Gentle Men | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Roy Bailey, Vera Coomans, Robb Johnson, Koen De Cauter and the Golden Serenaders | ||||
Released | 1997 | |||
Recorded | 27–29 August 1997 | |||
Genre | Folk | |||
Length | tbc | |||
Label | Irregular Records | |||
Producer | Piet Chielens | |||
Roy Bailey chronology | ||||
| ||||
Robb Johnson chronology | ||||
|
Gentle Men is an album released in 1997 by English folk singers Roy Bailey and Robb Johnson in collaboration with Belgian singer Vera Coomans and Belgian jazz band Koen De Cauter and the Golden Serenaders. The album takes the form of a song cycle inspired by the experiences of Johnson's grandfathers during the First World War, and was released as part of the Vredesconcerten Passendale (Paschendale Peace Concerts) series.
Johnson based the songs on the album around the experiences of his two grandfathers at the Ypres Salient in 1917 and used official histories and family memories in his research. [1] [2] According to the album's sleevenotes, Johnson's paternal grandfather, Ernest Isaac Johnson, was an apprentice glassblower and amateur musician, who served as a bandsman in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1915 until the conclusion of the war in 1918. His maternal grandfather, Henry Robert Jenner, enlisted despite being underage and served with the Post Office Rifles. When his true age was discovered, he was allocated duties away from the frontline, but was eventually sent back to the trenches. Despite being affected by a mustard gas attack, he also survived the war.
According to the sleevenotes, Bailey, Johnson and Coomans all contribute lead vocals, and Johnson also plays guitar and whistle. Koen De Cauter plays saxophone, guitar and clarinet, and the Golden Serenaders band also includes Hendrik Braeckman on guitar, Dajo De Cauter on double bass, Myrdhin De Cauter on clarinet, Jan De Coninck on trumpet, Philip Hoessen on accordion and Willy Seeuws on drums. Piet Chielens produced the album, which was recorded and mixed by Rudy Dekeyzer. All songs were written by Johnson and arranged by De Cauter and his band.
Folk music magazine The Living Tradition described the songs as "emotive, thought provoking and carry[ing] great depth and weight." [3] Allmusic described the songs as "moving" and stated that it was one of the best albums of Johnson's career. [4] Mojo named the album Folk Album of the Month, and The Daily Telegraph chose it as Folk Album of the Year. [5]
# | Title | Vocalist | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Grandfathers | Johnson | 2:35 |
2 | A Gentleman Always Wants Horses | Bailey | 4:35 |
3 | Three Brothers | Bailey | 3:48 |
4 | And Then the Trumpet Sounded | Coomans | 2:46 |
5 | Deeper Than Dugouts | Coomans | 3:57 |
6 | R.S.M. Schofield Is My Shepherd | Bailey | 3:38 |
7 | I Played for Kitchener | Johnson | 2:23 |
8 | At the Mercy of the Guns | Bailey | 2:52 |
9 | A Garden | Coomans | 3:08 |
10 | Bloody Medals | Bailey | 3:48 |
11 | Soldier On | Bailey | 2:40 |
12 | Empty Chair | Coomans | 2:56 |
# | Title | Vocalist | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Noni and His Golden Serenaders | Johnson | 4:10 |
2 | The Boy of My Dreams | Coomans | 2:32 |
3 | When Harry Took Me to See Ypres | Coomans | 3:56 |
4 | Sweet Dreams | Bailey | 3:29 |
5 | The Silence of the Salient | Johnson | 4:31 |
6 | Whistle | Bailey | 3:18 |
7 | The Music from Between the Wars | Bailey | 4:57 |
8 | Nobody's Enemy | Johnson | 4:17 |
9 | The German Exchange | Johnson | 3:14 |
10 | Hindsight | Bailey | 1:58 |
11 | Dead Man's Pennies | Coomans | 4:13 |
12 | Candles in the Rain | Johnson | 2:55 |
13 | Making the Gardens Grow | Johnson | 3:51 |
In 2000 Johnson performed the songs from the album at a Remembrance Day concert in Worcester with a band which included Russell Churney. [2] He also re-recorded the song "When Harry Took Me To See Ypres", providing the lead vocals himself, on his 2005 album A Beginner's Guide.
