I keep in touch and follow other music review sites, and there isn't a better writer than
Dave Franklin. Recently I let him know what was up with my life and he wrote this
great article all the way from over the Atlantic too.
Of course my favorite paragraph I might be compared to a mad man from Jack Kerouac quote, so I love it. Champion? I'm a little more humble than that, I just love music and people who make it.
Which is why the industry needs its champions. People who are willing to put their money where their mouth is. People who are happy to take a chance to purchase music, physical or otherwise, on a gut feeling or as an actof solidarity. People who are happy to promote, share and shout about grassroots artists just because they believe that the world is better when musicians, dreamers, creatives, and outsiders are shaping it. To quote Jack Kerouac…” the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” Those sort of people need their champions. Champions like David Schipper.His page has more extensive music on genres that don't interest me, but don't stop yourself from following him for that reason. He hits it home for me many times and actually I bought a song and started following a group because of a recent post. "The Old Man of the Seas" by The Lost Trades I was pulled in by the first paragraph, and the song was great. Picked it up immediately on Bandcamp.
Having known them as three individual artists before they came together to form this exceptional band gives some insight into the three individuals that make up The Lost Trades, and perhaps, to a small degree, an understanding of their musical personalities. If Phil is the philosopher looking at the world in a holistic fashion and Tamsin is the dreamer looking towards the distant horizon, it is Jamie who is the narrator, a teller of stories of the lives of everyday people, a troubadour and old school balladeer. And so, lyrically, at least, The Old Man of the Sea is very much his song.
Thanks again David
