April 13: Cambridge: Alasdair Roberts + haeti...

oooo! in chicago aug. 10!!
excited.

07/31 SPACE Gallery Portland, ME
08/02 The Bar New Haven, CT
08/03 La Sala Rossa (w/ Bert Jansch) Montreal, QC,CAN
08/04 Casbah Lounge Hamilton, ON,CAN
08/05 Horseshoe Tavern (w/ Bert Jansch) Toronto, ON,CAN
08/07 Andy Warhol Museum (w/ Bert Jansch) Pittsburgh, PA
08/08 Wexner Center for the Arts (w/ Bert Jansch) Columbus, OH
08/10 Martyr's (w/ Bert Jansch) Chicago, IL
08/12 The Dame (w/ Bert Jansch) Lexington, KY
08/13 529 Atlanta, GA
08/14 Farm 255 Athens, GA
08/15 Pilot Light Knoxville, TN
08/16 The Southern (w/ Bert Jansch) Charlottesvill, VA
08/17 Golden West (w/ Lesser Gonzales Alvarez) Baltimore, MD
08/18 Velvet Lounge (w/ Kuschty Rye Ergot) Washington, DE
08/19 Bruar Falls Brooklyn, NY
08/20 City Winery (w/ Bert Jansch) New York, NY
08/21 Johnny Brenda's (w/ Bert Jansch) Philadelphia, PA

not coming to my neck of the woods :( and bert jansch canceled his show here last month :(((

i saw bert j when he was at the empty bottle too, so seeing them together -- whoo! i am having trouble verifying the martyr's gig, though -- website doesn't list it.

riveting, extremely quiet, and, not surprisingly, sparsely attended. there were some drag city ppl and about 20-25 others.

At the Brighton (UK) show I went to on this current tour, there were maybe about 15 people or something like that. I hope he doesn't take this sort of turn-out to heart.

here's the info on the new EP

New Alasdair Roberts EP "The Wyrd Meme" out October 20th

1. The Hallucinator and the King of the Silver Ship of Time

A Sybilline island-dweller is courted and berated by the King of Time, Chronos, when he comes sailing by in his opulent vessel. Her island exists outside of linear time and therefore does not fall under his jurisdiction; his courtship and berating prove useless and both the Hallucinatrix and Chronos go their separate ways. He advises her to mould a child of wax or chisel one from stone to banish her solitude; he also leaves her his garment, with the arrogant suggestion that she touch the hem now and again.

2. The Yarn Unraveller

The power of matriarchy, as represented by the symbol of the double-headed axe. The speaker is unfit to be an equal companion to the matriarch, who provides over her clan’s vast and ancient store of knowledge; he must serve as her yarn unraveller only. “Liberator, Lancer and Marauder” are street names in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The “harp of triple song” is that of Calliope, Erato and Euterpe. “Pastor Glass” is a controversial figure in Scottish religious and political life. The island of Simi in the Aegean was formerly known for its sponge-diving industry.

3. The Royal Road at the World’s End

The Royal Road mentioned in this context is Freud’s “Royal road to the unconscious”; that is, dreams. It is conflated with the Scottish folk tale “The Well at the World’s End”; the song describes a phantasmagorical journey narrated in the first person. Ouroubouros is invoked as a symbol of eternal recurrence (one of the themes of ‘Spoils’ LP, of which this EP is a companion piece); it transmutes into Abraxas, who entered the song via Jung’s “Seven Sermons to the Dead.” There is a reference to the display of stuffed animals in Winnemucca, Nevada, a settlement of Basque shepherds.

4. Coral and Tar

The titular substances are invoked as symbolic of a subtype of quasi-Manichaean duality. It is hoped that this song might be sung by those wishing to apologise to friends, family and loved ones after bouts of heavy drinking and/or other forms of substance abuse or self-destructive behaviour.

lol, love this guy

worst thing was a few years ago talking to a Decemberists fan who saw Ali open for them a couple years ago ... dude was totally making fun of Roberts and then raving about the Decemberists. X^0

props to the Decemberists for giving Ali the gig though!

LOVE THIS GUY

haha, he does seem like he'd be a fun guy to have a drink with -- from Freud’s “Royal road to the unconscious” to stuffed animals in Winnemucca, Nevada all in one breath ...

dude can discuss protolanguages
<3 <3 <3

The Hallucinator and the King of the Silver Ship of Time = kosmische folk

Dying to hear this ep. There remains so much to discover on Spoils though :)
Still hoping for some european dates...

sadly i just found this
Unfortunately, Bert is ill and his North American tour has been cancelled.

;_; for real

Spoils is totally killing me today. So excellent.
Reminds me that I need to buy the EP.

EP might be better than Spoils! So good.

Excellent picture of Alex Neilson on the back of it too!

Amber Gatherers really is a great record huh?

