What’s New for the 23rd of February: ’De Herinacio: On the hedgehog’, Don’t Talk About It by Australian expat Ruby Boot, live Irish Music from De Dannan & Skara Brae, Hobos, Mary-Sues, Live from Here replaces Prairie Home Companion and other matters

Posted on 22nd February 2020 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

Most times we only see things for the way we are. But we’re good at lying to ourselves. Sometimes we need somebody who’s not living in our skin to point out how things really are.  ― Charles de Lint’s The Mystery of GraceP

What am I listening to? Well it’s a choce live performance of ‘‘Jenny Rocking The Cradle’ by De Dannan at the Canal Street Tavern in Dayton, Ohio nearly thirty years ago. This is before the band split into two, each faction not speaking to the other, with only a different spelling of the name as a way of telling them apart. As of five years ago, both bands were still active, and both are very much worth hearing live if they perform in your area.

There’s a not-at-all-gentle wind driven freezing rain battering itself against Kinrowan Hall on this rather dark afternoon. Needless to say there’s lots of Estate staff here in the Library — some reading, some holding conversations, some even napping as we we don’t have the usual Library rules here but everyone’s respectful of not being too loud. Even Ysbaddaden and his feline kin  aren’t raising their voices here as they’re all curled up near one of the patrons.

So let’s see what our staffers have for reviews for you this Edition; the Coda this time will be of a Celtic Music nature as well as you’ll see see when you get to it…

P

Craig brings us a look at an anthology on an American icon, Cliff  ‘Oats’  Williams’ One More Train to Ride: ‘What does the average reader really know about the culture of the American hobo? Mostly they keep themselves out of sight due to the misdemeanor status of actions necessary to their survival (e.g., riding on freight trains). Still, there are hundreds of transients constantly traveling, making their way back and forth across the country — riding trains, working where they can, taking handouts, and just enjoying the freedom from society’s strictures.’

Denise takes us into uncharted territory (uncharted for GMR, at least) with a review of three romance/fantasy novels. Alas, the prospects don’t look good: ‘Mary Sue (n.) : (1) A type of story where characterization, plot and theme is supplanted by the author’s quest for his or her own wish fulfillment. (2) any character that is a thinly disguised idealized version of the author when the story suffers from such usage. The term is almost always derogatory.’

Robert was fairly enthusiastic about three chapbooks from small presses, to wit: Jack Vance’s The Kragen; Thomas M. Disch’s The Voyage of the Proteus: A Eyewitness Account of the End of the World; and Cat Rambo and Jeff VanderMeer’s The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories: ‘You may recall that we here at GMR are extraordinarily fond of the small presses that publish so many of the things we discuss. We are fond of them because they bring us all-but-forgotten classics, exciting new works from important writers, and challenging new voices, all in attractive new editions — as witness the group of chapbooks that I have on my desk right now, representing successive “waves” in the history of speculative fiction.’

Robert brings us a look back at early — well, fairly early — Charles de Lint, with reviews of two of his novels set in and around Tamson House. First is Moonheart: ‘Moonheart may very well be the first novel by Charles de Lint that I ever read. I can’t really say for sure — it’s been awhile. It certainly is one that I reread periodically, a fixture on my “reread often” list. It contains, in an early form, all the magic that keeps us coming back to de Lint.’

And next is Spiritwalk: ‘Spiritwalk is a loose sequel to Moonheart, a series of related tales, again centering around Tamson House and including many of the same characters. In fact, the House is even more important as a Place in this group of stories.’

P

And now, something that has never happened before here at GMR, as far as we can determine: two reviews of the same work, namely, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. First, a very thorough, in-depth review from Rebecca, written back in the day: ‘The hype began months ago. The first I knew of it was the full-page ads in my monthly comics. Then I caught the teaser on Apple’s site. The concept caught me immediately: a movie in which everything but the actors themselves was created by computer. The more I found out, the more intrigued I became. Most of my friends were fascinated, too. We all agreed that, visually, this would be a terrific movie if things had been done even half-right.’

Next, from Robert, a more impressionistic review from someone who happened on the film by chance. Once again, Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: ‘I’m not sure when or where I first ran across Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but it has become one of my favorite “something to watch when I’m just up for some light entertainment” movies. (This is not a bad thing, and is no reflection on the quality of the film, as you’ll see below.)’

P

As Valentine’s Day approaches, Denise leapt at the chance to review some candy and beverages for this issue.  She dug into Lovely’s Salted Cashew Chocolate Caramels, Starbucks’ Cherry Mocha, Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company’s No 3 – Dark Strawberry Champagne Truffle Bar, and Contadino’s Pinot Grigio Vivace.

Some were hits – she says of the Vivace, ‘Not too shabby for a fiver! Seek this out.’ But there were some misses as well; of the No3 bar, she says ‘The strawberry may not be overkill, but the total amount of sweetness is. Instead of being happy, I feel over-sugared.’ If you’re trying to figure out what do add to your holiday table, check our these reviews!

2C543E11-A245-4D39-B1E1-8507614B4A2A

Cat looks at Live from Here, the show formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Chris Thile: ‘Having sort of followed A Prairie Home Companion and the dreadful and frankly disgusting behaviour of Garrison Keillor, the very long time host and creator of APHC  before Chris Thile, Americana musician par excellence, took over. I listened to him in the early months of his hosting but it didn’t impress me as it felt too much that Kellior was haunting it from offstage.’ Now go read his review to see why he’ll be listening to this show!

A new recording by a trio of superb musicians in the Americana tradition caught Gary’s ear. He says of the album See You Around, by the group calling themselves I’m With Her, ‘I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb here to predict it will be one of the top Americana albums of the year.’

Gary got some kicks out of an album called Don’t Talk About It by Australian expat Ruby Boots. ‘This is hard-rocking country, rooted in tradition but not afraid to sound modern.’

Author and musician Willy Vlautin has a new book out this month, and Gary reviews Don’t Skip Out On Me … not the book, but the soundtrack album he wrote for it. ‘Fans of Richmond Fontaine and of Willy Vlautin have a real treat in store with this book and its accompanying soundtrack,’ he says.

Huw finishes us off with some Classical music. Not bein’ a fan of anythin’ more classic than my old pair of Wayfarers I know absolutely zero about this music, but Huw knows his stuff. He wuzn’t in the best mood when he popped this rendition of Handel’s Water Music / Royal Fireworks Music by Pierre Boulez and the New York Philharmonic in ‘…but, grouchy as I was when I put the disc into my CD player, I have to admit that I pretty soon found myself in a much more cheerful mood. There’s no getting away from the fact that, cliché or not, this is wonderful music. Foot-tapping melodies, indeed!’

P
We stumbled on this older post in the British Library’s Medieval manuscripts blog the other day. It’s the sort of combination of the ancient and the modern that we love: an animation inspired by one of the library’s Medieval bestiaries. Here is ’De Herinacio: On the hedgehog’.Do read the credits and visit the websites or Facebook pages of the blog and the animator!
P

Ysbaddaden and his brood are telling me that ’tis time for their eventide feeding, so I’ll take your leave now. Now where did the kitchen staff put that leftover smoked duck from last night? Ahhh, there it is! Let me feed them and I’ll see about some music to leave with you after their feeding, so one moment please…

I’m thinking that I mentioned here a few months back that I had been playing a concert recording by Skara Brae, The short-lived Irish trad group which the sorely missed Mícheál Ó’Domhnaill wa a member as he was of a number of bands including  Nightnoise, so I’ll finish off with a set of tunes, ‘Ar A Dhul Chun’ and ‘Chuain Dom’, from that performance. And I’ve no idea why they didn’t get a commercial release of this performance as both the music and the production are quite fine indeed.

