Liverpool 2009

In my academic life, I spent a week in Liverpool last summer at the meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. This was my second; the previous one was in Mexico City. The conference is lots of people who approach the eccentric and the mundane in the music world from all sorts of points of view--perfect for someone like me who finds something to like in almost all musical expression.

In the meantime, Liverpool was hoppin. The city itself has had its ups and downs, the Beatles notwithstanding. It was the port from whence the Titanic sailed. When it and another couple of major vessels went to the bottom, a large portion of the adult male population of Liverpool went with them. Those hard times are not forgotten, but the city is thriving. A large chunk of it is pedestrian now, and like many European cities, the public transportation is good. (A lot of it could be a model for Pittsburgh, my home town). Wandering through exhibits and the neighborhood where the Cavern sits, it's pretty obvious that Liverpool has been turning out musicians by the truckload, both before and since the Merseybeat. There is a small industry in Beatles memorabilia and tribute bands, one of which I saw at the Cavern on a Saturday night. I knew it was a tribute band, and the site of the room wasn't quite original, and that everyone in the room were Beatles tourists from around the world, but it still gave me the chills.

The main gathering point for us was a pub called Hannah's: three stories with gourmet cooking and marginal beer--exactly the reverse of the fabulous beer and marginal cooking of the Seventies. Two or three musical acts at all times; the number of venues in town was pretty stunning. Of course there were a lot of DJ dance bars too--Liverpudlians have always partied hard, and there is now an Island-wide trend among a certain age group to drink until you fall down. I also heard about the proliferation of music festivals in UK and on the continent--exponential numbers with local festival cultures renewed from year to year. I was staying with my friend Dennis Howard from Kingston (more later) so got caught up on reggae happening in Jamaica at the same time.

Recording then and now

Winter in Pittsburgh. I'm finishing off the mixing of the album in the home studio--amazing what is available to songwriters these days. It does take me back to other recording experiences, notably the first serious recording I did--for Bill Leader and Transatlantic Records in the U.K. Bill had a studio up in the Yorkshire Dales, with a wall of windows looking out over the valley. We got there the night before sessions were to start, and went out for a bite and a pint at a pub up on a hill. It was my brother Jeff, my touring partner Mick Linnard, and drummer Pick Withers (in a little known band called Dire Straits). The local brew was heavenly and the standard closing time of 11 PM meant only that they locked the doors and drew the curtains--if you were inside at the time you could stay. The end result was that we were all a bit sullen the next day starting out. We got over it, and the sessions were great fun. Bill's wife Helen fed us and it was a collective experience quite different from the digital domain, where these days Bill's tools (and more) are in my own hands. Bill was a pioneer, recording many British folk legends, including Bert Jansch, and it was a great privilege to work with him. We shared production responsibilities, and Jeff did some arranging for the strings we played ourselves. Pretty low-key, but the folk-club circuit was supporting a lot of musicians at the time (as long as you weren't fiscally ambitious). But more on that later...