ROCHEFORT, 8/27
Took the bus to La Rochelle, and was picked up by a driver for the festival; after which we headed to La Rochelle airport to pick up more musicians, and then drove half an hour to Rochefort. Rochefort was barely a hamlet in the 17th century when the royal planners saw that this bend in the Charentes river just inland would be a perfect refuge from which to build, arm and launch the fleet. So, a city was built solely as an expression of warfare, in elegant stone and in an unusually organized, grid-faithful, official manner. Eventually, shipbuilding moved elsewhere, and the 200-meter long ‘corderie’, where ropes were wound, twisting with their complete length extended, was no longer needed. Since then, the city has been shrinking--its population is half of what it was in the 19th century.
Enter Karel Beers, an Englishman who has been involved in the music world since the 60s, now living in France. I met Karel when I joined Neal Casal and Gary Louris for a jam at his former club, the Hotel du Nord (Aden’s first concert--I think she was just 10 days old; this acoustic show wasn’t even loud enough to wake her). We have a mutual friend in Robyn Hitchcock, so we’d heard about each other; somehow, we haven’t seen each other much since--my social life in Paris is pretty limited, as I’m almost always working or recuperating with my family after working out of town a long stretch. Well, Karel hit me up with an invitation I couldn’t refuse--to play at a festival he organizes, now in its 5th year, in Rochefort. And guess what? Rochefort is a 45-minute drive from my place on Ile de Re.
Rochefort-en-Accords is a unique gathering of great musicians and songwriters, mostly Anglophone (it sees itself as a contrast to La Rochelle, the bigger neighbor just up the road, where the Francofolies takes place each summer--a French-language-only music festival). The idea is to have the cast assemble for a 3-day period, during which different and unexpected combinations of musicians will put together unique programs and jams and what have you--and you have a lot. The players are often coming year after year, so you have a mix of regulars and newbies like me. Generally there’s no complete bands coming, so people are motivated to harvest players from the assembled guests if they want to augment their sound, and with players like this, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of their presence?
Day 1 was really a get in, get acquainted day, and there was a small event to kick off the show--a revolving, oscillating concert on the Transbordeur Bridge--a unique transportation medium from 1900. Two metal towers stand on each side of the Charentes, and from the top of each tower, rails extend to meet the towers on the other side. Shuttling along these rails, via a mechanized cable system, a wooden platform, basically a piece of bridge, ferries passengers over the river. It’s not suspended like a gondola or a chairlift; the rails make it stable and smooth (a little bump when it reaches the other side). It doesn’t swing--except today, of course.
So, about 70 people can stand/sit on the bridge as it crosses--it take about four and a half minutes to cross the river (the river isn’t *that* big--the Transbordeur just moves slowly. So, a group of passengers would get on, and ride over and back; during this time there would be musicians playing, completely acoustic, for their amusement. The theme of the music is that everyone does songs with a river theme. So, I opted for “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” the Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty hit that I covered (with Dominique) on my covers EP. Dom not being able to come until Saturday, I found a willing volunteer in Marisa Yeaman, who hails from Melbourne and was wrapping up a summer-long Europe tour with this festival. She and her right hand man Tim are fine folks and we were already pals an hour after I arrived, as we were driven from the festival HQ to the bridge. We went on first, me standing holding on to a borrowed acoustic, having barely had time to run thru the song but it was fun, for the way back I followed along on one of Marisa’s tune, something I was hearing for the first time. We stayed on board for subsequent crossings, and as more musicians boarded and things started to swing a bit more, we were asked to repeat our performance--and by then we had some musicians to help; a fiddler named Paul (who used to live in Bellingham!), various pickers,double bassist Daniel Yvinec, and we were able to rock it a bit more--this was followed by a grand finale crossing where everyone--and now you see more of the cast--including guitarist Gary Lucas (who played with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley), Ladychild (an American singer who dresses like a super cool Wild West Sherrif and sings with guts and glory); Piers Faccini, Anglo-Italian-French indiebluesman; Sebastian Llado-trombonist and conch shell loop expert; throaty and emotional British singer Rob Reynolds; and so on--went thru ‘Down by the Riverside’ and ‘Proud Mary’. When we came back to base, the audience wanted another so I guitared thru a small combo instrumental ‘Moon River’. Mission highly accomplished--and I instantly grokked what this event is all about.
