Songdog is the musical vehicle for Welsh singer/songwriter and guitarist Lyndon Morgans and keyboardist Karl ‘Pod’ Woodward.
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First formed in 2000, the folk noir duo’s darkly melancholic, sardonic and poetic music and critically acclaimed albums have won the praise of respected peers such as Bruce Springsteen.
Now their 10th studio outing, Mirabilia Mundi, hits stores later this month.
“With this new album, there’s a lot about the consolations and torments of memory and an awareness of future running low,” Lyndon Morgans says.
“The vision can get a bit bleak sometimes, but the spirit remains defiant, I hope.
“Our music is first and foremost about the songs, my personal pantheon consists only of great songwriters like Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Jacques Brel and The Beatles.
“As with these writers, my lyrics do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to my songs.”
Morgans and co, along with new violinist Bethan Frieze, recorded the album at Shabbey Road studios, in Cardiff, Wales, where producer Al Steele of pop-rock group The Korgis helmed the sessions.
“We worked up the arrangements as a band and made rough demos,” Morgans says.
“Although we’d worked so hard on the material, certain things just happened spontaneously in the studio, happy accidents, various sudden red-light epiphanies blown our way from the muse’s own cherry-red lips or Al Steele’s magnificent production talents.
“I’m no kind of tech-head, so I just play and sing what I’ve written and rely on the band and the producer to get it all down and sprinkle any magic they may have in their goodie bags.”
Songdog has at times been compared to Australia’s own Nick Cave.
“I think the Nick Cave thing comes up a lot because we both write about the big, elemental subjects — sex, death, loss, the passing of time, autopsies of spent passions — the weightier themes,” he says.
“Obviously, I admire Nick Cave’s work enormously, and I’m always gratified by the comparison.
“His songs are God-haunted, as are mine, though in my case the religious urge is as much of a torture as a blessing, God an antagonist as much as a saviour.”
How does Morgan feel having one of music’s iconic artists, Bruce Springsteen, a fan of his work?
“It’s a huge honour because Bruce Springsteen is another of the great songwriters and I obviously take it as a kind of vindication of what I’m trying to achieve,” he says.
“Although on the surface of things our music is very different, there’s an ache throughout his best work that I fully recognise and feel an allegiance to, an ache that I expect to find somewhere or other in any great songwriter worthy of the name.”
Mirabilia Mundi is being released via Junkyard Songs on vinyl and CD and all the usual digital platforms. For more on Songdog, check out: songdog.co.uk
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Behind the album: Straight Up by Badfinger
With the recent passing of guitarist Joey Molland, the last original member of 1970s power pop group Badfinger, let’s take a look back to the group’s much acclaimed album, Straight Up (1971), which was produced by George Harrison and Todd Rundgren, and was released on The Beatles’ own Apple Records label.
The album featured some of the group’s best-known songs, Day After Day and Baby Blue.
Recorded over a period of two months in 1971, the sessions were marred by delays and disagreements.
The first sessions were produced by Harrison, but when he left to organise and perform the Concert for Bangladesh, Rundgren was brought in to finish the album.
“Todd was really hard to work with, a real egomaniac, and it was insufferable,” Molland told me when I interviewed him in 2009.
“It was not an enjoyable experience working with him.”
In the studio, the material that was first demoed as four-piece band arrangements, went through a process of metamorphosis with overdubs, multi-tracking of vocals, backing parts and guitars among others.
Lyrics were also changed during the process to make the material more radio-friendly.
But the wonders of the studio would later present problems for the band when it came to recreating the material in concert.
“It was very frustrating because there was no way we could reproduce that thing onstage,” Molland said.
“And that led us to not doing a lot of the songs onstage, including Day After Day, which we very rarely performed live.”
Harrison also contributed slide guitar on Day After Day, which took about six hours to do as it was recorded live to tape.
In the same interview with me, Molland recalled working with Harrison.
“Working with George was a great experience, and a master in the studio,” he said.
“He brought all his Beatles experience into the mix.
“George was very encouraging and co-operative.
“He would bring in his guitar and work on songs with you and was only too willing to play a bit of rhythm guitar or some lead guitar and advise us on singing vocal parts.”
When released in December 1971, the album went on to reach number 16 on the Australian music chart.
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Fun fact
Elvis Presley recorded an incredible 114 Top 40 US Billboard hits, 18 of which went to number one. He was also one of the first music stars to cross over into film.
Yet, he only won three Grammys, and none for his rock and roll music.
The Grammy wins were all in gospel categories.
Joe Matera is a local singer-songwriter, recording artist, guitarist and music journalist providing readers with all the latest music news.
Musical Musings columnist