Posted in Books, Commentary, Film, Food and Drink, Graphic Literature, Music, Stories, What Nots | Comments Off on What’s New for the 23rd of February: ’De Herinacio: On the hedgehog’, Don’t Talk About It by Australian expat Ruby Boot, live Irish Music from De Dannan & Skara Brae, Hobos, Mary-Sues, Live from Here replaces Prairie Home Companion and other matters

A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Mill Pond

Posted on 8th February 2020 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

P
About fifty years ago, the Steward authorised spending money to rebuild the dam that had for a very long time been used to create a reservoir for the mill, for grain grinding and so that there was a place to cut ice for use in keeping meat and other such perishables from spoiling. When we stopped milling our own grain and electricity made possible the use of commercial coolers and freezers, the dam went to ruin over several decades. All that changed when the Steward decided that it would far less costly in the long run if we were self-sufficient in electricity, so in the Seventies she started us on the way to being so, and now we use wind, solar and water to generate every kilowatt of the power we use.

We even added power to the yurts, the old crofter cottages, and the common bathing facilities that they share with those like like Gus and his wife, who live in one of those old crofter cottages. It means that they use electric power to heat their domicile and only use wood when they want a fire going. And all of our energy generation, even wood, has effectively a near zero carbon footprint in its effect on the environment.

That’s the boring part of this story. The fun part is that we’ve had our skating pond back for a couple of generations now. Not to mention ice for our curling and hockey games as well. It’s a big pond, some six acres all told. It freezes solid by the third week of December and stays safe most often ’til late March. It’s a half mile from Kinrowan Hall, so we built a club house there to get warm, change clothes, and even grab something to eat, as there’s a kitchen there.

Fifteen years ago, The Steward authorized a Zamboni to be purchased and a building to house it as well. That means we can clean up the ice when too many skates make it too rough for use anymore.

Now the pond gets heavy usage, such as midnight skating parties and championship curling tournaments that draw some hundred folk to the Estate in the winter. What the Steward would not allow is any permanent lighting there as he, and Tamsin, our Hedgewitch and Mistress of All Owls, said that’d interfere with the night creatures here. So we built a stone lined fireplace instead for bonfires, and only use it at night when the moon is strong.

But skating remains the most common use of this ice, as nearly everyone here skates and cross-country skis as well (the latter is another tale to tell later), as nothing beats skating across ice that’s three quarters of a mile from end to end and is several hundred feet wide. I’ve skated in many places in Europe and this is the best ice I’ve experienced.P

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Mill Pond

What’s New for the 26th of January: Music from the Chieftains and the Bothy Band, German chocolate redux, a guide to mysteries and much more

Posted on 26th January 2020 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

She looks like the wizened old crone in that painting Jilly did for Geordie when he got into this kick of learning fiddle tunes with the word ‘hag’ in the title: ‘the Hag in the Kiln,’ ‘Old Hag You Have Killed Me,’ ‘The Hag With the Money,’ and god knows how many more. Just like in the painting, she’s wizened and small and bent over and … dry. Like kindling, like the pages of an old book. Like she’s almost all used up. Hair thin, body thinner. but then you look into her eyes and they’re so alive it makes you feel a little dizzy. — Charles de Lint‘s ‘The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep’ story, which is collected in Dreams Underfoot.

P

Reynard pointed out one evening to me that Old Hag tunes were as common as musicians caching something to eat from the Kitchen staff early in the morning after a session that went deep into the midnight which is why the crew there always have a basket of bacon rolls and another basket of Swedish style cinnamon buns sit warm on one of the stoves as you never know when someone will want breakfast. Or least a quick snack.

I in turn pointed that pointed out that the Bothy Band, an Irish band of great distinction, that only lasted four years roughly forty years ago, did what I consider the best version ever — ‘Old Hag You Have Killed Me’ as performed by them at the Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival alnost forty years ago. He didn’t disagree and poured me a generous measure of poitín.

red holly

John Connolly and Declan Burke’s Burke’s Books To Die For is the answer for me to this question: ‘Now how do I, like other lovers of this genre, find series and/or solo novels when we don’t know about ones we haven’t read.’

An anthology gets a once-over by one of our Michaels: ‘In Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir, the gritty realism of noir embraces the nightmare imaginings of supernatural horror in order to offer up sixteen stories rich in style, shadows, and psychological complexity.’

red holly

Now that Winter is setting in in earnest, and thanks to the marvels of modern technology, what better way to weather the storms outside than by curling up with a good movie? Robert has a couple you might want to try — sort of a mini film series: First, from director Kenneth Branagh (with an assist from Joss Whedon), Thor: ‘I haven’t seen anything by Branagh since his Henry V, and strangely enough, I find the same themes threading their way through both, largely in the relationship between warriors and kings and how the first becomes the second. It’s really Thor’s coming of age story.’

And of course, you’ll want to follow up with the second installment, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World: ‘In spite of what you may have heard, sequels aren’t always bad. Indeed, sometimes they are better than the originals. Case in point: Alan Taylor’s take on the Thor franchise for Marvel, Thor: The Dark World.’

Red holly

As long as we’re in superhero mode (yes, we are), how about one of the innumerable Batman spin-offs that have made their appearance in recent years? This one is Batman Beyond, from Adam Beechen, Ryan Benjamin and John Stansici, in its first installment, Hush Beyond. Follow that up with Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution from the same team and — well, as Robert puts it: ‘OK — it’s fun, shades of the old-style, pre-Dark Knight Batman, even though Bruce Wayne is certainly about as dyspeptic as he can be. The only thing missing is the POW! and the WHAM!’

Red holly

Robert looked at three more chocolate squares from Ritter, the German chocolate company. (Dark Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts; Rum, Trauben, Nuss (Rum, Raisins, Nuts); And Dark Chocolate with Marzipan). His answer to why he has less satisfied this outing than when he reviewed the first three Ritter squares is detailed by him.

red holly

Brendan says in his review of the first four Chieftains recordings that ‘For an excellent assortment of really great Irish music, this set of CDs really cannot be beat. Each clocks in at about 40 minutes, which means that the Chieftains packed their LPs as much as possible, and which also means that there are many other gems on these CDs that I’ve left out in this review. ‘

Lars says he was surprised by Himmerland’s The Spider in the Fiddle even though he shouldn’t be. And that should be reason enough for you to read his review, don’t you think?

He also looked at two albums by the Gothard Sisters, Mountain Rose and Story Girl.  He notes in the latter review that ‘The other week I had the pleasure of reviewing the Gothard Sisters’ Christmas album and I wondered at the time what else they were capable of in their own comfort zone, and now I know. The three sisters, Greta, Willow and Solana, exhibit a talent way beyond their years. The music, the ambiance, and flair is very professional and brilliant to say the least.’

