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TransienceJanuary 11, 2008 What I was trying to do at the end of the old year was to add a few work-related expenses to the account for Schedule C (that's a part of Form 1040 that most freelancers have to deal with) purposes, and I did: the 2008 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-ROM, Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Webster's New Biographical Dictionary, and a couple other little things. Well, when the frugal fingers that clutch the purse-strings loosen up for one reason, stuff with other reasons attached tends to slip through, which is how I came to be newly in possession of two more pairs of long underwear, a teal blue/green turtleneck, and a dark red fleece ankle-length zip-up robe that cost a ridiculous amount of money (i.e., more than $40) but I'm wildly in love with it so who cares. I've also acquired nine new music CDs in too short a time to have given them all their due. True, I've been playing Ian Robb's From Different Angels and Finest Kind's Silk & Spices (Finest Kind is Ian Robb, Shelley Posen, and Ann Downey) into the ground, and Chris Smither's Live as I'll Ever Be is heading in the same direction, but one of the others is still shrink-wrapped (I can't wait till all CDs come in cardboard sleeves and minus the goddamn fingernail-splitting shrink-wrap but maybe before then I'll have an iPod and the patience to download everything I want), which means I'm still in the discovery phase. Anyway, here are the new additions, some of which aren't exactly new. Finest Kind, Silk & Spices (2003). "Old songs in close harmony" is what they call it, with the usual caveats, like not all the songs are old, but if you like the Watersons, you'll love these guys. Ian Robb, From Different Angels (1994). There's lots more to this than "Garnet's Home-made Beer," but I'm not sick of that either. "Farmer's Boy" is a great song in close harmony, and the covers of Stan Rogers's "Make and Break Harbour" and "Mary Ellen Carter" are both killers. I'm also partial to Ewan MacColl's "The Big Hewer," based on legends from around Britain of a giant miner. Jemima James, Book Me Back in Your Dreams (2004). Jemima used to live on the Vineyard, and she comes back fairly often because her musician sons, Willy and Sam Mason, are both based here. She's in great voice (think husky, sometimes sly country-western-bluesy) on this one, and the musicianship is fine. Saffire (the Uppity Blues Women), Ain't Gonna Hush! (2001). I picked this unheard out of the Ladyslipper Music online catalogue. Good choice. The Caretaker in Squatters' Speakeasy is a bluesman, and his moochician friends come over to to jam fairly often. They're all guys and so is their music. Finally they've met their match, though they don't know it yet: a woman who sings the blues and other stuff too. Her name (at the moment) is Celia. Some of Saffire's material is almost certainly going to show up in her repertoire, like "It Takes a Mighty Good Man (to Be Better than No Man at All)." Maynard Silva and the New Hawks, Howl at the Moon (1997). Maynard is an island-born-and-bred bluesman, and I've been listening to him as long as I've lived here. He's better live, but most of the good ones are. This is pretty good. Rory Block, The Lady and Mr. Johnson (2006). Rory Block sings the songs of Robert Johnson. Her vocals are a tad too melodramatic for my taste, but her guitaristry is wonderful. The Caretaker doesn't take kindly to the idea that any woman would even try to sing Robert Johnson, though he can't (or won't) explain why he disapproves. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (2007). The Seeger Sessions got me listening to Springsteen again. My only gripe is that good lyrics shouldn't be submerged in the music, even if the music is excellent. Various Artists, Fado: Exquisite Passion (2003). Mama Segredo made me get this one. She's not a musician, but she's got some associations with fado -- which I've heard described as "Portuguese blues," and especially women's blues -- and the only way I'm going to get to her memories is through the music. Chris Smither, Live as I'll Ever Be (2005). Nearly every Smither song I hear on the radio makes me stop everything and listen, but I didn't have any of his CDs, mainly because I didn't know where to start. I was dog-sitting over Thanksgiving, and the dog had several Smithers in her collection. This one said, "Me! Me! Me!" It's got several of my favorites on it -- "No Love Today," "Can't Shake These Blues" (which I didn't realize was a co-write with the awesome Steve Tilston), "Up on the Lowdown," and "Killing the Blues" (don't think I've ever heard a bad cover of that song, but this is the best) -- and the rest of it's great too. I love good liner notes, and Chris Smither's turned out to be something I was needing to read:
Make the necessary translations from song to print and this expresses what I feel about Mud of the Place -- that I wrote it in part so I can get out into a wider world and talk and listen and write some more, and so Mud of the Place can go out on its own and do its own talking, even though it's a permanent representation of a me that doesn't exist anymore. The writing is as ephemeral as the song, even when it leaves traces on the paper.
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