kestrell: (Default)
You should definitely give "The Beautiful Old" a listen.

Just when I begin to think I may have a grasp on Richard Thompson's eclectic discography (and I do have his
"Bones of All Men" album,
https://mainlynorfolk.info/richard.thompson/records/thebonesofallmen.html
I discover another album which I have never even heard of. I recently stumbled across this album while reading about Dave Davies (yes, Dave Davies of the Kinks), who also performs on this album.

The entire project is jaw-droppingly fantastic, not only in its sheer beauty and level of musical mastery but, most of all, in the fact that it exists at all.

You can hear clips from some of the songs in this
Youtube trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJfsDdLSYQ4

One of my favorite songs is "Long Time Ago," sung by Jimmy LaFave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZGiSjRvSlI

This song reminds me of "I Wandered by a Brookside," recorded here by Fairport Convention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6D2nLQ1aog
which is based on a poem by one of my very favorite dead guys, Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-1885)].
https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/iwanderedbythebrookside.html

Here is an extensive review of the album that includes a brief history of the project.

Various Artists: The Beautiful Old
By
Nathan Huffstutter
June 25, 2013 | 3:56pm
Posted at
https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/various-artists/various-artists-the-beautiful-old

Various Artists: The Beautiful Old

Born aloft by vigorous performances from Garth Hudson, Richard Thompson, Kimmie Rhodes and Dave Davies, The Beautiful Old is one of those grand ideas that truly had no business getting off the ground. Recruiting a scattered cast to record faithful, front parlor versions of songs from the sheet-music era?
Yeah (condescending pause), good luck. Yet in defiance of logic, cynicism and geography, The Beautiful Old succeeds not only as a damn fine collection of music, but also stands as an enduring testament to overcoming the improbable.

The first barriers of skepticism are no minor obstacle. Scan the list of 100-200-year-old titles—ranging from familiar standards like “After The Ball”
(1892) and “The Band Played On” (1895) to melodies last hummed during the Taft administration—and you’ll likely suppress a yawn, expecting a dusty snooze through sepia-toned, preservation-society pieces. Even more cringe-worthy, the collection has the latent potential for pure novelty kitsch. With guest vocalists varying from young Irish folk singer Heidi Talbot to Austin lifer Will Sexton to acoustic blues traveler Eric Bibb, it’s easy to envision quaint old tunes covered as an array of Pier 1 knockoffs.

Remarkably, The Beautiful Old coheres into something neither dull nor precious, assembling a melting pot of players who downplay their individual country, jazz, blues and bluegrass influences while never sacrificing an ounce of personality. Instead, emphasizing period-appropriate rhythms and instrumentation, the performers pinpoint the heartbreak, lust, loss and flirtatious play loaded within the original compositions. These songs were never meant to age as museum pieces; they were written to touch and to entertain (and to move hundreds of thousands of copies of sheet music).

Across the collection’s 19 tracks, the artists tap into that stirring emotion and populist appeal. Kimmie Rhodes enfolds “A Perfect Day” (1910) with the
soothing lullaby sadness that cuts across generations of exhausted mothers; Dave Davies croons “After The Ball” in an Old Country croak that waltzes from Fool to Lear at the turn of a phrase; Jimmy LaFave, Floyd Domino and Richard Bowden bring nearly 200 years of barnstorming craftsmanship to “Long Time Ago” (1839), using voice, piano and violin to stretch the wistful ballad back and forth across the centuries.
continued below cut )
kestrell: (Default)
so your soul can find neither rest nor resurrection?

While others have been preoccupied with resurrection and the afterlife, I've been attempting to find legends regarding people who are too evil to die, who have a literal inability to cease living, no matter how burdened by their own sins they may become, and the very ground itself refuses to allow them to be buried in it.

Specifically, I've been obsessed with this Josh Ritter song
"Ground Don't Want Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuadfchdsiI
which is about a gunslinger who is cursed by his dying mother to "go to Hell real slow," while the chorus and the title dwell on the theme of someone who is so evil that he cannot die, and the very ground itself refuses to hold and shelter him.