He finished off his reviewing with Niamh Boadle’s Maid on the Shore: ‘Niamh’s main focus is her vocals, but she is also an accomplished guitarist, a fine fiddler and she also performs on bodhran, whistle and mandolin on this album, though mostly to accompany her singing.’

Our Australian Michael notes that 4Play 76/79 came from a band which once had constant turnover: ‘A not uncommon response when Fairport Convention is mentioned is to think of a band with regular line-up changes. However, that was really only the case in the first couple of decades of their existence. The remaining two and a half decades have been quite consistent, with the current band being the longest lasting at 14 years. However, back in the late 1970s, for a Fairport line-up to last 3 years and even produce two albums with the same members was considered quite remarkable.’

Gary says Stick in the Wheel’s From Here is one of his favorite releases of 2015. Who is Stick in the Wheel? If you’re in the U.K. you’ve probably heard of them, but in the U.S., not so much. They’re “Cockney East London folk musicians with more than a whiff of the punk about them,” Gary says. “And by ‘punk’ I mean the DIY spirit and spit-in-your-eye attitude behind punk.” This full-length debut is full of raw renditions of English folk songs and a few originals on modern themes.

An Americana singer won his favour: ‘Singer, songwriter, banjo player and songster Kaia Kater‘s debut release Sorrow Bound is a fine program of Americana. It leans particularly toward old-time Appalachian-style music — not surprising given her talent and obvious love for claw-hammer-style playing. But this is no album for purists. Instead it’s a mostly successful attempt to bring old-time into the present day.’

Bottle, from Eliza Carthy and Tim Eriksen, really, really pleased him: ‘So here we are about 20 years later, and Eriksen and Carthy have recorded an album together. Something I’m told they’ve been wanting to do for about 20 years themselves. It’s a natural fit. Eriksen’s craggy, in-your-face mid-range voice blends delightfully with Carthy’s earthy alto, and his eclectic range of skills with stringed instruments complements her drop-dead, inimitable fiddling.’

red holly

Reynard’s asked me to include a cut he spotted on the Infinite Jukebox, our digital server of music and other media as well, of an extended tune set by the Chieftains of ‘Planxty McGuire/Charles O’Connor/Farewell to Music/Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór/Bumper Squire Jones/Planxty Johnston’ as performed in Bremen, Germany some thirty-six years ago.

Posted in Books, Commentary, Film, Food and Drink, Music | Comments Off on What’s New for the 26th of January: Music from the Chieftains and the Bothy Band, German chocolate redux, a guide to mysteries and much more

A Kinrowan Estate story: Skating and Other Pleasures

Posted on 12th January 2020 by Gus the Estate Head Gardener

P
One of the great pleasures of winter at this Scottish estate is ice skating and other ice-related activities. That’s all done on the Mill Pond, made possible by the restoration of the mill dam for generating low head hydro power some forty years ago. Before that, it was possible to skate there but the good ice was extremely limited. Now there are acres of skating available.

The Mill Pond runs nearly two miles from the dam to a series of falls. We stay a quarter mile away from the damn, as the ice isn’t safe near the it and we err on the side of extreme caution, as falling into open water in winter is death within minutes if we can’t get the person out of the water. I remember a news story where a worker on a coastal Estate was skating on tidal ice that was thought safe but he fell through it and died by drowning. That will not happen here.

It’s cold here in the winter, very cold at times, and even the most energetic skater needs a way to warm up. That’s why we built a very nice warming yurt. It’s got power, courtesy of solar panels, and heat from a Russian stove, essentially an entire wall of stone that retains heat very nicely. We built the it so that it has an outer circular opening, so the heat stays in it even when the outer door’s opened.

That also means we can make hot cocoa and other goodies even late into the night if need be. It’s certainly nice to sip hot cocoa with friends as you watch the Northern Lights overhead!

Not that we don’t build bonfires as well, and for that we built a stone pit with a three foot high bench wall for sitting on. It’s a safe way to enjoy a roaring fire. Yeah, we’re into being safe as well as enjoying ourselves.

Oh, and it’s a great place for both curling and ice hockey. Ice hockey in Scotland sounds odd until you known that Swedes, such as my wife, are avid hockey fans, so I and other Estate workers have been doing pickup games for decades. We’ve even hosted several tourneys of like-minded amateur teams over the years.

So if you visit us in the winter, bring your skates and be prepared for some great skating!

P

Posted in Stories | Comments Off on A Kinrowan Estate story: Skating and Other Pleasures

What’s New for the 29th of December: New Riders of The Purple Sage, Beatrix Potter’s gardens, German chocolate bars, Anime, Northumbrian music, Garner’s The Owl Service, Welsh mythology and quite a bit more!

Posted on 29th December 2019 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

That Blod-woman was pretty poor,” said Roger, “however you look at it.”

“No,” said Huw. “She was made for her lord. Nobody is asking her if she wants him. It is bitter twisting to be shut up with a person you are not liking very much. I think she was longing for the time when she was flowers on the mountain, and it is making her cruel, as the rose is growing thorns.” ― Alan Garner’s The Owl Service

PI’ve been reading The Owl Service these past few days as Gus, our Estate Head Gardener, pointed out to me on a recent afternoon as I took a walk outside on a particularly brisk day that many of the owls that winter over here have made their seasonal transition into the protected spaces we built generations back to harbour them when the Winter gets too cold for them to be outside.

I’ve always found our owls to be as fascinating as our corvids are though the owls are far more aloof than those birds are. And I’m certainly not the only one that does as I found a long note in The Sleeping Hedgehog from 1845 in which Alexandra Margaret Quinn, Head Gardener here for many, many years during the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, wrote for the Estate inhabitants about the need to be respectful of the hollow trees and other places they took residence for the Winter.hollyb_1Our first review is apt given my reading of that novel: Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture, which Robert notes, ‘edited by Audrey L. Becker and Kristin Noone, is, as one might expect, a scholarly anthology focusing on the influence and outright appropriation of Welsh mythology and legends in popular culture through the twentieth century.’ Read his review to see why he found it to have a glaring fault.

Marta McDowell’s Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life was a work much liked by Gus: ‘Like many serious gardeners, I collect books about gardens and those who created them. This one is a recent acquisition of mine that ranks among the best I’ve encountered! Subtitled ‘The plants and places that inspired the classic children’s tales’, it is just what it says it is: a look at the gardens (and botanical things) that inspired her children’s writings.’

I reviewed the audiobook edition of The Owl Service when it came out several years back: ‘Listening to The Owl Service as told by Wayne Forester, who handles both the narration and voicing of each character amazingly well, one is impressed by his ability to handle both Welsh accents and the Welsh language, given the difficultly of that tongue, which make Gaelic look easy as peas to pronounce by comparison.’

I’ve also been reading Thomas Godfrey’s English Country House Murders, a collection of short stories that’s just what it says it is. Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers are just two of the many, many stellar writers here.

Our next book review in this themed section was actually written for Folk Tales, one of the printed publications we did, oh, maybe a quarter of a century ago: Two Mabinogions, one translated by Jeffrey Gantz, the other by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones are examined by Jo; who notes that though the texts that got stitched together much later into The Mabinogion, dated supposedly to the twelfth century, ‘The true history of the tales is unknown, having been lost along with the tellers.’

