The Works of Lee Mitchell

The music of Lee Mitchell is often described as 'haunting' and 'beautiful', with it's internal workings of conflict, mortality and pathos.

Based in London, his sincere writings on war and mythology are guided by a intense desire to communicate to an audience a passion for life, in all it's well worn glory. Sometimes sad and brooding but also joyful and relaxed.

Lee Mitchell has little time for the 'lightness and shade' of modern day commercial music. Instead his focus is on traditional folk, played honestly, up front, and with a respect that has been sorely missed in recent times.
 

 Where it began

My earliest memory of this thing called "Music?" I must have been 5-6 years old and the room was swathed in the rough, nasal - yet dulcet tones - of a young Robert Zimmerman, performing his version of a Dave Van Ronk version of an old song entitled " House of the rising sun " Not to confuse the song with the Animals' interpretation of one in the same/similar chord structure about a " Poor boy " passé', this song was actually about a young girl/woman driven back into prostitution through poverty. Of course I couldn't have known that at the time, I was only a child, but the sound alone was enough for my young psyche to soak up like a sponge, and to stroke awake the seeds of the empathetic muse I would later to become...

There are wide gaps of memory lapse of that first encounter with Mr Dylan to about the age of ...ten? However, it was at this age that I actually decided, "If one can truly decide anything at this age!" that the acoustic guitar was the instrument for me. My dear uncle Harry was/is! a great champion of the instrument and I guess it must be true to say that without his influence I probably wouldn't be sitting here writing this bio about me and my music! It was through him I was to discover Lead belly and Jack Elliott. I recall going to the library and getting my hands on my first songbook: "Lead belly!" Take this hammer was one of the first songs I was ever to learn. It consisted of little more than three chords: D, A7, & G, but O what those three chords can illustrate in the form of human suffering when it's drenched in the blood of an oppressed people and two hundred or more years of slavery...

Apart from family and a couple of close friends with whom I was to interact with musically from time to time I took to the task of studying this...instrument...this...uncompromising lute of Apollo. For 4-5 years I attempted every key I could find to unlock the secretes to its beauty, the painstakingly executed chords that did little more than numb the fingers and twang in resistance to my futile attempts to overmaster it. By now, I had discovered the music of Don McLean and Paul Simon. Both became, and still are, major influences on the way I currently think when constructing my own musical endeavours but around the age of sixteen, I think, the planted seeds sown, unknowingly, by Woody Guthrie's most talented protégé' were beginning to flourish: That spring a handful of minute yellow buds of achieving blossomed into existence...

I was sixteen. I had learned more McLean and Simon songs, amongst others; to extend my musical repertoire...I had won a poetry competition and had to read the work out in front of a bewildered PTA gathering. "My first public performance!"

I had read with great interest the Odyssey and the Iliad of the ancient Greek mythologist Homer. The prize of winning the poetry competition was books. I cannot recall what they were but I do recall they gave my cultural thirst some credence. I found: Tennyson, De La Mare, Brooke, Sassoon, Owen, Shakespeare…Their inspiration gave me a need to begin writing seriously in the genre of folk music…a thing that has been life long…

A review of the Great War CD by Margaret Casey

I have now listened to "The Great War" more than a half dozen times over the last couple of days and it only gets better with every pass. Each piece is a unique arrangement written with well-balanced harmonies of lyric over melody. From its poetic lyric to instrumental riffs to its Belgian blues, I find I have been captured as my thoughts ponder the realities and I become acquainted with a war I never knew. I see the Irish guards with their strength and bravery abounding, never to be broken but ready and willing to fight and die for freedom...I feel a soldier's isolation while he lies in wet trenches of territory unknown. While there, he longs for his homeland and wonders if it’s råaining or if his Ladylove will wait for his return. He then ponders his existence and how much his life has changed... he tells me about how he used to be a carpenter but now he carries a gun and prays... prays that he might have the strength Jesus had to rise above his pain... damn, I wish I had a beer we could share! A year has passed and I walk with him along the silent ground and listen as he explains the terrors of being gassed... and how the muddy trenches and lands have given way to the now green grass...and the white butterflies we see flittering about must be the souls of British soldiers who gave up their lives. I, too, feel haunted by the beating of the butterfly wings...

A review of the Great War 1914-18 by Kaz Meechan

THE GREAT WAR’ CD by LEE MITCHELL is a haunting compilation of beautiful songs that encapsulate a time that will soon disappear into the annals of history. This CD sits comfortably and nobly by the side of the greatest books and poetry written about the 1914- 1918 war and complements the genre. Our first introduction is to a young soldier at Mons whilst his Sergeant instructs him to ‘buckle up and load his gun’, he observes that there is no place to run as he poignantly ‘wonders if it raining on The Strand or on Pall Mall‘ and we hear of his yearning ‘ Oh..to be in England now’…A gentle song ensues of reminiscence and as the song draws to a close our young soldier boy/man is reminded by his superiors that he ‘knows the order NOT to run’ that has the tears rolling down the cheeks already. As if that wasn’t moving enough we then experience the suffering of those left behind; in ‘William’s Homecoming’ we share in a Mother’s pain and despair as she calls out with her heart and soul for her son who has been drafted….she tries to hide from her own fear of his being killed in action by being flippant ’the horses need a grooming and the blackthorns running wild’; she needs his input at the homestead. She tries to entice him back in her mind by telling him that this particular Summer is beguiling and everything in Nature is in abundance at home…it is lovely here and you are missed…..We are reminded that William, on his return, through no fault of his own, is now branded with the mark of Cain, but we are thankful and rejoice with her, lump in throat, as she welcomes him back into her arms at the train station. Those are just the first two songs. I could go on and on…Cairo 1915 is a wonderful instrumental and the toe tapping Irish Guards will bring out the patriot in anyone that hears it; but don’t be fooled…listen to these fast lyrics and that lump could well jump back up in your throat again…. there are 10 songs on the album that are inspired by the Great War…9 were written and produced by Lee Mitchell himself. The 10th Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep, Mary Frye’s moving bereavement poem, must surely have been included as an apt conclusion to the journey we had just undertaken. I can find no fault or criticism of this album. I must played it approaching a fifty times (or more, that is a conservative estimate) over the last few months…in my car, on my computer, in my DVD player, with family and to friends…It is safe to say that I do not tire of it…I know that now having just played it all the way through again TWICE and am still not dulled by it.

Fairytales From Across the Sea - Lee Mitchell
Reviewed by Adam Harrold

Sometimes in life, there is nothing better than to lie back on your bed and relax to the sound of beautiful, thought-provoking acoustic music. It’s not always a mood that I can relate to in all honesty. Most of the time I like to whisk through life at a high-octane pace – there’s not always time to appreciate the subtle nuances of existence. Which, after having a little relax this afternoon to Lee Mitchell’s “Fairy Tales From Across The Sea”, seems quite a shame.

In the generous dosage of thirteen tracks that make this casual, yet never boring album, is a whole host of attractive tunes that one assumes are made entirely for the love of doing it. Mitchell may well never really hit the dizzy heights of superstardom, but he’s clearly not a man that does this for the car and the money – but one that just likes to play the guitar and sing. And why the devil not eh?

This won’t be to everyone’s taste, but “Fairy Tales…” is a peaceful delight.

Visit Lee Mitchell - www.mitchell-acousticmusic.co.uk

or MySpace - www.myspace.com/leemitchellmusic

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