MOJO April 2020

Fred Dellar It's been a long haul for Fred (pictured with his good pal Stan Britt (right)), whose CV includes spraying silver spots on ladies’ handbag mirrors and peeling spuds. Oddly, he says he much prefers writing for MOJO. As he does every issue, he brings his expertise to Time Machine, Ask Fred and the MOJO Crossword. Bob Mehr Bob travelled to the Great White North to untangle the tale of soulful Vancouver singer-songwriter Frazey Ford (page 44). “Her story is a dramatic and labyrinthine family narrative – and so much of that imbues her music,” says the 17-year MOJO man, author of the New York Times bestseller Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements. James Albon James Albon is an award-winning illustrator living in Edinburgh. He studied at…

Fred Dellar It's been a long haul for Fred (pictured with his good pal Stan Britt (right)), whose CV includes spraying silver spots on ladies’ handbag mirrors and peeling spuds. Oddly, he says he much prefers writing for MOJO. As he does every issue, he brings his expertise to Time Machine, Ask Fred and the MOJO Crossword. Bob Mehr Bob travelled to the Great White North to untangle the tale of soulful Vancouver singer-songwriter Frazey Ford (page 44). “Her story is a dramatic and labyrinthine family narrative – and so much of that imbues her music,” says the 17-year MOJO man, author of the New York Times bestseller Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements. James Albon James Albon is an award-winning illustrator living in Edinburgh. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and…

IN THE MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED, JIMI HENDRIX BEGAN MAPPING out a new musical territory. Increasingly, the psychedelia with which he had made his name was hitched to tougher, more soulful grooves, towards a sound where rock and funk could be channelled to the same righteous end. His short-lived Band Of Gypsys project would have been only the start of it; his death on September 18, 1970, brought this most tantalising of adventures to a tragic and premature close. The funk-rock imperative did not die with Hendrix, though. And for this belated follow-up to MOJO’s 2010 Heavy Soul comp, we’ve brought together a serious crew of musicians who carried on his mission. There are astral jammers, conscious poets, proto-punks and radical guitar heroes, drawn from the streets of Black America and…

Anaïs Mitchell BONNY LIGHT HORSEWOMAN, PLAYWRIGHT What music are you currently grooving to? My bandmate Eric [D Johnson] from Bonny Light Horseman just turned me onto Folk Roots, New Routes by Shirley Collins And Davy Graham. I’m also obsessed with Christian Lee Hutson’s song Northsiders. I just came from the Grammys and was so impressed by Lizzo and Tyler, The Creator. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Joni Mitchell’s Hejira! A sweeping, majestic aerial view, but also intimate and forthright in the lyrics, the musical quality of never quite ‘landing’, and her voice at its most expressive. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? A C+C Music Factory album, Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s Nevermind, and the OST to The Bodyguard, all at the…

IN THE MONTHS BEFORE HE DIED, JIMI HENDRIX BEGAN MAPPING out a new musical territory. Increasingly, the psychedelia with which he had made his name was hitched to tougher, more soulful grooves, towards a sound where rock and funk could be channelled to the same righteous end. His short-lived Band Of Gypsys project would have been only the start of it; his death on September 18, 1970, brought this most tantalising of adventures to a tragic and premature close. The funk-rock imperative did not die with Hendrix, though. And for this belated follow-up to MOJO’s 2010 Heavy Soul comp, we’ve brought together a serious crew of musicians who carried on his mission. There are astral jammers, conscious poets, proto-punks and radical guitar heroes, drawn from the streets of Black America…

IT’S NOT SOMETHING WE TYPICALLY make a fuss about, but the Zelig-like ability of MOJO writers to have been in the right place at the right time certainly has its uses. How fortunate, for instance, that this month’s cover story on the last rites of Jimi Hendrix could be written by Michael Simmons. Michael’s research and insights are given a particular edge by the fact that he was a “stoned, long-haired freak, on the cusp of his 15th birthday,” at the Fillmore East on New Year’s Day, 1970; the Hendrix gig captured for posterity on the Band Of Gypsys album. Our man’s persistence has also uncovered some intriguing new details about Hendrix’s final months – not least the contents of a jewellery box brought backstage to the Fillmore by a man…