re at it again, this time as
space-age power-balladeers and digital terrorist-rockers. The world is still
their oyster.
Thee More Shallows - The Railway Inn,
Winchester - Saturday April 28.
 Upcoming
American band Thee More Shallows play a gig at The Railway Inn in Winchester on
Saturday April 28.
Thee More Shallows met in 2001 at a concert where all three were playing with
other bands. Finding their fixations compatible, the trio convened in a basement
practice space in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, and along with Tadas
Kisielius, made 2002's ‘A History of Sport Fishing.’ Composed and recorded
entirely during a two-week period between the hours of midnight and 9 a.m., the
band took an interest in long-format, classically-influenced music (Debussy and
Mussorgsky, slow-core, dub, Krautrock, house) and developed it into something
immersive, more like a film than a collection of songs, yet still bound to pop
structure and lyrical form. After tours of the US and UK, they built a studio in
West Oakland, and began work on their second record. Though they started with a
simple-enough list of songs, the process of recording them, revising them,
adding to them, and tweaking them again, eventually took two gruelling years.
The result, 2005's ‘More Deep Cuts’ is a world in and of itself. Bursting with
huge atmospherics and the tiniest details, it takes almost as much time to fully
absorb as it did to make it.
In 2007, the respective mythologies of Thee More Shallows and Anticon come
together. A mutual love of one another's oeuvres was realized when Dee
discovered that the neatly dressed man living behind his house was Anticon's
very own Odd Nosdam. After numerous collaborations, including a remix by Odd
Nosdam (with Why?) on TMS's Monkey vs. Shark EP, string arrangements by Dee on
Odd's remix for Boards of Canada, and contributions to both Nosdam's Burner and
Why?'s Elephant Eyelash, talk of a TMS release on Anticon came naturally.
On Book of Bad Breaks, instead of slow-core, Dee's storytelling is this time set
to a backdrop of Wire's 154 and early Bowie. Huge sound scapes and minute
details still flesh out the sound, but they're animated on a bounding skeleton
of double-time drumming and razor thin drones. And thanks to the one-track minds
of TMS, the results are spectacular.
Loudon Wainwright III - Southampton
Guildhall, Southampton - Sunday April 22.
 Prolific
American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III makes an appearance at
Southampton Guildhall on Sunday April 22. Originally inspired by seeing Bob
Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1962, Loudon has recorded over 20 albums
on eleven different labels, gaining a huge reputation as a live performer with
his witty, self mocking style.
Loudon was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and first began performing in
folk clubs in Boston and New York in the late 1960s. He got his first record
deal with Atlantic Records and released his first album in 1970. Loudon has been
particularly popular in the UK since appearing as the resident singer with
comedian Jasper Carrott in his TV show ‘Carrott Confidential in the late 1980s.
Loudon has also appeared in numerous films including small parts in ‘The
Aviator,’ ‘Big Fish,’ ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ and in the TV series
‘Undeclared.’ He is also the father of singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright and
daughter Martha Wainwright through his marriage to Canadian singer-songwriter
Kate McGarrigle. Martha wryly states that her song ‘Bloody Mother Fucking
Asshole’ is about her father!
Over the years, Wainwright's humour and engaging stage persona have made him a
cult figure and a concert and festival favourite. He moved to Arista Records for
‘T Shirt’ (1976) and ‘Final Exam’ (1978), on which he was backed by a rock band,
but departed the major labels for a more appropriate home on the folk-based
indie ‘Rounder for A Live 0ne’ (1980) and ‘Fame and Wealth’ (1983).
Loudon began to gain more notice in England than in the U.S., and he moved to
London in 1985. ‘I'm Alright’ (1985) and ‘More Love Songs’ (1986) were
co-produced by British singer/guitarist Richard Thompson. ‘Therapy’ (1989) found
Wainwright on the major label-distributed Silvertone imprint and back living in
the U.S., and he signed to Virgin Records' Charisma subsidiary for ‘History’
(1992) and the live ‘Career Moves’ (1993). ‘Grown Man,’ his 15th album, was
released in 1995, followed three years later by ‘Little Ship.’
‘The Last Man on Earth’ followed in 2001, and the live album ‘So Damn Happy’
marked his debut for Sanctuary in 2003. Another studio album, Here Come the
Choppers’ was released in 2005.
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Featured artists:
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Johnny Winter
The Brook, Southampton
Sunday April 29
Stevie Winwood Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
Wednesday April 25
Curtis Stigers
The Anvil, Basingstoke Thursday April 26
Electric Soft Parade The Joiners,
Southampton
Sunday April 29
Thee More Shallows The Railway Inn, Winchester
Saturday April 28
Loudon Wainwright III Southampton Guildhall,
Southampton
Sunday April 22 |
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