Jack Rose (1971-2009)

This week instead of the usual attempts to be funny that accompany my playlists, I thought I’d tell you a bit about Jack Rose.

Jack was a guitarist from Virginia who made 9 albums of solo acoustic guitar tunes for various small labels betwen 2002 and 2009. The thing most often said about his work is that he sounds a lot like John Fahey , which is a bit like someone coming up to you after football and telling you that you remind them of Pele.

Jack’s was an unflustered, technically impressive but not flashy style which could switch effortlessly from heart lifting sunny picking to uneasy sounding drones and ragas, and then to spine tingling country blues, sometimes all with in the same song.

His version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark is the Night , Cold is the Ground” shows both his love for his influences and his uncanny ability to transcend them to make something scintillating, and is currently making this sentimenal old sod stupidly misty eyed as it plays in the background while I’m writing this.

He died last Saturday of a heart attack at the ridiculously young age of 38 and this week’s programme was dedicated to him, his friends and family.

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At 11.58pm each  Wednesday, after a day spent in a barely contained expectancy, the whole of Bradford and the Aire Valley rushes breathless with an excitement that verges on the sexual, to the nearest radio. Their roiling senses inflamed beyond reason, eyes madly dilated,and tongues lolling provocatively from carelessly rouged lips, they await the sound of their hero.

As the Town Hall ominously tolls midnight in the distance ( I don’t know whether there is a  Town Hall, whether it has a clock  or whether it tolls, but I’m on a roll here) a hushed anticipation descends, only to be broken by a lone voice from the radio speaker. A voice that blends a gossamer lightness of tone,with the stentorian air of a life lived on the cutting edge of artistic innovation. Yes, it’s Radio 1’s Huw Stephens.

Meanwhile, somewhere behind Jack Fulton’s, a man in a cardigan played these…

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By the way, the title refers to the content of some of the tracks in the show – not the ingredients of a good night out in Kippax. As I’m still reeling from the addition of The Fall to the bill of the Pavement ATP Festival when we’re going to the other one, this week was enlivened by finally getting hold of a copy of Live at The Palais LP and , as we do in times of Fall LP’s , playing it to death on the radio. All this and banjos too…

The Fall – “Theme from Sparta F.C.” (LP- “Last Night at the Palais”) (Sanctuary)
Chuck Fender – “I Am For The Poor” (LP – “Fulfilment”) (No Doubt)
The Yolks – “Jane” (LP- “The Yolks”) (Batchelor)
The Repeater – “Struktur” (EP- “Germanized”) (KinetiK)
Banjo or Freakout – “Leave it Alone” (7″) (Half Machine)
Flatt and Scruggs – “Farewell Blues” ( V/a  4CD set – “Bluegrass Bonanza”) (Proper)
Cate Le Bon – “Byw Heb Farw” ( V/a  LP – “The Ballad of Britain”) (Heron)
Herman Dune – “Don’t Lie About Me” (EP – “Don’t Lie About Me”) (Everloving)
DDD – “Blood Pressure” ( V/a LP – “Elektronisk Tirsdag”) (City Hall Music)
The Fall – “Hungry Freaks Daddy”  (LP- “Last Night at the Palais”) (Sanctuary)
The Fall – “White Lightning” (LP- “Last Night at the Palais”) (Sanctuary)
Cyanide Pills – “Black Lightning” (7″) (Damaged Goods)
Red Foxx and Screetchy Dan – “Fall in Love” (7″) (Sound with Soul)
Hud Mo – “Come and Get It” (EP – “Ooops!”) (Wireblock/Luckyme)
Homostupids – “Nightime Flies” (LP - “The Load”) (Load)
Helado Negro – “Goodbye Cruel World” (V/a CD “The Wall Rebuilt”) (Mojo)
Bok Bok – “Ripe Banana” (split EP with L- Vis 1990) (Dress 2 Sweat)

When Big Joan Sets Up lurched, grunting and sweating onto the airwaves again last Wednesday with a programme so literally chock full of top tunes  that I had to fade it out without bidding my listener (hello mum), goodbye. So ,if you were listening thanks for doing so and I hope you find my continuing  ineptitude as charming as I do. Anyway, the music was good and it looked like this:

Morrissey – “Drive in Saturday”  (LP - “Swords”) (Polydor)
Emakha – “The Real Buddy” (12″) (In Da Jungle )
Buddy Holly and the Crickets – “I’m Looking for Someone to Love” (LP-“ The Chirping Crickets”) (MCA)
Teenage Lovers – “Number One” (7″) (Randy’s Records)
What Capitalism Was – “Facades” (LP - “…Plays Philip Glass On Accordion”)(Self Released)
Afrikan Simba – “Power in the Word” (EP – “Power in the Word”) (Jahtari)
Vic Chesnutt – “When the Bottom Fell Out” (LP- “At the Cut”) (Constellation)
Shitting Dick Nipples – “How to Survive Death ( The Clint Eastwood Story)” (LP - “In Today’s society it’s common to
give your album a title but because we’re too damn lazy to come up with
anything we’ll make this into a self title instead”) (Hon Signe)
Micheal Mansion – “Let Me In (Dawin’s Hemstock Remix)” (12″) (Hardcore Underground)
P.S.Eliot – “Hail Mary” (LP- “Introverted Romance in our Troubled Minds”) (Salinas)
Nuggies – “Sweat Soup” (EP – “The Sound Of Explosions from the North East”) (Gorilla Ointment)
Shackleton – “Asha in the Tabernacle” (LP- “3EP’s”) (Perlon)
Pavement – “Box Elder” (LP- “Westing (By Musket and Sextant)”) (Drag City)
The Box Elders –  “Dave” (LP- “Alice and Friends”) (Goner)
Norrisman – “Him Neva Fail” (7″) (Henfield)
C-Oldring – “Cryogenic Freezing of Friends” (EP – “Continental Drift Records Label Launch Double EP”) (Continental Drift)
Vampre Weekend – “Horchata” (www.vampireweekend.com)