Live music listings: October 2007

Doors 7.30
£12.50 via WeGotTickets | £14 door

"Fisher has a voice that has all the gravity of a Cash, a Cohen or a Cale." [Uncut]

Willard Grant Conspiracy is the musical collective that surrounds songwriter Robert Fisher. With their last five records ('Regard the End', 'Everything's Fine', 'Mojave', 'Flying Low' and '3am Sunday At Fortune Otto's') and their brand new album 'Let it Roll', the band has quietly gone about putting together one of the most impressive catalogs in the alt.country / post punk-folk rock genres. The records have been met with critical acclaim and have been included in many critical best-of lists.

"The sound is epic, florid, grandiose; the mood dark; the achievement great." [Time Out]

The band has a loose configuration that allows its members to be involved as they are available, in order to support all of their musical and life interests. But make no mistake--this is ensemble playing and a real band no matter how many participants are present. Currently based in the California desert where Robert lives, musicians from Massachusetts, Arizona, New York, London, Holland, and are all part of the whole depending on who can play, when the playing begins and where the tour ends. This flexible lineup along with a dedication to improvisational playing ensures that every show is truly unique.

"WGC are reminiscent of The Band in all their gothic pomp." [Mojo]

Willard Grant Conspiracy was formed by accident in 1995 by Robert Fisher and Paul Austin, while helping fellow band member Dana Hollowell test his new home studio. Robert and Paul had played in numerous bands from 1982 forward and had developed a writing partnership that would last until 2001. Their previous efforts had all shared a singular love of strong songs and unusual musical textures, though the end result was usually something that matched intensity with volume to purvey a more visceral musical vision.

"We don't have a house band at Captain America sadly, but if we did the great Robert Fisher of Willard Grant Conspiracy would be a leading light and mentor. His latest album is a gem of rare distinction, or put it another way, we love it." [Captain America Radio]

Although songs and songwriting have always been the basis of their musical focus, volume, attack and more physical elements of sound were explored in the earlier bands they had together. These bands included some of the best musicians available in their adopted home of Boston . Years of playing and recording gained them critical respect and a reputation among their peers and can be considered a direct reason why so many talented musicians pull up a chair under the WGC tent these days. With the birth of WGC, a more delicate, varied and considered sound began to unfold than before. Using a wider collection of musicians and sounds to color the music, rather than the traditional closed ranks a standard rock format allows, a newer yet no less intense version of the songs began to emerge.

The current list of folks at one time or another considered part of the WGC roster is hovering around 30. A live show may be as diverse as Robert playing solo or having as many as 14 members, or any number in between, on stage at one time. Instruments include acoustic guitar, mandolin, pump organ, violin, cello, viola, piano, trumpet, drums, bass, accordion, electric guitar, and lap steel.

The sound can be as quiet and warm as 3am on a winter's morning before the last embers in the fireplace or as soulful and boisterous as a Sunday Morning Gospel service. The songs ring out with emotions born of personal experience and observation and are simultaneously universal and personal to every listener.

It's the kind of music that seems to have been here forever; brought down out of the ether and channeled through the musicians onstage pure and unadulterated. It's music that has been described as causing the spirit to soar and to make the knees go weak. It's the music of real life from real people.

Bob Frank & John Murry, plus Doghouse Roses support.

Bob Frank and John Murry will be returning to the Luminaire in support of their beautiful murder ballads album which Uncut has already called "a dazzling collection of blasted country folk and grimly haunting murder ballads, shot through with harrowing images of death, damnation and eternal suffering, Legendary producer Jim Dickinson (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Big Star) describes the record as “timeless as death” and Frank as “the greatest songwriter you never heard”.

Rolling Stone says "Murry sounds as severe and modern as Leonard Cohen, while Frank sings with a deep, gritty authority that may remind you of Warren Zevon."

Bob Frank - hailing from Memphis, Tennessee - is a well-kept secret. After living and writing songs in Nashville in the sixties with John Hiatt, he released a solo record in 1972 on the legendary Vanguard Records and shared the stage with Tim Buckley, and Townes Van Zandt.

Half the age of Frank, John Murry, born in Tupelo, Mississippi is a direct descendent of William Faulkner. He has been a longtime member of The Dillingers and Lucero.

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