Someday I will be gone…
When I fist heard these words, taken from Lewis Garland’s song Someday, I took them to be somehow conveying living in Coventry. Perhaps this is because I live in Leamington Spa, and became a “leaming”, so to speak, a while ago now. But it seemed to me that, as vibrant as the city of Coventry is, it is not a place of tranquil beauty. It is a municipality whose historical past vanished from sight as it was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War. It is a town which remains restless, the ring road sending the constant buzz of traffic about the streets. Frankly, it was the last place I would expect to see a host of quality bands breathing life into the age-old, serene musical genre of folk.
Lewis Garland and the Kett Rebellion, playing at the Arts Centre on Saturday, play what they call “acoustic folk”, but have called, much to their bemusement, “medieval pop”. Support act The Bellows even go a step further in linking their tunes to the minstrel-led music of ancient times: their songs tell folk-tale narratives of people mostly ending up being hung. What links both acts is an unshakeable sense of melancholy, drawing from the moody blues of Nick Cave and the later works of Johnny Cash. All of which led me to think that they would feel out of place in the small industrial city of Coventry. Surely their music would feel more at ease flowing through stretching expanses, say, of the American South?
Well it would seem that I could not have been more wrong. When voted BBC Warwickshire Band of the Month in June, Lewis Garland and the Kett Rebellion stated that they love Coventry. They certainly seem at ease with themselves and where they come from, known for being audacious enough to cut all the amplification, set themselves in the middle of the room and play acoustically to the crowd about them. Their reviews in general are, to say the least, enthusiastic, applauding Lewis Garland’s poetic wordplay. The Bellows, similarly, show no sign of being meek or out of place. Indeed they claim that there isn’t a revival of folk in the city because it never left, placing themselves among an emerging group of blues/country acts including Momma’s In the Kitchen and Living with the Bear.
What we are perhaps witnessing is a sort of inverse example of a location shaping an artist’s music. If a band like Sigur Ros takes inspiration from the empty dramatic landscapes of Iceland, mapping journeys across the country with their progressive post-rock, could it not be imaginable that a city of Coventry, with its busy daytime shopping and tall, stark buildings, leads an artist towards introspection? It would not be the first time such a theory was put forward. Most famously, part of Kurt Cobain’s appeal, embraced by millions, was his brooding lyrics of isolation and dissatisfaction. More often than not, they were references to his life in Aberdeen, a town known for little else but fishing and timber. Could there be there be a similar effect in Coventry, in which musicians are lead towards some sort of moody emotional exploration? Take Lewis Garland’s lyrics for Patchwork Quilts:
The cities closing in around us all
And I can’t see the forest for the mall..
In any case, rendezvous Saturday 8th November for tales of broken hearts. Check out the bands’ myspaces here:
http://www.myspace.com/lewisgarland
http://www.myspace.com/thebellowsmusic
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