Feature by Richard Parish
How often when walking around do you actually ‘look’ at the surroundings? How often do you ‘see’ things, which in a quieter more reflective moment you realise they actually stand at the opposite end of the subject spectrum?
Recently, whilst wandering the streets of a gloriously sunny St Ives, I had the chance to take in the various pieces of local art, comparing the sweat and considerable tears of artists and sculptors trying to make a living in the small co-operative galleries against those pieces hanging at jaunty angles in the commercial profit orientated galleries where the complimentary home décor is the deciding factor or decisions on whether the picture frame complements the lampshade may result in a half-hearted purchase.
At the same time as the commencement of the ‘live shows’ episodes of Mr Cowell’s money spinning X Factor, I had the chance to compare another artist’s sweat and tears juxtaposed against a commercial money making enterprise.
Standing outside of one of the many galleries, I happened to see and hear a street busker trying to make a few quid by playing his acoustic guitar and singing some songs. The trouble was I didn’t recognise anything he was singing, so curiosity and a competitive mental spirit encouraged me to stand a little longer and try and ‘guess’ what he was playing. To the passing population Ben Jordan was invisible, to the local traders he was an aural menace but to a music loving holidaymaker here was a guy that looked like Adam Duritz and, as I was to find out later, sang his own songs to encourage passers by to drop a few coins into his guitar case.
A few quid later I’d made the purchase of three self-made CDs, took a few hurried pictures and discussed with the singer what he was going to do as an encore. I wandered back to my wife enjoying the opening chords of a lesser known Neil Young song, thinking to myself ‘that’s another one to encourage the wallets to open’.
Back at the apartment I took the opportunity to open the day’s bounty and pushed ‘Ghosts Breathing Through Our Strings’ into the CD player. What I heard next engendered a satisfied smile. Man, Ben Jordan can play. His songs tell personal stories of happiness and heartache, love and rejection and tell of towns back home where childhood romance had to result in climbing out of bedroom windows to tell ‘Sally Goodnight’.
The current passion for singer songwriters has unfortunately passed him by, but album tracks such as ‘Dust To Cry’ and ‘Streets of Laredo’ need to be heard. The passion behind ‘Wishing Street’ and ‘Legendary 55’ certainly shows Ben’s ‘soul hasn’t been wastin’ time’.
This is one busker that needs a break, someone needs to ‘send him an angel, one sunny day’ Have a look at his website, read his short story and invest in some good tunes.
‘He’s got miles to travel and songs to sing’ and they deserve to be heard.