Bap's Friends – Professional Reviews
EDITORIAL REVIEWS Belfast Telegraqph Sunday Life Music Column Article Bap Kennedy’s new album Howl On is a thing of rare beauty that I’ve really fallen for in recent months. In fact ever since Bap handed me a little plastic sleeved copy of it back in March it’s rarely been off rotation on my CD player. I’d even go as far as to say that it’s already a strong contender for album of the year in my book.
Ralph presents the Evening Show Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM, on BBC Radio Ulster Ralph McLean The Belfast Newsletter Quite Big Interview Q. What is your earliest memory of childhood, and what sort of childhood did you have? 'HOWL ON' REVIEW
With friends like fellow Belfast born Van Morrison and over thirty years in the music industry, singer-songwriter Bap Kennedy has a sound musical pedigree, even if his name doesn't sound familiar. Courtesy of Dave Sugden
at – Leeds Music Scene – Thank you Dave! 'Hey Joe' Review The song 'Hey Joe' has been around for decades. Written by Billy Roberts, there have been hundreds of covers that have now made the song a rock standard. The most famous version of 'Hey Joe' is that which launched the career of Jimi Hendrix back in 1966, who took inspiration from folk singer Tim Rose's version. Courtesy of Dave Sugden
at – Leeds Music Scene – Thank you Dave! Bap Kennedy – Too Long In Exile The ex-Energy Orchard front man discusses honesty in songwriting, keeping things
Bap Kennedy's looking for a light for his cigarette, but nobody in the hall smokes. He mutters under his breath in mock indignation and takes another swig from his bottle of lager. It's late afternoon on a sunny, Sunday afternoon in Newcastle and he and his band have just been through a painless sound check. They are part way through a tour in support of Bap's new album, Lonely Street, which features predominantly acoustic music with touches of country, folk and rock and roll, and the initial response has been good. In conversation Bap Kennedy is softly spoken, well-mannered and seemingly relaxed, but there's a glint in his eyes which tells you that he still has the spirit of the younger, goat-dancing Irish singer inside him. There may be no smoke, but the fire's still burning within for Bap Kennedy.
[Original article by Steve Wilcock in Triste 3.] My Cultural Life: Bap Kennedy
By Lee Henry
Bap Kennedy is a singer-songwriter and producer from Belfast. During the 1980s and 90s, as frontman of NI favourites Energy Orchard, Kennedy counted the likes of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones as fans. He has worked and written with Van Morrison and his brother, Brian, is also a successful singer and musician.
Probably when we signed our first major record deal way back when. There were five or six of us from Belfast and the world was our oyster. We had all moved to London around 1985, my brother Brian and I and a couple of other guys from Belfast who subsequently became Energy Orchard. Between 1985 and 1988 we figured out what we wanted to do and eventually got our record deal. It sounds easy, but it took three years of bad gigs and rehearsals, working on building sites. It was pretty grim. We were innocent and full of hope about a future in the music business, and finally we managed to get the attention of record labels. That was great. Q. Were you always aware that you had talent? No, we just thought it [playing rock music] was something we could maybe do, and we wanted to have a go at it. Nobody wanted to work for a living. We all liked hanging around bars and playing music, and we thought that if there was the possibility that we could make a living out of it, then we'd really have a go. And we did. Q. What is your most treasured possession? Q. What's your favourite film? Q. What’s the last book you read? Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. I also like stuff by Charles Bukowski, stuff that musicians like: On The Road, all the Beat stuff. When I like something, like Post Office by Bukowski, I tend to buy four or five copies and give them to people who I think would like it. Q. What would be your desert island discs? I’d have to bring a Hank Williams song. It could be one of many. Probably ‘I’m So Lonesome I could Cry.’ If I’m on a desert island, I’d have that one. An Elvis Presley song, and probably something from Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison. That's more than likely. Probably 'Cypress Avenue'. Q. Which is your favourite Northern Irish band? My favourite band from here was Ash, apart from the Undertones, who I hated at the time. I didn’t get them originally. Back then I was 16 or 17, and there was that sort of begrudging feeling that you get in Northern Ireland, you know? ‘Who are these guys with their parallel trousers? They’re not even punks!’ And singing songs with baby in them! That didn’t go down well, too transatlantic. But obviously, in hindsight, they were one of the best bands from that whole era. And Ash are kind of the successors to the Undertones really. Sort of soulful, bubblegum rock. It’s a hard one to pull off. I think they’re a very underrated band. They should be as big as Coldplay, but they’re just slightly too cool, I think. Q. Which Irish cultural figure do you most admire? It has to be Van Morrison, for many reasons. He exists in the upper reaches of the rock pantheon, with Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan. He’s one of those guys, but he’s from just around the corner. 40 years later and he's recognised as the genius that he is. He sings songs about Belfast, so maybe I relate to Van Morrison because I know, specifically, what he’s talking about. But it’s a universal thing. Q. Is it easier to succeed in your chosen field in the 21st century? In my day, pre-internet, pre-digital music, the only way to really succeed was to go and play gigs, and play gigs in London, where the record companies were. Very rarely would A&R men come to Northern Ireland. In London, when we played a gig, there were six or seven A&R men every night, and you soon realise that that’s what it’s all about. They’re always looking for something. But I’m sure they must be trawling the internet these days in the same way that they used to trawl pubs. The internet is another shop window and another way of getting noticed. But at the end of the day, record companies still want you to be a fully-rounded, presentable, marketable outfit. You need to be all-singing, all-dancing. Q. What’s the most important lesson life has taught you? Many thanks to Lee Henry of Cultural Northern Ireland for this brilliant, Lee's article is found at
Culture Northern Ireland. Huge thanks! WOW folks. What a great festival. If you haven’t been enjoying yourself – check your pulse quickly. Really – the only excuse for not having a good time is you’re not breathing in and out. I’ve had a busy time, but a great one. From the onset of the Countdown to the frantic first week and the final three days – it’s all music, music and more music. ONE of the highlights for Wendy and I was meeting and enjoying the music of Irishman Bap Kennedy.
(Thank you very much, Anna and Alison!)
THE BIG PICTURE
Bap Kennedy might not be well known in Australia but word is spreading. When The Big Picture was released here about 12 months ago, writer Mike Daly wrote in the Melbourne Age, a major national newspaper: "Every so often, you encounter an album that just sweeps you up in its musical embrace. That’s the case with Bap Kennedy’s The Big Picture which has rarely left my CD player since its arrival. The Big Picture is a heady mixture of Celtic soul, folk and country-pop. All songs are self-penned, except the lilting ballad Milky Way, which was co-written with (Van) Morrison. Mike Daly gave the album five stars, the maximum, and only reserved for classics. He was spot on!