Cover artist on the current Wire. Photogenic chap.

love this guy.

will buy this "wire."

also he disappeared from facebook. i was enjoying his updates re. his recording.

Shot this with him the other day...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p165744498-3.jpg

Plastic toy guitar jamz!

sadly i just found this
Unfortunately, Bert is ill and his North American tour has been cancelled.

;_; for real

― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Monday, August 3, 2009 4:47 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

Bert is coming back to Chicago -- will AR be there too? Does anyone know? Venue is the same...fingers crossed!!

Bert Jansch is opening for Neil Young in May here in the southeast.

new record! looks like trad songs: http://www.dragcity.com/products/too-long-in-this-condition

oh and a free Ep too!
via Drag City:

ALASDAIR ROBERTS IS FREE

…free, that is, of the hang-ups and put-downs that come from selling music and making money from it. No, this time, you can have Alasdair’s music and it’s not even “up to you” to decide whether to pay a dime or not for it. This particular music was born free and that’s the way it’s staying, courtesy of Ayrtime. They sponser free shows too – but the inheritance has to run out sooner or later, right? Check it all out here while you can. http://www.ayrtime.org/roberts.html. Meanwhile, back in the world that we’ve known, the world that employs all of us down here in the ivory bunker to serve what we love (music, kids!), we’re preparing an Alasdair Roberts record for release on June 29th that will appeal to the old-fashioned among us, and not just because you need to pay money for it. No, Too Long In This Condition is a record of traditional songs that are hundreds if not thousands of years old when all placed end-to-end. Don’t forget, our Alasdair is a man deeply impressed by the intersecting belief systems and mythologies of the world. His last album, Spoils, put forth the proposition of syncretic contemporary folk rock – and quite successfully, we might add. For Too Long In This Condition, he’s once again working with a group of like-minded contemporaries to unravel the mystery behind the immemorial inclinations of our all-too-human race. In some ways it’s Alasdair at his most traddy with fiddles, harmony singers and a rich danceable beat; at other times, he’s at his most boldly forward with arrangements that couch the songs in the modern muddle, with the eerie sound of fingernails scraping at the coffin lids of the ageless dead. It’s too much to miss! Check out a representative sample of this album on this website right now.

oooooooooh! thanks for posting!
i found out that meg baird is opening for bert j. she's good, but i was disappointed.

Alasdair Roberts on the left, as you've probably never seen him before...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p8643616-3.jpg

It's dead clear when you compare it with your feb/2010 pic - only the toy guitar's missing ;)

Bought Too Long In This Condition a couple of weeks ago. Great great record. I love the sound of his voice. His friends are a nice bonus, too.

I thought his Archive Trails thing was fantastic, having seen the pretty serious-seeming preview event in Dundee I wasn't expecting it to be so funny.

listening to the forthcoming duets record w/ mairi morrison. not familiar w/ morrison, but it sounds lovely.

I STILL LOVE THIS GUY

Is the new one out yet? It says March on his website but I can't find it on the Drag City site.

http://www.dragcity.com/products/urstan

Haven't heard it - who is Mairi Morrison?

Oh good. Please pardon my inability to find that on my own.

Pardon granted, go in peace

Also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckxTQP_90P0&feature=related

Didn't know about the collab LP, will definitely get it. Played Spoils in the car last week, what a fantastic album. Might be my favourite of his.

new one is pretty nice, just wrote about it over here - http://ow.ly/b4Gpc
lotsa gaelic, some very tricky tempos, beautiful harmonies.

Urstan is pretty good I think but the arrangements veer into jaunty world-trad territory too often for my liking.

yeah i see what you mean, there is something a little too straight ahead about it (at least compared to alasdair's previous work), but i've been enjoying it nonetheless.
new video here too : http://vimeo.com/41888766

i bought it after my ~dentist's appt~ today as a treat for surviving a filling
even if it's a little slick, it's still ali
also that woman is adorable!

ha yeah she is cute.
added isle of lewis to my places i need to visit list
http://www.scottishcaravanner.com/images/uploads/lewis.jpg

ok so this is not my favorite AR release, but it'll do. The songs where he's singing are less "adult world-trad" than Morrison's. I still think she's charming though. It's something you could put on when the parents come over?

