If things were normal then Emma Tricca would have by now finished her new record and completed a string of dates with Robyn Hitchcock in the UK before heading off to Europe with the band. Instead, with the enforced downtime she has found herself reflecting on old favourites and major influences, leading her to revisit a recent recording, with the St Peter personnel (Pete Galub, Jason Victor, and Steve Shelley) of Bert Jansch’s ‘It Don’t Bother Me’.
The song was the title track of Jansch’s second album released in 1965. It was originally recorded at Pye Studios and was produced by Nathan Joseph and Bill Leader although Bill was uncredited. On the sleeve of that album he wrote “To sell your music is to sell your soul. To give your music is to buy your freedom.” That same creative force has always been at the forefront of Tricca’s music.
St. Peter was released back in 2018 and was a Featured Album of the Month on Folk Radio, reviewed here by Thomas Blake.
She approaches folk music in the same way that Julia Holter approaches classical music: with the intention of bending it to her will, of creating something new on her terms. The constraint of song is simply a frame in which anything can be drawn, and Tricca has the artistic vision to recognise and embrace that. She is one of the most uniquely talented songwriters around, and St. Peter is her best work to date. Thomas Blake
On this new single she is no less creative and if anyone can do justice to Jansch then Tricca can…and does.
Stirred by what she heard on this new recording, she passed it to Sean Read (Dexys, Edwyn Collins, Rockingbirds) at the Famous Times Studios, who has added organ and horns, and mastered the track. It’s always a good time to be reminding ourselves of Bert, and this impressive reading certainly serves him well. From an initial, deliberate simplicity of guitar and voice, the track grows; organ, horns, and band reveal themselves in a full flowering replete with hues of baroque and psych.
Coupled with ‘Good Morning Diner’ – a song she wrote some years back in Austin – an out-take from Relic, produced by Carwyn Ellis (Colorama, Pretenders) to which Sean adds more magic, and restores Sharon Forbes’ strings; it recalls a time when the limitations on our horizons were still no more than those on our dreams.
Available now via Bandcamp: https://emmatricca.bandcamp.com/album/it-dont-bother-me-good-morning-diner