longwayhome

Our Town

2011-02-14T21:14:00.002Z

Our Town

Kate Rusby

Up the street beside the red neon light
That's where I met my baby on a hot summers night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sat here.

Can't you see the sun's sinking fast
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on then and kiss it goodbye
But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's gonna die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's going down on our town, on our town
Goodnight.

It's where I met my baby and I had my first kiss
I've walked up Main street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
I turned it over once now it won't go far.

Can't you see the sun's sinking fast
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on then and kiss it goodbye
But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's gonna die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's going down on our town, on our town
Goodnight.

Sat here on the poarch I see the lightning bugs fly
I can't see too well for the tears in my eyes
I leave tomorrow and I don't want to go
Oh I love you my town you'll always live in my soul.

I can see the sun's sinking fast
And just like you've said, nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I've got to kiss you goodbye
But I'll hold to my lover 'cause my heart's gonna die.
Go on then and say goodbye to my town, to my town
Can't you see the sun's going down on my town, on my town
I can see the sun's sinking fast
And just like you've said, nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I've got to kiss you goodbye
But I'll hold to my lover 'cause my heart's just died.
Go on then and say goodbye to my town, to my town
I can see the sun's gone down on my town, on my town
Goodnight.

The Cloud Factory

2011-02-14T19:56:00.007Z

Sometimes you hear a song that is so touching and that can speak so tenderly it brings tears. Bill Caddick's song does that. Listen to June Tabor singing on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMYYkDJDUYI

The Cloud Factory
(Bill Caddick)

My father worked in the Cloud Factory,
He'd come home wreathed in dreams each day
My Mother took his cloudy clothes
To brush the threads of dreams away.
She'd scold and say "you and your dreams,
They're just for kids and fools like you."
But Father he'd just wink his eye and smile and say "Are you sure that's true?"

Chorus
My Father taught me how to sing. He sang that dreams were everything,
Can't be bought and can't be sold, More than silver,more than gold.

My Mother thought him fanciful,
She used to chide him all the while,
But me, I thought him wonderful,
Do anything to see him smile.
I used to hear him singing low,
The words are with me to this day:
"You have to hold on to youre dreams or else they simply slip away".

The last time I saw him ill and dying,
The only time I saw him cry.
Too late for dreams to come true now,
As he watched his last cloud rolling by.
Back home she opened windows wide,
And let the clouds out strand by strand
Til all but one had blown away and I caught and kept it in my hand.

My Mother doesn't do much lately
With no more clouds to clear away.
since they closed the factory down
No dreams seem to drift this way.
I found her sitting alone and still,
at first I thought her fasst asleep.
But Father'sd coat lay in her lap and around her feet the dreams lay deep.

Chorus
She said "He taught me how to sing......

Sometimes I pass the disused factory
And gaze into the empty sky,
and if I let the fancy lead me
A dream or two comes drifting by.
Oh I'll teach me children how to sing,
To sing that dreams are everything,
Can't be bought and can't be sold - More than silver, More than gold.

This track from At the Wood's Heart

Childhood moments

2011-02-05T22:29:00.009Z

Along the Ardentinny road that winds down to the beach the low stone walls and trees are covered in lichens and mosses - they are old these walls - round riverboulder topped as west Scotland walls are made to endure. Walking along by them on a chillsnap February day the quiet is precious. On the wet open tussocks a flock of Curlews forages alongside of a gang of Oystercatchers and in the conifer branches there the yellow flash of Siskin. Out on the water of Loch Long the Eider duck oooh! ooh! to each other as though permanently surprised. We walked along the beach - tellins and mussels strewn by the sw gales just yesterday. Just the one pot boat that plies the Clyde for crab to send to eager diners. On this brisk day it was a time for a wee lass to toss pebbles at waves and wonder at things to see. These are fleeting precious moments easily forgot in the bustle of days. A shell in a pocket - a birdsong - a shared smile and holding of hands.
There is an irongrey about a winter beach - a corpsecold wind that nips little fingers. But nobody ails and laughter is singing its own goodtime song. For an adventurous pirate there are trees to climb and things to see and dare. Childhood like this is just the best and what wonder it is to share its moments. What would we now offer to visit its wonder again if but for a few moments. It is for us to make the moments for our children and grandchildren and hope we have made the memories that will be as ours are - precious treasures of times past that made us and gave us the will and need to love life and cherish its future.

Trees don't have to be high - its not the height - its what you can see and imagine when you get there.

June Tabor

2011-01-30T21:19:00.002Z

If you haven't listened to June Tabor then you really need to.
Listen to her here singing a Richard Thompson song - adapted from a Sufi poem - Strange affair.
Martin Simpson's guitar is - as all his work - beyond compare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFpMLE6WIo

The Cuckoo

2011-01-29T16:17:00.012Z

Here is a song collected from Mary Langsworthy in Stoke Fleming South Devon in 1892 by Sabine Baring Gould. He went around the South West of England writing listening to ordinary people - mostly old - sing songs they had sung all their lives and that had been handed down from generation to generation. The Baring Gould manuscripts are in Plymouth Library. Back in the 1960's you could actually use the original manuscripts and this is one of the songs I collected and used myself. It was a well enough known song throughout England and could be found in various early 19th C. publications. The theme of the song seems to be that the inconstant lover is first likened to a Cuckoo that is a rover and lastly to a Sycamore which drops its leaves early.

The Cuckoo

The Cuckoo is a pretty bird she sings as she flies
Her bringeth good tidings her telleth no lies
Her sucketh sweet floers to keep her voice clear
And when she sings cuckoo the summer draweth near.

O meeting is a pleasure but parting is griewf
An inconstant lover is worse than a thief
A thief can but rob me of all that I have
But an inconstant lover wil send me to the grave.

The grave will receive me and bring me to dust
An inconstant lover no maiden can trust
They'll court you and kiss you poor maids to deceive
There's not one in twenty that one may beleive

Come all you fair maidens wherever you may be
Don't hang your poor hearts on the Sycamore tree
The leaf it will wither the roots will decay
And if I'm forsaken I persih away.

Here is a scan of the melody with chords.

EDEN ROCK

2010-08-11T18:16:00.011Z

They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:
My father, twenty five, in the same suit
Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack
Still two years old and trembling at his feet.

My mother twenty-three, in a sprigged dress
Drawn at the waist, ribbon her straw hat,
Has sperad the stiff white cloth over the grass.
Her hair the colour of wheat, takes on the light.

She pours tea from a Thermos, the milk straight
From an old H.P. Sauce bottle, a screw
Of paper for a cork; slowly sets out
The same three plates, the tin cups painted blue.

