Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on
Robert Hunter’s‘Brown-Eyed Women‘
Sorry ’bout the delay in getting your Queen’s Lament IPA to you, it’s been a very busy day as we’ve got a hand fastening on the Greensward and the brides changed their minds this morning on what libations they wanted for the reception afterwards. And I’m down two workers as Gus needed them for desperately needed work in Macgregor’s Kitchen Garden which is much larger than the quaint name it has would suggest. And yes there was a Head Gardener here by that name.
The weather’s been sunny and quite hot so almost everyone here is finding an excuse to be outside. The Kitchen staff has been out on the back terrace that borders on the Kitchen (which is actually in the basement level right below our Pub which is in the first level of basement) setting up the reception. I should tell you that Kitchen and Pub have full banks of triple glazed leaded glass windows so they’re cheerfully bright spaces when the sun reaches this side of Kinrowan Hall.
So I wonder what we’ve for you this edition..
It’s all music reviews this time, be it bands like the Pogues or solo artists like the much missed Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention fame. So grab a couple of your favorite libation be it a coffee or something stronger and sit in for some great reading now.
Cat really likes The Pogues: The Lost Decades: ‘Ann Scanlon has captured the Pogues from their very first days in early ’82 ’til a decade later when they released their only commercially successful album If I Should Fall From Grace With God, an album that really did sound like it was produced instead of being simply tossed togather. Ann’s clearly at ease with the band. And it’s clear she had the full cooperation of the band, their friends, and assorted never do well hanger-ons. This is a fuckin’ brillant work of ethnograpghy that catches the evolution of a band as no other book I’ve read has done.’
Chris’ review of Clinton Heylin’s No More Sad Refrains: The Life and Times of Sandy Denny starts off with this rather unusual introduction: ‘In some ways it’s apposite that a book written about an artist as emotionally charged and mercurial as Sandy Denny should itself have had a difficult and rocky genesis. Some people, myself included, were expecting an biography of Sandy written by Pam Winters to be issued by Helter Skelter last year. It’s not my place as a reviewer to pass judgment on the disagreements which caused that project to flounder, and led to Clinton Heylin writing this book. Nevertheless, I include these comments to clarify the situation for those readers who do not know the background, why a biography did not appear last year, and why the author of this book, Clinton Heylin, is perhaps not the same author that they may have expected. It also helps explain the rather unusual comments in Clinton Heylin’s acknowledgments. Maybe one day that full story will unfold, but I shall keep my thoughts and comments on the book in hand.’
Chuck found Garóid Óh Allmhuráin’s Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music rather good: ‘Here’s a neat little book. Gearóid Ó h Allmhuráin manages to compress a history of Irish music into just over 150 pages and does it clearly and cleanly. I have an aficionado’s knowledge, not a expert’s, of Irish music, so I can’t say for certain if absolutely everyone who should be included was. But the major figures – Turlough O’Carolan, Rory Dall, Francis O’Neill, Michael Coleman, and even Riverdance – all get suitable notice. Furthermore, Ó h Allmhuráin does an excellent job of describing the origins of the various aspects of the Irish tradition, as well as, placing the more recent performers within that tradition.’
Ever listen to Little Feat? Here’s the first biography of the singer Lowell George and David has the story: ‘Mark Brend’s Rock and Roll Doctor provides us with the essential material. The story of a life. Taken together with his recordings this is the closest any of us will come to a look at who Lowell George was. But perhaps his widow, Elizabeth George, said it best, “There was nothing regular about the guy.”’
David found a good one here: ‘There have been many books written about Frank Zappa. Perhaps the most disappointing, and yet most enlightening, was his own The Real Frank Zappa Book. A bizarre but strangely readable book was Ben Watson’s Frank Zappa’s Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. Dangerous Kitchen: the Subversive World of Frank Zappa falls somewhere in between. Kevin Courrier is a journalist and film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is his second book, and it is a labor of love.’
Kate has a choice rock ‘n’ roll biography for us: ‘ Scott Allen Nollen has proven his devotion as a Tull fan in the countless miles travelled and the hours passed collecting details and interviewing band members and other associates. He has included nostalgic pictures of the band, some of which were borrowed from Ian Anderson, the often frenzied flautist who, despite some controversy, became the Fagin-like front man for the band. After ten long years of research, here in Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001 is a comprehensive and entertaining story of the much misunderstood Jethro Tull. The authenticity is underlined by the thoughtful and honest foreword written by Ian Anderson himself.’
