May Day Is A-Comin' In...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Some remastered trad blues on Starbucks sound system
Topic: Music Reviews and Links

Okay, folks...enough chat from the previous post.  I want to get some song links up before I leave town on Friday.  I will be bringing my laptop with me, of course; but I'll be visiting my Mom in Crossville, TN for a couple of weeks.  No special reason; she just invited me to visit sometime in the spring.  She figures the weather in spring is a bit nicer than the wild stuff we're faced with during the Christmas holidays.  Winter in east Tennessee is crazy: in the 20's one day; and literally the next day, it goes up into the low 60's, and one can find one's area under a tornado watch, just like that.  Anyway...

  

The Bells of Rhymney by Pete Seeger (lyrics by Idris Davies; music by Pete Seeger): This is one of the first songs I ever heard by Pete Seeger, in the late 70's, on a weekend folk radio program, when I was 13 years old. It both struck and moved me deeply, and made me realize what a great and powerful singer Pete was--much more than just a tall, skinny labor-union agitator with a banjo (though this, too, is a perfectly honorable role to play). A lot of people associate this song with the 1966 coal slag disaster in Aberfan, Wales, though Davies' poem was originally published in 1938. This song seems as if it could capture the hollow-hearted shock, grief and rage of any major disaster, now or in the future, natural or industrial. Listen closely.

 

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda: This song has been circling the planet for at least 40 years, since it was first written and composed by Scottish-Australian folksinger Eric Bogle; but this version by Priscilla Herdman from what I think is her debut album, The Water Lily is the first I ever heard, not long after it was first released. This is another song that bowled me over at a young age, roughly the same time that I first heard "The Bells of Rhymney." I was 13, and just starting to teach myself guitar, with some essential early guidance from my aunt, Sharon Engstrom, who has taught guitar to both kids and adults for many years. This song, aside from its strong antiwar message, gave me insights into the massive possibilities that a person can conjure up when they write their own songs. I began trying my hand at both poetry and songwriting not long afterwards. Of course, most of my output from that early period was total crap; but that's part of the learning process. Songwriting is a trial-and-error skill that must develop gradually over time, regardless of how much total crap you crank out in the early days. At any rate, my favorite version of this song has always been Liam Clancy's live version; but this is a very strong rendition as well.

 

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall by Joan Baez (words and music by Bob Dylan): This is one of the first recorded songs I ever heard by folk icon Joan Baez, during that idyllic summer of '78 when I was first learning guitar, while spending several weeks hanging out at my aunt Sharon's Black Angus ranch in Richland, Washington. It was my aunt's copy of the album, which she personally considered one of Baez's worst to date (I disagreed, though I usually trusted Sharon's judgment implicitly back then). When Sharon was at work during that period, I was rifling through her folk record collection pretty intensively, when I wasn't practicing chords on my nylon-string Hernandiz guitar; and this song with its apocalyptic metaphors and wordplay certainly made an impression on my youthful, folk-obsessed mind. I made sure to copy the lyrics down in a spiral notebook before I headed home to Maryland and the beginning of 9th grade. Many years later, I discovered the French rewrite of the song, "Le Ciel est Noir" (literally, The Sky is Black), as performed and recorded by Nana Mouskouri, which cranks up the feeling of impending doom and bleakness even more than the original, even if one doesn't know a word of French. I'm still deciding which version I like better...

Back to the Music...
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: Something in Belltown Starbucks
Topic: Music Reviews and Links

Hello, folks! As usual, I'm delayed in updating this blog. For the past several week, I've been working on an affiliate site for adult coloring books. But I still have the Sing Globally site to work on as well; I just finished updating that one late last night.  And as if I didn't have enough stuff going on online, just last week I started up a freaking Instagram account!  Heaven knows if that will make me any money (I've put some relevant links into the photo captions); but I have already met some fellow musicians and photographers through various posts and hashtags.  I've been feeling anxious about a number of things lately; but so far, nuclear war has not broken out (yet); my physical exam today turned out pretty well; and my doggie friend Henry is recovering from a certain kind of infection with the help of antibiotics.  I'll continue to do Reiki sessions with him, however.

I have been meditating on the issue of why I can't seem to make money with my own creative work; and why I can't seem to achieve any significant degree of professional success in music, photography, ecommerce, or much of anything else.  Yesterday, Easter Sunday, must have been an auspicious day for meditating and gaining info on one's psychospiritual condition, though.  After much brain-wracking and asking the universe why I can't seem to raise myself out of poverty and obscurity, I received the information that I still have a huge void in my energy and life, left by the sudden passing of my all-time favorite musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, nearly twenty years ago.  Something in the Universe sent back a positive and happy assessment of my spiritual connection with my favorite singer; and then explained that the void and continued grief and empty feeling is basically the reason that my work has been ignored for so long.  Something must be done to maintain said spiritual connection, and refill the void.  Spiritual work of some kind is in order here; and I may need to consult with spiritual workers outside of my interior self, in order to figure this out.  Stay tuned on that...

