And never the twain shall meet
Canadian blues artist proves that east and west do go together
PREVIEW
HARRY MANX
Calgary Folk Music Festival
July 27 & 28
Prince’s Island Park
Back in the ’80s, Ontario-born blues player Harry Manx could be found busking for a living in the cafés of Paris. Skip forward 10 years and you’d find him in Japan, where he first came across a recording by Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Manx was so inspired that he promptly moved to India to track his soon-to-be mentor down, and for the next few years learned to meld together the sounds of the East and West.
And now Harry’s back. After 25 years of travel, he returned to Canada – this time to the West Coast – to record not one but two of the most sublime records to appear in a long time.
"After awhile," Manx recalls, "Vishwa told me it was time to start playing and set down the sounds I was trying to achieve."
Those sounds are a seamless mixture of traditional blues and Indian ragas that somehow manage to evoke, simultaneously, the tranquility of a B.C. rainforest and the spiritual bustle of the banks of the Ganges. Of course, many have attempted this blending of cultures in the past – George Harrison, Brian Jones, Madonna and Alanis Morrisette all come to mind – with varying success. Isn’t there a danger, I suggest, that you simply end up patronizing and compromising both cultures in the process?
"That’s right," says Manx. "You have to be careful. I have a great respect for Indian music, and still feel like a baby when it comes to playing it."
As for Ms. Morrisette’s superficial embrace of all things Indian in her search for inspiration and/or spiritual uplift, Manx has little time.
"People can play on that sort of thing if they like, I’m just not interested. You have to have respect for the music and people."
Manx is happy with what he’s achieved so far. Dog My Cat came out last year to great critical acclaim, while this year’s Wise and Otherwise has received in more positive reviews. Sales have been pretty good, too, here in Canada as well as in Europe and Australia. Manx also notes that his latest album is selling in India, where musicians are supportive of what he does.
Manx has no plans to diverge far from his established sound in the near future. He says he wants to explore the same mix of cultural influences even further on the next album and has already recorded another record with Kevin Breit.
"You have to be careful not to become too predictable, but I don’t want to alienate the audience I’ve built up," he says.
Where Manx does like to take risks is in his choice of cover songs. Wise and Otherwise features a mystical-sounding version of the shop-worn standard "Thrill is Gone," while more recently he’s recorded a banjo-led take of Jimi Hendrix’s "Voodoo Chile."
"I try to catch the feeling that the original blues artists felt. I’m really a blues player, even if it doesn’t always sound like the blues. That’s there whatever the instrument I might be playing happens to be."
The blues, of course, is synonymous with human suffering in America, whether in the cotton fields of the deep South or the ghettos of the urban North. It was, therefore, perhaps apt – horribly apt – that Manx began recording for Wise and Otherwise on the morning of September 11 last year.
"You try not to think about it, but it was impossible," Manx recalls. "It did definitely add some depth to the music, especially on tracks like ‘Tethered Dogs.’"
But like the songs on David Bowie’s recent release, Heathen, Manx’s work both reflects and transcends any specific event, indeed any specific interpretation or categorization. Instead, what you get out of it depends largely on what you bring to it yourself. Truly spiritual music. |
