O I forbid you, maidens a’
That wear gowd in your hair,
To gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.
Ingrid, our Steward, declared earlier this week that today would be an Estate work free day as much was possible, though the livestock would need tending to and other such matters. Mrs. Ware and her ever so talented Kitchen staff prepared a picnic of sorts so they could enjoy the day too. I even closed the Pub for the day as Bjorn, our brewmaster, set up taps of Celebration Ale, Albion Cider, Widdershins Mead and Banish Misfortune Stout at the top of the Greensward for all to enjoy.
There’s a pig roaring over the apple wood fire which should be ready in a few hours. Plenty of other fare as well — earlier today I saw corn ready for roasting, German style potato salad, lots of cheeses, fat sausages, a coleslaw with poppy seed dressing and lots of other tasty foods.
Indeed I’m finishing this edition earlier this week, so I too could take the day off. After you read this edition, join us on the Greensward for music, libations, food and other summery things. There’ll be a cricket game for those needing a bit of entertainment.
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 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’s 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.’
A musician visiting here from America some years back told me of the Holy Trinity of summer for him: baseball, beer and brats. (He was from Milwaukee, which explained the latter.) So it’s apt that we’ve Kelly looking at a related book: ‘[E]ven with my recent development of my palate to include dark ales and porters and bitters and IPAs (but not quite stouts; I just can’t get into those), I never really knew the difference between a lager and an ale until I read Ken Wells’s book Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America.‘
Michelle starts off her look at American baseball films this way: ‘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.’ You can read her delightful essay here.
Gary here with music. It being August, we’ve dredged the archives for some of our extensive collection of reviews of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. But first, I have some new music.
First up is a delightful piano trio recording, Fred Hersch’s The Surrounding Green. ‘Hersch excels at the inward gesture and mood, and there’s plenty of that here, especially on his originals. The title track, new to this project, is one of the loveliest melodies you’ll hear this or any year. The closing number “Anticipation,” also new, is a Latin influenced groove that showcases Baron’s exquisite brushwork and Gress’s sheer melodicism, both of which complement Hersch’s joyful keyboard romp. This one definitely goes on my 2025 jazz favorites playlist.’
Next, an exquisite gem of a recording from bandoneon maestro Dino Saluzzi, El Viejo Caminante. ‘This is an intimate album, just Dino and two guitarists, his son José Maria Saluzzi on classical guitar and Norwegian Jacob Young on an electric Telecaster and acoustic guitars. It’s a generous program of 14 songs in which the master and his instrument explore a variety of moods.’
I also enjoyed an album of sunny summertime Americana. ‘The sunny Laurel Canyon vibe is what first drew me to Minor Gold’s Way to the Sun, then the sharp songwriting, lovely vocal harmonies, and emotional resonance of the songs pulled me in for a long stay.’
Deb Skolnik turned in a round-robin review from the 1999 Cropredy that was originally published in Folk Tales. ‘I decided it would be fun to have a group interview about this year’s festival by e-mailing several Folk Tales staffers who are also Fairport fans: Chris Woods, Richard Hamilton, Koen Hottentot, and Ian Walden. I had a bonus interviewee in the form of Ian’s companion, Ellen Rawson, who was there for the first time this year and is not a staff member. Chris, Richard and Ian live in the UK; Koen is from the Netherlands, and Ellen is American (as I am).’
John O’Regan turned in thorough reviews of the 2005 and 2007 Cropredy gatherings. Of 2007, he noted: ‘This time the weather played a deciding role in proceedings. Cropredy 2007 could have been a non-event up to two weeks before the festival. Torrential flooding had crippled the Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire countryside, leaving towns like Tewkesbury cut off from the outside world. Nearby villages like Abington and Daventry also suffered, and the farmers fields where the Cropredy backstage area normally sits were waterlogged. However, the weather improved sufficiently for the festival to proceed and it was a mixture of luck and providence that allowed the proceedings to begin on time and to happen at all.’
Lars attended and reviewed the 2017 Cropredy festival. ‘The 2017 festival was something special, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band. Every living past member had been invited to take part, and the tickets sold out two months in advance. Even the weather seemed to celebrate. There were a total of 40 minutes of light rain during the whole event, in spite of it having poured down earlier that week, and it was an enjoyable 20 degrees Centigrade with spots of sun every now and then. Perfect for good music and a few pints.’
Michael Hunter did the honors on Fairport Convention’s CD Live At Cropredy ’08. ‘Live Fairport CDs are quite regular occurrences and therefore the risk exists that the same material will continue to be recycled ad infinitum. Does the world really need another version of ‘Matty Groves’ or ‘Meet On The Ledge’ for example, as good as both songs are? The band seems to understand this, as to large degree, the obvious tracks such as those mentioned are omitted and some quite rare material appears instead, in some cases for the first time in a few decades.’
