Roots Of Heaven VII Festival
Patronaat, Haarlem, NL
November 26, 2006
by Johanna J. Bodde
Pics by Tamara (Musicpixels.net)
| Roots
Of Heaven VII Festival Patronaat, Haarlem November 26, 2006 Written by Johanna J. Bodde Photos by Tamara Number 10 pulls out of the busstation but stops abruptly when the driver spots a man walking his chihuahua. Apparently a friend, as the driver opens his window and they chat for a few minutes. Then the bus continues his ride. This is exactly the right attitude for today, relaxed, the chihuahua way! The road up to Roots Of Heaven was somewhat rocky this year. Last week I had surgery on my jaw, good thing is that I don't have to walk circles at night -because of the pain- anymore, bad thing is that the procedure obviously took a bite out of my physical condition, antibiotics are a drag... Then, yesterday, I got a mail regarding my usual friendly automobile for the ride back into Rotterdam after the festival. The vehicle was fully booked already, with my place taken by... another writer for a music website! This means I have to leave awfully early and take the train, normally I would decide not to go but I made appointments with several friends and musicbizz people already and I don't want to let them down. So I'm going to take it easy today and I don't even let grumpy NS-personnel (Dutch Railways) spoil my good mood. Jeez, they're worse than on Monday mornings and there are more problems too... Finally, the third train brings me into Haarlem and it pleases me that the city is filled with happy people, taking advantage of this quite sunny Shopping Sunday. Around three o'clock the music lovers gather in front of the Patronaat, discussing the latest personal and musical news, even the results of the soccer games are phoned in. The guest list is so generously long, that they open a separate door for the press musquitos. (Thanks to Warry for putting me on the list and to Theo for forwarding the initial mail!) While waiting for the event to start, the line-up is being discussed. A bit weak, most of us agree. Seven out of ten acts have been on other Dutch festivals before! Why chew on acts that are chewed on extensively by others? While an exciting new artist like Douglas Greer (number one on the EuroAmericanaChart, number two the following month!) is in The Netherlands this weekend? And while a wonderful singer like Linda McLean (check out "Amsterdam Canals" on her new album "No Language"!) is even hanging out at the festival? They won't weigh heavy on the budget. Or if the bookers want somebody with a solid fanbase, why not ask Sid Griffin? He lives in London and doesn't have high travel costs, maybe he can even gather his Long Ryders once more! Hey, why not book reunited True West, for an exclusive European concert? Hopes and dreams, I better shut up before the booker hears me and comes out to whack me over the head... ---  EL PINO & THE VOLUNTEERS, a six piece homegrown Americana band, opens in the Big Room. Didn't they win an Essent Award? Thought I read that somewhere, but it wasn't mentioned in the promotional material. The first song is sturdy rootsrock, then they perform some "Sunday afternoon songs", playing solid and singing well-rehearsed Byrds-style harmonies. A sixth musician is introduced as the Canadian Gary, he was supposed to replace their multi-instrumentalist while he was hospitalized, but the surgery couldn't take place due to a fire in the hospital. "Now we have two of these guys walking around on stage...", the singer sighs. I assume they write their own material and they know how to compose a catchy song, I like the use of instruments like lapsteel, accordion, banjo and mandoline. We don't have to be ashamed of our own Dutch bands. Next year Taneytown, booker? ---  Promo Shot A good crowd showing up and the infamous Small Room at a festival usually result in a claustrophobic experience. But I'm too curious to hear DAMIEN JURADO to let this get in my way. Damien introduces himself, he's from Seattle, a stocky, dark-haired young man sitting down with an acoustic guitar, a pretty lady with a cello and lots of shakers on his right and a guy playing electric guitar on his left. I don't know his album, so I let the music surprise me. The first ballad, somewhat lo-fi folkrock, a bit like Tom Mank & Sera Jane Smolen play them. That impression changes quickly, when in the second song the guitarist takes a seat behind the drumkit and Damien showcases a wonderful voice that really builds up a song. The lyrics are definitely dark and probably make better sense late at night on CD than in an overcrowded, hot, sticky and smoky festivalroom. Elliott Smith comes to mind, but certainly also Willard Grant Conspiracy. I luv this music! It only takes a melodic song with hypnotic snaredrum and shakers to get everybody hooked. The celloplayer asks Damien genuinely concerned how he's