The wonders of Watercats

It's always odd when you feel your music tastes and habits changing... well, that's the way I find it anyway. Suddenly I don't know what I want to listen to, all the CDs on the shelf seem wrong, nothing seems to be just what I want at that particular time. It's been a bit like that here of late and maybe that's why I've not written much about music since starting this new blog. I suppose this kind of phase feels so odd to me partly because music has been such a big part of my life – certainly I've loved it more than almost anything else – and so when it seems to fail me I feel really exposed (no religion to lean on, no sport to support, now not even the trusted parent to turn to... agh!). But even as I write this I wonder if what really happens in these changeovers is that bits of me are changing and so my music habits have to change to fit that. Who knows... which is chicken, which is egg (and of course, like most things, it's probably a bit of both...)? Whatever it is I know I haven't been listening to much music lately and it's been weird... kind of empty. Without the revolting (but very funny) “Inbetweeners” on replay on TV I don't know how I would have survived...

Then recently I got a CD in the mail – from fellow bloggers and some time Poetry Bus riders the Watercats. And with it my heart sings once more. Here's a song from it:



Vick and Ron (for the Watercats is these two somewhat playful individuals... see photo further down) insist that the CD they sent is a demo/not good enough/needs rerecording etc. but I have to say that for me it is pretty perfect as it is – with its lovely rambling guitars, handful of harmonica and, of course, Vick's warm but wistful voice ('wistful' gets a bit overused for voices but really it does seem right in this instance). I even like Ron's less... conventionally pleasing vocals as used on these songs (well come on, we all like Tom Waits, don't we?). And speaking of Waits, there's a good recent interview with him here and a song of his that was played on the radio this week here (it was on the Jarvis Cocker show on 6 Music... and chosen by his guest Lawrence as one of the saddest songs ever... it was an interesting show altogether).

But back to Ireland... and the Watercats... the mood of their songs takes me back to when I was about eleven or so and used to listen to the sounds of long, meandering '70s albums coming out of my older brother's room when he was back from uni (I didn't always know which album was which but I know it all sounded good... and I'd hazard a guess that maybe someone in the Watercats and my brother share a little musical history too... let's hope that's all they share...). And the best thing of all, for me, about this collection is that there are ten songs on the CD (“Week Long Day”, “Even Odds”, “Tip of Sorrow”, “Begging Time”, “Blinding”, “Wolves”, “Scriptures Said”, “Remus Jackson”, “Perfect Weather” and “Avoid the Crows”) and I really like all of them (and how often can you say that of a collection of ten original songs on a demo?). All round it's a winner for me and the sooner they have an album out that people can buy/own/hear the better.

In the meantime you can hear more of the marvellous Watercats on their blog (right hand side to hear tracks) or at soundcloud. And a little bird tells me there will be Watercats content with the next issue of the Poetry Bus magazine. Go Cats.

p.s. I've been reading more on the Trump affair from last post (it gets worse the more I read...). More on that soon. Open letter from "You've Been Trumped" filmmakers to Scottish First Minister while you wait.

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