The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.
My mother shades her eyes and looks my way
Over the drifted stream. My father spins
A stone along the water. Leisurely,

They beckon to me from the other bank.
I hear them call, 'See where the stream path is!
Crossing is not so hard as you might think.'

I had not thought that it would be like this.

I ain't gonna give you none of my jellyroll

2010-07-22T17:56:00.006Z

"I ain't gonna give you none of my jellyroll"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtG5YrQ-lY

"Sweet Emma" Barrett (March 25, 1897, New Orleans, Louisiana – January 28, 1983) was a self-taught jazz pianist and singer who worked with the Original Tuxedo Orchestra between 1923 and 1936,^[1] first under Papa Celestin, then William Ridgely. Also active with Armand Piron, John Robichaux, and Sidney Desvigne, Sweet Emma Barrett was at her most powerful in the early 1960s and became an iconic figure with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

In 1947, she accepted a steady job at a local club, Happy Landing, but it was her 1961 recording debut, with her own album in the Riverside Records New Orleans: The Living Legends series, that brought her recognition from beyond the Crescent City. According to the liner notes of this album, these were her first recording performances as a vocalist, most of the songs on the album were instrumentals.

She was nicknamed, Bell Gal, because she wore a red skull cap and garters with Christmas bells that jingled in time with her music. She was featured on the cover of Glamour magazine and written up in publications on both sides of the Atlantic. When the Preservation Hall Jazz Band began to "hit the road", she took it on international tours. Barrett toured in the United States as well, including a stint at Disneyland in 1963.

Despite the popular exposure she received at concerts and overseas appearances, Barrett continued to feel most comfortable in her native New Orleans, especially the French Quarter. In 1963, on her album The Bell Gal And Her Dixieland Boys Music, Barrett sings on four of the eight songs and heads two overlapping groups. While she is joined throughout by banjoist Emanuel Sayles, bassist Placide Adams, and drummer Paul Barbarin, four songs feature trumpeter Alvin Alcorn, trombonist Jim Robinson and clarinetist Louis Cottrell, Jr.; the remaining four numbers have trumpeter Don Albert, trombonist Frog Joseph and clarinetist Raymond Burke. Overall, this set gives listeners a good sampling of the sound of New Orleans jazz circa 1963 and is one of the few recordings of Barrett mostly without the regular members of what would become the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Robinson and Sayles excepted). The ensemble-oriented renditions of such numbers as "Big Butter and Egg Man", "Bogalusa Strut", and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"' are rendered with fun and joy.^[2]

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band made a brief appearance in the 1965 film, The Cincinnati Kid, which featured Barrett as vocalist and pianist for the band and included a close-up of her.

In 1967, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side, but she continued to work and occasionally, to record, until her death in 1983

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE IN THE WORLD!

2010-07-18T19:56:00.003Z

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE IN THE WORLD! OK – here are things you need for very best choc cake of all time!! 2 round 8” baking trays line with a circle of gproof paper and smear with margarine so they cake will not stick electric blender to mix it all Next . . . . . oven at 180C or Gas 4 50g/20z cocoa powder (sift if lumpy) 6 tbspn boiling water 3 eggs 20ml/4floz milk 175g/6oz self raising flour (if plain add 3 lev tsps of baking powder!! 100g/40z margarine 275g/10oz castor sugar put cocoa in blender bowl add boiling water bit by bit – blend together – scrape all down from sides too add rest of ingredients – blend well until smooth and thick share equal into two baking trays – middle of oven for 20 –25 mins until fairly firm in centre remove firm oven - let cool for 15 mins put on tray or something – (tip upside down on left hand – and upside down on tray ok – two halves made put coating of apricot or some other jam on one half Now the icing – easy you need – 50g/2oz butter 50g/2oz icing sugar 2 round tblsps cocoa powder put butter sugar and 6 tblspns water in pan heat until butter is melted and sugar dissolved – boil for 5 mins sieve icing sugar and cocoa together – no lumps see add bit by bit some of the liquid – beat with mixer until it looks glossy should stay on spoon – if runny add a bit more sugar done put layer of icing on top of jam put other half of cake on top coat of with rest of icing – swirl with knife – careful ‘cause cake is soft! die for this cake – soft moist – perfect with ice cream
from Isle of Skye – Moyra Mackenzie

time and tide

2010-06-07T11:32:00.002Z

In the time it takes a tear to trace
a salty line upon your face
the earth has spun a little more
and wet the pebbles on your shore.

In the time it takes the tide to turn,
you might take the time to learn
that a sea will erode over many years
this place you've wasted all these tears.

Louisiana 1927

2010-04-29T19:01:00.005Z

Randy Newman's song Louisiana 1927 about the great flooding of New Orleans - August 29th 2005 which became an anthem for the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. In the city the storm surge caused more than 50 breaches in drainage canal levees and also in navigational canal levees and precipitated the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.5 m) of water. Ninety percent of the residents of southeast Louisiana were evacuated in the most successful evacuation of a major urban area in the nation's history. Randy Newman is one of the great songwriters - no doubt. Find him out if you don't know that.

Martin Simpson does this with great feeling and style - as he always does. Listen to him here performing in California.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3nv4vdASBQ

Its a typically graceful and stylish accompaniment using a CGCFCD tuning which, though not hard on the fingerboard, requires subtle timing and intonation to make it move under the melody as Martin makes it. If you need the Tab it is available on his site
http://www.martinsimpson.com/

If you haven't played in this tuning before - once you have you will want to.

Sammy's Bar - Cyril Tawney

2010-04-06T11:27:00.006Z

Sammy's Bar - Cyril Tawney

My first venture onto the folk scene was at a pub in Devonport (Plymouth) in around 1965 as a young and aspiring guitar player who had heard Davy Graham. Running this club was Cyril Tawney who went on to be a broadcaster and professional folk singer for 44 years - a record he proudly held. I remember the evening well. I was introduced to Cyril and he asked me if I wanted to do a spot. I did and made a nervous stab at Seven Gypsies (a la D. Graham). Later on Cyril asked me to join in one one of his songs - simple enough he said and indeed I tinkled along happily.The song was Sammy's Bar. I have never forgotten it or stopped singing it along with Cyril's other songs.

