hissyfit: Toronto Tim Says: Paul Buchanan: Saturday Night/Happiness/Wish Me Well/New York Man/Garden of Love

Sunday, 13 November 2011

Toronto Tim Says: Paul Buchanan: Saturday Night/Happiness/Wish Me Well/New York Man/Garden of Love

My good (email) mate Tim Patrick (pictured here with his lovely Myrna) wrote from 'friggin freezing Toronto'. This was his response to one of the PB posts and I've tried to source everything he raved about.The only thing that I couldn't find was 'O Lolita'. Heads up anyone? This is also the first in a series 'Toronto Tim Says' that he doesn't yet know he's committed to. He may well resist but I think not; Tim is a generous soul with excellent taste and I'll throw these pages open to him once every four weeks or so for a timely trawl through his cultural month. He's put me on to much good stuff; I'm currently reading 'Carver's Country' a fabulous pictorial biog of Raymond Carver that landed in my post box (along with a few of his beloved and well chosen CDs) direct from Toronto Tim.
The internet can be a consumptive pain put it can also bring some good folk into your life...

Trev

"There really is a lot of great Blue Nile stuff on YouTube... I can't believe these guys suffered from stage-fright early on. There are 2 stunning in-concert HD videos posted by 'sayireland'... "Saturday Night" and "Happiness" (my favorite BN songs) that give me the chills. This is SOUL music!

Also, I'm not a big fan of Aqualung, but there is an gorgeous, haunting piece that Paul Buchanan sings on called "Garden Of Love" that blows me away. Strange and beautiful collaboration!

As well, there are 3 lovely songs from the hard to find "Happiness"(single) posted... "Wish Me Well", "O Lolita", and "New York Man" which I wish they had included on "Peace At Last".

Tim (in frigging freezing Toronto)"

5 comments:

Anonymous13 November 2011 at 07:39
Blimey! This is a surprise! I don't know if I'm worthy, but as long as you're the pilot Trev, I'll be pleased to contribute by being the chimp handing out peanuts to the passengers now and then...

Thanks for posting the BN videos... they're pretty special to us. I don't know why you couldn't locate "O Lolita". Try "Lolita MrSherco12". Myrna has one of those slick Apple computers and I've noticed that searches aren't as extensive on it as my beloved ancient PC. For example, for the HD version of "Happiness" I had to type in "Blue Nile Happiness sayireland" in the search box.

I was curious about your thoughts of "Garden Of Love"? Unusual song structure... Matt Hales sets it up, and Paul Buchanan launches it into orbit. A real grower for me!

I can't get enough of the concert videos... Regardless of the quality, there is magic there. I just watched "Family Life"... where are the tissues? I'm envious of you folk who have had a chance to see them live!

Lastly, I've gotta ask... favorite Blue Nile song(s) Trev?

Toronto Tim
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Hissyfit13 November 2011 at 09:25
Family Life, Saturday Night and Toledo at the moment; always changes.
I saw the Family Life clip on the Cathedrals of Sound site tagged in my profile. Great site...
Funny as I had Garden of Love ready to go as a future clip. Agree that there's something with Aqualung that doesn't quite click with me, although you do get the odd nugget. This one is a beauty.
Thanks for taking the offer/challenge on the chin; I hoped you would.
We can email and I'll set up links etc as oft as you like.
I hope it could be monthly, pick a date ('Tim the 10th') and we'll make it fly.
Speak soon,
Trev
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Anonymous13 November 2011 at 10:31
well that gave me somethign to do sunday morning - just posted o lolita up on the blog

