Tag Archives: folk music

The Great Park – Stitch | Music Review

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Let’s clear one thing up – The Great Park is a man not a band. He’s called Stephen Burch and he’s an Englishman living in the musical hotbed of Berlin, the place where David Bowie and Iggy Pop once shared a flat. There’s some great folk music coming out of Berlin right now courtesy of Woodland Recordings but none great than The Great Park.

Despite being British he doesn’t really play a huge amount in The UK. His 150-ish concerts in the last few years have mostly been in Continental Europe although he has been involved with the excellent Brighton-based label Bleeding heart recordings.

‘Stitch’ is a beast of a record at 31 songs long, spanning two discs. The 1st disc is of songs from his last few records and the 2nd is of live recordings from his various journeys. It’s good of Burch to take us on a physical journey through the live record as he takes us on an emotional one with him in his music. It’s an emotional journey that paints a vivid picture of a man with exposed, open wounds. Burch is clearly a man with the lyrically-introspective nature of Tom Williams. Perhaps also cut from the same anti-folk cloth too, although I’d imagine he’d want less of the anti.

The songs on the record are intimate, they’re at times melancholic and difficult to listen to but something about it draws you in so Burch can paint his bleak picture and on repeated listening he reveals new lyrical nuances, a bit like Forrest Gump does. Whoever coined the term “Problem Folk” for him deserves a medal – I can do no better myself. It’s not without hope though. My only hope is he continues to make records for a long time to come. Buy. This. Record. NOW!

 

‘Stitch’ is out now via Bandcamp

 

Links:

http://www.woodlandrecordings.com/

http://www.woodlandrecordings.com/thegreatpark.htm 

www.bleedingheartrecordings.com

http://thegreatpark.bandcamp.com/album/stitch

 

 

Ochs For Folks

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Phil Ochs was a singer / songwriter in the 60s categorized as `folk’ or ‘protest’ – a contemporary and friend of Bob Dylan.

He was a most prolific writer of protest and topical songs in the 60s and put out seven albums, but his work diminished in the 70s and he sadly took his own life in 1976.

A new film has been released in the States, ‘There But For Fortune’, using mainly rare footage of Ochs. And if there was any justice, it would be made compulsory in schools and universities because this man truly believed that the power of song could change the world. He must certainly have had something, as years after his death, it came to light that the FBI had a file of no less than 500 pages on him.

Many new songwriters are discovering Ochs and his songs are as relevant today as they were then. There are hundreds of mailing lists and discussion groups dedicated to Phil and his music, and in February 2009, Phil was awarded a lifetime achievement award. Check the film out here: http://www.philochsthemovie.com/index.html.

“I’ve read of other countries where the students take a stand, they’ve even helped to overthrow the leaders of the land,” sang Ochs in “I’m Gonna Say It Now” in 1965, and the anthem of the 1960s can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5pgrKSwFJE.

You will find many parallels with this new century and the times of Phil Ochs. It just makes you wonder what he’d have made of these times and why we cannot produce anyone now with this much beauty, passion, talent and intellect in popular culture.