Music

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Back to Beguinnings. "Roger McGuinn". Governor Hindmarsh [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2001-07) Bramwell, Murray Ross
I first heard of Roger McGuinn when he was known as Jim. He was the serious young ectomorph in the houndstooth coat and little black lozenge spectacles on the cover of the first Byrds album. Foppish in their American Carnaby gear, singing harmonies four and five deep, the Byrds swooped on Bob Dylan songs and showed there really was another side to them. They layered and enriched the sketchy sound of early acoustic Dylan and with their careful diction raised up his poetic lyrics like jewellers setting gemstones. And the sound they added, like a dozen golden hammers, was Jim McGuinn’s chiming Rickenbacker twelve string guitar. McGuinn already had a career before the Byrds. As a kid barely out of high school he had been recruited to both the Limeliters and the Chad Mitchell Trio, riding high on the hootenanny craze of the early sixties. Growing up in Chicago he had been drawn to the folk scene, had attended the Old Town School of Folk and, at clubs such as the Gate of Horn, learned from such luminaries as Bob Gibson, Josh White and Odetta.
Blind Faith Up Close and Personal. "The Blind Boys of Alabama". Governor Hindmarsh. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2003-05) Bramwell, Murray Ross
In Adelaide for a second time are The Blind Boys of Alabama, the gospel singing group founded in 1939 and enjoying considerable chic since moving several years ago to Peter Gabriel’s Real Music label and collaborating with musicians of the calibre of David Lindley, Ben Harper and Robert Randolph. They have won Grammys two years running and their latest CD Higher Ground includes material from Prince, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Funkadelic.
Distant Light Shines Brightly. Alex Lloyd. Heaven II. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2003-12) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Heaven set strongly favours the new CD. The title track, Distant Light follows, with Felix Bloxsom’s choppy drum intro curving into those close vocal harmonies - it won’t be long, a Lennon McCartney mantra with evocations of Neil Finn in sweetest voice. This is assured melodic pop. As is Green, one of several impeccable singles from Lloyd’s previous album Watching Angels Mend. The new songs prevail - the memorable Chasing the Sun, Far Away and 1000 Miles. The band - Shane Nicholson on guitar, Barbara Griffin on keyboard, bassist Mike Mills and Bloxson on drums - is in great form. The arrangements are straightforward , nothing fiddly, attesting to Lloyd’s confidence in his material and its lyric strength.
Go-Betweens Get Back Their Mojo. "The Go-Betweens". Governor Hindmarsh. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2003-07) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The Go-Betweens are having a new golden age - not only with strong current material, but a lineup that is nimble, thrifty and as appealing as any around. ... Listen to the encores - The Clock, Spring Rain, Was There Anything I Could Do. They have never sounded better or more crisply intelligent. ... I love Lee Remick, she’s a darling. Forster is in heavy lidded rapture, and a grinning McLennan is briefly back on the bass. Back to the very beginning, Forster observes, as they take a final bow.
Heart in the Highlands. Bob Dylan with Paul Kelly. Entertainment Centre. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2001-04) Bramwell, Murray Ross
This time he blew in from the West. Still on the Neverending Tour, and back in Australia - three years on, and sixth time round - Bob Dylan has turned his Sisyphean treadmill into a victory lap.
New Works for New Audiences. Recent Releases on CD. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2002-01) Bramwell, Murray Ross
It has just been another outstanding year for Paul Kelly. He has released no less than four albums, each of them indicative of the rich variety of his gift. "…Nothing But a Dream" (EMI) is his latest studio work, full of familiar Kelly riffs and trademarks. Other CDs reviewed are "Romantic Callas" by Maria Callas and "Top Secret" by various artists.
Opposites Attract. "The Dissociatives". Thebarton Theatre. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2004-07) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The link between Daniel Johns and dance mensch Paul Mac is both surprising and entirely likely - even if they are half a generation apart, and one comes from teenage grunge, and the other from the Very Cool end of the club scene. They met when Mac produced a Silverchair mix back in 1997 but now, in the Dissociatives, they have a new symbiosis which makes them interesting and equal partners. They keep the songs in the same sequence as the CD release with the addition of a couple of new songs (no titles given) and two covers (The Fauves and Tom Waits).
