MUSIC
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Corsican Gumbo
Live in Fericy
I love today
A croire que cétait
pour la vie
Three for trouble
Live at the 100 club
Font l'enfer
MUSIC/HENRY PADOVANI/ 2022
Corsican Gumbo
CORSICAN GUMBO
All titles produced and mixed by Henry Padovani at The U Campu Studios under guidance from Mark St John.
Original Cover Art created from the photograph by Maho
Final Mastering – Henry Padovani
1 - Aime moi ; i wanted to tackle some rootsy fast blues. Aime moi means 'love me' and the singer, abandonned by his lover, refuses to give in, while accepting the departure, asking the goner not to forget him, naively asking the goner to continue loving him, from all situations, even from someone else's caress... love can hurt badly and destroy.
2 - Au nom de la loi : a song about a story that happened in south america, an article read in a newspaper,, Miners were revolting, police was repressing, this young man, a miner, was tortured and killed by the police and when they went to find his girlfriend, they found her dead, lying in her bed, in a white robe, stained with red blood: she had cut her wrists. Deliberatly old fashion, Beatles white album kind of vibe.
3 - Ciao ciao let s go scratch : a couple of lovers wander in Venise, they challenge each other, they are very high on drugs. That is what the song is about. This is the sort of song we were writing in 77.
4 - Baby you left me with nothing : now, that is a song i have written quite a while back, after some break up with a girlfriend. I turned it into jazz and blues. I am a big fan of 40s blues, when Jazz was still embedded in it and i wanted to have a go. Dedicated to one of my heroes T Bone Walker.
5 - Volupté ; a charles beaudelaire poem that i always read and loved, « A Pagan's Prayer ». From the « Flowers of Evil » book , this is about abandon, sweet groggyness, and i wanted the song to float away, numb, confortably as some might say...
On this record, I played everything you hear. Every instrument. I produced it in my studio in Corsica. The backing vocals are from wonderful Vanessa G. Thank God , I returned home in Corsica. It definitely helped me go through the very complicated last 2 years. I could not thank enough my manager Mark St john who helped me produce this record. He was very much with me every step of the way, guiding my confidence and helping calibrate my ears and my arrangements into proper mixing. I really wanted to finish this record and dedicate it from the bottom of my heart to my elder brother Patrick who passed away this year. He was my biggest supporter and he was my hero.
Also, as you listen to it, in a normal life, I would have been on the road, near you, playing with Phil May and Dick Taylor, Sam Brothers and George Woosey, after having played on the Pretty Things « Bare as bone, Bright as Blood » album, all the way up till february 2020, when the pandemic stopped me going to England. Unfortunately now orphans as Phil May passed away in may 2020. Rest In Peace, Phil.
Corsican Gumbo,
Dear friends,
You know it, i am someone terribly free, independent, and i bought that freedom a long time ago.
I haven't given much news lately.. well probably for the last 2 years.. but many things happened. I moved back to Corsica and that was in October 2019. Corsica is the place where i was born. I went back to my village. Great idea!! Then, as i was settling there, the pandemic started and I was working on making my place livable, in the meantime staying at my sister by the sea. Winter came and we were all confined and stuck at home. While i was there, Mark St John, my manager told me one day that Phil May passed away. An accident. We had been in the studio with him the previous 6 months in London, Dick Taylor, Sam Brothers and I making an acoustic album and planning a tour, the following fall... argh... R.I.P, dearest Phil..
I managed to finish my house and even building a recording studio and i moved in there in June. Nothing happens in one day. Took about 9 months between an idea and its realization.
Well, June, you talking summer and summer in Corsica is sun, sea, partying, friends and family. On top of it, my daughter Fedora was pregnant and gave birth late august. Obviously our world was upside down and full of joy. Not much time to come here on the site, or even on social networks. I guess the last time i posted a message on facebook or whatever else was in September when i did some gigs in France. That was it. Some complained and then, couldn't give a damn and left me alone.
And then Christmas, at home with the family, my brother Patrick and his children and my sister Babeth, winter came, and then the pandemic again. I was fine as nothing affects the lonely life we live in places like Corsica, in the winter. And then, the horror, as my brother Patrick caught the virus, spent a month in reanimation, but did not make it. April 16th! He passed away. My older brother. Our foundation. My hero. And somehow, we carry on. Nothing will ever be the same.
But, all this meanwhile, i have been very busy. I have been recording a new album. I did stop working in the studio during march, april and may.. but i kept working in fields, like a real countryman. I still do and it fills my days. It keeps me alive. I m very happy about that.
The other days, i went back in the studio to listen.. i somehow managed to have about 15 songs recorded. So, easily an album. I have a lot more songs but i m talking finished ones. And out of 15, 10 are usually what you chose to publish. Producing is another kind of work, especially when you produce your own songs. And, as i always say, it s not the how, it is definitely the why that matters. Recording, piling tracks, we can all do that, but in which direction and why, that is another kind of brain work. And, in that context, 10 is probably arrogant, but you wouldn't call an album something that wouldn't have at least 10 songs...
I have decided that i should give those songs for you to listen. No buying, just presents. You guys have been good and i think that these days, and generally, as a life code, if you want to receive anything you should give first. That has always been my philosophy and i should put it in action.
I am reworking the site, i will organize it so that you that are already subscribed should get the songs and if people want to come here and subscribe, they will get the same benefits.
Later, i will have the album manufactured, either through a record label or directly by myself, and eventually sell it, for those who will want to have a physical piece of product. But frankly, i do not have the energy to think about some profiting strategy right now. I d rather give away. I will still sell stuff if you want to order on the site, t shirts, old albums etc, there is a stock and if i can, i will.
So, if you are ready to get a wave file for your computer or phone or whatever, you ll get it and i hope that you will enjoy it. In fact, whether you want it or not, you ll get it since you have already subscribed!! Ahaha
Love & Rock
Henry
