Spirit of the West info required
imj...@csc.anu.edu.au
A friend recently returned from Canada and has recommended a band called
'Spirit of the West', describing them as equivalent to Australia's 'Redgum'.
I would be very interested in learning more about them, and would especially
like to get a list a CD's (for me) and LP's (for my friend) that are available
in Australia. Any responses would be most welcome.
Many thanks in advance.
Ian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JA...@RSC.ANU.EDU.AU or IMJ...@CSC1.ANU.EDU.AU
Ian Jamie, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University,
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher' - No Wonder I've got No Hope
with apologies to Van the Man
Don Coolidge
>Hello,
> A friend recently returned from Canada and has recommended a band called
>'Spirit of the West', describing them as equivalent to Australia's 'Redgum'.
>I would be very interested in learning more about them, and would especially
>like to get a list a CD's (for me) and LP's (for my friend) that are available
>in Australia. Any responses would be most welcome.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
> Ian
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>JA...@RSC.ANU.EDU.AU or IMJ...@CSC1.ANU.EDU.AU
>Ian Jamie, Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University,
> Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Don't know about Australia per se, but here's what I've found in the States,
(with the medium I've bought it in listed; no guarantees as to the availability
of other media):
Tripping Up The Stairs (LP, Rounder Records)
Relatively early stuff. More Celtic influenced, less frenetic
than some later material. About half the album is really good,
but the rest is indistinguishable from a lot of other US or
Canadian Irish/Scottish wannabees. Rounder recently featured
this as a cut-out, so it may be hard to find...
Labour Day (CD, label ? - it's at home, after all...maybe
it's on Plant Life)
Fantastic stuff - very much like their live show. Powerful
words and music, getting into lots of social commentary. The
last song, ("Take It From The Source" ? - or is it "Wasted
Words"? ah, well, it _is_ still morning here... :^) is of a
slower tempo than most, but very effective in its presentation,
especially sinc John Mann (the vocalist and composer here) is
quite happpily married (you'll figure that out when you hear
the song :^).
Save This House (CD, label also ?)
They've added a fulltime bassist, and she's very good. On the
whole, this is not quite as good a disk as _Labour Day_, but
still wonderful. Includes the deliciously nasty "Mr Jones" (is
that the title? - sorry, my memory for titles and labels seems
to have been left at home this morning), all about how we treat
our mentally retarded citizens.
Early Material (CD, label ?)
As it says, earlier stuff. Comparable in quality to _Tripping
Up The Stairs_ (which is to say, about half great and half
average). Somehow, I play this one least of all, though I think
it's slightly superior to _Tripping_. (No one said I have to be
consistent).
Now, I'm not familiar with Redgum, but if they're anything like Spirit Of The
West, I'd appreciate a bit of background and discography on them!
I became a big SotW fan after seeing them at several Canadian folk festivals
(Calgary, Jasper, etc.). Their live show is amazing. They've got more energy
enthusiasm, and sheer talent than anyone I've seen since the original heyday
of Poco (rock) in the late '60s. Especially interesting is John Mann, the prime
vocalist and acoustic guitarist. He really bangs the living sh*t out of his
guitar, providing an unbeatable rhythm background for the other band members
to play against. He also wanders the stage, dancing and staggering, utterly
caught up in what he's doing, never missing a beat. He sings clearly and
passionately, and he and the flutist/bodhranist (mumbleJim? Kelley) write songs
that absolutely require that you think hard about the lyrics.
So, go get those disks!
(If you need detailed info, like the real labels and catalog numbers, send me
email and I'll get the data from home and respond in kind.)
Don Coolidge
cool...@speaker.wpd.sgi.com
Barbara J. Kratz
say, a mailing address for ordering info, or a list of albums... I have
seen one and only one album of theirs, several years ago, and have been
wondering what else they might have done since then...
.........................................................................
The best way of learning something Barbara J. Kratz
is to take a leap into the unknown Dept of Meteorology, Penn State
without looking back. bjk111@psuvm (bitnet)
- Yevgeny Yevtushenko bjk...@psuvm.psu.edu (internet)
Ellen Mitsue Eades
>(re Spirit of the West) a neutral review of _Tripping Up The Stairs_ and a
>more positive review of _Labour Day_ and _Save This House_
Actually, I felt exactly the opposite: that _Tripping Up The Stairs_ was
a very energetic and original reinterpretation of Celtic music, while
_Save This House_ and _Labour Day_ were much more mainstream rock and roll,
with less folk influences and less of an identifiable flavor.
