In the late 1960s I was laying on a couch in Herb Gart's office. He and Jeanne Harcourt Powell were discussing a new album and they were trying to choose the A side for a 45 release of some kid who was just breaking into music. The first song they played was good, but not an A side--and I said so. The second choice: well, I listened to the intro and two stanzas and said, "Why is there a question about this?" I went back to sleep. The kid was Don McLean and the song was "American Pie." In a way, I was there when I found out 'the music died'. And in a way things have come full circle because I will be able to say I was there the day it came back to life.
Alan Moorhouse's new CD, "Travellers' Tales" which is due for release in about four weeks is a work of art by an excellent and talented singer/songwriter.
This is the best folk-rock CD I have heard in years, and Moorhouse is a great writer/story teller.
Will continue on Saturday.
Darned good thing I didn't say which Saturday. (Seems like only yesterday . . . .)
Alan was kind enough to grant me permission to do a review and gracious enough to tell me in an e-mail that I should feel free to include the bad with the good. Well, there is no bad news. This is one damned good CD in all respects. His writing is mature and solid. No 'amateur' songs, and his vocals are what each of the songs needs for its self expression. Ya don't encounter too many recordings that have no throw-away material. This one doesn't have any. Twelve songs that speak with the authority of a jury whose verdict would be that Moorhouse is one helluva songwriter. The backup musicians are Markus Apitius, Thomas Karner, Gerd Lewandowski and Heike Lewald--they are adept, tasteful and accomplished musicians who all seem to understand and respect that the function of music is to bring the writer's creations to life. Along with Moorhouse they do just that. Incidentally, I am amazed at the influences that appear on this CD: everything from early Dylan to bluegrass; country and western to the sounds one would expect from a cloistered monastery. The self-effacing Moorhouse says on the liner notes that his ". . . own contribution to this album is relatively small". Take that remark with lotsa salt.
The CD kicks off with "Travellers' Tales" from which it takes its title. I was really taken by this cut because it reminded me of a 'folkie gone rock' with good humour and good taste. It's seldom that a rock presentation of a traditionally-written ballad works as well as this one does, (with a deep bow to Steeleye Span). It is my favourite song amongst many 'favourites' on the CD. Alan has respect for the lives of others, and he speaks eloquently to that in this song.
"East Looe Boys" reminds me of so many vets I have met over the years. It's funny that a peace-loving man could capture the thoughts of those men so well in a song. It must be a universal thing, and Moorhouse captures the pride and sorrow with a deftness that is both admirable and enviable.
"We go back there
just now and then--Jim and Hans and me,
The crosses of so many men it breaks your heart to see;
We've blinked back tears these many years--we are old and grey and thin,
But wherever we are there'll be pints on the bar
When the East Looe boys come in."
A beautiful song with a mystical feel to it: "Where did the good man go?" is a co-authored song that Moorhouse wrote with Stephen Lee Rich (yes, that Stephen Lee Rich). I close my eyes when I listen to this song because it has a gentle music to it and very profound philosophical statements about the human condition. The harmonies are excellent, and the 'riding a horse in the western desert feel' works so well with the wording. It's an impressive song.
"Black Crow Hill"
is a ballad that speaks to towns closing, families being uprooted, lives
being overtaken by events. It is the finest of protest songs--a statement
of truth that speaks loudly with soft words and gentle voice.
This CD is an excellent work, Alan's song writing skills are innovative and very creative, his voice is very engaging, and the backup musicians and singers are fabulous. 11 original songs with terrific choruses and great stories. The CD starts off with the title cut "Travellers' Tales", an upbeat song about sharing a good story or two over a drink with friends.
"East Looe Boys", is one of several cuts on this album that reminds me of Australian Eric Bogle. Alan has a voice that lends itself well to story telling and his songs are easy to join in and sing along with. This one has got a great chorus that lends itself to being sung loud and often.
There is a plaintiveness to "Where Did The Good Man Go" that leads the listener to a quiet place for contemplation. This song has almost a Country Music feel to it. I found myself imagining all the "good men" that I have known over the years of my life. Great song, Alan.
I laughed out loud at the satirical "Madame Whiplash". Alan's tongue in cheek song about a sadistic 17 stone woman who's lashings "make us English men". There is wit and dark humor here that I thoroughly enjoyed.
"Gracias Dicamus.../Deirdre" is another of Alan's witty and humorous songs that can't help but bring a smile and laugh to the listeners. "Half a dozen local vicars know the colour of your knickers". This song is just one of the reasons to buy this CD and keep in the play list. Aside from the lyrics about Deirdre, the opening chant from the male chorus is spectacular.
One of my favourite tracks of the CD is "The Ballad of Sam Brown". An old man's remembrance of his life and how the Great War had marked and changed him. A universal story told with remarkable clarity.
