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Ches Cherry's blog

Mathew Street

Every town has a ‘Mathew Street,’ but because this one is in Liverpool, i guess it’s that little bit more out there and different. Every weekend the hunters gather, high on vodka shots and aftershave. Girls in little black dresses braving wind and rain and performing ritual group mating dances queuing outside the clubs. Rainbow coloured neon light bouncing off wet cobbles, street singers, vacant eyed rose sellers and mounted police keeping time with chemical beats.

For seven years or more we played at The Grapes Pub in Mathew Street. Packed into that bar, no bigger than your Aunty’s front parlour, you’d find gangsters, soap stars, footballers, tourists and the permanently bewildered. We’d play folk, blues, motown classics and ‘60’s pop. No-one much cared what you played actually … just as long as you connected.

This song is for the regulars that used to, maybe still do, frequent the place .. Alan, Anne, and one-arm John. Steve the Magician and Stan the Man. The High Priest who sang Sinatra, The Fabulous Frankie Flame … and the little fella with the bugle who moved to Spain.

Aug 26 at 1:46 PM EDT • 0 comments • permalink • email

Mucho Thanks

Thanks to everyone who visited during April and took the time to vote.

I’ve uploaded a new song in the ‘Blues’ category for May which is kind of JJ Cale-ish. Hope you like it.

Best Wishes

Ches

Apr 29 at 9:33 AM EDT • 0 comments • permalink • email

Tracing The Roots

I do my bit to promote roots music around Merseyside. It’s a region which has always had an ongoing love affair with folk, country and Americana. In fact, long before The Beatles came on the scene, Liverpool earned itself the unlikely title of ’Nashville of The North’ …. no one knows why exactly, but there were a lot of guys wearing cowboy hats and calling themselves Hank in those days !!

If you’d like to read more about Liverpool’s pre-Beatles musical history, you might be interested in visiting a website I put together: www.rollingrootsrevue.moonfruit.com which is packed with info, sound and video clips etc entitled ’Tracing The Roots.’

What’s really encouraging about the music scene here though, is the current crop of young talent that’s emerging who are blending their own original material with folk, blues and country influences … kind of like The Alabama 3, radical and left-field.

That’s the kind of music that rings my bell, along with more traditional American players such as Ry Cooder and Jorma Kaukonen (I’d like Jorma even more if I could only learn to spell and pronounce his name properly)

I released a solo album, ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ in 2007 and have also just released a single, ‘Land of Plenty’ in collaboration with ‘The Wallasey Culture Company.’ It’s available free for download from www.myspace.com/chescherry … It’s the kind of song which you’ll enjoy if you’re a fan of Tom Waits or Doctor John … swampy, brooding, apocalyptic blues.

Apr 12 at 3:21 PM EDT • 0 comments • permalink • email