This theme seems like its a really old legend or piece of religious folklore, but I'm drawing a blank when I try to think of legends or stories that have used it. Kudos to Ritter for creeping me out in just a few verses.
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If you're listening to WWOZ.org you may hear about the Mardi Gras Indians, which are the highlight for many New Orleanians. Here are a couple of videos to explain about the Indians

How Mardi Gras Indians Rebel Against History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffn_bo9nuY8

Black Masking Indians: A historical New Orleans Carnival tradition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsOxxz4h1rU

Yesterday was Lundi Gras, and a lot of the Indians were still working on their suits right through from yesterday until this morning.
A song I heard dedicated to them was
Glue Stick Situation by Alex McMurray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY39TmWVFuk

The first song many people hear on Mardi Gras morning is
Indian Red
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayr-Sp944J0
which is
a traditional chant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Red#:~:text=Indian%20Red%20is%20traditionally%20sung,Gras%20Indians%20in%20New%20Orleans.
sung at the beginning of gatherings of Mardi Gras Indians

The compliment you give a Mardi Gras Indian who has made a suit that you think is exceptionally beautiful is "You're the prettiest!" (I love the fact that this is a culturally acceptable thing to say to men during Mardi Gras.)
kestrell: (Default)
Happy Mardi Gras!

Listen to some great New Orleans music
https://www.wwoz.org

Wear some purple, green, and/or gold

Eat something delicious, maybe with some rice, or red beans, or shrimp, or pecans, or just something that makes today feel like a celebration.
kestrell: (Default)
This past week Alexx and I rewatched "Barton Fink" (Dir. Coen Brothers, 1991), which is one of my *favorite* movies, and when I say "favorite movies," I mean it is one of those movies which causes me to babble on like the movie geek I can be which, fair warning, this post is all about.

There are many reasons to love "Barton Fink": it's a Coen Brothers film with the usual wonderfully quirky performances, including a really funny/terrifying performance by John Goodman.

The reasons I love this film are 1, it's a movie about making movies in Hollywood and 2, it has one of the most innovative and impressive sound designs of any film, ever. It's the film that made me--and many other people-- really sit up and pay attention to how sound design could become a significant part of the narrative of the film, instead of something tacked on as an after thought.

Regarding this last, if you do an online search for films with the best sound design, "Barton Fink" will show up in the top three almost every time ("Apocalypse Now" often shows up as number one).

Having spent the past week researching and reading about "Barton Fink," I thought I would share some of mthe best resources I found.

"Barton Fink" is a movie about making movies in Hollywood circa 1941, and much of the sense of time and place is taken from books written by writers who were actually writing in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s. These included many writers such as Raymond Chandler, Nathaniel West, and William Faulkner, who is the basis for W. P. Mayhew. Another book used by the Coens was Otto Freidrich's City of Nets, about German expatriates living in Hollywood in the 1940s. An astounding amount of the dialogue and some of the character details are taken from these books.

The most complete exploration of the literary influences of "Barton Fink" I found is
"Barton Fink: ‘For the Common Man’" in _The Cinema of the Coen Brothers_ by Jeffrey Adams (2015, Columbia University Press) (available on Bookshare.org)

Online resources which provide a similar exploration but which is not quite as extensive are

15 Fiery Facts About 'Barton Fink' | Mental Floss
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67383/15-fiery-facts-about-barton-fink

and

How the Sausage Gets Made: Inside the Hollywood Film Industry in Barton Fink and Hail, Caesar! by M. Keith Booker
https://bookerhorror.com/how-the-sausage-gets-made-inside-the-hollywood-film-industry-in-barton-fink-and-hail-caesar/
(this article can also be found in _The Coen Brothers' America_ (2019) by M. Keith Booker)

If you are interested in film sound, the ultimate online resource is
FilmSound.org: dedicated to the Art of Film Sound Design & Film Sound Theory
http://www.filmsound.org/

The following article provides a basic introduction to what sound design is and what a sound editor does, and then gets into exploring the sound design of "Barton Fink."

