Free Speech * De Gedachten zijn Vrij: Melanie, James J. Turner, Mungo Jerry * Mon. 15, Tue. 16 May [2017-17]

FOURTH FRIDAY POETS  ** ** REPEATED  * HERHALING: MELANIE (Stoneground Words)** James J. Turner ** BONNIE DOBSON / RAY DORSET (Mungo Jerry) **     ** There is no freedom without freedom of speech: always, everywhere and for everyone. Anything less is a violation of it.   2017-17 of Monday 15, Tuesday 16 May

SCHEDULE: MONDAYS  & TUESDAYS 12:00 > 20:00 hrs CET or 11 a.m. > 7 p.m. GMT (UK)

THE PLAYLISTS
12 noon  and 16:000 hrs CET (11 a.m. and  3 p.m. UK time) NEW SHOW
THE POETRY CAFE, London: Fourth Friday of 25 April 2015 ** FOURTH FRIDAY POETS, feat. Jennu Lewis, Adnan al-Sayegh, John-Paul O’Neill, Alfred Tood, Hylda Sims, Eddy Bonte, Dan Kennedy ** Music: Rattle On the Stovepipe **

13:00 and 17:00 hrs CET (12 noon  / 4 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
MELANIE: STONEGROUND WORDS (1972) ** AND ALSO: HOYT AXTON **  LAURA NYRO ** AFTER TEA ** BOUDEWIJN DE GROOT ** DAVID McWILLIAMS ** ALAN GLEN & TIM HAIN (Gold Reserve) ** VOICES: Ken Kesey, ‘Hell No’, Derroll Adams, Michele Gazich.
14:00 and 18:00 hrs CET (1 p.m. / 5 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
JAMES J. TURNER: selected tracks from  Spirit, Soul and a Handful of Mud (Touch the Moon, 2016) www.jamesjturner.com  ** AND  ALSO:  Joe Cocker ** Nina Simone ** The Byrds ** Mark & The Clouds ** Crystal Jacqueline **  Julie Felix ** Voices: Lyndon B. Johnson * Jim Hightower

15:00 and 19:00 hrs CET (2 p.m. / 6 p.m. UK time) REPEATED   HERHALING
BONNIE DOBSON / RAY DORSET (Mungo Jerry)

ACHTERGRONDINFO ** MORE INFORMATION

THE POETRY CAFE London: Fourth Friday of 25 April 2015

FOURTH FRIDAY POETS

Hylda Sims, a poet and a singer in her own right, hosts the ‘Fourth Friday’ poetry readings at The Poetry Cafe, London, bringing together and thoughtfully mixing published poets, poets from the floor and live music in the folk tradition.
On Friday 24 April 2015 the music was performed live by Rattle on the Stovepipe, who play traditional English and Appalachian folk music. The band research  old tunes from a wide variety of sources. On their latest cd, “Old Virginia”, those tunes tell stories about desperate, resisting, fighting, adventurous and exploited characters – be it a man wrongfully condemned to death (‘Coleman’s March’) or a woman dying in childbirth because she cannot afford a doctor (‘Bill Dalton’s Wife’, written by the ultra-red Georgia poet Don West).
The published poets were Mimi Khalvati, Jenny Lewis and Adnan al-Sayegh. Lewis and al-Sayegh share a love for the epic of Gilgamesh. They also translate each other’s work, with surprising and  most lyrical results (Mimi Khalvati will be broadcast later).
We selected the following floor poets: Alfred Todd who compares the present-day Docklands to the docks of his childhood; John-Paul O’Neill who co-hosts the Poetry Cafe’s Tuesdays nights, is co-founder of Farrago poetry; Eddy Bonte of Radio 68. It is with great pleasure that we also broadcast poet-singer extraordinaire Dan Kennedy.

https://jennylewis.org.uk/
http://www.davearthur.net/rattle.html
http://adnanalsayegh.com/eng/
www.eddybonte.be
john-paul o’neill http://london.e-poets.net/about-JPO.shtml