Here it is

I went down to Sammy's Bar

Hey, the last boat's a'leavin

By the shore at Pieta

Haul away the daighsoe

And my real love, she was there
There was sand all in her hair

How did sand get in your hair
Darling Johnny put it there

Been with Johnny all the day
Down at Ghajn Tuffheija Bay

He's a better man by far
Because he's got a Yankee car

I went out from Sammy's Bar
Had to hire a Yankee car

Fourteen days I drank no wine
Saving for that love of mine

Then one day in Paula square
At a paper I did stare

Johnny tried a hairpin bend
For my love, it was the end

Going back to Sammy's Bar
I don't need no Yankee car

Cyril Tawney (12 October 1930– 21 April 2005, Exeter.)

Here is Cyril's site - http://www.cyriltawney.co.uk

Thank you Cyril - for the memories and the songs.

Conservative credibility

2010-04-06T11:17:00.006Z

Of the 31 of David Cameron's Cabinet - 18 have public/private school backgrounds. Can these people really have any inkling what it is like to be without, hard up, in poverty, at the bottom, feel despair, loss of self respect, loss of community etc etc

VOTE AGINST FASCISM

2010-04-05T21:47:00.006Z

Stepping stones to power

David Williams discusses why today's BNP presents a far more serious political threat than the 1970s National Front.

The British National Party is determined to contest more seats than any British extreme-right party ever before. With over 160 candidates declared for the general election at the time of writing, the BNP appears well on track to reach its target.

The figure the BNP has to beat is the 303 candidates that the National Front (NF) fielded in the 1979 general election. However, their average vote of 1.5% was the end of the road for the NF, which had overreached itself and imploded. Out of the ruins was born the BNP, founded in 1982.

Unfortunately there are few comparisons between today’s BNP challenge and that of the NF.

The NF had never really been interested in contesting elections for their own sake, preferring a more violent path. It believed it could rise to power if it could “kick our way into the headlines” through demonstrations and marches in an attempt to “control” the streets.

Nevertheless the NF did contest elections and occasionally achieved some notable results. In 1973 Martin Webster, the NF’s national activities organiser, polled 16% in a by-election in West Bromwich. This compares favourably with the 16% that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, polled in Oldham West and Royton in the 2001 general election and the 17% that Richard Barnbrook won in 2005, the highest percentage achieved by the BNP at a general election to date.

Nick griffin leading a National Front march

However the NF was not geared organisationally towards contesting elections in the same sustained manner in which the BNP has focussed on cultivating wards and constituencies in recent years.

The NF believed that its support, which was concentrated in the West Midlands and Greater London, would simply filter outwards but did little to facilitate such growth. NF support experienced two distinct spikes related to the influx of Asian immigrants in 1972 and 1976. BNP support in contrast, although similarly concentrated in pockets of the country, shows some sign that it is transcending the regionalisation of its core support base.

Since emerging as an electoral threat in 2001-02, the BNP has fielded increasing numbers of candidates at local and general elections. It currently has 56 council seats, one member in the London Assembly and two MEPs.

BNP support appears less volatile than that of the NF, which has given the BNP a measure of electoral stability that the NF never managed to achieve.

There is another crucial factor, which invalidates any comparison with the 1979 general election. The BNP’s fortunes are still rising; the NF in 1979 was already in decline, which its appalling showing in the general election that year only helped accelerate. The party was in poor shape after being wracked by splits in the middle of the decade, which the temporary boost given to the NF by the arrival of the Malawi Asians in 1976 served to mask. The party polled strongly in the 1976 local election and in the following year fielded more than 400 council election candidates across the country, achieving 235,000 votes.

In the 1977 Greater London Council election the NF stood in all but one of the 92 seats and took 119,000 votes, over 5% of the total. In Hackney South the NF polled 19%. This was the peak of the NF’s electoral achievement.

The BNP is simply not in the same position. Griffin is more realistic about his prospects and is standing for Parliament in Barking largely to boost his party’s attempt to win the main prize, namely control of Barking and Dagenham council.

The BNP has implemented a “ladder strategy” – securing one tier of government before contesting the next – something that was beyond the resources and strategic imagination of the NF. However, it offers the BNP its most realistic chance of putting down enduring roots in Barking and Dagenham.

In addition, the BNP is operating in a different political context. In the 1970s Margaret Thatcher led a resurgent right-wing Conservative Party that won support on the back of campaigning against immigration. There was also a strong left, both inside and outside the Labour Party, which acted as a pole of attraction for working-class militants.

These factors are not present today. David Cameron is desperate to divest the Conservative Party of its right-wing image but is widely disliked by the type of working-class Tories who flocked to Thatcher in 1979. The left is considerably weaker than in the past and less involved in the lives of working-class communities. The vacuum, on the left and the right, is now being occupied by the BNP.

It has taken the BNP a long time to reach this position. After founding the BNP in 1982, John Tyndall perhaps unsurprisingly remained committed to the same failed strategy as he had followed while leader of the NF.

The BNP would have to wait more than a decade for its first whiff of electoral success, with the election of a councillor in Tower Hamlets in a by-election. The party lost the seat in the council elections seven months later and it would be another decade before it began to focus on elections and grassroots campaigning. Unlike Tyndall, however, Griffin has belatedly learned many of the lessons of the past, making the BNP and the threat it poses in the forthcoming general election a very different proposition.

Some argue that the BNP is overstretching itself by fielding so many candidates in the general election. However, the position of the BNP today cannot be compared with that of the NF in 1979. Contesting a large number of seats will give the BNP legitimacy, a free mail shot to millions of voters and television airtime. With many of its candidates likely to save their deposits, the BNP will see the money paid out as a good political investment.

MY COMMENT :

BNP can believe what they will. Personally I find their views repulsive. What I also care about is the adoption and then corruption of folk music - the tradtion, the heritage, the musicians and the heriatge they uphold that is being used for scurrilous political propoganda. I have been a folkie all my life - some 50 years and while music comments and satirises - it does now represent racist political parties - not for me. The Nazi party used Wagner - BNP want to use Kate Rusby - its obscene.

Give your support to Folk Against Fascism - go here :

http://www.folkagainstfascism.com

and go here . . . . http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/

2010-03-02T20:27:00.004Z

The redwing is most commonly encountered as a winter bird and is the UK's smallest true thrush. Its creamy strip above the eye and orange-red flank patches make it distinctive. At a first glance you see a regular Thrush but the splash of red gets you looking twice. They roam across the UK's countryside, feeding in fields and hedgerows, rarely visiting gardens, except in the coldest weather when snow covers the fields. This has been so during this rather snowy winter and we've had them in our garden here in Argyll. Also heard owls which is unusual so close in - hard times for themthis winter.

