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Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
 So I found this disc, Sabrina's Holiday, in amongst a bunch of other music I haven't listened to in a long time. It's beautiful! And I have no memory of where I got it, no memory of having listened to it before.
I contacted Rique Prince, the band's fiddler, and he said "Oh wow, one of the old hand-stamped copies of our disk!" -- they have in the mean time released a commercial pressing and recorded a second album, I Thought You Knew. Check 'em out! They have several videos up on YouTube.
 Also found this web site: Black String Revival is a documentary featuring the Ebony Hillbillies and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The site does not look like it's been updated in a year or so; I have no idea whether the project is ongoing. Either way, there are some useful links on the site. The filmmaker is John Whitehead of Fretless Films, looks like he has some other interesting projects in the works as well. Update: Mr. Whitehead says the project is a labor of love, still in production and he is hoping to begin screening it this spring. Fingers crossed!
posted evening of January 27th, 2009: 2 responses
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Saturday, January 17th, 2009
 ’
Apostropher's got some tunes up for celebrating the inaugural. (2 more days! Bye-bye, Bush! Hope you get what's coming to you!)
posted evening of January 17th, 2009: Respond
➳ More posts about Mix tapes
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I've been listening a lot to Disc B of the Mountain Blues box set from JSP Records -- there is a ton of great music on this disc and in this set, including many fiddle tunes that I want to learn. Plus a song I'm finding particularly interesting, and different from most everything else on this set: Bread Line Blues (1931), by Slim Smith. There doesn't seem to be any biographical information on Smith that I can find, either in the notes to the box set or on the Internets. His singing style reminds me a lot of Woody Guthrie; I'm pretty poor at recognizing accents, so I won't venture to guess where he's from -- most of the other artist on the set are from Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, the Carolinas. The song is basically a plea to vote Democratic in 1932. I'm interested in finding out some of the subtext -- I don't know a whole lot about the history of the Great Depression beyond generalities. I understand that Hoover, a Republican, was blamed for the economic collapse, and clearly the song says "vote Democratic to get the economy back on course." But I'm very intrigued by the lines, "If we had states' rights,/ I'll leave it to you,/ We could all have fun/ And better home-brew." If I heard someone in say, 1960 or later, invoking "states' rights," I'd assume he was speaking in code about resentment over desegregation, and appealing to memories of Southern separatism -- this is a major part of the theme of Nixonland. But I don't believe desegregation was even on the radar in 1931. It sounds from the verse like the resentment is against prohibition, and maybe more generally against federal regulation of distillation. But presumably memories of Southern separatism would have been fresher in 1931 than they were in the '60s; so maybe that is coming through as well. I'm also pretty interested by this verse: "It's the rich man's job/ To make some rules,/ To rid me of/ These Bread Line Blues." What is the ideology here? The first time I heard the song I started out thinking I was listening to a Socialist after the manner of Woody Guthrie, advocating for FDR and the New Deal; but this verse makes no sense in that context -- it sounds more to me like what I think of as Republicanism, and it surprises me to hear a Democrat saying it. But obviously party boundaries and ideologies are fluid. Oh and another neat thing: the Donkey and Elephant party mascots make their appearances. How old are these symbols? Aha! finally a question I can answer with Google: the animals date to 1874, to a political cartoon by Thomas Nast.
posted afternoon of January 17th, 2009: 3 responses
➳ More posts about Mountain Blues & Ballads
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Monday, January 12th, 2009
Listening to the Colombian band Musicalizando sing Neruda's poem "Plenos Poderes" is, well, fun. I'm not quite connecting with the music -- it doesn't really move me -- but the poem is just lovely and I'm glad to be able to hear it recited rather than just reading it on the page and trying to figure out the cadences for myself. And also, it's just a nice feeling to see pop musicians rooted in the literary tradition like that. I wonder (with reference to El Laberinto de la Soledad) if this is more common in Latin America than it is here. The lines Y no me canso de ir y de volver;
no me para la muerte con su piedra,
no me canso de ser y de no ser.
seem like a disavowal of his earlier Sucede que me canso de ser hombre. (from "Walking Around"). I suppose without knowing, this might be connected to the political situations of the times when he wrote these two poems. The lines from "Plenos Poderes" work nicely as a response to Hamlet's question.More Neruda-based pop music below the fold.
posted evening of January 12th, 2009: 5 responses
➳ More posts about Pablo Neruda
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Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Hanukkah gifts from my parents arrived in the mail today -- my present looks suspiciously 12"X12" and flat... Could it be outmoded media?
 Yes! It could indeed. It is "The Complete Fats Waller, vol. I 1934-1935", on Bluebird Records. Not only vinyl; mono vinyl. Thanks, mom and dad! Fats Waller is someone I only know as a name, I'm listening to side A right now and looking forward to familiarizing myself with his music. (But how'm I going to put it on my IPod?...)
posted afternoon of December 22nd, 2008: 3 responses
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Saturday, December 20th, 2008
 I found out about this Mexican band by a circuitous route -- reading Alejandro Rossi's essay about Octavio Paz' Labyrinth of Solitude made me interested in finding out more about the book; and I came to learn that Botellita de Jerez had written a song with the same title.
The lyric (as far as I can understand it) refers to Paz' essay "Los Hijos de la Malinche", which I think is about Hernando Cortes' mistress, her role in turning Mexico into a Spanish colony, her place in the Mexican imagination. Here is another fantastic song from Botellita de Jerez, "Niña de mis ojos":
posted morning of December 20th, 2008: Respond
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Saturday, December 13th, 2008
 Listen to the song available on this page, while looking at the image on this page. Fun, right?
(Thanks to a couple of people on the Fegmaniax list...)
posted evening of December 13th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about Syd Barrett
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Thursday, December 11th, 2008
I found another pretty spectacular cover version of "Satellite of Love" -- this one is by Robyn Hitchcock and Grant Lee Phillips, I'm assuming from the same tour (possibly the same concert) documented in Elixirs and Remedies. A beautiful performance, and I just love the camerawork way the visual frame is composed.
posted evening of December 11th, 2008: 2 responses
➳ More posts about Cover Versions
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 It's not available yet -- going to be released in February. But you can listen to some of the tracks at Proper Records.
 Hm; hard to make a judgement of the record based on these clips. I am glad to see the songs from The Fifth Beatle appearing here, because I think they are lovely songs; but I have no idea whether I'll like the Venus 3 versions better than the solo versions I've heard. I will say, that is one of the nicest Robyn Hitchcock album covers I've ever seen.
posted morning of December 11th, 2008: Respond
➳ More posts about Goodnight Oslo
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Saturday, December 6th, 2008
Hey, anybody wondering what present to buy for their friend Jeremy this holiday season? Look no further: I would love to receive practically any of the box sets offered by JSP Records, but especially Mountain Blues or Rare Bluegrass.
posted morning of December 6th, 2008: Respond
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