Fantasies of violence,
Breaking bottles on the wall.
Hungry for the motion, for the action,
For it all.
Cats Laughing
There is no book section this time, well not really, but rather a selection of the reviews but a look at some of the essays that Deborah Grabien.English folk rock is always a favourite of mine so it’s no surprise that Deborah Grabien‘s Haunted Ballads series is one I really like but many of you might not know that she is also an amazing music critic essayist. The writings by her that I’ve selected are but a few of the ones she has done for us here but they are reasonable sampling of what she’s done here.
Let’s start off with her ‘Trad Boys, Trad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do…? in whigh the Liege & Lief remembered essay is perhaps the finest piece done on what was the first true English folk rock album. We then can segue into her look at The Strangelings’ Season of The Witch which has a cover of ‘Matty Groves’ (which I suspect you know is on Liege & Lief) and allows her the opportunity to riff on what a sitar does to the song.
We can now jump over to her ‘Dear Richard, Please Will You Play…? Three shows, three settings, one happy woman’ which nicely keeps the Leif & Leige connection intact. I know there are more fanatical Richard Thompson fans but few if any write as well on the experience of attending his concerts as Deborah does in this essay.
Three related pieces over here finish off my look at her folk rock writings. Maddy Prior, the lead vocalist of folk rockers Steeleye Span, warranted two wonderful pieces by Deborah, …And She Dances which considers Maddy herself and a wonderful interview with her called Comfort and the Unexpected: In Conversation with Maddy Prior as well.
Her look at Steeleye Span’s Back in Line and Lark in the Morning fishes off these picks as it allows her to touch upon what works and doesn’t work for her as regards this recording.
Gary here with music. Leading off with some new Americana, I reviewed Sad Daddy’s Ozark Shine (as in moonshine). ‘Sad Daddy is a road-weathered acoustic Americana outfit that’s been making music together for more than a decade and a half now. The worn-in feeling of their fourth studio album Ozark Shine is a testament to their ongoing spirit of collaboration and sense of fun. Their blend of old time country and spirited jug band makes Sad Daddy sound like the best back porch band you’ve ever heard.’
‘I’m getting a lot of enjoyment from this striking album from a somewhat unusual jazz ensemble,’ I note in my review of Elan Mehler’s Renee Said. ‘To the standard trio of piano, bass and drums, composer and pianist Elan Mehler has added a couple of saxophones and a guitarist, as well as a second drummer. Together they blur the lines between straight jazz, ambient, classical and avant garde forms.’
From the Archives, it’s the Dog Days of Summer, so canines seemed an appropriate theme. Cat is a longtime fan of the Scottish band Old Blind Dogs, and he reviewed their 2005 release Play Live. ‘The bottom line is that if you like the Dogs already, you’ll like this recording; if you don’t know the Dogs, it’s a reasonable place to get to know them.’
Dogs are a great metaphor for lots of things, and Frank Zappa used them a lot in his music, including Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – by Larry LaLonde of Primus which David reviewed. ‘”Camarillo Brillo,” “Evelyn, a Modified Dog,” “Wild Love,” “Dog Breath,” and many more titles are selected here by LaLonde, and they do provide a snapshot of what Zappa accomplished. No one CD can ever give you a balanced look at the mind and talents of Frank Zappa, but LaLonde has chosen tunes that give the listener a sense of the breadth and scope of Zappa’s work.’
The Handsome Family has incorporated dogs into their work since the beginning, from the mini poodle on the cover of their first album Odessa and the song “3 Legged Dog” on their second, Milk and Scissors. More recently, there’s at least one reference on their last album Hollow, which I wrote about. ‘I’ve reviewed my share of pandemic-inspired albums, but Hollow does as well as any of them at capturing the sense of dislocation, surrealism, and existential dread that we’ve all stared in the face for the past three-plus years. … It opens with a nightmare and a scream, and closes with the Sparkses waving goodbye like rats deserting a sinking ship.’
Our musical offering is ‘For It All ‘ which is from the Another Way To Travel album by Cats Laughing, used here courtesy of Will Shetterly. We’ve reviewed both of their albums here, of which the Another Way To Travel album is by far the best. Years later after the band was no longer, they came together again and released a CD and DVD, A Long Time Gone: Reunion at MiniCon. The concert’s fun, the rest of the material here is great.
