I love to speak with Leonard

First of all I have scheduled this post to be published while I am at a gig in Manchester seeing one of my all-time folk heroes, Joan Baez. I realise folk music probably doesn't appeal to everyone and it can be a bit of an acquired taste, but growing up listening to my Dad's Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen music, and spending hours in my friend's parents' car listening to Joan herself and learning all the words have left me with a love of vocal guitar-y type stuff. So  I will do a review of the gig itself one night at a later date but for now I would like to talk about Leonard Cohen and his new album as I am a huge fan. I got into Cohen a lot later than all the other more "upbeat" stuff to be honest, but I love it more now than ever and I listen to a little bit of Cohen probably every single day (is that strange?). I don't  think it is as depressing as the critics say and I often find it uplifting, particularly when he duets with a female singer. Cohen himself once said that people call him a pessimist but this is wrong because "I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin." I really like this. In 2008 I was lucky enough not only to see him in concert twice in some amazing settings, but also to meet him in a car park in Bournemouth and have a chat and a photo - Best. Moment. Ever.

I stalked him for a little bit afterwards and got this shot of him looking out to sea

Me, LC and Dave (usually when I show this photo, I chop Dave's mad arm off!)

So that was that, I never thought I would get to see him in concert as he is 77 years old or something and hadn't toured in ages so to meet him as well was a double shock. I suppose we have his manager to thank for that after they made off with all of his earnings whilst he was living in a Buddhist monastery in California a few years ago. I also never thought he would bring out any new material at this late stage but yet again I was thankfully proved wrong when he released his album "Old Ideas" a few weeks ago. Since I bought the album I literally cannot stop listening to it. For me this is a great opportunity because in the past I only listened to his songs in "Greatest Hits" type compilations, having missed most of his album releases by, oh I don't know, my whole life! It is nice having an album and listening to it in the way the artist intended. There is one song on it called "Going Home" with which I have become utterly obsessed and I wanted to share it with you here. 

Hope you all enjoy watching. Are there any other Cohen fans out there? What do you think of "Old Ideas"?