where to start with blu nile fav
family life , regret , stay , she saw the world ..oh I give up
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Hissyfit13 November 2011 at 12:31
She Saw the World on the iPod as I read you message; weird...
'Regret' in it's own file as the only 'The' Blue Nile song...
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Hissyfit13 November 2011 at 19:14
Ok, just listened to Garden of Love again.
Beautiful.
There is a difference in vocal intensity which might suggest why I like Aqualung but love PB.
Ultimately it's about presence and, with the greatest respect to Matt, he is overshadowed by PB here. I hate to compare; it isn't a competition, but it's an interesting microcosm of sound & song.
You instinctively know what you love,,,,
Family Life just back on the iPod unheralded; this is getting weird.
"wipe the tear from her face and the sound of his voice..."
Agree that you cannot beat a sad song.
Why?
Discuss...
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‘Jones’ is Trevor Jones; principle songwriter with the critically acclaimed duo Miracle Mile, where he works alongside collaborator, arranger and musical partner Marcus Cliffe. Together they have produced nine albums, the latest of which was 2012’s ‘In Cassidy’s Care’, rated ‘Album of the Month’ by HiFi News, with respected journalist Johnny Black noting that Miracle Mile were “far and away the most unfairly unsung musical wizards ever to emerge from this sceptered isle. Big on memorable tunes wrapped around honest-to-goodness emotionally involving lyrics.”

Trevor Jones has also previously produced four solo albums: ‘Hopeland’ (2009), ‘Keepers’, (2010), ‘To the Bone’ (2014) and ‘Happy Blue’ (2016). Co-produced again with Marcus Cliffe, ‘Carver’s Law is another triumph of intimacy.
Previous critical acclaim for Trevor Jones:

“Gorgeous, as ever. Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; gently beautiful and genuinely moving. You may cry.” The Sunday Times

“Masterpieces of subtlety and observation clothed in sumptuous, lush melodies.” R2

“Jones is in a class of one. Near-perfect explorations of the human heart. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me.” Americana UK

“Achingly tender.” Folk Radio UK

“Intellectually as well as emotionally engaging.” MOJO

"Meticulously orchestrated, careful and complex, this is canny songwriting leavened by bona fide humanity." Q

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.” Maverick

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard.” Uncut

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised. Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving” The Times

Miracle Mile: A User's Guide by Johnny Black

Despite being based in a home studio in a rural backwater on the outskirts of West London, Miracle Mile chose to name themselves after a fictional gold rush main street half a world away where, according to adventure yarn spinner Jack London, ragged 49ers would blow their hard-won nuggets on booze and broads.
They apply a similarly unorthodox approach to their career in general. The band’s core duo of singer/guitarist Trevor Jones and multi-instrumentalist/arranger Marcus Cliffe have been relentless in their pursuit of the perfect song. Not the fastest, the gnarliest or the loudest, not even the most instantly commercial, but the song whose melody, lyrics, arrangement, performance and spirit might stand the test of time, giving pleasure to listeners not just for years but centuries.
They’d be the first to admit they haven’t yet found that perfect song and maybe never will, but I’d argue that their albums — the documentary evidence of that search — deserve a place alongside the best work of time-tested tunesmiths as elevated as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello or Tom Waits.

Marcus Cliffe wasn’t yet on board when the first album, Bicycle Thieves, arrived in 1997 but already it was evident that frontman Jones didn’t fit in with the prevailing mode. There was no rage, bitterness or self-loathing in his songs and nothing at all turned up to eleven. Instead, he offered meticulously orchestrated slices of ordinary human life, transforming the mundane into the marvellous with carefully crafted lyrics sincerely delivered. Even here, though, the hypnotic sample-based "Recycletwo" revealed a willingness to experiment that marked Jones out as more than just a pop craftsman in the vein of Crowded House or Aztec Camera.

What had started essentially as a recording project had become a five-piece live band by the time the follow-up, Candids, was released in 1998. Loaded with nagging guitar hooks and dynamic vocal interplay, it included one particularly affecting piece, "Small Ad," which featured just one line of lyric, the heart-rending couplet, "Baby’s shoes, never used." With those four words, Jones conjured up a yawning abyss of grief that other writers might struggle to evoke in an entire album.

