Potter's Daughter - The Blind Side

Music is a very important part of my life, and new music always gives me a sense of anticipation and sometimes challenge. When that new music is from an act that I'm new to, those senses of anticipation and challenge are heightened. New music comes my way in a number of directions: sometimes it is from established artists that I have a strong affinity to; sometimes it's through 'browsing' music sites or stores; often it's from favoured labels (Bad Elephant Music or Edition Records being particular strengths for me); sometimes I am sent music to review by sites that I occasionally write for; and every now and then a band or artist will contact me and ask if I would be interested in reviewing their material.

This is one of the latter.

I heard about Potter's Daughter through a friend request on a particular social media site from their singer and pianist, Dyanne Potter Voegtlin and a subsequent conversation online. When the files arrived, I wondered what to make of something described as 'Art Rock & Jazz Folk fusion', so I gave it a listen.

'The Blind Side' is the 2018 debut album by this 5-piece band from NYC: Dyanna Potter Voegtlin - piano & vocals; Amit Chatterjee - guitar,guitar synth & percussion; Lincoln Goines - bass; Ian C Voegtlin - guitar; and Randy Crafton - percussion & drums.

The first thing that struck me about this recording is the sheer beauty it encapsulates, both musically and lyrically. The virtuosity that one comes to expect from artists on the progressive wing of the musical world is here in spades: Dyanne is a classically trained pianist and she brings all that technique and skill to the table, allied with an obvious love of the freedom and innovation of jazz. I found it at times intriguing and at times awe-inspiring, and she brings many different 'textures' of piano throughout the collection. This is a mix of instrumental and vocal tracks - they actually alternate, with the odd tracks being instrumental and the even ones vocal.

City Lights opens things up, with some wonderful lyrical jazz on piano, bass and drums, on a par with anything from the classic repertoire of the genre, to my mind. Electric guitar enters midway through and changes the mood of the tune, but always good. She is Dreaming  has vocals in tight harmony, with a hint of Bjork for me. Some soaring guitars towards the end and a sense of 'shuffle'. Memento is quite ballad-like, with jazzier guitar than hitherto, and Its Summer Night brings some suspenseful chords, almost ecclesiastic harmonies and an overall ethereal feel in the voice, guitars and piano. Moment IV has a strong, driving rhythm that comes more from the piano than from the drums, and some wonderful heavy guitar introduced. To My Love is wonderfully eclectic song, with a bluesy feel to the guitar at the start, an almost eastern feel to the voice and melody, and for me a feel reminiscent of CSNY.

Silver Moon has for me echoes of Steely Dan in the guitar & piano intro, and as a song builds nicely in intensity while always allowing the piano to lead. Sure On This Shining Night begins with some good piano arpeggios and an unusual melody, and is enticingly choral with overlapping vocals towards the end. Journey Into Spring is an evocative, ponderous, multi-layered piece with an acoustic guitar solo and a nice interplay between guitar and piano. I Lay Down has guitar and bass playing in unison for a large part of the song, and has for me a distinct reminder of British jazzy Progressive band Thieves Kitchen, particularly in the vocals. Another Rain Song uses the piano arpeggios to evoke the feeling of rain, the guitars are almost flute-like, and there is a cymbal crash about a minute in that sounds like a sigh (just how I feel when it's raining...). The final track, Night Has Come, uses some glorious 3- or 4-part vocal harmonies to great effect in a dark but moving song.

Holding all this together are the musical dexterity of all the band, and Dyanne's vocals, which are strong, tender, hypnotic and evocative. Earlier this year (2019) the band released a couple of singles, which extend the band's reach a little further. Blood and Water uses keyboards as well as piano, and has more of a folky feel to it, perhaps through the use of Annie Haslam on vocals alongside Dyanne, each with equal strength. This Winters Child, released earlier this month, is a wonderfully jazzy piece, mostly in 11/8 and joyously evocative (that word again!) of the season.

All of this enriching, life-affirming music is available on Bandcamp and elsewhere, and is well worth exploring further.

The Forgotten Prog of Tom Kelly

Every now and then one comes across hidden gems of music, and one of my recent 'discoveries' (I didn't really find it: it found me!) was the music of Tom Kelly, previously unknown to me.

