New Labour Folk Music

I wrote here a week ago about Frank Turner, and what I felt was being falsified in his music; identity. I had a particular problem with his expression of Englishness, and that he was trying to be something he wasn't.

So where is the antidote to this? Traditionally, it's come from the music that is 'of the people'. This has meant 'folk' music, but could also easily encompass certain strands of country, blues, punk, hip-hop, grime, and many other genres. What I find bewildering and sad is that for the majority of those working, as I do, roughly within the 'folk' genre, politics seems to have been all but removed. The 'protest song' movement so expansive in the 1960s is lost. Duties for commenting on the effect of the policies of Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron have been handed over to others to sing and play about.

That this has happened is a deep shame and a loss for the music that I love. I believe it has an inherent duty to agitate. It has always done this. Ballads often deal with class prejudice, albeit not explicit - the lord and the servant girl, the mistress and the maid. This music is subversive, coming as it did from those at the bottom of society. It often ridicules the upper classes, or speaks directly to social problems of the time. Take 'Hard Times of Old England' for example:

Provisions you buy at the shop it is true,
But if you've no money there's none there for you.
So what's a poor man and his family to do?
And it's O, the hard times of old England,
In old England very hard times.

This hardly needs updating for today's recession. It is truly relevant and aggressive in it's aim. It shares something with that other most famous of political folk songs, 'The Blackleg Miner':

Divvn't gan near the Seghill mine
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat an break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner

My problem is the lack of young folk artists willing to take on this mantle, and part of this problem is that Folk music has become inherently middle class. Folk clubs, festivals, and arts centres, three places where they young folk musician will ply their trade, are hardly crucibles for reactionary opinion. It's hard enough to get work as a professional performing musician in this genre, without adding to it the possible pitfalls of saying something an audience might not like.

I should say at this stage, incidentally, that whilst this problem is not exclusively about the young, this is where it seems to manifest itself most intently. There are mainstays of the genre who will sing songs, whether subtle or explicit, about political intent. Chris Wood has written about Jean Charles De Menezes, the London 'second home in the country' crowd, and a beautiful Atheist hymn, 'Come down Jehovah'. The 'Imagined Village' have reworked 'Hard Times' into a modern anthem, and they include Martin Carthy, who many times has expressed how inherently political folk songs are. Steve Knightley writes almost Bruce Springsteen style songs about local issues - 'Country Life' and 'Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed'. But look around for artists from my generation (I'm 27) who are actively promoting and finding the politics in this music, and the search becomes much harder.

This is the generation bought up largely under New Labour, who proclaimed that class no longer existed. They were also born under the rule of Maggie Thatcher, for whom the working class were not to be helped: they were the enemy. I'd hate to believe that these successive governments have seeped into our consciousness, and somehow disconnected our belief in fighting for a cause, but sometimes it does feel like that. I'm not trying to make any secret, by the way, that most of the young musicians, singers and songwriters I'm talking about are middle class themselves, myself included. I'm certainly not trying to dress myself up as someone who came from mining stock, with an inalienable right to speak for working class communities. We don't have to all be Billy Bragg.

What we can, and should do, however, is take on those issues that are relevant, and take them to the performing stage. Tuition fees are an obvious place to start, one which a largely middle class audience will at least have some knowledge of, and one which many of us can speak about from experience. Pensions, job loss, recession - these things will affect many of us. They should be aired, debated, argued over. Audiences should sometimes get angry - sometimes a performer will have to deal with that ultimate of nerve shaking factors - someone may leave. That's OK with me. I've seen this happen, twice. Most people in the room, if the argument is held intelligently, and presented through genuinely good music and song, will appreciate what the performer is doing. If they don't like it, the artist in these venues is usually hanging around at the end anyway, and should be ready for a good natured debate about these issues.

