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I was at Donal Dineen’s Ode to Radio for Culture Night on Friday and guest Angkorwat mentioned an Arthur Russell night that’s coming up in Dublin in late October. A bit of googling has turned up an event page on Bodytonic’s site that mentions a great line up with contributions from Tim Lawrence, Jim Carroll, David Kitt, TR-One, Angkorwat (obv), Patrick Kelleher, School Tour, Hulk and more, on Sun 30th October. Looks like there’ll be a screening of the Wild Combination documentary, though there’s no stage times etc as yet. Arthur Russell was such a wonderful, diverse, exciting musicians that it looks like a great night- one for the diary for sure.
And any excuse to post my favourite Arthur Russell track is a good one. He’s one of my favourite discoveries of the last six or seven years, made courtesy of Dineen, who in turn was put on to him by David Kitt, who’s playing on the 30th – nice.
I really like this idea from Project Arts Centre – they’re recruiting a guest blogger for the Winter Season (something they’ve done in the past) who will blog about the season of events in return for access to all the shows (with a friend) and backstage access to all the artists. It’s obviously a big win for project, but it could really benefit someone who wants to get into criticism, arts journalism, or any aspect of theatre production in fact, as it gives you so much access to a whole season of work, how it’s presented, what the programming threads are, how it’s received and so on.
Applications now open, deadline 30th September
Update: Just spotted this one online too – HWCH are looking for a guest blogger via Mulley Communications which is a great gig for music fans. Great way to expose yourself to a diversity of irish acts.
I’m forever recommending gigs I know, but one is on the horizon that I’m immensely excited about. The uber talented Sam Amidon is bound for these shores this weekend, and he’s playing two of my favourite venues; my old stomping ground in Sligo The Model, and The Sugar Club in Dublin, which was so effective for Agnes Obel earlier this year.
Sam Amidon is an american musician who’s largely made a name for himself with his unique and modern reworkings of folk tunes. His albums rarely have any original tracks on them, but when the songs themselves are so beautifully and originally arranged it hardly seems to matter. I first fell in love with his music via a track called Sugar Baby – a reworking of an Appalachian tune by Dock Boggs – that Donal Dineen used to play on his show about 2 years ago, although Ray in DeBarra’s in Cork had mentioned the young musician in dispatches earlier much earlier.
I think I’ve honestly played Sugar Baby hundreds of times (iTunes tells me it’s 267, but I’m sure it’s more) and it finds its way onto my favourite mix tapes and playlists. Although It’s from All is Well, and this run of gigs focuses on the newer album I See the Sign, I’ll be silently hoping for an encore appearance. It’s the most beautiful and restful song, and the sounds are so resonant, that it slays me every time. It’s one I played over and over again in hospital.
He seems like an interesting guy and a real artist, and these shows sound like an altogether immersive experience of sound and vision, with field recordings, visuals and drawings all featuring alongside the music. He also seems to have deep connections with irish music, citing the Paul Brady/Andy Irvine album as a huge inspiration, alongside the musicianship of Tommy Peoples. It’s something that certainly comes across in his fiddle and banjo playing, but the extra textures and layers to his tracks, especially the male female vocal harmonies on the current album, or the appearance of low cello or trumpet, give them that contemporary feel.
Despite booking tickets for him countless times, I have a long history of missing his gigs at every turn, often due to volcanoes and snow and illness, so I’m determined to get to one of them this weekend. I’d actually love to be seeing him in DeBarras next week but the diary says no. If you’re partial to folk music I’d urge you to catch these shows if you can, and if you’re not in Sligo or Dublin this weekend he’s in Cork (Triskel and DeBarras) and Galway the following week- see here for dates. Below is a great example of how compeltely he makes a track his own – in this case R.Kelly’s Relief; one of my favourites from I See the Sign.
Sam Amidon’s version
and the original…
