THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and for many years Graham Reid has been going there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review columns and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an ever-expanding on-line magazine for people curious about new music, different travel, interesting arts and much more. This site is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It is an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
Adam Hattaway and the Haunters: Rooster (digital outlets)
27 Nov 2021 | 1 min read
Back in the mid 2000s those who were lucky enough to catch Auckland rock band the Checks – and were familiar with the r'n'b sound of the early Stones as much as garaeband rock'n'roll – were smitten by this young group which had swagger and style, and seemed to know that history. You'd think that excitement would be common enough (Dead Flowers and Straitjacket... > Read more
A POST-CULTURAL DETERMINIST APPROACH TO AbbEyrOad (2021): The image under the macroscope
26 Nov 2021 | 1 min read
Rather than write about this image for the Art by Elsewhere pages, it was suggested by Dr. Celia Haughty-Smart, senior curator of the Work And New Knowledge gallery in Lower Hutt that she scrutinize it from a more critical perspective. This is what she wrote. – Graham Reid . In the canon of distorted hyper-reality and de-accentuated cognitive imagery as... > Read more
THE BLUES HAD A BRITISH BABY (2021) And they called it . . . rock'n'roll, psychedelic rock and hard rock?
24 Nov 2021 | 10 min read
The history of the blues has been written, rewritten, revised, over-written and turned into academic treatises and a subject for analysis. But it remains something which can get lost in the chatter. It is a music. John Lennon, who was hardly a blues aficionado, had a good line: "The blues is a chair, not a design for a chair or a better chair . . . it is the... > Read more
THE BEATLES' GET BACK DOCUMENTARY (2021): The truth, the whole truth and nothing but another truth
22 Nov 2021 | 4 min read
When George Harrison quit the Beatles on January 10, 1969 it was surprisingly undramatic: “I'm leaving . . .” John Lennon stops playing guitar: “What?” “The band, now,” says Harrison, although adding waspishly on the way out the door later, “see you 'round the clubs”. That night he wrote in his diary, “Got up... > Read more
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE BLUES QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Tom Rodwell
22 Nov 2021 | 9 min read
With Wood & Waste, Auckland singer/guitarist and songwriter Tom Rodwell gave us one the most interesting, engaging, witty and thoughtful albums of the year. He is nominally a blues musician – that's his background as you will see – but the album roamed freely into the Caribbean and West Africa, pulled together the swamp sound of Tony Joe White and... > Read more
Keep on Knockin'
LUCINDA WILLIAMS. HAPPY WOMAN BLUES, CONSIDERED (1980): A distinctive voice emerging
22 Nov 2021 | 1 min read
Because we've had a few decades of Lucinda Williams' distinctive, vowel-dragging and often world-weary vocal style, it's hard to remember when she was a more clear and less affected singer, let alone when she was close to cracking a jangling pop single (I Just Wanted to See You So Bad in '88). This album – her second after Ramblin' On My Mind – pulled from... > Read more
King of Hearts
Robert Plant, Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof (Rounder/digital outlets)
22 Nov 2021 | 1 min read
Aside from the unexpected nature of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss coming together for the Raising Sand album in 2007 was the fascinating selection of material they covered: songs by Everly Brothers, Gene Clark, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, blues . . . That they, the band and producer T-Bone Burnette shaped this diverse material into a cohesive whole made for one... > Read more
Aretha Franklin: Don't Play That Song For Me (1970)
22 Nov 2021 | 1 min read | 1
It's a well established fact that some songs write themselves into our autobiographies: we remember our first love by our favourite song, can be taken back to exactly where we were and who we were with when a certain piece of music plays, songs conjure up time and place . . . Talkin' 'bout them Night Moves. The Classic Hits radio format plays on this fact, and... > Read more
Aretha Franklin: Don't Play That Song For Me
Elsewhere Art . . . Eden Ahbez
22 Nov 2021 | <1 min read
Singer-songwriter Eden Ahbez was a hippie two decades before hippies came to attention. In 1948 Life magazine profiled him -- on the strength of his song Nature Boy which had quickly become a standard after Nat King Cole covered it -- and found him to be a bearded vegetarian longhair into yoga. Elsewhere was drawn to write about him in our on-going column WE NEED TO TALK... > Read more
John Martyn: Solid Air (1973)
22 Nov 2021 | 3 min read | 1