Robert takes a look at another book that, in spite of the forbidding title, derives from Welsh sources: ‘The Arthur of the English: The Arthurian Legend and Medieval English Life and Literature is the second volume in a series of scholarly anthologies centered on the Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages. . . . As the series editor, W. R. J. Barron, points out in the Preface, the new series takes full advantage of the more expansive scholarship in the field and is thus able to focus on the cultural and historical as well as linguistic aspects of Arthurian literature in Europe.’

And a short jaunt across the Irish Sea, and we have Robert’s look at the great Irish epic in a translation by Ciaran Carson: ‘In his new translation, The Táin, Ciaran Carson notes specifically that he used the Old Irish texts edited and published by Cecile O’Rahilly . . . augmented by the 1969 translation by Thomas Kinsella, with the same title (in order, Carlson surmises, to make it sound less like a B-Western and to bring it into line with other epics). This was simply because there is no “final” version of the story, only assemblages of earlier or later provenance.’

The White Goddess by Robert Graves bears the subtitle of ‘The White Goddess — A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth’. As our Robert notes, ‘obert Graves was a well known poet, novelist, translator, mythographer, and, in some quarters at least, crackpot. I found his renderings of the Greek myths, informed by an awareness of their historical and anthropological context, to be illuminating, and his novels to be both entertaining and substantial.’ Read his review to see how this work stacks up.

hollyb_1A Japanese series finds favor with Robert: ‘Utawarerumono is the title of an anime series from Japanese TV that has made its way to North America on DVD, and it’s — well, it’s somewhere in the realm of historical romance cum science fiction future history. If you know what I mean. Hint: the title Utawarerumono translates as “He Whose Song Is Sung” — we are clearly dealing with a legend in the making.’red hollyDark chocolate bread pudding… Cocoa in huge mugs with homemade marshmallows… Chocolate chip cookies… We here at the Kinrowan Estate love chocolate in all its guises, so it’s not surprising that we review chocolate bars here with this review being by Robert of three Ritter bars: ‘The bars in this case are all square and all weigh in at 100g (3.5 oz.), and all seem somehow weightier than an equivalent size of American chocolate — I suspect because of the shape and size: they’re all about 3 inches on a side and are actually very nice to hold in the hand (if you can restrain yourself from ripping off the wrapper and stuffing your face).’

hollyb_1

Let’s start off our music section with not a review, but a remembrance. Barb has a look at a hundredth anniversary celebration of the birth of Charles Ives: ‘The most memorable concert of my life was one I had the pleasure to be involved with. Fortunately, my involvement was minimal so I had the opportunity to experience most of it from the audience’s point of view.’

In the same vein, we have some comments on the New Riders of the Purple Sage from Deborah in “Down for the Ride: 45 years of the New Riders of the Purple Sage“: ‘“Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest alt-country rock band in the universe…” It’s Halloween, 2015, and I’m perched on the back of the soft bench running along the wall of the Sweetwater Music Hall, in Mill Valley, California. Mark Topazio, affectionately known as Captain Toast and the band’s tour manager, is introducing the New Riders.’

Wintersongs was a great listen for April: ‘This beautiful follow-up to 1998’s eponymous Triakel celebrates not just Yuletide, but Advent, St. Stephen’s Day, New Years and Epiphany with a glorious blend of tunes and words old and new, both joyous and somber.’

Northumbrian piper and fiddler Kathryn Tickell contributed to Wintersmith, the Terry Pratchett novel Steeleye Span adapted into a recording. So let’s talk about her latest recording  which is with the classically trained Side group which Michael also reviewed: ‘On their debut album Kathryn Tickell & The Side create an exciting mix of folk and classical music, with some hints of more modern sounds. Most of the music is written by KT herself, and her training as a composer shows. She does not merely write tunes, she composes pieces, well-structured and exciting.’

Gary has a review of Ben E. King’s The Complete ATCO/Atlantic Singles, Vol. 1—1960-1966.  King, who died in 2015, had a lengthy career as an R&B crooner that was dominated by his first two big hits, “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand By Me.” But Gary says, “with 49 songs, most of which were mid-level hit singles in the early to mid-60s, this set is really a treasure trove of music that for the most part you just don’t hear any more.”

From the Isle of Man comes a trio called Barrule. Gary says their album Manannan’s Cloak, their second, is “a wonderfully lively collection of tunes and songs.” The trio takes its name from the island’s central peak, which is said to be the home of Manannán mac Lir, a Celtic sea god who watched over the islands by drawing his cloak around the mountain to hide the isle from intruders. You’ll find Gary’s review here.

Nolan Porterfield’s Jimmie Rodgers, The Life and Times of America’s Blue Yodeler has a title that might surprise many of us who had no idea what a blue yodeler is, but Gary notes his influence is wider than that, as ‘few people realize that Jimmie Rodgers was every bit as crucial in the history of pop and the American music business as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan.’

hollyb_1

I forgot to note earlier in this commentary that the Sleeping Hedgehog for this month included a letter from the Archives by Lady Alexandra Margaret Quinn, Head Gardener here in the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, about preparations for the holidays here in her time.

It’s my habit to finish off with a choice bit of music from a band that I’m rather fond of, this time being the Scottish Peatbog Faeries whose Mellowosity is one of the best debut recordings ever done. My live cut for you this time is “Toss the Feathers-Oyster Woman’s Rant” from a recent performance  by them at the Towersey Festival.

Posted in Books, Commentary, Film, Food and Drink, Graphic Literature, Music, Stories | Comments Off on What’s New for the 29th of December: New Riders of The Purple Sage, Beatrix Potter’s gardens, German chocolate bars, Anime, Northumbrian music, Garner’s The Owl Service, Welsh mythology and quite a bit more!

A Travels Abroad story: Reykjavik, or busking in the cold

Posted on 15th December 2019 by Jack Merry

P

One of the finest ales I’ve ever encountered was while I was busking in Reykjavik one cold November day when it getting far too cold to make a profit. I looked around and saw a pub near the corner where I was playing tunes that looked inviting — hell, anything would have looked more comfortable than where I was at that point, but it really did look cheery. After settling my rather cold self into a corner near the fireplace, I ordered an Egils Premium Lager from Egil Skallagrímsson Brewery and it was quite excellent with an open-faced smoked mackerel and onion sandwich. Most tasty! Fortified by the ale, warmth, and the good pub fare, I ventured out to busk for a few more hours. I can’t say I made all that much doing so but at least I felt a bit more alive.

Fingerless gloves help a bit. A long military great coat and sturdy boots helped too as I kept my feet warm by stamping my heavy boots every so often.. But nothing really helps all that much when it gets that cold as the main problem is keeping the fiddle strings from getting too brittle as it’s certainly cold enough to damage them if they weren’t being kept warm by constant playing. I eventually decided I’d rather be warm and retreated to a nearby Pub to sip ale and read more of Theodora Goss’ In the Forest of Forgetting I borrowed from the Estate Library.

Brigid had a far easier time of it while I out busking as she was on a buying trip for The Steward as she had the rather nice mission of helping Reynard restock the Pub with choice Icelandic spirits including Brännvin, flavored and unflavoured, and several different vodkas, particularly Reyka, a relatively new small batch vodka that is considered quite good. Now unless a vodka is flavored, it all tastes to me like, well, nothing. I’ll stick with ales, ciders and whiskies, each of which has its own distinctive taste.