doing and explains he's on medication. Damien takes over the story and tells that the normal bottle keeps him from jumping out of windows, while the other bottle is for his flight anxiety. He took the wrong pill... "But that one still keeps me away from windows!" Coincidence or not, I hear the line "Can't get the drugs to work" in lyrics about "winter" and "my dead body". "I hope the mourners will bring plastic flowers..." Wow, I have to check out this guy's CD! "What Are The Chances" is a call & respond song, but here the woman just repeats what the man says. So the celloplayer sings into a sort of device that creates this "old radio" sound and they make it sound like something very intriguing. By this time the room is so packed that nobody can breathe properly anymore, a girl in front of me almost faints and is helped by her friends to sit on the floor. In the meantime Damien feels better and is joking about the shitloads of change they bring back from a tour in Europe, he even throws some coins around! Typical American habit: paying with a bill and pocketing the coins, maybe until they see a homeless person begging for "spare change". The songs become more & more interesting, turning into soundscapes. Are they using loops? Probably not, I think it's only the electric guitar with the cello doing this. Then Damien himself plays the drums and the real fireworks start! Too bad those two compositions are the last ones of this concert, but we succeed in demanding an encore and Damien comes back alone for one more song playing his acoustic guitar. "I'll be back next year, I promise!" ---  After recovering for a while from the literally breathtaking experience in the overcrowded Small Room, I go back upstairs for TANDY. Years ago I was asked by friends of the band to review their album "To A Friend" and I even received the gorgeous looking numbered limited edition! It took another CD before their breakthrough in The Netherlands was a fact and here they are on the big stage, playing feisty rootsrock when I enter. They might have done "I'm The Werewolf" already too, I would have liked to hear that live... Singer-songwriter Mike Ferrio plays acoustic guitar and harmonica, there's even an acoustic bass, an electric guitar and I just love that drumkit, a picture of President Bush is glued to the kickdrum with red lettering LIAR across the face! Their setlist is well-balanced with quiet songs also featured. "Evensong", "To A Friend", "Epitaph" followed by "The Fever Breaks", just like on the album. It's hard to understand the lyrics sometimes, but I can assure you that they are definitely worth listening to! Tandy closes off with "A Truth Is Better Than A Lie", I played Mike's solo interpretation earlier this year in my radio show. Well, I'm glad you finally made it to the festival stage, boys and it was certainly a pleasure helping push you up there! --- |
 Graham Lindsey was supposed to play at this edition of Roots Of Heaven, but his performance was cancelled, maybe his whole tour? His album was interesting enough, so I was curious... Now Ben Weaver plays instead, I heard him during last year's Roots Of Heaven and wasn't too impressed, so I skip his show and talk with friends instead. Festival veterans all say that it's never been so crowded and I do believe them! Looking forward to MARY GAUTHIER's concert in the Big Room. I once met her very briefly backstage at the Rhythm & Blues Night in Groningen, she was about to go on stage and we were on our way to interview Jason Ringenberg. Very nice lady! Now I finally have the chance to see her play... "Falling Out Of Love" is her first song, on stage she looks taller than she actually is, dressed in a black outfit and playing a black acoustic guitar. A personality who demands attention for sure! Does she change haircolors every now and then? Her hair is dark now, looks good with the tinted eyeglasses. Her guitarplayer Tom plays fabulously, both electric and acoustic, with or without slide. I know her albums, but I'm blown away again by her impressive songwriting: "I'm crashing through the clouds I used to walk on, looking for a soft place to land". Mary is not very talkative, just waving her hand as a "thank you". "Prayer Without Words" is a bit more uptempo, while "XMas In Paradise" gets a spoken intro, she still impresses most with her songs about the people who know the hard side of life, just like herself, which makes it so sincere... Being from New Orleans, she wrote a new song in the style of Woody Guthrie, after Hurricane Katrina hit. "I had friends who lived there, until the levees broke and they lost their home and everything in it." "Can't Find A Way" is about those people who look for a home, but can't find it. Yes, I had friends there too and I'm almost moved to tears by this song! I hope it will be released on an album soon. Mary adds harmonica to "Mercy