Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
— T. S. Eliot, East Coker

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{ONE} BILLIE’S HOUSE: EASY LIVING?

Billie Holiday’s townhouse came up for sale last year. It wasn’t her townhouse — she had an apartment (#1B) on one of its seven floors — but we’re dealing with estate agents here. That’s one posing by the staircase. “We are privileged to introduce 26 WEST 87, the esteemed home where Jazz legend Billie Holiday once lived. She was a resident until her death in 1959. While living in the apartment, she released one of her most famous albums, Lady in Satin. This historically significant home, adjacent to Central Park and the Reservoir, was built in early 1900 and has been meticulously restored and optimized with modern technology while preserving the classical detailing. The impressive Media Room boasts wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz”. They’re not kidding. Way to go, Len. Recently reduced to $12,250,000 from $13,995,000. A saving of nearly $2 million. What are you waiting for?

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{TWO} TOM’S HOUSE: “As I went out one morning / To breathe the air around Tom Paine’s…”

To Lewes, for Michael Gray’s talk on Bob’s Greatest Rejected Album Tracks accompanied by Mick Gold. As we were driving down, I was recommending to Mick the music documentary Born In Chicago, co-written by Joel Selvin and directed by Bob Sarles and John Anderson, which tells the story of the young white musicians who became fascinated with the blues played on the South Side of Chicago — between the coffee shops and the bars, the young disciples (among them Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Charley Musslewhite and Steve Miller) started mixing with the bluesmen and kickstarted a whole genre of sixties music. Mick then told us about being at the University of Sussex in 1966 and going to a gig by the Butterfield Blues Band at the Town Hall in Lewes with his camera — that’s one of his shots, of Butter, Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, below. Mick then left university and started working as a photographer (he toured with Pink Floyd, Dr Feelgood, and photographed Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, The Band, Reed, Cale and Nico, Elton, The Grateful Dead, Patti Smith… the list goes on) before changing horses in midstream to become a documentary filmmaker. It was my second small road trip with Mick — the first was to Canterbury for dinner with the same Michael Gray. I look forward to the next one.

Michael Gray’s talk was great — full of striking linkages, subtle studies and playful theories, and to hear performances of songs like “Moonshiner”, “Mama You Bin on My Mind”, “Angelina” and “Too Late” played on a really big sound system was wonderful. And special thanks to Michael B for his amazing hospitality (and for Parkrun!)

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{THREE} ELVIS’S PLANE In the desert at Roswell for 40 years, Elvis’s 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar. Sold for $260,000. No engines.

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{FOUR} ELVIS’S TICKET, CIGAR, KEY & HAIR There was more Elvis memorabilia in the latest Julien’s auction. These are my favourites…

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{FIVE} MY COUSIN’S SONS… I’m so thrilled that the family music line continues, and I’m even more thrilled that I really like the music both Brett and Taylor are involved in. My cousins Nickie and Julie emigrated to Canada in the early sixties with my aunt and uncle and grew up in Mississauga, Ontario. With their own families, they moved — Nickie to LA and Julie to Calgary. Nickie and Doug’s son Brett played in the indie scene around Silverlake, I think, and became Best Coast’s tour bass player before moving to Nashville to work there. He is currently playing bass with Caitlin Rose, who visited London after a long hiatus.

The gig we saw at Hackney’s Earth was terrific. Her voice was direct and emotional, her stage manner beguiling, and the band could switch from Harvest-era Neil Young through (almost) straight-ahead Country to ambient American music with ease. The audience reaction was appropriately fervent — they’d waited a long time. There was an unexpected cover: “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody”, a beautiful song that I knew from Bonnie Raitt’s version. Highlights from Caitlin’s own pen were “Getting it Right”, “Blameless”, “Pink Champagne”, “Own Side”, and an acoustic encore of “Sinful Wishing Well”. Brett was also the tour manager and driver, and it’s always sobering to see the amount of hard work and commitment that goes into touring a continent and putting on shows. When we expressed amazement at the distances Brett was driving, all he’d say was that if you lived in Nashville and needed something from Ikea it was a round trip of 200 miles. And that it was no problem.
Julie and David’s son Taylor formed a band at school in Calgary, Braids, and moved to Montreal where Canada’s independent music scene was gestating. We’ve followed them since their first gigs here in 2011 (where we were their London hotel). They’ve also not played here for a while now, and their latest tour saw a string quartet added to their electronica palette. Their London date at Kings Hall was magnificent. The trio — Taylor on synths, bass and who knows what, Austin on drums and vocals, Raphaelle on vocals, keyboards and guitar — layered and tweaked and intensified their sonic textures, creating cathedrals of sound and enveloping their faithful audience, who gave them a riotous response. It’s always fun to reconnect the family after these gigs. I just wish we all lived closer…

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{AND FINALLY} WAINWRIGHT’S WONDER I’ve always been a little immune to the ornate charms of Rufus Wainwright, but I really like his new album, Folkocracy, where he takes the elemental melodies of the folk canon and embellishes them with just enough left turns to remake them as songs that feel part of today’s landscape. I’ve also been resistant to the charms of John Legend, but the version of Peggy Seeger’s “Heading for Home” they duet on is rather marvellous. It starts like a Copeland Western or an Alfred Newman film score before an acoustic trio (Madison Cunningham on guitar, David Piltch on string bass and Patrick Sauber playing banjo) pulls it back into the folk tradition. It plays out beautifully; their voices pepper (Legend) and salt (Wainwright)…

The rest of the album takes in songs by John Phillips and Neil Young (Wainwright was part of Echo in the Canyon, a muddled and unsuccessful documentary about the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters) as well as “traditionals” like “Arthur McBride”, “Wild Mountain Thyme” and “Shenandoah”. Guests include Chaka Khan (beautiful), Van Dyke Parks (Van Dykesy) and various siblings and relatives, and the whole thing is pulled together by Mitchell Froom. Oh, and there’s a fascinating arrangement of a Moondog song, “High on a Rocky Ledge”, where Blake Mills provides a guitar orchestra behind Wainwright’s duet with David Byrne.

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