The stage is well and truly set for them; their sail is up and they’re about to ride the wave of the folk revival so recently (re)set in motion by the likes of Noah And The Whale, Fionn Regan and Mumford And Sons. Originally hailing from the up and coming Norwich music scene, the two-piece are moving on to conquer the Bristol music scene, taking their organic, lo-fi folk with them. It’s as delicate as it is intimate and after bolstering their sound at the fleeting demo recording session with bassists, violinists and keyboardists, their foundations are set for greatness.

The Scottish tinge in vocalist Sam Taylor instantly draws comparisons to Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchinson’s fractured, torn musings – just not as blue. He seems to be constantly baring all in his wordings, wrapping the listener up in his world. When you listen to his words and his music, you soon enough find yourself in a place you never really want to leave.

The pensive Harbour will captivate you by it’s sparse lo-fi feel, sounding as much Frightened Rabbit as you could possibly hope for. The intricate, picked acoustic guitar part soundtracks his murmured lines, beautifully emotive and absolutely meant: “The tilt of your hand/The choice of your words/The gall of your heart that bleeds.” The layered guitars develop alongside the charmingly skewed harmonies, and it endears itself to you with every single listen. And this is just a very, very rough demo – imagine what the pro recordings will sound like.

The equally rough Stay will have you swaying into your pint at any one of their upcoming Bristol and London shows, and no-one will be able to resist joining in on the “La-La-La-La” sections that make this song so very addictive.

Hannah Richardson is the other, equally important, element of Adelaide’s Cape, adding the rickety drums and general percussion that gently nudges things along.  She can also do what every folk band needs – add some gorgeous female harmonies, that is – every so often. That’s not to say Adelaide’s Cape predictable, of course, far from it in fact. And with the duo wanting to experiment with more instruments and musicians over the course of the next year, expect things to grow and grow.

In the run up to Christmas, Adelaide’s Cape play their first shows in Bristol and Bath, as well as a selection of gigs on the lucrative London folk circuit. A Norwich Arts Centre gig sees them return in the New Year to a venue they’ve already sold out once in 2009; a feat many struggle to do, I hasten to add. This, along with the open-armed receptions so many other artists of this style have received over the last two years of folk revival, seems evidence that Adelaide’s Cape are going to be on repeat in your stereo, on your local stage with a sold outaudience, and blissfully stuck in your head soon enough.

Here’s their cover of Mumford and Sons – The Cave 

Light, witty and charming Alex’s 2 Ep’s ‘The Magician’s Assistant’, ‘The Blonde EP’ and her album ‘Fairy Lights and Lairy Nights’  are all available to listen to at www.last.fm/music/Alex+Sheppard along with a free download of ‘Run’.  Quirky lyrics and melodies you can’t help but sing along to make Alex stand out from other artists.  Zane Lowe has declared himself a fan, and after you listen to Alex Sheppard you’ll be declaring yourself one too.

‘He’s and Ungodly Boy’ an up-tempo track makes you want to dance about your bedroom, whilst ‘Run’ is undeniably the most unique track, with an almost yodel like chorus only Alex could write.

‘Feels Real At The Time will have your finger hitting the ‘repeat’ button and ‘I’ll Let my Words Flow Like Water’, has pretty kitsch melodies that send you back to your childhood. ‘BBQ’ brings you back to the present, with Alex singing about good old British summers with punchy outbursts in the chorus.

One to watch out for, as Alex is going to hit the big time with her impressive range of songs. Catch her playing Oxjam festival in Norwich on 25 October @ 12pm

It could only be a bunch of arty Americans who are both daring and stupid enough to play a show on the Saturday night of Britain’s biggest bank holiday, which also happens to every year coincide with two of the biggest events of the festival season – Reading and Leeds. And it’s only Jeffrey Lewis And The Junkyard who, despite all that, have the ability to successfully fill Norwich Arts Centre for an evening of anti-folk goodness.

The evening’s support acts provided an ample warm up for perhaps the most diverse array of Norfolkians to ever gather in the same place. Opening the show was solo singer-songwriter Lucky James Boyce, followed by Tiger MCs. These two local acts fitted strangely well with the New York anti-folk stars headlining – Jack Lewis And The Fishermen 3 and Jeffrey Lewis And The Junkyard.

The Lewis boys’ energetic, exciting and totally unique performance style and musical attitude created a fantastic atmosphere. The mood captured and engaged a group of people utterly mesmerised by the brilliant minds of America’s finest, and despite the notable length of the show, there wasn’t one point where there wasn’t a smile on my face simply for the quality of the performances.

Kitsch touches like the Lewis brothers painting the 7″ vinyl covers at the merchandise stand added to the overall effect of the show. Photo opportunities and chats with fans also made for an extra happy audience who were totally hooked in.

Jeffrey Lewis truly is a creative genius, and this one of the best shows I’ve been to in a long time. Jeffrey Lewis And The Junkyard are a fantastic band and superb performers – make sure you take some time out from the mundane activities of everyday life to check these guys out when they next play near you!

