Gosh. You’re in for a treat then Bruce. Both contain many of her absolutely finest songs.
Grand Central Station, the finest post 9/11 song I have ever heard. From Between Here And Gone. Heartbreaking.
Bruce
Duly noted. I shall go listen.
https://www.youtube.com/@MaryChapinCarpenter/videos
Her YouTube channel, the ‘Songs From Home’ are from lockdown. She made 60 of them!
Bruce
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Julie Fowlis has a wonderful voice. Listen to her own albums in Gaelic.
Plus she’s worked with bands like Runrig, She also did the songs from the movie Brave.
(The live version of Somewhere by Runrig and Julie is sublime.The story to this song is that astronaut Dr. Laurel Clark who was one of the crew members of the ill fated Space Shuttle Columbia was a Runrig fan, having come across the band when she was stationed for the U.S. Navy in Scotland years before. Her choice of ‘wake up call’ for the rest of the crew while in training was Runrig’s song ‘Running To The Light’ and the album that song was on accompanied the astronauts into space. After the fatal crash, one of the few intact items found in a Texas field was that same Runrig CD.)
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Just had l listen to,the album it’s rather good.
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I had a great conversation with some Irish friends in the pub this evening, which reminded me of one of the Irish bars in Prague (Molly Malones - mid 90’s). This was a constant background, and where I first heard the lonesome boatman - those were the days.
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Vikki Clayton with Martin Barre ‘Movers and Shakers’
She sang with Fairport but moved to New Zealand some years ago. Latest album is Messenger.
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All the instruments played on ‘Master Craftsmen’ were made by Rob Armstrong who had a workshop in Coventry. Lots to enjoy here. 1989.
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As noted, I said I’d go and listen and it left me… pretty cold to be honest.
As well recorded and played as her other stuff. Lots of people saying how moving a song it is and yet it didn’t engage me at all. I have filed it away with much of her stuff after those first 4 great albums. Nice but non-essential. Took me a while to drill down to why I felt like that and in the end it was something very simple and it sounds ridiculous even saying it, but…
It’s a song about a male role sung by a female.
Sounds even worse writing it down but there we are.
I’m fully aware there are loads of brilliant songs sung from the opposite perspective which work precisely because of that perspective switch. This, for me, is just one that doesn’t.
Oh well! Thanks for giving it a go anyway.
Interestingly I found the two MCC albums you suggested to be…OK. I think if I’d bought those before some of her others I’d have kept them but didn’t feel they gave me a lot more than I already owned. I rather like her voice as she has aged too.
Cheers Bruce
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It’s always fascinating to see how people can see/hear almost entirely different things in the same artist. I could listen to her voice forever and would always go see her live if the context sounded fun e.g. she’s always been brilliant with Shawn Colvin.
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MCC voice does not resonate with me … however, tastes change, perhaps mellow out. It took me 40 years to appreciate Jane Tabor’s voice; and yesterday I listened again to Linde Nijland singing some Sandy Denny songs which when I first heard them I did not appreciate her take of such classic folk songs, but yesterday I enjoyed her interpretation.
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Both us and the artist change over time. I loved Costello broadly up to Spike. He could write an absolute masterpiece now but the changes in his voice make him unlistenable for me. Richard Thompson is another for me, putting aside that he’s run out of different songs to write.
There’s a certain vocal rigidity which comes with age and I think in some cases that can throw you out whilst in others it can finally bring you in.
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Notes and Queries
Beeswing Richard Thompson’s song (and the title of his co-authored biography) is spelled as a single word. A note by Allan Currie Thompson was added to the book review on The Arts Fuse:
‘Beeswing is the name of a tiny village in Dumfriesshire, a few miles from the home of Richard Thompson’s grandparents and would possibly have become known to him during family holidays in the area. The village was formerly known as Lochend in reference to its proximity to Loch Arthur which has been claimed as the setting for the Arthurian story of ‘The Lady Of The Lake’. The village was renamed in honour of the famous racing mare, Beeswing.’
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Seth Lakeman, The Granite Way set on Dartmoor and released yesterday. With Benji Kirkpatrick (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica), Ben Nicholls (double bass and electric bass), Cormac Byrne (percussion and bodhrán) and Alex Hart (vocals), with additional studio contributions from Archie Churchill Moss on accordion and Dany Crimp on whistles.
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I’ll give him another go …
The band’s good. Seth’s voice sounds transatlantic to me, or perhaps that’s just West Country? Definitely needs an art director…
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The Unthanks ‘Here’s the Tender Coming’ from 2010. Some sophisticated arrangements here. Betsy Bell is a hidden track. Though the tender in the title is taking impressed men to the ship, the overall impression is almost cheerful for the Unthanks!
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Jude Rogers on Sain the Welsh indie label which now has a digital archive.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/04/sain-welsh-music-indie-label