***** 

Of the Rain There Is No End...
Mood:  hug me
Topic: Music Reviews and Links

Good evening, all!  Here I sit in a cozy oasis (a/k/a Starbucks, though I wish they had a fireplace, like the Tully's shop near Pike Place Market), in the midst of weeks-long stretches of rain, feeling nonetheless fortunate that Seattle is far removed from the lunatic asylum that calls itself the Nation's Capitol.  I ponder the possibilities of applying for asylum in Canada, Ireland, Norway or even Iceland; there's no normalcy, even in Seattle, when radical right-wingers and the Religious Right act as though they have a blank slate to remake the whole country (without opposition--they think!) in their own unhinged image.  I try in vain to follow my brother's example of scheduling "Trump-Free Days", while fearing what the Orange Administration might get up to if I so much as blink.  Anyway, here are a few songs I have turned to for comfort in past times of uncertainly and insanity...

 

 Some Believe by L.J. Booth: This is the song I sang to myself constantly down in Phoenix, Arizona in 1990-91, to keep myself sane while dealing with semi-homelessness and poverty, and the Persian Gulf War, all at the same time. Mired as I was in staunchly Republican Arizona, struggling to stay employed, practically the only people I felt comfortable with were the local Quaker community, the student peace movement at Arizona State University, and the local folk music community--one of whom was one Art Kershaw, a mysterious figure who played an uncanny acoustic guitar, and who introduced me to this song, among many others. "Some Believe", a Cold War-era composition, captured the hearts of so many folk fans in the Phoenix area, the bunch of us made up a special choral version of the chorus, and never failed to bring it out whenever Art sang it, in any public venue. Listen carefully, and you'll understand.

 

 

Manifiesto by Victor Jara: If you still need convincing that life often just isn't fair, look no further than the life and death of this beautiful Chilean folksinger, theater director and activist. A pioneer of Chile's Nueva Cancion political song movement in the 1960's and early 70's, he was arrested by the Pinochet regime's military, tortured and murdered in the infamous stadium roundup in 1973; and those responsible for his murder were not brought to justice for 42 years. His legacy of original music and activism is huge; and we are fortunate that his songs have been widely recorded and performed up to the present day. But when I taped this song off the radio in 1979, however, I knew very little about the singer, being a geeky 14-year-old folkie still in the learning stages of both guitar-playing and songwriting. All I knew is that the voice and the words were utterly gorgeous, otherworldly so, even if I could not understand most of them. Alas, I stopped the tape before the radio host mentioned the name of Victor Jara, and so I searched desperately for the song and its author for the next 20 years, remembering only the last line, "Siempre será canción nueva." I eventually found the recording that I taped (this is the last song Jara wrote; or one of the last, before he died); but I can only imagine how many other potential songs of his may have died with him.

 

Wheel Inside the Wheel by Mary Gauthier: I first heard this singer-songwriter, and this song, at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival a few years ago; and it helps me a lot when I'm dealing with the deaths of friends, relatives, and musicians who have meant a lot to me. In fact, it's helping me change my thinking about crossing-over and the Next Reality. On that first live performance I heard of "Wheel Inside the Wheel" (a reference to the Hebrew prophet/mystic Ezekiel's vision as recorded in the Old Testament), Gauthier prefaced the song with it's long backstory as a tribute to her friend, folksinger Dave Carter, who died suddenly in 2002 at the age of 49. I recall that she said it took her well over a year to complete the song; but she was bound and determined to do so, as she had promised such a tribute to Carter's life-partner Tracy Grammer (also a folksinger-songwriter herself). The lyrics describe a traditional New Orleans funeral parade performed from the spirits' point of view, after which the numerous ghostly participants hold a big party at a club called "Jean-Pierre's." My favorite line in the song is the one about Marie Laveau promenading with Oscar Wilde; I'm not sure what Oscar has to do with New Orleans, but I love the imagery regardless. The song is all about reassuring the living that the dead also have a life, and it always lifts my spirits. The CD Gauthier recorded it on, Mercy Now, was the only CD I bought at Bumbershoot that year; and I greatly appreciate the artist autographing it for me after her stunning set.."Roll on, brother, in the wheel inside the wheel..."

