http://www.balconytv.ie <br />BALCONYTV DUBLIN 21/02/2010 <br />PRESENTED BY TOM MILLETT <br />Jude Shiels is the son of Brush Shiels. But lets not hold that against <br />him Whether you think of Irish icon Brush as a clown or a seer, <br />a rock god or a cabaret artiste or just a crazy man with an amplifier soldered <br />at 11, if youre talking about Jude Shiels as a guitarist, vocalist and <br />songwriter in his own right, his das notoriety is the elephant in the room. So <br />lets push Jumbo out the door right now and say that the aspects of Judes <br />heritage that inform his own music are ones of attitude and approach - that <br />indefatigable Brush-esque belief in seeing the glass as never less than half full; <br />in seeing anything as possible; and in seeing it as being possible by roughly <br />this time tomorrow, and back home in time for the footie on TV. <br /> <br /> <br />Without Silence was largely written and recorded in the space of 6 weeks, but <br />that belies a whole lifetime of thought, care and experience leading up to it. <br />Jude has absorbed and studied music of all kinds, playing second guitar in <br />Brushs popular road band on the one hand and, on the other, exploring with <br />great respect the recordings and styles of those he most admires iconic cool <br />jazz vocalist Chet Baker; Duke Ellingtons alto sax man Johnny Hodges; <br />pioneering jazz guitarist Charlie Christian (best known from Benny Goodmans <br />sextet recordings); genre-founding European gypsy jazz stylist Django <br />Reinhardt; and be-bop sax legend Charlie Parker. Add in the influence of <br />British/Irish folk music and Latin-American rhythms and you get the sound of <br />Jude Shiels an effortless-sounding three-continent fusion of musical history <br />re-envisaged in a beautifully fresh, deceptively natural sound for today. <br /> <br /> <br />The world has enough people who can copy Chet Baker, Django and Charlie <br />Parker forensically and yet who deliver, in the end, very little of their own <br />personality. A perfect forgery of the Mona Lisa will always be impressive yet <br />always valueless. What Jude has created on Without Silence is a whole gallery <br />of new canvases, learning from the masters and taking their time-locked <br />visions to unknown places of todays world, from the dreamy corners of his <br />mind and the sunny fields of County Meath, Ireland, his home. <br /> <br />Judes music is easy on the ear, it sounds familiar as a musical palette but be <br />in no doubt that its a cunning blend a musical soufflé of influences that takes <br />skill and experience to bind so effortlessly, but where the soft delight of the <br />end result to the consumer is all that matters, not the knowledge of how tricky <br />it might be to put on the plate. As Judes dad found himself over the course of <br />decades, you can be as clever as Albert Einstein on your instrument, but the <br />vast majority of people will always prefer simple melodies and easy <br />entertainment to wild complexity. Jude has deftly managed a confluence of <br />both. And you cant spot the join. <br /> <br />Mood is everything in Judes music, and yet mood without content is useful only <br />to those in the elevator business. His songs are a series of dreamscapes for <br />the mind - little screenplays conjured from the clouds, gentle musings from an <br />inquisitive, compassionate observer of life. <br /> <br /> <br />The result is a sound world that is both instantly nostalgic - like Stan Getz and <br />Astrud Gilbertos sunny bossa nova grooves from the 60s as much as Chet <br />Bakers icy wastes of cool from the 50s - and incessantly new. Its like seeing <br />something you only thought existed in black and white suddenly come alive in <br />glorious Technicolor. Judes music exists in a pastoral, happy, sunlit place, not <br />the desolate, late-night, urban, monochrome bohemia of New York in the age <br />before rocknroll. Judes music doesnt scream and shout for attention, but its <br />unassuming, unpretentious atmosphere of joy, possibility and playfulness is a <br />wonderful antidote to the hard times and bleak visions of the modern world. <br />We could all use it. <br /> <br />http://www.myspace.com/judeshiels <br /> <br />Tune in again tomorrow!!!
