Now here is an interesting one, from Carsten Bojsen, whom we featured in February of this year with a single, ‘I have seen the light’, and which we concluded had a feel of Ralph McTell’s ‘Streets of London’ about it.
His newly released EP is concerned solely with Østbirk, a small town with just 2,644 inhabitants, which is where he lives in Denmark, about 40km from Aarhus. Østbirk is his tribute to the town and its community, which if it is anything like small English towns of that size is probably pretty eclectic, with plenty of ‘characters’. The EP is actually entitled ‘OESTBIRK’, in deference to an English spelling I assume.
I can’t imagine penning an ode to my home town, warts and all, but it’s clear that Carsten loves his.
‘I have seen the light’ does appear as an EP track here, one of five, but I didn’t have to go any further than the first one, ‘Hunger’, to provide you with a representative sample.
It’s the sort of song that might have arisen out of 1960s America, the country boy that’s not used to the big city quitting the bright lights and the sleaze, going home and extolling the virtues of that return as he reacquires his “Hunger for Life.”
It might have been one in Midnight Cowboy indeed; perhaps accompanying Joe and Ratzo’s bus journey (in the latter case his final one), to Florida.
Or in Thelma and Louise as they launch themselves over the cliff edge.
But Dave, you might say, does the song have the quality to appear in a film like those? It sure does. Carsten can sing mighty fine and the production is excellent.
Musically, while it takes the form of a Johnny Cash sing-along I’m fascinated by his little noises off, tiny screechy guitar interjections and miniature riffs that are very reminiscent of the way Anna Calvi plays her guitar.
It might also be an anthem for middle aged blokes going through a midlife crisis and buying Harley Davidsons like they are going out of fashion, so they can rumble around on a Sunday afternoon behind the shades as if they are Henry Fonda (Easy Rider being another 1969 film, like Midnight Cowboy).
Conclusion: Carsten is in the wrong era. As well as this EP is going to be received (and I am certain it is), five decades ago it would have topped the Billboard 100.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carsten.bojsen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carstenbojsen/