Mike Scott’s Adventures of a Waterboy was a lot better than Gary expected: ‘The moment I opened this book about Mike Scott and started reading it was when I first realized that it was a memoir. And if you’ve read many musicians’ autobiographies, you’ll know why my heart sank. “Oh, great, another slog through a couple hundred pages of mediocre writing at best.” It didn’t take long for Mr. Scott to dispel that notion. And when I reached the end of Chapter 1, I said out loud, “This guy can really write!” Not just songs, but prose, too.”’
Gary looks at a very personal biography, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon: ‘Warren Zevon died in 2003, within a week of Johnny Cash. While he was nowhere near the cultural icon that Cash was, Zevon was one of the most important voices in popular music in the second half of the 20th century. That much was clear to me before, but it was brought home to me by this biography compiled by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon.’
Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span always seem to evoke sunmet for me, so it’s fitting that Lars has a review of Brian Hinton and Geoff Wall’s biography of Ashley Hutchings: The Guv’nor & the Rise of Folk Rock as he helped birth both of those groups: ‘To some of us the subject of this book is, if not God, at least the musical equivalent to the pope. Name a group you like and have followed over the years, and there is a fair chance that Mr. Hutchings was there to start it, or at least influence the starting of it. He is in one way or another responsible for a very large number of the records in my collection, and yes, we are certainly talking three figures, here.’
During the early Victorian Era, the Head Gardener at the time, Jacob Niles, persuaded the Steward, Allison MacPhee, to invest in a conservatory. According to the Journals kept by him and the Steward, the deciding factor was that it could be used for growing fruit in the long winter, including oranges and bananas. It wasn’t cheap and was costly to heat as it needed lots of seasoned wood to make it warm.
Fortunately, triple glazed glass was used (at no small expense), and that helped. Certainly the fresh tropical fruit was a hit during our long Scottish winter. We still use it for that purpose but now we use solar power to heat it more efficiently than the original builders could possibly have imagined.
So what does that have to do with strawberry ice cream? Well, that was my idea. You see, we exist on The Border with the Faerielands. Several decades back, I made friends with the Head Gardener for the Red Dragon House, who had no luck growing their version of strawberries — the ones that start red and turn white when fully ripe — when it turned cold there. So he asked me to see if I could make them flourish.
It took several years before I figured that it needed a symbiotic bacterium that didn’t like being cold ever, so I started growing them for the Red Dragon House with the proviso that we could also use them. Would you believe that took a contract signed by all parties? Elves are big on formality! Three pages of contract to be precise. And that’s how we came to have strawberry ice cream in the winter. The whole milk comes from High Meadow Farm, the ever so costly vanilla from Madagascar, and it’s sweetened, just a bit, with honey from our hives. It’s quite delicious!
It is just weird eating strawberry ice cream that is all-white. Really, really weird.
Gary says, ‘Anyone who enjoys Francophone Louisiana roots music and music documentaries in general will love Roots of Fire. The film focuses in particular on the young musicians who are bringing Cajun music into the 21st century, honoring their past and their forbears while moving the music forward and making it their own.’
Robert had mixed feelings about a comics compilation that reintroduces us to Green Arrow. ‘Brian K. Vaughan starts his introduction to this compilation by noting that, although a few years ago comic fans gave a series five or six issues to prove itself, these days you’ve got to get everything established and your hook set pretty fast. I think this may be the cause of some of the reservations I have about Green Arrow: Year One.’
Richard also had some reservations about another in DC’s Year One series. ‘The best thing that can be said for Nightwing: Year One is that it fills in a gap. What it doesn’t do, though, is really get into the meat of what might happen to someone whom the Batman threw out. The end is never in doubt, and the journey to get there feels like it’s by means of the shortest route possible.’
Searching the Archives for some hot music to reflect recent weather trends, we dredged up some reviews of Cajun, Zydeco, and klezmer related music.
Brendan was pleasantly surprised at the music on KlezRoym’s Sceni. ‘KlezRoym is a band out of Italy who combine the fervor and stylings of klezmer with the improvisation of Roma jazz and the feel of Mediterranean music. Sure, all klezmer, being the hybrid genre that it is, has a little Roma, a little jazz, and maybe a little Mediterranean harmony. But KlezRoym, a seven-person unit consisting of Gabriele Coen, Andrea Pandolfo, Pasquale Laino, Riccardo Manzi, Marco Camboni, Leonardo Cesari, and Eva Coen, add their own mixture of moxy, imagination, and excellent improvisational skills to the music.’