When Sound Is a Character
By Judith Shulevitz
Aug. 18, 1991
Posted online at
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/18/movies/film-when-sound-is-a-character.html

This is an academic article which is part of a journal issue on sound design in film
Barton Fink: Atmospheric Sounds of the Creative Mind
Sound Practices of the Coen Brothers
by Randall Barnes
https://offscreen.com/view/barnes_bartonfink

As I said, "Barton Fink" shows up on most links of best film sound design, and here is a great example:

The Films That Influenced a Sound Design Master
https://www.filmmakeru.com/blog/the-films-that-influenced-a-sound-design-master

"Barton Fink" is filled with many small but anxiety-producing details, and one of these is the motif of the shoes. We always see empty shoes, but never the people they belong to. This reminded me of folklore associated with shoes and death, but also of concentration camp pictures of piles of shoes ("Barton Fink" has other references to World War 2 and fascism).

Folklore abounds with stories of shoes and the dead. In times past, it was thought worthy to make a gift of a pair of new shoes to a poor person at least once in a lifetime. The belief was that, in the afterlife, the person would have to cross barefoot surfaces of thorns and gorse. If one had given shoes to a poor person during life, an old man at the beginning of one's journey would meet one with the same shoes to travel over the thorns without scratch or scale.
This belief is most memorably and creepily covered in
the Lyke Wake Dirge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgr65_MPVEo&ab_channel=stewuk

Old boots and shoes are commonly found in cemeteries as gravesite remembrances. From Canada to New Orleans modern finds of shoes of various styles have been found draped across and or surrounding grave sides. According to Heck and Heck, the modern practice was inspired by Canadian songwriter Felix Leclerc’s (1914 – 1988) song, “Moi, Mes Souliers” (Me, My Shoes).

foot talk: Dead Men’s Shoes : A brief history of funereal footwear and toe pointing
http://foottalk.blogspot.com/2020/06/dead-mens-shoes-brief-history-of.html

and here are some more pictures and folklore about shoes and the dead, especially in New Orleans
https://diggirl.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/565/

the infamous "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory, when Paul McCartney was pictured not wearing shoes on the album cover of "Abbey Road."
http://feetshoesandsuperstition.blogspot.com/2008/10/feet-shoes-and-superstition-dead-mens.html
kestrell: (Default)
ho designed the World Trade Center, this description of an iconic photograph from the mid-1970s also provides a mini-history of NYC at that time.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/nyc-and-fred-conrads-iconic-1977-photograph/
Billy Joel's song, "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out On Broadway)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46IGAbJbykI&ab_channel=billyjoelVEVO
which came out at that time, was written from the perspective of someone who is supposedly looking back at that time from the year 2017 but, of course, by 2017, that song meant something complete
kestrell: (Default)
Join blind musicians from around the world on April 16th, 2022, at 2 p.m. Eastern time for a very special benefit concert for those who are blind impacted by the conflict in Ukraine.

The American Council of the Blind is proud to be a broadcast partner for the WBU global benefit concert “We’re With You,” which provides direct assistance for those in Ukraine who are blind and visually impaired.

The atrocities in Ukraine have turned life upside down for millions across the impacted region. The stories we have heard from those who are blind and visually impaired are extremely troubling. In response, voices from around the world are stepping up to sing a message of hope and unity for all those struggling during the conflict.

The online streaming platform Mushroom.FM has taken a lead role in organizing the broadcast, and both ACB and NFB are providing ways for individuals in the United States to donate to the cause. All proceeds will be sent directly to the World Blind Union (WBU) Unity Fund, which will provide disaster relief to those impacted by the current conflict taking place in Ukraine.

Click Here to
Donate to the WBU Unity Fund
https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E144393&id=79

How to Listen

The ACB Media Network is one of many broadcast partners across the globe providing coverage of the event. That means in addition to the Mushroom.FM live feed, the concert will be carried over ACB Media Channel 4. You can listen via the ACBMedia.org
https://www.acbmedia.org/
player or ask your Alexa smart speaker to “Open ACB Media and play Media 4.”

