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This is the third in our Reflections playlist series, where we ask artists to reflect on music that has either inspired them or is a personal favourite. Our latest guest is Buck Curran; he recently released One Evening and Other Folk Songs, which was one of our Featured Albums of the Month. Thomas Blake described it as ‘an album of hidden depths. His talent is an alchemical one: seemingly quotidian musical ingredients are turned into rare metals in his hands, and with this eclectic but hugely talented band, the results are doubly impressive.’ Read the album review here.
Buck’s choices include Tim Buckley, Sandy Denny, Sam Amidon, Martin Simpson, Fleetwood Mac, Robbie Basho, David Crosby, Arborea, and Adele H. Listen to the playlist and read his thoughts below:
Reflections #3: Playlist
Note: A Youtube clip is included for a track unavailable on streaming.
Listen on Spotify | Apple Music
1. Phantasmagoria in Two (Goodbye and Hello 1967) Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley is an artist I discovered when I was very young. My parents had the album Greetings from LA (1972) and the photographs on the jacket and the music absolutely fascinated me, even though, at the time I didn’t understand what it all meant (especially the postcard on the back cover with the photos of Tim with a gas mask). The music was very funky and primordial and yet very experimental. It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered Buckley’s song Phantasmagoria in Two (around the same time that I discovered Nick Drake’s music). I’ve always had a deep affinity for music made with the acoustic guitar, and I immediately fell in love with the title track from Buckley’s 1967 album, a song which I initially heard from Buckley’s live concert album (in London) ‘Dream Letter’ from 1968. It wasn’t long after hearing that album that I bought ‘Goodbye and Hello’, which drew me and captivated me from the very first track, No Man Can Find the War. That album still has quite a few of my very favorite songs (Pleasant Street, Hallucinations, One I Was). The version of Phantasmagoria in Two on ‘Goodbye and Hello’, however, is pure magic – from the mystical sound of the acoustic 12-string and electric guitar motif that kicks off the song. Buckley’s voice on this recording is among the most beautiful, dynamic and emotional of his career. The lyrics are pure poetry filled with intense sadness and mystery, reflecting on lost love and the deep feeling of fear and the loneliness of life:
If a fiddler played you a song, my love
And if I gave you a wheel
Would you spin for my heart and loneliness
Would you spin for my love
If I gave up all of my pride for you
And only loved you for now
Would you hide my fears and never say
“Tomorrow I must go”
Everywhere there’s rain my love
Everywhere there’s fear
The production on that recording is really incredible too: 12string and vocal, electric guitar with piano, bass and drums (buried a bit low in the mix) but which propel the song and subtly fill the track with an absolutely beautiful atmospheric bed of sound. I had been in love with that song for such a long time and had so many feelings and memories connected with it, that eventually I showed the song to Shanti and we recorded an arrangement of it for Arborea’s album ‘Red Planet’ (2011).
2. Man of Iron (Pass of Arms 1972) Sandy Denny
Along with Tim Buckley, Sandy Denny is one of my favourite singer-songwriters. Denny was also a fine guitarist and piano player, and like Buckley, she often played 12-string guitar. Man of Iron can be found on the reissue of her self-titled album originally released in 1972 and on her anthology ‘No More Sad Refrains’. Originally, the song was created for a soundtrack for the movie ‘Pass of Arms’ and recorded in the summer of 1972 (the supporting arrangements were made by Mike Heron [interviewed here] of the Incredible String Band). It was released as a single along with the track Here in the Silence. Similar to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven..the song is quite epic in scale and clocks in at over 7 minutes long. However, unlike Stairway, Man of Iron stays organically acoustic throughout, starting with a mournful cello, which gives way to a playful, bright melody played on flute/recorder accompanied by a recording of birds singing…which then flows into appregiations from Denny’s 12-string guitar followed by her gorgeous and powerful voice and the lyrics of the first verse. Also, like Tim Buckley’s Phantasmagoria in Two, this song is extremely melancholy and romantic and very historically visual:
Where are you riding to Sir Knight
Alone and armed for war?
If not to fight for right Sir Knight
Then what are weapons for?
Why d’you hide your face Sir Knight
Within a face of iron?
The more you shield your eyes from light
The more you’ll make them blind.
