ADAM Masterson

My friend Anna Gabriel has directed a new music video for my song ‘Can’t Control Myself’. Really pleased. Anna’s done a great job. Our pals Tommy and Mary Kate came by. They loved the vid and are gonna feature it on their site ‘The Free Style Life’. Tommy went out and got us all a bottle of champagne to celebrate, it was my last night in town, so we went out on a high.

Went for drinks and eats round the corner on Ave C, my pal Joe Arthur text and said I should come over and see him at his studio before I split.

Next day, I bundled my stuff in my case, and me and Anna took a taxi out to Red Hook Brooklyn.

Red Hook’s an abandoned kind of place, industrial warehouses, a ship yard on the water, when me and Anna arrived we were dwarfed by the RMS Queen Mary 2, the last remaining transatlantic liner docks here and towers into the sky. This is where the mobster Joey Gallo the ‘jukebox gangster’ was born and operated, imortalised in that Bob Dylan masterpeice ‘Joey’ from the Desire album.

The sun reflected hard off the east river for my last day in New York. Joe came out to meet us and it was big hugs. He walked us through a mechanics yard into his place, I’ve been to a few spots that Joe’s lived now and there all like walking into his subconscious, all his painting looming at you from the walls, this ones like a bat cave where you wouldn’t know if it’s night or day.

Joe’s building his studio, his bedroom’s the live room, there’s a bath tub in the hall, and a vocal booth through one of the rooms.

Joe walked me an Anna into the control room and stuck on one of his tunes. Sounded great, real lush production I think he said he recorded it in the Catskill mountains with Garth Hudson from The Band. I asked him what the tune was called and he said ‘The Dream’s Still The Same But I’ve Changed’. He then stuck on something he’d written and recorded the night before, this time with programed drums and loops, me and Anna looked at each other when it come on and nodded… it was good. He said it was called ‘Horses’. It was inspiring seeing Joe in his home, his bunker, his recording studio, his record factory. I’ll take this thought back to London.

We went out for Coffee nearby. Joe had come to my last show at Googies Lounge, we spoke about the gig and Joe had some kind things to say, said he couldn’t understand why I don’t have a record out.  Joe’s a believer and I love him for that.

I had a flight to catch from Newark airport and Joe drove us back into the city.  He played another record he made earlier in the year and it blew me away.  The first tune he played was ‘Boogie Christ’ or ‘The Ballad Of Boogie Christ’, he’s talking about making the Album into a film with Anna so watch this space.  The next tune was called something like ‘come on the revolution’, a really long piece- musically it put me in mind of Dylan’s ‘Hard rains a gonna fall’.  I’d like to listen to the music again on my own, but I think Joe’s found a real vein here and is making some of his best music.

Joe dropped me out on 1st Avenue and we said our goodbye’s.  I’m feeling really optimistic about returning to London, feeling a strong presentiment of something good.

If you haven’t heard the music of Joseph Arthur, I highly recommend it.  Listen to a tune called ‘Enough to getaway’.  Then work through that album ‘Nuclear Daydream’ and ‘Redemption son’.  Songs like ‘Honey and the Moon’ and ‘In the Sun’ which Micheal Stripe and Chris Martin covered for Hurricane Katrina, are modern classics of our times.