Shaw and Solis

Shaw and Solis - Listen To The Wind (1970)

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The Forever People (Razorcuts) - Invisible (1992)

Of all the bands that jingled and jangled their way through the mid to late 80s Razorcuts resonated the most with me at the time  (I was an indie music fan and landscape architecture student).  They wore their influences (Buzzcocks and 1960s folk rock like the Byrds or the Bluethings on their sleeves, and their songs were full of detail that reflected everyday life.  Free from rock and roll affectation, their music covered love, the passing of time, kitchen sink dramas, anti-war sentiments, class divides and the environment.  Landscape and the seasons were recurring settings and themes for songs that had a world view that attempted to keep true to the values of unmaterialistic simplicity and freedom against the pressures of adult urban life and the eroding impact of cynicism.  More than anything, Razorcuts were genuine, more likely to enthuse about their favourite records rather than talk about their own music when interviewed. 

Razorcuts had been on various iconic indie labels, during the 1980s, including Subway, Flying Nun and Creation.  They also created their own label Cosmic English Music, on which Tim Vass and Gregory Webster issued excellent side projects, Red Chair Fadeaway and The Carousel.  A couple of years after they ended Razorcuts, in 1992, Vass and Webster found a new spiritual home on Bristol’s Sarah records.  Under the moniker The Forever People (Named after the early 70s DC comic books superheroes who looked like 60s flower children and valued environmental harmony) they released a single with proceeds to Friends of the Earth, together with an information / membership leaflet   

  Invisible was an ambitious, meditative piece, placing an emphasis on the continuum of natural processes across the planet, “rivers rolling to seas of green”.  That was reinforced by the flip side, Sometimes, with the coda “one world in our hands for all time, be thankful, be careful, tread softly,”   Both songs balanced melancholy with the potential for positive outcomes afforded by being  in tune with nature.

Over 20 years previously, and on the other side of the Atlantic, Jim Shaw and Pat Solis came to very similar conclusions with Listen to the Wind.  It is a beautiful melodic song, that sounds like a lost classic from the 60s folk boom.  The imagery of restorative, gentle winds circulating around the world from the beginning of time was powerful - we need to listen to the natural world more carefully with a sense of responsibility to achieve benefits for both people and nature.  The influence of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the awakening environmental movement of the time was clear.

The album, titled Listen to the Wind … is gorgeously understated.  The monochrome front cover has just a photo of the duo sitting at the edge of a field barefooted, with an upright bass between them.  Lower case Letraset and the use of an ellipsis suggested that some things  are left unsaid.  They didn’t even put their names on the sleeve..  The music on it is gentle, carefully crafted, intimate yet universal.  The nearest contemporaneous comparisons perhaps Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day or Bridget St John’s Songs For The Gentle Man, records that eventually found an appreciative audience 30 years later.  Those benefitted from sensitive arrangements and orchestration.  What sets Listen to the Wind… apart is that Shaw and Solis did it all themselves, with just help from their friends.

  

Like many self-released records, Listen to the Wind… got little exposure, and when interest from a publisher in Ohio petered out, Jim’s father ended up selling copies in their family’s restaurant.  Thankfully, a copy of the record was eventually uploaded by a fan onto YouTube, allowing for it finally to be discovered.

I managed to contact Jim Shaw, who very generously took the time to tell me more about the record and answer some questions, he told me “I had just left a Catholic seminary in Ohio and was playing at a church in Georgetown (Washington D.C) where I met Pat and John Rigby.  That's where I got the energy to try this out.  I've always been an advocate of solving our differences through peaceful methods… these were my thoughts and feelings as a young person. Frankly, they have not changed over the years.”  

At university he switched to music composition and set to work on a self-funded, privately pressed record.  “I wanted to express my concerns on civil rights, the environment, women’s rights and the war.”  And what a record this is, the sentiments are neither sanctimonious nor expressed in a hippy haze.  The music deftly utilises acoustic guitar, electric piano, upright bass, harpsichord, flute and clarinet to express emotion. This would probably now be classified as chamber folk, and listening carefully there are eclectic elements of classical, pop, jazz and folk all expertly woven together.

The majority of songs were sung by Pat Solis whose voice, free of vibrato, had a remarkable purity, expressiveness and understated control, giving  the songs space to breath and be contemplated.  According to Jim  “Pat was an incredible singer...so much soul to her voice and an incredible spirit.  She and her family had escaped from Cuba literally in the middle of the night … She is still the best singer I have ever worked with.”   Her two compositions sit perfectly on the album, with Garage a remarkable articulation of love and devotion.  Like Shaw’s songs, the language and moods of landscape and love are completely intertwined.

I wrote this blog on the beautiful Isle of Arran, Scotland, where the warm winds from the Gulf of Mexico allow not only me to swim in the sea but, more importantly, for a diversity of plants to flourish in a relatively northern latitude.  It’s the island where 18th century geologist James Hutton observed unconformity and concluded the world was much older than previously thought.  It is also home, in a lonely glen, to three species of whitebeam found nowhere else on the planet.  Everyone talks to each other. We go every year as a family, and it helps us to remember to appreciate the important things in life, as time inevitably passes.   These  records continue to do the same  when we put them on and listen carefully. 

Jim Shaw 

Jim has spent a lifetime in music in music as an educator, composer and player.  He wrote well received songs in English for Catholic worship, recorded more albums and created learning tools to encourage children to be creative and compose. He currently plays in a band with his two sons, both of whom are songwriters.

Pat Solis

Jim unfortunately lost contact with Pat after she moved to Switzerland not long after Listen to the Wind... was released.

John Rigby

John played guitar on the Shaw and Solis record. He is a lawyer whose work took him across the globe.  

Wally Knapp

Wally engineered the Shaw and Solis recordings, was instrumental in achieving the sound and continued to work with Jim on other recordings. They remain good friends.

Gregory Webster

Gregory continued his interest in environmentalism and was until recently a Trustee of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxford Wildlife Trust.  He is currently EcoDharma Doula for ecologically engaged Buddhists Touching The Earth Collective.

Tim Vass

Tim is back making music with his wife, Vanessa as the Silver Biplanes. Their latest video, the melodic Hell in a Handcart has a consistency of values with those expressed from the days of Razorcuts.

Gregory and Tim have remained friends for decades.