 

*****

Catching Up on Things...
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Music Reviews and Links
Hello, all!  I've gotten behind again, sorry.  It's late February, and I'm still in hibernation mode.  I like to tell people that I must have bears in my ancestry somewhere; literally all I want to do during the winter is sleep.  Trouble is, that means I don't get out too often in winter, and I really must get out more.  I want to do an open mic tour of the west coast as soon as feasible, or something.  Meanwhile, I'm too groggy right now to think of a recognizable theme for this post, so I'll just fish up whatever songs I can get to cooperate with the layout.  As always, click on the text or image links to check out these songs, all of which are presented here in digital/mp3 format...

 

 O Virga Ac Diadema (Praise for the Mother) by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179); arranged and adapted by Richard Souther. Back in 1994, when Tower Records still existed, I stumbled across this album when sampling songs right around the Christmas season; and I decided that I absolutely had to get a copy of this for myself.  I'm not actually that much into Chant or other so-called "Early Music"; but as I reviewed this album elsewhere, this is a chant album for non-chant fans. There are a couple of modern instrumental compositions by Souther here and there; but all of the songs with words are over 800 years old. This song is the first and best track of this collection; and it happens to be the last song that Abbess Hildegard completed before her death in A.D. 1179. I'm not sure what the good abbess/composer would think of the worldbeat instrumentation and anachronistic harmony singing (not found in sacred music for another century or two); but we 21st century heathens can certainly enjoy these arrangements. And early music vocalists Sister Germaine Fritz (herself an abbess) and Emily Van Evera do the ancient composer proud with their devout immersion in the melodic leaps, which were highly unusual for 12th-century chants.

 

Dark Night of the Soul by Loreena McKennitt: This is a truly inspired adaptation of the devotional poem "The Dark Night" by Spanish poet and mystic St. John of the Cross (1542-1591). Both the original poem, and this new lyric adaptation, make strong use of near-universal mystical motifs of making one's way through the dark, fleeing one's home, and intimacy with one's beloved as a metaphor for mystical union with the Divine. There is also a heart-wrenching passion in McKennitt's melody, and even in the use of her voice, that illustrates how broad and all-encompassing the concept of love is in mystical traditions around the world. One can find the same spirit and feeling of reunion with the Divine of one's understanding throughout Sufi poetry, Hebrew Wisdom literature, and medieval Christian mysticism, as well as in esoteric poetry of eastern religions, and even in that of indigenous spirituality in many other parts of the world. This song itself may well make mystical seekers of a good many agnostics.

 

 

The Humours of Whiskey by Andy M. Stewart and Manus Lunny: From the Sacred to the Profane, you might think. Actually, not so fast. Intoxication is a mystical metaphor for spiritual ecstasy, as well as a physiological euphoria ending in a hangover. I don't know exactly who wrote this song; but it's been around in Irish music circles for a good many years now, celebrating the euphoria-inducing properties of poitín, the Irish-language term for illegal homebrewed whiskey, aka "moonshine." I just felt like including this song in this post, partly in honor of the late, lamented Andy M. Stewart; and partly to demonstrate how drinking songs can bridge the sacred vs. profane gap as well as any mystical love poem. With lines like, "What can make the dumb talk, what can make the lame walk/The elixir of life and philosopher's stone?", this song is surely not just about getting wasted in the woods on a Saturday night.

 

*****

How Goes the FolkSite Thus Far..?
Mood:  not sure
Topic: The Music Affiliate Site

Hello, all!  Sorry I haven't posted for the past week or longer.  I've been working on the companion affiliate site for quite a while, trying to make it look pretty and presentable while beginning the campaign to promote it.  I'm still puzzling over what the site's focus should be--new music, old music, favorite music, trad folk, contemporary folk?  How much knowledge and information should be packed into this thing?  Meanwhile, my Muslim and LGBTQ friends and I are busy planning tactics of resistance against the far-right takeover of the Fed.

Anyway, we'll still be taking a look at songs that we like here on this blog, one sweet song at a time.  As always, click on the text or image links below to check the songs out for yourself...

 

 Lord of the Dance by Ruth Barrett & Cyntia Smith: This is the "Pagan version" of "Lord of the Dance"--not to be confused with the "Christian version" penned by English Quaker songwriter Sydney Carter. But don't let that scare you off--this is a joyous, spirited celebration of Nature in its wild, masculine Green Man/Horned God aspect, paired and partnered with the Lady, or Goddess, or Divine Feminine--whatever you want to call Nature's Feminine Principle. This is a song about how music, drumming and dancing can be a sacred, ecstatic experience by which to celebrate life in all its guises: "To live is to dance, so I dance on and on." Just listen to this and try to stop yourself dancing. You can't; your spirits will be too lifted to resist.