He also reviewed one by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. ‘Anyone with even a modicum of interest in klezmer music will find much to enjoy on Dance Me To The End of Love. With this release, the Klezmer Conservatory Band proves itself to sit among the current favorites such as the Klezmatics as well as among the “greats” like the Klezmorim.’
He greatly enjoyed Selim Sesler’s The Road to Keşan: Turkish Rom and Regional Music of Thrace. ‘The music of The Road to Keşan focuses on the music of celebrations, mostly wedding melodies in fact. This is exuberant, heady music that was made for dancing — and very enjoyable to listen to. Among the 9/8 and 7/4 rhythms, Sesler gives his group plenty of time for solos and interesting arrangements. His clarinet has an almost sorrowful tone to it, that is nicely contrasted with the otherworldly tones of the kanun played by his son, Bulent.’
And he was intrigued by the Sicilian music on Taberna Mylaensis’ L’anima du munnu. ‘Each of the songs here are based on traditional themes and instrumentation, yet Taberna Mylaensis has added a spark of theatricality and modernity (not to mention excellent production values) to them, giving each track a feeling of being a complete piece of art of its own. Much like the mosaic-like cover art, the result is a CD of masterful pieces that together create a beautiful composition.’
Shifting gears and regions, Brendan took a tour of The Kingdom of Zydeco, a companion album to a book of the same name by Michael Tisserand. ‘Although Tisserand could have opted for a collection of more famous zydeco hits, including many more by Buckwheat Zydeco or Clifton Chenier, he concentrated instead on creating a multifaceted document that tours the Kingdom of Zydeco aurally just as his book tours it verbally.’
Gary reviewed the two disc, CD/CD-ROM (remember those!?) compilation Allons en Louisiane. ‘This collection of 15 tracks from various Rounder projects plus a CD-ROM — the title of which translates “Let’s go to Louisiana” — works excellently as an overview of some of the best music by some of the most relevant musicians in the two traditions; and as a primer on French Louisiana culture, history, folklore and music. Each disc succeeds on its own, and the two complement each other as a package.’
Judith also got her klezmer on with Yiddish For Travelers from Metropolitan Klezmer (plus a promo disc from their sister band The Isle of Klezbos). ‘What an ethnic party headbanger! There is not a track on Yiddish For Travelers that drags; the slower tracks move a long like a diesel ferry through the dark waters of night. MK, with its often perky brass and drums and more subtle clarinet, violin, and accordion, visits a number of locales. Most are similarly rich, eastern, and captured with energy and soul, but a few break the mold.’
She also reviewed two klezmer-adjacent recordings, the more traditional The Zmiros Project and the contemporary Still Soft Voiced Heart. ‘It’s so hard to tell the boundaries of folk and other types of music, and for many people, so useless. But between these two albums there is a real boundary. Interested in Jewish culture and soul? Interested in how words can be fit onto tunes that convey the same idea? Interested in how traditional music can be fused? Then both albums will be of great interest.’
Our What Not comes courtesy of Denise…
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”
I remember hearing about the Jabberwock in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. He sounded spooky and dangerous. Something I would never want to meet in person. Granted, I first heard of him when I was a little kid, so there’s that. Folkmanis made a puppet to honor the scary beast, though I have to say that this puppet is spooky and dangerous in all the best ways.
I rather like ‘Brown-Eyed Women’ quite a bit but my favorite version isn’t the one with Garcia singing that the Dead did, but rather is one someone here found some years back. The late Robert Hunter who wrote much of what they played including this song and my favourite version is done by him during a show at Biddy Mulligan’s in Chicago on the tenth of October over thirty years ago. So let’s now listen to him doing that song.
Diverse Voices is our catch-all for writers and other staffers who did but a few reviews or other writings for us. They are credited at the beginning of the actual writing if we know who they are which we don't always.
It also includes material by writers that first appeared in the Sleeping Hedgehog, our in-house newsletter for staff and readers here. Some material is drawn from Folk Tales, Mostly Folk and Roots & Branches, three other publications we've done.
