Under the Earth I go,
On the oak leaf I stand.
I ride on the filly
That was never foaled,
And I carry the dead in my handScots trad
If Reynard didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Or so I said while enjoying a rather spectacular Two Ravens Stout. He went to say that ‘He’s a singular force, and we’ve lucky to have him. He showed up here about a decade after I did with a travelling bag and pulled a concertina from that bag and started playing. Bloody good he was.
What endeared him was not his music but that he noticed we were decidedly short-handed behind the bar and said he had more than a bit of experience tending bar. So the staff there said ‘Sure, come help us.’ He worked ten hours from early evening to the wee hours. Smiling, not looking harried and pleasant as well. Made sure everyone was treated right too, a neat ability as we were slammed by having a wedding that afternoon.
Our Pub Manager was from the Border area that Reynard was from and they had friends in common, so she hired him on the spot: he’s worked his way up over the past twenty so years to Pub Manager. Now in his Fifties, he’s been married to Ingrid, our Estonian born Estate Steward for a decade now.
Cat, our Editor in Chief, found a lot to like in Seanan McGuire’s Indexing books: ‘I’m re-listening right now to one of those things that Seanan McGuire does so ever well: she takes a familiar story and make it fresh. … I first read it as novels when they came out some six years ago and then listened to it a few years later. Now being home confined due to three knee surgeries, I’m doing a lot of audiobooks and this was a series I wanted to revisit while working on other things.’
Cat also looked at the urban legend (retold yet again) of a ghost girl asking for a ride home on the anniversary of her death: ‘Seanan McGuire decided to tell her own ghost story in Sparrow Hill Road which, like her novel Indexing, was originally a series of short stories published through The Edge of Propinquity, starting in January of 2010 and ending in December of that year. It appears they’ve been somewhat revised for this telling of her ghostly narrator’s tale but I can’t say how much as I’ve not read the original versions.’
Gary greatly enjoyed Alison Bechdel’s latest comic novel Spent, in which a fictionalized Bechdel lives on a goat rescue farm financed by the proceeds of a streaming TV show based on her debut graphic memoir. ‘Lots of little plot strands keep you turning the pages. But mostly it’s Bechdel’s wry but humane observations about humans and human nature that keep you with her. This version of Alison Bechdel really does live in a Fun House.’
A version of the Tam Lin story is reviewed by Richard as he looks at a Pamela Dean novel: ‘An early part of Terri Windling’s Fairy Tale series, Tam Lin is by far the most ambitious project on the line. The story of Tam Lin is one of the better known ones to escape folklore for the fringes of the mainstream; you’ll find references scuttling about everywhere from old Fairport Convention discs to Christopher Stasheff novels.
There’s danger inherent in mucking about with a story that a great many people know and love in its original form; a single misstep and the hard-core devotees of the classic start howling for blood. Moreover, Dean is not content simply to take the ballad of Tam Lin and transplant it bodily into another setting.’
Gary here. In new music, let’s look at a new release from the Norwegian jazz and improvised music label Hubro. ‘Two of the leading players of alternative pedal steel from Norway and the UK, Geir Sundstøl and Joe Harvey-Whyte, have teamed up to create Langeleik, which flows in a mood-shifting sonic groove largely inspired by Joe Harvey-Whyte’s favorite rivers but also incorporating noirish urban landscapes, field recordings, spoken word and vintage synths.’
I also reviewed a new release of old time music from Olympia, Washington’s Alex Sturbaum, a multi-instrumentalist who is playing button accordion on this album, Windjammer. ‘It all has the down-home feeling of a front porch jam session or a Pacific Northwest contra dance night. Which sometimes is just what you need to hear.’
From the Archives, here’s a review I did for Sleeping Hedgehog. ‘Hook & Anchor is a Portland roots music supergroup of sorts. Claborn, who plays banjo and guitar, is a member of Portland alt-folkers Blind Pilot, Clampitt (electric guitar and pedal steel) has played under a number of nameplates including Clampitt, Power of County and Gaddis & Buck.’
Since I reviewed the new Eric Brace/Thomm Jutz album last time, I dug way back into the archives for a review of Brace’s band Last Train Home’s first record following their move to Nashville. ‘Last Train Home has taken ll major steps forward with its eighth release Last Good Kiss. Not least among the positive changes are a relocation from Washington, D.C., to Nashville, and some lineup adjustments. And for the first time, all the tracks on this release were written by band members.’
If I had a nickel for every singer who’s moved to Austin (or Nashville), made a record or two, then quietly faded away, I’d probably have more money than any of those folks made from their music, unfortunately. One of those who I had high hopes for was Seattle’s Zoe Muth, when I reviewed what seems to have been her last album, World of Strangers.
And finally, Brendan gave an enthusiastic review to the debut self-titled disc from the Tex-Mex super group Los Super Seven. ‘With its regimen of Mexican songs, Los Super Seven evokes the respect and continuation of a certain musical tradition; with its inclusion of Anglo-Americans — both as musicians and as songwriters — it demonstrates a healthy fascination of artistic influence and cross-pollination.’
All songs are stories and Steve Goodman’s ‘City of New Orleans’ is certainly one of the better told ones. As recorded by Arlo Guthrie at a Stanhope, NJ performance on the eighth of August, twenty nine years ago, it tells the melancholy story of a train as it’s headed to New Orleans one night. Arlo, son of Woody as you most likely know, is in particularly fine voice here.
