Disaster Area

Missy Higgins

Once in a while you hear a song that just floors you.

The latest to get me is one that has been doing the rounds of the adult contemporary stations for the last couple of months. As always, it's incredibly hard to figure out what the song is or the artist because radio stations either never tell you or they tell you while you're paying attention to your driving (I pretty much only listen to the radio in the car.)

So it appears that the following song - Where I Stood by Missy Higgins - who just happens to be Australia's favorite bisexual singer songwriter (not that there's anything wrong with that.) The song has been featured in the TV series Smallville and has started to develop a following for the artist in the US and UK.

In Honour of Knee Fortnight...

It just seemed fitting to commemorate the operation with some British knee related songs, so here's a real old school one:

And to see it being performed Music hall style:

And finally, while we're on the topic of the contribution of indigenous cockney music to the broader music world, here's Bill Bailey to set the record straight (this is brilliant, trust me...)

John Crowley Obituary

  Here's a nice obituary for John, whose memorial service was last night.

Triskadecaphobia?

Yes, it's Friday the Thirteenth. And not just this month, but next month too.

It won't be a particularly happy one round these parts, but not for what you might think is the obvious reason. This evening at church we have a memorial service for a parishioner, John, who succumbed to brain cancer three weeks ago after a long battle. He leaves a widow and two young daughters. Our contemporary band at church - Radiance - is playing all the music for the service, something that is both a great honor and a great responsibility. With my surgery and other people's schedules we have had a hard time finding time to rehearse, but last night everything came together nicely, so I think we're ready. It's weird playing guitar sitting down - well, not weird, but as I haven't played that way much it is more awkward than I'd like. The hand angles are all slightly different, for example.

We have quite a bit of music, and the offertory song is one that I first heard during the weekend Sue died. I was driving from a friend's house back to mine on the morning of the day they did the organ transplants and turned on the radio, decided for once to listen to the local Christian station, and tuned into the middle of How You Live. The line that caught my ear right away was, "So go to the ball games and go to the ballet...". We had season tickets for both. It was too late to try to use it for Sue's service, but we have some great singers who can pull this off so we'll be playing it tonight.

Rest in Peace, John...

A Night with Violins

Last night I was invited by one of the professors here at Cambridge to an event at Madingley Hall, a small stately home kind of a place that's now a conference and events venue. The event was a bit hard to describe, but it was part lecture on the history of the violin, and part demonstration and concert featuring some antique violins.I think the event was billed as  "Meet a Stradivarius" or something like it. Wine and canapes were promised, too.

Well, I was game, even if it wasn't something that I would have pushed to the top of my "must see" list.

The speaker,Nigel Brown, is apparently a world class expert on violin history and was very engaging, funny and informative. His planned featured violinist for the evening, Matthew Trussler, had been whisked off to a concert in South America, so at the last minute he had secured the services of a delightful young lady I can only remember as "Flo".

Nigel had brought along four violins and had Flo play Baa Baa Black Sheep on each of them. The sounds were remarkably different, especially the last one. As he gradually revealed, one of them was a 1706 Stradivari, another a 1735 Guenari, another a Jacob Steiner violin from Austria and the last a recent copy of (I believe) another Strad. The odd man out was the Steiner.

The hour of chat and demonstration flew by, and after the break it was time for some real music. Flo played first a Brahms Sonata in D minor on the Guenari, accompanied by a delightful young lady on piano, followed by Sarasate's Introduction et Tarantelle on the Stradivari (the Corbett Stradivari to be precise). In his introduction, Nigel likened the instruments to Formula 1 cars - being just as tricky to get used to and drive, and Flo agreed. It was remarkable that she had only had a day to try the four out.

The Sonata was lovely, but the Sarasate piece was a completely brilliant mad five minutes. Flo remarked just before she started, "see you at the end..." And, thanks to the marvels of Youtube, here's a fine rendition of it by Jessica Hung:

Cilmi Available in US...

Back in June, I mentioned that I'd heard a lot of Gabriella Cilmi in England, but nothing was available over here (except Youtube videos...) but now there are a few tracks available now available on iTunes.

Home, Sweet Home

I've spent the last two weeks in the UK at a couple of conferences and just never found the time to blog. Never mind, though, as sometimes there's just too much to do and something has to give.

I have another minor musical find for you, though, much as I had back in March. Then, it was a free iTunes song by a UK phenom called Duffy (whose album is now fully released and available on iTunes.)

This time, while driving around the UK for a couple of weeks listening to the radio, a laid-back R&B song, Sweet About Me, by Gabriella Cilmi (pronounced chill-me) really caught my ear. Now, you have to realize that DJs rarely actually tell you what they play, and even if they do they either mumble it or say it so fast you can't actually make out what they said. So even though I knew I loved the song it took several listenings to glean the artist's name.

Turns out Cilmi is a 16 year-old Australian phenom.

So far no free iTunes single, but I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up there soon. In the meantime, check it out on youtube...

Transposing Songs

For anyone out there who plays music in a church setting, it's often necessary to play a song in a different key than it's recorded in. For those of us without an extensive musical background and perfect pitch, it can be very tough to figure things out. There are some tools out there that will transpose mp3 files, but here's a new version of the very affordable Transposer. It can change tempo and pitch independently of each other. Slow a song down, but keep the pitch intact to learn a solo, or find just the right key for your band... There's even a free trial version you can download.

Free Music - Get It Now

While driving around England last November, there was a song being played regularly by a new artist from Ireland Wales (thanks to Dennis for the correction) by the name of Duffy. She didn't have an album out then (and still doesn't in the US until May). The track they played back then was Rockferry - the title of her debut album. It was moody and stood out quite a bit from the other stuff normally played on Radio 1. She's been described as a bit like a modern day Dusty Springfield... which I can see, sort of - and which is explained a bit by the influence of Ready, Steady, Go! (see below).

Anyway, the next single, Mercy, is the free single on iTunes this week (until next Tuesday when it all changes. You can also see the video on Youtube. Go check it out.

More from Wikipedia:

Raised in Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula with her twin sister, Katy, her parents divorced when she was 10, and she moved to Pembrokeshire with her mother and sisters, while her father remained in Nefyn. Her early interest in singing was apparently inspired by her father John Duffy's videotape of the 1960s television rock show Ready Steady Go!.

Duffy returned to Nefyn when she was 15, and started singing in various local bands. After being involved in an unsuccessful music project in Switzerland, Duffy returned to Wales in 2003 and auditioned for Wawffactor, a Welsh alternative to Pop Idol on S4C where she was expected to win, but eventually came second to winner Lisa Pedrig.

Top 10 Musical Influences #1 – Sarah McLachlan

It’s been over a year since I posted the last installment of my “Top Ten Musical Influences” posts, leaving the end hanging. The list has probably grown since then, but the artist at number one in my list is Sarah McLachlan. I had heard of her, but never heard her music much until a friend introduced me to her music in August 1998. By that time her seminal album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy had been out for four years and Surfacing had been out for a little while. Sarah had also put together the first couple of years of the Lilith Fair festival tour at that point.

The friend loaned me a copy of the Canadian version of Sarah’s Possession single CD. It had two versions of the song on it – the standard album version and a souped-up hard rock version. They’re both good, but the rocked up version impressed me most, as I didn’t know any solo female artist who had produced something that aggressive. As I explored Fumbling and the back catalog of Sarah’s material, the first album, Touch, the second one, Solace and numerous single CDs, I was astounded at the depth and breadth of her songwriting and musical talent.