New album: A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club released 1 March 2024
Distilling both folk and country influences and performing a heartfelt mixture of self-penned and traditional songs on 12-string guitar and banjo, Serious Sam Barrett was raised in the Dales village of Addingham and began performing in and around Leeds in 2004. With the release of his debut album Close To Home in 2009, word began spreading further afield and Sam was soon grabbing the attention of audiences both around the UK and in the US.
Having performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters The Pine Hill Haints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Un’s, Frank Fairfield, Deer Tick and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley, Mark Radcliffe and Mike Harding.
Recorded live at a gig at a celebrated Keighley folk club in January 2023, Sam’s forthcoming album A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club includes eleven self-penned highlights from his career, along with his own arrangements of a further seven traditional songs. A folk club has existed in Keighley in one form or other since the early 60s, adopting the name Bacca Pipes during the early 70s and playing host to a long line of notables such as Mike Harding, Swan Arcade, Julie Felix, Peter Bellamy, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and many more. It was a tradition into which Sam Barrett was born.
Serious Sam Barrett:“Folk clubs have always been part of my life. My parents met in one and I was taken to the clubs and festivals from a young age. The clubs have always been a massive source of inspiration for my music. The magic that happens week in and week out is impossible to put into words. Sometimes the experience is almost transcendental. The old pubs, the reverence for the singers, the jokes, the raffle, the stories and the music. There’s nothing like it.”
When I asked for a quote for this piece, Sam came straight back:
“What an honour to be part of Darren’s Music Blog!! Thanks so much I can’t wait! I’m in some very esteemed company there!!! Can’t believe I’m getting to play the world famous Liverpool philharmonic!! What an honour. And it’s all thanks to Mellowtone!!”
UK-based Leonardo Giuliani is a guitarist and singer-songwriter whose music embraces elements of rock, blues, country and folk. Featuring thirteen original songs, Rogue, which came out back in February, is Giuliani’s debut album.
His sound is primarily influenced by artists and bands from the late ‘60s and ‘70s, “from acoustic singer-songwriters to electric jam bands, all of whom played something different every night and made every performance unique,” he tells us. In 2019 he had the honour of being invited to sit in with one of his blues heroes, Buddy Guy, playing at his Legends club in Chicago.
It’s clear from the album’s opening tracks that this an artist who has spent considerable time soaking up a rich array of blues influences and he’s an impressive guitarist with some nifty blues licks. As Giuliani himself stresses, however, it’s not the only string to his bow and the Americana and golden-era singer-songwriter influences shine through, too, particularly on tracks like the sublime ‘A Thousand Miles Away From Home’.
Recorded at Forward Studios in Rome and The Switchyard Studio in Nashville, Rogue is produced by four-time Grammy award winner producer, Tom Hambridge, whose empathetic production helps give the album and impeccably authentic blues/Americana feel. Hambridge also contributes drums to the album, alongside Phil Palmer on rhythm guitar, Mick Brill on bass and Peter De Girolamo who provides some deliciously soulful keyboards.
Lucas Pasley is an old-time fiddler/banjo-player and singer-songwriter from Sparta, North Carolina in the heart of the southern Appalachian mountains. Pasley has spent most of his musical life performing traditional Appalachian music and formed the band, Gap Civil, in 2018 with a motto to “honour and innovate” traditional mountain music. In recent years, however, he has also moved into singer-songwriter territory.
Ponies Back Home is his second solo album and follows Souls Living On, released in 2020.
Still very much rooted in traditional Appalachian music, Pasley is heavily influenced by his grandmother’s songwriting, while also bringing in wider country influences together with his own sense of originality. The result is an album packed full of appealing melodies, heartfelt lyrics and authentic playing.
A number of additional guest vocalists, together with a stellar line-up of musicians complementing Pasley on vocals, guitar and fiddle, makes for a strong album. Ponies Back Home will certainly appeal to those with a love for the Appalachian traditions but there’s plenty here to tempt anyone who enjoys some fine Country/Americana-flavoured singer-songwriting.
Initially one half of the duo, Duffy & Bird, Tricia Duffy then set out on her own as a solo artist under the name of Little Lore. We discuss why her songwriting is like an episode of The Simpsons, her feelings of devastation at the demise of her original duo and why, in hindsight, it turned out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to her.
Tell us how you first got involved in playing and singing.
I was a singer when I was a child and then when I was 19 left the UK to go to America to work on cruise ships. I was so desperate to get into working at sea, my first job was in the gift shop. I left the gift shop and became a hostess and entertainer. I spent four and a half years at sea altogether. I was basically like a Butlins redcoat. Doing everything from calling bingo to singing. I sang a lot of standards and contemporary music as well.
