Pre
Various writing by Terry Clarke
FLYIN SHOES REVIEW
TERRY CLARKE'S U.S. JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2003
NASHVILLE
To begin ...
the first weekend of February saw heavy snow in Scotland. Where we live
out west in Argyll, the climate is more clement usually but it left several
inches this year.
So, allowing plenty of time for bad roads and emergencies, on
Tues the 4th I was up at 5.30.in the morning to get the Western
Ferry over the River Clyde to drive to Glasgow airport for the flight
to Newark, New Jersey and on down to Nashville.
I was performing a showcase at the Folk Alliance Confererence which this
year took place at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the U.S. these past years, mainly in
Texas and some time in New England and New Jersey.
This was to be my first time in Nashville since 1987 when I performed
at a tribute concert for Gram Parsons and Clarence White.
Rosie Flores had offered me hospitality and a bed for the duration of
my stay.
We’ve been good friends now for a long time, since we both toured
with Butch Hancock back in 94. Since then we’ve done a lot of live
work and recording together; she cut my song ‘Poor Girls Town’
- which I wrote for her - on her Hightone release ‘Rockabilly Filly’
and sang on two of my albums , ‘The Heart Sings’ in 97 and on
the latest one ‘Green Voodoo’.
I knew the Nashville trip would be a party and it was !
I’ve developed a passion for photography these past years , my favourite
camera to use is a Canon T90 but it’s heavy to travel with so for
this trip I took an old Olympus OM1 I picked up in Reading where I used
to live, because it’s hardy and light to carry around . I did shoot
a couple of rolls of film but the favourites are what I call the ‘verbal
snapshots’ , some Polaroid and some 35mm which are reproduced below.
First night in town and Jim Lauderdale’s playing at the Exit Inn.
I’ve been a fan of his music since 1988 when I was in Austin recording
my first album ‘Call Up a Hurricane’ with J.D. Foster. J.D.
had a cassette of a Lauderdale gig in L.A. which was my introducation
to his music. I always look forward to catching him play whenever I can
.... I always thought his song ‘Whispering’ was the best song
George Jones never cut.
Rosie’s friend Manuel was on the town that night ..... Manuel ....
costumier and designer , heir to the legacy of Nudie Cohen ..... remember
that before Versace there was Nudie and Manuel. Drinking Jameson’s
whiskey with Rosie is a fine way to spend an evening in Nashville.
Spent some time over the next few days with Rosie in the studio listening
to tracks for her new live CD ‘Single Rose’. It was recorded
in Nashville at Douglas Corner and sounds intimate, tender and rocking
in the same breath. Featured are a lot of new compositions of hers, some
beautiful songs - the title track ‘Single Rose’ and ‘Morning
Light’ are like little three minute essays on life and love - I suppose
that makes them classics by definition .
We sat up late one night sipping whiskey , when that ran out we turned
to tequila and spent the wee small hours swapping songs. The favourites
that we both grew up on ... some half remembered .... a verse of one ...
a chorus of another, as I recall now , most of them were Don Gibson songs
that night. Always seemed to me that he was a bluesman .... his original
versions of ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘Just One Time’, ‘Oh,
Lonesome Me’ etc had such a blue groove to them.
The following morning it was raining, it was cold , I was a guest in a
non-smoking household so ... I put on my down jacket, made some coffee,
rolled a cigarette and took the guitar out on the porch. The street appeared
to me as a black and white photo from the late 50s/early 60s, seemed like
a Don Gibson day, I sat there and wrote a song called ‘Lonesome Street’.
It’s always going to be my ‘Don Gibson song’ , Rosie heard
me playing it .... we worked it up and played it in our set at the Bluebird
Cafe a few days later.
I’ll be recording it for my next album and I think Rosie has plans
to cut it too, so ... thank you Mr Gibson for the inspiration and the
poetry grooves.
I met up in the afternoon with my friend Dale Anderson from Buffalo, NY.
We first knew each other in London at the Dublin Castle in Camden, back
when he was managing Ani DiFranco.
Ani and I had some mutual friends in Austin, TX and I’d helped her
out when she first came to England. She stayed at the house with us and
I set some shows up for her in London and Reading. Dale and I stayed in
touch and he is currently part of my un-official management team helping
spread the word , he set it all up and made it possible for me to showcase
at Folk Alliance.
I played a set around midnight in room 319 , I think it was up around
the 18th floor anyway ....... the drapes pulled back and the Nashville
skyline as a backdrop .... that my friends IS ‘Irish Rockabilly Blues’.
Had a good time , met up with some old friends and made some new ones.
Mitch Cantor from Gadfly Records, Greg Johnson who I first knew when he
was a jounalist in Austin - he now runs a club called The Blue Door in
Oklahoma City,
Roz and Howard Larman from Los Angeles - Roz & Howard of ‘Folkscene’
fame - great people, Taylor McCaffrey from Baton Rouge .
It’s great to get together with people who’ve played your music
and supported you through their radio shows for years, one of the joys
and rewards of this life we choose.
If Sat night is a 35mm shot, then it’s definitely cross-processed.
Rosie had arranged a gig for us at The Coble Opry, she told me it was
going to be as much fun as I could have on a Sat night and she was absolutely
right.
It had been a good day already ... Amy Rigby had just finished mastering
her new album ‘Til The Wheels Fall Off’ , she lives a few doors
down the street from Rosie and threw a little brunch party to which we
were invited. Greg Trooper came with copy of ‘Floating’ his
new one , we’ve played a lot of the same gigs over the years but
had never met , we also have mutual friends in his home state of New Jersey
so it was an unexpected pleasure to meet him.
Just another February afternoon in Nashville .... late winter sunshine,
delicious food, charming company and .... Amy’s album is a current
favourite of mine - her songs are on ‘repeat’ in my brain. Greg
Trooper ? ..... anybody who writes a song that refers to a Gibson ‘Hummingbird’
guitar is man to respect and ..... he’s funny in that New Jersey
way that Donald Fagen and Lou Reed are New Jersey funny.
Now to The Coble Opry.
Coble is a tiny place, I believe it’s in Hickman County, west of
Nashville about an hour and a half, going towards Jackson, Tennessee -
hometown of the late Carl Perkins. .... head for Memphis, cross the Duck
River, past the Wolf Creek church and ... the Opry is held in a little
wooden country store, festooned with fairy lights in the dark. No alcohol
is served but southern food is ... catfish, chicken, home fries .... there
was ice on the ground outside and that food tasted so good.
Inside .... a long narrow room with a stage set up at the end.
It wasn’t till we got inside that I found out the music is run by
Hugh
Waddell, Rosie had kept that a secret.
Hugh used to work for Johnny Cash and had arranged for me to meet him
when he played at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London 10 years ago.
Around that time I’d recorded an album called ‘Rhythm Oil’
with slide guitarist Michael Messer and Jesse ‘Guitar’ Taylor
from Austin while he was on one of his sojourns from Joe Ely’s band.
Johnny Cash had written the sleevenotes for that album, so when he came
to London on tour it was set up for Michael and I to meet with him after
the show and ... Hugh was the guy who’d arranged it all and I’d
not seen him since then. So meeting up with him again in the middle of
Tennessee on a
Saturday night was cause for celebration.
Rosie goes out there a lot to play when she’s in town , mainly for
fun. The audience are family orientated, children through to grand- parents,
some travel quite a way to get there now as the word is spreading about
the place. Also playing that night with us was a singer/guitar player
who had travelled in from Alabama. Johnny Collier ..... played a Fender,
great honky tonk voice and did a killer version of Bad Company’s
‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love’. The house band are pretty
much whoever turns up from Nashville to play, if they haven’t got
a big paying gig or a recording date then the Coble Opry is the place
to be. We had an amazing Hammond B3 organist that night - Moe Denham -
who swung like Jimmy Smith and Georgie Fame and sang a version of ‘Rainy
Night in Georgia’ that I’ll remember forever. The performance
schedule is pretty loose there, I sang a couple of songs solo and then
got the band up and we jammed on country and blues - my 12 string acoustic,
a double bass, drums. B3 organ - Rosie joined me for some. Did Carl Perkin’s
‘Matchbox’ .... I told the crowd that being closer to Jackson
than I ever had - I could feel his aura, Robert Johnson’s ‘Walkin’
Blues’. Rosie then did a set for which I joined her , shaking her
rockabilly party dress and blowing like Eddie Cochran on her Epiphone
‘Wildcat’. They rate and give prizes for performance at the
Coble Opry too ...... I was judged a 10 cans of spam and a box of candy
cane.
We should have recorded it, it would probably be my next album, as I said
- cross processed - the colours are twisted and saturated but beautiful.
Thank you Ma and Pa Coble, Hugh Waddell, Moe Denham and Johnny Collier.
Sunday saw heavy snow , I sat on the porch until late and planned to walk
around the neighbourhood in the morning and shoot photographs but through
the night the temperature rose and by morning it was nearly all gone.
Monday night was the ‘Rosie & Terry Show’ at the Bluebird
Cafe after which we stayed up all night ‘til Rosie dropped me at
the airport at 4.30. a.m. for my flight to St. Louis and on to Austin,
TX.
AUSTIN
Austin ...
In town two days only, to see my friends and now partners - Merel Bregante
and Sarah Pierce. They have Cribworks Digital Audio and Little Bear Records
based in
Austin.
