Heroic Blues
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"Heroic- suitable to the character
of a hero;daring,noble, intrepid, determined. What are ya? a fuckin' hero?"
"Blues- colloquial, a fight; a dispute- a mistake- discoloured
by cold, contusion, fear, rage or vascular collapse.-the unknown, the
dim distance;nowhere-"Macquarie dictionary.
CD released July 1st 2002 on the Cockaigne
label. Distributed through MGM.
Recorded at the Ponderosa during April to October 2001.
Mixed at St Ives
Produced by Clare Moore and David Graney
All sessions engineered and mixed by Adam Rhodes (except "heroic
blues" which was recorded live to minidisc by Adam and "don't
mess with the blood" which was recorded at Trueform in Spotswood
by Neil in April 2002)
Mastered at DK by Bill Miller.
Artwork and photography by Tony Mahony
All songs written by David Graney
If pushed, I guess I would call it a
folk soul kind of record. After our previous two CDs I just wanted to
get a collection of songs together that could be laid down at our studio
with an acoustic guitar and then built up from there. "The Dave Graney
Show" CD (1998) and then "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" (2000)
had all been recorded with a lot of Midi / Keyboard tracks. I loved all
the sampled textures that were suddenly available with the new hard disc
technology. I wanted to get away from all that and make a vague kind of
singer /songwriter type record.
I'd always heard that Lou Reed had made "Berlin " in that way,
laying down the guitar and vocal and then leaving it to Bob Ezrin to make
sense of, this was the vibe I wanted.
We laid all the tracks down in a couple of days. Clare and Adele then
played the rhythm tracks. Adele was using a double bass and Clare was
laying down some vibraphone. Bill wanted to come in at the end and improvise
over all the tracks and Stuart did the same. We hadn't really played any
of the tracks live before.
The title track was recorded live to minidisc at a soundcheck in a hotel in Tarwin Lower. It was a kind of drifting interior monologue. A performer talking to himself. The ambience of the empty bar gave the track that extra melancholy dimension. I had shown everybody the chords once the day before and we jammed it out. There are no edits. It starts and finishes like it did that day.
David Graney,
lead vocals, acoustic and electric Maton guitars
Clare Moore, drums, percussion, vocals, vibraphone, piano,organ
Adele Pickvance, acoustic and electric bass,vocals
Stuart Perera, electric guitar
Bill Miller, acoustic and electric guitar, backing vocals
art tony mahony
Davids' writing about the songwriting involved in "Heroic Blues"?
the tracks
don't mess with the blood. Family life. Tough, brooding, bruising
family life.
anchors aweigh. A sad song about good friends and familiar faces
disappearing from your life. You drift a little further out each time.
son of maggie mae. I always wondered what happened next in the
Rod Stewart song. This is my version of their future.
leavin' the Mount. I grew up in Mount Gambier. A blue collar
timber town in South Australia. We called it "the Mount".
This is a 70's scene, built around a picture of a few girls from that
time.
clingin' to the coast. I pictured a young girl/woman moving to
a bohemian part of a big city and being both entranced and confused
by the retro/nostalgic glamour she sees all around . How can she enter
this picture? The song trips out to other places , like a lot of my
stuff, in general , its pretty abstract. I like the abstract blues.
And the abstract truth.
I will always hate you. When you're in love with someone
its often described as if you were being "possessed". You
lose your self to another. Hating someone, being "in hate"
is just the same.
heroic blues. "Blues" can be a feeling of sadness or,
in the Australian vernacular, a fight. Either way, these blues are heroic.
Gargantuan! Titanic! "It's what I do."
I don't know anything. As you get older and you see more, the
picture keeps getting wider. You lose your concentration.
eye o' the vibe. A stormy kind of trip , while negotiating the
seemingly random but unforgiving shipping channels ,buffeted by the
trade winds and renegade storms, an artist attempts to hang onto himself.
And at the same time, identify a deeper, much larger weather pattern.
are we goin' too fast for love?. The lonely chords came first
and then the lyric tripped out too easily.
Bill Miller discography
Elsternwick 69 (2000)
Victoria (1998)
Yarraville ( 1996)
Fame at any price ( the Ferrets 1979)
Dreams of a love ( the Ferrets, 1977)