And I always sang in choirs and that type of thing, and then I was really fortunate to meet an amazing lady who’s still my singing teacher, Rose Bellingham. She runs these workshops and I went to one of those and I performed a solo. It must have been about fifteen years ago now. And she just came up to me afterwards and said, “You know it’s not too late for you. If you want to still make it as a singer you probably could.” And I was like, “Really?” because it was just a hobby at that stage. And I said, “Well give me some lessons then.” And I started having lessons and I was sort of genre-confused. I didn’t really know where I wanted to be. And she suggested that I try for a musical so I went to an open audition for a musical and amazingly got a part. First audition I’d ever been for and I got a part in a musical. Which was a great learning curve to work out what’s definitely not for me because – my God! – that is a different kind of schedule. I don’t know how anyone does a long run. The one I did was very short and I had, like, the older woman ballad part but it nearly killed me.
And then I started singing contemporary music. I got into a band and was singing rock covers. I met Al my duo partner and we were on that pub circuit doing covers gigs as a duo – with guitar and vocals. Our set-list was up to a hundred songs I would imagine because we were always thinking, “Oh, we’ll do this. We’ll cover that.” And Al was such an amazing guitarist. He could play anything. And I said to him one day, “Do you know what? It’s all very well trying to turn heads with different arrangements of other people’s songs. Why don’t we write our own?” And he just goes, “Alright. You start. Let me know when you’ve got something.” And I was like, “Fine, I will.” So I started writing and really found my feet with Americana and country.
Did the focus on Americana come straight away or did you start off by experimenting with various genres and styles?
Well I suppose I still do experiment with different genres and styles, now that I’m writing professionally. I’ve been writing for a sync brief in a shoegaze style and this morning I was writing something for musical theatre. So I do still experiment with genres but my artist project – the Little Lore project and Duffy & Bird before it – they both very much have storytelling leanings. And writing songs to perform myself rather than writing for other people I really do like songs that tell stories. I admire those songs when other people write them and those are the songs I want to write. So that naturally points me to towards that genre and I also enjoy the devices of Americana: the instruments – the way that a voice can duet with a steel and all of those kind of things.
After beginning to establish yourself as part of a duo, you then moved onto becoming a solo artist. Did that feel daunting?
Absolutely. It destroyed me. I was devastated by the ending of the duo. I didn’t want it to finish at all. And I didn’t know I could do it on my own because my voice is my first instrument. My guitar-playing was not that hot and I couldn’t imagine having the kind of relationship with someone else as a duo partner that I’d had with Al. And it was obviously the pandemic so I couldn’t even get together with anyone anyway. I didn’t have the opportunity to find a chemistry with another guitarist. It was really, really upsetting when it ended. I didn’t want it to end at all. We just had different priorities and he couldn’t give me what I wanted so there was tension between us because I was like, “When are you going to get to that song I sent you?” And he’d be like, “Later, when I’m not running a business and dealing with my family.” So we just had different priorities. But, I have to say that even though I still really miss that and I miss him and I miss our friendship – because obviously that had a massive impact – it has been the best thing that’s happened to me!
I was going to say that! Because in preparation for this interview I listened to your previous albums and while the Duffy & Bird material has a raw, really emotive feel about it which works really well, when we move on to hearing the Little Lore material, it’s like a whole different world. The way you’ve thrown yourself into it and the way your voice works with the instrumentation, it just seems a huge leap forward.
Thank you. That really means a lot to me because I know you’re really familiar with everything that I’ve done. It honestly has been the best thing that ever happened. I think that everything works out for a reason doesn’t it. What feels really awful at the time turns out for the best. And I’m so focused on my writing. My writing is getting better and better. Obviously, every week I still write duff songs! But it’s a volume game. You’ve got to write a huge amount of material is what I’ve really learnt. I mean, just masses. I write two to three songs a week now and I’m really disciplined: “Writers write so get to your desk. Get your notebook out. Pick up your guitar and write!”
Are they always completed songs or are there fragments that you might return to later and use elsewhere?
Pretty much always completed songs. I’ve got a couple of little devices. I write for something called the song-a-week challenge every week. Which is run by an amazing guy called James Tristan Redding in Nashville. And he just puts a prompt up every week. This week’s prompt was ‘Ode to chameleons’ so you just never know what you’re going to get and I’ve been doing it over a year now. Every single week I’ve written to that prompt. Whatever he offers me. Last week it was something like ‘The roots beneath the tree’ – so it can be anything! And you can either write that as a title or you can jump off from it so today I’ve jumped off from it a little bit. And there’s a minimum of one every week so that’s fifty-two songs a year!