About Folk Against Fascism

2010-03-02T20:14:00.004Z

About Folk Against Fascism

The British National Party’s manifesto encourages its members to insinuate themselves into the folk and traditional customs of Britain. This involves the appropriation of British folk music and culture as a means of spreading its peculiar brand of racism and intolerance.

The UK folk scene is a welcoming and inclusive one; folk music and dance have always been about collaboration, participation, communication and respect. Folk Against Fascism has been created to take a stand against the BNP’s targeting of folk music, a stand against the appropriation of our culture. Folk Against Fascism isn’t a political party or a bureaucratic, top-heavy organisation. It is any and all of us who want to make ourselves aware of the BNP’s bigoted view of our history and culture, and who want to do something about it.
The BNP want to take our music, want to twist it into something it isn’t; something exclusive, not inclusive. We must not let them. Folk Against Fascism is a way to demonstrate our anger at the way the BNP wants to remodel folk music in its own narrowminded image.

The BNP’s Activists and Organisers Handbook encourages its members to get involved in the folk scene; Folk Against Fascism aims to make such infiltration impossible, with support coming from all sections of the folk community. We can be found on the web and at various folk clubs and festivals, and we encourage people to organise and support events in their own area.

If you sign up to our newsletter you’ll receive updates and information on Folk Against Fascism events. We are currently organising a series of large-scale concerts to be held starting next year, but also encourage people to join the group, set up shows, distribute our stickers, badges and T Shirts, or simply pass on information to friends. If you’re a Folk club or organisation, you can affiliate to Folk Against Fascism.

“Maybe I should talk to you about fascism. It is a big word and it hides in some pretty little places. And it is nothing in the world but greed for profit and greed for the power to hurt and make slaves out of the people. Fascism and freedom are the only two sides battling.”

Woody Guthrie

Wherever you are in the world - add your voice by joining and supporting today.

http://www.folkagainstfascism.com

Swooping Molly- Martin Simpson

2010-01-22T09:53:00.006Z

Martin Simpson is, for me and many, a guitarist and composer of such unique quality, skill and sensitivity to theme and interpretation he is unsurpassed. I've listened to many guitarists over the years - played with a few - but Martin's ability to arrange and develop both accompaniments and compositions is second to none. He can take a song and give it a totally different colouring with use of tunings and deft left hand and use his great singing voice to give sincerity I just keep returning to. I've been trying to play like Martin for a while - using his techniques and phrasings. Sometimes successful to an extent but never anywher near his skill use of tone and attack. If you haven't heard his music - traditional folk, American blues with superb slide guitar and wonderful banjo - get out today and do so. If you are a guitarist - go sooner.

Swooping Molly is one of Martin's recent compositions - you can discover the meaning of the title when you get the CD. Its played in CGDGCD - a tuning he uses a lot and which I really enjoy playing in. You can get Martin's Tab for this on his site from Brass Tacks. http://www.martinsimpson.com/
Its a tricky piece mainly because you have to be nimble to keep up with it and its easy to rush and hard to gain Martin's fluidity and clarity. Its basically two sections with repeats and some variation. The Tab is Ok but you need to listen to the music too. Wavepad is handy for replaying parts..

Here is Martin playing the haunting Granuaile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piK4Lwm4Y9k&feature=relate

and here ae some extracts of him at a gig at Arts Centre in Shoreham by sea, West Sussex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijzEBNpYngk

Enjoy.

2010-01-08T15:13:00.007Z

As if we need this to tell us its a wee bit cold. You can see our snowman (personage)- its 397th left from a very cold bit in the Highlands! Its been hard on small birds though and I've broken the ice in the water and left loads of fatnutsseeds stuff out for them. We have a tame pigeon who calls around now and then and jumps on a hand that contains visible peanuts.
Huge icicles this year too. Our heating broke down and we lived very cold for four days - a few heaters and lots of candles and hw bottles. You survive.It doesn't take much to bring things to a halt though really in this country. I can't see us surviving the next ice age like our ancestors did. At least there'll be no Big Blubber to want us to not want to!
Hope you all get on ok.

This is a strange affair

2009-10-31T22:56:00.009Z

This is a strange affair.
One of many many fine songs by this man and some I have played for a long time. You can look him up for yourself, not look back and gain much. His song 'This is a strange affair' is, for me, one of the most moving of all songs. You can see Linda his wife singing it on the Tube but when I heard June Tabor singing it with Martin's (Simpson) guitar (the best of the best of all musicians for me) it was one of those times you have to try it. I can play the guitar part just well enough to get by but my wife can sing it with lovely feeling and we are moved. Martin accompanies with such skill so hear June and Martin here - if you or someone have time past and passing in your life you will hear the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVFpMLE6WIo&feature=related

Blackberry time

2009-09-15T11:36:00.004Z

We managed to catch the last of these up along the loch - scratches and yelps later and we had a bucketful apart from the ones that were eaten along the way. Blackberries are really good food and full of antioxidants and omega 3 - whatever they are. Personally I think they triumph in Blackberry & Apple pie but here is our recipe for Blackberry wine - chateau longwayhome.

4lb Blackberries
3lb Sugar
1 Gallon water
Yeast
Pectic Enzyme

Wash berries well - small maggots hide in 'em.
Put fruit in a basin and crush well with a wood spoon.
Pour over the gallon of boiling water.
Leave until lukewarm - add the pectic enzyme according to instructions.
next day add the yeast.
Cover and leave for 4/5 days - stir every day.
Strain through net or muslim onto the 3lb of sugar. Stir well.
Pour into a dark fermenting jar - just to the shoulder of the jar. Fit an air lock.
Keep the spare stuff in a bottle plugged with c.wool. Keep an eye on for a week to see if it is going to erupt through the airlock - if all ok add the leftover stuff.
Keep in a dark warmich place.
Wait until it clears and rack off into bottles. Keep for a year - (if you can) but taste occasionally to check it is ok.

John Martin

2009-09-07T14:12:00.004Z

Ever heard of him? Many other people I ask haven't either. Maybe where you are that that is reasonable but up here in Scotland it is just a sadness. if you haven't go to this place on You Tube and listen to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLNnzrlim-4&feature=PlayList&p=5DDD1F72895684EB&index=0&playnext=1
John died just before Christmas last year and gave his last performance in Glasgow -home town - just a couple of months before.
You can see this on the Tube too if you look.
I've been listening to John since the 70's and playing some of his songs. I think he is the finest songwriter ever to come out of Glasgow and think he should have a statue in George Square.
His music explored all avenues - his songs recorded by so many - his asscoiations and contributions read like a musical Who's Who
Quote - Folk? Blues? Jazz? Rock? Reggae? Trip Hop? Funk? John refuses to conform to any particular music genre whilst simultaneously embracing them all. Without fail he always takes the less travelled road in search of new experiences and inspirations. The diversity and quality of John's music is undeniably stunning. A virtuoso musician with a voice to melt the coldest of hearts.
He never made the mainstream or the big lights but year after year produced music of such intense emotion and diversity.
Here is his site - www.johnmartyn.com - treat yourself. Listen to him singing Hurt in Your Heart and not be moved.