Jones quickly realised that live performance was not his forte and retired to the womb of the studio for 1999’s third album, Slow Fade, which also saw the birth of the partnership that would lift Miracle Mile higher still above the norm. Marcus Cliffe, in demand as a player for Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Mark Knopfler and others, was drafted in on upright bass.
Immediately the music took a more intimate turn, with Jones exploring the little things that illuminate the big things. Almost every song offers up at least one unforgettable line, like "I'd rather be ashes than dust" in "Everybody Loved You," or the concept of filling the void left by his loss of faith "with despair and metalware" in "Starwatching."
Slow Fade was further enhanced by the delicately filigreed swirls and swoops of England’s finest steel guitar maestro, B.J. Cole, whose style sat so well with Jones and Cliffe that he has become virtually a full-time member of the band.

And then, out of nowhere, catastrophe struck. Trevor Jones’ beloved sister died in tragic circumstances. It’s typical of the man that, rather than wallowing in his grief as he had every right to do, he dealt with his loss in the quiet, honest dignity of "Sister Song," the achingly lovely tribute that concludes the fourth album, Alaska. It can’t have been coincidence that the album, despite its meltingly beautiful musical landscape, was named for one of the coldest places on earth.

By the time of Stories We Could Tell in 2004, Miracle Mile were drawing critical plaudits in every significant British magazine and newspaper, along with comparisons to such pop pluperfectionists as Prefab Sprout and the Blue Nile. Critics were noting that Miracle Mile was fast becoming a repository of timelessly romantic music fueled by the same shamelessly emotional human concerns that inspired the great standards. More than this, it was being noticed that while most bands go into decline after two or three albums, Miracle Mile were getting better, perhaps because they’d avoided the trap of trying to be contemporary, and had no need to be more outrageous than the competition, largely because they didn’t see music as a competitor sport.

The sixth album, Glow, showed up in 2005 and found Jones and Cliffe further expanding their musical palette mixing Celtic folksiness with slow, semi-industrial percussion on the inspirational "An Average Sadness," blending Badalamenti guitars with Bacharach horns on "What Kate Did Next," and opening "Strange Sympathy" with a beautifully synthesised string orchestration before letting the song melt seamlessly into a laid-back country-rock rumination on the gap between aspiration and acquisition. Glow was also their most lavishly packaged disc, gorgeously presented at no small cost to themselves.

Album No. 7, Limbo, offered fifteen songs overflowing with sensitively wrought melodies and heart-fluttering lyricism. If it’s not a contradiction in terms, Limbo was even more quietly passionate than usual, deliciously understated and, at times, devastatingly tear-jerking.

‘Cassidy’s Care’ followed in 2012 and received similar critical acclaim.
Miracle Mile may just be too concerned with timeless quality for their own short-term commercial good. They’ll never sink a fang into the jugular when they can plant a whisper of a kiss on that sensitive spot at the nape of the neck and set off a tiny ripple that will, in the fullness of time, explode in the heart. I, for one, wouldn’t want it any other way.
Johnny Black

“Trevor Jones finds the poetry in real life; Marcus Cliffe anchors it in the sweetest pop. Gorgeous as ever. You may cry.”
Sunday Times

"Gentle enchantment. The loveliest melodies you've ever heard."
UNCUT

“Gorgeous melodies, hooks galore, intelligent lyrics that demand and repay careful listening, beautifully produced instrumentation, and an overall effect that combines poignancy and joy in equal measure. Music and words come together in a state as close to perfection as makes no difference, and leaves you with a delicious ache that makes you hug yourself with the sheer overwhelming joy of hearing such wonderful music. The beauty on offer here is enough to make you weep. It did me."
Americana UK

“A little oasis illuminated by musical creativity, glimpsed like a lovely mirage. Intelligent tunefulness that doesn’t kowtow to passing trends has always been as rare as fish fingernails, but it’s here.” Mojo

“Classic pop songwriting, gorgeously realised” The Times

“Moves you to tears and refreshes the soul. Scintillating.”
Maverick

“A tender sadness. Songs that have universal resonance.”
Netrhythms

"Trevor Jones has produced a gorgeous pop album that few will hear — unless there’s justice in the world.’ The Wall Street Journal

“Jones has compiled possibly the finest catalogue of adult pop. Gently beautiful and genuinely moving”
The Sunday Times