And then over and above that, I’m doing a Masters in song-writing and so we get one or two briefs a week from that as well. And sometimes they’re quite broad – so it might be to experiment with a different form or to experiment with a different rhyming pattern. And other times they’re more specific – write something about identity, write something about imposter syndrome, write something about a topic. Sometimes it’s been sonic challenges – write with a certain chord structure or whatever. So there’s all sorts of different things coming in which is really good for my discipline.
And then over and above that, there’s the songs that come to you. You’re running down a river and see someone reading a book and think, “Ooh, that’s a title.” And then I’ve got some briefs as well – I’m writing for a movie at the moment. So there’s a few opportunities like that coming through as well.
You don’t just stick to stereotypical Americana themes like road-trips and personal heartbreak. You’re happy to tackle all sorts of controversial, contemporary issues. Was that a conscious decision?
Well I like songs to be – and this is a very specific technical term – ‘arf clever! You know like when you watch an episode of The Simpsons and there’s something for the adults and you go, “Ahh ha-ha-ha that’s funny,” and then the kids can just take it on face value. When songs are good, that’s what I think they do. If you are listening carefully to the lyrics and to how the music plays with the words you can go, “Oooh, actually that’s clever. I see what they did there. Interesting.” And a lot of country music really does do that. Those typical – ‘problem, statement, how do I feel about the problem, expand more on the problem, ooh twist the problem about up on it’s head, it’s not really about what you thought’ – type songs I think are really, really, really clever. Which is probably why I’m really drawn to that kind of writing and that kind of music. And yet, you could just listen to it on the radio and hum along to the melody. You don’t have to engage with the clever lyrics. You can just listen to the chorus and go, “Oh, that’s nice. It’s a fun tune. I can sing along to it.” So that’s something that I really try to do. Sometimes, I think I have a tendency to go off ‘alf clever and go full clever and then I have to really reign myself back and just decide what I want the song to be about.
What are your favourite artists and who has been a big influence on you?
One of my absolute top favourites is Sheryl Crowe. I love the fact that she can write a really hard-hitting, political song one minute and then just a pop throwaway the next minute. I love the vibe of that Americana with the pop sound. I think she’s a badass as well and so all power to female performers who keep on hustling and keep on doing it. To that end as well, I really love Shania Twain. I just think she’s amazing. I think she’s a really good role model. I love Dolly. I love Joanie Mitchell. Another great influence of mine is Nina Simone. I absolutely adore both her writing and her performing of other people’s songs. Her phrasing and her ability to tell a story – there’s no-one touches her. And she really did sing some very hard-hitting, difficult songs as well.
You’re a regular visitor to Nashville. Are those trips now an important part of the creative process for you?
Definitely. My dream is to be able to go out there twice a year for a month to six weeks at a time. And have that environment where I could just drop in for co-writes and what have you. Obviously, the pandemic stopped me going for a bit but I went this year in March and I’m going again next year. They have a song-writing festival over there called Tin Pan South which is just an amazing place to be because it’s literally the only large-scale festival that celebrates song-writing rather than performing. It’s super inspiring because those national writers are writing contemporary pop music that we hear on our radios right now, as well as country music.
Presumably, you’ve managed to fit in a bit of time for sight-seeing as well while you’ve been in Nashville?
Well, I’ve seen a lot of the sights already but the live music is the thing – so you’re going to all the iconic venues and you’re seeing live music and that’s really what you want to see.
You’ve got a new EP that you’re working on currently. What can you tell us about that?
I’ve got seven songs and I’m going to release it in two parts: Seven Stories part one and Seven Stories Part Two. There’s a real variety of styles. Death is one of my favourite subjects to write about so there are a couple of quite bleak, sad, death songs. I’ve got some wry wit in there as well. There’s obviously a climate change one as well – I always like to include one of those. It’s a figurative song written from the perspective of the planet.
I’m recording the vocals in a studio in Kent with an amazing producer and engineer called Paul Stanborough. Lowpines (Ollie Deakin) has done the production and all of the instrumentation again and Morgan Karabel is playing drums once more. It is important to me to have women in the team so having a female drummer is really cool.
Is there anything else you want to tell us?
I hope I’m going to write an album next year. These EPs will come out in the autumn and early next year and probably towards the end of next year hopefully I’ll be able to release an album.
