Music of the Moment

This band doesn’t cease to amaze me.  The Mammals - Way Down the Old Plank Road, an American folk song



Lady Margaret. Someone I knew, who doesn’t much care for English folk music, didn’t like this song too much. I think it’s amazing, and shows how powerful simple rhythms (the stark banjo playing) and unison harmonies can be. I’m thinking I maybe hear a bit of sitar—the arrangement seems influenced by some of Pentangle’s renditions of other English folk songs. On this album (which is their first studio album) they also have a version of House Carpenter, though different from Pentangle’s.



Later on, after beginning with mostly covers, they hid their own protest songs which they wouldn’t be the Mammals without (including a timely one where Mike Merenda sings about gas that’s fifteen dollars a gallon!), and (part of?) Eisenhower’s farewell address set to music. Earlier on, Ruth Ungar sings Stairway to the Stars accompanied by a lone ukulele. Overall it is quite an eclectic album.

Did someone say doubles?

Freedom is not free. During this holiday weekend please spend some time contemplating all the hardships people have endured & the sacrifices they made including far too many who gave their life. They did it for you & the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Drink a toast to them while enjoying your holiday meals. Never forget.

Rest in peace Sonny Rollins. Now when people say jazz is dead, it will be harder to deny.

Will Cady - What Fills The Gap (feat. Alan Watts)



Rush - Far Cry



Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still

Sounds so much better on CD but…
Watchhouse, “Old Ties and Companions”

Pentangle-Cruel sister (traditional)

A powerful song, and a very ancient one at that. There are versions all over Europe, and at least one in the United States (Wind and Rain). Its more common name is The Two Sisters, along with a Scottish version, sometimes called Binnorie (“by the bonny mill-dams of binnorie”) etc.

One sister murders another out of jealousy by drowning. The sister floats down the river, is found by musicians, and the musicians turn her body into a harp or fiddle (the breastbone as the resonating chamber, the hair as strings). When the instrument is brought before the king, it plays of its own accord and sings an accusation (in another version: “Woe to false Helen!”)