Submitted by Bruce Morgan Entertainment.ie – September 23, 2006 – [Review: 2 August 2000]
Bap Kennedy - Lonely Street
Where have all the angry young hell-raisers of pop gone? They have been replaced by youngish, sensitive men with souls and a sense of history who sing tributes to the hard living musical legends of yore. In this, his third album, Kennedy does just that for Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. Amazingly, he has managed to do it with considerable flare and rhythm and almost no mawkish sentimentality.
THE BIG PICTURE
Ireland's Most Gifted Young Songwriter Returns with his Album 'the Big Picture.' A Seamless Blend of Celtic Soul and Southern Roots that features Contributions from Van Morrison, Legendary Pogues Frontman Shane Macgowan and Carolyn Cassady, the Widow of Author Neal Cassady (The Inspiration for Jack Kerouas's Central Character in his Classic Beat Novel 'On The Road'), who is Heard on "Moriarty's Blues" Reciting from her Memoir 'off the Road'. Features Oz Only Bonus Track 'sweet Oblivion.'
"The music world is full of hard luck stories and pear-shaped careers, but turning the half-empty glass into a cup of aural nectar for the soul is a rare gift. The Big Picture reveals Bap Kennedy to be blessed with it. Four albums and half a lifetime in and this man from Belfast -
his birth name long supplanted by the local vernacular for a bread roll
- has distilled his love of Hank Williams and Van Morrison, his
self-preserving humour and his endearingly stoic bar-room philosophies
into a set of stunningly beautiful songs full of simple truisms and
staggering depth.
From Miles of Music - By Jeff Weiss Long overdue has been a new studio record from rootsy Irish songsmith Bap Kennedy. [Thank you Jeff] Press Reviews From the Loose Website:
Not only is Bap Kennedy getting some great reviews from the music press and excellent radio coverage courtesy of the Radio 2 playlisted track Rock 'n'Roll Heaven, it now seems that the mainstream media, in the shape of the Daily Mirror, Sun and Daily Mail are all climbing aboard. "Effortlessly smooth Country-soul with more than a hint of Van Morrison
"A-list Americana songwriter Bap Kennedy comes roaring back "No-holds-barred tales of lovelorn sorrow - this album
Country & Western: Our Man Bap Blows Me Away!
By Ralph McLean ~ 30 October 2005 I had the pleasure of meeting my old friend Bap Kennedy this week. He was in town to record a few songs for a new television show I'm presenting called The Blackstaff Sessions, and I have to say he was on great form. Hearing the man and his band rock their way through a selection of classics from his solo career, got me thinking about Bap and his standing in the bigger scheme of things. To me he might just be the greatest songwriter to come from this neck of the woods since Van Morrison. If that doesn't add up to a unique musical proposition then I don't know what does. I've never been a fan of Bono's overblown vision, and I just couldn't see the appeal of a Belfast band belting out similar sounds.
A Slice of Honesty
~ Belfast Telegraph - Sunday Life Home Bap Kennedy - brother of the more famous Brian - is one of the stars of this weekend's 1st Annual Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival. Here he talks to Sunday Life Country and Western columnist, RALPH McLEAN, about John Lennon, Hank Williams – and the day he borrowed a girl's tights for The Pogues' Shane MacGowan.
An honest man is a rare thing in the superficial world of the music business believe you me. This article is courtesy of
The following article is courtesy of Jules Jackson at CLUAS [Thank you Jules!]
I first came across the music of Bap Kennedy in 1991. I was sitting in the kitchen of my then girlfriend’s flat one Sunday morning, wearing her dressing gown, eating her cornflakes and watching some video music show presented by Dave Fanning on her television. Suddenly, the film for Energy Orchard’s ‘How The West Was Won’ burst onto the screen. This brilliantly realised clip featured the band playing in front of a giant cinema screen onto which was projected an old Hollywood Western then, in the manner of ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’, the band members and the cowboys changed places. Yet, what was more amazing than the visual effects was the song itself. ‘How The West Was Won’ juxtaposed the imagery of the American West with the troubles in Northern Ireland and, even today, lyrics like, “Pass the ammunition there’s something going on / Another crazy politician wants to give me a gun”, have lost none of their relevance. Right there, I became an admirer of the author of that tune and later that same day went out and bought the album it was on, ‘Stop The Machine’.
I have to say that listening to ‘The Big Picture’ was akin to picking up the phone and hearing the voice of an old friend that I haven’t spoken to in years. Songs such as ‘The Truth is Painful’ and ‘Streetwise’ have their antecedents in earlier material such as ‘My Cheating Heart’ whilst the glorious sweep of ‘On The Mighty Ocean Alcohol’, with its guest vocals courtesy of Shane McGowan, moves forward Kennedy’s thesis that the Irish invented country music. Elsewhere, Kennedy’s brand of Americana blends seamlessly with Van Morrison’s Celtic Soul mysticism on the co-written, ‘Milky Way’. Kennedy frames these songs within a lush, smooth, honey and grits production that ebbs and flows much like the sound of waves on a beach. The record also demonstrates how far Kennedy has developed his gift for expressing complex ideas within a superficially simple lyric. For example, in ‘The Beautiful Country’, he sings, “I’m on the road boys / Travellin’ all the time / But I’ve never seen a country / As beautiful as mine”. It took George Bernard Shaw an entire speech to express the same thing at the end of ‘John Bull’s Other Island’. Overall, this fine record by one of Ireland’s foremost musicians is another milestone in the ongoing fusion of Irish and American musical forms which began when the traditional Irish ballad ‘Bard of Armagh’ first found its way to Texas in the 1870s.
Jules Jackson
BAP KENNEDY - The Big Picture
Irish songwriter gets better and better...
By Steve Stockman of
Rhythms of Redemption [Thank you Steve!]
Since the demise of would be and almost were stadium rockers Energy Orchard, west Belfast native Bap Kennedy has been ploughing a Steve Earle accompanied Nashville furrow. He has done his tributes to Hank Williams and Elvis Presley and now he is coming up to date and nearer home. Milky Way is a co-write with Van Morrison and the man from the opposite end of Belfast is deep in the influence elsewhere too though the instrumentation still lives out in the country. As well as Van there is a famous guest spot by the Pogue Shane Magowan on the appropriately named On The Mighty Ocean Of Alcohol and beat poet Neal Cassady’s wife Carolyn adds as spoken word on Moriarty's Blues. All in all Kennedy’s writing gets more and more carefully crafted and this album cash’s the cheques his special guest write. The following review is by Michael Mee for NetRhythms. Bap Kennedy ~ The Big Picture If you're encouraged to up sticks and head for Nashville by Steve Earle, it's a fair bet that you've got something about you. If you then co-write with Van Morrison and record at his studio then it's a done deal, you're officially very good. Bap Kennedy's latest album The Big Picture merely confirms that the judgement of Earle and Morrison is as sound as their music.
But strangely the album only bursts into life after a rather muted opening. Rock and Roll Heaven sounds like Kennedy feels the need to establish his songwriting credentials before beginning the album proper. It's an object lesson in how to write a catchy, radio friendly but rather listless song, it bears little relation to the wonderful things that follow.
