ED HARCOURT - "Women, Wine, and Snuff" (by J. Keats)

"Women, Wine, and Snuff"

GIVE me women, wine, and snuff
Untill I cry out "hold, enough!"
You may do so sans objection
Till the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.

by John Keats
(Posthumous and fugitive Poems - Circa 1820)

In listening to the music of Ed Harcourt one easily comes to the conclusion that if he and Keats were in a room together, during those final years, this type of poem/work that might have been discussed and drank over. John Keats is one of my favorite poets/writers and I would more quickly associate him with Janis Joplin, Elliot Smith or Jeff Buckley, than the living, breathing, soul searching music of Ed Harcourt. I have put a song below, that I find is ALWAYS on my IPOD playlist, in some form or another. It's the kind of music that 'riddles my phantasms'.

I first stumbled across Ed Harcourt's music like 4 years ago and you know when you are a kid and find something that you think is like the most important find since Lewis and Clark found the Pacific coast and lived to make it back east side to tell about it. Like when I used to find 4 leaf clovers I would rush inside and tell my mom, my sister, I would begin the preserving process because it meant I was now 'lucky' and now close to finding that pot of 'gold' (still waiting on those two swags to hit), but as least I found Ed Harcourt's music. I remember having to tell almost all of my friends, even my MySpace friends who were like 'what is that song?'

(Steph that is a shout-out to you for your always impatient, fired up music tastes - you know that is why we all love you ;p).

I hope you all enjoy the Sunday song of the day and a list of Ed Harcourt's music, which shows a May 5th EP (hopefully a tour will follow right?). Ed is like Tom Waits in many ways not to box him in, but just the opposite, because he usually is caught playing the piano, but he also plays numerous keyboard instruments as well as the guitar and percussion. This is someone that if you have heard of already, you're pretty cool and if you are hearing him for the first time you're pretty lucky (like finding several of those quad leafed clovers in a single search)!

His official website is: http://www.edharcourt.com/
His MySpace is http://www.myspace.com/60667424

• Maplewood EP (13 November 2000)
• Here Be Monsters (25 June 2001) Sweden #28
• From Every Sphere (17 February 2003) UK #39, Sweden #6, Norway #25, France #103
• Strangers (13 September 2004) UK #57, Sweden #7, France #130
• Elephant's Graveyard (Digital download only album with B-sides and rarities) (8 August 2005)
• The Beautiful Lie (5 June 2006) Sweden #31
• Until Tomorrow Then: The Best of Ed Harcourt (15 October 2007)
• Russian Roulette EP (5 May 2009)

"Until Tomorrow Then" by Ed Harcourt

(cover photo: Ginger Lindsey - "There She Goes..." PS4/Elements 7.0/After FX CS4 (c) 2009 - BHG)