We’re hosting Several Annies currently who hail from this city, so they asked us to bring home some treats. Fortunately not fermented sheeps head! No, they had more mundane requests such as Skyr cheese, which to my eye looks like yogurt but really isn’t, copies of mystery novels including Arnaldur Indriðason’s new one called Svartur Festingin, and lots of íslenska sauðkindin wool to use in knitting, as they claim it’s far superior to our Scottish Blackface sheep. I’m certain the knitting circle that Liath Evergreen has going on in the Pub most nights during the Winter will be delighted by the several hundred pounds we shipped back. And I’m sure the members of the Old Norse Reading Group will be delighted by the Brännvin we brought back.

(That group’s currently learning Hrafnkel’s Saga. While I’ll admit it’s one of the leading gems of Old Icelandic literature, something that’s not a field with a lot of gems at all. Hrafnkel is more or less the Job of the North — a pious but overbearing bully, he offends all his neighbors with his violent ways, refusing to pay wergild and indulging in ostentatious sacrifices. This gets him a long run of bad luck and worse politics, culminating in his being reduced to being dependent on one of his own shepherds. And then the cabal of his enemies murders his beloved horse. At that low point, Hrafnkel becomes a non-believer, and curiously, The Saga reports he’s also a much nicer guy after he decides the gods are no help.)

Reynard had a request as well, as he has a fondess for rímur (epic vocal poems) which were first collected in the late Nineteenth Century by folklorist Ólafur Davíðsson and were then printed up in the first Icelandic folk music collection, Íslenzk þjóðlög (Book of Folk Songs), by Bjarni Þorsteinsson which first published in 1936 by Oxford University Press. We’ve reviewed a few of the recordings of this music over the years including Rímur: A Collection From Steindór Andersen. I used to blame Reynard for introducing Icelandic tunes to the Neverending Session until The Steward pointed out this story to me which proved they’ve been played here for a very long time.

It was a nice visit but as always it was nice to get back home in Kinrowan Hall where I needn’t venture out in the cold unless I want to!

P

Posted in Stories | Comments Off on A Travels Abroad story: Reykjavik, or busking in the cold

A Kinrowan Estate story: Bloody bones, and not much else

Posted on 10th December 2019 by Diverse Voices

P

Like visiting musicians who get food, drink, and a place to sleep, storytellers are treated in the same manner. So it was that a storyteller looking a lot like John Hurt’s character in Jim Henson’s The Storyteller came to be resident here this past week. He settled comfortably into the chair by the fireplace in the Robert Graves Memorial Reading Room and told us this tale . . .

Not all ancient barrow mounds are the resting places of warrior kings long forgotten, some contain things far worse. Some of those securely buried with chains and magical bindings are human, some very much not so. Things that even hardened necromancers have nightmares about.

One of these has no name now, or at least no name remembered now. It was either a being to escort the dead into the next life or something far worse. All that storytellers from time beyond counting have said is that it be left well alone. And so it was for millennia until a Victorian archaeologist decided to dig that barrow mound up. And he didn’t live to tell the tale as whatever it was disposed of all that were there that evening. Only blood and very small bone shards remained of them.

It took a major league necromancer, one variant says it was actually Crowley, to put it back in its resting place as it was not dead, just resting. The necromancer added an avoidance spell to keep everyone away.

Now won’t you sleep well tonight?

P

Posted in Stories | Comments Off on A Kinrowan Estate story: Bloody bones, and not much else

What’s New for the 1st of December: An Irish Music guide, Gingerbread, Amano Artisan Chocolate, Frank Zappa live, de Lint’s Crow Girls, Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, two live music cuts, a guide to Irish music and much more

Posted on 1st December 2019 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

 

We keep our cats as happy as we can. — Anna Nimmhaus

P

Remember I mentioned recently that we got snow? Well now it’s quite different, as it’s a steady, icy rain and a gusting wind which has kept every soul inside save the staff that needs to tend the farm animals. My Several Annies are helping with the decorating of the various spaces that get Winter Holiday garlands and such, so I’m doing this What’s New as I usually do while enjoying the Oysterband doing the Red Barn Stomp from their Minneapolis concert in 1991.

P

I’m going to start off this outing with an ebook from Charles de Lint and his wife MaryAnn Harris, Newford Stories: Crow Girls. I say both because the story of these apparently immortal shapeshifters I like the most is the one credited to both of them, to wit “A Crow Girls’ Christmas,.” If it doesn’t cheer you up quite a bit, I’m afraid your soul is lost.

Alastair Reynolds’ Slow Bullets gets reviewed by Richard, who sagely says that ‘Wars do not end neatly. While treaties may be signed and victories declared, there’s always room around the edges and in the grey spaces away from cameras and central command for those more interested in brutality than resolution’. So what happens when all sides of a recent conflict are thrown together on a ship that’s both dying and way off course? Quite a bit.

A true classic of literature is next as Robert give us this: ‘Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy is inarguably one of the seminal works of modern science fiction. It was one of the first to take its inspiration from the social sciences rather than the physical sciences (Gernsback’s formula of “better living through technology” had received a serious blow with the first use of the atomic bomb in 1945), and consequently the emphasis throughout is on those phenomena that have little to do with particles and waves and everything to do with human behavior: politics, war, and, ultimately, the relationships among the people who form our window onto this history’.

Robert’s next review is a bit different: ‘Gods have started showing up regularly in comics and graphic novels, everything from Thor and Loki in the various Avengers series to Titania and Auberon in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and The Books of Magic (no, they’re not gods now, but they were long ago) to Elder Gods too terrible to name in Hellboy and B.P.R.D., but I don’t know that anyone has every examined not only the nature of deity, but the morality of deity, before John Arcudi’s A God Somewhere.’

P

A trio of chocolate treats is reviewed by Robert: ‘Amano Artisan Chocolate is an American company founded and owned by Clark Goble and Art Pollard, located in Orem, Utah. They use vintage chocolate-making equipment and their products are made in small batches. Like regional cheeses and Old Country wines, their chocolates are unique: each comes from beans obtained from specific locations, and at present, they do not make blended chocolates.’

P

Reynard has a look at Harry Long’s The Waltons Guide to Irish Music: ‘The subtitle of this book is “A Comprehensive A-Z Guide to Irish and Celtic Music in All Its Forms” and for once this is an accurate statement. It is indeed indispensable guide to Irish music in all its varied facets.’

Gary starts off his music reviews by looking at Thelonious Monk’s Complete Riverside Recordings. Of Monk, Gary notes ‘Like all geniuses, pianist Thelonious Monk was initially misunderstood, even scorned. His ideas about harmony were ahead of his time, and he definitely didn’t fit in with the strictures of bebop, the lingua franca of the jazz world in the late 1940s and early ’50s, which he helped to invent.’ Gary goes on to tell the fascinating story of how Monk became very popular!

He continues with a new favourite recording: ‘”In The Morning,” the title work and opening track of Stefano Battaglia Trio’s new release, is one of the most poignant and evocative pieces of music I’ve encountered this year. I don’t know much about this work, and my knowledge of its composer Alec Wilder is woefully inadequate, but I do know that “In The Morning” has already entered my shortlist of favorite works of all time.’