However after that blip, it's easy to understand why Kennedy is seen as the heir apparent (perhaps already crowned) to fellow Irishman Van Morrison. Like Morrison he draws together country/folk/blues/rock in a warm and inviting collection of personal memories. It would be understandable to think of Kennedy as Morrison's musical son but The Big Picture belongs entirely to Kennedy's life and experiences.
The gentle rhythms of songs like Loverman draw the album in and make it a comfortable and intimate listen. Bap Kennedy is more interested in placing the jewels of his talent in the correct setting than making overblown rock n roll statements and who better to join him on the cautionary and poignantly haunting On The Mighty Ocean Alcohol than Shane McGowan. It is testament to Kennedy's integrity that McGowan agreed to it. Like McGowan and to a lesser degree Morrison, Kennedy's albums are an open book. What you get is the man as much as the professional musician earning his corn. And, like his two compatriots, Kennedy's love of his native Ireland and its musical heritage is never very far from the surface. The Beautiful Country is neither jingoistic nor xenophobic, his affection for of home doesn't come at anyone's expense, the song is just a heartfelt, honest expression. That honesty is one of the building blocks that make him such an engaging performer. The term singer songwriter seems to have become a catch all phrase these days. In reality it applies to musicians like Bap Kennedy who write what they know and trust their own ability to connect with the audience. It is a trust well-placed. The article below is by the lovely Sue Cavendish,
The Kashmir's reputation as a venue of excellence was yet again enhanced by a full set by the superb Bap Kennedy Band on June 18th. It was listening to Bap Kennedy and band perform Van Morrison's Madame George (one of only two covers he performed) when it hit me that Bap has that same Astral Weeks (and Belfast) musical magic which captures the imagination and holds one spellbound. The magic drew the waitresses and staff from the kitchens and had the audience singing along to Bap's own songs even when they hadn't heard the words before. Bap was inspired by (and dedicated his last album to) Hank Williams and Elvis Presley, but as Hey Joe (the encore) revealed, whatever Bap performs, it is very much his own sound. An opportunity to see Bap Kennedy and his band is not to be missed, so I don't. They are one of the few unsigned bands playing grown-up music; thoroughly professional musicians who haven't lost that edge and intensity; cult genius waiting for well-deserved success. Wonderful lap steel and acoustic guitar from Ed Deane, flute and saxophone from Damian Hand, stand-up bass by Jason Wilson and drumming from Martin Hughes together with Bap's voice, full of warm Irish charm, compel the listener to hear them again...and again... Please see the NetRhythms
site for other fine articles about
The following is a transcript of an interview with Bap With his notorious inclination for honesty and a do what you gotta do approach to making music, indie singer-songwriter Bap Kennedy easily went toward the top of my interview list.
From his days as the intensely kinetic frontman for the Irish roots-rock band, Energy Orchard, to his critically acclaimed and admittedly slower-paced alt-country solo career, Bap Kennedy has proven to be a troubadour with integrity. Bap's no preacher, just a willing observer whose unpretentious perspective on life can remind us that we're all in this together. In fact, once familiar with this genuine and generous talent, you can’t help feeling that you know the man who writes the songs, and by the end of any one of his albums, you’re likely to know yourself a little better, too.
Bap and I spoke before his Sunday night show at the Boogaloo in North London. We talked about his new album, his former band and how he once made a record in a day.
Lisa Scott: You’ve just released your fourth solo album, The Big Picture (Loose). It’s great stuff! Tell me a bit about the recording process.
Bap Kennedy:
LS: How did distribution finally work out?
BK: Well, I put out the last couple of records on my own label which was entirely my operation, but it was so hard to do, I decided to find a label that would do like a fifty-percent deal. I’d make the record, give them the record, and then they’d do all the donkeywork. They’d press the record, find distributors and take it to the media. So, that's what I'm doing with Loose Records, which is the alternative country label in London.
LS: Your former Energy Orchard bandmate, Paul Toner plays guitar on the new track "The Truth Is Painful." Is this the first reunion?
BK: Yeah. When Energy Orchard split up, a couple of guys went to America, a couple guys went to England and Ireland, so everybody was all over the place. I hadn’t really any desire to find anyone from the band and get them on a record because we’d made four records together, so it wasn’t really an interesting thing to do. But it’s been almost ten years since Energy Orchard broke up, so I decided that it was time to get Paul on something – I’ve always loved his guitar playing. So I tracked him down. We hadn't spoken since the band split up. He did the track, and did a great job, as usual. Then he disappeared again.
LS: Energy Orchard was one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen. You released four amazing studio albums and eventually a great live album. Then, the band split in 1996. What happened?
BK: When you're with a major label, too many people get involved in the creative process, telling you what track should be the radio track. They don’t like this, and they don’t like that, and too many arguments about control, really. Your band is just there with every other band, and you might work with people who don’t necessarily like what you do. They’re just going to sell you like a tin of beans. You become a product, and you don’t feel like it’s an artistic thing. It ends up being about money.
LS: So it was the business that took the heart out of it?
BK: We were pretty disorganized and didn’t realize how much business was involved. Every time we had a meeting with the record company, they would bring in a case of beer because we were argumentative, but after we drank the beer we just said, "okay, whatever." Then, we were on the road for three years. We stayed in five star hotels, went on big tour buses, and then realized that we were paying for it all. By the time we realized that, we were a million pounds in debt, as were about five or six other acts on the label. Fortunately they had signed Nirvana around the same time as us, so they broke big, and that covered all the shortfalls. So, after three years, we were in debt. We’d all been drinking too much and taking too many drugs and being on buses for months on end - that will take the heart out of it.
LS: In the new song "Too Old For Fairytales" you say, I’m tired of the fight/I’m bored with the game. Is this a reference to the music business?
BK: Absolutely. Energy Orchard got signed in 1989, and we were struggling for three or four years before that to get a record deal, and before that, I was in a band, so I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Making records, coming close to success, and then not having success, and going back to the start again. Making another record, going out on the road - just going round and round like that for years. It’s a hard road, and at the end of every road is a gig, another gig and another gig. So yeah, it’s a grind, but when you have success it makes up for it.
LS: Your song "Moonlight Kiss" was featured in the John Cusak film Serendipity. And, of course, "Vampire" appeared on the soundtrack for You Can Count On Me. That must have felt like success.
BK: Yeah, that kind of makes it worthwhile. When Serendipity came along, that was enough money to keep me going for a year. That made up for a couple of bad years, you know. But, then that goes away, and you have to do the next album and try to get another song in another movie which is what I’m doing right now, trying to get that together.
