You are currently browsing the archives for the Music category.
The latest musical instalment is actually not the latest at all, but the resurrection of a playlist I made reference to in this post and have now finally got around to publishing. My latest shit is all over the place is a vague reference to Advanced Printmaking 2003 and, I think, Josh Miller or Travis Robertson. The artwork is the Douglas House by Richard Meier whose work I was looking at when this compilation took shape, around this time last year. I kind of listened this one into the ground at one stage, but have recently come to hear it for what it is: a halfway decent collection of very good songs.
The last four tracks were later additions, and somehow don’t fit quite right with the rest of the mix. But they’re great songs too, and I wanted to give value for money.
1. Ain’t Worth the Time ~ Shep And Me
2. Northern Lights ~ Bowerbirds
3. Close My Eyes ~ Arthur Russell
4. Red Ravagers Reel ~ Michael Hurley & Pals
5. Thermal Treasure ~ Polvo
6. Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground ~ Blind Willie Johnson
7. I’ll Write Your Name Through The Fire ~ Shocking Blue
8. Slowness ~ Calexico
9. My Lonely Days ~ Monty Morris
10. Amazon One ~ Sun City Girls
11. Brain Burner ~ No Age
12. Troubled Waters ~ Michael Hurley & Pals
13. Dead Flowers ~ The Rolling Stones
14. West Palm Beach ~ Palace Music
15. It’s Three, Let’s Go ~ Sweet Baboo
Mediafire download: http://www.mediafire.com/?djmyt1yjkdg
Jack McCaslin, friend, printmaker, and musicologist gave me this CD before a trip I took with my family to Morocco. It instantly became a favourite, and my first inroad into what is, I suppose, world music. Despite not knowing a thing about the origins of Gnawa, I have enjoyed listening to the record for years and am finally doing my bit to share the love and pass on the magic. Gnawa music is (originally) North-African religious music, often performed with acrobatics. Wikipedia says that it has become increasingly profane as it has become more modernised. I would like to hear more of the profane, but for now this record remains the only Gnawa music I own.
Apart from being completely rhythmically mesmerising, the performances on record are incredibly energetic. While we were in Morocco I recorded a couple of musical performances on a cruddy dictaphone my dad had. Unfortunately, like similar recordings I made in Tanzania a couple of years later, they have been lost to time. Perhaps I will recover them in a box of mysterious goodies I recently unearthed at my parents house… Either way, enjoy. And if anyone has an Gnawa music kicking around, let me know!
Mediafire download: Gnawa Night Spirit Masters
I have been following the story of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion pretty loosely, and with an emotional response rather than factual interest. For as long as I can remember mines have fascinated and frightened me. It may be due to a made-for-TV film I saw when I was young called Haunters of the Deep. Or it may just be down to the fact that, like most people, the thought of working thousands of feet underground in the dark and claustrophobic spaces of a mine sounds terrifying. And then there’s the black lung, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and all the other respiratory diseases that come with the job. Plus the notoriously low pay for those willing to put up with all the negatives already stacked high against them. All in all, it paints a picture of a pretty grim profession, for low financial return.
When I started to listen to Appalachian old-time music I came across a number of mining songs, prevalent as they are in the coal belt of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Miners, and their plight, have been immortalised in song since early Appalachians (and diggers across the world) first struck coal and the legend of the mine and the strange, soot-covered men that risked their lives in the deep took on a whole new dimension for me. The miner is a labouring man, taking his place next to train drivers, farmers, steel workers and sailors as part of a particular folklore and legend. Miners lives have been immortalised in songs and stories of tragedy, heroism, love and hatred. Blackleg Miner, a British folk song is about hatred towards strikebreakers and the miners who continued to work throughout an industrial action. Coal Miner’s Daughter is a sentimental description of life in a poor mining family, Sixteen Tons is about the mining company (company store), and the power it wields over every aspect in the life of the miner. And there are countless songs about mining disasters and trapped miners, which are about camaraderie and the brotherhood of miners.
Anyway, as I have read about the Upper Big Branch disaster, many of these songs came to mind and I decided to compile them together as a nod to those who were killed deep in the ground and the families they left behind. This is by no means a representative selection of mining songs. It is simply every song about mining I can remember I own. Not all the songs are even specifically about mining. Swannanoa Tunnel is about digging a tunnel and The Recruiting Collier is about a miner press-ganged into service in the army. But you’ll get the idea. And finally, it seems poignant to me that the bodies of 29 miners will be pulled from the ground in West Virginia only to be buried again as this seems to sum up what is so evocative about a mining disaster, and mining in general: a human life spent underground, and eternity spent the same way.
