Mini Lockdown Shows

This from Sid…

Musicians are singing from home in order to keep both their own and other folks’ spirits up so here is the first of my contributions to this great global concert.

Rather than do a longer Solo Concert I thought a periodic posting of a song or two would be better in these challenging times. With love to all, Sid The Squid Griffin

Brand New Heartache is the latest cover covered by Rhiannon Owen and Sid Griffin in their ongoing pursuit of pop stardom.

Originally recorded by the Everly Brothers this was also cut by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris in 1972. Making his musical debut is a bespecktacled Noah Griffin on harmonica.

Me And Magdalena

This is a cover of a brilliant 2016 song by The Monkees. Mickey Dolenz and Mike Nesmith sang it on their Good Times! album and here Dr. Owen and Long Ryder/Coal Porter Sid Griffin sing it for you.

Written by Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard it is a fine tune, a balm in an unsure, rocky world. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 Oh…thanks to Buddy Woodward for the instrumentation and Kevin Stokes for the mastering.

Wild Mountain Thyme

Last week in rural Anglesey the tiny cottage we rented inspired many sing-songs and late Sunday night we recorded Wild Mountain Thyme in order to satisfy the overwhelming worldwide public demand for more “Mitch & Mickey” duetting and way less Sid on clawhammer banjo.

I first heard this grand tune off the Byrds’ Fifth Dimension LP and was reminded of its greatness when I heard Peter Case sing it so well in 2019. Peter’s second solo album was Blue Guitar and dig what I am playing here.👀

Anyway this is for all the folk singers out there, all the families, and all the 🐶dog lovers. Will ye go, Lassie, go? Alas, the same question is never asked of Old Shep or Rin Tin Tin.

John Riley

As autumn 2021 kicks in Rhiannon Owen and her backup guitarist Sid Griffin perform the three hundred year old British folk song now commonly known as John Riley.

It is also titled Pretty Maid Down In The Garden in folk and bluegrass circles. Popularised in the 1960s folk revival by Bob Gibson and Judy Collins, many listeners will recognise it from The Byrds’ version on their 1966 LP, Fifth Dimension.

No More Chains

Here is a song from Sid’s old ‘alt-bluegrass’ band, the Coal Porters. The original full band version appears on the Prima Records release, Durango, and it came out in 2010.

This version is just Sid and mandolin but the tune still packs a punch! Especially in these days of voter suppression and The Big Lie.

Colours

Here is a celebration of the changing of the guard in Washington DC. Using Donovan’s Colours as a template I sing of one bad apple (one bad orange?) flying away and a good man and his fine female sidekick coming in to save the day.

There is a new sheriff in town.

Battle Cry of Freedom

In support of the incoming Biden-Harris administration I would like to sing this famous song from the Sixties. The 1860s!

I don’t know if we need a return to American Greatness but I would certainly love to see a return to American decency. Let us lead by the power of our example instead of bashing heads with examples of our power. 🗣️ Let freedom ring!

Full Circle

A version of the late Gene Clark’s classic composition Full Circle wherein Dr. Rhiannon Owen of the NHS and I sing and the overdubbed bass and guitar are provided by Chris J. Hillman of Crouch End. Not Chris Hillman of California (!) but the guy who performs with folks like Billy Bragg here in Europe.

Enjoy! And remember the artistry of Gene Clark.

All Aboard (for those fightin’ the good fight!)

Sid Griffin sings his sweet little heart out on a cover of a Long Ryders song. Solidarity…that’ll work!

The Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon, London is a major player in the cultural landscape w/ poetry readings, club meetings, acoustic 🎻 folk gigs, good 🍺 grub, electric band 🎸 gigs, & more.

Sid and Dr. Rhiannon Owen Joined in with a vast collection of other artistes on Saturday June 20, 2020 for her benefit gig!

Answering the call from Scandinavia’s great Americana booking agency, Rootsy Music, songwriter/author/ne’er do well Sid Griffin performed a forty minute set on-line and this Long Ryders song called Molly Somebody, taken from their 2019 album Psychedelic Country Soul, was one of the highlights.

As part of his (anti-) Coronavirus Concert Series our roots music guru and all-around germ terminator Sid The Squid (know as Sid The Id in academic circles) reaches back into the Great Americana Songbook and performs The Coal Porters’ classic tune Salad Days from their extraordinarily well-received 2016 album, No. 6. Get ready to dance!

On Saturday the 25th of April 2020 Shindig! Magazine broadcast their first ever Lockdown Festival in support of The Trussell Trust which has so far raised over £2200. Almost 60 artists gave their time and recorded exclusive versions of original tracks and some of their favourite cover versions for the festival, Sid Griffin was one of those artists.

If you enjoy these songs, and are in a position to do so, please do donate so that The Trussell Trust can continue their brilliant work, and feed people during this uncertain period. Please make any donations on the Shindig! Just Giving page and support this vital cause: justgiving.com/fundraising/shindig-magazine

You can also still currently watch the whole Shindig! Lockdown Festival at youtube.com/watch?v=T2RC-wpIXic

Here is a song requested by two of my pals, one just getting over Covid-19. I first played this song onstage in Louisville circa 1974 and it remains a fave rave.

Remember we are all in this together! You can wear all the small arms weaponry you like at a protest at your state capital but no matter how good your aim you cannot shoot germs. They’ll get you first. Enjoy!

Sing along at the chorus, okay?

Continuing my Solo Sid Series in the hope to keep spirits up as we fight coronavirus here is Ivory Tower, written in 1983 by Professor Barry Shank.

Can you figure out why it sounds so fat, so multi-layered? Do I see a hand raised at the back? Yes…correct…Buddy Woodward overdubbed this in his high tech studio in Arizona. Thanks, Buddy!

Housebound like so very many of you, Jess 🐶 the Springer Spaniel and I thought a clawhammer romp thru an old Long Ryders song would be just the thing to, as John Kay would sing, “get ‘yer motor runnin’”.

The Material World Foundation, created by George Harrison, has launched the Inner Light Challenge to raise funds for charities providing aid in the COVID-19 pandemic. They will donate $1 (up to $100,000) for every instance of someone sharing their own inner light moment on social media using the hashtag #innerlight2020. The Foundation has already donated $500,000 to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Dhani Harrison says he will give even more moolah for every take of The Inner Light the public sends in with the hashtag #innerlight2020 You only need do a verse & chorus.

Find out more at www.materialworldfoundation.com