MOJO

Richard Morton Jack Richard writes about Nick Drake’s musical and literary influences in this issue. His biography of Drake is published by John Murray this month. He is now working on an overview of ’60s/70s British jazz, out this autumn, and on elvinyl. com, the music marketplace and archive he co-founded in 2020. Sylvie Simmons Sylvie has been contributing to MOJO since our first issue. Since then she’s written a bunch of books – including Leonard Cohen’s biography and Debbie Harry’s memoir – and released two acclaimed LPs as a singersongwriter and ukulele player. This month she recalls an encounter with Willy DeVille (see p62). arnO arnO is an illustrator based on the French Riviera. Inspired by the magical light that surrounds him, he creates impossibly smooth and glossy pictures.…

1 SBT 13th St. #2 Sarabeth Tucek’s return to action as SBT, 11 years after her last album, is one of the low-key musical events of 2023 thus far. On this highlight of her Joan Of All LP, the former Bill Callahan collaborator hymns her old New York neighbourhood – and, implicitly, Patti Smith and the Velvets too. Written by Sarabeth Tucek. Published by Darkthing Music, ASCAP and ©2022. From double A-side single The Gift/13th St. #2 (Ocean Omen) & also an alternate version of a track from the double LP Joan Of All (Ocean Omen) 2 MEG BAIRD Cross Bay Meg Baird has been perfecting her filigreed take on acid-folk since singing with Espers in the early 2000s (you might also recognise her from heavier psych types Heron Oblivion).…

Sunny War GOSPEL ANARCHIST What music are you currently grooving to? The new JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown LP, Scaring The Hoes. Danny Brown’s really good at saying really mean things in a really clever way, and the production is really out there. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Innervisions by Stevie Wonder. As traditional songwriting, and still technically doing pop music, I feel like he’s the greatest of all time. What was the first record you bought, and where did you buy it? Sing Sing Death House by The Distillers, I got it at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. I was like 11 or 12. I was also going through all my stepdad’s CDs. Which musician other than yourself have you ever wanted to be? Probably…

MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, Bauer Media Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk THERE’S A NICE STORY THE GUITARIST Blake Mills shared with MOJO last year. On a Thursday in July, just before the Newport Folk Festival, he received a text confirming the miracle gig he’d been booked for. “We get a picture of them all buckled up on a plane, including Joni,” Mills remembered. “I thought, Oh my god, this is actually happening.” What happened is now part of musical history: Joni Mitchell’s return to the stage, on a golden throne, at the heart of Newport 2022’s Joni Jam. A communal celebration of single-minded genius, it’s been preserved as a forthcoming live album, and is about to be…

“THE EARLY Paul Butterfield and Charlie Musselwhite albums didn’t sell a million copies, but it was like the old Velvet Underground line: everyone who bought a copy started a blues band,” says Bob Sarles, co-director with John Anderson of big-hearted documentary Born In Chicago, a cinematic love letter that’s taken over a decade to complete. The film chronicles the passing of the torch from the original black Chicago bluesmen, who’d brought the rural music from Mississippi, to the younger white kids who learned to play it and thrill peers to its raw, dynamic beauty. This process is explained in interviews both archival and new with the fathers (Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Buddy Guy) and sons (from Musselwhite, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Barry Goldberg and Elvin Bishop to Bob…

EVER SINCE bassist Dave Allen left Gang Of Four in 1980, Leeds’ incendiary punk-funk agitators have endured stages of birth, death and rebirth. The saga continues with news of a UK tour in October 2023, having previously toured the US in March ’22. But this is not the Gang Of Four headed by guitarist Andy Gill since 2012, but his fellow founders Jon King (vocals) and Hugo Burnham (drums) taking back control after Gill’s untimely death in 2020. They’re joined by Sara Lee – Gang bassist from 1981 to 1984 – and guitarist David Pajo (Slint, Zwan, Interpol). “Andy’s are really big boots to fill,” avers King. “But David is playing with great reverence and attention to detail. And since Dave [Allen] didn’t want to tour, Sara was the obvious…