065/ My DJ playlist from last night
Last night I did a folk-ish laptop DJ set for The Young’Uns show at Brighton’s Komedia Theatre, on their 20th anniversary UK tour, so here’s my playlist.
The Young’Uns are a terrific vocal harmony trio (Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes, David Eagle) from Stockton in County Durham, who emerged as the 2000s became the 2010s from out of the trad folk scene in the north-east, though increasingly they sing originals too, besides trad and contemporary covers.
I have three albums and like them a great deal, especially Strangers from 2017, which is a beautiful collection, mostly telling true stories of real people. That record has two or three bona fide classics (‘Be The Man’ and ‘Dark Water’, and I adore ‘Ghafoor’s Bus’) plus a version of one of my all-time favourite song, Maggie Holland’s ‘A Place Called England’. The June Tabor rendering on her album A Quiet Eye from 1999 is a kind of foundational text of my songwriting and directly inspired my song ‘The English Earth’, back at the turn of the millennium — ‘A Place Called England’ contains that actual phrase “the English earth” in its lyric).
I still don’t do enough folk gigging, compared to how much I enjoy the genre (partly, Rifa’s not up for it, partly, it can be an expensive punt, and partly, when it’s bad, it’s bloody awful). Despite being a Young’Uns fan, I’ve never seen them live before. Getting asked to DJ (thanks very much Grant and Anna at Melting Vinyl) it was a no brainer.
Turns out they are pretty fine: quite a bit of the set is voice-only but they utilise simple acoustic guitar, accordion and stage piano in modest amounts, never letting instrumental arrangement swamp the song. None of that ‘virtuoso signalling’, which is a relief. Staunch old-school politics (the folk world’s compulsory Billy Bragg cover is present and correct) and some excellent banter. David Eagle has built a successful parallel career as a stand-up, so he relentlessly derails Sean Cooney’s song intros with daft asides, which mostly land, and always healthily undercut what might otherwise get too sentimental.
In terms of DJing, early doors I went for psych, atmosphere and current curveballs, then in the intermission followed the band’s sonic lead, more acoustic-y and ideological. I chucked in a couple more at the end, while the audience worked its way out via the merch stall and the staff began stacking the chairs.
opening —
Eva Lunny — ‘333’
The Watersons — ‘Swansea Town’
Richard Dawson — ‘The Question’
The Rheingans Sisters — ‘Un Voltigeur’
Maeve Gilchrist — ‘The Calm’
Peter Gabriel — ‘The Book Of Love’
Brighde Chaimbeul — ‘Banish The Giant of Doubt & Despair’
Mitski — ‘Coyote, My Little Brother’
Jasmine.4.t — ‘Woman’
Josienne Clarke — ‘Looking Glass’
Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver — ‘Long Lankin’
between the two sets —
Jim Ghedi — ‘What Will Become of England’
Ray Hearne — ‘Point The Finger At The Emperor’
David Rovics — ‘St Patrick Battalion’
Jon Boden — ‘Bee Sting’
Yorkston/Thorne/Kahn — ‘Little Black Buzzer’
outro —
June Tabor — ‘Sir Patrick Spens’
Coope, Boyes & Simpson — ‘Now is the Cool of the Day’
Maggie Holland — ‘A Proper Sort Of Gardener’
icymi —
• Extraordinary All Songs Considered interview with Sufjan Stevens about his album Carrie & Lowell. Thank-you Tom Williams for tipping me off to this conversation.
• Lorde — ‘Man Of The Year’ a second plain outstanding taste from the incoming fourth album.
• Lorde also went on Triple J’s Abby & Tyrone show to chat about this new material.
• SongExploder podcast throws out its usual format and publishes Hrishi’s full-length live audience interview with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, focused on his second book, How To Write One Song.