 sj |
|
|
|
| User Name |
Thread Name |
Subject |
Posted |
|
Joe Offer
|
Discography & Lyrics: Bernie Parry
(19)
|
Track List: There Are No Words(Bernie Parry, 2006)
|
26 Jun 25
|
There Are No Words (Bernie Parry, 2006)
Track Listing - Afon Dulyn Hurdy Gurdies and Guitar. Named after the stream that ran through my Welsh village till a dam was built in the hills. Pronounced 'Arvon Dylan'.
- Featherlegs Two Guitars in unison. In Yorkshire to be featherlegged is to be confused. My usual state of mind.
- The Itinerant Mendicant. Hurdy Gurdies and Guitar. The wandering beggar. I like the old English names.
- My Lady's Lament. Keyboards, many and various voices. I composed this tune in 1977. Only gave it a title this year.
- Overture from 'The Fish And The Stars'. Guitar, Mandolins, Hurdy Gurdy. The theme tune from a radio musical story I wrote and composed in 1981.
- Planxty Irwin. (O'Carolan) Keyboards. Harp voice and human voice effects. Hurdy Gurdy bass string. A lovely O'Carolan tune I've known since Planxty's first album.
- To Win Toulouse/Parry Mash. Massed Hurdy Gurdies and percussion keyboards. The very first two tunes I composed after acquiring my Hurdy Gurdy.
- The Dark Island. (trad) Guitars, Mandolins and Hurdy Gurdy. A famous beautiful traditional Scottish tune which I first heard in my teens.
- There Are No Words. Two Guitars in unison, vocals at the end. A tune I composed in a fortified hole on a windy beach in Fuerteventura, Canary Isles, many years ago.
- Place Of Eagles. Massed Hurdy Gurdies. I was born in Snowdonia. Its Welsh name is 'Eryri' which means 'Place Of Eagles'. I hope this tune conveys such grandeur.
- The Moth Keyboards...harp and human voice effects. I didn't compose this with a moth in mind but it put me in mind of a moth fluttering and flitting about.
- The Dancer. Guitar plus Bass and Strings keyboards. I find it hard to believe that I wrote this tune as an exercise piece when I was only 22 years of age. I can still play it!
- Rob Roy (trad) Hurdy Gurdies and Guitar. A piece I remember from the playing of Hendon Banks, a 4 piece band that were residents (as I was) at the Trimdon Folk club. The band featured a shy young lad with a high tenor voice called Jez Lowe.
- Silent Night. (Franz X Gruber) Guitars, Hurdy Gurdies, Harpsichord keyboard voice. Surely the best of all carols. Only to be played at Christmas.
|
Reviews:
In a recent conversation, two or three of us were discussing why, when Bernie has written so many fine songs, few singers performed them: it was suggested by one person that "they have too many words." It seems Bernie has come up with the perfect album for him!
Known as a singer and songwriter (or "story-teller in song"), Bernie has chosen with his latest private release to demonstrate the other aspect of his talent that was instrumental in building his reputation.
The CD is what it says on the sleeve - the only lyrics, a kind of Parryan Haiku are to be found ironically in the album's title song. The rest is vocal free.
This set of 14 tunes displays two of Bernie's recent fascinations - his multi-track home studio and his hurdy-gurdy - alongside his guitar playing. (He is also featured on keyboards and mandolin.) Self-played and produced, it is an impressive achievement.
Yet this is no mere collection of recent compositions. Instead it is virtually a wordless career overview. He delves back for traditional tunes learned in his earliest days on the folk-scene (Rob Roy acquired from a band featuring a teenage Jez Lowe.) Overture from "The Fish and The Stars" is the theme from a 1981 radio musical which he wrote. The stately, almost church-like My lady's Lament was written in 1977. He wrote The Dancer long before that, when he was a mere 22 years old.
The set includes three traditional pieces - Rob Roy, Planxty Irwin in an almost magical setting and the evocative Dark Island. Aside from a closing carol (an offshoot from a forthcoming Free Reed project to which Bernie has contributed), the remaining tunes are all his own.
Several are impressionistic (wordless sound-sketches of favourite places and people. Place of Eagles is a stunning evocation of Snowdonia - a soundtrack for a movie in your mind. Elsewhere, compositions reflect time spent in Yorkshire and Tyneside, The Canary Islands and folk clubs up and down the country.
Naturally, the familiar Parry sense of humour is also evident: two tunes influenced by French traditional dances revel in the titles To Win Toulouse / Parry Mash.
You'll reach the title track half way through the set - a duet for unison guitars, and pure Parry, typically fulfilling in its complex simplicity.
Nigel Schofield
Post to this Thread -
Back to the Main Forum Page
By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.
By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.
By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.
By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.
Try it all, you will see.