Instalment two in this year’s Elba Annual features one of our favourite musicians/persons/wanderer (delete as applicable) here at Elba. I came across Johny a few years ago when a friends band released a record on the same label as Johny had released his first album ‘The Homesick Children of Migrant Mothers‘. His music has since featured prominently at my wedding, we’ve had him and King James cohort Laurence up to play one of our nights at the aptly named Liquid Ship and now he’s gone and released an album on Armellodie Records. The record is called Method and it doesn’t need us to tell you that it’s bloody good.

If you haven’t yet sampled Thirty Pounds of Bone, we’d really urge you to. As a wee treat, and we don’t do this often round these parts, you can download The Jonah Shanty which Johny recorded at Elba Studios during our podcast in February. This track is taken from his EP released last year on Woodland Recordings. And apologies for the size of the file. The blame firmly lies with Stephen at Elba Studios for that!!!

Hello Elba Sessions, I’ll probably change my mind about all of this tomorrow, but nevertheless:

Album of The Year – This is really tough…. Not because there’s a lot to choose from, but because I’ve not paid attention. I’ve listened to a lot of Harry Parch, and lots of really old field recordings. Will that do? No? Ok. Both ‘The Scottish Enlightenment’ and the ‘Super Adventure Club’ albums are great, and I’m not just saying that. Oh, I don’t know, the three records I like the most aren’t out yet but I suppose I’ll big them up anyway. ‘Lakes, Meres, Ponds and Waters’ by the Diamond Family Archive, ‘Music at Court’ by Birdengine, and SBL. Worthy of a mention also are Chris T-T’s ‘Love is Not Rescue’ and the Great Park’s ‘If You Can Hold It You Can Throw It’.

Best Gig – I had a great gig in Berlin, but I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of the venue. It was the first night of a run of shows and I was nervous and tipsy, and I jabbered and stuttered like a fool. Luckily the audience forgave me and were great. It was one of those gigs that could collapse at any moment, so you have to concentrate almost till you pass out. Those are the best. I should also mention Hasenschaukel in Hamburg. The Audience and Staff were just impossibly kind. A great night.

Best Gig (by someone else…) - Absolutely no question on this one and I’m sorry to those people who also did amazing shows, but this was just amazing. Bygrayvpartynmyrytarm at the Performance Centre at Tremough in Cornwall. Jaw droppingly brilliant. Possibly the best guitarist on earth as well, which is to not even get to the drummer and extraordinary frontman/ synth player.

Favourite New Band(s) – See above. There’s also a young songwriter down here I’ve got my eye on. Proper writer.

Musical Memories of 2010 – mostly E flat major and all associated minor chords in and around that key. Drones in C. Not singing quite as well as I’d like. Harry Parch, and Ewan Macoll singing ‘Isles O Sicily’.

Hopes/Plans (music) for 2011 – Tour in the UK as much as possible, sell out of copies of this new album, finish writing and most of the recording of the next one. I’m very excited about it. It’s in three different places. There’s lot’s of field recording and guest players. A much more complicated kind of thing. I’d like to do another King James album. Laurence and I are discussing another, slightly different collaboration. There’ll be loads. Oh, and an album of trad songs for Woodland Recordings, some recording with ‘Danny Kendal’, maybe something exciting with Le Reno Amps and hopefully a full band album for Chris T-T too. Busy busy.

‘Method’ is released on Armellodie on Monday 6th December and you can pick up your copy at the Armellodie store.

Thanks to Stephen at Woodland for the following link! Most kind!

Download The Jonah Shanty – mp3 – 5.54mb

The Jonah Shanty (Elba Sessions – Feb 2010) by elbasessions

We spent a brilliant 8 hours with Laurence and Johny of King James last Friday (19th Feb) culminating in an effortlessly awesome set at Elba Sessions Presents…at The Liquid Ship. After a gruelling overnight drive from London, looking a little startled, we welcomed them into Elba Studios to have a wee chat and let them play a couple of their songs.

Also, we’re pretty happy that for your comfort and pleasure, this is the first Elba podcast that you can download, so you can always have us handy on your portable music device.

King James Podcast by elbasessions

King James the album will be out soon so keep checking the Lynched Recordings site for further info.

King James
Thirty Pounds of Bone
Diamond Family Archive

I think I speak for us all when I say the sooner we see them back up north the better!

We”ll be back at The Liquid Ship on Friday 19th February and we’ve assembled somewhat of an eclectic, but totally rad (excuse the outdated slang term but I’ve been listening to Pavement) lineup. Heading up the bill for our first gig of 2010 are King James. Hailing from somewhere between the Cornwall coast and Berlin they are made up in numbers by an amalgamation of Thirty Pounds of Bone and The Diamond Family Archive. Their music is a collection of folk-tinged gospel music (according to The Source, ‘with a bit of Hank Williams thrown in for good measure’) and is actually pretty uplifting listen to! We’re really excited to get them up (and over) to Scotland before they head over to Germany for a string of dates.

Also on the bill for the night are Glasgow’s very own Maple Leaves. Tipped for big things this year they have the ability to surround me with a warm glow everytime I listen to them so they should have no trouble in putting a spring in the step of everybody’s weekend. Next up we have Craig Davidson, a singer songwriter hailing, like myself, from the chilly north east of Scotland. His influences range from Elliot Smith and Nick Drake all the way to The Teardrop Explodes and Pink Floyd. There’s a definite element of psychedelia to his work which you can check out on his myspace.

Plus, if three bands weren’t enough, we’ve organised what can only be described as a ‘wee treat’. Called out recently for being nothing but angry on their debut album, we’ve taken up the role of therapist to try and tame the beast that is Cuddly Shark. We’ve twisted their arm, and some more, and persuaded them that whilst turning their amps up to 11 is great, that we think they would sound just swell stripped down to nothing more than some quiet guitars and percussion. This could go either way folks…(!).

So there you have it, first lineup of the year. Will hopefully see some new faces along and as ever, kick off is at 9pm and the gig is free!