Soon after I became aware of the sparky brilliance of the New Orleans songwriter Carsie Blanton, I sent her one of my novels.<\/p>\n
She had announced on social media that she was, for reeasons I couldn’t quite work out, prepared to barter one of her CDs\u00a0 for goods rather money. If you sent her something that was important to you, she would send you a CD.<\/p>\n
So I sent off a copy of my 2013 novel\u00a0The Twynin<\/span><\/a>g.<\/span><\/p>\n With the benefit of hindsight, I can see now that a 500-page novel set in the gutters of Victorian London and narrated by a rat might not have been quite what Carsie was expecting.\u00a0 I blame her songs –\u00a0 as with many of the best songwriters, her work has\u00a0 a friendly, confiding quality to it. Just as I had warmed to her musical stories of love, lust and politics, i thought she might appreciate the novel that I still think of as a rodent Great Expectations<\/em>.<\/p>\n I’m not sure she did. When she wrote later about her bartering experiment, she mentioned that someone had even sent her his novel!! There was something about her tone which suggested to me she was less than delighted by my present. I fear that a thoughtfully inscribed copy of The Twyning<\/em> is now languishing in a New Orleans charity shop.<\/p>\n Carsie Blanton is a funny, reckless songwriter who, at her best, writes brave and brilliant songs about America,\u00a0 politics and sex (not in that order). She has a radical, take-no-prisoners approach to these subjects, and isn’t one for gentle ditties of love and life. Her great song ‘Backbone’ starts:<\/p>\n ‘We all know a man can be a delicate thing<\/em> The pay-off in the chorus is tough:<\/p>\n ‘Show me something I can rely on<\/em> This, as with other Carsie Blanton songs, specifically\u00a0‘American Kid<\/a>‘ and the wonderfully randy\u00a0 ‘Jacket<\/a>‘ has a terrific video<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although the music is poppy, there’s a sharp wit and intelligence in the lyrics (she writes a great blog called ‘thoughts on love sex, music and ferocity’<\/a>) and a sense in both the words and the music that Carsie Blanton casts wide for her musical influences. She has done some really good covers of old jazz classics, like the great\u00a0 song from 1928 ‘My Sweet Lorraine’\u00a0 (another wonderful video of a performance at home<\/a>) , and she includes names like John Prine, Madeleine Peyroux, Joni Mitchell, Nick Lowe, Ray Charles and Paul Simon among her musical influences.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, there is always in her songs that wonderful, loose, jazzy influence that New Orleans musicians seem to absorb osmotically.<\/p>\n
\nHe can be soft and sweet like sugar wrapped in butter<\/em>
\nAnd I don\u2019t mind your company but if you wanna make me sing<\/em>
\nKeep in mind that I am not your mother.’<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nOr I would rather be alone<\/em>
\nYou give your heart but I wanna see your<\/em>
\nBackbone.’<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n