I'm not saying that this must happen at every gig, at every show. Nor should is necessarily make up the entirety of the performance, and it must be done with humour - which is hard. Not every artist will want to do it.. But we need a balance, and audiences (some of them young, particularly at a folk festival) must be challenged at some time. I passionately don't wish folk music to turn into the music of New Labour, of the coalition: music which is 'nice' but doesn't express anything, doesn't make anyone angry, doesn't make anyone joyful. Even if the effect is negligible, we should try. As a 9 year old I remember hearing Lindisfarne sing 'Bring Down the Government' and loving it, even if I didn't know exactly what it meant. Hearing Martin Simpson sing Dylan's 'Masters of War'. We must keep this up - there is always a need, and that need could not be more important at this moment. I suppose some of this sentiment comes from a sense of jealously, as well. I don't want the genre of music in which I spent most of my time to be utterly de-politicised. I hate seeing it next to 'Easy Listening' in the racks in HMV. This should not be easy to listen to - it should be challenging - just like rap, hip-hop, and grime is. We should not aim to be all things to everyone, a New Labour folk music. Instead I want to question, revolt, and disagree, and I want that to happen on folk festival, folk club and concert stages now.

Frank Turner - A Class Act?

One of my oldest friends a few weeks ago reccomended I listen to Frank Turner. He did this on the basis that, as a folk musician and singer-songwriter, I could be compared to FT, and that I might be interested in the sound he makes. The release of his latest album, 'England Keep my Bones' last week also heightened my interest - was there an artist here writing genuinely interesting commentary on the English, saying something worth hearing to an audience to whom lyrics are not always of the utmost importance? Those who bought the album in great number and who put it at number 12 in the UK album chart are presumably also those who bought the albums around it - those by Lady Gaga, Take That, and The Cast of 'Glee'.

The review here certainly seems to think so, with the verdict that: England Keep My Bones 'oozes more heartfelt English charm and vehement, click-your-heels buoyancy than a Julie Andrews film.'

From the opening track 'Eulogy', through to 'Glory Hallelujah', it truly failed to engage with me at all. The themes - Englishness, Atheism, Work, Compatriotism, normally make me tick. These are new music search terms for me. But I could not stop thinking ' What is this England he's singing about? I don't recognize it.' Then (and before I researched Turner's background) it immediately spoke to me of a different kind of England - one which I (and I am the first to display my middle class 'roots') have never seen, and which I believe most of us never will. It is the Englishness of the sweary, shouty upper class. It is the Englishness of Eton, of Bullingdon, of the Old Boys Network. Of Cameron, of Clegg. This is possibly an album about England, but it is their England, not ours.

I should say at this point that for those that know me, this is hardly a surprising opinion. I have been known to go overboard with the introduction of the class politic into art, and my opinion of it: I once got sent to the Head at school for making some quasi-Marxist complaint about the uniform. But it bothers me somewhat that someone such as Turner, making music such as this can be given the accreditation of defining our Englishness. Turner, who was born in Winchester, attended Eton and the London School of Economics. His father is a city banker, his grandfather on the board of BHS.

This shouldn't bother me. Plenty of musicians of all genres have had similar backgrounds - some of them producing fantastic work. However, they haven't attempted to comment on a subject as Turner has here. He is not singing love songs (not in the Lennon/McCartney, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin mould, anyway), and he is talking about society, culture, and a country. This opens up his references to investigation. When I have stood in front of audiences and sang songs about war, I have been explicit in my introduction to explain the reference point for the song - I haven't been involved in a conflict, so if I am singing a song with a reference to it, I must explain why, and how I wrote it. Here Turner must do the same. When he says “Well I haven’t done what Mum and Dad had dreamed/But on the day I die I’ll say ‘at least I fucking tried’/That’s the only eulogy I need”, he must qualify: what did his Mum and Dad dream for him? The dreams of a city banker for their child may be different from those of a postman, a doctor, or a taxi driver. If they're not, the reality of accomplishing that dream is very different. He uses the language of the down at heel, of the country and western song, of the blues. But I truly believe he lacks the validity to sing of this. I'd rather he sung of his background, of his life. I'd prefer honesty in this record. He almost approaches this when he writes of love, such as in Eva Mae - 'Now Eva Mae,

I won't ever judge your heart,
Just try to be a good girl and do the best with what you got' is nice writing, but doesn't stand out above a dozen other singer-songwriters in the same mould - and there are a lot better.

