Music to drink tea by
Posts tagged Ruth Theodore
Robin Grey – The Finchley Waltz
43 years ago
in MP3s
The art of the protest singer seems to have been lost in recent years. Which is unfortunate as there hasn’t been in a time when they have been more needed. The state of this world, and this country in particularly, is practically screaming out for someone to put complaints into words. Which is something of an odd way to open when I’m not sure I’d even consider Robin Grey to be a protest singer.
He does take some swipes at the government of the day (“On the radio politicians dutifully opine which liberties they are taking away”), but most of The Finchley Waltz centres on the personal. It’s a melancoly tale of finding love (at first sight, no less) and then realising it’s not quite what the movies cracked it up to be. So still a protest song to a degree, just not in the political sense.
But then what does all this matter with a voice like this? Grey is one of those wonderful talents that could recite the phone directory on record and you’d still be enthralled. His voice is restrained, yet you can still feel the emotion behind every word. This allows each song to sound light and breezy enough to pull you in at the start, before the emotional punch comes in out of nowhere. Leaving us with the kind of cheerful misery that’s perfect for this time of year.
Ruth Theodore
35 years ago
in MP3s
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I don’t particularly like female singer-songwriters. I don’t think there is any real reason for this. I haven’t got some dumb misogynist thing going on. I just can’t find very many that I can actually tolerate, let alone claim to actually like. Now there’s a number of female fronted bands that I like a lot. Singer-songwriters though? Not so much. I don’t think I could even name three that I like if I’m entirely honest.
As such, in the spirit of trying to rectify this somewhat, I have stumbled across one that I do really like. Ruth Theodore is from deepest, darkest Southampton and making some incredible songs. From what I can tell, she now resides in London, and has put together a permanent five piece band that includes percussion, a bunch of strings and an accordian. She also performs regularly by herself, and it’s in that style that the songs below are representitive of.
Both of these songs are just Ruth and her acoustic guitar. ‘Home’ is an incredibly fragile song, feeling as though it could break apart at any minute yet somehow never doing so. ‘Worm Food’ is a far more frantic song, with Ruth powering through the words about how life is far simpler than we make it out to be. The lyrics in both songs have the obligatory quirkiness that seems to be required these days, but without ever crossing the line into annoying territory.
MP3 Ruth Theodore – Home
MP3 Ruth Theodore – Worm Food
She will be playing in London this thursday and Farnham of all places on friday, and you can get details of both shows on her nicely simple website. For you crazy kids who need your music via News Corp, drop by her Myspace page.