More Posts
What’s New for July 21st: All music — books on The Pogues, Sandy Denny, Lowell George, Zappa, and more; Cajun mardi gras on film; and Cajun, zydeco, and klemer related music
Sorry ’bout the delay in getting your Queen’s Lament IPA to you, it’s been a very busy day as we’ve got a hand fastening on the Greensward and the brides changed their minds this morning on what libations they wanted for the reception afterwards. And I’m down two workers as Gus needed them for desperately needed work in Macgregor’s Kitchen Garden which is much larger than the quaint name it has would suggest. And yes there was a Head Gardener here by that name.
The weather’s been sunny and quite hot so almost everyone here is finding an excuse to be outside. The Kitchen staff has been out on the back terrace that borders on the Kitchen (which is actually in the basement level right below our Pub which is in the first level of basement) setting up the reception. I should tell you that Kitchen and Pub have full banks of triple glazed leaded glass windows so they’re cheerfully bright spaces when the sun reaches this side of Kinrowan Hall.
So I wonder what we’ve for you this edition..
It’s all music reviews this time, be it bands like the Pogues or solo artists like the much missed Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention fame. So grab a couple of your favorite libation be it a coffee or something stronger and sit in for some great reading now.
Cat really likes The Pogues: The Lost Decades: ‘Ann Scanlon has captured the Pogues from their very first days in early ’82 ’til a decade later when they released their only commercially successful album If I Should Fall From Grace With God, an album that really did sound like it was produced instead of being simply tossed togather. Ann’s clearly at ease with the band. And it’s clear she had the full cooperation of the band, their friends, and assorted never do well hanger-ons. This is a fuckin’ brillant work of ethnograpghy that catches the evolution of a band as no other book I’ve read has done.’
Chris’ review of Clinton Heylin’s No More Sad Refrains: The Life and Times of Sandy Denny starts off with this rather unusual introduction: ‘In some ways it’s apposite that a book written about an artist as emotionally charged and mercurial as Sandy Denny should itself have had a difficult and rocky genesis. Some people, myself included, were expecting an biography of Sandy written by Pam Winters to be issued by Helter Skelter last year. It’s not my place as a reviewer to pass judgment on the disagreements which caused that project to flounder, and led to Clinton Heylin writing this book. Nevertheless, I include these comments to clarify the situation for those readers who do not know the background, why a biography did not appear last year, and why the author of this book, Clinton Heylin, is perhaps not the same author that they may have expected. It also helps explain the rather unusual comments in Clinton Heylin’s acknowledgments. Maybe one day that full story will unfold, but I shall keep my thoughts and comments on the book in hand.’
Chuck found Garóid Óh Allmhuráin’s Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music rather good: ‘Here’s a neat little book. Gearóid Ó h Allmhuráin manages to compress a history of Irish music into just over 150 pages and does it clearly and cleanly. I have an aficionado’s knowledge, not a expert’s, of Irish music, so I can’t say for certain if absolutely everyone who should be included was. But the major figures – Turlough O’Carolan, Rory Dall, Francis O’Neill, Michael Coleman, and even Riverdance – all get suitable notice. Furthermore, Ó h Allmhuráin does an excellent job of describing the origins of the various aspects of the Irish tradition, as well as, placing the more recent performers within that tradition.’
Ever listen to Little Feat? Here’s the first biography of the singer Lowell George and David has the story: ‘Mark Brend’s Rock and Roll Doctor provides us with the essential material. The story of a life. Taken together with his recordings this is the closest any of us will come to a look at who Lowell George was. But perhaps his widow, Elizabeth George, said it best, “There was nothing regular about the guy.”’
David found a good one here: ‘There have been many books written about Frank Zappa. Perhaps the most disappointing, and yet most enlightening, was his own The Real Frank Zappa Book. A bizarre but strangely readable book was Ben Watson’s Frank Zappa’s Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. Dangerous Kitchen: the Subversive World of Frank Zappa falls somewhere in between. Kevin Courrier is a journalist and film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is his second book, and it is a labor of love.’
Kate has a choice rock ‘n’ roll biography for us: ‘ Scott Allen Nollen has proven his devotion as a Tull fan in the countless miles travelled and the hours passed collecting details and interviewing band members and other associates. He has included nostalgic pictures of the band, some of which were borrowed from Ian Anderson, the often frenzied flautist who, despite some controversy, became the Fagin-like front man for the band. After ten long years of research, here in Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001 is a comprehensive and entertaining story of the much misunderstood Jethro Tull. The authenticity is underlined by the thoughtful and honest foreword written by Ian Anderson himself.’
