Manafonistas

Und hier ein paar Sätze von Bill Callahan, die er in einem Interview mit Daniel Gerhardt in der Oktoberausgabe der SPEX (No. 348) gesagt hat und die mir gefallen:
„Meine Songs sind eher wie Landschaften. Oder Dokumentationen von Landschaften.“
„Für mich ist Songwriting private Zeit, in der merkwürdige Dinge passieren.“
„Musik ist ein Teil unserer Körper. Wie war nochmal die Frage?“

1. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith (1955)
2. The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler (1953)
3. The Stain on the Snow, Georges Simenon (1950)
4. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins (1868)
5. The Shooting Party, Anton Chekhov (1884)
6. Rum Punch, Elmore Leonard (1992)
7. Nemesis, Agatha Christie (1971)
8. The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster (1985-86)
9. Bones and Silence, Reginald Hill (1990)
10. Roseanna, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1965)

One week from now, and two Manafonistas will meet in Southern Germany. They will listen for the first time (wait till I’ll be there, Gregs!) to „The River and The Thread“ on vinyl, put some Groschen in the Jukebox to listen to „Autumn Almanac“ and other hot shit from the 60’s, wander through the hinterland, discuss the historic aspects of Rupert Thomson’s excellent forthcoming novel „Faustinas Vollendung“ (original title: „Secrecy“), start a long-time experiment with the anti-ageing drug of the season, Resveratrol, steal an old Chevy from a parking lot of an old and deserted cemetery for a night ride (the dead are still there, under the earth, but, no kidding, there are no visitors anymore), they will eat Schwäbische Maultaschen and other strangely famous dishes of the area. Serious business is waiting, too. We are not happy with the distribution system of first class grass within the local scene of landscape painters, and the „Club of Spiritual Atheists“ seems to close its doors before having had any profound revelations. But, okay, who says life would be easy all the time, so we will handle things with all seriousness required, and, after all will be said and done, we will prepare a meeting of all Manafonistas on an autumn night in 2015 singing (a capella) Lee Hazlewood’s „Summer Wine“ incl. special guest Brian Eno.

„Even the lightest-hearted of Rosanne Cash’s superb 35-year repertoire often carries with it the weight of history, the struggle for self-discovery and a sense of place. It’s hardly surprising given her station, born to the first family of American music royalty. On The River & The Thread, Cash’s first album of original material in seven years, and the first since brain surgery in 2007, those vibes run deeper than ever, plunging into complicated emotions, impossible situations, piquant insights, fate and history, and the meaning of it all in the land of Dixie.

Playing like a travelogue through time, space and place, The River & The Thread opens – with a yawning, bluesy guitar chord – in the northwestern Alabama burg of Florence. This is “A Feather’s Not A Bird”, and it finds Cash flitting between emotional and geographical landscapes to a sinewy, swampy mix of hot-wired guitars, silky harmonies and a revelatory, ominously impassioned vocal. The setting could be right now, or 100 years either direction. “There’s never any highway when you’re looking for the past,” she declares, part of a kind of cumulative taking stock.“ (Luke Torn, Uncut Magazine)