Playlist 29.08.08
Henry McCullough, his music and his alarming lifestyle make me want to quote from Joseph Conrad. So here goes: "he had made that last stride, he had stepped over the edge... perhaps all the wisdom and all truth and all sincerity are just compressed into that inappreciable moment in time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible."
Henry has overdosed a few times, he has journeyed with Paul McCartney and he famously flew into Woodstock in an army helicopter in the company of freaks and acid eaters. He had a daliance with Janis Joplin, he copped a heroin habit and he almost hacked off his guitar-playing tendons with a carving knife.
He is our shaman, our metaphorical Man In Black. He gives regular prayers to Hank Williams, a kind of spirit walker and musical touchstone. All we need now is a few profound songs to articulate Henry's journey on the Lost Highway. And on his new record, 'Poor Man's Moon', he's surely in the zone. 'The Burial Ground' is a intense tour of the valley of the shadow of death. He sings it without drama, without any excess sentimentality. You need to have walked that line before you can send back such chill despatches.
STUART BAILIE
BBC Radio Ulster, 92-95 FM
Online: www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster
Fridays, ten - midnight
Roxy Music - Street Life (Virgin)
She And Him -I Was Made For You (Domino)
Muddy Waters - You Need Love (Chess)
The Jim Jones Review - Hey Hey Hey (Punk Rock Blues)
Elbow - The Bones Of you (Fiction)
Grand Canal - Past Caring (Peninsula)
Bob Dylan - Dreamin Of You (Columbia)
Neil Halstead - Queen Bee (Island)
Al Green - All I Need (Blue Note)
The Real Tuesday Weld - It's A Wonderful Life (Antique Beat)
Lambchop - Ohio (City Slang)
David Holmes- I Heard Wonders (Mercury)
Jape - I Was A Man (V2)
Clown Parlour - Inish Mor (White Mountain)
Minotaur Shock - My Burr (4AD)
Rolling Stones - Hand Of Fate (Rolling Stones)
Goldblade - Kids Of Today (Captain Oi)
The Hot Club Of Cowtown - Forget Me Nots (Hightone)
Eric Bibb - Stayed On Freedom (Telarc)
James Shorty - Jesus On The Mainline (Rounder)
Lambchop - I'm Thinking Of A Number (City Slang)
Henry McCullough - The Burial Ground (There Wolf)
Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan - Come On Over (V2)
Willard Grand Conspiracy - Great Deceiver (Loose)
The Bonnevilles - C'mon (Motor Sounds)
Peter Bjorn And John - Say Something (Wichita)
Comment number 1.
At 12:58 3rd Sep 2008, fagendviv wrote:Couln't agree more! What a great programme Gerry Anderson did with Henry on Saturday morning. My husband Gerry Gleason actually recieved a Lifetime Achievement Award on the same night as Henry at the recent Blues andJazz Festival! He says it was a great week-end and priase to all who organised it, especialy James Walshe, without whom it would not have happened! So come on, all you funders out there, next year make it bigger(and if possible better!) Off to Paris on Saturday! So god luck to Terri and the new shop at Wintetavern Street!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)