Live dates:
Saturday 8th July at 3pm, Hanwell Cavern, London W7
Tuesday 5th September at 8pm, Songwriters Gallery, Hangar Farm Arts Centre, Totton, Southampton SO40 8FT
“Storytelling is at the heart of Duffy’s songwriting but she finds a unique angle or topic on each track that brings a fresh perspective to a common and relatable issue.” – Maverick magazine on the debut Little Lore EP
‘Normal’ is the latest single from Little Lore, the alter-ego of London-based Americana singer-storyteller Tricia Duffy, and will be released on 20th January 2023. Featuring Little Lore’s characteristically astute storytelling and beautifully heartfelt vocal, in tandem with Oli Deakin’s equally engaging arrangement and exquisitely empathetic production, ‘Normal’ is another gorgeous slice of lush Americana from the acclaimed singer-songwriter.
Little Lore:“I wrote ‘Normal’ when I was isolated in my bedroom with Covid. I had been locked in my room for about five days at the time I picked up the guitar – I was feeling much better, but still testing positive. My husband travels a lot and couldn’t risk catching it so I had to stay away from the family. I am a huge fan of Jeanette Winterson’s writing. Her memoir is called ‘Why be Happy When you Could be Normal’ and this title really resonated with me as I have a lot of very strong feelings about how socialised we are to accept things because that’s what is done or expected rather than what makes us happy or fulfils us. I was using an old Guild Songbird guitar to write with – it has a very twangy sound which instantly inspires me to write in a higher registers.”
“As always Oli Deakin has worked his magic with the arrangement and production, really emphasising the syncopation and building the energy of the song. When I briefed Afiya for the artwork she came back with multiple ideas for how she could approach it. I decided to leave it to her discretion – after all she is an artist herself! When she sent me the final artwork I was absolutely blown away. It is a brilliant visual of female empowerment – perfect for this song.”
Little Lore is a London based, Indie-Americana singer-storyteller whose songs are both charmingly accessible and yet beguilingly challenging. You’ll want to listen twice. When you combine British wit and wordplay with cherished Americana roots, musical magic starts to happen. Based in Chiswick, west London and originally hailing from Portsmouth, Tricia Duffy started her singing career in a live covers band performing popular rock classics. Over time, however, a strong desire emerged to begin writing and performing her own material and she formed an acoustic Americana duo with fellow musician, Al Bird. Duffy & Bird released a well-received album ‘5 Lines’ in 2017 and a follow-up EP ‘Spirit Level’ in 2019. While Al subsequently decided to take a back seat from recording and performing, Tricia was keen to take things a step further. Little Lore was born. Her debut solo EP, Little Lore, was released in 2021 to glowing reviews. The single, ‘Shallow’, was released in April 2022 to similar acclaim, followed by ‘Brown Liquor John’ in October 2022 and ‘Birds’ in December 2022. In her songs, Little Lore brings together an affection for the heart and heritage of Americana music, with an intelligence and maturity of storytelling that can sweep you away into new and unexpected emotional worlds.
Release information:
Vocals, lyrics and music: Tricia Duffy
Production and instrumentation: Oli Deakin.
Drums: Morgan Karabel
Artwork: Afiya Paice, a West London-based artist and designer.
“I was thinking about how so many men in power can let us down, whether that be politicians, princes, CEOs or the men that we trust and love”
London-based Americana singer-storyteller, Little Lore, won many, many plaudits, bags of airplay and glowing reviews for her debut EP as a solo artist last December.
“It is clear every word and every note is well thought out. The pedal steel swoons beneath Duffy’s vocals” – Maverick magazine on the Little Lore EP
The eponymously-titled Little Lore EP followed two well-received releases as part of her previous musical outfit – the duo, Duffy & Bird.
Now, Little Lore, (aka Tricia Duffy) returns with a brand-new single. ‘Shallow’ channels the spirit of Kurt Cobain, throws in some classic Neil Young influences and marries them up with Little Lore’s trademark vocals and thought-provoking lyrics to produce an exhilarating slice of Americana that really swings.
Little Lore:“I wrote this song during that big news week when it was all coming out about how Boris had attended parties at Downing Street while people were dying alone, and also that Prince Andrew was trying to avoid his day in court with Virginia Giuffre. I was thinking about how so many men in power can let us down, whether that be politicians, princes, CEOs or the men that we trust and love. So I decided to juxtapose the idea of being let down by people in power with heartbreak and this song is the result. It is probably a bit on the opaque side from a political point of view… but there are a few lines that give us some clues. When I talk about eating lies with dinner, I’m really thinking about the Six O’Clock news when so many people sit down to watch the headlines over their evening meal – we ate Bojo’s lies with our dinner. “There’s no truth, no-one remembers who said what to the man on the yacht” – we know that only a very small subsection of society can afford even a day on a yacht so that was directly inspired by Andrew (formerly known as Prince).”
