Hugh Moffatt, Hen & Chicken, Bristol, 3rd November, 1998
Hugh Moffatt at the Hen & Chicken, Bristol
Ghosts of the music
Words and picture: Susan CaneSome things in life cannot be explained logically. Like when people complain about the lack of live music in their area, then don't turn up when the very music they've asked for is there on their doorstep. It was like that at the Hen & Chicken in Bedminster, Bristol, where American songwriter Hugh Moffatt played during his latest string of UK dates.
The function room above the pub had the space for a lot more people than the handful of fans that were actually there. It was nice for the people listening - to me it felt a bit like attending a secret concert in somebody's living room - but I don't know that attendance like this does much to boost the confidence of the musician, especially if they've travelled thousands of miles to play!
Anyway, this was one show that any fan of acoustic music - any fan of GOOD music - would have enjoyed. Occasionally a person doesn't even need to hear the music, to be converted.
Back in 1995, on one of Hugh's previous visits to Bristol, I took two friends along to his show at a Kingswood hotel. One of them bought a CD, which was spotted a couple of days later by her mother. "You've got it signed!" she said. "But you're a married woman!" Then, on closer inspection of the booklet, "Oh, doesn't he look like Jesus! Could you do me a copy?"
Hugh is a Texan now living in Nashville, and he used to be a trumpet-playing jazz musician. At exactly 9.30pm tonight (his 50th birthday) though, he stepped on stage with only his acoustic guitar for company. The show began with a few older songs, starting with How Could I Love Her So Much, and Hugh told us that he had just recorded his eighth album. "I'm keeping up with Garth. That's what's important, right?" Then came another older song, the cleverly titled Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You.
Money, Too, he explained, was about the revelation that you don't need to worry about whether it's love or money - "you just gotta have both".
This tour coincided with the release of Hugh's new album, GHOSTS OF THE MUSIC, and this evening we heard a selection of those songs. On the recording the tracks flow, telling a story as they go. As the liner notes say: "This album is the story of one person's journey through adult life. It is not all my journey. Maybe it is partly yours." The songs tell of a man as he goes through emotions ranging from loneliness to happiness, and from despair to optimism and acceptance. Tonight there wasn't time to hear all the songs, but the ones we did hear still told that story - and they were sung in Hugh's usual, gentle style.
Leading into Watermelon Moon, he spoke about the occasions he'd had to leave his wife and children at home while he toured - and then about the time that they went off and left him behind for a couple of days! Then there was Just In Case, the first of his songs that had ever been recorded by a major artist. It topped the country charts in 1975 (performed by Ronnie Milsap) and, as Hugh said - this being his 50th birthday, he couldn't pretend that he had written the song when he was 5 years old...
He told us about the UK festival where he had just played, which, he said, was "nice in a great big way. It's nice to get back to a smaller crowd. Of course, I'm glad it isn't any smaller than this. I hate it when I outnumber the audience. That's happened to me." Well, at least the audience wasn't that small, tonight!
It Happens is about somebody who's unbelievably optimistic. Tonight there was a pause as soon as the song started, so that Hugh could explain the concept of the Publishers' Clearing House, which holds draws in which people can (apparently) win millions of dollars. Of course, nobody ever knows anybody who has won.
The second set began with a couple of requests. The Life of a Minor Poet, from the album of the same name, could be the theme song of a thousand songwriters, trying to make their living through music:
"To work for gold is to learn to say
What others want to hear
To work for love is to sing from the soul
When no one seems to care
To stand in front of empty seats
My whole life on display
To rise or fall like a mighty king
On a minor poet's pay..."Hugh said that the events in the next song, unfortunately, always tend to remain current. It was written about "the phenomenon of the television preacher", which has never gone away. It was Praise The Lord and Send Me The Money, the song I'd requested during the interval. I can always visualise its story of a man who is taken in by one of those preachers:
"Late one night while watching 'Columbo'
I fell asleep till a quarter past three
When just like a vision, I thought I was dreaming
I heard the voice of a man on TV
He said "Praise the Lord and send me the money
I'm so happy, you can be happy too
If you praise the Lord and send me the money
That's what Jesus wants you to do""He ends up getting a second job to pay off his debts, after he:
"Wrote a hot check to Jesus for ten thousand dollars
And my bank account only held thirty one"
It was back to the more serious songs for Jack and Lucy, which is one of my all time favourite Hugh Moffatt songs. It's an account of a couple's life, together and apart, from the age of fifteen until one of them dies many years later. It was introduced as "A song from my very first album. It ain't over until it's over; and maybe it ain't over then."It would probably never have crossed my mind that this song could be successfully sung by one person, because the version that appears on LOVING YOU (a duet between Hugh and his sister Katy), is so perfect. However, over the past few years I've heard him sing it alone, two or three times, and it has worked really well. It doesn't seem to matter that in parts he's singing the words meant for a woman. Besides, I've always liked it when a man is prepared to sing lyrics that are intended for a woman (and vice versa), without feeling that he has to alter them in some way. If the song is good, then why should it be necessary to change anything?
Life's Not Long Enough (for Loving Her) is a song Hugh wrote for his wife, Mary, and he introduced it by reciting "a poem by an Irishman". Unfortunately I don't know the name of that Irishman, and I didn't think of asking!
Towards the end of the show Hugh announced "I'm gonna be in Wales tomorrow night. If you can't come, send somebody in your place". A good piece of advice for anybody to heed, next time he's in the country! Rose of My Heart was the encore, and that was the end of the show. The crowd might have been small, but we all knew that we'd just shared some excellent music...
SET LIST:
How Could I Love Her So Much; Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You; Money, Too; Watermelon Moon; Just In Case; Blood Red Moon; Where That Wind Don't Blow; It Happens; From the Desk of Elaine; The Dancer; I Knew Her When; The Life of a Minor Poet; Praise The Lord and Send Me The Money; Jack and Lucy; A Father's Prayer; Life's Not Long Enough; Enough for You; Rose of My Heart
Susan Cane
