Danny George Wilson, Jess Klein, Simon Alpin and Christian Kjellvander - Carling Academy, Liverpool -13th July 2005 Review by Barry Jones
Eine Klein nachtmusik. (Or something like that!) A sultry, warm Liverpool night and Danny George Wilson, still on sabbatical from Grand Drive, and Willard Grant Conspirator Simon Alpin are back for a short tour promoting Danny’s Alpin produced Famous Mad Mile solo album. Danny’s Fargo stablemate Christian Kjellvander opens the show, to a disappointingly small, but nonetheless educated and enthusiastic audience. Christian is Swedish, tall, blonde, deep voiced, with thoughtful songs and a gentle laid-back electric guitar accompaniment. The lone, under-employed, barmaid was very impressed and she has impeccable taste. His first time in Liverpool, let’s hope he comes back soon. Jess Klein, straight from a warmer and sultrier New York City is next and charms the place completely. A diminutive figure with a big guitar, she gives real substance to songs from her recent Strawberry Lover, the title song of which has apparently been acclaimed as one of the top ten sexiest songs of the moment by The NY Daily News, and who could argue with that? She even tackles a Willie Dixon blues and makes it her own. Her other role this evening is providing backing vocals on Danny Wilson’s set. Jess has worked with Simon Alpin before, with Willard Grant Conspiracy, and contributed backing vocals to The Famous Mad Mile from a distance, as seems to be the norm these days. Having only met Danny the day before the tour started, things might have been a bit haphazard, but it was just the opposite, their voices complemented each other perfectly, to form a union of gentle acoustic summer sounds augmented by Simon’s mandolin and occasional low harmonies. It was a privilege to witness it.
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Danny George Wilson
Simon Alpin
Josh Hillman
Barrels, Friday, March 11
'The idea was to get out and sing some songs', said Grand Drive's Danny
George Wilson after a magical night in Barrels, Berwick on Tweed. That
modest, almost humble mission statement hides the fact that the songs in
question came mainly from Grand Drive's back catalogue plus half a dozen
from Wilson's forthcoming solo release, The Famous Mad Mile. By the way,
save time pre-order it, it's going to be great. With that and two members of
Willard Grant Conspiracy alongside you, you're hardly going around singing
just any old songs.
Barrels is built for a night like Friday, acoustic guitar, mandolin and
fiddle were never going to be 'Rock the Casbah', but the rough cast walls
threw back the shadows created by the music. The unstructured, unpolished
night became an intimate, almost conspiratorial evening, artists and
audience became confidants sharing secrets.
Without the need for any noticable 'performance' in the accepted sense, it's
all about creating an atmosphere and Danny George Wilson did that
immediately with Somewhere Else Instead and Track 40. Wilson writes love
songs, whether it be people, places or memories of childhood as with Track
40, all are honest, real and affectionate love songs. If the night proved
one thing it was that Danny George Wilson is one of this country's best
writers, time after time he gently drew us into the middle of the song. He
instinctively understands that songs need to be about the listener as much
as the musician
Although the night seemed to be centred around the Grand Drive singer
alongside him were Simon Alpin and Josh Hillman from the Willard Grant
Conspiracy and it was the contrast between Wilson and Alpin that provided
the light and shade.
Where Wilson was light, Alpin was the dark brooding presence, a spell only
broken by the fact that between songs he was a thoroughly pleasant bloke. He
introduced himself with the wonderful Is It Gone but his 'moments' came with
Ry Cooder's Billy The Kid and a song known only as Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, which
involved all three performers in a wailing harmony that had the rhythm of an
ancient funeral cortege. All we needed was a pyre, a widow and we could have
had a bit of suttee in the north east.
There was a spontaneous, songwriters circle feel to the first half as if
three guys had walked in off the street and just wowed an open mic night. It
made for a low key but hugely attractive set.
But it was the second half that truly showed the trio as the accomplished
performers they undoubtedly are. Beginning with some lively reels from the
fiddle of Hillman. One Irish one bluegrass showed the seamlessness
transition of music from Celtic folk to Americana. And, although it pretty
faithfully followed the format of first half, with Alpin and Wilson swapping
vocals and instruments it was a more energised set. Epitomised by Alpin's
slide guitar blues Another Man Is Gone, which, with his apparently
bottomless voice, sounded as if it had come direct from another world. He
appears at times a reticent almost reluctant, he has nothing to be reticent
about but again it provided a neat difference as Wilson lives and blooms in
the spotlight.
By the time the encore had come and gone, the trio had almost exhausted
their bank of songs but it was not enough. To say that the pair were reduced
to singing lullabies would be to deny the poetic beauty of Hey Little and
Little One. The first, sung by Wilson, inspired the second, sung by Alpin,
both were written for respective children and those two songs encapsulated
perfectly why the night was an unforgettable experience because at the end
of a night of Americana at its very best, it came down to two fathers
sharing songs written for the most important people in their life, who could
ask for more.
If Friday is the result of musicians of the calibre of Danny George Wilson,
Simon Alpin and Josh Hillman getting into a van with the vague notion of
singing songs, then more should do it. Whether they'd do it as well is
highly debatable. written for 'Maverick' magazine, by Michael Mees.
simon j alpin - The Maze, Nottingham - 11th March 2004 Review by Jeremy Searle (Americana uk)
Simon j Alpin is a completely different kettle of fish. when he’s not being a key member of Willard Grant Conspiracy, tonight they come as a full band, with the fiddler and drummer from WGC, plus bass, drums and keyboards. Live they are very different, and in fact rather better, than on their eponymous album. The album is rather lower-fi and intense, whereas live they are on the loose rather than the ramshackle side of under-rehearsed, and frequently recall The Band, particularly with the keyboards and time signatures. With the occasional bout of calculated discordance, the prominence of the violin, and a general sense of tension there are also elements of the Velvets here too. The set is split roughly fifty-fifty between their debut album and new songs, a rather spurious distinction for most of the audience one suspects. Simon Alpin takes to the frontman role to the manner born, and the violin (definitely not fiddle) and keyboards underpin the sound superbly. After an hour of interesting and challenging music and two well-deserved encores, they leave the stage and the Maze a rather better place than they found it.
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SIMON J ALPIN - BRIGHTON
SIMON ALPIN from WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY. Such is the quality of this bill, that we have a member of that mighty band open a four-act show! For those of you that saw him play with WGC at our show in August, you will need no reminding of the talents of this man. He is the bands lead guitarist, he co-produced and co-mixed Regard The End, and has become ROBERT FISHER's natural dynamic foil in the band, taking them to majestic heights with that beautiful latest album. Away from WGC, Simon is pretty much always busy as an in-demand session man with the ilk of GRAND DRIVE, and could be seen as keyboardist on tour with TEENAGE FANCLUB last year. But having written hundreds of songs from before and since gaining a publishing deal at age 15, and never really havng done anything with them, this laid back, totally lovely North-Easterner has decided the time is right to step to centre stage to see what happens. This is Simon in earthy country mode, and the few songs we have been lucky to hear are right up our allies. Yours, too, we suspect.