George Butterworth

2009-09-03T15:10:00.004Z

It has been since 2007 since I did this place. If you start something keep going. Unless its falling off a high building or watching Big Brother in which case revise rules fast.
Ask people who George Butterworth was and you too often get a shrug. This is a dire sorrow becaue if you are English (or would like to be (form an orderkly queue of 6 here)) you should at least onece listen to his music. Along Ralph Vaughan Williams and Elgar who is quintessentially romantic, bucolic english. He was born 1885 and between 1911 and 1912, he composed two of the most enduring cycles of British song: Bredon Hill and Other Songs and Six Songs from “A Shropshire Lad”, both settings of Housman poems. His career was brutally cut short, however; after enlisting with the British Army in World War I, he eventually became a company commander with the Durham Light Infantry. On 5th August 1916, while leading a raid at the Somme, he was killed by a sniper; he received a Military Cross during that battle, and was posthumously honoured at the Thiepval Memoria. For me his The Banks of Green Willow is a defining picture of english countryside. Everytime I travel through Somerset I play it as I pass Brent Knoll and anytime else.
If you haven't - go make a cuppa- find a quiet spot in the garden with a player and do yourself a favour. Or go here to Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Q9dz1kse8&feature=PlayList&p=479539E66953DA65&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=34

Cornish Pasty

2008-06-07T14:42:00.010Z

I have been asked by some to throw in a recipe for a real Cornish pasty. Now this is a dangerous venture because A) I'm not Cornish and B) everyone in Cornwall thinks they have the best recipe. Mine is simple and I believe it should be because it was a workmans meal and not 'posh nosh' rubbish - it was meant to feed a working man.

It was probably the first complete take-away meal originally designed for the Cornish miner and farmer who was away working all day and needed a meal but had no facilities to prepare one. The reason the filling was contained in a pastry case with a thick crust along one side was to hold on to, especially as their hands were dirty or tainted with tin, copper or iron. Often in previous times this was discarded or fed to "The Cornish Knockers" (ghosts of dead colleagues said to haunt the mines). The traditional filling was meat or fish, potato, onion, turnip and a little butter or cream.The housewife prepared these daily for the man of the house and for the children who took them to work or school. It was the staple diet of the Cornish for many years. As the mines in Cornwall declined and "Cousin Jack" travelled extensively to find work this recipe went with him and still today one can still find small outcrops of societies all over the world producing the Cornish pasty, especially in Australia, South Africa, Canada and America.

Here is the recipe I have used and it works.

Pastry

You need:

500 gms strong bread flour
120 gms white shortening
25 gms cake margarine
5 gms salt
175 gms cold water

Mix fat lightly into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.Add water and beat in a food mixer until pastry clears and becomes elastic. This will take longer than normal pastry but it gives the pastry the strength that is needed to hold the filling and retain a good shape.Leave to rest for 3 hours in a refrigerator, this is a very important stage as it is almost impossible to roll and shape the pastry when fresh

FILLING

You need:
450 gms good quality beef skirt
450 gms potato
250 gms Swede
200 gms onion
Salt & pepper to taste( 2/1 ratio)
Clotted cream or butter

Chop the above finely then add to the rolled out circles of pastry raw. Layer the vegetables and meat adding plenty o f seasoning. Put the dollop of cream or a knob of butter on top. Then bring the pastry around and crimp together. The crimping bit takes practice.

Fan assisted 165 approx 40 min (bit hotter and longer in an ordinary oven I guess)

Swede or Turnip?

People get these either way around - here in Scotland they call them the other way they do in Devon. In Cornwall I believe the round yellow one is the Turnip.

Do not use carrots - ever - it is never never used in a true pasty.

a little scrap of life and death

2008-06-02T15:20:00.004Z

Its amazing how a little scrap of life can find their way into your life and your heart and yet you don't realise just how much until they've gone.
This was Rooney the Love Bird who is no more.
I put his cage outside on a sunny Sunday and somehow he managed to escape. The last we saw of him he was loudly shrieking at passing birds and promising severe times if he caught up with them.
Sad though - he was such a part of our daily life - we talked to him when we went by him - he whistled to us and he was a real character that bought so much happiness and enjoyment into our home.
He will not have lasted long outside - he was born a cage bird and would not be able to feed or defend against wild birds.
I take a bit of comfort from thinking that at least he went out free and flying even if only for a short time - rather than quietly going on the cage floor. How you do get attached to wee scraps of life though.

The Oggy Man

2008-05-30T19:27:00.016Z

Cyril Tawney (1930 – 2005)

I first started to sing and play guitar as a young lad at a pub in Devonport in Plymouth which Cyril hosted in the late 1960's.
I have always said that whatever I have done since owes it to his songs and singing and I still sing his songs to this day as many others have done.

I have been asked before about the 'oggy man' and what an oggy is.
The song was written by Cyril - longest performing singer in the country, incidentally, who sadly passed away in Exeter in 2005.

His song the oggy man is, as all Cyril's songs, straight to the heart whether in pathos or humour. This is an exquisite gem of a song.
It helps if you know the background to the song . . . . . .

Before the war (WWII) in the old days, you could buy oggies at many places in Plymouth, but sailors coming back to the Dockyard last thing at night were most likely to get them from the man who sold them from a box outside the Albert Gate.

Before the war the Oggie Man had no competition, simply because there was no room for any. The Blitz, however, cleared a space right opposite his pitch, and in the late Forties first one, then two or three, caravan snack bars appeared on this bomb site, selling a variety of snacks, not just oggies. It was only a matter of time before the Oggie Man, as such, disappeared, either to retire from business or to get his own caravan and join the others. In the song, this change has taken place while the sailor has been away.

Picture a dark evening in the rain outside an old Dockyard gate in Devonport Plymouth . . . .

and slowly sing . . . . .

Oggy Man

Well the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more
I can't hear him calling like I used to before

I came through the gateway and I heard the sergeant say
The big boys are coming, see their stand across the way

Yes the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more

It was there that she told me when she bade me good bye
There's no one will miss you one half as much as I

My love will endure, dear,like a beacon in the squall
Eternal as the oggy man beneath the dockyard wall

Well the rain's softly falling and the oggy man's no more

Beautiful isn't it?

