Friday Photo #54

 

With Mum's side of the family, I'm fortunate to have a well documented photographic trail to follow back through time, as far as the early years of the 20th century - Dad's much less so. Dad was one of seven children, but there are no photos of any of them in the family archive prior to their respective marriages in the 1950s. In my whole life I've only ever seen one photo of my paternal Grandfather, a man who was born in 1889 and passed away three months after I was born in 1960. From what I can gather he didn't attend the wedding ceremonies of any of his offspring, or if he did, he excused himself from the group photos, most of which I have copies of. There are precious few surviving images of my paternal Grandmother, Alice (1890-1967) and all of those were taken by my Dad in her later years. This is Alice in 1964. I have faint memories of her formidable presence at family gatherings, which was in stark contrast to the frailty of my maternal Grandmother.

Green on Red - Alice

Catching Up with Micah and Dan

I'm in the middle of a little flurry of gigs at the moment. Last week, I finally caught up with Micah P.Hinson, 10 years after his brilliant debut 'The Gospel of Progress'. In 2010, I thought I'd lost any chance of ever seeing Hinson in concert after he was involved in an horrific traffic accident. At the time, doctors doubted he would ever regain the use of his arms, but there he was, alone on stage, accompanying himself on guitar. On the night, he battled with uncooperative technology and his own frailty, but when he lent into the mic and allowed that sonorous voice to flow, time stood still.

Here's a version of 'She Don't Own Me' recorded in Italy shortly before his accident.




Last night, I returned to the same venue for erstwhile Green on Red frontman, Dan Stuart. I don't remember exactly how many times I saw his band in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it must be in the region of 20. Dan effectively disappeared from view in the mid-1990s, re- emerging sporadically since 2005, but this is the first time I've caught him live since those halcyon days. He was aided and abetted throughout his set by the formidable guitar accompaniment of Antonio Gramentieri and the wave of affection rolling from the audience to the stage must surely have been palpable to both men. Stuart was as sharp and witty as always and the two of them played a wonderful show. As they left the stage I looked around the audience - we were an emotional bunch.

After the show, as I walked through the dark streets towards the car park, I unexpectedly bumped into Dan and Antonio loading their guitars into a hire car. I just about held it together as I shook their hands and thanked them. Dan seemed genuinely moved that I'd travelled just to see him and was gobsmacked when I told him that I used to do 140 mile round trips to see Green on Red in London. He then apologised to me for forgetting the words to one of his songs that evening! What a guy.

Here's audience footage of Green on Red's classic 'Time Ain't Nothing' from Dan & Antonio's London show last week.