Ben Dalby

Ben Dalby has written this song titled Chinese Friends, uploaded to YouTube today. The Olympic opening ceremony is due to take place this Friday in Beijing, and Chinese Friends offers this suggestion:

Let’s take that torch down to Harare,
We can give it to Robert Mugabe;
he needs a light - he’s got to burn,
a few thousand boxes,
with the wrong crosses on.
But even he must please,
His Chinese friends.

This, sung in a disconcertingly neutral tone against a simple melody. Ben Dalby is out to make you think, and I am guessing he is annoyed: provocatively, lyrically annoyed. It’s a great song, beautifully sung and Ben has a lovely voice.

Ben Dalby’s MySpace profile describes him as an “Eclectic singer songwriter with intelligent lyrics”:

Ben Dalby has been writing and performing his own songs for nearly twenty years. His music is eclectic, covering a variety of styles, but his lyrics are invariably intelligent and thought-provoking, written with the perspective of a humourous but unsentimental natural philosopher.

More about Ben Dalby on his website, and on his MySpace profile. More music from Ben on AmieStreet.

Use the ‘Share this’ feature below to share the song with everyone else. - Sokwanele

Englishman Ben Dalby must get numerous comparisons to the late British folk icon Nick Drake; he should be prepared for another. Like Drake, Dalby’s unplugged soft rock has the intimacy of a bedroom kiss; it is warm and quiet, songs sung from what seems to be a gentle soul. This is cozy coffeehouse folk with a distinctly English sensibility. Dalby’s British accent adds flavor and color to the no-frills arrangements; you spend as much time listening to his phrasing as well as to his lyrics, which can be charming, witty, and utterly poetic as these lines from “Pictures on a Monday” will show: “The wind blew low, like the sigh of a widow/Cheeks were wet, like dew on a wooden lid.”

It all may seem too precious to some, but I found myself moved by these tunes. The slow yet uplifting “Don’t Give In” probably reminded me of Drake the most, mainly the fragile, breathy qualities in Dalby’s singing. Not everything is naked and soothing. “Never Broke My Heart” rides on a shuffling locomotive beat a la classic country and “No Need to Fear the Shadows” has ethereal riffs that the Postal Service would’ve winked at. - Twang Town