This CD takes me back. To be precise, it takes me back to Dingwalls in Camden on 24th January 2007. A challenging time: our house purchase had fallen through a few days before; Lucy was so ill she'd gone to stay with her mum to avoid hospitalisation (I remember phoning L's sister for a report back from the doctor's visit, just before I met the guys on the way to the gig); and I was two weeks away from the deadline of the second, 'final' (ha, ha) draft of The Book.
It's just the look and feel of the CD that holds those memories, though. Not the sound, because I very much doubt I ever listened to it at the time. Catalogued, shelved, moved on.
Califone were headlining that night. I was underwhelmed by their set, expecting more. They're not on the CD, but Coley Park, one of the support acts are. I remember nothing of their set, but, listening to their two tracks here, that's not a big surprise because they play the kind of Americana that just washes over me. I defer to Guy, Annie, Paul… and you for opinions about this kind of thing. Bobby Conn, the other support act, was the only one to make a mark on my distracted psyche that evening. And the reason he did that was, first, that he was putting everything into his act, despite a very thin spread of audience, but mainly that he was wearing thick eye make-up and a suit that might have been pyjamas or might have been a prison costume. Perhaps I felt I might be living in an institution, wearing similar garb, before long.
Though, in hindsight, I got through that month relatively OK. It's not the big dramas that get you; it's the everyday drudgery
As I can find no trace of this free CD anywhere on the web, let me list the tracks:
- Devils [sic] Tree — Coley Park
- Ghosts in the Sun — Coley Park
- Moveover [sic] — Caz Mechanic
- Go Home — Caz Mechanic
- Tab — Holton's Opulent Oog [sic]
- Oaki Room — Holton's Opulent Oog
- Speak, Whistle & Hope — President Sweetheart
- Lovers at the End of the Day — President Sweetheart
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