Mike Scott’s Adventures of a Waterboy was a lot better than Gary expected: ‘The moment I opened this book about Mike Scott and started reading it was when I first realized that it was a memoir. And if you’ve read many musicians’ autobiographies, you’ll know why my heart sank. “Oh, great, another slog through a couple hundred pages of mediocre writing at best.” It didn’t take long for Mr. Scott to dispel that notion. And when I reached the end of Chapter 1, I said out loud, “This guy can really write!” Not just songs, but prose, too.”’
Gary looks at a very personal biography, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon: ‘Warren Zevon died in 2003, within a week of Johnny Cash. While he was nowhere near the cultural icon that Cash was, Zevon was one of the most important voices in popular music in the second half of the 20th century. That much was clear to me before, but it was brought home to me by this biography compiled by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon.’
Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span always seem to evoke sunmet for me, so it’s fitting that Lars has a review of Brian Hinton and Geoff Wall’s biography of Ashley Hutchings: The Guv’nor & the Rise of Folk Rock as he helped birth both of those groups: ‘To some of us the subject of this book is, if not God, at least the musical equivalent to the pope. Name a group you like and have followed over the years, and there is a fair chance that Mr. Hutchings was there to start it, or at least influence the starting of it. He is in one way or another responsible for a very large number of the records in my collection, and yes, we are certainly talking three figures, here.’
During the early Victorian Era, the Head Gardener at the time, Jacob Niles, persuaded the Steward, Allison MacPhee, to invest in a conservatory. According to the Journals kept by him and the Steward, the deciding factor was that it could be used for growing fruit in the long winter, including oranges and bananas. It wasn’t cheap and was costly to heat as it needed lots of seasoned wood to make it warm.
Fortunately, triple glazed glass was used (at no small expense), and that helped. Certainly the fresh tropical fruit was a hit during our long Scottish winter. We still use it for that purpose but now we use solar power to heat it more efficiently than the original builders could possibly have imagined.
So what does that have to do with strawberry ice cream? Well, that was my idea. You see, we exist on The Border with the Faerielands. Several decades back, I made friends with the Head Gardener for the Red Dragon House, who had no luck growing their version of strawberries — the ones that start red and turn white when fully ripe — when it turned cold there. So he asked me to see if I could make them flourish.
It took several years before I figured that it needed a symbiotic bacterium that didn’t like being cold ever, so I started growing them for the Red Dragon House with the proviso that we could also use them. Would you believe that took a contract signed by all parties? Elves are big on formality! Three pages of contract to be precise. And that’s how we came to have strawberry ice cream in the winter. The whole milk comes from High Meadow Farm, the ever so costly vanilla from Madagascar, and it’s sweetened, just a bit, with honey from our hives. It’s quite delicious!
It is just weird eating strawberry ice cream that is all-white. Really, really weird.
Robert had mixed feelings about a comics compilation that reintroduces us to Green Arrow. ‘Brian K. Vaughan starts his introduction to this compilation by noting that, although a few years ago comic fans gave a series five or six issues to prove itself, these days you’ve got to get everything established and your hook set pretty fast. I think this may be the cause of some of the reservations I have about Green Arrow: Year One.’
Richard also had some reservations about another in DC’s Year One series. ‘The best thing that can be said for Nightwing: Year One is that it fills in a gap. What it doesn’t do, though, is really get into the meat of what might happen to someone whom the Batman threw out. The end is never in doubt, and the journey to get there feels like it’s by means of the shortest route possible.’
Searching the Archives for some hot music to reflect recent weather trends, we dredged up some reviews of Cajun, Zydeco, and klezmer related music.
Brendan was pleasantly surprised at the music on KlezRoym’s Sceni. ‘KlezRoym is a band out of Italy who combine the fervor and stylings of klezmer with the improvisation of Roma jazz and the feel of Mediterranean music. Sure, all klezmer, being the hybrid genre that it is, has a little Roma, a little jazz, and maybe a little Mediterranean harmony. But KlezRoym, a seven-person unit consisting of Gabriele Coen, Andrea Pandolfo, Pasquale Laino, Riccardo Manzi, Marco Camboni, Leonardo Cesari, and Eva Coen, add their own mixture of moxy, imagination, and excellent improvisational skills to the music.’
