Ben Somers – Poor Stuart
Rock Creature Records – 7 September 2018
Ben Somers is a saxophone and double bass player with an impressive list of collaborators. He is always working, always playing and lives the touring life of a professional musician. He’s versatile, equally as comfortable with traditional Folk styles as he is with Country, Western Swing, Blues and Jazz. Essentially, he’s a go-to sideman who’s already bagged a job for life in live music. The only problem with this is that versatility can be a curse when the time comes to record your debut solo album. Do you go for a touching all bases summary of your range or try and settle on one cohesive style? I am delighted to assess that on ‘Poor Stuart’, Ben Somers has found a way of doing both.
The opening instrumental, a Somers original and the album’s title track, is a thrillingly dramatic beginning. Starting slowly, it unfolds into something of a prelude for what’s to come with expansive melody lines on the fiddle and gorgeous chord progressions. They’re Beatle chords to me; by that I mean they are musical and bold, the way they sweep between major and minor shades is a joy to behold. In fact, a similar effect is realised on the closing, also self-penned tune, ‘Melody for Jules’; although here it’s a gently becalming, closing moment. By bookending the album with these framings Ben has created a canvas on which he can unveil his world to us. But what of the man himself?
Well, the cover images show him to be a heads up, can-do sort of chap. The kind of house guest who wouldn’t mind helping with the washing up. His world is live music and that’s all too clear in certain song topics. He does fall into the ‘life on the road’ rabbit hole but for someone without a prolific inventory of lyrics that is a tad inevitable. But boy can he come up with a tune. There are strong melodic lines running through all the original pieces on this set and even the interpretations show natural inventiveness from all the players. These are Dorian Ricaux on guitar, Evan Davies on mandolin and Marius Pibarot on fiddle. It says something of his background that Somers so often defers the starring instrumental spotlight to fiddler Pibarot. If that’s what the song requires I sense that Ben is always guided by this dictum, regardless of any self-elevation.
In contrast to this cordiality, the original song ‘Sideman’ packs a blindside punch out of nowhere. It appears to deal with some pent-up grievances that Ben needed to vent, specifically addressing his working life as a supporting musician. Recently he’s worked with Eliza Carthy, playing with musicians at Shakespeare’s Globe where Carthy had written original pieces for the production ‘Two Noble Kinsmen’. But Ben has spoken with abundant enthusiasm of both Eliza’s work and the experience yet still, questions of the “who is he singing about” variety abound when you hear this song. Ben sings of how “the commitment I give you onstage is absurd, there’s no way in hell I could polish your song.” Does he really say, “hours of sitting and biting my tongue, this shit show of friendship has long since undone”? Whoever it is, I appreciate Ben’s ire when highlighting the “money is poor, but the living is rich, dying on stage is not how I get my kicks”. I bet he enjoyed getting that one off his chest! The swinging upbeat tempo of the piece supports this suspicion. Just for the record the artists Ben has supported as a sideman include Seal and Taylor Swift!
The penultimate track brings a lovely cameo from Ben’s father Steve, who takes lead vocal on the Johnny Lange song ‘Blue Shadows on The Trail’. Listening to the joy that seeps out of the rendition, it sounds like a song they’ve loved for a while. It also highlights some superb harmony singing, but then aren’t those family vocal combinations always the best? All in all, it adds to a vast array of musical excursions and highlights on a hugely promising, first solo effort.