 

Thomas Muir of Huntershill by Dick Gaughan (song written by Adam McNaughton): The most recent time I saw Dick Gaughan here in Seattle (at Ballard's Tractor Tavern), he performed many fine traditional and contemporary songs and instrumental pieces in his own distinctive voice and guitar style, punctuated by humorous banter about his atheism, Scottish tribal affiliations; and his notion that, if God actually exists, He must have a hell of a sense of humor to put the English and Scots together on the same island. But for some reason, of all the songs he performed that night, this is the one I was singing to myself on the way home. I've since adopted it as my "get out the vote" song in busking sets and open mic performances; and it's become very important to me as a cautionary tale about the need to stand up for one's rights, and the democratic principles that our ancestors fought and suffered to establish. And considering the pickle in which our country now finds itself, songs about Scottish political freedom fighters seem more timely than ever before.

 

Gorel by Baaba Maal: This has long been my favorite song by Senegalese powerhouse Baaba Maal, based as it is on a traditional children's game song. Of course, I can't understand a word of the Wolof lyrics; but this is another great spirit-lifter when the Seattle winter weather gets cold, wet and dreary. The album "Firin' in Fouta" came out a little over 20 years ago; and I still think it's one of Maal's best. I was delighted when he performed this song during his set at the first WOMAD USA festival in Marymoor Park (Redmond, WA) in 1998; and I hope that we can hear it again soon, if we can manage to bring him back here...if we can resist any official moves to bar Muslim musicians from working here in the near future. Sigh...  *****

Songs for a Crazy Age...
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Music Reviews and Links

Folks, I recently found out some dreadful news about Anglo-Indian singer Sheila Chandra.  She's been disabled and forced to retire from performing since 2010 due to something called Burning Mouth Syndrome--one of those godawful autoimmune disorders that didn't exist even 20 years ago.  Nobody has quite figured out its cause, but in severe cases, one can barely talk, never mind sing, without experiencing severe pain.  Ugh.  That absolutely sucks.  Fortunately, all her recorded output is still available; but I believe that environmental toxicity is behind a lot of these weird autoimmune issues, and addressing our poisoned ecosystems is the critical step in curing illnesses that the poisoning has caused and will cause down the line.  Just my two cents, but I believe all of the above is true.

Anyway, here are some new singles for you to peruse.  As always, click on either the text links or image links to check out the Amazon page for each digital song download...  

 

"Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean": One of Sheila Chandra's best-known and best-loved songs. A great meditative aid, something to calm body, mind and spirit all at once. The earliest version of it was Chandra's first hit with her old band Monsoon. This song also serves as a reminder of why we need cures for autoimmune disorders yesterday...

 

 

 

"The Women Are Singing Tonight" by Cris Williamson: This cover of a Jimmy Webb ballad has haunted me every time I hear it.  It was written in honor of the Nez Perce tribe's ill-fated flight from occupation and forced dispacement; and in Williamson's hands and voice, you feel like you're right there with them, not knowing what will happen at the next sunrise.  It's a feeling of forboding of the unknown that many of us are feeling right now.  It's an incredible song, and an amazing rendition, whatever your culture or politics...

 

 

"All Souls Night" by Loreena McKennitt: This one is haunting too, but in a different way.  Its lyrics and tune give one a glimpse of the old Celtic way of celebrating their new year on Samhain or November 1, with descriptions of bonfires and dancing and the Green Knight with the holly bush, marking "where the old year passes by."  It's a great one to dance to any time of year, whether you are Pagan or not; and I would love to see a theatrical dance choreographed for it one of these days.  Recorded in the early 90's, when McKennitt's vaulting soprano was at its strongest. 

 

 Also: Before we go, I'd like to invite you to visit the beginnings of our companion website, Sing Globally, Think Universally, the center for our musical musings, with online music shops in production!  We've already got our embedded Amazon store for song downloads, as well as embedded world and folk music Twitter feeds and a Youtube playlist!  Very soon now, we'll also be raking through eBay for out-of-print folk and Celtic gems as well.  Check it out early and often! 

***** 

 

 

Well, We've Made a Start...
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Music Reviews and Links

Well, folks, nitpicky Virgo that I am, it took me a while to get the first review post configured the way I wanted it to. And I just went through an hour-long headache with opening my new eBay account, because I misspelled my first name during the registration process. Sigh... Anyway, let's try to list a few more singles downloads, and see if we need to use an html table format with it.  To check out any of these song downloads, just click on either the text or image links--the songs are free to sample!

