Sometimes a quote just hits you, stops you in your tracks, starts you to thinking and maybe even changes your mind about something you felt strongly about. A recent quote that affected me was by the brilliant music writer David Hepworth when he said you should not aggressively hunt new music:”(I have) always been a believer in the idea that music finds you when you’re ready.” When I first read it, it challenged the way I thought about my own consumption of music. He was wrong. I have a voracious appetite for music, new and old, and yes, I thought, I am always looking for new music, aggressively or not. Or was I wrong? The more I thought about it, the less convinced I was of my own argument.
I’ve just found a new favourite band. Listening yesterday to Elbow main man Guy Garvey and his finest hour show on BBC 6 Music (it’s actually three glorious hours long), amid a stellar bunch of songs by the likes of Prince, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Isley Brothers, Bruce Springsteen and so many more came a band I had never heard of: Villages.
No, not the Irish folk band Villagers who I already know and like, but Villages, described variously as an indie-folk/Celtic-rock band, hailing from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. I was recently visiting Nova Scotia – well, 51 years ago I was: is that recently enough for you? – and found it to be the most glorious place imaginable. I did not pause to listen to the music so to hear Villages was revelatory.
Garvey introduced an old friend of his who made a similar type of radio show in Scotland and his guest selected Hymn After Hymn to be played and I was immediately smitten. I grabbed my post-it pad and hurriedly wrote down as many details as I could. If all their music was as good as this, I’d be on Cloud Nine. Visits to a number of websites, including YouTube, obvs, soon confirmed that it was and by evening I had bought the single Hymn After Hymn, as well as two of their albums and an EP. It’s all utterly gorgeous.
And here was confirmation that Hepworth was right. I had not searched for Villages. They came to me when I was ready and now I want to acquaint myself with more of their music. Were they touring soon? I searched even more sites, since their own indicated they had no upcoming shows at all. I’d definitely make the effort. But from what I can tell, apart from one or two recent festival shows, they have not toured for a couple of years, and even then the tour included only venues in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Ontario in Canada. No gigs for now, but maybe in the future?
I have family in Ottawa, so if my lottery numbers come up I could catch a show there and combine it with a family trip. I could fly with Canadian carrier West Jet from Gatwick to St Johns in Newfoundland or Air Canada in Halifax in Nova Scotia. All possibilities. Bloody expensive possibilities, but possibilities nonetheless.
I’ve been familiar with Villages for just over a day now and here I am planning expensive flights to the other side of the world to see them. But I guess if I like them a lot today, I’ll love them more by tomorrow. And the day after? It must be love. An itch that needs scratching. Another entry on the bucket list. It might have to be done.
I can’t stop listening to them now. Hymn After Hymn is ten years old and I’ve just come across it. Christ alone what else I’ll find if I keep listening to the radio. Music will find me. It usually does.
