Bob Dylan's  "She Belongs To Me" with Howard Gladstone on vocal, and Bob Cohen on all guitars.  On the occasion of Mr. Dylan's 80th birthday.

She Belongs To Me - Howard Gladstone W:Bob Cohen (2021) MP3

“Building A Fence” opens the album (Concord Sessions).  This is a seemingly light and upbeat blues tune about “building a fence from Mexico to Hong Kong”, and with a note of warning in the chorus – “rider soon at your gate, and your city will burn”.  The themes of walls, privilege, separation, and impending crisis are introduced.  These ideas are touched on throughout, sometimes just below the surface like an underground river.  
On the downbeat of “Building A Fence” you hear George Koller on upright bass on the left channel, Tony Quarrington on acoustic guitar on the right channel, and Bob Scott on drums in the middle and spread to both sides.  After the band does an instrumental verse, my vocal and guitar enters in the centre.  This instrumental placement remains constant and provides a very wide and open soundstage.

Concord Sessions

Building A Fence

Building A Fence - Howard Gladstone (HiRes 44.1k/24bit)

From the album "The Breathe in the Wind" by Howard Gladstone     www.howardgladstone.com

 

Tear Down These Walls In God's Garden - Howard Gladstone

TORONTO – Contemporary roots-folk singer-songwriter Howard Gladstone is officially releasing his eighth album Crazy Talk (Sonic Peach Music) on Friday, September 20, 2024.  The twelve new songs cover genres from folk to jazz to folk/rock to world music. 

"Show A Little Love (For Free/Part Two)" is a gentle, jazzy song, featuring a mellow but compelling tenor sax solo from Jacob Gorzhaltsan, that asks for some mercy in the streaming era – when it's harder than ever for musicians to earn a living. it includes some lyrical references to Joni Mitchell's "For Free" and Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song."

 

"Crazy Talk," the title track is a lighthearted shuffle that pays lyrical homage to Patsy Cline, The Beatles, and Robbie Robertson. The song features delightful backing vocals from JAZZ-FM radio host and musician Laura Fernandez; a mellow bass solo from Bob Cohen; and a sprightly electric guitar solo from the great Tony Quarrington – who co-wrote the song (and four others on the album), and also produced the LP.

 

The apocolyptic warning of "Rider At the Gate" seems especially fitting with the planet in such a current state of chaos, division, and self-destruction. Set against minor-key flamenco chords, the guitar of Quarrington (who also co-wrote this song) blooms in the spaces between them.

 

"Chasm of Divide" takes a hard look at the division poisoning our world on so many levels, but does offer a ray of hope that we might learn to disagree with civility once again. The song features two excellent, engaging sax solos and Fernandez's haunting vocals in the fadeout.

 

The bittersweet, sentimental waltz "Sea of Sorrow" deploys a string quartet to emphasize the lyrical point that "we were born to endure" heartbreak and pain. Shelley Coopersmith's violin improvisations lift the song above and beyond.

 

"Little Bird" – originally written for a children's music project – is a sweet, gentle anthem in a vaguely Latin vein. Gorzhaltsan's inspiring flute floats, bird-like, over everything, and gorgeous harmonies from Fernandez wing their way through the song.

 

The quirky Viennese waltz "Inheritance of Junk" finds an inebriated clarinet and an equally drunken accordion dancing around the idea of how we're supposed to handle all the physical and psychological junk we inherit in this world. Lyrically, Gladstone aims for Leonard Cohen territory on this one.

 

"Oh, The Waters" is a psalm, a prayer, an anthem, and a plea to save and protect the oceans, lakes, rivers, streams that are essential for our survival on the planet. Ed Roth's accordion is quietly captivating.

 

"Irish Rain" – co-written by Quarrington – is a jolly, frolicking narrative of love – in Dublin, on Bloomsday, in the rain. Noting an influence  of the Clancy Brothers, it gets the full session treatment, with flute, fiddle, banjo, accordion, bodhran, woodblock, and boisterous harmonies.

 

"The Man Who Ran" is an answer song to the murder ballad "Long Black Veil," told from the perspective of the murderer who ran from the scene of the crime. "Veil," written by Lefty Frizell in 1959, is most associated with The Band – and appropriately, the musicians here echo their sound, right down to the Robbie Robertson-style guitar solo and fills. This one is also co-written by Quarrington.

 

The offbeat, bouncy little space-age number "Bodies in Motion" features two saxes, synthesizer, and theremin from Roth, and reflects on the quantum uncertainty of human relationships. Non sequiturs and puns abound.

 

Written in the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, "That's How It Goes" is a dark, mournful piece that hopes for the fall of the masters who bring misery and pain to so many innocents. George Crotty's cello solo is brief but sad and disturbing.

04 Chasm Of Divide

05 Sea Of Sorrow

06 Little Bird

07 Inheritance Of Junk

08 Oh The Waters

09 Irish Rain

10 The Man Who Ran

11 Bodies In Motion

12 That's How It Goes

01 Show A Little Love

www.howardgladstone.com

Howard Gladstone – singer & songwriter, penning ditties, tunes, and ballads topical, personal, historical, lyrical or humorous – discover the music of Howard Gladstone.

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