Today is the last day of my week as Guest Editor. I have enjoyed sharing with you some of my great loves and interests and would like to thank everyone involved with this week. I have dedicated this last day to a few of the musicians who have touched me deeply and inspired me to make music.

I have written the following articles as a small token of my gratitude to some of the best and most original artists and although I could write a million words about them and their music, no words can ever truly express how greatly their work has affected me and I’m sure many of their listeners around the world.

Thank you so much for joining me and thanks to Spiral Earth for giving me the opportunity to share with you all my music and the music of those others, my friends and heroes.

I hope that you will continue to join me in my musical adventures and that some of you find your way to my sites to explore my music and journals further….

Vive La Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Kelli Ali x
http://www.kelliali.com

   

The name Joan Baez will forever stir up feelings of fond nostalgia for me. It is her enchanting voice that played such a large part in my early musical love and fascination in recorded music. My mother would take out the large black vinyl from its mysterious and lovely sleeve (a side profile of Joan, looking off in to the distance like a musical Joan of Arc) and place it on the turntable. Applause, some coughs in the audience, quiet, then from out of the darkness, a crystal clear flowing guitar would begin and then Joan's achingly pure mythical voice floating on the ether would sing of love and sorrow, injustice and pain.

One of my favorite songs 'Nu Bello Cardillo' was about a messenger bird. Joan explains the story to the crowd. It's about a man who sends a bird who carries messages of love to take a message to his sweetheart. He tells the bird, "If she's asleep, don't wake her up, if she's on the balcony you may think she's a rose, don't bother her. if she's with someone else, here's a knife bring me her heart." Her timeless rendition of this song has ingrained itself on my memory, as though a phantom needle and turntable play the record in my heart when I am all alone in a quiet garden or sitting peacefully in some warm place. It must be the imagery that struck such a lasting chord in my child's imagination. The thought of a bird carrying messages of love was married with the darkness of the same bird taking the heart of the man's true love should she be untrue. Exquisite!

Joan didn't write the song but she made it come alive and for me, it will always be her song. Always be our song. My mom's and Joan's and mine.

That wonderful album, Joan Baez in Concert Part 2, kept us hopeful and cheery on dark winter mornings and filled us with awe and delight in the evenings. We didn't have a lot of records and tended to listen to our little collection of Bowie, Hendrix, The Kinks and (my mom tells me we also had a Frank Zappa album courtesy of my dad until as a tiny tot I scratched the album so badly with a toy car that it was unplayable!) and Joan Baez among a handful of others which I no longer remember. My mom and I listened to the Joan Baez album over and over and never tired of its beauty.

To me, Joan was beauty personified and as a child, I thought she must be some kind of sacred princess who lived in a castle in some far away place and sang all day and all night to her blessed immortal audience who were ever present to adore and worship her. I loved to hear her sing and as I grew older and began to understand her artistry, she became even more of an idol to me.

I was about ten years old when I discovered the rock 'n' roll music of the 60's, due to the gift of a little singles player which only played 45" single vinyl with the centre popped out. Along with the player came a cool collection of original singles from bands such as The Shangri La's, the Tornadoes, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash,The Ronnettes. I played them over and over again.In love with the deep guitars and singers who seemed to speak directly to me.

As a teenager, I discovered bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The Pixies, The Violent Femmes, Nine Inch Nails, Sisters of Mercy, the Doors, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Stooges, The Ramones, Bauhaus, Duran Duran, Japan, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, Madonna to name a few.

I would still listen to Joan every now and then, when I felt blue or needed to calm down, I knew she would soothe me with her dulcit tones and she has always been there in the fabric of my musical experience. Later when I rediscovered folk music and the great artists, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and learned even more about Joan Baez, her relationship with Bob Dylan and her activism and relentless struggle to drive music as a vehicle for justice, it was like finding the other half of a mystery. Seeing documentaries and watching her play concerts on T.V. was such a thrill, really discovering the enigmatic lady who had hovered over my childhood musical experience like a guardian angel. Finding that she was a woman and lived in the world, played her guitar and walked barefoot against the tide of war and inequality, had heart heart broken and sang sang sang her heart out for us still.

