Monday's Music will return next week after an unexpected hiatus. I wish the hiatus had happened because I was off on vacation (preferably either buried in London bookshops or watching whales off the coast of Alaska) but the real story is much less interesting - I've just been that busy.
In the meantime, I want to point you to NPR's Song of the Day site. I've added their listing to my RSS feed and have been introduced to a lot of really cool new-to-me tunes. That's where I discovered Vienna Teng and where I finally got over my distrust of the hype and checked out Band Of Horses (note to fellow skeptics: the hype may be spot on for a change).
In the meantime, I'd love to know who you're listening to these days. I'm always looking for new tunes to add to my daily playlist.
I was down in Philadelphia this past weekend to see Ray Davies in a concert at the Tower Theatre. We met up with some friends before the concert at a little bar across the street from the theater (I highly recommend their cheesesteaks!). Somewhere in the course of our conversation, the name 'Ellis Paul' came up and caught the ears of the man sitting at the table next to us. He came over to say that he was a big fan of Ellis and spent a few moments talking to us about how much he enjoyed his music and that he'd seen him several times in concert and always had a great time.
That kind of word-of-mouth appeal isn't something new to Ellis Paul. Over the past two decades, he's amassed quite a following and has performed with the very cream of the folk circuit crop. He was a major force in the folk revival of the early 90s and is one of the performers known as the "Boston songwriters," a name that refers to the 'introspective and literate breed of singer-songwriter' that was so prevalent in the thriving folk landscape out of Boston, MA.
In 2002, Ellis became friends with Nora Guthrie, daughter of folk icon, Woody Guthrie. That friendship led to an invitation to visit the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives where he was invited to choose one set of lyrics to put to song. Ellis chose "God's Promise," which Guthrie had adapted in 1955 from "What God Hath Promised." Ellis put the lyrics to music and the result, "God's Promise," has become one of my all-time favorite songs. He performed it last year at the Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival and if there had been a house to bring down, this song would have done it.
His songwriting definitely flirts with a pop sound, but remains remarkably intelligent and down-to-earth. In 2006, he released the 2-CD Ellis Paul Essentials, which spans his 15-year career and contains some songs that were sure picks and others that were chosen by polls of his fans on his website and message board. In January 2008, he released The Dragonfly Races, a family and children's album inspired by the birth of his second daughter.
Ellis Paul will be performing at the Night Eagle Cafe in Binghamton this Friday night, April 11th, at 8 p.m. He'll also be performing a special children's concert on Saturday, April 12th at 10:30 a.m.
I was driving home one night, music blaring, head and fingers bobbing along in time with the music. While stopped at a traffic light, a car pulled up next to me and a much younger but equally rocking-out young man threw the goat and headbanged his approval of my music before they sped away.
I was very amused, mostly because the music he seemed to enjoy so much for that brief moment wasn't the latest metal hit - instead, it was the Mediaeval Baebes performing "Come My Sweet."
In the mid-1990s, Katherine Blake met Dorothy Carter in Berlin. Carter was playing hurdy-gurdy and dulcimer and Blake immediately fell in love with the sound of the music and instruments. When she returned to London, she got together with a group of friends to sing songs from the Middle Ages "purely for their own enjoyment." That's my idea of a good time!
The Medieaval Baebes was formed from this social gathering, and they released their first album, Salva Nos, within a year. They pull lyrics from medieval texts and set them to original scores, using a very cool combination of medieval, classical and modern instruments. The result is a fascinating blend of Middle English language and musical tonality that is fused with modern songwriting and instrumentation.
In a 2002 NPR interview, John Nielsen asked Blake (the music director, lead composer and arranger for the band) what it was that drew them to medieval texts. Blake replied, "I think it was one of the last periods in Western history where mythology and history were inextricably bound. The people lived in a world where you thought fairies and dragons were real….that so much fantasy was hardwired into everyone’s daily thinking intrigues me. It’s that combination of fantasy and a very gritty, mundane existence which is a fascinating juxtaposition.”
They don't sing only in Middle English, but perform in a variety of medieval languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic and Swedish. I remain in awe at the intelligence behind their performances - I've done just enough singing in Middle English to know how hard it can be to learn the phrasing and pronunciation down for just one song.
