November 2002

And so now November is here, and where i live there are deep pools everywhere - at the tidal creek that flows into the Hamble estuary, the sea surges up and meets a deluge of fresh water - 'where the bitter water meets the sweet' - coming from the fading downlands and three days of torrential rain. Those who know the cover of my album Forbidden Songs Of The Dying West may like to know that the cover is called 'November - Plowing', and i love the starkness of that portrayal of a fabulous month that carries strange blessings within it. Sharp, pointed, elbow-ish and grumpy parts of relationships, anxieties and fears get swished by increasingly cold edges of the necessary winter wind, and you think - 'oh fuck, what will Christmas mean this year?' We will soon find out - even if it 'means nothing to me'.

So, in the backwash of finishing another album - i think my best for Cooking Vinyl, I find that I'm writing like a demon - this often happens to me, and when i'm out walking my dog in savage rain and leaf-fall, i have to stop and pull out a notebook and scribble with a pen that runs like black tears on the blue-lined page. Why i can never remember to take a ballpoint that doesn't run - well, i know why - it's cos i don't like the ballpoint action - it doesn't make me feel that i'm in the World of Real Writers - how sad is that - 'hmm, would Robert Bly use a ballpoint in a field in Minnesota?' - of course he bloody well would you fool, if it meant the difference between being able to read, or not, what he had written when he got back home...Also, when i write in this mode, the songs tend to be too grevious to commit to record - you've got to know when to stop, or the questions you will be rightly asked about them (the songs) are too much for you, and it's your own fault... Meetings at the record company to decide the shape of the year, discuss presented artwork, worry about China, analyse media churn - what's that you may well ask - ask me on the road and i'll tell you.

I just spoke to Joe Shaw, my old friend from Doll By Doll, and we are going to play an end of year concert, in the round, with singer Kevin Hewick, at Milford Social Club, Derbyshire, on 7th December - last year i did this with the wonderful Stornoway Girls - hence the Haunted Valley CD 'Greetings From Milford'. As i've said on other occasions, I love this part of the world because it reminds me so much of the Leven Valley in Fife - same old mills, weirs, bridges - 'i saw three ships coming sailing in' - have you heard an album called The White Ship by H P Lovecraft? - from the late sixties - a huge influence on me at the time, along with Wow by Moby Grape and Younger Than Yesterday by The Byrds. I'm digressing - i don't care. Come and see us in Milford - i'll be burning my favourite Tibetan incense - don't worry, it's beyond hippy - a smell that tells you that there is work to be done, but not before a bit of fun...

BURNS NIGHT IN GLASGOW - guy lying in hospital complains to the nurse - 'why do we always have haggis, neeps and tatties, every meal?' Nurse - 'well sir, you ARE in the Burns Unit.'

This Burns night I have 2 performances - as part of the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. In the evening I'm playing the Tron Theatre with Eleanor McEvoy, then later that night i shall be doing some songs at the Festival Club in the Central Hotel. Last year at the Club, we served Levens Lament whisky all night long - free - people thought it was a promotion and would start saying what they thought of the whisky as part of the innate deal of getting it free - we had to say, we don't care what you think of it pal - we're not selling it, just giving it away for a laugh. - -'could i have seven more for my friends over there?' Certainly sir (or madam) - by 1 a.m. the entire Club looked like a scene from the Titanic, with people rolling from side to side, shouting' women and children last!' - 'it would have cheaper to lower the Atlantic' - sorry, you'd have to be a serious disaster movie film buff to get this last one.. I could go on, and frequently do, but a half-empty tin of Diet Cherry Tango (mine) fell over when i recklessly pushed in a tray of organic mushrooms and now the whole inside is a chemically-stink of metal cherries, old garlic and sprouts - there's a leg of lamb in there too, that I bought cheap from a stall in Winchester, but i won't mention that in case it offends my vegetarian fans - try touring Germany with vegetarians as i have done - it's wild.....

jl

BOOK OF THE MONTH - Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin

RECORD OF THE MONTH - Blessed In An Unusual Way by David Childers

October 2002's column.