http://www.tackhead.com/ News about Tackhead and all the usual suspects like Keith, Doug, Skip, Adrian, Mark and Bernard en http://www.tackhead.com/typo3conf/ext/tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.tackhead.com/ 18 16 News about Tackhead and all the usual suspects like Keith, Doug, Skip, Adrian, Mark and Bernard TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:14:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/265/ Skip McDonald will release his sixth Little Axe album in May 2010. He just finished mastering the... Bought For a Dollar, Sold For a Dime, a live album Little Axe style, hints at God-given greatness, nonetheless. McDonald might not have sold his soul at the crossroads, but he’s looked both ways – down the road of the old blues, up the highway of the future – before proceeding. McDonald recorded the album live at Real World's state-of-the-art facilities. With of course the usual suspects Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc, Bernard Fowler and Adrian Sherwood, but also with the help of Saranella Ball, Kevin Gibbs, Alan Glenn, The Crispy Horns, Ken Booth and Cyril Atef. “We played as if we were doing a gig with an audience,” McDonald explains. The colours, the feeling, the rhythm - everything matched. I always say there are only two kinds of music. The music you like and the music you don’t like. I only make music I love.” Before starting work on Bought For a Dollar… he listened to a lot of his favourites. “I always do my research. I go through everyone from Beethoven, Skip James and Charlie Parker to Janis Joplin, Howling Wolf and Son House. In terms of feeling and emotion there’s nothing that’s said now that hasn’t been said before.” He pauses, smiles. “A lot of times I think people try and create the wheel again when you just have to do enough research. It’s better to work hard than wait for divine inspiration.” “I see myself as a time traveller,” Skip McDonald says. “I started out live and went into studio culture. I’ve gone all the way back and come full circle, though this time I’ve got the advantage of technology as well. Hey, I’m even doing covers of my own songs. It’s all part of the same puzzle.”

“I understand the blues better now that I’m older,” he continues. “But doing this album…” He flashes a grin. “This album has made me feel young again.”]]> Skip McDonald Little Axe Doug Wimbish Keith Leblanc Adrian Sherwood Bernard Fowler TACK>>HEAD Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:14:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/264/ Tackhead and Mark Stewart will be doing double bill concerts in Europe in October and November 2010. Paperclip Agency.]]> TACK>>HEAD Keith Leblanc Doug Wimbish Skip McDonald Mark Stewart And The Mafia Adrian Sherwood Bernard Fowler Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:57:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/263/ Adrian Sherwood will be at the controls at Lee 'Scratch' Perry's 75th birthday party in Gent,... The Mighty Upsetter (2008) will be at the mixing desk. The dub version of their colaboration (called Dubsetter) is yet to be released.]]> Adrian Sherwood Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:34:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/262/ Bernard Fowler hits of his European Tour with IMF (the International Mother Fuckers) in Dortmund,... TOUR DATES

• January 29, 2010: Musiktheater Piano, Dortmund, Germany
• January 30, 2010: Outback, Bad Arolsen, Germany

• February 02, 2010: Spirit of 66, Verviers, Belgium
• February 03, 2010: Colossaal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
• February 04, 2010: Cultuurpodium Boerderij, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
• February 05, 2010: Kubana, Siegburg , Germany 
• February 06, 2010: Limelight, Cologne, Germany (WDR Rockpalast)
• February 10, 2010: Zion Rock Club, Conegliano, Italy
• February 11, 2010: Lapsus, Torino, Italy
• February 12, 2010: Sugar Reef, Capoliveri, Italy
• February 13, 2010: Kememeo, Argelato, Italy February
• February 14, 2010: Italy (to be announced)
• February 15, 2010: Scene Wien, Vienna , Austria 
• February 18, 2010: 7er Club, Mannheim , Germany
• February 19, 2010: Die Halle, Reichenbach , Germany
• February 20, 2010: Bluesiana, Velden, Austria
• February 25, 2010: Zeche Karl, Essen, Germany 
• February 26, 2010: Bluesgarage, Hannover , Germany
• February 27, 2010: Garbaty im Exil, Berlin, Germany
• February 28, 2010: Stary Dom, Opole, Poland
  