We’ve worked together now since 1998 when I recorded my album ‘Lucky’
there, the following year we did ‘The Sound of the Moon’. 2001
saw me record ‘Green Voodoo’ with them, this time with Merel
co-producing with me as well as playing drums/perc and Sarah singing harmonies.
The latter was originally available on Catfish Records but as a result
of our meeting up on this trip will now be on Little Bear Records as will
my earlier CD release ‘The Shelly River’. I’ll be recording
a new album with them later this year too. While there I contributed some
12 string guitar and sang harmony on two tracks for Sarah’s forthcoming
CD, we did Dino Valente’s
‘Get Together’ and a version of Roy Orbison’s ‘In
Dreams’. The album’s titled ‘Love’s The Only Way’
and is due out in August on Little Bear Records. Thursday morning around
5.00.a.m. Merel dropped me back at the airport for the return to Nashville,
this time via Dallas .... the trip was turning into a tour of major U.S.
airports
Thurs afternoon was a radio recording with Rosie and Warren Pash for The
Songwriter Sessions for Nashville Public Radio. It was presented and recorded
by Ed Lambert ‘in the round’, Ed being one of the best sound
engineers I’ve worked with. He later sent me a recording of the show
as broadcast and it sounded wonderful.
Thurs night ..... last night in town and probably the highlight.
Cowboy Jack Clement at the Douglas Corner.
Study; your rock ‘n’ roll history books, L.P. sleevenotes, CD
booklets .... and Jack Clement’s name is writ large. From the genisis
to the present, Memphis with Sam Phillips and Sun Records, with Johnny
Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings ... engineering, producing, writing,
playing that rhythm guitar style of his. Joe Gracey in Austin - who is
one of the greatest rhythm guitar players I know - told me once that Cowboy
Jack taught him to play. Watching him perform that night was an object
lesson in how to write, sing and play music. Still a handsome man with
thick, swept back silver hair he took the stage and illustrated why I
fell in love with this music as a 10 year old boy. He played some lap
steel guitar, exchanged banter with old friends in the audience, played
the classic chord changes in a classic manner. In that Jack Clement voice
that I wonder at, he sang some of my favourite songs, too many to list
here but two highlights were, ‘Ballad of a Teenage Queen’ and
‘Guess Things Happen That Way’.
He wrote both of those for Johnny Cash back in the 50s and they were two
of the first songs I ever learned to play. They were on a Cash L.P. that
my parents gave me for Christmas when I was about 12 or 13 years old.
A poignant moment was when he mentioned that night was the first anniversary
of Waylon Jennings passing and in tribute sang ‘Dreaming My Dreams’
and ‘When I Dream’ . In the middle of all this, Jack’s
daughter Alison Clements took the stage and nearly broke everybody’s
heart with an awesome version of Hank William’s ‘I’m So
Lonesome I Could Cry’.
The Douglas Corner ..... Rosie, Terry, tequila, Jack Clement .........
the shot is slightly out of focus but cross processed with high key colour.
Back at the house, Rosie, her friend Layla -who runs a bluegrass bar on
Broadway - and me, sat up late .... swapped guitars, finished the tequila
and sang for hours ... our songs, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson and probably
some more Don Gibson too.
Friday I was leaving late afternoon for New Jersey .
On the way to the airport we dropped in to see my new publishers , Bug
Music.
While there Marty Brown came in, went back out to his truck, came back
in with a guitar and sat down and played a song he’d just written
that morning ....
Think it was called ‘I Want My Valentine Back’ (it was Valentine’s
Day) .... he’d written it with ex-Waylon Jennings sideman Earl Clark,
who came in with Marty and actually had the lyrics on a scrap of note
paper in his jeans pocket .... I mention all of this because it was a
killer song and you’ll hear it one day, I know that. That IS Music
Row.
There was just time left for a brief shopping spree on Broadway, if
I’m in Nashville I must go to the Ernest Tubb Record Store. I picked
up a copy of the new Steve Forbert CD ‘Any Old Time’ , which
is his collection of Jimmie Rodgers songs. Im a long-time Forbert fan
and this is a great record.
Also got a Gene Vincent Capitol re-issue CD for Rosie as a gift.
Happy Valentine’s Day and thanks for being my friend and party girl
for 2 weeks!
New Jersey ... here I come......
NEW JERSEY
I first went to New Jersey in 99 when Gadfly Records released my ‘Mother
Indigo’ album and I did some promotion around New England down to
N.J.
I like it around there a lot and have good friends in the area now.
I was staying with Tim and Lori Blixt who run the Cabin Concerts series
of house concerts in Wayne. Saturday was bitterly cold ... not too much
spare time as I had a radio show in the afternoon with Jerry Treacy in
Hackensack .... or is it Teaneck?
Around New Jersey with those place names I always feel I’m in somebody’s
song ..... Steely Dan’s, Chuck Berry’s or one of Bruce Springsteen’s.
This time I wrote one of my own, it’s called ‘Teaneck Girl’
and will be on the next album. I did Jerry Treacy’s show in 99 and
it was one of the most enjoyable radio things I’ve ever done. He
is a very personable and gentle guy, no pressure, just lets you unravel
yourself on air! As well as playing my own songs he has been known to
coax me into singing Johnny Mercer and Chuck Willis songs that were submerged
deep and far back through the years, live ... on air ... without a net.
I’ll always be glad and happy to do his radio shows.
Sunday was house concert day with Tim and Lori. They’ve been doing
these things for a few years now and are very well organised and respected
and loved by the people who attend. The list of performers who’ve
played for them is a roll-call of contemporary singer-songwriters; Cliff
Eberhardt, Lucy Kaplansky, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer ( before Dave’s
sudden sad death last year), Jimmy LaFave and on and .......
We had a great time, full house, a lot of great pot roast, bootlegs were
made, stories were told , tall tales were made even taller, I drank the
Jameson’s Tim & Lori supplied and then the snow came in, the
snow came in, the snow ......... I’m going to learn Jesse Winchester’s
‘Snow’ for for when I get back.
I believe it had been snowing through the afternoon in the south of the
state and in Delaware, it reached us around 8.00.p.m. ........ as I recall
it finally stopped about 1.00.p.m. on Tues, leaving around 3 feet and
causing a state of emergency to be declared.
Monday morning I was due to do another radio show which had to be cancelled.
We’d also planned to travel up to Woodstock and visit Tom Pacheco,
that trip had to be called off as well. Tom and I used to work the same
circuit in London and around
Ireland and did some shows together but I’d not seen him since he
moved back to the U.S. a few years ago. We ended up talking on the phone
for a while instead while I gazed out the window at the snow which had
turned the neighbourhood into a Norman Rockwell fantasy.
Tuesday after it stopped, the sun came out and the sky was clear, blue
and bright. All of the streets and gardens/yards were full of people digging
out their cars, walking their dogs, children playing and making snowballs.
As the previous Friday had been Valentine’s Day, many homes had decorations
out amongst the shrubs and banners/flags/lights around the porches, decks
and windows. It was an arresting image, bright primary colours in the
snow.
Wednesday was a quick raid on the nearest shopping mall for gifts to take
home and then Newark airport and the duty free store there.
Glasgow ... M8 ... Greenock ... Gourock ... River Clyde .... Argyll is
there
In closing .... Nashville, Austin, New Jersey ..... thanks ... see you
all next time. Rosie, you rock.
© Terry Clarke February 2003
All photos by Terry Clarke
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
mother indigo
Chris Britton's Wired
Studios...
....just over the road from East Street where
my maternal grandmother Florence Ada Edmonds was born in 1889 and across
the traffic lights from London Street, where I did a lot of growing up
in the sixties.
Saw my friend Mike Cooper play down there for the first time with his
band The Blues Commitee at the Alexandra School of Dancing, whose main
business was ballroom and ballet. Later on it was known variously as The
Glow Room and Wheels.... saw Cream play there and one of Mick
Taylor's first shows with John Mayall. Played there myself with my first
ever band, The Statesmen, heard a lot of Stax and Motown there
too. After that it was known for a long time as The Carribean Club,
and the room at the back, which was walled with mirrors from its ballet
days, was filled with the sound dominoes rapping on the tables and the
riffing of ska, bluebeat and reggae.
On the other side of London Street was the Olympia Ballroom. Saw
Gene Vincent there while I was still attending school, he hit the stage
and sang 'Mama May' and my life was changed. Later on saw Marty Wilde,
Tommy Roe and one of the greatest English Rock/Soul bands ever...Cliff
Bennett and The Rebel Rousers. That was then....
Wired Studios 1994...
My friend Terry Hooley and artist Gerry Gleason
were once over from Belfast for a few days for an exhibition of Gerry's
paintings in Newlyn, Cornwall. So, Hooley phones me..."What about
you Terry, what are you up to?" I told him that I was going into
the studio to lay down some new songs that I'd been working on and suggested
he take the train up to Reading and come along. 1994 had been a good year.
In March I'd gone to Austin, Texas and hasd travelled out west with Butch
Hancock and Jesse Taylor for a river trip on the Rio Grande through Santa
Elena canyon. On returning home I toured Ireland for a month with Henry
McCullough, a few weeks later Henry came over and we played some shows
in England and Scotland after which the two of us went to Canada for some
dates. October saw me reunited with Butch along with Rosie Flores and
'Slim' for a month long tour through England, Scotland, Ireland and most
of Europe..