Parallel Worlds. "Blondie". Thebarton Theatre. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2003-09) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Video may have killed some radio stars but it was the absolute making of Blondie. From their first appearance in 1977 at the height of the Punk and New Wave incursions, this New York pop band not only made their mark but set their own agenda for success. Hopping genres from arthouse pop to disco, reggae and even rap, Blondie not only ruled the airwaves but the cathode rays as well. With Countdown and Rock Arena the main sources of pop music on Australian television, the release of Blondie film clips was an event. Surely there is no greater classic than 1978’s Heart of Glass from Parallel Lines. The opening bars of rippling disco bass, the robotic movements of Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri and Clem Burke with their faux Mod haircuts and then, backlit and ravishing, the insinuating vocals of Debbie Harry.
Recent and Revisited. CD Reviews. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2000-08) Bramwell, Murray Ross
CDs reviewed. Eric Chapus, Skin, Columbia Sony. Martin Gretschmann, Rocket in the Pocket, Matador/Festival. Dynomite D, By the Way, Trifecta Festival. Fusebox, Jolly Mukhertee, Madras Cinematic Orchestra. Senan's Haggart. Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Astor Place, MRA. Jeff Buckley, Grace, Mystery White Boy. Elliot Smith, Figure 8, SKG Universal.
Return Journey. Emmylou Harris with Buddy Miller and Kasey Chambers. Thebarton Theatre. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2001-05) Bramwell, Murray Ross
Emmylou Harris is surely one of the true Daughters of the American Revolution. And she has been at the centre of not just one, but several, musical insurrections. Teaming up with producer Daniel Lanois, she co-wrote new material and gathered an assortment of songs from Neil Young, Hendrix, Dylan, Anna McGarrigle, Steve Earle , Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch. The Wrecking Ball album was faithfully Emmylou, the shimmering voice sounding better than ever, but the mix was new. It is very fitting, then, that Emmylou Harris is touring with innovators such as guitarist Buddy Miller and rising Australian singer Kasey Chambers. In fact, it is Buddy Miller, mainstay of Harris’s band Spyboy, who opens the proceedings with a short set drawn from albums which tell it all -Poison Love, Cruel Moon, Your Love and Other Lies.
Single Bill. Billy Bragg with Dave Graney Show. Norwood Concert Hall. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2001-11) Bramwell, Murray Ross
The prospect of The Dave Graney Show on the same card as Billy Bragg made this event doubly appealing. But I am sorry to report Mr Graney ‘s opening set is a disappointment. On stage and nearing the end of his solo tour, Billy Bragg is looking like a geezer in his forties. There is a little grey in the quiff and with his flattened nose and his cupid bow lips he looks less like the young Trevor Howard and more like the older George C Scott. But he is chipper and still holds an audience like the consummate busker he once was, his customised Burns electric slung from his hip and his London patois laced wiv wit.
You Can (Still) Get Anything You Want …. Arlo Guthrie. Norwood Concert Hall. [review]
(Adelaide Review, 2004-07) Bramwell, Murray Ross
There is something irrepressibly good-natured about Arlo Guthrie and he’s been like that for forty years. Opening with "Chilling of the Evening", one of his earliest folk rock songs, he follows with a string band ditty from the Oklahoma hills. Guthrie, ever the raconteur, is also historian to the great days of American music. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Josh White, the Weavers, they all visited the Guthrie house where Woody and his wife Marjorie, herself famous as a bohemian dancer with the Martha Graham troupe, held court. Without affectation, Arlo recalls singing St James Infirmary with Cisco Houston as a kid of thirteen. On stage, with his son Abe on keyboards and pedal steel player Gordon Titcombe, Guthrie still carries the world lightly in his hand.

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