LS: I understand you made Hillbilly Shakespeare for like…nothing. BK: When I decided to start my own label to put out Domestic Blues, the guy who was helping me do it said," well you need a bit of a catalog." He had a tribute record label, and I used to help him out. I’d go in and knock out these tribute records, and he said, "why don’t you do a Hank Williams tribute record?" So I thought, good idea. I’m a big Hank Williams fan, so it seemed like the right thing to do. I got together with four or five friends, got a couple cases of beer and went in the studio and knocked it out in a day, so that became the first thing that came out on my label which sort of opened the door. Then Domestic Blues came out on my label, and it just started the ball rolling.
LS: You recorded that album in one day? Those must of been some good friends. And, it's such a great little record.
BK: Some people like it, some don't. It has its moments.
LS: But didn’t Hillbilly Shakespeare actually outsell Domestic Blues which cost much more to produce?
BK: It sold more in this country than Domestic Blues. I think Domestic Blues did pretty good in the states in an independent way. It sold about 15 thousand, but it didn’t sell many here because it only came out on my label and at that stage, it only sold about 2 or 3 thousand copies. Hillbilly Shakespeare sold more which financed the next record.
LS: How hard is it to get your songs on the radio?
BK: In this country, it’s difficult to get on the radio. It’s very pop-oriented, very youth-driven. The younger you are, the more interested they are in you. There are radio shows for stuff that I do, but it’s tough, you know. Especially if there’s no big label behind it, pushing it. Radio stations will play a record if they think there’s a big campaign behind it. It’s all part of what makes it interesting to them. But really, It’s hard to get a record deal if you’re over 21. When you’re 42, it’s impossible, so you’ve got to do it yourself. I’ve been knocked back a few times because it’s just me putting out a record – but that's life.
LS: So when it’s just you putting out a record, what does that mean for the fans? How can they get access to the music? And what about touring?
BK: Technology has made everybody able to put stuff out. You can make a record in your bedroom now. I’m sure you’ve probably made a record.
LS: No, not a record but I do edit movies in my bedroom.
BK: Well, there you go. So it’s good in some ways, but in other ways, it keeps it all so small. I can’t really afford to go on tour too often. That’s the downside… But you can make records.
LS: If you can’t tour, how do you get the record out to a wider audience?
BK: That’s where the major labels win because they can afford to put a band out on the road for three years in every market they can think of. Where as I can just go and do three gigs to celebrate the release of an album. Unless somebody throws a fortune behind it that’s all you can do.
LS: You started recording Stop the Machine in 1991 the day Desert Storm began, and you said, " I really did think it was the end of the world, and here I was making a record. " And, that's an understandable reaction, but what do you have to say about the power of music to communicate feelings and ideas which can bridge differences and create community?
BK: It’s something that I’ve always struggled with. Music to me is the most important thing and the least important thing at the same time. It’s a strange thing. You’re making a record when the world is about to burst into flames, and it seems like, you know…what’s the point? But music is a very important thing like when Beatles records were being smuggled into Russia, and that kept the flame alive over there. And music has kept me going when times were hard. At the same time it’s a commodity, it’s something you hear on the radio, it’s wallpaper – unless you’ve got something to say. And, It’s different today. People are looking for careers in music because they see it as a way to make a lot of money, and if they have all the marketing right, the music becomes the last consideration. If you want a career in music, fair enough, but really, the most important thing is the music not all the stuff around it, not all the record companies, the money, the expensive studios. It’s the music. If it doesn’t make you feel something, don’t do it.
LS: You've said of Elvis and Hank that they were both blessed and cursed with talent and success. How has your career blessed you?
BK: When I started out, I was a kid in Belfast, and except for the occasional spectacular rat, it was a very boring place to live. No bands would ever come to Belfast. It was a backwater, culturally. Then when punk rock happened, it was like a Technicolor event, and for me to be able to start a band and play music was just amazing. Then to be able to go to other countries and tour and to go and meet people from other countries, and the whole traveling thing was a revelation to me. Music opened up the world for me, really, and that’s the best part of it.
LS: So, what's the curse?
BK: The curse is that you tend to party too much because every night’s a Saturday night when you’re in a band. You’re playing gigs every night. People want to have a good time, so you end up staying up with them, and the thing just extends into the next day. Then you go to another town, and you do the same thing again, and it becomes a lifestyle. You never go to bed. You’re always drunk or stoned, and on it goes. Eventually you do get sick of it. It took me twenty years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Ed. Note]
Lisa Elaine Scott writer / director / editor Lisa is a longtime human rights activist who, among other things, is "an independent filmmaker who has founded a multi-media production company based in Los Angeles; and she co-founded an independent artist's association committed to advancing human rights through the arts.
Lisa videotaped and interviewed Bap at a recent Boogaloo gig; she's including clips from her videos and interviews with the artists she's filming for inclusion in her film entitled 'You Go On' a Rock'n'Roll documentary film due out in 2006. Lisa, thank you very much again!]
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by Ralph McLean Music Column – Bap Kennedy
With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings looming large on the horizon and the album about to be officially released it couldn’t be timed better either. Howl On, you see, is a sort of concept album based around the space race and that crazy time when everyone seemed optimistic and anything seemed possible.
If that all sounds a bit pretentious don’t worry. This is no rambling prog rock epic about the mysteries of outer space. Instead it’s a laid back collection of nostalgic gems that groove along in an easy country vibe it’s impossible not to fall in love with. As you’d expect from a master craftsman like Bap, whose career since disbanding the much missed Energy Orchard has seen him work with everyone from Van Morrison to Shane MacGowen, the songs are simple and instantly memorable as well. There are name checks for Hank Williams alongside Neil Armstrong and even a country rock jog through the classic Hey Joe that features local Woodstock hero Henry McCullough on lead guitar to enjoy.
Listen out for more on the album from Bap himself on my Friday night radio show and don’t miss the Belfast man and his full band in concert at The Black Box on the 4th July. Support comes from the brilliant Lost Brothers and tickets cost £15. It should be quite a night.
Listen again feature at Listen Again
A. I have a clear memory of the first Moon Landing. I remember the excitement mounting daily as they got closer to the moon - and then trying to stay awake for Neil Armstrong's first steps. Unfortunately I fell asleep and missed it. A couple of days later it was history and not a big deal at all.
My childhood was fairly typical in seventies Belfast. There was some very dark periods and I take my hat off to my parents who had six kids to contend with and the Troubles. They tried to instill good values in each one of us and made sure we had some kind of normality. Holidays at Butlins were a particular highlight.
Q. What school subjects were you best at?
A. My best subjects were English and History...I learned about the Great Depression and President Roosevelt which has stayed with me all through the years. I've always been interested in America and I've spent a lot of time there. I was a good middle distance runner (as my old man was and still is an athlete ) and won a few medals but I'm not really very sporty. I liked art but school was generally too rigid for me and I couldn't go a minute without zoning out.
Q. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A. I wanted to have an interesting life but I had no plans to be a musician. I never dreamed as a kid I'd be playing gigs around the world and making records. I think my younger self would be amazed by the twists and turns my life has taken.