Cyril's wife Rosemary keeps the official site where you can learn about the man, other songs and buy recordings - do yourself a favour and do that.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cyriltawney/enter.htm

You get oggys - or pasties as they are more often known nowadays all over the world where ever Cornish people went. They were often taken by tin miners because they were easy to handle and contained a meal in one. What is a real oggy - and how do you make it - there's another blog and some risky territory.

Beryl Cook

2008-05-28T18:03:00.008Z

Sad to hear that Beryl has gone - a wonderful British painter.
I knew Plymouth in the 1960's - played at a Folk Club at Devonport and first heard Cyril Tawney sing 'The Oggy Man'. Another item to tell that one - Prince Albert Gate at Devonport Dockyard.
Union Street Plymouth - famous in every port in the world - haunt of sailors and ladies was just the colourful and vibrant place that can be seen in Beryls pictures. She paints the action , the fun and the characters she has seen. Here is description from her web site . . . . . .
" . . . . there is nothing dark in her world. The appeal of Beryl Cook’s paintings is their directness, exuberance and the instant laughter they create. Her characters are always enjoying themselves to the full. Beryl is the least pretentious of painters and an artist in the same tradition as Breughel, though perhaps via Donald McGill! She was described by Victoria Wood as ‘Rubens with jokes’.

Beryl Cook’s work is particularly interesting when viewed in the context of the tradition of British social realist painting and she could easily be described as a contemporary Hogarth or Gilray, although she has a more sympathetic view of the human race. She is like those painters above all a social observer. She records human frailties and the absurdities of human behaviour with her own unique vision."

Go visit her work - maybe you can afford to buy a painting!

http://www.berylcook.org

having a moan

2008-05-28T11:55:00.010Z

I enjoyed teaching in the 70's in South Devon - there was the freedom to be spontaneous, take children to adventures and make memories. At one time I had Gerbils, ducklings, fish, rabbits and even a couple of lambs for a week - children used to arrive at 8.00 in the morning and be prised away in the afternoon. They could all read well, knew arithmetic, had manners and were curious and interested about learning. They were outdoors a lot more, ate better, were active and could entertain themselves better.
There was no trace yet of was the track suited sullen youth walking around with a phone permanently fastened to its face, eating junk and staring mindlessly at a game console or television for hours a day.
Teachers and school, if not always enjoyed, were respected and were empowered to set standards and codes of behaviour.
It wasn't perfect - far from it - and there were some really poor schools and teaching. There was the need to review and change curriculum and teaching for sure - it was, at its worst, a wandering and liberal self indulgence education experience.
The change however, when it squirmed forth as the National Curriculum was a catastrophe and in true 'baby and bathwater' many values, excellent practices and teachers were wasted.
The N.C. - often concocted by people with little real experience of schools or child learning, caused anguish and turmoil and became a monster that schools were unable to manage effectively. Staff were ill trained in it, schools were underfunded for it and once motivated teachers were bludgeoned into being tickers of boxes and forced to parrot a sterile and target based curriculum.
It was a time of nightmares, late nights filling in endless record sheets, and being part of a system with a high built in failure factor. Very demoralising and soul destroying for thousands of dedicated teachers who , like me, fell out of love with the job. More energy went into administering the Curriculum than in delivering quality teaching.
I heard recently that in Scotland they are moving back into a project and enquiry based curriculum to try and raise standards and child enthusiasm. I also note that SATs are not considered to be a good idea. We could have told them all that 25 years ago.
Having said all that, I admire teachers today. -They are, from the ones I know, hard working and trying to do the best while battling against awful attitudes and low motivation.
I do not however envy them.
I see the older youth in Secondary education become part of a cynical, careless and gimme culture that has scant respect and ever declining values - I pity them and see why some use the phrase 'the lost generation'. I see younger children in Primary schools being forced or enticed into adult attitudes and perceptions and childhood more and more truncated.
Of course there were problems 30 years ago and yes, its easy to look back and remember only the summers that seemed to last longer then. But there was also a more optimistic and happier society than there is now - not the 'must have' greed, banal television programming that rakes up ever more cheap, degrading, cynical and lewd trash it can throw at the public it can get away with. And yes - I will say it - I believe children were happier and more stable.

So, truly, I feel sorry for young people growing up today and having to cope with the pressures put uppn them in so many ways. Most youngsters are OK people - trying to do well and treat their world and people fairly but the values they are having to handle are too often driven by the worst of attitudes and behaviour to the point it becomes cool to be bad. Young people will always be ambivalent and emulate the outrageous but what they given to emulate today is just scary.
What I see generating the standards is not the best of young people but a low, base and unpleasant culture that expresses the worst of attitudes and behaviour as acceptable. Media, fashion and music all cash in on to promote and sell to a teenage customer base that nowadays has spending power unheard of in my day. Along with others, I have watched standards increasingly devalued and wasted by the 'do-good' influence that broadens the tolerance of low morality, poor standards and appalling behaviour to the point where teenage deaths are now regular and some old foolish old dollop this week whines about it being unfair to stop thugs and search them for knives. Try telling that to the parents of a youth stabbed to death.

If we are prepared to tolerate our children growing up in standards from the gutter what hope is there for our society? Is it too late anyway?

MELDREW I sound like for sure. So be it.

the song the linnet sings

2008-05-25T07:19:00.004Z

I have never actually seen a Linnet until one popped onto the seed pot on the bird table early on this morning.
At first glance I saw Sparrow until it turned and the red colouring showed. It is a pretty little finch and a bit like a Twite which very occasionally wander down from the hillside.
It didn't sing so I still have yet to hear its beautiful song reason it was kept as a cage bird by Victorians.
Since it has been under threat it is good to know there are some of these lovely little songbirds still around. I couldn't get to my camera in time so I have borrowed this photo from a superb photography site www.djsphotography.co.uk - hope they don't mind! Go see for yourself how to photograph wild birds!

to be or not to be

2008-05-25T06:58:00.004Z

For a child - what is the most dangerous place to be in the U.K?
Frighteningly - the womb. According to Anne Widdicombe 200.000 unborn children have their lives terminated every year.
If that was a child mortality rate - or criminal figure the United Nations would be involved!
She went on to observe that of two children, out of the womb at the same time, in the same country one can have all the care, love and attention possible lavished on it while the other is left to die - unwanted and less than garbage. I don't have fixed views on abortion and tend, as many do , to wander about in the rather dangerous middle and undecided territory because I can see arguments for and against. Also I am am man and have no right to make decisions for another person's body in this sense. Perhaps I am, in maybe a cowardly way I admit , thankful that, as a man, I have never had to make such a terrible decision for I cannot imagine the emotional pain and grief it must be for some women who have had to.

