Kelly Oliver

I first discovered this lovely lady on Fatea Showcases. I always enjoy these as they are great to cast your net out and discover brilliant talent that you may have otherwise missed.  The most recent editions ‘Chemistry’ and ‘Magnetism’ have introduced me to at least three artists that I felt I should explore further.

The first of these is Kelly Oliver who has her debut EP ‘Far From Home’ now available both as downloadable and physical copies. The EP is a standard 5 tracks and the first song I heard was the title song from the EP ‘Far From Home’.

This tune is a very gentle, soft tune with a pleasant guitar strum setting the scene of a young lady eagerly awaiting the return of a young man of which she is pretty smitten. Despite her mother’s warnings and the way the chap decided to spend most of his time away from the central character is still devoted to his return. And they say long distance relationships are difficult.

I ended up putting this song on repeat for almost an hour as each time the beauty of Kelly’s voice and the musical foundation really just builds and builds on you. The occasional harmonica intermission also did a great job of breaking up the song and keeping the variety going so the listener doesn’t get bored in any way, and this keep going throughout other tracks as well.

The next tune, ‘Keilan are you Coming?’ has some nice differences, being much faster paced with a louder strum on the guitar and a lot more fire in the voice. In a way, it’s quite a similar song, but they display two totally separate emotions, the first on ‘Far From Home’ is one of patience and then this one seemed a little more like an excited child struggling to hold back that excitement. This is a nice variety then from a later track ‘He Walked on the Side of the Sea’ which is calmer.

Kelly has been influenced a lot by Irish traditional music and this certainly comes across her music, but luckily that’s all it is, an influence. Kelly does a fantastic job of keeping her music so wonderfully individual and simple. I am often impressed by musicians who make their music stand out with original ideas are bizarre combinations of vocals and instrument, but what is even more impressive is to find individuals who can be original but give you an air of familiarity so that their music is comfortable and soothing. Kelly has certainly gotten this balance spot on.

I loved this EP and I wish I had made it to Folkstock last September (I was supposed to go but alas last minute couldn’t make it) as I would have seen her live! Kelly has certainly made the list of live performances I must find.

I wonder if Kelly would make what I like to call a ‘wildcard’ track when she does a full length album, as she certainly has a secure sound. Wildcards are songs that are quite different from the rest, usually shorter bizarre tracks that many artists are now attempting. Although risky for people I believe Kelly could certainly pull it off, although to be honest she wouldn’t need to.

A lovely singer, to find out more follow these links and be sure to follow Kelly on Twitter @kellyoliverfolk, and me @paulrawcliffe

Kelly - http://www.kellyoliver.co.uk

Folkstock - http://www.folkstockfestival.com/

Fatea Magazine/ Showcases – http://www.fatea-magazine.co.uk/

DFTBA

Never Mind the Boc

This one is a little late, but for me was worth it!

Never Mind the Bocs is a lovely welsh band on their second album together and it is definitely an album worth listening too. The Brownings (each band member is a Browning) adds their own extra zest to the band with button accordions, wind instruments, strings, bodhrán and drums making up the talent tree of instruments.

Never mind the Bocs have opted to remain much more traditionally founded, going with generally slower paced and calming styles of music over rock or folk dance styles. Their latest album release, ‘A Moon to Hang Coats On’ consists of 16 lovely sets that mix up vocal songs and pure instrumentals.

Their music is very diverse, which is wonderful for those who like their music constantly changing and surprising. For example early on in the album we get ‘The Wren’ a beautifully sung song that helps to calm the listener followed immediately by ‘Full Catastrophe Living’ which is then an instrumental track staring squeezeboxes that go through some faster paces that will get your foot tapping more.

The mix of English songs and Welsh language, along with the previously mentioned variety in music makes this band the staple for people flirting with folk or new to the genre as it examples a whole range of what folk can be all in one album.

‘Tom Fahey’s Wall’ and ‘Fi Wela Ynys Cynon’  are amazing songs with not only perfect lead vocals but also excellently harmonised backing vocals which with the very fairy tale style of music accompanying makes for great listening. To me, many of tracks like ‘Barton Island’ and ‘Y Dyn Heb Fochyn’ even conjure images of the Welsh mountains.