Turn your horse for home Sir Knight
Your hawk and hounds are waiting.
Your lady does not sleep at night
She fears the hand of fate tonight.
Turn your face towards the sun
And listen to the minutes run
Oh can’t you feel the warning breeze
And hear the whisper in the trees?
Look behind you, man of iron
And your children call and do
Not find you and a wall of silent
Laughter scornes the chorus of their cries.
As the song progresses, we hear the recurring ominous low sound of a timpani and the swarming drone from a bowed fiddle. Later, you can hear a siren-like voice, a frame drum and the metallic rattling of chains, and the sound of rushing wind. The track finishes with the haunting sounds of a wolf howling. I also highly recommend listening to the demo of Sandy’s song Autopsy recorded in 1968 when she was just 21. In this recording, she also accompanies herself on a 12-string guitar, and her singing is absolutely stunning.
3. Kahlil Gibran (Zarthus 1974) Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho’s music (his singing and guitar playing) is among the most inspirational music that I have ever come across. This song (dedicated to Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran) connects Basho’s passion and romanticism of history with his deep spirituality. It was recorded for his 1974 album ‘Zarthus’. ‘Zarthus’ (my favorite album by Robbie Basho) contains some of his best work for the steel string guitar (Six and 12-string) accompanied by some of the most beautiful singing of his career and contains lyrics full of poetic mysticism, sung in a deep and dynamically rich way. An album (in Basho’s words) of Persian, Arabic, Western Themes, woven together into a single ‘Fabric D’Amour’ to cover the barren manekin of modern times:
Khalil Gibran,
God has placed a Sorrow neath the Cedars of Lebanon;
Allah Nazul, Allah Rahim
Lord, Look down and mend our broken wings.
In Thy Dark Hour when Satan’s wrath has looked upon
And hooked upon Thy Sacred Flowers;
Allah Nazul, Allah Rahim;
Lord Look down, mend our broken wings.
Chorus
And when the Nightingale sings his love song to the Rose,
She’ll come again, clearer than she appears now,
Veiled in Blue, feet upon the Moon.
Thy Kingdom come; on Earth as it is, in Heaven
Thy Will be done;
Allah Nazul, Allah RAHIM,
Lord, Look down and mend our broken wings.
YA BUI YA BUI (O My Father)
And when the Nightingale sings her love song to the Rose,
He’ll come again, clearer than He appears now
Robed in White, borne as on a cloud –
YA BUI YA BUI (O My Father) O My Heart.
Khalil Gibran
4. Juma Mountain (The Following Mountain 2017) Sam Amidon
Experimental acoustic artist Sam Amidon, to my mind, is among the finest musicians of contemporary folk music. Listening to his original songs, his artistry is idiosyncratic, poetic and abstract and yet simultaneously he still manages to sound rooted in tradition, as he creates colourful arrangements reinterpreting old folk songs. His recording of Saro is one of my favorite arrangements of the traditional song Pretty Saro.
Juma Mountain, a song from his beautiful 2017 album The Following Mountain, is a great example of his original approach to songwriting and could easily be thought of as a sort of evolution of Nick Drake’s music. Yet, even with this song, Amidon remains wholly original with sparse lyrics written in a sort of haiku-murder ballad style, with everything coming through with an incredibly beautiful atmosphere:
In the mountain
The colored leaves are falling
Shots were fired
From the darkest moments
Like a child
Speaking to a stranger
What a voice
What a voice
What a voice
What a voice
What a voice
I hear
If I had wings, I had wings
In the mountain
The colored leaves are falling
Shots were fired
From the darkest moments
Like a child
Speaking to a stranger
5. Bonny at Morn (When I Was On Horseback 1991) Martin Simpson
This acoustic guitar instrumental is from British guitarist Martin Simpson’s album ‘When I Was On Horseback’ from 1991. This is a great example of how Martin uses alternate tunings to create an appropriate mood to enhance the overall feeling of his acoustic guitar work. The tune is an old piper’s tune from Northumbria, England, and with this recording, Martin has created an entirely new arrangement that is deeply emotive and haunting.