Tom Kelly grew up in California in the 1950s, and at the age of 5 was introduced by his mother to the music of Andres Segovia, after which Tom was hooked. He began learning the guitar, and eventually graduated to other instruments, mostly keyboards. Inspired by classical composers such as Debussy and Holst and drawn to the psychedelic & classic rock scene of the late 1960s, Tom began composing his own songs, and formed several bands that have now faded into obscurity: 'Still'; 'Yellow Autumn'; 'Museum' and latterly 'Mistress Quickly'. The style was symphonic progressive rock, and was described by one music producer as 'chamber music for electric instruments'.

Mistress Quickly garnered some interest from a recording company, but by that time disco was in the ascendancy and the record company lost interest. Tom carried on, though, as a solo artist and his legacy - following his untimely death in 2017 - is a set of three recordings recently compiled by a previous band member and continuous friend and collaborator, David Hurst, and Tom's widow, Nickie.

These three collections give an insight into Tom's multi-layered, symphonic, 'orchestral' style, and show what an accomplished composer he was. All three are instrumental recordings.

The Tolling of St John's Bells/ Burnt Peas is, for me, perhaps the strongest of the three collections. There are echoes for me of Tony Banks in the keyboards and of Mike Oldfield in the guitars in places, and the overall feel of a solo multi-instrumental package is strongly reminiscent of Oldfield throughout. The music is evocative, at times ominous and melancholic: in fact the overall mood of all three albums is quite dark and brooding - there's not much to tap ones feet to, not that that would be easy with all the changes in time signature that take place throughout the songs!

A Quail's House has echoes for me of The Enid, and passages of the 4-part suite 'The Wayfarer' have a stately air to them, without being pompous. 'The Fork' suite has a pensive mood: decisions have to be made, yet there is always a feeling of hesitation and caution. The 3-part 'Travels' has an air of movement and a more upbeat feel, but a discordant edge to part 2 and an almost hobbling part 3, with constant time signature changes, gives the travels a feeling of uncertainty. One thing that this collection seems to lack for me - indeed all three albums do - is drums. They're not totally lacking, but very scarce, and there are times when some rhythm would lift the music just a bit.

Spinning Through Eternity has some longer compositions in it, which is a nice change, but there are times when the tunes seem to have run out of steam a little before they reach their conclusion. It does tend to be a bit same-y throughout, but in that there are some interesting sounds being used, and non-conventional orchestration. The title track has an almost ambient tone to it, and there is a little more light and shade throughout than the earlier collections.

I've found this to be music that repays re-listening, as each cycle brings out something new and fresh, but it's not gentle, background, feel-good fare. This deserves to be listened to and to be heard! To have a listen, go here.

October's Music

October was a full month of musical delights and some disappointments. A lot of live music, some new albums, and some old stuff rediscovered.

Let's start with the live stuff.

Me and Hasse Froberg!

I've been attending the Summer's End festival for the past 4 years, and have found it to be a place for hearing great music and discovering new bands. Most of this year's line-up was known to me, but it was still a delight to share in the atmosphere and fellowship of the event. The music was generally excellent: Friday evening gave us Kentish Spires, who put on a great set, even though they were ‘breaking in’ a new vocalist - and a male one instead of a female, which changed the feel of the band a little. The new material seemed to lack the English, pastoral feel of the debut, but was highly entertaining. And also Wobbler, who were excellent: full of proggy goodness, but perhaps a little too loud (or maybe I should move from in front of the speakers...). Saturday brought with it a few technical issues, but these were overcome. The Far Meadow kicked off proceedings brilliantly: great to see them do live what they do so well on disc, and 5 songs in a hour - none more Prog!; The Windmill overcame the glitch at the start to give an excellent set which included a tribute to King Crimson as the 50th anniversary of Court of the Crimson King approaches; The Room, last minutes substitutes, played a rousing collection of their poppier prog to a room that was definitely heating up; Comedy of Errors gave us 90 minutes of material old and new, and though Joe Cairney was flagging towards the end, he still managed a walkabout in the crowd while singing; and Phideaux, again with technical difficulties at the start, gave a crowd-pleasing set, most of which was new to me but left a packed hall delighted. Sunday usually has a 'different' band to open proceedings, and this year it was Rise (formerly Talitha Rise), who produced a very minimal, ethereal sound for a 6-piece, dominated (if that's the right word) by piano and vocals; Mayra Orchestra gave us a multi-layered sound with strong female vocals, various time signatures and plenty of energy and enthusiasm; then This Winter Machine: excellent; hard-hitting, driving, thoughtful, melodic Prog with a heavy edge, and a band whose reputation and standing is growing by the gig. Third time seeing them, and tighter every time (a change in personnel may be a factor); penultimate band were Hasse Froberg & Musical Companion, a band I've enjoyed for a number of years and who simply gave us a set of Symphonic Scandinavian Splendidness. Finally came District 97- a kind of mix of progressive metal, jazz and urban swagger. For many a ‘marmite’ band, and seeing them live I can understand that. Those who were there seemed to be warming to them, however.