“Finally, I had been reading a lot of Jeanette Winterson. In Sexing The Cherry she wrote about the impact it has on society when the King is executed. In her story, Charles II is beheaded and she describes how the entire country goes into freefall. Everything they could predict and understand is derailed in one instant – life becomes very unpredictable. The same thing has been happening in this country for a while now, with Brexit, the pandemic, the uncertainty of political power, it is impossible to predict so many things, to see the future clearly. I write: “The King is dead, and with his head futures altered, wounds are salted.” The whole song is designed to make use of a subtext style with the use of triplets where the last line is the realisation comment.”
Once again, Little Lore’s emotive vocals and compelling storytelling is complemented by stunning production and beautiful instrumentation from producer and multi-instrumentalist, Oli Deakin.
Little Lore:“Musically, I had a swing vibe in my head when I came to record the guide track for Oli to work with. He really enjoyed that idea and built on it. I hadn’t realised it at the time, but the song has no minor chords in it at all, so we discussed allowing ourselves to be influenced by Kurt Cobain as he famously rarely used any minor chords in his writing. Couple that grit with my Americana style and a bit of Neil Young influence thrown in, too, and I think we have a driving, swinging song that tells a story of the shallow coward that let everyone down.”
Little Lore is a London based, Indie-Americana singer-storyteller whose songs are both charmingly accessible and yet beguilingly challenging. You’ll want to listen twice. When you combine British wit and wordplay with cherished Americana roots, musical magic starts to happen.
Based in Chiswick, west London and originally hailing from Portsmouth, Tricia Duffy started her singing career in a live covers band performing popular rock classics. Over time, however, a strong desire emerged to begin writing and performing her own material and she formed an acoustic Americana duo with fellow musician, Al Bird. Duffy & Bird released a well-received album ‘5 Lines’ in 2017 and a follow-up EP ‘Spirit Level’ in 2019. While Al subsequently decided to take a back seat from recording and performing, Tricia was keen to take things a step further. Little Lore was born. Her debut solo EP, Little Lore, was released in 2021 to glowing reviews. In her songs Little Lore brings together an affection for the heart and heritage of Americana music, with an intelligence and maturity of storytelling that can sweep you away into new and unexpected emotional worlds.
Release information:
Produced by Oli Deakin (Lowpines), vocals recorded in his home studio in Ealing London. Artwork created by Afiya Paice a West London-based artist and designer.
Based in Bournemouth on England’s south coast, Owen Moore is an Irish-born singer-songwriter. I reviewed his 2021 album Fireside Songs last year and Owen has kindly sent me his latest: Sixteen Easy Songs For Voice & Guitar.
A prolific songwriter with an extensive back catalogue, this latest album is actually a compilation with highlights drawn from Owen’s ten previous albums which span the period 2011-2021.
Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Sixteen Easy Songs For Voice & Guitar serves as a welcome introduction to anyone wanting to familiarise themselves with Owen Moore’s work. It’s just Owen, his voice, his songs and his guitar but it makes for a fine album.
Serving up folk-infused acoustic Americana, Moore’s wistful, easy-going delivery and thoughtful, introspective lyrics are allied with instantly catchy melodies that owe something towards pop sensibilities, too.
The full track listing for Sixteen Easy Songs For Voice & Guitar is as follows:
Round And Round
She’s Still Wearing Blue
Hang Around With You
The Blue Notes
Walking With That Girl Of Mine
Voices In My Head
All The Time In The World
Home In The Rain
I Don’t Play My Guitar On A Sunday
Night Lights
One Sweet Day
Cruel Imagination
In A Song
Somewhere Near
Unfaithful Moonlight
Riverbank
Released: September 2021
The album, and others, are available via Owen Moore’s website in CD and digital formats.
Deadbeat Lullabies is the third album from UK seven-piece Americana outfit Fine Lines. Their first two albums received a slew of glowing reviews and they’ve been a popular draw on the circuit, although so far they seem to have eluded me. Hopefully, that will be rectified before too long as they are a quality band and Deadbeat Lullabies is a fine album.
Fine Lines are Zoe Blythe (vocals), David Boardman (vocals and guitar), Gary O’Brien (piano and Hammond organ), Emily Doggett (fiddle), Chris Lee (pedal steel and mandolin), Jim Broughton (bass) and Mark Radcliffe (drums and backing vocals).
Put together by singer-songwriter David Boardman back in 2016 there’s harmony vocals (courtesy Boardman and fellow singer Zoe Blythe) exquisite pedal steel, infectious fiddle, great melodies and heartfelt lyrics. The song-writing is a joint endeavour between Boardman, who cooked up the tunes and the band’s drummer, BBC presenter and all-round music maestro, Mark Radcliffe, who came up with the lyrics. Radcliffe proves himself to be a talented lyricist. His observational storytelling perfectly captures the overall mood that the album evokes.
