Songwriters approach their craft in many different ways. Some gather bits and pieces of words in journals or on cocktail napkins, while others fiddle or play with their instruments until a melodic idea becomes a song. But the one theme that seems to come across more often then not with these craftspeople is that the really special compositions seem to just materialise when they are in the right state. I am not speaking about Queensland or Texas, by the way.
Jeff Lang, one of Australia’s finest guitarists and a very clever, intriguing songwriter, spoke to me recently about songwriting and his bloody great release, Half Seas Over. Jeff has plugged into the force again and found some beautiful roots music for our pleasure. When we spoke, Jeff explained a bit about his process and where the songs on this release came from.
“The best stuff seems to all arrive at once. I don’t have an instrument in my hand when that is happening. A lot of the times it will be when you are writing words down and you can hear a tune in your head to go with it and it all seems to be arriving on a silver platter. They are fun when they arrive like that, because you almost get to hear it like it’s a new song complete and you’re getting to hear it for the first time.
“These songs come from a whole bunch of different circumstances. There is one [song], Copper Mine, where I had been watching a television programme and it sort of inspired me. This was one that did sort of come directly out of watching something but I didn’t try to write a song about it. I was watching a programme on SBS and it was narrated by this fellow who was a miner in a copper mine in Africa and I just watched it and the way the guy was speaking was very poetic and eloquent.
“So anyway, I took it in and went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a bunch of words going through my head and so I got back up and wrote them down. I wouldn’t say they were directly what the guy was saying, but they were falling out in a rhyming fashion and I could hear the accompaniment at the same time. This was a kind of rare experience to come out of something I was watching a few hours earlier.”
Most of the songs on the album seem to be linked to English folk in a way, but there is no way you can call this a – œfolk’ release. It is a true roots record with blues, beautiful playing and the smooth vocal style that Jeff has perfected through the years of performing. Jeff spoke a bit about the word and meaning of – œfolk’ when I compared some of the songs to English traditional music. As you may know, many of the so called Americana or roots music we listen to has links back to Scotland and the like. While this is how the songs turned out, it wasn’t necessarily Jeff’s intention.
“That’s sort of just the way they came out,” he concedes. “I had been playing the House Carpenter at shows and it took on a life of its own. There was a point to recording it because it was different from other versions that I had heard. Then there were some other songs I wrote that would probably suit more of a band type of recording and there were other ones that sat with that song, without being particularly – œfolky’.
“I guess those words have connotations for people. Take a word like – œfolky’ and you think of something that is nice and un-troubling and that is not my kind of folk music. But there were songs sitting in that kind of pile, and there were more of them, so that was the kind of record that I made. There were enough songs in this vein to record them and have a sort of mood running through the record.”
So where does the seafaring title of the CD come from? “There are a couple of different meanings of Half Seas Over,” Jeff explains. “It is a nautical term and the connotation of inebriation that is there in some meanings. The meaning that I got from it overall was basically, barely keeping your shit together. That was the meaning I took away from the title and there were a lot of characters in these songs that for various reasons and in various ways were in that boat. So it seemed to click when I came across it and when I was looking for a title to call this collection of songs.”
Jeff Lang has a slew of fabulous solo recordings and some grand collaborations with people like Chris Whitley, Chris Finnen and Bob Brozman to name a few. On this record, he shares writing credits with Susannah Espie on The Savannah Way and with his wife Alison Ferrier.
“I wrote that [ The Savannah Way ] with my friend Susannah Espie, who is a great writer and singer. We had written another song together and we felt rather pleased with ourselves, ‘cause it happened pretty quickly and painlessly. It was the first time we had done so, so we said let’s do something else. She [already] had the first couple of verses of a song and she didn’t really know where to go with it. So I said, – œI think I know where we can go with this. Someone must die,’” Jeff laughs.
“The other song that I wrote with my wife Alison [ Night Draws In ] was again just really good fun. It can be fun when it is with someone you know, and you respect the way they write. You can just have some pleasure with it and not worry if it is something that either of you is going to sing. It was like that writing with Susannah as well.”
Half Seas Over is one of those records, like many Jeff has released, that gets better and better with repeated listens. His phrasing, the lyrics and especially his playing seem to seep into your life and soul. As I said, Jeff is an Australian treasure who, slowly but surely, the rest of the world is picking up on.
Jeff Lang’s Half Seas Over tour takes in the following dates:
May 28 – The Clarendon, Katoomba
May 29 – Lizottes, Ettalong Beach
May 30 – The Brass Monkey, Cronulla
May 31 – The Basement, Sydney
June 1 – The Street Theatre, Canberra
June 6 – The Loft, Warrnambool
June 7 – The National Hotel, Geelong
June 13 – Harmony Row Vineyard, Pipers Creek
June 14 – Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc
June 20 – Launceston Country Club
June 21 – The Republic Bar, Hobart
June 26 – The Sound Lounge, Gold Coast
June 27 – Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane
June 28 – Bangalow Catholic Hall, Bangalow
June 29 – Joe’s Waterhole, Eumundi
to listen to their music now on 