I'm telling you this because most of these
songs grew in one way or another on all of these roads. November found
me without a record contract, a lot of new material and a 1963 Gibson
B45 twelve string guitar that I'd picked up the previous year and was
really excited about recording with.
So, a cold, damp, late autumn night saw Terry Hooley and
me load up my coffee coloured 1980 Ford Cortina, which I managed to keep
on the road until 1995( had it stolen..got it back) and make an album.
The first song cut was Candyman's Last Night
(Coming Home), Hooley said he was going up the road to the Greyhound
Bar for a quick drink, he came back about four hours later and it was
all finished. Turned out that he'd met a young man who had seen service
with the British Army in Northern Ireland and had spent the evening drinking
and swapping stories with him.
Before we left that night/early morning we recorded
a version of Terry's poem Be My Friend, me improvising on the twelve
string guitar and him speaking the words that he'd said to me the first
time that we met in North London in 1990. Be My Friend isn't on
this album, but Hooley's own poem/story album is worth waiting for.
Three of these songs; Walk With Me, Back To The
Well and Bruce Channel in this Town were recorded the following year
for my Transatlantic release The Heart Sings which came out in
1997. However those versions featured a full band line up and are very
different to these solo performances. Regarding the other songs.....
Candyman's Last Night (Coming Home), I
know there'll be many more last nights. I hope that Frankie Murray still
sings Kansas City, Tally Ho lodge still stands as does Jack Noone,
cattle dealer and first cousin of my father. My own first cousin Frank
Clarke still drives through Ballysadare. Bruce Channel is today writing
great songs and singing them with the same fire and rhythm that he did
Hey Baby in the beginning.
I've seen Mother Indigo in mant lovely guises at North Devon, Cornwall,
Sligo, Kerry, Sicily, Rimini, Aberdeen, Lindisfarne, Bergen, Portstewart,
Dingle, Boston, Maine, Morecambe Bay, Whiyby, rolling on....
I first saw the sea en route from Hollyhead,
Anglesey to Dublin, bound for Sligo on the west coast of Ireland, where
as a child we'd go to visit my father's family. Later, our family
holidays were usually spent in and around Hayle and St.Ives in Cornwall.
The northern Cornish coast and that of North Devon remains one of my favourite
places.
Over the years I've grown to love and admire the work of painters Peter
Lanyon, who was born in St.Ives and that of Alfred Wallis, who was born
in Devonport but who lived and painted in St. Ives.
Very often when I'm there these days, it's
difficult to look at the land and sea and not think of the work of Lanyon
and Wallis. The song Mother Indigo was written in and around Bideford
Bay which enchants me and takes my breath away as much now as when I first
saw it in the early seventies.
There is a line in Mother Indigo which quotes from Alfred Wallis -
Where the boats have the souls of fish - I believe they do.
The inscription on Peter Lanyon's grave in the churchyard
at Lelant overlooking the Hayle estuary reads -
I will ride now the barren kingdoms in my history and in my eye
Terry Clarke
Reading, Berkshire, England
February 1999
Don't these sea towns
talk like Dylan Thomas
tiger prawns
crabs and cats
marmalade skies
spread all over
down along the mud flats
from Strawberry Water
by Terry Clarke
these words form the sleeve notes to Terry's latest release on Gadfly records (Gadfly 250) - Terry Clarke and Michael Messer's Rhythm Oil has just been re-released by Koch International (Koch 332872). Terry's previous disc Lucky is available through Apaloosa Records(Apaloosa 132).
This piece appeared in Shaun Belcher's Flyin Shoes review 1999. I would urge you to investigate the works and lives of Alfred Wallis and Peter Lanyon.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Terry Clarke Interview (April 2001)
Late For The Sky ( Italian publication ) July/August
2001
Interview by Fabrizio Pezzoli
What is your first memory of music as a
“call of the wilderness”?
My first musical memories are of the fifties rock ‘n’ roll and
country music mixed with some pre rock ‘n’ roll … a la
.. Johnnie Ray, Frankie Laine, Kay Starr and Jo Staffor …. ‘Tennessee
Waltz’ by Patti Page and ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ by Kay Starr
, I loved those and I guess in retrospect they had an obvious country
music element ….
Then it would have been the Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash. Elvis Presley,
Buddy Holly …. All of those people.
That music still means as much to me today as it did then , still a big
source of inspiration …. That big acoustic rhythm guitar sound of
Don Everly and Johnny Cash mixed with their vocal sound ‘I Walk The
Line’ by Johnny Cash is almost like the bible to me , I really like
what Rodney Crowell’s done with that song on his new album ‘The
Houston Kid’.
Is it a mere need of communication or is
there something else?
I guess deep down there is a need , as a child and then a teenager I was
never one who craved the spotlight and attention for it’s own sake
like some performers …
When I first started I was very shy …. But when I closed my eyes
and sang all of those fears disappeared and I was in another world .
First came music or poetry?
Music … music and song ….
It’s flattering when people refer to me as a poet but …. I wouldn’t
refer to myself as a poet … a poetic songwriter maybe but I think
poetry is a very different discipline to song I rarely if ever get a lyric
idea without there being some melodic form or rhythmic shape in my head
at the same time …
I think it was the great lyric writer Johnny Mercer who said that you
can’t hum a lyric!
Some of my favourites of my own which I think combine a poetic attitude
with melody are
‘Come Autumn’ , ‘The Art Of The Blues’ and ‘Did
He Sing ‘Danny Boy” ….
I think the art of the popular song is a wonderful art form.
Your literary influences?
I think I’ve always loved language, as a child I loved the bible
stories, fairy tales , family stories … so I suppose all of that
is an influence of some kind at some point.
Later on it would be John Steinbeck, Malcolm Lowry, D.H. Lawrence ….
In recent years I’ve read Cormac McCarthy, Marina Warner, Bruce Chatwin,
Stanley Booth and recently a writer from Martin Les Murray, Michael Ventura,
Michael Ondaatje, Louise Erdrich ….
As for songwriters … Laura Nyro, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael,
Gram Parsons, Willie Nelson, Stephen Stills …
Johnny Mercer I admire especially , even more so at this point in my life
…. The way he approached adult themes in a lyric like ‘Days
Of Wine And Roses’ is very sophisticated, and
Tell me about your love for Texas and the
consequent experiences in the Lone Star State.
Seems as if there was some mystic ‘Texas groove’
playing in my subconscious for a long time …. Buddy Holly, Waylon
Jennings, Willie Nelson …. All of those wonderful 45s I grew up Back
in the mid 80s in England I met Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Flaco
Jimenez …. All of those people were very encouraging to me so it
seemed the natural thing to do … I felt imm I feel a very lucky person
to be able to cross the world and record and play with people like Champ
Hood, Merel Bregante, Jesse Taylor & Lisa Mednick …. The greatest
thing though is to have to have these people as friends there are lots
of people there who arenıt musicians who are very dear to me too , some
of the best people Iıve ever known . True friends.
In which way is it different playing alone
or with a band behind and around you?
I’ve done a lot of performing solo which I enjoy …. There’s
a lot of freedom there to do what you want as the mood dictates but it’s
a lot more fun with a band! …
Musically too it’s very different …. You have a big palette
of harmony and rhythm to play with …
Travelling alone can be interesting as well as lonely sometimes …
but with a band it’s kind of ‘join the circus’! I love
it
Your recent Italian tour was partly alone
and mostly with a band. What and when did you enjoy the gigs the most?
And why?
I actually only played one show solo which was in Trento, all of the others
were with the band.
I enjoyed all of the dates for different reasons … some would stand
out for the locations, places I’d not been before in Italy …
Asti, Ferrara were great shows … and Rome …
I have to say that of all the places I’ve been fortunate enough to
visit so far in my life, Rome is my favourite …
I first went in 1990 when my friend Mike Cooper who lives there, booked
me some shows at the old Folk Studio with Giancarlo Cesaroni , that was
in Trastevere where we played this time at Big Mama.
Rome …. The tempo, rhythm, colour and light … feels to me like
the crossroads of the world, I never want to sleep when I’m there
…
This time was special because, I was with Italian musicians and drummer
Merel Bregante’s father was Italian so he relates to Italy like I
do to Ireland with my father being Irish … also we all got to meet
up with Mike Cooper and his partner Maria Galante . Mike is from my hometown
of Reading in England and weıve been friends for 30 years now , so for
all of us to be together in Rome of all places was heart-warming.
What are your first concerns when you are
on stage? Are you searching a special contact with the audience (or a
part of the audience)?
That’s a hard question to answer accurately … a lot of it is
subconscious and subliminal and varies every night … but … to
connect in some way. Sometimes a lyric will do it, but another time
can be a more physical, rhythmic thing . You often donıt know until after
itıs over.
Recording in a studio is quite different
from performing live on stage. What do you like most?
I would probably have to say that I like both in equal
measure …. On the one hand I love the primal, simple thing of one
man and a guitar, maybe a glass of whiskey and just sit around a table
and But on the other … the world of late nights in studios finding
new magic is equally appealing!
Give me a big enough budget and I’ll turn into Phil Spector or Brian
Wilson.
How do you relate painting and shooting
photographs with your songwriting?