I can highly recommend all of their releases. I'm particularly fond of 2005's Mirabilis and and 2000's Undrentide, but I own them all and they're frequently played at home, in the car, at work, and even on Soundscape. I've also played their music for a number of friends and they get the same response every time - complete silence while the music is playing, followed by a demand to know more about the band and where they can find the Baebes' CDs for themselves.
According to the website, the Baebes will be on tour in the US in October and November of 2008. If they're anywhere within driving distance, I'll definitely get to at least one show. I've heard that their live performances are just as phenonmenal as their CDs. Let me know if you want to join me.
It was the name that got me to the first show - Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. I had no idea what their music sounded like or what to expect, but I knew I had to check them out. So my husband and I drove up to the Night Eagle Cafe (back when it was located in Oxford, NY) and proceeded to fall in love with a group who plays 'hillbilly Floyd' and rocks out entirely too much to be 'just' a folk band.
It's not just the music that has made this particular band one of my favorites - it's also the charisma and friendliness of the entire band. They frequently stay after shows just to say hi and chat with their fans, and even the intermission breaks will often find them wandering the crowd, thanking people for coming out to see them. It's this kind of charisma that wins them die-hard fans, the kind who are willing to drive hundreds of miles to see them and who consider it a duty to bring new fans into the fold.
The music of Slambovia plays with several genres, often combining with soft acoustics and electrifying guitar solos all in the course of one song. And if you're looking for a philosophy lesson, then sit down at the feet of Joziah Longo, the man with the derby hat who has been known to introduce songs with a lecture on cosmic string theory or who talks about how so many of his inspirations come from the "ghosts" who are always with us. Not all of his ramblings are so intellectually-minded, however, as he frequently shares tidbits of his long relationship with his wife and fellow band member, Tinkerbell Lloyd, and apologizes frequently for his ADD. Oh - and he yodels, and after a Slambovian concert, so will you.
If I had to pinpoint exactly what it is about their music that I love so much, I'd have to say it's the combination of high-energy music with a little mysticism thrown in. It's hard to describe and many a fan will just shake their head when asked 'so what do they sound like' and just reply, 'you just gotta see them live.'
Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams will be at the Night Eagle Cafe, (in their new location in Binghamton) this Friday, March 7th with the show starting at 9 p.m. (following the First Friday festivities taking place throughout downtown Binghamton). Come on out and enjoy the show - and prepare to join Slambovia.
Anyone who has listened to Soundscape has probably figured out that I'm a huge fan of artists who mix together different musical genres to create fresh and interesting music. That's not to say that traditional music forms can't stand on their own - I just think it's nice to shake things up from time to time.
Some favorite genre-blending musicians include The Mediaeval Baebes, the Afro Celt Sound System, and Deva Premal. It's becoming so common for musicians to incorporate a wide range of various ethnic music in their own compositions that the term world fusion is losing ground, but there are other genre combinations that are still breaking new ground.
I first came across Emma Shapplin on the Red Mars soundtrack. I was immediately transfixed by her layering of operatic vocals over modern, electronic music beds - it was a new and very potent blend. She had two recordings available and I grabbed the only one that was in print at that time, 2002's Etterna.
I will be the first to admit that I can't listen to her music all the time, and I really have to be in the right mood for it. For many people, her music can be too repetitive - how many dazzling leaps into the stratosphere can one album contain? But there are times when her over-the-top sound is exactly what I want - something that sounds just a little out-of-this-world and almost impossibly perfect.
Long after bands break up, their music lives on. It sounds cliche, but it's very true for many groups, and it's that kind of permanent record that gives a bit of immortality to many groups, long after the band members have gone their own way.
October Project is one of those groups. I was first introduced to their music by a friend back in 1993 - I ended up "borrowing" his CD (their first release,October Project) for many months until he finally stole it back from me in the dead of night. I was hooked though, and remember combing the record stores in search of more information about this luscious group.
Their second album, 1995's Falling Further In, was a wonderful follow-up to October Project. Sadly, their contract with Epic was terminated in 1996, with no official explanation. Since then, Mary Fahl, the lead singer for the group, went on to release 2003's The Other Side of Timeand other members of the group have pursued their own careers.