As a music journalist, I find myself going to a lot of different gigs – anything from live music nights at small pubs to the arena gigs of international stars. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been to two folk gigs in London, and at both I noticed something quite remarkable.

The gigs in question were Stars Of Sunday League’s EP Launch Party at London’s brilliant Luminaire venue and a gig titled Laura Marling and Friends that took place at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. Both were brilliant, but they operated very differently to what has become the expected structure for live music in the twenty-first century.

Rather than having support bands come on for twenty minutes or half an hour followed by the headlining star, both gigs operated as what I would describe at the highest quality open mic nights I’ve ever been to. More professional and rehearsed than most open mic nights, of course, but nevertheless, the structures were unique.

Stars Of Sunday League were joined by a myriad of friends, including Broadcast 2000, Little Words (featuring Jeremy Warmsley), Planet Earth, Younghusband, Sempahore, Olly The Octopus and I Said Yes, and each performed a song each before passing the microphone over to frontman Euan, who introduced the next act. Each artist was asked to play because they are friends with Stars Of Sunday League. It made for a great evening, mainly because if you didn’t like a band (though I must say, this wasn’t a problem), you only had to listen to one song. If you did like the band, you’re quite likely to go ahead and see them or listen to them next time round.

Laura Marling’s friends for the evening were Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Andrew Bird, Peggy Sue, Ethan Johns, Pete Roe, Alessi’s Ark and Sons of Noel & Adrian. Laura appeared on and off throughout the night, playing songs with some of the bands and introducing each one. The sell-out crowd couldn’t be anything but impressed with the high calibre of her musical friends, and the big finale of her song ‘Crawled Out Of The Sea’ featured all of the artists that had performed.

I realise that the ‘traditional’ ideas of folk have fallen away now to some extent – the emergence and popularity of artists like Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Johnny Flynn and Noah And The Whale has pointed towards a new indie-folk hybrid genre – but it has really struck me over the last couple of weeks that one element of traditional folk remains. The element I’m talking about is a sense of community and friendship.

Traditional folk music was and is all about this. It’s a form of art that’s always been shared between families and friends, with them working together and enjoying the music. To see that these modern folk artists are pioneering a change in the British live music scene is fantastic – their shows have an amazing community feel, and to know that the headliner is personally in awe of those supporting them musically makes the listener much more likely to pay attention.

I’m not sure whether we’ll see other genres or international mainstream pop artists following suit, but I do hope we’ll see more folk and indie artists stretching the boundaries of live performance over the coming months. It would be lovely to see a larger fresh take on the idea of live music.

At only ten songs, the album is a slice of musical mastery, and showcases many of the genres that have influenced Dylan’s long career. For example, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”, “Jolene” and “If You Ever Go To Houston” have a low-down bluesy feel to them, while “Shake Shake Mama” and “It’s All Good” are infused with more jazz.

Dylan goes on to channel the grisly, sultry spirit of Tom Waits on the mellow tracks like “Life Is Hard” and “My Wife’s Hometown” and is at his most soulful on “Forgetful Heart” and “This Dream Of You”.

If you give the record a second or third spin (which it definitely deserves), you’ll soon start to notice just how intricate Dylan makes his music, and you’ll start to pick up and appreciate the stories within every tune. This is what makes him an everlasting stalwart of the American music industry and what makes the songs so interesting every time you listen to them.

Rolling Stone claimed that this album, along with 2006’s “Modern Times” and 2001’s “Love And Theft”, made up a late-career comeback trifecta that few artists have ever achieved, but I believe the twanging guitar and grisly emotion on this record rise above Dylan’s other recent work. It’s the first of his albums that I’ve enjoyed because I really believe it’s good, and not because pop culture dictated it to be so, and it’s the first of his albums I class as a “must listen”. Get it now!

Image by swanksalot via Flickr

The poems straightforward structure combined with its question-and-answer format, which Dylan is said to have borrowed from the traditional “Lord Randall” ballad, allows the reader to immediately focus on the words of the poem and their meaning, without being distracted by complex syntax. The quizzical openings of the song’s verses present themselves as though Dylan is speaking to a child who is returning from the future to speak of what he has seen. This “darling young one” is questioned by Dylan on where he has been and what he has experienced. Each stanza’s theme – be it what the “blue eyed son” saw or what he heard, paints a post apocalyptic picture of Dylan’s vision of the future. These “disconnected, enigmatic” images are layered on top of one another throughout the song culminating in a refrain at the end of each stanza with the child’s (and Dylan’s) warning cry of “And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.”