Painting is something I do very occasionally … I did the paintings
for the ‘Mother Indigo’ album and ‘Lucky’ but they
were the first I’d done for many years and they Photography is a
more recent thing … but … it’s become an absolute passion
… it’s early days yet and I have a lot to learn but for about
2 years now I’ve been almost obs I think it was building up for a
long time , I’ve always been a fan of the medium …
I recall in Rome in 1990 I saw an exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s
work , the memory of that always stayed with me …
Butch Hancock is a great photographer, being around him inspired me too
…
I’m a big admirer of the work of William Eggleston, Walker Evans,
Jim Marshall, William Claxton, my friend Alan Messer, there are so many
greats …
Marty Stuart has just published a book of his photographs which has some
great shots of a lot of the people he’s worked with.
Your latest purchase of records?
Laura Nyro ‘Angel In The Dark’
Johnny Cash ‘Solitary Man’
The Roots ‘Things Fall Apart’
Sade ‘Lovers Rock’
Bill Frisell ‘Blues Dream’
Dion DiMucci ‘Born To Be With You’
Audra McDonald ‘How Glory Goes’
Neil Diamond ‘In My Lifetime’ (Box Set)
Filippa Giordano (same)
Miles Davis ‘The Complete Birth Of The Cool’
Your projects for the upcoming future?
An album for Appaloosa to be recorded in Austin, Texas with Merel Bregante
again.
I’m currently working on an album here at home in Reading.
Being recorded at the Wired studio at the Rising Sun Art Centre where
I cut ‘Mother Indigo’, I also did the artwork for that album
and ‘The Sound Of The Moon’ there … it’
This project has been in the planning stages for many years …. It
features songs that relate to my hometown in some way …. I’m
doing it with Tim Hill’s Pandaemonium Band … Tim
I have an album finished here which was recorded through 96/99 …
it’s called ‘The Honey Road’ … was originally intended
as the follow up to ‘The Heart Sings’ ….
I’ve just purchased some recording equipment to start working at
home too …. I have plans to do an album of cover versions but that
could take a while yet!
My current favourite songwriter is Ronny Elliott from Tampa, Florida ….
We met on tour in Germany in 99 …. Became good friends, he’s
just recorded my song ‘Irish Rockabilly Blues&# We are currently
writing together via the internet, we have a lot of good things coming
together and hopefully we’ll be able to record together at some point
.
Finally my friend Michael Messer here at home will be starting a new album
soon … we’ll be working together on material for that …
Last but not least … to return to Italy as soon as I can!
End
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REMEMBERING GLEN ALYN
Very often when the world seems as if it's spinning out of control you
get glimpses; of love, .
compassion, nirvana, heaven.
Sometimes you meet people and know them for a relatively short time and
yet feel you've been
friends forever.
Glen Alyn was one of those people and he could open windows so that you
could look out from
a crazy world and see those things.
Let me take you back ...
I first heard of Glen through my friend Alyce McCullough Guynn, this was
back in 94/95, as I
recall she had met him in a poetry/writing group.
On one of our frequent long transatlantic phone conversations she told
me of his work and of how
he was encouraging her with her own writing. She told him of my work and
we probably became friends before we met.
When I returned to Austin in October of 96 Glen had me as the guest at
the poetry/song evening
that he ran with Steve Brooks at Joel T's deli.
He sang his accapella song 'In The Nest Our Hearts', his middle eastern
tinged 'The Well', his
version of 'Fishin' Blues' and I fell in love with his soul.
Alyce read some of her poetry, I played guitar behind her, I sang my songs.
Butch Hancock dropped by
and we ended up singing together with Glen singing like a bird on harmonica.
When the place closed up we all ended up talking for a long time in the
parking lot ... had a new best friend.
I guested there again when I came back in the spring of
98, and on this occasion Glen had some of his friends
along to read. Veterans like him who when they were youths had been ripped
out of their lives and thrown into
the hell that was Vietnam.
I sat there listening with tears in my eyes and then laughed when Glen
read 'Hamburgers' as he became that
little boy again in the back seat of the 51 Plymouth.
I never told anybody then but it was hard to stand up and sing after them.
Incidentally ... I learned from somebody in Ireland recently that a relation
of theirs who is involved
with the United Nations as a cartographer, used to fly over Vietnam/Cambodia
with a copy of my album 'The Shelly River' in their Walkman ... I wish
I'd had a chance to tell that to Glen.
When I read 'I Say Me For A Parable' his biography of Mance Lipscomb and
'Huckleberry Minh a walk through
dreamland' or listen to songs like 'Texas Spring', 'Panhandle Farm' and
'End Of The Honeymoon Waltz' I see
and hear words that were written for no other reason than that they had
to be.
I didn't discover the work of Dylan Thomas, Hank Williams, Charlie Parker,
Robert Johnson until after they
were gone but ... they shaped my way of looking at the world.
I hope that as time passes people will discover the work of Glen Alyn,
those of us who had the opportunity
to while he was among us are the fortunate ones.
In closing ...
for the last evening of my most recent visit to Austin in April 99, my
friend Pat Marshall organised
an informal gathering of friends for a picnic supper at the grove of trees
that were planted as a memorial
to Walter Hyatt.
I sang for my supper and ended by singing 'Moon River'
for Walter.
Glen was there with us and before he left made me a gift of his just published
'Huckleberry Minh'. His
inscription inside to me began ... April 30th, my son Shannon's and Willie
Nelson's birthday ...
it will always be a treasured possession.
That was the last time I saw him. There couldn't have been a better place
on earth to say farewell, it's a fine memory.
Maybe his work is done and now we have another song angel to light our
way.
I offer my condolences to Katheran and Shannon on the loss of Glen and
Sequoia.
Glen, thanks for being my brother and friend, see you in the next go-along.
Terry Clarke
I wrote this piece for John Conquest’s Austin, Texas magazine ‘Music
City Texas’.
NB Glen died along with his nineteen year old daughter Sequoia
in a car accident on June 4 2000.
Contact: Glen Alyn Archives, The Center for American History,
Sid Richardson Hall 2101, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Strawberries'
for Glen Alyn 2000
1
There are strawberries on this road
they stretch for miles and miles
there are strawberries on this road
they stretch for miles and miles
they smell so sweet and lovely
God you have to smile
2
There are strawberries on this road
they're growing just for me
there are strawberries on this road
they're growing just for me
and somewhere in the distance
there's an angel singing 'Ruby'
3
I saw the strawberry moon last night
the neon was blushing like a rose
Marty Robbins sang 'The Strawberry Roan'
and someone else was singing
"Casey danced with the strawberry blonde"
and the band played on
4
There are strawberries on this road
out where the sacred breezes blow
there strawberries on this road
out where the sacred breezes blow
I'll stop and pick another one
and eat it slow before I go
5
There are strawberries on this road
like little rubies in the dew
there are strawberries on this road
like little rubies in the dew
if this is Eden
babe I'll sit and wait for you
6
I saw the strawberry moon last night
I sat and watched the tail lights glow
Johnny Lennon sang
"let me take you down
'cause I'm going to ...
strawberry fields forever"
forever
Copyright Terry Clarke Nov 2000
NB according to Glen ... strawberries were the first thing some native
Americans see to let them know they are now on the path of death and have
now left the path of life.
I wrote this song as a tribute to him - he was a truly exceptional man.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Heart Sings
‘The Heart Sings’
Song notes by Terry Clarke
The Rocks of Ireland
I picked up a Sunburst 1963 Gibson 12 string guitar a few years ago, all
of the new songs on this record were written on it ... the old songs sound
better on it too ... miles and miles of Irish road ... with Henry McCullough
who kept me safe and showed me secret places in the rocks ... shared stories
of the old days in Dublin and of drinks in Morrisey’s in Abbeyleix
....wish that Blind Willie McTell could have seen Connemara ... this sing’s
for him.
Roll Away
Simon Price has kicked drums and spun rhythms through my songs for a long,
long time now ...his percussion solo on this is one of my favourite moments
on anything I’ve recorded.
Detroit to Dingle
For Father Daniel O’Sullivan.
Back to the Well
Played a lot of sessions with Ron Kavana and piper Paddy Keenan during
the Edmonton Festival in 94 ... this song was born from a conversation
with Paddy and was written in the departure lounge of Calgary airport
... Rosie poured water on the baby’s head.
The Shelly River
My father and his family are from the banks of the River Moy, just outside
Tobercurry in County Sligo. The Irish spelling of Sligo is Sligeach
meaning shelly place from when the waters contained plentiful
mussels. The song ‘Sligo Honeymoon 1946’ on the original album
‘The Shelly River’ was based upon a photograph of my parents
on honeymoon, picking cockles off the beach at Strand Hill, Sligo Bay.
Walk With Me
As I remember this was the last new song of mine that a good friend heard
me sing before she passed away in the summer of 95. It’s for Ann
Moore and my wish is that it reaches her now.
Looking for You, The Heart Sings and Blue Honey
These three songs are the heart and motor of the record, the west coast
of Ireland, Sicily and the American south & southwest ... real and
imagined, are my favourite places to visit. The voice of Elvis , the shimmer
of Gene Vincent’s records, Bo Diddley’s rhythms, the harmonies
of Don & Phil Everly feel like extra characters in the alphabet now.