Now", which is followed by her unofficial hitsong "Drag Queens In Limousines", intermitted by Tom's funny little solos, from balletmusic to Willie Nelson! When she ends the song with "They are my friends", we all know it comes straight from her heart. She thanks us for being so quiet: "I know, festivalhalls can get real loud, thank you for shutting up, I appreciate it!" Well, truth is, we didn't want to miss one note! Then she yells a sarcastic "New Orleans is in ruins, thank you George Bush!!" before launching into a powerful feedback-filled "Wheel Inside The Wheel". Yes, we get an encore, "I Drink"! Thank you, Mary and more power to you and all your friends! ---  This performance is impossible to top of course, but I wait patiently outside the Small Room until it's possible to slip in after some people leave. In the meantime I talk with a promoter and I catch some of the singing by angels on screen & speakers outside. Angels? ANE BRUN and her harmony singing friend Nina. The European touch at this edition of the festival, Ane is originally from Norway, but currently lives in Stockholm and speaks with a charming accent. She plays acoustic guitar, has a gorgeous voice and her very own style of making music. Popfolk? It's good to listen for the remaining twenty minutes, Ane is surprised she can play an extra song: "I thought it was just one hour like this..." That improvised cutting sound is really funny. She thanks the audience by taking bows and blowing kisses, I bet she has lots of male fans! ---  Then I go where all the "Fredheads" went, the Big Room is so packed that the personnel opens the balcony. FRED EAGLESMITH, wearing his trademark sleeveless vest and a hat, is in the middle of telling jokes. He has a band with him, the female drummer who laughs at all his funny remarks, the bassplayer with his big acoustic instrument and mandolin-virtuoso Willie P. Bennett of course. Fred is telling about a backwoods preacher, improvises a Japanese haiku and says then: "You have to wait, they tell each other and by the time it reaches the back of the room the show will be over. But it doesn't matter, we get paid anyway!" He stretches his arm triumphant in the air, before he finally gets to playing two songs. Another joke, about Irish twins in a bar and another not so kind remark: "This isn't a townhall meeting, ma'am, this is a joke! This is why you have trouble in your marriage, you won't listen!" Oh no, he starts again about the "bokkepootjes" (typical Dutch cookies), that's already on one of my radio recordings from three years back or so. "Where was I? In the middle of a concert below sealevel..." He continues to play indeed, "Alcohol & Pills". When I first heard that song on the Dutch radio sometime in 1998, I became a big fan of Fred. He was going to play at the Crossing Border Festival that Fall and it was the main reason I went there. When we entered the building signs said that Fred Eaglesmith had cancelled at the last minute... No reason was given. Of course we had fun with the other acts, but it was the end of being a Fredhead in the making. Especially when one of the DJs on national radio, also a former fan, let it slip that Fred had cancelled because he thought fifteenhundred guilders was not enough money for his show... I don't know if that was true, but hey, look at the commercial talent of this guy! He even sells earrings for the ladies, made of his old guitarstrings, twenty Euros a set. I stay to listen to the song "Tired" off his latest album "Milly's Cafe" and again I'm confused, is this about cowboys, truckers or even truckers who transport cattle? Fredheads, have fun! I leave the room during a fast one, pass by the huge merchandise stand waiting for Fred to come down the minute he finishes his show and I walk into the Small Room again. ---  ---  The time schedule is followed to the minute, so I can still listen to a few songs by WOVEN HAND before I walk to the trainstation, with the mess on the rails of today, I'm not counting on the last connection now. I saw -then still unknown- David Eugene Edwards for the first time during the same Crossing Border Festival where Fred Eaglesmith bailed out. With Sixteen Horsepower, I remember how fascinated I was and how he folded his accordion wide open over his knees until I thought he couldn't get it back in shape anymore. This is a much more experimental, electric affair. Just a little bit of the "thundering revered thing", which I don't like that much as I've heard enough real ones when I was a teenager. Impressionistic lyrics, soundscapes, the extra microphone to create soundeffects... Isn't that "Truly Golden" from the latest album "Mosaic"? I have to leave now, really. Yes, really! --- Written by Johanna J. Bodde, November 29, 2006 for Insurgent Country, Germany. www.insurgentcountry.net ===== |
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