Don't fret, Kaki!

UPDATE: second pic loaded (finally!) below.


"Whatever happened to knowing that this was forever?"
(Kaki King, photograph by Louis Teran, click to enlarge)

2 o'clock you're still sleeping,
When you wake up you'll be in such pain.
And I wait with the plate piled high with my love,
That you won't eat from.

Kaki King is comin' to town... Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane at least. In Adelaide (tomorrow night) and Brisbane (next week), you'll have to shell out to see the Foo Fighters to see her. A bizarro combination, I must say. King has solo performances in Sydney (Oxford Art Factory, May 1) and Melbourne (The Corner Hotel on April 27). See Pollstar for tour details.

King still has a way to go with her lyrics and singing (she sings on four of the songs on her just-released fourth set Dreaming of Revenge) but her guitar playing is bloody sublime, especially in the John Martyn-inspired '2 O'Clock' quoted above.

Also sublime -- and in this case literally fretless -- is Lebanese-born oud-player Marcel Khalifé. He leaves the poetry (mostly) to others, notably Mahmoud Darwish.

While Kaki King is finding her voice, Marcel Khalifé (often called Lebanon's Bob Dylan) is using his less and less. Khalifé 2006 release Taqasim -- which sets poetry by Darwish -- is entirely instrumental... more cool than exotic.

I have no idea what Khalifé is planning to play in Australia -- Sydney Opera House Concert Hall tomorrow night, Hamer Hall (Melbourne) on Sunday -- but I do know he's touring with his Al Mayadine Ensemble which includes Peter Herbert on double bass as well as Rami and Bachar Khalifé on piano and percussion respectively.

Hmm. Can't find a usable pic of the team. I guess you'll have to do with another of Ms King and her increasingly passionate relationship with her axe. (I swear to god, I typed 'ex' first time round!)

[Hmm, Google is pleading "internal errors" and is declining to load this one. You'll have to imagine a gorgeous, hi-key pic of KK in bed with a very beautiful glossy black guitar in a concrete walled room with a single pic of a child pasted to the wall above and a very groovy mannequin/hat-stand on the floor, prompt side, with a short stack of trilbies. I'll keep trying to add it... Watch this space.]


Kaki King, photograph by Louis Teran, click to enlarge

"There's no need to be so terrible when you know I would do anything for you. This is so laughable, whatever happened to knowing that this was forever? File off the sharpness of feelings so I'll be protected from all of your evil. When you come round my love, I'll be gone, finally done, never to come to your rescue." (2 O'Clock)

Photos courtesy of Big Hassle.