WOMAD

Joseph Arthur

From United States

Joseph Arthur is a bard of our times. Junk all those fiddle-de-de connotations, negate any sense of antiquity you associate with the word and reach for its true essence. It is something above the term singer-songwriter, it is a man who tells the story of the tribe in verse. Joseph Arthur is a mainline conduit from the collective spirit of western urban society, a society on the verge of breakdown. The tension, the pain and the hurt of that spirit are the substance of his art. The music is disjointed but hangs together with a wired nonchalance. The guitar sounds like it's had a pretty rough time and is on the verge of snapping, yet when Joseph's voice shares its anguish, a frazzled beauty arises.Somewhere, Mr Arthur has a spirit looking after him. Peter Gabriel was given a copy of his demo and rang him to ask if he could come and see a live gig. Unsurprisingly, he quickly arranged a show in New York, but in the haste publicity was rather overlooked and there were only a handful of people present. However, that handful contained both Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed! Mr Reed recorded the gig and Mr Gabriel signed him to Real World Records. It will be exciting to see how the story develops from this opening chapter. His first offering is 'Big City Secrets', a taught, fraught journey through the pitfalls of post-sane city existence.