Coal Miner’s Blues
1. Coal Miner’s Blues ~ The Carter Family
2. He’s Only a Miner Killed in the Ground ~ Ted Chesnut
3. Miner’s Prayer ~ Dwight Yoakam
4. Blackleg Miner ~ Richard Thompson
5. Red Jacket Mine Explosion ~ The Phipps Family
6. Dark As A Dungeon ~ Merle Travis
7. Shut Up in Coal Creek Mine ~ Green Bailey
8. My Bonny Miner Lad ~ Shirley Collins
9. The Dying Miner ~ Woody Guthrie
10. The Recruited Collier ~ Anne Briggs
11. Sixteen Tons ~ George Davis
12. Coal Miner’s Daughter ~ Loretta Lynn
13. Coal Creek ~ Roscoe Holcomb
14. Swannanoa Tunnel ~ Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Mediafire download: Coal Miner’s Blues
Finally got together a track list of some recent music I’ve been enjoying entitled Heaven’s Radio, the first of I hope a fairly steady stream of Hackleys special releases. This one is dedicated to Nick whose own generosity provides a sturdy, and substantial foundation to this collection.
1. Seher Vakti ~ Baris Manco
2. Prelude 1 ~ Javad Ma’roufi
3. Zamane ~ Baligh Hamdi
4. As I Walked Out ~ Amps for Christ
5. How You Want It Done ~ Big Bill
6. (I’m The) Song My Enemies Sing ~ Joe Higgs
7. I’m A Young Man ~ Eddie & Ernie
8. Old and Only in the Way ~ Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers
9. Payday at Coal Creek ~ Pete Steele
10. I’ll Fly Away ~ James And Martha Carson
11. They Taught Me ~ Ja’afar Hassan
12. The Fitts Is On Me ~ Owen & Lion
13. Gathering Flowers For The Masters Bouquet ~ The Stanley Brothers
14. Heaven’s Radio ~ The Carter Family
15. The Man that Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man ~ Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright
16. What Are They Doing in Heaven Today? ~ Washington Phillips
17. Under My Thumb ~ The Rolling Stones
18. Days ~ The Kinks
19. I’ll Be Rested (When the Roll is Called) ~ Roosevelt Graves & Brother
20. Boll Weevil ~ Shocking Blue
21. In My Heart ~ The Timetones
22. Sitting On Top Of The World ~ Mississippi Sheiks
23. There’s A Reward ~ Joe Higgs
24. Los Momentos ~ Blops
Mediafire download: http://www.mediafire.com/?ojy45wduvto
I feel happy about my musical intakings over the past month or so. I have broken myself out of the routine of sticking on the same albums and have pretty much steered clear of most things I have heard before. This is because of the generosity of one Nick Barbery who burned 6 DVDs of musical delights for me last year and that I am now, finally, coming to terms with.
The major surprise is how much variety I’m currently able to bear, without curling up into a ball. I am, at this very moment, which is 7:41pm on Thursday evening listening to one of my favourite albums from the Barbery batch which is by Javad Ma’roufi, is called Golden Dreams and Other Romantic Melodies and is some beautiful piano music that, as Nick rightly mentions on his blog, steers pretty close to being sentimental but somehow manages to distance itself enough to just be thoroughly enjoyable and introspective enough. It was immediately accessible, which can be a bad sign, but in this case was not. It has stood up to repeated listens and is one of the few albums I have listened to more than once in recent weeks.
There’s a pretty powerful old-time music vein running through my current listening. Lots from the Kentucky mountains, and some delta blues. John Fahey and Jack Rose have made appearances. Buell Kazee has become a firm favourite, mainly for his voice, and Bascom Lamar Lunsford is always good to me.
What I like most about finding new stuff to listen to every day is that my mood doesn’t attach itself so much to my music anymore; I can just enjoy the experience of a new experience, if you see what I mean. This seems like a pretty obvious conclusion to have come to a long time ago but I feel like I’m only just really realising it. Luckily, most of it has been handed to me on a plate – I haven’t been searching things out for myself which may change, but at present there are enough gems coming at me from friends that I don’t have to do any work for myself.
In my plodding around I have also discovered an English traditional singer I hadn’t heard before, and is clearly incredible: Harry Cox. His version of Just as the Tide was a-Flowing is the finest version I have heard of the song, and is well worth downloading just on its own.
And finally, yesterday I listened to The Blops, a Chilean prog folk group who are amazing. Los Momentos was the highlight track for me.
That’s all for now.
The latest musical instalment is actually not the latest at all, but the resurrection of a playlist I made reference to in this post and have now finally got around to publishing. My latest shit is all over the place is a vague reference to Advanced Printmaking 2003 and, I think, Josh Miller or Travis Robertson. The artwork is the Douglas House by Richard Meier whose work I was looking at when this compilation took shape, around this time last year. I kind of listened this one into the ground at one stage, but have recently come to hear it for what it is: a halfway decent collection of very good songs.
