And his tunes work with the words, avoiding the predictability of may contemporary composers. Add in the fine harmonies and thir musicianship, and you have the makings of a memorable night.
Which makes you listen! The second half was no less enjoyable, and I was left with a load of songs and stories running round my mind, for various reasons, as I went home: the unpredictable air of The Handsome Farmer Lad ; the strength of phrases like "with the click of a mouse I'll disappear, from a girl to a ghost at eighteen years"; and a great bluesy song, The Tried, The Tested And The True , among many others. An excellent evening from both performers; the lasting impression for me was that I had witnessed a tour de force display of outstanding songwriting - by any standards.
Their current tour will be almost over by the time this appears in print, but I picked up a copy of the CD they're promoting this time around, Far Off On The Horizon , and would suggest that, if you can't get to a gig then get the CD. Kip Winter and Dave Wilson have been together for more years than they care to remember and are in great demand on the folk circuit.
Kip Winter simply has a voice to die for but both are extremely proficient musicians. On this album, vocals are shared with Dave playing guitars, banjo, mandolin and ukulele whilst Kip chips in on accordion and flute. I found the album really enjoyable especially when the duo veered slightly from mainstream folk. Doreen and Joe stood out, a poignant tale of a couple living in a two-bed tenement but longing for a child.
Kip and Dave tour extensively and if you love folk music, it would be worth catching up with them when they inevitably play somewhere near you.
Broad spectrum because whist the genre they play is folk, they take a fast and loose attitude to it that allows them to define it rather than it define them. Whilst you can pick up hints of the tradition, you can feel as much contemporary input in their sound, all aided and abetted by a multi instrumental approach and vocal duties that sees each of them appearing separately and in glorious harmony. Narrow band, because they are sharp, observational and reaching into the heart of a song with such focus, regardless of it being one of their more political or personal numbers, you know that Winter Wilson will get you into the core of the song.
One of the reasons for that is that Dave Wilson is such a good songwriter, as well as being a prolific one, having penned pretty much the whole of their seven album repertoire, but as you know, the writing of the song is only half the story with delivery making up the other half and hear Winter Wilson deliver the rich harvest. The songs are mainly contemporary and even where a title makes you think you are going to go down a more traditional path, you find yourself in something more recent and more personal.
Winter Wilson have a touch of the prolific about them, but when prolific's this good, more please. Kip Winter and Dave Wilson are the kind of musicians who you bump into at a festival, where they often break out their instruments, usually accordion and guitar, and give you a song.
There's no hiding in backstage area dressing rooms basking in the ethereal glow of stardom, fiercely protecting their privacy and, in effect, separating themselves from their audience, yet they are just as good as any of those who the above so often describes. Dave Wilson's songs are intelligent, melodic, often thought-provoking and most importantly highly listenable.
Colour those lyrics and melodies with Kip Winter's convincing voice and the duo's rich harmonies and you're always on to a winner. Weary Traveller opens the set with a fine vocal performance from Dave, augmented by some fine finger-style guitar picking, urging the listener to take the weight off.
If the opening song stylistically recalls the Kicking Mule records of the s, Doreen and Joe is pure Winter Wilson, a simple tale of a couple's longing for a child, beautifully rendered and with a happy ending to boot. Isn't it encouraging to have a happy ending in this day and age? Dave Wilson makes the art of songwriting look easy; by his own admission, To Hell With Monday Morning was written in the time it takes Kip to get ready to go out.
Mind you, we're not sure exactly how long it actually takes Kip to get ready! Meet on the Ledge. Throwaway Street Puzzle. Some Sweet Day. Time Will Show the Wiser. If Stomp. Chelsea Morning. Sun Shade. One Sure Thing. If I Had a Ribbon Bow.
Morning Glory. Reno, Nevada. Claudy Banks. How Many Times. Myths and Heroes. Set Me Up. The Wood and the Wire. Clear Water. Country Pie. My Love Is in America. The Dancer. The Eynsham Poacher. Honour and Praise.
Knights of the Road. Step by Step. The Happy Man. Tragedy Now Strikes Hard Wait for the Tide to Come In. Wandering Man. A Thousand Bars. Reunion Hill. The Heart of the Song. Both Sides Now. Diamonds and Gold. Lady of Pleasure. Love at First Sight. Rhythm of the Time. Shuffle and Go. The Crowd. The Poor Ditching Boy. Around the Wild Cape Horn. General Taylor. Hungarian Rhapsody. Jesus on the Mainline Live.
John Condon. Little Did I Think. Moses Waits. The Game Pieces. Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Celtic Moon. Close to You. Iron Lion. My Girl.
The Fossil Hunter. The Islands. The Widow of Westmorland. Maybe it is. She was a serious user and abuser of alcohol and drugs and that will emphasise any innate psychological problems anyway.
Perhaps her arc was always going to be a short one. I mean, it breaks my heart to say that, but the way Sandy lived and the way her personality was, perhaps she was never going to be a survivor into old age.
Thompson himself was not immune from numbing the nerves with alcohol. He quit the booze when he began studying Sufism in the mids. Thompson, incidentally, has fond recollections of Luke Kelly and the Dubliners. As someone said, before you become a great musician, become a great human being, and then you stand a chance. Luke was all of that, and I think he affected everyone who ever met him. He was a great collector of folk songs, a great revivalist of music. Sarah Makem, the mum, she learned songs handed down, handed down, handed down.
Now Thompson finds himself among the last heirs of that generation, a troubadour astray in the 21st century, hobbled and housebound by a pandemic. Did the act of reviewing his seminal years for Beeswing teach him anything new about the music, or himself? I remember myself as being a typical depressed teenager, hating school, struggling with girls, all that kinda stuff. But it was me, I was an optimistic person. Trauma creates haunted spaces, and folk music is a long-proven repository for griefs and ghosts.
The singer is less important than the song. We were starting to connect to a lineage that was ancient, pagan and alive with the dreams of the dead. People were just suffering. To comment you must now be an Irish Times subscriber. Please subscribe to sign in to comment. Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription.
Peter Murphy. More from The Irish Times Books. Home energy upgrades are now more important than ever.
0コメント