tim eriksen’s soul of the january hills is arguably the most punk album i own. fearless. lonely. harsh. indulgent. just him, singing. no instruments (throat excepted). a one take beautiful fuck you. folk music: traditional but transcending / transcendent. like sunno))) did with the chord, eriksen did with the voice. it’s a noise that has as much in common with his drone and minimalist contemporaries as it does with say, sacred harp singing or shirley collins. and in falling liminally betwixt the two, probably doesn’t get the recognition deserving from either camp… that breathtaking simplicity of january hills [...]
At its heart, Thanksgiving is a secular holiday. Turkey and stuffing, the obligatory family gathering, the long drive, the cornucopia, a football game by the fire, even the faux-feast pageant that still takes place in our local elementary school classrooms the day before the holiday break begins: these are the comfortable trappings of a life on pause for rest and relaxation, the gifts we grant the body and heart. They provide the perfect balance of humanistic and self-serving, but none involve God, save perhaps that single moment just before the plates are passed, where the silence lies [...]
My friend Meghan and I shared one of the most traumatic (wedding) experiences, ever. As string players, wedding season does not always translate into receptions, friends and cake. For us it can mean hours of practicing, preparation and nerves that rival the bride's, or groom's, cold-feet jitters. The experience that I am referencing above took place in Chicago in the summer of 2005. Meghan and I were hired to perform the music for a wedding. Nearly every cue that we entered in on was wrong, every solo started off flat, and when we weren't playing the silence was filled by [...]
and it's not about the beards. although i'm pretty sure there's beards involved. it's not brown or beige or tank-fucking-tops or feedeldydeedledydeee. it's not getting into a debate on traditional or contemporary or post- and neo- and psych- whatever. no more hyphens. it is what it is. if dylan electric is judas then john moloney is satan. these songs sometimes are the sounds of tramps fighting in a music store, or acidfrazzled hippies mad streamofconscious chants or drunk scotsmen sobbing into beer or sadsadsad odes to serial killers. that said i could draw you the line from woodie guthrie to david tibet. i could but it's so twisted and fucked it'd blow [...]
I've spent the whole weekend writing a sermon about the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook for this weekend's lay service at our church. Now I've got hymnal on the brain, and the thought of switching over to folk music makes my head hurt. Which would be a problem, if it were not for the fact that the modern Unitarian Universalist hymnal is about as folk-oriented as a hymnbook gets. It wasn't always that way. The UU hymnal has gone through several incarnations since the first one was published in 1937. [...]
Cordelia's Dad: Loch Lomond [ purchase ] Dan Zanes w/ Natalie Merchant: Loch Lomond [ purchase ] O you’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye For me and my true love will ne-er meet again On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond Two of my favorite versions of this traditional, familiar Scottish tune of life, death, [...]
decay and disease are often beautiful, like the pearly tear of the shellfish and the hectic glow of consumption. so said thoreau. and that fucker dies aged forty five or thereabouts. me? i feel as if recently i am engulfed by sickness and disease; physical, mental, genealogical, technological. becoming very aware of mortality schneaking up on me like [...]
glasgow, i love you but you're bringing me down... i want to lay the blame on neil diamond playing across town or people staying in to watch the latest moronic attention whores spread their shapely waxed legs in the big brother household. i want to but it's probably not true. i want to apologise to cath [...]
cowsarejustfood
Cover Lay Down
Camp Revival
Star Maker Machine
Daft Punk - Lose Yourself to Dance (Simøne Remix)
Sexy Track // “Devil Or Angel” // Lou Doillon
New Diarrhea Planet – “Separations”
HAERTS: “All The Days”
Birthday wishes from Ray Stevens