It's a shame that the October Project of those two CDs no longer exists - their music was a sharply intelligent counternote to the grunge era, and Mary Fahl's voice ranks up their with other unusual but hauntingly beautiful singers like Lisa Gerrard, Karin Bergquist, and Sheila Chandra.
I started writing this entry of "Monday's Music" as a post about my love of Moby, but it's turned into a look back at one of the most influential CDs of my life - the soundtrack to Michael Mann's beautiful film Heat.
It wasn't until I started looking at the track listing that I realized just how many amazing artists I first discovered through this soundtrack. I remember being especially intrigued by Moby's "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," enough that I left the theater and went immediately to the record store to buy it. As I listened to that CD over the next several months, I fell in love with the Kronos Quartet, with William Orbit, Lisa Gerrard, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, and Elliot Goldenthal. That one soundtrack has morphed into a collection of dozens of CDs by all of these artists over the years.
I haven't listened to the Heat soundtrack in a while. That happens sometimes as we just don't have enough hours in the day to listen to all the music we love. But I'm inspired now to go home and pull it out again. I'm sure the jewel case is a bit cracked now, and the liner notes are a bit faded, but I'm sure it will have the same effect on me it always had.
I did manage to track a couple of videos from the soundtrack. This is Moby performing Joy Division's New Dawn Fades, which appeared on the film soundtrack:
The video for "Always Forever Now" from Passengers (Brian Eno and U2):
I first heard Over the Rhine on the NBC show Third Watch. (Great show - one that I miss even though
I agree that it had a good run and had reached the end.) As happens quite often with me, I spent several minutes rewinding the episode (I rarely watch anything real time - long live the DVR!), jotting down lyrics and then hit the internet to track down the song.
It turned out to be a song called "Give Me Strength" that was actually written by Dido, but recorded by OTR. They later released it on the 2001 release Films For Radio, which I promptly snatched up and listened to for months. It was a eclectic release, with the pop anthem sounds of "Give Me Strength" and "World can Wait" countered by the country-soul vibe of "Little Blue River" and the sensual drum loops of "The Body Is A Stairway of Skin."
My next encounter with Over the Rhine was the two-CD release Ohio. This is the release that firmly placed them on my regular rotation of favorites. It was a different sound than Films for Radio, intimate and minimalist, with more of a folk sound than pop. The title track remains one of my favorite songs even now.
(This is just the song "Ohio" - no video on this clip.)
Since then, I've picked up The Drunkard's Prayer and their latest release, The Trumpet Swan. I still have many of their CDs to add to their collection but I end up spending so much savoring each album that I haven't felt the need to rush on to the next one. Still, I have another nine or so albums that I want to pick up at some point. I'm sure I'll love the experience.
Contrary to what my friends think, I don't spend all my time listening to the music I play on Soundscape. Don't get me wrong - I really like that particularly genre. I was listening to 'new age' music long before it was cool.* I don't play anything on the show that I don't enjoy personally, but there's also a lot of other music out there that I love that doesn't fit into the show. Lucky for you, I have a blog and can share some of my other musical loves with you all.
A recent discovery is Mazzy Star. I heard the song "Into Dust" at the end of some show on tv and I stopped my channel flipping, absolutely entranced by what I heard. I grabbed a pen and started jotting down lyrics so that I could google the song and figure out who the artist is.
It turns out that Mazzy Star is a band no longer in existence. But they did release three albums in the 90s, albums that somehow flew under my radar until now. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I've been listening to their music online almost constantly for the past three weeks and I've ordered all three albums and I'm just counting the days until they come in and I can load them into Nina (my iPod) and have them with me constantly.
In the meantime, here's a little taste of their music for you. I'd love to hear what you think - and I hope you enjoy.
This is also the start of a new weekly series here at BTMWCS. Every Monday I'll ramble on about a particular CD or artists that I like. Feel free to add your own suggestions for listening or to tell me what you're listening to these days.
*If new age music still isn't cool, I don't want to know. I need my delusions sometimes.
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