In this way, I feel the album stinks of a lack of authenticity, or is at least not being truthful about what it is. In a Q&A with the YuppiePunk website (here) Turner explicitly says explicitly: ' I think underground independent punk rock is a wonderful model of independent capitalists doing their thing in an excellent way. And I’m very pro-capitalism as a system.' It's not difficult to be pro-something when you've benefited hugely from it. It's pretty easy. Besides which most punk rock that is released from independent labels is done so because the big labels won't touch anything remotely challenging. Small, independent labels exist not because of capitalism but in spite of it, as the quickest and easiest way of distributing music. Certainly not to make huge profits:- find me an independent label making huge profits and I'll eat my polo stick.

That this is opinion is not challenged bothers me from the off. (Even more so because it sounds like the kind of thing that's said to deliberately infuriate people, and to sell more records). But to dress the album and the lyrics of the album up as something which expresses an experience that more than an elite have of this nation is wrong, and also don't hold true with the two most obvious influences to this record - Folk on one hand, and Punk on the other. Both are musical traditions with their roots very much in the validity of 'ordinariness'. The music of 'the people'. Sung by Ewan MacColl, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg, Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Martin Carthy, and a million more. To reference these, to stylistically locate your music in this area, and then to do something else with them is perfectly valid (and I'm all for challenging the status-quo), but please do something clever, and show us your hand. Frank, you owe a lot to these people - and I don't think you've done them any justice at all.

I should also admit my two other problems with this album: firstly, I don't think much of the writing, and secondly, don't think the music is up to much at all. His nearest cultural reference, Billy Bragg, excelled at being able to deliver an incisive, witty lyric with the most up-front, distinct, and opinion splitting voice known to music with some pretty average guitar playing because the writing was so good. FT surrounds himself with a rock/folk rock/punk band and then doesn't do much with it. It lacks the almost fall off the cliff edge of real punk music, and doesn't manage to have any sophistication either. It manages to sound both over and under produced. If Nick Clegg went into Abbey Road and produced an album, it would probably sound like this. I can hear the cries of 'let's make this one sound really cool, like we've listened to The Clash!' In the case of 'Wessex Boy' it's 'Let's put some foot stomps and hand claps on this one so it sounds like we're all having fun! Also, leave the tape rolling at the beginning so you can hear us laughing! Then we'll sound like a load of pals just having SUCH a laugh! And crack the Moet!'. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This truly isn't the ranting of a folk musician who dislikes anybody 'interfering'. I despise the idea of any music as a museum piece, and would most often prefer to be in a rock club than folk club. In my mind Folk music has become depoliticized to the point where its almost embarrassing. I remember a folk festival five years ago where it took a Quebecois musician to make any kind of political comment from the stage.

Moreover, if this album wasn't pretending to exhibit 'Englishness' it wouldn't bother me at all - I just wouldn't listen to it. But I truly feel that it has pretensions to be something that it is not. Has Frank ever been to the North of England? Or does his geographical basis for this music come from South of Cambridge? Doesn't sound like it. Sorry Frank, if your album is a manifesto for England of the next generation then I'd like to fight that tooth and nail. Whilst there are jobs being lost in huge quantities, families being given food handouts in Manchester, hospitals struggling and wars being fought, forgive me if I can't rejoice in this 'vision' of Englishness, seen through the eyes of someone who cares not at all.

It's Monday morning, and apparently time for a rare update to this blog. Every time I sit down to write this, I think 'I must make this more regular' but for some reason that doesn't happen. Actually, I know exactly what the reason is - I get caught up in other things - and it hasn't yet become enough of a habit that I do it with compulsion on a regular basis. I'll try and make it so (watch it not happen).

So it's been a busy five months of 2011. I've been all over the UK with Tom McConville (sometimes also bass supremo Phil Murray and Accordion wizard Shona Kipling), from Cornwall to Scotland, plus some solo gigs. Highlights have been: playing in the Lysses hotel as part of Fareham Folk Festival with Shona, in front of a selection of my friends, and family, in a hotel that was very much part of my growing up, being as it was the selected venue for wedding receptions, funeral wakes and many other things. Lovely to hear people singing along at 2am to 'All this work is done'.

Just had a lovely gig with Tom and Phil in Etal, Northumberland, before which I gave a day's guitar workshops. This was a complete delight, all attendees were lovely, asked the best kind of questions, and as with any good workshop, I learnt as much as any of the people I was apparently there to 'instruct'. I don't think it really works like that anyway - it's always a two way thing.