How to Join the Conversation

We will be having social rooms set up during the event where people can join in on the conversation as the concert goes live. Follow us on the ACB Community Facebook page for details on accessing the social rooms via Zoom and over our ACB Room on the social audio app Clubhouse. And be sure to check out
MushroomFM.com/WithYou

https://mushroomfm.com/WithYou
for program details and to learn more about the event and live performers.
kestrell: (Default)
9 more days 'til Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

SiriusXM *finally* started their Halloween channel: you can say either "Alexa, play Halloween music" or "Alexa, play Scream Radio" to summon the beautiful music of screeching violins, rattling chains, and the children of the night, not to mention, the screaming.


They also play actual music, much of it from horror movies or goth groups.

Truly, it is the most wonderful time of the year.
kestrell: (Default)
Kes: First of all, I'm embarrased at how badly I have been mispronouncing the name of this drum for the past few weeks, although I am pleased to find out that it shares the name of my favorite pub
The Bodhran by Seamus Kennedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYKArhNzjsQ&list=PLpTusYbea9pf32O4YiskFUqYKEhyy1Ne1&index=75

Bodhran Lesson How to hold and the basic stroke by the Online Academy of Irish Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y540acW6NQM

Here are a couple of MP3 instructional CDs you can purchase on Amazon:

Bodhran Practice (Slow Sets for Beginners & Practice)
Alison Boyd

The Bodhran
Mark Stone

And here is a Udemy course:

Learn the Irish Drum- Bodhrán | Udemy
Created by
Siobhan O'Donnell
All Ireland Bodhran Champion
https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-the-bodhran/
kestrell: (Default)
Kes: I recently bought a variety pack of different styles of hooks and skins to fit over my AirPods to make them more secure, but I'm still finding the fact that most of these varieties have to be removed in order to charge your AirPods kind of an annoyance, but mileage may vary.

https://www.howtogeek.com/751445/airpods-dont-fit-try-these-fixes/
kestrell: (Default)
I had this idea for a fanfic last night right before bedtime, and I need to find the time to write it, but it's pretty self-explanatory: Alligator Loki is the lead guitarist in a rock band, and this is his signature song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV3AziKTBUo
kestrell: (Default)
Alexx: I read some more of the David Jay biography.
Kestrell: Remind me who David Jay is.
A: He was in Bauhaus, the original goth rock band.
K (scoffs(: That wasn't the original goth rock band.
A: What was the original goth rock band?
K: You know, that one with Byron and Mary Shelley.
A: That wasn't a rock band.
K: Many hardcore goths would back me up on this. Liz Hand would back me up on this.
A: I'm not going to win this one, am I?
kestrell: (Default)
An announcement from my musical and poetic friend, April Grant:

NEFFA (New England Folk Festival)
is coming up, on April 23, 24, and 25, and it is free and virtual this year, though they are requesting donations.
Here's info on how to attend: http://cgi.neffa.org/public/festival-registration.html
I recommend checking out the schedule here: https://www.neffa.org/folk-festival/schedule/
On Saturday, April 24, from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern time, Rebecca Maxfield and I will be presenting "Have A Gay Old Time," celebrating same-sex relationships in folk and folk-adjacent songs.
kestrell: (Default)
Have you ever noticed how this song and Richard Thompson's "She Moved Through the Fair" are, narratively, almost identical?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTz51-nmW1E
kestrell: (Default)
I'm putting together a playlist of songs that I think could be interpreted as disability-positive songs, such as
Fucking Perfect by Pink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdW5rei_5gI

I have two questions:
1. What songs would others suggest for this playlist?
and
2. I'm trying to find links to Youtube pages that claim they include lyrics with the music, but my screen reader is not finding lyrics on these pages: is there some sort of captioning happening that my screen reader is not finding? Because that would be ironic but totally predictable.
kestrell: (Default)
That's what I call the big closet in the hall which I intend on decluttering today--or, rather, beginning to declutter, since it's a pretty vast closet (many spaces in the attic, including the aerye itself, seem to have non-Euclidean architecture).