"Meet You In Amsterdam" is an upbeat love song There are great instrumental arrangements in this song along with some of the best harmony singing in the entire CD. A very fun song to tap your toes to.
Near the end of the CD is a beautiful song titled "Walk In The Shallows". A story song about a young woman walking by the shore missing the men she has lost to the sea.
"We Will Walk Together" ends the album with grace and style. This is a beautiful love song to bring this CD to a close. All in all, "Travellers' Tales" is an excellent work that contains a great collection of songs by a terrific story teller. This CD will definitely be included in my play list.
None of the above. Moorhouse not only composed all of the tunes on TRAVELLERS´ TALES but sings them as well, accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar & harmonica (backed up by four other skilful musicians). The resulting CD is a splendid achievement, a collection of deeply-felt, beautifully-sung ballads, some serious and sad, others rollicking and bawdy.
Moorhouse, a Brit based in Germany for many years (after having busked his way up and down the continent), has made a name for himself with his politically-charged protest songs. But this time around he sets off on a new path. "I wanted to make a rather different album," he confides. "It's more about friends meeting, swapping stories and accepting the circle of life and death. I have surrounded myself with a few close friends and we have tried to tell the stories of the various characters, in a way that others can hear those people, whose voices are no longer heard. This is what I want from folk singers."The "various characters" include the denizens of a local pub who require all who enter to cheer them up with a ditty; the East Looe Boys who enjoyed brawling in the pubs and streets when young, only to end up dying for each other on in the World War; and Madame Whiplash, who introduced Alan and his chums to the pleasures of spanking and sex:
"Oh Madam Whiplash! With your stare cruel and despotic--How I find you so erotic, Madam Whiplash!
Clench your fists and look tyrannical, clasp my wrists into those manacles!
Madam Whiplash! Tie me up over there against your fender, I'm for the trap that's not so tender.
From behind your leather mask, You shall take me hard to task, Madam Whiplash. Oh you must thrash me again.
Madam Whiplash, you're what makes us Englishmen!"
The best of his songs is "Johnny Petto," a long, modern narrative with ancient and generational analogs; it is about a girl named Lucy who leaves home young to see the Pistols in London, and travels "to see Europe" accompanied by her boyfriend Johnny Petto and relentless, pathetic bad luck. They constantly scrape bottom. In the end:
"When I told him I was pregnant Johnny turned and did a bunk
He fled up off to Dusseldorf and started doing junk..."
Lucy and her baby go home to the same English town she grew up in, to relive the life of her mother.
The album is named for another song, "Small Voice Crying," about a lifetime of scrambling on the margin with no one caring about any of it. "Germany One" presents the view from the other side. "The river is rising and bursting its banks...but I won't shift no sandbanks." "I Used to Have A Name" is from a homeless man on the street. Moorhouse used his memories working in a foundry and as a bus driver to write "Men Of Steel," an a capella song with a traditional base about foundry workers.
The goofy songs are just as interesting. The characters in "Holiday Romance" are affluent, attractive, and surprisingly good people. Too bad their Big Night was spoiled by a rout by boorish lager louts in the street. But all turns out well. And then there is the tragedy of "Jack the Stripper." Perhaps this one is best seen live.
Arrangements here range widely from guitar and harmonica to bossa nova pop. Moorhouse's voice is pleasantly British and he sings well in a folky way. But the most important part of the album is his lyrics, his successfully original portrayals of the pain and pleasures of others.
Moorhouse has paid
heavy dues to learn his craft, but the effort has been worth it, as evidenced
by the work on his first CD, SMALL VOICE CRYING. Recorded in Cologne,
Germany where Moorhouse is presently based, the album proves he is a socially-conscious,
compassionate troubador in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
Moorhouse wrote all twelve songs on the album, except for "Continental
Flair," "Used To Have a Name" and "Holiday Romance,"
on which he shares credit with Rob Taylor. Most of the songs are protest
songs, bitter attacks on the damage caused by the greed and indifference
of our time, which have resulted in working people being laid off and,
in some cases, made homeless and anonymous.
Moorhouse is not without humor, though. His recollection of a nightmare ("Jack the Stripper") in which he found himself prancing around "like an arthritic whale" on stage at Chippendale's while two hundred women hooted at his "spotty chest and nasty little penis" is hilarious. The same can be said for "I Should Have Thought All This Through," the guilty lament of a married man shacked up with a girl he's picked up in a bar.
Ably backed up by Markus Apitius on guitars, keys and bass, and by several smooth vocalists, Moorhouse has turned out a homebrewed CD that deserves wider circulation. Interested parties and record companies can contact him at www.alan.free-pop.com."
