fredag 19 Jun 2009, 11:23
Red Shoes are Carolyn Evans and Mark Evans of Birmingham, England, and they are a whole lot more. Returning to the music scene after an absence of a couple of decades, they discovered that the way music is produced and distributed has changed radically. Nevertheless, in less than two years they have assembled original material and put together a CD (http://www.last.fm/music/Red+Shoes/Ring+Around+The+Land) that is a true triumph, both technically and artistically, with the help of a large group of friends they didn't know they had before they set off on this adventure. Carolyn's youthful dream had always been to work with Fairport Convention, the fountain of 1970s British Folk-Rock. She writes:
It's been a funny old couple of years since we put our demos up on MySpace. … we had retired from the circuit to bring up a family and do what you have to do. . . . . family always come first. What started as a few home made recordings on MySpace and YouTube videos on our sofa, ended up with us being introduced to some fabulous musicians . Not only have we met many in person but some we have become close friends with, and what a blessing. Years ago you had to bang on A&R men's doors and wait in anticipation that they may and a big may, listen to your songs. With the advent of MySpace anyone can produce music and share it with others. More wonderfully, it has introduced us to wonderful writers, painters and photographers, whose talent astounds us. They have been giving their time for free to all of us to see and we are truly blessed to have them as friends. How wonderful it has been for us to share our journey with these people and how grateful we are for their support. We are not young but have achieved all that we could wish for, we ask no more apart from that we continue to share our thought's and talents with each other. Thank's to all of you who have supported and shared our friendship.(from http://www.myspace.com/redshoes1)
The duo's name is, of course, based on the movie of The Wizard of Oz, but the design of the album revolves around the statue of the "fine lady" at Banbury Cross.
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes.
The visual design of the album alone is wrth the price of the CD. In the picture on the CD, the cock-horse is wearing pink toenail polish; there is a closeup of the fine lady's face showing a mysterious spiderweb tatoo on her cheek, and there are photos of the musicians bundled up on a cold winter day doing a sort of Morris Dance around the statue. Another visual bonus is the inclusion of two of Bobbie Cook's paintings of angels.
As to the songs, they are all wonderful. Some I have been listening to for months and love like old friends: The Two Sisters, Carolyn's updating of a well-known Child Ballad is one of those. Another is Carolyn's "My Father's Green Beret", which tells the story of the life of her war-hero father who died in the indignity of a poorly-managed NHS nursing home. Others of the songs are new to me as of yesterday, and of these, I am most impressed with the title track, an upbeat "we" song if ever I heard one, ending in a bit of the traditional Morris tune Shepherd's Hay. To do the other tunes on the album justice, I'll need to listen a few more times, so maybe there will be further comments on them later, Carolyn's fine folk voice and Mark's guitar are enhanced by the support of numerous other voices and instruments in ways that it's hard to describe in written words. Just get this album and listen to it!