I saw Bo Diddley play in Dublin during the summer of 95 while on tour
with Rosie Flores. She had sat in with him on guitar before and took me
backstage to meet him afterwards. I was working on The Heart Sings
at the time. There was a lot of love in that room on Wexford Street that
night ... in the rhythm ... in the people ... hear Bo Diddley sing Mona
on a hot summer night in Dublin and you’ve got to believe ... in
love ... the possibility of love ... sometimes it hurts but it’s
always worth it. With this record I wanted to make a thing of beauty ...
in the midst if violence, the blues, deprivation, hard work and debts
... to try and speak for and of beauty ... of the big blue beautiful dark
honeycomb of love.
Bruce Channel in this Town
I say Bruce Channel play at the Majestic ballroom in Reading when I was
still at school ... his single Hey! Baby was and he came over to
the UK to tour. I wanted to write the event into the song Hometown
on The Shelly River but could never make it work . Then a few years
later in 93 while on tour with Michael Messer and Jesse Taylor to promote
Rhythm Oil the album we did together, we did a low key acoustic
show in a little backstreet bar called The Dove in Reading. Afterwards
I drove Jesse around town , showing him where I grew up ... showing him
where I’d seen Johnny Burnette play ... Gene Vincent ... Cream ...
Freddie Cannon ... and Bruce Channel with Delbert McClinton on harmonica
... I think by the time we got back home the song was done.
Bruce Channel has a great track called Roller Coaster on a 95 release
by the Memphis Horns which I love as much as Hey! Baby.
The Edge of Shamrock City, American
Lipstick & Irish Rockabilly Blues
Songs of the American Wake ... songs of the shebeen ... these
songs have made a lot of friends since I first wrote and recorded them
on The Shelly River ... they seem to swagger when they walk and
laugh when they talk a lot more now ... in the hands of the Rising Sun
Conjurors they rock ‘n’ reel ‘n’ roll.
I carried on writing Irish Rockabilly Blues after I cut it the
first time ... so this version has a lot more verses not heard before
and it’s still not finished !
My friend Ron Kavana from Fermoy, County Cork has done a great version
of Shamrock City on his album Galway to Graceland ...this
new recording of it was coloured by his treatment.
American Lipstick ... Rosie Flores wears a Claddagh ring, she loves
Ireland and it loves her.
The Last Rhythm
Goodnight, sleep tight, God bless ... the heart sings.
Dedicated to the memory of John Delahunty
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In 1990 Minidoka Records issued a 3
track limited edition CD single.
The title track was ‘Buddy’s Waiting on the Flatland Road’
from
the album ‘Call Up A Hurricane’
These are the sleevenotes I wrote for the issue.
IT'S HARD TO TALK ABOUT SONGS WHEN YOU WROTE THEM TO SAY MOST OF THOSE
THINGS IN. THE FIRST PLACE...
ANYWAY...
THESE THREE SONGS WERE WRITTEN AT DIFFERENT TIMES OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS
BUT IT SEEMS THERE'S A MAGNETIC FIELD THAT PULLS THEM TOGETHER...
THERE IS ANOTHER ONE THAT FITS SOMEWHERE CALLED 'THE ROYAL BROTHERS' ...THE
FILINGS OF THAT ONE ARE SCATTERED AROUND IN MY GUITAR CASE RIGHT NOW.
YOU COULD CALL IT A SUITE OF SONGS IF YOU LIKE OR A BUNCH OF ROCK 'N'
ROLL, I DON'T MIND.
I WROTE 'LUBBOCK CALLING' IN THE EARLY 80'S IN MY HOMETOWN OF READING.
WAS IN THE WEE WEE HOURS AFTER SEEING JOE ELY AND HIS GREAT BAND WITH
JESSE TAYLOR,
LLOYD MAINES AND PONTY BONE BLOW A HALF EMPTY THEATRE WITH THE ROCK AND
COUNTRY POETRY THAT HE WROTE ALONG WITH BUTCH , JIMMIE AND HANK WILLIAMS.
A FEW WEEKS LATER I SANG IT LIVE ON THE AIR , SOLO, ON A LOCAL SHOW HOSTED
BY MY FRIEND AND DJ MIKE QUINN.
MIKE HAD INTERVIEWED JOE AFTER HIS DATE IN TOWN AND STILL HAD AN AUTOGRAPHED
PHOTO PINNED ON THE WALL BY THE STUDIO CONSOLE.
SHORTLY AFTER OR BEFORE , I CAN'T REMEMBER NOW, MIKE HAD INVITED ME DOWN
TO MEET
PHIL EVERLY, WHO HE WAS INTERVIEWING WITH RECORD PRODUCER STUART COLEMAN.
I HAD A 1969 BLONDE TOP GIBSON ' EVERLY BROTHERS' MODEL GUITAR WHICH PHIL
SIGNED FOR ME.
I DROVE HOME IN THE RAIN AND SAT UP ALL NIGHT LOOKING AT IT ... WAS A
BIG NIGHT FOR ME BECAUSE THE FIRST TIME I EVER HAD MONEY FOR RECORDS ...
I BOUGHT THREE SINGLES ...
'THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN' EDDIE COCHRAN, 'SHAZAM ' DUANE EDDY AND 'CATHY'S
CLOWN' BY THE EVERLY BROTHERS. LATER ON WHEN DON AND PHIL GOT BACK TOGETHER
I HAD A FRONT ROW SEAT FOR THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL RE-UNION. CONCERT.
THAT NIGHT AT THE RADIO STATION PHIL SPOKE QUIETLY ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE BUDDY
HOLLY, SONNY CURTIS, HANK GARLAND, CHET ATKINS, EDDIE COCHRAN, DION DIMUCCI,
GRAM PARSONS, RITCHIE VALENS AND
FELICE AND BOUDLEAUX BRYANT.
I'LL NEVER FORGET THE OBVIOUS LOVE AND DEEP RESPECT IN HIS VOICE FOR ALL
OF THEM.
BEFORE I LEFT THAT NIGHT HE TOLD ME TO NEVER QUIT ...
IF YOU WRITE AND SING AND HAVE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY, KEEP ON SAYING IT,
BECAUSE ONE DAY SOMEBODY 'IL LISTEN ... HE WAS RIGHT.
RITCHIE VALENS PRODUCED A SMALL BUT UNFORGETABLE COLLECTION OF GREAT CHICANO
ROCK 'N' ROLL TRACKS.
'LA BAMBA', 'COME ON, LETS GO' AND 'DONNA' WERE SOME OF MY FAVOURITE TRACKS
WHEN I WAS GROWING UP IN THE PRE - BEATLES LATE FIFTIES, EARLY SIXTIES
ENGLAND.
I WAS ON THE ROAD WITH FLACO JIMENEZ IN DECEMBER '89, AND ONE NIGHT SOMEONE
CALLED OUT FOR SOME FIFTIES ROCK.
IMMEDIATLY OSCAR TELLEZ WENT INTO 'DONNA' FOLLOWED BY RUBEN VALLE SINGING
'WE BELONG TOGETHER'.
RUBEN IS ABOUT THE AGE RITCHIE VALENS WOULD BE NOW, AND HE TOLD ME THAT
HE'D GROWN UP LEARNING TO PLAY THOSE SONGS AS A KID AND THAT 'DONNA' IS
ONE OF HIS FAVOURITE BLUE SONGS OF LOST LOVE.
IF YOU WANT IT CAN BE A TEENAGE LAMENT BUT IT CAN BE A WHOLE LOT MORE
TOO.
LATER THAT NIGHT I JOINED THEM ON-STAGE AND SANG 'TWIST AND SHOUT' IN
'LA BAMBA"...
CALL IT 'LA BAMBA' , 'SPANISH TWIST' OR 'TWIST AND SHOUT' IT STILL ROCKS
LIKE NOTHING ON EARTH, AND IT WAS OF THE EARTH BEFORE RITCHIE OR FLACO.
JOHN LENNON SANG IT LIKE THAT TOO.
'BUDDY'S WAITING ON THE FLATLAND ROAD' WAS A COLLECTION OF IDEAS IN MY
GUITAR CASE.
I WAS IN 'THE FIRE STATION' STUDIO, SAN MARCOS, TEXAS. WE WERE FINISHING
RECORDING 'CALL UP A HURRICANE'.
THERE WERE ONLY A FEW OF US LEFT, MYSELF, J.D.FOSTER, SPOT, ANDY ARROW
AND RICH BROTHERTON.
IT WAS EASTER SATURDAY MORN ABOUT 5.00. A.M.
WE' D BEEN IN THERE SINCE 11. 00. A .M. GOOD FRIDAY.
WE WERE SAT TALKING AND RAMBLING ON ABOUT CHRISTIANITY, AMERINDIAN RELIGIONS
AND MUSIC.
WE'D RECORDED ALL THE SONGS WE HAD PLANNED TO DO BUT THERE WAS STILL SOME
TAPE LEFT ON THE REEL.
I LOOKED WEST OUT THE WINDOW AT A BRILLIANT TEXAS MORNING AND THOUGHT
OF BUDDY HOLLY.
WE DID START TO WRITE OUT A CHORD CHART FOR THE SONG BUT IT WAS SOUNDING
TOO GOOD TO HANG AROUND , WE THOUGHT WE MAY LOSE IT AGAIN.