We all went back to HQ, the backstage of the mainstage--the mainstage is set up in an enclosure next to the tiny marina; one side, instead of a stone wall, there’s a long stone building, and that accommodated the backstage and catering. We were served dinner--lunch and dinner were here everyday and were convivial, generous, and delicious--oysters, paella, charcuterie, bottomless wine, and LOTS of cheese. I wasn’t used to the rock & roll hours, so went to bed after dinner, in my lovely hotel room in the town center (nothing is more than 15-minute walk from anywhere else in Rochefort town proper).
ROCHEFORT, 8/28
Breakfast was only served til 9.30 each morning--even on Sunday. I admit this was hard too, and I was moving slowly, but I made it to see pedal steel genius BJ Cole (who has played with REM during my tenure) with bassist Andy Hammill and vibes-player Roger Beaujolais play on the lawn of the corderie at midday.
That afternoon I headed to the Jardin du Theatre--a hidden courtyard in the town center, for a small concert there, for about 200 people. Generally, between the Friday and the Saturday, almost all the artists did a show here and on the mainstage. I had brought my newly-acquired Flying V, not the most practical guitar for rehearsing on your own (it doesn’t fit on your lap). I had no strap for it, and straplocks weren’t available at the music store in La Rochelle. And amazingly enough, one of the sound technicians who I had spoken to at the BJ Cole trio concert brought his guitar--unscrewed his straplocks from the body of it, and attached them and his strap to my guitar--and said ‘please, keep it, my gift to you’. This is incredible--I mean, crazily generous and kind. So, that was saved my butt. Meanwhile, somehow, my capo had disappeared in my hotel room. So, I borrowed one from Piers Faccini (thank you Piers). I had a couple of ideas of what could be good to do so I quickly ran thru some things with Andy Hamill (bass) and Paul the violinist. Freakishly good guitaris Nick Harper (who rode in with me from La Rochelle airport) asked if he could join in. In the end, I did ‘Any Love’, ‘Je Vous En Prie’ and ‘Find Yourself Alone’ solo; then Nick, Andy and Paul joined me for a version of ‘Ask Me No Questions’ by Bridget St. John. This was...wow. Everybody just played beautifully. I had that thing where almost a month of vacation meant I had a LOT of emotional steam to blow off. Not because vacation is a source of frustration, no--but playing music is where I regulate my motor, really. I have the normal doubts and passions--times 1000. So, really, maybe more than many people--I NEED to do something constructive, otherwise...well, I’d rather not now.
Anyway, this version of ‘Ask Me No Questions’ was where I let it all hang out, and the beauty of what these musicians were playing with me...my word. Prob. the best I will ever do that particular number...
After that, I joined Piers for his set on a duet version of the Smiths ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ and stayed on board to play piano on a version of ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ with most of the musicians who played that day joining in.
And that was that--I was free to enjoy the night and listen to music at the mainstage, drink lots of Pineau blanc, and chill with the peeps.
ROCHEFORT, 8/29
We assembled at HQ at noon and worked on some things for the grand finale section--different ideas were tossed around and a few things and settled on a plan. I waited around and watch most of my soundcheck window disappear--i had worked on some things with Andy and BJ, but Jeff, the dummer, and Geraint Watkins (pianist extraordinaire, played with Van Morrison, Paul McCartney and so on) had to go to another show, so...basically I tested the piano and tested the amp and prayed for rain.
My family arrived in the early evening and we settled into the hotel, and checked out a free mini concert outdoors in the center of town, while had our apero. I had missed them on the mainstage Friday, so I enjoyed checking out 78 RPM Selector--a mix of theatre and dance--a tattooed and pierced red devil dances while a woman DJs--using 78s and a gramophone.