To Pamela fell the task of reviewing Fairport Convention’s The Cropredy Box, a three-disc set commemorating the band’s 30th anniversary in 1997. ‘I don’t think The Cropredy Box is only for the hardcore. In fact, I’ll assert that each of us in the “Fairport Cult” should buy a copy for a friend. To truly appreciate the album’s ragged glory, though, the listener has to imagine the whole experience: the muddy hillside scattered with beer jugs, the multigenerational crowd with its multicolored hair, and the inward sense that something special will happen. It’s not as good as being at Cropredy, but for most of us it’s a lot cheaper, and it’s a treat we can enjoy more than once a year.’
Paul tackled the massive Free Reed set Cropredy Capers. ‘One thing’s for sure, if you’re any sort of admirer of Fairport Convention, then you really ought to have this. It submerges you in something truly special, and makes you look at your savings, wondering if you can somehow afford to spend an August weekend in Oxfordshire.’
That, of course, barely scratches the surface of Fairport related things we’ve reviewed over the decades. Come back in two weeks for more.
Our What Not comes courtesy of Pamela Dean, who was asked what her favourite ballad was: ‘As I went through all the Child ballads when I was trying to think of a frame for Juniper, Gentian, & Rosemary, and the only other remotely feminist ballad I could find was ‘Riddles Wisely Expounded,’ which is not nearly as active for the young woman as ‘Tam Lin’ is. Well, there is the one where a young woman ransoms her guy and says, ‘The blood had flowed upon the green afore I lost my laddie,’ which is nice, but all she does is take all her money and hand it over.’
In 2007 at Cropredy, 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.
What’s New for the 3rd of August: A mix of Heinlein reviews; new jazz out of Vermont and a grab bag of archival reviews; Italian American food writing, and more
B-52s, “Love Shack”
There’s a contradance going on just now. It’s a new contradance band here on the Estate. Drink Down The Moon is the name they’ve given themselves after the novel by author Charles de Lint. They’re comprised of Catherine, the wife of Iain our Librarian on violin and hand drums, Béla on violin, Finch playing English smallpipes, which I believe are made by the esteemed Julian Goodacre, and Gus or myself as usual on concertina. It’s Gus tonight fir reason you’ll see below.
The old Church is where we hold the dances, ironic I know as the Scots Church didn’t like dances at all, but we’ve not had Services there since well before the Great War. It was used as storage ’til the Fifties when it became a space for gatherings such as Eventide meals done buffet style where the dining space was too small for all who were invited, so we do community suppers there. And the stone floors and no seating make it perfect for these dances
My left knee, injured many decades ago, is acting out, so I decided to stay in the Pub and listen to the Neverending Session which has been playing a lot of hambos (think of them as a sort of a mazurka if you wish) this evening as I write up these notes. Gary Whitehouse as always did the music…
Cat has a confession to make about Robert Heinlein’s fiction: ‘The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is, after over thirty years of my reading works beyond count by him, my favorite novel by him bar none. There are without doubt better written novels by Heinlein that stir strong passions in readers, say Starship Troopers and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, both of which can cause otherwise sensible readers to start hissing and spitting at each over the perceived political and social commentary in those books, and let’s not even broach the matter of Stranger in A Strange Land, as that work will really get the mojo rising in many readers!’
Another novel written in the last years of his life drew this comment from Cat: ‘Robert Heinlein’s Friday was a novel that deeply divided critics when it was published. Part of that was the gender and race politics of a male author writing a female character that got raped, part of it was the usual kvetching about every novel Heinlein wrote from Stranger in a Strange Land to the end of his writing career.’
Joel looks at a juvenile, The Star Beast: ‘Beating out The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by a good three decades, and Men in Black by over four, Heinlein didn’t just do this story first, he did it best. I’ve been enjoying the recent books in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. The last few books have been much more about diplomacy than space battles, and are no less riveting for it. But who knew that Heinlein, the creator of the self-same military science fiction tradition which led to Old Man’s War, was himself quite capable of having his heroes save the day by talking and listening as well?’
J.S.S. Boyce has a long and thoughtful look at Heinlein’s otherworldly take on the post-apocalyptic novel, Farnham’s Freehold. It’s almost on the edge of science fiction and into the realm of human psychology or social satire, à la Brave New World or Lord of the Flies or even The Road.
He also reviewed three of Heinlein’s juveniles, which we’d now maybe call YA, Between Planets, Starman Jones, and The Rolling Stones. He says of the former, ‘The writing is competent, as always: straightforward and readable. The plot and characterization were a little thin for my taste. Heinlein’s moralizing has been known to get the better of him. One of the things he moralizes about is patriotism and integrity and sometimes he does a really good job at getting those ideas in there at no expense to the story, but not this time.’
He liked Starman Jones better: ‘RAH didn’t apologize for a certain degree of formula in these stories, an update of Alger’s from a century earlier: a young man from a modest background, through the virtues of hard work, a bit of luck, and (uniquely, in Starman Jones) perhaps taking some liberties with the truth to get his foot in the door, eventually proves his mettle and resourcefulness and saves the day.’
And he found The Rolling Stones quite curious indeed. ‘In the hands of a lesser author, the novel might seem somewhat meandering. The Stone family head off to visit Mars just for something to do, one thing leads to another and the journey continues. There are mini-episodes of adventure here and there, but the book as a whole doesn’t have a clear destination or anything clearly at stake.’