Q. You play guitar, sing and record music. Did you take any music lessons or are you self-taught?
A. I had compulsory music lessons in school which I hated. I didn't want to sing Gilbert and Sullivan songs or play a trumpet. I taught myself and had a guitar slung around my neck all day long. I practised and practised until I could play that thing. You have to be obsessed to learn an instrument - and you need to enjoy it or what’s the point?
Also I've spent twenty years in recording studios in the UK and America and learned how to produce records by working with producer/artists
like Steve Earle.
Q. What was your favourite song as a child?
A. The Streets of Laredo...a gunslinger ballad by Marty Robbins. I think I love it even more now and lately I've been playing it at gigs. I also remember my mother singing "You Are My Sunshine" when I was very young and I always smile when I hear that one.
Q. Did you have a favourite singer or band?
A. It was Elvis when I was young - and the Beatles were always on the radio. I loved them as well. I also liked a lot of the bubblegum music that was around in the early seventies like Alvin Stardust and Suzi Quattro- it's for kids anyway.
Q. What was the first record you ever bought?
A. The first record bought for me by my parents as a 9th birthday present was an Elvis cassette..The King Creole soundtrack. Which is not a bad place to start a record collection. The first record I bought was a Public Image single. Johnny Rotten was the greatest surly teenager in the world. Now he's a surly grandad.
Q. You started out in punk bands in 1978. How do you feel about having been in the music business for more than 30 years?
A. My new album "Howl On" is receiving the best reviews so far in my career - so at the moment I feel like I'm just getting started. When I made my first record in 1989 it also came out on vinyl and I was underwhelmed by the new format CDs. We (Energy Orchard) looked really small on the cover! Now the CD is starting to look a bit precarious. I've seen a lot of changes especially the way major record companies are struggling to keep up with the internet. I've got my own record company ( Lonely Street Discs) and it's great to have that much control over your music.
Q. Is a life in music all you imagined it would be?
A. When I started out I thought the music business would be an escape from a mundane life. As I got more serious and had record and publishing deals I realised I had to know more about business than the average person which was a pain for me. My attention span is very short and my business sense was non existent at the start. Thankfully my wife Brenda was a lawyer before she became a songwriter. She has made a big difference to my career and our record company in the last couple of years. We both just want to be musicians, playing gigs and travelling - which is every bit as good as it sounds - but sometimes we're stuck all day in our office dealing with record company issues - like registering songs and liaising with distributors.
Q. What have been the high points so far?
A. There have been quite a few over the years. Singing Gloria live with Van Morrison was probably number one. Also getting my songs into Hollywood movies and American TV shows. Playing five nights at the Albert Hall supporting Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits last year would definitely be up there - and of course Glastonbury this year was a great experience - and having Brenda in the band is the icing on the cake.
Q. Have you been star-struck by anyone?
A. I've been around quite a few famous people over the years and I don't get star-struck. People are just people as far as I'm concerned and some are lucky enough to have great talent that gets recognised and rewarded.
Q. Is there anyone you’d especially like to work with?
A. I produce records for other artists and I like doing that. I'd like to work with Leonard Cohen on his next record. I think a bit of country soul might go well with his genius lyrics.
Q. What five people would you invite to a dinner party?
A. Leonard Cohen, Hank Williams, Oscar Wilde, Neil Armstrong and Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space)
Q. Worst holiday ever?
A. We had a family camping holiday in the glens of Antrim in the seventies. A torrential downpour in the middle of the night has put me off tents for life.
Q. Favourite book?
A. Moondust by Andrew Smith...a fantastic account of the Apollo missions and the stories of the nine surviving moonwalkers. This book inspired my latest album "Howl On"...not many books have had that effect on me.
Q. Favourite film?
A. I have loads but I'll have to settle on these two: Spinal Tap and Apollo 13
Q. Last time you cried?
A. When my brother Jim ate my Easter egg.....last year.
Q. Tell us a secret about yourself.
A. I'm a qualified diamond gemmologist with the letters D.G.A. after my name. That means I'm a diamond expert and can spot a fake in a heartbeat.
By Chris Audsley – For Leeds Music Scene – 9th June 2009
'Howl On' is Bap Kennedy's fifth studio album and the first to be recorded in his native Northern Ireland, although the cool country feel is more Nashville than County Down. Opening track 'America' tells you everything you need to know.
The most famous song on the album is the superb cover of 'Hey Joe.' More upbeat than the Jimi Hendrix version, it's breathed new life into a song that's been around for nearly fifty years. Although it's a great track, it's not the best song on the album, that title goes to 'Cold War Country Blues.' The lyrics to the song are brilliant: "you better get it right John Kennedy / 'Cause if you get it wrong they'll drop the atom bomb." The tempo is perfect. It's only using a standard country structure but it's just so enjoyable. Throw in 'One Of Those Days' and you end up with a good time country soundtrack.
The album also shows a softer side to Bap Kennedy's song writing, but with mixed effect. 'Right Stuff' and 'Ballad Of Neil Armstrong' are nice and relaxing. 'Irish Moon' is a tribute to life growing up in Northern Ireland, while the title track pulls on the old heart strings. Then there are a couple that don't quite catch one's attention; 'The Blue One' and 'The Heart Of Universal Love.'
On the whole the album has a great folk / country feel to it. It's very laid back and extremely enjoyable.
By Chris Audsley – For Leeds Music Scene – 9th June 2009
Taken from his new album 'Howl On,' Bap Kennedy has managed to come up with his own adaptation. With a country sound, acoustic guitar and rolling percussion he has breathed new life into the song. While some of the lead guitar parts are very 'Hendrix-esque' the overall feel of the song is lot more uplifting than it's well known predecessor.
It's great to hear another wonderful version of a very popular song. At times covering a classic can backfire, but in this case it's worked a treat.
[circa 2000]
in perspective and the passion in his Celtic Soul
In London in the late eighties one of the hottest live acts around was The Energy Orchard. Cooking up an energetic blend of rock, folk and maximum R&B, filtered through an ex-pat Irish sensibility, the focus of their early live activity was centred around The New Pegasus in Hackney. The band had all lived within a couple of streets of each other in Belfast and formed when the remnants of two other bands, the Bankrobbers and Ten Past Seven, had united. Bap still remembers those times with affection.
"Those gigs were special. People still talk about those days. It was like The Orchard version of Them at the Maritime. The Pegasus was definitely the one where it all came together and we got our record deal. We never really surpassed those gigs. After that it all turned into shit." But there was more to the band than just creating a post-punk vision of Them; Bap, in particular, appreciated the more mystical side of Van Morrison too. At the time he took the comment that some of the tracks sounded like Astral Weeks out-takes as a compliment rather than as a criticism. As he says now, "That's what we were trying to do. We were trying to marry Them and Astral Weeks."
