MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY

The Red Rattler  with El Duende, Dale Caldwell + Ben Fink and The Gloomchasers

Every once in a while you get invited to a very special evening and Sunday night at the Red Rattler was one! Dale Caldwell & Ben Fink were so good each song was followed by almost total silence. No one wanted to break the sonic spell by clapping first. The Gloomchasers; imagine if Stanislavsky had tried his hand at country music, perhaps he would have come up with Method & Western. Beautifully crafted hymns to the single dad/ lonesome songsmith. El Duende with their unusual line up of drums, bass, violin, sax, trumpet, guitar and vocals washed us with a swirling song cycle in the key of..beyond. There is something immediately familiar and yet totally unexpected in this band.The songwriting is great & the ensemble playing thoughtful and accomplished. A pleasure & privilege to be there, thanks everyone.

by Geoffrey Datson on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 2:36pm

Thanks to Geoff Datsun for a great review of the whole night at red Rattler on Sunday-he left out his and Annette's performance which was superb-dulcimers, hand made guitars, brilliant lyrical work, hillbilly feels for want of a better description. Stunning and cant wait to visit you guys in the hinterland! Dx (Dale Caldwell)

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  David Bonnefoy, Deborah Brooks and Mitchell Jones like this.
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    Dale Caldwell Geoff that's fantastic. Thank you. Talk later when i have more time...Dx
    

    Tuesday at 3:31pm · 
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    Daniel Morphett Thanks Geoffrey - and thanks for driving so far to come and play at it too - you guys were splendid I thought.
    I loved Annette's stories about the asylum seekers, and the ensuing song. I was trying to describe you guys and the best I could do was "the thinking person's hillbilly music on self made stringed instruments with beautiful harmonies". Plus a hint of Dylan on one of the songs.
    

    21 hours ago ·  ·  1 person
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    Dale Caldwell Actually Geoff I did think while you were playing that you guys were at times Peter Milton Walsh like (the Apartments etc) I hope that's a good comparison for you. Not that there ever should be comparisons!
    

    16 hours ago · 
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    Geoffrey Datson 
    

    I'm thinking Peter & I probably listened to 

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      the same musics once and inhabit similar emotional territory so the comparison is flattering thanks. That poem that you liked at the performance has a back story too long for this format but I'll tell you it if you get up here. I've recently discovered the paintings of Jock McFadyen a Scotsman resident in Hackney, and if a picture is exponential language then he too has seen the same place. I discovered him via an Iain Sinclair book Hackney that Rose Red Empire which I recommend, strongly.

      
      

      15 hours ago · 
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    Dale Caldwell I have heard of McFadyen and Sinclair recently but havent had time to check out their stuff-am a mad Irish, Scots and Welsh-ophile generally and read some stuff about Sinclair's work a while back. Will check out his work when I can and look forward to the storytelling whenever we get up there!
    

    15 hours ago · 
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    Geoffrey Datson 
    

    was not so impressed with Sinclair's fiction but the Hackney book is his reflection of 40 yrs living in Hackney & clearly defines the contemporary malaise. I was reading it as the riots were happening Here is the opening paragraph ; 'We are rubbish, outmoded and unrequired. Dumped on wet paving and left here for weeks, a baleful warning. Nobody pays me to do this. it is my own choice, to identify with detritus in a place that has declared war on unconvinced recyclers while erecting expensive memorials to the absence of memory. This is a borough that has dedicated itself to obliterating the meaning of shame"

    
    

    15 hours ago ·  ·  1 person

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