Kathleen has a confession regarding Time For The Stars: ‘Robert Anson Heinlein is inarguably one of the great formative writers of science fiction. His work is not only seminal, it’s good — well-told, well-plotted, with solid characterization. It’s also frequently thought-provoking, with underlying philosophy and speculation that stays with the reader for a lifetime. Most modern readers attribute these qualities to the more outré and/or famous novels, like Time Enough For Love and the iconic Stranger In A Strange Land. But Heinlein’s so-called juveniles are actually among the most thoughtful of his books.’
Leona liked everything about The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture, including the cover and the introduction. ‘The Introduction in The Milk of Almonds is so packed with information that I could write a review just on it alone. It twines food and almonds and history and culture all together in a strong thread of friendly narrative.’
Remember the food-and-football coming of age film Bend It Like Beckham? Nathan does. ‘Jes comes across as a girl who doesn’t want to reject her family or show disrespect for her culture, but is also desperate to pursue her own dreams. How this is resolved is a story of Indian cooking, cultural absurdity, family love, and an abiding desire to play what the English call “the beautiful game,” all done without ever becoming preachy or saccharine sweet.
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest is an expansion of a much shorter work by de Lint and Vess entitled A Circle Of Cats which Mia says is ‘is not a novel, or a novella, or even, at 44 pages, a chapbook — those are merely convenient labels assigned by publishers and booksellers to assist them in categorization. Call Cats instead an enchantment, a weaving of words and pictures into pure magic. Charles de Lint is adept at converging the mundane world and the Otherworld: at touching them together briefly to produce intense moments and life altering episodes, and then gently letting each world retreat from the touch and settle back into its own normality, usually with both sides all the better for the experience.‘
From the archives, Big Earl loved Petit Fou, the second album by the group that was by then known as Matapat. ‘Largely driven by the incredible bass of Simon Lepage, Matapat mixes many outside influences to their style. There are shots of jazz, as on “Soupir de St-Albans,” or funk as on “La jolie Rochelle.” There’s even an East/West exploration on “La vieille galope,” with the band playing with Indian musicians. This is a band that’s unafraid to push their tradition, and it succeeds at every turn.’
He also was highly impressed by Music From Vietnam, a big set of Vietnamese music on CD. ‘Isolated for almost a half century by various conflicts, the music and art of these people have only been found in the Vietnamese community stores of Western cities, transported in for the local residents. Caprice Records of Sweden has offered up five volumes of a more readily available variety of this tradition, allowing those who don’t hunt this stuff down an easier opportunity to discover yet more great music from Asia.’
David reviewed Life and Times, a compilation album by fellow Canadian Ray Materick. ‘A solid slice of his past, and an encouraging chunk of the present, boding well for the future. A look at Materick’s Web site shows a large collection of relatively new material which is being made available and promises the re-issue of that first album. From those scuffling days, a man, a guitar and an empty street. Materick is older now, wiser, settled, but grounded and making some of the best music of his career.’
Judith loved Vested, an album of folk music from a local musician, Vancouver, Washington’s Tom May. ‘Tom has a wonderful voice that might remind one of Stan Rogers. I like it best on the quick songs, when it is less stylized. On the slower tunes I wish he’d keep it steadier, because I think it’s a dynamite voice, but at this point I think Tom must like it the way it is.’
But she was less than fond of Karen Matheson of Capercaillie’s second solo album. ‘Time To Fall is expertly overproduced with synthetic strings, tinkly piano, and other correctly swooshy noises by Capercaillie accordionist Donald Shaw. Most of the songs are written by Scottish singer-songwriter/guitarist James Grant, who largely ignores proper nouns, story lines, and historical and geographical references; most of the songs are about hope, hope of better days, hopes for loves, wishing well.’
Remember Matapat? Naomi reviewed Bourque, Bernard, & Lepage’s debut album, which they called Matapat, which was soon to be the name of their trio. ‘The members of this energetic trio all share a common goal, to familiarize their audiences with the unique culture of Quebec, and allow for future ambassadors of traditional Quebecois music and folklore to be able to share their talents. A very wonderful goal to have, and one I wish them well with.’
Our What Not caused Reynard to ponder something in the Nibbling Mouse Folkmnis puppet: ‘I’ve no idea where it’s been since it came in for review nearly twenty years ago, nor do I know how it ended up in the room off the Estate Kitchen that houses the centuries-old collection of cookbooks, restaurant menus and other culinary-related material but I just noticed it there, a very adorable white mouse puppet holding a wedge of cheese in its paws. Somebody had placed it in a white teacup on the middle of the large table so I really couldn’t overlook it.’
There are bands for which I’ve a deep liking for pretty much everything they done and so it is with Chicago’s ‘Saturday in the Park’ which I’ve heard playing off and on over the past forty years. It’s certainly an upbeat, feel good summer song much like ‘Love Shack’ by the B-52s. It was recorded forty years ago this August at the Park West in Chicago.