Their self-titled first album was probably as good a fusion of the two main musical strands as The Energy Orchard ever managed, but musical fashion was changing and the critical rise of the "Madchester" scene took away whatever impetus they had gathered. "It was just bad timing, it really was. Just when we were getting our shit together the Happy Mondays were the current thing. We were instantly dated and wrong for the times. Timing is everything. You've got to catch the wave."
Another crack in The Orchard was the growing split in the band as to which style to pursue. Some of the band favouring rocking out more, while the Celtic Soul/Astral Weeks vibe was more Bap's department. "There were like three bands in one band!" he laughs. "We never really had a game plan on what we wanted to sound like."
With their second album, the prophetically titled, Stop The Machine in 1992, the hard rock faction in the band won out and the band, in a desperate attempt to regain their popularity, upped the wattage and opted for more of a stadium rock style. "We were trying to break America and all that and listening to the wrong people. We were in such a mess financially and we panicked. It was just a big, lumbering machine. There were 12 people on the road and everybody's livelihoods depended on that record and it became something else. Once it gets to that stage, desperation sets in and suddenly you make stupid decisions because you feel responsible for these people. You're like, Let's do this. Let's try that song. That sounds like a hit in America. There was just no heart in that record. There are some enduring songs, but the second album is a crock of shit mainly."
It certainly feels like a different band, but the third album, Shinola (1993), was a partial return to form and featured a spectacular version of Van Morrison's Madame George, which Bap is still proud of and more importantly for the band, in the short term, was recorded extremely cheaply.
"The second album we recorded in LA and then in Rockford studios where Queen did Bohemian Rhapsody. The final recording bill for that album was something like a quarter of a million quid. The third album cost only nine grand! Once you've got to work within these restrictions you're free from the shackles. But the band was going downhill. There were a couple of guys who didn't really want to be in a band, to be honest".
I ask him how he manages to keep things in perspective when he's on the road with a band or involved in long-drawn out studio sessions? Bap thinks this over for a moment or two and then illustrates his answer by recalling an incident when he was recording in America in 1991. "We were making our second record in LA when the Desert Storm thing happened. I really did think that it was the end of the world and I was making a record. When you see other things going on in the world you realise that what you're doing doesn't really add up to a hill of beans. You're just a little band. I suppose you are trapped up in your own little world, but every time you're making records you should look at CNN and see there's real tragedy all over the fucking world."
The Energy Orchard soldiered on with another below-par album, Painkiller and then gave up the ghost with the half-decent posthumous live set Orchardville. Many talented musicians have their one crack at fame and then fade away into a twilight world of poorly paying gigs, no promotion and non-existent record sales. But this would not be the end of the story: fate had other things in store for Bap Kennedy.
Steve Earle was an old friend of Bap's from the early part of the decade and he threw what appeared to be a life line by inviting Bap Kennedy to record a solo album in the States with Earle producing and playing. The resulting album Domestic Blues was recorded with some of Nashville's top players including Peter Rowan, Jerry Douglas and Roy Huskey Jr. and featured Nanci Griffiths on guest vocals. How was it working over there? "It was pretty good," replies Bap. "The Energy Orchard did their last gig on St Patrick's Day and I went to Nashville two or three months later and made Domestic Blues. It all sort of ran together."
Unfortunately, the recording was plagued with legal and financial complications which held up matters. Whilst waiting for its release Bap played a few gigs with a pick-up band called The Navarinos, named after a local road in London, and managed a left-field Elvis impersonator whose repertoire stretched to covering the works of Joy Division. This was an enjoyable break, but he was relieved when he was able to get back to his main creative focus when Domestic Blues was finally released in 1998 and started picking up decent reviews in the music media. "It had been on the shelf for over a year. I couldn't get a record deal in England and then Steve Earle finally put it out on his own label after a few issues had been sorted out."
The next album that Bap released was something of a departure. Hillbilly Shakespeare was an album of quite faithful cover versions of Hank Williams songs and was a surprise success quickly out-selling Domestic Blues. What was the thinking behind making the record? "That record came out on very little money. The idea wasn't to make money, just to make a record really and try to start the ball rolling again. Things had basically been ever so static for the previous two years. I made it just to get my recording muscles up again and have a bit of fun. It's a very self-indulgent record. I'm quite surprised it sold quite so well in America. It made me enough money to start my own label and that came from Hillbilly Shakespeare. Good old Hank!"
Was he happy with the versions he did on that album? "It's okay. If I had more money and more time I'd have made a better record. I mean, we made that record in a couple of days. The first day of recording we started at 9 a.m. and we’d brought down two cases of Stella from Sainsburys and by 11 o'clock we were all blootered. We probably spent more money on booze than we did on the record. We did it for the craic really. I did it as well as I could under the circumstances, though I could do it a lot better now. I'm thinking of doing another one: Hillbilly Shakespeare: Act II - the other batch of songs. Spend a few more quid on it and get a few tasty players in."
The album Lonely Street was released in the summer of 2000 and seemed a natural continuation of what came before. An album of predominantly acoustic, original songs arranged with country textures it is, as Bap says, "About being immersed in Nashville and Elvis and Hank Williams." Bap really does have a high regard for Elvis and Hank. "Their music never let me down. I've never put my favourite Hank Williams song on or my favourite Elvis song and not got that same buzz."
But Bap's love for his musical heroes isn't unconditional though; he'll admit that their material could sometimes be lame. "No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car isn't exactly genius. The best of their work is remarkable though. Elvis has been voted artist of the century for good reason and Hank Williams is probably the songwriter of the century. The best of their work, and Hank did a lot of corny stuff too, is unbeatable, there's nothing to touch it."
In terms of live performances, Hank Williams was sometimes a bit hit and miss, especially later on in his career. I wonder if Bap has calmed down on stage since his days in the Energy Orchard when he was renowned for being an energetic showman. "Since the 'accident,' I've taken it a bit easy. I jumped off the balcony one night and wrecked my leg so I haven't jumped off a PA system for a few years. I still leap around occasionally. It depends on how the spirit takes me. I still get the goat dancer in me, but I think I'm a lot more mature these days - I like the songs better.”
In the song Lonesome Lullaby, from Lonely Street Bap writes, I don't want to die for a lonesome lullaby tonight. Hank Williams, of course, died tragically young, his lifeless body rattling around unnoticed in the back of a chauffeured car as he was driven through a snow-filled night to a gig on New Year's Day. Where does Bap stand on the live hard and die young attitude towards music as practised by so many popular musicians from Hank Williams, through Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain and beyond? "It's something you've got to think about. I only know the prices people pay. I know if you really want to be as good as Hank Williams, then you need to go into the dark side with him. You have to go down there and I don't know if I want to go that far - just for a song and to lose everything."
The album also contains a song called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Is that a reference to the famous quote about [Hank Williams' alter ego] Luke The Drifter writing the Sunday morning songs while Hank wrote the sin songs for the Saturday nights, I wonder? Bap seems delighted that I spotted the reference. "Well picked up on that one. It's about listening to a Hank Williams song when you've had a row with the missus and how Luke The Drifter changes into Hank Williams."
