Music Arcades: Jackie Leven: Fairy Tales for Hard Men

The chain of related albums picks up again after an interval for Van, as Jackie Leven has played with David Thomas of Pere Ubu as Ubudoll. I once saw them play together, at the Borderline in 2004, and was impressed that Jackie Leven had miked up the floor by his foot — his boot was the only percussion instrument the duo used.

I saw Leven play solo more recently: my friend Paul is a big, big fan (almost as fanatical as he is about Neil Young, and that's plenty); also the show was at the Luminaire, my favourite venue in London. The stories that night were almost as important as the songs they separated and introduced.

But this CD came before either of those performances. I think I'd heard of Jackie Leven via the first Delicatessen CD and picked this up when it was relatively cheap in Polar Bear on Ecclesall Road, on one of those Saturday morning's when all felt well with the world.

This was during the glut years (2001/2), when I bought more CDs than was good for me, so each received scant attention. Hence I fear I may never have noticed before — because I never read the CD booklet properly — that this album includes several settings of poems alongside the Leven originals. Saint Judas is from James Wright, Sunflower is a translation of Rolf Jacobsen, and Mad as the Mist and Snow is Yeats. A few traditional songs, too, with new music: recently I downloaded Jock Duncan's version of Sir Patrick Spens, but Leven delivers it almost in speaking voice.

All good stuff, in that small celtic mystic-with-grit family that includes John Martyn, R.I.P., and Van. (What a family that would be — imagine sitting down to your evening meal with those three round the table.) Perhaps — and I don't say this often — Paul was half right.

Finally, with a thought for the Boy, I'll leave you with an excerpt from the back of the CD booklet.

And so now, with Fairy Tales for Hardmen I hand over some of my stories about the lives of men and women. Hardmen because so many boys come under ill-considered or even demonic pressure to be hard or to be men. Indeed, so many men are just boys trapped in men's lives, pretending to be men — exhibiting cruelty, cowardice, fear, shame (toxic and natural), despair — controlling, manipulating, raging — but also showing tenderness, blessing, joy of living, erotic savvy, and humour that doesn't rely on victims to be funny.