Al Stewart

Later in the month came a chance to see This Winter Machine again, this time a little nearer to home: again they were excellent, and being in Yorkshire they had some home support with them. They were ably supported by Under a Banner, whose material seemed a lot heavier than it does on disc. The following evening I finally got to see one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters - Al Stewart, who played some newer stuff along with lots of his classic material, mainly from Year of the Cat. I was amazed just how emotional I got listening to this music that has been a part of my life for the best part of 40 years.

Towards the end of the month came the behemoth that is HRH Prog! I was delighted that the organisers had decided to hold one of the versions of this festival in Sheffield, and having 'won' tickets it made it a very cheap weekend. Musically it was a little disappointing, to be honest, mainly due to the volume in the hall being too loud. The Saturday line-up were pretty much of a muchness to begin with: Captain Starfighter & The Lockheeds, Premed, and Hawklords were all channelling Hawkwind, which I suppose is great if you like that kind of thing, but it did get a bit stale very quickly (and I spent most of Premed's set out at a restaurant). The Vintage Caravan - an Icelandic Power Metal trio - were not what I would call 'Prog', but the day was redeemed with an excellent set from Gong - whom I'm seeing at the same venue supporting Steve Hillage in November (more on that next month!) - and then finished with Uriah Heep, who I only got to see one song from before fatigue took its toll on me. Sunday gave us 4th Labyrinth, who were OK; Pearl Handled Revolver, very Doors-like, and again OK; & Krankschaft, who were not really my thing. Redemption came, once again, this time in the shape of Soft Machine, who were on blistering form, and Caravan, who were just out of this world! Again, I missed the final act, The Pineapple Thief, due to fatigue. So, a mixed bag really, but the highs more than compensated.

The final live outing of the month saw a road trip to Halifax to catch leg three of the Grand Tour of Big Big Train. This was my 4th time seeing them, and the experience continues to improve. I've written elsewhere about the sense of togetherness among the passengers, but the band were on great form and just continue to delight.

Musically related visits this month were a couple of evenings at a literary festival here in Sheffield called Off The Shelf, where I listened to Mark Radcliffe talking about his new book 'Crossroads', and also to David Hepworth on his book 'A Fabulous Creation: how the LP saved our lives'. And then there was a visit to the cinema to see the Miles Davis biopic 'Birth of the Cool', which was insightful and honest, and reminded me of the Jaco Pastorius biopic from a few years ago.

So, with all this going on, have I had any time for recorded music? Well, just a bit! The new live album from The Fierce and the Dead does exactly what it says on the tin (!); I picked up some stuff at Summer's End by Kentish Spires, The Windmill, This Winter Machine and Kaprekar's Constant, all of which are excellent. On the jazzier side there was a new album by Chris Potter along with Dave Holland & Zakir Hussain - Good Hope, which has 66 minutes of brilliant eastern-tinged jazz on it; and Waifs & Strays, the new album from Scottish jazz ensemble Fat Suit, which sounds very much like Snarky Puppy, and that's never a bad thing! I've also managed to squeeze in albums from Ray Alder - What the Water Wants - interesting Prog Metal from the Fates Warning frontman; Tool - Fear Inoculum - my first listen to Tool: dark and brooding, and reminds me in places a lot of Riverside; Hats Off Gentlemen, It's Adequate - Ark - an excellent EP with a more electronic edge than I remember; Malcolm Galloway (from HOGIA) - Transitions - a really good collection of electronic ambient music; and Moron Police - A Boat on the Sea - captivating, bonkers, and a strong contender for the Top 5 this year.

And, breathe...

A busy month: much to listen to, much to take in, and much to think about. And even more waiting in the wings. Ah well, soon be Christmas...!