Chaps, choo-choos and Charlestons

With the Twelfth Day of Christmas nearly upon us and the New Year now 4 days old this will be my last Christmas post as I take the opportunity to showcase some of my more vintage-y presents.  I expect you want to see what I got, so here we go:

Christmases have been fairly lean for us the last few years and tend to be celebrated quietly but so long as the family is together at some point that's all that truly matters.  My sisters have both come up trumps again this year, though, with a calendar from each of them - one scenic, one Steampunk!  I shall have to alternate between them, I think(!).



Another sororal present, the silent 1928 film The Wrecker has featured on this blog before and now (finally) makes it into my DVD collection.  I've watched it already and it's a cracking bit of 1920s fun & action.  The villain can be spotted from a mile off, the plot is both quaint yet serious, there are many long smouldering looks to camera and just in case there was any doubt about the hero's bona fides he turns out to be an ex-Lancashire cricket captain and therefore beyond reproach.  Plus, of course, plenty of trains (including that crash!) and buses too.  The feature, as previously mentioned, has been lovingly restored and given a new accompaniment by noted silent film music writer/composer Neil Brand.  He's even done the same for the abridged 14-minute home movie version (above) and there are plenty of other extras on the DVD to do with the film as well as other staged locomotive crashes and the old railway line on which parts of The Wrecker were filmed.

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Am I A Chap? was given to my by nan and a jolly interesting and amusing little tome it is, just as I had hoped.  A welcome addition to my bookshelf, where it will join other books from the same stable - The Chap Manifesto and The Best of The Chap.

I've occasionally considered submitting myself to the critical eye of The Chap magazine's editor Mr Gustav Temple in the Am I Chap? feature but always fear what would surely be his withering opprobrium at my effort.  It's the tweed within rather than without that really counts as the Chaps also say and I am in agreement with that.  Still, maybe one day...

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There were also other gifts not featured in the lead photograph for certain reasons.  Some are still en route from the supplier.  Others have no physical form.  I refer to the noted South American river and online retailer, who offer a splendid service whereby you can download music direct to your iPod.  As much as I enjoy having a CD in my hand (and a couple of new acquisitions included both) there's definitely something to be said for the space-saving qualities of direct mp3 downloads.  They also tend to be cheaper and in the case of music from the 1920s and '30s Amazon are to be commended for offering it in that format and thereby giving a new lease of life to these old songs.

I was thus able to obtain four new albums this way - Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer's latest, Can't Stop, Shan't Stop; Caro Emerald's new The Shocking Miss Emerald and two splendid compilations - Hits of 1930 and Vintage Charleston.  There's nothing like starting the New Year with some new music and these tunes will certainly keep me entertained for a long while.



I'm sure you all received some perfectly wonderful gifts too and I look forward to hearing about them as well.  In the meantime I'm off to do a bit of Charlestoning.  Toodle-pip!

'Antique pop' duo Victor & Penny breathes new life into old standards

'Antique pop' duo Victor & Penny breathes new life into old standards

It's an obscure source I have to thank for becoming aware of the singers who form the main subject of this post and I'm certainly glad to have done so. 

Hailing from the American Midwest, Kansas City musicians Jeff Freling and Erin McGrane - aka Victor & Penny - have formed a wonderful act performing songs from the 1910s, '20s and '30s in splendid style.  They've really captured the feelings of the period, as is mentioned, with their choice of songs but also proved how immediate and popular they can still be.  This is reflected in the term they have coined to describe their music - "antique pop"!  (I suppose it's as good a description as any; I've often wondered about the idea of shifting musical categories - what is classical, jazz, pop etc. relative to the passage of time?).

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Regardless of how you'd define it it's certainly got a great sound about it, with both performers really acquitting themselves well in all aspects - vocals, ukulele- and guitar-playing.  Not to mention being an attractive couple, decked out in the proper clothing too!  It sounds as if they are proving popular in the States too, with two albums of songs under their belts and a hefty national tour in the offing. Obviously professionals who enjoy what they're doing, it's jolly nice to know that such music is still appreciated so much today both by artists like Victor & Penny and the listening public alike.  Good luck to Victor & Penny in 2013, say I, and perhaps we will see them come across the Pond one day in the future?

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In other vintage music-related news Dutch singer Caro Emerald - who I first mentioned on this blog back in 2010 when her debut album (which has since gone five times platinum in her native Netherlands) made it on to B.B.C. Radio 2's playlist - has released her new single Tangled Up, which previews her upcoming second album The Shocking Miss Emerald due for release in May.  I think we can safely say from this performance that she is on fine form and if the rest of the album is as good then she's got another best-seller on her hands.  Have a listen and tell me what you think:



Thanks also to my listening to Radio 2 I've also had the good fortune to hear another young girl singer, this time from the UK, who is very much in the same vein as Miss Emerald - Hannah Garner, aka Miss 600. Jolly nice too, I think you'll agree!



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As one final thing before I finish up this post, I feel bound to mark the passing of noted British musician Kenny Ball who passed away last week at the age of 82.  Performing with his Jazzmen he was at the forefront of the "trad jazz" movement that proved surprisingly popular in the 1960s and '70s, in 1962 even scoring a Number 2 hit both in the U.S. and Britain with his band's recording of Midnight In Moscow.  With his contemporaries Acker Bilk and Chris Barber, among others, he was instrumental (no pun intended!) in the jazz revival that began at the height of 1960s Beatlemania.  A popular musical guest on The Morecambe & Wise Show throughout the 1970s he continued to work right up to a few weeks before his death, touring the country and performing both solo and with his trad jazz peers.  He was also an Essex lad like myself, living in the same town that I did for about 10 years (and which is still only ten minutes from where I am now) and passing away at my local hospital.

Thank you, Kenny Ball, for helping to keep the music alive.

A gem of a singer

I tend to listen to my iPod more than the radio these days as, even with all this DAB nonsense, there aren't many stations that play the kind of music I like (swing, dance and big bands - early jazz, in case you haven't guessed!). I do listen to Classic FM when the mood takes me but often I find myself listening to the Ken Bruce show on BBC Radio 2 (about the only decent thing left on that network these days).



This week I'm particularly glad I tuned in, as it's introduced me to this delightful singer, whose début album Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor is being featured this week. Her name is Caro Emerald and she hails from The Netherlands, where the album has been at number one in the charts practically since its release in January(!).

Her style (not to mention her looks) is really appealing, with a great '40s/'50s big band sound to it but with a modern twist. It rather reminds me of the Swing Revival that was popular in the mid- to late-90s, but I hope Miss Emerald will be more successful than that (I'm sure, with her unmitigated achievement in her home country, that she will be). From what I've seen and heard so far, Caro Emerald deserves a mention on this blog and I believe she will have a great following here as well as in mainland Europe. I for one highly recommend her and on the strength of her performance her album has just made it on to my Christmas list! Have a listen and let me know what you think.



** Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor will be released in the UK on the 18th of October and is the Album of the Week on the Ken Bruce Show this week. **