He follows that review with a look at another recording that gets high praise from him: ‘I’ve been aware of the towering presence of jazz pianist Vijay Iyer for some time now but hadn’t felt quite ready to take on his music. I finally took the plunge with his 2015 trio release Break Stuff and find it about as I expected. From what I can tell, it’s among Iyer’s more accessible works.’

Gary’s definitely on a roll here: ‘Wow. Just, wow. That was my first reaction to this amazing new self-titled record by American songsters Anna & Elizabeth. You just don’t hear this kind of singing much anymore, outside of Appalachia, and it is a joy to find such skill and empathy employed in the presentation of these old songs by these young musicians.’

It seems that being dead doesn’t actually mean the release of new material ceases as Gary notes here: ‘If, like me, you never saw Frank Zappa live with one of his fabulous bands, this DVD release from Eagle Rock is a great way to see what you missed. Or even if you did witness the madness before Zappa died of cancer in 1993, you’ll enjoy The Torture Never Stops.’

Many Languages, One Soul is from a Balkan band, a favoured music here among the staffers and Gary’s no exception: ‘If you at all like instrumental music from southeastern Europe, if you enjoy the sound and versatility of the clarinet, or if you just like wildly eclectic international music – personally, all three describe me – then this Balkan Clarinet Summit disc is a must-have.’

I’m going to finish off with Calexico’s Edge of the Sun which gets reviewed by Gary, who says proudly he has everything they’ve released. He says of this release that it ‘is packed full of the kind of music that made me a longtime fan of the Tucson band. To me it’s one of Calexico’s more successful albums in quite a while. The songs have strong melodies – both on the catchy upbeat numbers and the more pensive ones – and deeply felt lyrics that lean frequently toward the melancholy, with glimmers here and there of hopefulness.’

P

The Infinite Jukebox, our digital library of books, artwork, journals, music and video, has a lot of live music performances so I decided to see what there was for Celexico on it…. Ahhh there’s a choice cut, ‘Sunken Waltz’ performed at the Roskilde Festival in the summer of 2000.  Go ahead and listen to it as I’m off now to to have a slice of warm gingerbread with vanilla ice cream.

Posted in Books, Commentary, Film, Food and Drink, Graphic Literature, Music, Stories | Comments Off on What’s New for the 1st of December: An Irish Music guide, Gingerbread, Amano Artisan Chocolate, Frank Zappa live, de Lint’s Crow Girls, Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, two live music cuts, a guide to Irish music and much more

What’s New for the 3rd of November: Boston fiddler Katie McNally’s new album, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ashley Hutchings: The Guv’nor & the Rise of Folk Rock, The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween, ‘Tam Lin’ as performed by Fairport Convention, Ancient Celtic Festivals, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, two essays on Maddy Prior, Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief revisited and other matters…

Posted on 3rd November 2019 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

O I forbid you, maidens a’,
That wear gowd on your hair,
To ameome or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.

Child Ballad 39A

image

It got sharply colder on this Scottish estate over the past week so Mrs.Ware, our Head Cook, decided to have the staff of Gus, our Estate Head Gardener, prepare the fire pit for slow cooking a meal. The meal she has planned is slow roasted lamb spiced with garlic and cumin, buttered potato chunks and sautéed spinach with coarse ground black pepper and aged Riverrun Farms feta cheese. For dessert, there will be pumpkin turnovers served with fresh churned Madagascar vanilla ice cream.

Meanwhile I’ve been organising the reading groups, which always gear up as the weather gets colder, with of course the usual Norse language study group, ones devoted to works by Patricia McKillip,  JRR Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, Robert Holdstock and Diana Wynne Jones. Of course there’s a Harry Potter group too, as a new book came out this past June in the series, though I’ll freely admit find her writing style incredibly pedestrian.

(Grey has an interesting essay on writing that was originally in the Sleeping Hedgehog which didn’t fit neatly anywhere, so I’m putting it here. Go ahead and read it as it’s her usual eloquent writing. I’ll wait.)

This edition was to be themed around the holidays of All Hallows Eve, All Souls Day and Samhain, but it ended up reflecting what we as editors think befits this time of the year when Summer is past, Autumn is fully upon us and Winter is still quite a bit off… So give a listen to ‘The Pumpkin Dance’ by the Red Clay Ramblers off their unreleased The Merry Wives of Windsor album as I get started on this edition…

image

Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span always seem to evoke Autumn 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.’

Triskell Press has released a digital edition of Charles de Lint’s Yarrow: An Autumn Tale, which Grey delightfully notes is ‘set in de Lint’s Ottawa, the one he first envisioned for his novel Moonheart, and expanded in its sequel, Spiritwalk. Those readers who have fallen in love with the wonderful Tamson House of these two novels will be delighted to note its brief appearance in Yarrow as well. However, the characters in Yarrow are part of different story than the residents of Tamson House and their associates, and Yarrow is a stand-alone novel.’

Grey say that ‘Clare Leslie and Frank Gerace have provided a wonderful resource in The Ancient Celtic Festivals and How We Celebrate Them Today. This slender book (fifty-eight pages) can be read by anyone from upper elementary school on, but younger children would also enjoy it if it were read to them. It is clearly designed primarily for the school and library markets, but “folky” families and those interested in Celtic traditions will also want it for their own libraries.’

The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, says Kim, answers a question you might’ve had: ‘Ever wonder what happened to the Child ballads that came across the water? Have you been curious about the lives of the folks whose wavery voices emerge from Lomax’s home recordings? This book contains the answers, plus over one hundred New World cousins to those ballads collected by Child, transcribed by balladeer John Jacob Niles in his trips through the southern Appalachians during the 1920s and 1930s.’  You can here Niles singing ‘The Carrion Crow’ here. It’s better known as Child 26, ‘Twa Corbies’ which is here performed by the Old Blind Dogs.

Nellie found much to appreciate in The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: ‘Jean Markale’s telling of many traditional stories illustrates this history vividly and causes us to reflect on the essential nature of the holiday. Identifying, through Markale’s exploration, with our pagan ancestors, gives Halloween the serious reflection it deserves. We can look now at this black and orange night and see beneath the mischievous spectacle, a holiday of changes, of reverence, of comprehension and wisdom.’

A fine 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.’

We next look at Ray Bradbury’s quintessential Autumn novel and film which gets an appreciative review by the previous reviewer: ‘By right and nature, all October babies should love Something Wicked This Way Comes. It is a love letter to autumn, and to the Halloween season in particular, a gorgeous take on maturity and self-acceptance and all the dark temptations that come crawling ‘round when the calendar creeps close to October 31st.’