Lots of things that I'm looking forward to in the next few months. I've written most of a new album, so I'll be recording 'acoustic' versions of the songs in the next couple of weeks and following that up with a proper 'band' recording. I'm looking to get this out in October this year, so I need to get my skates on, but I'm confident it'll be ready. 'Cities and Power' is, incredibly, two and a half years old, so needs updating. I'm still very proud of it but I think the time is definitely here for something new with some new songs - I'm confident it'll be the best thing I've done yet. It'll feature some special guests too... and will of course be released on Furrow records. Watch this space.

Summer is a'comin in too, so lots of festivals to look forward to including Warwick, Sidmouth, Swanage, and Whitby. I'll be playing solo in London in August so it'd be lovely to see you there.

Well, the wind is in from Africa, and last night, I couldn't sleep - so I'm off. Speak soon.

Strikes

I know that some of you will think that this will probably be a musical blog, but the truth is that whilst music is, more or less, what I do, I also find Politics and Political things overwhelmingly interesting. I'm pretty much hooked on live News in the car, have downloaded an 'app' by a well known left-leaning newspaper, and try and read and discuss things as they come up. This interest was formed, I think, by my parents who would happily discuss all things political, obviously with a Socialist bias (which I still hold). Please don't think me, however, one of those people who just grabs their parent's ideas and runs with them - I've spent a great deal more time on it than that would warrant me for. Moreover, I think it's deeply unfashionable to be a left-leaner just now. It's also quite tricky. I find consumerism deeply troubling, yet let me loose on a high street and it's all over. I dislike capitalism's urge to bring image and aesthetic to the foreground, yet love buying 'male beauty products' and clothes. These are problems, I know, and I choose to regard them in much the same way as those with a religion that have to be picky with the bits they stick to. We live in this society, so to a certain extent we must abide by it - until we have the ability to change it.

Which brings me around to the current theme of strikes and striking. It appears to me that at the moment, we need people to show their discontent more than ever. We are facing massive cuts in every area of our society, and much though this coalition government will try and convince us to the contrary, there are other ways of dealing with it. We must spend something to encourage growth. We must get people into work. Lessons of Roosevelt's New Deal and Atlee's post 1945 Government must be learnt - even in times when there is a huge structural deficit (and we only finished paying off our post war loan a couple of years ago), the way to deal with it is not to 'cut cut cut' but to spend some too. This isn't the economics of the household - and those who try to illustrate it in this way are wrong. It is more complex than this. It is a household with a huge staff, who must defend their household, give it healthcare, provide food.. you get the picture.

Strikes are never wanted by those who take this action. Think about it: you don't get paid. You get portrayed as miserable, money sucking leaches by most of the press. You must constantly defend yourself against these attacks, but also now, it seems, you must defend yourselves against most of the public. People seem to have been pushed by the Thatcherite consensus and then the Blairite ideology into truly believing that all striking is bad, that public service workers have wonderful, money filled lives, and are always out for themselves. Surely this couldn't be further from the truth? They are paid, on average, around £21,000. Hardly a fortune. Yes, their pension schemes are often better than for those in the private sector but here's what I don't get: why don't those in the private sector ask for better? Why don't they strike, and ask for more? It seems to me that the attitude is this: 'I'm badly paid and poorly treated and I don't complain - so why should they?'. This seems to me to be utterly mixed up. If you are badly paid, have no pension (or a very unstable idea of one), and any other number of things which make your working life miserable, then why don't you MAKE IT BETTER? Rather than just saying 'This is how it is, how dare you complain' why don't you complain more? Raise a fuss?

It seems to me that if you were a manager, an executive director, a head of HR, you wouldn't want your staff making a fuss. You'd want them to be nice and quiet, not ask for too much. You'd want to pay them as little as possible - maximise your profits, and don't let them have a share. That way, you get more. What makes me really sad is that rather than the staff looking at this objectively and saying 'there is clearly something wrong here', they've got into the habit, through years of being kicked into it, of saying 'don't moan, don't complain, keep your head down'. More than this, they now seem to be saying 'if anyone does moan or complain, phone up Radio 5 live and complain about them'. It seems to me, utterly bizarre that rather than supporting our fellow low paid worker (public or private) in his/her request for a bit more money, people out there are saying 'This is ridiculous! we don't get paid anything - why should you!'.

