Ben wasn’t the most famous musician to have ever walked the earth, and indeed it was hard to find news online as the story slowly broke along the grapevine earlier today, but his CV is just incredible. To put it simply, he played with them all.

Most notably Neil Young trusted him as his pedal steel sideman for almost 40 years. That’s Ben on Young’s classic “Harvest” LP…oh, and he also played on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall To Pieces”. It’s more than fair to say that this man had chops and will be missed.

Here he is onstage with Neil Young..

Campbell from Friends of the Stars has made a Spotify playlist of songs Ben Keith played on. For those of you without Spotify, here’s what you’re missing.

TRACKLISTING:

Anne Murray - “Danny’s Song”
Neil Young - “Walk On”
Emmylou Harris - Till I Gain Control Again
Crosby & Nash - “Fieldworker”
Neil Young - “Mellow My Mind”
Bob Neuwirth - “Cowboys & Indians”
Todd Rundgren - “Cold Morning Light”
Harris, Ronstadt & Parton - “The Blue Train”
Terry Reid - “Dean”
The Band - “The Promised Land”
Neil Young - “Harvest Moon”
Tim Hardin - “Bird On The Wire”
Warron Zevon - “Bed of Coals”
Neil Young - “It’s A Dream”
Patsy Cline - “I Fall To Pieces”

There may be some that Cam has missed, or you may have your own suggestions, but as Neil Young reportedly said on stage last night before dedicating a song to the man, “His spirit will live on”

Thanks for the music, Brother Ben

SPOTIFY LINK

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Last weekend the vast majority of the Commercially Inviable stable of acts took a day-trip down to Somerset.  The reason for the trip was for each of them to record a session for the very lovely Songs from the Shed. World of Fox takes up the tale on his blog

“so, last saturday we all went down to north somerset where we ate sarnies, drank beer, snoozed in a hammock and played a few songs in a shed, captured on a camcorder by a lovely chap called jon. it’s quite a big shed, but even so it was quite a squeeze for gurdan thomas, given that there was five of them, and one was playing a tuba

the shed is an old billet hut and is stuffed full of fascinating detritus. one thing that caught my eye was an old magnetic theatre toy that i had when i was about four!

it was a thoroughly nice day out and some of us popped over to nearby clevedon for a glimpse of the seaside (well, the severn estuary, but close enough for a bunch of brummies). it has a nice pier:

i haven’t seen the finished videos, but i’ve a feeling they’ll be pretty good. jon will be posting them up on his website in the next few weeks, and obviously i’ll keep you posted when they’re up.”

Likewise, we can’t wait to see the results. A big thanks from us at the label to Jon from Songs from the Shed for accomodating 4 acts on the same day. Watch this space for links to the videos!

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Commercially Inviable artist Gurdan Thomas is in the running for a slot at The Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany and needs your help. Sonicbids are running an online competition in association with main festival sponsor Simple Shoes, and it really is simple: The act that grabs the most online votes via their festival portal will perform at the festival.

Gurdan is currently sitting in 13th spot but rising up the table fast, so please take a moment to head over to the site and show your support. It only takes a moment and you’ll also receive a 20% discount at the Simple Shoes online store for your efforts.

Click HERE to vote 

Thanks!

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Gurdan is a travelling musician, original thinker and totally free spirit who divides his time travelling between the UK and Germany, stopping off to play at places he finds along the way and often assembling a scratch backing band from whoever happens to be around.  You can follow his progress over on Twitter, where he goes by the name @gurdanthomas. 

Having produced 2 self-released albums, ‘Graceful Rabbits’ (2007) and ‘Gnodelly Gnodelly’ (2008), he will be releasing his 3rd album, ‘The Fat Lady Sings’ on Commercially Inviable on 27th September 2010. Two weeks prior to the album release we are also releasing a limited single, “Todd”. Here’s the artwork for both releases….

‘The Fat Lady Sings’was partly recorded in England, in Gurdan’s van, and in the Villa Waldbertha, Munich, but almost all of it was created at the Meier farm in Stockau, Bavaria along with performances from musician / farmers Wastl and Katl Meier (pictured with Gurdan and dog below).  Meanwhile the 3 songs on the “Todd”single were recorded right here in Birmingham over the course of an April weekend spent in Bob Lamb’s Kings Heath studio.  Both releases contain performances from completely different groups of musicians but feautre songs written and performed in Gurdan’s unique style - Think The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band meets Gogol Bordello.

By way of preview, here are a couple of tracks….

“Stutter” from The Fat Lady Sings LP

“God is Me” from the Todd single

(If you’re reading this via RSS feed then the music players may not work. You’ll need to visit the site to listen to the songs.)

Welcome to the label, Gurdan!

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COMIN0011 - “The Obscure Band T-Shirt”

We’ve partnered with Spreadshirt to make this fine garment. If you click on the image above you’ll be taken to our Spreadshirt Shop where you can alter the size and make a purchase. The “Obscure Band” T-shirt is £15.00 (+ P&P). Enjoy!

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Andrew Dubber is currently recording a series of 5 minute interviews with interesting people he meets on his travels.  The 5th in the series is with Craig from Commercially Inviable - you can listen to it here

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Storm The Charts is an ambitious music campaign on Facebook to get 40 independent artists in the UK Singles Chart in June. Voting on the first 40 artists to be picked has started. Vote for World Of Fox here: http://bit.ly/stormvote - listen, vote, and spread the word.

Click ‘All bands’ at the top of the voting page- click ‘World Of Fox’ in the list - look for the where it says ‘…can be found in this poll’.

But please listen to the other artists in …the poll, and try to vote in at least one other.
You can find out all about Storm The Charts here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=231943888357

Cheers,
FOX

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The late, great Ronnie Lane would have been 64 today.

Happy Birthday, Ronnie.

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“Stitches and Hos are a motley crew of enthusiasts for all things knitted, crocheted and stitched who run a monthly knitting night based at Hare and Hounds pub, Kings Heath, Birmingham.”

They also hold knitting events in other places and on the weekend of 10th / 11th April will be hosting a sprawling two-day shinding at the newly minted Created in Birmingham store in the Bullring, where coincidentally you can also buy Commercially Inviable releases.

As well as offering knitting advice, encouragement, supplies and cake, Stitches and Hos have also enlisted the help of various Brum-based musical entities to provide the soundtrack, and we’ve been given the slot of 1pm-3pm on Saturday 10th April.  So, if you’ve ever wanted to learn the art of knitting in a huge shopping centre whilst two men play ELO records at the wrong speed, this is the event for you.

See you there!

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