Evolution

2008-04-30T17:55:00.006Z

My daughter is studying Archeology at University and had to give a presentation debating whether our development was due to Darwinistic model of evolution. She is way beyond me in understanding how this this works or most other things by now but it is an interesting notion to throw around. My understanding of the Darwin idea is that things change is the need for adaptation in order to survive. Well that's my simple notion of it anyway. If that's true then all that we are today is the result of the need to adapt.
This is some archaeologists primary interpretative tool - I am told.
I have a problem with that in some ways because while I can accept that paintings like the Lascaux ones above may have been re-enactments to empower hunters I find it a struggle to fit Monet's Lily Pond paintings, a Mozart Symphony or a poem by Walt Whitman as merely a desperate struggle to adapt in order to survive. Change, experimentation yes - survival of the fittest no.
Its just too mechanical for me. It denies that people, whenever, made, created, invented, thought, dreamed or created because they just wanted to and because it excited them and gave aesthetic pleasure for its own sake..
As usual I am probably missing the point and archaeologists would send for warm milk and a blanket for the poor old sod. I just get hacked off sometimes with Science thinking that everything has to be objectively quantified and explained without expression from the soul.
Nobody will ever convince me that the person who painted those wonderful vibrant animals on that cave wall was merely creating a utility wallpaper hunting manual.

Mornington Crescent

2008-04-28T18:00:00.004Z

Having listened to ISIHAC for decades now and mentioning same at the Company Relaxation and Gossip Suite ( Water Cooler) today I was asked about this most British of games that was a regular feature of the show. As most people know it is based around the London Underground layout and its decorative and charming station names. Played at a starter level most people with even a moderate I.Q. soon grasp the basic rules and quickly pick up the basic game which I must say honestly is best learned by watching some more experienced players rather than trying to grapple with the complexities of the rule book. After a while more subtle strategies can be introduced such as a Baker Street impasse or the ever popular if sometimes cruel Finchley Road Fortitude. These are not to difficult to employ but can entangle the novice onto seemingly endless circles. It is for the Intermediate players with some years experience - 26 in my case - that the nuances and subtleties become a complex of 'side moves' and 'undercut reveals' (known as 'coddles') . Now the game is played for serious and while banter and humour are heard it often serves to disguise and conceal real intent that may be given away with an accidental twitch or lip movement. Many a game has been closed due to an waywardly ascending eyebrow. Being able to finesse with a 'marble arch' and send a hapless opponent far away on another circle is every players goal. A usual game can last for hours and the record I believe was for a game lasting over 2 1/2 days uninterrupted. For the player who has employed maybe four or five 'coddles' and battled against masterful opponents to be finally able to close the game with final triumphant "Mornington Crescent!" is a moment to be relished. Of course the beauty of MC is that it can be played anywhere and requires only a copy of the London Underground. These can be purchased from HM Stationers or reputable bookshop and travel versions on silk are available from the MC website. If you are tired of the usual drivelling T.v. soaps , banal game shows and the like revitalise your life, make new friends and find a reason to want to get up in the morning - discover Mornington Crescent. You will never be the same again. But be careful - it can become a compulsive and a jealous mistress !

Have I got news for you?

2008-04-26T05:19:00.012Z

Humphrey Lyttelton

1921-2008

So you're dead Humph.

I saw you underneath

Amy Whitehouse overnight in jail.

No juicy knighthood dinner.

You had the antidote for that

Swanee Whistle panel game of

even though you had Eton.

But no tears eh - they bunged you a

Lifetime Achievement Award at the Post Office British Jazz Awards

for swinging your ass off.

Getting to Mornington Crescent

was not the point was it -

it was the how.

That's what you gave our clueless time

the news about.

So, thanks Humph.

2008-04-04T11:31:00.007Z

FRIDAY
How to cope with Friday.
Friday is not like other days - not just because its a different day of the week but because it has different implications for work.
Monday is fairly quiet because everyone wishes they were still buried under the duvet swamp and trying to avoid the agony of dragging to work for a whole week ahead. Not that I have trouble waking up on Monday. I am awake sharp at 6.45 ready to go. But then I was also awake at 5.45 and 4.45 also ready to go. I feel for people who can't wake up in the morning. Whe a horizontal teenager I was given an industrial strength alarm clock which went off like a tornado and I spent the rest of the day cringing if somebody whispered too loudly.
Setting you radio alarm to very loud is not a good idea either because you spend the day jumping when somebody talks to you. From experience, any problems getting up in the morning are simply cured simply by an infant/toddler/child.
Getting up also means you get to the shower first when the towels are not soggy lumps. eating without screams and watching Breakfast TV which is full of necessary and interesting information about house prices, how to hang out washing and the latest global famine.
But as said Friday is different. The downside is that you may have to face doing the nasty bits of work you have been putting off all week or face the horror of them still being there Monday when you creep in. Also, people or things you have managed to avoid all week zero in like missiles and make sure your diary is cram full well before next week. It is also the best time to go into the garden when its quiet, the birds are singing and you can hear the neighbours fighting.

My advice for Friday is to try and slide all unpleasant and unwanted tasks in the bin or next door. Also, tell the receptionist/person who takes calls you are very busy and to take messages - lose all such messages on Monday morning and deny all knowledge later.
The upside to Friday is that in the evening you can live it up a bit. I always have big plans for Friday evening. Mostly though by 9.00 pm I am reaching for the Drinking Chocolate and headed for the duvet zone, a book and the Shipping Forecast. Wild times or what!
But then of course there's Saturday - now that's different.

Death by cow

2008-04-02T18:15:00.003Z

Apparently there are 10 or so cow related deaths every year in the U.K.
Hard to believe for sure that these gormless looking creatures could do such.
I quite like cows unless they come too close and they come up to stare at me with those misty glued up eyes and lips dribbling with mucus the consistency of batter.
As long as there is a stout fence between them and me and they haven't acquired vertical takeoff capability I'm happy to chat. Mind you when the tail goes up like a pump handle I get the message.
They also have poor taste in ear rings.