He also reviewed one by the Klezmer Conservatory Band. ‘Anyone with even a modicum of interest in klezmer music will find much to enjoy on Dance Me To The End of Love. With this release, the Klezmer Conservatory Band proves itself to sit among the current favorites such as the Klezmatics as well as among the “greats” like the Klezmorim.’
He greatly enjoyed Selim Sesler’s The Road to Keşan: Turkish Rom and Regional Music of Thrace. ‘The music of The Road to Keşan focuses on the music of celebrations, mostly wedding melodies in fact. This is exuberant, heady music that was made for dancing — and very enjoyable to listen to. Among the 9/8 and 7/4 rhythms, Sesler gives his group plenty of time for solos and interesting arrangements. His clarinet has an almost sorrowful tone to it, that is nicely contrasted with the otherworldly tones of the kanun played by his son, Bulent.’
And he was intrigued by the Sicilian music on Taberna Mylaensis’ L’anima du munnu. ‘Each of the songs here are based on traditional themes and instrumentation, yet Taberna Mylaensis has added a spark of theatricality and modernity (not to mention excellent production values) to them, giving each track a feeling of being a complete piece of art of its own. Much like the mosaic-like cover art, the result is a CD of masterful pieces that together create a beautiful composition.’
Shifting gears and regions, Brendan took a tour of The Kingdom of Zydeco, a companion album to a book of the same name by Michael Tisserand. ‘Although Tisserand could have opted for a collection of more famous zydeco hits, including many more by Buckwheat Zydeco or Clifton Chenier, he concentrated instead on creating a multifaceted document that tours the Kingdom of Zydeco aurally just as his book tours it verbally.’
Gary reviewed the two disc, CD/CD-ROM (remember those!?) compilation Allons en Louisiane. ‘This collection of 15 tracks from various Rounder projects plus a CD-ROM — the title of which translates “Let’s go to Louisiana” — works excellently as an overview of some of the best music by some of the most relevant musicians in the two traditions; and as a primer on French Louisiana culture, history, folklore and music. Each disc succeeds on its own, and the two complement each other as a package.’
Judith also got her klezmer on with Yiddish For Travelers from Metropolitan Klezmer (plus a promo disc from their sister band The Isle of Klezbos). ‘What an ethnic party headbanger! There is not a track on Yiddish For Travelers that drags; the slower tracks move a long like a diesel ferry through the dark waters of night. MK, with its often perky brass and drums and more subtle clarinet, violin, and accordion, visits a number of locales. Most are similarly rich, eastern, and captured with energy and soul, but a few break the mold.’
She also reviewed two klezmer-adjacent recordings, the more traditional The Zmiros Project and the contemporary Still Soft Voiced Heart. ‘It’s so hard to tell the boundaries of folk and other types of music, and for many people, so useless. But between these two albums there is a real boundary. Interested in Jewish culture and soul? Interested in how words can be fit onto tunes that convey the same idea? Interested in how traditional music can be fused? Then both albums will be of great interest.’
Our What Not comes courtesy of Denise…
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”
I remember hearing about the Jabberwock in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. He sounded spooky and dangerous. Something I would never want to meet in person. Granted, I first heard of him when I was a little kid, so there’s that. Folkmanis made a puppet to honor the scary beast, though I have to say that this puppet is spooky and dangerous in all the best ways.
I rather like ‘Brown-Eyed Women’ quite a bit but my favorite version isn’t the one with Garcia singing that the Dead did, but rather is one someone here found some years back. The late Robert Hunter who wrote much of what they played including this song and my favourite version is done by him during a show at Biddy Mulligan’s in Chicago on the tenth of October over thirty years ago. So let’s now listen to him doing that song.
Diverse Voices
Diverse Voices is our catch-all for writers and other staffers who did but a few reviews or other writings for us. They are credited at the beginning of the actual writing if we know who they are which we don't always. It also includes material by writers that first appeared in the Sleeping Hedgehog, our in-house newsletter for staff and readers here. Some material is drawn from Folk Tales, Mostly Folk and Roots & Branches, three other publications we've done.
More Posts
About Diverse Voices
Diverse Voices is our catch-all for writers and other staffers who did but a few reviews or other writings for us. They are credited at the beginning of the actual writing if we know who they are which we don't always. It also includes material by writers that first appeared in the Sleeping Hedgehog, our in-house newsletter for staff and readers here. Some material is drawn from Folk Tales, Mostly Folk and Roots & Branches, three other publications we've done.