Both of tonight’s artists and bands have featured here previously and we know to expect a high standard from them
Sol Heilo (Norway) – Friend of Mine (single/possible future album track)
Sol Heilo is making her way back into the swing of things after an extended break away from recording, with a previous single released in April and a lengthy Norwegian tour recently completed with more dates to come in November while throwing in her first ever art exhibition.
Now she gears up towards a second full length album later in the year with this new single, ‘Friend of Mine.’
There is a certain, often banjo-led, Americana style that she has which has always been there in the sense that it appeared in many of Katzenjammer’s songs.
But here, exactly seven years after the release of her first solo single, ‘America’, she’s taken that concept much further than I ever imagined she would with something that sounds like it was created in Nashville. The opening bars convinced me we were heading for a hoedown. Yee hah!
And that’s not all. Her pitch is slightly higher, the rough growl that makes her sound like she’s just swallowed some razor blades, washed down with a whisky chaser, has gone and she’s picked up an American drawl. Listen to the way she sings “It ain’t hard to be a friend of mine.” I can imagine her duet-ting with Dolly Parton.
Musically, it’s the usual Heilo fare, smartly written and snappy overlapping banjo, guitar and piano parts, that are guaranteed to get you in a good mood with support I’m guessing from her regular companion Hanne Mari Karlsen.
Lyrically, well I wish I could tell you exactly what it is about but without written words in front of me I’m struggling.
I’m guessing it’s a sort of follow on from ‘America’ during which she’d just landed from a frozen Norway somewhere out in the Deep South and was coming to terms with the wide open spaces and opportunities for adventure and freedom.
This time she appears to be on some sort of road trip (the hippie style VW campervan emblazoned with ‘Show me the Road’ is a clue), exercising her feminine freedom.
“Never had a job and never had children/never found God and never had nothing to fight for” (a classic Country double negative), and while good friends are hard to find it’s easy to become one of hers.
As is often the case with Sol there will be much more to it than that. Her sophisticated lyricism is often overlooked in favour of the feel-good effect she has both recorded, and even more so on stage, while if you delve into it she has the knack of making profound statements without you even realising that she has.
She should be huge in the UK and I dare say that if Terry Wogan (who knew more about what makes for a compelling artist than he is given credit for and who was a big Katzenjammer fan) was still around she most certainly would be.
Find her on:
Website: https://www.solheilo.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/solheilo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solheilo/
Bulletproof Poets (Sweden) – Burghead (single/future EP track)
A heavier, more demanding sound now from Sweden’s prolific Bulletproof Poets, who will release their third EP shortly and of which this is the first single, ‘Burghead’.
It sounds like a creepy cross between Eraserhead and Beavis & Butthead, but it actually concerns a place in Scotland by that name which has been visited by the poet Monika Kostera, a Polish sociologist who specialises in organisation theory (I’m not making this up) and who is a big influence on Bulletproof Poets’ work.
In fact all their songs are her poems set to music.
They describe her thus:
“Monika is blues, and as the tradition has it, she is constantly on the road … have words, will travel.”
They add, ‘Burghead’ is in the key of E minor, and although it is not pure blues (i.e. delta blues) it has a bluesy beat to it (without being blues rock).”
They also credit Joakim Thåström, a Swedish singer and songwriter that moved between a number of genres, from punk to rock, as a ‘guiding star’.
‘Burghead’ is an excellent example of how a poem can be brought to life in music. That’s not to say it’s easy to do; far from it. But central Sweden right now seems to be the centre of this activity, with artists and bands like Resmiranda, GAEYA and Le Lac Long 814 all at it apart from Bulletproof Poets.
The poem is fundamentally a travelogue, partly written in Iambic pentameter (I think!), enlivened by a complex musical construction with several time signature changes, and embracing numerous different styles including the blues, yes, but also Lindisfarne-like folk-rock and even Yes-like prog rock, especially in the bridge. (Genesis’ ‘Watcher of the Skies’ even makes an appearance and that will be the title of the new EP).
I’ve said before that this band is very much at the cutting edge of contemporary music. And not just in Sweden.
Welcome to the weird but wonderful world of Monika Kostera and Bulletproof Poets.
Find them on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093457593699
