What’s New for the 29th of March: Beer and spirits, in song and text, some new Scandinavian fiddle music and jazz flute music, and more

There were two things Janey Little loved best in the world: music and books, and not necessarily in that order.

Her favorite musician was the late Billy Pigg, the Northumbrian piper from the northeast of England whose playing had inspired her to take up the small pipes herself as her principal instrument. — Charles de Lint‘s The Little Country

Greetings on this fine post-Equinox day. I’m Gary, the music editor, sitting in. They installed me and my ink-stained fingers here in the unusually quiet Pub while most everyone else on the Estate is out doing useful and needful things involving dirt and stones and various hand tools and such. So naturally, my thoughts turned to the subject of Drink and the many pieces of music and literature on that topic that we’ve covered down the years. I’m not saying I sampled any of the ample wares by which I’m surrounded, but you  may notice that things get a bit confused, with music stealing over into books and vice versa … but well, Art is an expression of the Divine and Eternal, and all categories are but human constructs, right?

A couple of my favorite things are history and alcohol, so you just know I’d enjoy books that combine the two. Here are a couple that I’ve covered:

How would you like to be able to buy a glass of gin from a vending machine on a public street? You could in 18th century London, according to Jessica Warner in her book Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason. It wasn’t a good idea. ‘Warner makes a persuasive case in Craze that the so-called gin craze in London in the early 18th century was the first modern drug crisis. And that the lessons from that period are relevant today.’

I was fascinated by Susan Cheever’s Drinking in America, a social and political history. ‘Cheever traces the pendulum swings of America’s relationship with alcohol, from nearly universal besottedness by the 1830s, through a gradual drying out through the remainder of the 19th century leading up to Prohibition, then another upswing during the Roaring ’20s to a peak in the 1950s and ’60s, then moving in ever-quicker swings to the present day.’

I enjoyed researching and writing this review of Block 15 Brewing Company’s The London Chronicle. ‘This one-off seasonal ale from my favorite local brewery is billed as ‘the perfect dark beer for a warm spring afternoon,’ and I can attest that it is so.’

One of my favorite beer reviews we’ve published was Kelly Caspari’s write-up of Russian River Brewery’s Pliny the Elder. Considering I generally dislike the hoppy bitterness of IPA’s, I’m astonished I enjoyed Pliny the Elder. I shouldn’t be, as the only other hoppy beer I’ve actually liked was another Russian River Brewery IPA, Blind Pig, which displays the same grapefruity character.’

Our much missed Vonnie Carts-Powell attended and reported on a lecture she attended, The Bacchanalian Tradition in British Isles Songs, 1600-1900, by David Ingle of the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston. ‘It’s hard to go wrong when you’re talking about (and singing) drinking songs to a group of amiable and lubricated folkies in a warm room on a cold, rainy night.’

‘This album is like sitting on the perimeter of an after hours fiddle jam at a Scandinavian folk festival,’ I say in my review of Hans Kjorstad’s Dålågjel. That’s a good thing, mind you. ‘Five fiddlers sawing away at hoary old Norwegian dance tunes, each of them occasionally swapping out the fiddle for some kind of percussion, a lute or a lyre, a mouth harp or portable pump organ. A couple of times they even break into song, an old Norse hymn about how good it is to love Jesus.’

‘Some of my favorite jazz music is made by jazz flutists. Or flautists,’ I note in my next review. ‘That’s one of the reasons I’m so happy to have this new one Moder (“mother”) from Norwegian flautist Henriette Eilertsen’s Trio. The other reason is, it’s just great music!’

From the Archives, Chris did a dual review of an album and a book by British singer songwriter David Hughes. First up is the album, Fifty Yards Of David Hughes. ‘This isn’t an album that sounds like dozens of other albums, nor does every track sound like the previous one, nor does it ooze personal angst and sentimentality. The songs are not short on emotion but the overwhelming mood is one of slightly satirical wry humour and wit. The songs are honest, amusing and understanding comments on life’s pleasures, failures and compromises, the sort we all have to make and can relate to.

And then there’s a related book (with its own accompanying CD!) by Hughes. ‘The Fairport Tour is a book made up of David Hughes diary entries during the spring of ’98 when he was touring in the UK as the support act with Fairport Convention. Originally the diary was published ‘in real time’ day by day on the internet and the book collects all the entries together and adds a live CD.’

Lars wrote about a couple of albums of Irish drinking songs, one by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and the other featuring varioius artists: Irish Drinking Songs, and Whiskey in the Jar: Essential Irish Drinking Songs & Sing Alongs. ‘Irish Drinking Songs steers away from the obvious choices. There is no “Wild Rover” nor “Whiskey in the Jar” there, but you get 14 other great songs, some quite well known, like “Finnigan’s Wake,” “A Jug of Punch” and “The Parting Glass.” ‘

Our choice this is Northumbrian piper and fiddler Kathryn Tickell performing   ‘The Pipes Lament’, a tune written by her,  which was recorded at the Shoreditch Church, London on the 15th of June 2010, should do nicely.

Tickell, by the way, connects indirectly to The Little Country novel as smallpiper Janey Little as noted from the excerpt from the novel lists Northumbrian Billy Pigg as one of her inspirations  to become a musician, something that Tickell also claims.