Public opinion about the strikes in France, the Firefighter's Strike, the Tube strikes and any other number of industrial disputes bears this out. Surely our starting point should be 'These people are not getting paid whilst they are on strike, surely they must have a grievance worth airing'. At the very least we should think 'Let's investigate the position of management and staff before reaching a decision'. Instead, it seems like the execs have us where they want us - our starting point is now 'Greedy firemen/postmen/tube workers. Why do they want to get paid more? All the do is rescue us from fires/deliver our post/drive our tube trains. They certainly don't deserve it'.

Ok, so I declared my position at the start of this post, you know where I stand. But why can't we just expect a little better for all of us? Let's follow France's example and take to the streets. As those who keep arguing against strikers keep saying 'We're all in this together'. So let's be in it - accept fighting, not lying back and letting this wash over us.

Bob Dylan and the rest

Every other day I see or read: 'This stunning new songwriter is the new Bob Dylan'. Or 'With resonances of Bob Dylan' written in a review. More often than not this stands with me as a great reason to go away and check out the mentioned album or artist, and always with the hope that the above statement will be true. There is nothing I can imagine that would be more exciting than a new 'poet laureate' of rock and roll, a new game changer. A confounding lyricist, completely original, consistently changing styles, tacts and bands. No one wants to hear this person more than me.

I have not yet found this to be true of anyone I've listened to. Dylan's performance at Hop Farm Festival last Saturday night only proved further to me that, fantastic though so many of the current crop of singer-songwriters are, none of them has the potential that must have been there in the 23 year old of 1962. They probably hate the comparison themselves (unless they happen to be Johnny Borell from the unsurprisingly now vanished Razorlight). What could be worse than have that level of expectation heaped upon your shoulders? I swear, I'm not being overtly cynical here - I know plenty of people don't like Dylan for a number of reasons, and would probably prefer to listen to Laura Marling, Josh Ritter, Pete Docherty, or Mumford and Sons. So long as they just say: 'You know, I don't really enjoy his songs/singing/music', that's fine (and incidentally I've heard the surely defunct 'He can't sing' argument so many times it makes my teeth fall out. Of course he can sing. He chooses to sing in a number of different ways. It's allowed, if you're capable.) But when they say - 'You know, Ray Lamontagne is the new Bob Dylan', ask yourself these questions:

1. Have they/are the likely to release at least five genre changing, epoch defining albums, about which debate will range for decades?

2. Have they/are they likely to have five decades of reasonably continuous live performance, over the world?

3. Have they/are they likely to have a public persona that is at least as or more important than their recorded work (if so, it's not good, incidentally).

4. Will people continue to record their songs now, and for the forseeable future?

5. Do people love or hate their music, and not inbetween? (I've never heard 'Bob Dylan - he's alright, I guess..' but would lose count of the amount of times people have spat vitriol or proclaimed love to him.)

The Beatles fit into the above description, and just about no one else. I really hope someone does, that in the future, do all these things - I want music to evolve, and would embrace a new Bobby D from the bottom of my heart - me and the new Bob, together through life.

I saw him on Saturday, and his relevance was absolute. I'm 26, and he's the most important artist I know of. To see him sing his songs is a priveledge - and he interprets them far better than any cover version. I've heard 'Like a Rolling Stone' thousands of times on record and three times live, and every time, it's been a revelation. How does it feel? My sister is 20, and she was awestruck. Kids of 14 and 15 knew they were seeing something they would treasure, and people of 40, 50, 60 and 70 stood, as these songs explode down the years.

He's an enigma, and that troubles some people - 'Who does he think he is?' Truly, he is an artist who's music does the work, and his private life doesn't matter - I don't care where he lives, what he wears, or how he eats. A lesson for the Kerry Katona generation, who believe that celebrity and money come first and art is second. This will not last. Bob Dylan, does.

Just so you know, I'm not gushing about all his work. His 'Saved' period was awful. 'Self Portrait' is terrible. There are slapdash songs kicking about all over the place. But this is heavily outweighed by a huge degree by the quality of the majority of his work. I sing 'Shooting Star' from 'Oh Mercy' live. A little known song, but what a powerful work - audiences love it, I love it.