When the great British singer-songwriter John Martyn died in January 2009 there was initially very little media coverage -- and then people realised the significance of this innovative and creative artist whose work had rapidly outgrown its folk origins in the late Sixties. Martyn's life was undeniably messy: he was self-destructive, addicted to alcohol and drugs,... > Read more
I'd Rather Be the Devil (album version)
ELSEWHERE WORLD SERVICE: A quick overview of recent world music releases
21 Nov 2021 | 3 min read
Here's a frequent flyer/transit lounge/vicarious listening music column for those at home who want to get their musical passport stamped. Elsewhere has so many CDs and downloads commanding and demanding attention that we run occasional columns which scoop up releases by international artists (IN BRIEF), in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks out... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . STRINGBEAN: The killing of a long, lean banjo picker
21 Nov 2021 | 3 min read | 1
If Truman Capote hadn't already written his brilliant “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood (about the collision of two murderers and their victims in rural Kansas in '59), and he was still sober enough to focus, he might have found a great story in the 1973 murder of country music star Stringbean, David Akerman to his parents. Stringbean was one of those... > Read more
Stringbean and His Banjo
PAUL McCARTNEY; THE LYRICS by PAUL McCARTNEY. Ed by PAUL MULDOON (2021)
20 Nov 2021 | 6 min read | 1
When it came to promoting his albums, Paul McCartney – after a bad start – became more canny. The grave misstep came when he wrote his own Q&A to go out with his solo debut McCartney in 1970. By saying he couldn't foresee a time when he'd write with Lennon and had no plans to work with the Beatles again, he was immediately cast as the one who walked away.... > Read more
Paperback Writer
THE GOSDEN YEARS by BILL GOSDEN. Ed. GAYLENE PRESTON and TIM WONG
20 Nov 2021 | 4 min read
When Bill Gosden received a cancer diagnosis in June 2017 he was encouraged by friends and colleagues to write a memoir about his remarkable career. Gosden – who had been at the helm of New Zealand film festivals for almost 40 years, astutely picking what went on cinema screens – chose not to. He used his time to travel and reconnect with friends overseas.... > Read more
THE BEATLES, RARE LET IT BACK FOOTAGE FOUND (2021): Fight, camera, action!
19 Nov 2021 | 3 min read
Two hours of previous unseen footage of the Beatles in the studio has been discovered in an abandoned lock-up in Slough and it promises to change opinion yet again of what happened when they were being filmed in January 1969. At that time film director Michael Wernham-Hogg was hired to shoot the band rehearsing and recording for what would eventually become the Let It... > Read more
Peg Leg Howell: Please Ma'am (1928)
19 Nov 2021 | <1 min read
Just as a lot of blues artists were “Blind” and there were a few “Peg Leg” characters out there. Georgia-born Josh Howell got his nickname after he lost a leg when he was shot by his brother-in-law. He'd already established a reputation as an excellent finger-picker but now, unable to work on the farm, he moved to Atlanta and became a street... > Read more
THE VALUE OF BOOKS AND READING (2021): Back to the Islands
18 Nov 2021 | 2 min read
Earlier this year Bill Direen approached a number of New Zealand writers for articles, essays, poems or literary reminisences which would be compiled in a book to protest the disposal of books from the National Library of New Zealand. That book has been delayed but the attrition of books continues from the library continues. You can read more at the following sites... > Read more
JOHN HANLON, HARD, CRUEL AND NAKED TRUTHS (2021): No country for old men?
18 Nov 2021 | 3 min read
It's an interesting measure of the landscape of popular music that many -isms are called out (racism, sexism, etc) but older artists are marginalised, or worse, ignored completely. Yes, a few get through (Leonard Cohen, Bill Fay) and if 71-year old Tom Waits released a new album you know it would be reviewed. People remain curious and even keen to hear new music from... > Read more
Muriwai Road
ONE WE MISSED: Jordan Rakei: What We Call Life (Ninja Tune/digital outlets)
18 Nov 2021 | 1 min read
Expat singer/producer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Rakei has certainly fallen on his feet in London these past six years: signed to Ninja Tune; collaborating with Common and Nile Rodgers; appearances at various festivals and live radio sessions; coverage in Pitchfork, The Guardian, Observer, Pop Matters! Etc; covering a Donald Byrd track for the Blue Note: Re:Imagined... > Read more
Clouds
Dodson and Fogg: When the Night Draws Near (Wisdom Twins/digital outlets)
18 Nov 2021 | <1 min read
Our favourite British alt.folk duo – who is actually a solo artist, Chris Wade -- returns with this modest five track release, once again wrapped in colourful artwork by Wade's wife Linzi Napier. This time out there is a discernible bluesy/JJ Cale quality about the first two of these songs (the title track and It Ain't Up To Me) but thereafter Wade reverts to his... > Read more