As quoted from the website Mainly Norfolk (https://mainlynorfolk.info/louis.killen/songs/bonnyatmorn.html ):
“Northumbria is the only part of England with its own regional music-dialect, its own stock of melodies that are distinct in style from tunes anywhere else in the country. And of this style, Bonny at Morn is one of the masterpieces. Its peculiarity no doubt derives from the character of the local northeastern bagpipe, and the tune was surely an instrumental one before words became attached to it. A great, if neglected, pioneer folk song collector, John Bell, noted the song at the outset of the nineteenth century, but it wasn’t printed until 1882, in the Northumbrian Minstrelsy. The poem takes a curious twofold form; in part it’s a lullaby addressed to a baby, and in part it’s reproach to a lazy son who is ’ower lang’ in his bed and won’t get up.”
Martin Simpson’s approach to playing guitar has had a deep impact on the development of my playing and he has also been one of the few guitarists in my life who I have taken lessons from….not to mention the guitar he used on ‘When I Was On Horseback’ (made in Hexham, Northumbria in 1990 by guitar maker Stefan Sobell) is the very guitar that I own now and used to record Arborea’s first two albums (Wayfaring Summer (2006) and Arborea (S/T) (2008). I feel incredibly fortunate to have this guitar in my life…for me, it’s the most beautiful sounding acoustic guitar I’ve ever played.
6. Closing My Eyes (Then Play On 1969) Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac
Peter Green is one of my absolute favorite singer-songwriters and also one of the best and most influential electric guitarists to come out of England in the 1960s. It’s very difficult choosing just one of his songs (Black Magic Women would be definitely another great one), but I’d have to say that Closing My Eyes from his 1969 album with Fleetwood Mac ‘Then Play On’ is among my top favorite songs. His voice has this intense honesty, warm, and longing quality about it, which makes for an extremely poignant and emotive recording. Musically, it’s dreamy and psychedelic – lyrically, it’s incredibly honest and harrowingly sad – which gives the song a very fragile and nostalgic feeling:
Now it’s the same as before
And I’m alone again
With no sorrow for myself
And I’m blaming no one else
And closing my eyes
And seeing you standing there
Now it’s the same as before
You’ve touched me with your love
And though you’re in my heart
We’re still a world apart
As now, I’m back to the time
When I would search for a dream
But no use to try anymore as before
Someday I’ll die, maybe then I’ll be with you
So I’m closing my eyes
To hear the people laugh
For they’re all aglow
Not knowing where to go
But is it asking too much
When the question is what to do?
With the life I’ll have
It seems I know nothing now
Except my love for you
And with the strength in my hands
To go on feeding your smile
7. Pale Horse Phantasm (Fortress of the Sun 2013) Arborea
This song is one of my favorite songs that I had the privilege of helping create with Shanti Deschaine for our duo Arborea. We had a very clear intention of creating a haunting folk song that had the feel of a very old folk or blues song (riding with the spectre of death), yet we also wanted it to sound mysterious and mystical, recalling the feeling of Tim Buckley’s Phantasmagoria in Two. I collaborated on some of the lyrics, but they mostly came from Shanti – whereas I primarily wrote the music on the acoustic and electric guitar. Actually, the primary chords came quickly upon picking up my old Fender telecaster…which I played acoustically. The recording also has the great New York City based musician Anders Griffen playing drums. The video for Pale Horse Phantasm is also one of my favorite videos and was made with the help of four of our friends in Arcadia, Maine. The landscapes of Maine and the Atlantic ocean have given Shanti and I an incredible amount of inspiration for the music we’ve made as Arborea.
The lyrics exude the mists of a haunted dream:
Diamond truth that I know
Scars that were made with Bones and Steel
False dreams in my eyes, lain with the dark Wilderness.
Thunder draws me from sleep I feel the hooves I can now see her
Pale Horse Phantasm
Pale Horse Phantasm
Diamond tears in my eyes Rain on my face Wilderness
She’s so real in the dark Breath on my neck I can now feel her
Run as far as I can with all that I am All I have ever known
Pale Horse Phantasm
Pale Horse Phantasm
Freedom fevers my skin Lain with the light I can now heed the call
Riding before the dawn Wind of my face I shall not fear her
Diamond truth I have found Scars that will fade I will now ride with her
Pale Horse Phantasm
Pale Horse Phantasm
8. Lost Lagoon Suite (Falconer’s Arm I 1967) Robbie Basho
This acoustic guitar instrumental from Robbie Basho’s album Falconer’s Arm I. The Lost Lagoon Suite, recorded in 1967 using his 12-string, is one of Basho’s finest guitar instrumentals and among the first examples of the ‘Raga’ steel-string guitar style that he pioneered after a deeply intense period of discovering and listening to records of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Technically speaking, his guitar playing had evolved quite dramatically when compared with playing on his first couple of records. You can hear some incredibly brilliant playing on this track.