SO ... J.D.HIT AN EDDIE COCHRAN TYPE BASS RIFF, RICH AND ME THOUGHT WE
WERE THE EVERLY BROTHERS, ANDY PLAYED THE CARDBOARD BOX THAT THE STUDIOS
BRAND NEW THREE THOUSAND DOLLAR DRUM MACHINE HAD ARRIVED IN AND I FOUND
THE MELODY AS WE WENT ALONG FOR THE RIDE ... WE GOT IT ALL IN ONE TAKE,
I KNOW WE WERE LUCKY OR SOMETHING!
ON THE OVERDUB TRACK J.D. HIT A BEER BOTTLE, AND A STEEL HINGE THAT WAS
FORGED FOR THE DOOR WHEN IT WAS STILL AN ACTIVE FIRE STATION.
RICH, WHO MOST PEOPLE IN AUSTIN KNOW AS A GREAT PLAYER OF BLUEGRASS AND
IRISH
REELS AND JIGS GOT STRATOCASTER FEVER.
JERRY ALLISON OF 'THE CRICKETS' USED A CARDBOARD BOX FOR A SNARE DRUM
ON 'PEGGY SUE' AND A 'COKE' BOTTLE WITH THE EVERLY BROTHERS IN NASHVILLE.
WE THOUGHT THAT SOME THINGS ARE TOO GOOD TO FORGET ...
ALL OF WHICH MEANS NOTHING IF IT'S NOT IN THE GROOVES, I THINK IT IS.
PUT IT ON AND TURN IT UP.
TERRY CLARKE
BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND 1990
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'The Shelly River' 1991
'The Shelly River' Terry Clarke.
Sleevenotes for the original Minidoka release.
Somebody once said, "all of the good stories are true". Some
memories and incidents don't fit into songs but they spark the fire that
does.
Some of these wrote themselves, some had the words put into their mouths.
Like meeting an Irish-American cousin for the first time and looking at
photographs of family that 1'd never met... but seeing my own face there.
Or driving around Nashville with J.D. Foster and Argyle Bell... in a Cadillac
with Texas plates. A half full bottle of tequila and one purple suede
stiletto heeled shoe rolling around on the back seat. We talked of the
songs of Shane McGowan and the Clancy Brothers and managed to find fish
and chips in a night that hung humid over signs that read... Memphis,
Knoxville, composed from an alphabet that seemed to be sung by Elvis Presley
and the Carter Family.
The following spring... sitting in Rich and Kathy Brotherton's house in
Austin, Texas, drinking whisky and playing 'The Granemore Hare' and 'Raglan
Road' with Rich, J.D. and David Halley.
Rich and the rest of The Barnburner's playing 'Jenny's Welcome To Charley'
on the sidewalk outside Big Mamou on South Congress on a warm Easter Saturday
evening, a few hours after we had finished working on my 'Call Up A Hurricane'
album.
It's a long way from the sessions in Reading's Spread Eagle, Kennet Arms
and The Griffin to the streets of Austin and Nashville.... the power,
beauty, of the poetry and melody hit me again in a different way.
It's even further from the Sunday night ceilidhs after Mass in the English
Martyrs church.
My father used to work the door sometimes and dance with my mother on
the floor that he'd helped to lay.
I remember when I was a child we would go to church in the evening in
the summer. Afterwards we'd walk down the hill to the Spread Eagle, we'd
all sit in the beer garden and my dad would come out with a tray... Guinness
for him, Babycham for my mother and Smith's potato crisps and Pepsi Cola
for my younger brother and me.
In the winter of dark nights we would go to the morning service. That
meant that Sunday evening was spent with the radio tuned to Radio Luxembourg
and Sunday night was the Decca record label's show.... London American...
Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, RCA Victor...
Elvis, Jim Reeves and Rank Locklin. Every time Cash., Reeves and Locklin
came on my mum and dad would turn it right up.
I knew from an early age that the waters of the Moy, Shannon, Mississippi
and the Thames met somewhere and made the sound of a blonde finish bird's
eye maple Gibson J-200 , playing 'The Star Of Munster' with a rockabilly
backbeat and a Johnny Cash smile.
Some
of these songs were written a few years ago now.
'The Leaving Of Sligo' was written about ten years ago. It's based on
my father's own words about his older sister leaving home for America
in the 1920's.
His words said it all, I just had to make it rhyme. I performed it in
a production at the Progress Theatre in Reading with Arda Berkshire and
the Wild Geese theatre company.
The production was called 'The American Wake', a couple of years later
we all worked on another one called 'The Homecoming'.
The latter was based around a reading of a poem by Patrick Kavanagh called
'A Christmas Childhood'. I wrote 'Last Summer At Cloonacool' especially
for this production.
During this period Lennie Attrill and John Ryall, who respectively played
accordion and fiddle in Arda Berkshire, and myself arranged and played
music for a Progress Theatre production of Brendan Behan's 'The Hostage'.
Some of my fondest and most exciting memories come from these times and
they still inspire and inform what I do today.
Some of these songs were written while we were recording, while others
probably began before I could write at all... and only listen to my father
telling his stories of growing up in Sligo, of his boat journeys across
the Irish Sea to Liverpool as a young teenager.
Of walking the roads of Yorkshire looking for work, cutting beet in the
freezing winter fields of Lincolnshire, working on the streets and underneath
them excavating the tunnels for the Underground in pre-war London.
His family, my family... the power in blood... the wells of memory that
fill up over generations and travel in the genes.
It seems that any road I travel in the British Isles and Ireland to play
music, he's been there before, working on the road or digging the fields
alongside it.
The big difference is that him and those like him never got any applause.
Everybody's Lot a story to tell, some live them, some tell them, some
write them down, some dream them, some make them up, some sing them and
some of us try and do it all.
I am always spellbound by the stories and songs of Patti Smith, Bob Dylan,
the late Bruce Chatwin, Christy Moore, Dylan Thomas, Michael Ondaatje,
Laura Nyro, Charles Dickens, Malcolm Lowry and many others.
If you ve ever got a month to spare, Butch Hancock and my dad have got
some of the best stories on this or that side of fiction.
These stories and songs had their roots on the banks of 'The Shelly River'.
They're all wild seeds now.
Terry Clarke, Berkshire, England
1991
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'Rhythm Oil - The Sessions'
NOTES FOR 'RHYTHM OIL'
THE MICHAEL MIESER BAND WITTI TERRY CLARKE
& JESSE 'GUITAR' TAYLOR
These are notes that I wrote
about the genisis of the project but they were never used.
When I was in Austin, Texas during the spring of 1989,
I read a magaazine interview with Keith Richards by Stanley Booth, he'd
already written my favourite book to come out of this thing we call 'Rock
'n' Roll', called The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones'.
The interview footnote mentioned a forthcoming book by Stanley Booth to
be titled 'Rhythm Oil' due out in the fall of 1989.
Was a long time coming, it turned up in the spring of '91.
I started working on a song called Rhythm Oil and played the first
version of it in Birmingham one night in the summer of 90 while on the
road with Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Jesse Taylor.
Jesse loved the song and said if I ever cut it he wanted to play guitar
on it.
Here's where the story really begins ...
I'd first seen Jesse play at the Venue in Victoria, London in the late
70's when no came over as part of the Joe Ely Band.
Michael Messer and I were a for years away from meeting at that point
but realised later that we were both at the same show.
Come on now to 1990 and find Michael and myself working together on the
road and writing and playing together on his Slidedance album.
One of the songs we often play at this time is Rhythm Oil.
1991 and Jesse is over here doing shows on his own.
One night while staying with a mutual friend, Phillip Davis in Oxford,
he heard Slidedance ...
a few nights later Jesse and Mike met at Mary Costello's birthday party
in London and the following week we were in the studio.
The original intention was to just cut Rhythm Oil while we were
all in the same place at the same time time, Pat Lynan our patron,bookie
and banker heard the groove and said if we could record an album in the
two days - which were two weeks apart - that we had in everybody's schedule
he'd release it.
As I write this I've just returned from Austin. Jesse and I spent a lot
of time talking of these sessions and songs and how and why these things
work
Apart from the obvious musical and cultural roots of country, blues, rockabilly,
folk that we all share a lot of other things are at work too. Jesse growing
up in West Texas and crazy about the early records of the Yaredbirds,
Rolling Stones. Animals, Beatles and Mott the Hoople. Michael learning
to play by listening to Robert Johnson and Led Zeppelin, Son House and
T Rex, Sol Hoopii and Hank Marvin.
in,
Myself and some of the players in the Michael Messer Band go back too.Ed
Genis and I knew each other on the Reading scene of the late sixties,
the Majestic on Monday nights listening to Geno Washington, Georgie Fame,
Zoot Money. All the kids used to get a bottle of cheap wine from Butler's
and the queues used to stretch from the Majestic in Caversham Road aronud
to the cattle market on Great Knolley's Street.
Simon Price - on drums and percussion - and I first played together ten
years ago now in
Domino Effect. He is also in Mike Cooper's Continental Drift, works with
jazz/avant garde artist Annette Peacock and is nart of Tim Hill's Pandaemonium
Band.
Slim ... Camden Town's finest, on accordion, is as loved and respected
in Austin as he is in London.
Great Texas accordion players like Flaco Jimenez and Ponty Bone all hhold
him in high regard.
Whenever Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale work over here it's always
Slim there with them on accordion.
The interplay between Slim and Michael's Hawaiian guitar along with Tim
Hill's clarinet on The Purple Dress is one of my favourite
moments on this record.
