John Grant – Marz

10th April 2021 · 2010, 2010s, Music

Another list song. I first heard this marvellous melancholic tune when I went to see a quartet of new artists at a Bella Union showcase, billed as A Summer Evening at the Union Chapel in 2010.

My main memory is of a spellbinding opening performance by a completely unknown Americana trio called Mountain Man, whose female singers each rose in turn from the back and sides of the chapel – two of them high in the gallery – to sing an Appalachian folk tune, harmonising together as they made their way through the church to the stage. Also on the bill were Alessi’s Ark and Lone Wolf, about whom I remember little.

The artist that stayed with me as much as Mountain Man was a self-consciously chubby chap in his early forties with a beard and a piano, and a brand new shirt that he had been bought by Duncan Jordan from Bella Union on Upper Street because he looked so scruffy at the soundcheck.

His name was John Grant and he had made six albums with a band called The Czars whom I had never heard but who are well worth discovering.

He turned out to be the star of the show, presenting a series of self-flagellating songs of romantic disappointment and self-loathing that were sung from the heart to the prettiest of melodies, matched by self-deprecating patter between songs, in which he described his childhood in a strict Methodist home in the Midwest, struggling with his sexuality, his descent into addictions to drink and drugs, and his subsequent recovery.

Grant sang in a warm, smooth baritone and his songs demonstrated him to be a skilful and witty wordsmith even while mining the deepest personal emotions, in a style that reminded me of classic songwriters like Cole Porter and Noel Coward. They came from his debut album Queen Of Denmark, on which he is backed by the Texan band Midlake, and which remains a masterpiece.

This extraordinary song, listing all the delights stocked by his local sweet shop when he was a boy (the shop was named Marz after its owner Marzetti), is filled with a melancholy longing to return to favourite childhood memories and recapture that lost time of innocence. The painfully evocative video will bring you close to tears.

If you don’t fall under its spell you must have a heart of stone.