Fans of late-period Byrds, early-period Eagles, Gram Parsons, Tom Petty and the Band will all find plenty to like here. The influences are never far away but the songs are totally fresh and original.
While I’m writing this on a cold, dark evening in Hastings, these songs are just perfect for a chilled-out afternoon in the summer sun and I look forward to catching them at a festival at some point. We probably all need a bit more of Fine Lines in our lives at the moment.
Owen Moore is an Irish-born singer songwriter based in Dorset. Over the past ten years or so he’s put out a staggering ten solo albums of original songs, not to mention a handful live albums too. In fact, my delay in reviewing Fireside Songs since he kindly sent it to me back in the summer has meant he’s had time to put another album since – albeit a compilation of highlights from his previous ten albums.
While Owen tells me he’s had a lifetime of playing countless small gigs behind him, he’s keen to stress that his driving passion in recent years has been his song-writing.
There’s certainly plenty of evidence of quality writing on Fireside Songs. Owen Moore’s lyrics are highly personal, his warm and gentle vocals are consistently engaging and he has a real ear for a catchy melody that will leave you humming along, long after the album has finished.
His style falls into that well-trodden path between folk and Americana, and his songs are captivating and original enough to have plenty of appeal for fans of both. From the Byrds-like ‘Every Once In a While’ to the irresistibly catchy ‘It’s All About You’ to the more traditional big country ballad feel of ‘Diamond Ring’ the album is packed full of songs you want to play again and again. The album ends with ‘The Town of Tralee’, originally released as a single at the back end of 2020,which is the Limerick-born singer’s affectionate paean to the Kerry town of Tralee where he spent time as a young man.
An engaging singer-songwriter and a fine guitarist if you enjoy the folky-ish and the country-ish it’s well worth checking out Owen Moore’s Fireside Songs as well as other albums in his prolific back catalogue.
In the week of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the recording of Lonnie Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’ I talk to Peter Donegan about his father’s legacy, about his viral TV duet with Tom Jones and about his forthcoming album.
DJ: Firstly it’s a huge, huge pleasure to be talking to you. My own dad was a big, big Lonnie Donegan fan and I think he’d be very touched that I was interviewing his son. Growing up in the 1970s the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple and so on were always played a lot in our house but there was still always lots of Lonnie Donegan, too. So it was a big part of my childhood. But if we can start off going back to the very beginning then we’ll look at your more recent career. Elvis Presley recorded ‘That’s Alright’ and your father recorded ‘Rock Island Line’ in the very same month back in July 1954. It’s something Billy Bragg points out in his book on skiffle, and he called them ‘the first tremors of an earthquake that would shake the world’. Did that give you a good feeling seeing it put like that?
PD: Yes, definitely. Billy’s been a huge campaigner for the importance of what has become a kind of forgotten era – the skiffle era. I mean, Billy made another nice analogy which was that it was the nursery for British rock and roll. Because songs like ‘Rock Island Line’ – and that one in particular which changed the British music industry – it gave a new breath of life into what was, you know, a crooners’ market. And I don’t mean any disrespect to any artist up until my dad came out, obviously, but it did. It changed the nature of it. And it made music accessible. It meant that for people like Eric Clapton, for people like Van Morrison, for people like Jimmy Page – all these kind of people realised, ‘Ok, so I don’t have to be – number one – classically trained to play the guitar. I can learn the basic two/three chords – or one sometimes – and the lyrics and go for it.’ And, number two, it meant that you didn’t have to feel self-conscious singing a lot of these old American country and blues songs and feel self-conscious about it – especially a British white person as well. You didn’t feel like you were false either. You could be ‘paying homage’ to, you know, and doing it in your own way. I mean that gave birth to, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin who all started off in skiffle bands.
DJ: And it was a very British take. It wasn’t a straightforward adoption of an American culture was it?
PD: No, No. You could argue really that while skiffle was Americana music, as we call it now nowadays, it was definitely with a very British tint to it. It didn’t sound the same. They were the same songs, but they weren’t the same way. They were definitely distinct. Which is how ‘Rock Island Line’ went to number 8 in the States, you know – just before Johnny Cash recorded and released it. And the odd thing is, is that my dad had added that part of the tollgate which wasn’t in the Leadbelly original. And then Johnny Cash put out a version afterwards with the tollgate in it again – so you can argue that Johnny was listening to my dad’s version. Because it’s kind of like, he’s just taken dad’s version, slowed it down just a little bit. So there could be something there. There could be something there. You could argue really that the skiffle sessions – all that stuff for that period in time, that six years or whatever it was – was a little bit more British even than when the Stones came out. Because they were doing it much more per original blues… Definitely, much more modernised but it was arguably more towards the original than what Dad was doing.
