HW 40th Anniversary Show - Huw

[mike coleman]

And Huw can even write down what he's just played!!!!  imagine that!~!!



On 4/17/09, Carl Edlund Anderson <cea at carlaz.com> wrote:
>
> Despite years of pretending to be a musician, my technical knowledge of
> music is virtually nonexistent :) so I will bow to those with a deeper
> knowledge of Huw's forays across jazz modes!  Still, there is definitely
> something about Huw that makes him sound like Huw, traversing across the
> face of the song like some crazed sonic rock climber on a string.  In the
> last weeks, I'm been going back and trying to revisit the bits of "Huwwind"
> that I have, and even though it _still_ sounds to me like a remarkably
> distinctive and creative bunch of covers with Huw on board, rather than what
> is burned in my mind as classic Hawkwind, I have to say that I do appreciate
> his work with the band!  I mean, I can scarecely imagine "Shot Down in the
> Night" being played without Huw, and my favorite version of "Psy Power" is
> that rocked up Huw-fueled one (always wanted to cover that, too).
>
> And, you're right -- Jerry, for all his evident merits, didn't really seem
> to bring such a distinctive voice to the proceedings.
>
> Cheers,
> Carl
>
> On 17 Apr 2009, at 08:01, Jonathan Jarrett wrote:
>
>> I once made an ex of mine who didn't care much for the treble
>> register listen to one of Huw's breaks, possibly the _Live '79_
>> `Brainstorm' or maybe even live with Litmus once, and she actually paid
>> some attention and then said, "he's not even in the same key as the rest
>> of them". And I listened and thought, he's not, is he? He's cutting
>> across them in a minor key in some way that fits perfectly but sounds
>> really affecting. And since I noticed that I've found that this is, for
>> me, Huw's big trick, he's really good at playing across the band. This
>> is why Jerry Richards, despite being very good too, never really
>> replaced Huw as lead for me, because he just sounds like Brock on speed
>> and without as chunky an amp set-up. Huw sounds like no-one else (much
>> like Dave himself), but I'm not sure that it's particularly because of
>> his technical skill, which does vary somewhat in performance these days,
>> but because of his ear for the best route across the rest of the music.
>> And of course, doing that makes him stand out in a way that Jerry
>> doesn't.
>>
>>        I don't know if that actually has much musical basis, but maybe
>> someone who can speak to such things will tell me if I'm wrong.
>>
>
> --
> Carl Edlund Anderson
> http://www.carlaz.com/
>