My absolute favourite on the album is ‘The Discomfort of Lloyd George’, partly for the hilarious name, and secondly because of the high squeezebox emphasis (it is of course where my own musical abilities are rooted) but also the rhythmic almost Morris dance style that I know many dancers would love.

A great album, I'm going to locate a copy of their first album too!

DFTBA

Music tastes

There are a couple of phrases that really annoy me at the moment.

“That music is rubbish” (Or some such variation) and
“No one listens to that” (or usually ‘who’ listens to that)

Both of these phrases are ignorant. First of all, whatever music it is that someone may then claim is better (as nine times out of then this happens) will have just as many people expressing their dislike for it.

Music is a very personal thing. The reason there are so many different genres is because the seven billion people on this world are all different and all have different tastes. No type of music call be called rubbish because generally a large number of people probably like it. If you want to express your displeasure for a type of music then simply say “I do not enjoy this kind of music” or something, and certainly do not insult or make assumptions about people who do enjoy a particular type.

I am very into folk music, particularly fiddles and banjos. I fully accept that many people do not enjoy this genre. At the same time there are also many people who do (I am actually finding more people than I originally thought who do). I do not like it when people start making strange comments about the fact that banjos are only enjoyed by inbred hicks.

What a strange assumption to make! It is an unbelievable jump out of logic. Yes the film ‘Deliverance features and banjo and unfortunately paints this stereotypes that hicks enjoy banjos but in reality it is like saying that anyone who likes rap music is a gangster drug dealer. It is simply not true and again falls into my hatred of stereotyping people.

There are genres of music I don’t like, but I would never make assumptions about someone who does based on what i think of that music, it just does not make any sense.

So please people, don’t do this, it is annoying.

oh and DFTBA

Five minutes of fame

I was just shown this article by a friend which brings up lots of interesting points:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16119375

The article is about how certain talent show programmes a large number of failed artists as it does successful ones. For example until I read this article I would never have remembered that Steve Brookstein was the first winner of X-Factor. The name doesn't even ring a bell to me. He clearly had only his five minutes of fame and then the lime light has gone out. I have noticed this many times before with these kinds of programmes.

Obviously not all acts that are successful suffer this fate. Will Young is a prime example mentioned in the article. I personally don't watch these shows any more, I find it to be simply boring now, dull and repetitive. X-factor has been going for years now and after a while they all merge into one. Big Brother was suffering this very fate and at least had the decency to try and have a noble death before it became too milked. I really enjoyed the first three or so series of Big Brother. Now however I could only tell you a couple of the winners and even with that only a few more of the other contestants featured.

What really surprises me is how each year for X-Factor so many people with genuine talent do still appear. I would have thought if you had not been discovered on the first two or three sagas then why are you entering now? I know the age cap is part to do with this but even so.

Britain’s Got Talent had an interesting turn out this year when Susan Boyle had a nervous breakdown and the entire house the contestants were kept in is reported to have descended into chaos. Personally I think this was media hype and things probably were not so bad.

On a slight side note do you remember the media making a big deal out of Jedward looking at porn whilst in the hotel place? They made it out that Jedward were cracking under the pressure and going mental. This is absurd, they are teenage (I think? Slightly older now?) boys. Of course they are going to look at porn; it does not mean that they have gone off the rails.

Anyway, back on track, the public love these programmes and they clearly generate a huge income but is it actually worth sending people into meltdown with pressure? For me it is not so much the fact that contestants are becoming famous and then losing it which is the problem. Artists in music and television suffer this fate all the time. For me the problem is the sudden transition. You get average Joe or average Jane standing in the queue with a number associated with them one moment then the next they are living the celebrity life. That has to mess people up; with most artists in the music profession the change is gradual, or at least more gradual than literal overnight changes in the public opinion towards you.

There is then the problem when it doesn’t stick that you then have the sudden shock of going back to normal again. To go from no-one recognising you to absolutely everyone recognising you, back to no-one recognising you has got to generate income for counsellors. I know I’d be messed up if that happened.

But naturally the psychosocial well being of the contestants doesn't really matter as the amount of money created by these shows more than makes up for it. (Note sarcasm.)

DFTBA