DJ: In the true folk tradition he actually adapted it and added his own take on it and that’s now become the tradition.
PD: Yes, exactly. You know, it’s been fantastic. And, of course, Dad wrote his own things as well which we all know about. Most notably was the Tom Jones hit ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’. I mean, it wasn’t written for Tom to do. My dad went to release it because he loved the sounds that he was hearing coming from Ray Charles. Great gospel R&B singer, you know, and Dad thought, ‘That’s brilliant. I want to do something like that.’ Wrote ‘Never Fall In Love Again’ and the record label which was Pye at the time – who were trying to be true to their roots and wanting to be jazz, despite the fact of having Lonnie Donegan on the record label who was definitely not jazz anymore despite his origins of coming through with the Ken Colyer Jazzmen and then the Chris Barber Jazz Band – they insisted on there being a jazz version. So they recorded a jazz version and a more gospel version which Dad wanted to do. And insisted on releasing the jazz version – obviously, because that was their plan all along. And nothing happened with it – because it wasn’t what people expected. It wasn’t ‘Dad’ if you know what I mean. So, Tom picked up on it.
DJ: It was a few years gap wasn’t it between your dad releasing it and Tom Jones having a hit with it?
PD: It was early ‘60s for my dad. You’re looking at 62/63 whenever it was – and I think it was 67/68 when Tom released it. And Dad’s gag on stage was always, ‘What’s Tom Jones got that I haven’t got!’ It was always a good laugh. And then, of course, Elvis picked it up in the end because, you know, Elvis was permanently ‘on tour’ doing all the casinos in Vegas. As was Tom, so they were always going to see each other’s set at some point in time. And Elvis picked it up and did it, you know. And I think that was the last track on the last album that Elvis released.
Watch the full interview on YouTube here
DJ: And then, obviously, you had that wonderful emotional moment with Tom Jones on ‘The Voice’ two years ago. That must have been very, very special?
PD: It was! It was a big ‘pinch me’ moment because I was scouted by the show. They’d seen me at a country festival in London and they wanted that – because they knew that the country genre was really booming in the UK. And they wanted me to go and try out – so that was nice. And they said, ‘Don’t worry. It’s not like you’ve got to wait in the queue or anything. You can go straight to the producer so there’s no pressure.’ And that’s more pressure I think! So yeah.. sat there and did some original songs. That’s what they wanted. They said they wanted originals. And went through about another four rounds of auditions and they said, ‘Yep – we want you for the blinds.’ And I just thought well, if nothing else, this is just a bit of PR. You know, get a nice bit of high-quality PR footage [laughs] and have some fun while you’re there. And when it was Tom that turned, you know, it was an emotional relief that somebody turned. I was very nervous. I’d never done anything like that before and it was a very nice moment. And then when, obviously, Tom asked us to do that song and we did it – it was a shock, you know. There’s a video about me – because I did a video on YouTube talking about it which had about two million views.
DJ: Yes, I watched that. I still tear up every time I see the footage. It’s just so incredible!
PD: It was a lovely, lovely evening. It really was. I mean, bittersweet in some ways because obviously you realise it’s a TV show first and foremost before it’s a talent show – and it’s a very good one and I really enjoyed my experience on there. But, as a friend of mine who was there said, ‘That’s going to go viral.’ I said, ‘Do you think? Shit!’ He said, ‘Why?’. I said, ‘I peaked too soon in that case! It probably means I’m out next.’ And I was out next!
DJ: But no-one could take away that moment though.
PD: No! I have no regrets. I had great fun. And not many people get to do three songs in two shows – so it was good!
DJ: Has Tom been in touch since?
PD: No. I’ve tried but not got anything back though.
DJ: Ok. Ok. And just looking back – this week, it’s actually the 67th anniversary of ‘Rock Island Line’ being recorded.
PD: Yep. ‘54 it was recorded. ‘56 it became a hit. It was a track on the Chris Barber Jazz Band album and for whatever reason Decca released it two years later as a single and it was played on – I can’t remember the radio show – Dad didn’t know anything of it. Somebody said to him, ‘You know you’re number one!. He was like, ‘What?’ ‘Yeah check out the papers…’ And the rest is history, as they say.
DJ: And you did a special concert two years ago, to mark the 65th anniversary of it?
