2022 - the year of the dan: chapter 16

Chapter 16

I finished July with Peter Broderick in Plugd. This was a highly entertaining evening featuring – as well as the expected heartfelt alt folk songs – an overhead projector presentation of Peter’s book Bob and stuff. A book of his drawings. Rudimentary would be a word. But it’s a children’s book so it works. I bought a copy along with a few other nuggets from the well stocked merch stand. I was glad to contribute to Peter’s burgeoning cottage industry. My 11 year old enjoyed the book but thought it was more a downstairs book than an upstairs book.

Musically Peter seems to be in a happy place although I wonder if his material was stronger when he seemed to be on more of an adventure – searching, restless – as opposed to having arrived at journey’s end. Just my impression. Having said that his cassette of Arthur Russell covers is very beautiful. And he is a wonderful piano player.

A word on Peter’s tour companion McCloud Zicmuse, apparently an ex-pat American long based in Belgium. He wore a green cape covered in badges. He played homemade instruments and improvised songs about searching Cork for a badge with the city crest to add to his collection. Peter stood down the back and laughed along heartily with the rest of us. He was obviously an extremely talented musician putting his talents to the service of what we might call naive folk music. In its own way, I found this strangely inspiring.

Afterwards he mentioned that he is the grand wizard of a local festival in Belgium, hence the cape and badges. Can I suggest to the powers that be that McCloud Zicmuse would be an excellent addition to the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade. Just get him a Cork badge and ideally have him following close behind the Legion of Mary grouping.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best of 2014 - Part 4: Jazz/Chamber/Orchestral/Wonky/Ambient/Minimalist

Best of 2014 - Part 3: Psych/Krautrock/Punk/Blues/Glam/Tropical

Matthew Bourne - Montauk Variations (The Leaf Label)