Books can get successfully turned into other forms as we see in a review by Vonnie of an interesting performance of an Ellen Kushner novel: ‘Ellen Kushner and Joe Kessler at Johnny D’s. Kushner performed Thomas the Rhymer as a combination reading/musical performance at Johnny D’s, the synergy between the songs and the narrative was much stronger. The pauses, in particular, highlighted the words far better than the end of a paragraph on a page ever could. Kushner sang and played guitar, whilst Josef Kessler played fiddle and mandolin.’

image

Pumpkin Ale has been a staple of the Autumn season for at least twenty years on both sides of the Atlantic. Much of it is bloody awful — over-spiced sweet shit. Well it turns out that it’s not a new fad ‘tall as  a letter from Lady Alexandra Margaret Quinn, Head Gardener here in the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to her close friend Tessa some one and fifty years ago demonstrates that pumpkin ale has a long existence.  You can read her letter here.

image

Dave leads off our music reviews with a look at the Burning Bright box set: ‘The title comes from the William Blake poem, “Tyger, Tyger” and the reason is…that Tyger is Ashley Hutchings’ nickname. Having said that…let me next alert all and sundry that Free Reed is the greatest box-set compilation maker in the world, nay, universe! There is such a wealth of material in one of their sets that to properly appreciate it one must spend quality time with it to savour each mouth-watering delectable. And it’s not simply the music, although they are called Free Reed MUSIC, but the posters, and especially the books that are prepared and accompany each package are filled with enough photos, posters, memorabilia and biographical text to keep all your senses busy. Stick your nose in the book…it even smells good! One warning though…if you don’t like the sound of the concertina, approach this one carefully…but…the concertina grows on you, and this is five hours of definitive British folk music.’

He also has a look at another box set,  The Time Has Come: 1967-1973, by another band that evokes Autumn for me: ‘By my recollection it was The Pentangle when they started. And then they lost the definitive article and were just Pentangle. Whatever they called themselves, they were like fish out of water at the time. My friends didn’t listen to them at all. We were all more into The Who, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. The loud stuff. The flashy stuff. But now, years later, I find myself listening to this mix of jazz, folk, blues, and traditional music far more than I listen to those other bands.’

Deborah offers up the best look ever at Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief: ‘1969 saw the release of two albums that gave me a case of musical whiplash: Pentangle’s Basket of Light and Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief. (If memory serves, the third leg in that triad of bands, Steeleye Span, was still a year away from formation.)’ Go ahead and savour every word of this fascinating remembrance of things long past.

I know it’s early Autumn but I have a Winter Shopping Holidays idea as I had to include this band here, so let me quote myself:  ‘Are you looking for that perfect Winter Holiday gift for your lover of English folk rock? Oh, do I have a gift that’s perfect! EMI has just served up A Parcel of Steeleye Span. This triple disc set contains the entirety of their first five albums for Chrysalis, from 1972’s Below The Salt to 1975’s All Around My Hat with Parcel of Rogues, Commoners Crown, and Now We Are Six being the recordings in between. This completely remastered collection has 46 tracks in all, including a number of very tasty bonus tracks.’

If there be a First Lady of English Folk Music for the past near fifty years, it must be Maddy Prior, whose singing has defined this tradition more than any other vocalist has. Deb has two looks at her, …And Maddy Dances and Comfort and the Unexpected:  In Conversation with Maddy Prior. Trust me when I say that each of these articles will enlighten you more about Maddy than a hundred articles in the English music press ever could!

She finishes off her reviews with ‘Dear Richard, Please Will You Play…?’, with  the subtitle of Three shows, three settings, one happy woman which is her loving  look at three shows by Richard Thompson, founding member of Fairport Convention who has gone on to a long career as an artist of sterling repute.

Although it focuses more on the music from the Peanuts Christmas program, Gary notes that the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Peanuts’ Greatest Hits does include “The Great Pumpkin Waltz,” as well as selections from several other television programs that Guaraldi scored.

Boston fiddler Katie McNally’s new album, her second, focuses on the music of Cape Breton Island (which is home to the Celtic Colours International Festival every fall), particularly the music made by expatriate fiddlers who lived and worked in “the Boston States” in the 20th century. Gary says ‘McNally continues to grow into an impressive fiddler’ on this album, aptly titled The Boston States.

Gary also reviews the Kari Ikonen Trio’s Beauteous Tales and Offbeat Stories. He says, ‘This album is about equal parts upbeat swinging jazz, icy Nordic soundscapes, and pensive, occasionally dark excursions into modernist interpretations of European folk music,’ which sounds like perfect autumn fare to me!

And Gary reviews Finale: An Evening With Pentangle, which draws on the performances from the English folk-jazz supergroup’s 2008 reunion tour. ‘And what performances they are!’ he says. ‘Excellent musicians in the ’60s, they seem at the height of their powers on these recordings. It helps that the recordings themselves are beautifully done, but McShee doesn’t sound a day older than 21, the guitarists are absolutely amazing, and the rhythm section is supple and inventive.’

Unlike Fairport Convention which has retained much of its folk roots which are detailed in this review, the Oysterband has evolved beyond their original roots over the decades. But Vonnie reviews a recent album in which they returned to those roots with a collaborator: ‘June  Tabor has reunited with the Oysterband for a second album, Ragged Kingdom and the two suit each other better now than when the first album, Freedom and Rain, made in 1991. Considering that the first album was magnificent, many of us had high expectations for this album. It a very different creature, and very good.’

image

Our What Not this time is from Kelly Sedinger on why he likes Fall: ‘Autumn’s always been my favorite season, for so many reasons. I love the fact that I don’t spend my days in some degree of perspiration. I love the feeling of encroaching coolness in the air, and the fact that at night I can use a comforter again. I love how clear the air gets once the southern humidity stops coming up Buffalo way. I love how my wardrobe expands again; t-shirts and shorts give way to long-sleeve t-shirts and henleys and denim shirts and overalls. I love the return of football, the way Friday nights feel like an event again, and the scent of leaves and apples in the air. What do I love best, though? Maybe it’s my daughter going back to school. Or maybe not.’

image

It’s nigh unto All Hallows Eve, so naturally I’m offering a classic All Hallows’ Eve song. In 2007, Fairport Convention would recreate their Liege & Lief album with the original lineup sans the departed Sandy Denny so Chris While did the vocals and was quite stunning in her performance,. Now let’s  hear their ‘Tam Lin’ as performed on the night of the 10th of August.

Posted in Commentary | Comments Off on What’s New for the 3rd of November: Boston fiddler Katie McNally’s new album, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ashley Hutchings: The Guv’nor & the Rise of Folk Rock, The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween, ‘Tam Lin’ as performed by Fairport Convention, Ancient Celtic Festivals, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, two essays on Maddy Prior, Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief revisited and other matters…

What’s New for the 20th of October: ‘Pierre De Grenoble’ by Malicorne, Black cat awareness month, Philip Glass’ “portraits”, the folklore and folkways of American Indians, Ursula le Guin on Coyote, and her Buffalo Gals fantasy.

Posted on 3rd October 2019 by Iain Nicholas Mackenzie

Coyote is an anarchist. She can confuse all civilised ideas simply by trotting through. And she always fools the pompous. Just when your ideas begin to get all nicely arranged and squared off, she messes them up. Things are never going to be neat, that’s one thing you can count on. Coyote walks through all our minds. Obviously, we need a trickster, a creator who made the world all wrong. We need the idea of a God who makes mistakes, gets into trouble, and who is identified with a scruffy little animal. — Ursula Le Guin in an interview in Jonathan White’s Talking on the Water: Conversations About Nature and Creativity Dreams

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

I’ve been reading Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, an exemplary anthology of stories where the coyote, or the fox in other cultures such as Britain or Japan, has a role in each tale. These tricksters,can be found elsewhere in literature and music, such as in Charles de Lint’s Someplace To Be Flying, in the Hellboy animated film Sword of Storms and in a song by Joni Mitchell aptly called ‘No Regrets Coyote’ performed here at the Sydney Opera House some thirty years ago.

