Lucky Jim Is The name Under Which Gordon Grahame Records Writes , Performs and Produces
Also featuring Eddie Myer , Sandy Watson , Alexander Watson , Keith Kelly and The Jaw ...
Influences
The influences are Music- Michel Legrand Van Morrison Lou Reed Jaques Brel Elliot Smith Bob Dylan Serge Gainsbourg Tom Waits The Rolling Stones The Beatles Al Green David Bowie Big Star The Doors Hank Williams Townes Van Zandt Jerry Lee Lewis Miles Davis John Coltrane Charles Mingus Joni Mitchell Neil Young Kris Kristofferson Leonard Cohen Pavement Jesus Christ Superstar AC/DC Elvis John Lee Hooker Gram Parsons Rush Genesis Ludwig Van Beethoven Schubert Bach Mozart Chopin and the Pixies ...Writers - Celine Genet Burroughs Kerouak Bukowski Blake Ginsberg Swedenbourg Bauderaire Rimbaud Anaconas Crowley Gurdieff Ouspenski Jung Moore Nietzche Graves Yeats Shakespeare Geothe Lorca ...Directors- Pasolini Cassavettes Herzog... Real people - Sandyman Tommy Brown Chris Dunn Gazza Scott D'arcy Jeff Buckley Rufus Wainwright Billy Jones Mike and Brian Hall Tristan Egolf Grant Walker Jimmie Grahame...
UNCUT MAGAZINE ****
You know the priest has started reading the last rites on dance music when the record label best known as home to Fatboy Slim releases... an alt.country record. Cynicism aside, Lucky Jim mark a laudable attempt by Skint to expand their horizons.
A two-piece (Scottish lad Gordon Graham and Brighton boy Ben Townsend), Lucky Jim draw on all the necessary and obvious references (Dylan, Gene Clark, Gram). But this collection of border skirmishes is surprisingly effective thanks to a neat line in bruised acoustic melancholia and Gordon's prairie-dog growl. "You're Lovely To Me" is all mandolin, strings and dusty melodies blown in from the desert. "Almeria", a nod of the Stetson to the Spanish city where Leone shot his Dollars trilogy, possesses a ragged, loping gait; a Morricone mooch. "The Honeymooners" sounds like Gainsbourg's "Bonnie & Clyde" for the E generation, while "My Soul Is On Fire" is a fine example of frontier melodrama.
THE INDEPENDENT
This engaging slice of British Americana – if that's not too much of a contradiction in terms – was made by Gordon Grahame and Ben Townsend within months of their first meeting in Brighton, an indication of how naturally their talents have meshed here. It's basically an album of Grahame's love songs, embroidered with arrangements that set his acoustic guitar against Townsend's piano counterpoints and string washes – a series of Dylan-esque warbles of devotion that nod to all manner of singer-songwriter legends but teeter over into exaggerated mannerism on only the title track. With its plangent croon and feverish beat, "Leah" recalls Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do", while pizzicato strings and Mediterranean guitar lend an intimate, Leonard Cohen mood to "The Honeymooners", an erotic duet between Grahame and Heather Banks, in which the latter urges, "Come and rest between my thighs/ The hungry days of reason, they have fed you full of lies." Throughout, Grahame displays a neat, original turn of phrase – "Been out on the road with a craving for tar" – and the ability to turn clichés on their head, as in: "One and one is one, not two." But there are discrepancies in some of the arrangements: the sloppily strummed guitar of "Leah" works against the neat, light Brubeck beat; on "Lesbia", the prissy piano sounds out of place. Both tracks would be improved by sparer settings that played to the songs' strengths – as on the lovely "Westwards We're Headed", in which two Spanish guitars and a basic drum machine conjure up the spirit of "Spanish Harlem".
CONTACT MUSIC ONLINE
Lucky Jim
Our Troubles End Tonight
ALbum Review
Although this album was released back in 2004, the use of the song You're Lovely To Me on the current Kingsmill ad has reignited interest in this singer-songwriter, and the album is set for re-release. With a sound at turns like Blonde on Blonde Dylan, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen, and maybe even Lee Hazlewood, Gordon Grahame (formerly of the long-missed Lost Soul Band) has made an album that could have been released at the end of the 60s, so full of character and rich analogue soul is every song.
Strummed chords, a drop here and there of out of tune organ and trumpet - Our Troubles End Tonight has a mellow core, but is sung with passion and sincerity. If you've fallen in love with that song on the ad, or have a thing for Blonde on Blonde, there is a whole lot more here. Simply excellent (light years ahead of Richard Hawley), and well worth its re-release.
Rating 9/10
Mike Rea
Hi Lucky Jim, I want to invite you to join me for my free spiritual teleclass on Nov. 8. Connect to spirit and be guided in an easy meditation you can use anytime, anywhere. Visit http://www.jasonnelson.info/spiritual-teleclass.html for more info and to register. Be sure to register so you get the call-in information! I hope to see you there!!
Hey, cheers man. Hows things going? Think we played a gig with you kiddies many moons back at the Pav Tav in the good old bad old good old days, think I must have been in Lalo at the time? You guys playing in Brighton anytime soon?
I'm Co Hosting The Dave Charles radio show this sunday (1st Nov) 102.3hfm from 7pm, never co hosted a whole show before and a little nervous, so if you could listen in and show some support it would really appreciated x
Hello Lucky Jim, Whenever I listen to your music. I feel like singing too. But your talent is unmatched. How much time you spend to rehearse per day Lucky Jim? Love ya. Yodi PS:Follow Me Twitter at http://twitter.com/iaent
Hey there Lucky Jim hows things? just wondered if you fancied a quick drop by to hear the new songs ive put up, would Love to hear what You think :D keep in touch!! ShaneyBoy....
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