We headed to HQ for dinner and I spent the evening running around playing tracks for all the musicians I hadn’t had time to rehearse with--I was doing this until literally the second I went on. Then we were setting up and we were off. This is one of this unique, unprecedented sets in my career--and I know a lot of fans who would have shit a brick to see this. My audience was hearing these songs for the first time but they were great and well into it. First up, a full band version of Down Like Me (none of these songs were rehearsed, and everything worked perfectly) with Jeff, Andy, and BJ; Then a full band version of Fireflies, same lineup. The same lineup, augmented by Gary Lucas on guitar, did a full band version of Lover’s Hymn; then I did a three song tribute to the late Larry Knechtel. Larry, who you’ve heard playing on Soft Commands (piano and organ on ‘You Drew’), left us last week. I explained to the audience, in French, who he was, and how he was one of those players that, largely anonymously, made hundreds of (famous) singers sound amazing. A kind of foot soldier in the music ranks--but a foot soldier with the talent of a great general, if you want to continue this metaphor (I don’t). Anyway, you’ve heard him on the Phil Spector hits, on 60s pop productions like the Mamas & the Papas, the 5th Dimension; replacing or augmenting the bass parts on early singles like ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’. The organ grooving away in ‘That’s Life’ by Sinatra? Larry. The piano in ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’? Larry. Larry played bass (and the guitar solo in ‘Guitar Man’) in Bread! He has done so much, and so well. And he was one of those ‘yeah, whatever’ guys. Not impressed with himself particularly. Not negative, just, no big deal.
So, I did some of the unthinkable--I played piano and sang, accompanied only by singer Rebecca Hollweg, on a version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (I never rehearsed with her; during her mainstage set was the only time I had to run over to a nearby hotel and play the piano in their empty bar to rehearse the piano part--I’d never played it before). Then, Jeff, Andy, BJ and Geraint Watkins came back and we did ‘Never My Love’ by the Association (Larry played on the original and played organ, piano and bass on my version). Awesome. And then (BJ sat out on the next one) we did something even more unthinkable--’God Only Knows’ (yep, Larry played on Pet Sounds). Geraint is a huge fan, so...he led the way musically. But I sang it with extensive vigor, and it was an awesome closer. I felt *somebody* should be doing an extensive homage to Larry, and I hope it transmitted to where it needed to go in the cosmos.
During the Grand Finale section, we did a barely-rehearsed version of Neil Young’s ‘Down to the Wire’ (done a la Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, like my recorded version). We had horns, we had guitars a-plenty (Gary Lucas and Nicolas Mingot), we had Daniel Yvinec (who’s played with Dead Can Dance, Donald Fagen, John Cale...) on bass, and Jano Hanela (from enormous 80s band Trust) and it rocked. NOBODY was expecting that...even the rehearsal was not as full on as the final version. It brought the house down.
It was super fun to have Dom, Aden and the grandparents along for the ride--Aden was well behaved and made lots of friends, there were lots of kids from the various musicians around--oh, I forgot about the part where Aden and a new friend simply walked to the center of the stage while I was playing ‘Fireflies’ and just stood there talking, like two city gals who just ran into each other on the street corner. Dom came out to retrieve them when the song was over and Aden said ‘Tell papa to stop, he doesn’t sing that well and it’s my turn now’. ha F-ing ha!
I wanted to say that this festival gave a unique a feeling, kind of a summer camp feeling (but better). I made a lot of friends; my blog here describes the musical goings on, but the people that I didn’t know before, and played with this time--well, everyone was in a generous mood and in this atmosphere, I felt like everyone was equally put in their best light for the duration. There was no real headliner, and no real opener...everybody was on equal ground, respected and giving respect. So I have to hand it to Karel for creating this atmosphere and to the musicians for being the great collection that they were. There was not a crank, grump or recluse in the bunch...no snobs...well, if they were, they were instantly corrected...but I suspect the casting was deliberate and paid off huge rewards for all involved.
In the morning we headed back by car to Ile de Re, and I have been enjoying a real Ile de Re day--cafe in the village square, swimming at the beach, fresh food enjoyed at home.
Back to the Ratte Race soon.
Love
KS
Paris
