Chicks Storm The Castle

 

The Chicks at Cardiff   Photo©Nigel Summerley

I seem to be making a habit of attending great gigs in the grounds of ancient fortifications...

After seeing Dylan at the Alhambra [see previous blog], I found myself at Cardiff Castle for another sublime performance – this time by the Chicks.

Formerly the Dixie Chicks (but dropping the politically incorrect Dixie a while back), the Chicks are Texans with a twist: they opposed the Iraq war and they have pilloried the fakeness of Donald Trump. Their liberal and feminist standpoints didn't play well with some US country fans and radio stations, but they did cement the band's reputation for being unafraid of singing "protest" songs and handling the attendant controversies.

These three country women also rock and swing like the proverbial clappers – and their sweet vocal harmonies combined with razor-sharp songwriting are an irresistible combination.

They are the most acceptable face of so-called "new country", much of which is formulaic and anodyne. These women have immense talent – and they're not afraid to use it.

Remember The Alamo?

 

Photo©Nigel Summerley

This is a good year to be on Sikinos – because the restoration of the remarkable building pictured here has just been completed.

The Episkopi "temple" was once thought to be on a site sacred to Apollo; it was later a Roman mausoleum and then a Byzantine church. 

This peculiar mishmash – tidied up and made safe in a seven-year project – is an illustration of several centuries of Greek history. And I couldn't help thinking that it reminded me of what has been put back together of that fabled mission in Texas, the Alamo.

It is perhaps just all things to all visitors.

Walking by road and then footpath a few miles west from the Kastro, I could see the lone, exotic, hilltop shape of Episkopi from quite a distance.

It felt like a pilgrimage of some sort. And the reward was to sit in complete silence and solitude – and contemplate this compelling mixture of history and mystery.

Photo©Nigel Summerley