• March 03, 2010: Moonwalker, Aarburg, Switzerland
• March 04, 2010: private event, Sankt Moritz, Switerland

]]> Bernard Fowler Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:07:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/261/ Skip 'Little Axe' McDonald will be doing a string of gigs in the United Kingdom, the next couple of... Stone Cold Ohio, to be released on Peter Gabriel's Real World label some time this year. The first of the gigs is January 29 at The Royal Festival Hall in London. Skip also joins folk singer Ian King on his UK Tour, that starts of at the Roundhouse in London on January 22, where King and his band play at the festival Roots at the Roundhouse. There will be several more gigs in February. Ian King's debut album Panic Grass & Fever Few will be released January 24 by Fledg'ling Records. The album is produced by Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald is playing guitar on the record.  UK gigs (solo)

• January 29, 2010: The Clore Ballroom at The Royal Festival Hall, London
  
  
• February 5, 2010: Croydon Clocktower, Croydon
  
  
• March 12, 2010: Brewery Arts Centre, Kendall
• March 13, 2010: Band On The Wall, Manchester 
• March 19, 2010: Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich 
• May 15, 2010:  The Forge @ The Anvil, Basingstoke
  
  
• July 16, 2010: Larmer Tree Festival, Salisbury (solo guitar)
• July 24 - 31, 2010: Summer School, Cheltenham

UK Tour with Ian King

• January 22, 2010: Roots at The Roundhouse, Roundhouse, London
  
  
• February 08, 2010: Band on the Wall, Manchester
• February 10, 2010: Portland Arms, Cambridge
• February 11, 2010: Glee Club, Birmingham
• February 12, 2010: Korks Wine Bar, Otley
• February 13, 2010: The Borderline, London
• February 15, 2010: The Prince Albert, Brighton
• February 17, 2010: Moles, Bath
• February 19, 2010: The Boiler Room, Guildford
• February 20, 2010: Folk House, Bristol

As always: please check with local venues.]]> Little Axe Skip McDonald Adrian Sherwood Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:12:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/260/ The new album is due for the fall, and in the meantime Little Axe will tour Europe, starting April... Little Axe Keith Leblanc Doug Wimbish Skip McDonald Bernard Fowler Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:57:00 +0200 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/256/ The Tackhead crew has been in the studio again to record more tracks for the Sharehead album. The... Stealing (being somewhat of an anthem to the Sharehead project). The track was reworked (or should we say arrested?) by Skip 'Little Axe' McDonald, giving a whole new sound to this Tackhead classic. Check it out here, and have a listen to the other freebees in the media player while you're at it. You're not a Sharehead holder yet? It's not too late to join (yet). Please check out the special Sharehead page and get your shares NOW. Sharehead seems to be a better, safer investment than most other options currently available! ]]> TACK>>HEAD Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:54:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/259/ Tackhead will do a gig in New York City, USA on Sunday March 22, 2009. The band is booked as... tour section for more relevant dates.]]> TACK>>HEAD Keith Leblanc Skip McDonald Bernard Fowler Doug Wimbish Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:51:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/258/ Skip 'Little Axe' McDonald and Daby Touré have recorded a mini-album together, with Keith LeBlanc...
For both men this was more than mere coincidence. Given the way they played together, the way their music flowed organically, spontaneously – hey, even psychically – it seemed like fate. Destiny. A sign.

“We just had this immediate musical connection,” says McDonald, eyes twinkling. “In the way our instruments and voices combined. In the things we sing about and the emotions we put into our songs. To meet a brother like this…” He shakes his head. “It’s a rare, rare thing.”

Welcome, then, to Call My Name. A 6-track mini-album that captures the magic of this unique creative union, that sees songs – some by Touré, others by McDonald – transformed via imaginative, instinctive collaboration. Crafted in Real World Studio’s state-of-the-art Big Room with the aid of in-house engineer Greg Freeman, Call My Name is a spellbinding record, the superlative result of focused energy, creative license and a famously pressure-free environment.