Country rock is a subgenre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars. Country rock began with artists like Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, The International Submarine Band and others, reaching its greatest popularity in the 1970s with artists such as Emmylou Harris, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Nesmith, Poco, Charlie Daniels Band, and Pure Prairie League. Country rock also influenced artists in other genres, including the Band, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Rolling Stones, and George Harrison's solo work, as well as playing a part in the development of Southern rock.
The music of North Macedonia refers to all forms of music associated with North Macedonia. It share similarities with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, yet it remains overall distinctive in its rhythm and sound.
Alfred Reed was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor, performing in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Clouseau is a Belgian pop group, having success in Belgium and the Netherlands since being established in the late 1980s. Apart from a brush with English material in the early 1990s they perform in Dutch. Their biggest hits are "Daar gaat ze" and "Passie".
Elmer Chester Snowden was an American banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and launched the careers of many top musicians.
Richard Peter Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.
Robb Jenner Johnson is a British musician and songwriter, who has been called "one of the last genuinely political songwriters", and is known for his mix of political satire and wit. He has his own record label, Irregular Records, and has released more than 40 albums since 1985, either solo or in several collaborations.
"My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain "Ah, but I was so much older then/I'm younger than that now"—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan's earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960s' folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. Although Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1988.
De Werf was an arts center and jazz record label (W.E.R.F.) in Bruges, Belgium. In 2002, the label released an eleven-CD box set titled The Finest of Belgian Jazz, with music by Greetings from Mercury, Aka Moon, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, and Kris Defoort. Rik Bevernage, De Werf's main collaborator, received an award at the 2002 Golden Django ceremony.
Oysterband is a British folk rock and folk punk band formed in Canterbury around 1976.
Brainticket is an experimental European krautrock band most active in the early 1970s, and known for its use of exotic instruments and jazz-inspired compositions. The only constant member was Belgian musician Joel Vandroogenbroeck until his death in 2019. The band continued to perform concerts and release albums in the 2000s.
H. P. Lovecraft was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967 and named after the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Much of the band's music was possessed of a haunting, eerie ambience, and consisted of material that was inspired by the macabre writings of the author whose name they had adopted. Combining elements of psychedelia and folk rock, the band's sound was marked by the striking vocal harmonies of ex-folk singer George Edwards and the classically trained Dave Michaels. In addition, Michaels' multi-instrumentalist abilities on organ, piano, harpsichord, clarinet and recorder provided the band with a richer sonic palette than many of their contemporaries.
Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux is a collaborative live album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and conductor Quincy Jones. It was recorded at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival and released by Warner Bros. Records in 1993.
Victor Legley was a Belgian violist and composer of classical music, of French birth. He first studied in Ypres with Lionel Blomme (1897–1984). In 1935 he matriculated at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, and there won awards in the study of viola, fugue, counterpoint and chamber music.
Alan Shulman was an American composer and cellist. He wrote a considerable amount of symphonic music, chamber music, and jazz music. Trumpeter Eddie Bailey said, "Alan had the greatest ear of any musician I ever came across. He had better than perfect pitch. I've simply never met anyone like him." Some of his more well known works include his 1940 Neo-Classical Theme and Variations for Viola and Piano and his A Laurentian Overture, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1952 under the baton of Guido Cantelli. Also of note is his 1948 Concerto for Cello and Orchestra which was also premiered by the New York Philharmonic with cellist Leonard Rose and conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos. Many of Shulman's works have been recorded, and the violinist Jascha Heifetz and jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw have been particular exponents of his work both in performance and on recordings.
Fapy Lafertin is one of the foremost contemporary exponents of the Belgian-Dutch style of gypsy jazz.
Oh Little Fire is the fifth album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer, released in 2010. It is her first album of new material since 2005's Polaris Music Prize-nominated I'm a Mountain. The album debuted at #7 on the Canadian Albums Chart and #24 on the US Heatseekers Chart.
Aleksandra Kwasniewska is a Polish folk-pop singer. Since 2005 she has lived and worked in London. She recorded and released her debut album Island Girl with the band "The Belgian Sweets" in 2008. Kwasniewska released her second album, The Sky is on Fire, in 2012.
H. P. Lovecraft is the debut album by the American psychedelic rock band H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in October 1967 by Philips Records.
"The Unfaithful Servant" or "Unfaithful Servant" is a song written by Robbie Robertson that was first released by The Band on their 1969 album The Band. It was also released as the B-side of the group's "Rag Mama Rag" single. It has also appeared on several of the Band's live and compilation albums.
World Music: The Rough Guide. 1999.