I also picked up the Roberts-compiled Lomax recordings record because I am compelled to buy things like that whenever I see them.

new one!
http://www.dragcity.com/system/assets/files/1370/original/AlasdairRoberts_AWonderWorkingStone_MINI.jpg
In January 2013, Drag City Records will release the new album by Alasdair Roberts & Friends, entitled A Wonder Working Stone. A collection of varied new epics, Alasdair's latest is by turns metaphysical, cosmological, phantasmagorical, topical, personal and universal. This is Alasdair's most ambitious, fully-realized work to date (an extraordinary claim following the incredible excursions made on his recent releases Spoils and Too Long In This Condition). A Wonder Working Stone continues Alasdair's long-standing love affair and deeply creative interaction with the traditional music of has native Scotland (and beyond), offering an idiosyncratic and nuanced radicalization of that tradition. Indeed, he questions the very notion of 'tradition' in the modern age, with songs addressing topics such as mortality (as ever), life, love, sex, faith and history. There is a meditation on loss - the losing of self, of the music of the nation? - that is belied and ultimately denied by the lively nature of the work. The arrangements of A Wonder Working Stone are dense with the music of friends, realizing the lifeblood of community, and throughout the album, they are presented with raucously cinematic flair. In the middle of it all, Roberts delivers his unique 'scordatura' finger style guitar and distinctive tenor vocals with the backing of a core group of among Glasgow's finest musicians - Ben Reynolds (electric guitar), Shane Connolly (drums), Rafe Fitzpatrick (fiddle, rap), Stevie Jones (bass) and with special guest vocals from Olivia Chaney, as well as appearances from many other fine players on strings, brass, flute and accordion, all of which edify and expand the musical world of Alasdair Roberts and all those friends who listen.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! I hear Alasdair Roberts batsignal and I rejoice!

FFFFFFFFFFantastic news. Great pic of him during a recent Glasgow festival performance in the latest Wire. I've yet to see him live, so I hope there's an accompanying tour for this album.

by turns metaphysical, cosmological, phantasmagorical, topical, personal and universal

yessss

best title so far - "the end of breeding"

she's lain with one too near in blood

http://www.dragcity.com/products/alasdair-roberts

http://www.dragcity.com/uploads/products/2256/images/1030/large_DC613.jpg

Alasdair Roberts
Alasdair Roberts
LP/CD/MP3/FLAC

Drag City
To Be Released 2015-01-27
Catalog # DC613

Ooh, I want details!

i like this guy.

cover looks like an alisdair gray drawing

Ooh, going all eponymous on us

There's a live rendition/recording of "The Problem of Freedom" posted here: http://onderinvloed.com/home/2014/10/alasdair-roberts-2/

shit-hot guitar

sooooo excited for new one
pre-ordered

shit-hot bass clarinet

or what is that?

the new album has so many saaaad songs on it! really beautiful.

i LOVE Farewell Sorrow. heard it for the first time this year. What else is as good as that album?

i'm a big fan of the Amber Gatherers, but it's a little peppier than Farewell Sorrow.

Just saw this, which I like a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBjGZTy6KME

i dig this new song! the drums are weird and i like them a lot, his voice sounds good too
also the album is called "pangs"!

https://soundcloud.com/drag-city/alasdair-roberts-the-downward-road

shit-hot guitar

― j., Tuesday, November 25, 2014 3:43 PM (two years ago)

One thing I will bleat, as they drag my sclerotic body from this rock, is why didn't I listen to more Alasdair Roberts?

What News? is quietly glorious.

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/07/02/alasdair-roberts-the-evernew-tongue/

is that a lil shit-hot guitar playing i hear????

November 24: Cambridge: Alasdair Roberts + Rachel Watkins

Hadn't seen AR play in forever, it was a good time. Nagging feeling that I still prefer him singing traditional ballads vs original compositions.

just the opposite

I don’t care whether he’s singing originals or traditionals— he’s always engaging imo/ime!

now we need someone to hate them both

Audio transcription has been my sideline for over 20 years. Please get in touch if you have any audio for speedy, accurate and confidential transcription. My fingers are a blur... thanks. pic.twitter.com/k0cktMFg1n

— Alasdair Roberts (@AliRobertsMusic) March 16, 2020

aw <3
99% accuracy! if i had need for this i would totally hire him

New Alasdair Roberts out today... it sounds like Alasdair Roberts, which is fine by me.

Saw him in a tiny little pub on Thursday. Just him and his guitar. He did two sets. The first was all material from the new album (Scottish & Irish folk songs) and the second set was a selection from the last twenty years. I didn't recognise a bunch of what he played, but in that small, dark space, where you could hear the creak of customers as they moved around in the pub upstairs, it was a good time to be alive.

https://i.imgur.com/39xXldO.jpeg

"Coming this spring from Boatwhistle Books: 'Library of Aethers: Selected Lyrics 1994-2024'. Beautifully illustrated inside and out by Annabel Wright and featuring contributions from Robin Robertson, Rafe Fitzpatrick, Màiri Nic'IlleMhoire and Christopher Mack. Two launch events: GLASGOW Glad Cafe, Wed 17th April. LONDON Kings Place, Sun 21st April (4pm). London tickets available here: https://shop.kingsplace.co.uk/29933/29937";

https://www.facebook.com/alasdair.roberts.7/posts/pfbid07DpNRvuQszKQqKghFQYKut3o9799pZPonMLJ162V73iwpKLQeijeGasfNLSDW8hal

Love the cover art. This should be really interesting.