From the jukejoint to the shebeen ... I'll tell you boys, it's Rhythm
Oil
Try and read that book someday too, until Stanley Booth cuts a record
himself.
Terry Clarke
Reading, Berkshire May 1992
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'Gene Vincent Sings'
In 1997 Skizmatic Records in
Venice, California released a Gene Vincent tribute album.
It was titled ‘Turning the World Blue’ a tribute to Gene Vincent
and The Blue Caps.
My song ‘Gene Vincent Sings’ was included. Incidentally, I’ve
just cut the song again
with Wes McGhee on our new album ‘Night Ride to Birmingham’.
Below are notes I wrote for the project but they were never used.
Gene Vincent Sings
Out of step, out of fashion maybe, but never out; of time.
I have loved and continue to love the music of Gene Vincent maybe more
now than ever.
John Lennen understood, so does Dave Alvin and my friend Rosie Flores.
On an album that I cut a few years ago called 'The Shelly River', I had
a song titled 'Hometown', a verse referred to me seeing Gene perform ...
... " the night I saw Gene Vincent
I was still too young to drink
you give your money to the older boys
then go and put your head in the sink ... "
That's how it was.
The Olympia Ballroom on London Street, Reading in 61 or 62.
As I remember the hip drink was ' rum and black ' ..dark rum and blackcurrant
cordial.
Girls drank 'rum and pep' ... peppermint cordial.
As I write this I've just finished a three week tour of England, Scotland
and Ireland with. Rosie Flores.
We had a 90 minute tape of Gene that, I compiled for the road, from 'Be
Bop A Lula' to some of his great; underrated late 60's cuts.
From the. hotel on Market Street to the show at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen
... down Union Street with the best version ever cut of 'Frankie And Johnny'.
Great dark rum can be found in Scotland, they've got one called 'Black
Heart' which I believe is only shipped into Dundee but that's another
story from the Rhythm Oil Tour !
Listen to Rosie sing 'Bop Street' and be glad..
May God bless; and keep Gene Vincent.
Terry Clarke, Reading, Berkshire
1995
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'Lucky'
Sleevenotes for ‘Lucky’
by Terry Clarke
Let me introduce you to this little Country, Jazz, Folk,
Blues orchestra.
Jesse Taylor; guitar, Champ Hood, guitar, fiddle and vocals, David Heath,
double bass,
Lisa Mednick, keyboards, accordion and vocals.
I met them all on my first visit to Austin in 1988. Champ and David were
residents, Jesse was commuting from Lubbock to play in Butch Hancock’s
band The Sunspots and Lisa was visiting from New Orleans where she was
living and working at the time.
Since then there’s been a lot of songs and roads for everybody and
we’ve all played together in various guise on my subsequent times
in Austin.
Jesse and I cut the album Rhythm Oil - The Sessions with Michael
Messer and toured England and Scotland together. We’ve also spent
a lot of time in Europe together on dates with Joe Ely, Butch Hancock
and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
I’d wanted the chance to record with Champ, Lisa and David for a
long time, so when Franco Ratti at Appaloosa Records in Milan asked me
to do an album in Austin this was the ‘dream’ band that came
straight to mind.
Virtually all of the strands that make up the fabric of 20th century contemporary
music run through the hands of these people; West Texas cowboy blues.
the smile of Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmie Rodgers’ riffs and turnarounds,
holy lonesome hymnal and New Orleans chants.
Don’t take my word for it ... listen to Jesse taylor’s recorded
work with Joe Ely, Lisa Mednick’s own album Artifacts of Love
, Champ Hood on the two live albums cut at Threadgill’s in Austin,
on Lyle Lovett’s recordings and on King Tears and Music
Town both by the wonderful late Walter Hyatt.
David Heath’s double bass rhythm underpins and drives a lot of these
records and some of Robert Earl Keen’s too.
The spell that music cast on me as a child grows stronger as I grow older,
one lifetime is not enough time to explore all of it’s mysteries.
The songs on this album go to some places I’ve not been before as
a writer and I can’t think of any other musicians I would have wanted
to travel with.
So ... hope that you like the little ‘Lucky’ orchestra ... I
applaud them the loudest.
I contemplated calling this album ‘Blue Joy’ but I feel ‘Lucky’.
This is dedicated to the life and eternal memory of Phil Sinclair, a child
of Ulster who brought joy to the world and who leaves me glad and grateful
that I knew him.
Terry Clarke 1998
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'The Sound of the Moon'
The Sound of the Moon
Sleevenotes by Terry Clarke
Martinique writer Patrick Chamoiseau says of his book
Strange Tales, in which he retells Creole folk tales,
that they are to be read only at night because he wrote
them with the moon as his sole companion.
Strange Worlds, Patrick Chamoiseau
Granta Publications, London 1998
Some of the songs were written early in the morning
with the winter moon still in the sky.
some were written late at night with the moon so bright
it dazzles.
Sometimes it was hidden behind the big heavy English
rain clouds, but ...
always there.
Torch songs, blue jazz, country laments ...
All can cast a spell with little sister neon.
O but with a beautiful moon are narcotic.
Terry Clarke, Reading, Berkshire
1999
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'The Shelly River' 2001
'The Shelly River' Terry Clarke.
Complete sleevenotes for the 2001 Catfish re-release.
‘ ... some of these songs were written while we were recording, while
others probably began before I could write at all... and only listen to
my father telling his stories of growing up in Sligo, of his boat journeys
across the Irish Sea to Liverpool as a young teenager.
Of walking the roads of Yorkshire looking for work, cutting beet in the
freezing winter fields of Lincolnshire, working on the streets and underneath
them excavating the tunnels for the Underground in pre-war London.
His family, my family... the power in blood... the wells of memory that
fill up over generations and travel in the genes.
It seems that any road I travel in the British Isles and Ireland to play
music, he's been there before, working on the road or digging the fields
alongside it.
... everybody's got a story to tell, some live them, some tell them, some
write them down, some dream them, some make them up, some sing them and
some of us try and do it all ...
... these stories and songs had their roots on the banks of 'The Shelly
River'.
They're all wild seeds now.
‘From the original sleevenotes by Terry Clarke 1991’
Around 89/90 while preparing for the release of my first album ‘Call
Up A Hurricane’ I began work on the follow up which at that time
was untitled. My friend J,D, Foster who had produced the first album in
Texas 1n 88 was in London working with Green On Red and had a little time
free.
So we went in the studio and began work on some tracks; Frankie O’Sullivan
& The Fields Of Vietnam, Patrick & Irene In New York and
Steam Heat. None of which incidentally have ever been released.
Those sessions were; J.D. on bass and synthesiser, Dale Marshall on drums,
accordionist Slim and Wes McGhee on electric guitar.
Steam Heat was a Stax/swamp styled workout while the other two
songs were in a more Irish narrative ballad style.
So ... J.D. went back to New York, the record company ran low on funds
and time passed.
After a few months I picked up the threads and began working alone with
engineer John Burns, carrying on with the feel and ideas we’d established
on the band tracks.
My template for working this way was Donal Lunny’s production work
with Christy Moore ... using ‘synth pads’ with acoustic instrumentation
and percussion grooves allied to my love of Stephen Stills’ acoustic
guitar overdubs and Don Everly’s rhythm guitar stylings.
A lot of times I missed the band sound and the input people such as J.D.
and Wes would have given the recordings but at the same time feel something
was created that wouldn’t have been the possible with other musicians.
In fact to this day I still use a lot those techniques when working with
other players in the studio and combine the two.
The Shelly River was well received when it was first released in
the summer of ‘91 albeit with limited distribution and availability
and I am very pleased that it’s now been released again by Catfish
Records, hopefully to a much wider audience.
A lot artists will say that their records are like children in that they
are all different but we love them all, I am no exception in this but
this collection of songs has always been somewhat special inasmuch as
there are a lot of true stories here and the fictional ones were for the
most part inspired by events rooted in truths of some kind.
Mostly from my own father Joseph Clarke.
Some of the songs gained another dimension when I began touring to promote
the original release, especially in Ireland, the Republic and Northern
Ireland.
I did a lot of those miles in the company of guitarist/singer Henry McCullough.,
who while we travelled would tell stories of the same miles many years
before when he worked with the showbands.. Met many of his friends, great
Irish musicians such as Johnny Moynihan and James Delaney. James who played
some of the Dublin gigs, playing piano like a rock ‘n’ roll
Thelonius Monk.
I met people whose stories and experiences were almost exactly the same.
To Be expected I know but wonderful nonetheless.
I met a lot musicians on the road who became and have remained good friends,
some of them have now recorded these songs as well.
Ger McGrath in Tramore, County Wexford, who sings Last Summer At Cloonacool.
Sings it so well that when I play in that town I invite him on stage.
He sings it and I sing harmony.
Ger, whose sweet brother Eamon passed away in the spring of 99.
Eamon would send me Christmas cards telling of walking on Tramore’s
beautiful beaches with his children, The Shelly River playing on
his Walkman.
A lot of these songs were born of memories and in turn have already given
me many more.
Ron Kavana on Galway to Graceland did The Edge of Shamrock City.
Ronny Elliott, a great writer from Tampa in Florida gave another dimension
entirely to Irish Rockabilly Blues on his album Poisonville
... American Lipstick is in the stage repertoire of Butch Hancock
from Lubbock, Texas.
