Peter
Broderick had never heard of Arthur Russell before people started coming up to
him after shows and saying how much his voice reminded them of the American
wunderkind, who passed away in 1992. While the comparison made the
Oregon-raised singer, composer and former touring member of Danish band
Efterklang curious, he only ended up hearing Russell by accident.
“I
never chased him up,” says Broderick down the line from Galway, Ireland, which he
now calls home with folk musician Brigid Mae Power since the pair married in
2016. “But I was at a friend’s house, and they put this record on which turned
out to be by Arthur Russell, and I loved it, and ended up going down this
rabbit hole discovering all this amazing work.”
This
weekend sees Broderick team up with an ensemble of Scotland-based musicians who
join him for what promises to be be a very special Celtic Connections show of
of Russell’s songs. It is the latest outing for a set that was the round-the-houses
result of an invitation by Broderick’s former bandmate in Efterklang, Rasmus
Stolberg, to play a set of Russell covers at Stolberg’s new festival in Denmark.
This in turn led to other invitations, while a record, Peter Broderick and Friends
Play Arthur Russell, was released last year.
By
this time, Broderick had been contacted by Russell’s long-term partner Tom Lee,
who gave Broderick access to Russell’s vast archive of unreleased recordings
with a view to restoring them. The album was recorded in Maine, where most of Russell’s
surviving family live. It is also where Broderick was born. Russell’s niece,
Rachel Henry, sings on two tracks on the record, while his nephew, Beau Lisy,
plays percussion on three. A painting by Lee adorns the record’s cover.
For
those familiar with Russell’s work, listening to Broderick’s record is a
curiously uplifting delight. Where the originals possessed a fragile
insularity, Broderick’s versions seem to open the songs out somehow. Their
over-riding beauty is still intact, but Broderick’s fresh textures make them
sound as if they’ve come blinking into the light ready for a warm embrace. This
is as evident on the two never before heard songs that appear on the album as
it is on more familiar material such as Wild Combination, the quietly euphoric
piece that gave Matt Wolf’s moving documentary film portrait of Russell its
title a decade ago.
“Arthur
seemed a very insular kind of guy,” says Broderick. ‘He was a bit of a mystery,
and lived in his own world. I can totally relate to that, but when I’m playing
his songs there’s a pure joy about it. I don’t have any insecurity about them
being good songs. I love them, and so many people cherish them, so there’s a
real sense of ecstatic joy about them, which probably didn’t come across in the
same way in his own recordings.
“I
remember when I first heard them, and thinking the music felt very free. It
swooped around, and the scope of it seemed so big, even though it was just
guitar, voice and cello. Going through the archive, it feels a part of me now.”
Musical
similarities between Broderick and Russell can be heard most clearly on the
album on Losing My Taste for the Nightlife. Of the two previously unheard
songs, Words of Love and You Are My Love, which top and tail the record,
Broderick says that when he heard Russell’s recordings, “They blew me away.
When Tom Lee first reached out and very kindly said he was happy to see me play
Arthur’s songs, he ended up playing me all these songs that hadn’t been
released. To discover all of these beautiful songs was amazing, and then to
have Rachel sing on one of them, I feel so honoured to have met Arthur’s family
and have their blessing in this way.”
Despite
the mix of shyness and candour in his songs, a creative restlessness also pours
through Russell’s work. Having initially studied cello and piano, in the early
1970s he moved to San Francisco. Here he joined a Buddhist commune, studied North
Indian classical music and composition, and hooked up with poet Allen Ginsberg,
whose readings he accompanied on cello. Moving to New York, Russell studies
electronic music and linguistics and composed his own work.
On
meeting composer Rhys Chatham, Russell became immersed in the city’s avant-garde
world, and took over from Chatham as music director of arts lab The Kitchen at
a time when the pop and art undergrounds were crossing over in a way that would
provide platforms for key players in the No Wave scene. Russell moved
instinctively between experimenting with left-field minimalism and instrumental
pieces, the song-based material explored by Broderick and extended disco pieces
which are today regarded as underground club classics.
Broderick’s
own output is similarly eclectic. Both his parents were what he calls “folksy
musicians,” and with his brother and sister also musicians, he was surrounded
by instruments. After starting violin aged seven, Broderick branched out,
learning mandolin, banjo and musical saw. Prior to Efterklang, he played on
recordings by the likes of actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, and toured as part
of of Oregon singer Ritchie Young’s Loch Lomond project.
Broderick
went on to release Dociles, an album of solo piano music, followed by the piano
and string based Float. Since then, over the last decade there have been
orchestral concept albums, collaborations with Dutch electronicist
Machinefabriek and releases on the Bella Union and Erased Tapes labels as well
as self-released CDr runs.
For
his Celtic Connections show, Broderick will be backed by a band that includes
composer Kim Moore, who records as WOLF, on viola, keyboards and vocals. C
Duncan’s drummer Liam Chapman will also appear alongside guitarist Andrew Cowan
from Yous and Admiral Fallow bassist Joe Rattray, plus pedal steel player Conor
Smith and saxophonist James Steele. With Broderick only meeting his Glasgow
band-mates once he flies in, their individual contributions promise to add yet
another layer to songs which might include ones not featured on the album.
“There
are already a lot more songs I know how to play now that didn’t make it onto
the record,” says Broderick, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up doing
something else with them.”
More
invitations to play Russell’s work keep coming in, including a show at a
festival in Portugal.
“I’m
willing to follow this wherever it goes,” Broderick says. “I cherish these
songs, and whenever I’ve played them people love it, because they’ve never has
a chance to see them played live. I’ve said from the beginning that I’ve no
intention of becoming a tribute act, but all these things keep happening, so
let’s see where that goes. I don’t feel like I’m steering the ship, but maybe
Arthur’s steering it.”
Broderick’s
last statement goes some way to understanding the belated appeal of Russell’s
canon.
“Arthur
was so prolific,’ says Broderick, “and he left so much music behind that people
have never heard, so there’s so much mystery there as well. Because he’s not
around anymore, people get to discover the story and to put it together
themselves. People like that, but in the end it all goes back to the work.
Arthur may not have been that well known during his lifetime, but he left
behind a goldmine.”
Peter
Broderick Sings Arthur Russell forms part of Celtic Connections at The Blue
Arrow, Glasgow on Saturday January 26. Peter Broderick and Friends Play Arthur
Russell is available now.
The Herald, January 24th 2019
ends
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