Although this song/album has been out since 1999, "Last Song" remains one of my favorites of Jason Webley's songs. He is my longtime-favorite local performer here in the Seattle area, so of course I'm biased. This is the song I sang to myself constantly in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when none of us were sure if we were the next city to get hit by hijacked planes. The song somehow helped to keep my spirits up, based as it is on three people's accounts of apocalyptic dreams that were related to Jason and spurred on the creation of this song. Listen to the words carefully...

   

 

"Starwalker", one of Buffy Sainte-Marie's most popular songs these days, is another one I turn to when my spirits are in serious need of lifting. Maybe it's the confidence of the words and the spirit within them; maybe it's the determination of the rhythmic base, maybe it's the expression of pride in who one is; or maybe it's the sum of those, and more. Even though I'm not Native American, somehow this song never fails to lift me up, and make me feel as if I am (still) all that I need to be.

  

 

"Walls and Windows" is a song that's been uplifting and sustaining my spirits since the mid-1980's, when I first heard it on a DC-area folk radio program.  It was co-authored by Judy Small from Australia and Pat Humphries from the U.S., apparently during a songwriting workshop somewhere over 30 years ago.  I associate it with surviving the Reagan era, the Cold War, and the alienating experience of being a progressive/feminist and a Lutheran at the same time.  I've always seen it as a prayer for peace, for building bridges over barriers, and for coming to mutual understanding and toleration between opponents, both foreign and domestic...

So, Let's See How This Review Thing Goes...
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: That

So, let's have a test post on reviewing MP3 singles, shall we?  I envision it something like this: I provide the Amazon link to the mp3 song, and let you know how I feel about it.  I probably won't promote many songs that I don't like, or that drive me nuts by keeping me awake nights.  But let's pick out a few at random.  Click on either the images or text links to check them out on their Amazon pages.  They're totally free to sample!  Really!  :)

"Kana" is one of my favorite songs written and performed by Cecile Kayirebwa, the very first Rwandan singer I ever heard of, at least 20 years ago.  Kayirebwa fled her native country during its heartbreaking period of civil war; yet the clear, natural, highly fluid vocal phrasing indigenous to her culture shines through, enhanced by the amazing harmony/choral singing, in which the Rwandan pygmy (Twa) culture leads the way.

 

 

 

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997) is my all-time favorite singer in any genre; and "Jewleh Lal" (The Red Falcon, a reference to Sufi Saint Lal Shabazz Qalander) is one of my favorite songs that he and his qawwali party (ensemble) recorded.  It's one of his longer songs (nearly 20 minutes!); but give yourself time to listen to the entire song; you'll find it a very rewarding, emotionally satisfying experience.  It's a sure-fire temporary relief (at least) from depression, including the seasonal variety; any spirited, high-powered qawwali song by Nusrat and Party will wake up your brain and lift your spirits quickly, on a physiological as well as emotional level.  Not to be missed!

 

 

 "Rocky Road to Dublin" is a longtime favorite song of mine--especially as performed by the late, great Irish duo of Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy; and especially in a live concert performance. This was my first lp by Makem and Clancy, after being entranced by their live performance in the spring of 1979. I'd been a huge fan of their "parent group", the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, for several years before that; but that concert was the first I'd seen of any of those guys, and it was a life-changing experience. Admittedly, I'm biased; but I can hardly find the slightest flaw in this recording, and don't hesitate to recommend it for the ecstatic Celtic spirit flowing from every high-energy second of sound.  I do, however, recommend getting the vinyl version of it which includes their unforgettable performance of Gordon Bok's story-song, "Peter Kagan and the Wind."  I've never been able to understand why this classic was excluded from the CD format...  

Welcome To Your Folk & World Music Digital Singles Review Blog!
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: An Embedded World Music Playlist
Topic: Opening the Review Blog

Welcome, friends and folkies, to my latest crazy plot to make the world safer for folk and world music, for both fun and (hopefully) profit!  I'm starting up this MusicLair to publish reviews of Amazon's digital singles in the folk and world music genres (I'll have to take care of the album reviews later)!  I'm a bit new to this; but I have a passion for these musical genres, and I'm quite excited to share this stuff as widely as possible. 

It'll take a lot of research and listening, of course, not to mention expanding my limited knowledge of css and html, in order to make this blog look decent.  Meanwhile, I'd like to start off with a link to one of my own Youtube world music playlists...

Friends and Folkies