I didn't include Angie

2008-03-30T11:50:00.013Z

Back in the days of yore any self respecting guitarist learned a tune called Angie or went home. It was the passport into a folk club.
'Angie' was written by the now legendary Davey Graham - paving the way for Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and many others. Davy experimented with music from many places - Morocco, Bulgaria to add new textures to English folk music. One of his great legacies for guitarists was the DADGAD tuning - I have used this for many years now as well as others such as CGCGCD. He has a website. Angie was made famous by Bert Jansch and copied (as were many things) by Paul Simon. Davey's version is, for me, the best - he manages to get a subtle swing into his. John Renbourne also does it great credit too mind you.
Out of respect I have omitted my version because I learned the Paul Simon version and have been ashamed ever since.
After years of obscurity Davy is back thanks to the efforts of Mark Peavey and his CD is out and titled Broken Biscuits. It is a collection of tunes - nothing too special and nothing like the old Graham - well in fairness it wouldn't be - not the fiery young man any more. Rumours of his gigs speak of poor performances and drink. Sad.

The odd bits of guitar tunes here of mine are a bit old now - I am waiting to get my new multi-track powered up and do them and others properly.
Bob's Song is a tune by Martin Simpson and Flower of Sweet Erin is also after his arrangement.
Heartsong is a take of a Gordon Giltrap.
McGee's Rag - an old standard - I have always enjoyed rag tunes - listen to John Pearse to hear it done properly.
Bogie's Bonny Belle is the tune of a wonderful bothy song - best of Scottish songs for my money.
My Highland Lass is a tune I wrote I moved to Scotland.
Beachcomber is based around an old Gordon Giltrap tune - Gordon is one of my favourite players - not recognised enough for the really gifted musician and composer he is.

All played on an old Takamine with a Zoom effects and an ancient coal fired Laney amp.
I enjoy it all whatever anybody says.

Crumpled paper in Photoshop

2008-03-30T11:04:00.028Z

I like messing about with Photoshop so here is a neat way to make crumpled paper effect.
Its not an original idea but this is my simplified version.

Make a new file, a bit larger than you want your finished paper to be – white background.

Then make a new layer - use that to make the paper.

MAKING THE TEXTURE

Choose your Gradient tool .

Change the Mode to Difference.

From the Gradient tool's Shape Options choose

Diamond or Reflected.

Choose black and white for your Foreground/Background.

Drag your gradient across your canvas over and over, going in different directions each time, and starting from different points.

The more you do it the more crumpled your paper will be in the end. It will look something like this.

GET THE PAPER EFFECT

Filter - Stylize - Emboss. Choose the angle for where your light will be coming from. I like 135°.

Choose a Height and an Amount that give you good results.

2-4 pixels for Height and an Amount of 200-300%.

CUT OUT THE PAPER

To get the paper shape use the Polygonal Lasso tool , carve out some crumples from your edges.

After you get your selection made, click the Add Layer Mask.

ADD A COLOUR with Hue/ Saturation in Image > Adjustments.

Add a DROP SHADOW by clicking on the button at the bottom of the Layers palette.

To add to the shadow use a soft brush gently.

Get on with Giovanni Palestrina

2008-03-29T19:36:00.025Z

I've always liked the motets of Thomas Tallis and still listen to Spem et Alum even after hearing it many dozens of times over the years.

But Palestrina (left) 1525 - 1594 does it all and listening to his seamless music is a glimpse of his heaven. He was educated and choirboy at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and looking up at the arches and curves he worked under is reflects his music which too curves and soars amongst itself. Look for yourself and play the clips in the music player at the top of the page to see if you agree. Listen to how he makes the separate melodies weave in and out and meld into one glorious harmonic joy.

Musically its called polyphonic - I just call it sheer beauty.

Interesting about his times was the debate about music concealing the scriptural words - which to the Church the most important part. Palestrina overcame this despite the fact that up to six lines of music are sounding at the same time. If you haven’t heard these 16^th century wonders – or indeed William Byrd – greatest of the Elizabethan composers who took polyphonic church music and songwriting on further and higher -
then rush out today and do so.

You will never be the same person again.

Joan Baez

2008-03-18T15:58:00.006Z

JOAN BAEZ MUSIC

I first heard Joan Baez in the 1960's singing Farewell Angelina. As I had when I heard Bob Dylan singing Don't Think Twice I was bowled over by the guitar playing and vowed to play like them. Unlike Bob who moved away to become Bob Joan epitomised the protest of those days along with Pete Seeger and many thousands of others who wanted to change the world. Like many others including Bob Joan looks back to Woody Guthrie - too often uncredited with the immense influence he had on that generation.
Strange now, for the first time she is openly endorsing a candidate running for the office of President of the United States. She has chosen to endorse Senator Barack Obama. I haven't got her latest CD - Bowery Songs but I notice it has two songs that I also struggled to play way back then - •
Silver Dagger
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Both of them are classic Baez - you can hear samples on the site above.

strings

2008-03-09T13:50:00.006Z

Martin. These are good enough strings, and they really warm up with a little playing in but I thought they were quite a harsh sound at first though. Quite easy to bend with, despite not being the lightest gauge.

D'Addarrio Not so keen on these nowdays. Basic response on all strings but the G and D do hold up well - I find they are usually the first to go dull. 5 pack tin is cheaper then 5 individual pack. Martin Simpson is endorsed by D'Addarrio - I guess he needs a brighty string with his style and that fearsomely lovely Stefan Sobell guitar.

Rotosound 12's are strings I like now - great tone,also easier playing as the stripped windings at the bridge very slightly lower the action and make things a little smooother all round. I use them with a Takamine cutaway electro acoustic which always had a slightly snappy plugged-in tonal character,but using the CGs it is substantially warmer. The 11's are a bit light unplugged - better with 12's.
John Renbourne uses these and that's good enough for me.

Trip on a ship

2007-11-07T08:35:00.000Z

Malcom Muggeridge - once described our life as like a trip on a ship. To begin with we are only concerned with our cabin - what it's like and where we eat and sleep. Later we explore the ship - enjoy its pleasures and its pastimes - sample all it has to offer. We return to our cabin at times - venture out - maybe have a romance - more pleasure- some complaints - lifeboat drill and so we go on. It is only towards the end of the voyage that we start to seriously think about where we are going and what we will do when we get there. What will it be like - will we be prepared. Have we done enough? I think a lot of us arrive here sooner or later. I suppose it would be handy if we could stay aboard ship take a return trip. Some people are convinced there is no destination after the ship berths and everyone disappears into some nowhere place. Who knows? Anyway I'm off to re-check my brochures and guidebooks just in case.

more to follow

2007-10-30T16:06:00.000Z

as said