I am also immensely grateful to be the caretaker of Robbie Basho’s 12-string, which he recorded that track with. I have recently had it restored to playable condition and have started recording various artists for a compilation of original music inspired by Basho using the guitar. To date, I have recorded Pino Nuvola and Raoul Eden, on the 4th of July I recorded my dear friend Paolo ‘Laboule’ Novellino, and in a couple of days I’ll be recording my dear friend from Switzerland, Adaya.
9. Wholly in My Keeping (True Dare or Promise 1987) Martin and Jessica Simpson
Wholly in My Keeping is one of my favourite recordings and an example of what is creatively possible when a great singer and a great guitarist come together. This song is from their 1987 album True Dare or Promise. The lyrics written by singer-poet Jessica Ruby Radcliffe are a harrowing tale of drug addiction. Jessica’s haunting and powerful vocal performance absolutely transcends on this track, and Martin Simpson accompanies Jessica perfectly with arpeggiated finger-style guitar with overdubbed dobro guitar played with a slide. The otherworldly sound they create on this recording is ethereal and absolutely gorgeous.
10. Games (Demo) (If I Could Only Remember My Name 1971) David Crosby
Games is a demo track taken from the 2021 remastered edition of David Crosby’s 1971 album If I Could Only Remember My Name. Hearing this intimate, emotive demo for the first time was quite a revelation. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous and a perfect example of how much feeling and emotion an artist can convey (in the moment) with just poetry and voice, and accompanying oneself on acoustic guitar.
Lyrically, it seems to be about his failed relationship with Joni Mitchell:
Born in the sunshine
Dyin’ in the rain
Raised on laughter
Lost in a game
I Love you
Love you
The game of being better
Wiser than you
Half and inch taller
A deeper shade of blue
Thinkin’ that I love you
More than you love me
Failing to lay it on the line
All the time
The game of gettin’ money
The game of gettin’ more
Ego game of power
Ugly game of war
Kills love
Don’t you know that?
Born in the jasmine
Dyin’ in bad air
Started out honest
Wound up down there
Love you
Love you.
11. Women’s Power (Impermanence 2023) Adele H
I feel incredibly lucky to have recorded this beautiful live performance. Inspired by the birth of our son Francesco in 2017, Adele had started working on this song in 2018. It’s an emotive song about the power that women have to give birth to children, yet the complete loss of that power when those children grow up and are called upon by the leaders and politicians of their homeland to fight and possibly die in a war. The song also mentions the connection with her mother, giving birth and ruminating on the mystery of life:
I was a cave Turned into a door
Suffered of unearthly pains
To meet your warm embrace
War is a game
to destroy Women’s power
Evil’s powers will not have your Mother
Strength and love will reign in her heart
I was the seed in the seed of my Mother
I was the mystery of life
Suffered of unearthly pains
To meet your warm embrace
War is a game
to destroy Women’s power
For the recording, I tried my best to position one microphone up to simultaneously capture Adele singing and playing piano. It was a live recording without overdubs…more like a field recording in our living room. I think Adele is an amazing, instinctive, and soulful singer. I had her sing lead vocals on Black is the Colour for my new album ‘One Evening and Other Folk Songs’ and she really did exceptionally Great work with that song….especially considering it was an improvised first take, recorded live in the studio with my band with keyboardist Jodi Pedrali, drummer Dave Barbarossa, and bassist Roberto Frassini Moneta.
One Evening and Other Folk Songs is out now on Obsolete Recordings.
Order via: https://obsoleterecordings.bandcamp.com/album/one-evening-and-other-folk-songs
Also, Buck Curran is co-headlining a gig with Gwenifer Raymond on Thursday, 17th October 2024 at 7:00 PM at The Rose Hill in Brighton – Tickets