The progression of pace within the poem helps highlight the tone of Dylan’s words – the tetrameter rhythm builds up in each verse before slowing for the final repetition of the song’s title in the refrain. Dylan’s claim that “every line…is the start of a new song” helps to explain the repetitive nature of each verse that creates a feeling of helplessness. The images that are shaped within the song give a feeling of an all-encompassing destruction and a dire lack of control as they touch upon so many aspects of this future world. From the literal “misty mountains,” “sad forests” and “dead oceans” to the figurative “highway of diamonds” and “hammers a-bleedin’” Dylan presents the affect of a world filled with desperation, a vision that Mike Marqusee calls panoptic.

As a song it is the rhythm and pace of the verses that emit a feeling of foreboding and despair. However, analysing the lyrics in their poetic form sheds new light on Dylan’s prediction heightening the intensity of the scene which he is painting. Though Betsy Bowden claims that poetic devices “look overdone on paper” I believe it is precisely this which allows “A Hard Rain”s A-Gonna Fall” to stand as an outstanding piece of poetry in its own right. Bob Dylan does not claim that the song is not a poem; furthermore stating that “anything I can sing I call a song” – defying the song to be confined by a classification of form.

The language used by Dylan creates striking and poignant imagery and, as Nicole Lemieux comments, is “relentless in its imagery of the chaotic aftermath of an apocalyptic scale disaster”. Dylan begins the song with a stanza of simple images that are given emphasis by the use of alliteration – such as “misty mountains” and “dozen dead” , as well personifying the forests and graveyard. From these literal images of nature Dylan progresses to demonstrating the metaphorical affects. Lines such as “a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it” juxtapose innocence and purity with ruthlessness and fear, a theme which is reinforced a few lines later with the image of weapons “in the hands of young children”. By using words like “hammers”, “swords” and “drummers” Dylan evokes many war-like images,a theme consistent with the idea that the poems is portraying a post-war world. However, the lyrics do not merely refer to the state of the world, but also to the people.

In perhaps the most moving lines in the poem Dylan speaks of “ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’”, hearing “one person starve (and) many people laughin’.” Filled with pathos these two lines echo Dylan’s sentiment about the state of the world after a crisis. However, these lines could also be applied to the world at the time the song was written (that of America in 99), as well as to the world today. It is this which exemplifies the ambiguity of the song that Dylan stated was “trying to capture the feeling of nothingness”. Moreover Dylan denies claims that the song was written specifically about nuclear fall out, quelling beliefs that the rain in the title was a euphemism for acid rain.

Themes of despair, destruction and hopelessness are woven into the song by the accumulation of images that present a world tainted by war and fear. Dylan describes it as “a song of terror” and there is a strong feeling of urgency throughout which makes the reader stop and consider the state of the world at the time as well as reflecting on the state of the world today. Though he claims that “there’s no great message” “A Hard Rain”s A-Gonna Fall’ is undoubtedly related to the apprehension that the public was feeling at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and the lyrics work together to paint a solemn image of a future world. The “blue eyed son” narrates Dylan’s vision and injects a sense of “poetic foreboding” into the reader. Dylan uses the medium of an ambiguous narrator to predict a negative image of the world, whose children are tainted and people ignorant and blind to atrocities being committed elsewhere.

The surrealist approach Dylan uses in his lyrics both shock and move his audience to compare the world where the “darling young one” has returned from to the one in which they live. Though filled with negativity the song is ultimately letting out a warning, just like the thunder in the poem. The incremental repetition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” may be interpreted as a warning to the government and to the people of America, stating that the metaphorical rain will fall if things carry on the way they are. This implied warning combines with the song’s form – which both gives weight to the imagery as well as creating a feeling helplessness, to encapsulate the feelings of the nation in the face of terror making the song as relevant today as it ever has been.

I read her bio and it says that when she put her song “Bubbly” up on her profile page she literally began to have millions of hits. From this extraordinary phenomenon record labels started to come after her! It just goes to prove that dreams are truly possible and if something is good, nothing can deny it.

I first heard her angelic, refreshing, beautiful voice on VH1. Her music video for “Bubbly” reflected images of a natural, pure love that no doubt touches every heart that has ever been in true love.

Then I took the time to look her up on MySpace and was pleased to find that I love several of her songs. Two of my favorite ones are “The Little Things” and “Magic piano version”.

Like her music, she has a very natural look. She reminds me of the girl next door and in appearance resembles a cross between Jessica Biel and Jennifer Aniston.

I hope you love her music as much as I do!

And, one day, I will be writing my own music. Her genre and style has greatly inspired me to purchase and learn the guitar. It is something I have always been drawn to myself!

Best wishes to all!

For more articles by Liane Schmidt:

• The Key to Success
• The Importance of Humility
• Seven Low Cost Dating Ideas
• Make Everything You Publish Count
• B12 Shots: The Newest Energy Booster
• Answers to My Triond Success and Income
• It’s Important to Take Care of Your Thoughts
• Believe Cheer and Always be Your Best Friend 
• Reflect, Trust Your Instincts and Multiply Your Blessings
• One Incredibly Amazing Website: Give 1.7K to the Charity of Your Choice for Free

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