_Save This House_ is on WEA (I have the cassette in front of me) and
except for "(Putting Up With) The Joneses" I didn't find much of the
album memorable the way that "An Honest Gamble/Tripping Up the Stairs,"
"Our Station," "When Rivers Rise" and "Homelands/Kesh Jig/Blackthorn Stick"
were memorable on _Tripping Up The Stairs_. _Labour Day_ I found to be
somewhere in the middle, but my preference was strongly for the first
album over the other two. I agree that the new bassist on _Save This
House_ is very good.
I don't necessarily prefer the acoustic to the electric sound; I really
enjoy my Boiled in Lead albums. However, I miss the mix of traditional
and rock that Spirit of the West used to do so well. The move toward
straight original rock and roll makes them more accessible to the mainstream,
but tastes like soup without salt to me.
Ellen Eades
Don Coolidge
Well, the titles of the albums we listened to match, but little else does.
Different strokes, different folks, I guess. :^)
I would strongly disagree with your categorizing of _Labour Day_ and _Save
This House_ as rock and roll - or mainstream anything. Gay bashing, ecological
disaster, mental retardation, and so on just don't appear everyday in the pop
parade. They used to moreso in the 60s and early 70s, and do so somewhat more
now than five years ago, but today it's still mostly sexndrugsnrocknroll, of
which there is none in any SotW work. Their subject matter has become highly
political and far from the mainstream (or do you count Jackson Browne and Bruce
Cockburn as mainstream artists, too? I don't. Nor would they).
Nor has their music changed much from album to album - it's just gotten a bit
more electrified. But the flute, the acoustic guitar, the bodhran, the mandolin
and mandocello, are all still there, as are many of the Celtic rhythms. Jigs
and reels abound - check the liner notes and lyric sheets (or better yet, get
up and dance to them!). I wouldn't call any of it rock and roll. Nor would MTV,
or even Rolling Stone (not that either of those august opinions is worth a
damn, anyhow... :^). It's still Celtic music; it's just a bit louder and more
creatively arranged.
Maybe the reason I found much of _Tripping Up The Stairs_ bland and derivative
is that I've also been listening to a lot of Dougie MacLean lately (especially
_Real Estate_), as a positive example of what Celtic music is and can be. I
really don't care to hear the same rythms, harmonies, themes, and musical
arrangements, endlessly recycled with different words and melodies, by what
I referred to as Celtic wannabees. (Of course, one person's recycling is
another's reinterpretation. It's all individual taste, after all.) I'm
apparently interested in somewhat more originality within partricular genres
than you are.
It sounds to me as though you value the, lets's say, traditional-flavored
practitioners of Celtic-based folk music more than the less restrictive ones
(I almost said "innovative ones") - even though you feel that TUTS is an
"...energetic and original reinterpretation..." Me, I don't care to endlessly
reinterpret. I'd rather build on that base to create something recognizably of
that pedigree, but grown beyond the narrow bounds of its roots. (I love my
father, but I'd never live his life.)
To expand on this, let me add that I thought the material on TUTS was extremely
well done and, yes, energetic. I just found it lacking in creativity. As such,
_that's_ the album that to me was soup without salt, pepper, or even herbs
(lots of noodles, though :^) With _Labour Day_ and _Save This House_, SotW
seems to me to have finally found their voice, and the flavor is much more
pronounced and original. Also much more like their excellent live performances.
If you haven't seen them live, you should! (Microsoft's not all that far from
the Vancouver Folk Music Festival...)
On this same topic, but regarding a different artist, how do you react to
Stephen Fearing? His Celtic vision is also somewhat non-traditional, and
colored with jazz rather than social commentary ("Dublin Bay" notwithstanding),
but it's yet another excellent look at what Celtic music can be.