The album holds together well as a fine collection of songs with a common tone and a sense of honesty, which, as Bap says, can be appreciated beyond the so-called 'concept' of the album. This naturally leads into a discussion with Bap about songwriting.
The music that Bap Kennedy is currently playing could be described as a mixture of country, folk and rock with some soul touches. How does it feel to be playing a predominantly American musical form? Van Morrison has often talked about Celtic Soul and how many of the roots of the music came from the British Isles, so he claimed it was legitimate for him to play it. Does Bap feel that way too? "I always contend that we invented the stuff. It's Scottish and Irish people who went over to America who basically laid the groundwork for what we call country now. So these things resonate with me and with anyone who has any Celtic blood in them. You hear country music and you recognise something. It feels perfectly natural to me to be playing this kind of music. I just haven't got the right accent, that's all!" and he laughs.
Although the current album is lyrically, by nature of its subject matter, American, earlier works by Bap such as The Shankill and The Falls and Ghosts Of Belfast on Domestic Blues are firmly rooted in places Bap knows. How does he feel about the many British bands which appropriate the lyrical vocabulary as well as the musical style and start incongruously singing about 'Rambling down the interstate, waiting on a greyhound'?
Bap agrees with me that the situation can get ridiculous: "These bands are coming from the wrong place with their approach to the music. I'm coming from a place where there's a huge tradition of folk music. You write about things you know about. You don't write about having a ranch in Texas when you come from Hackney. That's bollocks you know!"
How does he get suitable subject matter that inspires him to write? What inspires him to write? How does he break out of the circle of overly familiar subjects? "It's generally just a new way of saying it. It's the same old shit. You're just trying to say it in a different way to how people have said it before. I suppose it's generally song titles which inspire me to write songs. You hear people saying things in conversations. Sometimes, just taking it out of context makes it suddenly sound ambiguous." Does he ever physically record the ideas by jotting them in a notebook? "I have a couple of notebooks. I end up using them, but I don't usually write songs until it's time to make a record. A few weeks before I'll write nine or ten songs. I look in the book and I'll have got loads and loads of little lines, which I put together, and then I just let the juices flow. It's like putting up a shelf or something. You have to spend a little bit of time doing it - you have to be disciplined. You've got to sit in a room for a couple of hours and do some work. The rest of the year, except once a year for those three weeks, you're just getting pissed."
It's surely not as easy as this, and Bap is sometimes a little dismissive of his talents in many ways echoing one of his heroes, Van Morrison, in his workaday and demythologising attitude to songwriting. Bap Kennedy's melodies are particularly memorable, despite using rudimentary chord sequences, and I wonder if he ever feels the need to get a tune down on cassette immediately or risk losing it? "If a melody comes into my head and it's good, then it sticks, if not then they'll disappear. I do believe there are tunes floating through the ether." Finally, I ask him to summarise his views on songwriting and his answer doesn't surprise me. "The key is simplicity. There's only twelve notes. It's the same old chord structures, the same old themes, the same old thing; you're just adding that little something from yourself. The thing that makes it fresh is the sincerity."
Bap Kennedy's music might have the "same old chord structures," but his melodies have the priceless knack of nagging at you until they catch hold in your subconscious and his lyrics capture the mood of the song perfectly with economy and style. It's no surprise that he rates the subjects of his last album so highly in rock's pantheon? "I'd put Elvis and Hank on the same cloud and the Beatles floating just a little way below, and then you've got Van, Bob, all the rest making a circle around them."
And there's no doubting that a certain Bap Kennedy's cloud, while a little lower still, is climbing ever higher.
It’s actually got nothing to do with music. It's my diploma in Diamond Gemolgy. I suppose that might sound a little silly to some people, but I decided to do something that wasn’t musical, and I got really into gemology, specifically diamonds. I’m kind of an expert on diamonds. I can tell a good diamond from a poor diamond. It’s come in handy a few times. If you ever want to get engaged, come and see me. I’ll steer you right.
Maybe The Big Lebowski. I like cult movies. I’m a QFT kind of person.
Be kind to your parents, because some day you might need them.
very insightful, very informative article!
Australian Music Magazine Review in Tamworth, Australia
Anna Rose's Column ~ 26 January 2007
What a surprise package. My goodness. If Bill Chambers hadn’t given us the tip on this bloke, we would have been musically poorer. As it is, I am most certainly a BK convert – although Wendy has been listening to his music for some time now, having been introduced to it by a friend some years ago.
Touring with Bap was expat Aussie Danny George Wilson, who bears a rather striking resemblance to Bill Oddie (of TV’s Goodies’ fame). What a gorgeous voice – and he can certainly play that guitar.
Working upstairs at The Family on Thursday afternoon was a true pleasure, having Danny’s beautiful voice and guitar come drifting up the stairwell. Then when Bap took the stage, he was joined by Bill Chambers on guitar and lap steel, superb bassman Chris Haigh and sticks and skins champion, BJ Barker, whose artful use of the brushes completed this tasty quartet.
If you weren’t one of the lucky ones to catch this once only festival gig, slash your wrists now, as Bap and Danny are winging their way back to Ireland and England. We will just have to hope they will come back again. In the meantime, check out their websites www.bapkennedy.com and http://www.dannygeorgewilson.com to get a taste of what you missed out on – or enjoyed to the max – and join their mailing list to receive updates on news and future tours.
"Bap’s Steve Earle-produced 1998 debut, The Domestic Blues, was a personal favourite but this one’s even better."
(Bruce, thank you very much again for all your kindnesses!)
Album Details
From the Amazon.com website, 4 May 2005:
[Please note that this release contains the bonus track 'Sweet Oblivion']
[Internal capitalization, quotation marks, and all text are precisely as in the original]
"Thirty-seven minutes of pure bliss…[Bap] has distilled his love of Hank Williams and Van Morrison, his self-preserving humour and his endearingly stoic bar-room philosophies into a set of stunningly beautiful songs full of simple truisms and staggering depth." MOJO 4 STARS!
"...Imagine the best possible Van Morrison album with empathy replacing bitterness and a sense of wonder revealed for all to share in. Fabulous." [Colin Harper for MoJo Music Magazine. --March 2005]
"Presented on disc with such luxuriant seeming
effortlessness - horns, strings, vibes and a three-chord trick in the
hands of a master - one just knows the effort must have been truly
immense." MOJO
His Loose Records debut is a personal statement self-evident in songs like The Truth Is Painful and The Sweet Smell Of Success filled with Celtic and Southern spirit. Kennedy's easy manner and earnest delivery blends in with cool Memphis Soul on several cuts, complete with appropriate horn accents and sly grooves.
