Tag: English Electric Vol. 2

The Permanent Way: The Music of Big Big Train

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized7 Comments

IMG_3725by Tad Wert

The long-awaited release of the second part of Big Big Train’s English Electric does not disappoint. It continues the band’s reverence and celebration of the unsung heroes of Great Britain’s past, beginning with the first track, the epic “East Coast Racer”. After a beautiful, elegiac opening featuring new member Danny Manners’ piano, the listener is suddenly hurtling down a railroad track on the exhilarating 1938 record-setting run of the famous Mallard steam locomotive. True to its subject, this 15+ minute song speeds by in no time, thanks to the propulsive drumming of Nick D’Virgilio. His stick-work evokes to an uncanny degree the clackety-clack rhythm of a train running full-bore across the countryside.

Another excellent song is “Worked Out”, a tribute to the millions of coal miners who labored underground to provide the fuel for the industrial revolution. It’s quite a rocker with a catchy sing-along chorus. David Longden’s “Leopards” is a nice change of pace, as the album turns inward to examine the conflicted emotions of two former lovers tentatively reconnecting. “Keeper of Abbeys” has one of the catchiest melodies ever written by the band, and it includes a hoedown featuring some delightful fiddle.

Continue reading “The Permanent Way: The Music of Big Big Train” →

Pete Blum’s Open Letter to BBT

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized2 Comments

by Pete Blum

Dear BBT,

BBT EE2It feels as though it wants to be a “love letter” of a sort.  But it isn’t really there yet.  It’s not intensely passionate; it’s not yet full of those deep and personal codes that arise from having spent time as lovers or as the closest of friends.  It’s more like a very early and tentative venture, saying that I’ve been seeing and hearing you, I’ve been watching you and feeling the growth of some kind of friendship, but I wonder if it is (or could be) more.  I’m afraid, too.  Afraid of how you might respond, or even more afraid that you will not respond.  Afraid that if any blood flows into my words, you might miss it and find flattery alone, perhaps sprinkled with a spur here, a barb there, if that’s how you take some of it.  Do I dare ask for your patience when you don’t really know me?

Anyway, this is mainly about our third time “alone together,” as I truly tested that “together”:  It seems to have “tested positive” as the medical folk say.  I can’t refrain from this reaching out, from this speaking (though with a computer keyboard that may not be quite as clumsy as a voice).  It may be selfish on my part.  But isn’t it true that everything may be such, for all of us?

The Underfall Yard was where we first met, right after our mutual friend BB (no T) pointed you out to me with undisguised awe.  I heard, I believe, that at which his awe was aimed, or that which called to it.  Then the first installment of English Electric seemed to confirm it, in concert with some reaching back to earlier efforts.  You seemed so familiar, but also to move so easily and sensually beyond the familiar.  I was brought to an emotional dead halt by “A Boy in Darkness.”  I must confess, it had my attention locked in its cold embrace for days, haunting every other element of my everydayness.  I wrote a brief note about that before.

Continue reading “Pete Blum’s Open Letter to BBT” →