25 f 12 shots from the fRoots Rocket Launcher a dozen leading questions to fire at Rory McLeod
If you were given the funds to organise a concert bill, who would the artists be?
Many are no longer alive – Charlie Pat- ton, Danny Kaye, Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, Leo Rowsome, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bob Marley, Naftule Brandwein, Roland Kirk, Louis Jordan, Etta James, Dory Previn, George Jones, Art Tatum, Leonard Bernstein, Django Reinhardt, Pablo Casals, Utah Phillips, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Victor Jara, Edith Piaf…
Alive – Robert Wyatt, The Persua- sions, Antony and the Johnsons, Dolly Parton, The Watersons, Packie Byrne, Roy Bailey, Chrissie Hind, Ry Cooder, Skunk Anansie, Emmylou Harris, Ms Dynamite, Jerry Douglas, John Prine, The Pyros, Bruce Springsteen, Dick Gaughan, The Happy End, The Familiar Strangers, the blackbird singing outside.
The artists would share the stage in round-robin style, each joining in with each other when inspired to, and given the time and space to improvise and play, adding their magic to the music and songs.
Which totally obscure record do you most treasure and would like more people to know about?
Polyphonies Of Sardinia on an LP pub- lished by The French Museum of Mankind 1981, featuring choral groups of men singing deep, rhythmic harmony vocals cre- ating pulsating bagpipe drones with their voices, humming crackling bass chords; over these a lead vocalist improvises poetry-lyrics and melody over these rhythms.
What was the best live gig you ever saw?
Captain Beefheart gig in my youth at Brunel University bar. The PA began howl- ing feedback, the Captain was angry, but while the engineer tried to get rid of the squealing, the drummer got up and did a tap-dance.
Butch Hancock, Jimmy Dale Gilmore Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt and friends with musical saws etc at one of the many Alamo Lounge twilight gigs in Austin – early 1980s.
And what was the worst? I couldn’t get in, it was sold out! What was your own best ever gig? During a very rare snowstorm in
Texas – with four people, including the barman – I didn’t go on stage, I sat down at their table and sung to them, chatting with them between songs. I kept in touch with these people by postcards for some years after.
Singing at St Donat’s Storytelling Fes-
tival in Wales returned me to a place I’d forgotten, and performing in that context put my songs and dance-stories back into a
context as I’d neglected to remember where they’d come from. I’d been travel- ling and singing to people who didn’t understand my English-sung songs for some time. I was reminded by the response and the context I was performing in that what I do is sing stories, that I am part of that tradition.
And what was your worst?
A cold car park a long time ago now: the Festival organisers had heard I had often busked and stuck me there to sing my songs to people arriving and leaving in their cars!
A striptease night in Mexico: the pro- moter had seen me playing on the street that day and told me I had a paid gig that night. I sang four songs in between three different female strippers and a Mexican comedian. My one concession was that I had somewhere to sleep that night – on the stage after the cleaners had swept the floor, emptied the rubbish and turned off the lights.
What’s the professional achievement you’re most proud of?
The privilege of having survived this far singing my own songs; and doing some- thing I enjoy that I feel con- nected to.
What’s the most
embarrassing thing you ever did in public?
I was once asked by a woman at a festival to pro- pose marriage to her prospec- tive husband from the concert stage during my set. The woman assured me the man would say ‘Yes’ to her propos- al. He did.
Which song or piece of music would you most like to have written yourself?
Buddy Can You Spare A
Dime, by Yip Harburg. A Change Is Going To Come by Sam Cooke. Bizets’ Carmen. A Fairy Tale Of New York. Dark Is The Night. Forever Young. Deportees. Moon River.
Who was the first musician or singer you were inspired to emulate?
Louis Armstrong’s warm lyrical singing voice and phrasing which is inseparable from his trumpet playing, soaring as he constructs those inspired solos on the fly.
Who was the last-but-one musician or singer you lusted after?
Skunk Anansie. Ani Di Franco. My pre- sent partner.
If you had a rocket launcher, who or what would be the target, and why?
A guided missile for that ‘misguided’ ba**ard, scoundrel, peddler of prejudice, lies and tyrannical bully Rupert Murdoch. ‘Gotcha’! However killing Murdoch wouldn’t give us justice – so instead, infil- trating him with some 'truth potion’ (as we are in the realms of complete fantasy anyway) would cause Murdoch to suffer uncontrollable outbursts of truth, impar- tiality, confessions and revelations from his own mouth. We would then learn what secret Faustian deals were made between Blair and Murdoch. Murdoch would also grow Page Three breasts on his forehead and these would be inoperable.
www.rorymcleod.com F
root salad
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