Befitting of this disc's Astral Weeks vibe is that it was primarily recorded at Van Morrison's recording studio. The Man himself shares a co-writing credit with Kennedy on the working man's ballad Milky Way.
Other guests include Shane MacGowan - appropriately recorded in a backroom of London's notorious pub Boogaloo - on the aptly named On The Mighty Ocean Alcohol. Carolyn Cassady (widow of Neal Cassady) adds some spoken words to the beat tribute Moriartys Blues.
From top to bottom, The Big Picture proves to be a richly detailed portrait of an artist worthy of a closer look.
The word is out - Bap Kennedy has released one of this year's great albums.
makes this album a gentle delight" - THE SUN
into the frame with his latest album thanks to some stirring songs
and a little help from his legendary friends" - Cluas – 8 out of 10 stars! CLUAS
should give Belfast hero Kennedy the wider attention he warrants" - DAILY MIRROR
"A majestic record" - DAILY MAIL
"The Big Picture" is his smoothest yet - but smart in execution, be it "Rock
And Roll Heaven's" chugging roll (worthy of classic Blasters), or BJ Cole
threading steel into versions of
"Too Old For Fairytales"
- UNCUT
If that sounds a bit over-the-top just consider the facts. Bap has a warm Belfast croon that recalls Van The Man in his early 70s prime, his songs all simmer with that passionate sound that's best described as Celtic Soul, and his band whip up a country storm that would put most Nashville house bands to shame.
Bap first tasted fame back in the 80s with raggle-taggle rockers Energy Orchard, but I have to say the "U2 meets the Waterboys" direction that the band was heading in, at that particular time, did little to float my musical boat.
I first came to love the man's music when I stumbled across a copy of his debut solo release Domestic Blues, in a second hand shop, a few years back. I was probably attracted in the first place by the fact that the album was produced by the great Steve Earle, I mean if the King Of New Country was involved, it had to be worth buying right?
But once I got the CD home and stuck it on my stereo for the first time I swiftly realised that here was a really talented artist just crying out for wider exposure.
From there I tracked down Hillbilly Shakespeare, a superb tribute album to the songs of Hank Williams, and Bap's second official album Lonely Street.
It was Lonely Street, with its instantly memorable songs like Elvis Hank And Me and Saturday Night Sunday Morning, that really lifted Bap into a higher league in my book.
He pushed the musical envelope even further this year, when he released his best album to date, The Big Picture, on London based country label Loose Records. For me it's a perfect example of what makes Bap's music so very special.
Tunes like The Truth Is Painful and Too Old For Fairytales drift along dreamily on a sea of pedal steel guitar and pipes while Milky Way (a co-write with Van Morrison himself), is a beautiful, moody classic in the making that might just be Bap's greatest work to date.
Inevitably it's his more flamboyant brother Brian that tends to get all the publicity, but if there's any justice in the world, Bap will get to taste international success before too long as well.
He certainly deserves it.
By Ralph McLean ~ 20 February 2005
Belfast singer songwriter, Bap Kennedy, though is almost too honest for his own good.
No sooner have I met the man over a notably non-alcoholic beer, in a downtown hostelry,
to discuss his new album, The Big Picture, than he's regaling me with enough tales of the great
and the good of the music biz to fill a book. All told, I'm pleased to say, with a refreshing lack of showbiz insincerity.
For example, when asked why he first wanted to get involved in the industry his reply is clearly heartfelt.
"It's the only job you can turn up drunk for," he laughs, looking back on his formative years.
"When I started, I just wanted to have a good time and travel a bit. It was a revelation when I discovered,
about three years into my career, that I could actually write songs."
Naturally enough, that early songwriter turned to the greats for inspiration.
"I played my first proper gig at the Pound Bar, in Belfast, the night John Lennon died and I still love his music," he reveals.
"All those originals, like Lennon, Sinatra and Elvis, are heroes of mine. They just never let you down.
"I like to think of them all jamming away in heaven and arguing about who takes the lead vocal."
Being a man of infinite taste, Bap name checks Hank Williams as perhaps the greatest inspiration of all,
although he admits he came late to the charms of the man they called the Hillbilly Shakespeare.
"I heard so many bad versions of Hank songs, like Jambalaya, when I was growing up, that
I used to think Hank was corny," he says, like a man talking about the days before he saw the light.
"A few years back, I picked up a cheap compilation CD of his work, in a wee record shop in Hackney,
and I couldn't believe how good he was."
That was then and this is now, of course, and today Bap is an acclaimed singer-songwriter, who plays to packed houses at home and abroad, and can count the likes of Steve Earle and Van Morrison as personal friends.
He may not have the public profile of his singing brother, Brian, but those in the know will tell you this Kennedy is going places.
His third solo album, The Big Picture, may just be the one to do it for him, too.
"It's taken about two years to come out, but I'm pleased with it," he says of the record released last week. "It's got a contemplative feel, but every song on there is strong in its own right."
It's not every local artist who can claim a co-writing credit with Van the Man either, but with the song Milky Way, Bap has done just that.
"I've known Van since he took an interest in my first band, Energy Orchard, in the late 1980s," he explains.
"Being fellow Belfast lads, we got talking and he said 'Do you fancy writing a song together?' Needless to say, I said yes, so we got the acoustic guitars out, threw a lot of lines at each other and, 20 minutes later, there was the song."
Wasn't it a bit scary working with one of your heroes though? "Not at all," he says, laughing at the memory.
"Basically, we were just two guys sitting together writing a song."
The star involvement doesn't end with Van either.
That seemingly perpetually paralytic poet of the Pogues, Shane MacGowan, sings on another standout track from the album.
"That was a difficult one," says Bap. "We share this favourite bar in London called The Boogaloo and, when I saw him in there, I went up and said 'I've got this song called On The Mighty Ocean Alcohol that I'd love you to sing on.'
"I thought he might take offence at the title, but he said he loved it."
Shane agreeing to do it was one thing. But, getting him away from the bar was another.
"We had to record his vocal in the kitchen at the back of the pub,
and we needed what they call a pop shield to put in front of the microphone. "In the end we borrowed a pair of tights from this girl in the bar."
And, how did he charm the nylons of that said young girl?
"Well, she wasn't keen at first. But I bought her a triple tequila
and told her Shane MacGowan needed her," says Bap. "That seemed to do the trick."
It just goes to show, for Bap, honesty is always the best policy.
The Belfast Telegraph and Ralph McLean For the Telegraph ~ And McLean's Country>
[Many thanks to you Ralph – and to your editor, as well!]
3 March 2005
Editor of NetRhythms, online UK-based Music Magazine
[Thank you, Sue!]
Bap and many other artistes.
that was done for the upcoming film "You Go On."
Bap Kennedy
by Lisa Scott
writer / director / editor
relating to how Bap's music has affected you...
please email Shirley at: Lontana2@comcast.net̫ Thank you.
More information about Bap is found on his website Bap Kennedy
and at BapSpace