We’ve no coyotes on this Scottish Estate but the foxes here are just as entertaining. We never allowed any hunting of them here so we’re we’re very delighted that the new fragile coalition of PM Theresa May abandoned her Conservative Party campaign promise to restore fox hunting in all of Britain. She’s not quite as bad as the Iron Bitch was but a resounding majority for her Party would’ve give her leave to be just like her.

So  let’s see what we’ve got for you this time which includes a book review section more or less about coyotes and the mythology around them. And our What Not concerns Black Cat Awareness Month, fitting as almost all felines on this Scottish Estate are black in colour.

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

Gary takes a look at three recently published books: The Anguish of Snails by Barre Toelken; Myths of Native America, edited by Tim McNeese; and When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote, edited by Jonathan Brennan. If you’re interested in furthering your knowledge and understanding of the folklore and folkways of American Indians, you’ll want to see what Gary has to say about these three books.

Kim found a book that was more than merely good: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Buffalo Gals. This novella, she says, takes the reader ‘..into the magical world Gal, or Myra as she is known in some circles, experiences after being injured in a plane crash and then rescued by Coyote. Boulet’s work draws us into the world Gal sees with her new eye, a multilayered field of vision that bridges the nature and the appearance of things so beautifully communicated in Le Guin’s story. It has earned a place next to my treasured “children’s” books — the selfishness of an adult who finds some things too beautiful to actually let the wee wilds grub them up.’

We’ve noted before that not all of everything that comes in for review finds favour with us. Such is the fate of a novel by Kim Antieau which Mia reviews for us: ‘Coyote Cowgirl has all of the necessary ingredients to be a great book; unfortunately, like the cinnamon flavored scrambled eggs in one scene, there are other extra ingredients that spoil the recipe. It’s not horrible; even more reprehensible: it’s mediocre.’

(One reader wrote us to that he ‘was relieved, after reading Mia’s review of this novel, not to be the only one ‘crazy’ enough to find the book unsatisfying.)

Robert’s review of 9Tail Fox whittles down the general genre label and gets to the heart of the story. ‘The book cover claims that Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s 9Tail Fox is ‘A novel of science fiction.’ Considering what science fiction has become over the past generation, that could well be valid — with some qualifications. I’m going to call it ‘slipstream’ in honor of its genre-bending tendencies and let it go at that.’ Ahh, but is it any good? Robert’s review lets you know.

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

In the States, Major League Baseball has just started its post-season. So let’s  turn to Michelle for an essay on that sport in film: ‘In the big inning, God created baseball. Or perhaps it was Loki, patron of athletics and other tricks; the origins are shrouded in antiquity. There is also debate about which mortal first received the divine inspiration. Abner Doubleday often gets credit, though some historians claim the game was played in England in the 1700s. What is known is that, in 1845, a team called the New York Knickerbockers adopted the rules of the game we know as baseball. In New Jersey that summer, they played the first organized baseball game, and America acquired its own pantheon.’

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

We’ve reviewed a fair amount of sweet things down the years and Leona has some candies for us to consider: ‘It’s rare to find a beautifully designed package that actually has great product inside; less so when the subject is coffee candy and the reviewer is … well … picky as hell on both counts. But Bali’s Best Premium Collection, distributed by Fusion Gourmet, Inc. of California, pulls off the double success with ease.’

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2
Brush With Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens, edited by Arnie Fenner and Cathy Fenner, put Richard in a reflective mood. ‘[It’s] an utterly gorgeous book. It’s also a terribly sad one… It’s not until the very end of his life that Stevens seemingly figured out what he was, or more importantly, what he could be, and the fact that this was never given time to blossom is perhaps the saddest thing of all. But if there is sadness here, there is also beauty and joy.’

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

Barb has a story to tell us about those responsible for Trio: ‘Väsen is Olov Johansson on 3-row chromatic nyckelharpa and kontrabasharpa, Mikael Marin on viola, 5-string viola, and pomposa, and Roger Tallroth on 12-string guitar and bosoki. Having had the opportunity over the last few years to immerse myself in many of Väsen’s recordings, see them perform live, and interview Olov Johansson, these musicians (unbeknownst to them) have become old friends.’ She’s now has their newest CD Brewed in hand and will of course be reviewing it for us.

Donna looks at Up in The Air’s Moonshine and Gavin Marwick’s The Long Road and The Far Horizon: ‘Gavin Marwick is a talented and prolific Scottish composer and fiddle player. He’s in or has been in bands including Cantrip, Bellevue Rendezvous, Journeyman, Iron Horse, Ceilidh Minogue and Up in the Air. I’ve seen him perform (with Cantrip) and reviewed his Bellevue Rendezvous outings. So of course I was happy to offer to review these two CDs when offered. I’m just sorry it took me so long to listen and write!’

Gary finds the music on Norwegian bassist Björn Meyer’s Provenance to be ‘calming and focusing; the deep drones and repetitive rhythmic patterns help you remember to breathe deeply and be aware of the inner and outer beauty that’s still available.’

Robert has a look at two of Philip Glass’s ‘portraits of nature,’ Itapu and The Canyon: ‘Among contemporary composers, perhaps the most notable for writing program music is Philip Glass, whom Nick Jones, in his essay accompanying this disc calls “a composer of images.” Call it “images” or “program,” it’s a tendency that has persisted throughout Glass’ career (and probably accounts for his affinity for the theater) and one that is well illustrated in Itapu and The Canyon.’

Speaking of Glass’ ‘portraits,’ Robert brings us his take on the ‘portrait’ operas: Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten: ‘Robert Wilson, Philip Glass’ collaborator on Einstein on the Beach, noted that until that work hit the boards, theater was bound by literature. Thinking on it, he’s pretty much right: stage plays, opera, even film were constrained by a narrative line that relied on a chronological sequence, all based on language. Not so Einstein.’

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

As October is Black Cat Awareness Month, I can’t help but think about our oft-maligned feline companions.  This is the time of year when the worst can and does happen to black cats, simply because of the color of their fur, and the miseducation of some humans entrusted to their care.  Nay, the care of nature itself. It’s a pity that bad things happen to good cats, but most especially this time of year, when black cats should be celebrated.

So if you see a shadowy creature cross your path this time of year, remember that we all have our battles to fight. And perhaps that great onyx beauty is trying to avoid hers. Wish her well, and consider the sight a omen of good things for you both.

oak_leaf_fallen_colored2

Our Coda this time’s ‘Pierre De Grenoble’ by Malicorne, a band Scott noted in his review as being the French version of Steeleye Span for their blending of trad material and electric instruments. This was recorded at Hunter College, New York thirty-four years ago.

Posted in Books, Commentary, Music | Comments Off on What’s New for the 20th of October: ‘Pierre De Grenoble’ by Malicorne, Black cat awareness month, Philip Glass’ “portraits”, the folklore and folkways of American Indians, Ursula le Guin on Coyote, and her Buffalo Gals fantasy.