Vol. 17 No. 49 Wed., Dec. 3,2003
OFF THE RECORD by Mike Farragher
LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!
The music charts got a blast of the late Sixties this week, as the Beatles remastered Let It Be . . . Naked was released. That has inspired a new interest in the boys from Liverpool. One man, though, saw it all the first time. Michael Snow, a Liverpool native with deep Irish roots and more than a casual relationship with the Fab Four, has recently released Never Say No to a Jar. The disc is an endearing musical diary with pages full of pop, Celtic traditional, and folk textures. The droll, heavily accented delivery on his original tunes is a throwback to mop top days of yesteryear. that adds to the charm of these finely crafted songs.
The singer-songwriter has been living in Nashville since 1973, but he claims not to miss the streets of Liverpool.
"I feel particularly at home with the bluegrass guys," he says. "The people from Appalachia will come up to you and say 'I'm Scotch-Irish' There's a British musical contingent in this town as well. These guys worked on m music, which was great."
He is a walking encyclopedia of the Liverpool streets, with a writer's knack for detail. We had a great chat. Here's how it went.
Liverpool has always been known for being a musical town. What was it like to grow up there during the sixties?
We used to listen to Fats Domino, Hank Williams, Little Richard, and of course, Irish music. If you grew up Irish in an Irish neighborhood, you'd hear all the traditional tunes at home along with the whole outburst of rock and roll from the States. There wasn't an English corn parent on my street when I was a kid.
I'm not sure everyone know just how Irish Liverpool was.
It was all people from various parts of Ireland. Because people came from all parts, we experienced the same things as the people in Ireland at the time. We had Irish marches and tensions between northerners and southerners. We had the same thing in Liverpool.
We had Catholic neighborhoods and Protestant ones. So, it was the same thing as growing up in Ireland, really, but the accent was a bit different. A lot of musicians from Liverpool grew up with Irish music because they had Irish parents or at the very least grandparents. Paul McCartney's family had the family singalongs, and the'd always be singing Irish songs.
I often thought of Ringo Starr's solo work and Beatles songs when I hear you sing. Was that intentional?
There's a certain humor, phrasing, and way of being that comes from being in Liverpool does influence the way that you sing. I mean, the Beatles didn't influence the Liverpool vibe; they brought a Liverpool sensibility into the music that they were creating. The idea that the Beatles invented Liverpool pisses people from Liverpool off (laughs).
Ringo was the only one that rally grew up in the worst of all possible environments, in 'digle,' where you took your life into your hands. Conversely, John grew up in a very elite neighborhood. Ringo was the only one who grew up in the gutter. I'm not trying to emulate Ringo or anything, but I always thought he sounded dead hones and real to me.
I do think my music sounds like what the Beatles would sound like if they were still around and employed Irish musicians in the studio (laughs_. I'm proud to say that.
Did you go to Ireland often as a kid?
I used to spend every summer in Galway, I would go over there at the start of the summer and then stay with my grandparents until September. I;d hear the traveling fiddle players and the mouth music when I was over.
How did the CD come about?
This is the third volume of a trilogy. It is all voiced through this character 'the skelly.' That's basic term for a Liverpool Irishman. The first one was called Here Comes The Skelly and then the next one was The Rats and the Rosary. So we were well into the flow of the project by the time volume number three came around. It's been about six years since inception to volume 3.
For someone coming into the trilogy at this point, how would you describe the story of the trilogy so far?
It's not a linear story. At this point, I guess you'd say that this would be the one that leads to closure and looking back at where the character has come from and what he feels about what has happened to him. He's made this journey from Ireland to Liverppol and the from Liverpool to London, and the from London to the States. Then he found a whole bunch of people of Irish heritage in the southern states and he celebrates that.
Do you feel a sense of accomplishment now that you've completed it?
It turned out the way I wanted it to. If you can call that an accomplishment, then yes, I am very pleased.
For more Information on Michael Snow or the order Never Say No to a Jar, log onto www.skellysongs.com
The singer-songwriter has been living in Nashville since 1973, but he claims not to miss the streets of Liverpool.
"I feel particularly at home with the bluegrass guys," he says. "The people from Appalachia will come up to you and say 'I'm Scotch-Irish' There's a British musical contingent in this town as well. These guys worked on m music, which was great."
He is a walking encyclopedia of the Liverpool streets, with a writer's knack for detail. We had a great chat. Here's how it went.
Liverpool has always been known for being a musical town. What was it like to grow up there during the sixties?
We used to listen to Fats Domino, Hank Williams, Little Richard, and of course, Irish music. If you grew up Irish in an Irish neighborhood, you'd hear all the traditional tunes at home along with the whole outburst of rock and roll from the States. There wasn't an English corn parent on my street when I was a kid.
I'm not sure everyone know just how Irish Liverpool was.
It was all people from various parts of Ireland. Because people came from all parts, we experienced the same things as the people in Ireland at the time. We had Irish marches and tensions between northerners and southerners. We had the same thing in Liverpool.
We had Catholic neighborhoods and Protestant ones. So, it was the same thing as growing up in Ireland, really, but the accent was a bit different. A lot of musicians from Liverpool grew up with Irish music because they had Irish parents or at the very least grandparents. Paul McCartney's family had the family singalongs, and the'd always be singing Irish songs.
I often thought of Ringo Starr's solo work and Beatles songs when I hear you sing. Was that intentional?
There's a certain humor, phrasing, and way of being that comes from being in Liverpool does influence the way that you sing. I mean, the Beatles didn't influence the Liverpool vibe; they brought a Liverpool sensibility into the music that they were creating. The idea that the Beatles invented Liverpool pisses people from Liverpool off (laughs).
Ringo was the only one that rally grew up in the worst of all possible environments, in 'digle,' where you took your life into your hands. Conversely, John grew up in a very elite neighborhood. Ringo was the only one who grew up in the gutter. I'm not trying to emulate Ringo or anything, but I always thought he sounded dead hones and real to me.
I do think my music sounds like what the Beatles would sound like if they were still around and employed Irish musicians in the studio (laughs_. I'm proud to say that.
Did you go to Ireland often as a kid?
I used to spend every summer in Galway, I would go over there at the start of the summer and then stay with my grandparents until September. I;d hear the traveling fiddle players and the mouth music when I was over.
How did the CD come about?
This is the third volume of a trilogy. It is all voiced through this character 'the skelly.' That's basic term for a Liverpool Irishman. The first one was called Here Comes The Skelly and then the next one was The Rats and the Rosary. So we were well into the flow of the project by the time volume number three came around. It's been about six years since inception to volume 3.
For someone coming into the trilogy at this point, how would you describe the story of the trilogy so far?
It's not a linear story. At this point, I guess you'd say that this would be the one that leads to closure and looking back at where the character has come from and what he feels about what has happened to him. He's made this journey from Ireland to Liverppol and the from Liverpool to London, and the from London to the States. Then he found a whole bunch of people of Irish heritage in the southern states and he celebrates that.
Do you feel a sense of accomplishment now that you've completed it?
It turned out the way I wanted it to. If you can call that an accomplishment, then yes, I am very pleased.
For more Information on Michael Snow or the order Never Say No to a Jar, log onto www.skellysongs.com