There have been a few losses from the world of soul and R&B this week, what with Gwen McRae dying aged 81 at the end of last week, and then the great Roberta Flack succumbing to a heart attack on Monday, after several years of ill health, aged 88.
So, as our small way of paying homage to them, we will start one of our occasional musical meanderings with Roberta Flack - and embark on a journey of six (or so) connections to Mr Kevin Shields, in the little feature we like to call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields.
Roberta Flack was born in North Carolina in 1937, before the family moved to Arlington, Virginia. Having learnt the piano, she would accompany the choir at the Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, but also hang out watching the likes of Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke singing. She was able to attend Howard University on a full scholarship aged just 15, initially playing piano, but later switching to voice. She earned plaudits for directing a version of Verdi's Aida and graduated aged 19!
The death of her father forced her to North Carolina and a job teaching music and English at a segregated school. She eventually ended up in Washington D.C. teaching at high schools and accompanying opera singers performing at the Tivoli Club, before singing blues and pop tunes in the breaks.
By 1968, she was a fully professional singer-songwriter and was signed to Atlantic Records. She is, of course, best known for her version of Killing Me Softly and (Ewan MacColl's) The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - but in 1971 she featured in the legendary Soul to Soul concert film, directed by Denis Saunders and headlined by Wilson Pickett, and with Ike & Tina Turner and the Staples Singers.
Roberta Flack: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Live version)
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Wilson Pickett was from Alabama, and early in his career was a member of vocal group The Falcons, which also included Eddie Floyd (Knock on Wood). He later wrote If You Need Me, a hit for Solomon Burke, before having a minor hit of his own in 1963 with It's Too Late.
His breakthrough came in 1965 with In The MIdnight Hour, which got him to number 21 on the US chart and number 12 in the UK. It went on to sell over a million copies and was recorded with the legendary Stax house band (minus Booker T. Jones on this occasion). The following year he had a hit with his version (and arguably the definitive one) of Mack Rice's Mustang Sally.
Wilson Pickett: In The Midnight Hour (Audio only)
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Both In The Midnight Hour and Mustang Sally were front and centre in 1991 Irish film, The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker and featuring Andrew Strong as the main male singer. The film also includes versions of tunes like Take Me To The River, Chain Of Fools and I Can't Stand The Rain. It revolves around a band that is created in Dublin playing a wide range of R&B covers and who are promised they will get to sing with Wilson Pickett himself. All of the actors that played the fictional band were also musicians in real life, including Andrea Corr (later of The Corrs) and Glen Hansard.
The Commitments: Mustang Sally (Official music video)
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Glen Hansard was already busking on the streets of Dublin at the tender age of thirteen, and formed a band, The Frames, in 1990. They got the name because he liked fixing bicycles, and his garden and shed were often full of bicycle frames and bits and pieces.
Hansard also formed a folk duo, The Swell Season, with Czech-Icelandic musician Markéta Irglová (who he also dated for two years or so). In 2007 the pair acted in the indie film Once, and co-wrote the song Falling Slowly, which won the Best Original Song gong at the 2008 Oscars. Hansard, as a solo act, also got to support Eddie Vedder on his 2011 solo tour, and the same year play at Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary concert.
Early band members of The Frames included Graham Downey, son of Thin Lizzy drummer Brian, who played with them from 1993 to 1996. Dave Odlum played guitar in the band from 1990 through to 2002. Odlum had a long writing association with singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes, producing her Mercury Prize nominated album Night On My Side. He has also produced work for the likes of dEUS and Josh Ritter.
The Frames: Revelate (Live in Sydney, 2007)
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Josh Ritter grew up in Idaho on a diet of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, before going to Oberlin College in Ohio to study neuroscience. While there, he established the independent American History Through Narrative Folk Music label - releasing a self-titled album on it which he recorded in a studio on the Oberlin campus.
After that, he travelled to Scotland, spending six months at the School of Scottish Studies, before ending in Rhode Island, where he took a number of jobs and played open mic nights. He was eventually able to record a follow up album, Golden Age Of Radio, and came to the attention of Jim Olsen, who ran the independent Signature Sounds label, and who offered to re-master and then re-release the record.
Around this time, he crossed paths with Glen Hansard, which led to him opening for The Frames, and getting third album, Hello Starling, produced by Frames guitarist Dave Odlum.
Ritter has also written several novels, with Bright's Passage, set in World War I, coming out in 2011 - followed by Great Glorious Goddamn Of It All, which was published in 2021. His seventh album, The Beast In Its Tracks, was picked out by Josh Jackson, Editor-in-Chief with Paste magazine, as one of his 10 Best Albums (So Far) in 2013.
Josh Ritter: Hopeful (Official music video)
Meanwhile, Assistant Editor Tyler Kane, in that same article, included m b v, the much anticipated third album from My Bloody Valentine. And of course, the lead singer of that mob is none other than KEVIN SHIELDS......
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