The sound, for the most part, is pop. Compelling and catchy. Direct and frills-free. But pop unlike anything else you’ve heard before. “I sing what I feel, in whatever language I feel like singing it,” says Touré, whose lyrics embrace the personal and political in an often improvised mix of English and different African languages: Wolof, Pulaar and Hassaniya among them. “Skip would play me a rhythm and quickly establish a groove, the way a traditional musician from Mauritania or Senegal does. It’s a natural thing,” he adds. “It just happens.”

Being children of Africa helps, of course. “We’ve both got roots in the Motherland,” notes McDonald, the son of a blues guitarist who used to lull his son to sleep with bedtime songs instead of stories. “We’ve both ended up somewhere else. So we’ve got African/French culture. African American/English culture. We’ve got the blues combining with African music - which makes sense, since they’re relatives – as well as our huge range of influences. So we’re going in and out of Africa,” he says, “which is where all music comes from anyway.”

As front man for 21st Century blues project Little Axe – whose lauded albums for Real World include Champagne and Grits, Stone Cold Ohio and the forthcoming Bought For A Dollar, Sold For a Dime – McDonald has often likened himself to an archaeologist, ploughing the roots of American blues. “I’ve worked with a helluva lot of different people over the years,” he says. “Everyone has their own skills, their own way of doing things. I’ve gone from gospel to funk to reggae and dub, taking the tones and feelings of the old blues and putting today’s stamp on it. But this? This is new territory.”

Daby Touré might be viewed as an explorer, forever seeking fresh sounds and innovative ways of applying them. “All the music I picked up when I was young is still in me and that doesn’t change,” says this urbane singer/songwriter, a long-time jazz experimentalist and member of a musical dynasty forged on the banks of the Senegal River – and the artist behind the acclaimed Real World albums Diam and Stereo Spirit. “But in my music I am still searching, and mixing, and trying new things. I am African but I am also European.” A Gallic shrug. “I am a modern artist.”

What began as a simple exchange of songs – with McDonald playing on Touré’s compositions, and Touré playing on McDonald’s – quickly evolved into something closer, more symbiotic. Ideas blossomed, encouraged by mutual trust and respect. Both artists knew instinctively when to step in and when to step back, when to fill space and when to let it be.

Regardless of origin, each of Call My Name’s 6 tracks highlight the interplay between McDonald’s weighty guitar grooves and Touré’s lighter, more freewheeling musicality. Each track features McDonald’s resonant English language vocals and the younger man’s gloriously agile multilingual singing, along with delicate electronic flourishes and a vibrant immediacy.

Call My Name’s superb opener, Past Time – a slice of pop perfection sprinkled with echo effects, background incantations and heartfelt sentiments – makes it clear that the world of McDonald and Touré is an exceptional one. Here are covers of such Little Axe classics as Time Has Come, reinvented with sparkling chord progressions and a fresh live feel; and the epic Sinners, wrapped in shimmering guitars and thundering congas and underlined with Touré’s griot-like wail.

“Daby and I are singing about the wider world as we look out from our new, different one,” says McDonald. “There’s some weariness, some sadness and some happiness there. We’re reiterating things that still need saying today. We’re lamenting certain situations. We’re also giving thanks.”]]> Little Axe Keith Leblanc Skip McDonald Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:49:00 +0100 http://www.tackhead.com//news/article/257/ Blanc Records, Keith LeBlanc's own record label, is currently re-issueing the complete catalogue in... eMusic.com, iTunes or any other of the big download sites. Please check back here periodically as new titles will be coming on line. Available now are Keith LeBlanc's solo albums Major Malfunction, Time Traveller, Stranger than Fiction and Freakatorium and DJ Spike's albums Invisible and Global 2000.]]> Keith Leblanc TACK>>HEAD Doug Wimbish Skip McDonald Adrian Sherwood Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:00:00 +0100