PD: We did, yes. We did one in 2018 just at the end because it all started off with Chas Hodges – God rest his soul. It was his initial idea because we were raising money for our son’s therapy for his autism and he said, ‘If you want to do a gig, me and Dave will get up and do something. We’ll do half an hour, you finish the gig off. I was like, well that’s lovely. Mentioned it to a couple of friends as I was talking and they we’re like, well I’ll do something and I’ll do something and someone said, ‘Well we haven’t done a night for your dad in a while. Why don’t we do that?’ So in 2018 we had Billy Bragg, Nora Guthrie, The Jive Aces, Mike Berry, Mike Read, Ralph McTell, Chris Difford from Squeeze, Chas McDevitt, Vince Eager and we did that at the Union Chapel in Islington. And Billy Bragg said, ‘Right, so what are we doing next year?’ And I was like, oh you’re kidding right. But I’d invited Van to do that one and he wasn’t available but then he followed up and said, ‘Are you doing another one?’ I said, ‘Well yes, next year’s the 65th anniversary of the recording of ‘Rock Island Line’. And then Mike Read said, ‘Well we need a blue plaque to commemorate that.’ So we did a blue plaque on the same day, on the morning and then we went and did the gig.
DJ: You obviously grew up with music. Did you always want to be a musician?
Yeah. I did. There was never any other option, you know. And I had a great coach, obviously, in Dad and he always taught me that the best thing to do – the only way to make it in this industry is to write your own songs. And that’s why I’ve always done that. From becoming my dad’s piano player to then becoming the opening act for the set, I always did original material. And then, from then I kept doing it. It was difficult because, you know, every time a label said that we could do an album they would only include a maximum of one of my songs on it. Because they wanted to make easy money and just do another Lonnie Donegan tribute album which was, you know, getting frustrating to say the least. So, I decided to go independent and in 2017 released my ‘Superman’ EP which did quite well for my first independent thing and that’s what got me ‘Country To Country Festival’ which got me noted by the guys at ‘The Voice’ and then on with Tom Jones and then on from there. And then we did the live album after that which was recorded in 2019 in the Decca recording studios. In the same studio that Dad recorded ‘Rock Island Line’ – which now belongs to the English National Opera. But that was nice. It was good fun. And then since then I’ve released ‘Thank You Texas’ which was co-written with two Texans at the Buddy Holly song-writing retreat in Lubbock.
DJ: And that won an award didn’t it?
PD: It yes – at the ‘Texas Sounds Country Music Awards’ last year. Got Best Male Vocalist and Original Song.
‘Thank You Texas’ recorded at North London’s Mill Hill Music Complex
DJ: The Americana/country direction that you’ve taken as you wanted to pursue your own, as you say, independent career – was that a very conscious decision or did you just sort of evolve into that direction, musically?
PD: Well, obviously, when you consider the influences I was surrounded by with Dad’s record collection at home – which had everything, you know, from Fats Waller to Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, The Highway Men – all that kind of stuff. So I grew up with that plus – I was born in London but only because Dad was doing a West End thing at the time… We were living in California. So you know California, Florida, Spain. I didn’t grow up here, so I was surrounded by American music a lot of the time. And Dad was big into country. And then so was I. I’m a huge Waylon fan, Willie fan and later on, you know, I love now Chris Stapleton and Eric Church and the High Women if you’ve heard them… So it was a natural transition for me because I like to write stories, you know real-life events, that kind of stuff. And country music, Americana music in general really lends itself to that.
DJ: Well story telling is at the heart of those lyrics.
PD: Yeah. So it was a natural transition for me. And when you consider really where I came from musically with Dad, skiffle is what we call Americana now. Because Americana is country, with blues, folk. And it’s just Americana is the umbrella term. And underneath it you’ve got all these different genres.
DJ: So what’s next for you in terms of your solo career? Are you working on new music at the moment?
PD: I am yes. Again, written at the same retreat with a couple of great song-writers in America. With Sean Healen who’s from New Mexico and with Tessy Lou Williams – ‘It’s My Dreams’. We did a lockdown sessions version of it which you can find on YouTube but there will be a single version of it coming out. And it will be included on the new album which is currently being made.
There’ll be a couple more singles to come off that album as well… I think there’s some really cool tunes on there, especially with the new collaborations. Because I do like to co-write… the old adage two heads are better than one is true. Because there’s ideas that you come up with that you wouldn’t come up with unless you were sitting with somebody else. I’m not saying that maybe their idea is in the song, but they say something which sparks an idea in your head again, you know – and the other way around, too.
DJ: That approach to collaboration is very much part of the Americana scene isn’t it, I think?
PD: It is and there’s a feelgood sense within it as well. It’s a case of not quite as much competition as we’re in it together. So it’s more fun to drag these other people that you respect – if you’re not already friends – along with you and have that shared experience rather than try and keep it for yourself. And I like that feel. It’s much more relaxed… It’s a better experience. It’s less uptight.
Thank you so very much to Peter Donegan for talking to me. You can check his forthcoming live dates on his website here:
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