BELLOWS FALLS-Punk icon Jon Langford and his new band The Bright Shiners will be playing at Ciao Popolo in Bellows Falls on Friday, June 14.
Langford said he's looking forward to being back in Bellows Falls, where he made a strong connection to the village a year ago.
He came to Bellows Falls during Pride Month to spotlight a special showing of the 2014 British film Pride, based on the 1984 Welsh coal miners' strike.
The film tells the story of the miners, who were out of work for a full year to improve working conditions and wages. To everyone's surprise, including the miners and the extended gay community, a group of lesbian and gay activists in London decided to fundraise in support of the striking miners.
Local artist and community activist Charlie Hunter had a connection with Langford, an activist and Welshman who is very familiar with the strike and has friends who performed in the film.
Hunter convinced Langford to come to Bellows Falls as a special guest for the film event, where he performed a free concert at the Flat Iron Co-op just before Pride was shown.
Hard to label
An artist, activist, writer, musician, and songwriter, Langford is a bit hard to label. Born in Wales in 1957 but living and working out of Chicago since his marriage in 1992, he developed his music in the United Kingdom out of the same artistic and social waters that spawned the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, and Joe Strummer and the Clash.
Musically, he's been called a punk pioneer, and his music has been described variously as post punk, Celtic punk, alt country, folk rock, country rock, folk punk, and just plain old rock 'n' roll.
In addition, with the group Wee Hairy Beasties, he's expanded his musical boundaries by releasing two albums of music for children.
That doesn't even touch on his decades of work as an artist and graphic designer. He's designed album covers for artists as diverse as Buddy Guy and Waylon Jennings, and he recently designed the cover for Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore's new album, TexiCali, scheduled for release on June 21.
Langford came into music from a side route: He was an art school student at university with strong personal political ideals. Then along came the appeal of punk music with its simple chords, political concerns, and straightforward lyrics.
In an interview earlier in June, Langford said he found punk music a good match and not dissimilar to his early classic country music influences.
"'Folsom Prison Blues' was the first song I learned to play," he said, referring to the Johnny Cash classic. "There is a simplicity in country music that allows people in, that welcomes them. You pick it up, and you can play all sorts of songs with three chords. It's music describing life and real experiences."
Langford said he also found that true with punk music, only it "had more politics and energy." That appealed to him and to the trajectory of his own political beliefs and identity.
"Punk music was welcoming and accessible," Langford said. "A punk band - well, anyone can do it! Punk to me was political because it positioned itself as a dissenting force."
Music became the center of his life, but art was never far away. Even when success came his way after founding the Mekons, Langford went back to the University of Leeds and finished his art degree.
His continuing work as a painter and graphic designer is widely available online and at galleries across the country.
A diverse musical career
Langford was a founding member of the Waco Brothers, the Three Johns, Skull Orchard, The Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Delta 5, Sisters of Mercy and, most famously, the Mekons, the subject of the 2014 documentary, Revenge of the Mekons.
He has occasionally performed under other names, including Jonboy Langford, John Fanglord, and Chuck Death.
In addition to his work with those bands, he has collaborated with dozens of other people, releasing music under names like Jon Langford's Hillbilly Lovechild, Jon Langford and His Men of Gwent, and Jon Langford and His Sadies.
Langford said he presents his music "with levity and humor, while still scoring some major political points."
He also continues his genuine love of country music, having released tribute albums saluting Johnny Cash, Bob Wills, and others. His art also features a number of country performers who have influenced him.
Not resting on his laurels
Langford's most recent band is the Bright Shiners, with whom he toured the United Kingdom in May, headed out on a West Coast tour on June 1, and then will hit Boston on June 13 for the East Coast leg of the tour, just in time for the Bellows Falls show on June 14.
The Bright Shiners' debut album, Where It Really Starts, was released in March. The band includes his old friends, Mekons violinist Tamineh Gueramy and guitarist John Szymanski, his longtime, multi-project collaborator.
The band also includes a newer musical partnership with mellotron player and fellow lead vocalist Alice Spencer.
Langford said he's really appreciated what Spencer has brought to the group. He said he enjoyed handing over some new songs to Spencer.
"I was kind of fascinated with where she took them," he said.
At 66, Langford said he has a considerable body of work behind him for which he gets "a lot of respect."
He called himself a "sort of an elder statesman" in modern music.
"What else am I going to do?" Langford said, laughing. "It's what I want to do, and no one is going to give me a regular job now!"
Langford said that while he could just tour while performing from the considerable body of music he has written over the past four decades, he has no desire to do that.
"I want to be writing new stuff," he said. "I feel like I'm better at my craft, and I've improved in my singing. That's the way I feel at the moment."
But with that body of work behind him - hundreds of songs written or collaborated on, 19 albums released, dozens of singles - Langford said he doesn't feel the pressure he might have felt in his younger years.
"This is a grand project," he said of his work with the Bright Shiners, "and something I really believe in. It's really new songs with new people."
"I'm really, really proud of it," Langford said. "I'm glad at this time in my life I could change. It's what happens when you surround yourself with more talented people."
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Jon Langford and the Bright Shiners will perform at Ciao Popolo, at 36 The Square in Bellows Falls, on Friday, June 14. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; showtime is 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available at BellowsFallsOperaHouse.com and at the door. For more information about the show, contact [email protected].
Dinner reservations for Ciao Popolo must be made separately by calling 802-460-7676.
This Arts item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.