I hope we get a new Bob. Because if not, it's a sad shout for this generation and the next. But whilst he's still here, I'll see and listen to him whenever possible.

May

So, it's May.

As I write, the Summer seems to have started, which couldn't be better news, to be honest. I left my house in Newcastle this morning at 6:30am, and the sun was streaming through the sky - and it almost felt ok to be up at such an hour. Truly, it was actually wonderful and I can't wait for a bit more of the same.

It was particuarly tough to be up early this morning given the Furrow launch was last night. Myself, Emily Portman and Christi Andropolis played together and seperately to a great, appreciative audience in the Sage Gateshead. Although the label has been running for a while now, it was great to see it publicly off the ground. Aside from a broken string, the replacement for which I'd somehow neglected to bring on stage, I had a great time playing my set. It's not too often of late I get to play a set of just my material, and though I feel strangely exposed by it, I actually really enjoy it. I was accompanied by Christi Andropolis on piano, fiddle and voice, and loved it. I also loved playing a few songs with Emily and on Christi's set and the encore of 'Bright Lights Tonight', complete with Lucy Farell's note perfect harmonies (anyone would think she's a Richard Thompson fan) made a good ending for the night.

From here, onwards. Last weekend I was in Cornwall all too briefly with Tom, where we played a beautiful gig near Liskeard - a fantastic amphitheatre. It was a lovely atmosphere, with a great PA operated by Ollie from Blue Sky Sound in Plymouth. I can't recommend him and his crew highly enough. The sound at gigs is sooo variable, and it was so refreshing to have someone who really cared, worked hard, and achieved great results.

This weekend coming I've a gig with Christi on Friday night, Saturday in Suffolk with Tom and in between recording an album with Spinndrift, a great young folk band from Newcastle. I'm taking the engineers chair for it, and it's shaping up beautifully.

So much music, so little time.

It'll take such a long, long time..

Well, my utmost apologies. It has been really too long since I've written on here. I could make all kinds of excuses I guess but probably better just to say 'sorry', and that I'll be better at keeping it updated from here on in.

All kinds of interesting things going on here. Firstly, the record company which I've helped set up, Furrow Records, has released Emily Portman's album, 'The Glamoury' to huge acclaim. It's a beautiful album and deserves every bit of it's praise. The three of us will be doing a Furrow launch gig at The Sage Gateshead on May 17th - please come along and say hi. Myself, Emily and Christi Andropolis will all be playing seperately and maybe find something to do together. It would be lovely to see you there.

Huge amount of gigs with the McConville and bass player Phil Murray throughout Feb and March, all of which were great fun. I'm now trying to start running again, due to the 4000% increase in curry intake over this period. Particular highlights were Otley Jewel in the Crown (I think is what it was called) and a one around the corner from the Forest Arts Centre, New Milton. Was particuarly lovely to do this gig, as it's old home turf for me (kind of - I'm from Fareham), and friends and family were present. Drove through all the ponies on the way down, got there early, and went to the beach. Fantastic.

Currently addicted to listening to all the election coverage, polls, and trends. For what it's worth I actually found GB more interesting and human when he made his gaffe yesterday - he's clearly so uncomfortable with the grinning he's been told to do, I wish he'd just come out, grumpy, and say 'look, this is me'. I still don't know if I'd vote for him, but I might have a little more respect. Anyone who heard the BNP leader on Radio 4 this morning (French and Irish can stay, everyone else out), knows how awful the prospect of them having an MP is. However, this spin, gleam and falseness is surely driving people towards these other parties, left and right. For my money, Gordon Brown yesterday reacted to something he clearly finds troubling - that it's too easy to say 'there are too many Polish people here'. I would certainly react in a similar way to someone who echoed those sentiments - and I think his only mistake was to try and have that awful, embarassing comedown rather than saying 'I'm uncomfortable with these innaccurate sentiments'. Chances are at this stage he will lose anyway - why not show his true colours (whatever they are).

Anyway, enough of me rambling on - thanks for listening, and please respond in the negative, the affirmative, or however you wish.

All the best

Dave