(Uh-oh, are we going to re-introduce the quasi-religious "If It Ain't
Traditional, It Ain't Folk Music! Amen!" flamewar? Better pull on my asbestos
undies and issue a call for Sancho to join me... :^)
Finally (sorry this is so long!), you're correct about the record label. As I
said in that first post, I wasn't sure of either the labels or a few titles, it
being rather early in the wrong morning for me. So, I went home and got all the
data, which I emailed to Ian (the original requestor). I can't remember the
catalog numbers today, but here are the real record labels, not the ones I
mis-"remembered" :
_Tripping Up The Stairs_ (1987) Philo (a subsidiary of Rounder Records)
Rounder Records
One Camp Street
Cambridge MA 02140
USA
_Labour Day_ (1988) Stony Plain Records
_Old Material_ (1989) Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
_Save This House_ (1990) WEA of Canada, LTD.
Scarborough, Ontario
Canada
- Don Coolidge
cool...@speaker.wpd.sgi.com
Ellen Mitsue Eades
>(SotW's songwriting subject matter excludes them from the "mainstream")
It's an arguable point. Sting, Peter Gabriel, Pat Benatar, and Tracy Chapman
are all "mainstream" artists who have recorded hit songs about ecological
disaster, child abuse, the effects of economic hardship on society, and gay-
positive themes. I agree that it's not _usual_, but it's not, in itself,
reason to exclude current SotW from the mainstream.
>Nor has their music changed much from album to album - it's just gotten a bit
>more electrified.
I tend to disagree. The bass lines have gotten much heavier, the drums have
become much more pronounced, and the sound at times is very much more like
album- oriented rock than anything recognizably Celtic. For a contrast, see
what Capercaille does to maintain a Celtic sound while rocking out *hard*. I
really like their mix; I find SotW's has lost a Celtic feel. Rather like
what happened to Na Cabarfeidh when they went funk.
>Maybe the reason I found much of _Tripping Up The Stairs_ bland and derivative
>is that I've also been listening to a lot of Dougie MacLean lately (especially
>_Real Estate_), as a positive example of what Celtic music is and can be. I
Well, now we *really* disagree. I'm sorry, but I really find Dougie MacLean
bland. Not derivative, certainly, but not particularly original. I've yet
to find a song I can tap my foot to on a MacLean record. No energy at all.
For traditional fiddling, I prefer Liz Carroll.
>I'm apparently interested in somewhat more originality within partricular
>genres than you are.
Chuckle. A low blow, Don, and not a very well-supported one if you've read
any of my postings before this at all.
>It sounds to me as though you value the, lets's say, traditional-flavored
>practitioners of Celtic-based folk music more than the less restrictive ones
>(I almost said "innovative ones") - even though you feel that TUTS is an
>"...energetic and original reinterpretation..." Me, I don't care to endlessly
>reinterpret.
I think we're splitting rhetorical hairs here. Suffice it to say that I
have thoroughly enjoyed Boiled in Lead, the Pogues, and the Horseflies, and
have not liked the Oyster Band or the later Spirit of the West. Question of
taste, not a question of originality vs. doldrum traditionalists, and your
impugning my taste says more about your debating style than my taste.
>If you haven't seen them live, you should! (Microsoft's not all that far from
>the Vancouver Folk Music Festival...)
They haven't been at the VFMF for the last several years. I went to both
the 1990 and 1988 VFMFs, and I saw the lists for 1989. I missed. Give me
a break -- do I harass you to go to Northwest Folklife?
>On this same topic, but regarding a different artist, how do you react to
>Stephen Fearing?
I like him *very* much. He performed at the Northwest Folklife Festival
about two or three years ago and his rendition of "August 6 & 9" (how
could you forget that and say he doesn't do social commentary?!) was
simply beautiful. I'm looking forward to the new album. I also really
enjoy James Keelaghan's work -- he's one of my favorite artists.
In summation, don't you dare try and imply that I'm a traditionalist. Them's
fighting words. I get enough flack when I play "Sweet Georgia Brown" in a
contradance medley with Bob McQuillen's "Dancing Bear" and the Irish "Sculley's
Reel." I get enough flack when I play "Sunny Side of the Street" on hammer
dulcimer and bend the bass notes. I get enough flack when I use a phase
shifter on "Castle Kelly." I don't need YOU telling me I'm a traditionalist
when you've no concept of how much sh*t I get from real traditionalists around
the Northwest. Don, you don't know my feelings about traditional from a hole
in the ground.
Ellen Eades