David Wiffen – Songs from the Lost & Found

DAVID WIFFEN
Songs from the Lost & Found
True North 
truenorthrecods.com

Back when I was young pup on the folk scene, Ottawa-based David Wiffen was one of the emerging Canadian artists we all seemed to be listening to.

His first LP, Live at the Bunkhouse Coffeehouse, Vancouver, BC, recorded in 1965, showcased the young Wiffen lending his deep baritone to more than credible versions of such folk standards including Ian Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

He then spent some time playing in bands like The Children with Bruce Cockburn, Peter Hodgson (the future Sneezy Waters) and Richard Patterson, and 3’s a Crowd before emerging as a significant singer-songwriter on his second solo LP, 1971’s eponymously named David Wiffen. Three of the songs from that album, “Driving Wheel,” “Mr. Wiffen,” and “More Often Than Not,” insightfully captured the realities of musicians’ lives and found their ways into the repertoires of such artists as Tom Rush, Ian & Sylvia, Jerry Jeff Walker, Harry Belafonte and many others.

His third LP, 1973’s Coast to Coast Fever, was produced by Bruce Cockburn and was an essential album of the era filled with memorable songs like the title track, “Skybound Station,” and a cover of “White Lines,” which introduced us to the young songwriter Willie P. Bennett. That album might have made Wiffen a star, but for whatever reasons, including personal demons, he gradually withdrew from public view until coming back, briefly, in 1999 with South of Somewhere, a CD that included some new material and re-recordings of some of his earlier material.

During the ‘70s and ‘80s, though, he did maintain some activity in the studio laying down versions of some of the songs he was writing – including five songs that would later be re-recorded for South of Somewhere. I don’t know if these were just recorded as demos or if they were tracks for a planned album, but the tapes were presumed lost for decades. But they turned up recently and many years later have been assembled as Songs from the Lost & Found.

While this new album is not as focused as his earlier LPs – it was, after all, recorded over a period of a decade-and-a-half with several different producers and sets of studio musicians – it is an important and worthy addition to Wiffen’s discography and includes 17 songs: 15 from Wiffen’s pen as well as fine versions of Lynn Miles’ “Crazy Me,” which I’d never heard before, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ “No Expectations,” one of my all-time favorite Rolling Stones songs.

Beyond the five songs recut for South of Somewhere and the two covers, there are 10 Wiffen originals that most of us are hearing for the first time on Songs from the Lost & Found. Among my favorites are “Ballad of Jacob Marlowe,” a traditional-sounding story song; “Your Room,” an introspective break-up song with a lovely jazz-influenced melody; “Any Other Rainy Day (aka Distant Star),” which reminds of those insightful songs I mentioned from David Wiffen that captured the realities of musicians’ lives; and “Rocking Chair World,” a vivid portrait of an serene early morning and the thoughts it provokes that eventually fades into nighttime, sleep and dreams.

Mr. Wiffen has been incommunicado for far too long. It’s great to hear his voice again.By the way, he’ll be doing a rare interview on Canadian Spaces on CKCU this coming Saturday, February 7 to talk about the album.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys
Anti- 
anti.com/artists/rogues-gallery/

About 35 or 36 years, I spent some time hanging around the Philadelphia Folk Festival with an aspiring record producer named Hal Willner. We were introduced, as I recall, by the legendary folk music photographer David Gahr. Some years later, Hal began to produce fascinating compilation albums, including wonderful tributes to such composers as Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk and Kurt Weill.

In 2006, he put together Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys, a wonderful 2-CD set of mostly non-traditional renditions of mostly traditional songs of the sea. It was an album that polarized the folk music world. Some, me included, loved it. It fit perfectly into my reasoning for naming my radio show (and, now, this blog) Folk Roots/Folk Branches – music rooted in, or branching out, from some kind of folk-based tradition. There were a lot of great tracks but a lot of traditional purists – some of the same folks who are still pissed about Bob Dylan at Newport in 1965 – hated the album as it wasn’t faithful to the finger-in-one-ear tradition of a cappella singing which some think of as the only authentic way to approach much of this kind of material.

My guess is this 2-CD sequel, Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys, will meet a similar reception. Personally, I’ve been having a lot of fun listening to this diverse group of artists – some of whom I’ve long loved, some of whom I’ve never previously appreciated, and a few of whom I’d never even heard of – re-imagine these songs of the sea.

The album begins with a rollicking version of “Leaving of Liverpool” by poguemeister Shane McGowan and a folk-rock rendition of “Sam’s Gone Away” by Robyn Hitchcock before settling into Beth Orton’s extended version of “Bamboo (River Come Down),” written by my late friend Dave Van Ronk and made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary on their first album. Ironically, it’s a song that Dave himself hated and quickly dropped from his performing repertoire.

Other highlights from the first CD include a lovely, ragged take on “Shenandoah,” sung by Tom Waits with harmony vocals and some lovely guitar playing by Keith Richards; Ivan Neville’s second line arrangement of “Mr. Stormalong”; and a soulful, cabaret arrangement of “Off to Sea Once More” by Macy Gray. The most beautiful moments are in Gavin Friday and Shannon McNally’s version of “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” (which Kate and Anna McGarrigle often performed as “Johnny’s Gone to Hilo”).

Highlights on the second CD include Dr. John’s setting of “The Lure of the Tropics,” a century-old poem by Clarence Leonard Hay; Jenni Muldaur’s lovely rendition of “Row the Boat, Child,” an African-American rowing shanty from the singing of Peter Davis of the Georgia Sea Island Singers; a good-time version of “Whiskey Johnny” by Michael Gira with Dixieland horns; and a poignant version of “Mrs. McGrath,” sung by Anjelica Huston to the accompaniment of a string quartet.

While most of the tracks were recorded especially for this release there are a couple of selections from other sources. There’s an instrumental medley of “Wedding Dress Song” and “Handsome Cabin Boy,” recorded back in the ‘60s by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and Marianne Faithfull’s lovely version of “Flandyke Shore” with harmonies by Kate and Anna McGarrigle, from her 2008 album Easy Come, Easy Go (which was produced by Hal Willner).

Caveat: As is any project of this type, there are bound to be occasional clunkers. But tracks like Katey Red and Big Freeduia’s annoying take on “Sally Racket” (Oy, what a racket!) are few and far between.

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--Mike Regenstreif