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Europeans In Americana Music: Michael Weston King
A Decent Man
Floating World FW016
By Marianne Ebertowski
 With
A Decent Man, frontman of UK alt.country band the Good
Sons Michael Weston King has delivered a solo album that moves
as far from being "twangy" as he could get in one giant
leap. Choosing Scottish folk singer Jackie Leven, leader of
the seminal late '70s London rock band Doll By Doll, as producer
gives a clear hint that King wants to explore new horizons after
his alt.country life with Austin-based label Watermelon and took
him on the road with Townes van Zandt.
The opening chords of "Celestial City" demonstrate
this forcefully. Instead of a pedal steel taking us to Nashville,
we get a trumpet introducing the good city of Birmingham, England,
a city generally considered to be unromantically uncelestial.
Why King chooses to live in this concrete place of rainy misery
I don't know, but as long as it helps him write songs as good
as this one it's fine with me. And fine songs they all are,
all eleven on this album. Nine were written by King, with two
covers consisting of Neil Young's "Love In Mind" soberly
recorded with piano and vocals only, and Pete Townsend's "Blue
Red & Gray."
The title song, "A Decent Man," is not a self-righteous
folk singer's self-appraisal, but rather the tale of an average
adult man finding himself staring at young women in the hope
that he's still able to attract them. A bit of "dirty old
man" in every decent middle-aged guy, so King thinks --
and hopes that it portrays him as little as possible. In spite
of being addicted to country music since his early years, King's
affinity for English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello is made
obvious by "Mothertongue." A young boy explains to
his kid sister why their father is no longer around and why,
growing up with only their mother, they speak "the mothertongue."
This is a topic eerily hinting at King's own situation as a divorced
father.
Featuring dobro, harmonica and lapsteel, "The Englishman's
Obsession With America" is One of the few twangy songs on
A Decent Man. King expresses his frustration with English
music journalism's praising anything alt.country from the States
after ignoring the efforts of his own band playing this particularly
brand of music masterfully for years.. It's a song written a
couple of years ago, just like "When You Leave The Spotlight"
(he's already done a twangy version with his band). In its new
jacket it's a slower soulful version using a sample of Bobby
Bland's "It's Not The Spotlight" and featuring Michael's
new wife Lou Dalglish on vocals. On "Always The Bridesmaid
(Never The Bride)," King tells the story of so many musicians
who never quite make the limelight but always find enough praise
to go on with what they're doing in a place "where the stars
don't shine." On the Who's "Blue Red & Gray,"
the instrumental honors are given to the brilliant Michael Cosgrave
on French horn and trumpet. It's up to Cosgrave to close an
album which is a lot more than just "decent" as long
as you're willing to open up to "Europeana" as much
as to "Americana" music.
* * *
After playing the Folk Allliance in Nashville, King talked about
himself.
"I am originally from Liverpool but now I live in Birmingham.
I first got interested in Americana in the early 80's when I
bought Almost Blue, Elvis Costello's album of country
covers. I was totally hooked. I went out and got the Gram Parsons
albums, George Jones, Hank Williams etc. and discovered a beautifully
simple yet completely honest emotional form of music. I was in
and out of pop bands at the time and it changed everything.
I joined a band (as guitarist ) that was inspired by old country
(Hank and Gram), new country (Lyle and Dwight) and, perhaps more
importantly, all those not-quite-country bands (Green On Red,
REM), and then flying the country flag became a way of life.
After the band split, I formed the Good Sons and it was at this
time that bands such as Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks started
to appear. They were combining a punk rock attitude with a love
of great country music, and that was exactly what I wanted."
"Ever since I was 15 I had wanted to be in a band. After
seeing Marc Bolan (T.Rex) on the British TV show Top of the
Pops, my mind was made up. My first band was kind of Joy
Division meets Echo and The Bunnymen, and that then metamorphasized
into a more pop/lyrical band called Fragile Friends, which represented
my love of the articulate pop of Elvis Costello, Squeeze, and
the Teardrop Explodes. But by the early 80's, I was turned onto
country and all the Paisley Undergrond bands (REM, Green On Red
etc) that were happening, and I followed that route."
"I love American music, and I have been influenced more
by American artists over the years than British ones. I love
the singer-songwriter genre and Texas, in my opinion, has produced
some of the finest ever. So, naturally, I have been drawn to
the state and the artists who came from it. Another connection
I have with Texas is that I was signed to the Austin label, Watermelon
Records, in 1998. I can't tell you my best Texan experience (not
in print anyway), but I guess my second best experience was going
there in '98 for SXSW and promoting the recently released album
Angels In The End. Traveling around Texas, going to numerous
radio stations, playing songs, driving, listening to the car
radio,hanging out with a lot of great musicians and making friends,
many of which I still see and work with like Troy Campbell and
Eric Taylor."
"Who do you consider the greatest American/Texan singer-songwriter/musician
and why?"
"Well, they are plenty to choose from...Guy Clark, Eric
Taylor, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Joe Ely, but I guess it
has to be Townes. I was fortunate to tour with him on and off
for the last four years of his life. We became good friends
and had some very happy and funny times together. He recorded
one of my songs and for that I will be eternally grateful and
proud. He is special in the sense that, despite his obvious
condition, he was a gentleman always. Profoundly gifted as a
writer, a lyricist, a storyteller, but even more so as a person.
He oozed charm and presence, warmth and wit, and I never met
anyone -- not even his ex-wives -- who said a bad word against
him."
<" "I have been lucky to tour with a lot of America's
finest artists, ones who I admired for many years ... Roger McGuinn,Chris
Hillman, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Eric Taylor, Joe Ely, Joe Henry,
Rodney Crowell, Canadian Ron Sexsmith and many others. But the
most special experience has to be working with Townes. He and
I recorded a duet of my song "Riding The Range" on
the first Good Sons album, and then two years later he recorded
it himself with a bluegrass duo from Nashville called The Calvins.
Both these events were very special to me and, indeed, an honor."
"Your new album, A Decent Man, will be released
in March 2003. Why should Americans listen to it?"
"Well, in my opinion, there are 11 good reasons why anyone,
not just Americans, should listen to it, and that is the 11 songs
on the album. The album is a mixture of pop, alt. country and
folk, so if people like any of those styles of music then they
should check it out. It was produced by my dear friend and extremely
talented artist Jackie Leven, another reason to listen to the
album. For any fans of Neil Young -- and I am a huge one -- the
album will be of interest as I have covered his song "Love
In Mind", and the album also features Ian McNabb formerly
of The Icicle Works who made an album with Crazy Horse in the
'90's. Ian is a stunning guitar player as well as a great singer
and songwriter, and he has added a lot to the songs he plays
on. Also, there is a song on the album called "An Englishman's
Obsession with America" which will definitely be of interest
to everyone across the pond. Indeed there may well be some Americans
with an English obsession."
"What do you consider the best four song lines you
have ever written?"
"Impossible to say. That is something that should be
answered by other people. Someone told me that one of my lyrics
was featured on a web site. The owner of the site had chosen
the "I died so many times/Once more won't hurt this life/But
this is not the end/It's just the door."
That's from the song "Lay Me Down," which is about
watching a video of Townes Van Zandt's funeral. So if they think
it is their fav lyric of all-time, that's good enough for me."
*www.michaelwestonking.com
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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