IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN

Listen to IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN (live outside his studio) by Benni Hemm Hemm.

(Just to be clear, that's Gordon Lightfoot's In The Early Morning Rain!)

Benni Hemm Hemm has been a fave of mine for a good minute and it's taken me a few visits to Reykjavik be able to organize a session with him. Benni was kind enough to let me come by a little later than we'd planned as i was being fed an outrageously good Chicken Penang curry by FM Belfast's Árni Vilhjálmsson. It turns out that Benni was in a teenage rap group with Árni called Motherfuckers In The House (MITH). By all accounts Benni was a blazing drummer before he followed Dave Grohl's lead in fronting the band. But I digress.

I've selected the second of four tunes that Benedikt H. Hermannsson and Róbert Sturla Reynisson played for me later that evening. I asked Benni if he performed any covers and he said that they'd performed a Gordon Lightfoot tune that I wasn't schooled on. After a quick internet search and lyric printout, the fellas nailed this first take. You may also want to check the first song they played, titled Whaling In The North Atlantic which Benni plans to record for his upcoming album.

Here's the video of today's selection:


Photo: colour scheme, by Stuart Rogers.