Richmond Fontaine are one of those bands that you either get or you don’t. I get ‘em and I get ‘em good! Doesn’t seem that long since I last saw them but they’re always welcome in these parts. Josie, Al and Bogbrush were present – it was like being in a chapter of Kershaw’s book…..
Laura Gibson opened proceedings and reminded me of Liz Green in lots of ways. She was asked to tell a joke and told the only one she knows (which was a good un!). There’s a free acoustic download version of her ‘Beasts of Seasons’ when you get the CD….
Richmond Fontaine played the whole of their new LP ‘The High Country’ which has their usual knack of cataloguing the bizarre lifestyles of their pals (“I know a plethora of strange people”) with a matter of factness. Willy Vlautin can tell you everything you need to know about someone in a few lines “My dad got sick so I moved back to town, but month after month it started grinding me down. I should’ve stayed away, he never liked me anyway, even when he was sick”.
There was a full version of the snippets heard on the radio on the CD and a ballad about a woman who’s husband is so obsessed with chainsaws, that he starts taking them to bed with him….Deborah Kelly gives another (quite sad at times) dimension to their sound. Will have to check out her band ‘The Damnations’.
After a short break they come back and play a few favourites. Willy introduces ‘Two Alone‘ by saying he wrote it when loading and unloading trucks and the other guys used to take the piss cos he didn’t like sports “and I never will”. He’s written a few books now (which Steve highly recommended) and I was very tempted to get one but plumped for the ‘High Country’ CD instead which Willy kindly signed for me. “I hope you’ll like it” “I already do!”
Many thanks to John K and Tony W for the freebie.
Bob the Chiropodist