With her long black hair and sculpted features, she appears as an angel in the honey lit darkness of a T.V. stage, her delicate fingers picking a sorrowful delightful arrangement, the strings could be directly connected to my heart and as her voice shimmers and pierces my heart further, I feel something akin to love for this creature of beauty, something like awe and gratitude for the grace and elegance which she shared with us. Whilst a young Joan Baez sits immortalized, like an exotic butterfly spirit,  on the black and white frame of a T.V. Screen, I wonder at her power and talent and silently thank her for the flame she ignited in my heart, all those years ago, my mom and me, sitting by the old heavy cabinet of the record player, smiling at each other and losing our cares to the divine spell binding glory of Joan's voice and music.

When I met Elliot Smith back stage of a late night U.S. T.V. show, I was waiting to go and perform with the Sneaker Pimps. Elliot was a sweet and charming man and had I known what a tragic end he would meet years later, I think I would have begged him to keep going and keep strong and thanked him for all the beautiful music he had given and would give to us.

There is no way anyone could have known that this gifted and wonderful artist would spiral into a dark and lonesome place and unfortunately, our meeting was brief. He shook my hand and we smiled. He said he liked our song and my voice and I never ever saw him again.

I have his albums with me wherever I go and his classics ‘Either Or’ and ‘XO’ are constantly on my play list, on my mind and in my heart.

Elliot had a way of telling a story, not just that, he could created worlds with his songs. Sure, a lot of his songs were sad and forlorn but majestic all the same and beautiful in their tragedy.

If you know of  Elliot’s music and have ever sat alone listening to his songs, wondering at his awesome skill with melody and poetry, then I am sure you will understand the great sadness I feel when I see some of the later performances of the great man, losing his thread in front of a live audience and seemingly lost amidst the adoration of his crowd. Whenever I hear the song ‘Angeles’ or ‘Coming Up Roses’ ‘Between The Bars’, there is a place I go to in my heart, a place where I say a little prayer for that beautiful gifted man.

If you are unfamiliar with Elliot Smith then I suggest you begin with the mentioned albums and go from there to discover one of the greatest songwriters of our time.

I will always be grateful to Elliot Smith for the beauty that he brought to this world and I sure hope he found some peace somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Smith

My friend Emma, of the wonderful Jed and Lucia, first introduced me to the genius artist, Sufjan Stevens. “ Have you heard his music?” she asked.

“No” I said.

“You must” She replied.

Soon after I bought his album – ‘Come On Feel The Illinoise’ and my world was changed forever. There are few words to describe how profoundly moved I was and still am by this beautiful record. It accompanies me on my travels and is a warm and sacred place to rest in on any journey.

I love the way Sufjan uses melody and production to recreate and embroider the traditional song form to make something so original and poetic, so original and deep that I feel as though I am listening to modern music for the first time. There is no one on Earth like Sufjan Stevens and as I went on to discover his other great albums, ‘Seven Swans’ and ‘Michigan- Greetings From the Great Lake State’ I was shaken and elated at the beauty of his work.

With his skilful approach to string arrangements and layering and build of vocal harmonies, Sufjan is one of the few artists who can truly bring another world into being. He is a magician and a wonderful story teller.

I do not know if the great songs ‘Jacksonville’ or Casimir Pulaski Day’ or ‘The Predatory Wasp Of The Pallisades Is Out To Get Us!’ are autobiographical or simply beautiful manifestations of a great artists’s experiences and imagination.

 It is said that Sufjan is determined to make an album based on all the states of the U.S.A. The mentioned songs are part of the album ‘Come On Feel The Illinoise’

Regardless where the great man gets his inspiration, I am forever in awe of his wonderful musical creations. At a time when great music is emerging from every corner of this wonderful musical world, we are shown yet again that the evolution of modern music is not yet over. On the contrary my friends. With inspiring artists such as Sufjan Stevens at work and now with his own label (Astmatic Kitty) the future is bright indeed.

If you haven’t heard the following albums ‘Come On Feel The Illinoise’ ‘Seven Swans’ ‘Michigan- Greetings From the Great Lake State’ I suggest you run to your computer and buy them immediately!
All hail the wonderful and genius Sufjan Stevens!