Sligo to the high plains is a long way but songs can travel well.
Butch ... one of the greatest songwriters/storytellers I know ... it’s
a thrill to hear him sing of my own relations.
In 99 I played a show with him at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas that
his mother Louise attended.
That night I sang the old Irish song Maggie, afterwards Butch introduced
me to her and she told me that song was her favourite from when she was
growing up in Lubbock ... songs do travel well.
So, if songs and collections of them are like children then The shelly
River must be almost grown ...
It’s got some new shoes and I have the feeling we’re going walking
together again.
Below are notes for projected
single release of 'Sligo Honeymoon 1946' in 1993.
These were incorporated into the notes for the 2001 re-release
Life to the rhythm of;
Glenn Miller and Michael Coleman,
Handball down by the Moy,
Pistons and steam of the Great Western Railway,
Perfect hammer blows bouncing off the head of a wire nail
Sigmund Pulsometer pumps,
Shining bobbins stitching Burberry raincoats,
A beat up Mini on the Devon and Dorset border
With rowan berries flashing by …
A mandolin thrown on the back seat,
Looking to see John Fowles house
through the trees across Lyme Regis bay,
Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep,
Two generations to pull one mackerel out of the sea.
Lovers love the sea.
Take your photographs and remember …
There are some things you should not forget.
Terry Clarke
Berkshire, England 2001
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'Green Voodoo
Essay for ‘Green Voodoo’
Terry Clarke 2002
Dreams and conversations,
Glimpses of the future and the draughts of the past,
The harbour at Oban and the shores of Loch Etive,
Connell Bridge through a wide-angle lens in the west highlands of Scotland,
Amy with a handful of pink crab shells,
Joey learning to fish,
Johnny Cash’s ‘Forty Shades of Green’,
Shoal Creek in Austin,
Jameson’s from the duty free to drink a toast with
Merel Bregante and Stefano Intelisano,
The green of Illinois & Sligo,
The kids who steal beer just outside Cairo on a Friday night,
‘The Greek’ & Randy who saw the Everly Brothers when they
were still teenagers and like John know all about ‘cavorting down
in Davenport’,
The fairground in Tramore,
Communion dresses for sale next to the grocery shop,
The steel sculptures of Harland & Wolff that look like the sound of
John Coltrane,
‘Danny Boy’; listening to Jackie Wilson’s version in the
wilds of Kerry…
Don Walser’s heartbreaking western/jazz rendition in Austin …
Conway Twitty’s rockabilly wailing of it in my childhood,
My mother singing Ruby Murray in the kitchen,
A world where ‘Moon River’ is the soundtrack,
Rosie Flores’ powder blue & vanilla Epiphone Casino,
Wanda Jackson’s birthday cake,
Gruene Hall with Jesse Taylor and Merle Haggard,
James McDade’s Donegal,
Champ Hood’s blue moon, the harmonies that he never got to
Play and sing on ‘Cotton Town’ & ‘Wild Honey Blues’
– the harmonies
I’ll always hear,
A map of ancient Hibernia in a thrift shop in Baton Rouge,
‘Cajun popcorn’,
Springtime in west Cork,
Walking through Dublin thinking of Angelica Huston,
Visitations of Maureen,
The Sinatra gait on the Saturday morning streets of Hoboken,
Thinking of Patrick & Irene on a perfect autumn afternoon,
Beautiful Manhattan …
Ladies and gentlemen I give you ‘Green Voodoo’
"Romanticism is the innermost essence of music-
what is romantic is imperishable"
Composer John Barry quoting composer Sibelias.
"Romance is an intense relationship with reality"
Wynton Marsalis 'Sweet Swing Blues On The Road'
Thunder's Mouth Press New York 1994
Dedicated to
Deschamps ‘Champ’ Hood &
Harold Lythgoe Prescott
Harold … my late father in law who drifted into his last sleep listening
to Bing Crosby and passed through accompanied by Duke Ellington’s
‘Creole Love Call’.
Champ … who I believe, quietly walked, talked, sang and played with
the grace, charm and beauty of both of them.
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‘Green Voodoo’
notes on the songs by Terry Clarke
October, November 2001 ... Merel Bregante & Sarah
Pierce’s Cribworks Digital Audio studio in the Shoal Creek area of
Austin, Texas.
My favourite time of the year and a beautiful neighbourhood to work in
... pumpkin colours, leaves turning shades ...
a few blocks down are streets that seem to be named after Hoagy Carmichael
& Johnny Mercer songs; ‘Stardust’, ‘Skylark’ ...
big deck behind the house, sit and sip Jameson’s ... watch the changing
light through the trees and talk about the songs.
The songs ...
this is the third album that Merel and I have worked on at Cribworks and
we produced this album together.
The first rock ‘n’ roll band Merel ever saw was Ritchie Valens
playing a lunchtime show at his high school in California ... my favourite
rock ‘n’ roll 45 was always Ritchie’s ‘La Bamba’
... his first job in show business was working for one of my songwriting
inspirations ... Johnny Mercer ....
Mr Bregante loves Lonnie Donegan too .... we work well together.
The songs ...
1 Green Voodoo
This is the oldest song on the album. When my album ‘The Shelly River’
was originaly released 10 years ago I spent a lot of time touring Ireland.
I did most of that touring with guitarist/singer Henry McCullough ...
from Henry’s home in Ballysally, Coleraine to west Cork ... Dublin
... Galway .... Sligo ...
this song was pretty much written on the road.
2 Maureen’s Irish Blues
Written in Austin during recording ... late at night on Merel & Sarah’s
front porch ... one of those songs that seem to appear out of the air
... I believe that Townes Van Zandt said that to write sometimes you just
need to be sat “in the right chair” ...
I was going to cut this solo ... I was running through it and John Inmon
asked if he could play on it .
I first saw John play back in the late 80’s when he was working with
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and loved his guitar style ... maximum rockabilly
honky tonk ....
I found out during these sessions that his family roots are in Scotland
.... he said that he’d always wanted to be able to work with these
kind of songs ....
throughout the recording the songs that come from this part of me inspired
some beautiful playing from him ... hints of ancient laments and airs.
3 The New Sugaree (Remembering Fred Neil)
I now live on the edge of the western highlands of Scotland but lived
most of my life where I was born .... ‘down south’ in Reading,
Berkshire ..... used to go for breakfast to the ‘Friars Tea Bar’
... fried eggs on toast, black coffee .... did a lot of writing in there
...
this song is one of them ... written just after Fred Neil passed away
.
I always loved his styling of the traditional song ‘Sugaree’
... one of those beautiful, mysterious lyrics ...
Sid Selvidge from Memphis does a very moving version of that song too.
4 Gone In The Morning
A setting of some tales my father told me of his days as a migrant worker
during World War 2 ....
the spivs from Camden Town .... ‘MacAlpine’s Fusiliers’
...
written beside Loch Etive near Oban after we’d been sat up late drinking
in the kitchen.
5 Goin’ Back to Belfast
The first song I wrote after returning from Austin in 99 after recording
my album ‘The Sound Of The Moon’ with Merel.
Belfast .... one of my favourite cities ...
6 Angel In Ireland
I love what Stefano Intelisano’s piano playing brought to this album
and especially so on this song ...
taking some photos in Dublin years ago, I took made a double exposure
by mistake but ... the atmosphere it captured always stayed with me and
sparked off this song ...
perfect exposure of Rosie Flores’ San Antonio soul though.
7 Wild Heather Blues
... train from Coleraine to Derry .... Sunday afternoon ... Henry McCullough
... bless Phil Sinclair .... hot Donegal summer ... memories of Joey Dunlop
...
take it all to Austin ... let David Halley rock and John Inmon loose with
Freddie Krc’s Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar .... and that‘s
wild heather blues .....
8 Cotton Town
... I’d love one day to write a song with Bobbie Gentry ... so I
wrote this in the meantime ....
the first time I ever sang this was late one night in Germany back in
99 ... had been doing some shows with Eric Taylor, we were sat around
afterwards drinking brandy and talking ...I always remember that evening
when this song comes up ...
This song brings Jesse “Guitar” Taylor into the album ... I
love Jesse Taylor - I love his family too.
I first saw Jesse play in London in the late 70’s with The Joe Ely
Band - the Joe Ely Band that played like honky-tonk iconoclasts from outer-space
but we didn’t meet and become friends until 10 years later. Since
then we’ve cut the album ‘Rhythm Oil-The Sessions’ and
he graced my record ‘Lucky’ with some wonderful playing - Wes
Montgomery meets West Texas - he always gives his heart and love to the
song.
9 The Mayo Mambo
... Rosemary Clooney passed away just recently ...
this song’s for her now ...
10 Wild Honey Blues
I am indebted to Sarah Pierce for her wonderful harmonies on these songs
... she brought something to the melodies that sometimes I didn’t
realise was there ...
Sarah .... honey ... drip drop ... and -Jesse again.
11 My Irish Soul Wants You
Since I first heard David Halley sing back in 88 I’d wanted to be
able to work with him ... we’d done stuff on the road over the years
but this was the first time we were able to get in the studio together
...
he’s one of my favourite songwriters and singers ...
Tamla Motown filtered through Sligo and Reading ....
12 Manhattan Blues
A love song to the city and people of New York ...
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