MELANIE: STONEGROUND WORDS

“Having sung the praise of hippie and thus having advocated kindness, love and peace with  both gentle music and most poetic lyrics that spoke to our hearts and souls, Melanie also met the disappointment that so often accompanies those who build a better world. Yet, as Charles Donovan notes in his review of “Stoneground Words” for allmusic.com, Melanie did not get cynical. “Stoneground Words” (1972) was received with indifference, considering Melanie’s star status, but it’s a wonderful album nonetheless. A serious album, maybe a little too serious for the fans of cute and innocent songs like ‘Animal Crackers’.
The main message of this album is this: I was sent down to the nerve, I was made to live on stoneground words, but I’m back and I’ll live on (“Stoneground Words”). For one thing, Melanie clearly tells us that we’re all individuals, each of us being like a dancer that follows his own ‘time’ (“I Am Not a Poet”). Melanie will do with stoneground words if need be. We shouldn’t forget though that she’s also a member of a special race, the rainbow race, a race that will continue because it’s too soon to die. This is a “different race” different from the races  of ostriches that “bury their heads in the sand”, clutch to their “plastic dreams” and can’t keep their “greedy hands” still. The song’s strongest lines are “You can’t kill all the unbelievers” and “there’s no shortcut to freedom” (“The Rainbow Race”).
After all, the album opens with a very clear message: let’s be together alone. All in all, her beliefs in a different, peaceful world seem to be intact: we’re take care of each other, we’re brothers and sisters, let’s be together. But with a but: let’s be together alone, the main word in that phrase still being“together” (“Together Alone”).
Lend your ears to that great album”.
© Eddy Bonte

JAMES J. TURNER: Spirit, Soul and a Handful of Mud 

James J. Turner: Spirit, Soul and a Handful of Mud (Touch the Moon, 2016) www.jamesjturner.com

“James J . Turner is a singer-songwriter with heavy folk influences, as is also underlined by  instruments such as the violin, mandolin and accordion. Or is it the  other way around – a folksinger in the singer-songwriter tradition? Folk that also rocks in places too. It doesn’t matter too much, since Turner treats us to a dozen new self-penned tunes of his very own brand.  Some you can sing along to (“Watching You”, with a chorus reminding me of ‘hey you, the rock-steady crew’…), some you can folk-dance to (“Heart of Gold”) and many meant to sit down and listen to – you can still decide about the singing and dancing afterwards. Sit down and listen, because James J. Turner has a view on life he wants to communicate. He’d be happy if you shared his message and most unhappy if you took it for a manual (I presume, I didn’t ask). A lyricist once asked “What colour is the soul of man?”, but Turner’s questions sounds more like “What is man if not soul and spirit?”. And a little mud to symbolize his earthiness, viz. his inabilities and failures in view of his own promises and hopes. A handful of mud too, because no value can exist without  being put in perspective by its counterpart. The soul and the spirit are not stand-alones, they must detach themselves from something basic – God’s clay, man’s mud.

James J. Turner’s songs are about the soul and the spiritual life as opposed to material and materialistic life – the latter bringing about damage and wreckage rather than happiness and salvation. Turner’s concern regards the good life, more exactly an individual’s good life: we’re all unique and able to choose between good and bad (“Watching You”). He’s on the side of the poor soul  as he is the truthful soul  (“Heart Of Gold”). Turner suggests a strong sense of duty when he states that one may opt for the bad life, but no-one can escape his karma (”Karma Will Track You Down”, half song, half chant).
James J. Turner is concerned with items such as morality, justice and our repressive society, yet he’s not your usual rebel or protest singer-songwriter.  All in all, this about the spiritual life. It’s no surprise to learn then that Turner is an active part of the druid / pagan movement.
This is a very nice record full of real songs. Turner performs them with a powerful and convincing voice and is backed by an accomplished and versatile band”.

© Eddy Bonte www.radio68.be

BONNIE DOBSON & RAY DORSET (aka MUNGO JERRY)
“Bonnie Dobson liet het prachtige ‘Morning Dew’ op de wereld los (1961) en toen dat nummer in de tweede helft  van de jaren zestig talloze keren werd nagezongen (o.a. door The Grateful Dead, Tim Rose, Fred Neil,  Episode Six, en The Jeff Beck Group); was Dobson onder de radar gedoken.
Sinds kort kunnen we gelukkig weer van haar stem en haar liederen genieten” (…)

Mijn recensie van Bonnie Dobson in The Green Note / My review of Bonnie Dobson’s gig at The Green Note:
http://www.keysandchords.com/bonnie-dobson-bull-13-april-2016-bull-the-green-note-londen-gb.html

“Ray Dorset is nooit gestopt met platen maken én liedjes schrijven, zodat we vanavond op enkele totaal nieuwe nummers worden getrakteerd. Twee daarvan verwijzen ondubbelzinnig naar de sfeer en de maatschappelijke context van zijn wereldwijde hit ‘In the Summertime’:  ‘Touch the Sky’ en ‘I’ll be A Hippie Till I Die’, zijn twee odes aan liefde, vrede en vrijheid zoals dat toen werd opgevat” (…)
Mijn recensie van Mungo Jerry in The Spirit of 66 / My review of Mungo Jerry at The Spirit of 66:
http://www.keysandchords.com/all-concert-reports/mungo-jerry-o-9-april-2016-o-the-spirit-of-66-verviershttp://www.keysandchords.com/all-concert-reports/mungo-jerry-o-9-april-2016-o-the-spirit-of-66-verviers