Jackie Leven – take 2

Following last week’s championing of Jackie Leven by Mike Ollier, I pulled from the Music for Grown-Ups Archive this appreciation by another smitten reader, Alan Ewart:



Jackie Leven for beginners

Alan Ewart writes:

Jackie Leven grew up in a Scotland of dying coalfields and a declining textile industry. His unique body of work has traces of the different musics he heard as a child - jazz and blues at home, Protestant hymns at school, and the folk songs of his native Fife. They all add substance to his powerfully evocative song writing.

Leven's first album, Control, in the early '70s, was released under the pseudonym John St. Field. In the late '70s, he moved south, to Dorset, forming the outstanding rock band, Doll By Doll. They made five strong albums between 1978 and 1982 - Remember, Gypsy Blood, Doll By Doll, Grand Passion and A Last Flick of the Golden Wrench - though the last album was never released. Tired of trying to make a breakthrough in the days of punk and disco, Doll By Doll disbanded in 1982.

Jackie Leven went solo, but in 1983 he was attacked in a North London street, and was left with severe damage to his larynx. Unable to sing or even speak, Leven turned to drink and drugs. In 1985, he turned his experience to positive use by founding the Core Trust, a treatment centre for addicts, focussing on alternative therapies for beating addiction.

Leven resumed his career in the mid-'90s, with a string of superbly crafted albums. His songs draw richly on his own experiences and he frequently alludes to the darker side of life. He sings about death from heroin (Poortoun), the perils of drink (Classic Northern Diversions) and violence (Extremely Violent Man). At the heart of his attraction as a musician is the contrast between his often dark subject matter and the beauty of his singing and playing.

These dark songs are only a part of his work, however. If I had to categorise Jackie Leven's music, I would describe it as Celtic Soul. Many of his songs (Your Winter Days, Ancient Misty Morning) draw pictures of lyrical beauty (in the way of Van Morrison). Others tell of love lost (Exit Wound). He frequently draws American and Russian poetry into his work (last year's Shining Brother, Shining Sister). His respect for the written word led to collaboration with poet Robert Bly and writer Ian Rankin. In fact, Rankin has written a short story, Jackie Even Said, which they will perform together at this month's Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.

Go and buy an album (my favourites are Fairy Tales for Hardmen, Defending Ancient Springs, and Shining Brother, Shining Sister). Better still, get out and see this rewarding musician, live. Jackie Leven's shows are always entertaining, offering well-crafted songs, unusual guitar playing and hilarious storytelling: most definitely music for grown-ups!

Jackie Leven is a friendly, accessible man. I recently sent him CDR copies of a couple of his shows I'd recorded. By return of post, he sent me a signed copy of his self-written fan magazine (The Haunted Valley) and a letter of thanks. Annual subscription to the magazine is only £14 and the price includes an exclusive fan club-only CD: how's that for value?

If you are interested in seeing him live, he will be performing at a Leven internet list-organised charity event on the weekend of 18/19/20 June 2004: a midsummer party in Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Activities Centre, Manor Farm Country Park, Bursledon, Hants. Accommodation is available in log cabins in the forest. It will be a great weekend (and very reasonably priced).