It's been a while since I played the aerye's theme song, so here it is.
Note: I've discovered a way to use wildcards when speaking to Alexa: in this example, I could remember the full name of the performer, so I just said the first part of his name, like this:
Alexa, play The Attic by Professor ...
But you could also leave that little silent beat--it should be the same length it would be to say the word you can't remember--in the Alexa command, like this:
Alexa, play the Attic by ... Elemental
Here's the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvLqgwu-XHI
kestrell: (Default)
I've been listening to this song a lot this week: John Boutte has such a beautiful voice, and this is a beautiful song.
At the Foot of Canal Street John Boutte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7FJL_L1SRc
kestrell: (Default)
Louis Armstrong and the Dukes - Bourbon Street Parade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuylmxmXIGo

Harry Connick Jr and Lucien Barber - Take Her to the Mardi Gras
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-6_qUrW6vs
v=U7FJL_L1SRc
kestrell: (Default)
When New Orleanians wake up on Mardi Gras morning, many of them race out to try to find the Mardi Gras Indians because, for many people, especially since Katrina, the Indians have come to represent the spirit and the resilience of the people of New Orleans.

Each of the Indian tribes has its own colors, its own traditions, its own songs, but all of them sing this one song, and its the first song, the opening prayer, on Mardi Gras morning. There are many, many versions, but I'm choosing one of my favorite versions, because it's the one in which the baby Neville Brothers got their musical beginnings.

Indian Red The Wild Tchoupitoulas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayr-Sp944J0

More about Mardi Gras Indians
from https://www.wheretraveler.com/new-orleans/play/mardi-gras-indians-new-orleans-fine-feathered-friends#:~:text=Hou%20tendais...%E2%80%9D%20The,Native%20American%20and%20African%20languages.

The language of the Mardi Gras Indians is the most elusive and mysterious aspect of the culture. Made up of English and French as well as invented words, the speaking and singing of the Indians is a form of verbal art that resists precise translation but is widely understood by Indians. In many Indian songs, “hoo na nae” is synonymous with the phrase “let’s go get ‘em,” while the meaning of the frequently heard refrain “tuway pockyway” is entirely dependent on the context.
The songs of the Mardi Gras Indians are the most popular and accessible aspect of the culture. At Indian gatherings, songs are arranged in call-and-response fashion, with the chief improvising a solo vocal and the tribe responding with a repeated chant: “shallow water oh mama!” “big chief got a golden crown!” A “second line” (an informal parade) of percussionists accompanies the chants with tambourines, cowbells, and found objects such as beer bottles.
Popular chants have also become the basis for rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and hip-hop recordings, including James “Sugarboy” Crawford’s 1954 rhythm and blues recording of “Jock-A-Mo.” Renamed “Iko Iko,” the song became a national hit eleven years later, performed by the Dixie Cups. The music and spectacle of the Indians has also spawned tribute songs, such as Earl King’s “Big Chief,” popularized by pianist Professor Longhair in a 1964 recording.
In 1971, Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias were the first Indians to make a commercial recording of their own music, using a group of funk musicians to arrange Dollis’s “Handa Wanda.” Under the musical direction of pianist, composer, and arranger Wilson Turbinton (“Willie Tee”), the Wild Magnolias recorded two LPs in the early 1970s and toured the United States and France. Indian funk was given a sizable boost in 1976 when the Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe recorded an album, titled Wild Tchoupitoulas, with arrangements by the city’s most acclaimed funk group, The Meters.
On the record and in performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, lead vocalist Joseph Landry (“Chief Jolly”) was accompanied by his nephews, the Neville Brothers. Like Willie Tee, the Nevilles—Art, Charles, Aaron, and Cyril Neville—grew up listening to the Indians on Mardi Gras Day. Music composed for these recordings, such as the Magnolias’ “New Suit” in 1975 and the Tchoupitoulas’ “Meet De Boys on the Battlefront,” released the next year, now stand alongside “Big Chief” and “Iko, Iko” as the most prominent and durable signs of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition.

February 2024

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